Toastmaster K - The Blog!

After a very long day, and a trip to Anna’s Taqueria, I’m mostly moved in back at Olin. The new dorm, East Hall, is excellent, although not entirely complete. I just thought I’d write a quick post before crashing for the night.

The plan for Bay State is to post fliers at Brandeis, Babson, and Wellesley ASAP, so that we can get our auditions done. Also, Kevin and I will be meeting with several people to begin editing the (now virtually completed) first full draft of the script.

An exciting year lies ahead!

My cyborg name is:

Thanks for the site Miks!

The Princeton Review has released it’s annual ranking of the Best Colleges in America and similarly to last year, Olin has placed very strongly. The one’s I’m most proud of are: #1 in Best Quality of Life, and #2 in Best Campus Food and Dorms Like Palaces. Also, we’re no longer 4th in the category of “Stone-Cold Sober”.

Here are the rankings:

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering’s
Best 361 College Rankings

Rank List Category
#8 Best Overall Academic Experience For Undergraduates Academics
#8 Professors Get High Marks Academics
#2 Professors Make Themselves Accessible Academics
#5 The Toughest To Get Into Academics
#4 Their Students Never Stop Studying Academics
#12 Gay Community Accepted Demographics
#1 Lots of Race/Class Interaction Demographics
#17 Best College Theatre Extracurriculars
#3 Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular Or Nonexistent Extracurriculars
#20 Got Milk? Parties
#14 Stone-Cold Sober Schools Parties
#2 Best Campus Food Quality of Life
#1 Best Quality Of Life Quality of Life
#2 Dorms Like Palaces Quality of Life
#16 Dodge Ball Targets School Type
#4 Town-Gown Relations Are Great Social

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Also Appears on These Lists:

Best Northeastern Colleges
This school is one of the 224 colleges named a Best Northeastern College by The Princeton Review. Our goal is simple: to identify some of the colleges and universities that we feel stand out within each region.

America’s Best Value College
This school is one of the colleges designated as one of the best overall bargains—based on cost and financial aid—among the most academically outstanding colleges in the nation.

First of all, props to Kevin’s team, the San Diego Padres, for owning the Braves in extra innings, with a grand slam in the top of the 13th. Final score 7-2 Padres. Also, good job Red Sox, winning against the Angels in 10 last night.

Second, I went out last night to see The 40-Year-Old Virgin. It was hilarious. The problem is that they stole several of my ideas. First of all, the first few shots in the opening sequence closely resemble those from Bay State. Specifically, the alarm clock shot. Let the record show that our script used this introduction long before this movie was released.

There were also two more important (and slightly embarassing) things that had a striking resemblance to my life. First, in the scene where the main character/virgin, Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell), goes to a sushi bar on a date, he is wearing the EXACT shirt that I wore to the film. It is a light blue plaid button-down shirt from Old Navy. My date found this quite amusing.

Second, Andy mentions that he plays online poker for a few hours a night, “when he isn’t playing Halo.” I know what they’re trying to imply, and all I can say is this - Halo is not a loser’s passtime. While many losers do play Halo, the seemingly logical conclusion that they ask viewers to draw (Halo players are losers) is ridiculous. Even worse, we later see a paused screen of Halo 2 on Andy’s television while a scene is going on. Yet Andy had clearly said that he played Halo. Halo and Halo 2 are completely different. Yes, Halo 2 is the sequel to Halo. However, the gameplay and storyline of the second game pale in comparison to those of the first. Any real gamer would never refer to the two games interchangeably. So Andy Stitzer, supposedly characterized as a real gamer, is clearly shown here to be a fraud. I find it more likely that he is, in fact, a serial killer, as is suggested earlier in the film by Cal (Seth Rogen). This darker side of Andy’s character will most likely be revealed in the inevitable sequel.

Just for the record, I actually have played less than 15 hours of Halo and Halo 2 combined all summer. Despite these glaring errors and stolen ideas, the movie is excellent - hilarious, and surprisingly morally wholesome.

Now, I’m off to sort through the 40 one-hour MiniDV tapes of potential B Roll footage for the short video piece I’m working on for Olin College. I would strongly recommend checking out The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Over and out.

