The Reel Life of Josh

Classes are back in session, and it’s weird to be a senior.  But somebody’s gotta do it, right?  So I’m sure you’re wondering what classes I’m taking this semester.  Well, here they are.

Dance for the Camera:  Blending dance and filmmaking, this course teaches how to create Dance for the Camera films, an emerging genre.  We watch different types of dance films from Fred Astaire to modern dance to movement on camera and look at the relationship between filmmaker and choreographer.  From this we create several different projects throughout the semester.

The Actor in Hollywood:  What is a star?  How does a star develop?  (Sounds like an astronomy class, doesn’t it?)  This class is built around studying Hollywood stars – specifically John Wayne, Marlon Brando, Jimmy Stewart, and Jack Nicholson.  By reading many of their films and developing our own research based on one of the four, we learn about many aspects of what makes a star a star and what details of performance contribute to this idea.

Anthropology of Media:  We live in a mediated society.  We all have cell phones, iPods, listen to the radio, go to the movies, watch TV, use the internet.  This course is designed to discuss how these things work in our daily lives.  Part history, part current events, part future speculation, we debate our mediated lives.  In the end, we complete an ethnography based on some media topic of our choosing.  One of the coolest parts is that our research projects are published on the class website which is publicly searchable.  Last time the class was taught, many of the projects came up in the top 5 of Google searches when someone typed in “Anthropology” + [topic keywords].

Brain Myths – Folk Psychology:  Folk psychology is a field of study based on the mental processes of common sense.  Here we discuss both scientific and popular notions behind common sense and why we believe certain myths (specifically about the brain).  Our first class consisted of a discussion on the myth that we only use 10% of our brains.

Lost and Found Film:  Delving into another emerging genre, orphan films, we explore old footage and create new films from those.  Every week a project is due.  By using archival footage and music/sfx, we can turn something nobody sees anymore (like many educational films such as “How to brush your teeth” from the 50s) into something different.  A lot of class time is devoted to ruminating on ideas of is meaning discovered or created.

So far, so okay with these classes.  But time to get down to work.  Until we meet again.

Filmmakers of the world unite!

Talking about movies is all I seem to do these days.  I’ve had to talk about it in class, write a paper on it, discuss it at job interviews for the summer, and, well, that’s all my friends and I do.  But recently there has been a lot of activity surrounding the Baltimore and Hopkins film community.

The Q&A at MFF

Maryland Film Fest was just a short 2 weeks ago.  This means the Station North area was packed with filmmakers from across the world, putting on a great display of films, workshops, and discussions.  It also meant time for the Putty Hill Maryland premiere.  For those who don’t know, I got the opportunity to work as a crew member on the feature film one of my professors, Matt Porterfield, shot last summer.  Well, at the premiere me and the friends that worked on set with me got the VIP treatment.  For a sold out screening, we got free tickets and moved up to the front of the line.  We were also invited up to the front with the rest of the cast and crew for the Q&A afterwards.

Last week, the Film Program threw a going away party for the seniors like they do every year.  Since the program is so small, they really go all out for these things.  There was incredible food courtesy of

Carlos after a good meal

Cafe Azafran (located in the Space Telescope building adjacent to campus).

I also spent lots and lots (and lots) of time at the DMC working on my short film.  Doing an independent study allowed me complete creative control to create a short film this semester under the guidance of one of my professors.

Each semester, the Film and Media Studies Program hosts a student showcase where work done in that semester’s film classes is screened for an audience of peers, family, friends, and faculty.  It gives students of every level an outlet to show their work.  Everything from Intro to Film Production’s 16mm 2 min. silent B&W shorts to more involved Senior Projects are shown.  I got to show my short second to last in the night followed by my good friend (and cinematographer) Carlos, who just finished up his senior project.  It was nice to have all my friends, professors, and much of the cast and crew there to check out something many of them had not seen anything from before.  (And it was also nice to get encouraging responses from them)

Professor + Karaoke = night well spent

After the screening, the night got pretty interesting.  2 of our professors invited a group of us out to dinner.  We went to The Dizz, a really great restaurant/bar a few blocks from campus.  After a fun dinner, we were actually invited with Matt to a party over at his friends’ house in Waverly.  (The concept seems weird when you initially picture a professor, but a lot of my professors are actually younger and I would consider some of them more like friends.)  One of his friends who hosted, Ben, is one of the Charm City Cakes guys (of Ace of Cakes fame)  so there were a few of the people from over there at the party.  It was incredibly fun and we even got to see Matt perform karaoke (singing Ginuwine’s “In Those Jeans”).

Maybe you too can come to Hopkins and witness such a feat!  

(As for the title, I’m off to a new challenge.  Instead of song titles I’m working in quotes from AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes from now on)

Some of you may be looking forward to the days of large lecture classes where you can just relax in a sea of 200+ eyes and sigh a great breath of relief because you know you won’t get called on by the professor.  Classes at Hopkins are much different than you might expect.

Only a small portion of classes.  5% of classes at Hopkins are over 100 students while 65% of classes are under 20 students – much more similar to high school classes.  On top of this, the larger lectures typically break down into small sections headed by a TA.  And that 5% consists mostly of lower-level introductory classes that many students at Hopkins elect to take.  Upper-level classes are usually capped at very small numbers of students.  For Humanities classes, this is especially true.  Many of the 100- and 200-level classes are even capped at 25 students or fewer.  And I’ve been a part of a class with only one other person in it.  I don’t say these things to make you think Hopkins is like high school or that you will be in these tiny classes, but I do say it to make you think about the type of education you will experience.  In many of the fields, you’ll get hands-on experience.  For this, personal attention and facility time are key factors to making the most of your experience.

