Soul Surfer

Soul Surfer is a 2011 American biographical drama film directed by Sean McNamara. It is a film adaptation of the 2004 autobiography Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board by Bethany Hamilton about her life as a surfer after a horrific shark attack and her recovery. The film stars AnnaSophia Robb, Helen Hunt, Dennis Quaid, and Lorraine Nicholson with Carrie Underwood, Kevin Sorbo, Sonya Balmores, Branscombe Richmond, and Craig T. Nelson.

Filming of this prestigious life story took place in Hawaii in early 2010 with Robb wearing a green sleeve on her arm so visual effects could be added in post-production to create the appearance of a stump. More additional filming took place in Tahiti in August 2010. Soul Surfer was released in theaters on April 8, 2011 in the United States and Canada by a partnership between FilmDistrict and TriStar Pictures.

Bethany (AnnaSophia Robb), a natural talent in the sport of surfing, loses an arm in a freak shark attack. Helped along by the love of her parents (Helen Hunt, Dennis Quaid), brothers, and friend Alana Blanchard, she refused to give up.  With big plans to return to competition, questions about her future continued to trouble her. Upon seeing the devastation in Thailand caused by the 2004 tsunami on a trip with her local youth group, Bethany discovers a greater purpose: to make a difference in the lives of others.  She realizes she cannot give up.  She needs to be an inspiration for other people with traumatic experiences and disabilities.  She wants to make a difference and prove that you can do anything you put your heart to.

I believe that this film did not get enough credit.  There was a large amount of work that went into this film.  Not only does filming surfing create challenges, but a realistic shark attack, and a green screen arm that looked completely real as a stump.  This film had phenomenal technical work.  I believe that the film also had beautiful acting.  The actors captured the emotions perfectly, and as a viewer, I really felt what they were going through.  I think that this movie is one to be watched, it is very inspirational and truly a great film on a brave, courageous person.  It really earns its name, Soul Surfer. 

My Favorite Movie of All Time: Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump came out in 1994 when I was just one year old. I didn’t watch it until about 2007. When I saw it I was pleasantly surprised. It was not what I had expected at all. It was full of love, loss, wisdom, and everything someone is mostly to encounter in life. For those who have not seen Forrest Gump stop reading this post and go to Netflix to watch it now! You have to watch Forrest Gump at least once in your lifetime.

The movie follows the life of a simple man named Forrest Gump. We watch him drift through life like a feather from one historical event to another as he struggles to come to terms with destiny and life. It’s not just the storyline that makes this movie great, it’s everything from the dialogue to the shot composition to the spectacular performances by Tom Hanks, Sally Field, and many more.

I think these are some of the greatest shots in the film…

This is my all-time favorite shot. It’s well-composed and a beautiful portrayal of the bond between Forrest and his son.

I think the message of the movie is remarkable. To me the message is that in life happiness is achieved by accepting the challenges and experiences of life as they come along. The message is portrayed in a few of my favorite quotes:

“Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.”

“You have to do the best with what God gave you.” 

“I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze.  But I think maybe it's both.  Maybe both are happening at the same time.”

Forrest Gump has won an Academy Award for best film and is an absolute must see!

The Real World: Life After College

After watching the video about The Hobbit today in class, and working with people on our final project, I got to thinking...what's the future going to be like?  We're all struggling these last few weeks with finals, but what's going to happen once we step out beyond the Park School and actually have to do this for a living?  Instead of having classes to deal with on top of our productions, we'll have real life issues like families, mortgages, and all of that fun stuff. Is that going to be easier to balance, or more difficult?  Will we manage those two day run and guns?  Can we complete a feature film with only four days until the premiere?  Are we ever going to get adequate sleep again in our lives?

Noon...eight hours into a shoot...and I'm not even
on the actual makeup department.

The fact of the matter is, despite the kind of semi-insanity it takes to put in the hours in either pre-, post-, or regular production, the dedication is one of the most important parts.  You can't make a quality film without genuinely caring about the final outcome; when you make something truly good, you feel as if you've put a part of yourself into it.  It's like all of your time and annoyance at the entire thing has finally paid off, and will, with some skill (and maybe some luck), make this a really worthwhile production.  It's something you have to feel for yourself to wholly understand, I think, and from what I've known of the sensation, it's an awesome payoff.

