Life Update

Yeesh. I’ve been so busy I forgot to blog yesterday and almost forgot to blog today. Sorry about that.

March and April are crazy application deadline months. Every scholarship under the sun has their applications due in the next couple weeks, and I apparently feel obligated to apply for every single one of them. Maybe I’ve gotten on such a winning streak that the success is getting to my head, because I’ve never applied to this many before. There are at least two or three a week due. My poor film teacher. I should have warned her that writing a gazillion rec letters came with my friendship.

On other notes, my dear friend Shiloh Hubbard (married a super swell guy a year or so ago, who then carted her off to Maryland – less than swell) just welcomed her first child to the world. Lydia was born today, and judging from the tiny picture text I got, she’s a precious little tyke. I hope I get to meet her soon!

Elections for UOSA (Student Body) President and Vice-President are today and tomorrow. I have been wearing my Ally & Zac periwinkle blue shirt every day for the last four days, in an attempt to be a walking advertisement for their campaign. Every time someone’s eyes wander toward my shirt, I suppress my instinct to slouch back (hey, I’m a girl) and instead puff out my chest and invite them to admire the beautiful pink script that promotes my favorite candidates. And though the shirt may smell a bit from such frequent wear, it sure does do wonders for my eye color.

Also, the video “Moving Dead Week Forward” now has close to 370 views! I’ve never had so many people see my work before. Granted, I acknowledge that most aren’t watching for my work (except you, my readers) but instead want to find out about the campaign. But that’s no matter. Combining all five videos together, over 700 people have seen my videos in the last week. Score!

My trip to Las Angeles is not this weekend but next. I’ll have to remember to recharge my camera battery so I can take stellar pictures of my adventure to share. I love the people I am going with, so that whole element of the trip is going to be a blast. But the part I am looking forward to the most is just seeing the town and getting a good feel for it. I will have the opportunity to meet a number of Film and Video Studies alum who work in Hollywood now, and I hope I’ll have the chance to pick their brains for information and advice. Another note to self: Bring copies of my resume and DVDs of “OU, I Love You” to L.A. as well… just in case.

Love it!

(“This is not a moon.”)

Campaign Films Complete!

I am finally finished with all my campaign films!

http://www.youtube.com/v/LWjszMksuLg&hl=en_US&fs=1&

“Moving Dead Week Forward” is personally my favorite of the ones that I made. The camera work, color, and sound are the best quality. And the filming style mimics The Office, which was fun to do (and fun to have people notice).

http://www.youtube.com/v/OK9PXpoiM1Y&hl=en_US&fs=1&

“Moving Student Organizations Forward” is the other film that I did that took a bit of time. It was really fun to make, because it was a great crew. But the video itself didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, and it was more difficult to edit. But it’s not too bad, I guess.

(Side note: The blog cuts of part of the right screen, so if you’d like to see the entire picture, just double click on the video and it’ll bring you to its YouTube page.)

Heart Healthy Lifestyle

When the exercise conversation would come up with friends, I used to put in my two cents by saying that I just don’t know how people find time to work out in college. I don’t have the time to get on a treadmill (and all the before and after stuff– like showering again– that comes with it), and all cardio has taken a back seat to school and work and extracurriculars. I’m just too busy to work out.

But I have revised that statement this week. I am so busy that I actually am working out. Every day.

Have you ever tried to speed walk? It’s an art. You have to lower your center of gravity in order to significantly widen your stride. But you can’t sink too low or you have to bounce up and down to move. And bouncing reduces your efficiency in energy expenditure. Bouncing is also a pain (literally) when you are carting around heavy books and a laptop in your backpack.

I have recently become an expert at speed walking. I am trying to fit so much into such short amounts of time that I inevitably am almost late for everything. But running is hard to do with a heavy backpack (and its unsightly). So I’ve become a speed-walker. And let me tell you, I think I could give those little old ladies at the mall (the ones who walk with their arms in perfect unison with their stride) a run for their money.

For example, today I traversed from the southern to northern end of campus in six minutes. Thats traditionally a ten minute walk at standard pace. In fact, I believe I can safely say, without exaggeration, that I have sped-walked at an uncomfortably fast pace to eight of my ten classes this week.

The advantage of this new (or perfected) skill is that I can now leave my house at least three minutes later and still get to class on time. Three more minutes of emails and homework = valuable time.

The other advantage, which I hadn’t forseen, is that I have officially squeezed in eight workouts this week. Because anyone who tries to argue that speed-walking isn’t cardio is foolish. Cardiovascular exercise is defined as anything that raises your heart rate and keeps it elevated for a period of time. If I arrive at my seat with heavy breathing, burning lungs, a throbbing pulse, and a heart that feels like it’s about to explode (not to mention a little perspiration), I would count that as cardiovascular exercise. I have gone from too busy to exercise to being so busy that I am exercising. I consider that a win.

