Real Media Arts Stuff

So I lost the page-long draft of the blog I had.  Thaaanks, Safari.

I had a lot to say in my lost post about how I'm really enjoying this new world of Real Media Arts - enjoying dipping my toe in the great ocean of Career Decisions and Important Things to Learn.  So far it really has been stellar, even though I still feel no interest whatsoever in the theater aspect of this thing.  Today was great.  I woke up, made the half-hour commute with far-too-few hours of sleep dragging on my eyelids, and began what I guess was really my first real day of work.  It was a 9 to 5:30 kind of thing, learning and experiencing and watching, and the fact that I managed to get my hands dirty and hold projectors and aid in that great trial-and-error process that is media arts . . . wonderful.  For the first time in several years I felt a little less of the fear that all halfway intelligent media arts students (that is to say . . . roughly a quarter of the media arts students) must feel when nearing their graduation.

It's a really satisfying feeling to know that, even though you may not be able to see your work in its finished form, or really even see much of a difference between your beginning and your end point, you've accomplished something.  It took me five solid hours to rotoscope one entire sequence, but at the end of the day when I packed up and stumbled home with bleary eyes (of course refusing to leave until I had finished that painstaking last ten seconds), I felt like I'd done something that was, in its own way, important.  Not save-the-world important, but that to someone somewhere, I'd done something right, and had learned something in the process.  Again, I really feel like this is what an internship should be like.  Learning, accomplishing, feeling accomplished.

So I had to move my car today, and the spot I got was so sweet that I'm fairly convinced my car won't be there tomorrow.  I looked all over the place for the "Spot Not Meant For You" sign, but couldn't find it, so . . . here's hoping.

As an aside: on either side of the big double glass doors and glass panels at the 3 Legged Dog theater, there's a thin mirror strip.  And I can't even tell you how many people walk right by those open glass doors, stop to preen in the mirror, and fail to notice me laughing at them.  It's absolutely priceless.

I spent about an hour and a half today holding up a black sheet of Styrofoam with a big hole cut out of the center while four women separately looked through the hole and started screaming "Norah."  Yeah.  That was an interesting part of my day.  We're shooting a dream sequence where some women look down a well and see . . . actually, I don't really know.  I just know that the director repeatedly told each woman that they were to "keen.  Call up the soul of your dead companion!  Feel the anguish with which you cry for her!"  He says while they scream into a hole cut out of Styrofoam.  Something about the whole thing was sort of comic, but at the same time kind of harrowing for me having these women screaming in my ear for an hour.

So I know Simon has the link to my blog, but I don't think he really follows it.  Thus I don't feel weird talking about how great it's been working so much with him.  As if it weren't enough that he's just so much fun to work with - we're always laughing, albeit sometimes at the absolutely idiotic mistakes I make - he's also really good at what he does.  Half the time I'm not even sure I know what he's talking about, but he's always really cool about showing me what he's doing and explaining how to go about it.  I owe him so much for asking me onto this project - I hope my presence does him half the kindness he did me.