Xixax Film Forum

Creative Corner => Filmmakers' Workshop => Topic started by: rustinglass on May 19, 2004, 11:05:43 AM

Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 19, 2004, 11:05:43 AM
OK. now I want to get into film school this year. For that, I need to do a thematic dossier on a given subject.

subjects:
1) coffee/the café (We use the same word in portuguese, so I guess it could go either way).
2) the piercing.
3) Trust/confidence.

I have to choose one and:

- Make an investigation, and collect information that could be usefulin the writing of a screenplay. 7 pages.

- write a small story, thought for cinema related to the chosen subject. fiction or documentary.5 pages .

- visual treatment. at least 10 photographs related to the subject.

I just got this information a few hours ago, I didn't even choose a subject yet. I have a less than a month to do it (due on june 15), during precisely the most demanding weeks in the school year. I have never done anything like this. I don't ask much, I just though that the wisdom of xixax would give me some helpful pointers. Thanks in advance.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Ghostboy on May 19, 2004, 01:15:38 PM
I'd jump at the piercing topic (I take it that means body piercing). I'm very fascinated by piercings, and someday hope to make a film that DOESN'T cut away right before the needle pierces someone's tongue/ear/nipple (see: every mainstream movie with a piercing scene). Three cheers for the Bjork video to Pagan Poetry for showing the whole process.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 19, 2004, 02:18:44 PM
I thought about that too. I'm thinking up a story about an infection due to the piercing...
as for films with a piercing scene.. I know Girl with a pearl earring. Can you tell me some more?
Thanks already.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Ghostboy on May 19, 2004, 03:29:55 PM
Thirteen had a pretty good tongue piercing scene -- they almost showed it all the way.

Rock Star, with Mark Whalberg, had a nipple piercing scene.

The NIN video to Closer (at least I think that's the right one), in its uncensored format, displayed a woman's vaginal piercing. Which is something else I want to do in a movie -- show the process of a labia piercing, in close up. That'll get a good reaction from the audience.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: mogwai on May 19, 2004, 03:38:16 PM
Quote from: GhostboyThe NIN video to Closer (at least I think that's the right one), in its uncensored format, displayed a woman's vaginal piercing.
sorry, i couldn't resist. that's sounds "nice" although in another NIN video a guy is pierced in the most unlikeable way in the "happiness in slavery" video. let's leave it like that. move on. sorry rust.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Ghostboy on May 19, 2004, 04:08:05 PM
Oh yeah, that's the one with Bob Flannagan. When I first saw it, I thought it was all special makeup effects -- no such luck! There's a documentary about him called Sick, which I haven't seen but have heard is good.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: mogwai on May 19, 2004, 04:39:25 PM
Quote from: GhostboyOh yeah, that's the one with Bob Flannagan. When I first saw it, I thought it was all special makeup effects -- no such luck!
here's the video (scroll down a little) (http://www.nin.com/visuals/index.html)
Quote from: GhostboyThere's a documentary about him called Sick, which I haven't seen but have heard is good.
read ebert's review, beware of spoilers (http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1997/12/120501.html)
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 22, 2004, 07:18:39 AM
An idea for the story:
- A crazy disturbed girl goes and pierces her right eyeball.
Do you think it's a good idea for a shortcut?
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: kotte on May 22, 2004, 08:43:42 AM
Why not about the piercing of a soul??  :?
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 22, 2004, 08:45:37 AM
difficult to photograph.
edit: not that a pierced eyebal is any easier, but still...
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Ghostboy on May 22, 2004, 10:13:46 AM
Just so you know, they actually do have eyeball jewelry now. It's not a normal piercing, per se, but it is a surgical steel cutout (usually a heart or some shape like that) implanted in the top layer of the eye.

As for making a short about piercing an eyeball with a needle...I'd be careful when you're doing something so extreme. Make sure you have a reason behind it (and if your reason is is simply that you want to shock people, so be it).
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: kotte on May 22, 2004, 10:35:30 AM
Eyeball jewelry. How weird does that sound??

