The Future.

We just elected a new president and NYC was like a battleground in revolution.

I am in awe.
I realized for the first time in basically my life I can be proud of my country. I’m proud to be American. It’s a big change.

It was like New Years and Halloween and Christmas combined in the streets of New York. When I first heard the shouts of victory I grabbed my camera, and at street level I rolled an hour and a half of footage. And watching moments of it will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. I saw grown men crying in the street, strangers hugging and kissing each other, people screaming till they couldn’t anymore, with all traffic stopped, there were thousands in the streets all over the big centers. The world stopped to celebrate. It’ll go on all night.

I will show this footage to my kids.

I got celebration cigars with Owen and it was the funniest/worst thing as we puffed and hacked and coughed and drank cream soda and screamed Obama and felt truly alive.

To the future.

This is big.

Ahoy.

I missed you all, yes sir I did. And I realize it has been ages since my last post, and because of this, this update will be massive, like supernova status. It also may need some follow up posts just to get it all in, the pictures will come in time.

This last weekend and the one before that, I am reminded why I’m in film school and why it’s amazing. Massachusetts was a great experience, we shot at this place called World’s End park, a gorgeous bit of land overlooking Boston right on the coast, the crew was a total blast, we stayed at the director’s house and had homecooked meals to die for. A big change from being in NYC, it was also the coldest I have ever been in my entire life. Mostly because we were outdoors the entire time, and I’m from California. Oh well.

In an effort to keep everything straight, I’m just going chronologically, man it’s been forever.

I’m crewed this 35mm color sync (which is a Junior year project) which was just crazy. Location: the 41st floor of the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South. Budget: $18,000 (yes the right amount of zeroes) Synopsis: Basically a hooker in a hotel room (on a literal level) Early on the first day, I got a call from the Director of Photography, Adam Newport-Berra (obligatory link because he’s great and my bro) telling me that the 2nd Assistant Camera had called in sick, and that I was now the new 2nd AC. Which was awesome, but I’d never seen or touched 35mm camera before that day, it was a crash course, and I learned more in those 2 days then probably a semester’s worth of lectures and classes about cameras could have taught. I loaded nearly 16 thousand foot mags, and we were shooting on the Moviecam Mk.2 for those of technical know-how out there. I also bought a leather jacket and I feel badass it. So that’s good too.

My friend from home, who goes to Wesleyan up in Connecticut, Nathaniel’s came to visit for the weekend. He had fall break, it timed out really badly, but it was still a blast. He basically was here the entire time I was crewing the 35mm shoot. I worked a 20 (TWENTY) hour day, and on Sunday night I wrapped at 5 in the morning with classes at 11am the next day. Go school!

MATERIAL OBJECTS SIDENOTE:

• My Mom sent me a coat in the mail, from her visit to France, it’s really warm! Thanks mom!
• I watched my iPhone blip and STOP working. It was a “firmware problem” but when pressed further the Apple douche couldn’t explain it. I was a real nuisance but entire Apple Store was populated by idiots, I had no tolerance for that. More Apple stories to come. Either way, the phone displays a message that says: REPAIR NEEDED, IPHONE CANNOT MAKE CALLS. And then you have to get a new phone. Dumb.
• I placed as a finalist in this big schoolwide scholarship thing, I didn’t get it, but I got a nifty plaque and met some nice fellows. It was kind of ridiculous in general, photos of the award incoming.

This last weekend, I worked on this music video shooting on the amazing camera the RED One. It was a blast, Adam was shooting again, and it was this faux pop-song send up and we just went all out with the cliches, it looked amazing though. Fans and smoke machines and polar bear skin beds and rear projections. It was cool. We shot all in Brooklyn, in this Williamsburg apartment, and then this huge Studio/Home in Greenpoint. It was honestly the most amazing place I’ve seen in NYC. The roof garden had a view of the entire Manhattan skyline, everything, it was an ENORMOUS space, like think warehouse, imported doors from India, two levels, it was mind blowing. So the shoot was again, really fun.

