Inner-City Filmmakers Day 1, Week One

First day was very awesome. We got to make not one, but two films! But we had to edit within the camera! Eek! It was mostly a way to bound with our groups more so than an exercise for our actual filmmaking skills but it was amazing. Before lunch, my group and I made a "boy meets girl" film (hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on it and post it). It was cool and had a nice twist to it at the end. When we were filming at one point the boy bumps into girl and they fall on each other (think Simba and Nala in The Lion King). When people saw us doing that they became very interested in what exactly we were doing, it was super fun ;) When we screened it people liked it, the story/writing mentor kept referring back to ours because he said we had a nice "meet cue" which is one of the many words I learned today. A meet cue essentially is what it sounds like, it's the cue for when two characters meet.



After lunch, we were under the impression that we would be doing re-shoots to see how we could improve on our film but Steph (the founder of the program) said we had to do an entirely new film in under an hour and a half. My group and I walked around the USC campus trying to get ideas, thinking how unfair it was that we had to think up a whole new story and shoot it in such a short time. After a while we sat down and one of our group members, Jose, who is a pretty quite guy, mumbled something about trash. Everyone started to add something about. One person said something about trash being another man's treasure and I think I came up with the idea of a cup that wants to be thrown away but then someone else said it would be cool if he wanted to be recycled but he can't cause he's styrophome. Bing-Go! So we went with it. We stuck a stick inside a cup and brought him to life (again, once I get my hands on it I'll show you). When we screen this it got a lot more response. It definitely was the most original idea in terms of who our actors were.

After the program ended, I rushed over to the academy, yes the academy, the one that organizes the Oscars. They are holding an event every Monday called "Great to be nominated" where they show Oscar nominated movies on a sixty-foot long screen! Today they showed Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and let me tell you it was amazing to watch that big and that loud. I had never watched the film in theaters so this was certainly a treat and it was for free because I was apart of Inner-City filmmakers! Woot!

The Back

I forgot to post this last week.
The Back

This program, this summer, is looking to be a good one :)

Photos Courtesy of Whoopi

Peace