The Beginning of the End

This semester is the beginning of many last firsts for me. Today was my last first day of school since after I graduate I am not going to grad school-at least not yet. It's weird for me, especially being a person who actually enjoys school and looks forward to going to class. I like checking the box marked "student" when asked my profession, it gives me an identity. And soon that will be gone. Who will I be in 4 short months? Hopefully the answer is "happy", but only time will tell. The one thing I do know is that I am going to enjoy every minute of the time I have while I am here. These really have been the best days of my life; I did not believe it would be true when I was told that freshman year, but there is no denying there is no fun like being surrounded by people your own age with limited responsibilities and no parents.
Since I am done with both my major and my minor this semester I decided to take classes that would be applicable for my future career aspirations, yet also looked fun. One is called "Communication & Film." It is about what films teach us and how we communicate through the medium. So far the professor seems great and I am really excited about it. The best part? For homework I have to watch three films a week of my choosing and keep a journal about them. Which is perfect because one of my many goals for myself this semester is to blog more and watch more movies. The catch is the films for this class have to be mostly documentary and/or ones that make you think and step outside your cinematic comfort zone. Any recommendations would be welcome because I think the hardest part for me will be picking films to watch. I have already begun scouring the documentary category in Netflix for movies for this week which is always a good place to start.
My other film related class is "Make em Laugh! Comedy in Film," which consists of watching comedy movies two times a week and talking about them. We are going to be watching a bunch of great films over the semester including Duck Soup, Bringing Up Baby, Fargo, and Rushmore as well as some others. I am excited to expand my comic repertoire. Plus I love the professor who's teaching the class, this is my third time having a class with her. Today we started the class off by watching The Gold Rush directed by Charlie Chaplain. It was the first full length Chaplain film I have watched. I like seeing how a genre evolves and yet remains the same over time like the one scene where the pretty girl waves to Chaplin and he looks around thinking she could not possibly be referring to him. A scene like that is common to the point of over done in films of today, but in 1925 it was new to cinema.
As a second semester senior, I have more than paid my dues so having two fun classes (besides my other class which is yoga) is what I get for killing myself every semester previously. I think I have earned it. Plus, I am going to need all the free time I can get this semester so I can apply for jobs. Which is terrifying. I have already written one cover letter which I am plenty excited about because right now I am all about the small steps. Post-grad life will come soon enough, but  for right now my motto is YOSO: You Only Senior Once.

Playing Catch Up

I have no excuses for my appalling lack of blogging this semester...well actually I have a million excuses and all of them have to do with me being in my senior year of college and trying to do a ton of work while also having a social life and then coming home for break and having no computer/internet. But onward and upward. It is always my goal to write more in the new year so here is me attempting to reach that aim.
It is a shame too because I have seen so many good films this semester and it is going to be hard to accurately capture my feelings towards all of them. I think in order to preserve my sanity I am going to do a new movie post first aka movies that I have seen recently and more importantly ones that are nominated for awards. Therefore this post will not include Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2 (which I absolutely loved),  The Perks of Being a Wallflower (captured the feeling of the book amazingly), Lord of the Rings: Return of the Kings (by far the most enjoyable of the series), Looper (not what I expected), Skyfall (one word: fun), Stardust (deviated from the book, but plain fun), and lastly The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (good, but long). I am going to focus on Silver Linings Playbook, Les Misérables, Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Argo.
1.) Silver Linings Playbook- David O. Russell

I really liked the performances of this film. I had no expectations for Bradley Cooper except what I kept hearing from reviews so I was pleasantly surprised by the emotional dept of his performance. I always love Jennifer Lawrence and I was not disappointed; the more clips I see from her at award shows the more I appreciate her role in the film. However, overall, and compared to the other films I have seen I was not as impressed. Sure I was a bit teary by the end and I rejoiced and felt uplifted, but I was underwhelmed. I think that is the thing for me: it stands up, but not comparatively. If I was not in the theater thinking about Les Misérables playing in the next theater then maybe I would have liked it better.
Review: Needs milk 