But I’m not even writing to talk about that.  Here’s what I’m getting at:  Johns Hopkins University was founded according to the German university model which stresses seminar style classes over purely lectures.  In fact, it was the first university in the U.S. to use this method of small classes emphasizing discussion and discovery over lectures.

This may freak out a lot of people who hate to speak up in class (and I’m no chatty Cathy in school so I feel ya) but it is actually so helpful.  Open discussions let you learn not only from the professors, but also from those around you.  It encourages new ideas and debate, the latter making you think about your own ideas and finding reasons why you actually believe them.  You also get to know your professors much better this way.  Seminar classes are much less stressful because they are typically more like informal forums where everyone shares thoughts on different topics.  It doesn’t prepare you for life to just sit back and listen to facts so you can recall them later.  You can easily look up facts out in the great beyond of adulthood.  Really learning something means being able to defend yourself in a debate about it and having supporting evidence as to why something is true.  This style teaches you how to listen to others and open yourself up to new ideas that may support or contradict your own ones.

You have all been warned.  If you take the great leap and find yourself at Hopkins, speak up!  Your ideas are meant to be heard.

Now for a song trapped in my head:

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders “Excuses” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

I recently found that after about 15 years of schooling, I have finally learned something.  Or rather, I have enough knowledge to take what I’ve learned and apply it to other situations outside of that class discussion or homework assignments.

Now what I’m about to say really applies to things mainly outside of my major.  My film classes, especially production ones, have taught me tons of practical knowledge about the art of filmmaking and the technical craft involved.

But this semester, more than any other, has made me realize how much I’ve learned because I’ve been able to take information I’ve learned in classes and apply them to discussions in other classes.  This has never happened before.  Maybe I didn’t know enough.  Maybe I didn’t learn anything useful before.  Maybe I didn’t know how to apply the things I had learned to other situations.  But I can do it now.

Let me give you an example:

One of my classes this semester (an anthro class called Visual Economies in the Americas) has been talking about the objectivity of photography and their use in the history of anthropology.  With that, I was able to throw in information from another one of my classes regarding an essay by Roland Barthes called Camera Lucida .  Now my professor thought I had just done the wrong reading because we had  read his essay “Rhetoric of the Image” a few weeks before this came up, but it ended up working out.

I’m also taking a class on Modern and Post-Modern Architecture this semester which has come in handy when around the city.  I can see buildings and recognize what sort of style they are or what movement they were influenced by.

It makes me feel actually engaged with the things I’m learning when I can relate them to something else.

So maybe all the education is finally starting to set in.  About time, right?

Speaking of about time – only one more week until Where the Wild Things Are!

Where have I been these days?

Well, with classes starting things have gotten a little busier in my life.

1.  French Elements II – I’m taking my second semester of French now.  (For the Elements level, you need to take 2 semesters to get credit)  The class is great and I’m starting to actually understand the language.

2.  Advanced Film Production – In Advanced, we work all semester to come up with an idea and execute a short sync-sound film using 16mm cameras.  We come up with a shooting script and screenplay, cast, breakdown the script, find locations, shoot, and edit the films ourselves.  The other class members act as crew on the other students’ films.

3.  From Civil Rights to Multiculturalism: Student Movements for Social Change – This is a really interesting class in the Africana Studies program.  In a small group, we talk about student activism and multiculturalism in today’s society based on readings and guest lecturers.  In the end, we create a short documentary project in small groups, highlighting an issue discussed in the class.

4.  Writing with Light – Taught by a Towson professor, this class goes through the fundamentals of cinematography, focusing mainly on lighting.  This year, the class is actually very personalized, considering it’s only 2 people.  It makes it really easy to ask questions and get personal attention, as well as getting hands on experience with the equipment.

I initially had a fifth class, but decided to drop it because it wasn’t for me.  But these classes end up being 13.5 credits.  Now, this doesn’t mean I’m slacking off.  Taking a few less credits this semester allows me to do a few different things.  I work about 7 hours a week in the Admissions office.  On top of that, if you’ve read in some of my previous blogs, I am a TA (teaching assistant) for Intermediate Film Production.  I can also become more involved in my student groups, taking a more active role in things like Film Society as we plan for the annual Hopkins Film Fest in the spring.

The second semester is starting off well and hopefully it will stay that way.  But for now, I’ll leave you with some lip dubs to keep you entertained.

Lip Dub – Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

Now that I’m back in the swing of things and classes are underway, I thought it would be a good time to let you know how they are going.

As a film major I’m required to take 2 semesters at an Elements level
or 1 semester of an Intermediate level language.  I probably could have placed out of the requirement with the German I learned in high school, but I decided to start a new language and take French.  The program is great (being 1 of 3 schools in the US to be accredited by the French government), but it’s tough starting from scratch.

I’m also taking 2 classes to help with distribution requirements. The first is an Intro Sociology class that is really interesting.  The professor is great and
really helps explain the material.  The other class is one called Back to the Future.  It’s an Anthro class that looks at all types of material from many different fields, and we discuss how different cultures throughout history view the future and the concept of temporality.

The other 2 classes are film classes.  The first of those is my Intermediate
Film Production class that is incredible.  We have already come up scripts that we will be shooting this semester.  The class involves shooting a 3-5 min short film with non-sync sound (so that means no synced dialogue or sound effects recorded with the film).  I may even be working with a music composition student from Towson who would score my film.  My other film class is a screenwriting class focused on writing the images for film, not just story.

Along with these I’m taking a 1 credit independent study where I blog for the Film Program.  You can read 2 of my blogs that are already posted through the links below.

Here is a short film made by a Johns Hopkins student for you to check out: