Dean D'Agati (dotcom)

Last week in my writing class, my teacher was telling us about some candy store downtown. When we asked if we could go, she said that yeah we’d take a field trip there next week.

I feel like most of us (myself included) didn’t think she was serious. Before class today, we started scheming of ways to remind her that she promised us a trip to a candy store, but when she walked in, she had printed maps directing us from NYU to Economy Candy on Rivington Street.

best. class. ever.

dean Pictures, Text candy, class, downtown, field trip, nyc, nyu, tisch, writing

First off, no, I’m not actually in the UK. But yesterday, I received one of the coolest Facebook messages ever to pop up in my inbox. Anika, a girl from London, England wrote to me saying that in her search for information on NYU’s Film School she came across deandagati.com and loved it. Needless to say, I’m flattered, because sometimes I find it hard to believe that even my best friends want to come on this website (oh, hey, thanks guys, btw). Anyway, Anika asked me for some for some advice about Tisch and told me that she can help me increase hits from the UK. Well Anika, I don’t actually have any other hits from the UK so you’ve already done a lot, and thanks again for the message.

PS. Stickers are in!

dean Text anika, blog, england, film, london, thanks, tisch, uk

Today in my Hollywood Auteurs class we watched Marie Antoinette. It’s a pretty chill class because pretty much every week, we watch a movie, and then spend a little time discussing it afterward.

Today’s class started off the same way it normally does: my teacher came in late, and we watched the movie. I had never seen it before, and it was pretty good, but when it was over, my teacher turns on the lights, comes to the front of the class and says (in his heavy Italian accent): “Okay so today we are going to discuss Marie Antoinette, with the editor of the movie.”

Turns out Sarah Flack, the editor of Marie Antoinette, was sitting in the back of the room the whole time, and she told us about the experience and took questions. Sarah has edited some LEGIT movies too like Away We Go, Dan in Real Life, and Lost in Translation.

She was really nice and I’m glad she came. Her newest movie, Somewhere, comes out later this year so look out for that.

Also, NYU Tisch Film class of 2014 & CCHS class of 2010 student, Nicole Payton, and I went on a little adventure in the snow today. Sweet.

dean Pictures, Text class, editing, film, hollywood auteurs, marie antoinette, nyc, nyu, sarah flack, tisch

(…and by man I mean child who gets to work 4 hours a week for hardly more than minimum wage.)

Yesssssss, I finally started as a Studio TA this past Friday. It’s actually a really sick job because I basically just hang out in the Tisch 12th Floor TV Studios and help the kids if they have any problems.

Speaking of problems (how’d you like that transition?), I have one of my own. I took a (sort of) easy semester this semester (no production class) so that I’d have plenty of time to work, but I only got four hours a week. Every Friday from 8:45-12:45. It’s fine, I mean, it’s something, I just would have liked a little more.

Either way, it’s 8 bucks an hour, and hopefully next semester/year I’ll be able to pick up some more hours and get more $$$$$$$$$.

Hey, deandagati.com hoodie giveaway this Sunday night. Just saying.

dean Pictures, Text hours, job, nyc, nyu, studios, TA, tisch, work

We are now two weeks into second semester and it’s time for my “here’s what I’m taking this semester” post that rambles on for much longer than it should. LET’S DO IT! YAY

So my original plan for this semester was to take a light course load, so that I’d have time to put in lots of hours at my new job (working as a TA in the NYU TV Studios). Problem is, I haven’t started working yet (that’s next week), but the homework is already starting to pile up.

I’m not taking a production class this semester, so unfortunately, I won’t be making any new film or tv productions until September 2010.

Here’s what I’m taking:

Writing The Short Screenplay (Writing Credit): This class is pretty much exactly like the Screenplay class I took last semester. It just focuses on writing short scripts that we can produce in later advanced production classes. I’m taking the same teacher I took last semester because, like she admitted on the first day, tears us apart when we write, but gives everybody A’s.

Intro to 3D Animation (Craft Credit): I’ve only been to this class once so far, but it is already beyond me. It’s really, really cool, but we use suchhh a complex program. It’s called Autodesk Maya, it costs several thousand dollars and it’s what they used for Avatar. My teacher is good but he sometimes forgets to tell us the shortcuts that he’s using which makes his directions difficult to follow. I like him though. He’s nice and understanding of the fact that we’ve never used this program before and have no idea what the difference between “grouping” and “parenting” is. Our homework on the first class was to make a 3D solar system in which the planets and moons can all rotate independently but also revolve around the sun. Here’s mine:

Hollywood Auteurs (History & Criticism Credit): Out of all the history & crit classes, I’ve heard that this one is the best. We literally just go in once a week, watch a movie, talk about it for a little bit and ditch. No homework. No papers. Pure awesome.

New York City Social History (GenEd Credit): This class. This is the class that’s going to kill me this semester. We are required to take a certain amount of GenEd classes that don’t relate to your major, so I picked this one because it sounded somewhat interesting, which it is, it’s just so much work. We have millions of pages of reading to do every week and then we have a discussion recitation class in which we have to talk about it in small groups…. not to mention submit a summary on Blackboard online… and write papers… and take tests. Sweet.

