This week was orientation for Dodge College at Chapman University, and it was packed. I did have some time off on Tuesday and Thursday, but the week was otherwise filled with meetings, screenings, workshops, and social events that often stretched into the night. I started, as I tend to, with a fair amount of apprehension, but after being familiarized with the details of how the program works and the school’s educational philosophy, and meeting and hearing from the faculty and staff, I came away confident that I’m in the right place. The school teaches you the tools of filmmaking (by which I mean more than just equipment) and how to use them, then encourages you to find your own voice and supports the type of filmmaking you want to engage in. That’s something I’ve missed in my previous film school experiences, and the number of films we make here will lend itself to a bit of experimentation.

I was also able to meet many of my fellow students, who I was happy to find out are a pretty diverse bunch, with different creative backgrounds and hailing from all over the world. Meeting, working with, and becoming friends with such a diverse group was one of the reasons I was excited to go back to school, and I’m really looking forward to forming some long-lasting personal and professional bonds.

Now it’s time to relax a bit and decompress before classes – and production – start in earnest.