#so interesting to see where subsequent boat media is taking from this film

[hardoncaulfield]

the master and commander movie is good actually?!? only problem is that Russell Crowe is too Manly and Heroic to pull off Jack's outrageous dad jokes -- other than that its like ?? a good adaptation? did not expect

[lovemesomesurveys]

1. Do you have a nice yard? If so, do you spend a lot of time outside in it? If not, where do you go when you want to relax outdoors on nice days? We have a decent size backyard, but I never go back there. I’m not an outdoorsy person, I much prefer to be indoors. I don’t relax outdoors unless I’m at the beach. 2. Is there a group of friends that you used to hang out with but no longer do? Why don’t you hang out anymore and how do you feel about them now? I don’t have any friends anymore and that’s completely my fault. I became very distant and withdrawn and just disappeared essentially from everyone. It wasn’t anything they did, I just fell into a bad place and I haven’t been able to get out. I’m such a shitty person for completely abandoning them the way I did. 3. Do your parents enjoy any of the things that you enjoy? Do you bond over these things? My mom and I have a lot of shows we like to watch together, we like a lot of the same music and movies, we both love to read, and we both follow entertainment/celebrity gossip. 4. Did you ever say or ask something that you assumed was a neutral subject, but the person you were talking to became offended and you had no idea why? Not that I can recall. 5. What is the movie that you have waited the longest for/which film do you remember anticipating the most/are still anticipating? There’s been several movies like that. Like for example, I always look forward to new Marvel, DC, and Star Wars movies.

