Hi Everyone, Nina here with another installment of Film School Confidential.
When I found out that our favorite UK correspondent Dougie was going off to film school, I thought that it might be interesting for him to post his perspectives on it as he progresses his way through the program. I thought this might serve as inspiration (or warning) to anyone who was also considering film school. This would also help to keep Dougie honest, because if he drops out, we can all publicly chastize him.
Film School Confidential
Episode 2: iMac of The Clones
So our class has now been trained in the basics of iMovie and iDVD, so that when it comes to edit the movies we're making, they'll all look identical with star wipes, flying 3D titles, and themed menu's with that God awful fusion jazz sample Apple stuck in its software. Trying to shy away from the crowd, and avoid having to wrestle any classmates for time on the computers, I'll be editing mine at home, on my PC, much to the shock of art students everywhere. Since college started, I have witnessed the glowing white boxes of Apple-y goodness seize up and refuse to do anything at least once a week, while I keep a laptop with half the spec of the college's iMacs constantly running a mixture of Adobe software, which hasn't been switched off since July.
With the final DVD to be handed in three weeks this Saturday, our class hurriedly assembled into smaller groups, and decided on a day to meet and discuss possible ideas. The day arrived and we filed out of the college, and into the pub just 20 yards down the road. We have one of the larger groups, with six members. I was hopeful that this would mean we would have a lot of ideas to bounce around and come out with something really cool. Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
None of my five team mates had any ideas. With ages ranging from 19 to late 20's, I was really expecting at least a "how about a parody of...", but no. While I had typed up quite brief descriptions of 8 eight stories, the rest of the group hadn't bothered. "What's this Tell-Tale Heart thing about?", one of the team mates asked, and I almost fell off my barstool.
I was really interested in doing a film based on one of my favourite short stories, and was quite dispirited that not one of them had heard of Edgar Allan Poe, let alone one of his most well known pieces of work. As I explained the story, they all happened across one of my other idea, with the working title of "The Making Of..."
The film would be a sort of mockumentary (I hate those two words become one nonsense), that follows the team making the "making of" documentary for a blockbuster flick. So instead cast members or the producer being interviewed, these guys would pass by in the background, as the film interviews the guy with the hand held camera bugging the director every half hour for a quick word on his influences. I thought it was a fun idea, and in a list of similar films, I named 'This Is... Spinal Tap', which pulls off that documentary feel with excellence. I was dumbstruck when I found out most of the group hadn't heard of Spinal Tap.
So I explained the story of 'the Tap', and the group all really liked the idea of the story, and suggested doing a film with a filmmaker trying to reunite a band that at one point were on top of the world. I was originally reluctant to go in this direction, as my mind started running how difficult this would be to do. By this point, most of the group had figured out they actually played enough instruments together to be in a band, and were working on a band name. As the only member of the team going into the film making course, I was suggested to be the man trying to bring back the band, and the one remaining team mate agreed to be the band's old manager, who I get in contact with to try and reconnect the group.
I'm still not sure this can be done, especially within the five minutes we've been giving on the project, but the rest of the group are far more confident. A rundown of what's happening in our project:
I am the man trying to bring my favourite band back together.
I visit the band's old manager, in the hope he can put me in touch with them.
I individually round up each member of the band.
I bring them together in a recording studio.
Their differences are put aside and they reunite for a jamming session.
I'm still fairly happy with project, and I'm being encouraged to drop in as many references as I want, from naming my character Latka Smithee, calling the unseen cameraman Keyser, and when asked why I'm looking to reunite the band, I answer "I'm on a mission from God".
There's a recording studio in the city centre booked for this coming Tuesday, and to be honest, I could see all the scenes being shot by next Thursday (shooting is not on consecutive days because of working patterns). After that, we all take the raw footage and edit up our own movie. That part couldn't come soon enough. Look forward to seeing the return of the one, the only, The Short Con, reuniting this holiday season!
