Journal Entry 13: Surprising Yourself. Post by Wednesday, April 29

Two quick housekeeping notes:

1. I'm abominably late with this prompt, so let's say that the post is due by Wednesday of this week (4/29).
2. This is actually the last post I'll make you do in this online format. I've made the decision to have your finals week manifesto (which you'll bring and present/read Tuesday, May 5, from 12:30-2:30) count as two entries (40 points rather than the standard 20). I'll have a prompt up for that soon.

For this last online post, I'd like you to do three things:

First, think back to yourself at the start of this academic year (i.e., August 2014). If your self from back then could see and know your self now, what would she/he think? What about yourself now would most surprise yourself from back in August?

Second, think back to yourself at the start of your entire college career. Same questions: what would that past self think of your present, spring 2015 self? What would be the most surprising thing about you now?

Finally, look at yourself now, as your present self. I know this is a weird question, but, after spending a semester (in part) looking hard at yourself, your career, your education, your future, and your relationships, what if anything surprises you about yourself?

Last posting, y'all.

JF

Journal Entry 12: Magic Wand of Disappearing Pet Peeves--Post by 5:00 Sunday 4-19

I watched 28 short student films the other night as an adjudicator for the student film festival. My overall takeaway was hopeful and proud: we've gone from zero student films to more than 28. Every film had something wonderful in it, something that made me optimistic about the future of our film/TV program.

That said, I and the other adjudicators also noticed some repeated themes, images, or action patterns--tropes--that began to seem cliched or lazy simply because they're overused and less than original.

I see the same thing whenever I review scripts for Outworks. I read good scripts. I read bad scripts. But above all I start to read the same kind of script--or the same tropes, character types, plot twists, etc.--over and over and over again. Some of these work, but they're overused. Others are flatly offensive--but still awfully common.

So:

Wave a magic wand that would get rid of three annoying (overused, offensive, irksome, lazy, etc.) tendencies you see in either plays/musicals OR film/TV shows that get produced. These can be  tropes, genres, plot structures, or anything else. You may speak generally (film/plays produced anywhere and everywhere), or you can speak specifically about LSU.

Explain what your three "Get Rid of This, Please" things are. Explain why they're annoying to you (and/or bad for the field/craft). Explain how getting rid of them would help things. And finally, explain if and how anything we do at LSU can help to take a step toward fixing these problems.

JF

Journal Entry 11: Restoration. Post by Sunday at 5:00 (4/12/15)

If you're following Julia Cameron's Artist's Way, she asks you to do two things not otherwise mentioned in the chapters we read and the exercises she outlines. First, she wants you to do the morning pages. I'm still doing them, of only out of stubbornness, but I'm actually finding that they're helpful in thinking through some research stuff. Second, Cameron says you need to take a break every week, an "Artist Date" with your inner artist.

I haven't been so great about the artist date thing. I can usually break away for a little bit to do something fun with friends once or twice a week--a meal, a movie, a walk around the lake. But it's rare. Besides, Artist Dates are supposed to be about you alone. You're not supposed to do them with someone else.

Since it's Spring Break, however, now seems like a good time to reflect on just what I would do in order to rejuvenate or nurture myself. I don't just mean "something you like to do" (movies with friends does that). I mean "something that makes you more excited about your work," something (moreover) that you might not do on your own if not prompted to do it.

I was talking to a photographer, for example, whose day job involves assisting one of those Glamor Shots-type photographers. This guy's boss specializes in photoshopping pictures of your baby/child into clouds, something like this:

It's fine for them that like it, but my friend feels like this sort of work eats people's souls.

He recognizes that he needs do devote some time to his own kind of photography, things that Glamor Shots wouldn't like but which make him a better artist. His Artist Date might be taking in a photo exhibit, shopping for a new camera, taking more photography classes, or just carving out time to take/edit some of his own photos.

My question for you this week: what would your rejuvenating activity be? This doesn't have to be something you actually do or have done, and it shouldn't be just "some little thing I do regularly to cheer myself up." Talk about a specific thing to do that would rev up your artistic engine. Reflect on why you'd do this, what it would do, and why you haven't done it (or done it as often) as you need to.

Post by 5:00ish on Sunday.

See you Monday for the next Cameron chapter.

JF