The Newsroom

Whenever Aaron Sorkin is involved in a television show it automatically becomes a must see. Sorkin is the main writing mind behind this HBO series and it shows, as the writing of the show is definitely what makes it so good. The coolest part about the show is how the dates of the episodes coincide with major events in the news world in the year the show is taking place. In season one's case, that is the year 2010. The Newsroom, literally, covers things like the rise of the Tea Party, the BP Oil spill, and the assassination of Osama Bin Laden. It gives viewers a behind the scenes look to how the news is put together and delivered to viewers in the United States. Much like West Wing and other Sorkin shows, the accuracy of the industry is off the charts.

The other great aspect of Sorkin's writing in this case is how he not only involves real news worthy events, but each character also has a personal life and backstory. Whether it is the lonely, drug addicted life of news anchor Will McAvoy or the different relationships going on around the office, the audience is clued in on it all. What Sorkin is capturing is that not everyone that produces the news for a living is a boring person in real life, these people have interesting and complicated lives that capture the audience when the news stories don't. It is a good mix of high-paced news driven content and slow-placed character development.

As great as Sorkin's writing is, you can't talk about this show and not mention how great the acting is. Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy plays the role perfectly. Daniels is extremely talented and captures Will's up's and down's perfectly. Will is a troubled character, who suffers from depression and anxiety due to childhood issues and his now producer (MacKenzie McHale) cheating on him. Daniels is able to portray the gunslinging anchor in a way that makes the audience wish that Will McAvoy was the anchor of their local news program.

For someone that is interested in going into the television industry The Newsroom is one of the most interesting shows on TV. I am constantly paying attention to how the characters in the show produce the news, and how things work both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. What this shows explains to viewers is just how much work and effort it takes to put out the nightly news. Confirming stories with sources, getting live interviews, asking all the right questions, all while working to get as many viewers as possible. It's a results based business, and viewership is truly the most important thing. After watching this show, viewers feel like they know the in's and out's of television news.

The Green Mile

It is never a bad thing when SPIKE is showing an absolute classic on a Friday night. The Green Mile combines some sci-fi elements with Frank Darabont's great ability to tell prison stories. Darabont of course made his imprint on the film world with another prison movie, The Shawshank Redemption. Although The Green Mile takes place in a similar setting, the two movies couldn't be more different. Shawshank tells us a story of how different inmates get themselves through the extremely tough times they face while in prison. Whether the troubles between them and the guards, each other, or just the obvious trails of solitary confinement. And the story finally ends with an elaborate escape by the films main character that you aren't completely expecting. Although The Green Mile touches on many of the same prison struggles, there are other elements that come into play that separate it from Shawshank.

The one scene that only sticks out to me when watching this movie is the scene where Michael Clark Duncan's character seems to transfer little bees from his mouth to the mouth of one of the troubled guards. This is the sic-fi element that I spoke about earlier that really makes this a unique film. We learn that John Coffey (Duncan) actually has all sorts of amazing powers. He has the power to heal others as well as the scene I talked about earlier. Coffey actually purposely attacks the guard so he will in fact attack another prisoner who we find out is actually responsible for the murder that Coffey has been sentenced for. His healing powers come into play a few times in what is a remarkable twist to what appears to be just a typical prison movie in the beginning.

The Green Mile was nominated for four academy awards and somehow didn't win a single win. Michael Clark Duncan was nominated for best supporting actor and despite a performance of a lifetime didn't win the award. The final scene of the movie where we see John Coffey finally being executed on the electric chair somehow makes us actually feel sympathy for someone that supposedly was a rapist and a murderer. That is one constant that Darabont brings over from Shawshank. That sympathy for prisoners that have committed some awful crimes, and yet the audience feels like they don't deserve to be punished like they have.

The Green Mile was an instant classic and a must see for all movie lovers.

Ithaca College's Park School...

and it's lack of classes devoted to how the industry and business works.

I first thought of this when we watched that video in class on Wednesday.  Now, I know Arturo has told us certain things about the industry and how production is the best way to get into the business but it was interesting to watch the video and see the vast number of positions available in just one department on set.  I was really amazed that I had never really thought about that kind of stuff because knowing the business and its positions are extremely important as well as how the hierarchy works on a set.  A lot of times, we only learn production type things in park and I think because of this, we forget that learning about the industry we get into and how many of the different things work is extremely important.  I really wish the school would create a class or two other than the intro media industries class that students could take to learn in depth about how the industry works in different aspects.  Some things they could talk about would be how to get investors for films, going through all the production jobs on set of a movie or television show (field, live, sports, scripted, ect.), all about the different studios and how to get in contact with them, and even the different areas in the country and around the world that are hidden hotbeds for video other than LA and NYC.   I think this would be extremely beneficial for students to really fully understand the business other than only knowing how to produce things.


-Tyler Chadwick

The Hunger Games (Movie)

The other day, I watched the move, The Hunger Games, with my friends.  I had read all the books and frankly, was in love with them.  I'd seen the movie before, but decided that this time, I would watch it from an analytical film perspective rather than judging it on how much different it was then the book because frankly, no movie can capture an entire book or book series perfectly as we've seen many times (Harry Potter, Twilight, ect.).

I loved the DIY approach that Gary Ross took when shooting the movie by having most of the movie shot "hand held" which most feature length blockbuster movies never do.  I noticed very quickly that whenever the scene was taking place in a high tense situation or an impoverished area, everything was shot hand held and the editing was extremely fast jump cuts and very bare bones from an editing perspective.  This puts the audience in a certain mood I could tell from watching it.  It became even more noticeable during the few scenes that were in the rich capitol where every shot was either a tripod, steady cam, or jib type shot with extremely smooth cutting from an editing stand point.  Everything was very refined and more typical of most blockbusters to show the wealth of the area they were in.

They way this movie was shot was very different in my opinion from most blockbuster type large budget movies and from that aspect, I thought the movie excelled.  They did a great job of capturing the "indie feel" that the book had been written in.  There also isn't a ton of music in the movie which I think is very important because most of the "districts" didn't have any organized music so it wouldn't make sense with the story.  The only songs were folk type songs which was cool because they were sung by the actors and no instrumentals.  It was very affective in that sense as well.

Overall, it was a well done movie in my personal opinion from a film perspective.  I enjoyed the indie look because that is personally the style that I am drawn to.

Tyler Chadwick