Road-Trip Amusements…

So this is something I meant to post up here 6 months ago… right after Adam and I made the cross-country drive to LA… however, I forgot to do it, then I lost the book, and then I had forgotten about it completely.  Lucky for you I found my brown-notebook earlier and saw the notes we took on our journey.  Now I will share them with you:

-Number of Solid Blue Road Signs– “Places with nothing off the exit”– 43*

*= These were only counted and logged during daylight driving and when Adam was driving.

Virginia:

-There was a small field covered with tons of cows… the small field was connected to a large field, where there was only one cow.  We began to speculate the reasons why, why this cow was cast away? Why did he get the large field?  etc.

-We entered the Twilight Zone, as we drove by a truckstop, with a McDonalds and two gas stations… then fifteen minutes later drove by a truckstop (with the same name), a McDonalds and two gas stations (with the same names as those that came before).

-“Leave Christiansburg” signs.  Not the normal “You are now leaving” nope, Christiansburg is telling you to leave.

-Hungry Mother State Park – 2nd Place Award for VA’s funniest Park Name.

-Frozen Head National Park- 1st Place Award for VA’s funniest Park Name.

Tennessee:

–Town of Bucksnort– Bucksnort gave us Car Trouble…

-Sign reading “Cuba Landing” made us laugh a lot… weird mental images.

-Ok… so there was a sign that read exactly this -> “Lake Between the Lakes Kentucky Lake-Lake Barkley” What the hell does that mean?!

-Tennessee makes Fugget Rubber, again made us laugh cuz we’re still 10 years old at heart.

-Busiest Subway in the World.

-Fort Pillow State Park- 1st Place Award for TN’s funniest Park Name.

-“You Can’t Stop Progress” by Clutch played, as traffic on the otherside of the highway came to a complete stop.

-Giant Pyramid?

Arkansas:

-Narrow construction roads while crossing bridges suck.

-The Wal-Mart state— 10 Wal-Marts and 4-Lowes passed.

-Irony: This is Bill Clinton’s home– there’s a sign on the side of the road reading “Thou shall not commit adultery/ God is ashamed of you./ You should be ashamed of you.”

-Arkansas does not believe in Speed Limit signs or Mile-Markers.

-Arkansas loves Porn and Jesus

-Sign reading “L.R.A.F.B.” -What the hell does that mean?!

-Toad Suck State Park- 1st Place Award for Arkansas’ funniest Park Name

-In Figure Five, Arkansas the song “Figure No. Five” by Soilwork randomly played on our stereo.

Oklahoma:

-Gore, OK

-Latawatah!  (Lotta Water is what it sounds like… but there isn’t any water… lies)

-The entire state of Oklahoma was under construction.

-“The Infant Jesus of Prague Shrine” -What the hell is that?!?

-Cheap cheap cheap gas!

-Roman Nose State Park- 1st place Award for Oklahoma’s funniest park name.

Texas:

-Not as bad as I expected.

-State Troopers are really nice!

-Feels like the Beach Outside.

-Everything really is bigger in Texas: Giant Rest Area, Giant Cross

-Whataburger!  Amazing fast-food place.

-Bushland, TX (Trey hangs head in shame as he notices this)

-Gas is ridiculously expensive

-Electricity farming? Weirdest thing ever.

-Saw tiny little tornadoes.

-NO STATE PARKS on our route… suckage.

New Mexico:

-Deaf Smith County -goofy ass name

-No mile markers

-Sudden speed limit changes – 75 to 45.

-The Flying C Ranch is intimidatin– “EAT HERE! GET GAS!”

-“Chocolate Milk: The Official Sports Drink” -Where the hell are we?!

-The Trail of Painted Ponies

-It is melt-your-face-off hot!

-Alburquerque, Mew Mexico loves Beer.  Beer signs and ads everywhere and busy road called Coors Blvd.

-Paseo del Volcan —Spanish route that the Volcans must’ve taken.

-Didn’t realize that Casablanca was in New Mexico.

Arizona–

-Not many notes here, cuz Trey did half-the state in complete pitch-blackness and then Adam did the other half of the state and we were too exhausted and excited about CA to continue taking these notes…

-Awesome welcome Center… like little Pueblos.

