Academics

This summer I had an internship at a warehouse that rents and sells film equipment. I learned about all different things used on set, and even got to drop some equipment off at Netflix Studios. The company is mainly woman owned and it was nice to hear about the film world from a female perspective.

This year in Odyssey I hope to have an idea and possibly the beginning of a script for my short film. I plan to study other films and tv shows. I want my short to be styled like American Horror Story.

This month, I have been watching horror and psychological thrillers, including Talk 2 Me, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and the most recent episodes of American Horror Story: Delicate. I also watched the film Se7en with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt.

Talk 2 Me was exceedingly gruesome, which isn’t my taste, especially because I was a huge fan of the story. I didn’t know what to expect going into We Need to Talk About Kevin, but whatever I would have thought, I would have been wrong. The jumps through time kept me intrigued, the use of color was amazing, and even the acting was incredible.

Having good actors is such a vital part of making a good film. In the new season of American Horror Story: Delicate, Kim Kardashian is a recurring character throughout the show. I think, actually, I know that casting her was a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, I keep up with the Kardashians, but I think the only reason she was cast was for her name. I’m not able to point out what exactly is wrong; she just feels out of place and it pulls you out of the story.

And with Se7en, everything about the film is amazing. The concept was insane, and the ending even crazier. I can’t believe it took me so long to watch.

This month, I didn’t do a lot for my project other than watching films, however, I did have to act in my film class, which gave me a new respect for actors. I truly don’t know how they do it.

See you next month.

Happy Halloween! This month, I watched a YouTube video by the account Film Riot. They are filmmakers who have hundreds of videos about films and how to make films. I watched a video about horror effects and learned how to change someone’s face using Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere Pro. I plan on using this effect in my next film in my film class. Mid-October, I visited Sacramento State. It’s the only California State school that has a deal with New Mexico for in-state tuition that has a film major. Although I didn’t get to meet any film students or talk to any professors, I had two tours and met students everywhere I went because it is a college town. I definitely plan to apply next year. Fun fact: the director of Black Panther, Ryan Coogler, went to Sac State.

This month I started a big project for digital film. We are working on our first project with actors from the acting class and submitting some of the films we make to a competition. Once I’ve had my script submitted, editors are going to give me feedback. I will have already filmed everything, but it’s still incredibly helpful. We were given a small criteria and 2-3 actors who we would write for. I wrote a seven page script with 12 scenes that we are going to film in the first two weeks of December and edit when we get back from winter break. I’m taking inspiration from the 2003 film Thirteen. It’s almost all handheld and is meant to be "cinéma vérité" which is a documentary style.

Other than that, I’ve been working at Outpost and working on the annotated bibliography.

My main accomplishment this first semester was gaining knowledge. I did a lot of research and built my understanding of the behind the scenes of film, I interned, and I also researched summer film programs. Something I noticed as I was doing my research was that everytime I learned something new and I watched something I had seen before, I noticed what it was that I had just researched. My project has always felt like doing visual research would be more helpful than reading articles, but both are critical to my learning.

This semester I did want to have an idea of what I wanted to film, and I still don’t know yet. I even thought about changing my project but I am on the same track as of today. This upcoming semester, I plan to work on the idea and storyline of my film. One of the reasons it’s so difficult is because I have to come up with an idea that is actually filmable. As a student filmmaker, I don’t have a ton of resources. I need a film that can be filmed in Albuquerque with non-professional actors, which is one of the variables I am most nervous about. When I work on my film for Odyssey I want to work with people who want to work on it with me because if I’m working with people who don’t want to be there it makes the entire process a thousand times more difficult. Not only does it slow down the process, but it can also cause me to lose interest which I know from past experiences.

This semester I had an internship at Outpost Ice Arena working on camera to broadcast the Ice Wolves’ games on tv. I learned a lot and overall it was a great experience and I’m very lucky to have had that opportunity. 

I’m so lucky to have teachers to help me through my ideas and film and I can’t wait for next semester to take the next step in my Odyssey journey.

This January felt productive as I watched Breaking Bad, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and rewatched Midsommar. I also filled out and submitted my application for the National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC), and made a short film in class.

Although Breaking Bad is very different from the vision I have for my film, they are both going to have a lot in common, both being located in Albuquerque, and how can I consider myself a filmmaker from New Mexico who hadn’t seen Breaking Bad? Now I have. The writing, the cinematography, everything about the show is so well done and I am taking a lot away from it. The way that they can make a regular middle-class house in ABQ look cinematic is something I need to learn.

The assignment for my short film was “5 Second Film.” I wanted to use light and shadows so I used my nephew as the actor and took a flashlight and got to filming. My plan was to have him walk and his shadow stay. Even though it took 10+ takes, that wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was figuring out how to edit his shadow out. Schoepke was a big help with editing. Having access to Adobe Premiere Pro is amazing and it comes with so many things to learn. I want to keep working with lights and editing.

This February I plan to finish Breaking Bad, work on the storyline for my film, and finish the scholarship application for NSLC.

This month started with a meeting between me, my parents, Jaramillo, and Schoepke. We worked on a plan for the following months with my film. We scheduled time out of class for me to work on my film. I also came up with the basic idea of what I want my film to be about.

My next steps are watching How to Become a Cult Leader on Netflix so I can write my story accurately.