Fire! Fire!

It has been brought to my attention that some of you are curious about how the fire is affecting our lives over here. Happy to oblige: we can see some smoke in the sky, and last week the air didn’t feel clean. 

Right. Now to talk about video games!

Just kidding, just kidding. In all seriousness, it’s pretty unnerving, even if the fire is moving away from us, and likely to be contained in a week or two. The cloud in the sky was massive a few days ago, especially as one drove north away from USC. People  complained about the air quality, but I have kind of tough lungs, and I didn’t really notice anything. The sky is definitely much clearer today than it has been, though. No argument on that point. Even for Los Angeles, it was hazy around here this past week. And of course, the unbearable heat and thick, dead air only made the problem worse. It was like revenge for the perfect weather we enjoy the rest of the year. 

Yesterday the authorities declared the Station Fire to be an act of arson. An anonymous “chemical” was found near the spark site, and whatever it is makes the people in charge pretty certain that there was foul play involved. This is actually comforting in a weird way, because I like the idea of a person to blame better than fires that just kick into high gear out of nowhere. A cursory glance over the history books (read: Wikipedia) suggests that Northern Cali has more of a problem with this stuff than we do, which surprises me a little, but there you have it. 

I begin shooting my 508 tomorrow, a five-and-a-half minute short film which I write and direct. Mine is a somewhat existential horror film which utilizes some unique shooting methods, and beyond that I will comment no more. It occurs to me that none of you have ever seen a short film I did at this school. Sorry about that, but not without some reason. I like my first project all right, you can probably take a look if you ask nicely, but my Project Two just…didn’t quite get to where I wanted it. Failure in this artistic medium stings more than it should, because you can do so many things right, work so hard for so long, and still end up with a worthless final product. If you write a bad book, you probably knew that crap was coming, but when your movie sucks it’s like betrayal. Also, there’s no real way to know how good your project is while you’re shooting it. Even if you love your dailies, you’re too neck-deep in the process to see what’s really going on until you hit the Avid. Preparation becomes very important.

Needless to say, I’m quite nervous, as we have a few balls in the air still, and my producer and DP are both overworked as it is. I’m learning that making a movie is just a process of stress acceptance: you must embrace that tension is now a part of your life, a constant companion, before you can endeavor to put together motion pictures. Tomorrow, as always, things are delivered into the Lord’s hands for His approval. Here we go.