48 Hour Shootout

This year I worked with a group of primarily seniors and juniors on the 48 hour shootout. As a collective group we generate the idea and put it into action very effectively. We managed to 3rd place overall! Here is the youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9ltIIlssdM

What would MY Super Powers be?

Script Coverage: House Of the Dead...THIS MOVIE SUCKED

Mindfire Entertainment

Script Coverage

Title: House of the Dead	Setting: Heavily wooded Island in Pacific Northwest
Author: Mark A. Altman, Dan Bates	Period: Current times (2003)
Producer:	Elements Attatched
Submitted By:	Submitted To: Zachary James
Read (watched) By: Zachary James	Genre: Horror, Action
Coverage Date: 2/10/14	Submission Date: 2/10/14

	Excellent	Very Good	Good	So-So	Not Good
Plot					X
Characters					X
Dialogue					X
Structure					X
Commercial Appeal					X

Recommend:

Consider:

Pass:X

Log Line: A group of friends go to a strange island in the Pacific for a “rave” only to find everyone is gone and the island is full of zombies

Summary: A group of friends, Simon, Greg, Alicia, Karma, and Cynthia plan on going to a really awesome rave on an island. Unfortunately they miss the boat, but luckily they meet a fisherman named Captain Kirk and his creepy first mate Salish. Kirk takes them to the Island after avoiding a cop trying to stop and search his boat.

            The four friends arrive on the Island only to find it deserted, and the rave left unattended. Alicia, Karma and Simon go out across the Island to find out where everyone went. Greg and Cynthia are left behind and when Greg goes to take a leak, Cynthia is killed by Zombies. The three that went off to look for others find an old house where they meet up with Rudy, Liberty, and Hugh. The new members of the group explain that zombies are responsible for the madness that has transpired. Meanwhile, Kirk and Salish are unloading stolen goods from their boat, because the cops are on their tale. Sadly Salish is killed out in the woods, hiding from zombies

            The six members of the search party return to the rave site, finding Greg in an overturned party. Cynthia has mysteriously disappeared, only to return a zombie and snap Hugh’s neck. The cop that followed Kirk’s (her name is Casper) shows up just in time to put a few bullets in Cynthia, narrowly saving the day. They develop a plan to return home using Kirk’s ship. After an intense run through the woods, they find Kirk’s ship overrun by zombies. Simon jumps into the water while Casper fends off the zombies with her gun. Kirk reappears and helps fight with another gun. Liberty goes swimming as well, trying to help Simon. In all, Simon gets acid spit on his face (yes, the zombies can do that), and Kirk is bitten. Greg and Casper leave to go find help.

            While Casper is out, Kirk tells a story about a Spanish priest named Castillo who lived hundreds of years ago. He was banished from Spain for performing ungodly experiments. While on a ship, he allegedly kills the crew and lands his boat at this island, but Kirk dismisses it as a legend. Meanwhile, Casper and Greg encounter zombies while out looking for help and Greg gets killed. Casper returns to the group, with a bag full of guns. Kirk also has a box full of guns that he had on his ship. The group makes a plan to go to big scary house.

            There is a long battle sequence in front of the house. Many zombies are killed. Liberty is mauled by zombies when she runs out of ammo, and Casper dies dramatically in Rusty’s arms. The remaining group members make it into the house, but Kirk is severely wounded in the process. Simon and Karma make out while they find free time. Rudy and Alicia make out also. A book is found that the story Kirk told earlier was true. They leave the still wounded Kirk behind to search the house.

            They find a strange room full of experimental, mad scientist like stuff. There are also lots of corpses lying around. Rudy looks in a microscope and recognizes human blood as being mutated, which explains how they became zombies. Meanwhile, the severly injured Kirk heres Salish whistling outside. He goes outside to find Salish a zombie and shoots him in the face. Kirk decides he is already dead and lights a stick of dynamite on his cigar and blows himself up. Rudy returns to the lab after finding gunpowder. Alicia sees a strange tank which has a giant eel fish thing in it. Karma runs in and shoots it. The tanks water must have been magic or something because all the corpses in the room are brought to life. Everyone retreats to the room with gunpowder in it. Simon gets grabbed by zombies while everyone else finds a hidden staircase to escape. He shoots the barrels of gunpowder and blows the house up.