2.) Les Misérables- Tom Hooper 
I feel like it is unfair for me to write about any other films right now because I am listening to the soundtrack as I write this. I loved Les Misérables.  It was a long movie especially when my theater played it with 30 minutes of previews (to the point where the audience was groaning with each one), but most every moment of the film was necessary in the creation of the incredible story of Jean Valjean played by Hugh Jackman with more conviction than I could ever imagine. The same can be said for Anne Hathaway and "I Dreamed a Dream" for which I had chills throughout. Each actor was chosen perfectly and the nominations were well deserved for both actors mentioned above. It is definitely Anne's award to lose. One brilliant stroke of casting was Helena "I-am-actually-a-little-bit-crazy" Boham Carter and Sasha Baron Cohen as the Thenardiers. I could imagine no one else in those roles and they made every scene they were in while providing welcome comic relief. Also, Eddie Redmayne was wonderful as Marius. He could have been reduced to the lovelorn dope ala Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony in Sweeney Todd, but Redmayne manages to hold his own. His performance of "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" thoroughly impressed me while still managing to bring tears. It is one of those films that I cannot wait to see again and for that reason alone it gets a perfect score from me. It makes me feel sorry for all the bad things I said about Tom Hooper for The King's Speech. In my defense, I was team Fincher and The Social Network that year. Sorry about that, Tom.
Review: No milk needed

3.) Beasts of the Southern Wild- Benh Zeitlin 

Beasts was an unconventional film and I still cannot decide if I liked it completely or not. I thought the acting of Quvenzhané Wallis was incredible especially for her young age. It makes me wonder if the choices she made are conscious ones and she is really that good or if she just has a natural talent and likability as a child. Regardless, it will be interesting to see if her career goes anywhere from here. The film itself was rooted halfway between reality and fantasy which I liked, it just sometimes got too fantastical for me. That being said, the story still managed to be moving and beautiful. Zeitlin manages to make a film about an entire state feel small and intimate by showing it through the eyes of a little girl. I also have a soft spot in my heart for films about New Orleans since it remains my favorite city in the United States.
Review: Soggy & 1/2

4.) Argo- Ben Affleck

I have gained so much respect for Ben Affleck through his directing career. He really knows how to make great films-and he can even act in them. Having read the story from the Wired article I knew what was going to happen, but that did not mean I was able to breathe. The pacing and camera angles kept the suspense up and was heightened by Alexandre Desplat's score. I do wish some of the more minor details of the story were included, I felt like the setting up of the fake movie and studio seemed to not have enough background and I wanted more training of the hostages on their covers, but now I am just being nit-picky. The credits were a lot of fun too, I love anything that tricks the majority of the audience to stick around once the movie ends-something I do regularly. I think I liked Argo so much because of the "making a film" aspect; everything about Hollywood and filmmaking fascinates me, even if it was all fake. Add that together with my other favorite thing, history, and I am sold.
Review: No milk needed

So which film will win a Golden Globe? I would like to see Ben walk away with some hardware since he does not have a chance at the Oscar and since Hooper already has an Oscar (although I would not mind him winning). And even though I have yet to see Django Unchained improbable as it is, I would love for Leo to win something. Anything to make up for the Academy's disregard for him. Anne should win for Les Misérables and do not even get me started on all the awards I believe Homeland should win for acting because that should be another post all together. The second the red carpet begins I will be live tweeting so if you want more of my opinions and are not sick of me yet, read more there.

Adventures in Curating: Narrowing the Field

I have come to the point in my semester where it is time to work on my first project for my curating film and video class. That means making my own "festival" using a list of over 200 video links my professor has provided for us. We have to pick at least three videos and the time of the festival cannot run over 45 minutes. 

It is a lot harder than it sounds. First of all, I have to watch all the films which range from the very experimental and abstract to the more narrative based. I actually have enjoyed watching most of them and seeing some familiar names on the list such as Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger. I admit, I did not watch them all because there were just too many. I watched a group in order and then skipped around the rest of this list picking the ones that had interesting titles.   

The problem I found was picking a theme to go with the ones I liked. My professor kept stressing that he did not want us to just pick the ones we like because in a real film festival you have to consider the audience and what you want them to experience, whether it is introducing them to a new artist or style but I would have trouble curating a festival with films I did not like myself. I tried to find something that connected them, a thread running through that would make for an interesting title and provide some structure for my film festival. 

