August to September

I've accomplished my internship with TigerLily Media with the right to say I've been a part of a marketing that increased traffic on a Facebook page by over 500% and helped it reach 5,000 likes. It was a great learning experience working with the other interns through Skype and the WWW. I was invited back to stay an intern during the Fall semester but I already know that this upcoming school semester would keep me busy.

I also landed an editing internship with the San Diego Asian Film Foundation that would also take up a good chunk of my life, especially during the end of October when the festival is going on. This is exactly the type of internship I hoped to land before I graduate. The majority of my work is editing but I'm also doing some work behind the camera. So far, I've edited one project featuring Dante Basco aka Rufio from the 1991 film HOOK and helped film two other events. There's plenty of other projects to get started and finish. I'm definitely looking to be a part of filming and editing the How To Fest video that hasn't been renewed for two years. It gives insight to new film festival goers on how to go about the festival when it is their first time. Check out the video I edited below:

As for work, I received great feedback for my first edit with the Janet + Mark pictorial video. I finally got the rest of the footage I've been needed and finished the video within a day. It's a bit of a struggle when you don't have a lot of useable or presentable footage but that's where you have to get creative. I enjoy being an editor and PA during the weddings. I find it more satisfying than working fast food or folding clothes at a retail store. I never felt more happy with my job than right now. Of course, I'm still looking to work as a tutor at Mount Miguel but I haven't heard by from my supervisor. It'll be an on and off season for me since I'll be spending the majority of my time focusing in meeting deadlines for projects and graduating with high notes.

The first week of school was mostly spent on worrying whether I need to take the upper division writing course to graduate. Turns out, they added the requirement for this semester. The major conflict was that the editing class (which is what I'm looking forward to the most) and the writing class conflict. Just about everyone who wanted to graduate was worrying about how to go about this but we've found the solution. We'll still be getting credit for both classes but since we can add classes with conflicting schedules, we have to add one class as a special study class. Voytilla, the writing professor, added everyone trying to crash his class because he can't turn them away. I'll probably be dropping the cinematography class since I don't need it and it's just too much work with what I already have to do. The other class is the advanced film class, which is basically making films based off our own classmates' screenplays. Pitches start next week and I'm excited to hear what everyone has.

"Chemistry"

Hope has given up on love until she is prescribed a drug that has the power to make her fall in love.

"Chemistry" is my final project for TFM360 - Intermediate Filmmaking. Nora Soto wrote and directed it. I produced it. Banyon Geneva DP'd and edited it. We used the Sony F-3. Amazing camera, btw. The quality is so beautiful, I can't get over it. I wish we could upload the film in HD quality.

Title create by me, Photoshop CS5

I'm happy with the result but the #1 thing I would change about it is the location. The psychiatrist office location was nothing but quiet. Pipes from the air conditioning were constantly banging and can be heard in the talents' dialogue. It pisses me off to the max. We had to fix it with an ADR session but only one of the actors were able to make it in time to fix it for the film festival. But Banyon did an excellent job covering the banging noise. It's still there, but it's not as audible.

My producing skills definitely improved. I'm proud of myself for the job I did, but I should of taken the role to be location manager so we can avoid the whole banging incident. Besides that, I was able to get a good amount of food donations from Henry's, Vons, Albertsons, etc. Plenty of people auditioned for a role in the film and we had a cast of reliable actors that were excited to be a part of "Chemistry." Nora helped me even though her plate was already full. We definitely work well as a group, mainly because we've worked with each other before. It can be difficult to work with other people because they have different creative viewpoints for the film.

I'm excited for TFM560 - Advanced Filmmaking because all of our projects will be original scripts by our classmates. NO MORE SCENES STUDIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

NAAAAAAA SAAABEEENNNYAAA

Simba!

I am trying to create my own non-copyright version of the beginning section of "Circle of Life" for my film so I can submit it to the SDSU Student Film Showcase. My attempts to recreate the famous "NAAAAAAA SAAABEEENNNYAAA" yell are a fail. Nothing beats the original. Looks like I'm not submitting it. I think I already have an audience online for the video anyway.

Chula Vista fields

This is my most recent film. Sorry, it doesn't have a title. It's not my most "serious" piece of work. My final Cinematography project was doomed from the start; Professor Underwood assigned our final projects due the same week. Of course everyone chose to focus on the bigger project, the Intermediate Filmmaking final. By assigning us to create 10 perfect shots with such little time on our hands, the quality was sure to deteriorate.

Lily, Froco, Xzavier, and Brian

In class, we intricately chose the theme for our project. I put out the idea for "food porn" and it was going to be really easy to shoot. Another was "time" and... something else. I forgot. But we ended with the theme "out of place." I guess I interpreted that as "random as hell."

So I originally wrote a script for the film to have the entire film to be POV with 3 stops in the journey ending with a guy in a chicken suit attacking. But Samantha had to leave for Carlo's house early so I had to change the entire story on the spot. I kept the badminton idea. I mean... playing badminton in a middle of a field... super "out of place." Hahah.

As for the inflatable Pokeball, it was part of my goodies bag. I brought a bag full of random crap, including a Dave and Busters cup full of tickets. And I also wanted Lily to make a surprise appearance in the film. Almost like a redemption for my last cinematography project (which was the absolute worst in the class).

David, Lily and I

I couldn't have made the film without David. He was a big help in the film. He provided the location (guerilla filmmaking), the equipment (audio recorder and Canon Mark 5D), most of the story ideas, he operated the camera, and gave me a quick lesson in filming the sun. I'm really not cut out for operating the camera or lighting equipment. I shine in pre-production and post-production. But I absolutely love being on set. I still have to take a stab at directing.

This isn't my best work and I know if I was better prepared that I could have made a better film but I like the outcome. My family found it entertaining and so do Brian and Froco so that's cool. I'm going to have to see what Rich thinks about the cinematography. Lots of soft shots...