200th post!

I can't believe I have posted 200 posts already! I started this blog in 2013 and in 2 years, a lot has happened. I have learned so much from blogging, I have grown as a write and all these memories, these silly little things I wrote about are things I can look back on and remember. I'm so glad I started this blog, and I can't wait to keep on writing! I have so many exciting things happening in my life right now that I want to share, and so many things coming up that I will definitely keep blogging for a while still. Now here are some of my favourite posts!

University

Graduation

Fishing Poem

Ode to a Sugar Cube

Study Time

90 to 50

Travel

Deutschland

Wanderlust

Thailand Part 1: Bangkok

Thailand Part 2: Koh Phangan

Thailand Part 3: Koh Phi Phi

Thailand Part 4: Chiang Mai

Thailand Part 5: Khao Sok
Deutschland Part 1: Munich
Deutschland Part 2: Berlin and Leipzig

Running

WFPS Half-Marathon

Manitoba Marathon

WPS Half-Marathon 2015

Berlin Half-Marathon

WPS Half-Marathon 2014

Filmmaking

Half-Marathon Time Lapse

Night Run Time Lapse

PARTY!

Gerald Laroche documentary

Donuts!

The Silly Little Things

Horrible Bosses

Tinder Conversations

Wait, this is Harry Potter!

A Splash of Colour

Photography

Graduation!

Well, after a lot of hard, hard work, I finally did it! I graduated university!

I almost quit once or twice, I've had many anxious moments that my parents had to deal with, lots of tests, exams and papers to write, many, many, many German grammar rules to learn, a few short films to make, but in the end, I crossed the stage and got my diploma, and I can't explain how good it feels.

I've written 22 posts about school in the 2 years I've had this blog, and here are some of the highlights:
Final Film Project: Party!
Behind the Scenes: Party!
Ode to a Sugar Cube
Gerald Laroche: Master of the Harmonica
90 to 50
Peer Support
Back to Books!

It has been a crazy adventure, and I will definitely miss it more than I expected I would. I met some amazing people, some friends I will keep for life and have learned so much about myself and about the world through these classes and experiences.

Thank you so much to everyone who supported me through this three intense years, who helped me study or correct my homework, or just told me to keep going, or even those who let me rant about a professor, or some stupid homework I had to do. I wouldn't have been able to do it without all of you.

Final Film Project: PARTY!

At the end of January, I was filming my final film project and I am very excited to tell you that it is finally done!

Editing is the most time-consuming part of the job, but it's also my favourite and least favourite part of making a movie at the same time. I love piecing a project together, but editing also means realizing how much footage you don't have and wish you did. Either way, I definitely enjoy editing. I always get this thrill when I put a scene together and it fits perfectly. Editing a party movie is one of the hardest things to do, since every scene is different. We had to do a "pick up day" which is basically getting the whole gang back together to re-shoot certain scenes. But when we did this, our extras couldn't be there, so there are a lot of places where things don't match up. Personally, I think it's hilarious because these are rookie mistakes and well, might as well laugh it off!

Anyway, enough tech mumbo jumbo.... Here is my final university film project:
PARTY!



Thank you to everyone who helped me on this film! I had such a great time doing this project with all of you. :)

Behind the Scenes: Party!

Since the beginning of September, I've been working in my Filmmaking class to make my final film project. It's meant to be about 20-30 minutes long, and is worth about 60% of my final grade.
This movie is a party movie: it follows Jenny and Emma, who are hosting a party and all kinds of things happen, a fight breaks out, someone is throwing up in the bathroom and maybe even a little bit of relationship drama.

We finished filming last week and it was a blast! I definitely have to thank my actors for spending so much time working on this and being so patient with me (I'm not exactly the best director...). We got a lot of great scenes and tons of hilarious bloopers, and some that we didn't get to film, like when one of our actors face-planted while we were rehearsing!

 

 

Now I just started editing and there is so much work to be done. I can't wait for everyone to see the final product!

Sequential Perspective

For my filmmaking class, we had to do a small project on sequential perspective. This is when you take a small, usually boring action and add multiple angles to make it interesting and add emotion.
For example, someone waiting at a bus stop. Usually, that's a 15 second shot of someone waiting. But if that scene is important to the story, it could turn into a 3-5 minute scene. You do close-ups and see his foot twitching and him biting his lip, for example, which would give us more emotion and tension than a simple shot of him waiting.

