Journal #4: The Joy of Organization

Never have I been happier to be cursed with OCD. As producer, I feel extremely proud of my work on my group's project, Head Games. Even though I went to the SkillsUSA trip in San Diego last weekend, I still got my breakdowns and schedule done while the other producers failed. I also helped organize a group of extras together for our first shoot on Thursday and kept the shoot on schedule. Our group successfully finished our first day of shooting with only small hitches along the way. I feel everyone is working to the best of their ability, and I am extremely confident that our movie will soon be ready to be screened at numerous film festivals. Piero is an amazing cinematographer, Laura Macias is on top of continuity, Jeanette and Laura Menchaca are focused on their sound design project, and Amber is guiding everyone (including myself) to greatness. I cannot wait to continue filming next week and weekend. This film is going to be incredible!

Journal #3: The Screenplay

This week, Amber and I started working on our screenplay. The first thing we decided on was how to divvy up the writing job. After discussing this with Amber, we decided that she would write dialogue, and I would write everything else. So far, this has been working extremely well. We have made sure to check each other's work, and we are open to suggestions from each other as per usual. I could not be happier with the way this project is going so far.

Although most of the screenplay lies ahead of us, we have finished Act I and the beginnings of Act II with only the most minor hitches. I feel we need to focus on what is necessary for our story. I do not want a script full of filler information, action, and dialogue that have no purpose. I want to shock people with the plot. I want the audience to have ohmygod did-that-just-happen moments when they watch anything I write or collaborate on. I have a feeling that with Amber and I working as a team, we can accomplish all of this and more.

Another reason I am so happy with how smoothly the screenplay is going is because my SkillsUSA project is proving more stressful than I had previously thought. However, I have faith in Alexa and myself, and I know we will get our project as great as we can before we go to state competition on the 4th of April. I am excited to leave for San Diego, so the stress the project brings is worth the benefit of being prepared for the competition!

I can't wait to finish the screenplay and the Skills project over break with Amber and Alexa, respectively. I have confidence that both projects will turn out amazing!

Journal #2: Writing is Revising

This week, Amber and I fixed our treatment and created our beat sheet. Before this assignment, I had never heard of a beat sheet before. It was refreshing to experience something new and explore a different aspect of writing. Although the beat sheet is simple, it provides a clear outline of what needs to be done in the screenplay and how many scenes will need to be done in production. I really like the organization of the beat sheet and the simplicity of it.

Amber and I are still working extremely well together. We continue to come up with solutions and fixes to our plotholes and are both open to eachother's suggestions. I feel that our story is very strong, and I am excited to finalize it in a screenplay.

I hope that everyone will enjoy the finalized story Amber and I come up with and that it will be produced. I am going to try my absolute hardest to finally get one of my screenplays produced at Kennedy. Hopefully my wish will come true!

Journal #1: Bouncing Ideas

These past two weeks, I have been working with my partner, Amber, to create a revolutionary teen noir that will be worthy of student awards. At first, we had to come up with individual treatments. I found this very challenging, not knowing where to begin. I thought back to when I watched the movie Brick during a Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie marathon my friends and I had a while back. I also went on YouTube and searched for Veronica Mars clips. After watching these, I still did not feel motivated. I began to write my story, pausing for long periods of time and procrastinating. By the end of my treatment, I was not satisfied, but I knew that I would have the chance to rewrite it, so I left it. I was extremely unhappy with my story and plot when I turned it in the day after Oscar night.

It came as a relief to me when it was announced that we were to work in pairs. I immediately chose Amber as a partner since we had never worked together before and because I knew she was as dedicated as I to create something much more incredible than what I had first written. The first thing we decided was to turn noir on its side and make our lead character a female instead of a male, in effect making our femme fatale a male. Intrigued by our new idea, we went home and mulled over a plot line that would captivate anyone watching our film. We brainstormed for about 2 hours on Google Drive, chatting and jotting down the skeleton of our plot. This plot focused on a girl who wanted to be with a boy, doing anything she could to get him. In the end, however, the girl would find she had been manipulated by this boy, who was the puppet of the girl's sister. Excited with our progress, we shut down our computers and slept on our ideas.

