February

If you’re like me, you try to pronounce every letter in a word, which makes February a bitch to say.

I’ve been very busy [procrastinating] so I haven’t had time to update my blog. Now that I’m on Spring Break and I have nothing to do, I can finally write about February at Interlochen. But since it’s the middle of March, I don’t really remember what happened in February. Never fear, though, I will try to remember.

My friend Aaron, also a motion picture major, is a very hard worker and has many resources. He learns quickly and has a good eye for composition. A family friend of his named Carl, who he also refers to as his sort of mentor, has taught him all about photography. Carl has taken pictures for Time Magazine (I’m pretty sure it was Time) since he was 14 years of age. Anyway, Aaron has worked since this summer to be able to create his thesis on celluloid film, and he was able to do so. He received the Panavision New Filmmaker Program award, which let him use a Panavision 16mm film camera to film his thesis. He also got some grant money from various community endowments, which allowed him to buy all the film, have it processed, and scanned. What does this mean for me? Well, I was one of 5 students that was trained and allowed to touch the camera. So, basically, I’m at a huge advantage as a high schooler because I’ve actually worked with celluloid film.

By the way, we shot Aaron’s thesis over Mid-Winter break. Because I was the assistant director, the two days of shooting we had were about 14 hour days for me as I had to get on location early. Our last day of shooting was on a Monday, which meant that we had school the next day. (The school week is Tuesday through Saturday.) Thankfully, all of the motion picture teachers were just as exhausted, so the 2-hour MPA Production Workshop was canceled.

The filming of my thesis project has been completed. I’m okay with the footage. Now I need to edit it. I’m not particularly thrilled with how it’s turning out, but I’m okay with the fact that it just won’t be as good as I was hoping it’d be. I learned what I needed to learn, and that is if you want to create a narrative film you need to have something you want to say. You can’t base your story off of an image, it needs to have a message. When I came up with my thesis, I just had an image and I worked my story around the image. Guess what. It didn’t turn out so well. Not that it’s bad, it’s just not great. That’s okay, though. It’s high school and I came here to learn something new, and that I did.

After Spring Break, we have to begin and complete filming several thesis projects all by the end of April. That means we’ll be filming two at the same time so we’ll have to split up crews and equipment. Thank God I’m done filming!

Lately, things have been fairly turbulent at Interlochen. There have been a lot of students to get in trouble for various reasons including alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and Robitussin. I won’t list the names, but I will assign numbers and list the numbers so that one may visualize what I mean by “a lot of students.”

Students Expelled/Suspended/on [Mandated] Emotional Leave

I forgot to mention that this has all happened since the last week of February.

Also, the Martha Graham Dance Company came to Interlochen and presented with some dance students here. The Martha Graham dancers put on Appalachian Spring and the students did Diversion of Angels.

As far as what happens after high school, I’m still waiting to hear back from colleges. I did receive the International Scholar award from UNL, which I should have never received. I technically shouldn’t have it because I’m a resident of Nebraska. Because I’m graduating in Michigan, though, UNL thinks that I’m out-of-state. All the scholarship does is bring my current out-of-state tuition price tag down to in-state tuition minus a few hundred dollars. I’m currently trying to see if they will review my file again for in-state scholarships, but then I’m at risk of losing the International Scholar award. Great.

For this summer, I’ve applied for the motion picture internship at Interlochen Arts Academy. If I get the position, I’d have to live in Michigan for about a month and a half over the summer, and I’d pretty much be assisting Michael Mittelstaedt (director of motion picture arts at Interlochen) with anything he needs.

That’s all I have for now. I should go out and enjoy Nebraska’s glorious weather.