Fresh Eyes in a Filmy World

As with most new beginnings, this semester of college started with promise and prosperity. My classes were meticulously arranged and I even went to the effort of buying a new pack of pens and pencils. Despite all of this buzz-killing preparation, I was unprepared for what my film class had to offer. When I think of the word film I immediately imagine blockbusters: big color, messy drama, comical happenings, and maybe even an explosion or two. I have never been a film guru by any standards, for my knowledge concerning film is quite unimpressive. This was never more apparent than the first day of film class.
When the initial chatter of the class finally subsided, we received an interview sheet that focused on our likes of entertainment. Seeing that I have little film knowledge, my selections were limited and the process was fairly easy. Soon after we were forced to read our selections aloud and I quickly realized that everyone seemed to have an infinite knowledge of TV shows and movies. I blame my parents for lack of HBO, but either way it was apparent that I needed to pay more attention to TV guide. However, little did I know that this open share-fair was but a mere ice breaker leading to the history of film.

We learned that film began from fairly obvious origins: theatre and the progression of still shots. Slowly, the history of film was presented before me as an evolving body of work. I was soon lit with a spark of motivation as I realized that everything I had just be exposed to was personally reproducible. It seemed as if I had just discovered the addicting quality of film production. What other medias of study can you reproduce its entire progression? From Edward Muybridge’s utilization of the zoetrope to the delightful “stop motion” clips of George Melias, all of what we had learned seemed irresistibly accessible. So when the time came for the class to make a few random shots, you better believe that I fooled around with a little “stop motion” filming. In no fewer than ten minutes Sam “Extrodinaire” Tamo had mastered a massive set of stairs on his skateboard. At least thats the story my camera phone told... Minus a few glitches. Either way I was excited to play around with the camera and reproduce a little fraction of film history! For now, I wait and look forward to the next project.