6. Do you have any ideas for a story or movie you’re planning to write or you’d write if you got the time/had the talent? Please share a synopsis! Nope. 7. Do you ever feel like anyone is “out of your league” or does that concept not make any sense to you? What do you do when you’re attracted to someone but find them out of your league? I always get it mixed when it comes to that saying. Like, to me it means that I’m ugly and have no chance with anyone I’m interested in. Does that mean I’m out of their league or they’re out of mine? 8. What is something that an interested guy/girl could comment about you, that would make you instantly open to them (e.g., “That book you’re reading is from my favorite author”)? Hmm. I don’t know. 9. Do you refer to yourself by any sort of fan nickname (Belieber, Little Monster, etc.)? Lol no. I’m old. 10. Do you ever just get lazy and give up on your friendships? I didn’t do it out of laziness. It happened because I’m a mess of a person and I just couldn’t handle or put in the energy into any friendships. I couldn’t even take care of myself. I didn’t give up on them, I gave up on myself. 11. Is there a person in your life (maybe barely) that you feel in constant competition with (even just in your imagination)? Maybe you feel they are consistently outshining you. I had a friend who I felt made things into a competition and tried to one up me in the sense of who had it worse. Like, if I actually opened up about something and expressed how I was feeling, she’d spin it back on her somehow and her problems were always worse of course. One time she even said to me, “what do you even have to be depressed about?” and proceeded to go on about all the problems she has. 12. If you are single, even if you are normally happily single, are there certain specific things you witness that make you wish you were in a relationship (e.g., people getting engaged)? I mean, I’d like to experience love and romance and have someone to experience life with. I want that special someone. I want to do couple-y things. I want someone to get takeout and binge watch TV shows with, someone to drink my morning coffee with, someone to grow with, someone to travel with. I want all that someday. It’s hard for me to even imagine it ever happening, though. I’m almost 30 years old and haven’t found it, yet. I don’t see anything changing anytime soon, either. 13. What sort of situations make you feel most self-conscious or inadequate? Are there any people or places that just make you want to crawl into a hole? If you can’t think of anything specific, can you remember the last time (or any time) you felt this way? I feel extremely self-conscious and inadequate all the time. 14. Out of all your usernames for websites, which one is your favorite? Do you use it for more than one site? I’d rather not say what it is. 15. Are there any cities near you that you’re afraid to go to because of the crime rate or its other bad reputations? I city I live in has a high crime rate and bad reputation. :/ We’ve wanted to move for a long time, but we haven’t financially been able to do so. We really want to try and do so soon, though. 16. If you went to camp as a kid, was it a pleasant experience? Do you think that all kids should be able to go to camp? If you didn’t go to camp, do you feel like you kind of missed out on something? My 6th grade class went to science camp, which was a thing a lot of 6th grade classes did at various schools in my state at least. I don’t know if that’s a thing anywhere else. Anyway, it was actually pretty fun. We we were there for a week and were out in the woods doing nature-y things and learning about that kind of stuff, but they made it interesting and fun. We went to the beach one day, too, which was really fun. We had bonfires at night and sang songs. We did fun things with our cabin mates and cabin leaders. It was cool. I also went to a Girl Scout camp for a week, which was really fun. We put on skits with our groups and did a lot of other fun activities. 17. Do you grandparents ever judge you or stick their heads in your business? If not, is there someone else in your life you dread seeing because of their unwanted input? I love my grandparents, and I know my Nana just loves and cares about me and is concerned for my wellbeing, but yes I do feel judged sometimes. There’s things she doesn’t understand. 18. Have you ever spent the whole day (or multiple days) just looking up one thing on the internet (e.g., videos of your favorite band, how-to videos, quizzes, etc.)? Probably when I was younger. 19. Would you ever go on a media fast (i.e., avoiding tv, movies, the internet, and magazines for a certain amount of time, in an attempt to become aware of how media makes you feel)? Do you think that sort of thing would benefit you? Nah. That would be incredibly boring, ha. 20. Are you happy with where you currently live? If not, what don’t you like about the area and do you plan on leaving? No. I already explained why. 21. If someone told you that we live in a society that hates women, how would you respond? Okay. We live in a society that hates everything. <–TRUTH. <<< Honestly, though. 22. When was the last time you were on a boat? Whose boat was it, and what were you doing? Like 2008/2009. It was a boat that took us across to an island where we were toured Alcatraz in San Francisco. 23. Have you ever been completely blindsided by a break-up or have you sort of felt all of your relationships deteriorating before they ended? If you would prefer not to answer, what is the last instance you can remember being totally blindsided by news you heard? I mean, it shouldn’t have come as a big surprise. He didn’t want to commit and it he didn’t feel the same way I did about him. He completely played and used me, and the worst part is I let him. Then one day he decided he was done with me and it all stopped. There were times things were good and times things were bad and we were on and off, but when it finally ended for good I didn’t know it would really be over. Even though it should have been blatantly clear it was coming. What I was completely blindsided by; though, was when Ty just deleted Facebook and Instagram and fell off the grid. I haven’t heard from him in 3 years. I have no idea what happened to him or what he’s doing and I have no way of finding out. 24. Can you remember the last thing you thought and subsequently thought, “wow, I really shouldn’t be thinking that”? Hmm. Not at the moment. 25. If you ever think about getting married, what are some aspects of the wedding that you would like to see in a non-traditional manner (e.g., a different color dress or “partners” over “husband” and “wife”)? I don’t think about getting married. I don’t plan on ever getting married.

[xmanicpanicx]

What it’s REALLY like to major (and master) in Creative Writing

First of all, let me say that this was my own personal experience with a four-year-long B.A. in Creative Writing and subsequent two-year-long M.A. in Creative Writing. This is post is not reflective of everyone else’s experience in the same program or similar programs. Warning: This may sound like a ranty revenge article, but I’m not writing this because I’m bitter. I’m not all that bitter. Just a little bitter, like a splash of vinegar in salad dressing or something. Really, I’m writing this so that anyone who is considering a Creative Writing major can make an even more informed decision, and hopefully this will help them figure out if that path is the right one for them.

I started off with a Bachelor of Arts in English Language, Literature and Creative Writing, and after a semester, I decided to make it a double major with Communication, Media, and Film. I wanted to go into publishing. I held onto that aspiration for a very long time. It had been budding in me since high school.

But as far back as I can remember, I’ve made up stories and wanted to be a writer. Eventually, I got it into my head that if I always spent time working on other people’s writing, I would neglect my own, and I started to feel iffy about going into publishing.

