Whenever an email regarding another episode of "Life After Film School" pops up in my inbox, I immediately get pumped. It's not only an opportunity to get to meet and interview amazing filmmakers, but it's also a chance to laugh and catch up with my fellow student hosts and re-experience being on the other side of the camera.
One of the really cool things about "Life After Film School" has been getting to know the other film students from different universities around Los Angeles. The USC film program is a tight knit community, but we don't get to venture out much to meet other kids who love film and happen to be pursuing the same avenue as us. Through this show, I have had the privilege to meet several film students from schools such as UCLA, AFI, and Chapman. We are all outgoing, personable, fun people and each time we come together there are new stories to share. It's cool hearing what everyone is up to and I know these are people that I will continue to have relationships with in the future as we all head out into the entertainment industry.
It's been a while since my thespian days, and getting the opportunity to perform again always comes with a combination of fear and excitement. It's easy to underestimate actors and what they go thru. But let me tell you, it isn't easy memorizing lengthy monologues and pages of dialogue! You can know all your lines backwards and forewords in rehearsals, but when the cameras start rolling, the pressure is really on and it can become quite challenging. One of the toughest things that I'm sure we all take for granted is SMILING. I don't think I ever realized how many muscles it takes to smile. After about 45 minutes, my face begins to feel numb and I start forgetting how to smile....and it becomes a challenge to mold my mouth into a shape that doesn't look incredibly awkward! So yes, actors, I very much respect what you do and how you do it. Keep up the good smiles workout!
Now that I've droned on about the less obvious joys of the show, I would like to talk a little bit about my time with Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson. It was an enjoyable show and both had great insight into the inner-workings of film production. One of my favorite things that was said was Brad's advice to "
Get in the room with people whose jobs you want to have someday." Always be there watching and learning from your superiors. Be attentive, enthusiastic, and most importantly--be likeable and you will rise thru the ranks quickly. I loved this advice because as I've matured I've realized and accepted that I'm not going to start at the top. I'm going to have to "pay my dues" as they put it....and I think I'm okay with that--as long as I am at a company that I'm enthusiastic about and love the work they are doing, I will be happy performing mundane tasks such as grabbing coffee and taking phone calls.
Nina and Brad both spoke about the importance of learning. Some movies are going to work, some will fail, some will never see the light of day, while others will go on to become surprise hits.
Regardless of how a film performs, it is always a learning experience--an opportunity to take away valuable something. Brad spoke of an elderly director he had collaborated with who was still working in his 80s! Brad's reasoning for this was that the director had never stopped learning and evolving. He was constantly asking what, how, and why. He was interested in learning about social media and wasn't narrow-minded, despite being at an age where learning about newfangled things could seem daunting. This goes to show that learning doesn't stop with graduation. In actuality, life is all a learning experience--and you are never too old to stop gaining knowledge.
While discussing
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, I asked Brad and Nina about their experiences working with a cast made up almost entirely of children. They both smiled--it's clear the event evoked fond sentiments. They told us that the energy on set was contagious;
there is a tendency among adults to become jaded by movie-making, but kids are a totally different story. They all felt so incredibly lucky to be there. After all, they were getting to inhabit characters from a series that they themselves and all their friends had read and loved! Brad and Nina shared an occasion in which the little boy who plays Raleigh came to set one day to find that they were going to be wearing aprons in the scene. He loudly went running to his dad--"Dad! DAD! We get to wear aprons today!!!" His joy over such a seemingly silly costuming item had the whole crew rolling over laughing and brought smiles to their faces for hours. Kids have an innate power to subtly lighten the mood and remind grown ups of the simple pleasures in all of our lives--such as aprons :).
