I'm bad at keeping this updated...

Whew. It's been quite some time since my last blog post. Sorry about that. Believe it or not, I got swept up in finals -- and the week or two leading up to them -- and getting everything together to move back home. This blog, by the way, is coming to you from beautiful Bellingham, Washington (my hometown). I'll be here for the summer until, of course, I head back to move into my apartment. The dorms were great for a year, but it's time to try something new. I'm moving into the Terrace Apartments with my good friend Trina. Until then, I'm working full time at a sporting goods store at home (Joe's) to save up for the big move.

Aside from work, writing is keeping my busy. I have Feature Screenwriting 1 next semester so my goal is to write, or at least outline, a feature by the end of this summer. I would say it's The Island meets Children of Men... you know, a futuristic, end-of-the-world, triumph-of-the-human-spirit kind of thing. In addition to working on said feature, I'm still developing a script for my friends Frank and Myles, which will hopefully get produced sometime in August (in case you're reading this, no rush, boys!) And last but not least, I was asked to be a writer for the show Reel to Real, which my co-worker Kai is co-producing. He's talked about it in his blog, too, so that'll have more details.

I've never written for TV before, so I'm learning a lot as I go along. The episodes are all on a very specific timeline, which is good for me because it keeps me working. John Irving once said, "The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you don't behave that way you would never do anything." For those of you that are planning on being screenwriters or even write just for yourself, I've learned the most important thing is to just keep writing. Always. Even if nothing comes of those specific words, the practice is invaluable.

That's all for now. I'll be better at keeping you all posted.

Peace and be easy,

Katie

Almost done with the school year!

It's hard to believe that my freshman year of college is almost complete. It became more realistic two days ago when I had to register for next semester's classes. If all goes according to plan, I'll be taking:

History of Film (to 1945)
Intermediate Screenwriting
Acting for Non-Actors
Critical Thinking
Social Problems

The first three are for my major, Critical Thinking is a Psychology class (for my minor), and Social Problems will be my last G.E. (as long as I do Study Abroad, which is the plan as of now). My earliest class any given day of the week is 1pm, so there will be a lot of sleeping in.

I found an apartment to move into for next year. For those of you who are wondering whether to live on or off campus, I think that living in the dorms for the first year is a really important experience. It's a good way to meet people and be part of different events that are going on around campus. I've done my time, though, and I think living off campus next year is a good choice for me. I'm moving in with one of my current roommates, Lauren, and my friend Trina. The apartments we settled on are the Terrace, which are actually pretty nice and affordable. Not to mention that we have friends that are moving in there, too.

I think that's all I have to update you on for now. Admitted Student's Day was this past weekend at Chapman and if you attended that and still have questions or are trying to make your final decision, feel free to ask me anything. Have a good week!

<3 Katie

"I lived to write and wrote to live." Samuel Rogers, English Poet

I spent a good 10 minutes trying to think of a witty (or at least relevant) title for this blog post and couldn't think of anything, so I decided to quote someone else. So now that I can actually get to the actual post, here we go...

I’ve been working on a lot of projects lately. I said I’d update you on the Delta Queen Pageant. On the bright side, Delta Tau Delta raised an astonishing amount of money; in fact, the most that has been raised by any fraternity or sorority in their first philanthropic event. Overall, I think the total was close to $32,000, all of which went to the Hoag Cancer Center in Newport Beach, CA. On the slightly more negative side, the Teleprompters broke and everything was improvised, so practically none of the script was actually used. But it’s okay. Jonathan and I are proud of our accomplishments anyway.

For Screenwriting Fundamentals, I settled on writing a short instead of a feature. I’ll have plenty of features to write over the next few years of classes (and for the rest of my life). So for now, my logline is:

Seventy-year-old twin brothers, Cosmo and Joe Randal, are inseparable. After getting their hearts broken at a young age by two twin sisters, they swore off women for the rest of their lives. However, when they move to a retirement community and are surrounded by a multitude of happily-married couples, Cosmo and Joe rethink their lifestyle and try dating for the first time in decades.

The title (as of now) is "Yoked." By definition, it is "a device for joining together a pair of draft animals, esp. oxen, usually consisting of a crosspiece with two bow-shaped pieces" but alternatively it means "oppression or slavery" as well as "a coupling, union, or marriage". So if you look at those two, the title is perfect.

I also have a side project coming up. My friend Frank, who is a Film Production major and his friend Myles (who goes to San Jose State, but wants to transfer to Chapman) have a story concept that they want to produce. They’ve made a ton of shorts and more recently have been working on amazing music videos. Frank, Myles, and I are getting together this weekend to work on an outline because they’ve asked me to write the script and I’m really excited. If and when that gets finished, I’ll send you the link so you can watch it.

I think that’s it for now. Have a great rest of your week!

<3 Katie

What's been going on lately...

Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since my last post (for those of you who hang on to my every word. I know there are SO many of you...).

Spring break was this past week. I worked for the first half of it, but my sister came from NorCal to visit. We went to Newport Beach all day and stayed for the sunset and watched two or three dolphins swim by, which was amazing. Apparently it's a regular occurence, but it was the first time I had seen it. For the weekend, I went to Long Beach to stay with my friend. One night, we ended up at a really fun 18+ club in Hollywood and got in for free because someone in our group knew the bouncer. That was pretty cool... things like that haven't really happened while growing up in Washington. I even had crème brulée for the first time (not at the club...obviously), which was delicious.