There’s a lot of “advice” from my Creative Writing professors that I am going to challenge in this article, but I think one of the most practical suggestions they’ve ever given me and my peers was to get a job that doesn’t involve a lot of writing.

Not because you won’t be able to find a job doing so. Contrary to popular belief, English majors actually can find jobs after college. Some become technical writers, some go into marketing, some become freelance or ghost writers and editors. The problem is that if you spend your 9-5 being forced to write or edit for someone else, you lose momentum and motivation when you get home. Even if you’re one of those people who think they couldn’t possibly get tired of writing, the fact is that your eyes will be strained from staring at a screen for most of your life and your wrists will develop carpal tunnel syndrome as a result of your incessant typing.

It’s not that you’ll never make any money from the writing you love to do, but you will need a day job, at least for a while. And it is okay to pick something that has nothing to do with writing, something that will make you crave a return to your writing routine at the end of the day or the end of the week.

I understand, though, if you’re really dedicated to your craft and you think that the best way to hone it is to major, and quite possibly get a master’s degree, in Creative Writing. But if you truly are dedicated to your writing, you don’t necessarily have to major in Creative Writing in order to improve it. In my program, people from outside of the department could take the Creative Writing classes if their writing was deemed strong enough. Also, there are plenty of great online resources out there and books about writing that can help you strengthen yours. It can be intimidating to wade through them all, but make no mistake: a Creative Writing major and even a Creative Writing master’s degree won’t cover all your bases.

In my particular undergraduate program, Creative Writing courses started during the second year. We needed to apply with a portfolio showcasing what we believed was our strongest work. Around sixty people would apply, but only twenty would get accepted. Then in the third year, everyone had to apply again, and more people would be eliminated, so we would end up with about sixteen people in class. And then for the fourth year, everyone had to apply yet again, even more were eliminated, and we’d end up with twelve people in the class. By the time I got accepted into the master’s program, there were only six of us. It was kind of like an academic, artsy-fartsy version of “Survivor.”

Everyone was judged anonymously by the committee of Creative Writing profs, based solely on the strength of their portfolios. This sounds ideal, but it’s actually where things got problematic — because “strength,” unfortunately, was a subjective term in this department. We were encouraged to have diverse portfolios, meaning we should try to write in more than one genre. Profs wanted to see both fiction and poetry from everyone, even if some people didn’t want to be poets. Even if some didn’t want to be fiction writers. Creative non-fiction was okay, as well. What wasn’t okay? Genre fiction.

That probably sounds confusing because I just said that we were encouraged to write in a wide range of genres. But not genres within fiction. Literary fiction is what the profs wanted to see. Even after all this time, I’m still not sure I understand what literary fiction is. But I can tell you what it is not. It is not fantasy. It is not sci-fi. It is not romance, chick lit, horror, mystery, or most historical fiction. In other words, aside from the few literary fiction novels and short story collections that win the Pulitzer Prize, it is not popular fiction.

I’ve heard the profs refer to genre or popular fiction in many ways: trash, crap, the kind of thing that you can read while watching TV. One of my profs even said that Nora Roberts wasn’t a real writer. She’s written hundreds of books and has very high ratings from her readers, so what makes her less of a writer than, say, that particular prof I was speaking with?

But this was all stuff that I heard — and silently chafed against — after I had gotten into the very first creative writing class. Because I myself prefer to write popular fiction. I love fantasy. I love contemporary. And I would’ve submitted that stuff in my portfolio if my college boyfriend, who was a year ahead of me in the program, hadn’t warned me that I had to play to the tastes of the professors. What they didn’t like to see: genre fiction, poetry in the same style as Shakespeare’s or Wordsworth’s, and poetry that was left-aligned on the page and had a capital letter at the beginning of each line. What they did like to see: experimental poetry (think e.e. cummings) — HEAVY emphasis on that — short literary fiction, and fragments of literary novels that were strong enough to stand on their own.