I decided to do my project on putting makeup on. It's boring to watch but has the potential for many different interesting angles, so I asked my friend Nicola to be my subject and got her to put makeup on a bazillion times and film it from all sorts of angles, like me sitting in the tub with the camera, pretending to be a mirror.

When I was editing this footage, I had to colour-correct it a lot, because the whole thing was very orange. There was one shot that looked absolutely beautiful and slightly grainy, giving the whole thing a "vintage" look to it, and with the song I picked, it fit really well, so I decided to have the whole thing look like that.

Here it is! I hope you enjoy :)

Last First Semester

Via

I just finished my last first semester of university. I only have one semester left and then I will graduate. I'M GONNA GRADUATE! I still can't wrap my mind around this fact.

This term went by insanely fast. I can't even believe it's already December! I feel like I haven't done anything! I've taken five classes and I have three exams left to write, then I'm done! I thought this year would be crazy busy, that I would be in over my head, but other than maybe 1 or 2 anxiety attacks, these last three months have gone very smoothly.

Classes:
History of Film: Okay, this is the most boring class I've ever taken. I mean, yes, it's nice that we just watch movies and stuff, but then the prof spends a solid 30 minutes talking as monotonously as possible about the movie and I actually fell asleep in class for the first time in my entire educational career... This is a full-year class, so I'm stuck with him until the end of April, unfortunately.

Filmmaking 2: This class is great. It's 6 hours long, though, which is brutal, but it's so interesting! Typically, we get a lecture during the first three, and then our prof sends us out with cameras to film or do whatever he taught us during the lecture. The second half of this term was dedicated to filming a group film with the class, which to be quite honest, was awful... Next term we will be filming our own movies, with scripts we wrote ourselves and I can't wait!

Photo credit: Ervin Chartrand

Nutrition for Health and Wellness: I actually find this class super interesting! It's really useful information about nutrition (obviously) and things I can use in my every day life. The only downside is that the prof uses the PowerPoint slides provided with the textbook, and it's literally word for word what is written in the textbook... so showing up to class seems so unnecessary.

Introduction to Human Geography: I'm not sure if I like this class.... The beginning was really boring, all about the history of geography and stuff, but the second part was better; all about languages and diffusion, which I find really interesting, but the prof is just terrible at explaining the material....

Introduction to Creative Writing: By far my favourite class. Writing is one of my passions and I love the way this prof teaches the class. She'll talk about a concept, then give us a writing prompt and give us 15-20 minutes at the end to just write. I've written a lot of stuff I'm proud of, like my Ode to a Sugar Cube, for example. It's definitely re-sparked my love for writing.

I've also been working two jobs and I started running again, so I seem so busy, but I really don't feel like I did all that much! Weird huh?

It's been a great semester and I'm definitely excited for my last last semester.

Behind The Scenes

Photo Credit: Ervin Chartrand

My filmmaking class has been working on a group project these last few weeks and it's been an interesting experience. Our prof gave us a script, written by the T.A. and we were each assigned crew roles and scenes to direct, and we were divided into the Sunday and Monday crews, since we couldn't all be there at the same time, and 12 crew members for such a small film is way too much. t am the production assistant manager, which basically means I send out an email once a week, telling people where to meet and when, for what scenes, and make sure they show up.

The movie is about a young man who works at a call centre and who hates his job and eventually, he gets so tired of being yelled at, that he tracks down one of the people who yelled at him over the phone and decides to takes his revenge.... but doesn't go through with it. Instead, he gets kicked out of his apartment by his now ex-girlfriend and ends up sleeping at his coworker's house.

Photo Credit: Ervin Chartrand

Anyway, it's not the best script, but it's experience on a film set. Each week, we rotate roles, so that we can all be in charge of lighting, sound, camera and directing.

One thing I will say: filming outside? The worst part of filming. It's either way too cold or way too hot, and of course, every time you try to film outside, it will rain or snow. There's just no way around it.

Fishing Poem

I wrote another poem for my creative writing class and I thought I would share it with you. The writing prompt was a photograph of a man, alone on a big rock that overlooked a large body of water that I thought looked like the ocean.

