I'm working on an application essay that asks for 700 words answering "What is your favorite film genre and why? What are the characteristics of this genre and what film best typifies it?"
This is like when people ask me what my favorite movie is. Are you kidding me? That is an unanswerable question. I usually just say Citizen Kane because it's firmly planted in my Top 5 and I like it for a lot of reasons, but to call it, or any film, "my favorite" is simply not possible. There are way too many to choose from, and like songs, it completely depends on my mood. It's not like we're picking ice cream here. Can I get a amen?
Now the essay question was about my favorite genre, not my favorite movie, which is a lot easier. I always have a hard time writing application essays, though, because there's so much pressure for what I write to be good. And it always comes out sounding stilted and, frankly, pretty dry. And heavy revisions and feedback sessions ensue...
So I thought I'd try something a little different this time and blog my way through my first draft.
My preliminary list of favorite genres is: Comedy, Psychological Thriller, Adventure, Sci Fi, and (not sure if this counts as a genre, but...) Experimental.
I like to watch a really well-written comedy because I like to laugh. No big revelation there. But I like comedies that step outside normal comedic plot and character formulas. [Insert any Coen Brothers comedy]. A comedy that actuaIlly has something to say and is genuinely funny is what I mean by a well-written comedy. It has got to have both. Save the bathroom humor and the gratuitous sex for the sun-faded, once-glossy DVD boxes in the inner aisles at Blockbuster.
Next on the list was Psychological Thriller. I like movies or books where we, the viewers, don't quite know whether a character's suspicions are legitimate or if the character is just crazy. Think, The Turn of the Screw. Rear Window is a fabulous example of a script that builds suspense by keeping us wondering, for a time, whether there is really something going on or if it's all in the imagination. Or a movie where someone must rely on their wits alone to get them out a situation they don't understand. A great example of this is a Spanish movie called Fermat's Room. Worth seeing. Not for the claustrophobic.
Really good Adventure movies seem to always stay in my memory, like the Indiana Jones films or a more recent movie like National Treasure. I like a movie where there is a puzzle to be solved, and if that puzzle leads the characters jet-setting around the world - even better.
I am also a fan of sci-fi (though I hate the Sci-Fi Network on TV), but I have not always loved science fiction. After years growing up enduring my dad's love for watching cheesy, B sci-fi movies, I had a marked distaste for them. But now, part of the reason I once did not like sci-fi is part of the reason I like it. Ed Wood Jr. films are probably not going to end up in my elusive Top 5, but the low-budget innovation of these kinds of films is inspiring. Personally, if I've seen one alien movie, I've seen them all (Signs is a well-written exception), but sci-fi as a genre has a special knack for conveying social meaning, perhaps better than any other genre. A movie like Star Wars or 2001, or even going back to an earlier film like Metropolis, is ripe for translating into social and cultural commentary. They give us a way to use fantasy as a metaphor for things very real and relevant. Also, time travel is cool.
A branch of this genre that I especially like is Social Science Fiction. My admiration for SSF is due to Wells (HG, not Orson), with The Time Machine and Island of Dr. Moreau, Thomas More with Utopia, Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World. Instead of aliens and radioactive crickets - damn you, Sci-Fi network - these books (turned films, in many cases) make cautionary statements about the nature and future of humanity. I'm not sure if Social Science Fiction is a very popular movie genre, but it is without a doubt my favorite literature genre. Perhaps in my essay I could argue for it as an important film genre, to which filmmakers should pay more attention? This is a promising route...
I mentioned Experimental films, and I use this term really loosely. I don't mean a film that spends 45 minutes juxtaposing a picture of a rubber duck with a picture of an Ethiopian village. Not that kind of experimental film.
I mean a film, or a filmmaker rather, that does innovative, unexpected things. Christopher Nolan is a director I'm really getting into, especially because he studied English in college. He says he's using the techniques that novelists discovered two centuries ago and applying them on film. If you don't know him, he is famous for Memento, Inception, and The Dark Knight. He plays with how scenes string together, and in so doing, disorients the viewer and draws us into the universe of the character. I like this subjective storytelling, especially when it involves (as Nolan's films often do) a non-linear time structure. See Following and The Prestige for good examples of this.
I think by now I have a pretty good idea of where I'm going to take the application essay. Thanks for reading my rambles, and I'd love comments or facebook chatter to tell me what you think about YOUR favorite genre. And I promise I won't ask you your favorite movie, as long as you don't ask me mine.
I'll do another post soon on why I don't think Christian Film should be considered a "genre."
