Good Fortune - Storyboard

My second film is due in less than 2 weeks. Yikes! This one had the same specs (20+ shots, 3-6 minutes long) but we could make it about ANYTHING!

With "Pirate Dream" I had let my resources drive the story. I had the Hinnen family, their street and all of their pirate gear. That seemed a no-brainer. But I can't do that for every film. What are my resources? What kind of story do I want to tell? Those two questions can't be answered the same for me. I had a great idea I was very excited about but would involve far too many locations and actors/extras. Maybe I'll shoot that one after the first semester.

It will all be done in voiceover since I don't have good audio equipment. That was the only other parameter I was keeping myself to. Eventually, I came up with the idea below.

 

Pirate Dream, The Movie

Here is my very first film! It follows the storyboard pretty well, with some adjustments. It turned out so much better than I could ever have hoped for. I got a PERFECT SCORE! 120 out of 120. Enjoy!

Storyboard - Chase Scene

Wow. First year at college. Age 32. I got an A on my first "student film". It was just an assigned series of 21 shots. It would be a waste of internet to post it. But my first grade at LA City College, Cinema Department, is an A. A big beautiful A.

My second film assignment is a chase scene! Doesn't sound hard, but when you're a freshman in community college with no job you realize you have very few resources, as far as locations, extras, crew, etc. We had to turn in a storyboard as part of the project. Thankfully for me, stick figures are acceptable.

I'm posting my storyboard here because a) I wanna show off and b) I'm sending my cast and crew to this page so they can get familiar with it. We have to shoot within two weeks so I have time to edit. I will post the video when it's completed.

There are some blank spaces because I reorganized some of the shots and some things were already written on other pages, blah blah blah. There is to be less than 10% talking. So, my plan is to make it look like an old 8 mm film and my pianist friend, who is severely overqualified, has agreed to write music for it.

SURPRI- What? Oh... Who told you?

Is there such thing as party-karma? Party-planning karma? I believe there is general karma. Parking karma. I don't know how it would work, party-planning karma. But recent events make me think it, not only exists, but that it is rearing it's ugly head right now.

You see, my husband is a very smart man. He is not easily tricked. He's always calling the plot twists of tv shows and movies about 15 minutes in, and wouldn't you know, he's almost always 100% correct. Though I am fully aware of his keen ability to see through things, I still want to surprise him with something on his birthday. Even though it doesn't happen often, he LOVES surprises.

A couple of years ago, I planned an actual surprise party at our apartment. I even made it a murder-mystery party, set in the '20s. This way, even if his spidey-senses kicked in, he'd be surprised by something. The last thing I expected to happen was for one of our friends to say "See you Saturday night!"... But alas. They did. The jig was up. That's all it took. One person. He knew there was a surprise party for him and he knew that there was a theme. He appreciated the effort and was happy with the evening, but surprised, he was not.

Last year, for my birthday, I came back from breakfast with one of my best friends, only to find police tape strewn over my open door. Chairs were tossed aside and papers were everywhere. What was happening? Inside our apartment, were two "cops", though I recognized them as dear friends of ours (thank God!). They told me there was a struggle and a witness saw my husband being pulled into a white van. They then got a call and had to leave, only leaving me with information that there was heavy finger-print traffic around this one area on my bookshelf. When they left, I realized that area held a fake book, and inside was a clue to my husbands whereabouts! This went on all day, clue after clue. Characters played by friends at different locations all over Los Angeles. It ended at a restuarant with another bunch of friends yelling "Surprise!" as I ran in.

Surprised, I was.

For his birthday this year, I planned dinner with friends, followed by drinks with more friends at a separate location, with a Sunday trip to the electric Go-Kart races! I never called it a surprise party. I admit to that. Because it's not really. In my emails and facebook events, texts and phone calls, I DID say that my husband was not aware of who was coming and where anything was. He knew there was a dinner. He knew there would be drinks. He knew something was happening Sunday, but the Go-Karts were my big surprise.

His birthday was Thursday. That day, he received an email from a friend saying "Sorry I can't join you for Go-Karts on Sunday! Have fun!" ...Dammit! 1 surprise ruined.

Later that same day, he told a friend that story. The friend replied "Oh! That sucks! So, you probably know about (name of bar location)." ... 2 surprises ruined.

Talking business to his agent, she mentioned "Sorry I can't join you guys for Sushi!" ... Aaaaaand scene.

