Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Lights, Camera, Action


Starting off with a flashback to the good ole days of VCR was a thrill especially for me (and my parents)….who still own one and use it. I wonder what Friedberg would say now with our advancements into Blu-ray’s, digital downloading, and online streaming.

When she spoke of HBO, it reminded me of a conversation I had with my friend a couple of weeks ago. We are both fans of several HBO series but don’t have the funds to pay for cable. So I asked, “Why hasn’t HBO come up with a plan allowing them to sell HBO Go (their online streaming website for current cable users) directly to customers rather than having to go through a cable company?”. According to my friend and some online articles, this is actually in the works. Not sure when, but it will come. Regardless, it is just another example of how advanced technology has become and how eager we, as consumers, are to use it and see things whether they are shows, films, etc.

With this advancement in technology, we are seeing more and more movies break boundaries taking us to other places, other times, and outside of this world. I find it amazing! Of course, as Sarris says not every movie is good and not every movie is bad. It all rests in the hands of the director. It is he/she who selects a piece to produce and portray. It is interesting to see how many more films now a days are being written and directed by the same person. So not only are the directors portraying a script they are portraying a script that they wrote, felt, and spent time on. One that comes to my mind is Woody Allen. I personally like most of his movies. They are interesting and odd in a Woody Allen kind of way and I never felt any of them to be very similar in meaning, which is pretty incredible. When I had more time to watch TV, I would always watch the interviews of the celebrities selected in his films and the one thing they would always say was that they never worked with a director like him. He would give them the script, let them act as they saw fit, AND even add more. He wanted them to think outside of the lines. One example was in the movie Vicky Christina Barcelona starring Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Scarlett Johanson. In the film there were many instances in which Penelope and Javier were to speak to each other in English but once Woody set them free, they threw in Spanish and wild gestures which added to the flare of the movie.


In the end, I wonder what is to come next. Our demand for more movies and shows has only increased with time. We are drawn to it like moth to a flame. Are we getting burned though? Have we made these things our reality?

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