Video-- I'm A Lazy Blogger

Update: Lex in L.A.

Torn between the real and unreal, reality and fiction, life and dreams, Alexis marches on. Always to the beat of her own drum, always to the tune of her own horn and always dancing. L.A.'s dirty streets don't provide the comforts of home. Adjustments have to be made. Phone calls are her only touch with family and the East Coast and the warm home she has known for so long. Life is new and exciting, but can be sent into overflow at anytime.

You see that? A little freestylin' there. That's for you Grandma... creative writing. I know there's probably grammatical errors or something for you to proof... that's what I like about you. That and you've got spunk. ("I hate spunk.")

I don't remember the last time I wrote in the blog, but I think it was about zebras on your face, so I'll just write about whatever comes to mind... these days there's not room for much other than film information, techniques and text.

I have been gathering years worth of information in these past couple weeks. The amount leads to mental exhaustion, but boy is it fun. We have learned incredible amounts about combining technical skills, storytelling, history, art form and etiquette to make a successful film(s). I love it here. I have basically been waking up, walking to classes, learning, working on editing, shoots, writing, reading or plotting out the next assignment; then going to grab something quick to eat (generally after 3 granola bars during the day... this might be an exaggeration but I don't want you to worry about my habits. Lol), then I come home, do more work, check facebook and my email 30 times to keep in touch with my classmates and family, watch several episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore Show and then pass out. Repeat Monday-Thursday (sometimes Friday).

The weekends have been for working on "508 Productions" which are the film short shoots for the class a semester ahead of us (I'm in 507). These are great fun! It's where I've put what I've learned in class, mixed with a bit of common sense, to work. I learn tons on set and have a great time.

This is Farruk and Me sitting in so Talia can set up a shot.

This is me pushing the dolly. That's Evan, the director and Talia, the DP.

This is me waiting for the next shot, crossing my eyes like a champ.

This is me watching the action...

This past Saturday I went to see Justine Ciarrocchi play her sweet tunes. She is very talented and I hope to sway her into letting me shoot a music video or I need to get her to put some music in some of my films. I'll just keep pressuring this little bitch until she gives in... you know you want to Justine...

We also had our first house party here on Magnolia Ave.

Jenna, my roommate and I bought lights to put on our roof and our patio.

(Jenna @jennalynnhicks and our friend Stephen @StephenJGibler ... follow them on twitter...)

Tyler had bought a grill and he helped us string the lights. The party was a success! It lasted into the wee hours of the morning and I think everyone had a blast! :)

Here are some pics of the party and the lights. I've been really into playing with lights lately, so keep this in mind for the latter half of this post...

Me at the party... who's that cutie in the back? JESS ZUTZ!

That's Tyler, who has such an inner and outer glow... and his girlfriend Michelle. (It was Tyler's birthday so the party was really in honor of his birth)

Our new patio furniture and lights

"Flashing...Lights!"

Fake bamboo plant with pretty lights... these are now in my room. Lol.

I love lights.

On Sunday, I decided that despite my fatigue, I was going to be pro-active and cook up some "yummy pasta."

Now, for all of you who didn't live with me at Sarah and Jay's house... which is everyone... "yummy pasta" is a mixture of the best things in life. It's like if Mac and Cheese, Pizza and Spaghetti had a really beautiful baby... in some crazy mixed up way... it would be "yummy pasta."
Sarah makes it the best, but she gave me the recipe and told me how to do it during our kitchen talks in Salisbury... so I actually accomplished it quite nicely. The 7 or 8 servings proved to be the perfect meal for not only myself, but my roommates, my sister (she's visiting) and left overs! It's all gone now, but I'm quite proud of my culinary endeavors.

THE CHEF!

The ingredients!

COOKIN'

Chicken for everyone else... Tofu for me...PROTIEN!

"Yummy Pasta!"( Thanks Sarah for the recipe.)

I was describing how I've been really into lights, well, while I was reading a script for my 507 Directing lab... "Silkwood" recreation scene... I decided to play around with the lighting in my room. If you'd like to see more of these pictures, I'm posting them on my flickr.com page.

This is just a sample of what some of them look like. They're kind of weird because I'm taking photos of myself, but they're basically morphing light to get different effects in the same areas with just using a curtain to block.

Though there are tons of tales to tell (alliteration aside) to hear them you'll have to talk to me in person or leave me comments! The comments make me write more blogs... otherwise, I gots things to do.

I do have a little video I need to edit from when Jenna and I went to watch the actors arrive at the Screen Actor's Guild Awards... but I have to learn Avid first because Final Cut Pro is messing me up right now... it's like learning Italian when you know Spanish... some things are the same, but there are tiny little nuances that have to be dealt with... and that means leaving one alone for a while and learning the other... so Avid... you're gonna be my bitch.

Please comment and thank you for reading! I love you all!

Alexis :)

"Control Your Zebras"

A metaphor for this past week.

