So here's an update of what's going on! I did my Final Review on Wednesday, May 19. The review committee said that they would notify me in 3-5 days of their decision to either grant me my MFA or to revise and represent my thesis in the following semester.

I walked during graduation on the following Wednesday, May 26, still not knowing if I had passed my final review. I walked with only 4 other cinematography emphasis majors in the MFA Motion Picture and Television department. Despite walking, they all have to represent their final thesis either during the summer or in the following semester. I was one of 13 people in my department who graduated Cum Laude, with a GPA of 3.852.

On Friday, May 27, my boyfriend and I left on a cross-country adventure (http://weloveadventures.tumblr.com) from Fairfield, California to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. I am currently in Grand Rapids, Michigan where I will be working on editing and shooting a couple films for the next two months.

On Monday, June 7, I finally received an email from my school with the results of my final review (attached in the photos).

I passed! Some of their notes weren't relevant since some of the work I presented was based solely on cinematography and not editing (lack of color grading, etc).

So there you have it.

In the upcoming weeks I will begin crafting backer rewards. Since there are things that will take longer to craft, like the production books (that need to get published) and such, you may be receiving multiple nuggets of fun in the mail, depending on your backing level. I will send out thank you notes and letters first and then work my way up to the other rewards. If you have any questions about these things or if your address changes any time in the next month or so, email me at m.karenabad@gmail.com

Everyone gets a little thank you snail mail, so if you haven't given your address by the end of this week, I'll just take it as you not wanting one, and I'll make a digital version to email to you!

Of course I will keep updates on here with the progress of the films as I spend the next months/year doing post production on them. Four of the five films are being edited, and will need to be scored/packaged/etc. So we've got some fun ahead of us!

I can't express how thankful I am for all of your support and help. You guys mean a lot to me and are absolutely invaluable in my pursuits of cinematography for my future career.

Lots of dinosaurs and love,
Karen Abad

More photographs and regular updates on my MFA blog: http://karenabadmfa.tumblr.com

or updates of my personal life at: http://karenabad.tumblr.com

Hey everyone! Thanks to all the generous backers, and a special thanks to Candice and Brett, I reached my goal! There are 38 hours left and I wanted to update everyone and share some clips!

Here is a video update (it was too big to upload on Kickstarter so I'm linking it):

http://vimeo.com/11927520

Thank you everyone so much!

I finished printing my thesis and it is now bound in several volumes. I still have a lot of editing to finish, but I present my thesis on Wednesday. After that I will begin the year or post-production (and getting out of debt) to get my thesis fine tuned, thanks to all the generous backer's donations.

Thanks for everyone's support. 5 more days! Working on a trailer tonight!

I filmmed my 35mm thesis, Goodnight, Thank You last Saturday and Sunday. Rolled 6,100 feet of film. Everything went smoothly and I mailed the film off to AlphaCine today to get processed! Debriefing video shortly :-)

Wondering how I'm going to pay for the thousands of dollars of processing/printing/telecine. Everything will work itself out.

Thanks for everyone's support!

So a lot of things have gone terribly wrong, but I am convinced that this will still work out. I still have a barrage of meetings before the shoot. I picked up the equipment today. We will be shooting with the Arri BL4, 35mm camera. I am shooting with Kodak Vision 3 stock. The Glidetrack I will be using for the HD thesis also came in this week. I'm leaving next Thursday to shoot some 35mm up in Oregon, so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks again to everyone who has backed up my thesis so far. The next big expenses coming up are the DVD packaging for the films and printing the book.

I've got my fingers crossed.

My negatives and work prints from Alphacine arrived today. I projected them onto my bedroom closet door, and they look great. Telecine appointment is this Tuesday at 10:30AM! Then editing begins!

I just placed my order in with Kodak for 35mm for my thesis in a week and a half. Each roll of film is about $300 and I ordered 15 of them. S/H + Tax was a couple hundred dollars.

Other News:

I have almost all of the roles filled for my 35mm Thesis. I am seeing an elderly woman on Friday about possibly being in my film. I'm working on scheduling, rehearsals, storyboards, shot lists, etc.

Hiring on a sound guy for both my films at $75/day for my 35mm and then $100/day for my HD film.

Film shoot be in today, so there will be another update soon. Video Update this Friday for backers.

AlphaCine just wrote me to tell me that they are shipping back my film. Turns out it is costing me $1,106.17 That is about $800 more than I had initially been quoted. I am pretty sure they misunderstood me and only quoted me for the processing and not the workprint. I have no idea. All I know is that it's way more than I had initially anticipated and am getting more and more worried.

I am shooting my 35mm Thesis in about a week and I still don't have my location secured and I still need to cast for 2 actors. I'm getting really nervous.

Always on my toes. Always.