CAP Hollywood: Week #3

It's hard to believe that CAP Hollywood is so close! In a couple of days, our final film will be due, and in about a week and a half, we'll get to see all of our hard work on the big screen (hopefully!!).

This week was an extremely productive week for our group. We were able to lay out our entire film. We were also able to find music. The biggest challenge we faced was that we found that our film was too difficult to understand. At the last minute, we decided to add voiceover (even though we were very hesitant, since we knew that if we were going to have voiceover, it would have to be very, very good, and not cheesy or anything like that). So, we're still working on the voiceover this weekend, which we will record next class.

This week, I was personally able to help with editing and finding music. I also finished the film poster.

As this process is wrapping up, I hope we will be able to successfully add all of our finishing touches to our film, and I also really hope that our voiceover works out.

CAP Hollywood: Week #2

This week, my group and I were able to progress a lot with our short film. We were able to finish filming and put together a rough cut of our film. So far, it looks pretty good cinematically; however, we still face the huge challenge of making our flashbacks more obvious. We're working on that though, by playing around with color settings and transitions. So far, we have roughly three minutes of our short film. We also made our credits, and found one piece of music, but we're not really sure if it works with our film.

This week, I was able to again, help with editing. Andrea and I have been working on putting everything in order and adding any transitions that we need. I also worked on the film poster this week with Fin. We still have to make some minor edits which we will do next class. Then, the poster will be finalized.

We have several goals that we want to achieve this coming week. We want to find a piece of music that will definitely work with our short film. We also will finalize the movie poster. Another goal we have is to make our flashbacks really obvious. We've been getting help with color correction and transitions which we will put in this week. We will also probably be able to lay out the entire four minutes of our film.

As CAP Hollywood gets closer and closer, my group is super excited to finishing our film!

CAP Hollywood: Week #1

 

This week, we're kicking off our editing for our CAP Hollywood project. Last week, we were able to film a bulk of our 4-minute short film, and have just one more scene to film this weekend. Our film is about a girl who steals for sentimental value. She has a box of things that she has stolen in the past to remember the people that the stolen objects belong to. In the film, we have several flashbacks that reveal the reasons behind her compulsive stealing. It is going to be a silent film, so our biggest challenge is conveying the fact that she steals for sentimental value, and not just for the sake of stealing.

This week, in class, we have been very productive and have been able to edit about thirty seconds of our film. So far, it looks pretty good! I am proud of what we have accomplished so far.

This week, I have been able to help a lot with the editing. I helped edit the first flashback in our film where our main character is seen stealing someone's jacket.

Our goal for the next week is to be able to edit the next minute and a half of our film. We hope to be able to finish about thirty seconds a day. Then, we will put it all together and embellish it. Another goal we have is to add music to our video.

We are really looking forward to being able to accomplish these goals this week and come one step closer to finishing our short film!

Angels & Demons

Yesterday, I sat down with my daddy and we watched Angels and Demons together. Now, I'm not sure how historically accurate/just plain accurate the story is (I mean, duh, I know that this never actually happened in real life, I mean certain aspects of it like the Illuminati conspiracy, which I looked up, is an actual group but some aspects of their story are fictitious) but I thought the whole plot was just fascinating. It's just that I wish I knew more about the topic to know if certain things in the film were true or not.

So here's a brief summary. I'm telling it based on what had happened in the film.

Okay, basically, the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church has died and there is a conclave to elect a new Pope. Meanwhile, at a CERN facility,  Father Silvano Bentivoglio and Dr. Vittoria Vetra are working on the development of the antimatter which can power cities with just one speck. They succeed; however, Father Bentivoglio is killed and the antimatter is stolen. The four Preferiti, the four Cardinals that are most likely to become Pope, are kidnapped. The kidnappers are the same people who stole the antimatter and are part of a group called the Illuminati. The Illuminati, in this particular film, again, I don't know a lot about their history or anything, but in the film, they are an underground movement who, during the Renaissance, had worked to support the sciences. Of course, the Church did not particularly like the advancement of science and did all they could to stop it, including killing some members. Now, the group was getting revenge. They threatened to brand the Preferiti and kill one each hour. At midnight, the antimatter would run out of batteries which will cause it to explode and "Vatican City would be consumed by light." So, the Vatican calls in Robert Langdon who helps to interperet the clues leading to the places where the four Preferiti would be killed. Thus begins the "race against time" to rescue the four Preferiti. I'm not going to tell you the ending, but it's some crazy stuff, and it also turns out that the bad guys are attacking from the inside.

The whole time while I was watching this film, I was mindblown. Especially at the end. I always knew that behind every institution is imperfection. It's unavoidable since people are not perfect. But, it's pretty crazy when you think about it. There are so many things that we don't know about, that are kept secret from the public (Watergate, anyone?). And even when we, the public, sort of "know about it," the facts might be a bit twisted. The thought is pretty scary. You probably don't know what I'm talking about right now...So, you should definitely watch the film. Usually, I can't sit through films like this. Too many historical facts/things I don't understand. But I thought it was pretty interesting.

