#class blogs

Owls are totally my spirit animal.

I can’t really explain why or how, but about five years ago I became obsessed with owls. I wouldn't consider myself obsessed anymore, but they’re still my favorite animal by a mile. There’s something about them that appeals to me. Of course I think they’re adorable (who doesn’t?) but I also think cats and penguins and puppies are adorable. However, with this post being prompted, I think I’ve finally realized why I love owls so much. They’re my spirit animal.

For example, they often get angry for the strangest and most silly of reasons:

And then there’s the fact that most of the time, they look either really shocked:

Or ticked off:

Or just 584% done with absolutely everything and everyone in the universe:

They also completely freak out about everything.

…Even when it isn’t something worth freaking out over.

And in general, they’re just giant dorks.

However, despite their tiny and adorable brand of aggression, owls are more well known for being the wise ones in the animal kingdom. In cartoons they’re always the mentor figure that all of the other characters go to for advice that changes their lives and helps them see their circumstances in a new way.

Now, I may not be that person in real life, but I would like to be. Wisdom is far from being something I possess, but I have curiosity and a willingness to learn and change until I attain it. I want to be the steady person people can rely on for a level-headed and much-needed fresh perspective.

There’s also the fact that owls are ferociously territorial. This is something I definitely possess. You mess with my people or my stuff, you are going down. I’m not really good at showing how much I care about someone or something up until it’s threatened, but at that point I’m going to defend it with everything I’ve got.

Lastly, owls are loners. They either live alone or in pairs most of the time. As an introvert, that’s unquestionably one of my personal characteristics. I prefer being alone to being with people 95% of the time, and people who manage to make me enjoy their company more than I enjoy being along are extremely rare. (I’ve only come across a handful in my lifetime so far.) Like an owl, I’m content doing my own thing, I don’t feel the need to have people around me constantly.

Listen.

Listen.

This movie? This big, stupid, glorious action movie about giant robots punching giant monsters in the face? This movie is awesome.

This movie looked at the dark, gritty cynicism disguised as “realism” that Hollywood has been spitting out all too frequently for my taste lately and said “Nah, let’s not do that.” Despite being a movie with an apocalyptic storyline that could easily get bogged down with pessimism, it showcases the best parts of humanity: our courage, our unity, and above all else our hope. For that alone I love it.

But beyond that, this movie is incredible on a technical level. It has great characters who get their own individual arcs and shining moments, a solid storyline that moves along with the perfect blend of action and plot development, Oscar-worthy sound design (I’m still bitter about the lack of nominations), shiny special effects, well thought-out visual storytelling, and an original score that makes both the film and everyday tasks like laundry or cleaning exactly 76% more epic. (Scientific fact, seriously.)

I dare you to listen to that and not feel ready to take on the world. I dare you.

For some reason, despite everything working in its favor, Pacific Rim didn’t even earn back its budget domestically. The worldwide gross more than made up for it, but American audiences weren’t enthusiastic about it.

But why?

This movie has everything. I mean, I think we’ve all always wanted to see a giant human-piloted robot use a freighter as baseball bat.

Just me? Really? Oh.

Despite the cool action sequences, all of which made me bounce in my seat when I saw this movie in theaters last summer, I love Pacific Rim because of its heart. What loops me into any story, regardless of the medium, are the characters. I would argue that the characters are the strongest part of this film, as opposed to many other popcorn action flicks where they’re the weakest. (Looking at you, Godzilla.) 

However, due to the time and thought screenwriter Travis Beacham and director Guillermo del Toro put into developing this film, these characters and the world they live in become real. It’s my kind of realism, because I can identify with the ideas and themes behind the story through the characters’ eyes, even if that story is essentially a live-action anime.

You can never have too much pre-production when working on a film. Never. It's a vital part of the the filmmaking process, and without proper planning even a movie with the best script, cast, and crew in the world is going to fail miserably.

Breaking down the script and creating breakdown sheets are one of the main parts of pre-production. Breakdown sheets condense the production elements of each scene into a grid so that they can be quickly and easily referenced for budgeting and scheduling purposes.

While it sounds complicated, breaking down a script is actually a fairly easy process. Software such as Movie Magic Scheduling exists to make it more efficient, but breakdowns can be done manually through a simple set of steps.

To break down a script, you will need:

A paper copy of the most recent version of your script. (In this example, I'm using the original script for A Blue Mug.)