I am a piece of cardboard. I absorb water, but little by little. If you pour too much water on me, it puddles on the top of me and will soon fill my pores. Until it does, it sits there. If there is too much water, it drips through.

This week has been like a bucket of water thrown on me.

It's refreshing, but a lot.

Today was my day of realization. It rained thanks to El Niño and this caused me to be slightly emo about the whole week and things that have happened in the past month.

It just hit me today that I moved across the country, started film school, had a family member pass away, have no loan money (as of yet. F the BofA), and I'm not used to this lifestyle yet.

I haven't cried. I haven't really felt like that... it's just the sense of being overwhelmed and a complete change. I love it here and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm trying to let my control freak mind know that I can't control jack right now--ride the wave.

Well, on a more cheerful note I want to tell you that in film you never want zebras on your actor's face.

It causes problems...

Awkward shots...

Makes their faces disappear and they won't be happy...

This is something I learned this week. It actually not REAL zebras. That's silly. It's when your actor's face disappears because there is too much light, or the light is too hot, on their face.

The "zebras" are the stripes that appear on the LCD screen on the camera. On set, "Zebras" should always be turned on.

Aren't all of these double entendres great?! I just keep thinking of cartoon zebras and zebra stickers. God I love my craft.

This past weekend we went out in downtown L.A. I got to party right next to Angel's Flight (aka the park where Tom and Summer go in (500) Days of Summer go to sit on benches and play the "penis" game). We also went to the bar where they sing karaoke in that flick. Let's just say I was PUMPED! The only disappointment was that it's not actually a karaoke bar-- much to about 90% of our crowd's dismay. There was a band though and it was fun.

Well I have to get going now... work to be done... classes again tomorrow-- OH and I'm directing our first in-class project-- AWESOME!!!

Hope everyone is doing well-- please feel free to leave me how you're doing in the comments... I'd like to hear from everyone...

"PENIS!" (Sorry Grandma---it's in the movie.)

My First Day of Film School

This is a picture of me on my first day of film school. It resembles the type of picture we used to take every day on the first day of school.

For example, here's one of Julia on her first day of Pre-school (since I don't have any adorable pictures of yours truly. LOL)

It's fun to do these, I recommend it.

On to my day...

I woke up ready to roll. My roommates and I all walked together to our first class, Concepts of Cinematic Production (to which I might refer to as 510). This class is taught by Pablo Frasconi and Tomlison Holman. This class seems like it will teach us all the language of film, production, direction and sound. It involved the entire Spring 2010 class, and we each had to give a 1 minute autobiographical introduction. I almost barfed all over the microphone.

Though I wasn't first or even last, I was incredibly nervous. I am fine with getting in front of people when I'm singing, acting, improvising, giving a speech, answering questions-- sure it makes me nervous, but I get over THAT. This, this was talking about myself!! I can't do that. My statement of purpose took me like 2 months to finally write on paper! I can give you stories about life all day, but if you want me to tell you my accomplishments, I can't just list them... who does that?!

So after my "speech" which involved me plugging my Ingrid Bergman blog and looking like a total idiot in front of everyone (does anyone doubt that I'm the Mary? If you do, feel free to email me because I'd love to hear otherwise. LOL), we watched some film clips and learned some concepts. That was exhausting!

I walked home after class and sat down to eat some lunch, pizza, in front of the television. Now, though this pizza wasn't very good, it was still pizza, which is one of my favorite things on this earth. When I turned the channel, Bewitched was on! Well, what a great way to continue my first day of film school. I'd like to credit Bewitched with my first cognizance of what I wanted to be when I grew up: A witch. Well, once I found out that magic isn't necessarily probable or even possible (and generally creepy) I figured the next best step was learning how to make magic-- aka Film/Television. Signed, sealed, delivered...I'm yours, film.

Watching Bewitched, eating pizza, all after my first film class, could this day get better? Yes.

My other class of the day was a meeting for 507, my Production-1 class. My SA, Dennis, was awesome. He gave us instructions with great detail and was completely on our side. A fantastic reminder of why we pay so much to go here.

The class is filled with people I have come to be friends with and more friends to come. It is also taught by Jim McBride, who is a director and has done many films (if you want to know what, follow the link on his name).

This class was interesting. A little hard to follow at first because Jim is new and we are as well. Once we got going, though, it was fine. It became even better after our 15 minute break. The first film we were analyzing shots of was: Notorious! I was totally geeking out.

This seemed like a sure sign that I am in the right place right now. I mean, for real?!

The day was a great one.

Though I have to end on a sad note. My Aunt Mary passed away last night after a long battle with cancer. Ingrid Bergman once said "Cancer victims who don't accept their own fate, who don't learn to live with it, will only destroy what little time they have left." Aunt Mary wouldn't speak to us about her cancer, she just lived everyday for the best. She was a great supporter of mine and was a huge maternal influence on my Mom and her sisters. We will all miss her very much but it is good to know her suffering is over.

Thank you for reading.