New Trend of Books to Movies

One thing that has been evident lately in films is the increase of non classic books being made into films. Good examples of this recently would be Cloud Atlas, Silver lining's playbook, Perks of Being a Wall Flower, and Killing Them Softly. This makes it clear that book adaptations are no longer strictly based on overall popularity. Filmmakers have become more daring with their choice of script material, and making un popular books into popular movies. This has an indirect effect on the sales of such books, so overall its a good thing because it increases the sales of literature. Audiences desire to read the book and compare it to the movie. Whether filmmakers realize it or not they are anyway promoting literacy. This new trend is helped by the longer average duration of movies, which allows for more detail. The new emergence of movies based on novels seems to have a positive effect on different kinds of art, and seems to only be growing.

Cloud Atlas

A few weeks ago I saw the movie Cloud Atlas. I thought it was a great movie that really capitalized on the versatility of actors. The movie displayed landmark performances from several up and coming actors, and already popular actors. This also had the highest budget of any independent film to date. This goes to show the new emergence of independent films as competition for large studio films. One remarkable aspect of this film is the use of special effects and makeup to transform the actors into completely different characters. Some actors even had up to five or six roles throughout the movie, eliminating the need for a wide range of actors. This allows more characters to be played by great actors, and really showcases how good of actors they really are. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone that enjoys challenging and complex plot lines along with amazing special effects.

Clint Eastwood is Beast

         

            One of my favorite movies of all time is Gran Torino. This is a movie that is great, not because of violence and explosions, but because of the amazing storyline and great acting. In this movie Clint Eastwood was the director and main actor. This seems like it would be extremely tough to do. To have to manage everyone on set, get in character, and just be the boss of everything would be a crazy load for a man of 82. That and he did outstanding in his role of a bitter old man and just being straight up BA. I have always wondered what kind of education and career somebody must have before they can convince someone that they can direct and star in a feature length film. I have seen other actors like Ben Stiller, Ben Affleck, and George Clooney and do very well acting in great films. I am just baffled that a man as old as Cli

Great Video!

           I'd Like to start by saying this music video is freakin amazing. It is stop-motion, the entire background is jellybeans, it took 22 months, 1357 hours, 30 people, and 288,000 jellybeans. Because of this music video Kina Grannis, the singer, jumped up to being a much more popular artist. Since her and her team took so much time to make an amazing video they now are much more popular and well known. She now continues to make crazy awesome music videos, along with good songs, to build an even larger fan base. Thats something that I love about any kind of film. It can make someone with enough drive, determination, and a dream to a highly respected artist. Unlike other careers it truly depends on whoever wants it the most and puts the most work towards it to get ahead. Every time I see a video like this and hear a story like Kina Grannis' I always feel inspired to try and do the same thing.

Big Money, Big Actors

It is interesting how one actor can make or break how popular movies or television shows can turn out. There have been multiple times I have seen which actors were in a movie and wanted to see it without even watching the trailer. For me those actors are probably Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe, Gerard Butler, and a few more. Or theres movies where they throw in a ton of famous actors into one movie and instantly get a huge audience. Movies like Tropic Thunder and first and second The Expendables had a large cast of very popular stars and drew in a large number of viewers. Thats one thing I don't like about the industry. Im not saying these are bad movies, but I feel its a cheaper way to get people to come and watch. If companies have a lot of money they can hire big actors and instantly make a lot of money, no matter how good the actual movie is. I'd rather make a no name actor a popular one after being in a great movie. I give low budget movies that become popular a lot of credit, saying they can beat the big production companies without the money they have.

Lincoln

Over the weekend I saw the new movie Lincoln in theaters. Just to start I thought it was an amazing film. Great acting and a great interpretation of Lincoln's legacy, as far as I have learned from school. To me it seems like no matter how the movie is made, movies based on true stories get a leg up on other movies. I don't know if I've seen one of these movies that I haven't liked, not to say there aren't any but I just haven't seen one. But the movie Lincoln was awesome because how factual it was and just how well made it was. It's tough to make a movie when everyone that watches already knows what is going to happen and your still on the edge of your seat at the end. Thats exactly what Lincoln did, and why it was great. I would recommend it to anyone, rather you like history or not.

Commercial Kings

        

        Is it really considered selling out if all someone might want to do with there filmmaking skills is make advertisements? I don't believe this it true. As a matter of fact, besides product placement, I don't think a lot of things many people consider to be selling out actually so. Like advertising it could be just what a lot of people love to do. I hope after graduating from college to maybe do free-lance or join an ad agency and make commercials or something like that. As of right now I don't know how great I would be at making feature length films, or even short 10mins films, but I know I love making like mini videos. I believe if its something you love to do then it is in no way selling out. On the other hand if you hate what you do and do it for the sole purpose of making money then maybe you should seek a new career. The guys in this picture are a great example of someone that does what they love even though some may call it selling out. They have there own show about them making cheesy commercials for local companies that need help getting their name out there. 

