"Wind reel and print"

Well, it has come to that time of the semester here at Ithaca College when things start to get a little hectic with finals, finding a ride home, re-shoots, laundry, Kendall day, figuring out textbook rental return dates etc. Living in the college world, these stressors are supposed to be taking over my life, However, while working on my Fiction Field Production class short movie assignment, I quickly found out that "Manage Your Time 101" should be offered and be a requirement for all Parkies, if not every student in college.My experience working with my crew was one I will never forget. It was my first time writing for this type of assignment, and also taking on the job of Script Supervisor, never did I ever think that I would be in the local supermarket passed midnight on a school night. I wasn't expecting the amount of time I was about to spend with my classmates outside of out normal classroom setting. I wasn't sure how well we would all get along, if our ideas would even work well together, or if I even felt comfortable sharing my ideas aloud.

 I quickly had a reality check at our first shoot when it was 2:30am on a Monday night, cigarette smoke clouded the living room from our countless takes of cigarette puffs, and I realized that at that moment, this was what I came to college for. This is what I am meant to be doing. I then didn't even want to imagine where else I would be if i weren't in that clogged up smoky living room.

It always amazes me when its the end of the semester and in some of my classes, I maybe know the persons name who is is sitting next to me, the professors name, and thats about it. In others, I know everyone, everyone knows me, I am invested, and overall enjoy my time spent in the classroom. In this class, on the first day I knew about half of everyones names solely from being in classes with them in a previous semester. Once our "teams" were made for our movies, I had two ways of approaching the situation. One, I let my position be assigned to me, don't put too much opinion, and just flow. Or two, speak my mind, let my personality make its way out, and genuinely enjoy my time working with these 7 other people until the semesters over. Im happy that I chose the second route, because what came out of working with those 7 other people, was so freaking cool. I had no idea the amount of talent I was surrounded by, and if I was just open to it, I could learn a lot from these kids. Not only were we able to work together, share our ideas, and produce an amazing short film. We were able to have fun, and work as friends We created awesome memories together, and some pretty amazing friendships that I will forever be grateful for.

Summer Movies

Summer, a time for swimming, frolicking in the sun, and escaping the heat is a nice cool movie theater. Which I plan to do at least two times this year, by seeing "Now You See Me"(directed by Louis Leterrier) and "Star Trek: Into Darkness"(directed by J.J. Abrams).

"Now You See Me" which comes out May 31st, seems to be a sort of magician mixed with Robin Hood thriller. I love most thrillers, and who doesn't love Robin Hood? So I look forward to this one and hope the director isn't fond of shaky cam (which I hate).

"Star Trek: Into Darkness" (which comes out May 15th) is a must see for all Star Trek fans, therefor I will go see it ASAP.

Revenge Hasn't Ever Looked So Good

I don't really know why I'm so into ABC dramas this year, but Sunday nights are turning out to be a pretty big deal for ABC. With Once Upon A Time scoring the network a highest rated drama, I think it's safe to say some network dramas are worth watching. But Once isn't the only ABC drama to be doing well. Airing Sunday nights after Once, Revenge is proving itself to be a drama of its own.

Revenge is kind of like Prison Break meets Gossip Girl. Sort of. Set in the Hamptons during the summer, it centers on a fantastically wealthy family who covered up a crime that left the main character, Emily Thorne, without her father. After blaming a terrorist attack on Emily's father when she was a child, Emily was forced to grow up in foster care, as well as a juvenile corrections facility. It is only when she reaches adulthood that she finds out the truth: her father was innocent.

After years of planning, Emily returns to the Hamptons (her real name was Amanda Clarke, she changed it to Emily Thorne to hide her true identity from her fathers employers) and sets out to get her revenge. 

The whole story is amazingly put together. It is somewhat reminiscent of Lost, however not nearly as complex, and the story is mostly told from the perspective of the main character. In flashbacks more and more of Emily's life is revealed and slowly the puzzle of vengeance is put together. 

It's an incredibly addicting show. I've almost finished the first season and its only been a week. I highly recommend it!

Working Summer

I spent the majority of my summer at work. While most of my friends got to spend time at the beach or on vacation, I sat in a studio for six hours a day. Since my senior year in high school I've worked at the local cable access channel in my hometown. And while I love my job, being from a small Massachusetts town (of about 12,000 people) in the suburbs right outside Boston, there isn't a whole lot going on.  That's not to say I had a bad summer. I got to do some of the things I love- filming, editing, and producing shows for the station.
My favorite show I made was for a local non-profit organization called Lovelane Special Needs  Horseback Riding. It is an organization dedicated to helping kids with disabilities through horseback riding. As a kid I was an avid equestrian- I rode for over ten years and competed in horse shows, so this was something that I found really interesting. This program hosts a charity event in my hometown every summer called the "Run for Lovelane" and this year it is dedicated in honor of a girl named Susan McDaniel. Susan was a rider at Lovelane, and a resident of my town. Unfortunately, Susan died a few years ago, and since she would have graduated with the class of 2012 this past Spring, the Run was dedicated in her honor.
I spent an entire day filming the event, getting interviews, BRoll, and more. By the end of the day I had over three hours of footage total. It was a lot to sort through, but I really enjoyed all of it, especially since it was for such a good cause. I really wanted to do something good for this family, and the organization, and I have plans to film more for them in the future.
Doing something important for something that mattered to me was, in my opinion, the best part of my summer, and I wouldn't have traded it for any vacation.

