Days 1&2: Fade in - brainwash

I'm not sure where to start, so I'll just ramble what's on my mind, as I am exhausted after day 2. Exhausted in a good way, of course. Anyone who knows me, knows how hard it is for me to sit still watching movies. I can sit and write for six hours without getting up, but I can't watch movies for too long. I need to be working, creating... doing. Well, today we sat for 12 hours watching one another's works with only three breaks for a brief lunch and dinner. The quality of some of the stuff was amazing. I'm not sure why some of those people are going to film school. Their work is phenominal. It's good to know that I'm in excellent company.

So yesterday was orientation day. We spent God knows how much time talking about production safety, insurance, and scheduling policies. Because AFI is a production-heavy program, everything has to be covered by insurance. And because these will be relatively large crews working on the productions, we have to work by detailed organized schedules. Both elements were unnecessary with my guerrila no-budget short films of the past. Also, by design, the AFI is set to make our life difficult for the next two years so that we are prepared to deal with the challenges of the studio system.

I will direct three films the first year, each budgeted at $3,200. Unfortunately, I will not be able to screen them outside the AFI, so I will not be able to put them on my web site. Besides, they will be 30 minutes each.

And the second year, I will direct my thesis film, costing $50,000. That one I will be able to show at festivals anywhere, but the AFI still owns it.

Anyways, they were not kidding when they said the AFI will own your soul. Our schedules are crazy. Pretty much, you wake up, you go to AFI or on a shoot. You get home after 9 or 10 p.m. You get some sleep and you wake up to go back to school. Will probably have Sundays off, though.

I love this experience though. I will get into more detail as we go.