The Daily Consternation

[rinue]

Ciro is serious about toast.

Ciro is not a toast fetishist. He does not demand toast at a regular interval, nor does he have bread pecadilloes. I would not call him a toast fanatic. I would not say he gets more joy from toast than from other foods or categories of food. He is, however, serious.

Ciro is the kind of guy who calls a spade a spade. He never uses "awesome" unless he is describing something that makes him feel awed.



I find that I associate numbers with concepts. This is not surprising. 3 equals Ciro, and also stands for heroism. 4 means love, and is a little bit bashful. 5 is Romie. 345; this is convenient and unexpected. Things fall neatly into order. Romie, love, Ciro as the sides of a right triangle.



In the morning, I splash my face with water four times. At night, ten, sometimes eleven. When it is eleven, I wonder what it means.



I am thinking a lot about sex. I think "we have a lot of sex, and it is good, and we are good at it." I think of a girl who is naked except for a soft white sweater.



Images:

- Bridesmaids in white walking down an aisle with bouquets of basil. The basil covers their fingers. We can smell the basil as they walk by.

- A newspaper editor chewing on a cinnamon stick in place of a cigar. Perhaps a trick has been played. Perhaps the editor has problems with cholesterol. A cross section of a cinnamon stick filled with tapioca.

- Plastic gears; a think yellow gear with ridges interlocking with gray gears of a thinner flexible plastic. Strains and bends where the gray plastic looks white.



I saw my teeth in the paper a few months ago - my old teeth, the ones I've seen in dozens of clay models. I carry genetic markers for schizophrenia. My teeth are one. There are others I don't have.



I spend time complaining about imaginary friends:

"His name is Michael Barrister, but his friends call him Mike - except for El, who calls him Shelby. Michael Barrister -> Michael B. -> Michel B. -> Shelby, a pun more elaborate than it is interesting. El is extremely amused by this kind of wordplay, and will happily spend hours free associating. Whenever possible, she uses homophones so that when the context would suggest she means "sore," she knows she is secretly saying "soar." This should make no material difference, but irritates all of us."



Romie and Ciro as The Couple of the Future:

C: Don't you wish that your eyelash curler spritzed your lashes with an acrylate copolymer?

R: (curling eyelashes) I do. An acrylate copolymer...I believe that would be water soluble.

C: Yes. Due to the nature of the chemistry.

Comments

[rinue.livejournal.com]

I've been impressed with it; I like the teachers and I like that it's graduate only - the other students tend to be talented and experienced. One warning is that the school has a strong practical focus - it doesn't assume that everyone wants to direct, does assume that the people who do want to direct also want to write what they direct, and expects students to stay within budget or cover the difference themselves. I'd say the school turns out more DPs and producers than anything else. It also assumes that you want to make narrative film and want a career in filmmaking - that you're not doing art for art's sake, that you do want to connect with an audience, and that you want to be hireable (i.e. while you can experiment, you must also show that you are capable of doing jobs up to an industry standard).

One of the things that attracted me to the program is the number of films that you're expected to participate in making, and that you do work with film instead of video. It's one of very few schools that lets you practice on 35mm film as well as 16mm. I also like the school's international student population; I'd say only about a third of the students are American or British (and about evenly split between those two). Another of the school's important assets is the head of the filmmaking program, Alan Bernstein - he's incredibly thoughtful, one of the best sounding boards I've ever had, and someone who cares about the content of a film as much or more than its execution.

One thing that's killing me is the exchange rate - British currency is currently both very strong and very overvalued, so the school (and living in London) cost a lot right now. However, it's still cost competitive with most American graduate schools, especially given that most tuition goes back into the budget of your films, equipment cost, etc.. (The school is a nonprofit, which is pretty neat.)

If you do decide to go, two warnings:

1. Although we're moving to another building soon, the current one has a lot of stairs and no elevator, so if you have trouble with stairs, it might not be a good fit.

2. The chairs in the cinema are incredibly uncomfortable, and you spend a lot of time in there - I bring a pillow.

(It's really cool how many films get screened - both old stuff and things that haven't come out yet. They borrow a lot of prints from the National Film Archive, plus students can see films there for free. And a lot of directors, production designers, producers, etc. drop by when they're in London and give masterclasses or do advanced screenings for us. It makes a huge difference to see films projected in a theater, and really makes you appreciate the quality loss even going to DVD rather than VHS or PAL.)

Hope that helps; feel free to contact me again if you have specific questions.

[paul-broom.livejournal.com]

oh!!!! thank you so much for such comprehensive answer. but i didn't find any info about financial part of study on the official website. maybe you can tell me anything about it?

[rinue.livejournal.com]

The school costs 6407 pounds per term, and there are six terms total. This does include administration fees, but it doesn't cover living costs - there are no school dormitories. The school cafeteria is fairly cheap, especially for the area - meals are between 2 and 3 pounds. If you break or lose school equipment, you will be responsible for up to 200 pounds worth of damage; after that, the school's insurance policy takes over. The budget you're given for your films varies by term; in the final term, you're given back basically all of your tuition money as the budget for your film, and you may not be required to remain on campus or in London.