Beginning, Middle, and End

A good book/movie where the beginning, middle,and end was beyond amazing was The Host by the author, Stephanie Meyer, and director, Andrew Niccol. In The Host, the main character, Melanie Stryder, is seen with her brother, Jamie Stryder, and her boyfriend, Jared Howe, hiding from the "Hosts" the alien that have taken their life form by taking over the bodies of humans. It's such a good beginning because right off the bat, there's conflict as we can tell by the character's actions and appearance.  They're inside an abandoned building and they're trying to not get taken because then the aliens will take their bodies and use them as hosts. Melanie's mission has been to protect Jamie, and so when they're about to get caught,she tells Jared to take Jamie with him while she distracts the hosts. She manages to get the hots attention, and then jumps off the building which seems a good 10 stories high. She didn't die (surprisingly), but she still gets an alien inside of her. Melanie is still present in her own mind along with the alien that has taken her body, Wanderer. In the middle, Melanie and Wanderer manage to gain a friendship, and Wanderer ends up being on Melanie's side. At this point, they've reached the safe headquarters of where Jamie and Jared went. The safe zone is inside of a mountain which camouflages with the other mountains. The people there don't like her, including her brother and former boyfriend, as all they see are the eyes of the "Wanda" (nickname given), and I'm being literal when I say all they see are her eyes because the hosts have gray/blue eyes that shine really bright. They treat her nice after some time of treating her really mean, but throughout their stay there, Wanda develops feelings for Ian O'Shea, but Melanie doesn't approve because they don't get along. Wanda manages to get Jamie to talk to her and communicates for Melanie to Jamie. Getting to the ending, Melanie has regained her relationship with Jared via Wanda, and Wanda has helped the doctor experimenting on ways to get the host out of the human bodies. The way Wanda shows Doc (the doctor) the way to properly remove the alien from the host, and it's the same way they put them into the bodies, through a cut on their neck. Throughout the whole story, the main enemy, the Seeker, has been trying to find Wanda and in the end is shot (but not meant to die). They manage to get the alien of the Seeker's body and she is eternally grateful for the procedure. Wanda is brave and volunteers to get taken out so Melanie can have her body back. Wanda only wish is to be let go so she won't take up another person's body. She ends up taking another girl's body that was on the verge of dying, so she saved her life in a way. In the last scenes, Melanie, Wanda, Jared, and Ian are stopped by "cops" when they're outside cruising in the car. They're all wearing sunglasses so they (cops) can't tell them apart. The cops end up having hosts as well' same alliance (humans and hosts).The movie ends in the assumption that the alliances present is part of a bigger organization.

In my real life a great beginning to an event would be when I went to a retreat in the mountains with my confirmation class. It started out fun because we did this activity where we had to go over a branch/stick up 12 feet tied by the ends to trees. We had songs and dances we did before every meal. During the middle of the trip, we had a night where we shared stories of struggles we had in our lives that have shaped us out to be who we are today, and because of this, many of us got closer and relieved some emotions we had built up within us. In the end, new friendships were formed, and new connections were made with people I would have never expected. I learned many things about other people and why they're the way they were. Also, I had the chance to enjoy nature and all of it's beauty for a whole weekend. Activity after activity, I had a blast that kept me on my feet.

A good way to put this experience into a quick movie film is to film the part where we are boarding the bus to head to the mountains, and film the time we spent inside the bus. Getting to our destination would also be a good shot to film as we were all excited and ready to get the whole journey excited. I think the heart of the film would be when we were all sharing our struggles because it would set the atmosphere and the feeling the audience would get would be the feeling we want to achieve, which is sympathy.

Superior Position

The movie titled Mean Girls by director Mark Waters, is an excellent example of superior position because throughout the movie the main characters Cady Heron, Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and  Karen Smith, all do things the others don't expect, but the viewers do know what to expect. For example, Cady gave Regina a "nutrition bar" from Africa that was supposed to help her lose weight, but instead it made her gain weight. Cady had planned tis and the scene on which she was planning it was show, so thus us viewers knew before hand that Regina was going to gain weight instead of losing it. Another example would be that we knew Regina was going to blame the burn book her friends (the Plastics) and her had put together and blame it on Cady. Before that, Cady and Regina had serious drama that led up to Regina's explosion from Cady telling Aaron (Regina's ex boyfriend, later on real boyfriend) that Regina's been cheating on him, to the fat bars, leading to Regina writing her own name and reason on the burn book. We, the viewers, knew that Regina was going to blame it on Cady, but Cady didn't know, hence the superior position.

