7 posts tagged “reno”

I made a trip home to Reno for the last two weeks. It was a longer than the average visit home I guess, but I don't really have any pressing matters in New York City. It was nice to see all my friends and family. The long stay made it possible to get a chance to see everyone, I actually even had dinner with my Dad. We aren't close at all, I probably see him four times a year and actually talk to him twice a year.

    I was hoping to have some nicer weather in Reno but only like three days were nice it rained, snowed and hailed so I don't know if a rain cloud is following me or what the deal is. I kept busy while I was there I shot a ton of footage for several projects. It is funny how projects just found me in Reno and I'm searching so hard in NYC. I guess that just shows how different the market is and how much more competition there is here for the same jobs. It shows me why I can't expect much better career in Reno than I already had. I not saying I was at the top of the ladder there or anything but it is a small ladder, which also has its advantages but when I'm 23 it is easy to take bigger risks, so that is what I'm here to do.

    Now I'm back in New York and I have a couple of things lined up, nothing big just a few short gigs and I have a few of my own projects in mind. close to the top of the list is I'm going to need a day job. Hopefully something that is fairly close to my subway line but whatever happens will be fine.
    I was a little nervous to come back actually because I don't have an 'good' reason to be here this time. Last time I left Reno is was for school and now this time it is to look for work. Now that I'm here I feel good about it and am motivated, before the trip home I was feeling a little frustrated and/or discouraged about the whole situation in NYC. I guess the trip home was a nice way to recharge the batteries.
 
  There was also some unexpected things that came up in Reno:

I met my mom's new boyfriend and it seems like those two are getting serious really quick but as far as I can tell he is a good guy. He treats her right and he isn't a weirdo to the rest of the family so those are two HUGE advantages he has over the last couple of duds my mom had around. He as a daughter who gets along with everyone, she has her 17 year old girl moments and gets on everyone's nerves and is around a lot so that is expected. Overall Jay and Anderea are ok in my book.

I might have actually been talked in to joining Brandon when he moves to LA this summer. It sounds like an adventure and if I can pull it off then why not go for it. He is one of my good friends so that is a good roommate situation and he is looking to break in the music industry as a producer so that would be a nice complement to my trying to break into film/video industry. So there are a few good reasons to move to LA this summer.

Another reason to stay in NYC past summertime is that I got to know this girl, Talia, a little more while I was in Reno. Looks like she is moving to New York for school in the fall. We just hit it off pretty well and it has been awhile since I actually had a girl that I was 'interested' in and not just 'attracted' to . I mean how many pretty girls to you know that are working on a zombie screenplay or want to write comics for a living? I'm not sure anything will come from it but I suppose it is worth mentioning.

Also while in Reno I became a "best man" at my little brother's, CJ, wedding. Of course I gladly accepted but i could tell he was nervous to ask me, which sucks. It was the first time I saw his bride to be, Nicole in a while because there is a HUGE amount of retarded unnecessary drama surrounding her and our family, then the marriage just seemed to come about at a bad time. This situation is better now, but there is still king kong gorilla in the room(elephant seems less dangerous). For me some days were better than others when I saw her, some times I was glad to see her and other days it was a different emotion when I saw her, but the big thing with me is that if everyone is ok then I'm ok. I'm happy for my brother because I know he is excited about it, but I still think maybe the timing is less than stellar, not because they are young just they both have a lot of new opportunities to face, I think a year ago would have been better for a wedding but it isn't my marriage so I can't be too concerned. I'm just here to support them.
BTW Orange and purple match sure, but wedding colors? LOL. Hopefully my bride someday wants to start a family not a basketball team. Again I'm there to support, and maybe to joke around a little bit.

I'm pretty sure I gained some weight back while I was in Reno. I don't know if it was the; all you can eat sushi, the all you can eat pizza buffet(pizza plus), qdoba burritos, mom's carrot cake, a fridge that is actually stocked with food, not having to personally cook every meal or if it was just the fact that I would  have a lunch date and 2 dinner dates everyother day. I would guess it was a combination of all that. It is always a better meal on someone elses dime.