Writing utensils in orange, black, green, brown, pink, purple, yellow, red, and blue, plus a plain pen or pencil. I use markers for the colors. (And a pink colored pencil because the package didn't come with a pink marker. Lame.) You could use highlighters or colored pencils, whatever you have on hand.

Printed copies of breakdown sheets. I have a giant stack of them left over from a production I did over the summer, but I would use this template if I needed to print out more.

Access to some type of word processing software + that same template.

Patience.

Step 1: Read the script thoroughly. It helps to be familiar with the content so you can focus on the details when you start highlighting.

Step 2:

Number the scenes in the script, if they aren't already numbered. Some will be, some will not. This one technically was, because when I wrote and formatted the script I knew I would be the one breaking it down so I made things easier on myself. However, my printer decided it didn't want to print the numbers properly so I had to number the scenes anyway.

What constitutes as a new scene? Anytime there's a new slug line. I.e., "EXT. SUBURBAN HOUSE - EVENING" or "INT. POLICE DEPARTMENT HALLWAY - MORNING". Every slug line should be accompanied by a number, even if the scene it precedes is only a few lines long. 

Step 3:

Break every page of the script into 8ths. One page is 8/8ths of a page, and every scene on the page takes up a certain portion of those 8/8ths. So if a scene takes up half the page, it's 4/8ths, but if it takes up a tiny portion of the page it's 1/8th. It depends on how much space each scene takes up.

This is done to accurately estimate how long a scene will run and how long it will take to shoot. For example, you should shoot seven scenes in a day, if they were all 2/8ths of a page and didn't have any production elements that would consume a lot of time on set. However, some scenes may run longer than a page so they could be, for example, 2 and 3/8th pages. In this case, you could perhaps only shoot two scenes in a day. Scheduling relies on a combination of page count and knowledge of production elements, which is why breakdown sheets are so important.

To break the script into 8ths, draw lines between each scene as you see in the picture. Then, look at how much space each scene is taking up and write the page count in 8ths next to each scene. This can be done by either your own estimation, or you can use a ruler.

If you have a scene longer than one page, or a scene that spills over onto two pages, count how many 8ths it is total (you may have to use a mixed number such as 1 and 5/8) and put that at the beginning of the scene. As you can see on the page above, scene 5 spills over onto the next page of the script. There are 2/8ths on this page and 4/8ths on the next, so I put 6/8ths at the top of the scene, in addition to marking 2/8ths and 4/8ths on the pages it occupies.

Step 4:

I consider this to be the most fun part of the breakdown. You get to make everything colorful.

Colors and certain symbols have special meanings in a breakdown script, and having everything highlighted makes it easier to transfer all the needed information to your breakdown sheets. The meanings of the colors and symbols are:

Red - Cast. Any characters with speaking roles in the scene.

Orange - Stunts. Any intense physical action.

Yellow - Extras/silent bits. Any characters that serve a specific purpose in the scene, but have no speaking roles.

Green - Extras/atmosphere. Any characters that exist only to fill in the background of the scene, like pedestrians or partygoers.

Blue - SFX. Anything in the script that requires special effects, either practical or visual.

Purple - Props. Any prop specifically mentioned in the script.

Pink - Vehicles/animals. Any vehicle or animal specifically mentioned in the script.

Circle - Wardrobe. Any wardrobe specifications detailed in the script.

Asterisk - Hair/makeup. Any hair or makeup directions specified in the script.

Brown - Sound effects/music. Anything that requires a specific sound effect or music cue within the scene.

Box - Special equipment. Anything in the script that would require equipment that might not normally be on set, such as a Steadicam, a fog machine, etc.

Go through your script page by page and mark any of these categories with their proper color or symbol. Each individual item only needs to be marked once per scene, so you don't need to mark the main character's name in red every time they speak - only the first time the speak in each scene. 

You may want to go through the script once with each individual color or symbol, just to make sure you don't miss anything important.

Step 5:

Now you transfer all that information onto your breakdown sheets. I prefer to do handwritten sheets first, and then transcribe them into a digital format, but you can go straight to digital if you prefer.

Breakdown sheets are made by labeling things and putting them in boxes, which makes them every neat freak's dream. The information at the top - title, scene number, date, etc. - is all self-explanatory. Then you fill in the grid with the items you already marked in your script.

