Killing Time-Thomas

In Killing Time by John Holloway and Ronald M. Gauthier, John Thompson is wrongfully convicted with the murder of Ray Luizza and an attempted carjacking. The book is based on a true story that takes place in New Orleans in 1984. From the start of the investigation, Thompson claims he’s innocent.

I myself had a hard time believing Thompson’s innocence. People came forth with tips and claiming to have seen Thompson commit the murder. They described the murder in great detail and it makes it difficult to tell whether or not they’re telling the truth.

Michael Banks and Gordon Cooney decide to try and take on Johnson’s case. They try to find errors in previous trials, but their efforts prove to be futile. They eventually find that evidence was mishandled in one of the previous cases and Johnson goes free.

The book effectively portrays the city. I found myself recognizing some of the places they described. The murder actually takes place on Baronne, a few blocks from where I work.

The Character development was weak, but the goal of the book was to tell what happened and not really to go into depth about the characters. However, I think the authors did a good job of making the reader feel sympathy for Johnson.

It seemed that the people working on the case were more interested in putting someone away rather than finding the right person to put away. The tips and evidence weren’t really investigated as well as they should’ve been. Everything seemed rushed. If the people working on the case had handled it with diligence, I don’t think Johnson would’ve ended up on death row.

Thomas-Casablanca

Casablanca is set in the same month that Peal Harbor was bombed. It’s almost impossible to not see Casablanca as a political film. Rick, the indifferent bar owner, represents America. He didn’t see any need in getting caught up in all the drama that was going on in Casablanca. He isolated himself and didn’t take anyone’s side in the beginning, much like America before Pearl Harbor.

Rick is fair; he doesn’t take sides and he treats everyone the same. When the banker comes into the bar and expects special treatment, Rick turns him away and treats him like he would treat anyone else. Rick thinks the best way to stay out of trouble is to stay out of all the politics going on at Casablanca and to not take anyone’s side. In the end, Rick shoots the senior German military officer and finally takes a side.

In the beginning of the film, Rick sits and chats with a few german militants. One of the officers asks Rick questions, attempting to get a feel for his political stance and why he decided to leave Paris. “Rick is completely neutral about everything,” states one of the Germans.

Dominant: The dominant in this scene is the men sitting at the table. Occasionaly Rick and the officer are the dominats in the frame.

Lighting Key: The lighting in the scene is very bright and open. The lighting reflects Rick’s attitude towards politics.

Camera Proxemics: The shot is pretty close. The men at the table fill up the frame.

Angle: The angle is straight on.

Density: In the beginning, the scene is very detailed and we see everyone in Casablanca. Later, the table is where the eye goes to first.

Form: The form is close in this scene.

Framing: The Frame is tight.

Character Placement: The characters are located in the center of the shot.

Character Proxemics: The characters proxemics are intimate since they’re sitting at a round table sharing a serious conversation.

Thomas-Minority Report

In Minority Report, the pre-cog crime division uses technology that claims to be able to see some commit a crime before it really happens. In Terri Murray’s article “Our Post-Moral Future” he states, “Crime and punishment depend upon free human agency, a cornerstone of liberal democracy. By re-defining criminal acts as involuntary and inevitable, proponents of the new technology merely fabricate a dubious demand for the product they hope to supply.”

As I watched Minority Report, I was disturbed that they were arresting people for crimes they hadn’t committed. Even though the crimes were horrific, they still hadn’t been committed. A moral boundary was being crossed. If someone intends to do something wrong, but hasn’t done anything wrong, should they still be held accountable? Is it still a crime. Murray later states in his article, “In its ordinary sense, a 'crime' is meaningless unless it is done, and is a crime precisely because it is done.” A Crime because a crime once something is done and once something is committed. So it’s wrong, according to Murray and I, to arrest someone because of what they were thinking. It’s different when we arrest people on intended murder charges because there’s a way to prove that they had intentions of killing someone. The whole idea of going into someone’s mind is what disturbed me the most. That would open the door to numerous problems. Where does it stop? There’s too much opportunity to take advantage of this type of technology. Going into the human mind is taking it a step too far.

