Summer School (1987)

Lately I've had the urge to set an alarm on my phone reminding me of important things. The kinds of things you find yourself remembering at the weirdest times, like "Reminder for Thursday: Life goes by really fast so take a moment to appreciate small things you're likely to forget."

"Reminder for Friday: Allow everyone you meet to make an impact on your life (good/bad) or Learn a lesson from those you meet."

July has been kind and cruel to me. Full of some really great days and some crabby days. Full of really good luck like getting a Queen Bed and Box Spring for free on Craigslist, but then really bad luck like losing the box spring on I-40. I'm not lying when I say I'm happy to see July go and August to be here, even though there is still a few days left.

I was looking forward to watching New Year's Eve (2011). I shouldn't have been so excited. It is a bit of a continuation of Valentine's Day (2010) with character and plot changes.  It was cute and entertaining but not my favorite film. It follows about 10 stories but is not a traditional anthology film. Some of my favorite faces graced the screen which is always a tasty delight, especially Michelle Pfeiffer. 

July began for me with a little bit of a relocation. It's better financially to live off campus, and better for my sanity. Although I have nothing terrible to say about my roommate freshman year, I can honestly say I like my space and privacy. Who doesn't, am-i-right? It's times like this it pays to be a non traditional student. I can't help but be a little excited to have a place to escape to when school becomes a little much. 

I've been splitting my time between Fayetteville, Winston Salem and Wilmington and some days touch down in all three. Driving must have become a little monotonous because the other day I got into an accident on I-40. My poor bumper! That just postpones little things I wanted to get, nothing necessary. 

If only it were this easy....

Lemoncello Cake from Luigis

While I visit Fayetteville I pick up shifts at my old restaurant and spend hours catching up with people I've known for almost 10 years. It feels like a family reunion. But after a double I get home looking like:

Especially because Brandon's Dad visited from Hawaii and Brandon has been off the whole month of July so it's late night hangouts with family & friends. 

Sake and Miso

There were some very great moments in July: My sister-in-law getting married. She made a beautiful bride. Her minister? None other than Brandon J. Hurley. Yup. Brandon became certified to marry his sister. (Not in a West Virginian way) (Sorry, Austin). 

Brandon, Van and I went to Busch Gardens recently and had a very good time!

My bff, Mia

Van & Mia, this pic describes them perfectly 

Brandon soaked

Van shooting hoops

France was perfectly clad in pink... 

trying to look cool on the Griffon

Beautiful owl

There's still 6 days left in July, but it's going to be spent running around like a decapitated chicken. Brandon deploys this week and I'm moving to Winston Salem and starting a new job. That's a lot, so wish me luck. 

I love people like this!!!!

Paris, je t'aime (2006)

"We'll always have Paris." 

- Casablanca

Like any typical girl who hasn't been to Paris, I often find myself fantasizing about the first time I'll get to see this city. I remember getting excited in high school and college classes when we were assigned a report on a country or city. I always found a way to choose Paris. My presentations even included a barret and the serenading of Louis Armstrong's La Vie en Rose. 

Most of what I've been watching lately has been referencing Paris so I've totally got macaroons on the mind. I was very close to having the best language software on my computer to learn French over the summer. Instead I've settled for any DVD available with French subtitles or just films that take place in France.

Sabrina (1954) is on my list of top Parisian favorites. Audrey Hepburn originated the role of Sabrina in 1954. A modern day fairytale, Chaeuffer's daughter lives above the garage and watcehes as the love of her life and his family live their life of luxury and fortune. Her father, who feels she needs to find herself away from her fantasy beaux, sends her to Paris. Nobody was ready for who returns. 

French Kiss(1995). Starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Klein. Kate rushes to Paris to win back the love of her life, along the way she encounters con-man, Luke Tessier. 

Something's Gotta Give (2003) although this film doesn't take place in Paris, Diane's character, Erica, has some kind of soul connection to Paris and the French culture. With soft frech music as the soundtrack and the occasional conversation in French, this film has a way of picking me up when I'm feeling blue. Even with a 10 minute long crying montage. 

