Directors and Producers in a meeting for the “Baby Adaptation Project”.

The semester has begun. Cinema Directing and Creative Producing students started working on a project given the title “Baby Adaptation.” This is the first time that producers and directors are collaborating since boot camp ended. The Baby Adaptation projects progress through the difficult but rewarding filmmaking process.

We started off Directing for Character , a class taught by Sue Mroz, with this project, each film is expected to last between 3 to 5 minutes. To begin the project, each director was paired with a producing student. The  producers selected a work from a list of scenes which they could adapt. After choosing a scene, the producer wrote a treatment for the given adaptation which was translated into a script by the respective director. This is the first time we, the directors, have directed a concept that is not our own. The group has been divided in half and two Executive Producers have been assigned to lead each section. They each head 5 projects.

An Executive Producer (on table) leads her group.

Once the first draft of the scripts were completed, we headed to the Practicum Meeting. Practicum is centered around undergraduate students but for us, it is an opportunity to meet potential collaborators and crew members, and to see their existing work.

Table of one of the short films presented at Practicum.

When it came to casting for the Baby Adaptation,  we reserved a room in the 1104 S. Wabash building for the auditions.

A director and producer discussing casting with headshots.

While we were developing our Baby Adaptations, other classes were as intense as it was at the beginning. I found myself struggling to manage my time to do the assignments and the pre-production for our project at the same time. But, it is what the professional world is. I should also mention, I am enjoying our Seminars. These seminars are for us to meet with filmmakers working in the real world! We have had a casting director, stunt coordinator and music composers attend. These seminars are teaching us so much about the real industry to us as directors and also to producers.

Other than the classes, I think I am getting used to Chicago more and more everyday. My classmates have become my family. We are spending so much time together in class and also outside of the class too. I feel like coming to Columbia College Chicago was one of the best decision I made in my life. Learning so much about filmmaking and actually applying the information that we learn is very valuable for me. From a foreigner point of view, it is also great to see how the filmmaking process works in the United States of America. Because every country has its own rules for films and seeing the difference helps me a lot. If you are thinking of becoming either a teacher or filmmaker Columbia College Chicago is definitely a good choice.

I am excited to see how our first “real” projects are going to turn out but I certainly have a good feeling for every project.