My stint at the Vancouver International Film Festival Trade Forum

This week has been fucking insane since I've been volunteering at the Trade Forum for the film festival. I'm officially exhausted because I've been volunteering, working, editing for Ricepaper and working on my class. Besides all this I also started belly dance classes and had to have a physical on Wednesday. On Tuesday I helped put together 600 delegate tickets, and arranged furniture. Thursday I womanned doors, arranged things, helped clean and was a general directions assistant, helping people find their way around the new Vancity Theatre. Today was more of the same.

However, I had a blast!

On Wednesday, Ray Liotta came to give a speech about acting, which was apparently quite well attended. He was funny and laid back and not at all like his screen persona.

Thursday- I sat in on a session about production design, run by Dennis Gassner, who did production design for "O Brother Where art thou"(haven't seen), "Bugsy" (haven't seen), "Hudsucker proxy" (loved), "Big Fish" (loved) and "The Truman Show" (haven't seen.)

Friday- Sat in on master class with screenwriter James L. White, who wrote the screenplay for "Ray." Also watched Michael Oates Palmer's talk on narrative television, which was fascinating. Palmer was a writer for Season 4 of the West Wing, and is currently writing for the show "Injustice."

I plan to expand on all of the things I remember from these talks in my next entry. Consider this short entry a place marker because I have to go to work now.

Master class with a production designer

I have learned that if you want to work in film, you must generally be very very goodlooking or very eccentric. It is best if you are a combination of both. Talking to people at the Trade Forum was fun, and gave me a look into what the people behind the scenes are like.

I have also decided that there are some wacked out volunteers. There was one woman who was pouting because she felt that someone else was stealing her job, and another one who was so high strung, panicky and stressed that I wanted to hold her down and cram some valium down her throat.

Anyway, I watched the production designer class yesterday. ( notes on the session )

What I've been reading lately

1. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury- As mentioned before, I really enjoyed this one. I find it creepy how much its themes apply to the world today. One of the central themes is that people do not want to question or think, but have information spoonfed to them. I was quite intrigued by some of the ideas in this novel, and loved how it was about the power of books.

2. Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last- Susan Juby- The third book in the Alice series. This one contained the regular humour and interesting characters I've come to expect. I love this series. I recently learned that it's going to be a television series shot in BC and starring Carly Pope. I have high hopes for it, and think it could be a great Canadian teen drama/comedy. And yes, all of us know my weakness for all things teen. Ahem.

3. The starving artist's way- Nava Lubelski- A cute little book with lots of recipes and project ideas based on works by artists in various fields. It was somewhat interesting and creative, but at other times came off as a bit pretentious. I can only handle reading little blurbs about billions of artists for a short time. When info is presented to me like that, I have a hard time remembering it. I might have enjoyed this book more if I actually owned it and could pick it up and read short snippets at a time.

4. The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency- Alexander McCall Smith- I confess, I was curious as to what all the fuss was about. While I like the premise of the story, it completely failed to hold my interest. I think it's because it didn't have a lot of character development. Instead, it was just about the central character running around solving things. I didn't feel there was a lot at stake, so I couldn't get into it. I don't think I'll be reading any more in this series.

Master class with screenwriter James L. White

Today I was fortunate enough to listen to a talk given by James L. White, who wrote the script for "Ray." He was a black man with a very candid nature and a wonderful laugh. He originally started out trying to become a novellist, but then became a screenwriter. He has never had any of his own scripts done, but has worked on scripts for other people.

( details )

There was probably more, but I need to sleep.