Farewell to Film

Being that this is my final post that counts for credit, I would like to take this opportunity to say a few thanks. Firstly, I would like to thank my agent. In High School terms that means guidance counselor. Although my counselor did nothing to put me in this class, she physically constructed this schedule. She placed this class onto the list of classes I would be taking and allowed me to walk into that classroom that first day of first quarter. That thank you was quite frivolous. However, I have some actually gracious acknowledgements to dish out. I would like to thank my teacher, Mr. D, for taking a risk and offering this course. He flew by the seat of his pants, I’m guessing, and brought us pertinent films that showed the most classic conventions of the film industry. In addition to the classic films he showed some unconventional films that most of the class would not ordinarily see. My teacher took a chance on a bunch of unsuspecting teenagers with no knowledge of film and immersed us in a world full of great film and art. Thank you for that Mr. D. My final thank you is to myself. This may seem vain and seems like a cry for a Carly Simon song, but I do need to thank myself. I want to thank myself for signing up for a class that I had no previous knowledge to bring to, except for the fact that I watched a lot of movies and other moving pictures. I signed up for a class in my senior that would require a lot of work, but would expose me to so many rewarding things. That takes a lot of chutzpah and nachus for a 12th grader who was extremely tired after 3 hardcore years of high schooling. I will stop talking about myself and stop talking all together. Thank you everyone who allowed me the possibility to be enrolled in this class and thank you again, Mr. D. for teaching us. Good night and good luck, ladies and gentlemen. It’s been a great ride.

Most underrated film of the year

I think we all know what film I hated the most this year. If you don’t know then you haven’t been reading my blog. So, GO READ IT. However, I would like to write about the most underrated film I have seen this year. This film would have to be Groundhog Day. I too considered it to be better than it was before this class. I thought it was a comedic classic and Bill Murray could not been funnier. The thing I did not realize was that this film went a lot deeper than it let it on. Maybe the reason for me not realizing this would be that, before seeing it in class, I had not seen it in its entirety. It was one of those films that I always picked up from a certain point. But once I saw the film from start to finish, I understood that there was more to it than met the eye. Harold Ramis, the director, points out in his commentary on the film the existential nature of the film. This, of course, stems from Murray’s character Phil Connors repeating the same day over and over and over and over again. Through the repetition, he finds the flaws within his own character. Phil begins to realize the reasons why he hates his life, why people hate him, and why he hates people. This also incorporates the ideas and precepts of the Far Eastern religions, specifically Buddhism and Hinduism. Both faiths deal heavily in the afterlife and reincarnation. Hinduism refers to a chain of being and social class within society that one ascends through as they become more virtuous, better people. This is a possibility of what happens to Phil, in an exaggerated sense. He is living a terrible life. So, some divine power has him repeat this one day until he gets it right. At first he tries to use it to his advantage getting women and money. Then he becomes depressed and sees it as a curse. Next, he tries to get the girl of his dreams, possibly. Finally, Phil sees the point in being able to make one day perfect. He helps the poor, old man, saves the falling kid and begins to help his crew. For some reason or another Phil breaks the cycle and can go on living a normal life. This film is not underrated because not enough people think it’s funny. It’s underrated because not enough people see that the film and its message go far deeper than the comedy and humor.

Smorgasbord of emotions

As my time in film class comes to an end I have begun to think and reflect on this past semester. Before the class, I thought films in black and white were painful to watch. For the most part, that belief still holds true. I saw films like Double Indemnity and La Strada that cemented my feelings. However, films like High Noon showed me that films not in color are tolerable if the script is good and the actors portray a colorful personality. Another thing I gained from this class was extreme respect for the foreign film and film industry. Films like Chungking Express and Wages of Fear, despite the fact that they weren’t my favorite films, showed me a different type of film style and its ability to transcend continents and cultures. I also learned how to tackle certain issues in films. A prime example of this is M, the amazingly scary film about a serial killer in pre WWII Germany. I was totally open-minded when I viewed that film and allowed myself to be immersed in and saturated with the film. It turned out to be my favorite film of the year. Not only did it portray such a haunting and real topic so beautifully and effectively, it showed the world the type of society that was prewar Germany. It, like all films, was a snapshot of that time period. It just so happens that this was a snapshot that would change the course of history and human nature. I would write more, but my eyes are welling up like Nathaniel’s after his “brother” was killed in Last of the Mohicans.

