Archer

I've recently gotten into the TV Show Archer. My initial reaction to the show was, "Wow this animation is poorly done!" Two minutes in, I was about to shut it off, thinking it looked like a waste of time, but I soon found that what the show lacked in graphics, it made up for in writing. The witty, quick-paced dialogue is so entertaining that I started to overlook the ancient animation. I find this style of television production interesting. The writers clearly drive the show and it is the dialogue and subtle jokes that make the show so great. As someone who is interested in writing, I really like that the script of the show has gotten the most attention. It goes to show that the story drives every episode, and even with lackluster graphics, the show can be successful. Although I love the show, it is clear that it is made for a niche audience. I assume it resonates best with men 18-25. The show's raunchy humor and the impossible proportions of the female cartoon characters leads me to believe men of these ages would definitely enjoy watching at least an episode or two. Although I don't fit into this demographic, I still find the humor wildly entertaining. If you like shows like Family Guy or South Park, I would definitely check this show out!

FS100 settings

This video shows some of the picture profile settings that optimize the Sony FS100 for a couple of lighting situations:

Courtesy of AbelCine

No need to freak out. I'll explain it in class:-)

One Shot Story

After contemplating for a while on an idea that would satisfy me for the one-shot story project, I think I have finally thought of what I will shoot.  I have decided to focus on a person that is rising out of slump so-to-say.  I think it is very inspirational when people who are down because of one reason or another, and then they rise up and move-on or move past what is bringing them down.  As a one-shot story, there is a ceiling on the amount of detail I can include.  That is why I was planning on shooting a character who is down in the dumps, and then begins to act out to rise and change his ways.  However, we do not know what has made this character in a negative state, and we do not know what triggered the character to begin to change.
     One possibility I was thinking of showing how the character is in a negative place is maybe showing him/her in their room with garbage all over the place, dark lighting, and food containers scattered all over the floor.  That would show is probably in a depressed place.  And then if the character gets out of bed and starts to clean up and turn on the lights, that would show a change in the characters feelings.  One problem I have with this idea is that I feel like this is a very overused scene of a character that is depressed and then gets out of the funk.  So for the next couple of days, I will try to think of another way to show this negative to positive character transformation.

One Shot Film & The Dictator

Hello all! Let me start off with The Dictator. If you haven't heard of The Dictator, shame on you! The Dictator is a film directed by Larry Charles and starring Sacha Baron Cohen as the dictator. You all know Sacha Baron Cohen right? Starred in Borat and Bruno? To be completely honest, I personally do not find comedy films to be very funny most of the time. This may be because I am a critic of comedy and have my own expectations of comedy since I perform comedy myself, but comedy films normally do not interest me and I dont watch them. This movie however caught my attention and I thought it was very funny. Was it racist? To an extent I believe it was. It played into a lot of stereotypes of middle eastern countries. I questioned whether it was these stereotypes that generated the laughs and in fact I think they were, but of course there were other funny parts. I think you should check out the film and see where your laughs generated.

As for my one shot film, I love my idea. There will be a guy drinking out of a bottle in a dimly lit room looking at a sealed envelope. He will then get up and the scene will fade to black. Suspenseful right? The idea is to get the audience thinking about the envelope, what can it be? Is it important? Why is he drinking? What is he drinking? Can you have some? I'm joking, but im excited about shooting this with my group and seeing how it turns out.

These Interesting Times

Something that I always think about is that I'm so lucky to be alive during these very "interesting times" (the Chinese would consider this a curse). Sometimes I wonder what would I be doing if I lived during the Renaissance. Would I have approached Leonardo or Michelangelo? beg them to take me as an intern in their workshops? I probably would have. We take for granted that we share this particular time with some outstanding geniuses and then it happens that they are suddenly gone and you missed the opportunity to meet them, or talk and learn from them.

On the other hand, because I am talking about artists, writers, and in particular filmmakers (the ones I consider artists) we are lucky that they left a body of work which allows us to continue this dialog.

Sidney Lumet died last year at the age of 86. He is one of the directors that made an everlasting impression in my life and career. He made over 50 films of which many are masterpieces of American Cinema. The first one I saw in the early 60's was The Pawnbroker which left me stunned with its raw power and its fearless look into ills of society that were not the stuff of Hollywood movies, but then again, he was a New Yorker and his films were as unadorned as the City can be.

After that film I made sure I saw everyone of them. In just two years Fail Safe and The Hill came out. I was in film heaven, a very angry heaven!

Maybe you have seen Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Prince of the City, The Verdict, or his last one, appropriately called, Before the Devil Knows you are Dead. He worked with some of the best and most important actors that any director could wish to work with, and got extraordinary realistic performances out of them.

