Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas buyers club was a movie centered around people who had contracted the HIV virus and in some cases had turned to AIDS. It was set at a time when it was commonly thought that the virus was only contracted between two gay men. Although there was not as much open hatred for the gays, it was still commonplace for people to hid their sexual orientation. When the main character, a straight male, is told he only has a month to live due to AIDS, he receives a lot of criticism and stereotyping from those who know him.

He is outcasted and has to find his own means to survive. He makes new friends due to his condition, one of whom is a transgender named Rayon. Rayon is played by Jared Leto, who does an absolutely amazing job. In this film, he manages to be a prettier girl than myself. He really seems to be living the part, as if he was truly born as this person. He may be what makes the film so special. His relationship with the main character, Ron, played by Mathew McConaughey, also adds to the emotional attachment viewers have with the movie. It is truly moving how their friendship starts and ends.

Dallas Buyers Club brought awareness to something that to this day, people are discriminated against. It shows the battle that people encounter as they live with this virus. It also gives a bit of history in it, showing how people thought that is was a disease only for gay men. It also shows the history of the medication being used to treat it. The movie makes the viewer feel compassion for a group of people who are cast out by others, because of a disease they are inflicted with. It makes one realize that there is little that could be done when such a small amount of awareness is enlightened onto the public.

Dexter

I've been watching dexter on Netflix, not having seen any of the series as it aired. There are eight season. I am only on the third. Dexter, so far, is a show I think might become one of my favorites. It is very technical and insightful where the law and determining murder cases is concerned. However, because it is so technical, when it is not, I notice.

The first thing that I would like to point out is that Dexter is always on top of not getting caught. he uses latex gloves at ever crime scene, to make sure not to leave evidence. One thing bothers me about this. He is so cautious, even though he leaves his footprints EVERYWHERE. Having seen various real life murder cases in which a criminal or suspect was brought down because of their footprints, this really irks me. How can someone who is so careful be so lazy? I thought maybe it is just something that was too technical to bring up, even for a technical show and stopped bugging myself over it. Until one episode. One episode in which they brought down a criminal due to footprints...

The other thing that really bothers me that takes place in the show is during Dexters 'rituals', when he kills people. He puts up pictures of the victims that they have killed so that they can see why he is killing them. Only sometimes, the pictures are completely out of view to Dexters victim. It may not be that big of a deal, but if he is trying to make a point, doesn't them actually seeing the pictures have importance?

Other than those two things, the show is great and I love it. I can't wait to finish the series and see if they fix these flaws as well!

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

First Project with sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfEtmxg8-Bo&feature=youtu.be

Water for Elephants

     I'm sick of watching the typical love story movies.  The one's about a guy and a girl, both in their twenties,  living in the city, who become friends or date, then have a huge fight, and then end up back together in the end.  They're predicable.  So I decided to watch Water for Elephants.  It's a 2011 film directed by Francis Lawrence, about a circus vet.  It stars Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz.
     I think the reason I liked it was because the whole film was a flashback.  I feel like a lot of films don't take advantage of flashbacks.  It's interesting to see a characters back story.  It's also cool how it's set in the early 30's at a circus.  Just by choosing a circus, you already know that there will be a lot of color, light, and music.
     I think the director did a good decision with the music soundtrack.  Throughout a majority of the movie there is music but it's all different types.  He made good decisions when it came to when to play certain melodies.  At about the 38:30 mark, when Jacob is about to be thrown off the train, the strings playing in the background added to the suspense of the situation. 
    Another thing I enjoyed that was different about this film, was after the flashback, the character ended up where he started.  He started in a circus when he was growing up, and the movie ends with him getting back into another one.  Also the amount of animals used in this film was cool.  It had all different circus acts; lions, hyenas, horses, elephants, etc.  Many times films only take advantage of one type of animal or even just dogs and cats, or when they have a lot of animals, they're animated, but this movie, they're real and interact with the people.

Project one final cut

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XBQmFnU8TnU