May I Just Intercede?

When studying encyclopedias and researching all day long is the worst possible crime...
When creativity and expression is taught to be a punishment rather than a priveledge...
When parents yell at their parents and children alike calling it love...
Yet they expect a different expression back from them...
When free thought is frowned upon...
When verbal abuse is commonplace...
When all people talk in riddles and half-truths...
When love is taking out of the love making process...
When politicians resort to ballot stuffing and extortion...
When war is declared solely as an effort to unify independent countries...
When people are dying of thirst and starvation...
While others die of over-indulgence...
When practicing known common rights is made difficult...
When one is only accepted as an individual if they conform to a larger group...

You know something or another is pretty fucked up in the world.

SoCal Film Fest: ACT I

FADE IN

EXT. HUNTINGTON BEACH - AFTERNOON

Many shots of mothers pushing strollers down sidewalks, Teenage girls riding bikes, and young men strolling.

INT. Huntington Beach Central Library - AFTERNOON

Welcome to the SoCal Film Festival, an intimate sized local film festival in Southern California.

MOONDANCE KID, nineteen, naive -- but trying hard to look professional -- enters the library and shows all fest pass to the woman behind the counter. Moondance is wearing a university shirt.

COUNTER

Screenwriter? Filmmaker? Where are you coming from?

MOONDANCE

Both. I'm from Temecula.

COUNTER

How did you hear about the festival?

MOONDANCE

I was searching online for an affordable festival.

COUNTER

Nice. Thanks for driving out so far. Did you work on one of the films?

MOONDANCE

No, I just came to show my support and check it out.

COUNTER

Enjoy the festival.

INT. CULTURAL CENTER THEATER - NIGHT

Screening effects show time of dozens of short films passing. In between films clapping and people coming in and out of the theater while Moondance stays put in the center of the theater.

EXT. HUNTINGTON BEACH CENTRAL LIBRARY - MIDNIGHT

Moondance is heading out to go home. As entering car, stopped by a young man. Bret Allen, the film editor of the last horror film.

BRET

I have a few friends who went to that school.

Bret points to Moondance's shirt. Moondance laughs.

MOONDANCE

It's a huge university, I'm Moondance.

BRET

Did you work on any of the films that we just watched?

MOONDANCE

No, I just came to show my support.

BRET

I worked on the last film, The Arm. Are you a filmmaker?

MOONDANCE

Yes, I'm working on a documentary about religion in Brazil.

BRET

That's awesome! Do you have an angle on it?

MOONDANCE

I don't yet. I'm going down in a couple weeks. I'll research and see what I have to work with.

BRET

That's awesome. I'm a film editor and I've been working at a local television studio for five years now.

A group of three heavy nerdy looking guys come up and begin talking to Bret about the successes of the premeire of their first feature film.

MOONDANCE

Is this the rest of your crew?

BRET

Yes, this is.

MOONDANCE

Hi I'm Moondance.

DIRECTOR

I'm Matt Wirth. I directed, wrote and produced the film.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

I'm Michael Diaz.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

I'm Peter.

MOONDANCE

Nice to meet you all.

DIRECTOR

What did you think of the film?

MOONDANCE

I wasn't fond of the talent choices, but it was executed really well. I'd definitely hire the director, cinematographer, and director of photography of the film.

DIRECTOR

Sweet! Suckers! That was our first film.

MOONDANCE

Well it was nice to meet all of you, but it's late and I have a two hour drive ahead of me.

ALL BID FAREWELL

Each of the four men exchange cards with Moondance. Moondance gets in car and drives out of shot.

FADE OUT

Crash

This culturely aware film didn't leave me wowed like many of the other movies I've seen recently. But it was packed with drama, and it made you think. Like American Beauty it used the multiple subplots and began with a clip near the ending. It had an allusion to the snow of ash that was found in Schindler's List but it gave a completely different connotation. In Schindler's List it was a false hope. The snow of ash in Crash was that of the shaved ice snow in Edward Scissorhands as a genuine hope.

