Tangled

I was very entertained by this movie. It was a twist on an age old story. The creators really gave this story character and personality. Not only was the story fantastic, but the animation was phenomenal. I went to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows(which by the way..I love Harry Potter), but I enjoyed Tangled even more than that (even though my fiance' and I were the only teenagers in the audience) :-)

Filming of the Short Fiction

Well....the filming is done......amazing....I didn't think it would or could happen. It was great. (not the best of course but really good) However, I didn't realize how much ordering around I had to do. To be perfectly honest, I didn't really like ordering people around. Nevertheless, my cast was great and took my direction well. I am very happy with how it went and hope that once we start editing it comes out even better. Thank you to Meghan Garland, Zach Zimmerman, Dan Hendrickson, Amelia Lynd, Sam Richards, Dave Kemner and Kaitlin Farnsworth.

Citizen Kane

Well...Citizen Kane... What can I say about Citizen Kane? I find itt to be an interesting story. I did not fully appreciate it before though. Having read the article, I have a new respect for the advancements they were making with this  movie. It was unlike anything the movie business had seen at the time. I also have an appreciation for the working realationship they had. They pushed eachother to be creative and push boundaries. It is that kind of relationship that creates good movies. Challenges help push limits to what a person can do because they are being driven to do so. 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I found this movie very interesting. The story was creative and it drew me in, but it was so long I had a hard time focusing. There were some parts that could have been taken out without disrupting the story. Regardless, It was very creative and not like any story I had ever seen. The use of dark lighting was in the movie throughout which I thought helped in setting the mood of the movie and the location. They also used montage in order to show passing time, since there is a great deal of time to cover (life to death). Overall, thumbs up!

Despicable Me

This was an incredibly entertaining, light-hearted movie. I really enjoyed it. The animation was spectacular and the story line was very inventive. They used several cases of montage within the animation, which was cool that I even recognized it, and they used some interesting character development. The main character Gru was very well developed, which allowed me to be fully engrossed in the film. I liked it a lot. I would recommend this movie to anyone.

Screen Play (ing)

Well..I have said it in class and I will say it again, I don't really like writing or reading screen plays. I dot get me wrong, I enjoy the actual films. I like the movie Fargo. Seeing that screen play in the reading was cool, but I didn't like having to read it. Chinatown was interesting as well, but again, I enjoy not having to read it like that. Books are good and even scripts for a play are good for me, but there is just something about writing and reading screenplays that throws me off. The reading was helpful though, even if I don't completely understand it.

The Scorpion King

Although I have never been a huge fan of actions movies, I really enjoyed this one. In fact, I enjoyed all the Mummy movies that go in sequence with The Scorpion King. I thought it was a well thoughtout story. It also had several camera angles that I was not necessarily expecting. They had several pan and zooms. They also had tons of montages (as Hollywood enjoys doing them alot). Even though there were quite a few montages it definately help certain scenes in the progression of the story. Overall, I really enjoyed this movie and reccomend it if you have not seen it.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Well, I can honestly say that I was not expecting the story invloved with the title of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This was an interesting movie for sure. I watch the show Glee and the next episode is based off The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is why I decided to watch it so I knew what to expect. It was definitely a controversial movie for not only its time (1975) but also our time. It is amazing how many topics they bring up that are very deep topics of debate. There are many words that could describe this movie. Disturbing, brilliant, talented, controversial, ridiculous, vulgar, inventive, etc.... Tim Curry did an amazing job in this role. It is defiantly not a favorite movie, but it is certainly a brilliant and talent filled movie. "Lets do the Time Warp"!!! Haha.

Montage

I am realizing now that almost every movie, in some way or another, has montage in it. I watched Cop Out, Kick-Ass, Get Him to the Greek, and Boondock Saints 2. Each of these movies has had a montage in it at some point. I never really noticed it until I started looking for it and knowing what to look for. These movies listed above are action/ adventure movies, which generally have montages anyway, according to what we discussed in class, but then I watched a non- action movie called The Princess Diaries and there was a montage in that too. It seems to me that when a director is in doubt about what to do next....they throw in a montage. Works every time!

Media and My Future

I've been giving media a lot of thought lately. I planned on being a communication major with a media concentration, but lately I've been wondering about that choice. Through observing and viewing the media I have found some of the practices to be far to unappealing to me, which is why I have decided to change my concentration to marketing. I will still take some media courses because I want to be a public relations manager at some point, but through this class I have begun to observe the world of media, not just the technical aspects of it but also the overall intentions and meanings. This post is not like my other posts, but I thought it would be an interesting topic for discussion if any one want to give me their ideas and opinions. I figured through a marketing concentration I can focus on changing the inner workings of the media industry rather than be the one behind the camera. Any thoughts?

A Walk in the Clouds

I loved this movie. It had romance, drama, war, etc... It is definitely a sappy love story, but it had some interesting camera angles in it. Throughout the movie they did a lot of pan and zooming and I just noticed how fluent it was. It didn't have any hitches. It was perfect. They also had a fair amount of close up shots, mostly on the more emotional scenes, but it captured the essence of the moment. Overall, this was a great movie, with a interesting story.

Understanding Media

This article was very interesting. I found that the statements where he is talking about how film is a collective work of art were at first very confusing to me. I felt like he was belittling the work and heart that go into music and painting and photography and all those other artistic medians, but then I thought about this statement and then I realized that he is completely right. He isn't down grading the idea of other artistic medians, but rather saying film collects them and it captures the essence of all those things. I found that to be an interesting idea.

