Who still reads this site? Leave a comment. I’m curious.

The politics and sociopathic nature of the faculty at my school have led to the resignation of my favorite professor. He’s my 336 teacher, Intermediate Film Production. I’ve only had him for about 5 months, and the man who has taught me more than any other teacher I’ve ever had. His name is Rory.

Rory is a character. He’s one of us really, a 45-year-old filmmaker who rode but didn’t crest the indie film wave of the mid-90s. He mercilessly pounces on your ego, giving a constant reminder that no one has to prove themself to you. He endlessly inundates us with technical information — what this number on the film stock means, what new HD formats are ready to be used by us, how to match cuts while editing, shortcut keys for Final Cut and Pro Tools and a million others — and then, one day, he spent half an hour telling us about this new pretzel baguette that he discovered at Albertsons.

“It’s a pretzel… and a baguette! This is awesome!”
“Rory… it’s just salty bread!”

I’ll miss him greatly.

I was going to go into the narrative track my senior year, which is essentially the Director’s route. But it doesn’t feel like the right environment anymore. Faculty that I despise have risen to power, people who know nothing about film production but theories and lofty notions, and they’re going to be calling the shots. I’m going to finish out my time at Long Beach State as a cinematographer, because when I do find a time when I can put all my energy into a real short, something longer than the 3-6 minute affairs I’ve been creating, I want it to be a showcase of all the things that Rory taught me. Anything less feels like an insult.

Oh, and my latest three-minute affair is almost finished. You can see the production stills from the shoot on March 18th here: http://thepromisetree.shutterfly.com. The shoot went well, we had a five-hour slot to film a three-minute short with an 400 foot (eleven minute) roll of film, and I finished with half an hour to spare. After it showcases in late May, I’ll put it up somewhere to download.