Seriously?! I mean, when did my life actually become a sitcom? I couldn't help but break down with laughter when my husband revealed it all to me. The humor of the situation is so great that I can't possibly be mad. There's nothing I can do about it now. All of the cats are out of their respective bags, and they're meowing like crazy.

We share the same community of friends, my husband and I. The same people invited to my secret-drive-around-town-solving-clues-ending-with-a-big-surprise-party birthday are the same ones invited to his birthdays. The friends that so casually brought up my husband's birthday plans, are the very same who didn't spoil the surprise of my husband asking for my hand in marriage.

He has managed to surprise me at every possible turn. Even when there's nothing to celebrate. I don't know if the party-karma Gods are punishing me, punishing him, punishing our friends. I still can't figure out how the scales have become so greatly unbalanced. All I know is, my husband cannot be surprised. Even when he's not trying to discover the plot. When he's really looking forward to being surprised. It just doesn't seem to be something we'll ever be able to pull off.

Not to say I won't try again. And again. And again. And again. And again...

Adventures In The Workplace; pt 1

My boss lowered his health insurance bill by raising my co-pay. I've had to cut my therapy down from every week to every other week because of this.

In other news, I'm finding my job increasingly more intolerable.

Diary of a Potentional Juror

Monday, June 15, 2009
NO NEED TO REPORT! YES!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
NO NEED TO REPORT! YES! AGAIN!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
NO NEED TO REPORT! THE 3rd! YES!

Thursday, June 18, 2009
...7:30AM REPORTING TIME?! NOOOOOOOOO!


THURSDAY 6/18/09
6:00am - Alarm goes off. Sounds like a nuclear meltdown.

6:06am - Pull myself out of bed and start (slowly) getting ready.

6:20am - Wake up my husband for a ride to the subway; I take my first emergency anti-anxiety pill

6:30am - Kiss husband goodbye, descend into subway

6:35am - Buy ticket, descend further into subway

6:47am - Train arrives, and I realize it's still not even 7am yet when I see every other rider with their eyes closed and heads hung low. It's early for all of us.

6:52am - Getting more anxious and nauseous, feel like I might throw up, take my second emergency anti-anxiety pill... I'm going to be a complete zombie.

7:10am - Subway arrives at stop, confused as to where location is from subway exit. Spot a line across the street; go to there.

7:30am - Nobody in this long line has actually checked if this is for jury duty... but we're all still standing here...

7:47am - Line finally moves, through itself. Basically going in one big circle that eventually goes to a different place.

7:50am - Shuffle through security into jury assembly room; feels a bit like high school as people have been chatting in line and creating their own cliques, taking up sections of the room.

8:00am - Instructions begin on how to fill out the form that most people have already filled out; mentions if you want to postpone or get excused from duty for any reason, do it now. Methinks this is the time to explain my anxiety disorder.

8:10am - I'm out the door and walking, with another crowd that does not know where they're going, to a building across the street, top floor

8:25am - My number gets called by the lady who, obviously, has to do this every single day. She's nice enough considering. She does look like she came straight out of a mid-eighties Eddie Murphy film, though.

8:30am - After explaining my medical condition that, I think, makes me an unsuitable candidate for jury service, I am told there's nothing they can do. The gentleman was very nice though, explaining, "if you get called before a judge, just tell them what you told me"

8:35am - Exiting the building with a nice young woman, "So, you get to leave? Or do you have to go back?" she asked me. She was very sympathetic when I said I had to go back. I asked her the same and she explained that she's a diabetic and needs to monitor her blood sugar throughout the day, but she's not officially excused until she gets a doctors note. I then explain my anxiety/panic disorder and how my psychiatrist only signed it for a 6 month postponement because he doesn't want me to "be afraid to do common things", to which she replied "Damn red tape!" I like her!

8:45am - Go through security, again, and sneak back into the jury assembly room. A woman is at the mic explaining how jury service works. Everyone has badges and paperwork. I hate walking into the middle of a thing, I feel like I missed everything. I am entertained by the other people who also left to be excused walk back in, also denied. There's a whole handful of us.

8:55am - Got the badge and paperwork. Turns out I didn't miss much. That lady just likes to hear herself talk, I suppose. There are 5 PC's against a wall with internet access and free wi-fi in the room. Which is SUPER slow on my iphone. It's very nice of the court to supply all that though. Should've brought my laptop.

