Tomorrow morning, at "sparrows fart," as Adi likes to say, I will be flying to Los Angeles for USC School of Cinematic Art's "Admitted Graduate Students Weekend." I am extremely excited to go and I will be going to screenings of short films as well as the Friday night screening of
Forest Gump. Say what you want about
FG, I have always enjoyed the film, just ask anyone who knows me. Robert Zemekis, Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise will all be at the screening to field a Q&A session at it's conclusion. Zemekis is a graduate of USC and the new building complex, just completed and opening this month, is named after him. George Lucas put $175 million into the place and now it will be at my fingertips this coming fall.
I cannot believe the luck I am having. It has struck me dumb. Well, no it hasn't, I still talk. Mostly about the luck.
Though I was rejected from NYU, which did bum me out for a good 1/2 week, I was accepted to the #1 film school in the United States (NYU and USC are tied at #1, UCLA is #3...haha).
I was put on the wait list, but it was not a "No" and it was also a small blessing or fantastic timing (depending on your beliefs). I'd say the timing was a miracle, to cover my bases and
my beliefs. I would never be able to get there in the Fall. I would have had to defer a year to find the cash. Going in the spring of 2010 gives me the option of having the time and getting the money to move to L.A. and go to this preeminent arena of film and academia.
Other luck has happened in little bits, not really mentionables, just going well.
There was another monumental lucky strike-- winning the Ford Fiesta Movement! I am glad to have had one of my videos actually pull through and have a reward on the other side. It is arduous work to make a film, edit, remaster, and put it out there to be slammed by other people. Your esteem, ego and taste are all put to the test and most often, deminished, even if it's slightly. It's part of the job. You try to put up a tough skin, but it's not always easy. If it were, it wouldn't be worth it.
This win, and the reward have motivated me further. I am on my train track to success.
Now I must refer to my hero, Ingrid Bergman. There is a documentary that Ingrid's daughters put together to tell their mother's story as well as to show her success and motivators.
Her daughter, Pia Lindstrom, described her mother as a (and I paraphrase) train on a track. When her mind was made up, there wasn't any changing it.
I think, out of all of Ingrid's qualities, for which I admire her, this is my favorite. I want to be like that. "I want to go to there." As Tina Fey's character, Liz Lemon, said on
30 Rock, not too long ago. I want to be successfull, work hard and achieve success. Mostly, I want to work.
I hope that these adventures with the Fiesta Movement and USC allow me to make film, write and be out and about or in a studio (or bedroom with a laptop editing system in front of me...same dif...lol) doing what I love. Making and viewing film.
I will die if I am put in an office. I don't think my mind could take it.
(Put some melodrama music to my last comment, it really enhances the theatrics!)
I hope to blog from my weekend. I
will take pictures and I'm like 99.99999% sure I'll have stories to tell.
For now, I must pack and hope that the floor doesn't fall from under my feet. Everything has ups and downs. I'm nervous for the downs that may occur, but perhaps right now is my window to get things started and really make something of my life's story.
CHOO! CHOO!
