The Power of 'Love': A Visual Assault

The other day I opened my Netflix and found Gaspar Noe's mixed-reviewed film Love and, having heard the buzz regarding it's explicit depictions of sexuality that many question its merit as art, I knew I had to watch it.
The film follows the story of Murphy, a young 20-something American man that is self-indulgent to the core. While studying film in France, he meets a girl named Electra whom he dates for year before sleeping with another women, Omi, who becomes pregnant. The news ends the relationship between Murphy and Electra on a very devastating, intense note. Years later on a dreary day, Electra's mother calls Murphy to ask him if he has heard from Nora, because she has not and is worried given Nora's suicidal tendencies. The news causes Murphy to reminisce about their time together, time spend rich with shared drug use and sex.

The film is sensationalized for it's raw depictions of sex--which were unsimulated. Bordering between art and pornography, Noe manages to assault the senses with stunning visuals and, when it was shown at Cannes, its presentation in 3D. The effect is quite interesting, and leaves a "looking into a fishbowl" impression. Noé is so captivated by the idea of breaking the boundary between art and pornography that neither the story nor the sexuality "flows".  Some may be shocked by the hardcore scenes in Love, but there is barely any spontaneity or heat.

That Awkward Moment

As I run out of movies and shows to talk about.... I browse through some of the movies that I have had a good time watching and stumbled upon this one......

That Awkward Moment is an enjoyable film. It keeps the laughter alive and the "bromance" among three friends.  That Awkward Moment is an American romantic-comedy film. It was directed by Tom Gormican, who has directed other films such as Save the Date (2014) and Movie 43. 

The stars of this movie include Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, and Imogen Poots.  The movie is extremely fun and shows the how even the promises between "bros" can't stop these men from relationships and women. The screenplay was originally released in New Zealand and titled "Are we Officially Dating". 

Initially  this  movie serves to shows and develop the relationships between bros and couples.

"Being there for someone when they need you thats all relationships are."

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Crazy Stupid Love is a romantic comedy from 2011. It stars a whole host of actors including Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, John Carroll Lynch, Marisa Tomei, Analeigh Tipton, and Kevin Bacon. The movie starts out when Cal Weaver’s (Steve Carell) wife and former high school sweetheart, Emily (Julianne Moore), abruptly requests a divorce. Cal, who is not prepared for this in the slightest, ends up finding it difficult to cope with his new single life. He is absolutely clueless about finding love again, on top of the fact that his confidence and appearance are very low, as he wears sneakers, coats a size too big and a wounded heart on his sleeve.

 One night, a young, attractive man named Jacob (Ryan Gosling) pities him for sitting alone in a bar. He introduces himself, and then takes Cal under his wing to teach him all the right moves. Jacob’s own polished pick-up routines work on an array of different women, until one day he finds a girl, who turns out to be Cal’s daughter Hannah (Emma Stone) who actually causes him to want to settle down. Meanwhile, two other romances stumble along at the Weaver household: Son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) pines for his sister’s babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton), while his mom tries to make sense of her feelings for one of her co-workers (Kevin Bacon). 

The whole movie ultimately comes together at a family gathering in the Weavers’ backyard, when we learn how all the characters become inter-related to each other. This starts an uproar, but eventually all of the characters come together and are able to co-exist peacefully in the end.

I really enjoyed this movie. It had a good amount of humor, and was able to keep my attention and engagement throughout. I especially enjoyed the ending because it was full of twists and turns that the writers crafted in a way that they were able to keep it a secret from the audience. I honestly did not expect such a surprising ending. However, I did think that the film could have been made even better had it been able to explore its characters a little more in-depth. Perhaps this was caused by the fact that the movie contained too many characters and sub-plots to be able to explore them all in a thorough and satisfying manner. 

ABOUT TIME

Due to the excessive boredom during winter break which included;

• irregular sleeping patterns 
• excessive partying 
• streaming movies illegally 

I was running out of movie options.. With a failed relationship the last thing I wanted to watch was a "love movie". Especially a movie that includes Rachel Mc Adams. You may know her from The Notebook, The Time Travelers Wife, and The Vow.  Don't get me wrong I believe she is a great actress, but in almost every movie I have seen (which include the above), the central theme involves love. As you can imagine I was not in a great state of mind to watch a love movie. However, I later made the decision to watch About Time.