The next day, I wrote the first half of our treatment, letting Amber finish the second half. We used notes and comments to communicate with each other, always revising our treatment and improving it. Although there are still some minor problems we must solve and some things we must rewrite, writing is revising, and there will be no complaining on either of our parts. We want to make our treatment (and screenplay) as incredible and enthralling as possible. Our goal is to live up to the teen noir feel in our own, unique way.

Our pitch went as well as I thought it would. We decided to use a poster as a visual in order to better explain our convoluted love square to the class. It was very effective, and the pitch went more smoothly than I had expected. I am excited to fix the kinks in the treatment and improve the plot even more than we have done already. Writing is my absolute favorite part of film, and being able to do it with an extremely creative, dependable partner is half the fun. I cannot wait to work more on this project and perfect it as much as possible!

Road to the Oscars #6: Miscellaneous Expectations

There are many things I hope I will see in the Academy Awards this year. The first thing I would like to address is the brilliant choice of making Seth MacFarlane the host. He very diverse man; while he is most known for his animated comedy show Family Guy, he is also a big band singer, a movie director, producer, and writer, and one of Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating People of 2012. Seth MacFarlane is a man that can bring levity to the Academy Awards in an edgy way that still maintains the class this important night in film calls for. MacFarlane's monologue at the beginning of the show is what I am most looking forward to this year at the Academy Awards, for he will not hold back. I hope he brings what Ricky Gervais brought to the Golden Globes the past few years, making the normally stiff awards ceremony a little lighter and looser for all who are present and who watch from their TV screens. If anyone can pull this off, it is Seth MacFarlane.

Another part of the Academy Awards that I enjoy is watching the various presenters succeed or fail in their teleprompter comedy. One presenter who I know will make me die of laughter is Melissa McCarthy, known best for her role in Bridesmaids and the newly released Identity Thief. Her blunt and comical lines will be sure to also loosen up the awards ceremony and give everyone watching a cause to laugh. I hope she does a skit at least half as funny as the Martin Scorsese Drinking Game from the 2012 SAG Awards. I have a good feeling she, like MacFarlane, cannot possibly disappoint.

One of the most important parts of the Academy Awards is the red carpet before the ceremony. Although I do not watch the red carpet pre-shows myself, one of my favorite guilty pleasures is watching Joan Rivers and the Fashion Police after major awards shows like the Oscars so I can see for myself the highlights of the red carpet without having to sit through hours of boring interviews. Joan Rivers' brutal commentary on every bad choice ever made in the world of fashion entertains me to no end and is exponentially better than judging for myself, for I do not possess her unique wit and fashion wisdom. Fashion Police the Friday after the Oscars is bound to be one of Rivers' best yet.

Finally, I cannot wait to see the stunned, ecstatic faces of all those who get the honor of holding an Oscar above their heads. Although the speeches are rather lengthy at times, my favorite part of any awards show is the initial shock, surprise, and outright happiness that appears on every winner's face. The knowledge that your work is being recognized for such an esteemed honor is an unimaginable feat, something I hope to experience down the road in my future film career. I pray that one day I will be one of those shocked, exuberant faces, saying their thanks in front of the world to their family, God, and of course every single person who they've ever worked with just to make the speech sound longer. The joy that is witnessed at the Academy Awards is by far my favorite part.

This year's Academy Awards will be one of the better ones, in my opinion, due to the brilliance of host Seth MacFarlane, presenters like Melissa McCarthy, fashion wows and blunders, and the happiness that exudes from every single winner of these beloved awards. Hopefully, my high expectations will be met!

The 85th Academy Awards airs this Sunday, February 24th, at 5pm PST (8 EST) on ABC. For a list of nominees and more information, visit the official website of the Academy Awards.

Road to the Oscars #5: Best Picture

The nominees for Best Picture this year are all outstanding films that are most definitely worthy of this award. The nominees are Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty. Although all the films that I have seen in this category are spectacular (minus Les Misérables), there is no question in my mind that this award deserves to be handed to Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, and George Clooney for Argo.

