Smile, the 4th Quarter of Film School is OVER!!!

On Wednesday morning my After Effects professor, Bill Byrne came into class and asked how everyone was doing today and I said fine. He said "you have a big smile on your face?". I told him that it was because I had a good night sleep and was well rested. Which is true but not entirely. The reason for the smile on my face was because as I was walking from my last class to his class (it was down the street), and a really cute guy (okay, he was a HUNK) smiled at me. I smiled back and after I passed, I turned around and he was still smiling. If I wasn't in a rush to get to my next class, I would have went back and said hello. I guess you could say that the real reason why I was smiling was because I can't remember when it was the last time that a really cute guy smiled at me. I read somewhere once that when a gay man turns 30 he is over the hill and when he turns 40 he practically has one foot into the grave. I sometimes believe that being gay and 43 I mostly feel invisible. But that's okay because with age comes wisdom and sometimes I think that having some wisdom goes farther than having buns of steel.

The reason why I'm happy today is because my Flash website is finally up. I just have some minor tweaks to work on, but otherwise, I like it better than the disastrous site I did in Dreamweaver during my 3rd Quarter. As far as my grades go, it's anyone's guess. I know that I will probably get a A in at least one class. The dean's list doesn't look too promising for this quarter but I may at least make the Honors List. At least I was able to complete every assignment and hand them in for all my classes.

The one sad thing that I found out yesterday was that Professor Byrne is leaving the school to move to out of state for personal reasons. I, for one, will miss him extremely. They say that in every person's life there are teachers that will always leave an impression on you. For me, Professor Bill Byrne is one of those teachers. From the day I first met him at the student orientation, I knew that I would like him off the bat. He is crazy cool and very funny. He always has a sunny disposition and is very passionate about his subject matter and always has great stories to share about his experiences working in the industry. Although his reasons for leaving are positive and I wish him and his family much success, I hope he leaves Gibbs knowing that he has made an impression on this student. I will miss him. [Had I known that he was leaving I would have made more of an effort to hand in a EXTRAORDINARY final assignment (a :10 sec. animated Personal Production Company Logo) than the one that I turned it. I went the minimalist route and opted for a "less is more" approach. You can see it on my website if you go there. Just push the "GHF" button and it will take you there. It wasn't my best work, I admit, but I was under a lot of pressure this quarter and didn't give the best for that one particular assignment. Oh well, too late now to do anything about it now.]

Anyway I finally finished my school edit of Daphne's video and it went over very well with my professor, Chris Trice who gave us the assignment in his AVID class. He said looking at it that he could see that I put a lot of time and work into creating it. (I really did.) All of my other Professors that I showed it to liked it as well:

• Professor Betty Garcia told me that the scale and quality of what I created I could charge at least $10,000 for making it. She should know because she taught me about Pre-production and what it takes to be a good producer.
• Professor Cady Abarca (who only saw the rough cut) told me that he really liked the lighting. He should know because he taught me proper lighting techniques and how to use the camera.
• Professor Stephen MacGillivray said he liked the editing and that it was done very well. He should know because he was the first professor who taught me about editing period. Before I stepped into his Final Cut Pro class, I knew NOTHING about editing!
• Christen Marquez, who is our student coordinator, saw it and like it as well. Her one comment that seem to resonate with mostly everyone (including my classmates) was that I should show some more of the dance footage in it. (I'm working on fixing that)

The next step is to do some additional color correction and put it into After Effects and add some magic to it (that would make Professor Byrne proud of me) and it will be ready for THE WORLD to see!

On the topic of another video I did, I was going to submit my documentary (called "Measure of Life") to "POV" (that show on PBS that's been on for like 20 years now) but I misread the deadline. The deadline for it to arrive at it's offices was TODAY! I mistakenly read the guidelines and thought that today was the deadline for when it should be post marked by. In any event, now I am packaging my documentary to submit to another film festival whose deadline guidelines I read and reread with a fine tooth comb last night coming home on the subway. I won't mention it yet, because I don't want to jinx myself.