In my real life, I've been in positions that held me at a superior position. There have been some good superior positions, and some bad ones. The one's I care most for are the ones that are happy. Last year in October, my clique and I planned to surprise one of our friend for her birthday. We were all in on it except for her,and so we acted totally clueless when the subject of her birthday came up. You can tell she felt a little let down when we would say "Oh we're not doing anything." So on her birthday, we all pot locked at school and surprised her in one of our teacher's classrooms. She was so happy that she started crying, and in that moment I was joyous because to see someone you care about fell that kind of happiness is just wonderful. We knew what was going to happen next, but she didn't. This type of superior position isn't dramatic, but it's a blissful one.

A good way to put this into a movie is to capture the moment in which our friend cried because it'll set the mood of the short movie clip. To incorporate scenes where we are planning the surprise would help inform the audience what's going on in the clip and why we're being so sneaky about it around her. In the short film, we should also add music during the surprise scene to help enforce the mood felt by the our friend.

Undeserved Misfortune

In the movie Frozen by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee has an excellent example of undeserved misfortune. Anna (Elsa's sister) falls in love with the Duke of Weselton who claims he is a prince and leads Anna on to believe that they're already n love even though they barely met. They had already sang a music piece and all. She falls for him and stays faithful to him throughout her journey of finding her sister who ran away from the palace after her ice powers were accidentally presented among the crowd of people dancing in the ball room. When Anna returns home to the palace, she is very sick after an aftermath with her sister went terribly wrong. Anna needed a true  love's kiss to cure her from her literal ice heart, and right when Anna and the Duke of Weselton were about to kiss, he pulls back saying all this "love" was a lie, he just wanted to get to the throne. This is an example of undeserved misfortune because Anna did nothing wrong to deserve this betrayal. She was as good as can be.

In my real life, undeserved misfortunes happen often, but I regard that most to Karma. Just last month I had walked into my room when out of nowhere, this vial scent pierced my nostrils. One of my cats had peed on my bed sheets, and I was very much upset. I had to take all of my bed sheets off and wash them in the washing machine, and the whole process was a mess as I tried not to get pee on myself. The smell was so horrible I almost threw up. I had done nothing wrong to deserve such a unnecessary act. I mean, there was cat food, water, and a litter box. What more could my cat have possible wanted?

I can incorporate this into a film where the main scene is me walking into my room and realizing what had happened. Getting an establishing shot first before so the viewers know what happened before I do can also be helpful as the viewers will know what to expect, and possibly guess I might scream so they'll prepare for that (I didn't scream, but it's a fun idea). The quick film will capture my shocked face and definitely my angry actions (being aggressive while taking off the bed sheets). My face would also show my disgusted look as the pee scent was all over my room.

Conflict

A movie where conflict was present in every scene was Divergent. The book author, Veronica Roth, and Film director, Neil Burger, did an amazing job in making sure we never forgot the conflict throughout the story. The main character, Beatrice Prior (later on known as Tris) lives in Chicago 100 years into the future and within her society, when a teen turns 16, they have to take an aptitude test determining what faction they'll end up in. There are five factions: Candor (the honest people who serve for the city's court; see the world as black and white; the truth and the lie), Erudite (the intelligent people who work in the research center in the city, they are the ones who developed the aptitude test), Amity (the peaceful "hippies" of the society that are 100% organic and are in charge of the city's agriculture and source of food supplies), Abnegation (the selfless and the less vain of the factions; help out the "factionless" who are the homeless of their city; Abnegation volunteers and don't get paid because it's free services they give; they run the government; Tris is originally from this faction), and lastly Dauntless (the soldiers of the city; their the brave ones who protect the city from any dangers; Tris later on chooses Dauntless as her chosen faction even though she had three factions to choose from). Since Tris got three factions to choose from from her aptitude test, she is Divergent, and Divergents don't stand a chance in this dystopian society as they poise a threat to the leaders that want to control every single person in Tris' society. Since she chose Dauntless, she has to hide herself really well because if they catch her doing really good in her 2nd and 3rd stage of training to become dauntless, they'll kill her. See, once she got into Dauntless headquarters, Eric (one of the Dauntless leaders) told the newbies that since they got to choose their faction, the Dauntless leaders will take up the task in choosing who will be eligible to join Dauntless. If she does too bad, she'll become factionless, but if she does really good, she'll stand out and the Dauntless leaders will take an interest in her. The 1st stage is the physical training where she will exercise her physical capabilities to the maximum, and gain strength along the way. Tris is a skinny girl, so she has trouble keeping up, but when it comes to the 2nd and 3rd stage, which is the mental training, she aces the tests like it was a piece of cake. The mind simulations she goes under depict her deep fears and make them a reality. Since she is divergent, when she is under the simulation, she knows it's all fake, she can control her fears and find loopholes. Those who aren't divergent are tricked and think everything there is 100% real, which affects them when the simulation is all over. In addition, since she can manipulate the simulation, she can get out of it much faster than all the others can. Each person is timed and the less time they spend in the simulation, the better, but Tris' time is ridiculously unbelievable for a newbie. Her status as a divergent is enough to make her die, but it gives her an advantage to mind control, which the leaders of the society use later on to overcome the people of the city.