About Time, was written and directed by Richard Cutris. The idea is simple, yet complex.  It's the idea of a man who has the ability to time travel to change his past in order to have a better future. Although, this movie is unrealistic because I mean I can't time travel to change my past. </3 However, not only does this movie show the love that Tim has for Marie. But, it shows the love that Tim has for his father and his freelance, carefree awesome hippy sister Kit Kat.

Tim tries to keep his family together. In all essence this movie was really a touching drama about the love between father and son. The end of the movie shows the closing to one of his last time traveling trips to visit his father, where he says his last good-bye.

There is a huge moral that lies in this story: Enjoy the important things in life, love, family, children and so forth.

8 Things I Learned From Making A Short Film

This is it... Last blog post of the year. I'm not saying I've looked forward to this day since the first blog post, but... yeah. Just kidding, Arturo (please don't fail me)! I had a lot of fun with my last blog post (100% because of the GIFs), and since we're nearing towards the final days of Fiction Field I, I felt like wrapping things off with some valuable lessons I've learned, assisted by the power of moving images. So here we go.

8 Things I Learned From Making A Short Film

1. Choose Your Positions Wisely

You're finally in your groups, and it's time to decide what you're going to contribute to the film. STOP. Before you go volunteering for a position, think. How much work do I actually want to do? Do I want to be responsible for the failure of this film? Do I know anything about lights? Am I organized enough to catch every single continuity issue there is? Thankfully, each member of my team were equally competent in their positions and we learned a lot along the way. But, looking back, I probably shouldn't have volunteered for three positions. Although it was extremely rewarding, I don't think I've ever been this exhausted in my entire life.

2. Always Pick Comedy

Just kidding. But seriously, really think about the type of movie you want to make before you decide. Think you can handle talking about suicide, murder and depression for four months? Are you sure? You can try as hard as you might to crack jokes on set, but trust me, it'll start to weigh you down.

In the end, you might have something that will leave an impact in your audience, but be prepared to accidentally become the most morbid person in your creative writing class.

3. Don't Do Anything Embarrassing

This, unfortunately, is inevitable. But if you can avoid it, try. On a film set, inside jokes at the expense of others is a long, grueling experience. Extremely hilarious when it's someone else, maybe not so much when it's you. If you do something worthy of your ridicule, you can be almost certain that you're going to hear about it every single day, of every single shoot.

It's one of the only things that keeps the group together and no one kills anyone. So maybe think twice before you clap the slate in the actress' ear, or don't lose your pants the night before a shoot. But if you do, thank you for your sacrifice for the cause.

4. Birthdays Don't Matter

Prepare for your best friends, roommates or parents to hate you if their birthday happens to fall during production season. Doesn't matter if they're Jesus, thou shalt not party on a shoot night.

But hey, if it's your or a crew member's birthday, cake on set is ALWAYS appreciated.

Thanks for being born, Paul.

5. Take Lots of Naps

All nighters are going to happen. More than once. When post production rolls around, you're going to forget what going to bed before the sun comes up feels like. The only good thing about this is that your other professors may let you slide on a few assignments due to your new zombie-like nature.

So if you have a chance to fit in a nap, take it. Squeeze in an hour in between classes, or put your head down at the library for a few minutes during a study break. Doesn't matter where, but trust me, you'll need it.

6. Keep Your Cool

Tension will thicken and tempers will rise. This is what happens when seven extremely different personalities are forced to work together for four months straight, running low on sleep, food and sanity. If you are a producer or director, it is especially important for you to keep calm during these times. People are going to snap and mental breakdowns will happen, and as tempting as it is to join in the anger and misery, you have to pull through and mediate the situations.

The storm will pass, and when it does, you'll be in a much better place if you didn't punch your crew members in the face.

7. Make Sure You Like Pizza

This will be your diet for the next few months or so. Maybe you'll get some bagels and coffee in the morning on a good day, but most likely it will be frozen pizza from the night before. So suck it up, and accept the cheesy goodness that is shitty delivery pizza.