Def Poets society meets SAG

I was watching Def Poetry Jams on HBO the other day. It’s the show put on by Russell Simmons and the famous rapper Mos Def. Basically, amateur and professional poets go up on stage and recite their own verses or verses of other poets. It’s quite an interesting show. The stage becomes a political forum, a platform for morality, thought, introspection, and interrogation. There are comedic poems and serious poems. There are poems about personal history and yet poems about the political climate. I love the show and I always wondered what it would be like if the idea went to the silver screen. It wouldn’t just be a recording of the show. I would take the lines of poetry and transform them into the script. Or, better yet, the poems would be the dialogue. I don’t quite know the setting or the plot, but the characters would converse in poetic verse. The meter would change; the rhyme scheme would differ, denoting the type of character. This new script style would focus the attention almost solely on what was being said by the characters. The shots wouldn’t really matter, except to embellish the messages presented in the poems. The plot would become relevant through the intensity of the readings and the emotion felt via the metrics and imagery. I just took a page from my AP English class and put in my notebook for the film class. I also just integrated two types of knowledge, thus taking a page from my philosophy class. I just found out I’m rambling so I’m going to go try to write about a real film. See y’all soon.

My ideas are crap

Here is a list of places where I would like to shoot an entire film, from start to finish. 1. The inside of a pyramid. I would take my main character, put him inside a pyramid with a camera and a small child, lock the doors and record the events. 2. A commuter railcar. It wouldn’t necessarily be a specific car like the food car or the car with the bathroom. However I would love to record the actions of a day on the train, watching the people come and go and listening to what everyone has to say. 3. My final setting that could outlast an entire film would have to be a bathroom stall. My character would never be shot on camera. The perspective would be from his eyes looking out of the stall. He would write on the walls, scream for more toilet paper, light a match or two, and finally call that number that offers a good time. So I realized that no movie could effectively be shot in one location. However, I feel it would be a very interesting experiment, an exercise in film, if you will. I do not know if there would be any special effects or editing. I don’t even think I would have music. I would just let the camera record and then consider that my movie. Some may call it laziness and others may call it a cop out. Still others call it modern art. I call it genius in innovation.

They'll never get caught. They're on a mission from God.

I was thinking about all of the movies that come out of SNL characters. I was also thinking about how none of them were any good, except one. The spin-off of the gender ambiguous person, Pat, was absolute garbage. Don’t ask why I took the time to sit down and watch it. The Ladies man film with Tim meadows proved to more of the world that he was the poster boy for the one dimensional character. Need I go into Superstar starring the atrocious talents of Molly Shannon? That movie should have been burnt by its creators. The only SNL spin-off film that comes to mind that was actually decent was, of course, Blues Brothers, starring the incomparable duo of Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi. It was a pair of characters from a weekly skit back during the heyday of the sketch comedy show. If you are reading my blog then you know this, but if you don’t, there it is. The comedic duumvirate took their act to the silver screen in 1980 with the direction of John Landis. They went so far with the idea that, with their band, they recorded an album, as the characters. My dad has it on vinyl and it’s not half bad. Actually, it’s really good. Anyway, back to the actual movie. Not only is this film great in comparison to other films that have attempted the same thing, it is great amongst the greatest comedy films. It is a classic. There are classic characters. Besides the main characters there are cameos by Fats Domino, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin to name a few. There are classic scenes like when the entire ensemble dances in the streets to the music of Mr. Charles, not to mention the numerous car chases and crash scenes that this film made famous. Finally, there are classic lines; the ultimate aspect that makes a film great. “We’re on a mission from God” is classic. “I hate Illinois Nazis” is also classic. “We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline” yet another classic line. They greatness doesn’t end with the script. The acting, the music, the comedy, and the essence of the film make this great. It’s too bad that they bastardized the Blues Brothers name by making a sequel with John Goodman. Have you seen what he’s done? Two words: King Ralph.

