14 days, 7 projects, and lots of stress caused by Loukas, the marathon of studio projects are over.

It was quite a couple of weeks starting and ending with Adrian’s projects. I was pretty busy on set everyday either as AC, Gaffer, as well as Cinematographer on Joe’s film. There were so many days where I wished I could sleep in and enjoy the day doing nothing, but I was stuck in perpetual Thursday. Now, I really can’t complain. I had a lot of fun and got a lot of practice pulling focus, measuring exposure, lighting, etc. And this is what I want to do with my life. Actually, the only part that I didn’t like was breaking down and building new sets every 2 days.

Some of the craziness on set included:
1. Adrian’s first film have a fish “being pulled out” of a vagina (faked of course)
2. Dropping a 6 lbs piece of meat on a table (gross)
3. Everyone wanting to kill Loukas (He was useless 98% of the time and always late)
4. Stumbling on a aerosoft war zone where Czech’s dress up and play American Army soldiers. I didn’t see any other uniforms… so were they playing “Friendly Fire”?
5. Emily having to shoot Steve’s entire project handheld. The camera weighs about 35 lbs, and I am sure that is about 1/3 the size of Emily.
6. Adrian building the outdoors inside the studio.

Now with this all done, I can enjoy my week off. I leave for Dublin on Thanksgiving night and return Sunday night. I get to see Bryce and Nina and Molly apparently!

Only 15 days until Dara arrives!

So, I don’t even remember the last time I posted. It says October 21st, but that feels like a century ago.

In that time, I have edited a rough cut of my film. It’s okay. There is an issue with one segment, due to the actress. She literally pecked my film apart. Her kissing was weak, and forced me to get very creative. Lots of layers and hiding the fact that she did a weak job. Right now, its a picture rough cut. No sound or music. I will finish it back in the U.S. o’ A. (That was for those who think I speak like a Canadian).

Here are some screen shots from the film. These are not the highest quality. I need to make a new digital copy. The tentative title is “Longing for what is Lost”

Other things I have done…

I went to a Czech hockey game. HC Slavia played. And lost. It was quite an interesting experience. Everywhere is advertisements. They play the same arena style music, and have the Kiss Cam. People are less enthusiastic about the Kiss Cam in than in the US.

When they need to clean the ice during short whistle breaks, girls in practically nothing come out and sweep it up. It’s kind of crazy. They are cheerleaders and ice sweepers.

We as a film class went to Kutna Hora. There we went to the ossuary, a silver mine, and St. Barbara’s Church. The silver mine was incredible. I have some videos that I shot. We wore white coats, hard hats, and had flashlights. It was wet and dark and slimy. There were parts where we had to duck and squeeze. Thank god I’m only 5’5”. Besides having a smaller strike zone, being small in a mine is an advantage.

I am done with classes. We have some finals after filming, but that is in 3 weeks.

This week is the start of interior projects. Joe, my partner, is directing Tuesday afternoon to Thursday afternoon. Tuesday is a prep day. Lighting, set dressing, art directing, etc. Wednesday is a full day of filming. Thursday is a half day of filming. His story is good. The lighting ideas are set, just need to draw a diagram and create the lighting for each set up.

Then I will crew on all the other projects. During the interior post week, I am going to Dublin to visit my friends Bryce and Nina and everyone.

The final screening is December 3rd (i.e. my 21st birthday). I hope they don’t ream me a new asshole over my rough cut. That’s not how I want to spend my birthday. But after all of that, I am done (sort of). I will need to picture lock and record foley sounds. Then send it to my composer to for him to score it.

On December 8th, Dara comes to Prague! I am so excited :-D

There is 40 days left in Prague. I am 64.3% of the way there.

I haven’t posted in a long time, mainly due to classes, overnight trip, and the stress of filming my short film this week. The forecast is rain. 70 percent on Monday, and 60 percent on Tuesday. I need to figure out how my story will work in rain. Life is a bitch, but come Tuesday evening… I will be done filming.

So, I tried for the third time to get an ISIC Card today. The set up was perfect. I have class at 12:20. Perfect amount of time to go get it. I walk outside and its wet. Misting, gloomy and wet. But I did not let that get me down. I walked there with confidence until, I hit Namesti Miru, and things felt off. The traffic lights were off. But I didn’t put it together until I passed a McDonalds when all the lights out and the employees were gathered at the front door. I knew then… that the power went out. But I had hope still. Maybe it would turn back on by the time I arrived. Or maybe it was outside of the power outage range. Nope. So, that makes me 0 for 3. Well, there is always tomorrow.

So this weekend, my idea for traveling fell through with the fact that I didn’t know about our canceled excursion on Friday and the fact that NYU at FAMU students have class on a national holiday when NO ONE else does. I could have gone to Amsterdam, and I would have if I had the time. I thought about Krakow, Poland, but I am saving it for when I have more time. So, what did I do instead… I explored Prague so more. Did some location scouting, and realized I should probably change the initial situation in my film to make life easier for me.