8. Appreciate Your Crew Members

Your crew is like your family. Probably more so since you spend way more time with them than anyone else. Everything you do affects the group, and you can't do much without them. And just like family, they may get on your nerves, and you'll most likely get on theirs, but at the end of the day you have to love them. This semester, I had one of the greatest groups I could ask for. I made so many friends and memories, and created something I was truly proud of. Without them, this semester could have gone horribly wrong, and I thank each of them for not kicking me out (yet). Shout out to the members of Team Falcon (Patricia, Paul, Amelia, Kelly, Mike and David) for all of the hours and hard work that you put in and sacrificing their lives to create a twenty minute short film about butterflies. I love you all!

Now all we have to do is survive the premiere...

Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights is a great show. It does not have the very clean-cut camera work like other successful drama series. It has more of a in-your-face documentary style of filmmaking. I think there is a level of honesty that not many other television shows have been able to portray. I think this rawness is what makes the show so great to watch. At least in the first season that is or when it doesn’t involve murder or a meth dealer obsessed with ferrets.

As you watch the show you feel like a part of the town and the football team. You connect with the characters, cry with them, laugh with them. It is like you are actually a part of their story.

The soundtrack will always be one of my favorites. I will always associate Explosions in the Sky with Friday Night Lights. There are such great instrumental songs played throughout the series at exactly the right time. The songs really emphasize the emotions of the show.  The most memorable song is the opening sequence theme song "Your Hand in Mine" by Explosions in the Sky.

The Friday Night Lights opening sequence is also amazing.  The compositions of the shots are put together in a very cool way. There are multiple shots dissolving into each other slowly so at one point you see them at the same time. I would post a video of the opening credits but it seems that NBC has removed it from everywhere.

One of my favorite moments has nothing to do with football. It is a sex talk between a Tami (Connie Britton) and her daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden). A situation that is often used in television as comic relief. However, this speech is very real and emotional. Just reading the text doesn’t give the scene justice but I can’t find the clip anywhere. It can be found in season 1 episode 17:

“Don’t you smirk at me right now, I am very upset! You are not allowed to have sex! You’re 15 years old! It’s not just one body part going into another body part, and the fact that you think that it’s just one body part going into another body part makes me real clear on the fact that you really are not ready for this. And I need you to be able to hear that. I need you to be able to hear me say that to you. Let me tell you what the big deal is. Let me tell you what can happen. What can happen is that you can be hurt. And you can be degraded. And you can become hard and you can become cynical and I don’t want that to happen to you. This is something that’s special. It’s something that’s meant for people who are in love. And you can wait. I want you to be able to talk to me about it."  -Tami Taylor

Most of the time when you think of Friday Night Lights you think football but it’s much more than that. It’s about love, it’s about life, it’s about loss, and it’s about breaking free of the circumstances one is born into. It’s a fantastic show. I hope everyone who hasn't seen it will watch at least the pilot and then hopefully the first season. 

An Amazing Wedding Video

I love watching wedding videos. I guess I'm a typical girl in that sense but I stumbled upon this very unique wedding video called “dead hearts: The Wedding of Victoria and Jason Evigan“.  The title is kind of ironic because it's a video about love. However, it is the title of a song by Stars played during the video. It is a Lightfield Lewis film. I haven’t seen any other wedding video like it. If I ever get married I hope my video is as beautiful and well made as this one.

I can tell so much time was put into editing this video. There are so many effects, classic movie clips, animations, and pictures incorporated throughout the piece. It transitions smoothly from one scene to another with the use of music and visuals. The video shows pre-wedding and wedding day footage but also includes some backstory in the interviews. There are so many beautiful shots. The camera really utilizes the depth of field in each shot.

The video also uses symbolism. The empty chair represents Jason’s Nana who dies a few months before the wedding. At the very end the whole video is dedicated to Nana.

I think including footage from classic and older films is very cool and unique. In the vows the bride and groom mention watching classic films together so it’s clearly a big part of  their relationship. At some points in the video I think all of the effects get to be too much but maybe that is just the style they were going for. The content of the video, the way the video was made, and the editing describes their unique love, lives, and personalities.

The only thing I dislike is the ending. The vows are too cliché for me but the rest of the video makes up for it. I don’t know these people but I got a glimpse of them and their lives watching this amazing video. It makes me hope that they will live happily ever after.