My latest thoughts and updates since I have moved out here to California and started at the New York Film Academy - Los Angeles, California. Fair warning, this is a long one. 3,000 words long. Enjoy..... Over the last few weeks, I have started my formal education and journey into the field of professional photography. Being here in Burbank, California has been a pretty interesting experience so far. Although expensive, it really has been great overall. Between the people I have encountered, the area in general and the weather, I really have been blown away by how just awesome everything has been. I have to admit, I felt pretty nervous as I started school. I honestly felt like I was going to be another version of “Billy Madison” from the movies. I expected to be the oldest person in the class, along with people looking at me wondering what I did wrong in my life to be going back to school at my age. None of that was the case. If I was “Billy Madison”, then a few of the other people I have seen taking classes would definitely classify as “Rodney Dangerfield” from the movie “Back to School.” And I really haven’t thought about it too much, but between the school I am going to itself, and the kind of degrees we are pursuing, it is entirely different that the average person going back to school to get a normal degree. The first week started off with orientation, which was actually held on the Universal Studios backlot. I was a bit nervous going in, as I didn’t want to be escorted from the property for wandering around. That didn’t happen. The first day I was a bit nervous, not sure where to go. The second day on the backlot, I took a cue I learned from my time in the Army. If you act like you belong there, if you act like you’re not doing anything wrong, pretty much nobody will mess with you. And that pretty much was the case. We were able to get a tour of the backlot the first day, and it was pretty cool. I was able to see “Wisteria Lane” from “Desperate Housewives”, the “Bates Motel” from “Psycho”, the airplane destroyed from “The War of the Worlds”, the places where “New York City”, “Mexico or other South American towns”, “European Towns” are filmed, and where some of the scenes from “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” were filmed. Orientation was pretty much a standard thing throughout the week. Filling out paperwork, classes on academic honesty, school policies, tours of the campus buildings, things of that nature. I had to take an English placement exam, which I think I did pretty well on. Orientation took the entire first week. The highlight of the week, however, was the orientation dinner the school had for new students. The dinner was on the Universal Studios Western Backlot. The food was pretty good, and overall, it was a pretty good time. During the dinner, I got 4 free t-shirts (gotta love free swag, and this school just gives it away. I have a blue, black, white and red t-shirt, a satchel (or man purse, much better to carry my books in every day) and a jacket, all with the New York Film Academy name and logo on it, no complaints here, trust me) and met some of the photography staff. The various deans (how many does a school really need?) and other faculty. It was also a good chance for people to talk and network. In this school, there are animators, cinematographer, screenwriters, directors, producers, actors and photographers. Networking is key in these fields, and pretty much all of the students (I think pretty much with the exception of the photographers) will end up working together. Getting to talk to some of the people in other programs has been kind of fascinating. The people seem to have loads of talent and ideas. I really could see myself someday seeing one of these guys or gals making a phenomenal movie and I can say I went to school with them. My classes started on Monday of this week. I was honestly expecting 2-3 classes a day, and that is NOT the case right now. It very well could happen in later semesters, but I really can’t complain about my schedule. I do have classes Monday thru Saturday. There is one day the ENTIRE semester that I have 3 classes. ONE DAY……There are a few days I have 2 classes, but for the most part, it’s usually once class a day. Not a lot by any stretch of the imagination. I believe I am taking a total of 17 credits for the entire semester. At NYFA, you don’t get to choose your schedule at all. Based on your program, your schedule is made for you. You don’t have any electives until the end of your second year, going into your third (and final) year. I am going for my BFA, so I do have general education classes that I must take and pass during my time here. My schedule consists of the following classes: Photo Foundation I, Intro to Computing, Intro to Lighting I, History & Aesthetics of Photography and English Composition 1. Maybe I am being a little egotistical, but the classes are pretty easy right now. They are starting from the beginning and basics of photography, so I have to take classes on exposure all over again. I really don’t mind. Between being an easy grade, it’s also a good refresher to learn these things over again. Because basically, I know how to use a camera, but I have forgotten the basics. All of the teachers I have seem decent enough. Actually, the entire staff at the school is open and friendly. Open in the way that nobody, except the counselor and maybe one other person, actually has an office. All of the administration is out in the open. Deans, department chairs, other key people, have desks right out in the open for everyone to be able to walk up to and speak with. It is probably the most open, open-door policy I have ever seen. I have been dealing with their veteran’s office at the school, and they have been a great help as well. Nice people. Open communication. Lots of events and they want to know what they can do to make the transition better for other veterans who might be coming to the school. I am currently working on putting something together for them. The teachers are all actual industry professionals as well. They still currently work (when not teaching) and most (if not all of them) have come from the actual film photography days. Speaking of teachers, I figured my Intro to Computing class would be