How to Spot a Film Nerd - Tip #2

We wear t-shirts that say things like, "The first rule about film club is you do not talk about film club."

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"When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will
command the attention of the world."

- George Washington Carver

Isabella and Her Grandpa

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"Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends--hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism--these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths."

-- President Barack Obama (Inaugural Address)

Jurassic Park Nightmares

Bahaha! This reminds me of exactly how I felt the first time I saw Jurassic Park. I couldn't stop looking around the room, thinking that under my bed wouldn't be a very effective place to hide from a velociraptor (he could smell me too easily) but my closet might work.

In fact, Jurassic Park is the only movie that has ever given me nightmares. Ever.

And its always the same dream. We are still living in our little white house on Poly Drive, where my brother Stan and I share a bedroom. My bed is closest to the window (which opens to the sidewalk that leads to our backdoor). There is also, oddly enough, a small window from our room that looks into the laundry room/coat room/ back door area.

In my dream, three velociraptors force their way into the laundry room. It's night and the whole house is asleep. I'm the only one awake, still reading some book that I can't put down. I hear the disturbance and look into the next room, only to see the terrifying dinosaurs smelling our laundry piles and making their way toward the kitchen. I rouse Stan awake. Somehow I already know the rest of my family isn't in the house (I like how in dreams, we just know these sorts of things), so they're safe. I open the window and Stan crawls through. He's safe.

Then for some reason, I can never get out the window. The window is suddenly too small. Or too high up. Or has slammed shut on me. In all the times I've had this dream, I've never gotten out the window. Instead, I search frantically for a place to hide as I hear the raptors in the hall. Usually I dive under the bed. Sometimes I pull the dresser out from the wall and crawl behind it. It's difficult finding good hiding spots in my little bedroom.

The raptors crash through the door. They're huge. In fact, I think they usually transform from velociraptors to T-Rex-es by the time they get to my room. I crouch and hold my breath as they thud into the room, sniffing and snorting.

Let me tell you, its the most terrifying dream I've ever had. Nothing else compares. I'm trapped and I can't run. When I do occasionally try to run past them to the open door, its feels like I am running waist deep through molasses. I wonder how a psychologist would analyze this one.

Of course, the dinosaurs stay in my room for an eternity. My subconscious likes to torture me, I think, because this part lasts the longest, and it never really ends. I just wake up. There's no closure. The dinosaurs don't leave, they don't die, and they don't miraculously become friendly or turn into lovable puppies.

I've stopped watching scary movies. I really don't like them in general, but part of me avoids them because I don't want to keep reliving The Ring or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in my dreams all the time. Giant dinosaurs in tiny spaces is enough for me.

Open Letter to My Parents

Dear Parents,

I am excessively grateful for everything you taught me when I was a little girl. I want you to know how much I appreciate the solid education I was given at home.

However, there is one small issue that I'd like to bring to your attention. As many books as we had lying around the house, you never saw fit to introduce me to Calvin and Hobbes. For this, I hold a tiny grudge.

Calvin and Hobbes currently completes my life.

I just wish I'd found this endless source of joy at an earlier (and perhaps more appropriate) age.

Love,

Your Daughter

L.A. in Five Days

In five days, I will be on a plane to Las Angeles. It'll be my first time there, and I am excited to see what it is like.

Up until now, it has been hard to fathom planning my life around living in a city I've never seen (and have only heard negative things about). But if I am serious about producing films, then I need to look seriously at living in L.A.

This trip will give me that opportunity to "meet" the town. We'll be getting tours of a number of the major studios, as well as meeting lots of OU Film and Video Studies alum who work in the industry. I hope it'll be enough to help me decide (in either direction).

On a side note: An OU FVS alum won an Oscar for Best Documentary, and I can't believe I didn't know about it before! Our department needs to do a much better job keeping in touch with our alumni. Or at least they need to do a much better job communicating the success of FVS alumni to current students.

Knowing that people from here have gone on to be successful in Hollywood is both a huge boost to our department's reputation and a huge boost in my personal confidence that I too can do it. It helps to know that people from OU have made it in the film industry.

But our department doesn't toot its horn nearly enough about these success stories. That's ridiculous. We need an FVS alum Hall of Fame in our hallway or something. We students need to know these things!

. . .

"Life's like a movie. Write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending, we've done just what we set out to do." -Kermit the Frog

Last Day of Elections

Today was the last day of elections. The last day for the student body to vote. I wore my Ally & Zac tshirt and my Ally & Zac flare for the n-th day in a row and asked every single person I saw (that I knew even remotely) if they'd voted yet. And if they hadn't yet, I inserted a little recommendation for who I thought was a good choice, just in case they couldn't read it on my shirt.

In my FVS Film Editing class, I brought my laptop and had all the students there vote. Again, I didn't tell them who to vote for... just highly recommended my favorite candidates. When I went up in front of them to ask for their help, I asked all twenty of them, "How many of you are planning to vote in the UOSA elections today?" Not a single hand went up (no nodding heads either).

