Cine-Bridge

In my class Social Entrepreneurship we learned everything that comes into learning about making business. We mainly went over hedgehog concept, marketing, incentives, mission/vision statements, financial projections, sales, pitch, legal structures, and we also read the book The E-Myth. As for FEs we had many guest speakers come in, we had the founder of Purple Asparagus, the director of 826Chi, and we had our very own founder of GCE Eric Davis come in. All of these people showed us what worked best for them and what they could have done better, everyone was saying how they needed to make their marketing better, which was a key takeaway. For the action project, we had to create a business idea of our own, we had the entire term to work on this, and each subject of our business was discussed whilst learning about it, such as what our mission/vision statement would be. We had to create a video doing our pitch, recreating the idea of we actually had to do a very quick pitch to someone about our business. I really liked this project, because I feel it really helps me with thinking about the future, and I really hope I can make this an actual business at some point. I struggled a lot with my time and being able to hit everything content wise, without going over time. Below is my pitch, hope you enjoy learning about my company Cine-Bridge!

Learning To Survive

In my unit 3 of my class Endurance we learned about the aftermath of being in hell and coming out better people from the heroes journey. The main people we looked at was the writer of Night Elie Wiesel and a man from Africa that was a child soldier and was able to escape when he got older. As far as field experiences we, for the first time, created our own! Mine was going to CineSpace, a landlord basically for production companies that need space to film or a hub to go to so they can talk about the film's progress. For the action project we had to create a survival book for our future goals in life. For me that is becoming a director in film, where I was able to talk about what I need to be prepared for, what materials I will need, to set a timeline of what my future might hold. This action project was pretty simple I would say and I liked doing it, like the others it helped with figuring things out for my future and I am very grateful for that. Something I didn't like was that we had to think about the future so much, I am someone that likes to not think about the future but this was something that I felt helped a lot. I really hope you enjoy, and if you hope to become a film director I hope this is helpful in understanding the field!

                                                                                                 

Nicholas’s Survival Kit

(Film Director)

NVA ”Take One” 2017.

Become The Director, Be The Director

What?:

My dream/mission is to become a film director and work in the film industry, I want to pursue this because I am very into art. With art, it can be very hard finding jobs and films are in art form that I a lot of people like and can get into. Not only because I see film as an easier art form to get into, but I also really like being able to work with so many people and be able to create something and make it real for people to experience. On the note of experience, I get a lot of emotions when watching films, and I know this is true for just about everyone, I want to spread that and have people talk about what their favorite movie is and why it made them laugh or cry. Right now I am in high school as a small independent filmmaker and soon going to college to study film. After college or during college I hope to become a director in film that is highly recognized, I want to change up the game in some films to keep people more interested!


Lay of the Land:

To be a film director the main job would be a director and then from there I can grow and do more such as acting or writing. The requirements are very varied, because a lot of people have become directors for blockbuster films after being an independent one for so long. But for me I want to go to college and take classes that way I can learn from people in the industry and network more, this way when I get close to graduating I can contact my teachers and see if they can give me a job. That is the main reason, also I feel college is helpful for many things and I know that it can help push me to be a better director. The requirements at Columbia to graduate a Director would be to take multiple classes where you study directing, acting, screenwriting, lighting, set design, almost everything; this way when you start the working with a crew you know the kind of language they use to work and function when doing their own jobs. The best person I can learn from is really myself and see what I do and how it can change to be better. At school, the best people are my teachers because they have knowledge and experience you want. Something very important is that while I am going to school, that piece of paper doesn’t mean much when I graduate because it is more based on the work I make and if I good features; college does help a lot though with networking. According to The Department of Labor, on average a film director will make about 70 grand a year. That number is only a mean, it is very hard to tell how much they will make because as I said it really comes down to work you put in. It is very important that in my career I have made a film reel to show off to people so they will hire me to be the director for that film, otherwise they won’t want me. Something interesting I found on Sokanu, is that the peak for maturity in this field is the age of 62, meaning I have a lot work to do to make sure I can lower that number for myself and prove that I am a great director. Right now more people want to be film directors and the growth rate for them coming in for the next 10 years is estimated to be a 9.1% growth. The film field for a job is very hard, and keeping a stable job is not really option because it all focuses on how much work I am willing to put in. I am prepared to do this and I have realized what I need to do, once I start college I can start doing what I need, which is work! I have already made three films of my own and have worked with a film company for a day doing multiple things, meaning I have a good start.


