Friday, June 25, 2010

A DAY OF EVENTS

Today we went to the Czech production studio: Barrandov Studios as well as the Kratky Film Studio for animation. We started by going into the color correctionists studio were the super 16 film that we had shot in the workshop was being collaborated to middle gray and transferred to digital. It actually came out looking pretty good. I think we get a copy at the end along with a copy of the film that we make. After we went up to the film developing lab which was really cool and interesting. It smells like a dark room and there are all these huge metal boxes that the chemicals get pumped through and the film travels on by being moved along by huge spools. I found a trash bin filled with test strips and was going to take one for my journal, but when our professor, Michael, saw that I had it he took and and said: "good idea I will bring this to class." Then we went to the Panavision building and walked around looking at equipment. We met up with this fantastic old man named Rudolf who used to run the animation department at FAMU (where I am attending classes now) so he could bring us to KRÁTKÝ FILM studio (it is part of the Barrandov studio as well) to watch some Czech short animation and meet a lady who makes puppets. There were some really great shorts including Words, Words, Words by Michaela Pavlatova that was nominated for an Oscar in 1992, a puppet animation adaptation of Stagecoach, I cannot seem to find it, and Jan Svankmajer's Darkness/Light/Darkness: After meeting with the puppet maker and walking through a animation set, I had a strong desire to learn more about doing animation, as well as a desire to make puppets. I found myself wondering how hard it would be to become an apprentice and learn the ways of puppet animation. I really like animation in general, they often make for great short films, and its a way to make things that is very hands on. It is something I will be looking into. After we went to my favorite place in Prague so far: Vyšehrad. It is a giant park overlooking the city with a castle, church and graveyard. All the graves have plants growing from them or are covered in ivy and vines, which I like, and the park is quiet and big with trees and smells like flowers. Plus it has an amazing view. It is a wonderful retreat and I spied a couple in a grove of trees on a blanket near the ruins that overlook the city and immediately wanted to be on their blanket. I also got to love on a very nice dog despite it not understanding me, only Czech. After we had to go back to Studio FAMU to go over screenplay ideas again. Kristy and I are doing a short about a little boy who has just moved to Prague. He is not thrilled about the move and is a quiet kid who isn't adjusting easily. On his way to school he passes under a tree that a little girl his age sits in. She calls for him to come up and he ignores her. Finally a few days later, after passing her in the tree everyday and ignoring her, she is really trying to get his attention and falls out of the tree. He is forced to deal with her so he helps her back into the tree and goes up to sit with her. Then they both say relatively the same thing, but he says it in English and she says it in Czech and they don't understand each other but they are content and sitting in a tree over looking the city. I imagine shots through leaves among other lovely things. So we'll see how that works out. We still need to name the little boy and find actors... which may require going through an agency... but we have a Czech producing student that will be helping us produce it that we meet on Tuesday. Tomorrow is location scouting though I think we have decided to use Vyšehrad for our location. Tonight we are going to Cross Club again I think... the place I went to the first night I was here. And I think I am getting my septum pierced sometime this weekend. It is a lot less expensive here then when K and I looked into it. So there is that. I miss you all.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

THANK GOODNESS IT BECOMES ENGLISH

I would like to start by stating... thank goodness blogger becomes English after you click the crazy Czech word with symbols like mad that stands for signing in. I am eating apricot (marhula) yogurt and would like to mention that you have to tack Czech Republic to the end of my address. I seemed to have forgotten that bit. So put that on there... I had class from 9 until 8 today which was a long haul. Most of it was a "lighting workshop" where we weren't allowed to touch the lights, some Czech students did it for us. I guess the voltage is a lot higher so they are anxious about us getting electrocuted? It was basically a mini film shoot but dysfunctional because there were too many people with not enough to do, no direction at first, and a lot of creative input. I ended up being the "AD" and had to yell for quiet on the set and push everyone to get shots up, however, due to the Czech students (who didn't tell me what they were doing and took a long time on lighting set ups... it was only like two guys doing it) and the learning aspect it was difficult to speed things up and do it properly. In the end one scene took us from one to five... which is actually a bit typical for a film shoot but long. It actually made me anticipate Emerson shoots, I found myself glad that I would be going back to ACing film twos and such, I like just having my set position and being trusted with the camera. We did shoot Vision 3 on the Aton today though, so that was a good bit. We have to shoot our final projects digitally which is a bit annoying considering that NYU has a program here that shoots on 35. Last night after our welcome dinner Matt, Brett, Zach, and I ran down to the old town main square to watch the world cup match between Spain and Honduras. We met up with Matt's NYU friends there and watched the game until Spain won and then danced around with some people including a homeless man with the most adorable, sweet lab that he held like a baby while singing Hallelujah over and over. Matt always finds good interesting things to do for whatever reason. The night before that we went out to a bar with weird artwork and had beer until they closed up for the night. Then we went down the hill to a jazz club that was having a private party. Matt convinced them to let us in and to stay and then we discovered that it was a pre-production meeting for some English, American and Czech people who are shooting a commercial in Prague. We talked film with the American who were from New York and LA. Due to his ability to find good things, and that he is a nice guy, I have been trying to become friend with Matt. I am now eating a cucumber which Kristie, my roommate, thinks are the vegetable version of watermelon, which I find interesting. I have started my one line a day five year memory book and am doing my best to maintain it. Also, no one seems to know where you can buy stamps here and I can't find them anywhere, though I did stumble across a postal museum across from Studio FAMU (where most of my classes are) and can only assume that they have stamp exhibits. I still don't know if I am going out tonight, but the sun just set and it is 10PM. Also, we watch some fantastic Czech cinema in class today including parts Milos Foreman's (who directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) Loves of a Blonde.
There is a bit more at the end of this scene that is also good and a scene with older army men trying to buy the lead lady and her friends drinks that we watched and I enjoyed but I can't find it with English subtitles... partially because I am in the Czech Republic and they don't use English subtitles. I would like to watch that film in its entirety.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

