Freshman Year: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Loved the Film School

The first semester was an introduction to film. In this first semester, I watched more movies than I have when I'm at home. The only one that I really remember making an impact on me was Brick. Out of all the new movies I watched, Brick really stayed on my computer. That, and City Of God. In our first year, we have to produce a short film that's supposed to be 5 minutes long with a central theme (sacrifice, forgiveness, etc., etc.).

Anyway, I learned a lot about being a filmmaker: it's tough. If you're in it, you have to be dedicated. No half-assing on this one. Now that I've made the decision to do it, there's nothing else I want to do.

Second semester was hard. Not too hard, but it was tough. I was in trouble. In my original concept, I had difficulty chopping down the story to fit the time allotment (I had 8 pages in the script; 1 page=1 minute). In this original concept, a workaholic is forced to take a vacation and is taught how to have fun by a 10 year old with severe ADD. I decided to change it up to make it 5 minutes long (I kept the workaholic, but made it somewhat an action movie; a workaholic and his therapist attempt to stop an armed bank robber with ADD). When that didn't work, I finally came up with something simple that would work even better. In it, a young man on his way to class removes obstacles along the neighborhood, making obstacles for others around him. I intended it to be dialogue-less with the main character just tearing through the neighborhood (littering, breaking a window, making a car nearly crash, then blowing out a car tire). Weather and scheduling complications came up and I was nearly screwed. I was determined to get something made. My director suggested a clever concept, but that didn't come to fruition (it may in the future). THEN, one day, we were sitting in the editing lab, trying to figure out something...then Stephen Majors walked in. Our new short film fell right in our lap. I wrote it in 2 days, we shot it in 3 hours. So, here it is. My freshman project, "Oh Brother".