It's partly because of the music I'm listening to, and now that I have finished my first precalc test. The song is Mr. Blue Sky by ELO, who if you haven't heard of/heard this song, it's fucking fantastic. I sang it in a video, a weather forecast I once put out. When I was still a part of West High News, the class I now teach, I made a forecast, because every news program should have a weather forecast. It had more entertainment value than factual value, but I did give accurate (I copied and averaged several weather sites) temperatures for the upcoming week. The entertainment came from the funky voice(s) I did, some of which were paired with a theme. One time, I decided to sing the beginning of the aforementioned song, due to its relation to the forecast. With the strange voice, it has become one of the few memorable videos, especially since my friends mock me when they hear it too. I don't mind, it's still funny.
I sit where I normally sit at this time of day, every Monday and Wednesday. I have over an hour break between classes and I don't have a car so I can't go home. I get a ride in the morning and take the bus home. My morning class is precalc, four days a week. We've learned three chapters in three weeks, and now, being the fourth, it's about time we had a test. I feel good about this one. Normally I struggle with the pressure of time, but that's usually do to my lack of knowledge on the problem at hand. It's a common problem in previous years of math, but today it went well. After the test, I was unsure about the last question, and when I reviewed my notes, I noticed I missed something, but it was a small part that didn't affect too much of the rest. I accept that, so I'm still proud that I did as well as I did with the rest.
After class I spilled/dropped my coffee thermos. There was some in it but it had a lid on so not much got out. Now there's a coffee stain in front of the new building, so in a good way, I have forever left my mark at this school.
That's certainly not going to ruin my day though. It's warm and getting warmer, and I like that. When I get a chance, I'll take a nap in the sun.
Last week I started a new project, a final project, in my TV/teaching class. But first, a little backstory: Every year in that class, the students are assigned a final video project that they must write, produce, film, and edit individually. That's a key word, because this year, that's what's changing. I pitched the idea to the teacher and he seemed to accept it rather quickly. Not instantaneous, considering he asked the class what they thought of this idea. They accepted, and so did he. I therefore proceeded with my intended lesson plan, which focused only on building a character. Let me explain what I've learned from experience and within a couple film classes:
Story
Story
Story
Conflict
Conflict
Conflict
Do you follow? These are the most important aspects to a quality production. One of my teachers, who taught me this, is a producer. In that class, we recently had to pitch our ideas for a feature/short/tv show/etc to the class and she would comment on what to do and what we're doing wrong during the presentation.
I'm not here to tell you, or my class, how to pitch a story, but I am here to say what makes a story worth "buying" (if you, for example, were a producer). No, not really, I'm not going to tell you all about it, but if you want to know these important things I know, magically be in my class or ask me personally.
What I concluded on my own were these three principles:
If there's no story, there's nothing to watch.
If there are no conflicts, there's no story.
If there's no character, there are no conflicts.
By the way, "character" is an adjective here, not a noun. Characters must have character, if that helps.
Therefore, the first lesson I started with in class was to define the character. When you go see a movie, you go to see a character do something. And I'm not talking about movies you go see because of explosions and shiny robots. You watch a movie about someone doing something, right? Right! So as a filmmaker, you focus on the character first. The character defines the conflicts, which defines the story. The progression of the character through the conflicts is what makes the story/the movie worth watching.
This is reading between the lines. This is what I think filmmakers do, or should, think about. That way regular people can enjoy the movie for the sake of entertainment.
Oh! Entertainment! That's point #1. People watch movies to be entertained. Even if you have an amazing character with stellar conflicts and a passionate story, if it's boring as fuck, no one's going to watch it. It sounds like common sense to create something fun and meaningful or dramatic, but the gap between idea and execution is an awfully big one.
And sometimes people just don't care about your topic. You can't please everyone. Basically know/be aware of your audience.
Back to what I taught last Friday. It wasn't so much as teaching, as it was brainstorming. I introduced them to the above ideas and concepts, and from there we started generating characteristics. They raised their hands to submit ideas, then when had a list, we narrowed it down and defined the specific characteristics we agreed on.
Right now, this character doesn't have a name. She is a she. I think that a name represents a character, but does not define the character. I want to have the character defined first, and then choose a name that represents her. That make sense?
But of course, this is the class's project. I set guidelines and say "No murders or the use of guns" and things like that to keep it school appropriate, but I don't define the characters or story. My input is self-limited, meaning I want them to create, and only help out if they need it.
Next week, I plan to address the following characteristics: age, location(s), goals, and conflicts. The antagonist, because I say so, must be an inanimate object of their choosing. They must personify whatever it is. Once that's all discussed, their homework is to come up with names, fitting for the character.
I'm looking forward to the day that we have enough details to tell you what this is about. But until then, I'll try to amuse and educate you with other thoughts and experiences of mine. Later!
ps. I wrote this in the morning but I didn't post it until the night.
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