PRAHA

I made it to Prague after an unexpectedly long journey that involved an unplanned stop in Atlanta, Georgia. We had been flying for a few hours when the captain came on to announce that there was something wrong with the navigation computer so we had to fly at a lower altitude and would therefore not have enough fuel to make it all the way to Europe so we had to turn around and go to Atlanta to get a new plane. So I spent an hour or so wondering around the Atlanta airport and after accosting three people I thought might be from the program "umm hi, are you from Emerson College?" Two were and one wasn't but he ended up being from CU Boulder so that was weird. SO after getting up at 3:45 in the morning (Colorado time) and flying from Denver to Minneapolis to JFK (New York) to Atlanta I made it to Prague around 3 in the afternoon Europe time and split a cab with one of my accosted fellow students, Brooke. It turned out she is one of my roommates along with Trisha and Kristie. Kristie and I are in room A (she is from Maine) and Trisha (from Minnesota) and Brooke (Vermont) are in room B. Our bedrooms are tacked onto a little tiny apartment type deal with a WC (just the toilet) a room with the shower and a sink, closets, and a little counter with a hot plate and a mini fridge. I wish I could take photos to share but I don't have a digital camera and can't figure out transferring the little webcam pictures I can take on here to anything other than the photobooth type program that they go into... but we'll see if I can be savy enough. We have been hanging around with some of the boys as well, so far I have met Matt, Dan, Brett, Zach, Andrew, Mark and Tyler along with Caitlin and Julie. I think that means I haven't met four to seven people. I'm not sure if there are 20 or 16 people in the entire program. We have a meeting in about an hour that is supposed to fill us in. Last night the twelve of us ventured to this bar that had multiple floors and each one had a different theme. We started on the bottom floor which had parts of engines and gear moving about. There were a few live musical performances and we stopped by a few of them for a quick listening. After a few rounds of beer and sitting at a table that was on a floor that reminded me of Being John Malkovich (3 and a half) we all got split up and I ended up with Matt, Dan, Zach, Brett and Andrew while everyone else went home. We sat outside on a metalwork balcony with a tree popping through. When it was time to go home we chatted with three Finnish girls who are studying here while debating over taking a cab or the tram home. In the end we split up into groups of three and each caught cabs back. I made it into bed five minutes after four and woke up at noon to venture out for lunch (at a Chinese place) and to find a grocery store. I got some bread, cheese and yogurt but I was unable to find tape, stamps or peanut butter (I don't think they have it at all in this country.) I also have some bananas. We discovered a little stationary/craft shop nearby that I plan on visiting soon. So I guess that is all. I am here. For those of you who wish to mail me... I believe that my address is as follows:

Hanna Kelly
Kojel Komenskeho RM 317A
Praha 6, Parlerova 6

But please remember that it takes a good while to get here so do not send it towards the end... just right now. I'm only here for a month! I do owe some lovely people some mailings however. Okay.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

THAT OTHER PIECE OF LAND OVER THERE

I leave for Denver today so I can get up at like 3 in the morning to fly to someplace and then from there to NYC and then from there to Prague. Its going to be a long day. Anywho, I don't have tons of time before my last babysitting job for a month but I though I would drop in to let everyone know that I am off! Love you all.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