The first video that I watched that I knew I had to find a way to include in my fictional film festival was Tad's Nest directed by Petra Freeman. I thought it was beautiful and so different from many of the works I had previously seen with its creative transitions and unique style. Plus it is animated and I rarely find good, or any, animated avant garde/experimental pieces. My first thought was to make a festival around the idea of animation, but I thought that could be too simple and I wanted to use a mix of media. 

After skipping around for a bit the title We Have Decided Not to Die caught my eye. I think this is one of the most beautiful works I have yet to see in one of my classes. The visuals of rising and falling bodies are amazing. They are so simple, but done in such an elegant manner. The idea of the rituals as presented in the video speak to the phases in life and the changing of identity. 

I knew that those two videos would make the foundation for my project. I struggled with finding connections between the two. I wanted to do something about the body as a spectacle before I saw We Have Decided Not to Die, but I ended up scrapping that idea too. 

Finally, I came upon the idea of identity formation and how our identity changes throughout our lives and even daily. It's something I have discussed in many of my English classes and it seemed to fit the films I had been watching. Other films I added to my fake festival were Anger's Mouse Heaven, a film about Mickey Mouse and consumer culture, Willard Maas' Geography of the Body which objectifies bodies both the male and female form in geographic terms, and James Broughton's This Is It which is an innocent and poetic creation myth.
Honestly, I am just excited to be done with my first project. (If you actually care to read what I wrote, it follows after the break and it's mine so don't go getting any ideas about stealing it and such even if it is the highest form of flattery.)

Adventures in Filmmaking: The Start of Something New

To say school has kept me busy is an understatement. My senior year has been crazy as I finish both my English major and cinema minor, continue my job as a resident assistant, lead Habitat for Humanity as the president of the club, write for the school paper occasionally, and also try to have a social life. Plus, it is my last year in college so I am trying to fit everything in that I have ever wanted to do. Which is my way of saying that I am going to try and blog as much as I can this year, but that I am also not making any promises.
This semester I am taking two cinema classes, both of which are different than any of the production classes I have take previously. The first one is my Intro to Sound class, which I decided to take after my summer at CNN. The PA did a lot of sound recording for the show and I realized that I did not really know anything about sound or microphones. Also, I have realized, that in recording my own films I am a person who usually focuses on image more than sound. I am excited because I feel like this class is going to challenge me to think in new ways while I am filming. Already having to analyze a film (Touch the Sound directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer) solely based on sound is different than anything I have done before. It made me realize that while I may pay attention to the soundtrack or score of a film, the sound in general, is not something I usually notice.
Wednesday we got to build our own contact microphones to use on our first project. We had to solder the wires together from the microphone onto the cable that plugs into the recorder. (I wish I could get more technical, but that's about all I got.) It was fun and hands on and the best part is, it actually works. The contact mic picks up vibrations; I can tape the mic onto any object and it will record. I am not sure what our first project entails, but I am excited to play around with it. I hope it rains because I really want to record the sound of the rain on the window.
The second class I am taking is a class called Curating Film and Video where we plan and run our own film festival. I am really excited for this class. We are all assigned different positions, from fundraisers to designers. I am the blogmaster which means I am responsible for promoting the festival online through the multiple channels of social media. It is something that I feel like I am skilled at because unlike most people I understand twitter, I have my own blog, and I know how to get people's attention. I find social media almost a game where you have to use things like hashtags, trending topics, and current trends to win. Plus, I figured it would be a good way to force myself to blog, even if it is not on my own blog.
At first I had really wanted to be the festival curator, the person who watched all the films and decided which ones made it into the show, but I decided to be a team player and take the job of the blogmaster since no one else wanted to do that. Plus, I was not sure if I would have the time to watch all the film submissions that we received. One of the main reasons I wanted to be a curator was because I wanted to introduce the program and the guest filmmakers at the festival because that is one of the curator responsibilities. At first I was really disappointed, but I have gotten over that fact and now I am just excited to be a part of the planning in general.
I think my senior year is going to be a good one. It has to be, it's the only year I have left so I plan on making the most of it and learning all I can while I have the chance.

