New Year

My new years resolution is to meet enough people in service industry positions that I get loads of free admission and products.

The executive lifestyle I shall lead!


- From the Electronic Pen of Chris Amick

News as of Now

I was recently elected the president of our BFA Film Club. What does this mean? I'll need some pens and I think I have to start showering.

Plus!
If your famous and want to come talk to our school, I can set that up. I'm talking to you successful filmmakers of America.


- From the Electronic Pen of Chris Amick

What a Hiatus

Although unintentional, it seems like I have completely taken the summer off from any sort of blogventure. Whether its because I feel bad about not keeping up with the site how I intended to or just finally slowing down to the point where I realize how much I have left out, here I am, sitting in my living room with the computer on my lap and Practical Magic wrapping up on TV.

So...

Summer:
Thesis production was hectic and amazing, I can't wait to see how the class above us edits their projects and how those shot on RED will look.
All of the jobs that I worked on were a great experience, and I was surprised to find that I liked being the Art Director a lot. Working around a budget to create costumes and design the locations was challenging and very rewarding in the end.

Hey Chris! What are you doin now?

Oh, well I'm glad you asked. I'm on my two week break from school and back in Pittsburgh right now. I've recently realized that I need to read a lot more material on filmmaking. I've almost finished a pretty good one on producing a feature on a microbudget, and Im working up to several others on screenwriting and directing.

I've recently felt the urge to start writing something. You know that feeling of inspiration without any idea of what to do with it? That's what I'm working on and I'm just waiting to find a new idea. Then again, the feeling can be fleeting, but as of right now I feel like being productive and perhaps that the whole reason for me sitting down to this blog again.

Anyway, hopefully I will keep up with this for a while again, at the very least to not let Walter down, you know who you are, Walter that is.

Aaahhh...Summer

So here we are, America. Beautiful summer. The wind in my hair and hair in my Popsicle. In my week off I intend to enjoy the better things in life: sleep, cars that aren't mine, beer (not always in that order), and sleep. Yes, although I may be going back to Florida on sunday for thesis crewing, this week I am in temperate Pittsburgh, PA! Home of the Quaker oat cakes! (or at least the inspiration for them).

Big News!
My birthday is on the 21st of this month and I have yet to decide which movie opening is the worlds gift to me: Terminator or Dance Flick...I'll let you decide in the polls!

Other Big News!
It's the hott button question right now, which celebrity will get swine flu first? I say it's Kermit.

Anyway, I'm really excited to be done with this semester. I had an interesting experience with my second documentary: I had to drop it late in the game and pick up a new idea that I filmed in three days. I basically just sat down with some cool old guys and asked them about romance, and yes, LET them tell me stories for a while. I think it will turn out well and I'm trying to find someone who will do some animations for it as of now.
Also, I will finally be working on the Red camera this summer when I crew on the thesis films! Excitement! Check out red.com to see these bad boys. As of right now, I'm scheduled to work as a script supe, boom operator, 2nd assistant camera, 2nd AD, UPM, and art director, but these schedules are always tentative so we will see how it ends up.

Check back after this week for updates on these positions and the editing/animation process of my doc.

I'm a Patriot...

...but I wish I had enough money to outsource my documentary transcription to someone else because it gets a little old after about two hours.

My philanthropy doc screened tonight and went over fairly well, so I am pleased.

Our F2's screen on thursday and I have way too much work between that time and now (a quick explanation of why this blog is so desolate lately). Instead of finals, here at the film school, we have projects which are all due in the last week...oh yeah, and also finals. K thnx skool!

To My Hoards of Fans

Sorry I haven't been updating lately, things be a little crazy around here.

I've recently had to switch my documentary to a different subject which gives me about five days to shoot it...

I'll be back with some juicy material soon, dont you worry.

P.S. Just got out of a workshop with Barry Markowitz A.S.C (cinematography: Sling Blade, All the Pretty Horses, Crazy Heart). Good times and pictures to come!

Angel Flight: A Documentary

I recently had the honor of documenting the work of the non-profit group Angel Flight South East. They are part of the Air Charity Network, which brings together volunteer general aviation pilots to fly people in need whether it be for humanitarian or medical needs. I began this project for my documentary film making course here at the film school and I will be submitting it to the Filmanthropy competition, which gives out 12 scholarships in the amount of $10,000 for film students. I'm very pleased with the documentary I made and so I would like to share some screen shots with you to show some of the amazing visuals I was able to be a part of.

The story behind my documentary began with the introduction of myself to RJ Reed, the local Tallahassee Wing Leader for Angel Flight South East. He allowed me to tag along with him on a mission to pick up a woman, Kimber Wilson, from Decatur, AL. She had flown down from Chicago after getting a second opinion from the Cancer Treatment Center of America. We were the last flight of the day for her, which meant we were able to fly her back home to Pensacola, FL after her first trip.

