NHSI Final Reflection

I hope you've enjoyed my writing as much as I've enjoyed sharing my experiences. To all who commented, thank you so much- it was wonderful to read your responses and they meant a lot to me. Silent readers of this blog- I am curious to see how you stumbled upon it (especially if you do not know me personally) and if it kept your attention- comment, I'd like to know! I do not know the future of this blog, but i'll decide that later. I could continue posting my life experiences, but I have a feeling that my high school life is probably rather uninteresting to the general public.

Here is some insight I have gleaned through the NHSI.

Some things I learned about myself, or things that became more clear to me:
1. I am talkative, and a conversationalist, but I am not incredibly social. I am also not as extraverted as I originally thought.
2. I dislike conflict. I am also afraid of getting angry.
3. Every career is hard and no job is stable.
4. If I am passionate about something, I can work hard on it and not feel like I am working. Similarly, my attention span is longer when I'm interested. That sounds obvious, but it wasn't obvious to me earlier.
4. If I am at Northwestern, I can be away from my parents, but I am at home. I never felt homesick at the NHSI- because in reality, I never left home. Also, Northwestern is awesome.
6. If I want something, I will go very far to get it. Not knowing what I want can depress me.
7. It doesn't take a whole bunch of musicians to make playing music a bonding experience.
8. It occurred to me that I am the only student at my high school that had this experience. There were several cherubs, but no other film kids. Everything else I do at school, someone else does too. This is one thing I can remember that makes me a little unique.
9. There is so much more to learn about film- I learned so much through NHSI, and I was shown the very tip of the iceberg.
10. I knew this before, but it has been confirmed in my mind, that people are interesting and wonderful. I like people.

Some things I now notice or ways I have changed: 
1. Calling clothespins C47s makes me feel special, and seeing a C47 brings happy memories.
2. Dutch angles, handheld camera, and silence sticks out to me like a sore thumb.
3. I notice lighting and shadows. I still don't know all that much about it, but before I only noticed if I needed sunglasses, if a light suddenly turned off, or if I couldn't see. Now, I notice quality of light and if there are unusual shadows.
4. Cameras, both video and still, are infinitely cooler. And I thought they were cool before I came.
5. I try to make an effort to not jaywalk, and that effort doesn't annoy me anymore.
6. I greatly respected film when I applied, but I now have a much greater respect for film and all that goes into it.

That is not anywhere close to everything I learned, and does little justice to my acquired film knowledge, but that is what I decided to share with you. If you have questions, ask me!

I loved my experience at the Film and Video Cherub. If there are any rising juniors reading this, I strongly recommend that you google Cherubs and consider applying to a division. Cherubs was definitely intense, and sometimes stressful, but a whole lot of fun and 100% worth it. I'm so thankful I had this opportunity and I will cherish it forever.

Thanks NHSI, and to my readers, thanks for reading!
-Molly

The Movies We Watched

I am now home. And suffering from serious NHSI withdrawal.

With help from several of the cherubs, we compiled a list of all of the movies we watched. Here it is. I missed four of the screenings for editing, logging, and pre production, but I was at all of the others. Not all of the films listed are features- some of them are shorts.

NHSI- The Movies We Watched

6/28 - "New Boy" 

6/28 - "I Love Sarah Jean" 

6/28 - "Shawn of the Dead" 

6/29 - "Spirited Away" 

6/30 - "True Lies" 

7/1 - "World of Glory" 

7/1 - "Rashomon" 

7/2 - "Never Cry Wolf" 

7/3 - "I Am Cuba [Soy Cuba]" 

7/4 - "Cyrus" (Movie theater)

7/5 - "Crimes & Misdemeanors" 

7/6 - Experimental Films Screening

7/7 - "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" 

7/8 – “Lost Cave Temples” 

7/9 - "Se7en" 

7/10 - "Scoring" 

7/10 - "Lessons of Darkness" 

7/11 - "Jurassic Park" 

7/12 - "Pan's Labyrinth" 

7/13 - Screen Student Docs

7/14 - "I Love You Man"

7/15 - Skype with "I Love You Man" Director/Writer

7/16 - "The War Game" 

7/17 - "Six Shooter" 

7/17 - "Talk to Her" 

7/18 – “Inception” 

7/18 – “Three Kings” 

7/19 - "Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Ware-Rabbit" 

7/20 – “The Last Picture Show” 

7/21 – “Singing in the Rain” 

7/22 - TV Screening (How I Met Your Mother, Veronika Mars) 

7/23 - Nights of Cabiria 

7/24 - "In the Mood for Love" 

7/25 - "Wet Hot American Summer" 

7/26 - "Sunshine" 

7/27 - "Rebecca" 

7/28 - "L'homme Sans Téte" 

7/28 - "Audition" 

7/30 - "Silence of the Lambs"

One more day left

Hello Everyone!

