OLIVER STONE

SNOWDEN (2016)  will be remembered for many years in the future as a film that shed light how the United States was watching and spying on everyone in the world for a period of time. The film was meant to be as accurate as possible to the events that actually took place. Yes the world is over dramatized, but thats just to make it seem more like a fun spy action movie. I think you should Include this because it is almost like a freeze frame in time of how shocking and chaotic everything was when it broke on social media.Joseph Gordon Levitt as Snowden.

RESEMBLING THE REAL WORLD

This story was very dramatic and induced a feeling of looming danger. At first I was drawn into what was happening in the story, but then realized that something was off because it seemed just way too fake. I took a step back and looked at the text and realized that it was fictional. I cannot find the link to the article now, but I remember this well. It reminded me how I need to slow down my quest for information so that I can better filter and process it. I was so eager to read the information that I did not take into account that it was fictional even though it said it right in front of my eyes. 

LONG FORM TELEVISION SERIES

Recently in my screenwriting class we studied long form television and looked at several examples. We first watched the pilot episode of BREAKING BAD which is really a twist of a story. The characters side characters in the pilot are not two dimensional in any way. That's what great about television. In a movie, it's sometimes common for some characters to feel two dimensional because there is a limited running time and an act structure to follow where everything has to be wrapped up in the end. The long span of television episodes are much like chapters in a novel and we can get to know the characters better. Each chapter brings new and interesting information revealed in clever ways and the main character's situation changes. Another Pilot episode we watched in class this semester during our long form study was the first episode of true detective. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McCaunaughey work together to solve several unsolved murders in a non-linear style. The director made it as intense and dramatic as possible using graphic production design, camera movement, and music. One of our assignments was to come up with three long form television ideas and pitch them to the class. 

COMIC STYLES

I found that I really did not know the first thing about comics when I was looking at the way that the illustrations were put together to form an intricate narrative. Comics are a medium I have never really related to that well or payed much attention to. When I initially saw the comics I read them like I would a storyboard. This sort of got in the way of my interpretation of the comics. Nevertheless I still enjoyed looking at the different styles, color palettes and mediums that were used. I had some questions about the artist's narrative's and what they might really really be about because some had very dark themes.  

CAMERA STYLO (Jean-Luc Godard)

Godard's work is unique in almost every aspect. The style stands out to me for the outlandish music that often is too intense for the scene, quick jump cuts that skip through a whole conversation or wacky scene transitions. The themes in his films also have a certain continuity to them. They talk about relationships among young people in Paris and what they care about. I read that Godard would often put much of his own life experiences into his work as well. The story arch in BREATHLESS (1960) is probably my favorite. BELMONDO has to evade capture after killing a police officer. He uses his network of ex-girlfriends around Paris to evade them for some time before he is caught while explaining all of his side stories with the ex-girlfriends. The most exciting part to me about his camera work is how he uses a style called "camera stylo" where the director chooses exactly how the camera should move. 

ADAPTATION

Adapting a text into film is one of the main focuses of my studies. When I first came to Ringling, I focused on learning how to be the best director of photography that I could possibly be. I couldn't imagine that I would eventually start writing scripts all the time. I usually write my scripts in the screenwriting application called Celtx. So when I conceive my ideas I think about them being in a film from the start. An interesting challange would be to take a script that was written as a book and adapt it into film. Some of the major differences are found in how the action is described. In a film there can be shortcuts visually and in writing can have its own ways of having short cuts to explain things.

VIRTUAL REALITY

For many young kids nowadays, video games are a perfect escape from the stress of school and at home. However, it has begun to effect the psyche of many kids that spend so much time playing games. Their social skills begin to lack because of all the time spent inside of this imaginary world. I watched this happen on a large scale this year with the release of the FREE and HIGHLY ADDICTIVE video game Fortnite. This game is a battle royal game where the players fight to the death on an island. It's basically Hunger Games the video game. Since it's release it has become a sort of meme about video game addiction. This game addictive and designed like no other. Also, I should add that I spend ZERO of my time playing video games. 

SOCIETY AND SEXUALITY

The film Circumstance directed by Maryam Keshavarz drew me in not only because of the plot, but because of the controversy surrounding the production of the film itself. During class I looked up information to find out more about the movie. I discovered that the film had actually been filmed in Lebanon rather than in Iran. This was of course due to the very harsh laws created by the Iranian government that targets homosexuals and takes away many of their rights. This effectively makes it illegal to be gay in Iran. Filming the movie there was out of the question. This probably only drove the films creators even harder to make sure their message was heard. Even though the culture in Sindu's book is different than my own I still feel as though the issues with tradition that the main character has are universal.   