This is obviously not the picture that inspired the poem, but close enough, right?

A swing of the arm,

The flick of a wrist.

The hushed “whoosh” of the rod,

As it cuts through the air.

I'm getting better at this.

Slowly but surely, I'm learning.

I haven't caught anything yet,

So I wait patiently as he always did.

The waves are crashing against the shore,

Along the rocky pedestal on which I stand.

My feet are wet, my hands tired.

I'm getting weary of waiting.

The moment I give up,

The second I start reeling in,

Something tugs violently at the end

Of my line, something hidden.

Whip the rod upwards,

Just like he taught me;

Secure the hook, he'd say.

And I start a battle of tug-o-war.

This is when it gets exciting,

Playing tug-o-war with an invisible force,

Not knowing what's on the other end.

It's what he loved about it.

Finally, I see something.

A flash of a golden fin.

A smile tugs at my lips;

I did it.

Why he always loved to fish

Remains a mystery to me.

My dad never taught me,

I never taught my son.

He loved it so much.

And so here I am,

Catching my first fish at 62,

Just the way he taught me.

Ode to a Sugar Cube

I am taking a creative writing class this year and the other day my prof gave us random objects with the instruction to write an ode to this object, the way Pablo Neruda does with tomatoes, clothes and ironing.
I was given a sugar cube, and in about 10 minutes, I wrote this little ode:

Ode to a Sugar Cube

They say that great things come in small packages,
You make my days brighter, 
My fondest memories of you come from my childhood;
You spice up my life in every way imaginable,

And my dear Sugar Cube, this is true for you.
You have been my companion for many years,
Always loyal and never changing.
As you add a bit of "oomph" to my otherwise mundane life.
Every morning, you greet me with a coffee,
Starting my day with joy at the sight of you and your sweet smile.
You, my best friend, my fellow adventurer,
You would bathe in juice, and I watched as you turned red or orange or purple,
And I giggled as you melted into my hands.
And Sugar Cube, my dear,
I would be nowhere without you.

Yes, I'm Still Alive!

I've been a bad blogger...
It's not that I've been too busy or have been hiding under a rock and literally have nothing to say, I've just been lazy. I haven't even been keeping up with anyone's blogs!
It's been summer and I wanted to do as much as I could and enjoy the "nice" weather while I could.
What have I been up to?
Well... Quite a bit, actually!
I ran three 5K runs: Color Me Rad, Mud Hero and Electric Donkey Run, which I've been too lazy to blog about... So here's a couple pictures of those last two runs!

Another big thing that happened over the last little while is that I got a new job! I will be working at the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights as a tour guide. It's really exciting because everyone in this city has been waiting for years for this museum to open and it's finally happening! I'm really looking forward to working there. I've been doing a lot of training, since there's just so much information to know. I will definitely be blogging about this later on, when I'm actually allowed to....

And the biggest thing? I just started my LAST year of university!!!!
It's going to be a craaaaazy year. I'm taking a full course load while working two part-time jobs. This term I'm taking three random classes (Nutrition, Intro to Geography, Intro to Creative Writing) and two film classes to complete my degree, and next term those two film classes continue, and I will be taking three german classes to finish the other part of my degree. It's going to be insane! This will be the year where I really learn to organize my time and well... actually do my homework....

This summer has been absolutely fantastic, and even though I'm not quite ready for winter yet, I'm so excited to be back at school and finishing university.

Gerald Laroche: Master of the Harmonica

In my filmmaking class, we had two projects to make: a drama, and a documentary. At first, I thought that the drama (scripted) would be easier and more fun to do, since I love writing and telling stories, but I found myself enjoying making the documentary so much more!

At first, I wanted to do it on bullying, but then decided against it, since it would be a pretty hard subject to make a documentary about. So I decided to be "lazy" and do a documentary on my dad. He's a musician and I thought it could be interesting if I were to do this about him, so I thought what the hell, and I did it!

I'm actually so proud of this one. I work really hard on it, and I love it.

There it is!