    I spent today trying to enjoy my last few moments with my fellow cherubs. I am going to miss this place so much. I am at home here, and I think it's one of the best learning environments i've ever experienced, and that says a lot. Every day, I was living and breathing film education- what I went through here would have been torture for a lot of people, but for me and everyone else here, it was an incredible experience. I can look back on it and say that yes, I was a cherub, and I loved it.
   Tomorrow is the final showing- it goes all day, and we will watch everything that got created at NHSI this summer. That includes the experimental films, the documentaries, the silent films, the bolex films, and our final projects.
     My final project is finished- I got out of the editing room at 10:30 last night, and my project is all compressed and ready for tomorrow. If I could go back, I would change a lot about my script- seeing it on film exposes a lot of the flaws of my story, and the story is the core of every film. However, I learned so much about the process that if I get the chance to make another film, I will hopefully be able to do it better.
    I really, really don't want to leave. I miss my family and friends, and can't wait to see them, but I wish the program could be at least a week to two weeks longer. I've gotten very accustomed to life in the dorms, too- the food isn't too bad, and the beds and rooms are comfortable. I miss good meat, though. Cafeterias do not have good meat. Although the cafeteria cookies are very addicting, and i've really taken advantage of the fact that my parents paid for my food already, so I could eat as many cookies as I wanted, with no other repercussions besides my health and weight.
    I'm going to head to bed soon because I know I won't sleep much tomorrow night. I'll let you know how the screening goes.

Molly

Post Production

Hey everybody!

     For once I had time to blog here, but I lost internet the past two days, and have just now gotten it back. I have spent twelve hours in the editing room and will spend four more in there this afternoon. I'm fairly close to it being picturelocked (meaning I will no longer change the visuals) and then I can move on to sound design, and if time, color correction. Editing is like a puzzle, because you have a bunch of pieces, and they need to fit together to communicate. However, it's also different because not every piece is used, so you have to figure out which ones work best. The next four hours will be crunch time, and then I will be finished with my film.
    My film is clearly a student film. It's not brilliant, but I'm proud to say that it's mine.

Molly

Production week is finished!

       So much for posting frequently this week- it's been pretty hectic due to being on set all day. I directed my final project on saturday, and it was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had. Basically, the weather was terrible in the morning, so I had to start off shooting in my cover set (we can't film outside when it rains). I wasn't happy about that, but I made some revisions to my script on the fly and began to shoot it. David (the FA on set with us) and Jim (my advisor), because it had cleared up by lunchtime, suggested I get outside as soon as possible and try to reshoot the parts I shot in the morning. Once I finished what I had to shoot, I reshot ALL of the indoor parts at a breakneck pace, with just enough time on the P2 card (memory) to get it all. I couldn't have pulled it off without the help of my amazing crew and actors, and I have so much to thank them for. It sounds like next week will be editing and electives. I don't want to admit to myself that I have to leave in a week- its heartbreaking, and I don't want to go. Today is sunday, so we played a really intense game of ultimate, and then I went shopping and out to dinner in town.
     I've learned so much here, about myself and about film. I see things differently, I talk a little differently, and my world is different, but all in a good way. I'm going to miss the people here so much.

Here's some lingo to leave you with until I post again:

This is a C47. Yes, it is what you think it is, but it's a C47 to me and the other film peeps. 

Let me know how you all are doing! 

Second Day on set!

My arms hurt. 

We have to carry our equipment- all of it- to wherever we film. Everything, most notably the tripod and the light kit, is heavy. 

I was the AD today- I feel like I wasn't as successful as my peers who were ADs, but I think I did a fairly decent job of resolving some of the problems on set and keeping it cool. The shot lists totally changed, and lighting was difficult as always, but the shoot went well, and the director said she was happy with it, which is great. 

I am back to sound tomorrow. I'd really like to do camera at some point. However, my friends are putting their more experienced peers on camera, because set isn't exactly the best time to troubleshoot or admit you don't know how to do something. Not to mention there are fifty billion (more like seven) steps you have to take whenever you change locations and before you hit record, and I'd probably forget them. 

I learned a lot about lighting today, and ways to make lighting less harsh but equally powerful. 

Sorry this is a sporatic post... I handed in another draft of my script, and i'll really want to finalize that tomorrow, and i'm on set all day, so I need to get to bed so I can work tomorrow. 

The days feel long again, which is actually great, because I don't want this to end. 

-Molly 

First Day on Set

Hi everybody!

    I had the time of my life today- being on set was incredible. We had an almost perfect shoot! The director was prepared, the actors (who happened to be our FAs, the equivalent of RAs) did a great job, and the crew got along really well. I was the boom operator, which means I hold a really long metal pole with a microphone on it, and my job was to direct the mic right at the actors lips, as closely to them as possible, without being in the shot. Our editing teacher was there to help us out, and he gave me a ton of help on proper booming technique. I began to get the hang of the over-under cord coiling, which looks easy but for some odd reason is really frickin hard. Apparently, if I can do that really fast, I can get a job as a PA. Our FAs were hilarious in shoot- they kept making parodies of songs while they had to wait for us to set up.

Two examples:
Creep by Radio Head turned into "I'm a crepe, I'm for breakfast. I'm full of bananas, covered in chocolate!"
Shots by LMFAO turned into "Establishing shots, shot shot shot shots, shot shot shot shots, Over the shoulder!"

At one point, I held the boom while standing on a table, and another, I had to stand on a chair and then hold my arms up as high as they extended. Most students regard it as a sucky job, but because of the environment I was in, I loved it.

I learned a lot today, and not just about booming. It really makes a difference when you are prepared and treat people nicely- our shoot went so well and I am a lot closer to the people I worked with now.

I have five more shoots left, including my own, so I should be revising my script now. I am an AD tomorrow, so I have lots of responsibility, but its still gonna be awesome, I know it. An AD means Assistant Director, and basically their job is to make sure everything gets done- that means creating the schedule and securing the props. My AD came up to me just to see how I was doing- and it happened to be when I was stressed out- and she really calmed me down- it meant a lot.

I am so tired.... I wish there are more hours in the day so that I could sleep more, and work on my script more. But that is not the case, so I am going to log off and go to sleep.

Comment, please, and let me know what you are up to!

-Molly