PRIVILEGE

Cosmopolis really gives us a window into the mind of someone who privileged to the point that they have trained themselves operate unyielding from on their own terms and time. He does what he wants, gets whatever he wants and does it when he wants. The book addresses this effectively, but the movie does it even better. After playing Edward Cullen in the Twilight series, Robert Pattinson was in a position of new found success and fortune. He was living a lavish lifestyle at the time and probably felt as though he could be with any women he wanted, so he was a perfect fit for his role in Cosmopolis. I think absence of a middle class being represented in this book and the movie is because Eric Packer is representing extremes of privilege. The audience experiences privilege in the story on a enormous scale which I think will better for an audience to reflect it on their own lives. Using an ultra rich person to display privilege that we all have in varying degrees is an interesting choice. An audience would be more engaged hearing about Eric Parker as a character and his privilege than how a middle class person is privileged because we can separate ourselves from him and his lifestyle because it is not our own. The title of the film sort of reminds me of a 1920's expressionist film called Metropolis about factory workers and how they work under an evil elite society that controls the city.  

WONDERFUL THEME PARK

For my theme park I would totally go down the virtual reality route. The actual facility would have lots of obstacles and sorts of things to climb and descend. There would be different rooms for certain values that would be tested through simulated situations that the user would have to solve. Situations could include difficult situations where ones character is tested when they have to make a choice. The experience would immerse the user into the character and their reality. They would have a deeper emotional connection experiencing the values and could help them in the future with their own decision making.  The experience and circumstances would be the identical for each person.  At the end of their experience they would be given a score on how they performed with each situation and value. This would be rigged to give generic positive feedback, so that no one is unsatisfied with their experience. They of course would not know this. The host of this virtual journey would be William Moulton Marston and he would appear as the caretaker of the place. We would gain insight into what he wanted WonderWoman to be and what she means to everyone now. 

TRUE GRIT AND AMERICA

My Dad owns a copy of True Grit and I remember seeing it around the house. Im not sure when, but I remember seeing it in the kitchen. Then it got moved to the bottom of the stairs. Then to the top of the stairs and was placed on some home goods magazines. Then the top of the stairs and finally ended up in the guest bedroom with all the other books on the bookshelf. I don't think it was my dad moving it rather it was my mom moving it inch by inch as she did things around the house.

True Grit means absolute unyielding dedication toward a goal. When my Mom wants something done she often does it herself. Often not trusting others to do things for her because she thinks she can do everything perfectly. When I was a kid the tree in our front yard dried up and died. My mom simply tied a rope around the tree and yanked it out with her car. This turned into a quite an event for all the neighborhood kids who cheered her on.  

The 1969 version of True Grit directed by Henry Hathaway had some fantastic moments showing what it means to have true grit. In the final scene when John Wayne's character tells his partner not to shoot as Mattie rides on her horse below, his partner ends up shooting this almost gets them killed by revealing that they are there and exposing them to gunfire. This shows how his partner does not have true grit meanwhile Mattie remained composed calm and collected under stress.

There is another book about what it means to have true grit that came out recently simply called Grit by Angela Duckworth.  I looked into what this book is about and came back with the impression that it takes a closer look at what it means to have true grit. The Author, Angela Duckworth did a Ted Talk where she talked in detail about what she believed it means to have true grit.

 ANGELA LEE DUCKWORTH TED TALK CLIP 

WEEK 1

Reading was fantastic when I was a kid. When we made trips to the library I always gravitated toward the non-fiction section.  Books about airplanes, insects and space were my go to. Children's books with illustrations did not satisfy me.  The non-fiction book series Eye-Witness was my absolute favorite. Every library at least had a few editions.

A rather negative experience I had reading reading in fourth grade when we got assigned a reading textbook. It resembled a math textbook was about 2 inches thick and full of fictitious stories about talking animals and tall tales. Of course when I was bored in class I looked ahead and looked at all of the pictures for the stories in one sitting.  This made me have misconceptions for what the stories were about and made the experience less exciting.  

One of my better experiences reading was in Elementary school I was assigned Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko. The story is about the son of a police officer that happens to be stationed at Alcatraz prison in the 1930's. I was drawn into it was because the characters and the setting were based on reality.  I really feel the same way about movies as well. For example I really don't think Wes Anderson's new upcoming animated claymation movie Isle of Dogs is going to captivate me as much as his last live action movie The Grand Budapest Hotel did.  Even when there is a compelling story being told I have trouble connecting on an emotional level if the world is too far removed from our own.