BACK OF THE TRUCK

The other night I watched Wristcutters: A Love Story and had wanted to put this video on here but embedding is disabled so you'll have to click the link. I also just wanted to share that tonight I rode down to town at dusk in the back of my dad's truck. It was a warm summer night and I was finishing off a popsicle. It was such a fantastic experience. I forgot how good it is to ride back there. My dad usually has a cap on the back but took it off recently when my parents rented a tiller. We used to ride home in the back of my dad's truck when he picked us up from school. On really good days we would also get to go to 7/11 and get a slurpee or something. Anyway it was really lovely and I enjoyed myself quite a bit. We walked around Old Pond Park which is flooded right now because the river is so high. Its really intense right now, just gushing. Coco had a great time running through the shallow pools of water and kept picking up long tree branches to run around with so my dad and I had to watch our legs. I also rode home in the back of the truck laying on top of my dad's toolbox to watch the stars and the night sky. I remember once when we went camping we were driving late attempting to find a spot and I rolled my window down all the way and put my pillow so I could lay with my head partially out the window and stare at the stars. It reminded me of that night.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

MORE

Having just read the updates of Janine's new blog: Janine in Alaska I just felt the need to state that Janine is such a wonderful amazing person and her adventure sounds so fantastic. I really want to visit her in Alaska, even if she is homeless and camping about. I would recommend reading her most recent posts: "A New Beginning" and "Well, we're homeless. But happy!" I was just thinking about her today due to another search I performed for my own Trivial Pursuit while shopping with my mama. Actually maybe I will share some of the items that became mine today starting with: This hat.Its a big sun/cowboy hat that I found in the men's section of Sports Authority. Thank you mom's coupon... or gift certificate for 25 dollars in goods. Also purchased at Sports Authority:
A black top that has detailing that is slightly see through in the parts of the shirt with the pattern to make contrast.
A super comfortable purple skirt.
And now things from Target:
A little traveler's alarm clock.
An Ethernet cable.
Mini health and beauty items.
A case for the baby.And I found The Windup Bird Chronicle in the library! I called at one point to make sure they had it and when I went in to find it had no luck... this time however I managed to discover it along with several other books by the author (Haruki Murakami).

Monday, June 7, 2010

WATCH

I know that I have put this somewhere on here before but I have just read and watched this story and this trailer is just so good... so it is going to be here in another location: here. I really love the movie, it is fantastic, good color tones and temperatures, good soundtrack, the Lisbon girls are totally it girls as well. I think I also appreciate the movie more now that I could pick up on the details from the book. It was a wonderful adaptation of the novel, it followed it almost exactly with the exception of the end where minor things were changed or emitted. I want it.

Also, the new Avi Buffalo was at the radio station (KDNK) and I played this song on my first show of this summer.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

CAN YOU BUY DIAPERS AT THE GROCERY STORE?

Today T was singing quite a bit and I managed to get little snippits on my cell. This one is a gem though: she sings "can you buy diapers at the grocery store? Yes, you can buy diapers at the grocery store." Complete with fist microphone. Other hits of the day were about baths, not hitting your head on the table, and other important subjects.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

NETFLIX

I got La Jetee and San Soleil on Netflix from the Criterion Collection. Both films are by the director Chris Marker. Of course I have seen La Jetee many times in film classes and even posted a clip from it on here once, where the woman wakes up. San Soleil "tells the story of a globe-trotting, soul-searching cameraman. Soleil relies on the narration of the cameraman's travel log." Says the little envelope the movie comes in. I really like it. It is all just interesting things that the cameraman thinks about matched with images. It works with my brain and I have realized it is a film I've wanted to make in a sense. I remember pitching an idea to Alec that was all about what I found that was beautiful that people overlooked. Using film to show people things like photography does I suppose. He looked at me skeptically when I tried to explain how something like "how white this paper is compared to other paper" and how many people wouldn't notice. He was one of those people who wouldn't have noticed. That is not the greatest example I must say, the idea relied on the fact that people just don't pay attention and something as lovely and simple as light melting down buildings at the right time of day is beautiful. Paying attention to the world allows you to actually look at it. Anyway, the film is very interesting, with subtle social commentaries. Here is the Intro:
Also, with the subject of Netflix... I have figured out a way to get a copy of Fight Club I think (since Evan lost mine...) that is kinda cheating the system. Jane once sent back one of her DVDs by accident by putting it in the envelope and ended up trading movies with Netflix. They are still sending them DVDs and didn't say anything. They sent us an extra copy of Horton Hears a Who so I may just switch it out for Fight Club and then they have just sent us an extra copy of the movie I want. We'll see how it goes.