Auditions.

Well it's official. I'm having auditions with the theater department kids a week from today. I got the room booked w/the theater dept. (thanks Lacey!) and official flyers put up. This presents a whole new set of worries that I didn't need but will harbor anyway. First of all.. what if no one shows up?! Then I have to find actors/actresses somewhere else. Which will undoubtably mean that Nathan and I have to act in this video. Which means I'd have to direct from an acting chair and that's hard.. and makes the shoot go alot slower (which isn't at all appealing seeing as how the script is already 30 pages long and the industry gage is one minute of screen time per page of script. Yikes) Two.. what if I find people but they can't do that really crucial scene in the gallery during week seven because the bulk of the theater dept is traveling to california that week? Do I sacrifice my favorite scene for better actors and shoot another time? or do I keep the scene and let some untalented theater kid ruin my perfect vision? I don't know the answer. Or what if I find some kids and they turn out to be unrealiable and ruin this for me. There are so many things that can go wrong.

So apparently tomorrow I have to get up in front of the class and explain why I make art. I think this is .. what's the word .. patronizing? no.. that's not it.. nevermind. I think it sucks. Is there really such a thing as a bad piece of art? Sure but all of them result from laziness or lack of creative intuition. But is there such a thing as a bad reason to make art? Why do our professors feel the need to judge me in this way? Or us, I should say. Are they going to tell me my reasons aren't good enough? Or do they just want to see if I can articulate the way I feel? Because most artists can't do that! That's why they make art. They explain themselves through their art. And if you can't understand a person, or at least try, from looking at a piece of their art, then you aren't a very good judge of character. I do not want to explain myself for the simple reason that I feel like no answer will be good enough for them. No matter what we say during these little speeches, the only feedback we get is negative. Unless you are one of the class favorites. Which I'm not. You hardly ever hear what was good .. only what you need to change and I for one don't need anymore critisism right now. I suppose that knowing how to articulate how you feel is good but isn't being passionate about your work enough? From what I heard about last week's interrogation.. it isn't. Lame.

And now.. an inspiring quote.

"It's not the critic that counts. Not the man or woman who points out how the strong man or woman stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better, the credit belongs to the man or woman in the arena who's face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends him/herself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worse if he/she fails at least fails while daring greatly. So that his/her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who never have known neither victory or defeat."

SCRIPT

So for anyone who thought I wasn't doing anything, or would like to know what my movie is about I finally have some semblence of a script for everyone to read. There might be a few mistakes or things that didn't get deleted but I just wanted to get this up.

So unless I am mistaken.. which happens often.. this link will take you straight to the script.
http://www.uoregon.edu/~jbryant/~SCRIPT

OR

You can go to this index page ---> http://www.uoregon.edu/~jbryant/
and click on SCRIPT.DOC and it will download a Word document for you

Any and all feed back is welcome but at this point I don't really have alot of time to change much since I am scheduled to begin shooting not this weekend but the next. Still I'd love to hear what you think. It's rather long so even if you'd like to just read a scene or two and comment on that.. that'd be great. :)

What I did today for BFA

Well like always I went to work so I can pay rent and not get evicted, so that I don't have to quit school, so that I don't have to teach preschool my whole life. Which only has to do with BFA in a round about kind of way.

When I got home from work, where I save the world one preschooler at a time, I discovered that a very aloof musician friend of mine is going to let me use his music for my video!! I was so excited I think I was bouncing off the walls for at least 45 minutes. Two reasons - one - I never thought he'd get back to me and two - his music is phenomenal and he owns all the rights so I don't have to go through the horribly extensive procedure of getting permission to use copyrighted music.

Seriously, I couldn't have asked for a better thing to happen today.

However.. I'm already dealing with a huge scheduling conflict with actors that don't exist yet. Upon talking with Lacey (my theater dept. in) I discovered that the entire theater dept is going to be on some week long trip to ellensberg on the week that had the only time sensitive shot that I wanted. Time sensitive meaning they are all going to be gone on the week where I really needed them to be available for a specific time. I am already discussing a solution with her. The only hard part is I need to shoot in the gallery the week of my show. Set up is of course friday night. I have a huge wall painting to do and I need it to be ready by saturday afternoon or so, so that I can shoot the scene in there, with the painting as a back drop, sometime saturday night or sunday before all the theater kids leave. Dang. Making movies is tough. You have to work through so many problems and so many things could go wrong. That's why I love it. Performing well in high pressure situations is the most satisfying thing ever. Not to mention that a little freaking out makes you appreciate it more when it all comes together. Yeah.

Spent an hour touring the facilities of Villard hall and the theater dept. today. Talked to Lacey about how to run my auditions, where and how to put up flyers, what they should say, looking at potential locations for auditions, and meeting a few theater kids (who were all very nice). I'm terrified of holding the auditions. I think I'm going to look like an idiot and they will all think my script sucks. :( But Lacey thinks I'm overreacting. I dunno. We'll see. I think it's going to be rather fun.. something I've never done before - that's for sure.