Holy Grail doesnt do it for me

I was watching Monty Python’s The Holy Grail the other day and it dawned on me that it wasn’t all that good. It was my first time actually sitting down and watching it. I had heard so many good things about this film: that it was must-see comedic genius, a benchmark in the humor genre, skilled writing mixed with classic British humor. The only category that this film fulfilled was that it was unmistakable British comedy, drier than a month in the Sudan. For some reason it didn’t fulfill me. It didn’t live up to its hype. I was expecting a film steeped in amazing comedy. I was prepared to fall out of my chair from laughter. But, I never fell. I saw the “bring out your dead” scene and wasn’t too impressed. I saw the “witch” scene and again was not impressed. It seemed to me like the British troupe tired just a little bit too hard. While Monty Python brought a great deal of fame to the members, it hasn’t brought them transcending success. John Cleese has been seen in movies like The Out-of-Towners, the never version with Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin – not a good movie. Eric Idle has been spotted in Dudley Do-Right and Casper – neither was an award winning film. While this film may be a cult classic, it has not made me into a follower. Maybe I just need to see it again. Who knows?

Reflecting on my film

At the beginning of this course, I was excited to learn about different films, genres, directors, and styles. However, what I was most excited about was the final project; being able to make a film from scratch. I had made a few films in the past, but when I made those films I didn’t have the knowledge that I gained from taking this class. My group was equally eager to make a good film. With this eagerness, however, came many ideas. Normally so many ideas would be helpful to the creative process, but everyone had equal faith in their ideas that they each wanted to make them work. One good thing was that we all had similar aspirations in mind, but we didn’t quite know how to accommodate everyone’s ideas. Some of us wanted to make a serious film, to leave our usual style and show the class that we were capable of tackling a serious topic. Others wanted to play it safe and make a comedy. We decided on a serious, more dramatic film, but early into pre-production we realized that no matter how hard we tried, no matter how serious the topic was that we were filming, we wouldn’t be taken seriously. So, we quickly decided to work with our strengths – improvisation and comedy. Not being too original, Ben B. came up with the idea of a High School news team and everyone else quickly jumped on that bandwagon. I was skeptical at first because it seemed like we weren’t trying hard to come up with our own ideas. I didn’t like, at first, that we were content with working off of an already made story. Despite my skepticism, we were ready to start the production phase of filming. I was made director of the project, which I was very pleased with. I’ve noticed over the years that I always need to be the guy in the group who everyone bounces ideas off of, the guy who is in charge, more or less. Of course I willingly take ideas from other people, but I like to be the one that people can count on. This is why the director role was good for me. Anyway, being a new director, I decided that we should just start filming and see what would happen. We were so bent on getting a reaction from Mr. Reader on film and in our movie that we cared about little else. Because of this, the first few days were very slow. It took a day or two of everyone thinking about the project and deciding to want to work hard for the process to get under way. We didn’t write a script, we didn’t make storyboards, and we didn’t really do any preparation before filming. All of the actors (which happened to be everyone in our group including the editor, Josh, and me, the director) were given a brief explanation of what each scene would be about and the key things they needed to address in their lines. Other than that, the whole script was off-the-cuff and improvised. Because of this we had a lot of extra footage, due to so many takes. But, that extra footage would prove to be invaluable later on in the editing process. After we had captured a majority of the film, we reviewed it and decided we needed one main story that would carry the plot. I delegated Ben W. and Brandon to write the main ideas of that story and truly prepare it for filming. They came up with the idea of an in-school cheating scandal that was deeply hurting the reputation of the school. It worked perfectly for a film about a fake news team. Now, we had all of the raw footage, but our film would have been nothing if it hadn’t been for Josh, his editing, and his computer with Final Cut Pro on it. He took about an hour’s worth of mindless footage and morphed it into a film with a plot and direction. I would say Josh is our MVP because of what he did for our film. His knowledge of film and especially editing gave our film structure and meaning. That takes me to the strengths and weaknesses of our film. The strength lies in the cinematography. The camera work and editing combined to make this film what it is. A great example of this is my favorite scene, which happens to be the one that I star in, the Jesus scene. It was shot on a slow production day. Because of the fact that my camera was low on batteries we had to film this scene indoors. So, we chose to use the auditorium. On a whim of creativity, I noticed how the light came in through the auditorium doors and realized it was perfect for Jesus’ entrance. The light created a silhouette of my body and portrayed the holiness of the scene. We then gave the footage to Josh and when he put that great music clip in, the scene became solid gold. This was my favorite scene because it had to incorporate many aspects to make it great. The only weakness of our film was the drive of our group. Some days we had so much energy, but other days we just didn’t want to work. The sad part about this was that it showed up on film, in some places, but only we who were working on the film could see that. One example of this was the scene of the secret informer of the cheating scandal. Ben was interviewing me, but we were both tired and just wanted to take a break for the day. However, we needed to get this scene filmed, so we trekked on. The questions he asked were alright, but my answers didn’t do much for the scene. Thankfully we shot enough footage that Josh had a few clips to work with. The good editing disguised our laziness on that day of shooting. I am proud of the way this film turned out and I enjoy the fact that everyone participated to make this film great. I loved this project because it was a great learning experience. I learned what to do and what not to do when making a film and when working in a group. I learned about the limitations of my ability and the equipment. I learned how to turn bad footage into a good scene. And, I learned what music can do to make a scene that much more compelling. I also learned a lot about what it takes to make a film, from the filming to the editing. This project showed me that I enjoy being creative in this way and truly enjoy making films. Who knows, maybe I’ll be doing this in twenty years. Thank you, Mr. D, for this class and for this opportunity,