-Beautiful Sunset.

-Rest Areas have signs reading: “Warning Poisonous Insects and Reptiles in Habit Rest Area: Walk with Caution.”

California:

-Did not take any notes at all… um… the desert contiunes FOREVER…. and other than that its amazing.  Oh and don’t try to drive to CA with fruit in your car, they’ll take it from you at the border.

Almost halfway through…

I have now begun month six of my one year intensive study at the Los Angeles Film School.

This month will prove to be the toughest so far, and I am thrilled.  Directing is incredibly stressful, challenging and fun.  Art Direction is full of some of the most tedious work imaginable… but still enjoyable.

In other news, I just got back from two weeks in Virginia.  To all the people I did not get a chance to see while I was there, again I say I am sorry… hopefully you’ll be able to visit CA sometimes soon.  The next time I will be in VA I believe in sometime in August for a Zac and Maida’s wedding and after that it will be Christmas.

Other than that, there is not too much new to report at the moment.  Sleep deprivation is becomming a common aquaintence.  As my own, and most of my classmates, have had to switch our bodies to an extremely irregular sleep pattern.  The class is beginning to steadily decrease in numbers.  We began in August with 70+ students, and now we are down to 34 of the original batch… we been joined by 3 members of the July class– making our current number 37.  I have a feeling by the end of this month this class will be down to aroudn 30.  It is getting intense at our school.  But remaining incredibly fun and inspiring.

So its been far too long since I posted…

First of all, I would like to say I am sorry that I have no been posting on this more often.  Last month was incredibly stressful and this month has been fun but insanely busy.

Updates:  Month two classes were History of Culture and Digital Video Production.  History of Culture was cool, but I had already taken courses just like it prior– Humanities classes at Roanoke College were the same thing essentially.  Digital Video Production taught me a lot but was frustrating because my teachers were not organized, personable or helpful at all.

In Digital Video Production, we made our first real short films:  We were assigned groups and told to make a film.  The assignment called for “an intimate window” character study.  My group’s script (which I, the screenwriter had no involvment in, as a way of seeing what my classmates ideas were like) was a horror/comedy and had in depth character work– at first.  However, thanks to the disorganization of the class we didn’t have time to do our script as originally written, so we had to make modifications and instead we created a film that was a suspensful and cheesy b-movie horror gorefest which a raunchy comedic punch-line.  It’s called There’s Something in My Closet.  I will have a copy of it soon… and am planning on bringing DVDs of my works to date with me when I come to VA for christmas.

For There’s Something in My Closet I worked as Director of Photography, or Cinematographer– which is a lot of fun.  I basically listen to what the director wants, decide how to light– tell my Gaffer (lighting guy) how to light it, pick the lenses, shutter speed, etc… I controlled the look of the film.  Felt really good when we premiered the film in the school’s theatre because everyone had a lot of really great things to say about the camera work!

I’ve also been writing a lot.  Working on two different feature length scripts at the moment.  Also working on drafts for my thesis short.  And I have been asked to write my friend Katherine’s thesis, my friend Jess’ thesis, write two shorts for my friend Chris and I am currently writing a political-thriller short for my friend Sila.

At the end of month two, I was invited to work on crew for a Webisode series called Groupitity.  I worked as a Second Assistant Camera (called 2nd A.C. by people here) which means I helped the cinematographer with camera stuff, did the clap board, kept up with all of our coverage, helped as a stand-in and much much more.  It was a lot of fun and I met a lot of cool people.  Also, I recently found out that once the series is completed and begins to post online, I might get IMDB.com credit for it!

Month three at LAfilmSchool is Production Cycle.  The school understands that when we graduated most of us will not immediately get our dream job, so month 3 is didicated to teaching us to work in the positions we will likely get… something no other film school does.  Really cool.  The first half of the month I filmed an episode of the series Fawlty Towers, and am currently filming a Twilight Zone episode.  For Fawlty Towers I worked as a Stand-In/Grip for the first part, then Asst. Art Director for the second part.  For Twilight Zone I have been 2nd AC for the first part and starting tomorrow I will be a grip.