Making something purely for shock is very boring and very easy. It's the easiest and laziest trick in filmmaking. Everyone can do it. With something attached to it, may it be an emotion or a specific reason, it's fine and can be effective.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 22, 2004, 10:41:32 AM
if she is already blind in that eye..........? :roll:
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: kotte on May 22, 2004, 10:44:25 AM
It's fine but you need more. Who is she? Reason for doing it? What's the story (more than the actual piercing)?
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 22, 2004, 02:27:36 PM
first I'd like to thank you three for your attention.

Off the top of my head:
She is a law student from a middle-high class family. She's a rape victim. She got histerical blindness in her right eye because that's the eye that she caught a glampse of the rapist with. The guy doesn't go to jail because:" the defendent claims that she caught a a mere sight of my client with her right eye, yet the eyedoctor says she is blind.......blahblahblah" (I know, it's like Dancer in the Dark the other way around). So her life turns to shit and one day she decides to go and pierce that cursed eyeball and no, she does not get her eyesight back at the last second, she never gets it back......
anyway that's her background. I know it's shitty and clichéd but I have three weeks to improve on it.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Ghostboy on May 22, 2004, 02:39:20 PM
My suggestion for that: lose the rape. Or if you maintain that plot device, keep it so subdued in the storyline that you really have to be paying attention to pick up on it.

My reason is that, unless you're going to go for some wildly melodramatic piece (Von Trier with the subtlety of Baz Luhrman), you run the risk of becoming very maudlin, contrived, etc., especially when you cram all that courtroom stuff about the rapist getting off, all into a seven page short.

I'd try to internalize the story as much as possible. One route, which has been done before but could still work, is to show her taking the piercing thing to extremes; show her having other piercings, and lots of 'em.

I don't know --that's just my initial gut reaction. I'd say write whatever you want, and then post it here. Three weeks is long enough time to put together a really tight short.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 22, 2004, 03:19:24 PM
Yeah! That's it! lots of piercings. It could be a progressive self-destructing sacramental thing that culminates in the eyeball (that could be the title "eyeball", it even sounds good in portuguese)! I could interview and phtograph my local piercing artist (a very good one), make him my secondary character, and make the girl out of her past (you're right, loose the rape and trial scenes and tell her story in analepse) and out of input that hopefully this guy will give about these type-characters. I'll take some pictures of the piercing parlor for reference.

Awesome, man, thanks! I'm now beginning to believe.

edit: the film could end with a convict staring at the camera- not blinking- and we hear the girl off screen. " Mr convict,pleasure to meet you, the state appointed me as your defence attourney,now, you are accused of shoplifting and........blahblah"
what do ya think?
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 29, 2004, 10:17:06 AM
so this is what the thing looks like:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmembers.netmadeira.com%2Fgnfreitas%2Feye.JPG&hash=40b5c7dcd9a367c0d69541a0962c993fc338f1e2)

The more I look at this picture the more I am convinced that actual piercing isn't possible... I mean, isn't it a bitch when you get a hair in your eye and can't get it out? imagine having a piece of metal in it!

Still I'll show this picture to an oftamologist and if he mutters the words "piercing is theoritically possible", I'm going with this one because I can't get any other ideas. Believe me I've tried all week.
16 days to deadline.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on May 29, 2004, 10:28:30 AM
FUCK!!!!

By the way, this is for that Lisbon film school right? When I thought of applying to that, I had some interesting topics, but I didn't go ahead with my faculty aplication. I just want to warn you that there's this other film school in Faculdade da Beira Inteior and you should apply for it as well, just in case. It's a new school and I heard it's great.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 29, 2004, 10:42:15 AM
Thanks for the tip. The thing is that that I already have a flat I can stay in in Lisbon and I want to move to Lisbon. If I can't get in I'll become a computer electrotecnic engineer or sum shit (acho que consigo entrar no técnico).

Now what do you think about the idea? I mean besides "FUCK!!!!!!"
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: mogwai on May 29, 2004, 10:52:10 AM
Quote from: rustinglass(acho que consigo entrar no técnico).
be a electronic engineer and get a fine job. then you can write scripts and have a steady job.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on May 29, 2004, 12:07:37 PM
Quote from: rustinglassThanks for the tip. The thing is that that I already have a flat I can stay in in Lisbon and I want to move to Lisbon. If I can't get in I'll become a computer electrotecnic engineer or sum shit (acho que consigo entrar no técnico).

