theMediaman.com

Just finished the most difficult stretch of schoolwork I’ve had in about seven or eight years.

I had the Master Scene Treatment for my Screen Writing course due last Tuesday, followed by the fourth assignment in my Digital Film Production class, where I was editing together an exciting (read: many, many edits) car driving scene. As I approached the finish line last week I found that my time, shared with 40 hours of work per week, would only allow me to fully complete one project on time. One teacher didn’t allow assignments to be handed in late, the other did. So I completed the Master Scene script on time, and stayed work on the video to after the script was completed.

Then class was cancelled.

I was ‘granted’ an extra week to work on my script, but it also meant that the extrodinary lack of sleep that I had endured for the last week would be followed by another week of the same deprivation. By my count, I’ve been averaging 3.5 - 4 hours of sleep per night excluding Friday and Saturday nights (when I slept in) for the last week and a half. As I said before, it’s different when I’m working a full-time job than when I was only doing school. Back then, homework ate into drinking time and that’s it. Now it eats into what little free time (and sleeping time) I have during the week.

So the second of both assignments was handed in last night. I’m quite happy with both, but was so tired my body hurt. Every joint was creaking and I’m worried about when I start going back to working out next week after a two-week haitis. I’m sure I couldn’t have made it this week if I wasn’t as fit as I am now.

The remaining assignment I have to complete for this term is for the Digital Film Production class. We have to make a documentary, around 7-9 minutes in length, and incorporate some other genre. That seems to scream to me, “Dramatic Re-enactment”, as I imagine it does to several of my classmates.

Searching for another option, I’m thinking of doing something “Discovery Channel”-esque. I’ve watched enough Daily Planet to get the hang of the ’style’, and I’ve always held on to my fascination of Astrophysics in anticipation of the day when it can be applied intelligently. What I’m hoping to do is address some currently relevant topic and use animation to illustrate some of the prinicples.

While it’s eight years old, the “Accelerating Universe” topic is one that’s still not commonly known among laymen. Even in the further-abridged “A Briefer History Of Time” published in 1999, the topic of an accelerating universe is addressed in no more than a few paragraphs. I’m not married to the topic since I’d like it to be something more current. The problem is that most frequently discussed topics in Physics revolve around Quantum Physics.

There’s little chance that I’ll cover Quantum Physics. While I was once interested in strong and weak nuclear forces, I currently believe that all Quantum Physics is incorrect. While I’m largely alone in this conclusion, I have yet to be challenged by anyone who knows for certain that I’m wrong.

For now, I’ve got two weeks to make something cable-channel worthy!