Post #13 - Beginning to End

            I really enjoy a lot of the newer Pixar/ Disney movies, specifically the message that they give off with respect to older movies.  One of my favorites is Wall-E because the ending was just such a heartwarming scene.  It wanted to portray how we were changing the world and what we would come to, ultimately it gives us the idea that we can bring about change and influence the world for the better.  When I think about my life, I could say that my adolescence is coming to an end.  High School is one of the last stages in life where we actually grow and mature.  Even so, as one door closes another opens and we are thrown headfirst into adulthood without any sort of guide.  That’s where my peers are headed, and we are all expected to keep going and figure out our own way of living.  The door has swung open to a pitch-black room and we have to stumble around, make our own light, and cut our own path armed only with our memories and the clothes on our backs.

Post #12 - My Film Job

            After reviewing the several different roles that must be filled to create a good movie, I think that I would best fit as a screenwriter.  I’m full of ideas that on paper, and in my head, are amazing, but as far as the logistics of it I don’t know.  I can create a story, and make up these characters, but I wouldn’t be able to organize everything.  With the proper direction, funds, etc. I think I can come up with a great story.  It can be funny, or sad, or action-packed, I just want to make something interesting.  I’ve seen what a good movie looks like and I’ve seen what a bad movie looks like, and ultimately if I have to make a film I’m going to make it right.  Every piece has to fit just right and I think I can be a good enough screenwriter to fill in that one section of the group.

Post #11 - Undeserved Misfortune

            Some of the best scenes from movies I’ve seen come from the movie “Up.”  The amount of emotion that comes off at any given instant is amazing, especially in the first 5 minutes of the movie.  We come to like the main character and are truly shocked when he receives such undeserved misfortune.  In real life, this doesn't happen exactly the same and is often more watered down. For example, when I was a kid I would get blamed for things my brother did all the time. He would break this and I would get yelled at. Now that I think about it, it could probably make a great comedy where two siblings continuously try to get the other in trouble. 

Post #10 - Conflict

            I tend to enjoy movies more when the conflict is outlandish and crazy.  When conflicts become more realistic they do help the audience connect with the characters on screen, but even then it feels a bit uncomfortable when they start hitting close to home.  For this reason, I like horror movies and fantasy type settings specifically because they have insane conflicts.  Slasher flicks like Halloween, Friday the 13^th, and Nightmare on Elm St. all have these scary concepts, but are just weird enough to make them have no real life possibilities.  Real life is all about struggle, whether it be with people, or money, or being disadvantaged for whatever reason.  We should watch films to escape these problems and enjoy ourselves a little.  For example, my family has always been tight with money, but recently we’ve all gotten into huge arguments because of money, how people are spending it, and where it should be going.  It all ends up going back to people being greedy and selfish.  The real conflicts we end up facing are all the mistakes of human nature.  Even then, trying to get away from it all can be a conflict.  The problem persists, and nothing really gets done.  If we really want to have relatable characters, we need to see more people paying bills and working as cashiers in fast food joints.  That’s real life.  Maybe for a movie we can walk around filming an average person who’s down on his luck, got the short end of the stick at some point and ends up at rock bottom.

Post #9 - My Review of "The Elephant Man"

            David lynch puts us through a surreal image based on the life of John Merrick, otherwise known as “the elephant man.”  The whole movie seems very odd, but gradually builds the character of Mr. Merrick.  I enjoyed the movie and, once I understood the ending, realized why this film is considered a masterpiece in its own right.  David lynch tried to paint us a picture through film and succeeded at getting his message across along with all the tasteful imagery and symbolism that comes with it.  Moreover, the painstaking amount of detail that was put in to every aspect of the film is apparent in every scene.  Everything happens for a reason and every shot, even the seemingly unimportant ones, serve a purpose when you look at the film holistically.  The fact that the film is in black and white emphasizes many aspects that would normally be hidden away in a color film.  Lynch made sure to make everything just right in this work of art; he conveyed his message, and easily imbues the audience with emotion.  This is a wonderful film that I would recommend to just about anyone.

Post #8 - My Name is John Merrick

            Today I was happily informed that I shall, hence forth, be a permanent resident at the London.  Oh, I’ve never been happier.  After all that I’ve been through it seems that I am finally accepted.  I am home.  Treves, one of my only friends, gave me beautiful box and inside was an array of grooming utensils.  Why, it was a pleasant surprise and I’d say that I am truly grateful for everything.  Without Treves I’d still be with Bytes, that wretched man.  Now I am visited by all manner of aristocratic gentry rather than the many crude onlookers at the carnival.  I’m happy here and now that I know this is my home, I feel safe and secure.  Perhaps, I may someday be cured, if there is hope for me to be a part of London society, I will gladly wait an eternity.  Still, I wish that I may someday see my mother again, so she may see how I’ve grown up and what I’ve made of myself.

Post #7 - Welcome to my Nightmare

My dreams are always really weird.  Not weird in the sense that what’s happening is strange, but the fact that they change in theme very quickly.  My dreams are quite normal actually, I’ll have random dreams about coming to school, or walking around my house and nothing would be out of the ordinary.  Then, suddenly everything gets very morbid: things start to disappear, people start to die.  There was one dream I had that I still don’t understand to this day.  I was at some house, not sure whose, and I was really small so I had to look up to things, like if I was 5.  Kids who I assume were my friends were all playing hide and seek, and I decided to join in.  However, when I started playing things started getting twisted.  The person looking was suddenly some odd looking teddy bear, nothing deadly, just a simple teddy bear.  Even so, in my dream I just felt terrified, like if I could die any minute; and, then my friends started to disappear.  Eventually I was all by myself, I ran and tried to get away, but the bear stayed close by at all times.  When I finally found somewhere that looked safe, I hid and checked around the corner.  The bear was right there, slowly getting closer.  And then I woke up.

