How you dress makes the difference, and why I'll be applying to ASU

Hello fellow bloggers. I love the last day of class! It marks a time where I have free time, but not enough of it. You see, the problem is that I would like to sit around all day and make movies, the issue is I have school, which is more important.

I'm working on falling back into a cycle of non stop video editing all month long. Even though we have a production with the cooking website Allrecipes coming up.
I feel like you should know everything that has happened in the last few months, but remembering that I haven't made a blog post in awhile....

Here is what happened. John, who was supposed to have like one quarter left at Tacoma Community College (TCC), got the job as film guy at TCC, because he is apparently going to be there a little longer than previously thought. I, being stubborn, had to found a club, which eventually ended with me becoming the president of the TCC Film Club. Which turns out to be a nice prestigious title. Which allows for greater affiliations, and more recognition to anything I try to do. I also discovered that my continuous learning expierence : Filming Humor, doesn't look good, because it is a learning expierence, and not a professional place. Which means I need to make a more professional place to display my best works. I'm thinking I need to host the films on some place other than YouTube...I'm getting tired of them, they are constantly changing for a safer secure community. There is a lot of bull there roght now, but it is an easy way to make a revenue if I ever needed to beef up an income. One successful video and you could make a few hundred dollars. Granted I don't have that yet, but that's besides the point. YouTube is not for my personal stuff.

Moving forward, as president of the TCC Film Club, I was able to create an affiliation with the cooking website, Allrecipes. And soon we will be making some short 'how to', cooking shows. On the 16th of this month I will be shooting a short how to with the TCC Film Club on cooking valentines goodies. I'll get you more information about that, once I get into the editing of it later this month.

I just applied for a job at Burger King yesterday, if I end up getting that job, it will take a major priority in my life over film. But that's because of how broke I am right now. My goal is to upgrade my computer this year....

The only nice break from life is a video game, I'm embarrassed to admit, I've been playing called Minecraft. I'm going to try and limit myself to an hour a day maximum. But even that is too much when it comes down to how I spend my time. I have swimming, personal films, film club, school, and some form of income (right now it is a little candy business). It's easy to say I'm a tad overwhelmed.

But that's my functioning level, under lots of pressure. I'm sure I'll drop the gamer addiction soon, right along with my sugar addiction.



Looking at colleges. I have had to spend a lot of time contemplating which college I wanted to go to. I think the last time I posted on here, my top choices were the Vancouver Film School (VFS), and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Unfortunately UCLA really only looks for instate, and there is a very, tiny chance I might get in. I have thus, lost interest in trying to get in there. I was still thinking VFS for awhile, but now am realizing I need a little more time.

My current plan is to apply to Arizona State University (ASU), I will then be bumped up into a near Junior status. My two current degree's I'm most interested in right now are Buisness and Film. Taking the opposite major as my minor. ASU apparently has a strong Buisness program, and is flexible for a minor in arts / film, so that is a plus. And I will get a chance to expierence their clubs, grow my interests a little, and hopefully achieve a great goal.

Moving forward, I think it is a good point to make that your attire really affects the way you act. I dress formally on club meeting days, and just for fun. It gives me a more serious attitude, and people respect me more. When I want to perceived as a little crazy, and perhaps creative, I can wear part of one of my costumes. And on the other hand, I can be taking a shower and feel my mind flowing like a wild bird. The point here is that, the way you dress affects who you are, and everything about you, so make sure you dress for the occasion.


Thank you for reading,

Alex Chandler
President of the TCC Film Club

The Spies; James and The Vampire

It's an unfortunate fact that I can't spend my life at the computer editing videos. But instead I have colleges to look into and all of that stuff.

Simply put, I haven't even finished the ruff edit of all the clips, I'm almost there, but with everything going on I intend to put the video out December 25, on the anniversary of the first episode... Kind of a fail series in that way, but a series none the less haha.

