Cinema and Television Arts | Marginalia

According to knowwithoutborders.org, “Ideate is the space in design thinking where individuals and teams elevate and celebrate the power of possibility. It is the transition from identifying a particular question or problem to generating a wide variety of potential answers and solutions.” For a film student, ideating can often be defined as the few hours spent staring at a blank sheet of paper or word document, trying to come up with a film idea in order to have something to pitch in class the following day.

Everything is Creative

As a creative producer, getting to come up with ideas, develop stories and work on scripts is my heart and joy. I love it. Another big part of being a creative producer is logistics, which is often not as fun as scripts and stories. Most of the logistical work ultimately gets done by the line producer, production manager, and assistant directors, who are hired by and work with the producer to make sure the production happens as hitch-free as possible. A lot of the time, those jobs are considered non-creative, but I beg to disagree. There is creativity involved in logistics, especially with low-budget filmmaking.

Cinema and Television Arts

To Be Graduated or Not To Be

The shoot is over but the work isn’t. The post-production process of Silver Cord has started.

Summer Working

Summer break is in full swing, and school is done. What’s not done is the creative work. That never stops. School or no school, there are still stories to develop, scripts to write, films to produce and footage to edit. The difference that arises with getting all of that done during the summer is routine. During the school year, you have a bit of structure: you know where you’ll be and how much free time you’ll have, so you can figure out when and where you will write or edit or have meetings. In the summer, you have the freedom to figure that out on your own terms.

Cinema and Television Arts

Silver Cord: A Graduate Thesis Film

It is finally over! I shot my film. It is hard to believe that I finished the production stage. I and my producer, Urwa, have been working on our thesis film for over a year, and now our problems and concerns about the production are over. How did it go? Read more to see.

Cinema and Television Producing

Getting Project Feedback

The last week of the semester was final and work-in-progress screenings for a most people. The graduate students had both. Final screenings for project one and work-in-progress screenings for project two, some of which were producer-led projects. Sharing you work for the purpose of getting feedback or having it critiqued is always a vulnerable and sometimes difficult experience but there are ways to make it a little less painful.

Cinema and Television Arts

The Busiest Time of the Year

I am one week away from my thesis shoot and it is hard to believe I am almost there. I cannot believe how I already spent two years in the U.S. at Columbia College Chicago.