Week 15 Discussion

We watched a lot of great movies this summer, but I think my favorite one was Me You and Everyone We Know solely for the young child actor Brandon Ratcliff. I thought his character brilliantly captured the innocence of childhood which I thought the film portrayed really well and something we didn't talk about enough. I especially loved the scene where we see him typing  and just the language he uses and the way he types with his two index fingers and copies and pastes words was adorable. 

I also really enjoyed Get Out, because it was the first time I watched it. It was nice to see a film directed by Jordan Peele because watching Key and Peele was a big part of my childhood. It was cool to see him a part of something with a much more serious tone, and it was cool to see all the different forms of symbolism in the movie. I also thought the girlfriend was a really good actor and she knocked there role out of the park.

From this class, I learned that when I watch films I like to fully understand what's going on. If I'm confused on something I rewind and rewatch. I also really like movies with really good dialogue, especially when there is subtle humor that you would have to be paying close attention to if you want to pick up on it, like in Rear Window. I also realized that I hate movies that are super slow, like Lost in Translation which I didn't really like.

A film I would recommend for next semester would be Inglorious Bastards, because Tarentino is one of the most iconic film makers in the history of Hollywood. I think it also applies to when we were talking about camera angles/shots, because I thought the camera was used brilliantly throughout the film, like the amazing first scene and when the girl got shot. I also think it is a much better movie than Rear Window. Another great movie would be Whiplash, because its about a kid just trying to be the best at what he loves no matter the cost which I think applies a lot to an audience of student athletes which will likely be the makeup of the class in the spring.

All in all I really enjoyed this class. I am a premed student and I have pretty dense classes back to back, and coming to your class really helped me relax and it was nice to talk about things that I can actually see and watch in the real world as opposed to talking about electrons and the force of gravity. I definitely have a greater appreciation for film now and will try to watch a lot more during break while keeping in mind the concepts we learned.

Week 14 Discussion

 

This week in class we watched the Social Dilemma, which was about social media and the negative effects it has had on our society. The documentary consisted of various ex-upper level Silicon Valley engineers and executives of social media companies giving their perspectives on the harms of social media. 

The protagonist was one of these executives Tristan Harris, and all the other ones that spoke about the harms of social media. Their goals were to inform the audience about how social media does more harm than good, and how it affects our lives more than we realize. Specifically, they emphasized how these social media companies gather information on us as users and sells that information to businesses so they can know how to best place ads while we are using their apps. This leads to them trying to keep us on their apps as long as possible, so they can maximize the amount of ads. A major consequence of this is that these companies don't really care by what means they use to keep their users engaged, and they won't hesitate to use hate speech and dangerous conspiracy theories to spread on their platforms as long as it keeps people on their apps.

The doc used multiple techniques to portray these messages, like using fictional scenarios as examples that make what the experts were talking about seem more real. One example of this is how the boy joins the extremist rally, and  the "behind the scenes" of the apps with the three guys controlling what the boy sees on his phone extremely powerful. I think these worked because they made what the experts talking about seem more understandable, because its easy for their words to go over your head like in other documentaries but these scenarios really helped with that, which I think sets this doc apart.

As for cinematography, I think to the scene with the girl as she was feeling self conscious about her post, and I thin that the angle of the camera on her face really showed showed how bad social media can be for our mental health in that scene.

I thought this film was extremely culturally relevant, because today I was scrolling through Tik Tok when I came across an ad about an app that helps premeds practice for the mcat. It was only until I was watching the documentary that I realized that what they were talking about just applied to my life today, because I ended up downloading that app. It's crazy that the app knew that I'm a premed that is driven to do well academically, and that the app knew that and sent me an ad that would apply to me, and what's even crazier was that it worked because I downloaded the app.

As for how I think my social media usage will change is I'll limit to using it an hour a day, which would be a drastic change for me since my average screen time is 5 hours. But in all honesty I think I will still continue to use it as it hasn't really negatively effected me too much as I think I'm pretty responsible with how I use it.

