I bet some of you have been wondering what I have been doing since the shoot is over. You may have ideas of me sitting in some editing suite, surrounded by computers and monitors and carefully culling through hours of film and putting it together into a rough version of the film. These are all wonderful images, but that's not what I'm doing. Not even close.

I have mentioned previously that I am working on an MFA in multimedia art, and this week I had an exhibition of my work as part of the advancement to candidacy requirements. It's kind of a nerve-wracking process, mostly because all the faculty comes in, lets you talk about the work, and then they give a critique, which generally means they let you know what you did wrong. The process is admittedly helpful, but also brutal. Sometimes it can be tough to have everything you worked so hard on reduced to a series of 'almost but not quite' kind of comments, or at worst, 'you failed' kind of comments. 

So yesterday I had the actual advancement with the faculty, and got some very good insights as to how I could have made the work better, and what to think about the next time I do something like this, or with the rest of my work in general. And the good news is that I passed. But, even though the process of advancing is over, I still have the exhibition up, and so I get to sit next to the entrance to the gallery while it is open, as sort of a babysitter to make sure none of the work gets damaged and there are no issues and lock up when it is time to close. It's super exciting, but at least I have wi-fi and get to talk to people as they come through the building, or ask directions to their lost classrooms. It's almost over; the show will close at 2pm today, and tonight I'll have a celebratory reception complete with champagne so everyone can come and enjoy the afterglow with me. I'm really looking forward to the champagne section of the program.

I also have some pictures of the exhibition, but I will post them at a future time. Next week, we'll get back to the movie-making.