Where Did the Summer Go?

 NYC Time Warner Offices 

With less than a month left in my internship at The Next List I have come to the point when I begin to ask myself, “Where did the summer go?” It happens every year like clockwork. We lament the summer’s slow beginnings and then suddenly the summer slips through our fingers like so many grains of sand on the overcrowded beaches.

I feel like I just started at CNN and at the same time like I have been here forever because (most of the time) I actually know what I am doing. I have a gotten into a routine and I am used to things like waking up (and going to sleep) early; things that were once foreign to me. My daily tasks as an intern vary depending on the day, what is going on with the show, and who needs help. I jump around between the show's numerous producers just trying to make all their lives easier and assist with anything that needs to get done. I also work closely with the production assistant (PA) on social media and increasing the show's following. 

 As an intern, one of my main jobs is to research information related to the person we are profiling for the show that week or just cool science/technology/entrepreneurial based things going on in current events all to share through our twitter feed. Scouring the web has become a talent of mine and I enjoy finding articles I think are noteworthy and entertaining. There are so many people doing interesting and innovative things in the world and while we cannot profile them all on our show, we can share the love through social media. I use the articles I find to compose many of the show’s tweets for the week. I like writing the tweets because it gives me practice in trying to see what works (and does not) in terms of attracting attention from followers.

Another task I have become skilled at is logging tape- which is a fancy way of saying transcribing interviews. This is a non-glamorous and intern designated task. However, over the past few days of transcribing I have gotten increasingly better and much faster at typing. Also, I find the people we profile and their subsequent interviews for The Next List fascinating. While the task of logging tape is tedious at times, I see this as a way to be involved in every aspect of producing an episode. I like listening to the interviews and then seeing what each producer chooses to include in the final episode. In some cases, they have even asked my opinion and told me to highlight sections I find interesting or important while transcribing.

Not the real CNN building, but a sign
(I was confused on my first day)

Also, in my down time, I have been watching the editors put together the episodes using Final Cut Pro. If you have read any of my blog, you know the love/hate relationship I have with FCP, but these guys (and gal) are all equally amazing. I love seeing each editor’s different style and just watching them work. Scenes that look good to me they will tweak a dozen times until it is just right. I admire their technical skills, but most of all I am in awe of their patience. Our editors will work tirelessly with the producer to make sure the episode is perfect before it airs. Everything from the image on the screen to the music (which I have had a hand in selecting for certain parts) is examined. I find that watching the editing process is one of the most intriguing parts of my job because it really is where everything comes together.

Even though I am excited to start my senior year of college, I plan on enjoying my last few weeks at CNN. Next week the other intern and I are going to shoot and edit our own digital short for the website (more details to follow). I am also working on an intern project that I have been assigned with a group of six others where we are free to do propose anything we can come up with to improve CNN.  I suddenly feel like there is so much to do and so little time. I also have a whole list of things I want to accomplish outside of work such as going to the MoMA, seeing one of the many outdoor movies around the city, and going to see Into the Woods in Central Park. I plan on making the most of this entire experience because who knows when I will get a chance like this again?

I Have My Reasons

I have come to terms with the fact that I will not be seeing The Dark Knight Rises at midnight along with everyone else tonight. And by "come to terms" I really mean "bitterly accepted my fate while secretly loathing everyone watching the finale of what may be one of the best 'superhero' trilogies of all time." (Superhero is quotes because I feel that Nolan's films are so much more, but that is a post for another time.)

There is no real reason why I am missing the movie; I have work in the morning, but not until 10. I am living in New York City which probably has as many movie theaters as Chinese restaurants so there are plenty to choose from. I am an avid fan of Chris Nolan (as I’ve mentioned before he is my 2^nd favorite director behind only David Fincher). So what seems to be the problem? I guess the issue is just the company.

I had originally planned on seeing TDKR with my dad. When we went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in IMAX we saw the movie in the afternoon and then went out to eat at the restaurant across from the theater afterwards. We both shared ribs and raved about the movie while I filled him in on the more intricate details of J.K. Rowling’s novels. It was one of the best movie going experiences I have had and we talked about doing the same with this film. But work schedules conflicted and now I am left with no plans except that I will see the film before the weekend is over and sooner rather than later.

