matthewtj15

[matthewtj15]

Final 390 Reflection Post

To say it’s been an odd semester would be an understatement. We’ve had to deal with and work around multiple ongoing crises, all while attempting to put together a creative and fulfilling film under extreme restrictions. I went into this semester expecting very little from myself and my peers. This isn’t meant to be a slight to anyone in particular; my gut just told me that this wasn’t going to go very well, people were going to get frustrated and creatively stuffed by all these new rules, and a lot of us (including myself) weren’t going to come out on the other side with a project of which we could be very proud. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I was not only throughly impressed by my peers’ incredible work and their ability to adapt and create under these new conditions, I was impressed by my own performance. As I said, I went into the semester without much of a positive outlook. While I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, a script, and I knew that my original idea would lend itself well to a quarantined set, I was honestly just a bit discouraged by the whole situation. It had been a uniquely uneventful summer, it was hard to give school the attention it deserves from a Zoom session in my bedroom, and quarantine as a whole was just starting to wear me down. Fortunately, after heading back home and starting from square one, I ended up in a place where I was not only excited about the creative process again, I really felt like I had room to experiment within the confines of these COVID restrictions.

My housemates and I had discussed the possibility of editing together a longer-form thing (documentary-esque look at our year) from all our VHS footage before. I immediately thought that this was an awesome idea, and could easily become a pretty amazing document of my own history and life experience in this weird time. As soon as I had the idea to actually take chunks from our archives and build an entirely new story on top, I was even more excited. The process of writing another script, doing the lookbook, and essentially just planning everything again in a new context revitalized my excitement for the process.

The process as a whole was also especially rewarding. Initially, I really enjoyed reviewing all our old VHS footage for a couple different reasons - I got to look back at exciting moments that we had captured since last fall, and consider how I could recontextualize this moments in my new story. As a started to solidify my plans for what exactly I needed to shoot in Massachusetts, I really started to feel all the pieces coming together. Once I got to that tunnel in Clinton, it genuinely felt like I was doing something pretty cool. Interestingly, while I loved this idea/filmmaking experience, I doubt that I would’ve ended up doing something similar, had we avoided all these restrictions. Obviously, my original idea was completely different, and I mentioned multiple time that the experimental stuff that I was trying to do in this film wasn’t really something that I had any experience with. I think this actually excited and motivated me even more.

It was in the editing process that I really started to feel proud of my work. After I finished the assembly cut, and the film at least made some sense and was emotionally gripping on some level, I was ecstatic. While not everything that I tried worked, and not every experiment resulted in something usable, I had definitely created something of which I was proud, and something that was outside of the relatively straightforward narratives I had worked on in the past. If I learned anything from this process, it would be the immense value of creating a world in which I have room to experiment and explore whatever I comes to my mind on a creative level, because those ideas often come through as the most emotionally compelling in the final cut. I also learned that I really like working on this sort of non-linear vaguely experimental project. I had a ton of fun figuring this thing out in the edit, and I hope to do more of this in the future.

[matthewtj15]

10/27

Things are moving along quickly. The second script iteration of this new idea has me even more excited, and I’ve finally started to receive all my VHS stuff in the mail. The big days are fast approaching, and I think that all of the preparation (scheduling out scene by scene in Movie Magic, script rewrites, etc.) has played the most significant role in my excitement not morphing into an intense fear of failure. Regardless of how this comes out, I’m sure it will be a great experience.

I’m still pretty worried about how I’ll perform personally. For at least two of the shooting days, it’s really going to be just me out there, as director, pseudo-cinematographer, and actor. I expect ironing out more specifics in the shot list will help with some of the nervousness in terms of directing completely and utterly solo, but attempting to deliver a compelling performance will certainly be  a challenge. I'm definitely going to have to practice a bit at my house, and figure out what can actually work and potentially appear as an acceptable performance on the VHS camera. Fortunately (I guess), because of the found footage sort of aspect of the whole idea, there are entire scenes where I won’t even be on screen, which certainly takes some of the pressure off. I definitely think I can deliver on physicality from behind the camera in that context. I’m most worried about the death scene and the lead-up to that, so that will definitely be what I focus on most in rehearsals at home.