Here’s the story that relates to this shoot, and to Appple computers.

Adam and I go into the Apple store, we need a new 1 terrabyte harddrive for the footage for the RED. While I go up and talk to the Apple “Genius” about my phone just STOPPING WORKING, Adam grabs the harddrive and comes over, basically I get mad because this dude is being so completely unhelpful, and it was going to be like a 2 hour wait which we didn’t have time for. So I was like, ok thanks, and then we left.

And then 15 minutes later while we’re talking about how ridiculous Apple is and buying muffins on Houston from a street vendor we realized we never paid for the $400 dollar harddrive, and had just WALKED OUT OF THE STORE. We felt bad for a minute, then realized Apple had just royally screwed me over, and that they were a huge megaconglomerate, and we were filmmakers working on no-budget. We kept the harddrive.

In another update, I will mention the HUGE CRAZY AMAZING Beast that is Halloween in NYC. Very few pictures thanks to my broken phone, but great stories. Just as a note, I won’t be coming home to the Bay Area till winter break, so until then my friends.

On another note:

Dubai is fucking awesome.

Read this, be impressed, share it with your friends and impress them. It’s awesome. World’s first spaceport? Shit yeah we have that. Mile high buildings, you’re damn right.

-Matt OUT.

Pic Updates: ASAP.

MassaCHUsetts + Bad Doctors.

Oy!

It’s been awhile, so this is me catching up.

So I’ve never been to Massachusetts, but this weekend I am. Go figure. Last week I learned how to load the Arri SR2 16mm Mags, so I’ll be 2nd ACing this production up in Boston for the whole weekend. We’ll see how incommunicado that actually makes me. Hopefully next weekend I’ll be Best Boy-ing this short up on the 41st floor of a central park hotel. Cool beans.

I also got to see Charlie Kaufman’s new film and directorial debut Synecdoche, New York (sin-eck-dough-kee) the other night, ace film. Moving, brilliantly thought out, and a total mind fuck. Kaufman isn’t the nicest of dudes though. He went to NYU and he makes good movies so there’s that I guess. He was there to answer questions after the screening.

Charlie Kaufman, After the Movae.

So last night, I inadvertantly spent 6 hours in the sound studio, and I busted out my project in one fell swoop. It’s for Sound Image and it’s called the Vocalization project. You make a short little narrative, and use ONLY your voice. Nothing else.

APENDECTOMO

This could be called the rough draft, since it’s not mixxxed well for 2.1 but who cares. Enjoy.

What it looks like ProTools.

And here’s a track I’ve been loving, and yeah sure it’s a little girly but it’s still great.

\”Bruises\” – Chairlift

Get it before it’s way too popular.

Cheers mates.

Photo Update:

NYC Subways: What is it? You Decide.

What I Walk By Everyday

Great News!

Hey great news team,

I’m now the freshmen representative of the Tisch School of the Arts! Go figure.

A couple weeks ago there was a call for the open position, to everyone in the Tisch freshmen class, drama film photo animation ad nauseum. Then you send in a little short essay, and bam it get’s narrowed down to four finalists. Those four lucky contestants get personally interviewed by the council, and then they let you know. They let me know!

So that’s awesome, I have some big plans, some ideas, and it’s just cool. So I’ll keep you posted, but it’s awesome. I’ll also be getting a camera soon, so nice pictures to come.
Love, Matt

My Schedule! And Other Things

Hello all,
For those who have been asking. Here is my schedule.
Note: All in Eastern Time. Keep those clocks tuned!