Now what do you think about the idea? I mean besides "FUCK!!!!!!"

I also ave a flat there, but it seems that this year is too late for me to apply to that school (I'm going to a fine one so no problem). I think the idea might work, but I'm with Ghostboy here and I'd try to internalize it as much as you could. Piercing can be great as a metaphor. However, I myself would choose the "coffee" theme 'cause I'm working on this short right now which coincidently has a lot to do with "coffee and what happens around it"  8)

But I think you can come up with something interesting. Just write a lot and explore every ideia you come up with and you'll nail it. Portuguese cinema needs new blood urgently
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 29, 2004, 12:34:33 PM
I also thought of a story about a coffeeshop and people that work in it and people that have breakfast there and accidents death life and whathavu's and coffee as being an omnipresent character that sees all and does all, brings people together...like god. But to make that work, I need a lot of characters and relations between them and that's just too much for a five page text.

Quote from: PandaPortuguese cinema needs new blood urgently
When my friends tell me that I'm crazy and that "Manuel de Oliveira and Fernando Lopes etc. are the ones who get all the cash..." I say "c'mon! they will die soon enough and someone's got to be there to replace them!"
Doesn't it make you sick that Portugal has hired directors from brazil and spain to make some -not all- of the Euro2004 comercials...ITS STUPID AND IT SHOUDN'T FUCKING HAPPEN!!!! We have so many young talented directors and they call these bigshots from other countries.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on May 29, 2004, 01:18:41 PM
Quote from: rustinglass
Quote from: PandaPortuguese cinema needs new blood urgently
When my friends tell me that I'm crazy and that "Manuel de Oliveira and Fernando Lopes etc. are the ones who get all the cash..." I say "c'mon! they will die soon enough and someone's got to be there to replace them!"
Doesn't it make you sick that Portugal has hired directors from brazil and spain to make some -not all- of the Euro2004 comercials...ITS STUPID AND IT SHOUDN'T FUCKING HAPPEN!!!! We have so many young talented directors and they call these bigshots from other countries.

Completely agree. I hate it when they get foreign directors to do what could easily be done by portuguese ones. We just don't seem to trust our talents when it comes to the artistic areas. As for the old-school ones, I think we need more financing the movies. We kind of need an independent cinema "industry" or else no one will get their films done. Since this is your topic, i'll leave you with a site from a production company that can be an important one for our future cinema: www.filmesdamente.com (others can check it out as well, of course, but it's all in portuguese)
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 30, 2004, 08:43:56 AM
Well what do you know.... I guess people can learn to live with a foreign object in their eye. Take a look a this fucker: eyelid piercing


(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bmezine.com%2Fnews%2Fpubring%2F20040519-kev-8.jpg&hash=fdfc4330d57e74f51c4e124eb8071a639437ffbb)
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Pubrick on May 30, 2004, 10:20:25 AM
how rebellious.. in a conformist sort of way.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: mogwai on May 30, 2004, 03:23:02 PM
Quote from: Pubrickhow rebellious.. in a conformist sort of way.
JHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!! AW MAN.... you're sof ucking funny. pubrick, you da meaan man... i love you, bro. brotha. brother. brothel......  aw shoit. i'm. otuta her.e
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on May 30, 2004, 03:25:47 PM
you're funner drunk
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on June 01, 2004, 12:08:44 PM
Shit, mogwai, why did you delete that hilarious post? is saying"long live FC Porto" such a burden for you?

Anyway, I started writing the story today. I think I'm dropping the whole rape idea because I know virtually noyhing about rape victims so who am I to say that they would engage in self mutilation? is fascination a good enough reason for this sucking in to the piercing culture?
Is it a good idea that she narrates the story? I think it would help the readers to understand this fascination. I could write it in first person. I'll use my own research as reference as the protagonist searches for a unique manner in which to ornament her eyeball.

Am I doing good? :yabbse-undecided:
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Ghostboy on June 01, 2004, 03:46:48 PM
Quote from: rustinglassis fascination a good enough reason for this sucking in to the piercing culture?