Overall, feeling pretty good. It’s been quite the experience throwing all this together. Frankly, I’ve been struggling this semester, and while this prep process certainly hasn’t eased any of that stress, it’s been great to work on an idea that I’m excited about (certainly more than my last).

[matthewtj15]

10/19

Hello! I’m back. It’s been a while, and a lot has happened since my last post on Tumblr. Namely, I’ll be writing about a completely different idea than I was in my last Tumblr post. Fortunately, I am well into the process of getting caught up, and at this point, am honestly feeling very good. I am definitely significantly more excited about this new idea than my last, and look forward to all the experimentation and unique latitude that my new idea will allow. 

I just finished the script yesterday, and I think that process of actually just getting everything down on the page was, as it often is, my most substantial step toward solidifying the vision, goals, and outlines of this project. Everything about this idea feels quite a bit more clearheaded now, but as I said, it still feels like there is plenty of room to experiment and go places that I definitely haven’t been before in terms of filmmaking. 

I am genuinely super excited to get to the editing process. With all the old footage to play with, and all the stuff that I’ll have the opportunity to shoot while alone at home, there’s going to be so much fun stuff from which to pull. On a similar note, my post-prod class has been going well, which I think has also made me even more excited to do all of this finagling in Avid. Kneading and shaping all this footage into a compelling story is definitely going to be a really interesting process.

Overall, I really do feel like I made the right move in switching ideas. If I was to end up regretting something like, and then had to go through the whole process regardless, that would’ve certainly made for a rough second half of the semester, so I am very thankful that at this point in time, it feels like things worked out. I am not only more excited about the idea itself, but I also feel more confident in my ability to execute on this concept, and actually make it compelling. It feels weird to say that considering my other idea (basically just a very light and grounded comedy) is much closer to things that I’ve done in the past, and I’ve never really done anything remotely experimental, but for whatever reason, I really do think that this could be pretty good. Let’s hope for the best. Looking forward to the next steps.

[matthewtj15]

[matthewtj15]

[matthewtj15]

9/20

Hello again. I just finished making some kind of major changes to my script. The class’s comments genuinely have really helped, especially with revisiting my first few pages. I had a sneaking suspicion that I was taking WAY too long to get to the meat of the story, but never really addressed it. I went back to the script, and confirmed that it did, in fact, DEFINITELY need some work when it came to pacing and getting to the real action. Obviously, nothing was beyond fixing, but the situation was mildly frustrating initially. I always hate having to a ton of rearranging of moving parts in a script. Sometimes I think it would be easier to just do a bulk delete and rewrite a couple pages instead of picky small edits and a bunch of tricky copy and pastes. Oh well. I ended up doing a lot of thinking and eventual maneuvering of mostly the first 2.5 pages. I think these pages are now in a much better place, but I will be keeping an eye on these (and the rest of the script) from now on; there’s probably plenty more fat for me to trim that I’m just not fully aware of just yet.

Still feeling fairly good about the script and everything. Feeling especially lucky that my script is very doable, all things considered, in this very unique COVID situation/semester. 

I’ll be uploading some location images from in and around the house tomorrow. Looking forward to class this week, and getting to take a look at the rest of the class’s scripts. The feedback process seems to have been very rewarding so far.

[matthewtj15]

9/14

Hello. I just finished doing some rearranging and editing on my script, and am actually feeling quite good. This is the first time since 327 (last Spring semester) that I’ve taken a hard look at the script, and I think actively looking for things to fix forced me to reassess the whole thing. While I still wouldn’t say I am 100% all set with the script, I am feeling like my current draft is not a bad place to start at all.

I would like to note that I found Carson’s comments from our 9/8 class as particularly helpful. He mentioned that we needed more stakes, more reasons to believe that this particular song/this particular contest was deeply important for James and his life as an aspiring musician. This resonated with me, and I made a few additions.  I now allude to James having recently given up on music at the very beginning, and that when he sees the contest, this will become his absolute last chance. There is one thing that I am still working out though; I feel like I might not give enough info on the actual falling out. The film is really about the comeback, not necessarily the moments when James was really getting frustrated with music as a whole, so it felt like I didn’t need to spend too much screen time on what originally caused the current situation. I’m just not sure, it feels like this might not be effective enough. I’ll make sure to get the class’s thoughts on this one.