And regarding The Assassins; Layer of The Devil, (Part 3). We were supposed to film that this month, but it doesn't look likely. With the way things go, I'm thinking we'll probably film that in the spring when the weather starts to warm up again. Meaning a possible summer release of the third part, but it might get put off to December as well...no idea right now, just speculation.

Almost forgot, I'm trying to get the videographer job at Tacoma Community College (TCC). So I've been working on my portfolio video, meaning you will probably be seeing that soon....

There's your brief update. Thanks for reading,

Alex D. chandler

UCLA: University of California, Los Angeles

Once again I will mention that this is an essay I wrote to, and for my parents concerning the film school, UCLA.

It should be mentioned that I will have an Associates of Arts & Science by the end of this year, which will give me 90 quarter credits. And thus if I apply to this school I can apply as a junior. Otherwise I would have to apply as a freshman (different application process).

Alex Chandler
College Expedition
UCLA
September 4th, 2011

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

The first thing we should take note of, is that UCLA is the first public school we have looked at. That being said, if I was to go to California, work a job for a year to become a resident, it cuts off 15 thousand dollars annually for tuition. Also mentioning that, there is something somewhere, I read it awhile back, but it basically says that if you can prove that you will become a resident, and stay in State after earning your degree, tuition will cost the same as if you were a resident. I'll look into that more soon.
Their admission process is a little more sophisticated then the last couple schools, you are required to fill out their questionnaire, unofficial college transcripts, and two letters of recommendation. Those are almost identical to the last couple schools, but UCLA also requires, a two page personal essay, a three page critical essay, and a five page creative writing sample. All this basically means is that applying is going to take a lot more time to get ready for....
Whats nice about UCLA, that was quite surprising, is that they have a whole subset of their website all about their film program, which they call, "UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television." Basically there is a lot of good information on their website, that we will get into soon.

Junior and Senior Year:
The only concern I have with this school, which isn't exactly a concern, more of a wonder, but you have to be a junior to get into their film program. On the bright side I'll have already completed two years of TCC, so perhaps I'll be starting somewhere in my sophomore year. They have a sheet in their application packet that you can fill out with all the classes you have taken. I think I should schedule an appointment with my TCC counselor to discuss this....
There are a variety of classes that can be taken during these two years. Unfortunately your Junior year is a lot like your freshman year of high school, a lot of required classes and two electives. But the Senior year is almost all open with some core focuses ... Similar to senior year in high school, except you aren't skipping classes.
If you want to look at the videos on their website, its suggested you get on a computer, cause it takes flash player. But to sum up their school, I definitely think it looks good, and if I'm going for a degree out of California, that's a good place to go.

http://tft.UCLA.edu

Full Sail University (Florida)

Tomorrow I'll post my essay on UCLA. There are so many schools... Lots of researching. Just to recap; this is an essay I wrote to my parents, that reports the findings of my research of this film school.

Alex Chandler
College Expedition
Full Sail University
September 2nd, 2011

Full Sail University

Besides the big cost of the degree, it's everything you could have asked for! There are three different bachelors degree's relating to film; Film, Digital Cinematography, and Creative Writing for Entertainment. On the bright side of the huge costs, they have many different scholarships that they award (they will be mentioned below in a section called "Scholarships").
Creative Writing for Entertainment is obviously a writing degree, not exactly for me. Digital Cinematography is an online program, where as Film is in an actual classroom environment; more of what I'd go for.

Bachelors Degree in Film:
If I went to Full Sail I would take their Film degree program, and come out with a Bachelors Degree. The big cost is less than it would be to attend a four year university in Los Angeles, but it is still 77 thousand. But from what Joseph says, "most people who attend college don't pay the full amount." Instead they get government discounts, scholarships, and all sorts of things to cut down on costs.
The courses taken to achieve this degree cover a vast number of topics in film production. What needs to be researched a bit more, is whether or not some of my TCC classes can count as some of the courses they show, because I have definitely taken some classes that teach the same things; this might cut down on tuition, or even time in college.
You can scour their website for hours looking up facts and information that make their program seem well worth it. They have numerous success stories, and information on how many students worked on movies that just came out. When looking over the Internet the reviews for this school seem to be fairly good.