In my real life, conflict has presented itself way too many times. My birthday was this past Friday and so my friend (a week before) was like "I'm going to go take you out to eat and then after we're going over to my house because I have a surprise for you so don't make plans." I was like "OMG! Okay!! The day of my birthday she's like "Oh dude, I can't go out anymore I got in trouble because (inserts reason here)." I didn't take it lightly because I mean, HELLO!! It's my birthday and you're over here telling me you can't go out anymore, when I basically cancelled on everyone else because you said you were going to take me out? Like that was what was going through my mind. It was really rude, and not to mention I was feeling so struck. Like is one of my closest friends really bailing on me for my birthday? Like what what kind of friend is that? That's unacceptable. I told her straight up like "Okay whatever I'm butthurt and a little upset." She responded with "Oh my god, really?" Her tone had a hint of annoyance and I was just so done with it all. At the end, my other good friend took me out to eat and I had a fun time. My friend that "planned" the day and I haven't talked since Friday and I'm okay with that.

A good way to incorporate this into a quick film would be getting the main scene to be the part where she told me she couldn't take me out anymore. Having the quick film be based around the whole dramatic scene will show off the anger and the lack of joyfulness to the whole quick film. It'll be a scene where the audience will be like "Oh my god, is she serious?" and that's what I'm looking for.

My Film Job

The film job that interests me the most is writing the script because I feel like I can write a concrete through story line that will include an intense conflict and solution. I have a gift of making stories up when they're needed, not necessarily for lying, but for a quick joke or two. The ideas and the foundation on which the script will be writ on will be influenced by my experiences in the past. The characters amid the story will be going against the views of today's society and will be a direct reflection of who I have encountered in the past. The plot would be a very modern plot, one that the people of 2014 can relate to. It would definitely be appropriate, however, great films aren't made by following the rules. Rules were meant to be broken you know. There will be loopholes the story can use to its best ability. By this I mean the use of drugs, or the display of sexual encounters. The deeper, the better. I also prefer acting as I like getting in front of the camera and acting.

My Review of The Elephant Man

The Elephant Man is a film that should be watched by a variety of audiences. The plot and climax of the whole movie was brilliant as it also deals with hidden messages within the movie itself. The relation to Jesus himself was something I had at first not known until Mr. Lansdown told us about it. The Jesus concept of The Elephant Man being ugly because of the way we have chewed up the Earth makes a lot lot sense, including the bit of his mom being the Virgin Mary is really cool. The way David Lynch captured The Elephant Man was also outstanding, he really captured the essence of what The Elephant Man (John Merrick) was about, in the way he acted, and the way he was treated, and definitely the way he looked. John  Merrick at one point in the movie, despite all the abuse and neglet he went through, tells Dr. Treves that he's "Happy every hour," and to me that's gold because his heart is still pure and he doesn't see life in a negative way. He's a very hopeful person and does not want harm to be instilled upon his friends, for who is ms. Mothershead, Dr. Treves, Carr Gomm, Anna Treves, and of course, the princess of Wales, Ms. Kendall.