The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Well I went to go see this new movie and I figured it was going to be some children's movie that would be fun to pick on later (and there were some lines in the movie that I still did that with) but overall it was an interesting story, funny and entertaining. The animation was extraordinary. It was in 3D, but the actual artistry behind the movie and the characters was phenomenal. I actually really enjoyed this movie. Some of the angles used in the movie were interesting too (lots of close up shots, but it worked). But overall I would give it  two thumbs up.

Shaping the Film

I didnt really like this article. The other articles that I have read so far for the most part I found to be helpful and informative, but I did not get the same responce with this article. It wasnt that the information wasnt helpful, but I guess, for lack of better words, I wasnt drawn into the reading like I had been with the other articles.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

I have always loved this movie! I watched it tonight and althought I enjoyed it, I also watched it with a intro. to digital video perspective. As I watched it, it became more and more clear to me how much work actually went into making this movie. Although it is animated, for the time period it was really intense stuff. This movie was released in 1993. Back then the animation technology was nothing like the technology we have now. As a side not, I love Tim Burton. I wrote about his new release of Alice in Wonderland (which I also loved) and he never ceases to amaze me. His unique style intrigues me and I have enjoyed all of his movies! :-) The Nightmare Before Christmas is definately a classic that everyone should watch if they have not already.

Lighting article

I found this article to be very interesting mainly because I know a decent amount about lighting. I work at a Sears Portrait Studio and we us a model similar to the umbrella and spotlight combination. I got very excited when I could recognize that style of lighting. The other thing I found interesting that I did not really know was the visible spectrum. The frequencies of visible light are something that I had been told in some lasses,  but it did not go into specific detail before. This article was very interesting.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

WOW!! This was one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. This movie is right up there on the weird scale with A Clockwork Orange and The Wall. The characters were wonderful and the story line was intriging, but it was difficult to follow in some areas. I found the angles and the lighting for this movie interesting. The angles allowed a sense of mystery to come through and the lighting implied a dark side to the film. Interesting movie. I wouldn't watch it all the time, but it definately worth seeing at least once.

Technical Sound article

I found this article very informative and find it fascinating that sound is so essential in film. Obviously I knew that sound played a part, but I had no idea how in depth it went. Although there was a lot of information, I am interested more so to see the practical aspect and the practice of using sound. I think it will be interesting to see how film and sound line up together. I always wondered how they can sync up so well and this article has given me a wider understanding of that.

Boondock Saints

I love this movie. I have seen it a few times before, but I never really looked closely at the angles, lighting and music. When I looked deeper, I found that the way the director filmed this was genius. There is a scene at the end of the movie where a friend is killed (Rocco, for those of you that have seen it) and the angle where one of the brothers is leaning over him is beautiful. I really enjoy this movie and now I appreciate it more as well.

After the Death of Film

I was not as interested in the majority of this article as I was with the other article I blogged about, but I did find one thing I found very interesting. The idea that nature can be a useful tool. I always thought that using nature in film was normal for a background of a scene or something, but I never look at it and its function as a "collaborator". It never seemed that important in film, but after reading the article and watching movies I have discovered how aesthetically pleasing it is for nature to be in the film.

"Looking Through Video: The Psychology of Video and Film"

I thought that it was interesting how they view video. Yes, they touch down on the history of film, but the real attention grabber for me was when the discussed that television and film were deveoped seperately. I had no idea that they werent directly realted. I had always thought that they went "hand in hand", which they do now, but not in the development stages of the two. The history of of video is very interesting, but I have foud the most interesting statement in the article was Edison, which said "do for the eye what the phonograph has done for the ear." To me, that is very interesting because the two inventions working together is so cool in my mind. Its cool because you can put two seperate invention ideas together and make something entirely different.

First Foreign Film: Dario Argento’s Phantom of the Opera

Dario Argento’s Phantom of the Opera. What can I say to describe this film? Well for starters, it is definately not a children appropriate film. If you think that the Phantom of the Opera is this slightly twisted love story, think again. This movie was completely twisted. It certainly was an interesting take on the story, well thought out and had good characters, but it was lacking in a few other areas. Firstly, it had an unnessesary use of gore and nudity that had nothing to do with the story line. This is not coming from a prudish stand point. There were certain scenes that made sense, but overall it was in bad taste. Secondly, there were an over use of point of view shots. I am all for a few scattered throughout the movie, but there were so many I wasnt sure which direction I was looking in at certain times. Thirdly, there were certain scenes where the main characters acted out of their specific role. For example, (spoiler alert) at the end of the film Christine says she wants to get away from the Phantom and she loves Raoul, but then Raoul shoots the Phantom and she gets upset and wants the Phantom back after he abused her and took advantage of her? Sounds like true love to me for sure. Although there were some issues with the film it was alright, certainly not going to be something I watch again though.

First day of class

Well, this is my first time blogging on an actual blogging website, so be patient with me. Today's class went really well and I found out that a lot of people in the class feel the same way that I do about expressing themselves in their majors, for fear of being judged or labeled. The thing that I find most facinating though is that, as Christians, we are called to love everyone, spread the good news, hold up moral standards, etc.., but as a contemporary artist (musician, photographer, radio person, filmmaker) trying to make a life in the "real" world and relate to everything and every point of view, people assume that we are limited to only one thing, religion. Why? Who gives anyone the right to assume that you can't consider all of the possible points of view in a situation or on a controversial issue. You can still love God and follow Him, while maintaining a open mind and attitude about the "real" world issues. Issues like Abortion, Stem Cell research, Racism, Drug Legalization, Slave trade, the government, etc... There are so many issue to consider and the points of view of one christian may not be that of another christian so it is unfair to assume from a non- religious point of view, that all religious people think the same. If we talk about the issues it doesnt make us worldly it makes us involved and helps us discover ourselves and what we believe. Issues should be discussed and brought to the surface not hidden. Not judgemental discussion, but an open -minded discussion.