I'm going to miss this.

Do you ever sit somewhere and just sit there dwelling on something, thinking "I'm going to miss this?" It's how I feel about this class. It was pretty much my favorite class. It had a lovely mix of people, stories, and a bit of learning, all of which I fell in love with. I don't think there was a single class where I did not have a smile on my face at some point. Either there was other people enjoying something, which made me smile like a domino effect, or having a little sub-conversation in the back, or something witty being spoken out into the class. It doesn't feel like it should be over, you know? It feels like there should be another class, were we waste half the time since someone posted something on the blogs that needed addressed, or we had an awesome reading guide test.

I loved sitting where I sat with the people I sat with, though I kinda wish I sat with other people, just to see what it's like from their viewpoint, and maybe get to know other people that I barely talked to better. It probably would have had a bit less giggling. Just a tad.

I'm going to miss sitting next to the people I sat next to, and staring awkwardly at David till he stops drumming on the table, and watching videos all the time. I'll miss sharing meaningfull glances with Amanda about a joke only we know about, or saying Kelsey, Kelsey over and over again only to say, You're a wizard Harry! I'm going to miss how half the time Kyle's head blocked me from most of Leeper's sight. Sitting there with out a computer, since I fail to own a Macbook pro. It's like I fell in love with this class or something.


Be my Penguin?

Amélie

Amélie

I had watched a few scenes of Amélie before but never the entire movie. I watched Amélie this week and I enjoyed it immensely. This movie is just gorgeous. I feel like this movie has caused me to fall in love with French style cinematography. The camera angles were constantly Different than what I am used to, which I understand is normal but I appreciated that there seemed to be so much thought involved in each shot. It made me feel like the movie I was watching truly loved by it's creators.
The color story was captivating. There was so much red and warm colors, and rich green. The entire movie felt like a rich, beautiful, romantic dream. The amount of detail in the color of each set was really awesome.
The story was so well written in my opinion. It was fascinating and, let's be honest, it was adorable. Amélie thought in a way that was unique, and intriguing, and child-like. Her character and everything she did just made me happy:
I just loved Amélie.


Perhaps I should just transfer to a film school in France. Or something.

Nicole Dreiski

I totally forgot to post my blog on Nicole Dreiski's visit until I saw Leeper’s email. Here's what I had to say:

Nicole was really inspiring and grounding for me. I think many times I over think projects that I work on, and I get stressed, and I end up turning them into something that i can't appreciate. When Nicole said "The mind can't hold both negativity as appreciation" that really spoke to me. Not only in my own work but also in other's, I am learning to focus on the appreciation. This brings me back to the quote about if something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly. It is a skill that as artists we must learn to choose what we take away from all aspects of art. So often people complain about certain parts of, for example, a film. But as artists we must choose to appreciate what has made the film beautiful and we must choose to not focus on the negative. After all, Nicole said we are simply temporary owners of our bodies. We create for God, not ourselves.

God in films

I wrote this and forgot to post it. I wrote it the day we read Joel's blog. Rachel Larson said something about God being in the films and this is what I thought on the matter. (I talked to her about it after class, we didn't dive too deeply into the idea, but I just wanted to see if anyone else had something to add. I am most definitely open to what anyone has to say)

In class we were talking about if God was in fact in the films we were watching. I was thinking about this, and my question is, does God always have to be in everything? I'm sure if we sat together in class, between the lot of us we could find God in a million places in each film. I'm most definitely not saying God isn't in everything we have watched so far, but what if He isn't? Sometimes someone has a story to tell, and maybe they don't believe in God, or have an background in Christianity, but they still can change someone's life - right? Maybe Feather Tale didn't have a definite God moment, and it was intimately disturbing, and yet served a purpose for the greater good of the world. God is good, but maybe he isn't the only good in this world. I think maybe there are times when a story is a story. That doesn't mean it can't have an impact on someone's life. Maybe I'm just over thinking it, or maybe I don't really get what I'm trying to say. I honestly don't have a firm opinion on the matter, but this just sparked a thought in my mind that I wanted to put out on the blogs.