Housing:
One of the nice things about the Full Sail degree program is that you get your four year degree in 21 months, which means less cost of living. The downside is that you don't live on campus and would thus need to get a roommate and live in Orlando. On the bright side, Orlando has much cheaper rent than LA. While they don't have on campus living, they have a Housing Coordinator, who can help you find a roommate and get an apartment. According to their website, in the surrounding area of the school, Winter Park, there are over 50 apartment complexes. But they also suggest getting started on living arrangements sooner rather than later.

Scholarships:
Simply put, they have a number of scholarships you can apply for, most of which are for about 3 thousand dollars. It appears I am eligible for the merit scholarship, which is a 3 thousand dollar scholarship to students who have achieved over 30 credits at another post-secondary institution maintaining over a 3.0 GPA. There is also the Platinum Dream scholarship, which is awarded to applicants dedicated to the media industry. The Student Success Scholarship is awarded to students of Full Sail, and can amount to up to 3 thousand dollars.
And then of course I'll have to look at other scholarships to help cut down on the 77 thousand dollar tuition fee. But I have also considered that it might be nice to work for a year doing film jobs around our area, and then go to school. That way I wouldn't have to work while in school and can thus put my best foot forward at being viewed as top of the class.

http://FullSail.edu

I have been sending a series of essays to my parents discussing film schools and what I have learned about them. I figure I can share them on my blog with the world.

(as a note, I plan to write another essay on The Film Connection in Seattle...apparently they have one in Washington State that is similar to the one in California).

Alex Chandler
College Expedition
The Film Connection
September 1st, 2011

The Film Connection

The first thing you should know about this school is that there are two different programs, each in different locations. Program one is cheeper than program two and sets you up in an apprenticeship like position with someone who lives within forty five minutes of you. Where as program two is in Los Angeles, and costs more.
This school strikes my interest for a number of reasons. Foremost being that you will be working with real people in the industry who have a minimum of ten years experience. Another benefit is that it is much cheaper than traditional colleges. This trade school also works around you allowing for you to work a job at the same time as you attend. I can't decide if it is beneficial, but it is nice that you are only in the school for six months, and within that six months most students get a job.
A downside to this school is that there is no certification, you just have real world experience, which you won't get at any traditional colleges. Also beneficial is the number of people you will be able to get recommendations from when, or if you do go in search of a job. Granted that you can get teacher recommendations from traditional colleges, but they aren't exactly working in the field.
When searching around the web to check out the validity of this school, it can seem like there are a lot of unhappy people departing the school. But from what seems to be the case, there are those few instances of people not liking what they got and complaining afterward. But the thousands of students who were happy with what they got, didn't go making comments all over the internet about their experience. But when there was a student who was pleased on the forums they were really enthralled with how it worked for them.

Program One:
This program definitely has a big benefit of being close to where you live. The issue being that it is for someone who wants to run their own small production company. Pretty much like what Mom does; or it might show you freelance work in the area. Pretty much you would be looking at making and shooting videos for weddings, TV commercials, and small businesses.
Though this sounds like a lot of fun, I feel like that is something I could do on my own with the help of Craigslist. In fact, if I need to make some money for college next summer, I might be spending a lot of time using Craigslist for just that (would help in making a great portfolio).
More to the point, I have no intention of following this program. I'd rather use Craigslist, or talk to some of moms business friends and work for them.

