[Vcfilmmakers-l] Fwd: Feedback on Next Semester's Lecturers

[Kyle Porter]

Hi All,

Please send me back an email stating your general interest level in having the below people speak at Vassar. This is important since I want to make sure that people will be coming to these events if we plan them.

Please send me back an email with a number next to each person, a number which expresses your interest level in having each person come. Let's do it on a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 means you'll put aside everything else in your life to see them, 8 means you'd really like to see them, 5 means you'd see them if you had the time in your schedule, and 1 means you have no interest. And be honest - if you tell me a 10 for someone, I'd only expect a nuclear war to keep you from going to the event. You can give everyone a 10 if you want to though, since we have the budget and scheduling freedom necessary to bring all of these people to Vassar.


Kelly Reichardt (Interest Level:  )
An up and coming independent director, Ms. Reichardt has received numerous awards for her last film, Wendy and Lucy, which was screened at film festivals throughout the world over the last two years. She has just finished production on her latest film, Meek's Cutoff, and was excited by the prospect of doing a lecture at Vassar.


Mark Friedberg (Interest Level:  )
Production Designer of Synecdoche, New York, Across the Universe, The Darjeeling Limited, Broken Flowers, The Life Aquatic, and others. In case you don't know, the Production Designer works with the director/producer/cinematographer to come up with an overall aesthetic for the film, and then oversees many different departments (aka location managers, set decorators, wardrobe, hair & make-up, possibly even special effects people), trying to make sure that they all adhere to the Production Designer's vision.


Nicholas Meyer (Interest Level:  )
Screenwriter of Elegy (starring Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz), The Human Stain, and Writer/Director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Mr. Mayer would be able to give us a unique perspective of being a (successful) screenwriter in the Hollywood system. He would also be able to talk about writing screenplay adaptations (as Elegy was an adaptation of a Philip Roth novel). He was nominated for an Oscar and directed the most-viewed TV movie in history ("The Day After").


Jaia Thomas (Interest Level:  )
An entertainment lawyer, she would do a lecture on "a) Understanding the intricacies of representation agreements, b) Selection, use and adoption of Copyright and trademarks, and c) Unconventional legal protection available for scripts and other works." She also said that she would be happy to focus on or address any other legal questions people might have. This is all stuff that you NEED to know in an industry that utilizes the talents of so many different people (and uses a ton of different copyrighted material).


Lou Sabini (Interest Level:  )
A film historian with an extensive collection of 16mm prints (over 1000!) - he'll come to Vassar to do two days of screenings. The first will be of pre-production code films, which are surprisingly racy for their era. The second is yet to be determined, but if you have a particular interest in any films or film genres that existed before 1950, let me know, and I'll see if he has them. Brief discussions will precede and follow each film.


Professor James Steerman (Interest Level:  )
Dramatic Writing and Film Studies Professor at Vassar, this is Professor Steerman's final semester (so come see him before he leaves). I've had him for 2 out of the 3 screenwriting classes I've taken, and he's given me an extremely rich understanding about how to write a good screenplay (which is a very different form of writing from any other).


Professor Ken Robinson (Interest Level:  )
Film Production Professor at Vassar and the editor of Purple Rain, Professor Robinson will be lecturing on editing. He has not told me the specifics of his lecture, though I told him to focus on different theories regarding editing, and frankly, how to make effective edits in different circumstances (aka different narrative scenes as well as music videos). He'll focus on practical advice over the technicalities of specific editing software.


One last thing - if Fridays at 6PM don't work for you as a meeting time, please let me know and state a time that you think would work better.


Thanks,
Kyle


PS - The above list is simply people that we have actually been in contact with - we've sent out emails to some other people and still hope to hear back from them.

PPS - We'll be shooting some short scenes the first week back - more info to come on this soon.