De Last Post

DE LAST OF THE POSTES

     I probably should have gone the route of writing this blog post in the beginning of the week before my sanity packed up a suitcase and left in the middle of the night, but it just sent me  a postcard from the happy recess of my mind so here it goes before I forget.  

     Just like everyone else probably I must reflect on the past year in Fiction Field 2, it had and has its ups and had and has its down, but one thing is for sure...I learned a lot. I learned a lot about production, myself, and other people. Highlights include the workshop with David Scalafile and the Sound Workshop in the Field with Jeff Pullman, and of course the Beautiful Stopover City!

     This was the first semester where I was actually given a taste and an idea of the what the actual industry is like outside of work in the way of making film and television, and i'm happy to say I was excited and optimistic by what I saw. I definitely have a batter of understanding of what i want to do outside of college and what I need to be doing now to get there. 

     Going off that tangent, there is a lot that I know nothing about and there is a lot that I need to learn and fast. I am always over my head but slowly I feel like I am swimming up to the surface and hopefully my next film will go a lot smoother and more stress free than this one. I am so thankful for everyone who helped out on this project and their experience and dedication, I only wish that our in class group was bigger so we didn't have to rely on so many outside sources, as most of them had to take time out of their extremely busy schedules to help us, thank you to all you lovely people!

     To this semester and to this class I say Adios! And in some ways just good riddance, I can't wait to leave the inexperience of this semester behind on my part and now tackle bigger issues that I need to work on to be the best filmmaker I can be.  

One Tree Hill is love, One Tree Hill is life

Is it possible to both love and hate a television show at the same time? Absolutely. Since fall break I've been watching the drama TV series One Tree Hill anytime that I open Netflix. It is horrifyingly unrealistic, but I LOVE it.
OTH is probably the most overdramatic show I've ever seen, next to Grey's Anatomy. It follows popular high school athletes, their friends, and enemies in the fictional town of Tree Hill, North Carolina. A lot of the conflict surrounds Lucas and Nathan Scott, basketball stars and half-brothers who sway between kinship and rivalry. Lucas is played by heartthrob Chad Michael Murray, and Nathan is played by the equally handsome James Lafferty.

Lucas & Nathan at basketball practice. (YUM [baes])

Other prominent high schoolers include head bitch/cheerleader Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush), talented artist and music lover Peyton Sawyer (Hilarie Burton), "tutor girl" Haley James Scott, and the geeky but lovable Marvin "Mouth" McFadden (Lee Noriss). Then there's the parents... Lucas' kind mother Karen Roe (Moira Kelly), Lucas' and Nathan's sociopath father Dan Scott (Paul Johansson), and Nathan's crazy mother, Deb Scott (Barbara Alyn Woods).

There are all sorts of funky romantic pairings that happen on this show and it is hilarious. It's as if there's only 3 guys and 3 girls in the whole school with the way they all end up cross-dating. For example: Lucas + literally every character.

Brooke & Lucas - troublesome relationship

(Ok Brooke, calm down u r crazy)

Lucas & Rachel - idk what even happened here

(KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON, BRUH)

Lucas & Peyton - the pair I've loved since episode 1

(Ah yeeees I approve of this pairing.)






Basically he dates everyone and it's a tad bit creepy. There's also crazy stuff that happens in literally every episode--i.e. teens getting married at 16, everyone getting pregnant at the same time, online stalkers pretending to be Peyton's brother, sociopaths all over, etc.......

I'll tell ya, it definitely keeps life interesting. Maybe a little too interesting...I find myself telling stories more dramatically lately and then I think "Is OTH actually influencing my life choices??" Maybe?! I don't know?! All I know is that I can't stop watching it, it's addicting. No shame I'm 5 seasons in and won't stop till I'm done. Have I mentioned how awesome the soundtrack is as well. Snaps for 90's and early 2000's music choices. Not to mention the actors sing on the show....pretty cool

(If any of you readers watch this show and want to discuss the craziness/awesomeness that is One Tree Hill, plz do. It'll be a great time.)

The Last Farm

I recently watched a film called The Last Farm and found it very touching. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Live Action Short in 2006, but did not win. What I found so interesting about this film was it's use of P.O.V. In the end, when the main character is burrying his wife, we see the camera look up at him from the ground. The shot evokes a feeling of longing, as if we are his wife looking up at her husband from her grave. Another interesting use of P.O.V in this film is used a few shots later when we become the husband, lying next to his wife as the dirt falls, burying them in their graves. We first see a shot of the man, with a look of peace on his face, and then we are looking through his eyes at the sky and the dirt as it falls and eventually convers the entire screen. I also really liked the way the last shot is framed. We see the last few flecks of dirt fall onto the grave right as the man's daughter pulls up to the house. The camera contiues to pan, away from the grave, the daughter in her car, over the lovely landscape that this man and his wife must have admired, and finally ending on the sky, signifying heaven; the afterlife; peace.