So I am finally looking at going to school to fill in the area's that I am missing and the first thing that I have to do is see what is available. I always start something like this at the top. The best most expensive schools is where I go first, that way if I give the myself the chance at least to "get lucky" and maybe somebody at one of the huge college's out here will give me a break. Not-a-chance, did not even come close. Although I had a nice visit with the department head at North Western, I could not even afford the trip to go out to the campus a second time let along take one class there. Also at the time the economy was horrendous.
That leaves community college, and that is ok with me. I've been to other community colleges before, for the most part they where a pleasant experience. So I set out to check out the campus that was closest to me and ended up at College of Dupage.
Unfortunately for me I was too late in the term to start taking classes, but I registered as a student and got all the information that I could.
Then I thought to myself that it would be a good idea to goto the film department and see what kind of resources I was going to have to work with. Now at this time I was still working on "Dead Thursday" but things where not looking good. So, when I went to the department I started asking questions and I was eventually sent to a professor named John Rangel. I have to say that from the first time I met Professor Rangel he did nothing but inspire me to be confident in my ability as a film maker. Professor Rangel is a film maker himself and at the time was in post production on an independent feature himself. He is only a few years older then me so we are able to discuss things that where relevant to each other experience in the industry.
Ok now that all of the set up is done here is the really exciting stuff.
Professor Rangel introduced me to several resources that have since changed how I do business.
1. Celtx the program that I use right now that is free and is some of the most intuitive film relevant software I have ever used. It is mostly for script writing but can be used to do break-downs and story boarding, and shot blocking and the best part is that it is all free.
www.celtx.com download it NOW!
2. IMDBPro, this has become an invaluable resource for me in gathering information about what is going on in the industry and for building my resume'. It stands for "Internet Movie Data Base"Professional.
www.imdbpro.com
3. This is one I would never have guess but it has been and continues to be the best networking tool I have ever had. Signing up to be an "extra" on the different films that have come to the area. Really this is a no brainer, get paid $65.00/8 hours plus overtime and be on a "Studio" feature film set. Which of course is going to shoot longer than 8 hours.
The people that you meet on set you bond with and for the most part if you keep doing it what you discover is this entire sub-culture of film people that are in and around the industry at every single level you can imagine.
After the first meeting with Prof. Rangel I felt like I had another great resource. I also did everything he said to the best of my ability. Over the next 6 weeks he traded emails with me, put up with my insane phone messages, and gave me the time-of-day at his office. All of this and I had yet to take one class.
During this time "Dead Thursday" ended, not how anyone wanted but it did. The last I heard the Director/Writer Joshua Kulic is still attempting to sell the script as far as I know. Also as far as I know it is still a great project for anyone out there looking for a "dark comedy". I wish Josh and anybody associated with that project the best of luck.
After that happened I had only one thing left on my mind "What do I do now, and what difference will community college film school be able to make?"
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