The End!!!

Classes are over! Yesterday was the last day, and now the rest of my time here in Provo is going to be a breeze. I don't have any REAL finals during finals week, I just have to attend the assigned time we've been schedule for finals, and each of my classes is doing some small thing just to meet the university requirement. Two of my real finals happened yesterday--a pre-production presentation for my CRV class and my final landscape design portfolio. So... neither were tests. I have no "tests" this year. Which is amazing, because I do MUCH better on presentations/papers/portfolios than I do on tests. I am just not a test taker. I guess it's a good thing I'm not a math/science major. Tests are going to be few and far between from here on out for me :)

Well, once again, not much has been happening other than schoolwork. However, I've had some pretty exciting/fun schoolwork lately, since we've been working on our finals. Overall, I haven't really enjoyed my CRV class, because I've felt that it was pointless. I mean-- the entire purpose of the class is to learn how to create a story... something that EVERYONE in that class already knows how to do. Otherwise they wouldn't be applying to the film major. I felt most of the class was busywork and filler space, and overall, a general waste of my time. However, the final wasn't related to ANYTHING we'd done all semester, and I actually enjoyed it. How often do you hear someone say the final was their favorite part of class? :P

For the final, we were split into groups of five and we had to do all the pre-production work for creating a film. Granted, we hadn't learned how to do ANY of this during the class, which was a little frustrating at times when they wanted us to make a budget for the film as well as a detailed schedule including casting, filming, editing, etc. It would have been fun to actually MAKE the film... but students aren't allowed to do that until their 419 project. Anyways, we were given basic film pitches (created by other students in the class--we each had to come up with a pitch and then vote on which ones we liked best. These were then assigned to other groups, and no one was allowed to work on their own pitch) and then we had to work with our group to develop the story, draw out a storyboard, and plan the film out.

I don't mean to brag but... I think my group had one of the better ones. :) And I don't think its necessarily due to any one of us in the group. We were given a really good pitch that was left open ended so we were able to expand it a lot from the original idea and add more depth to it. Everyone in my group was excellent--we all worked really well together, and we all had the same basic ideas of where we wanted to take the film, which made working with them a lot easier. Two of the guys in my group-- Martin and Steven-- were especially fun to work with, because the three of us were the most excited about this film and we were the most in tune with what the others were thinking. We sort of ended up being the leaders of the group, and Brooke and Houston, our two other members, kind of took the back seat. Which was fine. I wish they would have contributed more, and I wish they weren't as hesitant to throw out ideas. I think that was one thing my group was particularly strong in-- we weren't afraid to throw out ideas, even if they were stupid. And we were all good about shooting down the stupid ones in a nice way. :) We were all just very comfortable working with each other, which made this project a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

So we gave the final presentation on our film to the class yesterday in lecture, and it went pretty well. I think our film had the most depth in it, because each of us in my group was really concerned with actually having multiple themes and lessons in our film. The other films were fun and cute, but there wasn't much substance to them. Not that that makes them bad--but I think ours had a lot more thought and planning put into it than the others. Ours was the only film I could imagine actually being made into a feature length film. The others were all specifically student films, which have to be about 20 minutes or shorter.

Anyways, so that was done yesterday. I also turned in my landscape design portfolio yesterday, which took a LOT of work. I had been doing all my papers and preparations for my other classes and put off assembling my portfolio and finishing my design till Monday. Bad idea. I opened up the portfolio rubric around 6 PM on Monday night, and realized that I didn't just have to put everything I'd already turned in in there. I also had to draw up a cost estimate for all the plant and structural materials, as well as a horticulture list with the scientific and common names for each plant I would use, with a location they could be purchased at, what size they would be when purchased, how big they would grow, and the quantity I would need for the design. Needless to say, it was several hours of work just to finish the horticulture list and the cost estimate. I'm sure the materials could have been found for cheaper than what I put on there, but once it hit midnight and I was only a third done, I gave up trying to find the cheap ones and just went for the first thing I saw. :) Even so, apparently my design is a lot more expensive than I originally thought. I was expecting a couple thousand dollars... yeah, it turned out to be around $7500. Not including the expenses for construction and transportation. But at least the yard looks nice :)