It was her first time flying with Angel Flight, and she was very happy to share her experience with me in order to help get the word out about this great charity.

At a Glance: Adventureland

I don't have too much time right now and so I thought I would start a post to review a film, but with minimal effort...
So from here forth, these little to no effort reviews will be "At a Glance"

Adventureland:

An obvious post-Juno production, but only because it was post-Juno. If Adventureland came out before Juno, it may have done better with viewers being that they had nothing to directly relate it to, but then again, Juno was better.

Kristen Stewart is great in her role in this film, but Jesse Eisenberg reminds me too much of the Bleeker role of Michael Cera. I guess the way I would explain the basic premise is if Bleeker got a summer job after college at an amusement park, where he met Juno for the first time.

The dialogue was witty and entertaining, and the secondary characters were very memorable and added a lot of depth to the story line as a way for the audience to be taken away for a moment.

Overall, it was entertaining and had a special place in my heart being that it was filmed in my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA...at the amusement park I grew up going to. It's an enjoyable time at the moving pictures, just don't expect too much.

6 out of 10

Take some advice from Will Smith

So i'm going to miami!

That's right, tomorrow I am leaving after class to road trip down to miami to help my friend shoot his second documentary. I've never been so hopefully it is exactly like the stereotypes portrayed on TV! Perhaps I will even get to be the killer on an episode of CSI: Miami? We'll have to wait and see, but i'm pretty sure I will, but we will see...but I will....but we will see.

Reviewed: 500 Days of Summer

There are times when I realize how lucky I am to be doing what I love, and to be in a well-respected film school. One of the most recent was a visit to our school from former Sundance Film Festival Director, Geoffrey Gilmore. In the past few years he has been traveling to Tallahassee to present an advanced screening of a Sundance favorite at the Seven Days of Opening Nights festival, but a few days before this happens, he drops by the film school and allows us to watch it first with a Q&A after. As a first year, this was the first time I was invited to attend the event, and it absolutely blew me away that such an esteemed film professional thought of us as important enough to spend a day with.

After a lecture about the current state of filmmaking in the industry, the lights were finally dimmed and what had been known only as the "surprise screening" was presented. To my delight, it was Marc Webb's "500 Days of Summer."



Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is somewhat of the modern, young every-man: once ambitious, but now just old enough to realize that most people work in order to get by instead of working towards something they really feel passionate about. He is witty and sarcastic, and listens to great music, but this isn't where we are introduced to him. The beginning of the film is a heartbroken Tom who, in his struggle to understand women, has found himself dumped by the woman he believes to be his one true love. Summer (Zooey Deschanel). First of all, Zooey Deschanel is beautiful and cute at the same time. She has the features of an urban outfitter's catalog model and the acting talent that makes filmmakers forget they are watching a movie because we are so drawn to her eyes.

As the tagline goes: "This is not a love story, it is a story about love."

This could not be more true. 500 Days of Summer will become one of the defining films that transition romantic comedy into modern romantic comedy where audiences are less likely to focus on the story of their love, and more on the story of their lives. It is a piece that relies on its intelligence and quirks rather than sappy love songs and monologues. Normal romantic comedy plot structure is broken as we jump forward and backward in time, over a period of 500 days, as we relive the defining moments of a relationship already known to have gone wrong. Although somewhat complicated of an idea, it is never jarring to jump to and from because it keeps each one fresh and interesting, and challenges the audience to catch up to where the characters are, which I find to be one of the most important aspects of storytelling in our time since the average person has seen enough examples from every genre to form an arc in their mind before the second act.

The characters are each refreshing and honest, and the style that Director Marc Webb draws from his experience in music videos (this was his first feature) makes sequences, that could easily be covered in a standard way, stand out as ground-breaking.*

* I'm thinking mainly of a party scene portrayed entirely in split screen between how Tom has expected the night will go and how it is actually panning out. This could be easily distracting and overwhelming, but the execution and control of the audiences eye lines between which side of the screen is important to watch at any one time was flawless.

In conclusion, 500 Days of Summer has been at the top of my recommendation list since I had the pleasure to see it. It will have a wide release this summer (heyo!) on July 17th and allowing an indie gem like this one to sneak by onto early dvd would be a tragedy. Interestingly enough, it is being released the same day as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, so here is my advice: If you love the harry potter, buy a ticket for 500 Days and do a double feature, these kind of films need to be encouraged because otherwise we will be stuck with surface level comedy and predictable romance that fails to inspire anyone.