You've also got to be flexible if you're going to work on any kind of shoot; your title might be "camera 2," but if someone asks you to, you can jump in and work as a boom op, extra, gaffer, or anything, especially on smaller productions akin to what we'll more than likely all be starting in.  Again, it goes back to your dedication; when you really want something to come out well, it shows in the work that's put in, even when it isn't technically your job to do something.  Being an extra hand never hurts on most shoots, so hopping in on little things to make the entire production go smoother.

So, the question: what's the better life choice, to get the necessary amount of sleep each night to function properly at a mediocre job that you mildly like, or to stretch every last minute with work you're passionate about despite its slight impact on your health?

As much as I love my naps (and I really love naps), I'd totally go into this field of frenzy and film in a heartbeat.  The years ahead working with this sort of thing will without a doubt be spontaneous and full of late nights, but for the enjoyment I get out of putting in the time and effort with a group of like-minded people, it's worth it.

Got Gump?

I don't think I've written about Forrest Gump, directed by Robert Zemeckis, yet so here it goes.

I'm going to focus on an aspect to it that I noticed it last time I watched it. This movie is highly adaptive to its audience. By this I mean that the same person, depending on their mood can get different meanings out of it every time they watch it.

Last night I watched it in a slightly darker mood than I normally watch it. And scenes meanings changed for me. For example in the scene where he says his last words to Bubba. Forrest Gump narrates "If I'd have known this was going to be the last time me and Bubba was gonna talk, I'd of thought of something better to say." Bubba asks Forrest why did that happen. And Forrest replies "you got shot." And then Bubba dies in Forrest's arms. In the past I had laughed because it was a funny line since he states the obvious, like always. But last night it had weight behind it, it wasn't funny. It was actually a very sad scene. He tried to save his best friends life, willing to lose his own, and he failed. 

There are many other aspects that were different too. Story changing too. Normally when watching this, pardon the french, but Jenny is a bitch and Forrest is the helpless victim to her acidic lifestyle. Last night though I was sympathetic towards Jenny and Forrest was more of her savior. It was more of Jenny's story and Forrest was just a tool used to explain it. I was drawn a lot more to her and her problems. Almost all of the references to birds, being free, and running came through.

It wasn't so much the story of Gump anymore, not the American Dream, but probably the human dream. The contrast between Forrest and jenny really showed this. Jenny, trapped by her past, drug addiction, not satisfied with her life and always trying to escape it. Forrest while "constrained" by his intelligence, "broke out" of it as a kid in the scene where he breaks his leg braces. He never lets anything hold him back and just lives life freely. He went with the flow, without too much thought as to what the consequences could be. He is completely free. Which is where Jenny wants to be, she even says she wishes she was like a bird. And birds typically and in this case as well are symbols of freedom. By the end she gets there right before her death.

There were many other examples of these new meanings depending on the mood. But I'll let you figure out the meanings for yourself. 

Some times the crazy ideas are the best ones

I thought I was ready for school for school this semester. I was bored at home tired of working minimum wage jobs and manuel labor for under the table cash.

last semester I went hardcore. maximum credits. job on a show at ic tv. multiple clubs. I was spread thin. and what happend was everything i did sufferd the cost of not getting enough attention.

This semester I thought i was going to take it easy on my self take less courses and doing less clubs, but  c'est la vie some how I am even more spread thin then ever before. over whelmed with stress I became extremely introspective wondering about what I want to do in the industry and trying to figure my self out. It was in one of these moments of self meditation when I got a crazy Idea.

What did I come to Ithaca for? I came to make movies. to learn how to make movies. I never considered my self an artist. But recently i came tot he realization I am. my free time is spent creating. weather it be  writing short, storys script, music, jokes for my standup ( I am an amateur stand up comedian). but mostly I am insane im not ashamed to admitted it and every great artist is insane in one way or another. I am not trying to say I am a great artist, but that i do possess the qualities of one.

When my professor Arturo Sinclair told me he dropped out of college to make movies at age 15 i was  impressed to say the least. it was such a simple answer to a question that seemed so complicated. how do you mange to do in life exactly what you want to do. you just do it.

I've done it before in life. when I was a freshman in highschool I wanted to fly to chicago to visit my best friend and go to lollapoolza. I had no money. my parents said if i would pay for it i could do it. (proably assuming i could never get the money.) to solve my problem i designed a Teeshirt I could sell at my school. to make a long story short I sold over 100 shirts and grossed over a thousand dollars and funded my trip.

this summer i was strapped for cash again but i could not get hired at any job in town. so i made a job. i started my own window washing service and made 4 times the money i could have at a regular minimum wage job in a quarter of the time.