            The group is now in a hidden catacomb. Rudy analyzes that this is a supply tunnel and it must lead to the beach. On the way Karma sacrifices herself. Then suddenly Greg (who is supposed to be dead) shows up with a cape and a sword. He takes them to a strange room. Greg is actually not Greg, but the crazy Spanish priest, wearing Greg’s skin on his face. Zombies show up and hold Rudy and Alicia down. He explains that he made himself immortal using what I have to assume is the blood of that eel thing, and also made the zombies. Rudy breaks free and Alicia stabs the priest with a sword. Rudy finds a grenade and blows the place up as he and Alicia find an exit. Castillo lives and in a sword fight with Alicia and stabs her. Rudy chops Castillo’s head off, but his body still lives and chokes Rudy. Alicia with her little strength left, curb stomps the head and his body collapses.

            A helicopter arrives and armed men exit, telling Rudy and the barely living Alicia they are there to rescue them. The film ends on a shot of a city with Rudy questioning whether this was “the end, or only the beginning”.

Comments: The horror movie genre has never been known for its gripping stories, and sadly this movie exemplifies this idea down to its very core.

            The very first scene is a shot of Rudy, sitting outside, wandering how everything got so messed up and why “everybody is dead”. Not only is the script very poorly written here, it also creates a very confusing scene. Rudy isn’t even with the first group of four people we meet. It’s really not even clear who Rudy is until he is introduced twenty minutes later. Despite this, Rudy is somehow the main character, and survives until the end. Rudy has no past, and therefore, nobody cares about him. The other characters suffer a similar fate, they all have very little backstory. Random people sloppily fall in love suddenly, without any indication of previous love endeavors. There are in fact, so many problems with the character development that stating them all seems pointless.

Take for example, Casper. She is seen very briefly in the beginning of the film, then later she shows up on the island, and is instantly thrown in as a main character. She is forced to kill her partner who shows up as a zombie, but we’ve only seen him once before as well. What was supposed to be an emotional scene loses all value. When Casper dies, Rudy is extremely upset, but Rudy just met her right around the same time the audience met her. It doesn’t make any sense.

            The world of the film is basic, and if you’ve seen one horror film, you’ve seen them all. A mysterious island that the locals swear is haunted, the big house covered in vines and surrounded by a graveyard. Everything was very cliché.

            The film’s villain has an almost insignificant role. He is seen several times before his story is explained, and his story was short and pointless. He had no loss or emotional ties that caused him to become evil, he was just some angry guy who got banished from Spain. In fact, it never explains HOW he became immortal. It couldn’t have been through the same process as the zombies, they are mindless creatures, yet Castillo can talk and seems intelligent. Are we supposed to assume the strange eel like creature has something to do with this? His character feels lazy and not unique in any way.

            The dialog is as laughable as everything else. The acting is bad, and the lines are extremely corny. The lines feel forced and there is very little emotion in anyone’s voice, even when they are trying to be scared. It’s almost like they did one take of every shot.

            As for the “action” side of this movie, it’s pathetic. The CGI is very poorly done, and unnecessary. There are shots of the camera’s following bullets through the air that take out zombies, which seem pointless and look like a joke. For some strange reason the movie incorporates random clips from the arcade game that this movie is based on. These shots don’t really make any sense and feel very out of place.

            Overall, this movie makes me question whether this is supposed to be a horror or a comedy. I would only recommend this film to someone who wants to watch something really bad. If this were a script I might shred it up on the spot.

Up, Up & Away

Zach James

Dr. Eric Williams

MDIA 1020

13 February 2014

Up, Up & Away?