8 out of 10

FSU Film Admissions

So, as promised, here is a post dedicated to info on the FSU Film School admissions process. But before I begin, I would like to weave you a tale of misfortune, uncertainty, and my eventual induction into the film school.

First, let it be known that I am an out of state student here at FSU. I am originally from Pittsburgh, PA (for which there is an unusually high acceptance rate here at the film school for, so hold your heads high pittsburgh) and so being so far away, it is only natural that one must fly down to Tallahassee. I had started rehearsing answers to questions I thought they might ask weeks beforehand, and I gathered together all of my nice dress clothes to look as professional as possible during my interview, I mean, this aint no high school (and by that I mean nobody wears slap bracelets in college, besides the occaisonal 80's party). So away I went, to the Pittsburgh Int. Airport, on my way to be interviewed. Now I don't know how much you know about murphy's law, but if there was anyone out there who exemplifies it...it's me. My flight to Atlanta was delayed four hours for tornadoes which had grounded every plane in the area. Luckily my connecting flight had a long layover so I wasn't too nervous when we finally got about the plane. After two lovely hours we arrived in the Atlanta airport, where we were told that our flight to Tallahassee had already left...wait...no, you can make it right now if you run all the way to the other side of the airport. After hoofing it with my dad, we got to our gate which was packed with exhausted people who had been waiting hours to get on board, but we were happy because it hadn't left yet. It was at that point that we realized there was no plane to board, and the subsequent three hour wait gave me some time to think about my future. "If I don't make it to my interview, I'll have to become a businessman, or perhaps an accountant...I have to make it to my interview."
By 1:00AM we were weary and almost ready to give up, when they announced that we would start boarding. After half of the passengers board, my dad and I step on and start looking for our seats, when a screeching noise comes over the speaker, "Attention passengers, the crew has timed out and will not be able to fly tonight..." "Well shit." We had boarded! We found our seats! It was over, and now because the crew had been waiting so long, they wouldn't fly anyone out.
"It's one in the morning and I have an interview in eight hours, I'm not going to film school."
"The hell you're not!" My dad proclaimed, or so I like to think. It was probably more like, "Chris, I'm tired as shit, lets rent a car and just drive down so I can go to sleep."
So by 3am we were on the road from Atlanta to Tallahassee, without any sleep, without any of our luggage (the airline had locked it up and we weren't allowed to get it) and without much hope of an effective interview.
That morning when we arrived at our hotel an hour before my interview, I jumped in the shower and my dad ran out to buy me a clean shirt since I was in all of the same clothes from the day before. He dropped me off in front of the film school and went home to finally sleep. I walked into the hallway where I sat and waited my turn with adrenaline rushing through me.
"I hope they don't notice how much I smell." I thought.

So that's my story of pre-interview madness. Now on to what you actually want to know, the admissions process and so forth:

Q: How undergrads apply each year as freshman?
A: I have heard from the administration that there have been from 300 to 600 applicants every year. I overheard today that this year was somewhere in the 400's. There are 20 - 25 chosen to enter as freshman of these applicants (after you do an interview).

Q: How much do grades/SAT scores matter?
A: They are looking for the best students to attend because it is extremely competitive. They WILL look at grades and SAT, but they are not the most important thing. Your essay(s) are very important in order to get an interview because they want to know what kind of a filmmaker you will be. If you blow off classes in highschool and get bad grades, than they know you will probably blow off class in film school, which is not a good thing (some classes lose a letter grade for one unexcused day). I had pretty decent grades in highschool and did very well on my SAT, but I have friends in the film school who bombed their SAT but had good grades otherwise and vice versa.

Q: Do I need to have filmmaking experience to get in?
A: No. The program is very open to people who have a strong passion for filmmaking, but have never made a film before. The most important thing to do is reveal to them that this is what you want to do and what you will suffer for until the end.

Q: Is there a preference to Florida Natives?
A: No. Everyone is equal in the admissions process, but there are usually more people from Florida simply because more applied. FSU is very well known and respected in the south and not so much so in the north because NYU, Columbia, Emerson and all of those are close and get a lot of attention.

Q: What should I expect during the interview process?
A: Usually it goes down like this - The morning will be an interview with yourself and two teachers of the school. They tend to ask questions such as what your favorite movie is and why, if you could make anything right now what would it be, if you are willing to put in time at all hours (and they mean ALL hours) of the day to complete your work, but there are also questions to make sure that you are being honest with them. They asked me if I was ever on set with someone that I really despised, and they were getting on my nerves more so than usual that day, would it affect my work. I thought about it for a second and said that, yes, it probably would in some way because it would make it much more difficult to focus, but I would try to work around it. You need to be honest with them because you will be working with them face to face soon enough and if you turn out to have lied about work ethic and you slip up, they can toss you out. It rarely happens, but it could. Luckily the screening process acquires a lot of really great people that will become your best friends.