A contrived story takes to the ice

I saw Miracle the other day. That’s the “based on a true story” about the 1980 U.S. Men’s Olympic hockey team. Knowing that the film was produced by Disney, I had various preconceived notions about the quality of the film as well as my doubt over whether it would be a film or a movie. My notions were right. It turned out to be one of those films with a typical plot line. Young boys must come together to achieve a common goal. Initially, coming from different places and having different ideas, they seem apart and are unable to relate. The one person who can bring them together must, for their sake and his. That of course was coach Herb Brooks, played quite splendidly by Kurt Russell. As I sat through the film, I realized that I was watching Remember the Titans on ice. Except here there were no racial conflicts, just ethnic ones. Instead of the U.S. trying to defeat segregation (well, it was really just Denzel Washington) they were trying to defeat big bad Communism. Despite all of the hokieness, contrived nature, and overall feeling that this story was so canned, I enjoyed the film. Because of all of those aspects, the film is exciting to watch. You can’t help but sit there and watch the entire film. Even if you lived through the actual event, you have to watch until the end to find out what happens. Well, I’ll tell you. The U.S. wins. Big surprise. But it was so darn exciting. The great rhetoric that Coach Brooks (Russell) gave to his players before the big game was perfect and the actual filming of the hockey with a great power ballad by Aerosmith made watching so worthwhile. If you like hockey, see this film. I you like stories like this, but like football more, watch Remember the Titans.

"Top Gun" - Universally acceptable

I saw Top Gun the other day. I would have to say that this film is the ultimate chick flick that guys can watch. It has a little bit of everything for everyone. It has the romance aspect for the female audience. It has the action and the flying adventures for the guys. The film also provides a few scenes that make everyone happy. For example, the volleyball tournament, which pinned Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Goose (Anthony Edwards) against Iceman (Val Kilmer) and his wingman Slider (Rick Rossovich), was for every audience member. There was the actual competitive game for the avid male sports fan and who can forget the male actors diving gratuitously in the sand. That last part was for the ladies. Another universally successful scene was the death of Goose, Maverick’s wingman. The men could take it as the painful loss of a brother, an emotional scene for anyone. On the other hand, the women could see the sensitivity in Cruise’s character, which would of course make them swoon and love the movie even more. Now I know that this film is not a film at all. I also know that it is tacky and cheap and very poppy. However, the formula works to make the movie incredibly catchy. It’s a movie that makes it hard for the audience to turn away. Even if you’ve seen it before, you just like seeing what happens and you enjoy the rollercoaster ride that Top Gun is.