Gerald Laroche: Master of the Harmonica

The Devil is in the Details

I've been taking a filmmaking class this year that I absolutely loved and our two final projects were to write and direct a drama (so any fictional movie) and a documentary.
Let's start with the drama, since, in my opinion, it really isn't as good as my documentary. There were so many problems with it, but I finished it!
In a few scenes, you could see the boom pole, in others, the colours weren't right, or it was too dark, and in the outdoor scenes, the sound was just awful, which is why there are subtitles. I spoke with my prof about it and she told me that unless I wanted to rerecord the sound, the only option was to add subtitles and understand that I learned a lot about sound editing/recording. And I did. I definitely learned a lot from making this film and I honestly can't wait to try again and not make these mistakes!

So, drum roll please....!
The Devil is in the Details.

YA Workshop

Source

Emilie shuddered from the cold as she made her way to school. Going to school on a Saturday was strange, like a bad dream. She didn't care that it was Saturday. She had been looking forward to this day for three months, ever since she'd heard of the workshop being offered. It was a writing workshop in the Young Adult genre - her favourite books were all YA, and it was also in this same genre that she wrote her first book, and the one she was working on.
She walked into the class, early, as she always was and watched the other students taking their places, wondering who they were, what they had written, and how much better their writing was compared to hers.
Then, the class finally started. The teacher, Anita Daher, was a successful writer, whose books had been published internationally. She started by talking about the genre, its definition and history, then they moved on to plot: the difference between a plot-driven story and a character-driven story. They asked a lot of questions, and got very good answers in return.
They talked about characters, settings and clichés, and the day went by incredibly fast! Emilie felt utterly inspired by being surrounded with people who loved writing, and speaking to someone who succeeded and could give her great advice, and help her succeed as well.
She went home smiling and full of energy. She couldn't wait to write endlessly and edit and finish her stories!

In two weeks, the workshop continues, and Emilie couldn't be more excited: they will be discussing how to edit and send out manuscripts to publishers!

Admitting Defeat.

I admit.
I've been defeated.

I'm an incredibly ambitious person. I always try to take on way too much.
After an intense panic attack, where I was very nauseous, dizzy and could barely breathe, I thought that maybe I was in over my head. I talked to my friend Andrew about this, and he came to the same conclusion.

Let me explain.
I've been trying to have a full course-load (which means 5 2-3rd year classes), which means a lot of homework (and being at school for 12 hours straight on Wednesdays),
I've been trying to work part-time and save up for Thailand,
I've been trying to edit my book, write my new one AND critique two more,
I've been trying to read books for fun,
I've been trying to keep a healthy relationship with Alex,
I've been trying to get enough sleep (which never happens),
I've been trying to train for a half marathon,
And I've been trying to keep up with my blog.

I don't know about you, but that's a LOT of stuff to try and manage in a mere seven days a week, while still getting enough sleep to stay alive.
So, today I spoke to my prof, and told her I would be dropping one of her classes, I returned my textbook and made my way home with a heavy heart. I also made the decision to slow down on my blog, put my writing on the back burner, and try to concentrate on school.

I hate admitting that I couldn't do it. I couldn't accomplish all the things I wanted to and it kills me that I had to drop a class, especially one that I really liked. I hate that I have to keep my creativity down in order to succeed in school, especially that I'm so inspired by this new book. I hate that I have to slow down on my blog, because I love blogging so much!

But, I need to stay sane (and alive) and in order to be able to accomplish anything, I need to be healthy and not-so-stressed out. I know it was the right decision, and in the end, I'll accomplish more by doing less.

Maybe that should've been a resolution: try and slow down with the ambitions....

Donuts!

Yesterday I handed in my first film class project and now I'm sharing it with you guys! I'm pretty proud of it, so what better way to finish off the semester than to make a great little video!

We were given a piece of music about a minute long and the goal was to make a video that would go with the music. Everyone in my class has done some really great films and I can't wait to see them all!

**Just make sure you turn your volume on high.. The sounds is kind of low and the effect is better when it's high**

Happy Friday!

High Life

In Film class a couple weeks ago we watched the movie High Life, which was filmed here in Winnipeg by a local director named Gary Yates.
The movie is about a group of drug addicts who decide to rob a bank, and have the perfect plan, but of course, everything goes wrong.

source

The director is a good friend of my prof, so she invited him to come in today and talk about the movie, and filmmaking in general.
With him, was also the director of photography, Michael Marshall who has done a bunch of other movies, namely "The Curse of Chucky."

