Archived from my old Xanga blog:

Well kids,

Say goodbye! I’m off on Wednesday to begin my work as Assistant Director on Untying the Knots, a DV feature-length motion picture. It will be shot in Los Angeles and while at the condo I’ll be staying at, I don’t think I’ll have any Internet access.

We’re shooting in a house in Surfside, and then Pismo Beach, so summer sun here I come (even though I’m already in San Diego)! While up there I’ll be going to the first ever international Indie Club meeting, whoopee! Anyway, I’ll be returning around August 12th. Wish me luck!

Michelle

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Archived from my old Xanga blog:

“The sky is bluuuee and all the leaves are greeeen.

My heart’s as warm as a baked potatoooo.

I think I kno-ow precisely what I mean…

when I say it’s a SHPADOINKLE daaaay…

When I say iiiiiit’s a happy-go-mogully…

Lucky-Shpadoinkalleee… Day……..”

- A song from Cannibal: The Musical

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Archived from my old Xanga blog:

Thanks to pleinlune for her concern about how my project ended up (see post below). Well, I did meet with additional challenges @ first. We tried to edit on Rudy’s Premere 6, but we lost the camera’s charger so we looked everywhere for a day until we found that it had fallen behind his bed somehow (doh). After hours of capturing and editing we had a beautiful project. But, when we tried to output to .mov, .mpg, or .avi, the sound would DISAPPEAR! We were getting desperate!

Finally, we used that cheapo MGI VideoWave software. It was so cheesy. We couldn’t do very accurate cuts and we couldn’t put the title exactly where we wanted it but it still looked pretty good. I try to forget that the computer froze at least three tiems as we tried to edit the damn thing.

In my opinion, the project ended up being the best in the class! At first, I thought the non-film guys would end up grinding us in the dirt since some of them had edited on the computer too. But, one group had no audio (hehe) and another edited on premiere and even showed it on a nice little mac monitor, but their sound was off and the timing was too. I notice that audio is always a big problem. People tend to forget its importance. I knew I was limited in resources so I had had my actor speak very loudly into my cheap in-camera mic, hee. So, in the end, even with all the cards stacked against us, we still produced something that was funny, stylish and intelligently satirical.

Do I sound like I am blowing it out my ass? I dunno, the class thought it was hilarious. When school starts up again I plan to re-capture and edit it on a Mac. Hopefully I can get the file smaller so I can put it online. I mean, the pretty cheap and crappy looking, but it’s a testament that good writing and determination can overcome any technological barriers!

Summer school’s over. Hoping to enjoy my brief vacation! See ya later, and expect “God Save the Teens” (the fake commercial I talked about above) online sometime in September.

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Archived from my old Xanga blog:

Sheesh I am so mad right now. None of the telemedia teachers are around during summer so the computer labs are closed. I have three days to make a fake commercial… I was relieved that I had learned to use the old tape-based non-linear editors because my Culture and the Media class happens to be in room 700 where those editors are. I figured I could edit the archaic way and at least have clean cuts for my project which is due on Thursday.

So, being a good student, I did my project ahead of time and shot it all. But, today when I tried to edit after class, the whole row of editors was in disarray. My old prof, Schneidy happened to be there today and he tried to help, but he was in a hurry and he could only connect a few things and then he was off, saying I could try my luck hooking the rest up. I don’t know why every thing was so dang messed up anyway. It would have been so easy if it was all left the way it is supposed to be. Well there were so many cables missing and equipment mismatched that after two hours, I had to give up because I wasn’t getting very far and didn’t have enough audio cables.

This means I will have to edit through the VCR, not very good! I am worried the way it will look! STUPID OLD TECHNOLOGY! When are we gonna have real telemedia labs in summer???? I miss my final cut pro! WAAAAHHH….

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Archived from my old Xanga blog:

Been busy with summer school lately. I did write and direct a little DV short called Bosco’s Run that I plan to edit in the fall.

My Tele 112 teacher really likes me writing and wants me to join the school newspaper. At first I was a little reluctant, but after more encouraging notes on the sides of my papers after my teacher graded them made me rethink… After all, I did dislike the Arts Editor for defending a very poor and biased article one of his writers wrote about our film club.

What better way to contribute to the otherwise well-written paper and have my voice heard than to join? It’ll be a good excercise in writing under a deadline, which I always have problems with. The paper has won lots of awards and has even beaten San Diego Union Tribune in several professional categories at some competitions so it’d probably be a good way to further turn myself into a well-rounded person.

Well, in early July and late August for two weeks, I will be in Los Angeles working as Assistant Director for Geoff Foley’s Untying the Knots. I really look forward to this. It will be my first time working on a feature film and I am very enthusiastic! I will be staying in a rented house, so this may be my last update for awhile.

I’m thinking of adding an essay section to my michelleosorio.com website. I’d basically post all the essays I can find that I have ever written for people to read. Unfortunately, I have lost some, but not too many. Good idea? I dunno.

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