The Routine

To produce a film about a tragedy right soon after it happened is always a tough situation. I don't know if you call it stupid or gutsy. I think in most cases it turns out good for the makers of the film because they are the first to capture how hundreds, or even thousand, of people must have been feeling after the events. But if it does happen to be too soon after the tragedy or offends people it could have dire consequences. That is a reason I appreciated the short film The Routine: Reflections from Ground Zero. It seemed to be a good timing, and the makers thought of it quick enough to even get the actual building. I can't say for sure but it probably connected people to the film and made them feel that there weren't alone. Aside from that it is just a well made film. It keeps you guessing what is going on until it is revealed at the end, then you really feel something for the characters in the story.

Power of Music Videos

Do you ever wonder how a song that doesn't make any sense, or just plain has bad lyrics becomes popular? A lot of it has to do with the music videos. There are so many songs that become popular that sound terrible or can't even be understood. One good example of this is a video by a well known you-tuber named Tobuscus. This video is hilarious but the sound really has no meaning. After this song was published and put on Itunes it became the number one hit in multiple other countries. This is Ironic because it may sound decent but cant be understood by people of the places it became popular. 

Another great example is the sound Gangnam Style. Within no time it became the number one watched video on youtube with over 850 million views. This song has been number one on Itunes for several weeks and in the top ten on itunes for a few months. This song can't be understood by most people in the world, yet it is extremely popular because of the music video.

The Stain

I guess to start out I will just say that I did not enjoy watching The Stain. I just thought that the story was very disturbing and the animations just added to the creepiness. When the whole question of, "why does some art seem ugly" comes up, this was the short that I thought of. I believe there is a kind of art for everyone that just seems kind of off, and thats what this was for me. Although we discussed the things that happened in this story happen is real life too, but its not something that people want to be reminded of and shown. I guess if your inspiration was two old women murdering each other over some stain, its probably a giveaway that it may be a little disturbing. I think over all of that stuff the worst part of the film for me was the clips of live action mixed in with the animations. It just made the connection between the disturbing film and real life, something I'd rather not think about.

Tree of Life

After seeing The Tree of Life yesterday I guess its fair to say that I was very confused and didn't know what to think about it. I did feel like after hearing peoples discussions after the movie I kind of had more of a grasp on the movie, but just to an extent. I thought all the random beautiful shots was probably somewhat showing how God is everywhere and always with us, from the smallest to the largest aspects of life. Even after thinking this though, I still don't understand most of the beginning, then the last twenty minutes at all. It makes sense why this film didn't show in a lot of movie theaters when it first came out. It seemed that even with a full room of film lovers and film makers, a lot of people didn't understand the movie what so ever, or even enjoy it for that matter. I don't know how most movie goers would respond to a movie that is so different. Thats probably why it was nominated for an oscar but has a low rating on imdb. I also think it is kind of funny that even the picture that I am using for this blog would make anyone completely confused. I guess its a good representation of the movie.

Poetry

Throughout the entire movie Poetry Mija is searching for what to write her poem about and a beautiful way to say it. As she is doing this she is running into many obstacles like facing the fact that her grandson was raping a girl who committed suicide and just being diagnosed with Alzheimer. After starting her poetry class she decides to take notes over everything she sees that translates into something poetic. After hearing the poem at the end of the movie that threw all of her ideas and thoughts together I wonder if she was searching for a poem, or answers to what was going on in her life. Whenever she was faced with those issues she seemed to have a breakdown and lose it. Like when she went into her grandsons room and started yelling at him or the few times she would just start crying out of nowhere. It wasn't until her poem was done that she found an inner peace and came to a conclusion that she wanted to end her life (At least thats how I like to think this movie ended). I believe she was confused about so many things in her life, she subconsciously answered them with her scattered thoughts put together, and decided how to end her struggles.

Paperman

This weekend I went to the movie Wreck it Ralph in theaters and really enjoyed all of it, but there was something that happened before the movie that I found very interesting. It was a showing of the short animation Paperman that was about 5-8 minutes long. This animation was unexpectedly very entertaining and a great joy to watch. It is already being talked about as a definite contestant for an oscar nomination for best animated short of the year. After watching this I wonder what are the reasons that Disney would make a short like this. Now I know that money shouldn't be the sole reason to make art but when the short is just being played before a feature film I feel like it gets down played a lot. Another reason could be to try and win awards, but to make a time consuming short like that and the actual chances that they win or even get nominated for awards are very slim. Hopefully the reason Disney made this short was to just entertain and get a good message out to the audience, but who knows. If that is the reason that Disney makes these kind of shorts it makes me give them some props. That they aren't making money and probably aren't just doing it for an Oscar is honorable. The only thing that disappointed me was during the actual Wreck it Ralph movie. When two kids were playing a racing game, one of them set down a Subway cup and the screen instantly zoomed in on it. Instantly I thought, "Cmon Disney" because it seemed to be the only product placement, plus it seems like Disney should already have enough money to make a movie without one product plug.

