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.