Back in either January or February I became attached to an independent feature film entitled “Into the Forest” as an office production assistant. My initial responsibilities were to add friends to the film’s MySpace page. That was about it. Once actual production kicked up, I was spending twelve hours on set, busting my ass for this legit project that was being put on by Full Sail students and a few faculty members. Apparently my hard work was noticed because I was offered two different promotions. One was as a Production Secretary and the other was the 2nd 2nd Assistant Director. I chose Production Secretary because it will offer me the opportunity to learn about becoming a Producer later on in my career. This project is still ongoing, and will continue to force me into ~4 hour sleep sessions a day.

I’m currently taking Intro to Editing and Visual Effects, where I am editing the D.C. project that I wrote and directed last month, and finding numerous things that I will change for my next production. Mostly, it’s issues with continuity.

The other course I’m taking is Documentary Filmmaking, in which my group’s project is currently set to involve a road trip to New Jersey in order to document the teams PMS Clan and Funk That in their pro-gaming competitions. Whether or not the trip will take place is still under consideration, but either way, we are making a documentary short about those two pro-gaming teams. The Manager of both teams is actually a Full Sail student taking the Entertainment Business Online Degree Program. Small world, eh?

Wednesday I found out about another opportunity I had. Rick Ramsey, my D.C. Course Director and one of the key faculty in the Film Program, gave me a call to let me know I had been nominated to go to Dallas in the end of April-beginning of May to attend the 2009 Apple Educators Conference. Only ten Full Sail students would be going, and they had to interview and be approved by Dave Franko, Full Sail’s Film Program Director. I interviewed yesterday, told Dave and his assistant Bobbi that I was good with pretty much everything I had learned up until now, but I was better on camera than I was with Final Cut Pro. I got a call that afternoon saying, “Congratulations, you’ve been chosen!” So I’m going to Dallas in April.

Whew… that’s a lot. I haven’t even gotten into my private time where I am planning out how to produce a couple of shorts I have ideas for. I currently have three full stories, and about two that are 50% there. This year is going to be intense, and like I tell everyone, I love every minute of it.

- Robert

I’m not upset, given that they chose Differences because it was a more difficult to execute script and that’s what they wanted. Now its just a matter of fine tuning the idea into something really good. In it’s current form it strays from a complete script since it gets jumbled and doesn’t connect with an audience. Student filmmakers would go see it just to see other talent, but it’s not where a mainstream audience could connect with it. That’s what I plan to fix. Will the rest of the group go for it, God I hope so.

So aside from writing, I’ll be directing a portion of the short. If I can make at least half of the changes I want to in the script, I feel confident that we can take it to the FilmSlam at the local independent theater, The Enzian, and maybe win. – Side note, I’m going to go see The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky and Mickey Rourke’s new film) tomorrow. It’ll be sick!

That’s all I’ve got as an update for now. I’m still fishing through ideas for Meaningless Sex. I thought I might want to take a more Noir style with it, but that just ended up heading down a path of stupid.

- Robert

There are distractions in this film that I think take away from the good parts. The most notable is in the music track. The music beats sound great at first, with an ethereal type of curiosity it draws you in, but soon after reaching the party, it sounds as if the CD was skipping and the vinyl scratches don’t feel right. At first I thought it might have been the fact that I was streaming the picture, but having watched it a few more times, it’s the way the track was laid.

The other notable distraction is the emptiness or lack of set dressing in the main character’s room. I understand it is supposed to be a college student’s room, and that is the way most of our rooms look, but it didn’t feel right and I’m pretty sure it caused problems with the audio capture.

Those “cons” aside, I did enjoy a number of aspects of this short. I think the acting of A.J. Napoli was very comical in his interpretation of someone going insane. When not paying strict attention to how each shot is lit, I found that the mood was set well. The color was a bit off, but I can’t tell if that was intended or not.

All in all I did enjoy it. I think that if there was more time to firmly lay down the details that this could have been better, but whatever circumstances there were, I still chuckled.

*** (3/5)

“Closet Party” was written, directed, and shot by Richard Cameron White. It was edited by A.J. Napoli, and stars Ryan Bradley, Jay Janoco, and Nathan Ellering. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWmNUKIi1vs to vote for this film.