He made history, and he lived during our time.

Taken.......AGAIN!!!!

            Once in a generation we come upon an action movie that defines the genre, for our parents it was James Bond or Indiana Jones. For us it was 2008’s Taken, starring Liam Neeson. I bring this up now not only cause I am a HUGE fan of the actors, but also because the film is a nonstop entertaining action romp. The film was what the Bourne movies, or even the Mission Impossible movies tried to be, and that is the next standard in action movies. Ever since Taken came out there have been movies that have tried to dethrone the king (Even Neeson’s own The Grey) but have come up short. On October 5^th we might see the next action movie to take the genre to new heights, the movie that I am talking about is Taken 2. Yes, yes at first it may seem ridicules that there could be a sequel that involves Mr. Neeson’s daughter and wife getting caught in some fashion. But as you can see from the trailer below that this next chapter in this families unlucky vacation outings it looks like it has a chance to live up to and maybe even surpass the original.

Let Us Not Forget

I'd like to take a moment to talk about documentaries. I had never really paid attention to documentaries, besides the average docudrama (noun: a fictionalized drama based primarily on actual events). Then I enrolled in Documentary Workshop the rest, they say is history. Within the last week I've watched at least four documentaries. Here are two of my favorites from the week:

A subjective documentary directed by Larry Charles and starring Bill Maher that tackles the always touchy subject of religion. I appreciate how this documentary doesn't target one single religion, but rags on them all. Also a bonus to this film is watching political and religious figures stumbling over their answers. And now, the trailer:

 

And now onto something completely different (but not really):

Freakanomics is a documentary based off of the book (with the same name) written by journalist Stephen J. Dubner and economist Steven D. Levitt. This film was directed by Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Seth Gordon, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki, and Morgan Spurlock. The reason for so many directors is because this documentary is actually compiled of a series of mini documentaries with the same theme: with the correct data you can determine the true outcome.

I feel like a lot of kids in our major never give documentaries a second thought. And why should we? Leave it to the journalism and doc studies kids! Well my fellow peers, believe it or not there is a lot of potential in documentaries. It's actually a bonus if you come from a creative/fiction background because it helps to form creative shots, help development a sort of story line with your main character (if you go with a story driven documentary), and you can help bring an important issue to light.

One-Shot Film

Hidey ho everybody, ever since class on Wednesday I've been thinking about our One-Shot Story Assignment. My group was bouncing back and forth some great ideas but I was having a lot of trouble getting my creative juices flowing. By the time we left class I knew that I wanted to do something that built suspense but I had no idea of how I could achieve this.

I finally got a short story idea and wrote up a rough draft but before I reveal too much here is the script. I'd love to hear what you guys thinks and any constructive criticism would be appreciated.

-nickp

Breaking Bad

With the conclusion of the show's fifth season last Sunday, creator Vince Gilligan has yet again left his audience feeling anxious, excited, and maybe even a bit sick for what is to come. I don't want to give anything away, but I will go ahead and make a bold statement: Breaking Bad is the best show on television. First of all, it is shot beautifully- often featuring creative transitions, disturbingly violent montages set to upbeat music, time-lapses and wide shots of the barren New Mexico desertscape. The way it is shot even gives it almost a cinematic quality. More importantly, all of the main characters are equally complex, going through their own transformations as each season progresses. Each episode is darker and more intense than the last, somehow all without going too far or jumping the shark. I admire Vince Gilligan's dedication to the storyline of his main character, Walter White, a once-sympathetic awkward high school teacher turned meth kingpin and ruthless killer. In a recent interview Gilligan said that for the final season he plans to fulfill the show's constant need of "shock and surprise and showmanship," and that he plans to "carry that through to the bitter end- if indeed it is a bitter end." Clearly, Gilligan is not one to tie things up with the conventional "happy" ending, and is unafraid to confront what might be at the end of the dark direction we've been heading in. Breaking Bad is not only an endlessly entertaining, well-crafted show, it also leaves the us looking at the big picture, and questioning the idea of morality itself. How far should one go to "protect" his family? How far can one push his luck before finally being caught? Is Walt beoming a total sociopath? I guess my final thought is: I'm scared for next season.

Childrens Hospital

Lately I have been watching "Childrens Hospital," Rob Corddry's comedy on the Adult. Each episode is about 11 minutes long, but in that short time span, the large ensemble cast packs as many jokes as possible. The humor is very dark and absurd, so it's not for everyone.