The point I am trying to make is sometimes in life when you want something you just have to go take it. you can't sit around waiting for opportunity to find you.

now if you have read all of that you are proably wondering what my crazy Idea is. and it is simple I want to make a film a real film I can be proud of.

this is just a rough Idea and I am begging for input and advice.

If you look at the Ithaca website for the price of tuition and fees you see this chart

Tuition and fees	$35,278
Board	5,980
Room	6,874
Health insurance	575
Total	$48,707

48,707 dollars a year is more money then I have ever seen in one place
If you are like me which i suspect there are quite a few you are not on scholarship or only partial scholar ship your parents help you pay some of the cost you use the money you make over the summer to help pay tuition while keeping some so you can buy things you want and need and you take out some student loans a massing a daunting debt especially with the uncertainty of of the future this can be terrifying.

well what if after the spring semester when you have a massed junior or senior standing and become way more polished in the skills it takes to make a movie you take a gap year and put those skills to use.

in this gap year plan to spend $10,000 put into the project of making a movie its a fraction of the money you would spend a year when at college and at the end of it all you would be part of something amazing. an original film that you co-produced had direct influence over.

If I can get 7 more people on board with this idea thats 80,000 dollars we could invest into this project.
with that money we could rent equipment pay for meager room and board, pay actors, and pay for permits for what ever we need too.

we could create a great low budget film and it would be ours.

on the side we could also use the equipment were renting to document the entire process so by the end of the gap year we have our own film and the footage to make a documentary about they entire project.

The type of people I would be looking for to join me on this crazy project are as follows
- A Head cinematographer
- A Head sound designer
- A Director
-  2 editor
- A lighting expert
- a costume/prop designer

of course i would also expect of these core people to be multi talented and can fill in to any other positions needed

we would need a script a great script that can be shot easily that does not demand to much capital.

It seems crazy. but at the same time it seems very possible. and at he end of it all we know we went for it. and will probably learn more then we every thought possible about this industry and our selves.

this is just a skeleton of an idea and i need help from YOU to fill the skeleton with meat and organs and blood and life.

if you are interested in this please contact me my phone number is  609-610-4445 and my email is Austin.Scharfstein@gmail.com

help me make this crazy idea into a crazy story.

The Summer I Spent Working in a Factory...

And learning as much as I did in my first year of college.

This summer I worked at Pepperidge Farm (famous for Goldfish, Milanos, and various other types of cookies).  It was second shift, which if anyone has ever worked second shift, it is from three in the afternoon until 11 at night so imagine shifting a day based on nine to five hours and transposing them into my hours.  As a college student, I went in thinking I "deserved" a good job for having gone out and begun an education for myself. I thought maybe they would have me be an office assistant or work in the computer department helping out with menial tasks.  Unfortunately, I was not given a "glitzy" job, or even a white colar one at that; for 8 or more hours a day, I stood in line with people twice my age and did various jobs from assorting and packing cookies, to stacking boxes, sometimes well over two thousand 15 pound boxes.  Some days, I would lay on my stomach underneath a four hundred degree oven cleaning out the grease pools and cookie crumbs that come out the bottom of said oven.  Other days, I would receive verbal assaults from women, who had been working there since before I was born, in more than five different languages for not doing a job that met up to their "standards".   If you've ever worked in a factory you'd know, no one is anyones friend, everyone will cut you down to get ahead and get a better pay for themselves and their family.  I found myself coming home at night emotional and physically drained.  My back felt like that of a 50 year olds and my soul and my will was being ripped and torn apart.  Most of the days, we stood for 8 hours at a time or sat on stools with no seat backs in the least ergonomically sound positions imaginable.