An additional point I would like to make is that now that AI has made recent breakthroughs, specifically one called chatGPT where you can literally have it write essays for you, would it have a similar effect that social media does now.  Of course, if used responsibly AI can be a great tool for the future, but that's what the people behind social media in this documentary thought too. I fear that as AI continues to become better and more powerful, it can also do more harm as social media has started to do.

Week 13 Discussion

 

This week in class we got to watch the blockbuster Jaws which was my first time seeing it. One of the things I liked about the film was noticing all the iconic parts of the film that are still relevant today. For example, I had no idea that the deep suspenseful music was from this film. I've heard it so many times on Youtube and various places online, so I thought it was just a standard stock song, so it was cool to hear it from its original source that was this movie. Another aspect of the film I liked was the quality of the shark. Obviously by today's standards the shark looked super faker, but for being made in 1975 without all the CGI and technology movies use today I thought it didn't look bad. 

I also thought the writing was pretty solid throughout the movie. I especially liked the opening scene where we see the shark eat the first girl. That scene really illustrated the pure fear and devastation the shark can cause which really set the tone for the rest of the film. I also thought the chief was a relatable protagonist, especially in the fact with how in the beginning of the film right after the first death he urged the mayor to shut down the beach but was shut down because he said the town needs the money, which is something that still happens in the real world today.

One minor complaint I have was is why didn't they try to blow the shark up with the oxygen tank before, or use the professors poison because those two seemed like better plans than whatever they were trying with the barrels. But I feel like this is a film where you're not supposed to think too much of the reason why people do what they do which I'm okay with.

Week 12 Discussion

 For this discussion post I am going to talk about what we've talked about this first half of this week, because I kind of exhausted everything in from week 9 to week 11 in the last three posts if that's okay.

We began this week recalling Me You and Everyone we know, and we got into groups to talk about the scene that a lot of had opinions, which was of course the park scene. In our group, I expressed my opinion that I 100% agree that this movie is about that need for connection. It is evident with the relationship with the little boy and the art curator. Through out the whole scene they are messaging each other it was hilarious for the audience, but it also served the purpose of showing the reason why these two people were really messaging each other was because they yearned for connection. This is supported by the fact that the two actually meet at the park. 

It was really funny when the person the little boy was talking to the whole time was the art curator, but their interaction, although flawed (which I will explain later), showed how they really just wanted a connection with another human. This is exhibited by the little boy affectionately moves the art curator's hair.

Now, although I understand that the interaction between the two was largely about connection I still think the kiss on the lips was highly understand. In my opinion, I think the scene would have been much more impactful if the two had conversation in which the two expressed that they understand each other in the fact that they really want connection. Of course they want different forms of connection, because the art curator obviously wanted a sexual relationship with an adult and to me it appears that the boy wanted a friend. It just feels weird to me that Miranda July explicitly wanted her to kiss him on the lips, out of everything she could have done in that scene. I would have been fine if she just kissed him on the cheek, but the way it happened the way it did to me makes that scene flawed despite me believing I get the point of it.

One thing I want to highlight that I think we didn't discuss in class as much was how the innocence of a child was so perfectly displayed in this film through the little boy. I am someone that has a soft spot for children (which is part of the reason I think I didn't like the kiss scene), and I think that innocence that we all have as children is such a beautiful thing. The typing scene of the little boy was so cute, where they show him copy and pasting words instead of taking the excruciating time it takes him to type one letter at a time with his pointer fingers and it really showed what I'm talking about. Also the part where the art curator asks him online if he's "touching himself" in a clearly sexual manner, but he doesn't know that obviously. I loved how the camera pans to his fingers touching each other so he replies yes, which was genius. It's moments like these that made me really appreciate how Miranda July captured a child's innocence throughout this film which I don't think we talked about enough.

