UCLA 2010

[fakeplastic]

Cptn. Amurikuh

oh ok Cptn. Amurikuh thanks.
by the way do you know if the program is any good there? I feel like i always hear mixed feelings, but everybody seems to be happy about living in SF.

 

[Oquendo]

Originally posted by Cptn. Amurikuh:
P.S., christah, oquendo, i almost **** myself during mulholand drive when that homeless person/ swamp thing pops out behind the dumpster at that diner, F***** weird

lolzzzzzz

 

[bornfromcelluloid]

Haha Cptn, the friend who was watching Mulholland Drive with me jumped like five feet in the air when that homeless dude pops out! I honestly don't even know where to begin with this film... I feel like I'd need to watch it again to even begin to make any serious analysis of it. But I must say I LOVED how Betty just disappears when Rita's about to look into the box. I was like... this is friggin brilliant. If I was about to write a paper on it I think I'd re-watch and focus on that scene... just saying that I really want to do that now. I definitely see myself watching more of Lynch. Did you want to share your analysis Oquendo?

Congrats fakeplastic, Captn, Oquendo for your acceptances! I'm getting so antsy...tomorrow marks the anniversary of last years notifications for the UCLA BA interviews... I hope we hear back soon... this wait is really really really getting to me. I hear ya Oquendo, I was feeding off of that "early to mid March" info, and right now it doesn't feel like we're going to ever hear back!

You should definitely watch a good version of Thirst . The movie is so bloooddyy, but my FAVORITE FAVORITE FAVORITE is the scene where they are sucking each others blood on the floor, I guess I was looking more at it in the film's ability to display true love without resorting to sex. Their sex in that film is like torture. Film, sex, and violence in my opinion need to take a bit of a break from each other.

 

[Oquendo]

Did you want to share your analysis Oquendo?

Actually this movie(his movies in general) was probably the main reason why I didn't enjoy Shutter Island the very FIRST time.

You are absolutely right, I had to watch this at least THREE times to make some cohesive sense out of this. Me and my sister were like, wtf??? I came to this conclusion, although I could be wrong since Lynch never explains his movies(I have seen all of his work and I kinda feel comfortable with analyzing them) - forgive me if I don't get some of the names or things right, I haven't seen this since like 2006.

MAJOR SPOILERS----

It's basically like Shutter Island, but less explanatory(which I would have hoped.)

You're right. The key scene is the BLUE BOX, but also the last scene where Rita and director announce their engagement...

You see, everyone in the film basically played a "role" in her fantasy/dream. The opening shot is shows a POV of the camera falling onto pillow - Betty is going to sleep to wake up in fantasy land - HOLLYWOOD, where she is a budding actress, and her parents are happy for her. The following events are basically her depressing life "idealized" with the people she knows or saw during the dinner scene.

In "real life," Rita is her lesbian lover, but at the end, we find out she has been cheating on Betty with the director and they are getting married. At the dinner scene Betty becomes extremely hysterical and photographs everyone 'subconsciously' in her mind for later. Betty gets so jealous, she has Rita killed by a hitman. The blue key means that the job is done. Betty feels remorse and her parents(representing her hopes and dreams) torment her at the end until suicide.

Going back to the characters, the situations they all get themselves in are basically parallel to the things in Betty's life as well as the things she wants to happen.

For example, Rita escapes death in the beginning representing what Betty really wanted to happen.

The director gets fired for his movie(which if I remember Betty ends up being cast) and also we learn that his wife is cheating on him(like Rita was cheating on her).

The hitman is clumsy, incompetant, and stupid - Betty wishes he was these ^things^ in her dream/fantasy so he would not be able to kill Rita.

The cowboy was basically some guy that walked by in Betty's view during her hysteria scene at the dinner table - think of it like when you dream about someone you don't know, but you saw them at McDonald's or something for a split second and your mind just remembered their face and put that person in a role in your dream...

Okay if your head isn't exploding by now, your doing great...I won't say anything else because that's the whole fun of it all!

