Shutter
Island is a film from 2010 starring Leonardo Dicaprio as the main character,
Teddy Daniels, a U.S. marshal. The year is 1954, and he is assigned to investigate
the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Ashecliffe Hospital located on a
mysterious island called Shutter Island. He's been pushing for an assignment on
the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders if he has been
brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose strange treatments
are unethical and sinister. Teddy's clever investigating skills soon provide a
promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects
would give him more information about the case. As a hurricane cuts off
communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals try to escape in the
confusion, and the puzzling clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything -
his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.
In
the end, a major plot twist is revealed. It turns out that "Teddy" is
actually a delusional mental patient in the hospital, not a U.S. marshal. He
murdered his depressed wife Dolores Chanal after she drowned their three
children. Because he was a mental patient at the hospital, the doctors decided to
try a role-play experiment to allow him to live out his delusional fantasy in
order to come to terms with reality. The treatment plan works, and he is retold what has happened to him and he accepts what he did to his wife.
However, in the final scene he relapses to a delusional state. It is implied
that he is faking his relapse so he will not have to deal with the mental suffering
of his act, because he feels personally responsible for his wife murdering
their children.
Ever since the debut of ESPN in 1979 - or even since sporting events began getting televised in the early 40s - sports have been broadcasted to the public as one of the purest forms of drama and entertainment. While it's true that throughout history sports have always been treated as entertainment, only recently have they begun to become extremely dramatized and commercialized. I don't mean this in a bad way; I love seeing commercials that get me pumped up for the Super Bowl or showing highlights from my favorite sports moments. When a game is good - tense, thrilling, down to the wire - television has the ability to make it that much better. Statistics are whipped out of nowhere, instant replays are shown and shown again, and the announcers set a tone for whatever is about to happen. If you're truly invested, all of these factors can make your heart start to beat faster than an episode of Breaking Bad.
Which brings me to the last week of sports in Boston. Sunday, October 13th 2013 is a day that will live on in every Bostonian's mind. First, the New England Patriots, having lost the previous week to the Cincinnati Bengals, seemed destined to lose in a close game against New Orleans. But with time running out and everything seemingly hopeless, the incredibly clutch, ultra-talented, male model of a man that is Tom Brady threw a last second touchdown to win the game. Cue the fireworks.
Soon after, the Boston Red Sox had their second game in a best of seven series against the Detroit Tigers, playing for the title of American League Champions (the final step before reaching the World Series). The Sox were already down 1 game to 0, and desperately needed a win before leaving Boston to head to Detroit. Their hopes seemed even more grim than that of the Patriots: in the bottom of the 8th inning, they were losing 5-1. However, like most dramas, just when things look bleakest, something comes and pulls you out of the sorrow and despair. That something was David "Big Papi" Ortiz, who's only goal in life seems to be showing people that he knows how to play baseball in October. With the bases loaded and the announcers talking about how he has never hit a home run off of the current Tigers pitcher, he swings at the first pitch and launches it over the right field wall and into the bullpen. Cue the cheers.
The Red Sox went on to not only win that game, but also take a very commanding lead on the series going into the weekend (and back to Boston) currently up 3 games to the Tiger's 2. Both of these games, the Patriots and the Red Sox, while they may not be particularly enjoyable for those who are not fans of the teams, were undeniable the best dramas on television that Sunday evening. You have your underdog stories, your come from behind wins, your heroes, your villains, and your climaxes, both of which happened in spectacular and (not always common in sports) last second fashion. The camera directions, the timing, the now infamous policeman in the bullpen that celebrated Ortiz's home run before helping a hurt Tori Hunter to get up, all of this creates an atmosphere that even Vince Gilligan couldn't create. It's all extremely real, but presented in a way brings the viewer much closer to the action than if they were just a spectator at the game.
I've been in Canada for almost two days now, and I fully expected to not hear any news of American baseball until I returned at the end of the weekend. I was very wrong. The power of sports is so strong that no matter where you are, whether you understand the game or care about a team or anything like that, you can still find yourself getting dragged into the spectacle. I visited a random sports bar last night in the Chinatown section of Montreal at 1 in the morning, and ended up watching highlights from the Thursday night football game and - to my extremely pleasant surprise - a recap of the last Red Sox baseball game. The play by play may have been in French, but the thing that matters most - the game - was universal, as only the best dramas really are.
One of the cool things about being from a major city is when television and movies shoot in your home town. The Wahlberg's are also two of the cities favorite celebrities so the fact that Donny Wahlberg is so heavily involved in the show just adds to its appeal for a Bostonian. The show is a documentary style look at the Boston police force. It follows a few different police officers that are in a number of different units of the department. Regular patrol men and women, drug investigators, and detectives give the viewers a complete inside look into Boston's crime fighting scene. Just like any major city there is plenty of action, but the show also covers some of the personal lives of the reappearing characters.