Since the professors ran the program, they could ask for whatever they wanted, I guess. But here’s my problem with their preferential methods: as professors of Creative Writing, a term that encompasses almost every genre, their job should be to help students develop whatever kind of writing they’re into. No genre is better or lesser than the others. There are some marvelously-written romance novels out there, while there are some so-called literary novels that are complete disasters. The focus of Creative Writing classes should be to improve writers’ sentence structures, plot holes, character development and dialogue issues, grammatical errors, telling rather than showing, and so on. The focus of Creative Writing classes should not be to create clones of the professors.

And the thing is, I wasn’t alone in wanting to write genre fiction. About half of the people in each class I went through were right there with me. The others, though — the ones who willingly wrote the types of pieces the professors liked — were quite obviously favored. But I guess that was to be expected. What I did not expect was the way the profs, and even fellow students, would sometimes embarrass the people who wrote genre fiction. On top of that, much of their feedback wasn’t helpful.

There was one person in one of my creative writing classes who wanted to write a paranormal romance featuring a broody, mysterious guy. Sure, it’s been done before, but it was what she wanted to write. Instead of helping her improve the story for what it was, the class on the whole tried to make her steer it in a completely different direction. They latched onto a quirk that her protagonist had, something that may have hinted at OCD (I speak as someone with a partial medical diagnosis of OCD). It was just a random detail that she had included, but the rest of the class seemed to think that was the most interesting detail of her story and encouraged her to expand on it. In the subsequent chapter she gave us, the quirks were definitely more flushed out, but it got so far away from the actual point of the story that, to me, the whole thing just seemed like even more of a mess. The class told her what they liked, and she gave it to them, even though it ultimately did nothing to help her. They had their own reading preferences in mind rather than her best interests.

So, knowing that I probably wouldn’t get the type of feedback I needed for the writing I was truly passionate about, I spent years churning out pages that I didn’t care about all that much. I was a faker just to please other people, avoid embarrassment, and get good grades. Normally when you hear of someone “selling out,” it means that they’ve abandoned their style in for the sake of producing something with more mass market appeal. What I truly want to write already does have mass market appeal, but I abandoned that style, and I felt like I had sold out. I shamefully wrote in my preferred genres on the side, in secret. What a waste of time for me and everyone else in my boat, right?

It wasn’t until my M.A. when I took a course on writing children’s literature that I dared to submit a couple things I wanted to or might have wanted to expand into novels someday. My long-time Creative Writing prof gave them the thumbs-up. And one day, she gave me one of the most encouraging compliments I’ve ever received: “I think you’ve got a lot of books in you. Maybe you won’t write a hundred, but I can definitely see you writing thirty or forty.” She did not give compliments out easily, so I knew she meant it. And it was realistic. She didn’t tell me “Yes! Aim for a hundred! You can do it!” Most writers won’t even complete thirty books in their lifetime, so that alone was huge for me to hear.

But I couldn’t help wondering if she would’ve said that to me if, throughout my years in those previous creative writing courses, I had written the stuff I truly wanted to write. Was she encouraging me based on my contributions to the the children’s lit classes, which were closer to my heart? Or was she judging the entire body of my work that she knew of and therefore missing a large part of the picture? I’m afraid to know what she would’ve said about the things I wrote on the side. I have a feeling it would’ve been mean in the most unhelpful of ways.

Yet when these Creative Writing professors (and many students) are asked why they hate genre fiction, they say, “We don’t. It’s fine. It’s just that you don’t need Creative Writing classes to write that kind of thing.” It seemed like a polite way to say that writing for genre fiction doesn’t need to be good; you don’t need to learn anything; those publishers don’t care about quality writing. I thoroughly disagree. I think that the quality of the writing matters across genres. I think characters and plots need to be developed whether you’re writing a mystery novel or a literary novel. People who read genre fiction aren’t stupid. They can recognize poor writing, and to many of them, it matters a lot.

Not every creative writing program out there will have this snobbery, but I have a bad feeling that most of them do.

