Week 2 of SYEP

7/10/08 – This week’s workdays are finally over. Here’s the recap:

Thursday – [day 4] today was pretty boring. We listened to this Australian guy talk about sound. He was extremely dull and his monotone voice almost put me to sleep. I didn’t pay much attention to him. Afterwards, we went to 42nd St to some film center. I forgot the name of it so whatever.

Wednesday – [day 3] the assignment due for Wednesday was a storyboard. It was basically to draw out your commercial idea onto a piece of paper in different strips, like a comic. They hired this professional DP (director producer?) to speak to us about lighting. He showed us how lighting can affect the scene and also how to use light. He specializes in creating/using light in low budget movies. He showed us a lot of techniques and gadgets like reflectors and filters.

After the lecture, we went to Broadway. We saw “Passing Strange” on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre. It was a musical about a young teenager who was rebellious and wanted to find himself (as in what he wanted to do in life). He left home, against his mother’s wishes, and moved to Europe. He pursued a career in music, exploring a wide variety of music as he traveled throughout Europe. As he meets different people, he learns the true meaning of love and life and decides to go home after many years. However, he discovers his mother passed away already. The play was very loud and at one point I thought my eardrums were going to pop. Everyone thought the play was great. I didn’t really think it was THAT great… because I didn’t really understand the plot. They also cursed way too much for a Broadway show. They must have said FUCK about 20+ times. The play went from 8:00 PM to 10:30 PM with a short intermission at 9:15. I got home at like 11:30 PM. I was so tired.

Tuesday – [day 2] the homework for Tuesday was to come up with 3 ideas for a 30 second commercial that is without dialog. So on Tuesday, everybody took turns presenting their 3 ideas. The class would then discuss and critique the idea. Some of their ideas were really good, and some weren’t. I could see some of the kids really spent time and effort into their ideas. The class voted out of the 3 ideas and picked one they would like to see.