Big project - Week of May 17

This week we are shooting some more. Today we shot one of the class room scenes - the first time that Zach and Jenny meet. The HD camera makes everything look so much more professional than the other cameras. All of the major dances have been choreographed. There are little segments here and there, but those are short and can be worked out on the spot because it's only a count of 8 spliced in with a montage of non-dance shots.

Big Project - Week of May 10

Today we finished the 2nd piece.. the "break up" scene. There's still some more choreography to get done, but we've already finished two of the big numbers, which everybody is really proud of. We hope to start shooting this week but we are in need of a boom mic? I think that's what it's called. If not, it's choreographing choreographing choreographing.

Big project - Week of May 3

This week we are working on choreography a lot! Today we worked on the "falling for eachother" piece. It's playful, fun, and I'm enjoying myself. It was really funny working with Cassie because I speak in dance language and she speaks in film language and we couldn't always figure out what the other person was saying. We were able to work around it, it just took longer than it should to communicate how a shot would look in terms of the choreography. It was kind of amusing, actually.

Life questions

After watching the movie today, I started thinking... how could I not? I'm going to school to study and train for a business that has the highest percentage of unemployment over other normal businesses. I'm in reality. I know that competition out there is fierce and I don't expect to get a job right out of college. Heck, I don't expect to get a job period! I WANT to get a job. I would LOVE to get a job. I will NEED it like I've never needed anything before. But I don't expect it. Something that I've learned about myself, is that when I get rolling and really dig deep into working on something, that takes priority over everything else. I've gone months without social plans, without spending significant quality time with my family, without having "me" time... Now granted, I don't have to worry about paying rent every month and my parents provide me with food more than three times a day. But I do know that the typical things a teenager finds important: friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, shopping, partying - take a back seat for me when it comes to my dance classes, voice lessons, and auditions. I'm even going to spend senior cut day on the set of a short film, filming a scene as a dancer/extra. While the rest of my friends are at the beach or in the city, I'll be filming. And I'm okay with that. In fact, I'm really excited: I sent in my headshot and resume and they cast me because they liked my look. Now I know that's got nothing to do with talent and there's only so much control I have over my look, but I'm still proud of myself. But anyway, it makes me wonder how far I'd go to follow my dream. Money isn't something that I worry about. It's not something I find important. I'm not getting paid for this film - I do get a free meal but I'm doing it for the experience. When I get paid for something, I'm satisfied and proud of my work, but I wouldn't say that it makes me happy. When I get cast in something, that makes me happy. There's real no way of predicting what I would choose if I were forced to make the decision between persuing my career after 30 years of rejection or a real job, with a house, and a stable financial situation. I won't know that until I'm forced to make the decsion. But I do know that I'll go extremely far, and that I am willing to give up a hell of a lot. I don't want to ever wonder, "what if?" I wan't to know, even if the truth isn't what I'd hope it would be.

Jim Bonney workshop #5

I wish Jim was coming back to work with us. We did the higher and lower self exercises today. It was really interesting to do it again at the end of five workshops because of how open everyone has become to one another. It was a lot easier for me to put my higher self, mask, and lower self into words today than it was a few weeks ago. We worked on scenes again. I was the pregnant character again, haha. And my boyfriends were Doug and Matt. They both played the same character. It was kind of weird playing opposite both of them at the same time. I think it would have been better if it had only been one of them but it was definitely an experience! And who knows if I'll ever play a character whose dating two versions of the same guy every again? The best part about today's workshop for me was getting to yell and bitch them out. It's always fun to yell at somebody in a scene, but getting to yell at two people at the same time felt even better. I felt like I was in power and it was refreshing.

Jim Bonney workshop #4

Today's workshop was a;woiejra;sdfjas;dfij ! The energy during all the warm up exercises was buzzing all over the place. It was vibrant and wonderful. It made me feel all filled up inside and really grounded into the ground. I felt like my center of gravity had been lowered into the deep pit of my stomach and even into my feet. I felt like I was apart of something and I was being supported by it. I felt silly and loose too. When we started doing scene work, the scripts were very open ended. There was a lot of room for interpretation. I was partnered with Kali. Our scenario: we used to be best friends, but then her boyfriend got me pregnant. I was coming to her to confess, but since I know that she's already suspicious of what's happened and because I feel like I can't trust her, I chicken out and didn't end up telling her my secret. We worked through the script with repetition, and sounds and got all wiled up. We then did the scene normally and then put down the scripts and improvised it. When we first started the imrpoved version of the scene, I felt frozen and trapped. I felt like I couldn't talk and my lips were disconnected from my body and I wasn't able to make them move anymore. Consequently, I didn't say much. I said little words like "yes" or "no." But about half-way into it something started to happen. Suddenly I hated Kali (not really Kali, her character) and just looking at her hurt me. I was scared of her. The entire room felt like it disappeared, but at the time I wasn't aware of it disappearing. It wasn't until after we were done that I noticed it had melted away. The only people that existed for me was Kali and I. I've used this before, but it felt like being sucked into a vacuum of some sorts. I started talking more than just one word answers and I started crying. It felt really good. I got out of my head which is why I wasn't aware of anything outside of just our little scene. Last year, I had to be put to sleep for a medical procedure. After our scene was over, I felt like I was waking up from that procedure. It felt like "what just happened?" Like the last 2 minutes that I had experienced wasn't really me but at the same time it totally was. It was like being empy and full at the same time. It's so hard to explain. But I know how it felt, and I want to do it again.

Big project - What we did April 27

Today we worked on our script. We're a little more than half-way done. Alex and I also worked on choreography for the last 10 minutes of class. I'm going to youtube some hip hop dances tonight.. stealing.. shhh =]