Timeline:

2017 - Made three films of my own

2017/2018 - Start college

2019 - Start directing my own films in school

2020- Graduate with a BFA in Cinematic Directing

2022 - Start interning at a production company

2023 - Get a paid job to start working myself up to being a director

2025 - Prove myself to be a good director

2027 - Direct my first blockbuster movie

2029 - Go to Oscars for new young Director

2035 - Direct my third blockbuster

2037 - Start collaborating more with independent artists





Materials:

The resources needed for this actually aren’t to bad to get, what I will need in college are the classes and money for the classes. I am going to Columbia College in Chicago and tuition normally is about $28,000 each year so in all the four years I will have paid $112,000. It might not even be that bad because for this. Scholarships are involved meaning that I won't have to pay that much exactly. As for other supplies such as a crew and equipment, most of that will be provided for me when I am in school. Then, when I am in the industry and I am a director, the crew and equipment/space will be paid from the production company and not me directly. In the beginning it will cost a lot, but if I learn to really take advantage of that money and time, then in the future it will pay off.


Non-negotiables:

There are a lot different roadblocks that can happen, and I feel that depending on what it is will determine what I will sacrifice. I will not sacrifice the fact that becoming a director is very important to my life and if someone or something is getting in my way; such as certain relationships I will need to really think if they are worth keeping to better further myself and my career. As for if it is something intellectually that I need to know then I know that I will be willing to put in the time in college or outside to make sure I have mastered what I need to get over.


What if?:

Worst-case scenario is that the film business is failing and I can’t become a director because the need is being lost. In that case I will have to find another job where I can use my knowledge to become an independent filmmaker and share my own work with people that still respect the art form or even become a teacher to people that want to become filmmakers. I have also thought about a business that I can create that will bring independent filmmakers closer to blockbuster production companies so that there is a new element that the want for filmmakers and directors will go up. Also something I need to prepare for is the simple fact that I might not want to do film anymore and I need to find a new field. I don’t know what I will do if that happens, I might try my best to finds something different in art where I have a good amount of experience that I can switch into. I think I would try to go into business because while hard it can be very good invest to study more. That even goes with my plan if the film industry was failing, because while I wouldn’t be doing films directly I would still have knowledge that isn’t thrown out of the window.


Inspiration:

“Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you’re a director. Everything after that you’re just negotiating your budget and your fee.”
- James Cameron


“A Lot of Times You Get Credit for Stuff in Your Movie You Didn’t Intend to Be There.”
- Spike Lee


“I think audiences get too comfortable and familiar in today’s movies. They believe everything they’re hearing and seeing. I like to shake that up.”
- Christopher Nolan


“But having a really good understanding of history, literature, psychology, sciences – is very, very important to actually being able to make movies.”
- George Lucas


“If a Million People See My Movie, I Hope They See a Million Different Movies.”
- Quentin Tarantino

These are five quotes by very famous directors that I really like because they prove to step out of the normal and to just work and prove yourself as a director.
Map:

NVA “Map of Directing” 2017

Advice for Others:

If you want to be a film director, then start working, it something I have start doing and it has helped me so much. I have only made three films, in each you can see more growth in each, not a lot but enough to know that I am heading down the right path. I would say school is important to go to and learn what you can, the professors have worked in the field and know what they are talking about and know people that can get you a job. This is an amazing field that has so many benefits, you literally just need to work, keeping working and proving yourself. This is a path that where reaching the end is very difficult.



Sources:

"Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d. Web. 01 June 2017.


"How to Become a Film Director: a Sharp Reality Check." Learn Filmmaking | Articles and Blog for Filmmakers. N.p., 05 Feb. 2017. Web. 01 June 2017.


"Film Director." Sokanu. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2017.


"101 Great Filmmaker Quotes." FilmmakerIQcom. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2017.

The 12 Hour Delivery

In Unit 2 of Endurance, we read more of Dante’s Inferno looking more at what the nine rings of hell were like. We mainly looked at people that put themselves in situations that call for a lot of enduring. One person we looked at was David Blaine, the magician, and his process for staying under for 17 minutes. Then, we looked at this girl Laura Dekker, who traveled the world on a boat by herself at the age of 14, and looked at her process through doing that. Both of these people had goals in their life that they need to fulfill to be whole. That’s where the action project comes in we had to figure out what our goal was in our life, for me it’s filming and becoming a director. So for the action project, we needed to figure out what we could do for 12 hours to get one step closer to our goal. I in these 12 hours I wrote a script, found actors, location scouted, filmed and edited my video together. We also had to document what the process was like and show what things we had to prepare for and random things that came along the way when trying to do these 12 hours. For myself, I made a film called, “The Briefcase” where this one man has to make a life changing exchange to get money for his family. I faced a lot of small challenges during this process, such as writer's block for example. What I liked about this action project was it really helped me get back into filming and that process and also taught me so much. Something I didn’t like was having to document myself while filming and doing tasks because it became a nuisance. Down below is my film I made and the video my process and all the things I experienced, a behind the scene if you will.