Once I began the job though and saw all of the hardships, lousy pay, lousy work, and lack of future in the job, I started thinking.  I thought about how fortunate I was.  Some of the people that I worked with and shared the exact same job with were parents of kids I graduated high school with.  While my parents always worked in cushy Management level jobs with more than adequate pay grades, my friends and their families lived off of pay that I made as a "summer job".  It also made me feel guilty for ever questioning not going to college.  Growing up, I was always told by parents that I would go to college, that I would do more than what they did when they graduated high school so it would be easier for me than what they had to go through.  I was ignorant back in those days and felt the need to be different, against the grain, but I was really just a spoiled kid from the suburbs who never had to really work.  Sure I worked a summer retail job in high school 20 hours a week and thought I was awesome because I had $100 more than what I had before, but I never gained anything from those jobs.  I was never pushed, never required to try hard or to be taught any lessons on hard work.  In a retail setting, everything is wait until something happens.  When you work in a factory, it's don't stop and be the reason that everything gets messed up. There's a lot of pressure in that philosophy; you screwing up can cause the whole line to go down, to lose product, lose revenue, and possibly affect not only your own job, but someone else's.  There's also this sense of hopelessness when working in a factory; you leave a sunny world to a building the size of football stadium with no windows, hot, thick, heavy, dense air that doesn't move, and smell of anger, frustration, lack of hope, and cookies.  Every single time I walked into the production floor, I began to notice that I just began to lose hope, as if it sucked you and would never let you back out into the real world.

Now the fortunate end of the story for me is, that I got to leave.  It was only a summer job.  It was only 3 months of my summer so I could make extra money for school.  I felt as if I was above everyone there solely because I didn't have to stay there.  As time progressed though, I began to have the utmost respect for the people that went there.  They gave there lives up everyday from three in the afternoon until eleven at night for the sole purpose of feeding America's fat stomach.  For them, this job was their purpose in life, it put food on the table for their family and a rough over their heads; it was their version of the American Dream.  With the cards they were dealt in life, they made the best of there situations and did the best possible job they could knowing that there was no room for them to grow, to move up and better themselves.  That was the end of the line for them, and they knew it.  But, for whatever reason, that didn't stop them, that didn't deter them from coming in everyday and working hard.  I learned that you can never stop, because you can easily be replaced, that you have to be what you say you are and back it up.  I learned to appreciate what I was given in life and that I was able to leave that voluntary prison camp to come to a place of knowledge and do something that I love for the rest of my life.  I learned that at the end of the day, we are all equals, not one person is better than the next person because of their earthly status and wealth; that what truly matters in life is to find a life that makes you happy, whether it be working a crappy job so you can support a family that you love, or doing something that you love even though you aren't getting paid a ton of money, or even making no money and spending your life as a missionary to improve others situations.

The experiences I gained working this summer were experiences that I never would have learned anywhere else.  I realized that even when I'm working at school and have a video to finish, a paper to write, a test to study for, or even a book to read, that things could always be worse, that I could be doing something that I don't love for the rest of my life.  I now understand the importance of being here at Ithaca,  it's not about being with friends, or going to class, or even getting rich someday, its about learning more about something that you love so that you can provide yourself with the opportunity to do it the rest of your life.  So you can fit into your designated spot in the world and flourish, not only for the progress of your own life and career, but for the progress of mankind.  We're all on this earth to fulfill our own purpose and I realized this summer that I was put on this earth to work in the film industry.  What that means yet, I really don't know.  Where I'll end up, you're better guessing for yourself than getting an answer out of me.  All I know is that I have to work hard a create things for myself and things will begin to clear up, that I will find my purpose, and that I will do everything I can to excel at it.

Tyler Chadwick

P.S. Keep Reaching For Your Dreams

Image from http://www.eynjuls.com/harsha/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ps-i-love-you.jpg

"Dear Gerry, you said you wanted me to fall in love again, and maybe one day I will. But there are all kinds of love out there. This is my one and only life. And it's a great and terrible and short and endless thing, and none of us come out of it alive..." ~ From the movie P.S. I Love You

There's nothing like meeting up with friends and sitting down for a movie night... even on a school night. So, with our bowl of yogurt covered raisins and glasses of water in hand, my friends and I squished eagerly on the couch and watched P.S. I Love You last night. As you can imagine, for those who have seen this movie, there were tears and many exclamations of "awe" throughout the film. As the credits started, one of the girls who had just viewed the movie for the first time said, "Well that stinks. She never fell in love with someone new! What a horrible ending!" Now, I have seen this movie probably ten times, yet this was the first time that it occurred to me that Holly (the main character) never did find a replacement man. Not very romantic, I suppose. Yet, why was I still so satisfied with the ending?