Yes.

Quote
Is it a good idea that she narrates the story? I think it would help the readers to understand this fascination. I could write it in first person. I'll use my own research as reference as the protagonist searches for a unique manner in which to ornament her eyeball.

It all sounds like a great approach. Looking forward to reading it, if you deem it post-able here.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on June 05, 2004, 09:23:56 AM
I have the whole strory done, but there are still some plot holes to patch up, but it's quite a task to translate it all so I'll write a brief sypnosis.

The girl is 21 years old. The film begins with her niece getting her baptism. She notices that the baby plus every girl or woman except for her have their ears pierced, so the next day she goes and does her ears. She feels good about it and it's all god for a while.
One night, she dreams that she's with a girl whose face is all pierced that she had seen on the bus, and that she pulls and sets her piercings as if you were displaying magnets on a refrigerator door. After the arragement, the other girl is so beautiful that she has turned into the most powerful human in the world. dream ends. Fascination begins (a purely aesthetical fascination).
She pierces all aroud the face, eyebrow, nostril, lip, puts two suface vertical bridges on her forehead and three rings on the wrist. All organically organized. She is satisfied for a while.
After they're all completly healed, she gets insecure, agressive, compulsive etc..... locks herself in the flat, in an attempt to study (exams are coming up, like mine) but with no luck. She starts going crazy. (the biggest plot holes are around here).

The end, because I'm such a big Lars von Trier fan, is meant to be particularly shocking:
She gets convinced that an eyeball piercind is the missing cornerstone of the aesthetically-organically harmonious state-of-body-and-mind that she's attempting to create. She can't convince the tattoo studo guy to do it, so she does it herself. This is the monster sequence. In her bathroom, with a surgical needle, plenty of ice and other such materials. after cries and screams, blood and whatnot, she succesfully manages to pierce a thin platinum ring around the white part of her left eye. She lookst at herself in the mirror and faints.

epilogue: ( I'm not sure if I'll include it)
Wakes in a hospital bed She survives and keeps her eyesight (The platonum ring has been removed of course), but  but she has a cronic condition that her eye tears constantely (like Samuel L. Jackson in that film that he gets shot in the face and survives, I forgot the name). She removes every piece of metal from her body, and procedes with her life. Becomes a lawyer.


Thats it.opinions please.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on June 05, 2004, 11:17:56 AM
Quote from: rustinglassThats it.opinions please.

No epilogue!
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on June 05, 2004, 11:34:05 AM
Yeah, I like it better without myself, that way it would end with a sacramental ceremony and mirror the baptism in the first scene.
but then I'll have to rewrite it in third person. It can't end: "I fainted." but that's not a problem.

but other than that? good?
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on June 06, 2004, 06:51:48 AM
Yeah, sounds interesting. I'd have to see the finished project, but there is potential on that idea, so I'd say "good work"  :)
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on June 13, 2004, 02:18:30 PM
Just finished. mailing it tomorrow. The hardest part was the photographing, everytime I asked a goth guy with cool piercings  to take a picture, they looked at me like I was a beggar and kindely declined, even after I said "please", and "will you help me get in to the university, man?!", they made me feel like a prick. So I ended up with a small collection of teenie girl's nose and navel piercings pictures. I barely made the minimum ten. good ones, that is. plus my brother's digital camera totally destroyed the illusion that these chicks had no facial nor body hair. :?

Now that i think about it, I probably did rip off ghostboy's short "looking for love" for my ending, except that my girl isn't looking for love, she's looking for something else. Hope you don't mind ghostboy, sorry, I swear it was unintencional, if it makes it any better: everyone I showed it to gasped and shaked, and told me it was very graphic and shit, even my sister liked it, and that's something. when I have time, I'll translate it for you.

what a load off. thanks for everything everybody!!
:-D  :-D  :-D
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Ghostboy on June 13, 2004, 04:32:15 PM
No problem at all -- it's only vaguely similar to mine, I'd say. I guess I forgot to post my own response to your final outline above, but I did read it and I liked it a lot, and am pleased to see that you're excising the epilogue. How did you end up ending it?
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on June 14, 2004, 07:37:55 AM
it ended it with her fainting, but I made it so that it works pretty good.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on June 18, 2004, 03:09:32 AM
OK, I finished translating it.  of course I want people to give my input on it, even that I already turned it in. here goes. Oh and disregard any grammatical mistakes... english is not my first language.