Post #6 - Compassionate Science

            The field of technology is a rapidly growing field with hundreds of new applications each year.  People are working round the clock so that we can be at the cutting edge and have the latest and greatest.  I, for one, want to go into the field of biomedical engineering and find ways to help people.  This way, I can go out and provide people who have lost parts of their body the tools to live normal lives.  Some day, we should be able to help everyone, making everyday activity easier.  Robotic arms and legs will facilitate normal movement and generally make things easier.  I want to be able to tell someone who has been paralyzed that they will be able to walk again.  I want to give people another chance at normal life.

Post #5 - The Future

            There’s no telling what the future will hold, really.  Even in recent history we’ve seen a boom in technology, and there’s no sign of it stopping.  In the next hundred years, I expect a lot to change not only with tech, but also with government and society.  Right now, we are limited to how much we can do because our current infrastructure and availability of resources.  In the future, we should see entirely new laws and regulations as things like flying cars become an everyday commodity.  We’ll have highways way up in the sky filled with hovering vehicles.  Our current democracy will be revamped as people’s political views begin to change.  Perhaps we will have more governmental control as people are given more technology.  Maybe we’ll shift to an entirely liberal society wherein anything goes and people are all expected to peaceful coexist; like having people sit in a circle singing Kumbaya.  However, if we continue to fight and go to war, there’s no doubt that at some point we will have to live in fear of what may happen to us.  Just like during the cold war, people will have to constantly be ready for anything from a bombing to a nuclear holocaust.  We’ll be perfectly free to do as we please, ad be more advanced than ever, but our perfect little world may not be so perfect underneath all the smoke and mirrors.

Post #4 - Times When I've Laughed Really Hard

            I have a friend (let’s call him Drian) and he’s known in our circle of friends as saying some of the most ridiculous things.  Every now and then we remind him of something dumb he’s said, like one time when he sniffed his shirt and noticed it smelled weird.  He just looked up at us and asked, “hey you guys know that feeling when your shirt smells like chorizo, but you haven’t eaten chorizo?”… Of course we had no idea what he was talking about.  He had said it with such confidence too which made it that much funnier since he tried to look for our acknowledgment, but we still didn’t have any idea what he wanted.  Since then it’s become sort of an inside joke to mention it whenever someone does something that we consider particularly “ghetto.”  Which reminds me of another time when my friend and I were talking about stupid things we did as kids.  One of them was freezing water and then eating it like a Popsicle, we now call those “struggle-sickles” because they represent “the struggle”.  May not seem as funny now, but at the time we must’ve laughed about it for about 5 minutes straight.

Post #2 - Bullying

            Bullying is one of the few ideas that I will accept as a sort of necessary evil.  In itself, bullying and hazing is generally bad, it physically and mentally damages the person being bullied.  At certain points, these acts that are “funny” to other people are mentally scarring children for the rest of their lives.  However, to completely extricate bullying is impossible since people sometimes act a certain way by nature.  Rather than try to completely eliminate the concept of bullying, kids must learn to stand up for themselves.  In a generation where most people find that children generally “have it too easy”, they need some sort of obstacle like this in order to build character.  Otherwise we would end up raising a generation of children who can’t voice their opinions.  They would never have had to fight back and thus would never know how to.  Sure, at some point bullying crosses the line and can be considered assault and abuse, but within certain boundaries it is a necessary part of a child’s life.

Post #3 - "Modern Times" Review

            Charlie Chaplin runs us through his bleak yet satirical view of the current state of society in his time.  His quirky character, the little tramp, deals with big business as a factory worker literally being eaten up by “the machine”.  He portrays a cynical view of corporation heads and shows the audience just how life is living on the very outskirts of society.  Even so, he continues to use his special brand of comedy including both subtle and explicit jokes, gags, and all around ridiculousness.  The story itself is a compelling drama involving two people just trying to get by in the harsh time of the early 1900’s.  They try to find work, they get in trouble with the law, and end finally end up simply walking away from it all.  Chaplin decides to end the movie with a fairly happy ending, and ultimately gives off a message of hope towards others who are struggling.  He himself lived through hard times, but, by the end of his life he became one the richest men in the world.  He tries to say that anything is possible, and all anyone really had to do was keep moving forward and look past all the bad.

Post #1 - My Favorite Movie

      My favorite movie by far has to be the cult hit The Cabin in the Woods.  I enjoy horror movies in general and I see this as a kind of nod to other classics.  It has the basic setup of a horror movie (group of teenagers go on a road trip to end up staying in some creepy cabin in the woods), but it adds a new twist and seems to parody a lot of the common tropes in the genre.  It is a quirky film that, when you get past the few scares and horror elements, seems more like a satire to any horror movie buff like myself.  It’s ridiculous and does not try to take itself too seriously.  Another big aspect of the film is its reference to many other horror movies.  I enjoyed trying to identify the many characters and items that, at times, only appear for a fraction of a second; these include Pinhead La Llorona, and the necronomicon from The Evil Dead.  It isn’t the most enthralling story, but it’s definitely nice for a rainy day or a movie night with friends.