John Carter movie review by Carter Brown

I had heard, at first, a lot of negative things about John Carter, one of the most recent films from Walt Disney Pictures. This is the same branch of the Walt Disney Studios that produced blockbusters such as The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe as well as the Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy. I had also heard that the director of John Carter Of Mars (the full name of the film), Andrew Stanton got into.... A lot of trouble after the release of the film because of how poorly it performed at the box office. The previous week before I chose to watch the film I asked some of my friends about the movie. They said it was "Nothing out of the ordinary." "An average film. Nothing too special" "Confusing". Hmm. Well I do, honestly, enjoy a bad movie now and again so why not? Lucky for me John Carter is on constant repeat on one of the Encore movie channels I had, so I DVR'd it and watched the movie later.

I'm not going to ruin the ending for anyone that may happen upon this movie review, but I really liked it. Perhaps the movie received such negative reviews because you have to watch the FULL movie to understand it. The ending reveals why the WHOLE movie conflict is taking place to begin with, and unless you don't watch the whole thing, the movie can appear confusing.

I thought the cinematography was pretty fascinating. Because this isn't the 70s and film makers rarely use sets it seems these days, the whole John Carter backdrops were made from CGI; Computer Generated Imagery.This essentially means the entire movie was filmed against a green screen. Almost every movie these days integrates CGI use for the movie backgrounds, especially in Harry Potter, but up until now, I never thought about how hard it might be to.... Perfectly compose or frame a shot when all you have to work off of, is a blank green screen. The camera angles were really cool, and all shots were framed beautifully. The CGI was really, really well done. I can't express how it stood out among the rest to me. I have never really  been a fan of CGI and in the case of the "Remastered" Star Wars trilogy with added special effects, it was the CGI that killed it for me. John Carter was an exception. The lighting was really well balanced as well. He actually looked like he was outside the entire time. I will look more into the production techniques used during the filming process, but from what I saw John Carter Of Mars was a pretty good film. It seems to me that it didn't receive as much credit as deserved. I hope that soon people will realize how John Carter is not such a bad film.

"Vigilantes" by Christian Salinas review

In film class, I believe in the first week, we watched everybody's stop motions. One of the films that REALLY caught my eye was Christian Salinas' film "Vigilante". He describes the film as "Simple, but stylish". He said that when he first started filming his stop motion, he was really going for a "comic book, action kind of look". If you ask me, I think he really achieved that look. The film was action packed with masks, fighting, and knife throwing. My favorite aspect of the whole film was the coloring. Klyde Warren Park, where he filmed the stop motion, had very vibrant colors. It was evident he shot it during the "golden hour" as I call it when the sun starts going down. The sky was a beautiful blend of pink and orange and the city lights shown faintly in the background but provided a nice contrast. The story line was really clear and it was easy to follow the plot and characters. The music he chose for it was very fast paced and was reminiscent of an 80s video game. I LOVED the blend of all of these factors, making Christian's film stand out to me among the rest. 

Searching For Sugar man movie review

Possibly my favorite documentary EVER, Searching For Sugar man is a film I decided to watch this weekend. I first heard about this movie on 60 Minutes some time ago and what caught my attention was the music of this unheard man called Rodriguez. I had taken a HUGE interest in his music and knew everything about him afterwards but was never able to watch the documentary. Thanks to Netflix, this weekend I watched Searching For Sugar man. 

Rodriguez. An aspiring music singer and songwriter of the late sixties that no one in the U.S. had ever heard of. He sold only about 10 copies of both albums he made in the States. Little did he know he was a household name, next to the Beatles and Elvis that everyone in South Africa knew. Everyone knew his songs, by heart and had his albums, but how could he not of known? The royalties never got back to him, so Rodriguez never had a clue he was "as big as Elvis" in a completely different country.  Rodriguez was also rumored to have killed himself long ago but no one knew for sure. He quit making music because he thought he was a failure. But he never was! He was bigger than he ever could have imagined! Stephen Segerman "Sugar" had grown up listening to Rodriguez as a kid and had always wanted to find out what happened to him and tell this amazing man that his seemingly unappreciated music had been glorifed for the past 30 years. The hunt began. 

