Shoot Out!

This was my team's video for this year's 48 Hour Shootout. We were an Honorable Mention.

I Feel a Song Coming On

This isn't a project for Media 1020. It's a video I made with some friends at the end of last summer that I wanted to include in my application. I co-wrote and co-directed it, and arranged the music. I also edited the whole thing.

Your Hamartia is Showing

            It’s the simple story of boy meets girl in high school. Dave’s an average guy who is too shy or uninterested to talk to girls. After an interesting homecoming dance, he has met a girl, Rachel, who he thinks he likes. After dating for a few months, they realize they’re just friends. They continue their friendship until that summer, when Dave realizes he’s in love with her. She just started dating another guy. After a few months of that, she breaks up with him, and Dave confesses his true feelings. She tells him that she likes him as a friend.

            The hamartia of Dave is his liking of Rachel at the wrong time. For the first half of the film, when the two of them begin to date upon meeting, it should feel very fake. The audience should want to tell the characters that they’ve leaped into things much too quickly, and that their relationship needs a strong friendship at the base. This could be paralleled by a close friend to Dave, who is in a successful relationship, as he and his girlfriend were close friends before they began dating. Had he and Rachel taken the time to truly get to know each other before starting to date, none of the mess that makes up the film would unfold.

            The peripetieia of the film is when Dave finds himself head over heels for Rachel. They’ve just spent a few months growing in friendship and coming up with inside jokes. One morning Dave wakes up and realizes what’s happened. He’s obviously too late, as Rachel’s reciprocated feelings for him have come and gone. The audience should be sympathizing with Dave here, as the more time we’ve seen them together, the more they’ve liked Rachel as well. It’s a reversal because prior to it, Rachel liked Dave and now he likes her.

            The anagorisis of the film occurs when Dave finally confesses him feelings to Rachel. They return to the same place where they initially met and subsequently started dating. They go as friends to hang out. Dave awkwardly brings up the idea of who he likes, because he knows that she suspects it. When she turns him down, the audience should be slightly crushed, but hopeful that things will work out and that the two will get together. They do not, however. The scene is the climax of the film and it ties to the inciting incident by taking place where they met.

Archetype Montage

This is a brief montage of the Romantic Archetype, a character who falls in love.

http://bit.ly/romanticarch

Characters All Around Us

For this project, I had to go to a public place and listen to some phrases from people's conversations around me. I then had to create characters and write a scene featuring them and a few of those phrases. This is the result.

Int. Dining Hall - Day

It's lunchtime. An empty table sits in the center of frame. One by one, our characters come and sit down with their food.

First JASON, then ZACK.

JASON

What do you have there, Zack?

ZACK

Oh, you know. The usual. Pizza.

JASON

Yeah, I know.

ZACK

Well... why did you ask, then?

JASON

I was just trying to make simple conversation!

ZACK

You're an idiot.

ALYSON and KELSEY come and sit down with the boys.

KELSEY

...I can't believe he'd say that!

ALYSON

I know! Completely ridiculous.

JASON

What's completely ridiculous?

Alyson and Kelsey look appalled that he's trying to butt into their conversation.

KELSEY

Jason, why don't you quit being such a meddlesome inquisitor?

Jason slumps into his seat, slightly ashamed.

ZACK

Well, she certainly knows the appropriate term.

ALYSON

(Laughing)

Relax, Kels. I'll share. Basically, Kelsey and I were with Jerry and we realized that I screwed 8 different guys last year.

Awkward silence. Everyone looks a little caught off guard.

ZACK

...That awkward moment...

KELSEY

Alyson-

ALYSON

Anyway, then, later, Jerry called me a slut.

ZACK

Aw, what? That asshole!

ALYSON

Right?

ZACK

I mean... he isn't wrong, but like, you don't say that to a girl!

KELSEY

Ye- yeah...

She punches Zack in the arm.

ALYSON

But yeah, so that's been my day. How've you guys been?

ZACK

Well, I have a stupid spanish exam later that I'm not ready for.

KELSEY

And I am in that class as well. Zack, we should go study after we're done eating.

ZACK

(winking)

Sounds good, Kels.

KELSEY

No, I mean, I wasn't implying anything, I just want to study.

ZACK

Oh. Are you sure?

KELSEY

Yes.

ZACK

But-

KELSEY

Zack, I need a good grade in this class. If I get that, we can... hang out afterwards. But grades first.

ZACK

Ah, that's why I love ya, Kels. Always keeping what's important first.

ALYSON

Well I hope you two do well on that. Let me know if you need any help studying.

ZACK

Thanks, Alyson.

They all eat quietly for a moment.

ALYSON

Hey, Jason? You okay? You got really quiet all of a sudden.

JASON

(snapping out of a trance)

Huh? What? Me? Oh, I was just surprised how many guys you told us you had sex with.

They all laugh, with Zack laughing really loudly. Alyson looks slightly embarrassed.

Fade to black.

Up, Up, & Away?

1.     Spider-Man – His primary power is spider-like reflexes. He has enhanced strength as well.

2.     Superman – His primary power is flight, but also invulnerability. Those two are pretty equally important.

3.     Batman – Batman’s primary power is his genius level intellect. People say that his power is money, but he’d be useless without being the world’s best detective.

4.     Iron Man – Like Batman, Iron Man has genius level intellect. It helps that he’s extremely well experienced with military technology.