It was really cool to be able to ask them a ton of questions and just hear what these successful filmmakers have to say, and learn about how this specific movie was made. It's really inspiring to hear these stories and be able to meet these people in person. It makes you think "man, I could really do this!"

Who have you met that has inspired you in your career?

Happy Friday!

Study Time!

I have a big test tomorrow, so I've been studying like a madwoman, to avoid getting 50 again... How do I study? Well, it usually (always) involves a very messy desk, papers all over the floor, and something to keep me motivated!

 

There's nothing better than a Slurpee and 5 cent candy to keep me going!

Right now, I'm honestly trying to not speak German! I'm so concentrated on grammar rules and vocabulary that I have to stop myself from switching between languages!

How do YOU study for a big test? What's your favourite study snack?

90 to 50

I am completely discouraged. German used to be my best a favourite subject, and now I'm almost failing... Last year and this summer, I had a 90-95% average, and I barely needed to study. About a month ago I had my first test of the year and I got 50%. I just got my grade back from last week's test, and I got 68%, which I guess is better, but not nearly good enough.

I'm just.... tired. I studied for hours for those tests. Hours. What happened? How can I crash so hard? It just makes me want to rethink everything. It makes me feel completely and utterly stupid, and it makes me want to quit. Maybe it's because I'm exhausted, sick and upset, but I've been working so hard for the past month to get my grades up and it doesn't seem like it's worth it anymore.

This class only has three tests and a final exam and there's no such thing as make-up tests in university. I have no idea how I could possibly bring my grade up to something decent by the end of the semester.
I don't know what it is, but it seems like this year is not going as planned... None of my grades or classes are anywhere near what I was hoping and I still can't seem to get into the groove of studying.

Anyway, that was my sad little post for today... Maybe this will cheer me up.

Image Source

The Big Words.

My filmmaking class sometimes seems more like a morality/psychology class... We often talk about things that affect us human beings. That's what we do as filmmakers and storytellers; we talk about the human condition. One thing that can always spike up a conversation, as my prof explained, are what she calls "the big words." They are words that have a powerful meaning, that are often associated with the terrible things that happen to us, like war and slaughter, but also the good things, like hope and faith. Things that can make any one of us start a heated argument.

An example would be the word justice: she asked us who was for or against the death penalty. Without started an argument, of course.

Here's the list we came up with in class:

-Seven deadly sins (Greed, gluttony, lust, sloth, vanity, envy, pride)
-Rage                     -Martyrs                    -Will                       -Duty
-Sacrifice                -Patriotism                -Redemption          -Valour
-Glory                    -Loyalty                    -Joy                        -Doubt
-Fraternity              -Courage                   -Grace                    -Equality
-Justice                   -Hope                       -Prudence               -Obedience
-Denial                  -Faith                         -Hypocrisy             -Forgiveness
-Jealousy               -Liberty                      -Honor

All of these can make for great subtext in a movie, or any story. My prof has over 80 of these words. Some of these, you can relate to right away, others you need to think about.

What are some of your big words?

Peer Support

Last year, I decided to get more involved in school. I hated high school and really didn't want anything to do with it. When I got to university, I decided that I wanted to make these next few years count. I wanted these to stand out even more than high school. So, I decided to join a student group. The student group I chose is Peer Support.

The best way to explain what this group does is this: it's a counselling service for students by students. We are trained by a professional counsellor and have office hours, where students can come and talk to us about anything, from school stress to breakups to more serious problems like depression and suicide. It's a safe space for students to talk and we have the same secrecy policy as normal counsellors do. Sometimes, it's easier to talk to a peer, or someone your own age, rather than someone much older (40s-50s), where you could maybe feel like a subordinate.

I've dealt with many situations, first and (mostly) second hand and I know that if I were in those situations, I would want someone to talk to, who knew how to help me. I want to help others. I want to be there for anyone who needs help, whether it's advice or just a shoulder to cry on. They don't need to be my best friends, I will be there.

Anyway, this year, during O-Week (we have big festivities during the first week of class; beer gardens, free food, live bands, campus tours, etc.) and our co-ordinators had a table for Peer Support with a registration list. I helped out Thursday and Friday on my breaks and we got so many names! I'm really excited for this year!