a breeze. I know computers fairly well. I think I have actually taken the class before (while I was in Bosnia, through the University of Maryland, but I never got transcripts or anything from them), so there’s really not a lot new that I am going to learn. Or so I thought. It seems the teacher for that class teaches all the science and math classes at NYFA. He is also an astrophysicist. And EXTREMELY smart. I still think I will do well in his class, but judging by what I can gather from my ONE class with him so far (and hearing some things from a few other people), when I do have him for math and science, it will not be that easy. I may want to put my head through the wall. But I am actually looking forward to that challenge. Another small challenge I have in one of my classes is in English Composition. When I went to DINFOS, I pretty much had to learn how to write all over again. For 2 reasons: at the time I was out of school for about 15 years and had only done Army award and NCOER writing, and journalistic writing. Now, once again, I have to learn how to write over. Most of the basic rules for punctuation, spelling and other things are the same, but journalism writing and other types of writing are different. Sigh….. One of the best things about right now is there are only 2 other students in most of my photography classes. There are maybe about 20 in Intro to Computing, and we share a class with 7 others taking a one-year photography program in History & Aesthetics. English has about 10 total. But for the most part, I only have 2 other people in my classes. This is great, as it allows for a lot of questions to be asked and definitely some one-on-one instruction. Another great this is that NYFA is an international school. I have classes with students from Israel, China, Saudi Arabia, England, Sweden, Honduras and Canada. I’m pretty sure I’m probably missing a country or two, but there are a lot of countries represented at the school. I think that’s a good thing, as it allows some people to be exposed to another culture that they might not normally be exposed to. Part of the college experience I guess. One part of the college experience I really didn’t plan for at all was some of the costs. $30 deposits for the school ID. The book list (which I knew books were expensive, and my book list really isn’t too bad). What is killing me is the list of supplies I need. I know photography is expensive. Until now, I really never had a true idea of how expensive. I know about cameras, lenses, memory cards and other accessories strictly for the camera. But now I need 2 MAC hard drives (the school ONLY uses MAC’s. EVERY computer in the school is a MAC. I am really going to have to learn how to use one now). A cable release. More batteries. A grey target. X-rite passport. A tripod kit along with a good head for it. The running tally right now is about $800 worth of stuff. Now I am starting to think about the business part for later. Copyrights. Lights. Light meters. Backdrops. Batteries. Strobes. This really is an expensive business to get into. One thing that really hit me this week is how much everything has changed for me. On the one day I have 2 classes (one from 9:15-noon, then 4:00-6:45); I took the opportunity to walk around downtown Burbank. When I started my research on moving here, I kept coming across a walkscore. Now, anyone who might be reading this who knows me, knows my fat behind is usually not walking anywhere. At all. If I don’t have to. No. Just not going to happen…..But I have sensed a change since I have been here. Someone I know told me it almost feels as if I am living in a Spanish Novella. I don’t know much about those, so I may have to take their word for it. But right now, to me, it looks and almost feels kind of like maybe the old-school Melrose Place. I like the apartment complex I live in. I can actually walk right out my front door and the pool is right there. The dumpster is right outside the back gate. The washing machines and dryers are maybe 30 seconds away from my front door. I have a covered parking spot, in a parking garage. Not bad at all. I live MAYBE 5 minutes away from a decent shopping center with Target (which I will start shopping at now a lot more instead of Wal-Mart), Best Buy and quite a few restaurants that I want to try. All but one of my classes (Intro to Computing) is in a building maybe 5 minutes away in the other direction (10 minutes in traffic. I know this as I forgot my camera battery the other day, and had to drive back and get it. Total trip time: 23 minutes there and back). Right in Downtown Burbank. During my time here, I have driven around a bit and gotten to know a little bit of the local area. I found out there is a Trader Joes here and did some grocery shopping there. It’s actually a pretty good store, and I can see myself getting certain things from there on a regular basis. The building with most of my classes is right in Downtown Burbank. Around the corner from a little shopping district. I have actually passed through there a few times, and could see that it wasn’t too far away from my classes. So during my 4-hour class break, I decided to walk down there, get some lunch (I saw there was a grilled cheese restaurant and I just had to try it) and explore the sights and sounds. It was just awesome. I walked. I looked around. I ate a pretty good grilled cheese sandwich with bacon, tomato soup and some chips. I didn’t realize how much was actually there until I was able to really see it up close and personal. I can’t even begin to count the number of restaurants and eateries there. A 50’s diner, Fuddruckers, Buffalo Wild Wings, sushi places, coffee houses, yogurt places. Thai food. Just more than I can really think of right now. I believe I could probably eat there once a week, every week for the next 3 years and it would take a considerable amount of that time before I crossed every place off the list. This doesn’t even include the AMC movie theater, Flappers Comedy Club (where big name comedians come on a regular basis) and whatever other shopping might be there. And I haven’t even ventured out to Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Monica or any of the other cities that are close. Let’s not even bring up the potential opportunities. I