Almost finished...

"I asked an old professor of mine, 'there’s is so much that I can do, when do I know when its finished?’ he said, 'the project will be finished when you just stop working on it.' you just need to be happy with what you have and leave it alone."

This is what my academic advisor said to me in response to that very question he'd asked years ago. The quarter is over, and it still has not sunk in just yet. I've decided to take a break from the piece for about a week to get a better idea of what I'd really like to do to make it better. I'll likely heed the advice and just make one or two changes to the final cut and submit it as it is.

Just one or two more weeks to do what I will and then hope for the best. I'll also cut together a trailer for promotion and put it up here. After that, there will be radio silence until I get word from the festivals.

Cheers

I've made it this far

Portfolio review was yesterday morning. I had only slept for 2 hours over the last three days leading up to it so Friday was filled with exhaustion and excitement. I was initially worried about even being able to pass, considering the piece was no where near the quality that I would have been happy with. Then when it came my turn to go before the review committee, my instructor told me that I ended up with an "A". My nervousness immediately fell away as we walked into the room to see the review committee begin to clap for me as I entered the door. Quite a few praises and suggestions began to follow suit as I smiled and nodded at each of their comments. Once they were done, they clapped for me once more as I exited the room.

"Once were finished with everyone else, the committee is going to deliberate on who will be getting awards. I'm not saying you will get anything, but you need to stick around because we'll bring everyone back into the room once we figure out if anyone will be getting an award." Sherri said to me as we walked back into the waiting room.

About 45 minutes later, Sherri came back into the waiting room and asked us all to go back into the review room. Once there, she said, "well, we've decided to give out two awards this quarter. For non-fiction, we've awarded the certificate of achievement to Cami Whitlock for her piece, "Torri Anne". Everyone clapped for her as we waited in anticipation for what the next award would be. What seemed like an eternity passed before these words came from Sherri's mouth. "This next award will go to a student that did a fictional piece... we've decided to award E.J. Vasko with Par Excellence for his piece, "Oily Marks." stunned, I stood there for a few moments as they all clapped and congratulated me.

Now, just to give you an idea of what par excellence really means, it is only given out to students who really show a great deal of technical ability. My understanding is that it is rarely given out. In fact, the only person I know who had received it, is my friend John back in '05.

So, after a bit of questioning myself on the piece, I've decided that it really is festival worthy. I hope to have a tighter version of the piece in the next week or two, and will begin submitting it then. Hell, I've made it this far, right?

aw hell!

well, things are looking grim for graduation. as it turns out I need to score near perfect grades on everything I turn in to be able to graduate. thus holding the film in limbo for the time being. This week is going be really difficult and busy. I still have about 20 hours of work to do for the film before friday, and I have at least double that to complete my other projects in order to graduate.

On top of that, I'm getting sick. I was enjoying some delicious libations in my local watering hole after a long day's work, when it all happened. I had just broke a new game of pool, when the bouncer (sean, I meet him a few weeks earlier after closing) took the 8 ball and threw it into the pocket and said I had to leave. then, while inches away from my face, explained that he was sick and argued for me to leave just before coughing into my face. what a dick!

I'm really going to need my whits about me this week.