All In

After my "idea" was chosen to be made into a group for our final project, I realize I didn't put much thought into the actually story, except that I wanted it to be around poker. After a crazy weekend, and some well thought out plots, I have decided to give this one a go. Twin brothers Josh and Dan are attending the same University away from home and taking on the world as it goes by. Josh struggles to receive good grades and also finds himself to get in trouble with the school police, but him on academic probation. School rules state that win on academic probation, all scholarship money granted from the school will be taken away as punishment. Without his money, the brothers won't be able to attend school for it is too expensive. They turn to their best friend Adam for help, a friend who is good with connections and might be able to find them a job. But Adam has another idea up his sleeve. He introduces the boys into an underground poker club on campus that is run by some graduate students. The stakes are high enough to where the brothers could afford to stay at the school only if they win.

With little money to spare, Dan feels its a good idea to borrow money from a towny loan shark. The two then have decided to work as a team, using signs and symbols to communicate what they have and how they should play the hands. Trouble arises when Dan realizes that he is the one with the knowledge, and that he doesn't need his brother to win the money, causing them to fight against each other. At the end of the day, they both find themselves at the final table, Josh needing to win to stay at school and Dan needing to win to pay back the loan shark. Who has the guts to go all in?

If you or someone you know has a gambling addiction please call or refer them to gamblers anonymous.org.

Flooding?

I hope that no one was actually effected by the flooding I read about in that Ithaca emergency email beyond having classes delayed today. I thought I'd share what I did yesterday towards our first project. Today the rain cancelled class, but yesterday the rain made filming annoying. Had it been a nice sunny day I would've gone to the Commons and shot something. Due to the weather, anywhere I went off campus would've been a place of business, which could have caused complications when trying to replicate the scene. So I grabbed my Canon T2i and trekked around campus stopping at various interesting indoor locations.

The next obstacle was creepiness. To try and capture people doing stuff from far away is not a challenge. To get a conversation or interaction between people in the foreground was interesting. The first shot I got was in the campus center by the Park side entrance. I stood on the second floor overlooking the entry way and filmed for thirty seconds. I had a stairway on my left and right with the doors directly in front of me. Because it was seven o'clock I didn't get a rush of people. But I got several small groups of people coming and going up and down the stairs having small conversations.

The second location I tried was the rec center. I just sat myself down in a corner and filmed the 6 or 7 people in there playing pool and ping pong. I also went to the music building's foyer that overlooks the hill center and sat in a comfy chair. At that location I captured in frame two people working and one girl talking on the cellphone. My final stop was the pub where I found a friend to place in the foreground. Calvin Healy sitting there ripping his hair out over calculus 3. In the background there were 3 girls arguing about a group project.

I didn't get the chance to try a moving camera shot. Maybe with this rain day I'll get the opportunity over the weekend to set something up before class. But I think I got a few nice selections for my group.