That time of the semester...

I spoke to two students yesterday who were at different levels of desperation in requesting extensions.

One of them didn't have any legitimate reason. He's just struggling to come up with the topic for his major production assignment (a short film) in my directing class. So, what's the thinking here? I should just allow you to use 'creatively blocked' as an excuse when everyone else is expected to turn their film in on time?

I was about to go into more detail here, but it's too depressing. Depressing isn't the right word. Annoying. This part of being a teacher drives me crazy. If you want to do well in my classes, if it's THAT important to you (and they all say it is), then give it the attention it deserves sooner.

So, the film is in a brief period of 'stasis' right now. The picture is essentially locked (though, you know, I know the combination to the lock, and I will likely open that lock at some point, but for the moment it's not changing). Bringing the original HD footage in to the EDL (edit decision list) will take some time (especially because HD production students are in post on their final projects now, tying up the edit suite). Sound editing is in process. So I'm not doing a whole lot myself, which means my anxiety level is back up.

This is my 'creative anxiety level' (CAL). My CAL goes up when I feel like I'm not doing anything creatively. I'm not working on a script right now. I'm not doing creative work on the film. I am, in fact, waiting to hear back from film festivals. Waiting is excruciating.

And with Withoutabox.com, which I mentioned in a previous post, I can actually verify when film fests have received the preview screening tape/dvd. They actually go online and indicate somehow that the tape is logged in. And my screen shows a little green dot instead of a little red dot next to 'tape arrived'. Which is nice. It's nice to be able to verify that.

But for someone like me, it also makes me antsy. Ready to hear back. These things are lengthy processes, though. So I should just be moving on to other things. But there's a lot of work to be done for classes, and my brain just isn't ready to tackle a creative project from scratch. I need some time for that.

In any case, that's where my head is today. In addition to being 'out to fests,' the film is also out to a few key people who might like it (one hopes) and who might then review it positively for certain web outlets (you know who you are!). So I'm hoping to get some good buzz going, assuming the reviews are positive. And maybe that good buzz will translate into festival appearances or other good things for the film.