9:10am - Uh-oh. They're calling the first batch of names. I'm getting really nervous. If I make it through the day without getting called, then I don't have to come back & won't be summoned for at least 12 months... fingers are crossed... I don't want to have to explain my disorder to the judge and courtroom.

9:25am - **PHEW** Name not called in first batch, but the day ends at 4:30pm, so I'm not out of the woods, yet. Oh good! We're getting an official 15 minute coffee break. I haven't eaten anything since I got up at 6am & have 2 strong sedatives in my bloodstream. I think I'm also getting a migraine, but I can only deal with one problem at a time right now.

9:40am - Back in the assembly room from my Starbucks run. Bought a less than healthy, but comforting drink & pastry combo. I felt I deserved the treat. I finish the pastry rather quickly and begin nursing my mocha when everything hits me at once and I have a very hard time keeping my eyes open. The caffeine is having the adverse effect on me. I may have drank only half the mocha when I realized it safest to just throw it away instead of risking kicking it on the carpet or spilling it on myself. I'm also sandwiched in the row, so I wanted to make as few trips as possible.

9:45am - They've started a DVD on being a juror; how much fun it is and how important it is. I'm just trying to keep my eyes open.

10:15am - zzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz

11:00am - Wha? Oh. Did I really just fall asleep? I know they'd started showing a second pro-jury-duty video, while I was trying to get in a cozy position with my eyes closed, but wow. Did not expect to fall asleep and wake up with my mouth agape. I wonder if I snored or talked in my sleep. I'm hot, I need water, and I want to check in with my husband, who, coincidentally sent me a text 7 minutes ago. Lucky for me, the snack bar is 2 ft away from the room. Got a water and hung out in the (much cooler) hallway, which had better cell service to boot. (more bars in more places my ass!)

11:30am - YAY! My hubby's coming down for my lunch break. We all get a lunch break from 12noon-1:30pm. There's only a half an hour left, what are they gonna do, call another group?

11:50am - Uh-oh... They're calling another group. Only this time, they're calling half of the room to report, after lunch, to a different courthouse 2 blocks away. Thank God they did not call my name. I didn't want to deal with new-place-anxiety. I was just getting comfortable with my anxiety in this place.

12noon - Yay again! I met my husband at the subway station across the street. Right on time! We had a lovely, relaxing lunch in the shade next to the Mark Taper Forum at the music center. Across the street was a beautiful, huge water fountain, which was calming. He also brought me my migraine medicine! I'm such a lucky girl! It was so wonderful to spend an hour & a half lunch with him. Cheered me up a bit. We walked over to the Disney Concert Hall (air-conditioned!!) & looked around the gift shop. We then walked back over to the courthouse to the grassy knoll between buildings and sat on a park bench in the shade. It made you feel like you weren't in the city at all. But alas, time is up. I walk him to the station & say goodbye. I'm much more sad than I thought I'd be. I'm gonna see him in a few hours! ...I guess we don't get as much calm, no-rush time outside of our normal days.

1:30pm - Back in the jury assembly room. All PC's are being used. Everyone's checking their Facebook accounts.

2:15pm - **YAWN** Half (or more) of the room is gone now. Before lunch I overheard a guy say that he was in the first group called, but counsel was arguing so much, that the judge told the prospective jurors to go back to the jury room. He left the room when I got back from lunch, so I assume they had to go back to the courtroom at 1:30pm. Minus those people & the people that had to go to the other courthouse, this room is looking rather sparse. I'd also heard the guy say that Monday around 2pm, they realized they weren't going to have anymore cases for the rest of the day, so they sent everyone home at 2pm... Now I'm looking at the clock too much! They'd told us during orientation that even if we get called to a judge & released from that jury, we have to come back to the jury room because we might be chosen for another judge.

2:20pm - A few new people on the computers than last time I looked... all on Facebook... seriously.

2:25pm - Oh! Someone might be on craigslist... yeah. Yeah, he is.

3:05pm - Someone came on the mic and just told everyone to come inside the room and sit down. "You might want to sit down because I have good news"

3:06pm - ... Waiting for the good news.....oh, court lady at the front of the room is smiling big....

3:08pm - Other lady, who likes to hear herself talk, gets on the mic and YES! END OF DAY! We don't have to come back for another 12 months! HOORAH!!! Now I've gotta get on that subway and head back to the home to sleep off the rest of this conscious-drug-coma.
END OF DAY! WE DID IT!