This really started shifting the gears in my rusty summer-dulled brain. In the romance genre, we are so used to what I would dare call the "cheesy princess love syndrome." Girl faces some problem or obstacle, Prince Charming shows up, and suddenly everything is okay and they ride off into the sunset. Or vice versa. In any case, there is always a "happily ever after." Yet, the typical description of the modern "happily ever after" includes some kind of true love between two people that is expressed in a way that is so unbelievable as to be believable because we all wish it to be reality. Hey, I love my Disney movies just as much as the next person, but at some point one has to acknowledge that those endings either don't exist in our world, they are very, very rare, or they do exist but in some other happier dimension. P.S. I Love You gives the audience an ending that everyone can relate to (whether they like it or not) because there is a reality to it. It is an ending that is rarely ever seen in romantic movies. She doesn't fall in love with another person, but as I started thinking about it, she does fall in love with something else entirely.

This is what I love about storytelling. I love finding themes or messages in books, movies, poems... you name it. I hope that someday I will have accomplished such a feat in my own work. Anyway, at one point during the movie, Holly states that, "... there are all kinds of love out there." It is so true. In the end, she fell in love with designing shoes. She had a passion and a direction in life that she discovered on her own (or you may believe with the help of her dead husband). Holly made it through all the obstacles of losing her husband, her job, even her friends and she didn't need a Prince Charming to do it. Okay, so maybe she thought Gerry (her deceased husband) helped her, but really it took her strength and determination to direct her life towards a goal.

This is such an encouraging idea. We are all pushing forward through life trying to reach our passions, our loves, our goals. Some yearn to direct, or produce, or edit, or even act (yay!). Others yearn to do biology research, or find a cure for cancer, or run a theatre company. Whatever it may be, we are all on a path that requires sweat, blood, tears and most of all passion. The end of P.S. I Love You showed me that no matter how bleak the future may seem or how big the obstacles appear, if we just keep pushing onward, someday we will find love. Not in the form of another person per say, but maybe in the form of success in our dreams, or contentment in how we have achieved some of our goals.

So good luck to students everywhere starting a new year in school! I hope you can persevere like Holly as you journey to reach your own version of a true "happily ever after," whatever that may be. Push down mountains and swim across oceans because when the road seems impossible is when we find the strength to find the possibility in it! I know I will never stop dreaming and pushing forward.
~ Amber Capogrossi

College is a like a Roller Coaster

When I began college in  Fall of 2011, I heard from many older friends that College was similar to riding a Roller Coaster. After completing my freshmen year, I realized what they were talking about. To give evidence to their comparison, I have for you a roller coaster from Six Flags Magic Mountain in Santa Clarita, California. X2 or XTREME 2 is, in my opinion, the craziest and most entertaining ride at the park. Not only do you began the ride going up backwards, but on the first drop of 90 degrees you are facing the ground beneath you. The seats rotate 360 degrees and near the end of the ride you are surprised with spitting flames.

I chose this ride because it is not only the most thrilling, but also because it has a number of different similarities to college that I found interesting. For starters, the beginning of the ride begins backwards as how most freshmen begin college. Since riders are backwards, they have no idea where they are going. This could compare to freshmen beginning college because most freshmen enter college not knowing exactly where they are headed. Some begin their major and switch, while others begin exploring their options, and eventually decide where they want to end up.

The next aspect of the ride as riders facing the ground beneath them at a 90 degree angle. As with most college students, this would compare to the fact that once students choose their major, it starts with a straight path or "faces" you to the path of your choice. With the edition of loops, 360 degree rotations and fire, these are most commonly compared to as the obstacles and struggles that come with school. With hours and hours of studying and gaining the experience, following your path through college will bring you loops, rotations, and make you tired and stressed to the point where you will wish you could spit fire, in a metaphorical term.

However, the ride always comes to an end as this would symbolize your graduation. What makes this similarity interesting is the ride finishes as it began with the passengers riding backwards. I came to the conclusion that this metaphor could describe how once you graduate from school, it isn't always easy to find a job. Again people do not know where they are headed in life prior to graduation and find themselves trying to find the path that best fits them and the life they want.  

To Advertise Life

"I like totally tried to get into First Life and those dudes were like, sorry man, you're totally not old enough. I was like, WTF! Then I found out about Teen FL, and everything's cool now." --Aaron, 15

Sarcastic as the website is I think it is making a very valid point.