My dad and I at DH 7.2. I look icky because I pulled an all nighter in my excitement 

I have many options. Since my dad backed out I could see it with a number of friends scattered throughout the city or even go alone (It would be easier to find a seat). But to me, the experience of seeing a movie for the first time is as important as the film itself. No matter how many times you will watch the movie once it comes out on DVD or Netflix, you can only see a movie for the first time once. Nothing can replace the experience of sitting in a darkened theater with rising anticipation as each preview plays and you get closer to the feature presentation or the almost anxious way your stomach clenches itself as the movie begins with the wonder of "will this movie be everything I hoped?"

Me & my friends at the midnight showing of Deathly Hallows 7.1

To me, going to the movies by myself would be the epitome of loneliness. Sure, I could find a theater and go at midnight or even catch a 6 am showing before work. However, there would be no one next to me to turn to and say, “ooh that movie looks awesome” during every trailer or to look at the minute credits begin to role with either disappointment or awe. These moments many not seem like much, but they can make or break a movie going experience.

Movies are all about the people you share them with. There is just something different about sitting next to your best friend at a movie and a total stranger. It is the reason films like Harry Potter have meant so much to me. Part of it is because of the film itself, but the main reason I have such fond memories is because I have enjoyed going in costume with a group of friends and raving about/bashing the films during the car ride home.

Sure, many could argue that with twitter and other forms of social media, one is never really alone. After a movie, send one tweet and thousands of people have the ability to respond and create a conversation.  Also, midnight showings are usually packed with people all as excited as you to see the film. That is just not good enough for me.

So for now I will wait. I will avoid twitter and Facebook and newsstands. I will try not to be too bitter at anyone for seeing the movie at midnight. I will see the movie at the earliest possible time Friday or Saturday surrounded by people I love because that is what is important to me. I love movies because I see them as a way to connect people and create common experiences and conversation. More than the cinematography or special effects, that is what draws me to films.

Summer in the City: Recap & the Beginning of my #Lifeofanintern

I think I have a little explaining to do on my absence from the world wide web. Most of it can be explained by the fact that my house has terrible wifi and my computer refuses to connect. The second half of that has to do with the fact that I have an internship with a CNN show called "The Next List" (view the Blog here) that can be seen at 2 pm ET on Sundays (shameless plug).

When I was thinking about my plans for the summer I never imagined I would be here. I thought I would be working as a cashier in my local grocery store again and potentially studying for the GREs. I never imagined I would have this opportunity. For once in my life I consider myself lucky. 

I would not have received this internship without the amazing support from the T. Howard Foundation. T. Howard seeks to place students of diverse backgrounds in internships in the media industry. I have been wanting to blog about my orientation with them since it happened in the beginning of June, but the aforementioned circumstances have kept me busy.  Let me just say that it was two and a half wonderful days where I met some amazing people learned more then I could ever have hoped about the industry, networking, and general business etiquette. It really made me think (and I am still thinking) about the kind of life do want to have when I leave college and what that means in terms of a career. All real life, pretty scary things to think about. There is so much about the media industry that I do not know about, so many jobs I could have that I have never even heard of yet and orientation opened my eyes to the numerous possibilities that are out there. After leaving I feel a bit more prepared to take on the world; although I am still partially in denial that such a thing as the "real world" exists. 

Me in my fancy work clothes

Nevertheless I started my internship about a week and a half ago. Things that were so scary on the first day (like remembering everyone's names) have become easy by now and I am getting the hang of working in an office. CNN is a lot more casual then I expected it to be. I was afraid of this huge corporate environment where I would be a lowly intern sent to fetch coffee in a scene not unlike one from The Devil Wears Prada. However, that is not the case at all here. Everyone in my department knows my name and I have worked with each one individually. On my second day I was calling people and looking for a location where we could shoot -not your typically intern tasks. The other intern and I even get to work on our own project as something that we can take away with us. I have only been here a short time and I have learned so much already. 
I have already started thinking about changing my schedule for next year so I can take more production classes. I want to learn more. I want to take the skills I have learned in the classroom and continue applying them in real life situations. I am not sure yet what I want to do with my life, but I know I am taking steps in the right direction to make my dreams (whatever they may be) come true. 