The genius of clinical insanity

I had the pleasure of seeing Pulp Fiction, directed by the infamously splendid Quentin Tarantino. It was not the first time I had seen the film, but it was the first time in a long time that I had seen in its entirety. This film has special significance in my life and I will tell you why. When this groundbreaking film came out in theaters my father took my squeamish mother to see it. My father is a fairly smart person, however, despite the fact that he had been married to my mother for a little under 20 years it didn’t seem like he knew her too well. It was either that or he just wanted to make her squirm in her seat and Uma Thurman overdosed on some crazy heroin. Anyway, they go to see the film and as the needle of adrenaline is being pierced into Thurman’s heart, my mother begins to scream and runs out of the movie theater like a bat out of hell. She goes on to call her mother-in-law to tell her how crazy her son is and, granted, my grandmother agrees. So, let me get back to the movie. Having experienced my mother’s reaction to the film I was dying to see it even as an elementary school student. This film intrigues me so much. I just can’t wrap my brain around how Tarantino, in all of his films, makes gruesome, vulgar violence and dirtiness so compelling and beautiful. The one thing that I love so much about Tarantino is that his plots are so simple yet so complex. Many of his movies have to do with some bad guy getting revenge on another bad guy (Kill Bill), or one day or a few days in the life of a gangster (Pulp Fiction), or one job that a group of gangsters have to pull off (Reservoir Dogs). That simplicity ties into the beauty of his violence. He gives you a topic that focuses on bad, violent characters, so you assume from the beginning that it’s not going to be a happy film or a family film. One goes into a film like that with certain expectations. One can assume that there will be cursing and violence and blood. The thing that Tarantino does is amp up the language, the violence, and the blood to outrageous levels that it just floods the audience to a point of submission. One can’t help but admire his ability to create a wonderful cocktail of constant swearing constant blood and constant violence that isn’t distasteful but artistic and is beautiful and ingenious, in a twisted way. I give Tarantino great credit and admiration for having the chutzpah (balls) to expose his insanity to an entire world, or at least an entire world that had multimedia capabilities.

My directorial debut

The first few days of filming have been slow. We had a structure that we wanted to see created, but we didn’t know how to execute. We all came at the problem from a different angle. It seemed like everyone in the group had at least six different ideas. Whenever I have a project to get done I feel like I always need to be the leader of the group and it turns out that everyone turns to me to answer all of their questions. The first few days of films were very slow, but we picked it up. I have loved being director. In the past I’ve been the guy in front of the camera doing outrageous stunts, making a fool of myself and just being an all around star. This time around I wanted to try something new and I wanted to give the spotlight to someone else. Being at the helm of the whole production is quite interesting. The fact that everything bounces off of me is very fun. However, I like to pride myself that I always ask the rest of my crew’s opinion. I hope they realize that because an unhappy crew is an unhappy film. Besides that I really do enjoy figuring out the different shots we need to shoot, the camera angles, the dialogue, the sequence of events, and the placement of every aspect of the filming process. It’s a lot of work to do but it is enjoyable work and when I see what comes out of that work and the work of my crew I realize the accomplishments we have made. Hopefully the rest of the class will recognize our hard work to make the whole process worthwhile.

!st days - pre-production

The first days of pre-production for our film were quite slow. We had so many ideas but none of them seemed to be possibilities for a full film. I personally, wanted to blow everyone out of the water with our film. I wanted it to be intriguing. I wanted it to ask the viewers questions. I wanted it to be something everyone would be discussing for days after they saw it. Apparently I failed to realize that I only had limited resources, limited people, limited talent, and limited experience. However, my youthfulness and naivety carried my dreams for this film. Despite that we decided to make a funny film. I knew there was no way we could actually make a life-changing film, especially one that could only last for ten minutes. So many ideas flew around our group at the beginning that it became overwhelming to decide on and discuss the different options. However, we were able to pull it together towards the end of pre-production and came up with a sound and strong idea for our film. One thing all of the group members have in common is that we all want to make a quality film that the class will enjoy. We want to make it a memorable project.