I went to Disneyland yesterday with some friends from highschool. One of them, James, just got back from a 2-year mission in Italy. I think my highlight of the day was the fireworks show where they had worked in the different rides of the park in with the fireworks; really just very well done.

The Guys

Me, James, Luann, and Bree. (Notice, no goatee anymore.)

The Girls

Hello. I’m Tom. This is my first post. I co-produced, co-directed, and co-edited The Olin Experience with Kevin in the spring of 2005. It was our first real production together, and it was well-received. Now that we’ve handled a ten-minute documentary in a month, the next logical step is to produce a feature-length dramatic film, while in the senior year of our engineering educations. Should be good times. I’m planning on writing some more script tonight. We are down to only seven scenes that haven’t been written, and about 15 that need to be re-written before we enter the “pre-final draft” stage. We want a final draft by the time school starts. Kevin and I have equal roles in the project as far as story development goes, but I have done most of the writing.

Then, we need to begin casting! We’ll be hitting up all of BaBOW (Babson, Brandeis, Olin, Wellesley), looking for a male lead, a male supporting role, and two female supporting roles. There will also be some minor characters, and of course extras! We also need a lot of crew - we need help with lighting, sound, filming, still photography, assistant producing and directing, casting, etc. You know all those names in the credits at the end of a movie? We have to fill most of those roles.

I will be posting as I write more for the movie. I hope you like reading my thoughts. Stay tuned!

Here are some more of the shots that I’ve uploaded to my flickr page.

One of my favorite all-time pictures. View of Boston Harbor from the Orientation Harbor Cruise in 2002. It was a gorgeous day!

A bunch of us who went into Boston during Orientation 2002. Look how much we’ve all changed!

The First Ever CORe E-Board (taken in October 2002)

The Olin Holiday Bush from freshman year.

A shot from the first ever dragster races at Olin for the Fall 2002 Things That Go cohort.

Shots of trees in the Oval.

More being posted soon!

The working title for the project is Bay State, jokingly referring to Garden State. The title will certainly change. The themes are different from Garden State, but we aim for the scale to be roughly similar. Something like Good Will Hunting meets Garden State meets American Pie 2.

The basic premise of the film is as follows:
Brian Wilkins and Chris Myers, two close friends, return to school in the fall as juniors at Isaac Newton College in Newton, MA. Both have bright futures ahead of them. Both essentially grew up without fathers. Brian lost his father in a car accident, and Chris’ father left his mother for another woman. Both feel that the other one had it easier. The lack of a father figure in both of their lives has shaped who they are, and how they handle problems. Brian is subtly obsessed with control. Having lost his father to bad fortune, he does everything in his power to ensure that he is in control of his life, and of those around him. He uses routine to live efficiently and safely. He is also still haunted by a past relationship. He accepts responsibility for his former girlfriend’s infidelity, maintaining that “he simply didn’t love her enough.” Essentially, he overestimates the amount of control he has in his life. The film deals primarily with his struggles as he realizes that there are things beyond his control. This is symbolized mostly through his relationship with Alex, a Wellesley student who he meets at the beginning of the film. They quickly develop an intense relationship.

Meanwhile, Chris, having been in a relationship for years, cheats on his girlfriend with June, a close friend of Brian’s. Brian tries to control the situation. Having been cheated on in the past, he subconsciously feels a responsibility to protect Chris’ girlfriend. He also feels a need to protect June from Chris, who he now doesn’t trust to be faithful in any relationship. Brian’s sense of responsibility about Chris’ personal life becomes a point of friction in his relationship with Alex. Over the course of the film, Brian tries harder and harder to gain control of the situation, but it only continues to make everything worse. The vicious cycle continues until the climax, where he finally breaks down and accepts what he has fought for so long - don’t be afraid not to be in control.

The story takes place over the first eleven days of the school year, and there is one lead (Brian) with three supporting roles (Chris, June, and Alex). There are also several minor characters (roommates and friends), plus extras in some situations.

It is a story of personal growth, of morals, and of raw human emotion. It is funny, moving, and inspiring. It is about youth, fear, loss, friendship, and love.