One of my guilty pleasures is the TV show, Sex and the City. A show that MANY people try to make me ashamed of. I agree it is chalk full of the cheesiest puns ever. But I connected early on with these girls and have learned a lot of life lessons from the show. 

I think it was very appropriate to end the series in Paris. 

Who didn't love Moulin Rouge(2001)?

My girlfriend Jen took a trip to Paris, a brilliant writer, she documented her travels on a fashion heavy and charming blog:

http://www.fairytalefashionista.com/2010/03/paris-je-taime-part-deux.html

Paroozing etsy is bittersweet at times because you run the risk of coming across little gems such as:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/71383418/winter-in-paris-ring-snow-globe-eiffel

Twice I've toyed with the idea of ordering this little slice of heaven and both times they've been completely sold out. You'd think I'd learn my lesson and just order it. That's where life steps in and a blown tire ruins the day...

I know I've mentioned my favorite type of film plenty of times, and here is another mention. Anthology films! One of the first I saw was, 

Paris, je t'aime (2006). I'm very excited to watch New Year's Eve (2011) tonight. 

When traveling I take advantage of food I don't get back home. My absolute favorite snacks are pastries, especially croissants. To have one homemade from it's motherland would be the icing on... a pastry! (that was a very Sex and the City pun)

http://www.nadege-patisserie.com/

http://www.laduree.fr/en/fabricant/produits/patisseries

If I haven't argued my case enough about Paris being one of the greatest cities in the world then let's chat about the history of film... again. France is easily considered the birth place of cinema. The Lumiere Brothers invented the cinematographe in 1895. Their silent documentary film, The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station is considered the birth of cinematography. There were 4 firms in the early days of the industry: The Lumiere Bros, Georges Melies, Freres, and the Gaumont Co. Although is was the first to bow out, Georges Melies is my favorite of the early pioneers. In my earlier blogs, thanks to my editing class and American Cinema, I blogged tirelessly about Georges and the Lumiere Brothers and then again when I saw Hugo(2011). The French film industry suffered after World War 1. This allowed for the Us to step in. 

There are a million places to visit in Paris, I'm sure as in New York. But I have my own little list of places I have to see, starting with the most obvious.

1) The Eiffel Tower

2) The Louvre

3) Bohemian Paris

4) Notre Dame

5) The Sorbonne

6) Seine River (Sunset cruise)

7) The Catacombs

8) The Champo Theatre

9) The Luxembourg Garden

10)and probably a double decker bus tour of EVERYTHING!

This video couldn't have graced my inbox at a more perfect time thanks to Austin for sharing. 

For those not making the connection, Beauty and the Beast takes place in France. :)

48 Hrs. (1982)

http://www.48hourfilm.com/en/greensboro/

"The 48 Hour Film Project is a wild and sleepless weekend in which you and a team make a movie—write, shoot, edit and score it—in just 48 hours.

On Friday night, you get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in your movie. 48 hours later, the movie must be complete. Then it will show at a local theater, usually in the next week."

I'm so grateful to my best bud, Austin, who's been competing in the 48 Hour Film Project for the last 2 years. He built a small crew of UNCSA first years and a couple of local G-boro friends who ended up working very well with each other. 
I learned quickly that as prepared as you would like to be, you can't do much without a genre. 

Thursday June 21st, 2012- Location, Location, Location.

Step one. Find locations to potentially shoot it. How do you do that when you don't actually have a film? Easy. Woo them. So far we have two bakeries (one of which is my absolute favorite in Greensboro), one coffee shop, a church, and a high school. As the co-producer I generated a letter that was attached to the Location Release Form pretty much requesting to film in their establishment without a film. Without a film, I mean that we won't actually write it until tonight when we get our genre.

Friday June 22nd, 2012- gen•re noun a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature characterized by similarities in form, style or subject matter. 

Today was a waiting game for 6:00 pm when we finally got the genre of our film (we were also assigned a character, a prop and a line.)

