Hey everyone,

I know it has been forever since I posted something here but now that I have a little time, let me catch you all up on what has been going on.

This year, I will working with about 20+ people in making a short film called Story of a Sleeping Man. I will be working as the Director of Photography, which basically means I will be in charge of how the movie is shot and how it looks. Now this short film is a pretty fun one to do if you are in my shoes because it’s a short film that includes several different genres looks. So some scenes will look like a zombie movie, noire, and more! Point being, we have a scene that has to do with a war and my director and I have been given the opportunity to ride in a helicopter with the ROTC camp!

Now I know I’m getting excited for something kind of minuscule but I will be in the helicopter filming an overview shot of the entire camp and to me that is an opportunity not a lot of film students get to do.

Among other things, I have been given the title of Lighting Director for Studio A, which is a television show we air here on WSIU! Studia A is where we bring in live bands and perform here at SIU. Now as lighting director, I have to not only set up the lights but pretty much design how the band is going to look on camera! So that’s pretty exciting to me. I think what I like about Studio A this year is all the new people. I’ve seen a lot of new film students and television students just eager to learn and it gives me a sense of pride that I can help/teach them in some small way.

Also, for those of you who haven’t read my previous blogs or info, I work for University Housing making videos, taking pictures, and giving tours to all the perspective students. I don’t want to give away too much, but our student media team filmed all of the events during Week of Welcome and are about to release a video of all that went on! So if any of you were at any of the events during Week of Welcome, stay tuned! I think you are going to like it.

In other news, I have finished my music video I started over summer! I still probably have to fix some small things but it is pretty much done and ready to be screened! And speaking of screenings, Red Creek (Austin Wood’s short film I was a part of), will be screening October 21st at the Morris Library! Movie Camera Militia (MCM), the production group that did Red Creek, has been working very hard to getting the film finished and we’re all very excited to finally show it off. I’m talking to the president of the group to see if we can screen my music video before the short film. I hope you guys all come out and check it out!

I know this blog is getting kind of long but I still have more to update you guys on! This semester I got a job with the Daily Egyptian as a videographer/photographer. It has been pretty exciting and interesting since I started working there because I have been able to shoot a lot of things I usually never would. So look at the Daily Egyptian website for my videos and pick up the paper for my photos! I would love to hear feedback from you guys to see if there is anything I can improve on to make our school paper better for you! My next shoot is actually pretty exciting! SIUC will be holding their first home game for football this Saturday and our video/photo staff will have press passes to be on the field! I can’t wait to shoot it and hopefully it will all turn out well.

Hopefully you guys are still reading this I have one last thing to update before I sign out. This year I have been involved with the school by becoming a Peer Advisor, MCMA brand ambassador, and a SIUC Brand Advocate. I feel I have accomplished a lot here since I’ve been here and I want to try and help people in any way I can. It’s been a blast and I will be at Clare Mitchell’s peer advising class on Monday September 26th at Lawson to give advice to new students about how to be successful here at SIUC. I hope to see some of you there.

Now that I have bragged about myself for quite some time, I just wanted to let you guys know that I hope you guys like my blog and I thank you for taking the time to read it!

Till next time!

I feel I have a problem saying no to people but SIU has given me so many opportunities that I just can’t say no to!

Hey everyone!

So the past week has been crazy! I can already tell what my schedule is going to be like for the rest of the school year. I don’t know if anyone really read my blog, “The Key to Being Happy in College”, but I definitely hit the ground running this year by getting more involved in a lot of different programs.

To start off, I got an Undergraduate Assistantship for University Housing as a Social Media Specialist! Basically my job entails just staying up to date with all the programs SIUC Housing is doing and attending them while taking pictures and videos. It’s been a busy week this week cause of the Week of Welcome by Saluki-Startup. I have been running all over campus and pretty much just documenting everything. Let me tell you, I have actually been really impressed with SIUC New Student Programs. I’m not just saying that cause I work as a photographer for them but I mean they actually took the time to make sure that the new students feel welcome. There was a huge cookout for the new students and the food was absolutely delicious. There were bags, watermelon bowling, laser tag, and a huge show with a famous hypnotist. I mean I wish I had all of that when I was a freshman here.

I also got a new job at the Daily Egyptian as a Videographer. They will also be training me to become a photographer here so look out for my pictures if they ever come out!

Above having two big jobs here at SIUC, I am also starting a Senior thesis and will be preparing to shoot a short film with several other cinema/television students.

I’m also trying to be more involved with the new students and also got a position as a Student peer advisor! So if anyone has any questions to ask, feel free to talk to me. I would love to help people if they have any questions about the school.

So basically what I’m saying is…WOW i’m going to be super busy! but that’s college life for you.

Just wanted to update you all on what I have been doing!

I’m still writing a really philosophical blog so be on the lookout for that!

Till next time!

