Editing was the subject of the day today. I had to wake up super early though because instead of being at USC we had to go to Santa Monica which is a inconvenience for me because I live so close to USC and not so close to Santa Monica. I think I had my alarm set at 4:30 AM, what a drag, my bus was going to leave at 6:00 and I always give myself an hour and a half to prepare myself because something always goes wrong. When I did get up though I headed straight for the shower and then I cooked breakfast, forcing myself to eat oatmeal which I didn't cook to the best of my cooking abilities. Then I put together a lunch as fast as I could which included leftover pizza, spaghetti and Tofu bits, PB&J sandwiches and some tea I made. Actually, I barely got out on time. If it weren't for my trusty scooter I probably would have missed my bus.
After a thirty minute ride on the two buses I had to take I ended up at my old high school: Hamilton. I was there to meet up with Marlene. She overslept so I pulled out my storyboards which are due on Tuesday and got started on them, so far I like my take on it. After about fifteen minutes Marlene picked me up and we headed to the heart of ICF: The Santa Monica Latana Center.
When we first arrived there wasn't much to do (see above), but eventually I decided to sit next to my group so we can discuss the pitch we would do that was due Monday for a silly assignment about a man who loses his pants and ends up waking up in his neighbor's yard after being dead-drunk. We kept discussing but teams were starting to pile out and we were wondering where we were supposed to go. Our team captain ran by us at one point. We called her but she was busy and just ran off. Then another mentor came by and we asked where we were supposed to go and we were directed to Conference Room 5 for some editing :)!
Once we got in we discovered that we were coupled with Team C who would be going through the activities with us the whole day. Whoopi was a part of Team C so I immediately sat next to him but once my bottom touched the chair one of the mentors said we couldn't sit together because we knew each other so well but then we pleaded a little and we got to work together on the Avid Editing System. Now, I don't want to sound biased to Final Cut Pro or anything, but to me, it's definitely better than Avid. Perhaps it's because I still don't completely understand how Avid works but just on a first impression basis this is my opinion: Final Cut Pro is better. I mean, it's just a lot easier to you use and I hate how people tried to hype up Avid as this great thing just because it's super hard to use and more "mature". Just because something is more difficult to use does not make it a better system, period. It shouldn't be a hassle to just cut a piece of a clip out and delete it or to trim a clip. While Avid makes something like that time-consuming, I could do it with Final Cut Pro with a snap of my fingers. But who knows, maybe I just haven't seen where Avid is superior to Final Cut Pro. I did like how you could customize your workspace a lot more, though. So Whoopi and I edited the first scene of Scream 3 but didn't get to finish. Whenever either of use were on the system we were cursing Avid the whole time.
After we showed what we edited we headed to lunch which was more or less uneventful, as was the meeting my Team had with our mentor. We dived deeper into our stories and prepared pitches that we would have to do for Steph (founder). Actually, I'm working on my scripts re-write right now. We also figured out a story for our pant-less man.
Once we rapped everything up it was time to head to our next editing class: The Art of Editing. Let me tell you, it was pretty boring. I nodded off a bit when the professor was lecturing to us and when he showed us that instructional video I saw a few sleeping heads. I stayed up for it though, it had a few good points but it was definitely out-dated. Think about those typical boring videos you see on those television shows about high-school. This was it. When it was finally over, and it couldn't have ended sooner, we got back the computers and Avid. This time I came back with a more open-mind, I was going to give it a second chance and I certainly did like it better this time around. I think that's because this time we had a script of the material and we had all our shots organized for us :)! My week at CSI really helped and I now understand the reason why Alex (CSI-head editor) took down all those notes when he watched through all the dailies. Like him, I did the same and they really helped. I definitely tolerated Avid a lot more and knew more of what I was doing but I'll take Final Cut Pro any day of the week.
After everything got done we had a big meeting about the schedule for next week and then we were dismissed and Marlene dropped me off at Pacific Theaters where I saw Hancock (review is just after this blog entry). Today really did a lot for me. Editing speaks to me the most, that's for sure. Directing and Cinematography come in a near second though.
Photos Courtesy of Whoopi
Peace
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