I still want to find a better way to wrap this theme up too. I want to call back to it somehow in the final moments. I thought about maybe having him hang up some of the posters again that he had thrown away, but that felt way too corny and heavy-handed. Will definitely keep brainstorming on this one.

[matthewtj15]

[matthewtj15]

PR Internship Post #12

Wow. We’re finally here. The end of days… or maybe just the end of this semester, I guess. It’s been an interesting one, to say the least. We’ve had to make a wide variety of substantial adjustments to our everyday life in a way that I never would’ve expected in 2019. As of right now, I am still just doing my best to stay safe, healthy, and safe. What else is there to do at this point?

I had another light week of internship work, so nothing much to report. My last two days are this Thursday and Friday. My boss mentioned that if I was interested, I could sign on for another semester of the internship. I’m currently looking elsewhere for other remote work (I’ll get into this more later in this post), but I’m keeping this in mind. It was pretty exciting to get this offer, because in a way, it’s confirmation that I’ve done a very good job this semester since they might potentially have me back.

As I’ve mentioned in what feels like every single one of these posts recently, the coronavirus became a significant road block for my summer internship search (as it has for many individuals my age). My initial reaction was frustration and despair over the fact that this summer (going into senior year) is probably the most important for locking down a post-graduation job. I would definitely say that my current position is much more positive. I believe that I have successfully weaponized LinkedIn, and have conducted a few informational interviews, with even more to come (I have one later today with a music publicist). One of my most exciting interviews was with an LMU grad that listed their current position on LinkedIn as A&R Coordinator at a major record label. One of the first things that she mentioned during our call was that she’s no longer at that label. She’s now a day-to-day manager at a subsidiary of the most consistently successful label in the world. This subsidiary also happens to be founded by my favorite pop artist, hands down. I felt that the call was extremely productive and that we clicked on a personal level. She offered her email, asked for my resume, and mentioned that she’ll do what she can to shop it around and see if there’s any remote work available through any of her connections. Of course, I obliged. While I don’t see her offering me a job at her current place of employment anytime soon, I genuinely believe that there’s a good chance this connection could become fruitful in one way or another at some point. It was also incredibly motivating to have this early success with my LinkedIn grinding. I became so excited after the call that I had to run around and jump up and down in my backyard a little bit. I’m praying my neighbors didn’t see.

Finally, thank you for a great semester, Professor Willard. It’s been an absolute pleasure, and I really appreciate your aid in guiding us through the transition to online learning during this incredibly stressful and anxiety-inducing time. 

[matthewtj15]

PR Internship Post #11

This past week was the first week where I literally didn’t receive any work from my internship. Things have been petering off slowing for awhile now, but this total lack of anything was a first. I found this especially unfortunate because I’ve reached the point where the usual ways that I’m entertaining myself during this quarantine are starting to grow stale. Some complex law-focused assignments from my internship would’ve been a lovely way to kill a few hours, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this week.

The main thing I’m worried about right now is still the summer internship search. Essentially every place that I applied to earlier in this spring is unresponsive, or has already outright cancelled their internship programs. I’m definitely not surprised by this, but it still feels pretty rough. I applied to a good amount of summer opportunities at companies of varying size, scope, and focus (my estimate would be 20-30 applications total), so this lack of communication from most places is tough. I believe I might’ve mentioned this already, but I was extremely hopeful when I started getting video interviews for major stuff in early March. It felt like my hard work was finally about to pay off with a big internship that might even eventually turn into a job. Now, my search has been reduced to long shot Instagram DMs, impassioned LinkedIn pitches, and praying to the gods of Los Angeles-based employment. At least I still have this stuff to fill some time. There are a few connections I’ve reached out to today that I hope will be fruitful, but as of right now, I would say my optimism from early this semester is long gone. I will keep working at the search though, and persist in the hopes of locking down something of value for this summer. One of the cool parts of remote work being essentially a requirement right now is that it can open some doors in terms of location. I recently found a great company in Nashville that aligns perfectly with my interests that I’ll be reaching out to later today to see if they have any remote work opportunities. It’s unlikely this company would’ve made as strong an impression on me if I was limited to LA opportunities.