                                                                                   

The Process behind filming:

Chapter 1 Of My Life

In unit of my new class endurance we looked at different things people in the past had to endure both mentally and physically, and how it got them to be the amazing people they are known to be. We even did some endurance challenges of our own; the first one we did was sitting for 10 minutes without moving or sitting, something a lot of us were not able to do. The second one was holding a chunk of ice for 1 minute, two times; some people didn’t make it the first time and everyone did second time. Lastly, we had to do a boot camp training exercise with a teacher of Karate. As for the action project, we had to imagine ourselves 50 years in the future, for me that would be the age of 68. In this age I am writing an autobiography about myself and the mission I have for myself when I was a kid turning into an adult. I had to talk about the many things I had endured and how they got me here. I enjoyed doing this because I have such a strong mission to be in the film industry, and this only helped fuel the passion. There wasn’t anything I struggled with, I would’ve liked to have tried this not in essay form possibly. Below is the first chapter I have created my future book, hope you enjoy!  

                                                                                               

Chapter One:

Understanding

p3MediaWorks"On Set" 2016.

I was born in Bulgaria and adopted when I was the age of one by a Greek family in Chicago. I was raised in the northwest side of Chicago, having a more privileged life than others, but it would take longer time to realise that. Growing up I would always make sure that I was good student, always messing around with friends on the weekends. When I was growing up a lot of people would want to go partying, where my friends and I would just drink pop, and play video games till the sun came up. Then as soon as the week started, I would jump into my school work, pushing through all the stuff I needed.

Then sooner than I could see, high school hit me. I was a very poor test taker and because of that I would make sure in the classroom I was doing amazing. I was going to go to school called Notre Dame, having to be part of their special ed program. This was something my parents and I weren’t happy about, but I was determined to prove them wrong and make my way up to an A in my classes. Then a funny little thing happened, I was found on the waiting list of a school named GCE Lab School, a small school still starting out. I visited this school and saw that this place was for me, classes where every student had a say, not just in the classroom, but the entire school the students would have freedom. In the school, there were two classes and instead of tests, it was mainly projects. This was a big mental challenge for me at first and something I struggled to adjust to, but after I did everyone saw that I was growing as a person. The school taught me so much about myself and the city I lived in.

Outside of school, I was doing various activities such as teaching myself to learn to ride a skateboard, taking martial arts, and learning more about my Greek language. I was always pushing myself to learn new things to help my body and my mind. My freshman year was when I when I had big physical challenge of breaking my arm for the second time, and after that I always to take care of it and make sure it wouldn’t break again. If it did break again, I would have to do special programs to make sure it was taken care of. I would take care of it by doing yoga and sports, this making me more careful with my body. In my years of high school I kept changing my idea of what I wanted to do with my life, when I would go to college and work. At first, it was an architect because my that was dad did, and I liked art and math which architecture catered to. Then in my sophomore year and junior year, I wanted to work for the CIA because I was training with martial arts, and I wanted to use those moves to some good use. After finding out what I would really have to do to get into the CIA, I decided it was something I wasn’t interested in. Late into my junior year, I wanted to do art more, and I was more into films. That is when I found my passion and what I knew what I could do: become a director.

To become a director I knew I had to go to a school, that would have great classes for that. I started applying to a lot of art schools with film programs, because I also wanted to study various art styles. I applied all over, but knew I wanted to stay close to home, the place I wanted to into the most was Pratt in New York, because for one it was a great art school, and to study film in New York was my idea of amazing and the perfect school. I had a list of all my school from which one I wanted to go to the most and the least:

1. Pratt Institute
2. Rhode School of Design
3. Art Institute of Chicago
4. Columbia College
5. Savannah School of Art and Design.

To prepare I was making my own films each one better than the other. I was even taking classes at a small art school called Marwen to get more knowledge, doing animation and GIF making classes. Everything I was doing would be to prepare myself for film school.

One of the biggest road bumps I never saw coming was making an art portfolio. I didn’t rush to make one, but was smart and found old things I have done that I have done as a projects and found out those would work, plus my films I made, making the art portfolio I knew I could put together.

Now let’s jump forward a little, to my time in college studying film at Columbia College, and yes it wasn’t very high up on my list, but after looking at their film set, I knew this was the perfect place. My first year was very difficult having to adjust back to normal school tendencies; I hated having to take normal core classes such as English, math, science, history. But, I knew that if I could do great in those classes and pushed through I would be able to get to the filming.

Once I was filming I was loving it, getting to work with so many people that all had the same passion as me! Having such a great place to work on my ideas and learn more, to study all the things I ever dreamed for. There have been a lot of times where I will argue with the people I am working with because one of us wanted the film to a certain way. We would always come to some agreement, not really happy but able to still make it amazing. I would learn to make so many films, some being a noir style, some being animation, POV, anything you can think of! I was trying everything.  I needed to fuel my need to learn and grow, because I was determined to work my butt off to show what I was made for!