might have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A and maybe meet Stan Lee. I have the opportunity to participate in a screening of the Motown 25th Anniversary special and a Q&A with the producer, Suzanne de Passe. Who knows what other potential opportunities may come up while I’m here at school. After I ate and walked back to my building, I sat outside, in the 75° weather. For the first time in a long time, I felt relaxed. At a sort of peace I guess. Do I still have worries and stress? Yes, absolutely. Everyone does. And I still have my fair share. But I just felt different. Once again, anyone who is reading this (and sorry it might be kind of long, but the words just really seem to be flowing out of me tonight) and knows me personally, knows I haven’t really been happy in a while. I tend to look upset, angry and/or grumpy all the time. I tended to have a negative outlook and just wasn’t a positive person all the time. I kept to myself. That’s really not the case here. Between the fact that I am enjoying what I am doing and I love the area, it’s almost as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I go back and forth on this part, but I think that taking the last 2 months to kind of decompress helped out a bit. I did pretty much ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from the day I came home and took the uniform off until the day I started getting ready to leave El Paso and come to California. Trust me, when I say nothing, I mean, NOTHING. AT ALL. I pretty much watched Hulu or Netflix. I played video games. That’s pretty much about it. There were times I wouldn’t even really leave my apartment for days on end. I really didn’t have a reason too. I had food. I had beverages and whatever supplies I wanted/needed. All that was going to be in my mailbox was going to be junk mail. There was just no reason to go outside. Plus, it was too hot to want to go outside. But during that time, I dealt with my feeling about a bunch of different things. I got rid of pretty much all my old military gear. A ton of it. Actually, 4 duffel bags full of stuff, as well as almost 20 pairs of boots. But I did keep my old tanker boots. Mainly because those are cool. I also kept my ASU’s. I’ll probably make sure my awards and things are updated and just let it sit in the closet until I die. I also still have my dog tags. Never really getting rid of those at all. But I decompressed. I did silly little things like changing my clocks and watches from military time to normal, civilian time. I grew my beard in (and I’m still rocking it). I took my rank off of different things and places that had it on there. I updated social media sites to show and acknowledge I was no longer in uniform. Basically, I came to grips with the transition I was making. Once I got here, and got over the stress of finding a place to live and setting my apartment up, things just felt different. And I really didn’t realize it until I was sitting in that chair that day, outside, relaxing. I could actually (and literally) breathe free again. I didn’t have to blow my nose several times a day any more. As I unpacked, I actually took cleaner and cleaned off the sand and dust from El Paso. And there really is no more sand and dust blowing around here all the time (obviously). I remember friends telling me in El Paso they missed grass and trees. And because I have spent so much of my time in the deserts and hot climates, I really didn’t care for it. But I actually enjoyed sitting in the shade, the fall leaves falling around me. With an occasional breeze blowing from my side. I realized I actually missed grass. The smells that came from the trees and grass. The flowers people and business grew. I had to learn how to deal with some California things since I have been here, but they have really been easy to deal with. Understanding parking is one thing. The fact that the Burbank Police Department takes the 1, 2 and 3 hour parking seriously. They also take jaywalking seriously as well. These are thing we learned during orientation, and just talking with my apartment manager one day, he pretty much confirmed everything. From experience. In the fact that he, a few weeks ago, got a $600 ticket for jaywalking. He crossed in the crosswalk. While the light was red. But he didn’t hit the little button on the light pole so that the sign said it was good to walk. Basically, he got a $600 ticket for not pushing a button…… But I have gotten used to that. I know (and carefully look) where to park to make sure. I have learned to push the little button and wait for the little walking-guy to show up in the sign. I can adapt, not big deal. I know that throughout my life I have done some good things and bad things. Something I am proud of, some things not so much. I know that when my time finally comes, and I come to the gates of heaven, there is a chance I will be turned away for some of the things I have done. But, right now, things seem to be going really well for me and I don’t know what I did to really deserve all of this. I am hoping that my good mood and the good times continue. I have had period here and there over the last 5 years or so where it started, then maybe lasted a month or so, and then, poof, just like that, it was gone. Could it happen now? I guess, yes. One of my main goals while I’m here is to really maintain a positive attitude. It helps that I no longer have to deal with some of the silliness that comes with being in the Army anymore. Not bad-mouthing the Army at all, but anyone who is in knows that, at times, things can get REALLY silly for no reason at all. I like the idea that I will be able to concentrate on what I want and need to concentrate on right now. I should start heading out to shoot some photos this week. And that will be my focus. Not that, and then having to come back for a formation that really doesn’t apply to me at all. Or to pick weeds until 7 or 8 at night. Or to listen and get yelled at because there are a few of us out there that aren’t doing what we are supposed to do. That helps with the stress and mood. And maybe, that is ultimately what I needed. mcgeorge36.wordpress/
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 09:10:43 +0000
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