I returned to the San Francisco Bay Area today from Los Angeles. Between bar hopping and clubbing in Santa Monica with my friend Jon, picking up girls, and watching THE GRADUATE outdoors in a giant cemetery with over 1000 other people, I managed to find a studio apartment in West LA. This is a well centralized location in terms of where a lot of the film industry is. I need to be close to the action in order to maximize my exposure, not to mention minimize my commuting time in LA’s infamous traffic. Besides, from what I’ve seen, when you’re near the coast, the weather is cooler and yet the girls are hotter. I’ll definitely be taking advantage of both.

I’m moving on July 11th. I’m going to miss the hell out of the Bay Area.

My latest cinematic exercise, FLIRT, is finished, and I think it turned out pretty well. I’m especially happy with the script, the acting, and the music.

It’s hard to believe it’s been seven months since my last completed film. Part of it’s my fault, but another part, finding the right actress, was more difficult and time consuming than it should have been. In the end, I did find the right actress. Elizabeth did a great job.

I’m driving to LA tomorrow for a few days to check out apartments. I’ll be staying at my friend Jon’s place. I got laid off yesterday from my job at the college, after working there for four years. It’s not a big deal since I was going to quit and move to LA in September anyway. Now I get to do it three months earlier.

It’s funny how some people are more worried about me than I am. They’re terrified of the idea of being unemployed in this economy, and they’re wondering why I have a smile on my face. I’m pursuing my passion down a rough road, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’ve reached the finer stages of the edit, cutting or adding frames here and there, trying to get the flow and rhythm right. And I’ve recovered from the shock of seeing myself in a close-up in high definition (“Damn! So that’s what I look like!”).

I think the performances came out well, especially since this is the first time Elizabeth and I are acting in front of the camera. The audience will have to be the final judge though, because I really can’t tell anymore. I have no objectivity left. At this point I can’t tell the difference between this film and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The sound edit has been easy; I’m surprised and relieved at how little noise from the event outside the library got into the audio track. Being extra careful with the microphone placement paid off. I learned my lesson on my last film TWISTED ROOMMATES, which had completely unusable sound due to bad mic technique. That’s why I drowned out that film in a rock song.

I should have a final cut by this weekend. Then I’ll decide whether I’m going to score the film. Since it’s all dialog based, music might not be necessary.

I arrived at the college library around 7:30 AM. A weekend camp was using the campus for some kind of event, and they were setting up in the quad right outside the library. The security guy told me that they were going to get loud. Great. I chose to shoot on Sunday thinking it would be quiet. I was prepared to reschedule if it got too noisy but hoped I didn't have to.

Elizabeth arrived around 8:30, I gave her a few final notes on the script and we dove right in. The event outside was sporadically loud, but I brought the microphone in real close to get a strong signal. Like all my previous films, I was pretty much doing everything myself, except this time I was also acting. Hey, I have to challenge myself. If I bite off more than I think I can chew, I'll have no choice but to chew it. Chew it or choke on it.

When setting up shots that I was supposed to be in, I had to run back and forth from behind the camera to in front of it to properly frame myself. Elizabeth was also my stand in, though more for focusing than framing since she's shorter than I am. Once we were ready for a take, I used the camera remote to start recording, and after saying "cut", I played back the take to make sure it turned out okay. I knew this method would slow us down, so I had scheduled a full day even though the script is only four pages of mostly dialog. One thing I didn’t have to worry about was lighting. The overhead fluorescent lights gave a soft, even light that fit the film just fine.

We finished by 1:30 PM. It took less than five hours. I was pretty tired when I got home, and the last thing I wanted to do was look at the footage, but I had to see what it looked like. Were the shots in focus and properly exposed? What about the sound? I watched the raw footage on my HDTV. It looked pretty good. This is only my fourth film with the Panasonic HVX200A, and I'm still learning to get the most out of it, but so far I'm really impressed by the level of detail and the rich colors it captures. I'll start the edit tomorrow.

The last couple of weeks I've been rehearsing FLIRT with my co-star Elizabeth. We ran through the script numerous times, making sure we listened and reacted truthfully to each other. Doing this not only helped us find our characters but it also showed me which lines didn’t work, and after each session I would rewrite and polish the dialog while it was still fresh in my ear. We're shooting tomorrow at the library. Should be a fun and valuable experience.