Monday kicked off with a short intro to dramatic narrative - effectively a summary of the three act structure and an intro to current TV trends of 7, 8, 9 act structures and the requisite amount of time for visual story telling - in the case of a one hour story segment on a commercial statio with adverts this boils down to roughly 40-46 minutes of screen time story telling - the rest of the time being spent on adverts!
Meant to have a production meeting - cancelled at the last moment.
In the evening we had a screening of 'Visions of Light'
Tuesday evening - LA Dodgers versus the colorado Rockies - It was agood high scoring game with a number of home runs but the Dodgers lost 7:9
J Loney - hitting a home run.
Wednesday watched all the 'Bootcamp' scenes - there was a real range of films. Some strong some weak. Our segment of 'She Cried Alive' went down very well and really stood out - the team had done a great job.
John Clark - his birthday on Wednesday!
Afternoon kicked off with an earthquake lecture - at first funny and a formality - but towards the end people's real concerns slipped out as they considered the possibilities!
Especially as we sit astride the 'Ring of Fire!'
To help alleviate our concerns the AFI has issued us each with a little red emergency packet with elastoplast, water, dried bisucuits etc.
In teh afternoon we had another awesome lecture on Costume Design given by Deborah Nadoolman Landis (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0618966/) She was nominated for an oscar for 'Coming to America', is the wife of John Landis and wrote the screencraft book Julia and I gave to Kat, so was thinking about her during the lecture!
Clay Preston Reed explains what he wearing to show how we each have our distinct character.
Class split up into four choices of clothing: colours, black, white and neutrals.
I ended up being asked to handle the DVD playback - Julia would laugh as I am such a technology biff when it comes to these things. To be honest when we go home to see my Mother it's Julia who is asked to tune in the TV or DVD player!!
We watched work by Richard Hornung, Piero Tosi, Milena Canonero and James Acheson to name but a few.
One of Deborah's key questions was always 'does it have to be real or does it have to feel real?'
In the evening met up with Jennifer Sullivan whom I met in Cannes a number of years ago, she has worked below the line for a number of years with James Cameron. An avid traveller she has notched up 98 countries!
Evening watched 'Safe' - really odd and disturbing movie.
Brunch meeting with Michael McGuire - we talked over the producing potential of a segment of Black Sheep and he told me about his background in theatre and directing.
Rushed back for a production meeting - though lots to still do we are feeling quite confident as a team.
Time to kill so went for a haircut - bity of advice never get your hair cut by a rock chick - I now have one of those trendy cuts where nothing seems to be the same length!
In the evening went to the Cinematographers screening and discussions of the 'bootcamp' scenes. Alas ran out of time so ours was not covered. The discussion was run by Stephen Lighthill and Mark Woods (www.markwoods.com)
Oh forgot to mention, Jessica Freeborn, one of the producing fellows, was attending a screening of a goth-sci-fi film at the AFI, anyway one of her friends/relatives unsure which was in the film. So I was introduced to Michael Shamus Wiles - he looked really familiar - subsequently found out he was Capt Muffy in Magnolia, the bartender in a neck.head brace in Fight Club, and one of the prison guards in Lost Highway but to mention a few of his roles! Made my day.
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