Headquarters

After transforming the basement into our own personal 48H Headquarters everyone begins to arrive. Beginning with our main actor, Zack Messick, followed by our editor, Ian Quarels and Director of Photography, Camilo Herrera. Austin, Director, Zach and I run over to get the genre. 

Quick panic strikes as everyone adjusts to the news of having Musical as our genre. Secretly I was uber excited and couldn't wait to start collaborating on ideas for a not-so-cheesy musical!

Alex Amick, actor, joins the party and offers great feedback. We all throw our ideas on the table, and like most cases, not everyone agrees with the other. Which only offers more great ideas. It got a little rough at times but we bounced back quickly. Eric Ball, actor, shows up as we start developing a concept and writing songs. This process is followed by writing the script then a shot list. Which is when I can write a potential schedule for the day. Did I mention we decide to base the whole story in a tattoo parlor without having a tattoo parlor locked? Ambitious, but fun. The story is created. The lyrics are written and the crew begins to part ways for the night. 

Saturday June 23rd, 2012- Shooting Day

7:00am alarm goes off. Sound Mixer, Isaac Banks, arrives to record the songs to later dub over the picture. The Director, Editor and Mixer work diligently early in the morning while the other crew members slowly get up and gather the equipment. 

Just a little behind schedule we arrive at our first location to capture some "B-Roll" footage of horses for one of the segments. I couldn't help myself...

After the shots we rushed over to our first complete crew location, a parking deck roof for some fun city skyline shots. This was a good moment for the crew while we watched our leading man spray whip cream all over his shirtless chest. 

We quickly approached being really over schedule so the next location time was cut in half, an alleyway. We got our shot in less than fifteen minutes and moved on. 

Eric Ball's flowers

Our story follows Zach who is nervous about a date with Beth. He's meeting her at a tattoo parlor where his friend, Alex, works and runs some ideas by him and a customer, Eric. He wants to write her a song and goes through 4 different genres (and country song, a Glam Rock song, a rap, and a pop song) before he decides on an acoustic singer/songwriter song which always wins. It is a hilarious journey, what would you do if you only had 10 minutes to write the perfect song?

Lunch Time, compliments to Chic Fil-A! A special thank you to Beth who filled up 8 Large [complimentary] waters for the poor, starving, parched crew. 

We locked the tattoo parlor at 11am when they opened. http://littlejohnstattoo.com/ We arrived right on time and started setting up. Aside from the buzzing sound in the background [tattoo needle] we got all the shots we wanted and were very satisfied with the outcome. 

The location I was most excited about was our final location of the day, Maxie B's. A Shabby Chic Cake Bakery that my bff, Jen would definitely approve of. http://www.maxieb.com/

There was a great feeling in the air when we wrapped on the final shot. We got back to headquarters (Austin's basement), and had some great lasagna and talked about how tired we were. 

We all agreed on one thing that night. That everything went swimingly and that we had a great leader and team. From the beginning it was apparent that this project meant a lot to everyone and we worked hard and non stop all day together. There was a great sense of comradeship. And like some people can dedicate their practice in yoga to someone, I'd like to take this time to dedicate this blog to Austin and his family for sponsoring our team and being so great through a process full of so many emotions. 

Thank you for everything. 

Isaac Banks, Camilo Herrera, Ian Quarles, Alex Amick, Will Bednar, Eric Ball, Zach Messick, Austin Elliott, Christene Hurley

Cast/Crew photo: Missing- Ellis Elliott, Tim Elliott, Timothy Stroud and Beth Hawkes. 

It's Editing time! My job is technically done so I get to relax. Cue the Mixer and Editor: 

Sunday June 24th, 2012- Editing and End of competition. 

Ian stayed up until 9:00am putting all of the footage in a chronological order and syncing the sound from set to the picture. 

With most of the crew gone we start breaking down the headquarters and diving deep into editing. The film is due promptly at 7:30pm. 

5 minutes to spare

A very tired editor finally crashes on the way home. 