So here is my advice for anyone looking into a creative writing program for university:

Always do your research thoroughly. Look into the profs’ interests, dare to reach out to the department secretary so they can put you in touch with current students who would be willing to answer your questions, check out the graduates of the program and see if there is anyone you know of whose style you admire. If the professors (or at least some of them) are open to working with your preferred genre and the students don’t feel constrained by arbitrary rules, chances are it’s a decent program. Bonus points if the program has alumni you’re a fan of.

There are specific Creative Writing programs out there in universities for people who want to write genre fiction, if that is your main interest. Look into those.

If you’re considering post-grad education, an M.A. (Master of Arts) is not necessarily the way to go. An M.F.A. (Master of Fine Arts) might be a better option for you. Professors will warn against this one because getting an M.F.A. means you can’t go on to pursue a Ph.D., but if you don’t plan to get a Ph.D., that’s not a problem. M.F.A. programs are usually shorter (a year as opposed to two) and have a more intense focus on the craft than on essays.

Consider pursuing your Creative Writing education independently. There is absolutely no shame in being self-taught. You can also find critique partners and writing groups of people who have the same writing interests as you and who will be able to give you solid feedback on your work because they’ll have a stronger knowledge of the genre than a literary Creative Writing professor will. You have to do the same for them, though.

That’s my spiel. Long-winded, but it needed to be said. If you truly care about your writing, remember to put it first. Don’t invest in a program that won’t invest in you. Happy searching! And while you’re here, tell me, what’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever heard?

[foundcarcosa]

cclxxii.

1. Do you have a nice yard? If so, do you spend a lot of time outside in it? If not, where do you go when you want to relax outdoors on nice days? >> I live in an apartment, so no yard. I... don’t spend a lot of time outdoors, even on nice days, unfortunately. The land around here doesn’t inspire me. Considering how long I’m stuck here, I might have to make some serious attempts in trying to enjoy the few months of decent weather per year, but I don’t know how I’m going to do that yet. That annoying “Just go outside! Find something to do! It’s all mind over matter!”-esque advice, which is a dime a dozen on the internet, is completely useless.

2. Is there a group of friends that you used to hang out with but no longer do? Why don’t you hang out anymore and how do you feel about them now? >> Sure. Because I don’t live in NYC anymore.

3. Do your parents enjoy any of the things that you enjoy? Do you bond over these things? >> We have a lot of artistic overlap, but since I haven’t seen him in years I’m not sure where else our interests connect.

4. Did you ever say or ask something that you assumed was a neutral subject, but the person you were talking to became offended and you had no idea why? >> Probably, but it’s definitely not as common an occurrence in my experience as some people make it sound. Also: not understanding why someone takes offence to something is a me problem, not a them problem.

5. What is the movie that you have waited the longest for/which film do you remember anticipating the most/are still anticipating? >> I don’t know, but I was really excited about Black Panther for months, and before that I was excited for Thor: Ragnarok, and both of those movies delivered superbly and lived up to (and beyond) their hype and I’m happy about that. It’s good to feel good.

6. Do you have any ideas for a story or movie you’re planning to write or you’d write if you got the time/had the talent? Please share a synopsis! >> Aside from bayou devils and graveyard angels, which is mostly a half-formed thing with no direction, I don’t really have any ideas.

7. Do you ever feel like anyone is “out of your league” or does that concept not make any sense to you? What do you do when you’re attracted to someone but find them out of your league? >> The concept doesn’t really make sense to me, but I understand not comprehending why someone would be interested in oneself. I try not to take that feeling too seriously. If I’m attracted to someone and I feel like they would have no reason to be interested in me, then I mostly just leave it alone. Occasionally I shoot my shot anyway, but it’s not really all that important to me anymore.

8. What is something that an interested guy/girl could comment about you, that would make you instantly open to them (e.g., “That book you’re reading is from my favorite author”)? >> I’m not sure, really. If they’re interested in me then we probably already have some common ground somewhere, so I promise it wouldn’t be all that difficult to get my attention back.