Chicago

Maybe you've heard of a little song called, "Cell Block Tango" or maybe "All That Jazz." Well, those songs come from a little musical called Chicago. Chicago is a Broadway musical that was adapted into a film in 2002 that won six Academy Awards. The film stars Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly, and Richard Gere as Billy Flynn.

Chicago takes place in the roaring twenties where jazz was all the rage and vaudeville was extremely popular. Roxie Hart is a housewife who has ambitions of becoming a showgirl on Vaudeville. She goes to a club with  Fred Casely, with whom she has an affair. He promises to get her on Vaudeville through his connections; however, he reveals that he lied about his connections and that he was going to abandon her. Enraged, she shoots him three times, killing him. She is put in prison where she meets a famous showgirl, Velma Kelly, who is arrested for killing her husband and sister who were having an affair. The women at the Cook County Jail tell their tales of how they killed their loved ones through my favorite number in Chicago, "Cell Block Tango." The next day, Roxie's naive husband, Amos, who is completely devoted to her finds enough money to hire one of Chicago's most prominent lawyers, Billy Flynn, who is known for his "smooth talkin' ways" and his method of making celebrities out of his client in order to win support from the public. Through Billy, Roxie becomes famous which makes Kelly jealous. The two begin a rivalry. By the end of the film, the court rules that Roxie is not guilty. She is no longer famous and therefore, is left with nothing. At the very end of the film, she sets off to find a career in Vaudeville. After Velma is released as well, the two decide to work together in a two-person acts. Although the rivalry between them still exists, Velma insists that in show business, competition and rivalry is something that can't be avoided.

Overall, I really, really like this film because of its amazing portrayal of Vaudeville, and all the glitz, glamor, and craziness of the Jazz Age. With all of the scandal, seqins and jazz, it's like you're in Chicago in 1920 with all of the flappers and showgirls. The music is great, and the cast is also terrific. Catherine Zeta-Jones is amazing, and of course Richard Gere is fabulous. Here's the trailer. Enjoy!

Dances with Wolves

A couple of nights ago, I watched Dances with Wolves with my mom. It was one of her favorite films growing up and it was the first time I had seen it, and it was terrific! At first, I was like, "Boo, another historical fiction film, eww," but I watched it anyways, and I'm glad I did.

Dances with Wolves takes place during the time of the Civil War and is about a Union lieutenant named John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) who is assigned to a psot in South Dakota, where a tribe of Sioux Indians live. He is fascinated by their lifestyle and decides to abandon his lifestyle to live with them. At first, the Sioux are not very friendly (duh, since the government was trying to relocate them, and didn't treat them so nicely), but Dunbar proves to be a good person, so they become more accepting of him. Dunbar's new name becomes, "Dances with Wolves" and he falls in love with a white woman who was raised by the Sioux (her family's home was ambushed when she was young. She ran away, and the tribe took her in). As Dances with Wolves is enjoying his new life, Unnion soldiers arrive and attempt to take the Sioux land. And then things get crazy.

Dances with Wolves is just beautifully made. The cinematography is well-done and helps to emphasize the scenery which is just gorgeous. It also won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Here's the trailer. Enjoy!

Red Dawn

So, you're probably thinking that I'm talking about the 2012 Red Dawn, but this blog post is about the 1984 version of Red Dawn. The film stars prominent actors in the 80's including Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howells, Jennifer Grey, and Charlie Sheen. The first time I saw the film, I was vacationing in Florida. It was on television and for some reason, there was an encore presentation after the first presentation, so I watched it twice. I remember just crying after I saw it the first time, it was so sad.

Red Dawn is a made up story about the Cold War in which communist groups from the Soviet Union, Cuba and Nicaragua take over the United States; as a result, a group of teenagers have to leave home and hide in order to keep from being imprisoned. After killing some Soviet troops that they come across in the woods, they decide to form a rebel group called "The Wolverines." As the Cold War heats up, and the communists groups are taking over more and more of the US, the Wolverines join forces with military groups and organize an armed resistance against the intruders. And of course, I am not going to give away the ending, so you'll just have to watch it to see what happens.

I typically like most genres of films. Okay, that's not completely true, but I am open to watching different types of films (except fantasy films. I can't stand those. No offense.), and usually, war movies just depress me as this film did but it's just a terrific, terrific movie, and I guess you learn some things about history even though this is entirely made up, it has some Cold War elements/facts in it. I really enjoyed it because I"m a big fan of eighties movies, and this film, in my opinion, is a notable eighties film. Overall, I think Red Dawn is an extremely well done film, and you should definitely check it out.