I met with my career development advisor last month as well.  I am officially listed in the school under three job positions: 1)Screenwriter/Director, 2)Screenwriter, 3)Cinematographer.  Also, he recommended an awesome book for me to read to help me with my writing.  And suggested I get business cards–which I now have so I can begin to network. “In Hollywood its not who you know, but who knows you!”

Speaking of networking, I was at the bar a week or so ago and saw Dane Cook.  Then the next day saw Larry David at the movies!

I have been seeing a lot of films in screenings, that are not out yet back in Virginia.  First, I saw Syndoche, New York with a Q&A following by director/writer Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation., Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) for free– Amazing film go see it!.  Then I saw RocknRolla directed by Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver) which was great and you should see it too!  After that I got to see Role Models with a Q&A with director/writer David Wain (The State, Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten) which was hilarious, you should see it!  Then I saw W. directed by Oliver Stone (Platoon, Nixon, JFK, Alexander, Natural Born Killers, many more) which was amazing to the point where I forgot I was watching actors.

And then tonight… tonight I got to go to the premiere for Kevin Smith’s (Chasing Amy, Dogma, Clerks, Mallrats, etc.) new film Zack and Miri Make a Porno.  I was sitting in the same room as Kevin Smith, Justin Long, Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Jason Mewes and even Traci Lords of all people… it was unreal and FREE!  I met Jason Mewes (Jay from most of Kevin’s movies) afterwards.  I also met Jeff Anderson (Randal from the Clerks films).  Finally, I met and talked with Harvey Weinstein– former Studio Exec. for Miramax now co-owner of Weinstein Company.  Weinstein Company makes most of my favorite films… I nearly had a heart attack!!! Zack and Miri Make a Porno by the way everyone needs to see when it comes out on Halloween.  Its Kevin’s masterpiece.  Its his Schindler’s List, or There Will Be Blood, or 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Goodfellas… Amazing film.  Its classic comedy meets gross-out humor meets dark comedy meets romantic comedy.  It was incredibly moving and made me miss Amanda a lot.  It’s very raunchy and has some rather crude things, but the film is full of heart.  Totally worth it!

So that’s my incredibly busy life– I am sorry I haven’t been good at keeping up with people– Mom, I’ll be calling you soon, I promise.  You too Vern!  And Mina!… and many others…

Hope all is well!

-Trey.

Recent Reflections

Well, for anyone randomly keeping up with this it should serve as an obvious indication of how busy Trey and I are, that we don’t post very much on this thing.  Plus the random videos idea kind of got shot down the tubes thus far.  I chalk it up to one of those “best laid plans” things.

We’re pretty much through with 2 full months now.  I’ve got my last test of the 2nd term tomorrow, which we walked through in class yesterday, and i’m 100% sure that i’ll get another 100 so long as I don’t go too fast and continually check myself.  As of tonight, the assumed total is 5 100’s, but I can’t be perfectly sure until I get some grades in.  I never got last terms grades, and some people said they were sent to people’s old addresses, so mine must’ve been sent to my old apartment in Roanoke, and I just haven’t gotten off my tail to walk over to student services and gripe about it yet.  So far my assumption seems to have been proven right — all of the tests are ridiculously easy (i’m assuming for graduation/accrediting purposes) so long as you review a little bit.  That’s not to say we don’t learn anything though.  I actually think the pressure of performing well in class, among your peers, and your teachers, is by far more important than the actual tests are.  It’s becoming painfully obvious that the only tests that are super important are the Pro Tools certification exams, which have this monolithic mystique about them.  Everyone tells you they’re insanely hard — if they’ve taken the tests or not.  I’m beginning to wonder exactly what’s hard about them, other than the mass of information about a single program that it seems you have to know.  We’ve got 4 more months to learn it like the back of our hand until the first certification test, and honestly right now i’m really not that afraid… and something just seems wrong about that compared to how my peers feel.

