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lierdumoaUuuuugh.
So today, David and I went to the head instructor for our film class and requested the possibility for making two final cuts of the movie and turning them in separately. Our group suffers from creative differences.
To recap -- we're making a short film. We recorded all the footage. We're now editing it. The theme is kinda Fight Club-ish, only less fucked up and more tragic.
Jesse, who's majoring in sound arts and dreams of becoming the next Eminem (I kid you not) -- well, lets just say this is the kind of movie he would never, ever watch. To the point that I don't think he knows the difference between this kind of movie being done well, and this kind of movie being done badly. In fact, throughout our editing, he's asked about fifteen times what's going on in different parts of our movie, which leads me to believe he doesn't understand what the movie is about. At all. I think it's actually too high concept for his brain to handle. I only wish I were exaggerating.
We spent all of Wednesday's lab playing around with dream sequences and flashbacks and decided that fade to whites might be appropriate for the flashbacks, and crossfades for the dream sequence. Jesse missed all of this because he went to take a phone call and never came back.
Jesse waltzed into lab today an hour and a half late and decided that he didn't like the fade to whites. He said that they looked too commercial, whatever the hell that means. I changed one of them to a dissolve, just for comparison's sake. He asked me to do it again, because he wasn't looking the first time. He asked me to do it yet again, because he still didn't get it. He tried it himself, but couldn't figure it out. A cross-dissolve is not something that can be taught on a case by case basis. Either you get the concept or you don't. He doesn't actually give a shit about whether he knows how to put in a dissolve or not -- he just wants to be able to pass the final evaluation. I finally gave up and left the room, because after all it's not my job to teach him Final Cut Pro.
I went to the cafeteria to find David and our lab instructor eating lunch. I thought to myself, "Oh god. The lab instuctor is avoiding him. This is actually so sad it's funny."
I came back 20 minutes later to find that the four group members in the room had done absolutely nothing.
My lab instructor, meanwhile, is hanging to his objectivity by a thread. He keeps making cryptic statements like, "Well, I have to stay objective, but...I think you know where I stand on this."
Today went like this:
Me/David: I have an idea
Shane: *agrees*
Jesse: I don't like that, let's do it this way
Stephanie: *doesnt' speak -- ever*
Jeremy: *doesn't show up to lab*
Bryant: Let's see it both ways
Me: *changes it to Jesse's way*
Jesse: I have to take a phone call
Bryant: Let's see it both ways again
Jesse: *leaves class for his phone conversation and never returns*
Shane, Stephanie, Bryant: hey, lab is over, I'm going home
Me: So I guess we're staying after class again.
David: Yup.
You know, when they told us we'd have to learn to work as a group, I thought it was understood that the everyone was required to, you know, work. In a real life situation, I would never have to work with these kind of people, because these people would have been fired, or actually, never hired in the first place.
Now, our group has seven members. It's only supposed to have six at the most, but Bryant was absent a lot, and Jeremy was in a different group that disbanded. We actually thought Bryant was going to fail the course, so we brought Jeremy into our group.
Currently, our best chance at getting to split up into two groups is the fact that we have too many group members.
The main problem, of course, is that since David and I do all the work, if we go off into a group of our own, everyone else will surely flunk. That, and only one other group member, Bryant, really gets along with Jesse. It would be cruel to inflict him on someone else.
Originally, didn't want to split up into two groups. I just wanted to finish two versions of the movie. I wouldn't mind editing for Jesse so long as I didn't have to put my name on whatever it was I edited for him. If I'm putting something in my portfolio, I want it to not look and sound like ass. Making two versions would actually be much faster than arguing with the rest of the group until they all agreed on one version.
The head instructor told us to sit on it for a week before any decisions were made. We went back to talk to our lab instructor, who said he would be fine with us splitting up into two groups, and it sounded pretty doable. We then turned to talk to the rest of the group only to find out they had all left the editing lab and gone home.
Lab instructor: They told me it was pretty much done.
Me: Did they do anything to it?
Lab instructor: Not really, no.
Me: And they thought it was pretty much done?!?!?
David: You know, I don't know why I keep being surprised by this.
Lab instructor: *this is my objective face*
Me: *starts laughing hysterically* Good times, good times.
David: let's go eat something
So today, David and I went to the head instructor for our film class and requested the possibility for making two final cuts of the movie and turning them in separately. Our group suffers from creative differences.
To recap -- we're making a short film. We recorded all the footage. We're now editing it. The theme is kinda Fight Club-ish, only less fucked up and more tragic.
Jesse, who's majoring in sound arts and dreams of becoming the next Eminem (I kid you not) -- well, lets just say this is the kind of movie he would never, ever watch. To the point that I don't think he knows the difference between this kind of movie being done well, and this kind of movie being done badly. In fact, throughout our editing, he's asked about fifteen times what's going on in different parts of our movie, which leads me to believe he doesn't understand what the movie is about. At all. I think it's actually too high concept for his brain to handle. I only wish I were exaggerating.