How to Spot a Film Nerd – Tip #1

I was walking up the South Oval today after class, lugging my backpack and the large camera I’ve been using for all my film projects of late. I was headed toward the Film and Video Studies film library, where I had yet another morning of logging footage and exporting files ahead of me.

Normally as I walk around campus with camera equipment on tow, no one pays any attention. If they even notice, they aren’t very curious. But today I was walking along with my large camera, in a nondescript dark blue bag with orange piping, when I noticed this kid staring me down as I walked by. Or staring the camera bag down, rather.

Considering that my roommate once asked me why I was carrying around a large cooler, I was surprised when the kid passed and I heard him gush to his friend, “She’s got a Panasonic HDV Cam! Nice!”

. . .

“I pity the French Cinema because it has no money. I pity the American Cinema because it has no ideas.”

Jean-Luc Godard

Being an Artist

Over the break, one of the things I really wanted to do was paint a painting. Ever since my girlfriends and I signed the lease for a house next year, I’ve been hankering to paint something to go over the fireplace in our living room.

I decided that Spring Break was the perfect time to do it. And when I ran the idea of painting by John, he was totally game.

So here is the painting before…

…during…

… and after!

Apparently, painting sunflowers (in bright primary colors) was a rather girly thing for a guy like John to be painting. In my defense, however, he didn’t mention anything about that until we were already almost done with our painting. If I’d known, I might have considered switching subjects.

Isabella at Three Weeks

Tell me I don’t have the cutest niece in the world. I dare you.

I can’t wait to meet her. It’ll be soon too. On my flight back from Las Angeles in April, I get to make a one-day layover in Las Vegas. That means I get to spend a wonderful twenty-four hours with my niece! I can’t wait!!!

Butte for St. Pat’s

As promised, here are my thoughts on Butte for St. Pat’s:

1. Lots of people.

2. Lots of people wearing green.

3. Lots of people sporting outlandish costumes.

4. Lots of beer.

5. Lots of drunk people in green holding said beer.

6. Lots of drunk people in green holding said beer as they mill about, wearing outlandish costumes.

Of course, this should come with no surprise. After all, St. Patrick’s Day is the only holiday I can think of that exists solely to get drunk (preferably with green beverages). Even Mardi Gras has some beads and jazz music involved.

My friend John and I arrived at Butte at 2 pm and left at 5 pm. We purposefully went for only the afternoon, as we had no desire to be there (or on the surrounding roads) after dark.

Our first stop was for delicious burgers at Metals, a neat restaurant that used to be a bank (I guess). Then we headed out to the street and sat on a bench to people-watch.

And there were plenty of things to be seen, I assure you. Though it was only the middle of the afternoon, there were hundreds of people already walking about. The crowds were most dense outside the doors of bars, but the alcohol wasn’t limited to establishments alone. Everywhere outside, people were carrying around cans and cups. Beer was the most popular beverage of choice, naturally.

My friend Alice had warned me before I left to be prepared for “nudity and public urination.” When I mentioned to my friend Michelle that we were headed to Butte for the day, she asked if my escort was a big guy and if he could protect me in a fight against the locals (I couldn’t tell if I was the one getting in the hypothetical fight here…).

Needless to say, none of the above proved true for the time we were there. However, the day was still young when we departed, and as people were already well on their way to a night of revelry, these things were still a possibility.

But the closest encounter we had with nudity was a large burly man whose kilt showed far too much leg (think mini skirt). And our unexpected brush with the locals was a random gift of green beads “for the lady” from a skinny drunk man who swooped in with a toothy grin. Hardly intimidating.

Overall, it was an enjoyable time of good company and entertaining people-watching. I’m sure that I will never be coming back to Butte for St. Patrick’s Day, but I feel I can say with certainty that I have now seen “Butte, America” at its finest.

Back to the World

I had an amazing break, and now I’m back to reality. Life bites. Just kidding. But the transition hasn’t been the best. Its my first morning back and I wake up at 5:30 am with some sort of internal attack on my lungs (stress setting in early, I suppose).

I then head to the Film and Video Studies library at 8:15 am where I spend the next four hours editing footage. After a short lunch break, I am back in that library until 3 pm. Then, after almost falling asleep twice and being horribly disappointed when I discover I left my wallet at home (no coffee break for me), I go to class, where I try to show the movie I just spent hours editing and the damn DVD wont play (excuse my French).

The joy and pain of being a film major. I love filming and I love editing. But until I figure out all of this silly footage compatibility issues, I will never be able to complete a project without a huge headache and an adrenaline rush as I race against the clock to tweak something yet again, after the previous three edits (or compressions or exports) — which I had originally started with plenty of time– failed on me and forced me to start again.

If I gain anything in this film editing class by the end of the semester, I hope it will be an understanding of all the rules and guidelines that come with importing and exporting footage, so I never have to make these stupid mistakes again.