Week 11 Discussion

 

This week we got to present our movie, and I was really proud of it. We had a great time making it, and I really think that showed in the final result of what we made. By far my favorite line was the Grindr joke, and I think Joey delivered it perfectly and I felt like we got a good laugh from everyone about that. In terms of acting and my experience with it, I think I enjoyed it. I didn't really any lines but I it was fun to be on screen and being able to watch my self when we presented. I also didn't expect the amount of passion I would feel for our film. At the end of the day this was just a very amateur project, but I did feel pretty attached to it since we as a group took our time on it. It made feel like I had more respect for filmmakers after this because I'm sure they feel 10x more strongly than I did about their work, and it makes me wonder how they feel when reviews are bad and many people outwardly say their work sucks. All in all though, I am proud of our project and glad we got to show everyone in class what we did.

Later in the week we watch Me You and Everyone We Know. I enjoyed the film, and one thing I thought was extremely underrated was the music in the film. I'm someone that really cares about music in a film and usually if I like the movie I end up really liking the soundtrack. I thought the instrumentals in some of the scenes were some real bangers honestly and I thought they suited the film and the characters really well.

Before we were shown the movie Dr. Kyburz mentioned that Miranda July's films are super awkward, and I really felt it in this movie but I kind of liked it. I think it really made the film funny and by far my favorite character was the little boy Robbie. I thought he was the best actor in the movie and all his scenes I really enjoyed, especially the one where he is typing on the messenger with the art curator. I thought they way he did it was adorable and really encapsulated the innocence a child has.

Week 10 Discussion

 This week we had a blast writing the script and filming. It was so great just coming up with jokes that we wanted to see in the final project, and I feel like everyone had at least one funny thing they added into the script.  We initially wanted to do a connect 4 tournament, but we decided against it since we didn't really have access to it so we thought of something on the spot and came up with tic tac toe. I think this was better because it is something original and dumb which we thought would be the best chance of having something funny. Also, Will Ferrel movies are kind of dumb too. 

We knew that we would only have one opponent, so we had to find a way to get other people involved in a way that made sense on screen, which was a bit of a challenge since we had a big group. We then kind of thought about how sporting events are portrayed in real life, and we thought to how there are reporters and interviews with coaches and players, so we decided to make Cole and Jack reporters and Creevy as the ref. We also wanted there to be juxtaposition between the Joey, the crazy coach, and his "athlete", Braden. We thought it would be funny if Braden was just this really quite kid that get bullied by Joey, so we wanted him to look as stupid and lame as possible. There were a lot of great jokes, but by far the one I was most proud of in the script was the Grindr line that Joey came up with.

As for filming, we found that it is a lot easier when you're not trying to remember the script. In fact, the only part that was scripted is the interview with Jack and Joey. After that we pretty much winged it. We were inspired by the foosball movie we saw in class that day and we really wanted to do an overhead shot of the actual game. We also wanted to do a wide Wes Anderson style shot of me and Braden walking to begin the match. All in all, filming was by far the best part of the project and we had a blast doing it.

Week Nine Discussion

 

For our fascination project, we decided our inspiration would be Will Ferrell movies. We as a group really like his films, specifically because they exhibit a sense of humor that we enjoy. Will Ferrell plays a lot of roles, but since we are all athletes we wanted to do a movie based on sports, which is a theme found in many of Ferrells movies (Talladega Nights, Semi Pro, etc.). We first thought we should do a basketball game, where Joey would be the coach and take that "Will Ferrell" role, and he would just be really eccentric as he tries to get his team to win. Then we thought it would be more funny if it was something dumb so we decided on a tic tac toe tournament. It would be easy to film since its a sit down game, and we thought it was a unique idea as opposed to doing a stereotypical basketball game. This is all we've done so far, and we plan on starting the script next week. I wish we had more to talk about this week but this is all we had time to get done unfortunately.