This movie is quite complex and very original and really inspiring for me. The key to this movie is also the editing. Lynch is very meticulous with how everything is place next to one another and how our minds put them together analytically. David Lynch is clearly ahead of everyone back in 2001(not long ago) and is really pushing the language of movies and how it can tell stories.

My only problem with him is that he purposely makes his films "weird" for the sake of being "weird" not to mention he is over-the-top at times. I'm suprised you weren't offended by the lesbian scene(which I have to admit was quite "well done" lol) because my sister feels that Lynch is a huge misogynist, even though she really enjoys his movies.

Anyways, happy hunting!

PS If you check out Lost Highway, it's very much a companion piece to this movie which may help getting to know Lynch better. INLAND EMPIRE is "meh," but still fun for SAT night! I think this and Blue Velvet(which is not as abstract) are his best.

 

[Oquendo]

You should definitely watch a good version of Thirst . The movie is so bloooddyy, but my FAVORITE FAVORITE FAVORITE is the scene where they are sucking each others blood on the floor, I guess I was looking more at it in the film's ability to display true love without resorting to sex. Their sex in that film is like torture. Film, sex, and violence in my opinion need to take a bit of a break from each other.

I'll really have to check out THIRST! It was playing here in Pasadena last summer, but I didn't want to take the 20 minute drive(I'm really stingy with gas).

 

[bornfromcelluloid]

I'm not entirely comfortable with analyzing Lynch yet, but I feel like it's up to the viewer which "story" is "real." There was also one point when I turned to my friend and asked, "Which character are you identifying with right now?" Just having the ability to ask that question made me excited and inspired. There are so many different parts of the film that don't directly involve Rita and Betty and they seem easily forgettable, at least to me. I definitely can see the points of your analysis Oquendo and hope that they will help me in my future viewings of this movie . My friend felt like the man behind the dumpster was constructing the whole story in his head because it kept going back to that scene at the restaurant.

I wasn't shocked by the lesbian scene, I was expecting it so it didn't really bother me. But even if it did, I'd try not to let it blind me from the rest of the film... or always let it become the main aspect of the film I'm interested in

"Weird" for the sake of being "weird" reminds me of Tim Burton again. I'll definitely get around to watching those suggestions. I have a lot of work ahead of me just from this forum .

Anyone hear anything yettt? The end of March is coming quick... but not quick enough

 

[ok2play]

how does UCLA review the creative writing sample?
do they base it of how well you write like grammar or whether or not the idea of the story is good?

 

[bornfromcelluloid]

From what I gathered from their website it sounds like they're looking for your ability to develop and tell a story. Since they claim that no particular form of creative writing is favored over another it sounds like they want to make sure that you have a story to tell in an interesting and creative way. I'm assuming grammar would play some role, but they're definitely looking more at the development of the story... at least based on what I've read.

Are you getting last minute jitters? At this point it'd probably be best to stay away from looking over submitted app materials... but it's so tempting. I feel like every tiny mistake found is magnified at this stage in the waiting process

 

[ok2play]

i've been obsessing and freaking out over my stuff since i started writing my sample
i mean my friends and i think my idea i wrote for my sample is pretty interesting. it deals with the 5 stages of grief with my own twist. i tried to do a stage a page but there was too much to squeeze into just 5 pages. so i think i screwed myself over when i tried to squeeze the entire thing into 6 or 7 pages so that the story doesn't really develop -_- fml

 

[bornfromcelluloid]

Did you end up turning in more than five pages? You were allowed to just turn in an excerpt from a script

 

[fakeplastic]

yea me too i had a really hard time with the five page limit. I had to shrink down a 9 page short story into 5 so that really screwed me over.

 

[ok2play]

Originally posted by christah:
Did you end up turning in more than five pages? You were allowed to just turn in an excerpt from a script

yeah i tried to shrink the entire thing down but it ended up being 6 pages. should have just written the whole thing out and sent the first 5 pages.

 

[bornfromcelluloid]

I am just concerned because of the page limit requirements... but it'll just be a wait and see for what happens now. Try not to let it freak you out too much, you never know. But you should stick to the page requirements they give you for any future application

 

[Oquendo]

"Weird" for the sake of being "weird" reminds me of Tim Burton again.

