I know I poorly explained the film projects we make during our film school experience before, but I think I have a better idea of how everything fits into the next two years (my class, the first year BFAs, graduate Fall 2008).
F1 – Fall 06 – These are done, as I’ve posted about previously. They were our first ‘official’ short film shot on Mini DV with the Canon XL1
F3 BTL – Fall 06 to Spring 07 – The second years are making their F3s, but the crews are substantially bigger, requiring us first years to do Below the Line jobs for their shows. Future posts to be focused on what we do and what BTL means. It’s a two-day shoot with 1600 feet of film.
F2 – Spring 07Â – These are the projects no one talks about. It’s basically an exercise to get us used to working with film and acting. I believe it’s a half day shoot with an assigned location and the scene is a conversation between two people, with the actors being from the other track ((Yes, tracks. I realized that was never explained. The first year class has 30 students split up into two tracks. These were predetermined before we got here, but we re-track at the end of Spring 07, which should make for a very long day.)). Not much creative freedom with these, as you can see, but the main reason no one likes it is because they’ll have to suffer watching my bad acting.
Documentary – Summer Spring/Summer 07 – Not too sure on the specifics here. I know we are rejoined with our old XL1 pals and I believe the maximum runtime is 10 7 minutes, but you can pair up with someone to extend it to 20 12 minutes.
Thesis BTL – Summer 07 – We revisit our old BTL jobs one last time for the Thesis films of the second years (or they could be third years and we’re the second years). Now it’s a three-day shoot with 2000 feet of film.
F3 ATL – Fall 07 to Spring 08 – As you can see the cycle starts all over again, but this time we’re in the hot seat doing the Above the Line jobs. I assume once we’re done, while the new first years are doing their F2s we’ll be in post.
Thesis – Summer 08 – Again, this is our time to shine. For some this could be the last film they ever direct and it’s definitely the time for everyone to make their calling card for the professional world. If directing isn’t your shtick, then you can give up your film and join with someone else to double all the alloted goods – 6 days, 4000 feet, longer run time – and do what you want to do for a career, say DP.
Graduation – Fall 08 – Welcome to the real (or reel ((Sorry, since I had one bad reference why not have two bad jokes))) world.
Of course I could be totally off with this schedule, or the curriculum could change. The MFAs (graduate students) have a similar schedule, but it’s over two years and it’s D1s, D2s, D3s, Thesis ((The ‘F’ stands for Filmmaking and the ‘D’ for Directing. Don’t know why undergrads are filmmakers and the grads are only directors.)).
