So the last update I was talking about going to school, so that I could achieve my ultimate goals. I did end up going to look at my choices to continue on with my education. I chose, what I had thought is the perfect school for me. I was offered a scholarship, it was a beautiful city campus and the students were all older going back for their second degrees or just got a later start in life on their first.

So I sat on the airplane, thinking, this isn't going to be so bad! Back at school learning things I wanted to learn and hopefully getting my life in a positive direction. I decided  in order to move forward with these goals I would have to get serious about saving money, loans were a definite but I wanted some type of spending money and my crap-hole $8.00 an hr job was not going to cut it.

So I did what I could and filled out applications anywhere and everywhere; restaurants, retail, babysitting, temp work. Anything! And i finally got a call back from a bank. A bank, I remember thinking to myself, I can make this work. My low paying job to pay the rent, bank job for living expenses and saving up! So I signed my self up for bank training, where they basically make you sit in a classroom while they go on and on about really pointless things, and then you do a few practice runs of what you would do in real bank life and then at the end of the week you take a giant test for 7 hrs.

The day before my giant test I got an interesting phone call. It was a young women looking for an Editorial Production Assistant. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is basically the assistant's assistant to a movie editor. Meaning I make copies, I file papers, I get them coffee, milk, snacks, red bulls, keep the office supplies plentiful. I'm the editors bitch! But over all is a really cool job. So here I am 12 hours from taking my bank teller test getting this opportunity; but its only an interview, so my heart is beating out of my chest the entire time because what happens if I don't get the editing position? I would be down two jobs.
So I did what any self respecting person in the industry would do, I told the other bank job "later bitches!" And guess what! I walked into the interview and they loved me! So here I sit the Production Assistant to the Editors! So its been a month and I've had to give up my thoughts of going back to school, because they asked me to move to California and be the Post-Production Assistant. It happens quite often I believe but its really cool either way! So I now currently have 18 days left in Pittsburgh.
Its funny, you know how one minute you are on the track you think is right for you, it seems like life might be ok, that something good could come out of what you are doing then BAM! Something you have been working for years for has finally fallen at your feet! It feels good to work hard and to get something you know you deserve. So i will pack up my little car and drive across the country soon, my boyfriend will meet me out there a few weeks later and then we will see what happens after that!

So the last few days in Pittsburgh I have set up a bucket list. Of things I hope to do before I leave the city of Pittsburgh. This is not my home, I am not originally from here. That being said I want to do somethings that I feel I should have done as a tourist or as a person who lived in the city has done. Its funny that I haven't done these things. Keep a look out for what I have to accomplish here before I can start my journey out to California.

a new realization

After months of a dead-end retail job and the tireless question of when are you going back to school, I have given some thought of doing so. I love editing, I love the techonology behind it, I love creating the film world and making people feel. But my love of Pixar films and Tim Burton (strange i know) has always lingured in the back of my mind.
I was forced to go to a university, by society, by the soical norms. It wasn't really a question, just get alright grades and get into a university. Which in reality, who could blame a parent for? I always though hey can't I just move to California and work my way up the ladder. Or can't I go to an institute and get by with a two year program?  But a year later, graduated from a university with a concentration in film editing getting by with what little oppurnities I can find, I AM BORED.
But am I bored or am I scared? Do I think going back to any kind of schooling will keep me from having to reach the true level of adulthood? Or Do I need to saddle up and get started on my life's biggest journey? Am I ready for the real world?
I always thought I was, I never wanted to wait around, I just wanted to do something. So I ask, myself I guess, Do I push forward? Or do I stay in this bubble I have created for myself?

The graduate

So I have a younger cousin who is going into film school. This is his freshman year and I thought that I should pass some words of wisdom on to him. I read my boyfriend the email I sent my cousin and he told me he wished someone told him that when he started.  So I thought I would start off this blog with the little words of wisdom that I have. 


1) Don't ever forget who you are. Don't get caught up making movies like your favorite director or dp or editor. Use your own voice in every film
2) if you have great professors and classmates you will get torn apart your first year or so in school this is good because everyone need true criticism and needs to learn how to give and receive it. Its ok to be passionate about the things you made and you should be but know there is a whole world out there waiting to judge everything!
3) No one know the true passion you have for filmmaking except yourself! Your parents will always be behind you they love you! But that doesn't mean they understand and when you start getting jobs family and love ones try to understand but unless they are in the art industry themselves it is really hard for them to understand what you are dong and why you are dong it. So your best friends will be the one's that you go to film school (or for the arts) with they will understand everything you are going through and will probably be there for you when you feel like you are at an all time low.
4) you probably will be burnt out at one point if will feel like your head is going to explode because you can't get location or a actor or in the editing room you realize you do not have the footage you wanted-- just remember breathe! You are creative so you should have no problem finding a solution and once you hand in and show your project you will be soooo proud of what you created! Never ever give up! you made it this far!


I can't speak for every film student out there,  I can only speak for me. But I have been very fortunate for the most part with the friends I have made. I have a great boyfriend who also wants to be in the industry and we have our fights every once and a while but I couldn't imagine going through this with out him! Or with out my group of girlfriends. I have some friends that went to film school with me and one who went to school for photography and I just feel like we are all lost. We are just drowning, clawing, fighting our way  to the top. Thinking why did we go to school for this. I defiantly don't have any answer, but I do have friends.