We spent all of Wednesday's lab playing around with dream sequences and flashbacks and decided that fade to whites might be appropriate for the flashbacks, and crossfades for the dream sequence. Jesse missed all of this because he went to take a phone call and never came back.
Jesse waltzed into lab today an hour and a half late and decided that he didn't like the fade to whites. He said that they looked too commercial, whatever the hell that means. I changed one of them to a dissolve, just for comparison's sake. He asked me to do it again, because he wasn't looking the first time. He asked me to do it yet again, because he still didn't get it. He tried it himself, but couldn't figure it out. A cross-dissolve is not something that can be taught on a case by case basis. Either you get the concept or you don't. He doesn't actually give a shit about whether he knows how to put in a dissolve or not -- he just wants to be able to pass the final evaluation. I finally gave up and left the room, because after all it's not my job to teach him Final Cut Pro.
I went to the cafeteria to find David and our lab instructor eating lunch. I thought to myself, "Oh god. The lab instuctor is avoiding him. This is actually so sad it's funny."
I came back 20 minutes later to find that the four group members in the room had done absolutely nothing.
My lab instructor, meanwhile, is hanging to his objectivity by a thread. He keeps making cryptic statements like, "Well, I have to stay objective, but...I think you know where I stand on this."
Today went like this:
Me/David: I have an idea
Shane: *agrees*
Jesse: I don't like that, let's do it this way
Stephanie: *doesnt' speak -- ever*
Jeremy: *doesn't show up to lab*
Bryant: Let's see it both ways
Me: *changes it to Jesse's way*
Jesse: I have to take a phone call
Bryant: Let's see it both ways again
Jesse: *leaves class for his phone conversation and never returns*
Shane, Stephanie, Bryant: hey, lab is over, I'm going home
Me: So I guess we're staying after class again.
David: Yup.
You know, when they told us we'd have to learn to work as a group, I thought it was understood that the everyone was required to, you know, work. In a real life situation, I would never have to work with these kind of people, because these people would have been fired, or actually, never hired in the first place.
Now, our group has seven members. It's only supposed to have six at the most, but Bryant was absent a lot, and Jeremy was in a different group that disbanded. We actually thought Bryant was going to fail the course, so we brought Jeremy into our group.
Currently, our best chance at getting to split up into two groups is the fact that we have too many group members.
The main problem, of course, is that since David and I do all the work, if we go off into a group of our own, everyone else will surely flunk. That, and only one other group member, Bryant, really gets along with Jesse. It would be cruel to inflict him on someone else.
Originally, didn't want to split up into two groups. I just wanted to finish two versions of the movie. I wouldn't mind editing for Jesse so long as I didn't have to put my name on whatever it was I edited for him. If I'm putting something in my portfolio, I want it to not look and sound like ass. Making two versions would actually be much faster than arguing with the rest of the group until they all agreed on one version.
The head instructor told us to sit on it for a week before any decisions were made. We went back to talk to our lab instructor, who said he would be fine with us splitting up into two groups, and it sounded pretty doable. We then turned to talk to the rest of the group only to find out they had all left the editing lab and gone home.
Lab instructor: They told me it was pretty much done.
Me: Did they do anything to it?
Lab instructor: Not really, no.
Me: And they thought it was pretty much done?!?!?
David: You know, I don't know why I keep being surprised by this.
Lab instructor: *this is my objective face*
Me: *starts laughing hysterically* Good times, good times.
David: let's go eat something
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 06:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 02:17 pm (UTC)That's their own problem :)
Dump the dead weight as fast as you can. It's the American way.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 04:40 pm (UTC)If we don't manage to get split up into two groups, my shady alternative is to go ahead and make a second version, and make the lab instructor decide which will get a better grade. The class isn't supposed to grade on creativity, but due to the incompetence of the other teammates, anything they came up with would be bound to have more technical fuck-ups.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 02:27 pm (UTC)Not wanting to burst your bubble, but in real life, you will be *surrounded* by these people. These people will get hired because they will get a good grade from the professor (since it's a team thing and y'all will share grades). They will put this project that *you* did on their resumes; they'll stay hired even though they don't work because only those who rock the boat get fired. They get raises and they get good reviews and they take credit for others' work. Meet your coworkers, baby. And, because the Peter Principle is alive and well, they could also be your bosses. sigh. [a cynic is a failed idealist]
no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 04:34 pm (UTC)Honestly, I wouldn't mind people taking credit for what I did as long as I was still able to take credit for what I did. They're actively sabotaging the project. Thank god they only stick around during regular class hours.
The good thing about this situation is that all the higher ups know where the credit belongs because I'm generally good with teachers like that.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-28 07:22 pm (UTC)I hated group grades, hated the whole conceit that the process was a useful one. It's not. Learning to work with other people, especially people you don't like is useful, but in an academic environment, there are just too many people half-stepping when it comes to their own work. Put them in a group, and they just take advantage. It turns into a lesson in do you narc or not?
My sympathies....
no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-30 01:45 am (UTC)and not the good kind either.