GSJG Updates

We are two build labs into the creation of our 35mm project, 'God Speed, John Glenn,' and although I wish I could say I'm feeling confident I'm starting to get nervous...extremely nervous. I'm being told by my instructors that if I wasn't I then something would be wrong. Although I know we'll construct a pretty reasonable Mercury Control Center (MCC) I just don't know what to make of it when I see my Production Designer and Art Director not on the same page. Furthermore, I feel as if my Director of Photography and I are not on the same page either...

Questions are raised in my mind: can we do this? are we focused? what more can I do? how I can I get everyone to focus?

I don't know how to begin all of this, since we are essentially at the end of our time here at Full Sail. I have confidence in what I've come up with shot wise. But I need my DP to know this and give me reinforcement that I need to know that he sees this the same way I do. I need my PD and Art Director to stop fighting each other and work together. But most of all, I just need to know that things are going smoother than I perceive them to be...

I can only do so much, but I've already put in more time on this than I thought I would have --> and I still feel like I need to do more! I'm meeting with the actors tonight to go through their scripts and begin the process of helping guide them to find their characters. It's a very exciting time for me personally, but I need to know that whatever I can pull from them isn't going to waste.

I know the teachers in the 35 office see what I am doing, they see my multiple (and enormous) binders, and they see the amount of "useless" knowledge that I've attained learning after trying to integrate myself into a world that existed nearly 50-years ago. I feel like I am closer to who these men than I ever hoped to be - and I still have a meeting on Friday with a NASA legend. The man who got Mercury into orbit, the man who saved the Apollo Program after the tragedy of Apollo I and the man who literally got the Space Shuttle off the ground. His name is T.J. O'Malley, and while not much is written about him in history books - he is a legend the kind of which the Glenn's and Armstong's even revered. That's saying something...

I guess right now, I know and see the work I'm putting in. I know every process and every step is bringing me closer to achieve my potential on this project. I also know that I am learning more and more about myself, about movie-making but most of all storytelling. After all, that is easily the most important thing to me - I want to tell an amazing story and portray it to the audience in a way that they are compelled and moved by the events and struggles of this mission. At the same time, I want to know that everyone else is as compelled and driven as I am to make this vision a reality. I can't do this alone, and while I would like to spend my down time at the beach frolicking around in the surf or running endless miles around Lake Baldwin, I just need to know that everyone is putting in their part, too.

This is an entire team effort - and I need my team to step up their game, assume their role as a leader and bring to the table everything that they're capable of. This is our final thesis, and to me personally, it is my chance to demonstrate my abilities to lead this production.

But I guess my instructors are right because if I wasn't nervous or on the verge of 'freaking out' then something would be wrong...