I was actually quite happy with my final design. It all came together late at night. I was stuck on how to increase the aesthetics of the backyard, and then suddenly, it just hit me. And then I started drawing like crazy, and BAM! There was the new backyard. :) I'll end up giving my portfolio to Mack's mom when I get it back, because she said she'd like to see my ideas, and I don't have any use for it. Maybe she can use some of my suggestions. It'd be cool if she did--I could come back and actually see my design implemented.

My last day of Japanese was a bittersweet one. I really liked that class, and I think it's one of the few classes that I'll really miss taking. I wish there was another one, but sadly, that's the only Japanese Lit class to my knowledge. I'd like to actually take the Japanese language courses, but that's only if I have the room in my schedule to take them. Sigh.

The end of my film class was also bittersweet as well. I really enjoyed the lectures and labs for that class. It was basically just a class of what I do after I watch a movie anyways. Sit and watch films, and then analyze them. So much fun! :)

But even though I've decided against the film major and I'm going back to English (for real this time), it's not the end of film for me. Within the English major, there is a film and literature class that I fully intend on taking. It's all about the adaptation of novels into films. I think it'll be fascinating. But I won't be able to take it for a while, since it's a 400 level class and I need to get through all the 200 level ones first.

Well... I think that's about all that's going on right now. Done with classes, and now I just have my "finals." What a joke. It's basically just like going to another day of class for me, since we're required to do SOMETHING during finals week. :) In film, we're just watching a movie and then writing a quick paper on it. Landscape design we're coming in, holding up our designs, and going "This is my project...". For CRV, we're turning in a paper and then walking right back out. And for Japanese... well, Sensei still hasn't created the final. He doesn't know what he wants to do. But the options were 1. watch a kabuki and whoever leaves last gets an A 2. watch the 1980s version of Yotsuya Kaidan (one of the most famous ghost stories in Japan, which we studied) or 3. Write some in class paper. I'm voting for number 2. Number 1 would be amusing. :P Sensei joked that we'd all just bring sleeping bags and camp out to get an A. This option came about because he asked us what we've learned to DO in this class, and someone jokingly said "Watch really, really, really, REALLY boring kabuki." Then came about the option of Sensei picking the most boring kabuki he could think of, and whoever could last the longest would get an A and the grades would just be scaled down based on the order of people who left. Of course, we're not REALLY going to do that... but it was amusing, nonetheless. :)

Apparently there's a Japanese calligraphy class... I am REALLY tempted to take it. I think my Sensei teaches a section of it, because there's a student in my class who kept having him look over his calligraphy, and one day Sensei mentioned something about seeing him improve after looking at his work all semester. So if there IS a calligraphy class that doesn't require you to be in the major or to have taken Japanese, I would love to take it. Especially if Stoneman Sensei is teaching it, because he's an amazing professor.

And now I'm just slowly packing up all my belongings, getting ready to move out and go to Florida!!! I'm really excited to get out there. I'll miss living with my roommates, especially Somers, since she won't be back till January. I'll miss having her around. But I know I'll get to see her again, so it's not completely awful. :) But I'm very excited to get out to Florida, tan, and go around the Disney parks. I know I'll probably get tired of my actual job fairly quickly, but at least I'm in a fun environment and on my days off I can just mess around in the parks. Another good thing is that I'll be working/living with a lot of BYU students, since we have a different internship schedule than other schools with Disney, and so if I make some really good friends out there, I'll still be able to see them when I come back in the fall most likely. This semester may be one ending, but Florida is just another window of opportunity, and any connections I make there could last long past the time my internship is over and I'm back in Provo. :)

Well, I think that's all for now. I'll probably update again once I'm in Florida! :)