Buried

I was thoroughly impressed with Buried. I watched it for the first time this week and during the entire movie was waiting for the moment when Ryan Reynold’s character, Paul Conroy, was unburied. But 3/4 of the way though and he was still in the box (I won't spoil the ending for anyone). It was just amazing that for such a long period of the movie they used one small set. I imagine there were times when it proved to be difficult - they probably had multiple boxes for different angles/shots, but it seemed so simple and yet I never was bored watching it. I thought it was really interesting how throughout the movie Conroy used several different light sources. The cellphone was created a blue light, the glow stick was green, the flashlight was orange and red, and the lighter created a yellow light. Small little changes in the scene made it continuously interesting visually. I think without this sort of effect on the lighting the coffin would have quickly become a boring set. I read that the movie was shot in 17 days total. I feel like you have to really know how to tell a story to be able to take a movie like this and have it capture the audience. I felt anxiety, and suspense, and I was drawn in the entire time. The budget was less than two million dollars. This is good filmmaking. Taking something minimalistic and creating a great film out of it. I really enjoyed buried.

Passing Hearts / The Winter People

Passing hearts is most definitely one of my favorites of the short films we have watched in class. There is something beautiful about telling a story just the way it is, and not changing everything around to explain it. For example, The Winter People was a really nice idea. The cinematography was nice, the actors were good, the story was clever, and then they just explained everything. I find when short films end up explaining the story rather than telling it I find myself getting less out of what the filmmakers were trying to convey. With Passing Hearts I just watched, and experienced the film. Everything came naturally. While everything was explained, I didn't have to think to figure it out - they were simply telling a story.



Passing Hearts: http://vimeo.com/10222372

Waltz with Bashir

Tonight I truly realized the power of animated documentaries. The way Folman portrayed everything from the flashbacks to the dream of Folman’s friend was brilliant. Throughout the entire movie I felt like it being animated made it so much more powerful, and moving. The last several minutes of the movie switched to actual live action footage of the results of the massacre in a refugee camp. For me this took everything that the documentary had shown me and made it so much more real. I think mixing the two styles worked well with each other. The animations showed the flashbacks in great detail, which helped the viewers to understand the story in a depth which live-action could not have done – and honestly, it would have been too horrific for me personally to watch – but the short, raw footage of the refugees took that understanding and made it concrete

Before the scene turned from animation to life-action, the victims walking through an alley had faces frozen with terrorized expressions. They walked through the city, forever changed by the horrors they had lived. They would never be the same. This, combined with the live-action footage really helped me to understand the entire documentary. It was no longer an animated documentary, it was the lives and stories of so man humans.

Heima

“We had been traveling [the world] for a long time around the world and we wanted to come here and just play for Iceland…”

Translated into English, Heima means, “at home.” The band Sigur Rós toured around their homeland of Iceland playing live shows across the country. They filmed the entire thing and in 2007 released the documentary of it. I am a decent fan of Sigur Rós. I don’t know every song, or own all of their albums, but that didn’t at all hinder the viewing experience of the documentary. Throughout their tour, the band played in random locations: open fields, abandoned factories, and even a small coffee shop. It was comical, and yet beautiful how they would set up their equipment and lights, and then people would just start showing up to watch a live show in the middle of nowhere.

My favorite scene (which can be viewed at 0:40:00 – video below) was in the coffee shop. It was packed. Old couples were drinking tea, families eating breakfast. There were quite a bit of children. They sat, perfectly quite with a look of awe on their face. Music so beautiful, it captures the attention of anyone and everyone in the room. Captivated, a room full of people sit and watch – it’s just beautiful. Even if you have never heard of Sigur Rós, I highly suggest you watch the documentary, Heima.

Glee

I’m sitting here in the MCA at 2:00 AM waiting for a DVD to rip. I am watching Glee and it sparked me to want to write a blog. In this episode one of the girls, Brittany S. Pierce, announces to her friends that she is running for student body president. Right after this, the show goes into a song where all of the girls are dressed pretty skanky. In the show they said the school hadn’t had a female student body president ever before. The second they mention women in power the entire focus goes to a group of girls dancing down a hallway in half-unbuttoned shirts, short skirts, and altogether provocative clothing. — I think before coming to this school, and excuse the shameless plug but taking Leepers intro to DMA, I definitely wouldn’t have noticed this at all. — Why is it that the second women power, or women’s rights is mentioned do we have a room full of girls dressed sexually, and dancing sexually. I really thought these sorts of issues were handled already. I mean, obviously, as a flawed race we will never get over racism, sexism, or any other ism that causes a lot of strife in our society. I just didn’t think that mainstream media STILL would turn straight to sex when dealing women in power. Maybe I was blind to this, or just used to it – which angers me. It’s not much but I feel like… at least I noticed it now. How much are they hurting women rather than empowering them. Honestly I was too frustrated to finish the episode before typing this, so I don’t yet know the outcome, but somehow I feel like I already know they aren’t going to add anything that changes my mind on this episode. I don ‘t know if the writer did this for a specific reason, or if they are just following the mainstream standard of exploiting sex. But either way it is saddening to live in a society that does this.

