Wednesday, May 23, 2012

We are the 4%

USC School of Cinematic Arts

I am proud to announce that after years of hard work and dedication my son got accepted in an academic institution that is unanimously considered the world's best film school: University of California School of Cinematic Arts.

For those of you who may ask why is this such a great achievement, let me say this: it is twice as easy for a student to be accepted in a Ivy League University like Princeton or Harward than to get in the USC Film School. In fact, every year USC only accepts 4% of the applicants as students for the School of Cinematic Arts.

My son is an amazingly talented, dedicated and hardworking young man (when it's about his movies, of course). He got the film making bug in the 6th grade and ever since it became his life obsession. His success in being admitted to USC from the first try and becoming part of the select 4% is due not only to his talent and passion but also to:

- the countless hours of study so he could maintain a school GPA of 3.9,
- the long days and weekends he worked as a P/A, grip, boom mic operator and sometimes cameraman on various movie sets with very little or (most times) no pay,
- the long nights he spent in front of his computer monitor learning how to do film editing, sound and color correction - all self taught.
- to the vacations he spent taking summer semester college movie production and directing classes while his high school classmates were enjoying surfboarding and partying.

As you all can see, my son is clearly not an occupier. He is not a 99 percent-er, but a 4 percent-er. He is where he is today because we raised him to be a Christian and a strong, principled conservative who knows that hard work and dedication is the price he has to pay to succeed and achieve his dreams.
Hollywood beware: you are infiltrated!

Edited to add:

So far 2012 is very good year for him: last month he started a new film, working as director of photography. Filming has begun on a location in San Diego - and this time he's paid real money.  The production will last until fall and there are good chances the project to be sequel-ed in the Spring of 2013. He was also solicited to work on a documentary that will be filmed in various locations in the US and Western European countries. He accepted the offer - and hopefully he will find the time to participate in it while taking his classes at USC. Pretty amazing stuff he is doing at his 21 years of age!