The Spectacular Now

Over the winter break i saw a film that i really enjoyed. It was a film that i could really connect to because it was all based in a high school setting. In Spectacular Now, we have all dealt with tasks like relationships, getting drunk and getting over ex-girlfriends. The film begins with the main character Sutter Keeley and he is trying to answer an essay question for the Dean of Admissions, asking him to describe a hardship in his life and how he overcame it. Being the hard-party senior he was, he didn't think he had any issues. But when Sutter meets a new girl named Aimee Finicky, his whole philosophy on life changes and they begin to know each other and connect as a couple.

There was this one scene in the film in which i thought it portrayed perfectly when Aimee and Sutter were getting to know each other a little bit more. In the beginning of the clip, Sutter begins to introduce Aimee to alcohol. The scene felt real to me because i remember when i was first introduced to alcohol with my friend. Then Sutter began to talk about his personal life.

Aimee tells Sutter she got into college and she is hesitant to go because of her mother. They were opening up and discussing Aimee's issues. I can relate to this scene personally because i knew in high school, i needed to stand up to my parents and friends. Even some of my friends were pushing me to swear because i was innocent as Aimee. But when Sutter was teaching Aimee to swear, i felt it was such a real scene. True friends would do that with each other. I know mine did.  The scene was really showing they were trusting each other and just having a fun time.

Here is the clip incase you guys want to see it for yourself, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE5WR3gTNB8 (Its not the greatest quality)

The way the director angled the scenes was great. He kept a medium shot the whole way through while they were walking and talking. The lighting looked natural even though i think their faces could be lit a little more. But i even noticed the camera was being moved while they were walking but it wasn't too noticeable. This scene didn't require a lot of angle shots which personally i liked.

There were many other scenes that had my interest, but this one was one of my favorites. This movie talks about dealing with your first true love, going through high school and how relationships can be impacted once you go away to college. Even Sutter admitted at the end of the movie that his true hardship was himself. He didn't realize, himself as a person went through many hardships.

Fight Club

I re-watched this movie recently and had a realization. I felt more disturbed then I have before. I thought about what could do this and after about an hour of going in and out of thought I figured out the reason. Every time I have watched it in the passed I have been in a well lit area. This got me to thinking what other movies give off different vibes and feelings in different lighting? I tried watching a comedy in a dark room and felt less in a laughing mode and more of a strange mood. Its a strange concept and I haven't had time to watch other things. Does anyone have thoughts? I do know that comedy clubs keep the area cold to bring on laughs.

"Snatch"

One of my favorite movies to watch would have to be Snatch.  It is a very well directed movie that revolves around 4 or 5 groups of people and one diamond the size of your fist.  They aren't aware of it, but all of their paths cross each others at least once, and everything they do effects the others.  The closest that this movie gets to having a protagonist would have to be Jason Stathem and his partner, and just about everybody is an antagonist since they are all trying to steal a diamond.  The amount of mind numbing violence would make just about any guy happy.  If that wasn't enough, there are accents and puppies.  Stathem just wants to buy a new caravan which gets him mixed up with a band of gypsies, who sold a dog to a pair of 'gangsters'.  The dog ate the diamond that the gangsters had stolen from Freddy 'four fingers'.  Freddy had taken the diamond from a bank and was selling it to a guy named Bricktop in New York.  Bricktop is friends with Addie who is a fake Jewish Jewelry seller (he is just a jewelry seller, but not Jewish).  Addie deals with Borris the bullet dodger, who sells guns to all of the other characters, and has a boxer fighting against Stathem.  The boxer that Stathem has was knocked out by Mickey the Gypsie during a bet for the trailer that Stathem wanted because his was old.  It is one of my favorite movies because it keeps you interested to see who gets the diamond in the end and what happens to every character, as well as has some very interesting humor.  I would definitely say it is a movie you should see at least once, and if not that movie, then I would also reccommend "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" which is a similar movie.