9. Do you refer to yourself by any sort of fan nickname (Belieber, Little Monster, etc.)? >> X-Phile was a big one for a while. I don’t remember if members of the Despair Faction called themselves anything individually. Uh.... yeah, I’m not too sure any of the fandoms I participate in now have fan names. Or maybe I just don’t know what they are.

10. Do you ever just get lazy and give up on your friendships? >> I get lazy about keeping up with social expectations. But I also don’t make friends with people who get hung up on that kind of thing easily.

11. Is there a person in your life (maybe barely) that you feel in constant competition with (even just in your imagination)? Maybe you feel they are consistently outshining you. >> No.

12. If you are single, even if you are normally happily single, are there certain specific things you witness that make you wish you were in a relationship (e.g., people getting engaged)? >> ---

13. What sort of situations make you feel most self-conscious or inadequate? Are there any people or places that just make you want to crawl into a hole? If you can’t think of anything specific, can you remember the last time (or any time) you felt this way? >> I’m not sure.

14. Out of all your usernames for websites, which one is your favorite? Do you use it for more than one site? >> I’m most fond of blackCarcosa / foundCarcosa, obviously. dimCarcosa is another offshoot that I like. Oh, I also have teslascrawlingchaos, which is fun, but it’s long and unwieldy.

15. Are there any cities near you that you’re afraid to go to because of the crime rate or its other bad reputations? >> No.

16. If you went to camp as a kid, was it a pleasant experience? Do you think that all kids should be able to go to camp? If you didn’t go to camp, do you feel like you kind of missed out on something? >> I only attended day camp as a child; all the actual camps I went to were as an adult. I don’t really have an opinion about camp for kids, seeing as I didn’t experience that or anything, and no, I don’t feel like I missed out. I loved going as an adult, and that’s good enough for me. (I probably wouldn’t have liked it as a child, honestly.)

17. Do you grandparents ever judge you or stick their heads in your business? If not, is there someone else in your life you dread seeing because of their unwanted input? >> There isn’t anyone in my life that I dread seeing because of their unwanted input. The closest person would be Sparrow’s mother, but that’s also why I don’t grace her with my presence, and I asked Sparrow not to divulge any details about me to her anymore. She can mind her damn business for once in her life.

18. Have you ever spent the whole day (or multiple days) just looking up one thing on the internet (e.g., videos of your favorite band, how-to videos, quizzes, etc.)? >> Probably, yeah.

19. Would you ever go on a media fast (i.e., avoiding tv, movies, the internet, and magazines for a certain amount of time, in an attempt to become aware of how media makes you feel)? Do you think that sort of thing would benefit you? >> No, I don’t think that’d benefit me. I know how media makes me feel, and honestly, I think I could do a lot worse than this. I think people do stuff like this to prove a point sometimes, or to seem like they’ve got it together (”I can quit any time! See? Wow this feels so great and wholesome! If only everyone could experience this, the world as it’s ~truly meant to be~ [blah blah blah]”) and I have nothing to prove to anyone.

20. Are you happy with where you currently live? If not, what don’t you like about the area and do you plan on leaving? >> No. I don’t really want to spend fifteen minutes detailing what, exactly, about Middle America, Michigan, Grand Rapids, etc I don’t like. It feels like I do that too much anyway. Suffice it to say that I’m sure it’s a lovely place if it suits you, but it does not suit me in any way, shape, or form, and having been mostly ambivalent or begrudgingly accepting of places I’ve lived, this is a new and painful feeling that I haven’t figured out how to modulate yet. Hopefully I’ll figure out a balance eventually. I don’t plan on leaving because that would require dramatically breaking the social contract of being someone’s long-term partner, but hopefully within a decade we’ll be able to move South. I’m banking on it.

21. If someone told you that we live in a society that hates women, how would you respond? >> “That sounds about right.”

22. When was the last time you were on a boat? Whose boat was it, and what were you doing? >> Probably the last time I was on the Staten Island Ferry.

