So... That's Done...

As of this past week, I'm a college graduate with a Bachelors in Cinema Studies. What this means is that I'm now qualified to formally analyze films in terms of mise-en-scene, themes, style, narrative, and other filmic elements. Oddly, this has little to do with my desired career as a filmmaker, let alone as a screenwriter.
But the tools I've acquired can and will have an effect on that career. I fully intend to apply them to my own work, in-progress and afterwards, to improve the quality of my work, and ultimately improve the quality of the pictures you see.

"Six Feet Deep" or "How's School Coming Along?"

I think I mentioned that this semester gave me a much heavier workload than the previous two semesters... If not, this should give you an idea of how bad it is:

This coming Friday I have a test in Japanese. I also have to do all remaining homework for this chapter in Japanese, which amounts to 3 workbook pages including some translating of audio clips.
Over the weekend I have to read an entire chapter on Islam and write a paper on it for Monday.
Also this weekend, I have to watch at least two Akira Kurosawa films, come up with a thesis for and write a 5 page paper for my film class for Tuesday.
Oh, and I also have to study at least the last two chapters from my Japanese book, probably more, for an oral interview I have on Wednesday.

Stressed? Me? Nah...

Getting Psyched Up!

It's hard for me to describe how excited and terrified I am to be going back to school in a couple of weeks. It will be the first time I've taken college classes for two consecutive school years since the mid 90s! And it will be the first time that I'll start the year with a lot of pressure riding my shoulders.

Last school year, I did well enough to make the Dean's List, as well as be invited to two separate honors societies. While no one is telling me that I have to repeat that level of performance, I'm holding myself to it because A) I'm not going to half-ass do anything, and B) I'm the one paying the bills on this college trip in the end. While Oakland University isn't the University of Michigan or Michigan State University, it sure as hell isn't cheap. (To all my California friends that complain about $26 per credit hour, lets just say I wish I had been paying that 15 years ago here in Michigan! )

I'm excited to go hang out with my school friends, learn more Japanese, and maybe to impress the Cinema Studies program director enough for him to refer me to some of the movie studios opening up here. But there's a ton of work to be done, and I'm more than ready to get started on it!

My Film Sense Must Be Fucked...

I blame Maxx.

While I have always enjoyed watching movies, it's only been since I've known Maxx that I started watching some of the really strange stuff, and some of the really bad stuff. In all honesty, he's made me into a movie critic, and a connoisseur of well written movies. That's a really good thing I owe him. He and Omar are as much my brothers as my actual blood siblings are, and they are both responsible for pushing me creatively speaking more than most people I've known. They are directly responsible for my sick and twisted sense of humor.

You hear that world? You can blame them!!

Now, tonight's blamestorming session is focusing on two movies that I've partaken of in the last three days. One was a big multi-million dollar blockbuster release, and the other seems to have been a little independent film that was trying to go viral through the net a couple years ago. But before I go into the movies, I want to point out some facts that lay further blame on Maxx.

Many moons ago, Maxx and I went to the same high school, along with Omar. I was already hanging out with the bad crowd, psycho-nerds like myself, starring Omar and a few other sick and twisteds. Omar later introduced me to Maxx who subsequently disappeared and resurfaced a few years later as Omar was headed into the Air Force. Maxx and Omar both encouraged me to push myself as a writer, and to come up with stories that were interesting to say the least. Maxx, a former film student, but a kick ass artist, would likewise push himself artisticly. Now, considering that I, more than 15 years later, am a cinema studies student, I feel that I can confidently blame Maxx directly and indirectly for this post. This one's for you Maxx!

Now, on to the films... The blockbuster you may have heard of ran epic looking commercials with the title character screaming his introduction in a voice reminiscent of 300's King Leonidas. I speak of none other than Beowulf. Many, many, many moons ago, long before I ever met either Omar or Maxx, before I even entered high school, I had heard of and read a small portion of the great epic poem known as Beowulf. In high school, a friend of ours based some of his characters in our role playing games off a combination of Grendel and Marvel Comics' Wolverine. Needless to say, I was greatly looking forward to seeing the movie once it was announced, and I was even more eager after seeing the commercials. For reasons that I shall not discuss, it didn't happen...

Until Friday morning.

