It is 6:49 a.m. I am in the Castellaw video editing room. I’ve been up all night. I feel awake, thanks to good old adrenaline, but my stomach is starting to feel not so great. All this means nothing to me, because I have finished my first rough cut of “Filtered,” my short film that has been driving me crazy for the last two months.

Obviously, it’s rough. But I’ll be damned if I’m not pleased with how it looks so far. It neeeds a LOT of tweaks… but… man, I’m happy. Even the down-converted, crappily composited, one-pass DVD I just threw together blows everything I’ve ever done out of the water. I can’t wait to finish this thing. It will be a glorious day. A glorious day, indeed.

Yeah, so I’m totally drunk right niow… I saw Just Friends… and it made me want to drink… so i had two bottles of wiune and four jack daniels mix thingies.

goddamn eruyan reuynolds movie makes the movie i just shot look like a fucking cliff notes to just friends… fuck iut.  god damn ryan rewynolds.  i can’t type.  fuck it.  i’m going to bed.

damn.

Well, I finished shooting last weekend.  Finished down-converting the footage on Friday.  Now I need to start editing.  I’ll do that tomorrow.

The stress is killing me.

• I have to give a presentation tomorrow on a Director of my choice.  I chose Dario Argento.  I’m not quite sure what I’m going to say yet. (Done 11/21)
• I have to have 10 more pages of my screenplay for Feature Film Writing by Tuesday. (Done 11/22)
• I have a Production Journal also due Tuesday which basically means I have to gather every print out from Studio Production from the whole semester, print out extra ones from the internet, and combine in to a big ass binder and turn it in. (Done 11/21)
• I have yet another 10 pages of my screenplay due the 29th. (Done 11/29)
• I have to do some research for Diffusion of Innovations on the social perception of gamers for a group presentation to also be due the 29th. (Done 11/27)
• I have to have a rough, SD draft of my short film by the 30th (only because I won’t have time to do my HD up-convert and final compositing work by then.  It’ll be impossible.  Almost.) (Done 11/30)
• I have to make sure my peons finish up our compositing project for Studio by the 1st (Done 11/21) and put together our Production Journal, due the same day (Done 11/30).
• Take my actors and Brian out for a nice meal as a thank you for taking my shit the last couple weeks. (Done 12/9)
• Write up a narrative describing my short film production process to be turned in as my Directing “final”. Due Thursday, December 8th - 10 a.m. (Done 12/8).
• Study for my Diffusion final. Friday December 9th - 9 a.m. (Done 12/9)
• During this time, I’ll have to finish off ANOTHER 20 pages of my screen play.  Due Monday, December 12th - Noon. (Done 12/12)
• Take Racquetball Final. (Done 12/12)
• At this point, I’ll have to do my HD upconvert (Done 12/12) and all my post-compositing work in Shake which will take forever and a day…
• Make the DVD of the short film…
• I STILL haven’t applied for my internships in New York, which is a VERY, VERY bad thing… (Status:  5 Applications Sent)

But that’s not all…

• Then before I can go home, I have to finish off the McClelland / Munn wedding video which I haven’t been able to finish off yet for various reasons (Long story including early manifestations of all of the above).  I cannot go home without having this thing done and ready to hand to them.  It’s been far, far too long.
• And speaking of weddings, I made the idiot agreement to shoot the Callahan wedding this coming Saturday... (Done 11/26) Something I won’t be able to start editing or do ANYTHING with until all the above is done...

And I’m not even sure if that’s everything… I’m just hoping it’s everything.  I’ve probably forgotten something, though.  I’m stressing.  And there will be no end to the stress until I go home.  I can’t wait to get the hell out of this God-forsaken town.  I’ve come to associate Waco with all my stress and frustrations, and I now hate it.  Hate it with a passion.

I’ve gotta get out of here.

I think I may have gotten in over my head.  I’m staring at a stack of equipment I just checked out from Baylor.  A stack of equipment that took me 45 minutes to check out because there’s just so much.

I’m starting to shoot tomorrow and I don’t have a full, set crew.  I’m going to have to man almost every conceivable position while still directing.  I deserve some kind of medal if I can make it through November without snapping.

Stress, stress, stress.  Oh, the stress.

Shooting begins Saturday morning on my magnum opus.

Pray for me.