Author Archives: Alia

Getting Ready To Shoot!

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Just finished my shot list (all 8 pages of it!) for my thesis film. I’m aiming to start shooting on November 6th and be done by the 13th. It really all depends on when/if I get a permit to shoot at the Cloisters. I filled out all the online forms and even paid the $300 application fee, but I haven’t heard back from anyone so I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now. I’m gonna call them tomorrow, hopefully they’ll have a straight answer for me and getting the permit won’t take too long. Other than that, all that’s left to do really is gather extras and sort out food and transportation for everyone. It’s unreal how much progress has been made on the film. A month ago I had an unfinished script, half a cast, no costumes, and no plan. I hope the progression keeps going as fast as it has been over the next couple weeks – November 6th is just around the corner!

I can’t wait until shooting is over, post-production is my absolute favorite part of filmmaking. I love seeing all the result of all the hard work and weaving them together in the editing room. Plus, I’m taking an After Effects class so I can’t wait to implement all the cool stuff I’m learning on the footage. This is so exciting!

I can’t believe it’s been 10 years.

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I was 11-years-old in my sixth grade art class when I heard about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. A the time I only knew the World Trade Center as the Twin Towers, so I didn’t grasp the true horror of the situation until my brother came to get my sisters and I and we passed the principle office, full of children whose parents worked at the World Trade Center crying hysterically. I’ll never forget that monstrous cloud of smoke hovering over the city and my brother, who is always composed, grabbing his head in shock and repeating “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god” over and over again. And that smell – it’s indescribable but every New Yorker who was living here at the time knows it well. When we got home, before we could open the door my mom swung the door open, sobbing, and said, “I saw it fall.” But the worst part was turning on the news that night and seeing footage of civilians in Afghanistan dancing in the streets. I will never ever forget the image of an Afghani citizen holding a sign that read, “Afghanistan is the most beautiful graveyard for Americans.” That was the first moment in my life where I felt true, seething hatred – I could feel it in my very bones.

But in the end, the terrorists lost. Ultimately 9/11 brought America together. American flags were everywhere, and I remember seeing a man on the news who would stand over a tunnel every day waving a big flag as cars passed. Despite all this animosity between political parties and whatnot, every year on this day everyone puts those issues aside and remember those who made the supreme sacrifice 10 years ago, and we remember we are one nation and we are strong.

I was unbelievably fortunate that I didn’t lose anyone close to me on that day, but as I watch the reading of the names on the news, I can’t help but feel like I did. 3,000 of them. I hope they can all finally rest in peace.

Senior Year

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In less than a month I start my senior year of college. This is so fucking unreal. I’m frantically trying to get ready for my thesis film, which I’ll hopefully shoot in October. I held auditions for the lead on Saturday but there were so many people who sent in resumes I have to hold a second round of auditions on Thursday. It’s exciting, but I’m really nervous about getting everything ready in time to shoot. Luckily the budget (which is around $18,000) is workable since I just received half tuition remission (about $16,000) and raised $2,000, so I’m not going to bankrupt myself like I thought I would. But still, I have to be careful. The cost could easily go up.

The next big step is going to be finding costumes and gathering a special effects team. I was considering renting costumes from Warner Bros, but if I can find an affordable costume designer that could work as well.

Google+

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I gotta admit, when I first heard about Google+ I was really skeptical and thought it was just Google’s lame response to Facebook. While it is Google’s response to Facebook, it’s definitely not lame. I find it to be the perfect marriage between Tumblr and Facebook, which, to me, is fucking epic! The only downside is that there are hardly any people on it right now, so it’s kind of useless. But I’m trying to get as much people as I can on it, ’cause when it catches on, I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone abandoned their Facebooks!

Right now I think you still have to be invited to Google+, but I’m happy to invite whoever – just leave me your email. And spread the word! 🙂

Thesis & Business

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To say the past month has been stressful would be an understatement. I finished a first draft of my thesis screenplay (based on a few epic Norse myths), but it was turned down by my school largely because it was perceived as “too big” for a student. Needless to say, I was pretty fucking bummed. I basically did nothing but sit around and mope for three days. But I spoke to my advisor and after some convincing, we came to a compromise – I’m going to take a small segment of the current script and develop it into a 10-15 minute piece that can then be used to fundraise to make the film it its entirety after I graduate. I’m glad this whole thing’s been sorted out, but now I have to write another script. Granted it’ll be shorter, but writing is just not my thing and I’m kinda burnt out from writing the 30 page original script, so I’m really not looking forward to banging out another one. :/

I also got the official LLC documents for VuduPins Productions today – as of June 27th, 2011 we’re finally legit! Next week I’m gonna set up a bank account for it and everything. I never thought I’d have my own business, let alone at 21. This is so exciting!

Please Help!

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I’m finally starting production (or plan to) on the film I’ve wanted to do since the tenth grade – a film based on the epic Norse myths. But being such a large-scale fantasy film and also being a student, I need a little help with the budget. Any help would be immensely appreciated! No amount is too small and trust me, it’s going to a great cause! Please go here or click the image below.

Summer

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Turns out I really like my job! Although I dropped one of my two summer classes, partly because it was too stressful juggling a job, two three hour classes that meet twice a week, and an independent study at the same time, and also because the class just wasn’t for me. It was called Radical Lit, and the teacher was nice and everything but I found out the class was basically gonna be one big “here’s a list of everything America is doing wrong and how they’re singlehandedly destroying the world” class. I went to the United Nations International School from kindergarten to 12th grade. I had to hear how horrible Americans are for 13 years (that place has the WORST case of reverse-racism I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been all over the world!), I really don’t want to sit through eight weeks of that shit again. I get it, America has lots of problems (ahem, Sarah Palin), but you show me a country that doesn’t. If you despise America so much, why don’t you just fucking leave? Go to fucking Canada or something. Okay, I’m gonna stop here before this turns into an angry tirade.

Anyway, it’s looking like my summer is gonna be a good one, even though my family’s plans of going back to South Africa in August may fall through. :/ Well, at least I’ll be able to spend more time on my thesis film. Speaking of which, I made a post on the VuduPins Productions blog about its progress. Don’t let that fool you though – I’m in no way out of the woods yet. I’m still struggling to find a way to adapt these myths in a cohesive and doable way. My professors still think it’s too big for a thesis film and they really want me to do ROOTS WITHOUT END instead, but I’m just not feeling that script, not as my thesis film. I can’t do my thesis on something my heart isn’t in. My only option is to find a way to make this Norse myth adaptation work. Thankfully I have great friends helping me out and an awesome mentor that I’ve known since high school or maybe even middle school. I think I’ve made some progress on the script’s outline, when I see my mentor in a few days I’ll see what he thinks. Fingers crossed!