The Social Dilemma

 What I love about this film is that it delivers a large amount of useful information in a clear, and creative way. Sometimes, documentaries can be a little slow but during The Social Dilemma, I stayed engaged the whole time. I think that the dramatization of the information helps communicate it better to the audience. Every time I reach for my phone to check my social media, I think about the points brought up in the film about addiction and brainwashing. This is exactly what the director wanted for this film, for people to be impacted by it and to look at their devices through a different lens. 

My favorite technique the creators used were the skits of the family with the children who have a major phone addiction. I like how each child had a different perspective on social media with the youngest one completely consumed by her likes and followers and seems like she seeks approval from people on social media. The middle child is a little less focused on social media likes and follows but seeks a connection with someone as well as attempts to figure out what he believes and values through media. He becomes so fired up and tied into the media that he ends up getting in trouble after showing up to a protest. The oldest sister and parents seem to be the voice of reason in the media addicts' lives. They were born in a generation where technology was not worshipped as much as it is today. They see that their family members are going down dangerous rabbit holes of addiction and brainwashing. 

       

I am guilty of the issues mentioned in the film. I admit I am a social media addict too. Simply resisting it is impossible, I have to uninstall it off my phone to keep myself from scrolling all day long. Watching this film produced anger in me on behalf of people that struggle with a phone addiction. 

What I'm Currently Watching

I decided to revisit the classic (Is it a classic? It's been 20 years since the first one, IDK) Pirates of the Caribbean. Wow, I remember thinking it was good when I first watched it but it's even better now that I'm older and actually understand what's going on. The creativity is insane. I love the Marvel movies of today but their use of Special FX and CGI is sometimes excessive. With Pirates, there was a lot of this but it only added to the film. In the second movie, the undead barnacle men on Davy Jones's ship looked very realistic and disgusting. Also, Jack Sparrow is a phenomenal character.  I think that Johnny Depp for the role of Jack Sparrow and Kiera Knightley as Elizabeth Swann was spectacular choice by the director. 

                      

One thing I love about this film series is, not only is it action-packed (which I love), but it is very different from common action movies. If you think of the most popular action movies, John Wick series, James Bond series, Inception, The Matrix– the settings are always the same– in an urban or suburban area (on land). However, Pirates takes place mostly on the ocean. This must have been very hard to do for the cast, camera crew, etc., constantly being on a large ship on the water. However, their efforts were very much worth it because the film is amazing. 

JAWS

I am very impressed with "Jaws". I did not expect it to be so good. The actors– Roy Scheider who played the chief of police, Lorraine Gray his wife, Richard Dreyfuss the marine biologist, Robert Shaw the fisherman, and even the chief of police's kids– were all amazing. Their expressions, reactions, and personalities all seemed genuine.

I loved seeing the marine biologist (Hooper), chief of police (Brody) and fisherman (Quint) trio. Their contrasting personalities, jokes, and stories gave the film depth and lightened the mood. I love how the biologist thought he was better than the fisherman and vice versa– always trying to one up each other and their long stare downs. For a while I thought they were both gay for each other because of the intense stares they gave when they were on the boat. Turns out the biologist just saw the fisherman as a fascinating man, and might have even been a little envious of him since he basically lives his dream–hunting sharks his whole life, even without an education. The fisherman however, must have seen the biologist as a preppy, "educated", white boy who thought he was better than him. But deep inside I believe he respected Hooper's love for the ocean, specifically sharks. The chief of police definitely thought they were both psychopaths, hilarious, crazy, and brave. I'm sure he knew that if anyone was going to catch the shark, it would be them. 

I loved the marine biologist's personality, his passion for his work, his humor and sarcasm, his confidence in himelf. Quint was quite interesting as well, though he had a tragic ending, he was one man who has been through a lot and knows his craft. He was a shark hunting genius, and it seemed like her lived to hunt them. However, this story goes to show that sometimes the unconventional way of doing things is the best way (i.e. blowing up a shark with an oxygen tank instead of fishing for it). This shark was unlike the others– it was the final boss of the sharks, and it had a mind of its own and was very clever. It must have expected the conventional way, however, Brody's unconventional, last minute, desperation way of capturing it was unexpected. 

According to Steven Speilburg, Hooper was supposed to die in the shark cage scene, however while filming, a real great white got caught in the cage and its wires. It was filmed thrashing around trying to break free, the diver seeing this swam for his life. The director thought the scene, although an accident, looked amazing so he decided to keep it in and let Hooper survive.  <- click the link to watch the scene!

