Film challenges and sausages

It's about 1:30 AM right now and I can't sleep a wink. Which is strange since last night I only got about 5 hours of sleep because I was up all night studying for a French exam. I hope I did well. This has been an exciting and tiring week. Last Sunday I was a grip on a friend's capstone film. For those not in the ASU film program, a student's capstone is their thesis project in which they try to show that they actually learned something in the about 4 years they spent studying at ASU. It was an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday even though I was exhausted after the 13 hours of shooting. However, I worked with a few people that I hadn't worked with before but always wanted to, some people that I had never heard of but am glad to now have worked with, and some people that I needed to - and did - make peace with. The shoot went well and I hope Jen gets a good movie out of it.

Another project I recently worked on was my 2nd effort as a director since I began college. I mentioned in my previous post that my friend Dan was in town from Korea. Along with him and I, our friend Jared wanted to make a short during his visit, so we found an opportunity. It was a short film that was a part of the IFP's 24-hour Film Challenge. The challenge was this: At 9 AM on Saturday all of the teams met at the IFP office. Once there, each team was given an envelope containing 3 pieces of information: a prop, a line of dialogue, and a choice between two genres. In our case we drew a copy of that day's Arizona Republic newspaper, the line "Who is that guy?", and a choice between a thriller and a slapstick comedy.

There was a dilemma however. The night before was Dan's birthday so we all went out to Four Peaks to celebrate. So the next day when we had to be sharp and ready for filming, we were all hung over. Because of this we spent the better part of the morning sitting on Jared's couch watching The Onion Movie and having breakfast. At around 1PM we decided we needed inspiration so we went and rode the new Phoenix Light Rail all across the Valley. We decided we wanted to shoot at least one scene on the train. I won't talk too much about the movie we ended up making because we still haven't completed our final cut that will be ready for display. Suffice to say it ended up being a really fun and exhausting 24 hours. We turned in our film with about ten minutes to spare. A few weeks later we attended the premiere/awards ceremony where we won an award for "Best Use of a Sausage". You'll understand when I finally show the film. It's a lame award but it's the first one I've won for a film so I'm taking pride in it while I wait for the next award.

As far as school goes, I'm having a much better semester than last Fall. I am actually showing up to the majority of my classes and am turning work with much more frequency than before. I may not earn straight As like I did a year ago, but I won't fail or nearly fail any courses.

This weekend I have a project I'm really excited for. It's a short film being directed by Brett Dellandre. It is the 6th time we are collaborating and I think it will be our best to date. It is a comedy mockumentary about a young man afflicted with an incurable disease. That's just a teaser. More info in my next post. I will say this, it will be hilarious.

Well, I have a ton of homework to do for the rest of the day, so adieu for now.