Yeah...but Lynch's weird is like "cool" weird. But still weird, lol...It seems Burton has sold out some of his artistic talents...

March 21st, 2010 - Nothing yet.

They are really making us wait - technically this is not really "Mid-March" like they said it was...

 

[Oquendo]

Are you getting last minute jitters? At this point it'd probably be best to stay away from looking over submitted app materials... but it's so tempting. I feel like every tiny mistake found is magnified at this stage in the waiting process

Did you put photos with your script? I did. I thought since we weren't allowed to show our short films, this was as close as they could get to seeing a visual representation of me.

Thank goodness I took photography classes my freshman year!

And ok2play, I doubt they would care if its 6 pages(what are they? nazis???) - I think if they really enjoyed your writing, they wouldn't care if you went a little bit over the limit

My big thing was the "include a short synopsis of the complete script" - I just put a one sentence summary(kinda like the ones you see on a TV GUIDE) because I thought it would kind of pointless to tell the reader what you were trying to say and have them read it. I think it would be fresher not knowing much.

But other than that, I am just so nervous these past week...

 

[Oquendo]

Originally posted by Cptn. Amurikuh:

Hey Captain Amerikuh, I just came back from San Diego this past Friday. I really liked both campuses:

SDSU - Major party college, the kind of college that's idealized in movies, very active campus, and laid-back people - the only problem I had was that I didn't feel the "academic rigor" I wanted. It seemed everyone was always getting ready for beer pong that night...*shakes head*

I also could not find a film rep which sucked, since I couldn't learn more about their program, and they are now making me file an appeal because they say that my file is 2 units short of the 60 units I need! BS. I have 61 units!

UCSD - Huge campus, literally on the beach, and the prestige of a UCSD only helps(apparently, they are ranked in the top ten in public universities in US). It's not that active, but I kinda like the ascetic feel. Though, their "film school" is called visual arts and is not really developed enough...I don't get why like 8 CSU's have film production programs, and only ONE UC has a film school. Isn't that a paradox?

Overall, UCSD/SDSU both seem like cool places, but it's kinda far from Los Angeles where I would like to network more.

Man, I really don't know anymore...

 

[fakeplastic]

Oquendo

my file is 2 units short of the 60 units I need! BS. I have 61 units!

hey oquendo same kind of stuff happened to me to. I thought I had 60 units because my counselor told me i was fine and i had enough units now. But I got an email from UCSC saying that i only had 55. Turns out no matter how many film classes you take you can only get a maximum of 4 units and I had taken three which I thought would give 9 units. So now i only have 55 units and I have to take summer school. But this week I still got an acceptance from UCSC, still havent heard back from UCSD though.ehh. sdsu declined me, i hear that they dont like asians. but thats just a rumor.

 

[bornfromcelluloid]

I didn't include photos with my script... I thought about it but I really haven't had much experience with photography so I opted not to. My script is full of action blocks though and I'm hoping that it conveys my vision closely to the way I picture it. I have very few lines of dialogue. For the synopsis I had about two paragraphs explaining the story because I chose to include the final pages of my script instead of from the beginning. I ended up having one page for a synopsis and four excerpted pages from my script.

Have you guys sorted out the credit issue? That makes me nervous. And how could anyone not like Asians?

I agree, once we hit "20" it's no longer the mid of the month. I wonder if they'll run the interview notifications into April. They were probably busy this year with the film festival they had this weekend. Next week is their Spring Break sooo, hopefully that means free professors and interview notifications! Each week I've been holding my breath from Monday morning until Friday evening... this whole thing is really not a healthy way to live.

We might hear this week... so yet again, good luck everyone!

 

[EricaLauren]

what if none of us get an interview and so none of us will ever know when they sent out notifications?!?! sorry.. i'm being a pessimist

 

[bornfromcelluloid]

If we're all on here obsessing about getting in, I'm assuming that at least one person was probably able to convey their desire to study film at UCLA in their app enough to deserve an interview (and hopefully everyone here was able to do this!). Someone is bound to hear back, and in the past at least one person has come on the site to say that they've heard about an interview. Have faith