The Pentatonix and Todrick Halls' "Wizard of Ahhhs"

The Pentatonix are an amazing a cappella group that became famous by winning the third season of The Sing-Off. They combined in 2013 with Todrick Hall, a semi-finalist on American Idol and a YouTube star to create a music video based off the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz. In a sensational way they managed to use modern songs to tell a six minute version of this movie. They of course included the films most renowned song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, at the end of the video. The lighting was a mixture of flat and natural elements that brought out different feelings throughout the length of the video. For example, it was very bright during the Munchkin City sequence since it was supposed to be happier, and used a lot of darker and green lighting when they met the Wizard of Oz since it was supposed to appear more sinister. One thing that definitely stood out was the coloring. In the beginning, the colors were very desaturated and a sepia tone to go along with the theme of being on a farm during that specific time period. It very closely followed the coloring of the original movie. When it transforms from the drab farm to the land of Oz, the colors become very bright and saturated and make it seem more mystical and dreamlike. The editing of this video consisted of a lot of dissolves into the dreamlike state and cuts when the actions were supposed to be portrayed as more chaotic. They used a lot of closeups of the different characters which really enhanced their presence. Obviously, the main part of this video is sound, and a lot of it is diegetic. It is seen on screen because everything that you hear is coming out of the mouths of the singers and beat boxer. The sound that is created is the motivator for all of the actions on screen and the music describes what they are doing in a creative and different way.

My Guilty Pleasure Film

Everyone has a guilty pleasure movie: a film that either has a horrible story or tons of technical errors, yet you can't peel your eyes away from the screen.

After giving it much thought, I'm a huge fan of the early 00's teen classic "Get Over It."

But this isn't just another poorly made movie. It had an all star teen cast at the time that included Shane West, star of such tear jerkers as "A Walk to Remember" and "Whatever It Takes", Kirsten Dunst, who was typed-cast as a high school upper classman for the better part of four years, Ben Foster, fresh off a breakthrough role in "Freaks and Geeks", and Mila Kunis, then-star of "That 70s show." Let's not forget Martin Short, a comedic staple in many 80s films.

Despite the star-studded cast and a director who previously created several critically acclaimed short films, the film was so bad it was good. Where do I begin?

The story of the film is loosely based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, much like many other teen films at the time. Foster plays a high school basketball jok who get's dumped by his questionably attractive girlfriend for Shane West, who is sporting a horribly fake British/Australian accent, so bad that the producer decided to change his physical appearance so it was less transparent.

Kirsten Dunst plays a theater geek who has a thing for Foster, who continues to ignore her obvious advances in his comedic attempts to win back his girlfriend.

It was really hard for me to understand why a film with such a great slew of actors could be so horrible. Then it hit me: everyone is anti-cast.

Shane West is obviously not British. Ben Foster was too meek and quiet compared to his usual roles. Kirsten Dunst, who usually plays the popular-type girl with all the friends, unsuccessfully attempted to play someone enamored with the arts. Sisqo is a singer, I really don't know why he was in this movie. The worst had to be Mila Kunis. At the time, she was known as the pushy, bitchy girlfriend of Michael Kelso on that 70s show. In this movie, she actually came off as kind and compassionate, which was off-putting to say the least.

Overall, all of these failures make the movie so stupid, it's worth watching again and again. I highly recommend it.

Shine On, Kubrick.

This past Friday I saw The Shining for the first time. This past Saturday I saw The Shining for the second time. Throughout my first viewing I was gripped by every shot, I was captivated by every aspect of every shot because I knew that everything in the frame was there for a reason. There were no accidents in the final product. Every single detail means something. Throughout my first viewing I was also struck by how much tension and fear was created solely by the score. Scenes that would have been absolutely normal otherwise took on a sinister tone with music. You can feel yourself being drawn into the warped insane character that is Jack. The film isn't scary in the sense that it makes you jump, it is terrifying because of the implications of the actions of the characters. This film is truly terrifying, you are filled with a distinct unease and fear throughout. My second viewing was entirely different, I had read up on some of the symbolism in the movie after my first viewing and set out to see the film from a new perspective the second time around. One of the major "conspiracies" surrounding the film is the assertion that it is Kubrick's confession to faking the moon landing. I knew that there was some conspiracy regarding the moon landing but on my first viewing I didn't pick up anything. On my second viewing it became clear to me that the Overlook Hotel is supposed to symbolize America in that it is this vast space that is literally built upon a Native American burial ground, it looks beautiful from the outside but is deteriorating on the inside. Stuart Ullman is JFK, enlisting Jack to take care of this very important task for them and roping him into an extended commitment. Jack and Danny are a split version of Kubrick dealing with the pressures of faking the moon landing. Jack is the logical side of Kubrick while Danny is the young artist who is confused and horrified by the process. Wendy is supposed to be Kubrick's wife who is just mentally exhausted and abused by the task her husband has taken on. There are so many intricacies to this film that it would be near impossible to explain them without actually watching the film. This movie is made to be thought about, there is no clear thing that everyone takes away from it. You watch it and you feel something, your perception of what happened is entirely up to you. The audience is free to give meaning to the film in their own way. I could not recommend this film more, I will be watching it again for the third time within the next few days.

