Maintaining a film blog and being a full-time student pretty much keeps me busy all day every day, so I apologize for not getting to launch this online diary earlier. That said, it's definitely time for me to start sharing my thoughts and experiences here at the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking.

So, why not start at the very beginning? Things moved along a little slower at SFSDF the first week, which is obvious, considering everything still feels a little new, you need some time to meet the fellow students, and the instructors need some time to introduce you to the program, schedule and rules.

That said, it's not like we didn't get a chance to be creative during week one. On the contrary, our first assignment consisted out of grabbing our point-and-shoot camera and exploring the neighborhood, taking pictures of whatever we wanted and picking the two we liked best.

The following day, our instructor Stephen would critique our picks fairly, before sending us out a second time with a bunch of tips on how to shoot some interesting pictures. I truly loved this first mission, and I admit I was happy we immediately got to go out and do something, which this program is all about.

A detailed look at composition, an introduction to focus, exposure, time code, and an intro to shot terminology pretty much kept us busy for the rest of the week, and I certainly don't lie when I say I've already learned a whole lot. In other words, I felt quite excited about where all this was going.

(By the way, my new favorite tool is the 'expanded focus,' which lets you doa critical zoom and helps a ot with the focus, especially if you play around with the zoom on someone's face during filming. It's a great tool for interviews in docs.)

To wrap up the first week, we received a simple, yet challenging assignment: grab a camera, team up, and go out and shoot a one-minute short about a student being late to school. However, we were not allowed to do any post-production, which means we basically had to edit the thing as we shot; a challenge because we had to get the shots right without spending too much time going back and forth.

Let me tell you this: even though we worked in groups and had a couple of hours to do this, it was not was easy as it may sound. The best thing about this exercise is that it really made me respect the camera more. That truly was the first lesson I learned here at SFSDF, and it's an utterly important one in my book.

So, yes, I felt I was off to a good start, walking away after the first week with a bunch of new knowledge about a lot of things already. By the way, we were also introduced to out first project, but I set aside a whole entry to talk about that.

Final thought: The first week worked perfectly in terms of getting to know some of my classmates and the instructors, getting hands-on camera experience, and, last but not least, getting excited about all the adventures yet to come. That's a wrap, and be sure to check back soon for my summary of week two.