My favorite part of the show is obviously seeing the city I grew up in on TV, but I also really like the pace of the show. The show really takes on the schedule of the police officers it's about. There are times where the specific characters are just with their families and friends, and we get to see what they are really like not just what their job turns them into. Then all the sudden they are in the thick of a drug bust and the shots are much more shaky and fast paced. I think it would be an unrealistic depiction of the job if they only showed the police officers running down criminals. Of course that is part of their job, but we have too many shows on TV that just try to show people that side of their personalities. People want to see gun fights, chases, and people getting arrested. It makes good TV. But Boston's Finest breaks away from that script and takes us in to these peoples lives.
Probably the coolest scene of the entire show for me was when the patrol men pulled someone over right outside my aunts apartment. But I think that everyone can like this show, not just people from Boston.
The summer before last I had the opportunity to attend a few lectures at an equipment rental and sales facility near my home in Boston, MA. The company, called Rule Camera, hosts lectures every summer called, "pub night" where they serve pizza and beverages and invite a guest speaker to discuss some aspect of the entertainment or media industries, offer advice, and take questions. My favorite lecture, and by far the most memorable, was one given by a sports television camera operator and DP named Tom Guilmette.
Tom talked a lot about his job, which admittedly, is really cool. He works at Fenway Park in Boston, as a camera operator. It's his job to film all the fly balls over left field. Now, I might be a little biased- I'm from Boston and I'm a Red Sox fan, but it seemed like his job would be really awesome. And a lot harder then you might think. He has to track the ball across the sky (which is really tiny from a distance and moving so fast) while maintaining his focus, all while precariously perched on the scaffolding of Fenway Park. DAMN.
In addition to making us marvel at his cool job, Tom talked a lot about social media and its impact on the film industry. While Tom works as a DP, he also rents equipment out to people and uses social media to help out people with questions about how things work.
SO. That's a lot of stuff right? That's not even the part I wanted to talk about. Since Tom is a DP and has been in the industry for a while, he often gets to test out awesome and expensive equipment- such as the Phantom Flex camera. I don't know how many of you are familiar with extremely high definition cameras, but this one pretty much takes the cake. Shooting at 2,564 fps, it can capture images at ridiculously crazy speeds. This video, shot on his first day experimenting with the camera, was made in Vegas at a television conference. He decided to test out the capabilities of the camera, and the results are both amazing and hilarious. Be sure to check it out, and if you like it, his website has a lot more really cool videos shot with a Phantom Flex...
If you ever have camera questions, you can tweet them to @tomguilmette
he really knows his stuff and he'll always respond if he can/if he can help!
I spent the majority of my summer at work. While most of my friends got to spend time at the beach or on vacation, I sat in a studio for six hours a day. Since my senior year in high school I've worked at the local cable access channel in my hometown. And while I love my job, being from a small Massachusetts town (of about 12,000 people) in the suburbs right outside Boston, there isn't a whole lot going on. That's not to say I had a bad summer. I got to do some of the things I love- filming, editing, and producing shows for the station.
My favorite show I made was for a local non-profit organization called Lovelane Special Needs Horseback Riding. It is an organization dedicated to helping kids with disabilities through horseback riding. As a kid I was an avid equestrian- I rode for over ten years and competed in horse shows, so this was something that I found really interesting. This program hosts a charity event in my hometown every summer called the "Run for Lovelane" and this year it is dedicated in honor of a girl named Susan McDaniel. Susan was a rider at Lovelane, and a resident of my town. Unfortunately, Susan died a few years ago, and since she would have graduated with the class of 2012 this past Spring, the Run was dedicated in her honor.
I spent an entire day filming the event, getting interviews, BRoll, and more. By the end of the day I had over three hours of footage total. It was a lot to sort through, but I really enjoyed all of it, especially since it was for such a good cause. I really wanted to do something good for this family, and the organization, and I have plans to film more for them in the future.
Doing something important for something that mattered to me was, in my opinion, the best part of my summer, and I wouldn't have traded it for any vacation.
In
the end, a major plot twist is revealed. It turns out that "Teddy" is
actually a delusional mental patient in the hospital, not a U.S. marshal. He
murdered his depressed wife Dolores Chanal after she drowned their three
children. Because he was a mental patient at the hospital, the doctors decided to
try a role-play experiment to allow him to live out his delusional fantasy in
order to come to terms with reality. The treatment plan works, and he is retold what has happened to him and he accepts what he did to his wife.
However, in the final scene he relapses to a delusional state. It is implied
that he is faking his relapse so he will not have to deal with the mental suffering
of his act, because he feels personally responsible for his wife murdering
their children.