Universal's Classic Monster Movies

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the atmosphere, the scares, but most importantly I love the movies. I love scary movies; the only sad part is, there really aren't that many that I actually enjoy around this time anymore. All the movies that come out nowadays are really just the same movie over and over again, that all have the same cheap scares again and again. I can't remember the last time I saw a horror movie that I actually thoroughly enjoyed. However, if there are a bunch that I will always love, it's Universal's classic monster movies.

I'm talking about Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Wolf Man (1941) and many others. Now these movies are by no means scary, at least in this day and age. I would imagine that back when they were released they were absolutely terrifying, but even so that doesn't take away the magic and charm of these movies. Since there are quite a few of these films I'm only gonna talk about a couple of them, but this shouldn't stop you from watching all of them, especially because a majority of them are on Netflix.

I'm of course going to start out with Dracula, the one that started it all. Now although there were Universal monster movies before this such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925), I would consider Dracula to be the most influential and the first of the monster movies to still have such a big impact in today's society.

Bela Lugosi stars as Count Dracula, giving an iconic performance that actors today still try to replicate. He was the one that gave us the hypnotizing Dracula stare, the hungarian accent, the subtleties of his movements and so forth. He was the first to make Dracula not only terrifying but also mysterious and enchanting. The technical aspects of the movie are also great even by todays standards. The atmosphere and lighting are still fantastic and it really helps pull you into the movie. Dracula is a movie that is still imitated to this day and it holds up extremely well still. Any movie fan should check it out.

The next movie I'm going to talk about is none other than Frankenstein. Having very little to do with Mary Shelly's novel, this is a movie that focuses more on the creature in a sympathetic sense. It's a movie that's about crossing the line between life and death but also one that asks what happens when that line does get crossed. The Monster (who is played by Boris Karloff in what is arguably his most iconic performance) is a creature just trying to belong but not knowing how. He can't speak or communicate in any normal way so to everyone around him he seems like a dangerous beast. The whole movie leads up to what might be one of the most iconic climax's of all time and it's one that shouldn't be missed. I should also point out that the make-up in this movie is top notch and that alone is worth seeing.

The final movie I'm going to talk about is The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr. His father Lon Chaney Sr was known as "The Man With 1,000 Faces", starring in such movies as the above mentioned Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame, so his son had some shoes to fill. Luckily for him though, he filled them pretty well, giving us another famous monster; the werewolf. Although not as iconic as Dracula or the Monster he's still worth mentioning. Bela Lugosi gave us all of Dracula's mannerisms that are still used today and Boris Karloff gave us the famous "monster walk" but Lon Chaney Jr gave us a normal guy trapped in a very unfortunate situation. While the other two monsters started off that way, Chaney starts off as a normal guy who one night gets bitten by a werewolf, from that point forward, his life is never the same. It's the story of a man trying to cope with this terrible thing that has happened to him and he does a great job doing it. Also the technical features should be noted about this movie. The atmosphere and lighting effects are absolutely fantastic. The woods are all foggy and mysterious, the night time scenes are perfectly shadowed so it gives us an uncomfortable feeling at all times and of course the make-up is fantastic. All of this together makes this movie an absolute treat to watch.

I would highly recommend watching these movies along with all the others in the collection. Such as The Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Invisible Man (1935) and Phantom of the Opera (1943). I would also highly recommend Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein because it is a wonderful homage to all of these movies and it's a very funny movie as well.