MMJ at UP - Spring 2019

If you’re familiar with Paul Thomas Anderson, then you are aware of the immensely successful career he has had for over 20 years and counting.   His films have been nominated for 25 academy awards, winning three of them for his cast and crew.   His second film, Boogie Nights, became his first critical and commercial success when he was just 27 years old.   However, many people may not know about the rather fascinating and impressive rise to fame that catapulted his career into national fame by his mid 20s. After graduating from community college in Santa Monica, Anderson spent a year studying English at Emerson College.   After deciding that he did not want to pursue English, he transferred to one of the most prestigious film schools in the nation, New York University, in an effort to become a screenwriter.   However, it only took him two days of classes to drop out from the university.   Anderson recalled from his very first day of film school that hi...

How to get a nose piercing Blog post 1 prompt 1:  . Personal inspiration posts: Highlight one piece of multimedia (video or otherwise) that we can all learn from in a positive way. Utilize the “visual language” lexicon to analyze production techniques and storytelling approaches. I am obviously not a professional when it comes to filmography or cinematography. But I remember seeing this video a while ago and being so mesmerized by nose piercings. Which, before that point in my life, nose piercings were NOT my thing, however seeing the video totally changed my perspective on them. The cinematographical aspect of the video, with the interview type as well as the just artsy close up shots completely sold me on getting a nose piercing(actually getting done with it is a different story). But I like how this is portrayed its a very simple you could even say boring story since its been done time and time again to the point that it is just "repetitive".  Focusing solely o...

Animation is my personal favorite forms of story telling, and one of arguably the best examples of story telling in animation is the movie Akira. Akira released in 1988 with the largest production budget for any animated film at the time. Although animation has grown to be much more sophisticated today Akira still goes toe to toe with modern films such as The Incredibles. From the second the film starts it is extremely obvious how much time went into hand drawing every detail. The movement is smooth, and the facial expressions are vibrant. The most impressive detail of the movie is the story. What really sets the story of Akira apart from other movies is how open-ended and philosophical it can be. At the surface level the film is about the struggles of adolescent boys in a dystopian future. However, one can interpret the film as mans struggle with power. What everyone can take away from this masterpiece is the use of non-verbal storytelling. Within the first 10 minut...

If you are familiar with Bo Burnham’s career, you may know about with his less-than-traditional journey to fame. If not, here’s a quick rundown: A rise to fame on YouTube for posting videos of himself singing quirky comedy songs at age 16, to opening for comedy tours before he turned 18, to becoming a writer for Comedy Central, to headlining his own comedy tour by age 24, and finally taking a seemingly 180-degree shift to writer and director. All before the age of 28. His less-than-typical rise to fame is in part thanks to his ingeniously creative mind and ability to examine the inner workings of American society and culture in a satirical yet critical way. He brings this insight and thoughtfulness to his film Eight Grade, a dramedy about a young girl named Kayla who is in her final week of eighth grade. Burnham explores the harsh realities of growing up in a world plagued by social media and the ever-present pressure to be perfect. In his directorial debut, Bo Burnham aims to acc...

I found the article “Sedona's housing woes threaten its sense of community. Some blame vacation rentals” by Lorraine Longhi in the Arizona Republic, to be a great example of using multimedia elements to bring a story to life. This story uses a combination of video as well as photos to tell a story about how housing prices and vacation rentals in Sedona are destroying the community.  The video is extremely interesting because of the different scenes it shows a well as using still images as well as footage to have it fully capture the community of Sedona.  The video starts off with a wide shot of Sedona to set the scene but then moves into a still photo that is not as wide but has an incredible depth of field in focus meaning she used a small aperture to get the shot. There are also a few other still shots used in the video when it shows these it often has great use of jump cuts but make it feel natural for example there is shot first outside of a hotel and then next ...

I recently had the fortune of re-encountering an inspirational piece of multimedia. After being asked to find “cool Youtube videos” I instantly recalled an adapted version of the Charles Bukowski poem “Girl on the Escalator”. I was drawn to this short film the first time I saw it because it made real all the things I visualize when I read a poem or book, or listen to a song. Made by filmmaker Kayhan Lannes Ozmen, this visual poem translates Bukowski’s lines into roughly three minutes of sleek editing and staged shots. By bringing the internal to the external, Ozmen echoes Bukowski’s style of cultural critique through the images he conjures, blending the nostalgic with the nitwitted. The visual poem opens with a shot of a moving escalator and its natural rhythmic, whirring sound while the title comes into frame, its font calling to mind 70s slogan t-shirts with its bloated serifs. Soon the audience meets the speaker, but only through voice over done by a gruff, pack-a-day, wash-i...

At a time when the Catholic Church is at the center of a journalistic, religious, legal, and political firestorm, I was curious when I learned of a new documentary that presented a biopic lens on not only its leader, but also its own transformation. Perhaps one of the most ritual heavy, ceremonious faiths in the world, Catholicism has 1.2 billion adherents who inhabit every nation in the world, yet the documentary that I drew so much inspiration and excitement from took the storytelling narrative from just one.  Pope Francis: A Man of His Word by Wim Wenders was released in May of 2018 and is currently available on Netflix. As one of the most fascinating and electric figures in the world, Pope Francis frequently navigates across globe to spread the message of Christ, and this documentary gives the viewer an overwhelming appreciation of what that entails, while doing so in such a clever, intimate, and intriguing fashion. I am not Catholic. A point that I should probably shar...