Un Jour

I was really moved with today’s class. The videos we watched were very powerful, and even though some parts of the videos were not east to watch, I think sometimes that in necessary to push your message out into the world. However, Un Jour used a different approach than the other films, and this one happened to be my favorite. The imagery and animation was really stunning. When she walked up the stairs, you seemed to see a wall, but as the “camera” tilts up you notice this is her apartment; I love when animators do these sort of “camera tricks.”

When the woman and her man first go outside, the music is sort of happy and friendly. When they are eating soup, the score changes to a slow, repetitive sort of boring song. Their life becomes a habit. Even though she is not happy with this life, she accepts that he at least fills the hole within her. It’s sad that she would settle for this, but he wasn’t leaving so she decided to just accept the situation. Until he left. He left her with a hole that would never get filled again. It is unacceptable to live in a society where one settles for something so life altering like a spouse. As a community of Christians, and possibly stretching even further from that, we have been taught to only accept the idea of family. One should never have to hide their pain, their suffering, and their depression from others just to be accepted into society. It’s just wrong.

12:08 East of Bucharest

I have to admit this movie was my least favorite of the movies shown at Signs & Wonders. I felt like there were two parts to this movie, and there wasn’t much connecting them. The firs half of the movie seemed pieced together and it really didn’t explain too much. The second half consisted of a local television show, which in my opinion had its ups and its downs. Maybe this movie isn’t about characters, or a particular story, but I felt somewhat lost the whole time – which Professor Michelson warned us would possible happen due to the high amount of Romanian “inside jokes.”

"Was it or wasn't it a revolution in their town?" I will say the content during the televised scene was the best part of the movie. The humor was so dry that – I have no idea… it was just extremely dry. It was good though. The way they kept going back and forth about the revolution and the way they continuously asked Manescu if he was, in fact, outside during the time the “revolution” took place. I guess overall I would say I was glad I watched it, but there have been others (The Apostle, Dead Man Walking) that I have enjoyed more.

Blood Simple

I have a preconceived idea on how I thought Blood Simple was going to unfold. There would be a good guy and a bad guy, and the bad guy would always be a step ahead of the good guy, but for some unknown reason the bad guy would not actually make an attempt to kill the good guy until the near end. I was thinking it would be a stereotypical thriller. I found myself surprised that this movie was not at all a copy of most popular thriller movies. The plot began to unfold and each character was put in situations I didn’t at all expect to happen. There was no precise good guy, or bad guy. Each character acted individually to create a twisted and tangled web of suspense. I really enjoyed how the focus shifted to each character. The movie started with Abby being the one in danger; she felt like her life was threatened by her husband. As the movie progress the focus changed to each character, which I really thought made the movie different than any that I have seen. In the end, after murders, cover-ups, and more, it all comes back to Abby. She fights for her life in the end, not actually knowing anything that had happened throughout the movie – despite the fact that she was involved in all of it. I thought this was a really cool twist. She thought she was fighting her husband the whole time, but it was the private investigator that her husband had fired. This movie was definitely a unique thriller that was unlike any others that I have seen.

Hans Rookmaaker

I have found myself humbled over the past few weeks. The Christian in a Changing World, by Hans Rookmaaker opened my eyes to a few things. I think we, as Christians, get wrapped up in our own beliefs and sort of forget that out there is an entire world of people. We go to church, and read our Bibles, and judge everyone else. That's probably a harsh statement, but in so many ways it is true. I have had homosexual friends throughout the past few years. When one of my friends first told me he was gay I was shocked to the point where I nearly ruined our friendship. I stopped talking to him completely for several months. After growing up in the church my entire life all I was told was that homosexuality is a sin, it is bad, you will go to hell; why wasn't anyone teaching me to love the sinner? Instead of loving my friend I stepped away and felt the need to distance myself from him. We're always taught to love the sinner, and not the sin... but this theology seems to pick and choose to who it applies.