Program Two:
If I was to go to this school, this is the program I would go with. You are in LA, you will be working on professional films. You will get the opportunity to learn all the equipment, try it out, and get on location experience. The big downside is that it's in LA. Which means you need to really look at the location before moving there and finding housing. As mentioned before, it is nice that you will get the chance to work a job at the same time as your in school.
The real attraction to this school is that you are working with real life professionals while making connections in the film industry. Along with this is the fact that it is likely you will get a job before you are even out of school. Whether or not your a stage hand running around, or running the lights, you'll work your way up and get to try things out as you work. Not to mention, if you show true potential, you could easily become an assistant director on a gig.
The cherry pie is topped, not only by the cheap tuition fee of 13,500 dollars, but once you have finished the program, you get the chance to pitch your idea to a Hollywood professional. Meaning if I wrote up a script and never was able to make it because we weren't skilled enough in high school.... Yes I'm pointing at a script I already wrote that sits in the corner of my bedroom. Besides the point, that's a pretty nice benefit.
To sum up Program Two, you get a one on one learning experience with a Hollywood professional as your mentor. You will make connections in the film industry during schooling, you will likely get a job while in school. You have a career counselor you can always talk to. You get your own website, cheap tuition, and you live in Los Angeles where all the action is happening. Simple as that.


http://FilmConnection.com

Kicking the Gammer Addiction...

There was a reason I stopped playing extremely addicting games a few years ago. They are addicting. Recently I started playing the ever so overly addicting Minecraft... For the past month I have been falling behind on deadlines. Not doing as much video editing as I'd like. Though I was lucky and didn't lose any of my social life. But my professional life went downhill for sure. To all of our viewers, I'm sorry for the lack of content!

Anyhow, I'm quitting all over again, cause my social life was perfectly fine without a trace of actually playing Minecraft, and I should now have time to actually edit video, without distractions...

Wish me luck! Haha xD


I'm back to editing Sunday evening (out of town right now).

Thanks for reading...hope you're not too addicted to any games right now,

Alex D. Chandler

Skittles in Yo face!

I have to let you know right now, making a music video, and the music, without prior experience is extremely difficult. Though this film is well made, and in many ways hysterical, there is one thing I never fully liked about the music video; the audio.

After finishing this project, and actually during the course of this project, I discovered how important it is to make the song before filming the video. Now Ethan Carlson and I had written out all the lyrics, but you really need to have the entire song and backbeat made before filming the video. This is due to the nature of music, the tempo, the passion, and everything that makes a song.

But besides the actual audio, I think the video turned out fairly well.
Because of the audio lacking complete awesome, we will be making a studio version of the song...sooner or later.



In other news, Filming Humor on YouTube now makes money! You may occasionally see Google Ads running alongside our videos from now on. To give you an idea of how much we're making so far; in the past week we've made over two dollars (obviously not drop dead, loads of money, but better than nothing).

Just around the corner; August 1st is the release of the first episode in the Gettin' Tasty series. We'll be teaching how to make Spaghetti Sauce. And then during August, Ninjas will be released. With probably another episode of Gettin' Tasty. Oh and there is an elevator video thing coming out soon too...you'll need to see it to understand haha.

What else have I been up to this past couple weeks? Well Chase Andrews and I built a pink raft that took sail holding 13 people this past Wednesday... We didn't bring electronics on board, so there are few photos, but it was indeed an adventure of great proportions! Haha

Surprisingly, no one was shocked that we painted it pink...and added a toilet seat... Apparently Chase and I would obviously do this... But if it had been Purple! Well that's a whole other story, big shock factor! Lol, I don't know, people must be getting tamed to our oddities haha.


If you haven't read my guest post on Luke Fandrich's blog, you can click here to read it.



Thanks For Reading,
Alex Chandler

Ps. The Spies; James and The Vampire is going to be epic, can't wait!

The Spies; James and The Vampire (Just Filmed)

About a week and a half ago we filmed the sequel to the first Spy short film. In this one we worked the story in so many different ways, and put so much time into making the story that I think this film will likely be the greatest yet. And assuming that it turns out as well as I'd like we may even submit it to our local film festival; The Gig Harbor Film Festival. Which I've always enjoyed the entertaining idea of seeing one of our short films on those big screens...

Besides the point. What I have done to this movie poster is something I normally would never consider doing, and that is adding the text line at the bottom; "September 2011." Now this is truly far off in the distance but I have several other films I plan to release before this. And what really makes this an odd idea is that now I have to stick to a schedule.

