IC Crawling...

Short and Sweet: I know you guys are all stressed out in Ithaca. Some one in my class actually was comparing IM Away messages from students in Ithaca and those in LA. Huge difference, obviously! From "4 days to go..." or "Somebody, please shoot me" to "Shower. Sun. Beach". Haha! I mean... I'm sorry. Oh well!

So LA is actually crawling with IC alum. You see them everywhere. Every show I worked on, they knew of Ithaca College, not because they knew where Ithaca was, but because they had worked with someone who was at "that internship program up at Oakwoods". I was working on that VH1 show, The Surreal Life, and I was just helping this guy in the Art Department hook up this really curvy, plastiky thing on to the ceiling (for anyone who has watched the show, you know the house is messed up crazy decorated). As we were chatting, we moved to talking about college experiences and classes and things he learnt from his film school, and I from mine, only to find out that he graduated from Ithaca 10 years ago! We laughed A LOT and just started asking each other mad amounts of questions.

Some of the things he said actually were pretty interesting. Name = Brian. He was a FILM major in Park when all the professors were different and Peggy wasn't even the President. Hardly any equipment, bla bla: you know it... He made a Senior Film, put all his energy into it and didn't take it anywhere. No follow up on it. It seems to me that we put in so much of our life and energy actually making the film that we have none left to do the follow up work on it; which is really sad. Brian was telling me how he wished he had sent it out places, it might have landed him something along the lines of directing. He, like most people in LA, were stuck in the business but in the factory line. He was in the Art Department, working away, collecting checks, living pay-check to pay-check. Sure, he wants to direct a film but his lifestyle doesn't afford him the chance to take that break. It's a very real problem around here. So, no cars, no houses, no overages until you direct a film or else you get stuck in this chain. BTW, thanks Vaun for that email agreeing with me on the festivals thing.

Going back to the IC grads crawling on every inch of LA thing, it's very beneficial for us. It probably is one of the most successful outcomes of the LA program: the fact that it can pump out IC grads into LA. These guys become our future employers. Hiring here is like working for the mafia: it's all about who you know, very incestous. The job always goes to someone in the family. One phone call leads to another and bam, you're in.

The center here is also very good about keeping in touch with people. Trope's brain is like an encyclopedia, you can discuss what kind of work-environment you are interested in or who you want to work for and he can definitely name at least one person who could help you get your foot in. In fact, all of LA is like that. Everybody is connected to everybody. I always go around set at the end of the day picking up interesting stories about films I love. Someone somewhere worked with someone on that film. For example, I was talking to Victor (the DP on Bernie Mac) about how much I liked the cinematography in Eternal Sunshine... and so am intrigued by Ellen Kuras' work. He scoffed and told me about how she was fighting with the director Michel Gondry the whole time they were shooting that movie. Gondry wanted to turn lights off, use manual lighting, PARs, make it dirty and Kuras, who is a rising cinematographer, was all about making the image beautiful. She was terrified that the film would destroy her reputation. It's really funny how she describes the academic thinking behind making that movie now. Oh well, I still think she is an amazing DP, I recently saw The Ballad of Jack and Rose, DP'd by her, directed by Rebecca Miller.

Book I'm also reading: Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Very interesting book about filmmaking in the 70s. Its like a gossip rag on the rising filmmakers in the 70s: Ashby, Scorcese, Coppola, Speilberg, etc. The one common experience among all filmmakers who have made those insanely amazing films seems to be: they had a CRAZY TOUGH time making the movie. Almost all of them talk about how the best movies they did went through the darkest, most depressing production process. The films that get made on the fly, all fun and games, don't seem to amount to anything. I don't know why this is, but it's inspiring. Every time a film gets you down, just understand and accept that it is part of the process. Happened to everyone. So, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls is recommended.

That's all for now, Suds
PS: Good luck on those papers/finals. We have to do some, but not nearly as many as you guys.