So... That's Done...

As of this past week, I'm a college graduate with a Bachelors in Cinema Studies. What this means is that I'm now qualified to formally analyze films in terms of mise-en-scene, themes, style, narrative, and other filmic elements. Oddly, this has little to do with my desired career as a filmmaker, let alone as a screenwriter.
But the tools I've acquired can and will have an effect on that career. I fully intend to apply them to my own work, in-progress and afterwards, to improve the quality of my work, and ultimately improve the quality of the pictures you see.

A Busy Summer

This summer, I got a job for OU's radio station, WXOU, redesigned their website, participated in 6 films including one of my own, won a screenwriting competition, edited my film and submitted it to Sundance, and submitted my winning screenplay to a film production company. What have you done? :)

"Right and Wrong" Screenplay: Contest Winner!

In April, Dr Kyle Edwards, director of the Cinema Studies program at Oakland University announced the 2010-2011 Writing Competition. The contest was divided into two categories, screenplays and essays. I entered the screenplay I wrote in my Screenwriting class during the Winter I had just finished.
Although I had moments of self-doubt, I had a feeling from the moment I submitted it that I'd win.

I found out on Friday, June 24th, that's exactly what happened: I won first place in the screenplay side of things! Interestingly enough, a friend of mine won second place in the essay portion! God I love writing!

For the interested, the short story version is available for about $1.00 on the Kindle and the Nook!

Going All In

I don't know if I mentioned this before, here at least, but a short script I wrote for the OU Filmmaker's Guild was selected for production. Next week we'll be holding auditions, and shooting in the second half of May. I hold no illusions that this will make me rich — there's no money involved in this at all! — but it's a good start towards what I want to do professionally. I'll let you know more as it happens, but I've set up a blog specifically for my insights of the film making process at http://allin.anevilgeni.us.

Good News for Me

This is generally meaningless as it pertains to me, but it gives me hope about the career path I've decided to pursue. As you might have guessed from my previous post, I want to be a screenwriter. Well, my screenwriting teacher apparently just sold a script! The part that makes me a bit giddy is that she really likes my work...! So, get on with it! Throw me some freelance work!

"Six Feet Deep" or "How's School Coming Along?"

I think I mentioned that this semester gave me a much heavier workload than the previous two semesters... If not, this should give you an idea of how bad it is:

This coming Friday I have a test in Japanese. I also have to do all remaining homework for this chapter in Japanese, which amounts to 3 workbook pages including some translating of audio clips.
Over the weekend I have to read an entire chapter on Islam and write a paper on it for Monday.
Also this weekend, I have to watch at least two Akira Kurosawa films, come up with a thesis for and write a 5 page paper for my film class for Tuesday.
Oh, and I also have to study at least the last two chapters from my Japanese book, probably more, for an oral interview I have on Wednesday.

Stressed? Me? Nah...

Getting Psyched Up!

It's hard for me to describe how excited and terrified I am to be going back to school in a couple of weeks. It will be the first time I've taken college classes for two consecutive school years since the mid 90s! And it will be the first time that I'll start the year with a lot of pressure riding my shoulders.

Last school year, I did well enough to make the Dean's List, as well as be invited to two separate honors societies. While no one is telling me that I have to repeat that level of performance, I'm holding myself to it because A) I'm not going to half-ass do anything, and B) I'm the one paying the bills on this college trip in the end. While Oakland University isn't the University of Michigan or Michigan State University, it sure as hell isn't cheap. (To all my California friends that complain about $26 per credit hour, lets just say I wish I had been paying that 15 years ago here in Michigan! )

I'm excited to go hang out with my school friends, learn more Japanese, and maybe to impress the Cinema Studies program director enough for him to refer me to some of the movie studios opening up here. But there's a ton of work to be done, and I'm more than ready to get started on it!

Who gives a QUIZ on the first day of class?!?!

Ok, so today is my first day of school for the Winter 2010 term, and my very first class was my Art History 100 class. Now, I've taken a lot of classes over a lot of years, but I've never had to take a quiz on the very first day of class before today! Now, I'm aware that there's a quiz in my Japanese class on Friday, my second day of class, as a review of last semester, but how is it possible that someone actually thought it would be a good idea to have a quiz on the first day of class of a 100 level course?