Run for Lovelane 2012- Video

A Screenshot of the Weston Media Center Posterous Website

Summer Internship

After completing my freshman year at college, I was able to find myself an internship for the summer.  I worked for a company called Pro Dynamix.  This company was an athlete marketing company based out of West Jersey.  They marketed athletes ranging from the high school to the pros.  Most of there work involved making highlight videos, but they also helped high school students with college recruiting.

My first assignment I did for them was a highlight video for a football player named Mike Daniels.  Mike Daniels had been a client for the company since high school, and was recently drafted by the Green Bay Packers.  The high light was requested by a Green Bay Packers fan page/blog.  They wanted a highlight video of his college and high school play that they could put on their site so that the Green Bay fans could see who Mike Daniels was.  After that I spent most of my time doing smaller projects for high school and a couple college athletes.

Overall it was a very good learning experience for me.  Not only did I feel I became more capable as an  editor, I felt I learned a lot about working in a professional setting.  Having to continually produce content that is top quality and better was very stressful but it helped me grow and develop my skills.  I also learned how to pitch ideas and sell people my ideas.  Was very happy with the experience and am looking forward to more internships in the future.

And We're Back

I love Ithaca.

This summer I decided to stay in Ithaca. My summer days were filled with giving tours to prospective families and my nights were filled with friends, some old (but how old can they really be?) and some new. Probably the most important thing I did this summer was explore. I went into town, I met people that live here, I went on hikes and runs, but more importantly I broke out of the South Hill Bubble in which we live. I now see this town not just as a college town, but as one of the most beautiful places I've been. Ithaca really is different without students. I'm not saying one is better than the other because both are amazing- but they're just different.

Everyone is back in Ithaca and excited for the semester to start. As excited as I am, a part of me is going to miss this summer, not just because its the summer and the weathers warm, but because of everything I learned here while not being in class.

These first few days of classes have helped me snap back into "school mode." I thought it was going to be a rough transition but it's going pretty smooth so far. I'm more excited than ever to dive into all of the projects that I'll have but I'm going to miss some of the free time this summer gave me. This semester I'm really going to focus on putting my all into everything and producing a quality product. I'll be putting my best foot forward whether it be in Fiction Field or Intro to Business.

I know this doesn't have a tremendous amount related to our class in it, but I'll get there eventually.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

And so we end up back on campus for another year at Ithaca. I must say, I am very excited for this class. Even the six word exercise got me excited because it was something I never would have thought to try and do in order to accomplish the task of telling a story. I was very interested in this because it was so out of the box. So yes, I am very excited for this class.

Anyway, the title of this blog post is in reference to internships. There are good ones, bad ones, and then just the plain ugly ones. I'm sure you can figure out which ones are good and the others, well, not so much. But I'm going to tell you anyway how my summer went:

I start my summer really excited because I got an internship at the Jeremy Kyle Show in Manhattan. I had to say, I was the most excited I could be because it was my first internship in college as a production intern. I got there super early because I was so excited because I knew that I would be able to take something away from it and have a great experience. Well, let me tell you: I got an experience alright, but not exactly the one you are thinking of. I ended up pretty much becoming a slave. I had to build cabinets, chairs, paint rooms that were rarely used, go on runs, go on extra runs to get a receipt, etc. The list goes on but I'm not going to get too into detail. So like I said before, I ended up a slave. I got nothing out of this internship that I was able to use in the future, except for the fact that I had to make approximately 1000 phone calls over the course of 2 months. So I guess that may have helped with the being on the phone fear that I never had.

It was possibly one of the worst experiences I have ever had. The part that made me the most angry was that I saw posts on Facebook about all of my friends interning elsewhere talking about how great their internships were and how they got to work in the control room and how they got to work on the set and work with someone that actually worked there. Yeah, not me; I had to build cabinets and go all the way to the other side of Manhattan to go buy a lamp.

So I would think that it is obvious that all of my friends got "The Good" internships and I got "The Bad" AND "The Ugly."

Hopefully, if I'm lucky that is, I will be able to intern at a place that will actually let me experience something worth while and help me in the future.