Source of Inspiration 2

     For my second source of inspiration post I'm going to talk about fonts. So I was kind of struggling with what font to use for my title and the article titles, and then I ended up getting a new movie and that changed. The movie I had gotten was the Bill Condon film Mr. Holmes, which gives people a brand new view of the infamous detective. While the film is excellent and the acting tremendous, that's not what inspired my font choice. What inspired me was the cover. What you have is this dignified, very sophisticated character but the title looks a bit sloppy for lack of a better word. It's done in handwriting style font so it looks almost like Sherlock Holmes is signing the cover. I really liked the look of the handwriting style and thought it looked a bit amateurish but also a bit dignified much like Mr. Holmes himself. I don't know I just really liked the look of that font and decided that would be a good model to follow for my own blog, which unfortunately will never be as good as Mr.Watson's.

What Im looking for

     Everyone views movies differently and looks for different things when they are analyzing them. So in this post, Im gonna talk to you guys a bit about what I personally am looking for when Im watching a film. This can vary from person to person and no one person is right. Film is an art form that can be seen by thousands of people, and each person can have their own idea about what the story meant. But for me, the main points I look at are dialogue, plot/character continuity, and action.
     One thing that always ticks me off and will immediately get me walking out of a theater is crappy/choppy dialogue. For instance one thing that always ticks me off is when the characters say the names of over characters in practically every sentence (Im looking at you Voyage of the Dawn Treader). Or if the dialogue sounds forced or awkward coming from a certain character, unless its done for a certain reason within the plot. If it's not though it just sounds stupid.
 
   Another thing is plot/character continuity, specifically in sequels. I talked about Age of Ultron in an earlier post and how it basically just pretended that two movies didnt happen and threw the characters personalities all out of whack. It was pathetic actually. Like can we please just get rid of Joss Whedon as a director because he has no idea how to do sequels that arent almost exactly identical to the first film. Also you cant just spring things on people all of a sudden, like a family, without them being somewhat alluded too in earlier films. Like why was no one concerned about his family when he was compromised? Why was he not concerned about them when he "woke up"? It doesnt make sense.
   
      The last big thing Im look at is action. Balancing action and plot can be a very difficult challenge for some directors. For example, the movie World War Z (which I highly recommend no one ever watch) sacrificed most of the plot for action sequences. I get that it's an action movie, but when you have that many plot holes because of the action it starts to become a problem. Why did cutting off the one girls arm save her from being turned into a zombie or why were there people on a plane getting ready to take off when they were in the last safe place on earth? Oh, or why did the phone ringing not attract a lot of zombies when it's established that they are drawn to sound? These things dont make sense and yes its just a movie but when things are established within the film you cant just suddenly take them back to further your plot and make the next sequence look cool.


A couple of movies I think handle these 3 things perfectly:
1. Captain America The Winter Soldier (I watch a lot of Marvel)
2. The Imitation Game
3. Pans Labyrinth
4. Inside Out
5. The Hobbit (all three of them)

photo credits:
http://aretheyoldenough.com/are-they-old-enough/project/chronicles-narnia-voyage-dawn-treader/
http://comicvine.gamespot.com/avengers-age-of-ultron/4025-1563
/http://www.wholesalehalloweencostumes.com/blog/are-you-prepared-for-world-war-z/

Source of Inspiration

     One of my sources of inspiration to improve this blog comes from some books sitting on my desk. The blog was lacking some color and was mainly black, white, and gray with a splash of purple thrown in. But overall it was pretty boring color wise. So while I was redesigning it and trying to think of a color to introduce I saw a couple books off on the side and I really liked the color. I used those 2 books and tried to duplicate some of the color on the page. The books were a poetry book for my English class and a sorority workbook. I really like this color and feel that gives the blog a little bit more life as opposed to the original dark colors. I also got the idea for the title to have a horizontal line across the top like the poetry book picture on the left. I really like the way it stood out against the light colors of the rest of the cover. I hope that this inspiration improves the overall quality of the blog.

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story

I really hope at least one of you gets the title reference. The idea behind it kind of relates to the film Im going to be talking about in this post. The film is called The Imitation Game and it's based on the true story of Alan Turing and his contributions to the success of the Allies during World War II. More than that, it's also the story of how this incredible war hero, someone who helped create so much of the technology we take for granted today, was treated horribly by the very people he had worked to save. 

The film opens up in what appears to be a man sitting in an interrogation room, and another man walks in a throws a folder on the table. The screen goes to black and the audience hears a voice telling them to pay attention, because if they don't they'll miss things. Important things. This voice over almost makes the audience feel like they are being talked to directly by the main character and it makes them pay close attention to what is going on in the story afraid of missing something. It is later revealed that that voice over is from the interrogation scene from later in the film where Turing tells his story to the officer seen at the very beginning of the film. 