Today reminded me a lot of exactly why I came here in the first place.  I don’t want to say that i’ve been second-guessing the decision to move here and chase this dream, because that isn’t true at all.  But I think that i’m so used to how everything and everyone fits back home, that now that i’m settled here — in a place where that doesn’t exist — i’m really missing it.  It’s not to say that people back home haven’t been supportive of us, because everyone has been amazing, and I know every time I talk to Betsy, or Garth, Wayne, Aubrey, Mom, anyone, there’s always a version of “you’re amazing — i’m really proud of you guys — keep up the good work, it’ll pay off”.  Without that, things would be a whole lot crazier than they sometimes can be here mentally.  But, that being said… I know I miss Denny’s nights, and dates, and shows, and random movies at Wayne & Garth’s, 80’s tv show marathons, and even being home and doing absolutely nothing in a familiar place.  Without those things, and the people that consistently keep me level, things have at times become a lot harder than I ever thought they would be.  But… like I said, today reminded me exactly why I came here.  I went to lunch/hung out with a friend i’ve made here, and I got to finally go in-depth on the stories that I kind of keep on reserve about how my friendships in Roanoke really blossomed a few summers ago.  I got to rehash the stories of how Trey and I felt like we were more important than a lot of people in life told us that we were, and how we helped start sort of a movement in local music, and the big ideas that suddenly turned into, and exactly how that lead us here.  It’s not that i’d really forgotten any of it, but I think I momentarily lapsed into the reasoning of everyone around me for a week or two without realizing it.  I wasn’t fighting for my friends and people I love back home anymore (also known as “what I care about”), and I was focused on things around me that were trivial and unimportant.  I got a minute or two to rant to Garth about it for a second tonight, and he came back with a response that reminded me of when I called him “a big brother I never had” once.  We’re here, we’re doing this, and there isn’t a turning back now no matter how difficult it can get.  But the beginning has to be taken care of before we can do anything else.  Planting your feet and taking the first step is always the hardest part of any important thing you do… but after that first step, all of the rest becomes much easier and more enjoyable.  We’re still trying to take that first step, and on top of that, as Betsy always reminds me — regardless of what happens, everyone still loves us.  I don’t think we could have better people in our lives, and that means ALL of you.  So thank you, a ton.

In other random news — i’m officially kind of co-running the sound at church now.  That’s the other big thing i’ve been trying to dive into since we got here — not only planting myself here in Los Angeles, but planting myself in my faith.  To an extent, I have to do that alone, and I think that’s part of the reason why i’m here.  But yeah, the last few weeks, i’ve gotten deeper not only in exploring my faith, but in becoming accountable to people and my church.  I’ve always been one to be extremely hesitant when it comes to any church, and its followers.  I’ve run into a few situations where, the community turned into a social club that shunned you for having secular friends, or where I was just flat out told I was wrong about something without any discussion.  I don’t mind being wrong, especially as i’m not particularly knowledgeable of the Bible or faith as a lot of Christians are — but when i’m told something, and I bring up an opposing viewpoint, or ask a question… I think in ANY subject, I don’t learn anything and I don’t experience if i’m just thrown a brick wall.  So when Betsy and I decided to give New Century a try — I was pretty blown away that I could talk to people, and my fear of being shunned or looked down upon never came to fruition.  People actually talked to me, and encouraged me to come back and ask any question I had… which… has pretty much never happened to me before.  I was even more blown away, when I came here, attended the church that Betsy told me about WHILE she was still in Jamaica (of ALL times for prayers to be answered about me finding a church out here), and so far it’s been the EXACT same type of experience as New Century.  Not only that, but the environment is incredibly diverse, the services are just as thought provoking, and i’ve been completely warmly accepted and encouraged to become a part of a place where i’m not even a member.  A few weeks ago there was a Newcomer’s lunch, where the church officials would be introducing themselves and you could meet other new members of the community.  For the first time ever, at that point I decided to take the step of truly being accountable and believing in the goodness of the people here — and I got in touch with the sound team to see if I could help out in any way.  Anyone who knows me fairly well knows that I hate giving out my personal information, I hate talking about myself and what i’m doing to strangers or people I don’t trust, and I hate being responsible in situations where I don’t feel comfortable.  So, in one day, I decided to completely disregard all 3 of those things — and now i’ve met 4 people (it’ll be 5 this Sunday) involved in the sound team of the church, been invited to help record/produce sessions of the church band’s CD, helped set up the system and run the sound board for one service, and been asked to volunteer my time even more if the church decides to begin running 2 services a week.  That, plus i’ve made a contact with the Hollywood small group (or community groups as my church calls them), who has pretty much given me an open invitation to come whenever my school schedule allows.  Again, as I write all of that, i’m pretty blown away.  Just about a year ago, I was telling Betsy that I didn’t go to church because I didn’t believe in the community of the church, and that people always take faith and religion and turn it into rules — or reasons to tell other people that they aren’t doing it right (following God/God’s word).  If you’re a believer, then there are only 2 entities that exist to tell you if you’re “doing it right”, and that’s you and God.  One of those is inherently flawed.  A community exists to help guide you, and steer you in the right direction to center your relationship with God.  Nobody can TELL you how to do it, otherwise the whole thing would be a simple couple of steps.  That kind of religion, and church, is always what i’ve hated, and I never realized anything else existed before that.  Now it’s just weird for me to even be typing this here… I guess it’s another form of me being accountable to my actions and who I am.

