Hollywood Endings

It rains, and he stands there shouting her name up to the heavens from the street level.

She looks into his eyes on a foggy tarmac in Morocco
"but what about us?"
-we'll always have Paris
She flies off in a plane, never to see him again.

She urges the taxi driver to go back. Enters the English cottage and sees him there, a rare sight, tears streaming down his face. They look at each other, and are inseperable.

I really could go on about all the great Hollywood endings old and new there are. Some are sad but many promise the future of finding the one thing we all look for. Personally, as a lover of Romantic films and a firm believer in Hollywood endings, there is no reason why we shouldn't aspire to reach them in our actual lives.

We are surrounded by a culture of pessimism and faithless objectives engulfed in monetary agendas. What is wrong about wanting and aiming to become what you always wanted to be, and falling in love? Nothing is wrong with it. Here is why.

Hollywood films show the great lengths you must go to reach those goals, the heroes are never given an easy ride, much like all of us in our lives. Whether it is a dream job or a girl they pursue their passions and dreams despite all obstacles and adversaries, they fight through an odyssey of emotional, physical, and financial crisis. One thing is for sure, in the end, when all is said and done, they are a changed person for the better, and they lived fully. When one comes to such an epiphany such as myself, I realize I have held myself back from my Hollywood ending, because even when i get there I will not be finished. The search for love is a long perilous one, the journey for the job and life of your dreams is a great quest.

In order to achieve both of these, you need to create your own montage, find every moment to spend towards fixing your wrongs, winning a heart, and gaining the fame. You may have to go to hell and back, and then once more for good measure, but when you resurface from the real world, bearing the scars of your frustrations, abuses, self-doubt, and lifelessness, you will realize how proudly they look on you as you walk into the limelight screaming victory, walking back to the one you love in the rain. A Film is Two Hours on average, think of how short life is... it flies like a good film, make sure it ends well!

For all my friends, readers, and loved ones
Christian A.V. Petrozza

Never Give Up! Never Surrender: Filmies and Athletes Alike

There is a huge tendancy to give up when the going gets tough. Whether it is a math problem (run to the prof/teacher), essay structure (run to the TA with every clue how to mark you badly but no clue how to help), an athletic injury, or...

...finding a job...
*que Psycho music here*

IN MAINSTREAM MEDIA!!!!!
dUN DUn DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!
..okay seriously

There is a huge trend, although not surprising, of talented young minds with the artful ability to make films or be in film that are giving up. They will build websites, have equipment, make amazing internet videos, and then they tell you "I LOOOVE IT. But. Its too competitive so I'm becoming a lawyer/Teacher.

Not that I have anything against lawyers and teachers but WHYYY!?

In order to maintain a tough goal you need to put your full focus on what you want to do, if you use a fallback degree for those "just in case" or "i give ups" scenarios what was the point of flaunting it all before hand. Let me tell you something. The ones who walked away from their dream jobs, JUST GAVE ME ONE. Well not now but statistically too many are giving up, the film business is cliquy, and not in the high school way but in the way that you need to know somebody who knows somebody who knows and obscure website that helps you apply for these jobs. (and like all others I will give it to you if you ask. Or find it hiding in this post as a link ;))

Facing rejection is a tough road, one in which had taken me 2 years to finally get a solid phone call from a media project. A degree is a great thing to have, but even moreso is a credit in a show/broadcast/film and the experience that follows it. Employers want that, even for small starting Positions (I just became a PA by the way ^_^) because they want maximum efficiency and expect the most from each member of cast crew and post production team.

Over the summer of 2009 I honestly wanted to give up after being empty handed, but when I realized that I needed something to drive me again (after several spells of in-house insanity) I wrote an eight episode webseries. And thus my feather-in-cap, the trailer, began to enhance my need to start applying again, and earlier.

During the same time this year, after suffering a brutal sprain in a fencing competition, I have continued to be on hiatus from training, but it has not stopped me from doing exercise and strengthening. I have just started this now due to my obligations to prepare for my job, but I feel that the film opportunity was a great kickstart to inspire me to kick my own ass and get into shape again. Although somewhat afraid of re-injury, my mental training will flow alongside my physical. Because when you train alone, you need your thoughts clear and will to be fearless if you are going to go back on piste ready to kill.

So Chins up Job Seekers and Invalids, we will Rise Again

Christian A.V. Petrozza

Compressing and Life

Recently I have been refurbishing my short films with my production logo at the beginning and sometimes at the end for artistic protection and branding. Unfortunately some of these shorts have been made on a different generation of mac and or made in HD as opposed to my usual DV formats and therefore, I need to add the logo which means I need to make sure I re-compress in the right format. It is not new to me that there are a million different variations on how to properly capture and compress video but it would save me a world of trouble and online research to figure out how to do this without error if the world decided to have three key formats and leave it at that. While compressing several wrong versions I realized this trial and error process reminded me of some life philosophies. These are a few I can come up with from the top of my head.

Compressing1: Just because you captured the video properly it doesn't mean that it will look high quality until it is fully compressed.
Life1: People hide the deepest part of themselves in labyrinths of personality,degredation, arrogence etc. But as they grow and mature into men or women, we see their true colours. Whether good or bad.

Compressing2: There are several different video formats, and two different ways (on my mac [compressor and FCP] in which to compress a film. Not all of them work for the type of format you captured in and must be careful to keep track of previous trials.
Life2: We go through so many phases as we grow, and are exposed to so many options, some of which we choose that can hurt or help us. Try to look at the history of those close to you or a past experience to lead your heart in the right direction.

Compressing3: Compressing something in high quality or HD takes forever just hope its worth it.
Life3: (No Dali Llama stuff here) make sure you did it right or all your work will just be another "I told you so" from the parents, or the big man upstairs.

Compressing4: Don't click cancel before something is done compressing, unless it freezes, because you may have been doing it right.
Life4: Never take the easy way out of a situation, unless it is stopping or slowing your life in a negative way. Working harder to get things straight is always worth it.

Compressing5: burn the good copy to DVD
Life5: Get the best of yourself out there and don't sell yourself short.

I may be reading too deeply into this but waiting for hours and compressing things as trial and error makes you think about more interesting things than the task at hand. I think my video is still going, down with deceptive mac loading bars. 5 minutes my foot, just jumped to 2 hours. Great

Christian A.V. Petrozza