"Perks of Being a Wallflower"

I think we all can find a movie we connect to, that makes us secound guess what we did back in high school or maybe how we acted towards a situation or someone. I had read the book Perks of Being a Wallflower back in high school and eagerly awaited the movie -- when they announced it would be coming out. I recently watched it again and I was able to not only connect with Charlie, but connect in my head the reasons for the lighting used in a certain scene. Or why they shot the "high above" angle, which was looking down on both Charlie and Sam, during his LSD snow shoveling trip. Which at first I didn't like, but after re-watching the scene, I get it, or at least to me, it means to show the interaction between the two. So often in movies we have close ups that show the facial expressions, but here in this scene, it was about body language, connecting two people who desperately needed each other. Not only was I able to understand the movie more, it made it more enjoyable, to be able to understand how lighting is used to illuminate the certain specs in the eyes of Sam, or the sadness Charlie was feeling. I, myself, was not a "Wallflower" but I connected with Charlie, his character a lot. His past experiences and the way he looked at people. The way he connected with music. I guess, some part of me is still longing to meet my "dynamic duo" (Patrick & Sam) to whisk me away and open my mind up to new experiences, possibilities and happiness. This movie had it all, the romance, the comedy, and it was thought provoking. And that's our job as a production student, to show our audience something that not only can make them laugh, but can make them cry and make them feel something that resonates within them.

FSBlog1: The Importance of Planning/Diagraming

On my days off I often enjoy watching large amounts of various TV shows. Over the years, I feel like I have developed a good understanding of many different shows through behind the scenes features on DVDs and from videos and articles on the internet. Recently, I watched a behind the scenes feature that really caught my eye and that I think applies to what we're doing in our DVP class.

Seinfeld was a fantastic sitcom that ran from 1989 to 1998. Over the years, the show has been run and re-run over and over on multiple channels. And every time it's on, I sit down and watch it. However, one very cool thing out of all of the episodes I've seen has come to my attention. Seinfeld RESHOT scenes for syndication-IN DIFFERENT YEARS. There are episodes I've seen with one actor that were redone with another in later runs. For example, George Costanza's father's actor changed after his first appearance the year before, and those shots were redone with Jerry Stiller. But despite the year difference, the scenes looked PERFECT. Each shot matched exactly, the room seemed untouched, and the lighting was spot on. This fascinated me. How the hell were the production designers able to recreate these scenes after so much time???

Further reading led me to find out that all of the lighting in the studio was planned out and diagramed, so recording ANYTHING for the show would be a piece of cake. All of the replacement shots Seinfeld shot over the years were perfect. And now that we're doing lighting and set design ourselves, I just want to point out how taking pictures and diagramming things out will help us greatly during the reshoots that Alex said WILL eventually happen.

You know, it's just an interesting and important thing I wanted to throw out there...SO PLAN EVERYTHING!!!

Blog Entry #1 - Lone Survivor

Blog Entry #1 - Lone Survivor

Genre: Action/Biography/Drama

Written/Directed by: Peter Berg (based entirely off the story written by Marcus Luttrel)
Starring:
Mark Walberg: Marcus Luttrel
Taylor Kitsch: Lieutenant Michael Murphy
Emile Hirsch: Danny Dietz
Ben Foster: Matt “Axe” Wilson
Eric Bana: Commander Erik Kristensen

A personal belief of mine I hold close through day to day observation and interaction is that our country as a whole is slowly slipping into a state of pure afluenza - a state by which one is completely lacking care, or gratitude for the circumstances they enjoy in their life. It’s very easy to get caught up in the little things, whether an instance of petty drama, road rage - even concepts such as materialism. The list can go on to fill a book. But every now and again an occurrence comes across our path that has a way of displaying the life and circumstances of another in a purely visceral way. It is this kind of spectacle which has a technique of bringing one back down to earth, or merely adding to one’s list of experiences or stories by which they solidify their stance on the ground even more - an objective that Lone Survivor accomplished in the utmost fashion.