"Well, if you aren't planning to vote and it means nothing to you, then I'd really appreciate your vote, as it really means something to me," I told them all. I got over ten votes from that class. Score!

After class, I was pretty sure I was coming down with something (symptoms: exhaustion, swollen lymph nodes, pressure at the base of my skull, nausea), so I went home and took a deliciously long two-hour nap.

Then it was Watch Party time. The polls closed at 9pm, and everyone was meeting at O'Connells (a local bar on Campus Corner) to await the news. We (myself, the head campaign coordinator, and a fellow volunteer) were a little late getting there, and there was already a large crowd assembled upon our arrival. We were so late, in fact, that I was a little worried we'd already missed the announcement.

Nope. Not at all. We got there at 9:20pm and had to wait all the way until 10:00pm to find out the winner. That was waaaaaaaaaay too long for my poor nerves. During those tense moments, as we all stood around trying to make small talk while not being able to concentrate on either our comments or the other's responses, I swore I'd never do this again.

This is why I hate politics, I thought. It's like when you are way too emotionally invested in a basketball game that your younger brother is playing in (state championship game comes to mind). You have absolutely ZERO control over the outcome of the event, and yet you know that if your side doesn't win, you'll probably be so disappointed that you'll cry. The pain of losing wont be felt for yourself, but for your dear friend or brother who put so much into the game or election. Its so so hard.

And I'd forgotten what that feeling was like until today. I'd also forgotten how much I utterly despise that feeling. That sinking, wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach can be largely blamed for why I steered away from politics once in college.

But there I was, completely invested in the outcome of this election. I'd spent over fifty hours on their campaign videos, planning, filming, and editing them all. I'd cried over them (damn technical issues) and panicked over them and skipped too many classes for them.

And beyond that, beyond myself, I really cared about these two candidates. I really felt that Ally and Zac were the best two people for the job. They were the most passionate and the most sincere.

All this was swirling around in my head as the time ticked by. Stressful long minutes passed. There was a reporter from the OU Daily, our student newspaper, there and he had Ally and Zac stand in a particular place in the bar so that he could get a good picture of them when the news broke. To me, that was a little suspect. He claimed he knew the outcome of the elections already. And when a reporter for the Daily arrived, a little bell chimed in my head. But I refused to get my hopes too high. You never know with these things.

By the time 10:00pm rolled around (30 minutes after we were supposed to be notified), we were all on edge. There were over forty of us there, stressed and excited. Then, in through the doors of the bar walked the UOSA Election Board. Suffocating silence, followed by Ally's, "Oh my god."

We waited, and then, with a grin, once of the board members raised his arms to the pair and said those wonderful words... "Congratulations."

The room erupted.

Bear hugs. Grins. Cheers! WOOOOOOOOP!

It was so exciting. We were beyond ecstatic. All that hard work, that time and energy we all spent to get these two elected had paid off. The long nights Ally and Zac spent planning the campaign... it was all worth it.

Hooray for Ally and Zac!

Life Update

Yeesh. I've been so busy I forgot to blog yesterday and almost forgot to blog today. Sorry about that.

March and April are crazy application deadline months. Every scholarship under the sun has their applications due in the next couple weeks, and I apparently feel obligated to apply for every single one of them. Maybe I've gotten on such a winning streak that the success is getting to my head, because I've never applied to this many before. There are at least two or three a week due. My poor film teacher. I should have warned her that writing a gazillion rec letters came with my friendship.

On other notes, my dear friend Shiloh Hubbard (married a super swell guy a year or so ago, who then carted her off to Maryland - less than swell) just welcomed her first child to the world. Lydia was born today, and judging from the tiny picture text I got, she's a precious little tyke. I hope I get to meet her soon!

Elections for UOSA (Student Body) President and Vice-President are today and tomorrow. I have been wearing my Ally & Zac periwinkle blue shirt every day for the last four days, in an attempt to be a walking advertisement for their campaign. Every time someone's eyes wander toward my shirt, I suppress my instinct to slouch back (hey, I'm a girl) and instead puff out my chest and invite them to admire the beautiful pink script that promotes my favorite candidates. And though the shirt may smell a bit from such frequent wear, it sure does do wonders for my eye color.

Also, the video "Moving Dead Week Forward" now has close to 370 views! I've never had so many people see my work before. Granted, I acknowledge that most aren't watching for my work (except you, my readers) but instead want to find out about the campaign. But that's no matter. Combining all five videos together, over 700 people have seen my videos in the last week. Score!

My trip to Las Angeles is not this weekend but next. I'll have to remember to recharge my camera battery so I can take stellar pictures of my adventure to share. I love the people I am going with, so that whole element of the trip is going to be a blast. But the part I am looking forward to the most is just seeing the town and getting a good feel for it. I will have the opportunity to meet a number of Film and Video Studies alum who work in Hollywood now, and I hope I'll have the chance to pick their brains for information and advice. Another note to self: Bring copies of my resume and DVDs of "OU, I Love You" to L.A. as well... just in case.