That's all I can think of right now, leave a comment if you have some.

PD Artstravaganza

...And so, as the schedule gets closer to the end of the F2 cycle I too get closer to the final task of Director of Photography for David Liz's film. Luckily, though, there has been much to do beforehand which has kept me busy. This morning I finally saw my Production Design for Ron's F2 "New World Administration" come together, which was a huge weight off of my shoulders. Ron's style has been very PD heavy so far and this one was no exception. We had to turn a "bar" stage (as seen below)...

...into a future-punk basement where junkies illegally download the internet into their bodies for years on end. We used wires and rubber tubing as well as pvc piping hung on fencing in order to get a dark technological feel.

It took a lot of work (about 7 hours total) to get everything together (especially the fencing which was an issue for a long time, but fell into our laps the night before the shoot), but I was really happy with how each wall came out, and even happier with how the "junkie" looked in the shot. The script called for a girl to be hooked up by her fingers and mouth by wires as she downloaded into herself for the past 33 years. We used a gas mask with a large tube attached and rubber tubing for her fingers, which spread out to her sides.

The entire process was very challenging because it was a very original idea and it was up to Ron and myself to figure out what the future is going to look like, but I'm pretty sure that if things turn for the worse and we have to download the internet into ourselves to feel alive, my place might look like this...but with a few more kitty posters.

The poll is showing that we've got some people wanting to have a post about admissions so that will be what I work on next. Check back in a few days for that to be posted and if you have any specific questions that you would like answered leave them in the comments below and I will include it.

...See ya film cowboy

Being an AD and nude...minus the nude

Today was Walter's F2 set where I was 1st AD. Like most young teens, I was nervous for my first time. I wasn't really sure what to say when he asked me how much footage I have, and of course I was anxious when I realized that all of the time was in the set up, and not so much in getting the shot off. All innuendo's aside, it was a great experience and we all had a great time. For our F2 projects we have 200ft of super16mm film in order to shoot a two page script within four hours, which seems easy enough. We had eight total set ups and were able to get all of them off as well as have enough time and film for a crew dance, which is basically like a school dance except filmed and of a film set's crew.

The next set that I'm working on is Ron's as Art Director, which seems like somewhat of a challenge. It's a futuristic, underworld set where people illegally download the internet into themselves through chords entering their fingers and mouth.
I'm gonna line the walls with wiring and pvc pipe to get a "once sterile, now run-down" feel to it. I would really like to make some of the wires spark to show how old they are, I was thinking about putting a sparkler inside of the pvc and letting it rain out a bit?

Leave a comment below if you have any suggestions for a safe way to have sparks come off of the walls.

For those refered from Studentfilms.com

Hey guys, if you are someone who saw my link from studentfilms.com, welcome! I recently joined the forum there and I started getting a lot of personal messages from people asking about admissions and whatnot, but I haven't kept up with visiting the site to reply to them all. Hopefully you can come here if you have some questions (leave them in the comments below and I will try to answer them) because I will be on this site more often than studentfilms. The interview admissions process is going on right now so I would be happy to inform anyone with questions about my process or other things on your mind.
-Chris

I'll Catch You Up

So being that I created this blog long after starting Film School there have already been many notable events that I've missed. I'll go over a little bit of a back story to bring us up to date.

For the FSU Film School, sophomore year is the first year of actual production and strictly film related courses, thus I am a "first year" student. Freshman year was all the necessary classes (general english, math, etc.) in order to graduate with a bachelor's degree.

Our class is a very transitional one for the film school in that we are the first class most effected by the digital change. They scrapped the older Canon xl1's used for F1's (Production 1 projects) to get HD Sony XDCAM's, which are beautiful. Although this was a pretty great change for us, the biggest one will be the new RED cameras (www.red.com) we work on. These digital cameras shoot at 4k resolution (twice the quality of HD) and look like 35mm film. In the past, our school shot F2's, F3's and Thesis on 16mm film, which isn't bad, but with the new RED cameras we can reach the quality of 35mm and start to move with the industry over to digital (Crossing the Line, Jumper, Che, Angels and Demons all shot on RED).

But for now I'm working my way up. My F1, "Typewriter" was shot in HD on the XDCAM. Below is a screenshot.



I recently finished filming my F2, "Speed Dating," which is mainly an exercise with 16mm film. I don't know if film will forever be abolished by the industry, there is something about working on something so delicate to make an image look right that gives you a true sense of pride. There is so much that goes into creating the right look on film that digital does not have to deal with, be that a good thing or not.

I will update later on the documentaries currently in the process.