Just before I was to leave for school on Friday morning, I discovered that Beowulf was on some random cable channel; I don't know if it was HBO, Cinemax, Showtime or what, but I sat down and watched about a half hour's worth of the movie. What I saw left me completely speechless.

I hated every second I watched. I know that computer animation has become a large part of the movie industry, particularly for special effects, and God knows I love animated movies, CG and otherwise, but I was not even slightly impressed with Beowulf the movie. I had been under the impression that the movie was live action, and to be honest, I'm not 100% sure it wasn't live action, but there were enough telltales for a guy like me to determine that it was at the very least significantly computer enhanced where it didn't need to be. Watching it reminded me of half remembered, half thought out rumors that the movie wasn't what my friends and social circle at the time wanted to see, and I'm definitely glad I didn't pay money for it. Now, that's not to say that it was all bad... I did enjoy some of the chanting songs that were being sung by the characters at various parts, and I certainly think that they were the high points of the film. You can probably guess, though, that Beowulf is now being removed from my "To Buy on Blu-Ray" list...

The other film is more complicated. I was watching TV, looking for something that might catch my attention and amusement for a little while when I stumbled across it. It looked like it was going to be cheap soft-porn, based on the name and description given to me by the satellite TV network, and I thought to myself "What the hell... Why not?". Now, I'm not going to say that I'm always up for porn. Frankly, while I do occasionally enjoy partaking, I'm really not into the made for cable soft-porn that even hardcore porn stars think is disgusting. (For different reasons of course. The bottom line is that at least hardcore porn is honest, with people actually having sex, while the soft porn is just faked all around without even the decency to have a good plot.) But being a hetero male in America, I was hoping to see some boobs. So, given the title and description of Zerophilia, I was intrigued and curious about exactly what they were going to do.

I'm not going to lie and tell you that it was the best movie ever. I'm not even going to tell you that it was a better movie than Beowulf. But the bottom line is that I actually enjoyed Zerophilia more than Beowulf, and I definitely think that it had potential. While Zerophilia did indeed have a couple of scenes with the naked breasts of twenty something young women and talked about sex and gender quite a bit, it actually wasn't porn of any kind. It was a real movie with an interesting plot, though it was a bit weak in some respects. The basic plot, for the lazy, is that a young man discovers that he changes gender when he's sexually aroused after having his first sexual encounter with a woman, and of course he meets the girl of his dreams just days later.

I can't say how I'd improve Zerophilia, because certain things were just plainly obvious to me right from the beginning, but I can't see how those points could have been done any differently. I think I might have gone in a different direction with the main character's discovery and exploration of his feelings about his gender, and I probably would have done without a plot twist near the end altogether. But the thing that is probably most important to Martin Curland, the writer/director/producer of the film, is that I enjoyed the movie more than Beowulf.

Mr. Curland, I'm a nobody [at the moment], but I'd like to see what you're working on next, and see if I can contribute to it in some way!

So, as you can see, while I ended up disappointed with both films for different reasons, at least I enjoyed watching one of them. And I think the key reason in both cases is my long experience watching movies, analyzing movies with Maxx and Omar, and getting an early schooling on a number of things film related by Maxx. Ultimately, I blame Maxx for this, and I think you should too! On three, everyone shout (with feewing!) "Thanks Maxx!"

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THANKS MAXX!!!!

Oh, and uh, go and Netflix Zerophilia. Throw some cash at Mr. Curland for being creative. You don't even have to feel guilty: you can watch it instantly instead of waiting for the DVD to arrive.

Officially a Student [Again]

Although I've known for about a week, thanks to the marvels of the web, I received my official acceptance letter from Oakland University today! What that means is that I can now take classes there in an attempt to get a degree in Cinema Studies; coincidentally a program they just set up.

I'm looking forward to going and getting down to business, but I'll admit that I'm scared of thw whispers that I'm sure to hear behind my back. Why will there be whispers? Simple: I'm twice as old as most of my fellow students. Being 37 isn't a handicap, and I really don't care what the other students might say, but I don't want to go through any emotional shit because of my age.

If I fuck up, I'm fine with them talking about me behind my back, but I don't need any age shit.

Any way, I think I'm finally ready to commit myself to school and getting it completed, degree and all. We'll see what the job field looks like in a couple of years when I start calling myself a screenwriter with a bachelor's degree.