The blank bullets was one of my favorite parts but I felt the the screenwriter or director tried to hard to let the audience find out about it. When the Persian girl checked on the gun and the blanks every scene she was in, it was a little too obvious something was up. The movie started as a blunt cultural crash in the jaw. It was very raw, organic, and laid out in the open. I liked that. It had the bluntness again of American Beauty. American Beauty was more of the everyday issues of the average caucasian while Crash did the exact thing with all other races. It was so stereotypical that it bordered being comical. But the comic relief provided a good balance in the film. There was a strong ensemble, but since there were so many known faces, I sometimes had trouble figuring out who was the main character. I eventually learned that it wasn't a story of one character, but it was a quilt of all minorities clashed into one story. It was like mixing milk with caramel and chocolate syrup. Not too many people do it, but I'm sure it's nice.

American Beauty

Wow. This twisted romance/murder-mystery was a breath of fresh air. It was so up close and personal dissecting the secret lives of the average American. Not as the ephamistic front world that usually appears on the big and little screen. This is straight forward. showing the lives of an ordinary girl who wants to be extra-ordinary, a man who has marital problems and hates his job, a boy who deals drugs and is abused by his up tight marine father who happens to be gay, a woman who is above her husband and has affairs with powerful men, and a girl who distances herself from her parents because she feels like they're distancing themselves from her.

American Beauty was so powerful and graphic, I felt guilty at how personal into their lives I got. I kept looking around, red in the face, wondering if I was the only one who felt intrusive. It has an after taste like that of Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher. So many subplots lead to the eventual death of the main character Lester Burnham. The sexually frustrated man who is living with his wife but seperated. The man who is done with being pushed around by his controlling wife and his employers. The married man who's highlight each day is wacking off in the shower. The man who is depressed and downtrodden. By the end there were a total of five suspects who might have wanted to kill him. His supervisor who he blackmailed into a $60,000 severance package, his wife who he caught cheating on him, his drug dealer who his daughter jokingly hired to kill him, and his neighbour who thought he was hiring his son as a prostitute.

The entire film was phenomenal beginning to end. With a thickening plot, dark secrets revealed, and of course the mystery. I believe this revealed the ugly truth, it showed the beauty of America. Five stars and two thumbs up.

Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven

The performance of Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Ensemble was so believable that I found myself lost within the film. I loved the story and the message of this film. A theif and a murderer that stood for love, loyalty, and respect for women. This widower was doing everything for his children. Although he was carrying out a hit to claim a bounty for prostitutes, he was doing so for to bring justice to a woman. She was sliced up face and body by two savage cowpolk and he wanted to make it right.

Clint Eastwood, with his long-time partner Morgan Freeman, and a random near-sighted kid go off to make things right. I loved the sub-plots and intensity of it. Especially at the very end. I was touched, and left the film feeling inspired. The plot of Unforgiven reminded me of Les Miserables, but the film was so original still. I give this movie five stars and two thumbs up. It blew me away and easily made it onto my favorite movies list.

The fact that they made no mention that Morgan Freeman's Character Ned was black was very heart-warming but I was kind of confused. Since given the setting he would have been treated differently by the surrounding cast because of his color, but it was nice to show that he was equal. A Hollywood feat of getting a negro man into a Western and to be treated as an equal, just as the early Jewish Movie Moguls integrated Jews into the caucasian population through their films. Maybe someday soon Asians and Latinos will also be equal. Perhaps they just have to wait a little longer since they came centuries after the caucasians, jews, and blacks. We could argue that the Native Americans and Latinos were here first, but that's a whole different controversial blog.

