That's A Wrap.

As the semester draws to a close I am left to look back on and evaluate my first semester of junior year. It has without a doubt been the best semester of my college experience. I have changed in so many ways, my outlook on life has become more targeted and refined. I finally feel that I am beginning to gain the experience and skills that I need to transform my ideas from foggy thoughts in my head into a clear product. I learned the importance of time. Things take time and time always seems to be slipping away faster than you hoped it would. Wait until the coffee is poured, and the cigarettes are lit. You cannot expect to arrive at your destination without taking the proper steps, steps that may seem unimportant or unnecessary at the time but in the end will come around to make a fool out of you. You need to know what you're getting into before you put everything you have into it. I am proud of what I have accomplished this semester, I know the quality of everything I have done could have been higher but that is not as important to me in this moment. What is important to me is that I now know what doesn't work. That is important to me because now I can try different things, those different things may or may not work but after trying them I will have one more thing that I know works or doesn't work. This semester has impacted me enormously as an individual and made me excited to try different things. Arturo, you have given me so many things to dwell on and think about. I have an entirely new take on film after taking your course. Thank you. That's all I can say to you, thank you. 

Coffee, No Cigarettes (we're quitting)

Initially, I wasn't excited about watching "Cigarettes and Coffee"; I'd had an awful day and just didn't want to deal with anything else (seriously, life, stop throwing me shit). But, I did it any way, happily cocooned in my multitude of blankets, and it actually wasn't half bad. As a matter of fact, I was moderately impressed with some of the acting, simply for how spot on the characters were (and for that kind of thing coming from the early nineties). See, having been in several of those positions, though not that of Bill, I understand what they should feel and how they should react. In short, I believed their performances.

I don't know what Anderson told them to do, the bickering couple or the upset friends, but it worked; I felt their emotions through the screen, and thought along with the scene as it progressed. Maybe that makes it predictable, but I didn't mind it whatsoever. It's an interesting idea of having five lives interconnected and somehow in the same diner at once, and makes for some intriguing filming and transitions (ex: shifting between booths).  I'd definitely be game to try something of that sort myself; it takes some planning, sure, but that's half the fun.

Also, an aside: I watched the Fifth Element for the first time during the week...actually not bad, considering what they had to work with at that time, but that's another blog post entirely.