My Name is John Merrick

The night started off blissfully in my little room at the London Hospital. I had just received my maintenance box from the main heads of the hospital and for once I felt like a normal person, just receiving a normal gift, from such gracious people. I felt a warm feeling as no one has ever been so generous with me, if they aren't staring and making fun if me they're pitying me. As the night came and stayed, I used the maintenance box, which contained cologne, a comb, a brush, those sorts of things. It was a grand time having myself be pampered up, until the night porter came and put me on live display for night people who wanted to have 'a good time,' but were usually too drunk. In this case though, they were just about the right drunk. The night porter caught me while I was having a private moment, acting very high class. He pulled up to me and told I was looking for beautiful, and that's when the people he had charged to come see me saw me through the window, and soon enough they all came inside my room. Drunk, dirty, and disgusting people who wanted to see a closer look of me came to 'play' with me. They spun me, threw their beer at me as if I was a cup and they were pouring their substance in me. One man who looked a little too over 50 had two woman who looked about 20 got the woman he had brought with him and made one of them kiss me, using force, but she didn't mind. She was already too drunk to see what she was doing. The other girl was put on top of me and motioned her as if we were having sex. I was disgustied. The worst part? They displayed a mirror in front of me, my biggest fear. I thought, "How can people be so cruel?" That didn't matter. I was an animal to them, and I was used to it, tired, but used to it. The rest of the night was a blur. Bytes came and before I knew it, I was back again in my "home," the freak show.

Welcome to my Nightmare

My biggest nightmare is the sole natural cause of death. Whatever kind of death it is, my nerves tense up. Even the 'sleeping' type of death scares me because it's like I'm never going to wake up. I believe that there is a heaven and a hell, and my ideal destination would be heaven, but even then I can't be so sure because I get really nervous. It's so crazy really how we are alive breathing one day and for all we know we can die in an instant whether it'd be a stroke, or a heart attack, or even a brain aneurysm. Last fall actually, a year ago from this time period, I had a problem in my head, I'm not really sure what it was as one pharmacist told me I was having migraines, and my doctor said it was due to my excessive paranoia that I have when I get really freaked out about something. It really scared me because I felt a sudden pop at the back of my head, and instantly my heart beat was racing and I was dizzy as can be, I was almost going to faint, but even then I was too scared to faint so I fought the urge to. I was weak for about a week, I didn't eat much and lost 6 pounds right off the bat, like the weight loss was nice you know, but it wasn't ideal as I had little energy and all I wanted to do was sleep all day. Later on into the season, I started feeling my chest clogged up, and my ability to breathe, as I felt, was slowly going away, and during all this time I was thinking about death and what would happen if I did die. it scared me to be honest, just the thought of not existing anymore, like how was the whole process going to work? I know how it works, but how would my family have coped with it? It's a scary thought to even think, but that was what ran through me most of the time. It really shaped my mentality at the moment, like I was acting very generous and very forgiving you can say and all that because I was scared of dying and you know, you don't want to die being bitter or not accepting someone's apology, like that's just really an uncomfortable way to die. This constant fear of dying is still present with me today and even now I get scared of little things you can say. Like today in the morning on my way to school my mom was driving and there was a car that immediately tried to switch to our lane as we were coming on. stupid part was that the driver in the vehicle didn't turn on his indicator. He/she was going to crash into us and right when I saw the wheels of the car switching to our lAne I gasped really hard and high and my mom swerved a little and got scared as heck. she also got mad at me which is understandable since I scared the heck out of her as well. Dying is a scary thing, but it's also part of the life cycle. Human nature is scary.

Compassionate Science

My career would change people's life by making the justice served correct. I want to become a person who'll get involved in political science, and will serve others their rights the way they are supposed to be served. Every day, hundreds of Americans don't get a fair trial for the crime they are accused of, and many times they are cheated out of their rights. In other cases they help to serve what the government is planning to do next. They get involved in making the laws, events, rights, decisions heard all around the world. Their career, the one I'm trying to pursue, also deals with a public speaking skill which I fortunately have; inform others based on what is factual, not what is false. They also report on polls when the presidential election rolls around. This career I'm trying to pursue will also help everyday people by letting them know that exactly is the status of the American government; maybe the information given will change people's minds about certain topics/issues occurring at the present time.