The show is a parody of hospital dramas such as "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scrubs." Corddry's show is actually filmed on the same sets as the latter show, a fact that one of the character's references in one episode, an example of the show's meta-humor. The show is about a group of doctors and nurses, most of whom have slept with one another, a parody of the many relationships doctors have in melodramatic hospital dramas. Characters include Blake Downs, a clown doctor who believes in the healing power of laughter, The Chief, the head of the hospital who is part Cherokee, which explains her name, and Sy, a hospital administrator played by Henry "The Fonz" Winkler. The show has great guest stars, including Jon Hamm, Ed Begley Jr., Nick Offerman, and Michael Cera as the voice of the PA system.

Together, the team of doctors face challenges like quicksand, amnesia viruses, Death (played by Michael McKean), criminally insane children, heat waves prompting a "Do the Right Thing" parody, crampt living situations, cancer guns, and Big Pharma. The show also messes around with format; one episode is a fake-live episode, while another one takes place in the 1970s.

Most of the jokes are throwaway lines, such as "Time of death: 9pm, 8 Central." It's hard to describe, so here's a clip, but it doesn't really do the show justice.

Mark Wahlberg shoots stuff.

Mark Wahlberg is, in my opinion, one of the great actors in modern cinema today. The Departed, The Fighter, Ted, The Italian Job, Four Brothers. All fantastic movies and fantastic acting jobs (at least, in my opinion. Maybe others would disagree). And I don't think its always easy to stand out as a great actor in the world of action movies, where flashy special effects and explosions make up for what's lacking in the story and talent of the actors. Marky Mark still manages to shine.

"Shooter" is the story of Bob Lee Swagger (yes, 'Swagger'), a marksman living secluded in exile after a failed mission left one of his partners and best friends dead. He is recruited by the US Government via Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) to help stop an assassination attempt of the president. However, Swagger doesn't realize that he is soon to be double-crossed by the very country he risked his life for, and framed as the would-be killer. After surviving the double-cross, Swagger goes on the run from the police. Using his special training and skills with a firearm (or in this case many, many, many firearms), he hunts down the real shooter and tries to find out who exactly set him up and why.

Sounds pretty cool, eh? Yeah I thought so too. "Shooter" was one of those movies that looks great on paper but just fails to deliver what I hoped for with the story. I found it to be pretty damn predictable and cheesy. Not to mention, Danny Glover and the majority of the supporting cast just stinks up something awful with their performances. The portrayal of the corrupt head-honchos of US intelligence  was way too cliche. I just wasn't convinced that the actors were really consuming themselves in their roles. They seemed to just play their roles to the most basic characteristics. Not enough feeling, not enough emotion.

And seriously....Mark Wahlberg's characters name is Swagger? Where the hell did they come up with that one?

I wouldn't call it one of Marky Mark's best performances either. But this is one of those movies that really does a GREAT job of making up for the places it lacks in, ... with
ACTION ACTION ACTION ACTION ACTION. 

Any scene where Swagger was wielding a gun was pure excitement. He pops headshots on guys from thousands of yards away, takes out like 20 dudes without getting a single scratch on him. This may be typical of any action movie. But they did it damn well. "Shooter" receives praise from me for its kick ass action sequences.

-Nick

"Bang Bang, Fingernails tapping, beyond scared"

As a child, I had a built-in babysitter. This babysitter happened to be my teenage sister, who spent most of the time on the phone with her boyfriend or chatting on the computer. Of all the times I was left alone with her and my two year old brother, one night sticks out in my mind.  I was eight years old and our cousin Crystal came over to keep Ashley, my sister, company. As we were sitting at the dinning room table, finishing dinner, my sister let out a large scream and bolted from the table down to her bedroom. Crystal ran after her.  I sat there clueless, as I tried to decipher the chaos.

I picked my brother up and headed towards the hallway. As I was walking into Ashley's room, banging came from the back door. I was frozen. The door was shaking, as if someone was on the other side trying to get in. I ran into Ashley's room in a panic. She was shaking. I asked her what was wrong and she told me she saw the long fingernails of a woman tapping on the front window in the kitchen. As you can imagine, I was a pretty terrified little girl. The banging then stopped and we waited in the room with door locked. We called our parents and they immediately came rushing home. My mother was sick with the idea of anything happening to us, and my father searched the fallen snow for footprints or tire tracks. He found nothing.

To this day, I am still unsure of the events that unfolded that night. I sometimes wonder if I had let my imagination get the best of me, or if I was feeding into the fear that my sister had expressed. After that night, we were never left in Ashley's care again.  My father was convinced this was a case of our imaginations getting the best of us, but I can still picture the image of the backdoor in my head. 

