Pretentious Film Student

Memes are all the rage these days and I've thoroughly enjoyed wasting hours of my life reading them. As a kind of joke, I started a meme of my own based on the people I've had the pleasure of meeting at the University of Iowa. My friend, Brian, and I love pointing out who among our classmates are overly pretentious—so I used Brian's face as the template of a new meme called Pretentious Film Student.

Any film student will recognize these people, and if they don't then they probably are one. There are the kind who see themselves as creative geniuses capable of becoming big league film directors directly out of college; and the kind that hate the industry and think film theory is an important field of study and consider their incomprehensible "experimental" films to be their godly gift to humanity because their films are rich with "theory". If that run-on sentence doesn't have you convinced, then why not just check the meme out yourself?

Check out the Quick Meme Page to see the latest memes, make your own, and vote for the ones you like.

Also, there's a new Facebook Page so you can 'Like' the meme and have the latest show up directly on your feed.

Junior, Part II

So starts the new semester of my Junior year and after hours of work to add/drop classes until my schedule is perfect, I have finally gotten rid of the boring theory class which I would not have survived through in order to pick up two production classes, which the department frowns on almost as much as run-on sentences. I shall be taking an advanced short-form screenwriting class being taught by Facebook friend Chris R. and an "alternate forms" class, whatever that means, with Avi who is the grad student I'd previously worked for. Essentially, the class kills out two birds with one stone. We the students gain the necessary experience in an actual production team environment while Avi gets his latest film completed with free, mandatory labor. Every student will assume a role on the set of Avi's film and we will work together like a production company of sorts to see the project through. Very excited about this class.

The role I applied for and received is Special Effects Supervisor. Working with the "art department", I'll be in charge of designing the necessary special effects for the film and making sure every shot is set up for that effect. Most muzzle flashes and chroma keying, but I might be way over my head with some of the advanced motion tracking he's expecting. We'll see.

At any rate here is a thing I through together at 6am one depressing night so I could test out some special effects. Just for funnsies.

'Thunder Bay' teaser trailer, already!

To compete with the recently released 'Dark Knight Rising' trailer.

ATTACK of the ALIENS from OUTER SPACE!

The showcase was a big success. In case you missed it, here is my film 'ATTACK of the ALIENS from OUTER SPACE!' A homage to classical 50s styles alien films, such as Ed Wood's 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' as well as references to more recent films like '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Independence Day'. Shot on 16mm film with a Bolex. Laugh and enjoy.

16mm Class Showcase on December 15th

Come to the Material of 16mm Film Class Showcase on December 15th, 7pm, at the Samuel L. Becker Building, University of Iowa. My class is premiering their 16mm films and would love an audience. Join the Facebook Event for more info.

The Next Ed Wood

I'm working on my 16mm project for my film class final. It's called 'Attack of the Aliens from Outer Space'. It's a stereotypical 50s style alien invasion film. Almost finished shooting it so I can send it off for expensive processing. Then I'll edit it digitally. Expect it in December!

Weather

It is hard to predict. Luckily I have an iPhone that informed me that today would be possibly the last nice day of the year. Rob Tracy is graduating in December and he is supposed to be in a scene that takes place on a sunny day. So I jumped on my phone and got him and Austin to agree to do a last minute shoot. It wasn't easy. We had to do Rob's make-up and liquid latex work in the mall, then run to the river to shoot their scene together. Aside from the horrible wind, it turned out quite well.