Staying Alive

In case you're wondering, I haven't died. I have just been very busy and when I haven't been busy, sleep has taken priority over blogging. Scandalous, I know. So I know that you are all dying to know what I have been doing since the last post. Well, I think the most exciting event has been the Winter Olympics here in Vancouver. Although we had a few moments of protest, the city soon embraced the Olympic spirit wholeheartedly and we Canadians, became, dare I say it, Patriotic! Now, as a proud Canadian from Day One (Day One being July 1, my birthday, a day I share with my lovely country), I have always thought that we Canadians could be a little louder with our celebrations. On July 1st we have parades and fireworks which we cheer politely for and then quietly walk away from. Then only 3 days later, I would witness the American celebrations on TV and wonder why we couldn't find a happy medium between their insanity and our reserve. So, I must say that this sudden loudness was a nice surprise! And despite allegations of impropriety or whatever word each journalist chose, I thoroughly enjoyed walking down the streets and seeing the Canadian flag everywhere and hearing the anthem whenever I boarded public transportation. I do feel for those of other nations who perhaps thought it was a little much, but I hope that they understood why it was happening and what a unique change had overtaken our normally shy and self deprecating nation. Ok - enough of my politics.

My school turned over their parking lots for shuttle buses over the Olympics so with 2 weeks off I was able to take in quite a bit of the Olympic events, concerts mostly. The highlight of which was definitely The Canadian Tenors. I discovered them only recently and with a little research learned that they were giving a free concert in Richmond - only a 30 min train ride from Waterfront. I didn't own any of their CDs and thought it was a pretty low risk way to see if I wanted to put money into getting their music. In summary, I know own their music. The concert was amazing! The group consists of 4 guys from Canada (obviously) all with different level of classical voice training. Two were part of Conservatories in Quebec and Ontario, another was a part of a Grammy nominated a cappella group, and the 4th with more "pop" experience also acted alongside Amanda Bynes in "She's the Man." I went into the concert thinking that they were a lot like "Il Divo", a band that I like the idea of, but who have only a few songs that I can listen to. Il Divo all have great voices, but they don't harmonize consistently and it can be a little grating. The Canadian Tenors blew me away. They are not only great singers, but 2 of them (Victor and Fraser) took to the piano during the show and another (Remigio)spent the evening switching between acoustic and electric guitar. I think the highlight of the night was a group of guys, probably in the 20s who were obviously dragged their by one friend who appreciated the music. Throughout the night they were increasingly impressed that classical/pop music could be entertaining and after an impressive cover of Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever & "We Are the Champions" they were cheering loudly and said of Remi's guitar skills "that guy rocks!" Interestingly, they continued to cheer just as loudly for the more classical songs that followed. And the quote of the evening came from Victor as he walked to the digital piano "It's not a Steinway, but it'll do." Another tidbit, mega-producer David Foster openly says he wishes he had discovered them. If I haven't convinced you to love them yet, check out my clips from the concert: Hallelujah and Queen Tribute. I'm working on getting other clips up. Another audience member from that night also posted their intros from the evening which were very entertaining as well. :-) And if you don't trust me, trust Oprah.

Okay, moving right along. I think I'll finish up this post with some pics from Mariko's visit to Vancouver this past weekend. She was able to be here for the screening of my Project #1 for this semester,which we filmed right after the Olympic Break. I was the camera op which was a lot of fun and a good learning experience. I think that I want to work in the camera department so I wanted to get my hands on the new camera for semester two on an actual project. It's a much different experience trying to communicate with the director for the shots and work with the DOP for the lighting. It was good and I've learned from my mistakes. (There is some overexposure that I am really unhappy with and couldn't quite fix in post.) And 1/2 of our mark is individual based now, unlike last semester, so that made me feel better too. Even if things went crazy, which they did a little, I still knew that I had control of how I could react to the situation and how it would affect my grade. A little more how it is in the real world. :-) Now I'm into our final project of the year, Project #2. I am the 1st Assistant Director, likely the busiest and most stressful job on a film, aside from the producer (which doesn't exist on a student film, the school is the producer.) I am in charge of scheduling and running meetings during prep and generally making sure everything gets done. On set, I'll be running it, making all the calls and doing my best to keep everything on time. I've done this job once before on a mini project and there are many things I want to improve on, mostly assertiveness. But, it is a nice compliment when a group of 14 people, most of whom you don't know say "we've heard you're really organized and responsible, will you be the AD?" So my team trusts me and that is such a huge part of success, so I'm excited. In a weird way, this is really good for me. I've been feeling somewhat unmotivated and this puts me right in the middle of everything, I can't slack off! In other news, plans for the UK trip are starting to come together - we have tickets to see Wicked and The Lion King while in London! OK, folks - here are some more photos. Later!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Well, it's been over a month since my last post. I actually have some time on my hands at the moment which I know is not going to last long so I figure I may as well get a blog out there while I can. My holidays were fun. I went home to Alberta and flew to Phoenix for Christmas. It was great to meet my new niece and play the cool aunt to my nephew. I hung out with my friends in Lethbridge, got clean teeth from the dentist and purchased some cool new specs to be all filmy andpretentious in. Mariko says they're very Josh Groban -esque. It wasn't my intent, but I think I'm OK with anything "a la Josh Groban" in my life! :-)

To recap school, in December we finished and screened our Mini 3 projects and then wrote the ever popular final exams. I wasn't totally thrilled with the outcome of our Mini 3 project, mostly because I felt out of control for most of it. I was the sound designer for post production so that was kind of fun. And, once again, I was left to complete the delivery. To be fair to the person who was the delivery tech, they did attempt to do it but ran out of time and had to go to work. Oh well - I'm getting really good at it!