And one last thing... I don't care what people say about it, but I love Titanic. Don't be hatin'.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Movin' on up... er... out
Moving into a new blog, arranging things just how you want them, is pretty much like moving into a new place. You put up wallpaper, hang up some inspiration quotes in key places, maybe a few throw pillows... Yes, blogs are a lot like appartments, only much less expensive. I've done much more blogging than moving, but this fall moving into a new place is what I'm about to do. I'm beginning a Master's in Film Aesthetics at the University of Oxford - a dream come true!
I've lived in Oxford before, during a year-long study abroad program while I was an undergrad. So I'm pretty familiar with the area (and there aren't too many cities about which I can say that.) But when I studied there before, I had the privilege of living in a beautiful brick house that was owned by my home university. I lived with old friends and a couple of new ones. It cost no more than the dorms back home. It had a fresh flowers and an oriental rug. It was a sweet, cushy deal. And I was very thankful for it.
But reality just has to smack you in the face, don't it? A year later, and here I am planning to go back to Oxford for another year, but there is no longer a nice, univerity-subsidised place to live. At the moment I haven'tyet found a place, but I'm looking into all the options. Because Oxford is being 'slow as molasses' - to use a southern cliche - about giving me information about things like this, my most promising option seems to be to turn up at the graduate office on move-in day with a sleeping bag and a juice box, like it's camp, and say "Here I am!"
I digress. Oxford University owns some properties that are rented out to students, but not many, and they go quickly. So my best option is to find an apartment on my own and/or finding housemates to share with. Apartment-hunting for a first-timer is daunting, especially when you can't very well visit your new city to look at apartments in person. Check the locks, and such. See if it gets afternoon sun. Hear the horror stories about how someone died in it.
But I have the internet on my side! And facebook and friends who live in Oxford who've given me a lot of good information. Cost of living being what it is in Oxford, I'm trying to find that perfect balance between price and location. Oxford has some dodgy areas, but of course those are where the most affordable flats are. (Oh yeah, side note: googling for "Oxford flats" will not turn up the information I have in mind.)
The other logistical thing I have to get squared away is my student visa. This one is a little easier than last time, actually. I'm familiar with the application requirements, and more importantly, I know how long it should take to go through the application process and to receive the visa in the mail after it's been processed. I can't start working on this, however, until I get a few more bits of information from Oxford, who, again, are dragging their wing-tipped feet. So, while checking my email compulsively doesn't do much for my social life, I'm excited that all of this is becoming real.
At the end of the day, I know everything is going to be okay. I'm praying through the things that are going to be logistically challenging, like apartment shopping from 3000 miles away. But most of all, I am thrilled, exstatic, appreciative, and excited beyond words that I am getting to go to Oxford to continue my education. All of this other stuff is just gravy, and God will sort out the things that I can't. He's gotten me this far, so surely I can trust that the rest will be just fine.
I've lived in Oxford before, during a year-long study abroad program while I was an undergrad. So I'm pretty familiar with the area (and there aren't too many cities about which I can say that.) But when I studied there before, I had the privilege of living in a beautiful brick house that was owned by my home university. I lived with old friends and a couple of new ones. It cost no more than the dorms back home. It had a fresh flowers and an oriental rug. It was a sweet, cushy deal. And I was very thankful for it.
But reality just has to smack you in the face, don't it? A year later, and here I am planning to go back to Oxford for another year, but there is no longer a nice, univerity-subsidised place to live. At the moment I haven'tyet found a place, but I'm looking into all the options. Because Oxford is being 'slow as molasses' - to use a southern cliche - about giving me information about things like this, my most promising option seems to be to turn up at the graduate office on move-in day with a sleeping bag and a juice box, like it's camp, and say "Here I am!"
I digress. Oxford University owns some properties that are rented out to students, but not many, and they go quickly. So my best option is to find an apartment on my own and/or finding housemates to share with. Apartment-hunting for a first-timer is daunting, especially when you can't very well visit your new city to look at apartments in person. Check the locks, and such. See if it gets afternoon sun. Hear the horror stories about how someone died in it.
But I have the internet on my side! And facebook and friends who live in Oxford who've given me a lot of good information. Cost of living being what it is in Oxford, I'm trying to find that perfect balance between price and location. Oxford has some dodgy areas, but of course those are where the most affordable flats are. (Oh yeah, side note: googling for "Oxford flats" will not turn up the information I have in mind.)
 |
| Me with my housemates from last year at Oxford - all dear friends and lovely people. |
The other logistical thing I have to get squared away is my student visa. This one is a little easier than last time, actually. I'm familiar with the application requirements, and more importantly, I know how long it should take to go through the application process and to receive the visa in the mail after it's been processed. I can't start working on this, however, until I get a few more bits of information from Oxford, who, again, are dragging their wing-tipped feet. So, while checking my email compulsively doesn't do much for my social life, I'm excited that all of this is becoming real.