Lately, I've been working on something called Delta Queen. It's a pageant, similar to Mr. University, which Lauren wrote about in her blog, but for girls. Delta Tau Delta, one of the fraternities, hosts it to raise money for the Hoag Cancer Center in Newport Beach. I was asked to co-write it (with the fabulous Jonathan Katz), which involves writing the speeches, the introductions, the host banter, and basically every that's said. It's been really fun writing as a team and making revisions. We finished the final draft the other night and the pageant is on Saturday.

Speaking of writing, for my Screenwriting Fundamentals class, the next big thing we have coming up is our final. For that, we get the choice of writing a short or a feature. I think I'll write a short because I'll have plenty of time to learn how to write features over the next few years. Learning how to write a short is more manageable and a good skill to have at this point.

I'm also looking in to getting an apartment for next year and a job while I'm home for the summer. That's an interesting process. I'll keep you updated.

Now it's back to school. I had a speech yesterday and it was good to get that over with. But as of now, I have a test tomorrow, a quiz Friday, and a midterm next week. Welcome back, Katie.

Reasons why I picked Chapman (over the "other guy")

TOP 5 REASONS WHY I CHOSE CHAPMAN

5) THE LOCATION

So as I think you know, I'm from north of Seattle... AKA, it's really really cold. Yeah, we'll have beautiful summers and of course lots of rain means lots of green, but let's face it... 18 years of cold is a little much. Moving to Southern California was perfect. I went to the beach in the middle of November and about a week or two ago when it was 80 degrees.

4) THE CAMPUS

There's a lot of money circulating through Chapman, so the University is beautiful. Everything is new and green and there's art and fountains all over the place. I thought it would be all dry from being so hot all of the time, but it's gorgeous. The dorms are great, too. In comparison with other schools, they're actually pretty nice.

3) CLASS SIZE

I could have gone to a school closer to home (and probably paid less), but who wants to be a face in a crowd in a class of two or three hundred? It has a lot to do with personal preference, but I knew when I started applying to schools that a small school could offer a lot more for me. I like to walk around campus and actually recognize faces. Professors, for the most part, learn your name and know who you are. You can see them in passing and actually say hi instead of having them walk by you like they've never seen you before. Also, you don't have to drive in between classes or spend 30 minutes walking. Everything is close by and centralized... it takes me 10 or 15 (tops) to walk to the film school from the dorms and that's probably the farthest point.

2) VICINITY TO FUN STUFF!

Newport, Laguna, and Huntington Beach, L.A., clubs, Hollywood, Santa Barbara, Anaheim, sport and concert venues, Disneyland, great shopping, better food... I could go on forever. Chapman is in a cute, quiet town but there is TONS to do nearby.

1) THE FILM SCHOOL (OBVIOUSLY)

I could spent pages on this, but if you're on the website and thinking of applying, you obviously have your own reasons to be interested in Dodge. Between famous faculty members, amazing, industry-standard facilities, great programs and people, and tons of opportunity to do what you love, you really can't find a better place to learn about film and media arts. It's the main reason I'm here and I love it. I know a lot of people that regret their choice in school who end up transferring, but I haven't regretted my choice once since I've moved down. I love it every day.

I hope this maybe helped with some reasons you're thinking of coming to Chapman. If you have any questions, just let me know.

Ready for the weekend...

It's been kind of a long week... I've had a lot of work, homework, and studying to do over the past few days. If you're wondering how many classes to take and whether or not you can handle a job, it's been my experience that 15 credits (usually five classes) and a part time job work well together. You obviously have to be organized, but it's definitely not impossible. An on campus job (like I have) is a plus because they work around your class and finals week schedules. I'm also in a sorority and have plenty of time for a social life, so don't think that you can't handle it.

But moving on from my schedule rant, this weekend I finally don't have (a lot of) homework so I'm going to Disneyland. I think Lauren (another student "blogger") was going to write about why every Chapman student needs an annual pass, so I won't ruin the surprise, but let me just say that she's right. It doesn't get old. Also, I heard about this 18+ club in Anaheim that I might check out tonight. The nice thing about Chapman is that it's in a cute, quiet town but it's surrounded by stuff to do. Whether you have your own car, bum rides off your friends (like I do), ride a bike, or take a bus, there's plenty that's close by. L.A., Disneyland, concert halls, beaches like Laguna, Newport, or Hunington, nightclubs, sporting events... the list goes on and on. The weather makes it all happen... I'm used to rainy days in Washington but yesterday, I went to the beach... in the middle of February. Love it.

Oh, and as a side note, the Writers' Strike is over! Win-win for me... I get to watch The Office again, even though it won't be back until April 10th, and the conditions of my (hopefully) future profession are improving.

That's all for now... Have a good weekend! <3


"Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals."
- Don Delillo

The first month of Spring Semester

So I'm finally into the "swing of things" with Spring Semester. I didn't do interterm (2 weeks for vacation just didn't cut it) so it's been awhile since I've actually had to do anything productive with my free time.

Screenwriting Fundamentals is amazing, and I'd like to think that it's not just because I'm a Screenwriting Major. If you ever have to take the class for your major, take it with Jessica Scott. I've heard really good things about the other professors, but she's definitely a lot of fun. Our most recent viewing assignment is Silence of the Lambs (yikes) and writing assignment is to write a scene in which one character has to ask another for something difficult. In mine, a 17-year-old virgin asks a hooker for (you guessed it!) sex after he's endlessly pressured by his friends for being the only virgin in their group. It's going okay so far... we'll see how it turns out.

History of Film (1946 to present) isn't my favorite class, but who can complain about watching a movie once a week in the Folino Theater? That definitely isn't the worst three hour class I could have. Intro to Psychology is incredible, so I've decided to make it my minor. It'll probably help with writing better characters in my screenplays. Philosophy of Religion and Human Physiology are not the most thrilling classes I've ever taken, but hopefully they'll pick up soon.