Adventures in Filmmaking: A Little More Personal

For my final film project my professor asked us to create a work that answered the question: what is the truth? Upon seeing this question at the beginning of the semester I actually had a lot of ideas. I was excited. It was so open ended, I could do anything.
As the semester went on I wanted to do something more. I really wanted to push myself to step out of my comfort zone as many others in my class have done this semester. For me, this means making films actually involving people, specifically my friends. The majority of the films I have made over my past few years in cinema have involved shots of nature or sneaky shots of people I have taken on campus while they were not looking (that is really not as weird as it sounds).
For this film, I wanted to do something very personal. I wanted to involve my friends. The thing is, I hate filming people I know. Or people I don't know. Which is weird seeing as I have always imagined myself to be a cross between Ryan Seacrest and Roger Ebert (or at least have a combination of their jobs, Ebert's movie critiquing and Ryan's event going to and general schmoozing abilities). I do not know why, but as soon as get a camera in my hand I get nervous and self conscious. I feel like everyone is looking at me because, let's be real, as soon as a camera comes out people are bound to notice you.
For this project however, I wanted things to be different. A lot of people, myself included, have been worrying about life after college. I wanted my film to reflect the fears that come with graduation, but I also wanted to contrast that with people's dream jobs. My professor wanted us to ask a question to start the film's conversation so the question I asked people was: if you could have any job regardless of how much money you would make from the job what job would you want to have? It is a question my friends and I have talked about  before so I actually knew the answers for some of them.
The video below is the result. The people in the video, for the most part, are my close friends. People I finally put my shyness aside for and let into my world. I like this video because it is so personal both in the actual people in the video and the topic itself. It is not as emotional or sobering as I hoped it would be (or maybe that's me since I spent so much time editing it), but I am proud of how it turned out because I finally stepped out of my comfort zone and made a film starring the people who are most important to me.
My professor said my film only scratched the surface on telling the truth and I agree. If I had more time to really delve into this maybe it woud have come out differently. Nevertheless, I am happy about my accomplishments and the fact that I tried something new.

Adventures in Filmmaking: I Think I've Gotten the Hang of This

Every time I want to give up on my production class, I manage to surprise myself. After fretting for weeks about what I was going to do with my second film project, I finally came up with an idea. The second project had to be an installation, something that was simple, but involved more than one monitor or screen. My professor stressed simplicity and the importance of the image and sound and how it all looked as one piece.
As always, I over thought it. I really wanted to make a "chose your own adventure" type film with the screens starting off in one place and then ending up in different directions, but I could not figure out how to begin or what I would film. Then I thought of another idea: using the films as two different directions, I could make a film about choices and following different paths. On the weekend I shot footage in my University's Nature Preserve, an area of protected land where students can go to hike, run, or just hang out. I positioned my camera at every trail junction and filmed the world of choice as seen in nature. For the first time, I was shooting with a purpose, not just pointing my camera and hoping for something lucky like last time.
As I was filming the paths in the woods, I kept thinking about the nature of choice itself. It is all around us. Everyday, everything we do comes down to making choices. I wanted to incorporate that into my film as well and being a person so in tune with popular culture I decided to represent choices not only through nature, but through media as well. The more I thought about my project, the more I wanted to add. If I had more time I could have kept going; the more I thought, the more ideas I got.
The installation aspect of the film was something I also had to consider. I had to think about what was occurring on multiple screens and how to make sure the right image appeared on the right screen. It required a lot of close time spent with my friend Final Cut Pro. We've actually been getting along much better lately and developing what I would like to call a working relationship. I hope to one day actually be able to call it a friend.
Also, the actual projection aspect was difficult. I wanted to have three different screens of the same sizes and set them up with one on the left, one on the right, and one in the middle. I wanted to force the viewer to turn their head and make a conscious choice over which screen to watch. However, with the equipment that my university's cinema department has this was difficult. I could not find three televisions of the same size so I had to settle for one flat screen and two TVs probably from the 80's with really fuzzy pictures. Then I had to connect them all to power, make sure they all had sound, and connect them each to the correct DVD player all while trying to sort out where everything was and what we actually had in the classroom closet. Needless to say it took me almost 50 minutes to set the instillation up. Then, when I finally went to show it to the class, the sound was very faint.
My professor was complaining that he could not hear it and was so busy worrying about the sound that he did not really get a chance to fully enjoy it so I did not get too much feedback this time. However, the first edit (the one below) got great feedback from the entire class. My teacher really liked the opening, as do I and found the playfulness, even if snobby film guy didn't. They all seemed really impressed and actually got the concept which was nice for once. The only critique they had is to remove the shots of the people in the paths scenes and to make the focus on nature so there is a contrast between my shots and the found footage. I personally liked having the people in the shots, but in my final edit I ended up taking them out because it was the only major criticism I received.
This is one of the first times in a cinema class that I have actually enjoyed myself and felt that my project was one of the better ones. I like being proud of my work and as much as I joke around about it, I really am getting the hang of Final Cut Pro. I feel like I am gaining experience and confidence in myself and my new abilities. It makes me believe that one day, it might be possible for me to get some sort of job in cinema. Maybe. One day.