Stephen Segerman called record companies and all the record labels working back in the 60s to track him down. But to no success. As the story unfolds we meet producers and people Rodriguez was close to increasing the mystery of IF THEY ACTUALLY FIND HIM. The movie was set up so well that NOBODY knew if they were actually going to find him or not. Even if you're not familiar with his work, the film is set up so that you really... Come to love and appreciate Rodriguez, as an artist and as a person so that you REALLY want him to be found. The whole movie soundtrack is Rodriguez's own amazing works off his two albums he made. 

Then... They find him. 

After placing an ad on a milk carton looking for Rodriguez, Stephen Segerman gets a call from Rodriguez's daughter saying he is alive. Stephen is thrilled and the news spreads like wildfire across the world. This artist that billions of people had missed was alive and well. I was most touched by the fact that he went on a tour around the world and was playing to sold out venues every night. He even came to the Winspear last year for a concert. Rodriguez, who is just an amazing songwriter as Donovan and Bob Dylan got the recognition and praise he always deserved. GO WATCH THIS MOVIE. Rodriguez is the biggest musical inspiration to have ever come into my life and he's always reminded me to stay humble, even after you've achieved great success. I love knowing everyone around the world listens to his music and knows his story. 

Avant Garde treatment UPDATE

So when I first did my Avant Garde film, it wasn't so much of an Avant Garde film as much as a self portrait film, as Ms. Jalilvand said. So I went back to the "drawing board" which is more of a spiral dedicated to my film ideas and started over. I wanted something that shows a different side of me and was very open. I want a lot of dark shots. Like dark streets, dark alleys, traffic lights against darkness. I am playing around a lot with sillouettes (don't think I spelled that quite right) against light and shadows. Those have always been a fascination of mine and I'd like to put those into my avant garde if possible. Music is not going to be a problem at all. I want eerie, late night drone kind of music. Obscure, has a very certain sound to it that I can't really describe. Very excited for what's to come. 

Avant Garde rough draft treatment

I have been planning for this video for some time. I am planning to base it off of my love of music. I want to open with showing my... "Creative space" (my room) with my turntables and midi pads I use to make music with. Later I want to transition to a park with some of my friends and I chilling, going to the lake and going to record stores. Beat digging and listening to obscure record. I have a very clear picture in my head of what I want and I intend to follow through with it. I want to overlay it with some kind of music I made. I am unsure as to if I will make it slow or fast paced. The flow of my rough draft is at a fast tempo 

My weekend movie review: Mr. Holland's Opus

Wow. I can't even imagine where to begin with this. I had always heard in the past from, actually, a LOT of people how good this movie is so I figured I would watch the whole thing through. I don't even know how to begin. 

I immediately recognized Richard Dreyfuss whom I had known through growing up and watching Jaws and Close Encounters of The Third Kind. Richard plays a music composer named Glenn who we see age over a long period of time. There are so many spoiler alerts I don't want to give away to anyone but this movie will make you tear up. Otherwise, you retroactively have no heart or soul. It really shows how extraordinary a single teacher can be and the impact they can have on the students they teach if they put their heart into it and come to love their job, even if teaching is not their first job of choice. I have seen quite a few teachers like this at Booker T. and that was another reason I really enjoyed this movie. 

Brilliant and beautiful storyline as well as cinematography. Everything showed what was going on perfectly and every frame looked like it took an hour to setup so the audience would always connect with the feeling of the movie. The whole thing was just done with so much.... Passion it's overwhelming.  

I don't understand how this only got a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes but then again everyone on there finds something wrong with something. I wouldn't think twice about recommending this movie. Go watch it.