Boot Camp

This morning I got my first kick of the Fall Semester. As many of our readers may recall, I’m a college student who likes to ramble about his college rumblings from time to time. These rumblings were put on hold over the summer as I went on trips with friends and family to see bands and visit amusement parks. But today the fun came to an end. That’s right; today I entered myself once more into the halls of learning for the fall semester of college. And I couldn’t be happier. Why anyone would be happy in a school environment is beyond some people’s comprehension, but I’m simply more satisfied with learning. I feel sated, alleviated, and to some extent, that I’m being put to good use. Now don’t assume that I’m sniffing my nose at summer writing. Scripting and writing little stories for myself is still a primary form of self-enjoyment, but it’s nice to be making progress in school.
What’s even nicer is that after this semester I will have “cleared the breaking point” so to speak. Most, (and maybe even all) of my prerequisite courses will have been completed at the end of this semester and I’ll have done away with the core film classes (or as Scottsdale likes to refer to them, the “Boot Camp”).


Class breakdown:

Biology 100 – The study of life; examination of basic scientific principles; a crash course in chemistry: Biology 100 promises to be all of these things. At least, that’s what the introduction to my textbook says. Either way, I’m greatly looking forward to this class, as I’ve always been fascinated by science. True, I’ve spent most of my time devoted to the pursuits of literati, but like all geeks, I enjoy learning about molecules and atoms from time to time.

English 102 – A subject I enjoy all too well. English 102 is a course that I neglected to take back in 2003 because I suspected that English 101 was all that was needed to satisfy my prerequisites in this field. Apparently, I was wrong. Either way, I’ll be taking this class with Marco this semester. Marco had previously taken English 101 and wanted to take 102, and so I thought to myself, “what the heck, at least we’ll have fun”.

Boot Camp: Pre-Production/Production/Post-Production – The real meat and potatoes of my college experience. I’ve been building up to these courses for a year now. This is the unhindered, unadulterated study of the mechanics of filmmaking. Everything, from storyboards, to scripts, to call sheets, to the actual filming is covered from the ground up in this course. The classes are sequenced to mimic the production of a film. I’ll start off this month by developing an idea for a short film, scripting it, storyboarding it, and bringing it together to prepare for actual shooting.