12 Angry men

Alright, this post kinda ties into an earlier one I wrote, but the other night I watched the movie 12 Angry men (a fabulous movie by the way) and in one of the very first scenes we see a man (Henry Fonda) go against the crowd. When a few strong willed juror's quickly raise their hands indicating that they think the man on trial was guilty, most of teh rest of the juror's slowly raise their hands. But one man stands up for what he believes, through out the movie he speaks with confidence and conviction and by the end he was not 1 against 11 but he had convinced the rest of them to let the boy on trial to go free. This movie just shows the power of speaking your mind and standing up for what you believe.

3D film!....?

Well whether you love it or hate it, it gives you a head ache or blows your mind from its awesome power, 3D for films is here to stay. It brings in the money (6 of the top 10 grossing movies of 2010 are 3D, also Avatar the highest grossing film of all time was shot in 3D), but it does not work. Before I begin, I would just like to say that personally I hate 3D, I think its a (not so) cheap trick that distracts the audience from subject matter allowing the actual quality of film to decrease. With that said I will try not to make this to biased, so for every point I make against 3D I will also make a point for it.

Alright, so I know there are a ton of web sites and articles..... well tons of websites, but virtually only one article, that deal with the flaws of 3D. So I think I will being by addressing the ideas that Walter Murch brings up in his letter. As Mr. Murch mentions the biggest problem with 3D is the issue of focus: "But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen -- say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what...But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on". The reason that this creates a problem is because never before have people needed to have their eyes converge on one point but have their focus at another. Walter Murch brings up several other very good points in that article, if you have not read it yet I strongly suggest that you do.

Now on to my opinions of why 3D makes a inferior medium for film. Most people go and see a movie because it offers them a cheap escape from their lives. They want to go and see things that could never happen to them. But the entire point of 3D is to make movies more life-like, more realistic. While this has no effect on movies like Avatar, once 3D becomes the industry standard and they make more realistic movies in 3D it becomes less of an escape for people. If movies stop offering that same level of escape for viewers people will stop going and this will mean a decrease in revenue for production companies.

Like I said before 3D is what people are becoming to expect as this happens more and more movies are going to be made in 3D, but since 3D is such a drastically different format it will slowly begin a revolution in film. It will change everything, from the way the movies are shot, the cameras they are shot with, the process for editing them, the theaters we view them in. While I think it is about time for the movie industry to go through another major revolution in the way that things are done (the last big change happened in the 60s and 70s). But the problem is that a completely new infrastructure for film would have to be built and in the end it would be payed for by us, the viewers, through ticket prices and other ways. Im sure there would also be a crack down on illegal piracy so all of you out there smugly smileing to yourself with your devious plan, best of luck not getting caught.

But as much as I have bitched about it 3D does have some very wonderful qualities. Such as it brings in money to the production companies. Also a benefit to me is that because it is going to bring about this film revolution, directors and the like will be looking for people who have not been in the industry for long and so they are able to think freely and be able to see new ways of doing things. So hopefully when I graduate film school I will be in the right place at the right time.

