Hope you guys all had a great holiday break and are finally in the swing of your spring semester. I have to say, as a senior in my last semester, I am incredibly happy with all the classes I am taking. I’m finally taking a break from some production classes and actually focus on two different Film Studies courses, a higher level screenwriting course, a beginning acting class offered through CFA, and an introductory class on the Adobe Suite. After, many classes focusing on production, I decided my last semester I would devote my time to becoming a better filmmaker in a different manner.
I have to say I’ve been extremely happy with the American Independent film course taught by Professor Carney. We really get to see quite a diverse selection of independent films throughout the semester and are introduced to the work of some really incredible filmmakers. However, I’ve been very intrigued by the different manner we try approaching films in class. We try avoiding formulaic and symbolic approaches of character psychology and focus more on the perspective and intentions of the actual filmmaker on the audience. Sounds extremely boring as I write it here, but I’ve been having a blast!
I’ve also started to take on the incredible task of organizing and editing all the footage I shot for my independent short film last semester. With close to 200GB of video footage, I’ve spent days on end just naming files and organizing them into folders. The other day I actually woke up at 830am and stayed near my computer until 7pm simply transcoding and organizing all the bins on Final Cut so that I could finally start editing! It seems like it’s going to be a lot more difficult than I thought, but has been a huge learning experience, as I’ve never taken on such a massive editing project before! I’ve also entered a few talks with students at Berklee interested in doing the Sound Design and mixing of the film, which is really exciting as well. I have a close friend who is already composing a score for the film and I’m waiting back to be notified on my application to work at the Cannes Film Festival once again this May! Hopefully if all goes right, I’ll be back in Cannes with my short film and trying to make some moves!
I have to say to all you Film and TV students: If you have an idea for a project or a passion to create something that doesn’t quite fit into your classes while here, then please just go and make it! Making this film has been one the biggest learning experiences of my life and I feel I have come such a long way in learning everything from writing, pre-production, casting, rehearsing, shooting on location, and now editing and post-production! Balance all your classes and do the absolute best on your projects, but don’t be afraid to throw yourself into an unfamiliar territory outside of class and tackle that additional film short you always wanted to do for yourself. I promise you won’t regret it.