Oh and I got to see Pete, yeah he still hates me so that is nice. there is a decision that cost more than it was worth

this past week is about the halfway mark on my 8 week course at new york film academy. It has gone my really fast. I don't know where the time has gone. It seems like just a few days ago I was still trying to remember my classmates names. It has been an intense experience for all 18 of us. We were strangers and now we are all friends. We have a worldwide network of budding filmmakers now. England. Portugal. Brazil, Argentina, Denmark, India, Mexico and of course there are a handful of us from America. We got coast to coast, California, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma,Ohio,  Rhode   Island, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.
I think most of the class are hoping to make a career out of this whirlwind experience. Some might make it some might not but that is how life goes.
We begin shooting our final films in five days. It is pure madness. I don't even have a script in a final form. I think I like the story though so hopefully it will come  out the way I picture it in my mind. All I will say is that it is a superhero movie. I put out and ad on craigslist.org for scripts and I got a few actually scripts and a few pitches. The one that is my fall back plan is a basic coming of age story where the boy turns 18 and his father's gift is a father vs son boxing match. I liked the script but it needed a good amount of reworking/rewriting. I even found and awesome boxing ring that might look familiar because it is often seen on ESPN or HBO. So it is kinda of a bummer that I won't be using that location because it would be epic.
here is what the website says
The Look:- 80 foot long catwalk (ideal for unique camera angles)
.- Hard Wood Floors throughout.
- 2 gyms, each with it's own unique look.
- Each gym has a regulation size elevated boxing ring.
- Ceilings of over 20 foot with I beams running throughout.
- Rows of heavy bags.- Locker rooms.
- Gritty authentic Manhattan brick wall.
- Timeless black and white murals including an 18 foot high "Joe Louis".
The new superheros story will be less taxing on the locations, acting, and choreography
(I have never boxed so it would be hard to stage a match but it would look like an amature match for sure so that part would be authentic I guess)
So the new script is written by me I used celtx, which is a free shareware pre-production program. I have to say it is pretty slick. I think I would rather have celtx than the $300 competition. It was actually fun to write it out. Now I just need to comb through it a few times and fix mistakes and make the dialog less lame. I'm going to shoot digital instead of film for the simple reason that I can't afford to spend $600+ just on film. I wish I could though because film does look better, there is no question in my mind about it. 16mm just looks really cool, even on this shitty reversal film stock we have been shooting on.
here is one of the projects that I directed. this was a production workshop where we had a few hours to write and shoot something that was some type of allegory or parralle universe or supernatural power or something along those lines. 

I also finished my music/sound film. it is was the first time we were allowed to add sound to our projects. but it hasn't uploaded yet so I will post it soon. basicly it is two roomates that get annoyed with eachother and keep pranking each otherback and forth.

With school coming to a close I have to figure out what to do from here. I no job to got back to and it sounds like SNCAT is about to close anyway so I jumped ship at the right time it seems. We are moving out of the apartment we live in now and are moving to washington heights which seems to be all the rage and is way cheaper becasue I will be sharing a room with Al. so rent will be half the price I pay now. I want to try and find some work here. I don't want to spend to much time working at a resturant or something if I'm not working on other film/video projects. If I could get a job at a post-production house that would basicly be the dream or something where I'm touching a camera would be nice. I know there is free-lance stuff that I could get for online newspaper stuff or something but freelance is kinda scary, spotty work. As long as I'm here trying to advance the carrer then that is fine with me even if I'm making my own web series while I'm working at blockbuster or something like that.
I also got a friend who is moving to LA and wants me to come with. He is going there for music production school and I know I would have fun there but again it is the same thing, I just need to be working(paid or not) at my craft. otherwise what is the point of living outside of Reno? So I have this debate going on in the back of my mind but my main focus right now needs to be my final film. A lot can change in a few weeks too. My final might come out really good and I might submit it to festivals and if not then it is still and awesome learning expirence. Once school is over I'll put together my reel and resume that should take about a week and then I'll send that all over the city, state, hell even the country and I'll take it from there.

BOTTOM LINE is that I'm out here to live the dream and so far so good.

it is my one satrurday that i don't have school. I have a small re-shoot(where I met Hugh Jackman[another story for another timef]) but the big thing is that I am going to wake up super early and stand in an line where hopefully I get a ticket to SNL(Saturday Niight Live, in case you live under a rock, or just not america) I get a standby ticket and thing hope that some people dont show up with real tickets for the live taping. it is a long shot but yeah you only live once right? Host:Steve Martin.

School is busy but i did have a short day this week. literally only 1 hour long where we screened our films. Mine apparetly casued quite a controversy becasue the teacher was saying the story was weak in the second half and then someone said he didn't know what he was talking about so the teacher said good luck on your finals and stormed off. Yikes. call me Oliver Stone I guess. I personally don't thing it came out to great but considering it was all done in 1 hour i like it. I'll post it later.
also I'm working on our project number 3 "Sound/music film" its all in the title so no more silent stuff. I have done enough videos where the pictures are cut to music so I went for doing a sound design where you add in all the sound effects since the film cameras don't record sound. I'll be the first to say it is a bitch matching footsteps and folding papers. I searched for about an hour for a song to use so I could give up on the sound design but nothing quite jumped out at me. So I noted a few but back to the sound effects. It is due Tuesday night so I'll post it sometime after that for the world to see. I might make a few changes once we screen it but hopefully it is kinda funny, far from hilarious but a few chuckles I hope. I lost a few minor shots to exposure and forgot to write in a few reations to the pranks but that is what i'm here for to make mistakes and learn from them.

