Digitize Me, Cap'n

We did it! We finally got our footage digitized. It was a pretty smooth sailing process thanks to Eric, who pretty much did it for us. Bryan and Jordan can now start to edit our film, this is very exciting!

In other news, things that you shout that start with "s" include: "Shit fire," "Say What!" "Shit" and "Slut!" All of which will earn you a point in the game of scattegories if not used more than once and not used for any of the other 11 categories.

Things were slow moving at the beginning of last class, but thanks to all the games the Forum hosts, we were able to pick up the pace and get out of there a little quicker than what it may have originally seemed.

This next class meeting should be pretty exciting, hopefully there will be some cohesive footage that we can take a look at and oogle over. While I would much rather go into more detail about the riveting Scattegories game me and my classmates played, I really need to write that 15 page research paper that unfortunately will not write itself.

Productivity

Have team meetings been productive? Yes and No.

Yes. Because I think our team feels confident with the work that has been done so far and I don't think we are stressing out too much about what is left to do.

No. Because we haven't done anything since we filmed the first week of April. Why? Because we didn't have the right cords in our camera bag, making it a little difficult (impossible) to digitize our footage. Two weeks ago the cords were plum just not there. Last week, we were unable to digitize because the camera was checked out to another group (during class time?) and therefore we couldn't take the 15 minutes to digitize. This week will hopefully prove a bit more successful.

Am I stressed out about it? Yes and No.

Yes. Because this film is a big part of our grades. And I want our film to be entertaining and well done for others to enjoy at our film festival.

No. Because technically my work for this film is done. That doesn't mean I won't make myself available for ideas or advice about the other steps for our film production. But our footage is captured. Unless we need to get some shots that were missed or didn't come out right, I really don't feel burdened by the completion of our film.

Am I excited? HELL YES!

Adaptation

Last week's blog post got away from me. I will do my best to recount my experience two classes ago.

We watched the movie Adaptation. I was really excited to hear that Meryl Streep played a leading role in the movie, I just love her! Before the movie actually started I was trying to figure out just what is was about Meryl that I liked so much. I was thinking of all the movies I've seen her in, especially Doubt, It's Complicated, and the Devil Wears Prada (ok, so maybe those are the only movies of hers I've seen, but it's enough to justify a liking), and I was trying to pin IT down. After a few more moments of deliberation, I decided that I like Meryl Street because she can play a variety of roles. I LOVED her Jane character in It's Complicated, I told myself, “I wanna be just like her when I grow up (old!).” And then I saw Doubt, and I said “I don't wanna be like her when I grow up...” But I loved Sister Aloysius Beauvier anyway. Meryl Streep is one of those characters that you just want to cheer for in a movie, kind of like Owen Wilson (who doesn't love Owen?). And it's when she plays a character that shouldn't necessarily be cheered for that you are able to take a step back and say, “Wow, Meryl, you've really outdone yourself this time!” Because she is able to successfully make her audience forget all the fun-loving, fantastic roles she played in the past and experience the character for what she is really worth.

All of that being said, I thought Meryl Street played a wonderful liar, but one who was desperately in need of finding a passion (insert her relationship with John Laroche here). But even after she found “it” she still didn't seem truly happy. She was hiding things from her husband, lying at work, probably spending lots of money on plane tickets to Florida, and just all around not being “herself.” Or maybe she needed to do all these things in order to truly find herself, who knows. I need to move on to other things.

Sorry, Charlie, for talking about Susan Orlean first, I just have more to say about Meryl than I do Nicolas....

Charlie seemed to have been in quite a predicament. But I honestly could not relate with him. I don't think I could be patient with him like Donald was. I was frustrated with his frustration because I felt like if I were in his position I could just write the dang screen play, you know? But I guess that's why I'm not a screen writer, I would probably produce crap screen plays. I was think I was a little distracted as well because as soon as John Laroche's character was introduced, all I could think about was how much he reminded me of one of my friends. I was too preoccupied with thoughts of similarities to really care for Charlie's situation. It's just as well, because the movie ended gloriously with sex, nudity, chasing, alligators, death, and all those other things that make movies “great.”

I haven't decided how I feel about the movie yet, I just know I'm going to tell my John Laroche friend to watch it because that will be funny.