JUST SHOOT IT!

by Gina Sestak

Have you ever embarked upon a project, filled with enthusiasm, only to find yourself, a few weeks later, thinking, "What the *!%#* have I gotten myself into?"

That's how I've been feeling this weekend.

I mentioned a few weeks ago how much I loved the screenwriting class I took at Pittsburgh Filmmakers last semester. Flush with accomplishment -- I got an "A!" -- I decided to take another course. Well, one thing led to another and I ended up registered for two production classes. For anyone who doesn't know the lingo, in a production class, you actually have to produce stuff. Not like the producers you see credited on movie screens, thank goodness. No. You have to produce actual stuff -- class assigments -- homework.

Now, don't get me wrong. The screenwriting class required "homework," but crafting a three page scene every week seemed more like play to me.

I signed up for Motion Picture Fundamentals because, well, it's fundamental -- it's a prerequisite for many of the other courses. Besides, a friend of mine is also taking "Mo Fun," as it is abbeviated. We could go to class together. And, since Mo Fun requires working on a MAC and I had never in my life worked on a MAC, I heeded the suggestion in the course description and signed up for Introduction to Digital as well. So far, so good.

I don't mind going to class and doing the reading. Honest. I don't mind going to TA sessions or figuring out how to use a MAC (it's kind of cool). But my first Mo Fun assignment has me baffled. You have to understand that I am technologically challenged. Witness my inability to get the two camera images, above, to embed where I want them in the body of this post.

When I signed up for classes at a film school, I naturally expected that we'd be, well, making films. You know. With a camera like this:

[pretend the drawing of a movie camera is right here]

Instead, we're starting really basic: still photographs in black and white. With a non-digital camera. A camera that uses film. A camera like this:

[pretend the picture of the Minolta is right here]

Now, I took a photography course once. About 30 years ago. Since then, the pictures I've been taking have been the point and click kind. With my cell phone. It's hard to keep track of the film speed and fstops and shutter speed and light meter and focusing, all at the same time, not to mention depth of field issues. Plus, while Filmmakers lends equipment, it also imposes stringent rules about what you can have, and when you MUST return it and WHILE IT IS IN YOU POSSESSION IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. So I also have to worry about the lens and the lens cap and the padded case and the strap and the little list of things specific to this camera that must be kept inside the padded case.

So my problem is this: while keeping all that in mind, how am I supposed to figure out what to take pictures of?