Monday:

• WW2 History: 11:00AM – 12:15PM
• Writing the Essay (English): 4:55PM – 6:10PM

Tuesday:

• Sound Image: 10:00AM – 3:30 PM
• Storytelling Strategies Recitation: 6:20 PM – 7:35 PM

Wednesday:

• WW2 History: 11:00AM – 12:15PM
• Writing the Essay (English): 4:55PM – 6:10PM
• Storytelling Strategies Lecture: 6:20PM – 9:30PM

Thursday:

• Performance Strategies Lecture: 3:30PM – 5:30PM

Friday:

• Performance Strategies Recitation: 11:00AM – 12:15PM

I take the elevator with James Franco on Tuesdays, Mary Louise-Parker lives in the building over and I saw her taking a walk with her kids. My friends met Soderbergh and Parker Posey the other night at an after party. NYC is crazy like that.

Matt out.

I’ve seen two concerts in two weeks without planning to.

The title pretty much sums it up, I’ve been to a lot of shows already. Though I had always planned on it, it’s still coming as a surprise. Thanks in part to my good friend Andrew I’ve seen two shows back to back weekends at this venue called Terminal 5 up on West 56th.

Last week I saw electronic guitar gods Ratatat, it was a solid show, but it’s more music to feel cool to than to dance to. But after the show we found an amazing all night…food deli thing place. It was great, I also randomly met some Columbia kids (whom went to the show) that were from Ross, that’s about 5 minutes from my High School. Go figure.

Then tonight I saw British electro-pop stars Hot Chip. Which was awesome. They’re just music to get silly too. You dance and have fun and it was perfect. And rather than pay the 2 dollars and wait in line to check our coats, we hid them behind the door and made a new friend in the security guard, this one goes out to Cecilia, thanks for watching our backs!

Ready for the Floor

Shake a Fist

Ratatat

Hot Chip!

More updates about famous people, fun classes, funnier stories soon.

Scientifically Yours, Matt

Some things that happened. A photo essay.

I went to a pillow fight in Union Square the other day, the police came and broke it up, there were undercover cops threatening arrest, we got interview for the NY Daily News. It was pretty rad.

Pillow fight!

I also “reappropriated” a 12 foot sandwich from the Tisch Freshmen Film Orientation. Several friends and I then wandered Washington Square (FOREVER KNOWN NOW AS WSP.), distributing the monstrosity to various hungry, needy, deserving folks in the park. It was sick.

Yes, it is large. And delicious. And stolen. This is where our tuition goes!

Technology is cool. Hi mom!

Yay Technology!

Yeah!

Matt out.

Here are some facts.

Hallo,

These are the classes I’m taking. Just so you can have an idea of what it is I do.

First off, as a Film & TV major at Tisch, most of your classes are set for you as a curriculum for your freshmen year, you need to take this special English course, you need to take a specific General Education course in either the Humanities or the Sciences, and then you get three Film classes. Five classes total, 18 credits, 18 hours a week. That’s how it rolls.

In addition to these assignments,  the freshmen Film class is split directly down the middle, alphabetically. I haven’t entirely worked it out, but it’s something like A – I in the AUDIO curriculum. And then J – Z is in the VISUAL curriculum. Basically, you all take different core classes, depending on which semester and split you’re in, as pertains to VIDEO or AUDIO. Complex right? Sort of. Now the classes:

Sound Image

This is a production class, simply put. It’s the creative component of the semester, where we use sound equipment (a Marantz Flash Recorder and an AKG Mic Kit) and make shit with sound. We started out with simple assignments, record a found conversation, make a sound collage, fool around in this chill-ass studio. It has since evolved. We use Pro Tools (7.4 HD if you’re curious) and we are onto the Vocalization Project. Essentially you make a 3 minute narrative short, sound only, using only your voice. For everything, sound effects, music, talking, whatver you want to do. It’s the most fun thing ever. Last class we accidentally stayed late because we were improving a war scene and then trying to make lightsaber sound effects. Also my teacher is John Gurrin, the head of sound at Tisch and former member of Men Without Hats. You know, Safety Dance “you can dance if you want to you can leave your friends behind.” It’s awesome. We also have obscenely long lunch breaks, though the class is 6 hours long.

