This:

Also, I’ll give everyone the lowdown on my classes this semester.

(In order of appearance)

Advanced Lighting (Mondays from 1pm-6pm): Nerdfest 2k6 over here. We’ve only had one day so far due to yesterday being labor day and all. Our teacher is a first time teacher, I believe. First time at MCAD, anyway, so he’s a little awkward which is fine. This class is pretty much going to be a cinematography class. What that means is that we are learning lighting for MOVIES. This is unlike my last lighting class in which we learned how to light for photos. The two are vastly different and I’m excited to learn about it. That said, there are an awful lot of photo majors in the class, which leads me to believe that they will either drop the class soon, or learn nothing useful from it. The first class was a lot of review of lights and terms that everyone pretty much knew, but it was nice to have a refresher. Since the MCAD lighting equipment is pretty limited, our teacher is going to try and rent grip trucks for nearly every class. Grip trucks are huge trucks with an immense amount of lighting equipment inside. We used one for the music video shoot this summer for SES and I was dumbfounded by what was on the truck because I had no idea what most of it was. I learned a little about it, but now I’m ready to learn a LOT about it, and this class will be awesome. Also: there was really no talk of homework in this class, which I am both excited and confused about. We’ll see how that pans out.

Survey of Film History (Mondays 6:30pm-9pm): This is exactly how it sounds. We go to class, we watch a movie or excerpts from a movie(s) and we talk about it afterwards. This is coupled with online readings and of course the final test and film analysis paper. It’s pretty straightforward, but I like the teacher and it seems interesting enough. Hoorah.

Intermediate Film (Tuesdays 1pm-6pm): Oh man. The big mamma of the semester. This is a year-long class; I make one movie this semester, and one movie next semester. No more making 4 movies per-semester, this time we go through the process nice and slow, constantly improving and refining as we go. The goal this semester is to make a film (16mm color film, 5 minutes about) with non-sync sound (which pretty much just means no dialogue) and it has to be GOOD. Judging from the past Intermediate film classes, a lot of people just don’t step it up to the level of having four times as long to work on a film. I’m certainly going to, and I hope my class will, too, because there are some good filmmakers in there. Of course, there are some bad ones, too. Really bad ones. Mostly bad ones. I’ll post the script for my film later, because I have yet to write it! You guys can critique me and whatnot, because I’ll need it.

Workshops (Tuesdays/Thursdays 6:30pm-9pm): I’m taking three 5-week workshops in place of a studio class (much like last semester). The one I’m in now is Final Cut Pro. I really didn’t think I was going to learn a lot about it, but just in the past three class sessions, I’ve learned more than I did in the two or three years I thought I knew it. It’s a complex little program. The other two workshops are: After Effects, which is just gonna be like motion graphics and stuff like that, just an overview of the application. Also, Special Effects. The special effects workshop, contrary to popular belief, is going to be analog special effects. That means: set building, blood squirting, camera tricks, that kind of thing. I’m real excited for that.

New Worlds (Wednesdays 9:30am-Noon): The full title for this class is “New Worlds: Creating Altered Realities in Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writing” and OH MY GOD is it the NERDIEST CLASS I’ve EVER BEEN IN. Honestly, the first 30 minutes of the last class consisted of people going back and forth talking about whether they liked Ring World or Dragonlance or some other fantasy book series better. Unfortunately, that’s what this class is ABOUT. I can’t complain about the content because that’s what’s IN THE NAME OF THE COURSE. Whatever, I’m sure it’ll be a fine writing class.

T.A. for Intro to Film (Thursdays 1pm-6pm): Basically I help set up the class, sit around during class, and help end the class. It’s pretty boring, but I’m getting full credit for it so I can’t complain.

Work at Accounting (Fridays 9am-5pm): I’m getting all my workstudy hours in on my free day from class. It’s an easy job where I basically man the window, see what students need, and get them to the right people in our office. It’s good homework time, which I will use most definitely. Lots of alphabetizing.

So there you have it! My weekly schedule in all its glory. In addition to this, I’m doing an internship helping with a documentary about urban homes planning around the Twin Cities! Fun!