Doing the Homework and Open-Closedness

The first section reminded me of a scene from a student film a friend of mine made. In it, the main character gets a call during one scene. She answers the phone, and, in a throw-away line, mentions something about "spreadsheets" and "memos." This line always rang really false to me, and I think it was because the writer did not actually know anything about what this character's job actually was; he just threw in some businessy-sounding words and figured that would be enough. The line didn't sound real to me because the neither the writer or the director had bothered to research it. I think this happens very often in movies. Even if the audience is not an expert on the subject, they will still be able to tell  if a director has not done his homework.

The second section is really hard to write about, because what the author is trying to get is really hard to explain. I think what all the filmmakers are getting at is this "something-ness" (what I like to call it) that occurs when a really good idea is formed, and how to achieve this "something-ness." Unfortunately, way to find this form of inspiration is completely different for every person, and there's not really a good English word that describes it. The Germans probably have a word for it.

Visual Clustering: And Nobody Knew What Happened That Night

Originally the story started with "one weekend in 1941," but we got rid of that once we realized that almost every other group had chosen the same beginning. Our story starts with two people, a man and a woman - let's call them Jeremiah and Bermuda. These two people, two lovers, attend a fancy party at an art gallery in New York. This art gallery is having a special exhibition on some rare jewels, which the couple steals. They escape on a motorcycle (which they had planted the night before) and ride across the country to evade the police. To help hide their tracks, they don't stay in any hotels; instead they camp outside, under train bridges and in chicken coops. Eventually, they reach their destination: the Pacific coast. They take a boat out to an island with an abandoned lighthouse, where they bury the treasure. They then steal an old biplane and fly across the Mexican border, where they hide out in a small Mexican village. This is almost a second honeymoon to them, and they spend their days and nights living life to the fullest. However, Jeremiah accidentally pisses off a Mexican drug lord, and they are forced to return to the States. They have no money at this point, so they return to the abandoned lighthouse to retrieve the jewels. Unfortunately, the Mexican drug lord tipped off the police, who are waiting for them at the lighthouse. The head police officer, who always has a cigarette and wears big, dark glasses, tells them that they will receive leniency if they come quietly. This, however, is not in their nature, and they both are killed in the ensuing firefight.

Location, Location, Location

The courtyard in the Art Department building on campus is a strange place, like some sort of surrealist painting. The walls of the courtyard, like the rest of the building, are a deep, dark red, which contrasts with the blue New Mexico sky. The ground is made up of white pebbles, a much wiser choice than the green grass seen elsewhere on campus, considering we are in a desert. There is a tree growing in one corner, which looks odd growing out of the white pebbles. Probably the thing that makes it most interesting is the square room in the middle, with the same red walls as the sides. This makes the courtyard into an odd shape, more like a set of triangles than the normal square. This also means that anywhere you look, the building seems to be made up of solid geometric shapes, with bits of nature poking out. It would be impossible to take a picture here and not have it look like a piece of modern art.

Get Into My Dreams Get Out of My Car

My first thought on the readings was that I should take a walk somewhere, and experience this stuff that the writers were talking about. Of course, then I remembered that I had more homework to do, so I probably would not be able to do that.

Honestly, I think I sort of do what they are talking about already. When I am writing a character, it's helpful to base that character on someone I know, and to imagine what they would do in certain situations. However, this does mean that I might have trouble writing about an impoverished Mexican immigrant family, especially compared to writing about a white American high school student. I would say that the stories of impoverished Mexican immigrants should be told by people who know that world; I will tell the stories about the world I know.

Raw Material into Story: Mystery of the Hava Java

A small hut in the middle of a parking lot which sells coffee. Unbeknownst to its customers, it conceals an ancient spring, from which pours the most delicious coffee known to man. This coffee is so delicious that it can grant the drinker his deepest, darkest desires. The keeper of this coffee hut is an old man, who has taken it upon himself to protect the spring from the modern world. He dilutes the coffee with tap water, so it no longer grants wishes, it only tastes very good. Though he has been kept alive much longer than normal by the aroma of the coffee, his strength is fading, so he hires a young man to help him. The young man discovers the secret and drinks the coffee, only to have his darkest desires destroy his life. The old man explains the he once drank the coffee many years ago, which is how he is aware of its terrible power. The old man drinks the coffee again, which undoes the young man's wish, but also seals the spring forever and ends the old man's life.

Some Lists

Top Ten Cars from my childhood

1. 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix
2. Bright yellow Scion xB
3. Izuzu Trooper
4. Honda CRV
5. Volkswagen Rabbit
6. Volkswagen Passat
7. Grandfather's old Mazda van
8. Lamborghini Murcielago
9. Other grandfather's Mercedes SUV
10. blue Renault hatchback

Top Ten places I really liked to visit in my earlier days

1. Toy store
2. Disneyworld
3. Europe
4. New York
5. Southwestern US
6. California
7. Dairy Queen
8. Comic book store
9. Magazine section of book store
10. Creek behind my school

Top Ten places I disliked going in my earlier days

1. Art Museums
2. Folk Art Festivals
3. Aunt and Uncle's house
4. the doctor
5. the dentist
6. school
7. upstairs, at night, when the lights were off
8. high school soccer practice
9. morning marching band practice
10. Clothing Stores

Top Ten things that make me angry

1. Loud stupid people
2. Stubbing my toe
3. Bumping my head
4. The music of Ke$ha
5. Busywork
6. working as a lifeguard
7. The Tea Party
8. mosquitos
9. unfairness towards me
10. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Limberin' Up

I have always found history to be interesting. Not the "this is how people lived back then" part of history, but history as a series of events, each event causing the next event, until eventually we end up where we are today. It's interesting to understand famous events as they really are thought to happen, not as popular culture tells us they happened.

I know the zombie genre is sort of played out by now, but I think it would be really interesting to make a zombie film set during the Vietnam War. The US government accidentally releases a zombie virus into Vietnam, which winds up decimating the country as well as the American soldiers stationed there. The zombies could be a big (if a bit heavy-handed) metaphor for the war itself - friends turning into murderous monsters, an enemy that is perceived as less than human, the destruction of Vietnam for ill-defined reasons. The movie would follow a platoon of soldiers who are sent to discover the fate of a military base, and who then find themselves in the middle of a zombie epidemic which they try to understand and escape. A sequel could be set in early 1970s Washington DC, where another outbreak has broken out, and it could examine the Watergate scandal and the "war at home."