I got the second chance of life by being adopted, and I was going to show that it was worth it! When I was 18, my friend and I were talking at Starbucks and he was said that, “A strength you show is powering through extremely difficult situations that could make or break a young adult.” I took that in such a positive way that I knew that I could do this and that I could be the film director I decided to be in my junior year of high school. My journey through all these parts of my life reminds me of Frank Worsley the captain of The Endurance, because on his journey he a lot of challenges, but each one only made him stronger and fight harder. All of my challenges lead to the best moment ever, the film I am most proud of.

The film I am most proud that I made when I was a senior was an action film that incorporated animation in it, I called it Surfer. It is a style that has been done before but not very common anymore, and at the time I knew it would be amazing… and it was! The film was about a man that discovers and he can enter any TV show he wants and make his life just like the show. This was something that took me months to make from all the design aspects, but my professors loved it and so did everyone I knew! I was able to bring another style to life. Not only did this film get my myself an A but it was able to get my name around in Hollywood and the filming community. Soon more people wanted it to be shown all around. This lead for so much success, and I learned something important: Understanding the things you endured as a young person are what got me where I am today, is the most important thing ever.

Greek Films

For community service I have been working for the Greek FilmHellenes as a helper in any event that they have going on. The Greek FilmsHellenes is a group of Greek people that help independent filmmakers that are Greek. They do this by getting a collection of films, selecting what they see best and showcasing it at the Skokie Theater. My role was to help around with any events. That included; helpingset up and promote the organization at other Greek events. Each year at Navy Pier they hold an events called, "Neighborhoods of the World" this is for Greek artists, businesses, and resturants to showcase what they have for the public. At this event I took pictures and directed the public to see if they wanted to make a quick video to submit so they could earn free tickets to the Skokie Theater showcasing. Also, each year there is a Greek parade which celebrates Greek independence. During that event I walk with the Greek FilmHellenes and hold up signs to show my pride as a Greek person. 

NVA. "Greek FilmHellenes." 2015. 

From this experience I have learned a lot, in showing pride for a community, how to run a non-for-profit, and how certain films will be judged. I am someone that wants to be a filmmaker and this shed light on what people really like in films and what they don't. I will contunue to help out this organization and hopefully be a full on member one day. I was, from working with them for so long, considered to be a leader in a youth program they are thinking of starting up. This would be for young people, probably in the teens, that want to be filmmakers of their own.

Chicago Mix

In my new class Mixtapes, we studied Blues and Jazz and the historical context about those styles of music. We also learned about what goes into making music today versus the past, and how to improvise different sounds together. For FEs we went to Columbia College to sit in on a music theory class that was learning what we were learning and we learned more about Bebop Jazz music. We then the next day went to Stony Island Arts Bank to learn more about House music and how it grew in Chicago; we looked at some pieces from Frankie Knuckles, who was the founding father of House music. Lastly we went to Electrical Audio Studios to look at recording studios and how people record their music. For the action project we had to create a playlist of 5 different song that we think would be good for the Pitchfork Music Festival and explain how they show an attitude towards the world. I liked the range and the freedom we had with this project, because I feel the songs I picked were great, and have a nice range of genres. There wasn’t anything I didn’t like because I thought that this was a very fun project to do and think of. Below is my podcast of the 5 songs I thought would be best for the festival, hope you enjoy!

                                                                                                   

   

To listen to the full version of all these songs click the links below: 

1. Childish Gambino - Me and Your Mama

2. Panic! At The Disco - Death Of A Bachelor

3. J Balvin ft. BIA & Pharrell Williams - Safari

4. Chance The Rapper - Summer Friends

5. Georgie Porgie - Life Goes On

The Vision

In unit 3 of my class System and Models we learned about how to make a company or group work the best, and different methods that are used to have the best working group. This includes looking at measures like Total Quality or Six Sigma, then looking at Commons, which are resources that are shared but not regulated. We also looked at the different work environments and how they can change the amount of productivity in a company. For an FE we talked to the head of the school Eric Davis about the different functions of our school. For the action project, we had to take a system with in the school, could be anything, and talk about about it through SWOT. I will explain SWOT in the presentation below. While explaining it through SWOT we also had to show how it relates to different trends that businesses do, the Commons, and Maslow Hierarchy of Needs. We then have to figure out how to make this system better and explain why it would work. I chose to talk about the teachers and how they collaborate with each other. Something I thought was interesting about this project, was there have been times when they use what we say and implement in the school itself. Something I thought was difficult was coming up with a way to present all of this, because it didn't need to be a presentation, that is just how I ended doing it. I would have liked more time so I could have made it more interesting and creative.