All in all, it’s really not a lot of class, but once I start my job my free time to do homework isn’t going to be as readily available as it is now. Still, I think it’s going to be a good semester.

Let’s do a poll!

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dean Pictures, Polls, Text animation, film, history, movies, nyc, nyu, school, script, second, semester, tisch, writing

If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you know that pretty much this entire semester has revolved around this one studio project. Well, We’ll Be Right Back starring Ryan Patrick O’Neil and Ali Stover is finally done and online for your viewing enjoyment:
http://deandagati.com/nyu/tv-final-project-well-be-right-back/

Also, I posted some behind the scenes footage of the shoot on my Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1241996645440

Special thanks to my actors and crew for a job well done!!

Let me know what you think.

dean Pictures, Text, Videos film, final, nyc, nyu, project, sight and sound studio, studio, tisch, tv, we'll be right back

DAVID IS HERE.
FINAL PROJECT SCREENINGS TODAY.
JON STEWART TAPING LATER.
COMING HOME ON FRIDAY.
CHRISTMAS NEXT WEEK.

…more on all of that later.

dean Text busy, christmas, cooper city, nyc, nyu, tisch

One year ago.

One year ago I was still in the Liberal Studies Program.

One year ago I was taking Cultural Foundations and Environmental Science.

One year ago I was failing tests and writing 10-page papers until my brain exploded.

One year ago my computer crashed and I lost my final paper for Social Foundations.

One year ago I literally went from taking a test, to getting on board a plane, to flying to Florida only to start my winter break by re-writing a paper that I had already written but lost.

But that was a year ago.

Now I’m in Tisch and spend my days doing work that actually interests me, but best of all, it’s all over. Sight & Sound Studio is done. Dramatic & Visual Writing is done. I just have one final to take, one project to do, and I’m home free for Winter Break.

David is coming to NYC next week, and it’s going to be COLD. In fact, it already is cold. 30’s and 40’s mostly, which to Floridians sounds pretty great, but it actually sucks a lot. Especially when I have to walk 20 blocks to class in it.

Easy work? Cold temps? It’s a pretty chill December.

dean Text break, chill, cold, david, december, liberal studies, lsp, nyc, nyu, tisch, winter

HELLO.

I’ve been completely overwhelmed with work this week, so I’ve gotten a little behind on my blogging. Lot’s to talk about.

First of all!
Today I shot my final studio project for Sight & Sound: Studio. It actually went really well. This project is different than the ones I’ve done so far because we can actually touch it up later in Final Cut Pro, as opposed to all live-editing, so it’l be a while before this project is posted online. This project is also different because I actually got to write it. It’s really the first project so far at NYU that I’ve been able to write, direct (pictured above), and edit. When we do final projects, we shoot four a day, and each director gets 2 hours in the studio. That means we are in the studio, working, from 8am until 5:30pm with only one 30-minute break for lunch. They’re insane days, but I’m officially done for the semester which is sickkkkk.

Second of all!
During the shoot today, while I was escorting my actors from the lobby of the Tisch building to the 12th floor where the studios are, I just so happened to run into Spike Lee. Despite the wording of that last sentence, I don’t actually know Spike Lee, nor did I talk to him today, but apparently he has an office at Tisch and comes by from time to time, of course wearing what I like to call, “the Spike Lee Yankees hat” (pictured below).
(unfortunately I did not take this picture…)

Third of all!
Yesterday I get a call from Brittany Mullen (aka Nicole Patrick) telling me she’s in New York City performing at Webster Hall. While I didn’t get to make it to the show (thanks to that studio project), I did meet up with her at Webster earlier in the day while they were setting up. For anybody who doesn’t know, Webster Hall is LEGIT. It’s no Cooper City High School auditorium. In fact, Joshua Radin is performing there tomorrow night, so it was really cool to be able to stop by and hang out with B-Mul for a little bit. (She’s makin it big, yo)

That’s the haps from NYC.
(what?)
I’m coming home this Saturday for 9 days!

dean Pictures, Text film, nicole patrick, nyc, nyu, project, shoot, spike lee, studio, tisch, webster hall

If you haven’t noticed, deandagati.com has been offline for the past week or so.
Why?
For my Expanding Cinema class, our mid-term is basically to do anything we want as long as it relates to new media (awesome, right?). So I decided that for my project, I’d update my website with new video pages and a new design. I thought it’d be an easy A. It turns out, it was insanely difficult and made me 100% sure that I never want to be a professional web designer.

NEVER THE LESS…
deandagati.com is now the place to go not only to read about my boring everyday life, but now you can watch videos… lots of videos… and let’s face it, video > reading.

Check out the new “WATCH” section by clicking on “ctv” “nyu” or “originals” along the top of the page and let me know what you think!

Cool new stuff is coming to the blog too, like a new recurring blog post called “AWESOME PEOPLE.”
Stay tuned.

PS. My latest NYU project has been posted on the new “nyu” page!

dean Pictures, Text awesome people, blog, ctv, film, nyc, nyu, tisch, vengeance, video