We are introduced in the very beginning to a life of rigorous training, activity, and mental challenge as clips are shown of BUD/S - Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training. Candidates are pushed to their very limits consistently, and even further beyond with lone and group efforts entailing combating the elements in conjunction with their own mind. It seems almost surreal, that someone can willingly endure such things, and being witness to the effects on these men is frightening. From running miles upon miles in the sand to experiencing what it is to not be able to breathe, and practically drown, SEALs exemplify the exact nature of what it is to be the warrior of today.
Upon the conclusion of training footage, the movie continues with Marcus Luttrel and his team getting geared-up for their upcoming mission - the capture/kill of a Taliban leader in Afghanistan. Aside from the briefing, they are all shown socializing and discussing their lives, which easily demonstrates that despite the job, they are in fact people, too, and that the brotherhood which exists between them, and their fellow SEALs, is a very real thing.
But, enough of this story has circulated for anyone to know, even if they haven’t seen the movie, that yes - all of them perish in battle, with the exception of Luttrel/Walberg. Despite this fact - the movie, in my opinion, effectively retells this remarkable story very simply. And within this simplicity is the elegance. From the moment these men are discovered making their way to the objective, we gain a very swift, and very real understanding of how easy it is to have something of such magnitude fall apart. Through the dialogue they share, we understand how each one still has their own personal beliefs at heart - but the mission comes first. And through the incredible displays of combat-and-maneuver, enhanced by particular camera angles and editing techniques, (in particular, where they have to literally jump down the side of a mountain, and tumble down incurring one hell of a thrashing by the mere elements in their path) and selfless sacrifice against their enemy for each other - we gain the understanding of the legendary prowess of the SEAL.
In summary, this movie tells a staggering story - one that needs to be shared. It can be a difficult watch for the simple fact of the gore, vulgarity, and other elements involved - but on the same token, if it didn’t have these, it wouldn’t be doing justice to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
The answer is yes. I highly recommend it.

Charlie Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator'

Hitler looks like a Jewish barber—so much so that the two [quite literally] are interchangeable; and if abstracting this simplicity in casting isn’t humorous in and of itself, then—at the very least—it serves in this blog as the essence of satire: the perceived absurdity inherent in the logic of Nazi Germany. I speak, of course, in reference to the dictator’s arrest [for appearing like the barber] (1:50:51), and, subsequently, of the soft-spoken barber being tossed into the role of Führer (1:58:00). Now, these alone—as plot points—are quite funny; they possess, within them, comedic value to laugh at the expense of. But be that as it may, the humor in the casting, the likeness between anti-Semite and Semite, need be viewed as an artistic expression—as satirical. As aforementioned, the essence of satire is to illuminate the absurdity of a position [this being that of Nazi Germany]. Can it not be said, then, that the absurdity of their logic rests in this emphasis on outward appearance? A “machine” which is hell-bent on the propagation of blonde hair and blue eyes, is, at the same time, being driven by a man with neither of the two qualifications—does this not appear [in its most simplest of essences] as an 'inherent absurdity’? The Minister of Propaganda, Garbitsch [garbage—propaganda/garbage], is guilty of being brunette all the same. A sweet irony rests within the stormtroopers, and of the systematic witch-hunt of a man who looks identical to their dictator.

As we know, Charlie Chaplin plays both of the characters; in this sense, the two are [in fact] genetically identical—and this is worth noting, in my opinion. For, perhaps, having the two characters simply look similar [and be played by different actors] may have sufficed; however, they are genetically identical. With that being said, then, I’d like to refer to the barber’s plea for “humanity” and “universal brotherhood” (~2:00:00). Now, this speech is overtly critiquing the aggression of Germany and their differentiating of human species. The casting can be seen as an extension of this idea—as an avowal of this “universal brotherhood,” as an ode to the fact that we all are, biologically and genetically speaking, the same.