Overall, I am still trying to make the best of the current situation. I am thankful to be safe and healthy. Things could be much worse, to say the least. On another note, I just really hope that once this is all over, America can head in a more positive direction. If there’s one thing that the coronavirus has been good for, it would be revealing the many glaring flaws in the current state of America’s bastardization of capitalism. This isn’t to say that these flaws weren’t obvious before, but this epidemic has, in my opinion, made these often heinous flaws more visible than ever. Unfortunately, my gut is telling me nothing will change. If Donald Trump manages to luck into a second term, things are practically guaranteed to get much worse. We’ll see. It’ll be tough to tell until maybe 10-20 years down the line.

This was definitely my most negative update yet. I promise I’m still a happy person! I just want to be realistic about the way I feel right now, and what I think is coming next. 

[matthewtj15]

PR Internship Post #10

This past week, my only internship work was reorganizing some important car dealership documents that will be relevant to the firm’s cases. Once I figured out where all of the relevant information for reorganization was located in each document, everything went quickly and smoothly. Initially though (before giving each document a thorough look), I found myself a bit confused. This small project can act as a good reminder to not get overwhelmed if a lot of information is thrown at you at once. My initial worry over this product was quelled by essentially just a focused re-read of each document while keeping the information that I was looking for in mind.

Recently, one of my housemates (and best friends) was forced to go home after sustaining a pretty serious wrist injury. He’ll be having surgery performed on it back home. This was definitely a huge reality check for just how dangerous things have gotten and how careful we should be being right now. As of right now, my housemate just began his 2-week quarantine with closed doors and no human contact whatsoever (since there is a such a high chance that he might contract the coronavirus at the airport). I don’t think anyone LOVES their state of affairs right now, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be trapped in an even more aggressive and scary form of quarantine.

[matthewtj15]

PR Internship Post #9

Another week of the usual. Most of my first shift of the week was spent updating the attorneys’ main monthly calendar, while my second shift was expectedly uneventful. It felt good to get the calendar work done though, because that’s usually the responsibility of my boss. She seems to still be getting a substantial amount of remote work during the quarantine, so it was nice to take some of that weight off her shoulders.

I am starting to miss working on the more long-term projects with my fellow interns in person. The idea of establishing a scholarship for the firm while collaborating with other college students was quite exciting, but that project hasn’t been mentioned in quite some time. Doing a few hours of dense clerical work every week isn’t nearly as satisfying, to say the least. Just another casualty of the quarantine, I guess.

[matthewtj15]

PR Internship Post #8

During the week of March 30th, I was given more patent-focused administrative work. From what I understand, there was a bit of a mixup in regards to the arrangement and organization of some of the firm’s patent information disclosure statements (IDS). At this point in the internship, I’ve reached a nice rhythm in terms of less arduous work like this. A project like the correction of these IDS documents essentially amounts to a relatively boring few hours of close reading and back-and-forth copy and pasting from document to document. I always double check everything, and make sure that while I am quite confident with work like this at this point, I won’t mess up.

The IDS project took up roughly one whole shift. I didn’t receive any work for the first chunk of my second weekly shift, and thought that it just meant things were light that day. Much to my surprise, later that shift, a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts were delivered to my door. I also received a call from my boss thanking me for all my hard work during the quarantine. My housemates and I all went to town on the delicious treats immediately.

[matthewtj15]

PR INTERNSHIP POST #7

I didn’t get a ton of internship work during the week of March 23rd, aside from a relatively brief patent proofreading project. I wasn’t expecting a ton this week though, since I generally don’t get a lot the week after I do some blogs (I edited/rewrote two blogs the week before this one). While I didn’t receive any work on this Thursday, I ended up having a pretty good conversation with my immediate boss over text, during what would’ve normally been my shift. I became friendly with my boss and some of the other interns pretty quickly after I started worked at HDMN, and was really enjoying my time at the office, so it was nice to feel a little bit of that happy and friendly energy again. I guess the quarantine works in mysterious ways, huh?