The Match

As i sat there with my think black polyester hood covering my closed eyes my mind felt like it was racing at about a 1000 miles per hour, but only one thought was going through my mind. “this is going to be my last match. Ever”. Even though I was in a noisy gym all I could hear was a faint murmur of the people talking. I open my eyes and slowly lift my the thin layer of fabric that is separating me from the rest of the world and look out at the mat in front of me. The last match had just ended. I see the ref’s mouth move and all I hear is 152. Its not time yet. Not yet but soon. As i stand up from my crouch on the floor a single small drop of sweat drips down my back, following the curve of my spine. I pull my hood back up to block out any and all distractions, like my team sitting a few feet away talking with my coaches, or my mom and sister standing near the mat talking, or my dad sitting in the bleachers alone. I begin to pace around the gym. One foot then the other. Left foot then right. Left foot then right. Im feeling tired and sore and stiff from wrestling and sitting in the stands all day. I hear a whistle blow and the crowd cheer. I look up and over to my left towards the mat. The match was done. I was up. I walk over to my coach and I am greeted with a firm hand shake and a pat on the shoulder. My team and every one else who has stayed to watch me moves to the side of the mat and begin to offer me their encouragement. The butterflies in my stomach feel like they are trying to break free of their confines. I remember back to practice when we wound do yoga to help us relax. I begin to breath like coach taught us. In 1-2-3-4-5. Hold 1-2-3. Out 1-2-3-4-5. Hold 1-2-3. I am calmer now. The winning wrestler of the previous match walks over to the corner near us an collects his things. I take one last deep breath. I feel the reassuring and familiar pat on my back. I open my eyes and step across the the bright neon yellow cord. I quickly but calmly pull off my warm up pants. I glance across the mat at the opposing corner. Its empty. I turn around and quickly scan the gym. My opponent is not here yet. A wave a relief and hope comes crashing over me. Maybe he wont come. Maybe he left. Maybe I’ll get the forfeit... Please? The ref slowly. Casually. Walks over to me. I put my hood down to hear him. I see his lips move and hear sounds but do not understand them. FOCUS. shouts my mind.... Focus. Please? “pardon me sir, I didn’t hear that” I say politely. A small smile cracks across his course, rough face. “ We have to wait for the other gym to finish. We want all finals rounds going at once”. I give a. Short. Quick. Nod to show my understanding. I step out on to the mat for the first time in hours. I feel the familiar comforting squish of the mat beneath my right foot. When my foot comes up a perfect mirror image of my shoe is left on the mat. As I watch it the mark slowly fades into nothing. The people at the scoring table beacon me to come to them. So I go. When I get there I am ask what my name and school in. “John Sims, Fairview” I answer with out hesitation showing i have said it before. Hundreds of times. “you’ll be green” is their only response. I thank them and walk out to the center of the mat and pick up the green ankle band. I squat down to one knee. I place the green band, cool and slightly sweaty from hours and hours of wrestling. against my ankle and then i securely over lap the two Velcro ends. I am ready. I am happy. I am calm. I bounce slowly until my opponent appears. I then take off my warm up top and put on my hear gear. It is uncomfortable, the Velcro strap has abraded away a piece of skin under my chin in an earlier match. I can feel the excitement in the gym build. We are ready. The ref brings us to the center of the mat. My right foot is carefully placed on the green bar on the mat indicating it is my side. He and I bend our knees and lean forward. We are ready. The ref steps in, “shake hands boys. Good luck”. Our hands break after our short hand shake. A loud piercing whistle blows. We wrestle.

A Little Bit About Me

With anticipation in my eyes I looked at my 4th grade teacher. When my teachers eyes finally met mine he said one simple sentence that changed my life forever: “you are the mouse that dies”. I was shocked, stunned, mortified. I ran through the situation through my head again. “There are two mice stuck in a pitcher of milk; one gives up and drowns while the other kicks and kicks untill the milk turns to butter”. Confused I listened to my teacher again, while he went all the way around the room telling everyone except for me that they were the mouse that kicks the milk into butter. I could not believe what had happened; why was I the one who was singled out? Am I really that bad of a kid? From that day on I have been determined to be the second mouse.

What I do on a snow day

So today we got a day off from school, not for snow, but for cold. The school district decided that it was too cold for the students who had to wait out side for school bus' to come and pick them up. So what do I do? I spend roughly 2 hours out side taking photos. According to NOAA, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, it was a balmy -3 degrees out when I was out taking photos. So I ended up wearing a long sleeve under armor shirt, a second long sleeve shirt, a sweat shirt, an 800 down jacket, long under wear, thick jeans, extremely thick smart wool socks, leather boots and 2 hats (hey its less than I wear when I'm cutting weight for wrestling...... I'm only partially kidding). So once I have put all this on and look more or less like a stuffed sausage I drive up north of Lyons to rabbit mountain open space. It was just a beautiful day, perfectly still, not even the slightest wind and it was really sunny. So it made wonderful conditions for taking photos because of the sun you could really see the ice that covered all of the plants and pretty much every thing else. So in the end I took roughly 50 photos and froze my ass off. But it was very worth it.

Anarchy

So recently I have been following the rioting in Egypt and it got me to thinking. What would it take for citizens of the United States to stand up to its government? Could anything provoke us into revolution? Has our society become so weak and submissive authority that we cannot stand up for what we believe in?

In the past several years some very controversial issues have come up, things like socialized health care, the erosion of the right to privacy with TSA and airport security, the economic melt down, the rising cost of living, the rising unemployment rate. The list goes on and on.

I know the amount of effort it takes to bring people together and have them walk up against their own government must be incredible and they must have a cause worthy enough to bring them to arms. But even so nothing has happened, people are all talk and no action. I think we have become so concentrated on every thing else that we have lost track of the fact that for true change to come about there needs to be a reason for change.

A political figure will always try to appease both sides, so that they can become re-elected. I think they don't really care about what happens to the country, I think that all they care about is their own political power and trying to advance their own career. So it falls on us to give them a true incentive beyond just a check next to their name on a piece of paper. We, the citizens of the United States, need to learn that the world is not all fun and games, some times if you want something done you have to do it your self and you will have to get your hands dirty.