Tony

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to talk to you guys about the amazing day I had yesterday. I love the outdoors and being in the water so usually when someone asks me if I want to go to the Spillway or go hiking I say yes before they can finish their sentence. Now since I got to college, I always wanted to go kayaking since Southern Illinois has so many huge lakes! So when it was brought up to my attention my freshman year that there was a huge cliff you can jump off of but you have to kayak there, I was like “WHY HAVEN’T WE GONE YET?!”. After 2 years of searching, I finally found said cliff and immediately grabbed whoever wanted to come and we went off to find it. It was at Kinkaid Lake, and the kayak there was long but unbelievable. Kinkaid Lake is such a beautiful sight and I highly recommend anyone to take the chance to go there and check it out. But back to the main point, the cliff was awesome. Now, I have this almost embarrassingly fear of heights. So as soon as I looked over the edge of this 40-50 foot cliff, my heart was racing. Of course all my friends jump before me and are now at the bottom of the cliff in the lake yelling at me to do it. “Tony! it’s awesome!” they would all say but I can’t help but just look over at what seems like my impending doom. I would fake them out with a countdown and then immediately pull back when it came to 1. But eventually my friend told me my own favorite quote and she knew that if I didn’t do it, I would regret it. So she yelled at me and said, “Take a Chance! Make it Big!” and out of nowhere, I gathered up the courage and conquered my fear of heights. Almost immediately, I jumped off that cliff and realized that this was actually happening. Once I landed in the cool water, I felt so accomplished and was in so much pain! Now I did land in the water correctly for the most part and tried to keep my body straight but I still landed on part of my butt. But all pain aside, I felt amazing. All my friends were cheering and now I can finally join them when they all say,

“Cliff dive at least once in our life: CHECK.”

Hello everyone,

Sorry once again for not posting in here for awhile again but like the last blog, I haven’t had time to really do anything! But now I’m back because the music video is officially done! After a long 2 weeks of non-stop work, it is finally done! Well…for the production side that is. I still have to edit a lot of footage, but needless to say the hard part is over with.

I definitely learned a lot in this project and let me tell you, some stuff did catch me by surprise. I realized that although I thought I had it all handled and worked out, life had a mysterious way to complicate things. One thing I definitely realized was that I CAN’T DO IT ALL. For this project, I was the director, producer, director of photography, and editor. Now although this may sound impressive, it actually shows a sign of weakness (to me at least). The project did come out great but what I should have done was trust others to take on these important roles and let me just concentrate on directing. Teamwork was definitely a must and even though I wanted to be in charge of everything, it definitely got stressful at times. Luckily, I had a lot of PAs (production assistants) that stepped up to the plate and took some of the weight off my shoulders. Eventually, I gave some of them bigger positions to handle things and I didn’t need to worry about them because I knew they would make the right call. I have to say, after giving them their positions, the shoots went a whole lot easier.

I was really impressed with the people that helped me out; and in fact, shocked by some of the people who I didn’t expect to help actually came out. I had friends who weren’t even a MCMA major come help out. Even if it was just to help move stuff around. It definitely made me feel good, knowing that all my friends were there for me when I needed them the most. Those are friends you definitely want to keep and people you want to be working with in the future.

Another thing I learned was how to be a good leader. As a director, everyone is looking up to you for directions and you have to keep your cool while doing that. I knew that if I showed any weakness, the entire project could fail. As an extreme analogy, it’s like being a lieutenant in the army. You come up with a game plan and let people know what they’re doing and if something goes wrong, you have to be able to adjust and lead your crew in the right direction otherwise the consequences could be terrible. Like I said, extreme. But hopefully you guys get what I’m saying. So I definitely felt like I accomplished being a good leader. I felt people knew what I was doing and what I wanted and they were there waiting eagerly to get started. There were times when I felt I was snappy at my crew/friends but they were great and knew that it was work time and didn’t take it personally. But for the most part, I don’t think I could have asked for a better crew. I didn’t need a crew that knew everything about film/video, I needed a crew that was just as passionate to see this music video turn out well and that is exactly what I had.

So all in all, the point of this long rant is trust in others. This could apply to school projects or even in the work place. One person can’t do it all (sorry to burst your bubble!) and if you can find that you can trust someone to do a good job on something important, not only will that make the workload easier for you, but you will see that you now have a partner for future projects. It can also surprise you that other people have good ideas that can add onto yours. I know I learned that too.

Anyway, now that my workload is finally back at a normal level, I will blogging a lot more. I have a lot to share with you guys but until then, I hope you guys enjoyed this one!

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven’t posted something in awhile but the past week has been crazy! Not only was this the last week of one of my summer classes, but I am also shooting a music video this weekend! The artist I’m doing a music video to goes by the name of Sam Means. He has been a pretty good friend of mine and we started this independent study where he would make an album from scratch while I film the entire process. Needless to say, it’s been a long process but it has been one of the best experiences of my life. Not only did I learn a lot from just filming but I learned what it takes to write, play, and record an album! Let me tell you, it is no easy task and it takes a lot of time and patience to do it. But the album is finished and now it is my turn to step it up and make Sam look amazing in this music video.