Just Terrible

A scene from one of the greatest worst movies Ive ever seen

       Why is it that people make such bad movies and is there actually some kind of art to it? If you watch the Syfi channel you probably know what I mean when I say terrible movies. These movies are so bad that theres no way the director and producer were trying to make an actual good movie, right? The one thing this is interesting about these movies though is that in being so bad they become somewhat popular and actually make money. For an example, the movie Sharktopus is about a shark octopus hybrid that was made for the military, but breaks free and terrorizes beaches. I don't know if you have seen or heard of it but I know quite a bit of people that have watched and enjoyed it. Now I'm not going to lie, I do somewhat enjoy watching these movies just to get some laughs too, because I sometimes find them more funny than actual comedy movies, but is this something that anyone could do, or is there actually some talent in making these? In my opinion it doesn't really take much work to make a movie like this. As long as you have a core group of bad actors, fake special effect, and a ridicules story line. Another thought I get is if this would be considered selling out on the directors part? I guess it just depends on if the guy who made this really loves making terrible films or if he just knows that people are going to watch it because of the crazy titles and cheap laughs. I like to believe that he just likes to make people laugh with awfulness. Especially since the producer of Sharktopus has also produced over 50 other movies just like this one.

Christians seeing politics

How can you vote for one party without siding with some non Christian beliefs. We all know that in politics there are two parties that are always head to head, the republican and democratic parties. Both of these sides have beliefs that I completely agree with, and beliefs that I don't. Some issues that come up are legalizing gay marriage, abortion laws, well fare, and obviously a lot of money issues. Im sure there are Christian morals that have a say in all of these topics. To start out democrats tend to side more with legalizing gay marriage and giving women more choice when it comes to aborting an unborn baby, which are both definitely against Christian morals. Then theres republicans that tend to think that well fare needs to be reduced and we need to give less to those who don't work or live strictly on government money. I don't think this follows Christian morals either because we should try to give to those less fortunate than ourselves, and although we could all use the money it seems to be just a bit selfish. One of the speakers at the lecture spoke about God's government and how it should punish evil and praise good, which is how as Christians should look at the election. Instead of sticking with one side just because you've already labeled yourself as a republican or democrats is crazy. We should figure out which candidate is in it more for the good and less for the greed. 

Song of Sparrows thoughts

Even though this movie is entirely in a different language and I couldn't understand a lick of what they were trying to say, I could completely understand everything that was going on. I even found myself at times drifting away from the subtitles and just focusing on the screen. Majid Majidi does an outstanding job moving the movie along and making it clear what is happening without understanding the dialogue. At several points throughout the movie he emphasizes several emotions, comedy, and tragedy that are clear without dialogue. The comedy was obvious with things like Karim pushing the boy into the dirty water when someone yelled snake, or when he has all the different people on the back of his bike. Then there are moments when you can really see how Karim is feeling. For example when he was told he had lost his job you notice that he just looks empty and he is broken. Then when the fish fall all over the street its as if the young boys' dream were snatched away in an instance. Then moments that we see change in Karim is when he puts that rich man's new shirt on and looks in the mirror, it appears that at that moment he believes he wants that kind of life. Or when he watched his kids make very grown up decisions and Karim releases the bird, it shows that he realizes he has what he needs and it isn't material things. All of these things are presented and easily understood without even having to use dialogue throughout the entire movie.

JacobCross

    Hey there!  My name is Jacob Cross and I am a film production major here at Huntington University. At Huntington I am a freshman and play for the tennis team. I was born and raised in Jackson, Michigan and am now 18 years old. I became interested in film when I was young and made funny little sketches with my friends and it has grown ever since. More recently I have made videos to promote events at my church, for skits in my spanish 4 class, or just for fun when I am feeling creative. another reason I am interested in film is the fact that I love to watch great movies. I am currently trying to collect as many best picture films as I can and watch them all. My favorite types of films drama, or action movies. Some of my favorite movies would have to be Braveheart, Gran Torino, Slumdog Millionaire, and Inception to name a few. 
          My plan right now is to minor in business and focus on marketing so after I graduate I can create short films or advertisements for companies that need to get their word out. I want to minor in business so I can be independant and own my own advertising company.