Friday, I tried to get an ISIC card. FAIL… I called the day before. They had them in stock and said they would be open all day Friday. Apparently, 9-12pm is considered a full day. I went out to lunch at this place that Ben claimed to have great goulash. But there was no goulash.

Saturday, Joe Del Balzo (my film partner in Prague) and I made trip to Vysehrad. From there, we walked around, took pictures, and then walked some more. We left at 2pm and returned to Slezska at 7:15. We walked across a bridge, through a park, up a fucking enormous hill, took more photos, reached Petrin, walked some more, ended up at the microbrewery that FAMU took us to, got a beer, and went home. Let’s just say, we earned that beer.

Sunday, Margarita, Emily, Joe, and I went to Mala Strana to walk around. We went into a garden/plaza with peacocks. Mama, Papa, and baby peacocks. I want to shoot there, but I feel like it would be hard to get a permit. Then, Margarita, Emily, Danny, and I went to the park with the giant metronome. We walked around there,met a nice Czech man who let Margarita and Danny try this tight rope thing, sat on a swing, saw the most beautiful view of Prague, then left. We went to eat at a place called Gate. I had a taste of home. Bacon Cheeseburger with fries. MMMMMMMM. So good. I bit pricey for Prague, but sometimes you just need to pay for the good stuff. Plus, it wasn’t even 12 dollars US. Then I came back and did a load of laundry. I only had two 20Kc coins, so I couldn’t do all my laundry. They need a token machine here. I spent all weekend trying to obtain 20Kc coins by paying amounts that could be given change in 20Kc pieces. Nope! They would give me 50Kc coins or bills, small coins, or two 10Kc coins. Why are they hoarding the 20s?!

Either way, good weekend. Two weeks until filming. I am 99.9% sure my story is set. I think I will go watch a tv show (Mad Men Season One) or the David Lynch movie I got from the library. I figured out my laptop is region free. Score.

Photos are on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/photos.php?id=574765242

1. every film student get “raped” by professor’s criticism

2. an ISIC distributor run out of their only product, the ISIC CARD!

3. dogs walk off their leashes everywhere and ride escalators

4. credit cards not work online and drive you insane.

5. coins actually be worth legitimate value, but no one wants them in bulk for purchasing.

6. vegetables be no more than a garnish. And vegetarian plates involve fried cheese, or potato pancakes. Still no vegetables.

7. there be city wide quiet hours starting at 10PM, even on a weekend.

8. someone get yelled at for being noisy on the metro by a complete stranger.

9. beer cost around $1.50-2.50 at bars and pubs.

10. the dorms have their balcony doors locked, but have windows large enough to climb through defeating the purpose of locking the door.

A handful of us at the dorm today went on a NYU planned trip to a bobsleigh place on the outskirts of Prague. It was the second to last stop on the C line, and then two bus stops more. This place did not seem like a place for 20 year olds. But hey, we like fun too. Its not just for little kids.

For 45Kc, you ride down a 1km track that is full of curves and turns and dips. Before the last turn, there is a radar gun that tells you your speed. I got up to 43 km/h on my second run.

There they also had food. I had a mix meat grill with a baked potato. Yummy.

That’s all for today. Thought of another film idea that could work as well. Tentative title is “Look But Don’t Touch”. A story about a married man who loves to check out younger woman, but is challenged when one makes a move back on him.

Let me know if you want to see my one page treatment for that one.

Today the NYU Film Students at FAMU went on a field trip to Terezin. Terezin, for those who don’t know, is a town north of Prague where the Nazi’s had a concentration camp and Jewish Ghetto. We visited the Small Fortress, which was mainly used to as a prison for Nazi resistors, etc. We toured the entire place and saw some harsh living conditions of the prison, and the quaint section reserved for the SS guards and such. It was a worth while trip. My photos are up on facebook. We didn’t tour the Jewish Ghetto, but we talked about it and saw a film that dealt with the propaganda of the Nazi regime, specifically in Terezin. It was kind of ridiculous. Pretty much Terezin was a stopping ground where most people were sent off to death camps. People here died more from disease than executions.

After all the death and sad stuff in the morning, FAMU treated us to lunch. It was okay. I shouldn’t be complaining… it was free. Free food, and beer. Then after, we went to get ice cream and a cukrana. 3 scoops for 21Kc. Its 20Kc for one scoop in Prague.

Then we went into the catacombs (which was surprisingly lame). Then we went to a couple art galleries. One was naive art. Very interesting. But by then, I was so full and tired. I just wanted to head back to Prague.

On the bus, we played a game called “The Movie Game”. Funny right. 13 film students and one student’s mom playing a game about movies for an hour.

That’s all for now. I will post a few photos up here later.