23. Have you ever been completely blindsided by a break-up or have you sort of felt all of your relationships deteriorating before they ended? If you would prefer not to answer, what is the last instance you can remember being totally blindsided by news you heard? >> I’ve never been completely blindsided by a breakup, no.

24. Can you remember the last thing you thought and subsequently thought, “wow, I really shouldn’t be thinking that”? >> No, but it happens a lot, lol.

25. If you ever think about getting married, what are some aspects of the wedding that you would like to see in a non-traditional manner (e.g., a different color dress or “partners” over “husband” and “wife”)? >> I think most of our wedding is going to be non-traditional in some fashion. No bridal party, no overtly religious overtones (whatever... religious ~stuff~ that comes part and parcel with dealing with me notwithstanding), no expensive fluff like flowers and shit, a casual ceremony and reception, not inviting people for the sake of inviting them, no wedding registry, and so on. It might be traditionally New Orleanian, if we do get the second line package and all of that, though.

[filmjrnl365]

#110 Spotlight (2015)

Director: Tim McCarthy

United States

A good film on an unforgivable problem. Tim McCarthy does a good job of keeping a two hour film about a protracted journalistic investigation interesting. The plot revolves around the editorial decision to expose the Catholic church and its hierarchy concerning cases of child molestation. The film takes place within the offices of the Boston Globe newspaper, where a team of reporters pursue an investigation into the systematic abuse and subsequent cover up of abuses perpetrated by Catholic priests.

As much as the media / press is adored and despised in the current cultural climate, it would be hard to put out a full length film that takes the Boston Globe Newspaper as its central heroic character. The narrative that elevates the dogged persistence of gumshoe journalism would seem to fall on an unsympathetic audience in the twenty-first century. While being set in the relatively recent past, Spotlight takes on the patina of the 1970’s, the era where investigative journalism weilded enough jounalistic integrity and power to topple the Nixon presidency and fuel a growing domestic resistance to the Vietnam War. In fact, in Spotlight, one is rather startled to see a Starbucks sign prominently looming in the background of a scene. Instead of typewriters, the journalists are at computer screens,usually hidden behind stacks of papers, but the historic coloration persists because a good deal of the movie takes place in musty basements of archived records or dimly lit bars. I think this is an important visual texture to the movie because it ties it to a 1976 film, All the President’s Men (Director: Alan Pakula), and the newly released The Post (#40).

There is some great dialogue in the film, and there would have to be. In one poignant statement, Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton) while getting a subtle reprimand / warning about his insistence to scrutinize the Catholic hierarchy and asks, “Is this how it works? One guy leans on another guy to keep quiet, till in the end nobody does anything?” In one line, Robinson has summarized the systematic abuse of secrecy found within the Boston clergy, church hierarchy, and the legal system. To accuse a priest of a felony of this nature was to invite the scorn of the church and fellow citizens, who held the Catholic church as inviolable. Indeed, some of the more gripping passages of the story are when the journalists themselves are confronted with the numeric reality that their investigations / suspicions concerning the magnitude of the abuses was much smaller than what was eventually revealed.

This is a story that is about acknowledging painful truths; truths that are close to home, extremely personal, life altering events. For who knows how long, the institutions of power have constructed a system that worked in their favor, allowing serious infractions to be quietly dismissed, without ever addressing the issue in any external manner, or in a way to reach out to its own victims / constituents. The dirty secrets were locked away under a legal / bureaucratic shell game, where priests were shuffled around, promoted, placed on leave, or otherwise rotated into new locations where their sordid pasts could be obfuscated. It was an organized and perpetuated system of censorship and control, a perversely beneficial environment that helped the significant number of abuses continue as long as they did.

Even the film’s hero, The Boston Globe, and Robinson himself, have to admit their complacency and their lack of due diligence. This was not the first time the paper had been tipped to the atrocities, yet it found it convenient to downplay the severity of the story. Victims and whistle blowers from the legal community had divulged enough damning evidence for the press to put the story out to a trial of public opinion. But like Robinson was warned, better to not rock the community boat. So, the victims have nowhere to turn that the Catholic institution has not already rigged the system in their favor.  To help ensure secrecy, should any claim make it through this bulwark, the church, with the help of lawyers would settle out of court and keep all the documents sealed, making it near impossible to ascertain anything ever happened.