In class we discussed the mosque being built by the world trade center. I had my own opinions on this. I was ready to defend my beliefs with ten different points. Professor Leeper talked about if Christians stood with the ones wanting to build the mosque, and to be honest I was sort of shocked, but I began to think. I still don't have my own views on this completely figured out, because what was said in class made me step back and reexamine the situation, but I am thinking differently now. My whole life this one theology was thrown my way, believe these things, don't do those things; maybe they're right and maybe they're wrong but I'm thinking for myself now. I listen to professor Leeper talk about this building of the mosque and I think to myself that maybe I need to stop being caught up in my own Christian world and realize I'm living in a world that is post-Christian. I will love my friends who make life decisions I may not think is moral instead of walking away because I feel uncomfortable. Like Rookmaaker says, We cannot expect people follow our rules.

A recent guest speaker, Andrew Marin, spoke on the topic of loving everyone. He quoted Billy graham saying, “It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge, and it's my job to love." I think this might be the most profound, yet easily simple message I have heard from anyone in the church. This quote should be thrown up on every wall of every church across America, so that every time we are faced with a situation in which we are faced with post-christian world views, we remember our place; we remember we are here to serve God, and we are here to love.

The 3D phenomonon

I recently saw The Lion King at the movie theater. It has been quite a few years since I have seen the movie and I really didn't remembered much about it. If you don't already know, the movie has been rereleased in 3D at movie theaters. I have seen a decent amount of movies in 3D, and though I find few people that side with me, I don't find it to be as much of an enjoyable experience as others. I have seen several Imax movies, hosted by museums, in 3D which is a completely different experience than the average blockbuster 3D movie. I really enjoy the experience I get in 3D documentaries or educational films. The problem is I don't understand the point in using it for every other movie being released. Creating 3D movies and animations is an art, but it's now being layered onto every movie to add appeal. 3D is "cool." The Lion King was still the same old movie for me. The biggest difference was the movie theater experience (children screaming, kicking my chair, etc.), not the 3D. Some movies are shot specifically to be released in 3D, which I guess is okay, but then you have movies that are converted to "3D" in post. This bothers me even more. In my experience you basically only need to wear your provided glasses for about ten minutes throughout the movie. I think 3D movies have become overrated and I just ultimately don't enjoy them. I feel like 3D has become the equivalent to throwing violence or sex in a rated R movie. It's like the kids version of sex; it sells. I hope this massive 3D bandwagon holding every mainstream production company breaks down and falls apart.



P.S. I may invest in some 2D glasses for the future - http://www.2d-glasses.com/

The Apostle

I enjoyed The Apostle much more than I originally thought I would. I felt as if Sunny's character greatly resembled the church. The church is so flawed in many ways, and rarely is there not drama causing pain to members of the church. Sunny was flawed but never let that stop him. While he was struggling in many ways, he continuously pulled strangers out of bars, told others about Christ, etc. I have had distasteful experiences in different churches throughout my life, and I think that has caused me to put walls up. It was eye opening to see how flawed he was, but that he never stopped trying to save the world around him through God. He accepted everyone and anyone who wanted to worship God with him.

Small Pleasures

One day last year I stumbled upon this short film, and I have watched it over and over since that day. No matter how many times I watch it, and know the ending, I still feel like it impacts my life in some way after each viewing. It's amazing to me how companies can spend millions of dollars creating explosions, massive wars, etc., but a small company with a simple idea can create something so beautiful - a video of a man who knows the secret to life.

Small Pleasures (Μικρές Χαρές) 2008

by MovieTeller

Howdy

My name is Kevin Turner. I am from Houston, Texas. I am a freshman studying film production. In the future I would like to work with music videos and short films. I find music videos to be interesting - I enjoy telling a story in under four minutes. To be honest I wouldn't say I was very cultured when it came to movies. I often pick and choose instead of exposing myself to a wider range of movies. With the help of some of my friends I have been branching out into more diverse movies this week, and I plan to continue with this. With that said, my top three favorite movies are The Fall, Last Night, and The Secret of Kells.

Also, people in Texas don't say "howdy".