Predicting the Future 101 with Jose

In the future, I really believe we're going to have a cure for cancer, and for STDs that don't already have a cure. I also imagine we are going to have a different form of government, with a side favoring the government's will, not the people's. It'd be ideal if we have a new different form of transportation, not just flying cars, but also like a high speed underground train, or a hovercraft that would suit the substitution of a bus. Another idea would be evolution of animals, not necessarily mutations, but a new sort of animal breed will derive from current animals, perhaps a flying dog, or a catfish, literally though. Maybe we'd finally have a new school/college system that would make attending college much easier, or maybe we won't even have a college system at all. The school system can change here and it'd be like Japan where it is only mandatory to attend up until you are in the either grade. Funny, I was having a conversation with a few friends after film class on Friday and we talked about how the future would tun out, and a subject that came up was the limitation of children. America can go China on us and only limit us to having one child if reproduction between the two partners is wanted. Freeways connecting continents would be really cool, but at the same time, really dangerous, and it's likely not going to happen. Another cool idea for the future would be an Orwellian future. A place where we're monitored 24/7 using telescreens, and where thinking bad things about the party can send us to jail for committing a "thought crime."

Laughing My Butt Off

So this one time in eleventh grade, my group of friends and I were in trigonometry class it just so happened that we were laughing at my friend, and in the midst of it all I said "DUDE! Doesn't her face look like flounder from The Little Mermaid?" and all of a sudden this roar of laughter bursted from all three of us simultaneously! Like because Flounder has a round face and a "isolated" chin and my friend Areli also has an "isolated" chin and now my friends and I call her flounder or floundy head, or flound, or even floundy mcflound flounds. That's where our "characterization" derived from as well. Now we make fun of my friend Monica because she looks like Angelica's mom from the Rugrats, and my friend Natalie has the face of Rango, and the mask the people use in the movie "The Purge." They also call me Pumba from Timon and Pumba, it is really funny, like some people may think like "Oh my god that's so rude! You guys are so mean to each other," but the reality is that, that is where our friendship gets deep because we CAN be mean to each other, we are so comfortable around each other.

Modern Times Movie Review

Modern Times was such an excellent film, a true comedy. It literally had me laughing so much, at a point i felt like I was annoying my class because at how much I was laughing the first day. The scene where Charlie is the guinea pig for the "feeder." It also had an interesting concept when Charlie was in the factory and the boss spoke to him via the "telescreen" as Orwell would say.  Of course, Charlie came before Orwell's time, but nonetheless, the reference was interesting. It was also a heart-warming story as the struggle for his soon to be girlfriend in the movie was something many of today’s people can relate to, whether you’re in the system, or having financial issues.  The scenes that really spoke out to me was the scenes where the police men kept attacking the people, or would communicate with the people in a very rude way, and it really reminded me of how many of the work enforcement men in today’s world are really unfair. Some serve justice, others serve greed.

My Thoughts on Bullying

Being a victim in the bullying epidemic has really taught me how to deal with the whole concept of it. I have always been bullied whether it'd be on the way I act, the way my voice sounds, the personality I show. The experiences I have been through have shaped up the person I am today. One of the biggest issues is that some people just don't know how to accept a different type of person in the community they live in. People always want everyone to be the same. It does not always work that way, as some people, like myself, don’t like following what everyone does. I know a lot of people do not believe in originality, but that is not where I’m getting. I’m getting to the point where I say everyone should act how he or she desires, and I’m not going to lie and say everything will be dandy; people WILL make fun of you if you are acting in a way they aren’t used to, or act a certain way the don’t like. Bullying plays a role here because some people just go to far, and the excessive ridicule they inflict on someone’s daily life can be too much. The victims of bullying need to remember that there is help out there if it gets out of hand.

My Favorite Movie

It's a really tough choice to decide what my favorite movie really is because I have so many, but if it came down to a movie that really put me in a trans, I would choose Twilight. It was a very huge part of my young teenage-hood and it shaped my persona of who I was back at the time in the sense of what I liked (i.e. vampires, contacts, etc). It also happened to be the first movie I ever really "fangirled" about. It really impacted society as a whole as well because it was such a huge success; everyone was either on Edward's team or Jacob's team. It sounds so ridiculous, but at the time, it was all I cared for, movie wise. It was not only successful, but very iconic; everyone knew what Twilight was, who Bella Swan was, what Edward Cullen was capable of doing, why their love was forbidden. I don't classify myself as a romanticist simply because I don't care much about the love topic, but I must say that Twilight is the one and only love story/movie I really care for. It also fed my imagination, and the fantasy world I craved for; to know a vampires exist in the town of Forks in the state of Washington is an exciting feeling.