Best,

Brie

Inja

I recently watched the short film Inja (Australian for "Dog") and found it to be very interesting. It was nominated for an Oscar in the Live Action Short Film category at the 75th Annual Academy Awards and I came across it while watch a collection of shorts. The film exposes racism and the idea that "the white man is boss." I will skip the summary and let you watch it yourself in the link I posted below, but what I really took away from this film was how much emotion it evoked for me; I was in tears by the end. Although I am a woman and an animal lover (double strike in the emotional department), I am not one to cry during films. The fact that this piece caused such an emotional reaction fascinates me. Why did it upset me? I have come to the conclusion that it was the ending that got me. The ending, where the dog has hatred for the boy who has had nothing but love for him, was all too familiar. The dog was mislead by the white man to believe that black was bad. Without ever giving a second chance, the dog that once loved the boy, growled and despised him. This happens in society. Some people despise those different from them because they are conditioned to feel that way. Society conditions us to look with pity on those that have disabilities, to want to normalize those that are different, to hate who our family and friends hate, and to question those who refuse to conform. This film raised many issues in my mind. The hatred the dog had for the boy, and the loyalty he had for the white man can be applied to so many situations in present day society.



Inja

Shots!

Alright! Let's do some Shots! NO, not those kinds of shots, Films shots! (It's not the weekend yet kids!)

Today, in class we spoke about the importance of shots and frame. Ever since we discussed this in fiction field 1, a year ago (time flies), I've payed closer attention to the films I watch and I note the placement of the characters. Sometimes, it helps me understand a little better of what's going on in the film. Have you ever watched a film where you were completely lost? Most people at that point shut it off and never return. I try harder to understand, I like to give em' a chance! They could explain everything later! Anyways, I found sometimes I'll try to interoperate the choice of the camera position, movement or even the placement of props, or the placement of the character's themselves.
In the shot above, The camera frame shows you exactly what the character is looking at, it also shows through camera angle how much bigger this creature is in comparison to the character, possibly imposing a threat. The fact that it's raining makes it harder for the character to run and hide, it gives us a symbolic sense of nature's wrath, unfortunate events etc.

This shot is much less distressing! I would interpret this shot to mean that these character's are getting closer either as friends or as lovers. Judging by the closeness of their bodies and given other cliche shots like this, I would bet that their next action is that they look at each other intimately.

For this shot I suppose you could say the same. Again it's very close and intimate. There's a feeling of safety even in a dangerous position. The expressions of the characters are a combination of amazement and admiration.


Another concept we were touching upon when talking about the way people used to watch film and the way we progressed from where we came from, is the concept that Hitchcock called the Kuleshov effect!

There is also an importance to not letting anything foreign be in the photograph. Set decorating is VERY important. Last year on the Market our art department team made a character who was a religious freak and very uptight person with very intense secrets. We transformed a girl's room from a girly bed room in to a dark, organized, bedroom with a ton of religious symbols everywhere. It looked like an ENTIRELY different place when we got through with it and if you pick the right people to do it, it really doesn't take too long. Here's an example of a set that was designed in the french film OSS 117: Lost in Rio:

The film takes place in the 60's and as you can see, nothing here is out of place or misrepresenting even though the movie was made in 2009! Not one thing in this frame is out of context nor is it distracting. You want things (props, set dec., etc.) to be appropriate but not distracting. I think this room sets up a mood of the scene as well as being absorbing/ believable. 

I have more to talk about but I'll save it for next week! Hope you all enjoy the rest of the week! 

Ta Ta for now!

-Lucy Lynne' Hall

Second place is first to lose.

At the age of five my parents signed me up for out local rec swim team. Little did I know I would continue to competitively swim for the next 13 years of my life. The six-word sentence that I came up with was, Second place is first to lose.  Typically there are 8 swimmers to an event and the top 3 times wins either a ribbon or a medal. Over the years as we all got older and the races began to become a bit more serious the same statement would always play through my head; Second place is first to lose.  Second place as a child was such an exciting thing because it still meant that you beat 6 other girls. As the years go by and you are in the top heat racing for the last open seat to swim at states, second place is the worst possible thing you could get. In a swimmers eyes second place means that all those countless hours spent in the pool morning and night seem to be a waste. It is the most devastating moment when you’ve just finished your race, rip your goggles off your face, and look at the time bored only to find that you were milliseconds away from receiving the gold. At this moment in time you have to accept that you were the first to lose.

