cigarettes and chocolate milk.

Today (well, yesterday, technically, as it is 4 in the AM now) I finished filming Buckeye Jim, the short I'm putting together about a misfit in California. Shooting went well, as usual. Shooting is rarely difficult-- every time I "shoot" something (yes, I use the term loosely because the action is usually just me running around with a camera in my hand (i hate tripods)) it proves to be a major learning experience-- where to put the camera, what light is good, what particular words provoke corresponding reactions, etc etc. This is the only way I can really learn this stuff. It's true, I did learn alot in my production 101 class, but that was limited, and even then I was using the mapquest approach, and beginning to realize that such an approach is faulty. In other words, there is only so far I can stretch by using the instruction manual. You can explain to me how to do something all day long, and I'll probably only get the gist of it unless I can get my hands on the material. Filmmaking is very much like that for me-- it will probably take a long time for me to get good at it, but I understand more and more of it and what needs to be done each time I hit the ON button on my handy pdf150. Same with editing, which I feel like I understand very well now, but still struggle (enjoying every second, mind you) to master.

Anyway, shooting went wonderfully, in a sort of flukey way. I had written out the shots that I wanted, but hadn't planned any locations nor worked out the timing for a single thing. But everything was spotted by chance- the perfect palm tree, intersection, sign, etc. My precious actors just happened to be at the right place at the right time, and things came out that were better than I had hoped. The great thing is that it's almost always gone like this. And if this is the highest level that my "filmmaking" career is going to rise, then that's fine by me. I'll make silly little youtube videos that entertain myself and my friends and their parents for the rest of my time here. Hurrah.