Success!

Divine intervention has prevailed, I was able to add 4 full classes, and I am now officially a college man. (Again.) This is the brightest set of classes I've ever had at a community college, and for the first time ever I'm highly optimistic about the quality of the subject matter, the students & the teachers.

So, first of all I have Intro to Theater, and the first day we walked around the theater & learned what the different aspects of the stage are called. I also got a question answered which I've been wondering for some time...when sent towards a direction on the stage, moving "forwards" towards the audience is termed "down" and moving backwards is termed "up." That never made any sense to me, until it was explained that in days yonder the stage was tilted, so the actors literally were moving "up" or "down"on the stage. So there it is. This class looks great, we're going to be watching a lot of live theater, learning about all the basics of acting, blocking, improv, lights, music, costumes, etc.

The second class is "Multimedia Basics," which started out very promising with a lecture covering design basics, including Gestalt principles. Our first assignment was to divide a piece of white paper using only line under the directions given. We were "supposed" to do thumbnails, but I just jumped in with the pen, my design sense is very intuitive & planning too much tends to water down the power of inspiration. I'll post the results. This class is a beginning overview of multimedia, discovering how the web, audio, film and design all come together to make...."multimedia." Very interesting.

Next on the list is "Intro to Multimedia" which, impressively, offers 2 hours a week of lectures & demonstrations from industry professionals involved with multimedia. There will also be studio visits, and I'm feeling confident that I'll have a strong understanding of the business of multimedia at the end of the semester, with a well defined direction in mind.

The 4th class, and definitely most exciting for me is "Intro to Filmmaking." I've wanted to make movies ever since I saw Labyrinth in at age 5 in 1986, so the opportunity to learn the technical terms for shots & the process of combining filmic elements is very exciting. Not only are we going to learn the terms of filmmaking, but the class actually requires that we make 3 of our own films! I already have my concept set out for the first one...very emotionally intense.

So that's it for now...feeling very optimistic about working towards a job that I love to do that pays me more than 12 grand a year. Everything is working well right now. I love San Francisco...I'm on a 2 year track towards economic prosperity & I don't have a job. Oh wait, I need a job. For food and shelter. Well I don't have to work today, and I have food & shelter, so everything is still going great. :D