- Tori

GAMER

My first official blog EVER! And it involves Gerard Butler, I guess that makes me somewhat cool. This past weekend I purchased Gamer from the Walmart $5 bin. It was either this or Scooby Doo goes to Mexico and I get jealous when I see a dog going to more places thn I have been so I went with Gamer. Even though I've seen this movie before, I didn't watch it through a film aesthetic eye. This time I decided to do so and a bunch of questions rushed through my head. The effects, the budget, the hours that went into making one scene. At the start of the movie, Butler is seen running through what seems to be an abandoned warehouse and as he runs up the stairs there are at least 7 camera angels that catches him going up the stairs. 7! I guess when you do action packed films you have to capture all of those angles to make it seem like the action is going in a lot faster motion then it really is.  Everything was also being blown up. EVERYTHING! The budget for the movie must be quite large to be able to blow up as many cars as they did, which is crazy because i'm still paying off my car! Throughout the movie I had trouble distinguishing what was effects and what was real, I think I have that with every film though. In todays technological age, anything can be an effect. Overall I enjoyed the movie even though I was watching it from a different perspective. Im sure Scooby Doo didn't have much fun in Mexico anyway. 

Soup du Jour

     Hello.  I am a lover of food and I always like trying new things.  Going out to different restaurants in new places is a hobby of mine and I always like to experience new tastes.  You can imagine the excitement I felt the first time I saw downtown Ithaca.  One consistent with my love of food is soup.  Soup has been one of my favorite foods for all my life.  Not chicken noodle, not beef stew, not chili, but all kinds of soup.  I love them all, well almost them all.
     I have recently started cooking soups at home.  Last fall I made a delicious pumpkin apple soup for thanksgiving which got rave remarks from friends and family (I'm sure some were just being nice).  Luckily, I am able to keep my passion for soup with me at school because our dining halls make great soups.
    To end this blog I will let you all know what some of my favorite soups are even though you probably aren't that interested.  My favorites include french onion, chili, my mom's mushroom barely, and pasta fagioli.  These soups are my favorites because I have had them at specific restaurants and they are amazing there, and because I get them consistently and it's always good.
     I hope to continue my passion for soup throughout my life.  I want to cook new soups and try to blends of flavors.  To me, there is nothing better than sitting at a restaurant with people you love and starting the meal off with a good cup of soup.

"We heard noises downstairs at midnight."

This story for me is about the universal fear of the unknown. When I was young, I would be easily scared by noises that came from an unknown source, especially at night. However, I would prematurely fear them. Maybe my father was coming home late at night from work, and it was not a burglar breaking into my apartment. For others, it could Santa Clause leaving gifts, and not a serial killer looking for victims. I want this story to give a feeling that we have to fear the unknown in our own homes sometimes and it can be really scary. Our imaginations get the best of us and our fear grows until we find the source of the sound. You can never know if we should fear the sound's source until we find out for ourselves.

- Harrison

6 word story and other such wonderful topics

I thought for a while about this assignment and I wanted to bring in something very complex and yet simple. One of my inspirations was a recent funeral I attended. The preacher quoted a scripture that caught my attention and made me cry like a baby. The scripture was John 11:35; Jesus Wept. To understand that a symbol of such great influence among people for hundreds of years and to see him humbled for the grieving sisters of Lazarus, to understand that he knew and felt the pain that they were feeling is very deep and I decided to take it and make it something more modernly understood.

My six word story is:
"The King wept with his people."

This reminded me of the scene in The King's Speech. In the scene I speak of, the queen comforts the king as he weeps. It's a scene where the audience begins to feel a mutual feeling of the weight of the world and a man in complete frustration and nerves. Almost a feeling of release. I wish I could find the particular scene on YouTube, however even if I did it probably wouldn't do it justice. It's a great film and it's a must see, for sure. I have personally made a list of my favorite films from the past three years (that I've seen). The King's Speech came in at number twelve out of my (currently) 119 films.

I found a little clip of the film in this montage of the story line on YouTube.

For now Ta Ta!

-Lucy Lynne' Hall

It all comes crashing down

“Jeter banned, baseballs integrity in doubt.”

What I wanted to tell was my version of what a worst case scenario for baseball would be. All my life I have been a die hard Yankee fan even though I live in New England. Growing up baseball was always a special game to me. It’s what my friends and I would talk about, we were all on the same team that my friend’s dad and my own dad would coach; It connected us as a community. To me growing up in the heart of the steroid era has taken its toll on the game. With players coming out almost by the day the sport has taken a huge hit for me. I always have said that if it ever came out the Derek Jeter did PEDs then I would drop the sport all together. Jeter has been my baseball idol growing up, he has always represented the right way to play the game. This “story” that I wrote proves that in six simple words baseball a game that I have loved for so long can come crashing down.