10 Superhero’s & their Powers:

11. Wolverine: Self-Regenerates, bones are covered in indestructible metal

22. The Hulk: When he gets mad he turns into a giant, green, and very pissed monster

23. Green Lantern: Has a ring of power that can construct any weapon he wants

44. Flash: Runs and moves very quickly

55. Thor: God of lightning, can fly, has a hammer and lightning powers

66. Blade: Partially human Vampire that can walk in daylight but still has vampire powers

77. Superman: From a much larger planet which gives him strength and other abilities like flying

88. Storm: Ability to control the weather

99. Captain America: underwent procedure to turn him into a super soldier, giving him strength

110. Spiderman: Radioactive spider gives him spider like reflexes and abilities

If I had the choice between the superhero abilities of flying or invisibility I would choose invisibility. Flying is awesome and all, and would allow for fast travel, but imagine how much fun being invisible would be. You could get away with anything you wanted, commit crimes, feed the poor like Robin Hood, and not to mention play the most hilarious jokes on people. The only disadvantage would be that while you’re invisible, you could still be run into and that would just confuse the shit out of people.

Who killed Kennedy?

Zach James

Eric Williams

MDIA 1020

9 January 2014

Conspiracy Theories: JFK Assassination

US President John F. Kennedy was shot dead by an assassin in Dallas Texas, on Friday November 22^nd, 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was caught, but to this day, people continue to theorize who was really behind it all.

The Mafia:

This theory is about President of the United States John F. Kennedy, who is assassinated by a shady organized crime group. Before Kennedy was elected, several mafia families worked with his father, Joseph Kennedy, in order to get JFK into office. During his presidency, Fidel Castro topples over Cuba’s government and actual documents confirm the CIA tried to get a mafia family to kill Castro out of a mutual benefit. Many organized crime groups were angry at Kennedy after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. To top it all off, despite the mafia’s help to get Kennedy into office, his younger brother the attorney general, Robert pushed a legal attack on organized crime. The mafia killed Kennedy, in spite of the fact they had a connected past.

Lyndon B Johnson:

This theory is about President of the United States John F. Kennedy, who is assassinated as part of a diabolical plot by his Vice President Lyndon B Johnson. LBJ had a financial scandal that made him fear for his job at Kennedy’s next election. He was also hungry for the power of the being the President. Kennedy was on a visit to Dallas, Texas, Johnson’s home state. Many of Johnsons people helped arrange the trip JFK took. A smudged finger-print on the back of Kennedy’s assassin’s gun is supposedly the fingerprint of Malcom Wallace, an associate of LBJ. Johnson also took steps to cover up the assassination afterwards, claiming that JFK’s killer Oswald, professed on his death bed that he did it.

The CIA

This theory is about President of the United States John F. Kennedy, who is assassinated as part of a plot assembled by his very own CIA. Kennedy finds outs that his own CIA has been making plans to kill Fidel Castro of Cuba. Out of concern for the potential repercussions of their decisions, the CIA orders the assassination of Kennedy. Currently, the CIA still withholds information about the assassination. It could be that they have locked away the true details to cover up what they did. 

Blackfish Doc Review

Zach James

Dr. Williams

MDIA 1020

1 February 2014

Blackfish

                There has been a lot of hype lately about this movie, and after watching it, one might get a better grasp on why. This documentary film follows in its narrative spine the life of a killer whale named Tilikum, from his capture in 1983 to the present. He currently resides in Seaworld and has killed three people. Tilikum’s life hasn’t been an easy one however and the film really tries to blame the aggression on his time spent at Sealand, where he was kept in a small cage and abused constantly by other whales. This is where his first “murder” took place and he was still taken by Seaworld. The employee’s and trainers interviewed had no idea of Tilikum’s past.  This leads into the train of the film, the story of Dawn, the expert trainer who was killed by Tilikum, unaware of his true potential. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite really plays on ones emotions watching this movie, and does a fantastic job of showing how intelligent Orcas really are. She presents a theme that the captivity wild animals has a negative effect on their lives and in some cases the lives of humans as well. Overall I give the movie a 9 out of 10 for unveiling a truly interesting story that makes one question the ethics of animals