In my professor's defense, the order came down from above, and this waws intended as a practice quiz so we students know what to expect, and for them to know where we are in terms of knowledge of the subject, but damn that was uncool.

Any ways, now that it's over, I'll be prepared next time...

BEST. GRADES. EVER.

Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty smart guy. I feel that way, and friends and family have said as much as well. Yeah, that sounds like I'm tooting my own horn, and of course good friends and family might lie to the dumbest member of the family. But I get the distinct impression that they really mean it. If I weren't at least slightly above average, I wouldn't have been in an honors program in both middle and high school, though I'll be the first to admit that I still haven't graduated from college after nearly 20 years... There are perfectly good reasons for that, and I'll talk about them another day.

That said, I've never been the best student I could be. I tried to never do homework, unless it was absolutely critical to passing the class, and until I got to college, I had only failed a single class in my life. And  *THAT* was due to not doing my homework instead of not getting it; I got B's or better on all the quizzes and tests in that class, and I went to night school to retake it and graduate with my class.

In college, things got bad because I had a bad case of really not caring. I'd stop going to some classes half way through the semester and never tried unless it was a class I was really interested in. That's all related to some family and personal problems I started going through after I graduated from high school, and literally lasted for years afterwards. Again, I don't really want to talk about it right now, because I'm in too good a mood.

Basically, I haven't even attempted to take 3 classes at once since I attended Michigan State University from September 1990 through March 1991. When I took classes, it was usually one or two a semester, and about half the time I'd drop one or the other before the end of the semester. Ultimately, it's a miracle that I had 44 transferable credits by the time I got to Oakland University.

So, this semester, at the age of 37, I apparently got serious about my education, and decided to take 3 classes for 12 credit hours so that I could start pushing towards my degree. I was hoping to just not fail the classes, and I've been worried about my performance and grades all semester long. But tonight, I'm happy to report that not only did I pass the classes I took, but passed them with an average of 3.83 points out of 4.0 points. My best grades ever!

My only disappointment is that it took me this long to get this serious about my education, but for now I'm not going to worry about that. I'm already registered for my next 12 credit hours, and starting to worry about those classes...! LOL!

Final Final...

This week is finals week at Oakland University, and I'll be glad when I'm done with my final final for this term tomorrow. The first two final exams  went ok, I think, and I know that I passed both though neither went quite as smoothly as I had hoped.
I'm not disappointed with my performance on them; quite the opposite in fact considering I'm a 37 year old, taking 12 credit hours, in classes with people half my age. But I do wish that I had better prepared myself for the two that I have taken. Although I'm not exactly studying for my last final as I should be, I'm fairly confident that I will do very well on it tomorrow.
Next semester, if I'm still not employed, I'm going to try even harder than I did this semester.

Japanese Oral Interview: Aced.

Today, I had my oral interview in my Japanese class, and though I had feared it, I aced it. I want to send my thanks out to Professor Yasuda for being such a great teacher, and for being so patient with me and my fellow students!

Mixed Signals

Ok, last week I told you about how my mother stated that I'm always too negative and that I need to think positively. That was when I told her I was going to apply for financial aide at Oakland University to make sure I can go, just in case the scholarship that I applied for with the Detroit Workforce Development Department fell through. That was then.

Just a few minutes ago, she told me that I should be sure to apply for financial aide through Oakland University so that I could make sure that I could go to school.

What the fuck?

When I'm looking to cover my bases, I'm too negative, but all of a sudden it's a good idea to have a back-up plan? Shit, I could have already filed the paperwork by now!

Officially a Student [Again]

Although I've known for about a week, thanks to the marvels of the web, I received my official acceptance letter from Oakland University today! What that means is that I can now take classes there in an attempt to get a degree in Cinema Studies; coincidentally a program they just set up.

I'm looking forward to going and getting down to business, but I'll admit that I'm scared of thw whispers that I'm sure to hear behind my back. Why will there be whispers? Simple: I'm twice as old as most of my fellow students. Being 37 isn't a handicap, and I really don't care what the other students might say, but I don't want to go through any emotional shit because of my age.

If I fuck up, I'm fine with them talking about me behind my back, but I don't need any age shit.

Any way, I think I'm finally ready to commit myself to school and getting it completed, degree and all. We'll see what the job field looks like in a couple of years when I start calling myself a screenwriter with a bachelor's degree.