There is one extra category on the grid, which is production notes. This is anything that doesn't fit into one of the other categories, but it still relevant information that the crew needs to be aware of. For example, on this scene I put down that we needed to go over blocking with the cast beforehand, because I knew the scene would be a one-take Steadicam shot and would require a lot of coordination in order to work. This takes time on set, so I had to make sure it was marked down so we could schedule the shoot accordingly.

Again, I prefer to handwrite all my breakdown sheets before I make a digital copy to send to the crew, but that's preference. Once the digital copy of the breakdown sheets is complete with all the information from the script, you're done with the script breakdown! That is...until the script gets revised, and you have to do the first 4 steps all over again and tweak the details in the 5th.

To contradict the title right off the bat, my favorite band isn't really a band. The Rocket Summer is comprised solely of Bryce Avary, one of the most talented people I've ever encountered and someone I'm more than a little jealous of. His music is best described as infectious, it gets inside my head and my heart with its incredible melodies and thoughtful lyrics. I've never quite been able to pick a favorite song of his, but this is the one I identify with most at the moment.

Up next is Code Name: Raven by House of Heroes. I stumbled across these guys a few years ago when I had some money to burn on iTunes and and this album is a purchase I've never regretted. The End is Not the End is very, very close to perfect. Something about it just clicks in a way that House of Heroes' other offerings don't, as much as I still love them. This is hands-down my favorite song of theirs. It stands out, even among the rest of the songs on this nearly flawless album. 

Third is Anberlin's Paperthin Hymn. Trying to narrow down my favorite Anberlin song is like trying to pick a favorite internal organ because they've been a solid band since their debut and they've only gotten better with time. However, they're breaking up, so I decided to get nostalgic with a bit of a throwback. This song is from their second album. Stephen Christian, the lead vocalist, is the standard I hold all male vocalists to and this song really showcases his voice. 

I got into Switchfoot later than most, since it wasn't until Hello Hurricane came out that I began to listen to them regularly and not until the release of Vice Verses that I began to consider them one of my favorite bands. I eventually circled back around to their earlier albums like The Beautiful Letdown, which everyone else on the planet got sick of 5 years ago. However, I still favor their newer music because it was the first music of theirs I had more than passing exposure to. This track in particular is my favorite of theirs.

I don’t typically miss people.

I’m pragmatic to a fault. It’s unusual for me care enough about someone that they can hurt me simply by not being around for an extended period of time, especially if I can still talk to them and know that I’ll see them again. I have to be incredibly close with someone in order to miss them.

However, the person I miss the most is someone I’ve never met.

Her name is Melodie. She lives in Ohio with her two sons. She’s a project manager for a telephone company, a job which she describes as telling people what to do and getting paid for it. She’s going for her B. A. in communications, although she’s had to take a break from school until she can afford to take more classes.

She may seem like an unlikely figure to have affected my life so deeply, but there have been times when the mere mention of her brought me to tears. I see echoes of her in my everyday life and the fictional narratives I love. Things she did twenty years ago influence the decisions I make and thoughts I have today.

You see, she’s my birth mother.

I’ve never not known that I was adopted. It was a fact of my existence that my adoptive parents never made an effort to hide from me. Ever since I was little, they’ve told me the story of how I became their daughter. They’ve told me about a young girl named Melodie who got pregnant at seventeen, and gave her child up for adoption because she couldn’t take care of it. 

I only had a few pictures of Melodie when I was growing up. I would hold them up as I looked in a mirror and try to find something of myself in her dark hair, blue eyes, sharp cheekbones, and full lips. I still haven’t, but I keep the pictures on the shelf I look at every day anyway. 

The pictures remind me that there’s a reason I feel the ache of missing someone who always should have been a part of my life. They remind me that there’s a reason for my trust and abandonment issues, because even the healthiest of adoptions cause trauma. 

They remind me that somewhere in Ohio there is a woman who dearly loves me and has missed me just as much as I’ve missed her.

Studio C - Five Day Weather Forecast

Towards the end of basic, most mass com students discover just how extraordinarily easy it is to make fun of the news. With generic packages, cheesy graphics, and technical flubs, there’s a nonstop supply of laughable things that we see in local news every day. In addition to the news being funny just because it’s the news, a YouTube search of “news bloopers” will lead to hilarious teleprompter miscues, unfortunate graphics placement, and poorly timed expletives caught on air.