The song is called Shapes and Colors and it’s about never letting go of the ones you truly care about. So my music video is going to bring the meaning of that song out in motion picture. The story of the music video is about a girl and guy (Sam) breaking up and her journey to find out that sometimes you don’t realize that the best person for you was there all along. The cool part of the music video is that people are classified as shapes.  I don’t want to give away the entire story so I’ll just stop there. When it is all finished and edited, I will definitely post it in a blog!

Hope you guys enjoy it!

Okay, so I’m no expert on this. But what I can tell you is what has really helped me so far since I’ve arrived here at SIUC. Maybe some of you will think some of this is pretty obvious but sometimes it’s just nice having it all laid out in front of you. So, here is my top 5 tips to being happy in college:

1. “You’re not in Kansas anymore…” When I first got to college, I had no idea what to expect. So many thoughts were running through my head like “I wonder who I’m going to meet?”; “Am I going to get along with everyone?”; “What will people think of me?” But then I thought, who cares what people think of me? As long as i’m myself, I’ll find friends. Therefore, whatever reputation you had in high school, just throw it out once you go to college. Your high school reputation does not matter once you go to college cause college is a fresh start for everyone. You can be whoever you want to be and it is the time for you to truly find out who you are and who you will be for the rest of your life. Once you’re happy with yourself, you will find that your friends will be happy with you and isn’t that all that matters?
2. “Help Wanted!” Get up and do something! You’re freshman year is the year where you will be opened up to all these Registered Student Organizations (RSO) and other clubs. Don’t be afraid to join these groups especially if they apply to your major. Not only is it a great way to meet people but it’s a great way to get experience working in what you want to do. Last but not least, it keeps you busy! In college, you have a lot of freedom. No more parents always by your side and forcing you to get out. You are now responsible for your life and one great way to stay out of trouble or from being bored is getting involved in RSOs or clubs. I know one of my regrets my freshman year was that I didn’t get involved as much as I wanted to and ended up just staying in my room not being productive. In the end, I felt I wasted an entire year. So all in all, hit the ground running once you get into college or if you already are in college, hit the ground running now! These 4 years in undergrad go by quick!
3. “Don’t play with fire” So you won’t get along with everyone. But one thing you can do is not burn any bridges with people. It is easier said than done but if you can swallow your pride and not ignite that flame then you’ll find out later in life that you made the right decision. You never know what will happen if you burn a bridge with someone. Even someone who you barely know could affect your future. I didn’t quite realize how important it was to not burn bridges till my sophomore year in college. I met this guy and let’s say we didn’t have a great first encounter. However, I didn’t burn that bridge. I may have slightly charred the surface but the bridge was still there. We both had mutual friends and later that year, he was about to start directing a short film and actually let me to join his crew. We are now pretty good friends and going to be working on another film this fall. You never know who will be part of your future so don’t push people away and learn to forgive. You might find out that it could be the best decision of your life.
4. “Challenge Yourself!” This may seem like it’ll just stress you out but to be honest it’s probably one of the best things you can do to make yourself happy. Being able to challenge yourself makes you constantly crave to be better and if you challenge yourself and accomplish what you did, that is the best feeling in the world. All the stress, the doubt, and the long nights with no sleep were all worth it. And even if you challenge yourself and don’t quite get the outcome you were expecting, you know that you tried your butt off and I bet you’ll get back on that bike and try again someday. Now, of course, this is easier said than done. It does require a lot of work and time and sometimes it’s scary to get up and actually try something you don’t know fully understand. But I guarantee you’ll end up learning a lot more than just waiting for it to come to you, and the better part is…you’ll be hungry for more.
5. “You’ve Got a Friend in Me!” In college, you’re going to meet hundreds of people! And while it is great to be friends with a lot of people, only a select few will probably understand you the most. If you can recognize those people, never let them go! You may not know it yet, but some of the people you meet in college will probably be your friend for the rest of your life. Be true to them and make sure you never lose that relationship. That isn’t to say that you should look at the people you know and think “That’s going to be my best friend forever?” No. All I’m saying is keep an open mind and don’t judge anyone. Be open to all different personalities, even if at first they don’t seem like your cup of tea. They might surprise you later on and become a really great friend. I’ve met some of my best friends through some of the weirdest situations and I’m glad that I stuck around to get to know them. And once you establish this friendship, stay loyal to them. You never want to ruin a friendship with any sign of disloyalty. All in all, the key to being happy in college are good friends. Nothing can ever replace them.

Okay, so I apologize for this long blog but it just something that I felt other people might be interested to hear. There are definitely so much more that you can do to be happy in college and I’m sure everyone has a different story but to me, these 5 realizations really helped me out. Hope you guys agree with me!