At the end of the day, I know everything is going to be okay. I'm praying through the things that are going to be logistically challenging, like apartment shopping from 3000 miles away. But most of all, I am thrilled, exstatic, appreciative, and excited beyond words that I am getting to go to Oxford to continue my education. All of this other stuff is just gravy, and God will sort out the things that I can't. He's gotten me this far, so surely I can trust that the rest will be just fine.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Sparrows and Peacocks: Not That Different
One of my favorite authors, Flannery O'Connor, wrote that the peacock "appears to receive through his feet some shock from the center of the earth, which travels upward through him and is released: Eee-ooo-ii! Eee-oo-ii. To the melancholy this sound is melancholy and to the hysterical it is hysterical. At short intervals during the day and night, the cock...will give out with seven or eight screams in succession as if this message were the last one on earth which needed most urgently to be heard" (Mystery and Manners).
Greek myth holds that the peacock was punished for its vanity by a goddess who cursed it with a horrible voice, so that when it bragged of its beauty, only the awful noise would come out. Peacocks capture my attention because their hypnotizing beauty contrasts with their screeching voices and their awkward movements. Flightless birds (though the peacock isn't entirely flightless) are walking contradictions. A bird has always symbolized flight, freedom, grace - but a flightless bird, like the kiwi, the ostrich, and especially the extinct dodo, represent anything but.
Matthew turns our attention to a very different bird, also lacking flight: the sparrow. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows" (Matthew 10:29-31). What amazes me about this is that the Maker of the universe cares whether a little bird, smaller than a pine cone, should fall out of a tree. There is nothing special about a sparrow to make one stand out to us, unlike the peacock. But Matthew speaks volumes about God's love for us by drawing this contrast between sparrows and humanity. If God cares about a tiny bird, how much more does He care about us? How much more does He value us?
Whenever I feel that I have been dealt an unfair hand by life because of the seemingly random things that go may wrong, this verse reminds me that nothing comes to my doorstep without first filtering through God's hands. If He cares that the bird falls out of its nest, surely He cares when I fall down. Birds have long been a useful symbols for writers, (and a thing of horror for Hitchcock, but that's another post). Sometimes I feel like the peacock, and sometimes I feel like the sparrow. Sometimes I grow very confident in my ability to provide for myself and to run my own life, but then I open my mouth and remember how foolish I sound. Sometimes I feel like the tumbled-down sparrow, helpless to lift myself up. In either case, I forget who I am in Christ. I forget that I am a child of God, with the privilege of calling Him Father.
Greek myth holds that the peacock was punished for its vanity by a goddess who cursed it with a horrible voice, so that when it bragged of its beauty, only the awful noise would come out. Peacocks capture my attention because their hypnotizing beauty contrasts with their screeching voices and their awkward movements. Flightless birds (though the peacock isn't entirely flightless) are walking contradictions. A bird has always symbolized flight, freedom, grace - but a flightless bird, like the kiwi, the ostrich, and especially the extinct dodo, represent anything but.
Matthew turns our attention to a very different bird, also lacking flight: the sparrow. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows" (Matthew 10:29-31). What amazes me about this is that the Maker of the universe cares whether a little bird, smaller than a pine cone, should fall out of a tree. There is nothing special about a sparrow to make one stand out to us, unlike the peacock. But Matthew speaks volumes about God's love for us by drawing this contrast between sparrows and humanity. If God cares about a tiny bird, how much more does He care about us? How much more does He value us?
Whenever I feel that I have been dealt an unfair hand by life because of the seemingly random things that go may wrong, this verse reminds me that nothing comes to my doorstep without first filtering through God's hands. If He cares that the bird falls out of its nest, surely He cares when I fall down. Birds have long been a useful symbols for writers, (and a thing of horror for Hitchcock, but that's another post). Sometimes I feel like the peacock, and sometimes I feel like the sparrow. Sometimes I grow very confident in my ability to provide for myself and to run my own life, but then I open my mouth and remember how foolish I sound. Sometimes I feel like the tumbled-down sparrow, helpless to lift myself up. In either case, I forget who I am in Christ. I forget that I am a child of God, with the privilege of calling Him Father.
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| Photo: Benson Kua |
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