The film follows a three time line story structure linking them together through similar themes. They focus on three different points in his life: his childhood, his time at Bletchley Park, and the time during his arrest. This way of telling the story really helps the viewer learn a lot about Alan Turing and why he is the way he is. The whole idea of the film is judgment and how you shouldnt just someone by things that they cant change such as looks, brains, or sexual orientation. Alan Turing was an incredible brilliant man who was one of the only people who decided to tackle the problem of solving what was thought to be an unbreakable German code during World War II. Enigma had over 159 million million million different possibilities for the answer, and the Germans changed the code every single day making it even more difficult to break the code. The film focuses a lot on the hardships of cracking this code and how difficult it truly was on him. 

After all this man did for his country during the war one would think he would be treated fairly well afterwards. This however is far from the truth. He continued his work into a field of study pretty much started by himself until it was discovered he was a homosexual, which at the time was illegal. He was convicted of indecency and put on hormonal therapy which severely messed with his mental abilities. The irony of this ending is that they treated just like the computer/machine that Turing theorized in his famous paper. They treated him like he was a computer that could just be reprogrammed and have his settings altered. This movie is one of my all time favorites because with most historical films they tend to focus on the event rather than the person, but with this movie its a little bit of both. They tell the story of the event, but they mainly use it to tell the story of the man. 

photo credit: https://twitter.com/imitationgameuk

Philomena

One film that I couldnt wait to see after I first saw the trailer was Philomena. Staring Steve Coogan (Night at the Museum, Around the World in 80 Days) and Judi Dench (Skyfall, Casino Royale) and based off a true story, the film follows journalist Martin Sixsmith and an old woman named Philomena Lee on the journey to find her son who was taken from her when she was a young girl. The child was stolen from and given up for adoption without her consent by the nuns who she lived with at a convent when she was young. Decades later she is introduced to a former BBC Correspondent named Martin who decides to do a a human interest story on this woman and help her find her missing son. [SPOILERS AHEAD]

The two go on an interesting journey together starting with the very unhelpful nuns at the convent where she was forced to work. While there, Martin discovers that the nuns had in fact been lying about losing the records in a fire when in fact they burned them in a large bonfire to hide what they had been doing. With the little information they can get, they manage to trace him from that small town in Ireland to the United States where most of the adopted children ended up going. The two make the voyage overseas to Washington DC where they discover that Martin had actually met her son before. Her son's name changed from Anthony to Michael Hess and he was a prominent member of the Republican National Committee during the Reagan Administration. When Martin still worked for BBC he had actually met her son at the White House. The two go and meet one of his colleagues where they find out his was gay. His colleague also gave them the name of his adoptive sister where they find out he died of AIDS and get the name of his partner. While with his partner the biggest plot twist of all happens. Her son had actually gone to the convent in Ireland looking for her but the nuns lied and said they had no way of contacting her since she gave him up. Their journey literally came full circle as she discovers her son was actually buried in Ireland at the very convent that Philomena had visited multiple times trying to find him.

Even though she had the right to be angry and rude to the nuns about lying to both her and her son and keeping them apart forever, she wasnt. She forgive them for what they did and told Martin that she doesnt want to hate anybody and how his anger "must be exhausting." Her story is published to help bring to light the tragedies that happened to these young unwed women in Ireland who are still trying to find their children.

This film was not at all what I was expecting. When you watch this kind of film you pretty much expect a happy ending, and when one doesnt happen it kind of just leaves you hanging in disbelief. The only issue I have with this film is that it felt way to rushed at the beginning and the viewer was just immediately thrown into this story. Other than that I love the dialogue between the two characters and how the story is told. While in a way it does demonize the nuns a bit, Philomena is there to remind the viewer of forgiveness and how holding a grudge and being upset cant change anything. The film I believe is a great lesson on forgiveness and moving on. Even when you have the right to be upset, do your grieving and move on. Don't dwell on your anger too much or it can destroy you as it almost does to Martin at the end. This film is one I highly recommend everyone seeing, but definitely have the tissues ready.


photo credit: http://netflixlife.com/2015/09/25/50-best-movies-on-netflix-philomena-is-added-to-the-ranking/

A Man Out of Time

Steve Rogers started out as a small kid in Brooklyn who didn't like bullies and turned into America's hope for defeating the Nazi's during World War II. Steve, or Captain America as most people know him, was an experiment in a "new breed of super soldier" through the US Army. He became a lot more than people realized when he saved the world from Hydra in "The First Avenger." Cap was later discovered frozen and still alive after decades of being an icicle in a ship. In the first Avengers movie we see Steve begin to deal with all that has changed since he'd been asleep; but, it's not until "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" that we really see Steve coming to terms with his situation.