Final thoughts... The video is complete. Our screening is next Thursday at 9pm. After that, we can make our video live. And as proud as I am for this film, I wish I could remind anyone who watches it that with any film, the filmmakers and editors can take their time for the most part with the editing step. And that they can schedule as long as [the producer] wants for filming.The point of this project was to do all of that in 48 hours. If we had more time to shoot and edit I'm sure we'd have a very different film. On that note, again, I couldn't be more proud of the cast and crew and I can't wait to do it again next year. 

Update: We are now able to make our film live and here it is!!

Summerhood (2008)

More like girl meets cable TV, then never left her house.  It never fails, all of my ambitious goals go down the toilet when I start a new series. After catching up with Shameless, Weeds, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Mad Men and Desperate Housewives (no judgement) I am going to give Revenge a shot.  I have no self control. (Or time during the school year to watch TV). That's all I seem to want to do these days, it feels SO unproductive but fulfilling at the same time.

current obsession with Christina Hendricks

http://bettydraperlookingpissed.tumblr.com/ <-- This is a funny Tumblr I came across.

Summer has been a bit of bouncing around since Brandon got back from deployment on May 26th. It's been a lot of packing and unpacking. Organizing and cleaning and trying to sell a lot of stuff that's just collecting dust. I've been very successful on Amazon. Seriously, if you have stuff laying around the house you don't want, post it on Amazon and sell it!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aag/main?ie=UTF8&isAmazonFulfilled=0&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&isCBA=&asin=B00064XG0G&seller=A23YGXEPHV0LJZ

I've also pulled out my craft box to keep me entertained and found some jewelry I made last summer to pass the time.  I recently decided to post them on Etsy. It's really exciting because according to the site I "opened my shop." :) That's cute.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ChristeneHurley?ref=no-search-results

I watched The Family Stone (2005) and was inspired to recreate the famous "Morton's Family Strata" that Meredith makes for Christmas morning. This movie is one that starts a thread of films I have to watch for some odd reason. It's always followed with The Last Holiday (2006) and then sometimes with Nothing Like the Holidays (2008)

http://www.food.com/recipe/morton-family-strata-from-the-family-stone-movie-329652

The Strata came out really nice and made the whole house smell of breakfast. For some reason it was better the second morning. There are some changes I'd make like using fresh tomatoes, maybe less onion and add cheddar and or feta cheese.

I made Peanut Butter cookies today that came out really tasty. Just call me Giada.

I saw Hunger Games (2012) and I really enjoyed it. I vaguely knew the story line and saw the trailer once because I didn't want to have very high expectations of it. I really wanted to enjoy it. And for the most part I did. My only qualm is with the cinematographers choice to have so many close up and hand held shots. I was so interested in the bigger picture and loved the rare wide shots. I have not read the books but Brandon has and told me the film did the book justice. There were a lot of details left out, but the second book is apparently the best and a film to look forward to. I was very pleased with the performances and the costumes.

Just watched the Tony's! It was pleasantly surprising entertaining. I delayed my viewing of True Blood's Season premiere and Mad Men's Finale to watch the awards in it's entirety. It's no mystery why this is Neil Patrick Harris' third time hosting. It was also very nostalgic to see the ever handsome, Hugh Jackman, receive his humanitarian award during the show. What a man, what a mighty good man. I saw the first trailer of Les Miserables (2012) during the show and was left spell bound. December can't get there fast enough!!! 

The First Film related thing I'm participating in this summer is The 48 Hour Film Project in Greensboro with my school mates. I'm co-producing and 1st Assistant Directing, very exciting! 

Summertime not only reminds me of Porgy and Bess but also an independent film that was brought to the San Diego Film Festival in 2008, Summerhood (2008). It was one of my absolute favorites of the festival and a festival favorite in general. Director, Jacob Medjuck, was such a blast to get to know and hang with. I picked his brain as much as I could.

Check out this nifty irrelevant little treasure: http://www.tentsile.com/index.html