Okay, so I had orientation yesterday. It was a long day. It was exciting. It was exhausting. I met all of my classmates except one (who I've since met as he's crashing at my apartment for the next two days until he can move into his place-- more on this later). I really like everyone a lot. Even the guy who sounded like he could be a jerk turned out to be pretty cool. It's still early, but I think we're all going to mesh together.
We had a session with the department head who's also a professor in the producer's program, Barbara Boyle. I've heard this woman will do anything for her students and cares for them deeply, but that she has extremely high expectations and will tell you she thinks you suck to your face. Or to a room full of people as if you're not sitting right in front of her. She frightens me a little, but I also think I'm really going to like her a lot. One kid (I feel like I can call him a kid because he just graduated from undergrad and is barely 22) almost got eaten alive during our introductions.
He earnestly said, "I've got a dual major in film and economics. And a certificate in leadership." Oh no, kid. Barbara: "A CERTIFICATE?! What the hell is that? I just completed a two-day seminar and I got a certificate. A CERTIFICATE?! Why would a school even bother? Where did you say you went? Was it a real school?" She was at least somewhat smiling as she berated him, but it went on for a while. Poor guy. Apparently no one warned him about Babs.
We found out what kind of work we're going to be doing. I think it might be as intense as second-year students made it sound. I thought maybe some of it was a scare tactic. I see now they were just trying to be good people. We have to start pitching stories. Right away. We have to start finding scripts for our thesis project. Right away. We have to start reading EVERYTHING even remotely related to the business. Right away. They really will be expecting a lot from us.
We were also told that we have to be the most aggressive people in the school. "You need to be the people who go up and introduce yourselves and interject yourselves into conversations. You need to be the one to ask someone to go grab coffee with you and tell you their film ideas. You need to be like the guy in a bar who's looking for a date." (See Allison's box. See Allison outside of it.) We were also encouraged to throw regular parties and were even told there's a certain amount of budget allotted for this (is that why it costs so much to come here?!).
We were also told we have to be the most charming versions of ourselves and that we need to work on developing that part of our personalities. And we have to flatter each person we talk to (the term "exploit insecurities" was also used). At one point I began to wonder how much of my thousands of dollars in tuition is going toward teaching me how to schmooze people. (Hi, my name is Allison Avery. I have an MFA in kissing your a--. It's so nice to meet you. Don't you find me charming?)
Okay, and temporary roommate guy, Brad. Brad is very cool. He's living in a co-op for the first quarter, but then wants to move to an intentional community. What is an intentional community? That was my first question, too. They are communities-- usually made up of artists-- who all want to live together and share time and meals. He's got a lot of interesting stories and I think I will really enjoy his company over the next two years. But yeah, there are some differences between us.
And...I think that might be it for now. Laundry today. Night hike tonight. Another full day of orientating tomorrow. Class (and possibly internship) starts on Thursday. Life is happening.