The Remarkable James Bond Soundtrack

 The use of sound –or lack of– in film is so crucial. It can either make or break a film. It adds depth and stirs emotion. I think one thing that makes James Bond so captivating is the common theme for the soundtrack in all James Bond movies. From the first film...

https://youtu.be/b15-P12gIf0

...to the last film

https://youtu.be/vw2FOYjCz38

...the soundtrack has a common theme. Yes the music becomes more and more modernized to fit into trends and more appealing to the changing audience as times goes on, but the basic notes, keys, chords stay the same. The first film soundtrack has many similarities to the last film soundtrack. You know it's a James Bond movie as soon as you hear the music. The next link shows the main theme song for every James Bond movie. My personal favorites are the last ones by far:

https://youtu.be/fudfctm6kS8

I'm using Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" as one of my walkout songs for a wrestling event. 

Adele's "Skyfall" is amazing, nothing can top that; Billie Eilish's "No Time to Die" is beautiful; and Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall" also hits different. Whoever made the soundtrack is a genius, it fits into the film very well.

What I would have done differently (FASCINATION PROJECT)

 Man... I love making funny/cool/informative Youtube videos of my travels/experiences. I am pretty good at it too. The problem with this though, is that these Youtube videos have no plot and are just for fun, so trying to think of a plot for this horror movie that me and my peers were trying to make was really hard. Given, most horror movies have crappy plots, I still wanted to make it good. 

Here is a link to my Youtube channel, give it a look. ;) 

UCD4E0i-7dt-vwRb0Jq38UCw

I think for next time, I would chose comedy because that is what I'm good at, and maybe Avant-Garde because that doesn't require much of a plot. We just put together a bunch of ideas without really any form or meaning and put spooky music in the background and we hope it gets people's heart rates rising. 

Our story was about a terrible case of sleep paralysis, where the main character gets haunted every night when she goes to sleep and she wakes up in a random place, not knowing where she is, or what she did during the night. The film starts with a shot of the protagonist waking up with blood on her hands. She doesn't know whose blood it is. The film ends with the "thing" coming at night to haunt her again. 

Objectification of Females in Films

 The director, Nina Menkes, talked about how she sees a clear connection between the visual language of cinema, employment discrimination and sexual abuse/assault. She broke down the common phrase: "The objectification of women". For example, "The man sees the woman"–– in this case the man is the subject and the woman is the object. The man is doing the looking and the woman is being looked at. This also describes male gaze which the film industry uses a lot of. In film, the woman is usually gazed at by the men. 

Men are often filmed in 3D lighting where their wrinkles and age are not being hidden because it shows them as masculine and rugged which is typically seen as attractive. However, women are "not allowed to age" and these same qualities that make a man handsome, supposedly make a woman look old and unattractive. And since in film, women are usually objects to look at that are pleasing to the eye, they are filmed in 2d and soft lighting in order to hide their "physical flaws". They are also filmed in a way so that the male protagonist or the audience can objectify them. This is because Hollywood is filled with straight, male directors and their ravenous hunger for women and their films typically reflect that. 

Research shows that after watching sexually objectifying media, men are more likely to engage in sexual harassment and abuse. 80% of the media content distributed around the world is made in Hollywood. 94% of women in Hollywood experience sexual harassment. 

How characters vary in different cultures...

There is a clear cultural difference in American and Spanish movies. In Pan's Labyrinth, the fictional character were portrayed in a very interesting way. In American movies, the "good guys" are usually handsome, or beautiful and portrayed nicely (Ex: Disney princesses, the Incredibles family, Harry Potter, etc.) whereas the "bad guys" are usually scary or gross (Ex: Voldemort from Harry Potter, Sloth from the Goonies, Syndrome from the Incredibles, I don't know who the guy next to him is but he's ugly, the Disney villains, and the clown from IT). 

However, in the Pan's Labyrinth film, it was hard to tell who was bad and who was good. This is because of the language and cultural barrier. At first, I thought that the fascist leader Vidal was a good guy because he seemed nice and put together, until he grabbed Ofelia's hand harshly. That made me start to question him, still I didn't think he was a villain but rather a strict man. I also thought the Faun was bad because of how ugly it was and I could not tell the tone of its voice because of the language barrier. Sometimes in the languages and cultures, things that people would usually think is harsh or insensitive would be seen as totally normal in that culture. For example, in Russian culture, it is weird to smile at people that you do not know and it is totally normal to tell someone they are looking chunky. People who have not experienced the Russian culture might think it's rude. 

Because of the way the Spanish auteur portrayed the characters through his personal lens, it was hard to tell who was good and who was bad until the film started to unfold. Even the fairies who were good looked creepy. Interestingly, Vidal was handsome but was probably the biggest monster in the whole film.