Argo is a historical piece that takes place in 1979 during the Iranian Hostage Crisis, where one CIA operative comes up with a plan to create a fake movie in order to save six US Embassy workers trapped in Tehran. The film is by far the best I have seen in the past few years, creating a realistic world full of suspense and tension that kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire ride. I felt my stomach clench at the last moments when the 6 and Mendez, Affleck's character, almost didn't make it on the plane that would take them to safety. I laughed every time Alan Arkin exclaimed, "Argo fuck yourself!" The range of emotions I felt from this movie was unlike any other, making me feel connected in unexplainable ways that will forever be remembered by me.

Another piece of the beauty of Argo was the way it illustrated why Iran hates the United States so much. At the beginning of the film, it is explained that the United States and Great Britain placed a puppet of a leader in charge of Iran. This puppet did not care for the Iranian people and abused them in heinous ways, something the previous leader who the United States and Britain got rid of never did. This evil ruler was never checked by the nations who placed him there, causing the Iranian people to develop a great hatred for the two countries. Before, I had not understood specifically why the Iranians want to see the end of America; because of Argo, I now know why.

A cynical reason of mine for why Argo will win Best Picture is because of the fine line it walks between showing the mistakes and true nature of the United States while still keeping the movie "feel-good" and pro-America, a line that Zero Dark Thirty so obviously crossed. Although I commend Zero Dark Thirty for its boldness and illustration of the (partial) truth behind Osama bin Laden's murder, many will not feel the same way, and thus many will not vote for it to be chosen as Best Picture. Argo's slightly comedic yet intense take on the Middle East issues is brighter and less condemning than Zero Dark Thirty. It has a "happy" ending, one that resonates with the general American populace much more strongly and buoyantly than the eventual murder of Osama bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty. This is the main reason why Argo will succeed over the brilliantly done Zero Dark Thirty.

In my opinion, Argo has Best Picture in the bag. Its outstanding acting, story line, overall cinematic quality, and generally pro-America attitude will all contribute to the film's success in this category, even though it was not nominated for Best Director as it should have been. When it wins, Ben Affleck can finally say to the Academy who didn't nominate him: "Argo fuck yourself!"

Road to the Oscars #4: Best Actress

The category of Best Actress in a Leading Role has two record breakers this year. The first record broken is done by Emmanuelle Riva, the oldest woman to be nominated for this category at age 85 (for the movie Amour).  The second record broken is done by the 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, who is the youngest actress to be nominated for this category (for the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild). The other three outstanding nominees are Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook, Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty, and Naomi Watts for The Impossible.

For this highly competitive category, I am betting that Jessica Chastain receives the Academy Award for her role as a strong, independent woman named Maya leading the charge against Osama bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty. I was floored by her outright amazing performance in this movie. Her progression from an innocent new recruit, immediately disgusted by the methods of torture her fellow Americans use, to an obsessed woman on the hunt for the biggest terrorist against our young nation is portrayed flawlessly by Chastain. The inevitable effects of hunting for the same man for a decade takes a toll on Chastain's character, mostly in psychological ways, and it takes a killer actress to demonstrate that to the audience.

My favorite Jessica Chastain scene in Zero Dark Thirty is Maya's reaction when she discovers that her best friend, Jessica, is killed by members of Al-Qaeda. Her sense of loss is short-lived, for she knows she has a mission she must complete. She wants to mourn Jessica, but it would be a waste of her friend's life if she did not continue the hunt for Osama bin Laden. This major character death completely shifts Maya's mindset, setting her on a deeply personal path to avenge Jessica's death along with the deaths of numerous Americans when Al-Qaeda brought down the Twin Towers.

I felt connected to Chastain's character throughout the entire film, mourning as she lost friends and acquaintances, becoming frustrated when she couldn't find Abu Ahmed, and celebrating with her when bin Laden was finally in a body bag . It takes a true actress to accomplish this sense of connection with the audience, but Chastain has no problem with it, once again proving her worthiness of receiving the Academy Award for Best Actress.

There is little doubt in my mind that Jessica Chastain deserves the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Her competition is tough, for all the women in this category are phenomenal actresses, but I know that Chastain can pull through and get the votes to receive this esteemed honor. She, above all others, deserves it.