Exams went well. When I received my final grades over the holiday I was really happy to see 4 As and 2 Bs with varying +s and -s. Yet I still have apprehensions about how well I'm really able to apply what I know. This next semester has a lot more practical time than classroom so that will be an interesting switch. Last semester we a week for prep, production and post. The same applies this term as well, with the exception that we won't have class during those weeks. They are completely devoted to the projects which each count as an individual course. Time management will be key!

In my apprehension about this term I went to talk with one of my instructors. Seanna has been the program co ordinator for a long time and this is the first year that she's just been an instructor in a while. So this program is really 'her baby.' I wanted her thoughts and advice on a few things. It was kind of crazy - she picked up on things about me that I had no idea she knew. I've been concerned lately that though I'm good at a lot of things, I'm not great at one particular thing, so I'm not sure how to specialize. I hadn't told her this concern yet when she told me that if she were to ever hire me she would have no idea how much work I was actually doing but as soon as I was gone she would feel lost. I didn't really know what to say because I was in shock that she would say that. I'm not very vocal in class and I don't talk to her a lot like a lot of other students do. It's to her credit that she can notice things that like about people. My next surprise came as we were discussing what I actually want to do. Seanna's emphasis has always been to do what you love, don't get stuck in something you don't love just because it pays well. It's a common trap in the film industry. She warned me "you have good administrative skills - and you're a woman, don't get stuck in the office if you don't want to be there." There are some aspects of the administrative end that do appeal to me, but I am afraid of getting stuck there. But then she looked at me and said "I know you won't settle. I heard your inspiration. You won't let yourself." I looked at her in shock, trying to remember what I had said in my inspiration assignment that would tell her that, because it's completely true. I then remembered my spiel about potential and the fear of not achieving it. It was a really good conversation and she gave me some good advice.

My most enjoyable event of the week was watching my instructors and 2nd year students demonstrate the "Block, Light, Rehearse, Shoot" of on set protocol. It was cool to see a professional example of what we been trying to achieve in the last semester. At first I wondered why they didn't just do this demo at the beginning of the year, but I think we got more out of it after having attempted it ourselves. We could actually see the method to the madness instead of just people moving in every direction with seemingly no reason. Here is a sampling of the chaos.

From L-R: 1st AD, Camera Operator, Focus Puller(1st AC), Actor, Director, 2nd AC, Director, Actress, Cinematographer, Sound Mixer (hiding), Boom Op, Script Supervisor. Not pictured: Hair/Makeup/Wardrobe, Grips and Electrical, TADs, 2nd Team (actor stand ins)

NOW: Imagine all of these people (and more) behind the camera of every scene that you see on film or television and you'll see the tip of the chaos.

Dave Gordon, my Camera&Lighting and Technical Production instructor, as the cinematographer discusses the shot and lighting with his camera operator.

One more thing that I should mention is an event that is about 5 months away. My crazy friend Mariko who used to hate the band Westlife and find no joy in travelling has purchased concert tickets to see them in Dublin, Ireland! When she first suggested it to me I thought she was crazy, especially because of the money involved. But as soon as I realized she was serious, I was suddenly making plans in my head and figuring ways that I could save money to go since my student loan isn't due right away. So we've decided to go to Ireland in June and will make a stop in England too. It'll be nice to see family in England again. My older sister who also really loves the band has gained the 'sympathy' vote from my parents and they are sending her as a birthday present. She's never been overseas and they have paid for me and my two other sisters in the past. My brother was fortunately able to send himself. It's worked out nicely because when we first started talking about it I immediately thought that Kyla would be so sad. I didn't even want to tell her! But my mom asked if I'd mind if she sent her and now it's all worked out! So she is the remaining child to cross the ocean - they'll be able to say their work is done after this! It was fun to surprise her with a note telling her that she's going after a week during the holidays of hearing my friend and I talk of plans. The whole thing is ridiculous. None of us really have the money to go, but it feels right. I don't know why. My mom and I were talking about it - I'd better find something life changing over there! To be honest, I should probably take some responsibility for the craziness even though Mariko is getting the head shaking. She refused to

listen to Westlife before she met me and I've taken her on so many road trips now, that she actually enjoys travelling. I couldn't have planned this better if I'd tried! I get to go back to Ireland!!! And I get to play tour guide a bit too since neither Kyla nor Mariko have been there before. I'm really excited about it. (Check out my favourite Westlife song/video here. It also features the stunning Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, which I can't wait to see again!)

So that's pretty much where I'm at right now. The plans that I had made for myself are completely turned upside down but even though I have no idea what awaits me after Ireland, I feel oddly calm about it. Perhaps as it gets closer to reality I might become more concerned about it but I'm just taking things as they come for now. The goal at the moment is to find a job to pay for all of this and balance it with school which is bound to get crazy at any moment.

Later days!