Pros and Cons

Realizing that I have been in Paris over two months is quite shocking. Where has the time gone? I finally feel like I am back to the level of French I spoke at 16, which dwindled downwards ever since. I sit in on my classes at the University here and miss a good 25 percent of the lecture...but alas, the professors seem to ramble quite a bit about nothing in the part I do catch.

This week I learned I had the opportunity to make my thesis film as part of an undergraduate "final projects" type class. In a few months the professor will pick one lucky group which the school will finance the film, in 16mm. I learned this about 3 weeks after everyone else in the class. So there I was, attempting to pitch my script to a bunch of fairly inexperienced undergrads, most of whom are committed to other groups already. I finally managed to secure 2.5 people to join my group, and handing the professor a poorly translated version of my script (a lot of babelfish was involved) I got on the list for a project. My script is now one of four that may get the lucky pot of gold, the school funds. The school hires a professional DP and Sound person and pays for all the film and processing and equipment. This seems like a great opportunity if I get it (odds aren't that good), but it comes with a price- not having as much control of my project, having to work on the school's schedule instead of mine, using a less experienced crew, ecetera. I suppose there are trade-offs attached to all money. Of course, if one of my blog fans wished to send me 10,000 euros than I could just hire my own damn DP and rent a beautiful camera to boot...Or if 10,000 of my blog fans each sent my 1 euro that could work too...