Lights, Camera, Action (Part 2)

My sophomore year in College, I took an "Intro to Film Production" class. With my background in production from high school, I knew that I'd ace the class and wow my classmates with my extensive knowledge and organizational prowess.

As a gay man, I often like to express how I'm feeling through clothes. If I'm wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants and the colors don't match, I'm in a bad mood or too tired to care how I look. But this first day of classes, I put on a new, button down shirt from Martin + Osa, with a beautiful light blue, dark blue, and light purple stripe pattern. I coupled that with new, dark jeans from Express, and my brand new, white Puma sneakers. I looked like $200, which is how much the outfit cost.

I was already familiar with Framingham State's TV Studio, having had a Studio class in there a year before. I walked into the dilapidated, darkly lit room, expecting a large group of fun, TV Production majors like my studio class.

I was wrong.

I looked around the room. There was one girl (who turned out to be really nice), wearing dark blue jeans and a black North Face jacket... and 10 guys. They were all wearing sweatpants and hoodies, much to my horror. I stuck out like a sore thumb, all dressed up with my hair molded into a fauxhawk.

The irony here is that the Professor showed us one of his student films, a "blog" starring someone who was ranting about film students:

"THEY DRESS BAD AND THEY SMELL," the actor screamed. I nodded my head, appreciating how ridiculous my life really is on a daily basis.

I sat down in my chair, wide-eyed and expecting the worst. That's when a boy wearing jeans came into class. Yes! Score one for the anti-sweatpants team! Not far behind him was a red-headed girl wearing boots and jeans. I started to feel less alone at that point.

Eventually, the teacher assigned our groups for our student film projects, which would span the semester. I ended up working with the boy in the jeans and the red-headed girl, later known as Matt and Jess, one of the boys in track pants, Ryan, and the kid who never showed up.

"I always wanted a gay BFF," Jess cooed as we got to know each other.

As a group, we developed the movie. The pitch? "A clown who's afraid of kids runs away from the circus," Matt announced.

I burst out laughing. Everyone else stared. But sure enough, the script came to life and we began shooting our student film. The shooting isn't the important part though. This semester in question was really more about the bonds we all made together.

Justin, who played our clown, held a wrap party for the movie, which was also a going away party for our professor. In his trailer.

"He lives in a trailer?!" I asked, incredulous.

Jess tried to calm me down, as she often has to do when I'm louder than necessary.

Turns out, it WAS a trailer park, but they weren't mobile homes. Just really small houses, which were actually pretty nice. The night of the party, I was greeted by Bock, our professor who was moving away, his 18-year old wife, and their 6-month old. Having been the producer of our film, he gave me a book on being a Producer and one about film scheduling. Man hugs were exchanged, no homo.

It was then that the alcohol started flowing freely. I started insisting that I was one of the girls and we needed a girl group picture.

At one point, I decided I would be the party's DJ. I hijacked the computer, cranked its speakers, and made sure "Put it in Your Mouth" by Akinyele echoed throughout the trailer. For anyone who doesn't know, this song goes:

"Put it in your mouth.
I said your mother fucking mouth.
Or you could just eat me out.
You can eat me out."

Then I smacked a straight guy's ass. I have never seen anyone look more confused in my life.

And to think, that never would have happened had I not taken this class!