I told Betsy the other day to feel free to tell anyone and everyone all about how my life is now, what i’m doing, and how everything is working out.  I guess i’ll leave this with a summation… I’m still learning to live with LA, I occasionally have a serious case of homesickness, i’m loving every minute of school even if the tests are pretty much pointless, i’m becoming pretty okay and unashamed of calling myself a Christian, i’m also really really glad so many people love both Trey and I and let us now all the time, I have a ridiculously amazing roomate who I know I can fall back on whenever I need him, and i’m trying… really freaking hard… to be patient, and wait for the opportunities we’re seeking to show themselves… even if I really want them right this very second.

Thanks for reading.  That was way longer than what I meant to type.

– Adam

Adam Speaks. Or Types. Whichever.

So, we’ve been here officially a month and a half.  Which is insane.  Things have been absolutely crazy on every single possible front (from classes, to living, to relationships with people here and back home, etc. etc. etc.).  But… life still moves on.

My major lack of posting is probably due to laziness more than anything else.  But I personally prefer to just say that i’ve been really busy, and whenever i’ve had the free time to comment on here, I haven’t really felt like it.  Realistically, both are true.  So now you’ll get one considerably long post, and then who knows what.

As far as school goes — we’re of course halfway into the 2nd month now.  Each month begins a new “term” (we don’t run on semesters), and thus far each term brings 2 (technically 4, but you have 2 subjects — with one lab and one lecture in each) new classes.  Month one began us with “Console Theory/Lab” and “Outboard Theory/Lab”.  Console Lab is pretty much exactly what i’ve been doing the last 3 years, but with more of a focus on the basics of audio mixing, and of course — a theory class behind that.  Outboard gave me the ability to play with all of the rack-mount effects gear I never got the chance to use while in Roanoke (from digital effects to EQ, compressors, and gates).  Again, the point was to just overview the very very basic fundamentals of all recording gear.  If our education were a LEGO tower, we began to build the base in month one.  Thankfully, since i’ve worked out most of my basic theory the last 3 years through some teaching and some trial-and-error, the first month was fairly smooth.  Most of what I ended up learning were things that I had already learned, but this time I was introduced to the ideas and application in the correct manner, and not just what I assumed to be true.  To my knowledge, I ended up with 2 100% grades in both lab classes, and A’s (not 100’s) in both of the theory lectures, which are SAT-like scantron tests (which were mindblowingly easy — to the point that some of us are beginning to question if the tests are EVER going to be hard, or if the school just needs a passing quota to stay accredited.  EITHER WAY — the most important part, the teachers are still trying to give us the best education possible, that says I picked the right school).