              I was twenty-one when I pierced my ears. I had gone to my niece's baptism the week before and noticed that the baby already had her ears pierced. All through the ceremony I stared at the ears of all the ladies and girls, but, to my amazement, I saw that I was the only woman without earrings. it wasn't the first time that I saw myself in that situation at a party, so I decided to pierce my ears soon.
   I went to a little studio, the "Tattoo Cathedral". The body artist, Virgílio, was a scary creature, he had a hole wider that a centimeter in his right ear and his body covered in tattos. We talked a bit about the procedure, then he took out a small plastic pistol and pieced my ears, it didn't hurt a thing. The next day, I bought seven pairs of earrings. I started using them every day, proudly. All my friends from college said that I had good taste and asked where I had bought them, what made me very satisfied.
   One day, on the bus, I sat next to a girl with many piercings ion her face, but without any sense of aesthetics, It was a horrid thing to look at!I wanted to talk to her, tell her that she should use her jewels to be more pretty, rather thanusing them as means rebelliosness, of intergration, or for passive agressiveness to her parents. I wanted to give her some suggestions butthe bus was so loud that the conversation would only be a bunch of unpleasant screams. That night, I dreamed that I had that gorç in front of me and I was pulling and putting her piercings as if I was arranging magnets on my refrigerator door. At the end of the reorganization, she was the most powerful person in the world. I woke up and got suddenly fascinated with the concept of piercing as a form of art. The fascination soon became a primal urge. I got in a wave os self-mutilation.
   I went to Virgílio's the next morning, and pierced my left eyebrow and booked sessions to pierce my left nostril and upper lip. I became a regular costumer. I had long conversations with him and , ocasionnaly, helped the happy teenagers who got in there: "Dont do that, pierce this instead!"; "but your nose is alredy so nice!"; "use this piercing, it prettier". And Virgílio always agreed on everything.
   I started doing surface piercings, I got a vertical bridge on the forehead and three rings on each wrist. It was all organically harmonious. All the metal, created an aura of well-being around me.
   Some time after that, when the wounds were practically healed, I woke up sweating in the middle of the night; I ran to the mirrorto see if I had pulled any piercing during my sleep, but that wasn't the problem: They were all into place, but I felt a void, a need. It was the first time in many days that I didn't smile at myself in the mirror, I seemed to have lost my pride. I went back to bed but couldn't sleep, I couldn't find the origin of that imbalance. I got up and started moving the furniture, but the neighbour from beneath came upstairs, knocked and yelled for me to stop. I went back to bed.
   The following days were very hard: I saw my reflection in the mirror and cried, I'd spend my time changing my piercings, added holes to my ears with a sewing needle, then regretted it and let them close. I had nothing else to pierce. What ever energy it was that made me happy in the begining, it was lost. I stopped going to calss, couldn't risk passing by Virgílio's studio; pulled the phone cord and turned the cellphone off in an attempt to study (the exams would come soon), but I couldn't. I shivered all over, turn on the TV, turn it off, open the fridge, nothing to eat, went back to the books, then came back to see if there was something in the fridge.
   One night, very late, I was staring unconsciently at the television, and the film Un Chien Andalou was on, and the momentthat the woman's eye is slit by the shaving razor, there was an electric discharge on my body and sparks flew out of all of my jewels. I ran to the mirror and, using my fingers, opened my lrft eye wide, I had an epiphany. How couldn't I see it before?! It's my favourite organ, the one that allows me to see the world, the only sense that I hadn't pierced yet, it even was the last touch on the dream girl! That was the cause of my urge, my left eye, virgin.
   Virgílio panicked when I told him about my revelationand promtly refused to do it. I was surprised with his reaction at the time and, in my state, yelled at him a bunch of insultsand his twon clients waiting left the studio. He calmly closed the door, turned the sign to "closed", headed slowly toward me, grabbed my arms and screamed: "You're bloody crazy, do you hear me?! I can't pierce your eyeball, it's impossible! Just look at you, go home and sleep, I'll pay for the taxi.". He let me go, grabbed the phone and started dialling a number, I pulled off his hands and and smashed it into a glass piercing displaying case, that shattered. In the confusion, I managed to take a tinyplatinum ring without him seeing and ran out of there. He didn't follow.
   When I got home, I went to the bathroom, filled the sink with ice, desinfected a needle (the same one I usewd to further pierce my ears) and the piercing, prepared gaze and physiological serum, took my glasses out and clamped my hair way back.
   Looking at the mirror, I turned my head slightly to the left to expose the white bit of my left eye and approached the needle. Stuck the needle. The pain came instantly, poured blood tear and god knows what other fluids, I started crying but had to keep my hand firmly; I couldn't pull the needle out becaue my eyelid insisted on closing. I tried to hold it with my right hand, but it would always slip; I scratched in with my nails and it started bleeding too, but to the eye itself, I did my best to minimize harm. I proceded with the perfuration, the tip of the needle advanec through the fibres of tissue untill I felt it exiting the eye again, four milimeters ahead, a little white-ish fluied splattered ou. The pain got worse, I screamed again and fell on my knees, laid my face on the sink. I left the needle for a few seconds and poured some of the serum to wash the blood off, carefully widened the wound  trying not to make the tissue collapse and pull the needle transversally. Picked the ring up, and started to drive one of the ends through the hole with shaky hands. When the end came out in the other side, I took out the needle and rested a bit, then continued to drive the ring round, and gently screwed in the tiny sphere.The pain was unbearable, the tiny ring felt like it weighed two kilos. I washed the eyeball again with physiological serum, got up, screaming my heart out, and made the biggest effort ever to open my eyes. I saw the bus girl in the mirror. Lost my senses and fell.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Ghostboy on June 18, 2004, 03:17:56 AM
I loved it! The psychological aspects of it are simple -- rather than overly complex, like your original rape scenario --  but you got just deep enough into it that it all makes sense (turning it into a script that's as introspective will be the next challenge). That last paragraph is pretty intense -- that's gonna make some people cringe.

