Genesis

Being born into the motion picture generation has drastically reduced my appreciation for the raw art of film. Seeing picture in motion is just so normal to everyone now. Film has taken over picture as the more apprectiated art form. Millions of people swarmed through the box office to catch Avatar in 3D but art galleries have become the setting for fancy parties with wine and cheese. The evolution of film will be the most interesting topic I have studied thus far in honors.

The most interesting idea to me that we discussed on Thursday was cross-cutting. I am so used to the concept of multiple things happening at the same time but being shown in sequence because I have grown up watching action movies where one person is disarming a bomb, the other person is saving the girl and the last person is fighting the bad guy. However, I never realized how revolutionary of and idea it actually was when it was originated. People were so astounded with video itself that simple everday experiences were captivating on film, but for extravagant plot lines like those in most filmed works today, cross-cutting is essential. Don't even get me started on Lost. That show needs ten story lines going on all at once...Charlie is addicted to heroin!! Locke is going down the hatch!! Jack has to save someone else!! It's really amazing how imaginative film has become. Sometimes it takes going back to the origin of something to truly apprectiate it, rather than being absorbed in the innovative present. Transformers and Avatar had some of the best special effects to date with the highest quality cameras, but I find that watching a fireman rescue from two points of view for the first time in 1933 to be much more intriguing.

I am amazed at how far cinema has come over almost the past century, and it will be super exiting to get to study it in a class. I can already tell how adventurous this class will be. Never before in a class has the instructor told everyone to get out their phones, leave the class room and film anything random. That alone showed me the liberation and freedom of expression we will be allowed in this class and nothing makes me more eagar to try my hardest than a class in which I can spread my wings a little. It'll be a great semester and I can't wait to get things rollin'. :-)