This month we moved onto “MIDI Theory/Lab” and “Beginning DAW Theory/Pro Tools M-Powered Lab”.  MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is essentially what people use when they say they’re “programming beats”.  Literally, MIDI is a computer language that tells the computer to take instruction from XYZ Keyboard, Synthesizer, Sampler, or whatever that gives it what note to play, how hard, fast, and loud to play it.  So the computer isn’t actually creating the sound, it’s just facilitating playback of a pre-existing or generated sound, based off of the information given about that sound — in a nutshell.  So in lab, we get to play with a basic simple DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) called Cubase (which, is actually a pro market tool, but I wouldn’t put it on the level of Pro Tools), which specializes in MIDI sequencing, and we get to make our own basic beats and songs.  It’s fun, but I do get kind of tired of it — as i’m not really a “beatmaker”, but the other kids in the class who are looking to do that sort of thing LOVE it.  DAW Theory is essentially an intro into the world of Pro Tools — the defacto standard audio editing program.  I liken it to Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Word — there are other image editing and word processing software out there that essentially do the same thing, but those programs are the industry standard powerhouses, just as Pro Tools is.  “M-Powered Lab” is the introductory Pro Tools interface, designed to be used with equipment made by the company M-Audio (which is owned by Pro Tools’ manufacturer, Digidesign, who is then owned by parent multimedia software company Avid).  You essentially can’t run Pro Tools without a hardware interface (a physical piece of equipment that controls the program, which is a supplement to your mouse and keyboard), and you either get to pick an M-Audio one (cheaper price), or a Digidesign one (more expensive, but generally worth it).  Digidesign interfaces run on Pro Tools LE (which we get to later in the course), and M-Audio ones work with M-Powered.  So essentially, I get to learn about Pro Tools in theory, and then play with it in Lab.  The lab class is the one that i’m loving this semester.  We get to chop up, tweak, and play around with all sorts of different audio and random things, and it comes completely natural to me (whereas other people seem to be slower or struggling at it).  We also got our first Pro Tools certification course books, the 101 and 110 in Theory this month.  We don’t take the exams until months from now, but they’re going ahead and getting us started on the program already.  I’m hoping to become certified at the 210 M and 210 P levels (for Music and Post-Production), which means I have to pass 101, 110, 201, 210M, and 210P, in the next 8 months.  Yikes.  To even get there, I have to maintain a 90% GPA in all of my Pro Tools courses too.

Besides school, i’m generally around the apartment working this month.  My classes don’t start until noon, so I generally take the mornings to work on projects I want to get done for me personally, or I study, and i’ve been starting to practice sign some as well.  My afternoons to this point have been relaxation time, or homework reading time, and then I go back to class from 8 to midnight, and then crash and start all over.  Though we did go out last night for the first time to go see a band — Automatique — who we caught about 10-15 minutes of their set, which was great, until the next band came on and was beyond awful.  I can take BAD bands, but when bands get CREEPY, there’s a problem (30 year old dudes talking about being teenage rockstars and “where did high school go?” kind of bothers me).  Otherwise the most I really get out is for church on Sundays — i’m going to Pacific Crossroads Church in West LA, about a 30 minute drive from where Trey and I live.  I recently met the band leader, worship leader, and head sound tech, and starting next week i’m going to be going in early to help set up and (maybe, i’m not sure) run sound.  Mark, the band leader, has also asked me if i’d like to help the band record an album of worship songs, which I eagerly agreed to do — not only to get time in a studio and get some experience, but to get out and make some connections too.  The band constantly surprises me every week with the style of music they play (ranging from more traditional worship songs to straight up like funk rock renditions), and as Mark told me they strive to be eclectic and artistic.  So I think it’s really awesome that it isn’t just to play the songs for the sake of having them on a CD, but there’s a serious interest in making the whole thing very sonically interesting and unique.  On top of all that too, i’m starting to connect with some people in classes, and recently hit it off with a guy named Nick who shares a lot of the same musical interests as me, is a Christian, and actually has a sister who is deaf — so we’ve discussed the idea of him teaching me sign, which is really really exciting.  We have yet to see where all that will go, but he’s 23 and has already owned/run a music shop (ie: “I sell musical instruments”), a rock club, and was a prison security guard.  Plus he’s smaller than me.  It makes me feel like i’ve been really unproductive.

Anyway… so that’s kind of what’s going on in the life of me.  I’ve been working on new music stuff as well in my off-time, just for the heck of it, to kind of break the monotony that occurs with any routine schedule, and i’m about to head into a bunch more web design work as I told Trey i’d re-design his myspace.  I got an idea for it tonight based off the Fight Club special edition packaging.  I’m hoping it’ll end up resembling the layout of mine, but moreso look like the back of the fight club case — but advertising Trey instead of a movie.  We’ll see how it turns out.

But yeah, it’s about crashing time.  I don’t have to wake up early for anything, but i’ve been trying to keep the habit of sticking to a schedule and going to bed early/waking up semi-early so I can get work done before classes (even though I have nothing until 8 tomorrow).

-Adam