Ian Mackaye held a question & answer session at UNR yesterday (thanks Holland Project). It was really inspiring to listen to him because he is such a huge influence in DIY/punk/hardcore and of course straight edge cultures. All of which I consider myself to be a part of. Ian Mackaye was the singer of Minor Threat who is often credited for creating straight edge, he talked about how he wasn’t out to create a movement and thinks it has really gotten very far from what he meant when he said “don’t drink/don’t smoke/ don’t fuck/ but at least I can fucking think.” He wasn’t laying out rules(as they are now considered) but he was talking about was being excluded.

He also started discord records and singer/guitarist in fugazi.

                What I really took away from the ‘chat’ was that he only was able to do all this stuff because he just got up and did it. He didn’t do it for money he did it because if he didn't have any other choice no one was going to do it for him. Simply going out and trying something until it works. He told a story about how Henry Rollins and him went to see Bad Brains a few weeks ago and how he remembered seeing bad brains 30 years ago. All to often this sub-culture of punk/hardcore is  seen as something that you just grow out of(I’m guilty of thinking that) but then here is Ian Mackaye who is almost 50 years old and still holding on to the idea that, if you try something you can usually pull it off. He hasn’t let our society tell him that what he can and can’t do. It is just really cool to see that he hasn’t been forced to ‘grow up.’ Another thing that I took away was he said that he doesn’t think about the future because once you can see the future it is too late to change it, so just live for today.

The last week or so I've been watching old video tapes ranging from Christmas '03 to the See It Through tour in May. I got a few ideas for the stuff.
1. See It Through montage set to ESCAPE. cuz why not I got the footage and an unreleased song that is good.
2. Collect all the video I have of my Gpa and make a nice memorial video and give it to my Gma for Christmas.
3 I was thinking do something similar for my Mom for Christmas/her birthday but Katie blew that surprise.
4. I also want to make a demo reel for myself before I leave for NYC.

My XL1 spits out a good looking video soo much better than my little Cannon camera. I do need to pick up a cheap little camera though because I'm just starting to realize the value of home movies, but I won't like it sucks a little to shoot them. I wish I had some more over the years.

I keep seeing little places while I'm driving and I say to myself "I want to come back here and get a few still pictures" but I never do. I want to start actually going there and taking cool pictures.

Oh yeah Happy Halloween. (CJ has never heard theMONSTER MASH song until this week WTF?) and thank you Nevada for having the day off,its a good place to live

if I wasn't leaving for New York in a few short months, I would be quitting my job. Unfortunately I love what I do and even like what the company stands for but watching my boss run off a lot of talent and generally run the place into the ground.

Well, SNCAT it has been good knowing you. if your on the board you should pull your head out and fire Les since he is ruining the place. I know he didn't come into a pretty situation but he sure isn't making it any better. 

I guess you might want to know where I work. SNCAT or Sierra Nevada Community Access Television is a PEG(public. education. government) channel. Yes we are the people at those city council meetings that are on TV. We also produce several programs for the local goverment agencies like the cities or reno, sparks and formerly Washoe county (see Les). What the really cool part is that we also have free public facilities. That means you can come in (we train you for a small fee) and use our video equipment to produce your show and we will air it. Really there isn't a catch. You make it we air it. You can also use your own equipment and we will air it too.

We also aren't afraid to have a little fun.

"I can't remember the time or place or what you were wearing. its unclear about how we met. all I know it was the best conversation that I ever had.....
...did you notice I was afraid? I thought I'd run out of things to say. Two more hours until today burns this away
And it starts all over again."

NEW FOUND GLORY show tonight was awesome. even though they didn't play a couple of jams I wanted to hear. One of course being "story so far." All in all it was a good as I expected. Not a doubt way better than the PARAMORE show. It was a bummer that CRIME IN STEREO couldn't make it, I was really looking forward to seeing them but hey vans will always blow up.

Don't expect me to show you and pictures, all I got is my memories.
(hey that is a quotable line right there. kinda deep don't ya think?)

speaking of quotable material

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

by Robert Frost