Inner-City Filmmakers Day 3, Week One

Today was story time! In the morning, we discussed the structure of a screenplay and its three acts (sometimes even fourth act). Then we watched some short films and tried to decipher who the movie was about, what the protagonist want and what were the three acts. I liked all of them but two: The Last Farm and Wasp. The screenwriting professor and everyone else in the room were raving about Wasp but I truly didn't get into it, especially when the wasp ends up flying into the baby's mouth and that silly little "dance" scene. Plus, I didn't like the choice of the camera feel. It was just too shaky and the cuts were usually too fast. It made me feel like everything was supposed to be oriented as an action film would be cut, not a drama. The only time this technique worked for me was in the beginning when the protagonist fights with another woman. But the rest of it just didn't do it for me.


Lunch came and I headed to Jamba Juice with Marlene and Clara (see above, Marlene is in foreground with my scooter, Clara and I are in the background). When we got halfway back I met up with Whoopi, Tracy and Abelino and we all went back to Jamba. Whoopi found a new favorite food to get at USC: Mac & Cheese. We walked, ate and talked and got back in time to meet up with our story mentors to really get into what kind of film we all wanted to do.

Our mentor, Ryan "Rhino" Roy, was a little late, but soon enough we got together and discussed the stories we wanted to tell. First, our group went around, basically pitching their stories. We had to come up with five ideas so our mentor listen to them all and dissected which one would make the best 3-5 minute short. Everyone had some interesting ideas. After we all spoke, he took us one-on-one to really come up with the stories we wanted to tell. While he was gone, we spoke among ourselves and came up with a very cool idea for each of our films. It was so great, it even got me excited! We all went home knowing we would be making something profound.

Photo Courtesy of Whoopi

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