Where is the sense in making a due date if you don't have to? Well for one, most jobs are going to have due dates, and number two I think I gave myself enough time to make this a very good short film by that time.

I was watching this TV series for awhile and noticed that the only major special effects were in the titles, transitions, and credits. Meaning they could all be templates simply dropped onto the video. But what this really explained was the simplistic editing throughout the episodes. And why season two has over twenty episodes. They can simply output more episodes, because they aren't all that difficult to make. Where as some shows will seem more complicated to put together, and thus have a shorter season.

But none the less, the point here is that basic editing doesn't take as much effort. And as we all know, shooting a film is much easier than the many, many hours of editing.

In final words, The Spies Sequel is going to be awesome, and will most certainly be released in Septemeber (I almost wrote August, but I gave myself a little more time, so I expect early September). That topped with the soon to be released Candy Rap. We just have to get the back beat done and the lyrics recorded. Probably aother two weeks before it releases.

Thanks for reading,
Alex Chandler

Parties; A Reason To Film

Everyone knows how much fun filming a video is, but what if you want to have more fun... Well actually that might not be possible xD
But anyhow, what I was saying is that lately we have taken the time to plan movie watching parties, but beforehand we shoot some film for our summer cooking series "Gettin' Tasty". Anyhow, that's been a fun excuse to shoot a movie.

Unfortunately what has happened with school and everything, is that I have five videos now waiting to be edited; three episodes of Gettin' Tasty, The Candy Rap, and a Ninja short film we shot just the other day.
Luckily summer is right around the corner, literally (my last final is tomorrow). Meaning I'll have time to get to work on putting videos to the Internet. Yay! But at the same time I have The Spies Sequel planned to be filmed on the 18th of this month, so then it'll be up to six videos to edit...hahaha...procrastination! Lol

Well I'm pretty stoked for the summer, I'm sure everyone else is too, what sort of things are you all up to?
And when I say "you all" I probably am talking to a couple people, including Luke Fandrich, who is going to feature a post by me sometime, you really should check out his blog if you are someone else, he is awesome!


Have a great day everyone,

Alex D Chandler

IT'S ALREADY MARCH!!!???!??? oh my...

I was going to post this back after we were done with The Spies, but I got busy with school...




Well it's over. The Spies has been released, and like I said when I finished Earth Wars, "I'm glad it's over."

This project took a long time, from the first conceptions, to arranging the actors, actually getting around to filming it, and then a whole month in post production. Wow!

At 3am Friday I was so relieved to have finished it. It's that joy that you get from being done. I was fully aware of the fact that with another week I could have fixed some of the minor issues. But also aware to the fact that this was the greatest video yet!
That wasn't too important after realizing all that you've learned.
It's always true that after a project you could make the film better, but all that really means is you will do better next time.

Actually I am really pleased with this video. And everyone else seemed really happy with it too. I figure I'll be looking back on this one positively for about ever; like Jeremy & The Cookies.

If you haven't yet seen The Spies, here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qn75rWNAec




Anyhow, that was then, I still like The Spies, but I will always hate how rushed we were on the last bit of filming in the graveyard, so we didn't get enough footage, which is why the last three minutes are difficult to watch. And then there are some confusing things... specifically the Tom Tom Tele Major, which is what the glass jar was. It allows you to teleport... and well, we don't need to try and understand the rest of it....

Anyhow, if you follow us on some of the other networks like Dailybooth, Twitter, or Facebook you may have heard about the shocking news...we're making a sequel! haha
Actually that's pretty exciting for me considering it's a chance to build the characters more and expand the story line... if we had enough time to film the sequel I'd make it longer. And then another interesting thing about the sequel is it's not going for as much action as it is suspense. But there will be action, we're just going to try and make a very suspenseful film... hopefully 15mins long. I'll update you more on that later.

Other than that we've been having fun parties, working on the cooking series Gettin' Tasty (with Ducky and Cambridge).

Anyhow, I may add some updates after this if I can remember anything cool that's going on... haha


Thanks for reading,

Alex Chandler