5.     Green Lantern – His primary ability is his possession of the Power-Ring, a ring that gives him the power to create anything he can think of.

6.     Thor – Thor is essentially Marvel’s Superman, as his primary ability is superhuman durability. He can also fly.

7.     The Incredible Hulk – As Bruce Banner, he has genius level intellect, but as the Hulk, he has super strength, and is also just huge.

8.     Buffy the Vampire Slayer – While not originally a comic book superhero, Buffy is certainly a superhero. Her primary ability is enhanced strength and agility.

9.     Aquaman – Most people don’t realize how awesome Aquaman is. He’s basically Superman, underwater. His primary ability is telepathy, enabling him to manipulate sea life, and also speak all languages.

10.  Wonder Woman – Her primary ability is super strength, agility, and stamina.

If I could have a superpower for the rest of my life, and it had to be either flight or invisibility, I would go with flight. I’ve weighed this a lot. I think flight is the better option. I really can’t think of any cons for it. With invisibility, you gain abilities. You can sneak into a movie unseen, or shoplift. You can spy on people. It can be depressing hearing what others say about you when they don’t think you’re around. Invisibility gives you more to do. Flight eliminates things you already deal with. You would never have to sit in traffic, or walk behind slow people. You could get anywhere incredibly fast. Plus, it’s probably also incredibly fun.

Section 2 Openings Essay

            This section clearly focuses on storytelling and sound. I listened to a radio show about how talking can sound like music. I watched a TED talk about how to make sure you do not go crazy while writing and being creative. I watched George Lucas talk about mythology in films like Star Wars. I watched a video where a guy explains why sometimes videogames don’t tell a completely good and moving story. All of these were very interesting and tied ideas together. I also watched 3 additional TED talks, those being “Inventing instruments that unlock new music,” “J.J. Abrams’ Mystery Box,” and “Music and emotion through time.” All of these also had similar ideas. The main idea in all of these pieces of entertainment, it seems, is that telling a story isn’t an easy thing to do well, but people have been doing it in different ways throughout history. Some do it through music and different instruments. It’s amazing how different sounds can make us feel different things. Some people do it through video games. It’s not always easy to tell a story with a video game, as there’s a whole interactive element to things. It’s obviously very common to tell stories using books, movies, and TV. These different forms of media are always providing challenging ways to tell stories. Stories can always be retold in different ways, like with Star Wars. It retells stories going back to Shakespearian times. It’s all about utilizing archetypes. If you properly reuse archetypes, you can renew any story in an exciting and new way. You can then add a lot of flavor to it with music.

This is not to be used for my application.

Script vs. Film

            While they both follow the same basic idea, Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs script features several differences from the final film. It’s clear that the movie went through a lot of changes before being complete. When you actually read an early draft of the movie’s script, it becomes much more clear.

            As I said before, the movie and the script are pretty similar. One key difference that I noticed was the camera angles. In the original script, Tarantino included numerous point of view shots. Having written a script myself, I can perfectly understand this. When writing a script, if you have not done a storyboard, it’s very easy to imagine the appearance of the film unrealistically. When getting to actually film things, you may find that certain ideas do not transfer to actually being possible. It’s probable that many of the point of view shots were just too hard to do. It’s also possible that they merely looked bad.

            I also noticed that some sequences were performed a little differently. An early scene in the script features Mr. Pink running down the sidewalk with a bag of diamonds. While running, he collides with a girl who is roller skating backwards and listening to music. He then falls into the street, in front of a moving car. The moving car stops before hitting him, and he then gets up and steals the car at gunpoint. In the actual film, there is no roller skating girl. Instead, Mr. Pink jumps into the road and allows himself to be hit by the moving car, smashing the windshield. He then proceeds to steal the car at gunpoint. It is not a huge difference, but it is different enough that I noticed it, as I was looking for the girl on roller skates. When she did not appear, I was surprised and caught off guard. I can assume that the reason for her being left out was to simplify the sequence. It also made things a little bit more exciting, with the car actually hitting Mr. Pink instead of merely stopping in front of him.

            Another sequence that is different occurs when Eddie is on his way to the warehouse while talking on the phone to an associate. In the script, there are two cuts between this scene and another scene with Mr. Pink, Mr. White, and Mr. Blonde. The first cut is to the men pulling him out of the trunk before cutting back to Eddie. It then cuts back to them stomping on the policeman, before, again, returning to Eddie, who then arrives at the warehouse. In the final film, this whole sequence is done as more of a montage. We see the men beating the cop in numerous fashions all during Eddie’s conversation. Eddie arrives at the warehouse while they are beating up the policeman, as opposed to the viewer being with him while he arrives. Again, this was likely changed to make the sequence more exciting. A montage is more interesting than 4 cuts.

            A final difference that is present throughout the film is the presence of gore. The script is much more visual with what is shown. The scene where the policeman’s ear is cut off is in first person in the script, whereas in the film, the camera tilts up to the ceiling and we hear what happens. There are other instances of this, with the film not showing what the script describes. This was likely done for two reasons: to keep the audiences lunches inside their stomachs, and it was also likely to please the MPAA.

            Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs is somewhat different from an earlier draft. Scenes were cut, sequences rearranged, and the whole thing was made less gory. The whole film is still extremely entertaining.

Sources: netflix.com, imsdb.com

This is not to be used in my application.