Pre-production

Hey everyone,

Well, once again it’s been too long in between updates, and there is a bunch of stuff I need to fill you guys in on.

So, first of all, everyone came back from their various locations safe and sound, and it was really nice to have our little family together again. Really, I was almost surprised at how glad I was to have people home. We lucked out and got a group that gets along really, really well.

Then, and this is one of my favorite parts, my Mom came into town for the weekend! I was so excited to see her, and to get some family time. It’s been difficult to go so long without seeing my family, after living in such close proximity to them these first two years of college. So, we went and did some touristy stuff, like seeing the castle and Old Town Square. I loved showing her a little of the city I live in. Also, I think she liked Prague a lot, which means a lot to me! Then, we spent a day just puttering around the hotel and spending time together, which was amazing, and so refreshing for me. It was almost like getting to come home for a weekend break. I loved it. She headed home when the weekend was over, and also got home safe and sound.

Since Mom left, it’s been pretty much time to crack down on getting this film made. My big “Topics in Production” class ended last week, and we took a comprehensive final exam for it last Friday. I did well on the exam, which I’m thankful for, since it is a large part of my final grade. So, now that we’re done with the class portion of the program, we’re all heading into pre-production. I still have to attend my elective classes, “Circulating Within the Modern Cinematic Image” and “Script Analysis/Script for Directors”.  However, besides the occasional mentoring session, I don’t have any other classes. We work with each of our mentors four times over the next two weeks. They’re helping us develop storyboards and figure out easy shooting schedules. It’s been a lot of fun, and something I’ve never done before.

This part of the program has been a little crazy. Everything has intensified, from the amount of stress to the amount of fun. I have had some late nights working on our script and preparing storyboards, as well as some awesome meetings with actors. We’ve cast a drama student from the local theater school named Ivan as our leading man. He is amazing, and it has been a blast working with him so far. I am SO excited to shoot.

The non-film, non-school part of my life has pretty much ceased to exist lately. The free time that our group has outside of school and film has mostly been about getting things ready for shooting. Rather than going out lately, we’ve been staying in and having game nights (I taught everyone here Mao, which they love) and movie nights. Those are a blast, and I love getting to see great films with awesome people who appreciate them the way I do.

As far as the next few weeks go, Erika and I shoot the 24^th and 25^th of November (which some of you may notice is in NINE days), so any prayers that you can be offering up for our production would be much appreciated. During that week, all five groups film their projects, and I am involved crew-wise in all of the other shoots. My roles include focus-puller (a technical film thing- basically I make sure the shots are in focus the way they are supposed to be), a continuity watcher (I make sure that the actors are doing the same thing for each take. Those who have seen a film with poor continuity with me before know how crazy it makes me and thus that I will be good at this job), an Assistant Director/Translator (one of the groups has an actress who speaks French and very little English, so I’m going to use my language skills to help communicate things for her), and a Nanny! That’s right. My friend Allison is going to have a few little kids on her set, so I have been asked to use my experience with that age group to keep them entertained and focused on the project in between takes and during any breaks they get. Woot! I’m excited for that one a lot!

So, sorry about this being a novel, I’m just not sure if I’ll get a chance to update next week and I wanted to let everyone in on what’s going on for me. I miss everyone, and I can’t wait to see you all soon. I hope everything at home is going well.
Love,

Christy