I arrived in New York at around 12 noon on July 1st. Getting through the airport controls was much easier than I expected. The truth is that after an entire month of unbearable bureaucratic procedures with the school and the American embassy, I was convinced that in the airport some kind of ultimate humiliation would occur, a final gesture to top off the nightmare involved in obtaining a student visa for the United States nowadays. Believe me; I was so exhausted by the paperwork that if the customs agent had welcomed me with a kick in the groin, I wouldn't have said a word. Fortunately, he just looked at my papers with slight disdain and snapping his fingers granted me access to the USA. A mixture of relief and youthful enthusiasm came over me and I walked toward the airport exit with the satisfaction you feel when you have just achieved "something". An hour later, I arrived at my apartment in Manhattan. As for the apartment - judge for yourselves.

Before you dismiss me as indolent and insulting, hear me out. When you win Notodofilmfest.com, you have to accept certain responsibilities. One of them involves interiorising the fact that when they send you to study in New York, besides committing yourself to try and improve your filmmaking, you are also fulfilling a diplomatic mission. Let’s just say that winning the “notodo” turns you into something like the Mr. Spain of short films. And obviously, you have to make certain sacrifices; taking up residence in a dump is not an option when you are representing a NATION. I know you wouldn’t like that.
 
Anyway, the rent costs me $1,400. Although that’s a lot of money, I feel fortunate. The apartment is fantastic and right next to the school, which saves me subway fares. For almost the same price, I was willing to accept real holes in the wall where they wouldn’t even accept me. Take a look at the Manhattan rentals appearing on Craigslist and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

I share the loft with Sylvia, the owner. Sylvia works as an advertising stylist and I really like her. She is friendly, intelligent and helps me with everything she can. In case you have any doubts about her being nice, I’ll just mention one fact. Sylvia’s eyes light up when she speaks about The Sopranos and the HBO series. Furthermore, she subscribes to HBO On Demand, which means that I can enjoy any series or film on the channel whenever I want. Obviously, it’s difficult not to feel affection for someone who offers you a free buffet from the best television menu available today. Under such conditions, adapting to my new home has been very easy.
 

Since I arrived on the weekend before the course began, I took advantage of the time for fleeting visits to some of the city’s neighbourhoods: Greenwich Village, East Village, Soho, Chinatown, Little Italy... To summarise: I adore the city. I’ll just give you some random notes or this is going to take an eternity. Perhaps I spent most time in the East Village, where the buildings are not as tall and are filled with bars and music, comic and film shops. It seems to be one of the areas where one can find “alternative” material, if such a label means anything today. In essence, it was the ideal place for beginning to familiarise myself with my new currency. I ended up buying a great edition of Arcade Fire’s latest recording as well as Crumb, the marvellous (and disturbing) documentary by Terry Zwigoff.

The workshop began the following Monday. There are 18 students in the course. In the first class, the instructor asked about our experience and apparently I am the only student who has made a short in his life. Actually this has a fairly simple explanation. It seems that the four-week workshop is designed primarily for people who have had no contact with films and wish to learn some basics in an intensive fashion. It is really an initial contact with filmmaking to evaluate whether or not films interest you and whether you want to devote yourself to the art. I have to admit that this information made chills run up and down my spine since I had hoped the course would be slightly more advanced. In any case, I tried to take it all with a grain of salt and wait to see how things went. After all, New York really agreed with me.

I would be lying if I said that the first days have gone well. The truth is that I ended up totally worn out. The problem wasn’t the classes themselves. In general, the school’s faculty is good and although the contents are very elementary (thirds, axis, basic scriptwriting concepts), at least everything about using 16mm cameras was new to me. The main reason for my exhaustion was the group exercises. Since students were not acquainted with each other yet, the professor formed groups at random and I had to share various creative sessions with what I assume must be the most hateful types in the class. 

Our brainstorming was chaos. At first, I tried to participate, but it soon became clear that my English didn’t allow my contributions be taken seriously. Add to this the fact that I am ten years older than the rest of the group and that we have practically nothing in common, the result was bound to be a disaster. At one point in the session, I dared to question the ideas of another guy in the group. Offended, he dismissed me as a know-all. Since it seemed very depressing to have to argue in order to express my ideas to the teacher, I decided to back off. It’s curious to observe how in such cases the decisions of the dumbest, most loudmouthed student in the group prevail. I’ll spare you a description of what came out of that session.

Anyway, I was left with the feeling that perhaps it would be more useful to visit the city than to submit myself to these extenuating teamwork exercises. Fortunately, a fantastic episode of The Sopranos awaited me when I got home and that raised my spirits. It was specifically the episode about AJ in the swimming pool…if you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I’m talking about. As always, it’s impossible to do it better.

The next day, I returned to school somewhat renewed. The final draw for the working groups for the rest of the course was held and this time I was luckier and there were at least two people in the group with whom I get along very well. I’ll bring you up to date next week.