You've got the English down quite well -- there are a few points where the writing seemed awkward, but I imagine that's a result of the translation, not the writing.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on June 18, 2004, 04:42:10 AM
Quote from: GhostboyI imagine that's a result of the translation, not the writing.

It is. He showed me the portuguese draft and the writing was perfect. As I told him, and I repeat, there is some great material here to make a short film that's worth it. I hope you get into that film school and make it as rough and as tough as you can because, as someone said...

Quote from: GhostboyThat last paragraph is pretty intense -- that's gonna make some people cringe.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on June 18, 2004, 06:53:42 AM
thanks again, guys.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on June 21, 2004, 01:55:11 PM
Now I'll go to the school on thursday to make another element of the pre-selection phase. a specific test.

from the access contest editorial.
Quotethe specific test, to be made in the school, is a written test, and means to evaluate the candidate's capacities to understand a narrative test in terms of space and time, in view of a visual transposition of the same.

Can someone tell me how I can prepare myself for this? I don't understand the "visual transposition" if it's a written test.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on June 21, 2004, 04:43:38 PM
Do not prepare for this kind of stuff at all. You get there, read the questions, answer and remember:

a) stay calm, it's not the end of the world;

b) you're there to learn about movies. All you should know when you take the test is that you're there because you love movies and that's what you want to do. If you're relaxed, you'll know how to answer those questions, because those will be about stuff that you love. (I know this, because a couple of months I took a test for audiovisual technology and even there it was all about writing what you know...)

You'll be fine. Don't over-study or get overly nervous. That only hurts, it never helps  :wink:
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on June 22, 2004, 02:35:14 AM
cool 8)
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on July 26, 2004, 06:36:16 AM
I thought I'd let you all know that I have passed the pre-selection fase, so I'm one step closer to being accepted.
The interview was what saved me, because I didn't do too good on some of the other elements. Anyway, I was the 28th in 42 people that passed in 100 or so aplicants, so not bad :) .