Steve Rogers holds his values very close to his heart, and is rarely compelled to compromise. When Steve first wakes up from the ice he tries to just jump back in and follow orders; but, he finds out from Fury during this film that America isnt the same place it was when he left. He discovered that people are willing to sacrifice those values that were once more important than anything else, "by holding a gun to everyone on earth and calling it protection." It's at this moment that Steve begins to show his frustration and anger towards not only what happened to him, but what people are letting happen to the world. The beginning of the movie opens with this conflict of interest between Steve and Nicholas Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. when they discuss compartmentalization and how they need to take the world how it is and not as Steve would like it to be.

After this conversation Steve goes on a little reminiscing tour through DC and visits the Smithsonian exhibit on himself and goes to visit Peggy Carter from the first film. After his little visits to these places he goes to visit Sam, a man he met at the beginning of the film, where he is leading a meeting at the VA about learning to deal with their baggage. This is done on purpose because this is what Steve is struggling with and needs to hear. It is also during this scene where Sam, Falcon, explains how he lost his best friend in battle. His story is almost identically to the story of how Cap lost his best friend Bucky. And it's not accidental that the next scene is the first scene where the audience sees the Winter Soldier, who you later find out is in fact Bucky Barnes who survived the fall from the train.

One of my favorite things about this film is that all of the action sequences advance the plot in some way. They arent just thrown in there because why not. They make sense and dont feel forced. They even use deception in the mall in order to avoid an action sequence. In my opinion this movie is an almost perfect balance between character development and action sequences. It's not without it's faults of course, but the good definitely outweigh the bad. This movie is definitely one you want to see, especially if you like the Marvel movies. Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Iron Man are in my opinion the jewels in the Marvel Universe crown.


photo credit: http://www.designbolts.com/2014/03/18/captain-america-the-winter-soldier-hd-wallpapers-facebook-covers/

Elle Woods for President 2016

If you've never seen Legally Blonde Im going to need you to get off this post right now, get on Netflix and watch it immediately. And then since you're there you may as well watch the second one too. Reese Witherspoon plays the incredibly intelligent and energetic Elle Woods in this beloved film. The film starts off portraying her as an unintelligent, crazy, sorority girl who does nothing but obsess over her boyfriend. After her boyfriend breaks up with her (she thought he was going to propose, ouch) she decides to become what she thinks he wants in a woman: a law student. Elle then throws herself into her final semester of college studying and skipping Greek Week to study for the LSATs and trying to get into Harvard Law School to follow her boyfriend. She manages to make into Harvard and heads off to the biggest wake up call of her life.

One thing everyone in this film seems to take for granted at the beginning is how intelligent Elle Woods truly is. She is constantly looked down upon because she likes to party, likes shopping, and wears a lot of pink. What they forget though, is this girl got into Harvard Law School, one of the most prestigious law schools in the country. You have to be pretty smart to make it there, and unlike her former boyfriend she got in all on her own and wasn't wait listed. Even though she is constantly looked down upon and often times humiliated by classmates and professors she is always true to herself. Her bright pink wardrobe and natural blonde hair isn't exactly the norm for the law profession, but she doesn't care. She is very driven and knows what she wants and will always go after it. Elle is the prime example of how just because you don't fit people's expectations doesn't mean that you don't belong there.

Lets talk the what people think of as intelligence for a minute. The people at Harvard looked down on her because she was fashion major in college and they believed her to be lesser than them because she didn't study history or law instead. They believed fashion and hair care maintenance to be useless information not worthy of them to know,; however, this information ends up helping Elle solve her first case, save an innocent woman from prison, and shock everyone in the process. Most girls like her are seen as shallow, vain, and stupid for knowing things like this, but Elle proves that this information is useful and not to mention, difficult to learn. She rattles off fashion information about stitches and fabrics like its everyday knowledge and stops a worker from thinking she can take advantage of her simply because she's a blonde. Elle Woods is intelligent and if she wasn't she never would've made it to Harvard.

She goes through a transformation throughout the film and her motivations change as she matures and discovers who she is. She goes from wanting to win back her boyfriend, who she later turns down at the end of the film, to wanting to work at a law firm and become a lawyer. She also helps change one of the characters (her ex boyfriends new fiance) and they both ditch the guy and become best friends. This act is rare in Hollywood is probably one of the reasons that this movie is still so popular among women.

photo credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250494/