Asians in Hollywood

As I was watching the 1987 film: The Last Emperor, I was pondering upon the lack of Asian Americans... or any asians for that matter-- in Hollywood. They are pretty equal in every other aspect of life, but their prescence in the world media is very minimal. There are only a handful of films that either (a) star asians, (b) take place in asia, or (c) were made by asians -- that are recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Of these few are names like Indian Gandhi and Slumdog Millionaire, as well as Chinese The Last Emperor. Other celebrated titles include crudely directed "karate-flicks", stereotyping them all to be human/drug-trafficking, martial arts mastering, chopstick users. As some trafficking, fighting, and chopsticks do occur, I am sad to admit that the modern culture and affect of Asians in the Modern World is under-appreciated and under-represented. They supply us with everything. Chances are, most of your belongings say either Made in China or Made in Taiwan. The technology that we all use was predominantly developed in Japan. The leading executives in the world hail from this continent. Fortune magazine is plastered with these men. I'd really like to see more of them in today's media, since they are a big part of life and society.

Can I call this a retweet?

First, let's take a look at the script page that a few super-reactive fans freaked out about. It went like this:
FREDDIE: Can we just not talk about it?CARLY: No, we can't not just talk about it. FREDDIE: But my mom's waiting for me to-- CARLY: I don't care. Are you in love? FREDDIE: (AVOIDING THE QUESTION) Sooo... what was in that chicken pot pie? I mean, I know "chicken" obviously, but what other-- CARLY: Are you in love or not? FREDDIE: (LONG BEAT, THEN) Yes. CARLY: (SIGHS) But you promised. You said you wouldn't fall in love with me as long as-- FREDDIE: I didn't say I was in love with you.CARLY LOOKS AT FREDDIE -- SHE'S VERY CONFUSED.Yep. That's what caused me to get at least a dozen emails from fans, upset about the "direction" iCarly was taking (in terms of relationships/dating).Really guys? Does that one page of dialogue really give you any definitive information? (Hint: It doesn't.)But in case you don't believe me, I'll prove it to you. I'm going to start with the last two lines of dialogue on that page, and then I'll write a few more lines of dialogue for you, just to illustrate what a writer can do.*** EXAMPLE #1 ***
CARLY: (SIGHS) But you promised. You said you wouldn't fall in love with me as long as-- FREDDIE: I didn't say I was in love with you. CARLY: (RELIEVED) Oh, good. So you're not in love with me. FREDDIE: (SHEEPISH) No, I am. I was just embarrassed to say it out loud. CARLY: (ROLLS HER EYES) Aw, Freddie.*** EXAMPLE #2 ***
CARLY: (SIGHS) But you promised. You said you wouldn't fall in love with me as long as-- FREDDIE: I didn't say I was in love with you. CARLY: Thank God.FREDDIE: I texted it. CARLY: You texted--CARLY CHECKS HER PEAR PHONE AND SEES "I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU" FROM FREDDIE.CARLY: Aw, Freddie, whyyyy?!*** EXAMPLE #3 ***
CARLY: (SIGHS) But you promised. You said you wouldn't fall in love with me as long as-- FREDDIE: I didn't say I was in love with you. CARLY: (REALIZES) Oh my God! You're in love with Sam?!?! FREDDIE: (INCREDULOUS) What?!?! No!!! Are you insane?! I'd rather have a colonoscopy than spend one night with Sam. CARLY: Well, then who are you in love with? FREDDIE: (BEAT) You really want me to tell you?*** EXAMPLE #4 ***
CARLY: (SIGHS) But you promised. You said you wouldn't fall in love with me as long as-- FREDDIE: I didn't say I was in love with you. CARLY: Then who are you in love with? FREDDIE: (LONG BEAT, THEN) Sam.CARLY STARES AT FREDDIE FOR A FEW SECONDS, THEN SHE CALMLY PICKS UP HER PHONE AND DIALS 3 DIGITS.CARLY: (INTO PHONE) Yes, I need an ambulance at Bushwell Plaza...*** EXAMPLE #5 ***
CARLY: (SIGHS) But you promised. You said you wouldn't fall in love with me as long as-- FREDDIE: I didn't say I was in love with you. CARLY: Okay. So... who are you in love with? FREDDIE: (BEAT) Gibby. CARLY: (LONG BEAT, THEN) I'm gonna go make some rice.--------------------------------------------------------------See? You saw a page. One page.As of now, there are only 5 other people on Earth who know what's on the next page. Unless you're one of them, please keep an open imagination.Thanks.--Dan ;)