The selection fase is in september, it consists of a two-week seminar on different aspects of filmmaking: image, sound, editing and production; followed by four tests, one of each.

So, Ghostboy and Panda: your help was crucial getting me this far, thanks again.

If you think there is some helpful website that I should look intowhile preparing for the next fase, please tell me.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on July 26, 2004, 07:37:14 AM
Well, thanks for the compliment, but it was you who passed and so the merit is yours. Now, just keep on doing like you've been doing so far. You'll make it.

As for any websites, I think Ghostboy has some interesting information about filmmaking on his site.

EDIT: Damn, it was on this page http://www.road-dog-productions.com/filmmaking.html but it under construction.  :?
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Recce on July 27, 2004, 11:40:56 AM
Quotebut she has a cronic condition that her eye tears constantely (like Samuel L. Jackson in that film that he gets shot in the face and survives, I forgot the name).

Kiss of Death with David Carusso.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113552/

Sorry, I know its late, but it was bugging me.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on October 08, 2004, 02:26:16 PM
Dear xixaxian friends, it was very hard and competitive, and I was admitted to the film school.
I am under a lot of pressure, because I also got admitted to the best and most prestigious technic school of the country, and I'm taking an engineering degree, so I have to choose. And it's the most difficult choice I've ever done. I've worked very hard to get into each school, and it's sad to abandon one of them, whatever that may be.

I must research possibilities to secure my position in one of them while I attend the other....

the deadline is wednesday.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Stefen on October 08, 2004, 03:01:52 PM
Go to the engineering school. You don't need school to be a filmmaker, you need school to be an engineer, ya know?
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: kotte on October 08, 2004, 03:07:10 PM
Do what feels right...but as said, you don't need filmschool.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: ono on October 08, 2004, 04:02:19 PM
Do you want to be an engineer or do you want to be a filmmaker?  Either way, what Stefen says makes most sense.  You can pick up most of the technical stuff from experience, books, and making films.  Not so much with engineering where I'd think it'd behoove you to get some proper instruction.  It all depends on what you think you need more formal training for.  You can always make films while studying to be an engineer, but you will miss out on opportunities in the field because you weren't submersed in it.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Slick Shoes on October 08, 2004, 06:57:36 PM
If you want to be a filmmaker, it is always valuable to study other things besides filmmaking.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on October 11, 2004, 01:12:53 PM
I decided to take engeneering. My government feels that it is unfair that I can maintain my place in two universities, no matter how hard I worked to get it. I'm very sad to give up filmschool but I figured that it's more likely for me to take up film studies after I become an engineer than the other way around. Also, if I graduate from this university, my future is set and I'm free to do whatever I want, if I was to go to the filmschool now and didn't like it, I would be fucked.

It was a hard decision to make and I'm very very sad today, but I felt that this was the right thing to do.

But thanks again for all your help.

I'm very proud of my eyeball piercing story. I love to see people's faces cringe when I tell them about it.
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on October 12, 2004, 05:52:09 AM
Quote from: rustinglassI decided to take engeneering.

I got kinda shocked when I read this. But ok, I have to admit, you're taking the safer route. And, well, I still may call you to work on some of my films, though  :wink:

By the way, I'm really enjoying my beginning in my new school. I'm actually quite orgasmic about it. However, I have this class called Dramatic Expression and that kind of scares me. It's like an acting class and I know I wasn't born to be an actor at all (tough I have to admit I kind of liked my first day in that class) :?
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: rustinglass on October 12, 2004, 01:22:38 PM
Quote from: ElPandaRoyalI still may call you to work on some of my films, though  :wink:


Yeah, now i'm counting on that, especially if there's any chance of me scoring with hot actresses :-D , you now what they say about my university: " 90% are guys, 95% shave their moustasche ", not quite true, but there are days that it feels true :(  :( .
Title: a thematic dossier
Post by: Sleepless on October 12, 2004, 02:30:32 PM
Quote from: GhostboyOne route, which has been done before but could still work, is to show her taking the piercing thing to extremes; show her having other piercings, and lots of 'em.

Scored to Judy Is A Punk!