Thomas-Avatar

My avatar would Effy from the British television show, Skins. Effy doesn’t say much, but everyone knows who she is and her reputation. She always marches to the beat of her own drum regardless of what anyone thinks. She has killer style and doesn’t give a fuck what people think about her. Effy comes off as hard, but she would do anything for her family and her small circle of friends. She holds her family together and acts as a counselor to her friends when they need help.

I don’t do hard drugs like Effy, but I can relate to her in many other ways. I deeply care about those that are close to me, but I don’t take bullshit from other people. I’m constantly doing my own thing and going against the crowd. I want people to see me as different. I think it’s extremely important to stand out so people will notice me and listen to me when I have something to say. It’s also important that my friends and family see me as strong I want them to know that they can come to me with any of their problems. It’s important to me that people see me as someone they can lean on when they don’t know who else to turn to.

I want people to see me as hardworking. I work 25 hours a week and go to school and I love when people acknowledge how hard I work at both. I look up to people that work hard and it’s important that I embody that quality as well.

Thomas-Beowulf

When I watch a movie, it’s very important for me to feel connected to the characters so I can be drawn in. Beowulf completely fails to do this. I think the use of CGI can be to blame for this. Everything looks fake and completely defeats the purpose of a movie. In any good movie, the audience will feel something for the characters and feel like it’s real. I think making an entire movie out of CGI was a bad call.

In the opening scene, I was immediately annoyed. All I could do was laugh during the scene where Grendel first attacks the village. He makes this horrible noise that made me cheer when Beowulf finally killed him. It looked like something out of a video game. He begins to rip people’s heads off and kill people. but it all looks very fake and cheesy.

I didn’t feel bad for any of the characters and I found the accents confusing. Everyone sounds like they’re from somewhere different. Grendel’s mother sounds like she could be from a different planet with how weird her accent is. The king’s accent doesn’t make much sense either.

There were parts of the movie where I found myself thinking, “What the hell does this have to do with anything?” Why did Grendel’s mother sleep with Beowulf? What did that have to anything? I think the director got a little happy that they could do whatever they want with CGI. Why else would you randomly make a fake sex scene with a fake Angelina Jolie?

Thomas-The Wolfman

“What am I watching?” That’s all I could think while watching both versions of The Wolfman. This movie isn’t about the acting. For both versions, it’s apparent that the director wanted to experiment with special effects. The effects in both movies are used in different way.

The special effects (if you even want to call it that) in the earlier version are significantly different than the special effects in the later one. The most apparent difference is when Lawrence Talbot changes from a man into a wolf. In the early version, they use several different shots of his feet to show his transformation and it’s obvious. Each shot has more hair on them and his feet slowly turn into wolf feet.

In the later, yet equally terrible, version, there’s a use of digital special effects. The audience is able to see the entire transformation of Lawrence.

Both movies have significantly different endings. I thought it was interesting that the later one took has a completely different ending. Sir John and Lawrence have an epic battle where they’re both werewolves in a mansion that’s on fire. Sir John is killed by Lawrence. In the older one, Sir John is still a man and he kills werewolf Lawrence to save Gwen in the forrest at the end of the movie.

In the first one, Gwen Conliffe plays more of a “damsel in distress role” instead of a heroine that we see her as in the later version. Gwen kills Lawrence on her own at the end of the movie and saves herself.

Thomas Mise en scène

This frame is from a scene in the movie, “Waitress.” This scene takes place at the diner Jenna works at right after she has sex with her gynecologist that she’s having an affair with. The dominant in this frame is the character in the middle, Jenna. We see Jenna upset most of the movie and this frame shows a dramatic change in the movie. The other characters in the scene are looking at her, she's right in the middle and the tray she's holding a tray with orange juice on it.

All these elements make out eyes go straight to Jenna. The frame is also very brightly lit. It uses natural lighting from a window that is out of frame, on the right. The frame is so brightly lit in order to reflect Jenna’s mood. Jenna’s face is the brightest thing in the frame. It’s significant that she’s so happy because we see her either upset or indifferent. This is the first time during the movie that she shows any strong emotion. The use of bright colors is also used to show her mood. There’s bright colors in the frame to show the change in Jenna. This frame uses social camera proxemics. This proxemic is used to show the other characters’ reaction to Jenna’s mood. It’s also the first time the other characters see Jenna truly happy and they’re surprised. They’re also used to seeing her unhappy. The character proxemics are also social. The characters are about about four feet away from each other.