Men Sans Chapeau!

Storytelling Strategies

Pretty much self explanitory. It’s essentially a screenwriting course, with a lecture (where we watch movies and talk about their form and structure from a writers standpoint) and then a much smaller recitation, where we write short screenplays and synopsis’s and workshop them. I have the silliest recitation teacher, Mick Stern, I can’t tell if I love him or hate him, but we’re learning something. I’ll have to check in later in the semester.

Performance Strategies: Freshmen Colloquiam

This is part of the AUDIO cycle core film classes and it’s pretty sweet. It is a member of the type of class that has TWO parts. A recitation and a lecture. In the recitation for this class, we meet in small groups (10-12) and it’s basically Acting for Directors. It’s a drama class, we run scenes, work on blocking, run exercises in different methods from different schools of acting, like Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner, all dicsiples of Constantin Stanislavski. Then there’s the lecture with Denny Lawrence, head of acting and directing in FTV. It’s two hours of watching clips, critiquing acting and learning about that stuff. Cool beans.

Writing the Essay: Art in the World

Amazingly the name captures it. This is a TISCH specific freshmen writing class, everyone in Tisch takes this class and I love my teacher but it’s a total crapshoot. It’s basically just read and write a shit-ton and keep doing that for a whole year. Cool! Then again, I like writing (hell I have a blog for godsakes) but sometimes you can’t help but feel overtly pretentious when forced to describe something beautiful you witnessed in the city today.  Sometime soon I’ll put up an excerpt. *sigh*

World War Two History

Exactly what it sounds like, a lecture hall class on WWII history. And it’s awesome. I sit in the front row and this class is like sitting around and having a grandpa tell you cool war stories for an hour, then show you some fancy pictures and you’re done. It’s great.  This is also my biggest class, at about 150. I can’t really explain my vested interest in this topic, but I find myself busily researching topics on my own, and just reading about it. For instance, did you know Hugo Boss designed the uniforms for the SS? Go figure.

Keeping in mind of course, that these are my own descriptions of the class and what we do. Which is probably a better sell then the official ones.

In class! I know right? Cool

Hope that gave some insight into something useful.

I should probably go to sleep now.

Matt Out.

Some photos and thoughts.

Hello!

So, scarily, interestingly, coincidentally. I’ve been here for a little bit over a month now. It’s crazy to think it’s been that long but then again I guess a lot has happened. Hmm, perhaps I should do this in bullet points, how can I catch up on a month’s worth of happenings in New York City.

Well I’ll do a little background, then I’ll just keep adding.

Wow what time is it? And I’ve got friends coming over to visit? College is a wild thing.

First and foremost just for a good beginning, that’s where I’ll begin.

My full name is Matthew Kazuo Katayanagi-Firpo I’m a freshman at NYU in the Tisch School of the Arts for Film and Television and I’m living on 33 Washington Square West at Hayden Hall. Pretty spiffy stuff. I’m coming from California, from Marin County specifically, and Sir Francis Drake High School.

I have never broken any bones. I never needed stitches. But that doesn’t mean my life’s not exciting. Generally, I enjoy having fun. I make pretty movies, and like pretty girls, I write, I read, I smile, and I’m sure I’ll like you.

On an average school day.My little bit of home.

My side of college living.

Hey Folks.

Hey everybody,

The family out there, friends, other such folks. Nice to meet you, or talk to you, whichever you like. This is the start of something. For all of those who have asked me: How’s film’s school? Or what’s NYU like? Or just how’s it going? Well this is the answer to all your questions!

I’ll be posting on a schedule of about every other day, I’ve got some backlogged posts to sort through, and I’m sure you’ll see a sudden rush of text and data and other interesting things. So czech back soon and often.

I also plan on getting a better camera than my phone soon, but until, phone pictures it will be.

Cheers, Matt Firpo.