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.