Sweet Home, Alabama

Me putting together the wall of a house

 Now that Spring Break is over I can get back to my normal blogging schedule (or as normal as I make it, when I have time in my busy schedule). I will say that I had a great time exploring the southern United States. I got to cross two more states off my "to visit" list (I want to visit all 50 before I turn 50). I spent a week in Alabama with a quick stop in Knoxville, Tennessee on the way down to cut down the drive. From my University in New York the trip was 12 hours, not including stops for gas and bathroom breaks.
Alabama was more urban than I expected it to be. We were in Fairfield which is about 30 minutes from the city of Birmingham. I spent the week helping begin one house by putting up siding and walls and finishing another house with paint and stain. After all these builds I think I am getting better at using a hammer, but I am still a bit slow. Putting the walls together was hard work, we had to follow the plans which were not always correct and we had to build one wall three times. Staining was easier, but tedious. And it kept raining which caused some problems. Overall, the week went really well. It never really seems like work when you are volunteering with Habitat because you know it is for a good cause. We also had a day off to check out the local flavor at Dreamland BBQ, where I had some of the best ribs of all time. We also went to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute which I really enjoyed.

A deserving family with keys to their new home

The best part of the trip however took place on Friday morning. After touching up the house for two days, we got to see the house we were working on and two others given to their new owners. There are no words to describe the feeling of seeing a person getting the keys to their new home for the first time. The families were overjoyed and so proud to show off their new properties. I felt proud too, having taken part in such an event.
Planning a trip for 18 other people was stressful to say the least, but it was all worth it seeing the smiling families and the other people on the trip experiencing the joy of volunteering for the first time. Habitat is something that will definitely be a part of my life for a long time and I hope I can convince others of what a worthwhile cause it can be.

We Interrupt Your Normally Scheduled Broadcast

Me with a nail gun building houses in New Orleans summer 2011.
Like a bauss

I usually don't get too personal on here or talk about things not involving popular culture, but this is an exception. Tomorrow I am leaving for my Spring Break trip to Birmingham, Alabama with Habitat for Humanity. I will be there for ten days, hence my absence in blogging (I may blog from my friend's computer, but I'm not making any promises).
Habitat is an organization that is very dear to my heart because it literally saved my life. Three years ago, (wow was it really that long ago?) I was a shy, scared freshman and joining habitat was one of the few things that brought me out of my shell. I went from regular member to treasurer to vice president which is the current position that I hold. I will most likely become the president of the club next year. I never imagined that this would happen. Habitat was something I just joined on a whim because I wanted to do it in high school, but mine did not have one. Now it has become a major part of my life.
 I have met so many incredible people through the club and done things I never believed possible. Doing habit has helped me prove to myself that I am a capable person and that I can make a difference in the world.
So for ten days I will travel to new places, make new friends, get dirty and sweaty and wear my hair in nothing but a ponytail and have a great time. I promise I will update later on what happens because as much as cinema is a part of my life, Habitat for Humanity is too.

Spring Break 2011 in Rocky Mount, NC