Also, I’ve attached an exciting snapshot of what my current internship workspace is generally looking like these days! I’m doing my best to cherish this weird opportunity to do professional work in the comfort of my own bed!

[matthewtj15]

PR Internship Post #6

Last week was my first couple days of fully online internship work. It was interesting, and honestly went well. I wasn’t really expecting it to go terribly, but obviously this time of uncertainly and social distancing will present some level of difficulties in any situation. I had to do some of the usual administrative work, but that wasn’t too bad. It was just a little bit odd to not have my superiors 15-20 feet away and availble to ask questions. It forced me to be a little bit more independent, which was nice, but for the more complex aspects of legal clerical work, it was a bit frustrating. I was also assigned a few more blogs, which is always fun. This time, my immediate boss and the head of the firm seem to have been satisfied by my written work in the past, so I was give more of an editorial role; I was tasked with editing blogs other interns had done that the team wasn’t satisfied by. Considering the fact that went I edit the blogs, I don’t have to do all the research on the issues and start from scratch, this was a welcome change of pace. I am looking forward to my online work this week so I can continue to witness how the office is adjusting to the pandemic.

[matthewtj15]

PR Internship Post #5

My most recent day at my internship was a crazy one. We unfortunately didn’t get any time to work on the scholarship project because my immediate boss was swamped with her more administrative duties, and I was tasked with helping to get her back on track. This was complicated by the fact that something had gone wrong with the case schedules that we were meant to update.

Basically, the issue was that none of the information we were given on each of the documents we were meant to update was correct. There were files that were labeled with one case name in the file name, a different case number in the file, and a different schedule in the actual contents of the document. As someone had never seen a case schedule in my life just a few short months ago, this was a bit confusing. To make matters worse, the paralegal that had set up this task for us was not in the office that day and was unavailable to communicate. Fortunately, we were eventually able to figure out the correct cases and schedules, but that demanded the lookup of each document’s case number on the corresponding county’s case databases, and correctly re-filling in all the relevant dates. I’m glad I like everyone in the office, because if I wasn’t working with friendly or helpful people, this definitely would’ve been a rough day.

I’m sure this will be a good day to look back on in terms of my satisfaction over completing a confusing task, but I am definitely looking forward to getting back to work on the scholarship project with my intern partner this week.

[matthewtj15]

PR Internship Post #4

I received another exciting new assignment from the head honcho this week. This time, me and another intern have been tasked with a charitable venture; he wants us to establish a scholarship on behalf of the company. 

From a PR standpoint, this obviously makes a lot of sense. Generally speaking, law firms bring in a substantial amount of money, and people are aware of this. Even just a small scholarship shows that the company’s culture isn’t one of hoarding wealth and refusing to aid others. It’s about nurturing students interested in pursuing law.

As far as how this will look from an actual implementation standpoint, it’s definitely going to be a little more complex. Initially, I wanted to know how legit this needed to be. It sounds like an odd question, but if the boss just expected us to find people for which he can write checks, all we would really have to do is publicize the opportunity. If he wanted to go extra-legit (and much larger with his donations), we could’ve attempted to start a charitable scholarship organization within the IRS’s guidelines. After discussing these questions with my immediate superior, and some more research, we found that most law schools have a section on their “outside” scholarships page that lists page after page of law scholarships named after firms or individual lawyers. It looks like something like this is the goal, so we’ll mostly have to identify relevant law programs (including his alma mater, UCLA Law) and work with them to get this new opportunity out there. My time in the office this week should be interesting and extremely productive in figuring out the next steps and who to reach out to with my intern partner on this project.

All this is definitely a challenge, but if we are successful, I look forward to writing, “Established a law scholarship,” on my resume. It would definitely be a nice concrete accomplishment for anyone that ever takes a look at my resume to latch onto.