Whether you are trying to cover up a Watergate break–in, or committing criminal acts upon the youths of the community, the power of the institutions accused of wrong doing would have us believe that nothing like this could ever happen…but it did.  

https://filmjrnl365.tumblr.com

[oltnews]

Tea is always hot when there is drama among celebrities, and apparently another past feud is suddenly spotlighted. Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo Dicaprio had a fall when the two filmed Jim Caroll's critically acclaimed biopic "The Basketball Diaries". Although Wahlberg has already discussed this long-standing feud with the `` Titanic '' star, it seems like there is more to the story than we initially thought. They have since made amends, but their "friendship" started off quite rocky even though the two were practically on the same boat. In the 1990s, Wahlberg and DiCaprio were both prominent young actors who made it big in Tinseltown and focused on establishing themselves as flawless spies with the few important roles they had played. So we know the two have worked together before, and we could very well add, but we can't imagine that they are bickering even if the media believes otherwise. However, Wahlberg has already visited this subject. He had revealed where he was with Dicaprio and also that the two were basically in the throat of each other in the 90s. Besides their passage in 1995, they were also seen together in "The Departed" in 2006. Despite their ups and downs, the `` Ted '' actor told Extra TV in 2018 that he was ready to work with Dicaprio again. In a 2013 interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Wahlberg revealed in an unfiltered anecdote Dicaprio's exact reaction to his involvement in `` The Basketball Diaries ''. Actors Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio attend the game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 26, 2004 in Los Angeles, California (Getty Images) "Leonardo was like," Above my dead f ** king body. Marky Mark will not be in this f ** king movie, "Wahlberg told THR. "I was a little fucked up with him during a charity basketball game. So he said to himself," This f ** king is not going to be in this film. " All of that changed once they started filming, and the two formed a unique friendship. At the 11th annual LEAP conference at UCLA, Wahlberg said: "He didn't want me for the role, and I didn't think he was right for the role. We both had to really learn to respect each other, and we deserved it. " E! has now spilled tea on what really happened between the two when they were young rising Hollywood stars. `` The Basketball Diaries '' has reportedly been in the making for decades, and Jim Carroll's hard-hitting life story was more than ready to be shown on the big screen. However, they needed a bona fide actor to adapt to the role of the old teenage basketball feel on the screen. The police drama was based on the memories of Caroll of the same name, and it described his journey from his days in basketball, his downward spiral towards drug addiction and prostitution, and his subsequent rise in fame as a writer, poet , punk-rocker and an American cultural icon. Leonardo Dicaprio and Mark Wahlberg in 'The Basketball Diaries', 1995 (IMDb) It was a big deal and almost everyone from Matt Dillion to River Phoenix, all of the young talented faces of the 1980s, tried to get the part. However, the project was essentially stalled, with frequent changes of people involved in the project. At the time, Dicaprio's portfolio was rather rare, but the 20-year-old had already been nominated for an Oscar for his role in `` What's Eating Gilbert Grape '', alongside Johnny Depp. His physical resemblance to Carroll and his acting talent ultimately helped him win the role over his competitors. Dicaprio, in conversation with the pre-release of the San Fransisco Chronicle film, said: "With this role, I saw a character who would take a lot of work and require a lot of exploration into something I had never treated before. There were a lot of emotions I had to deal with, and deep down, he was a cool character. " Coming to Wahlberg, who played Mickey in the film, it was revealed that Carroll himself was not too enthusiastic about the actor `` Lone Survivor '' playing his junkie friend on the screen , a sort of demagogue that the writer had based on various people he had met on the street while growing up. At the time, Wahlberg was best known for his modeling of underwear and his rapping career with 'Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch'. But with the encouragement of director Scott Kalvert, Wahlberg finally auditioned with Carroll in the room and conquered him with his prowess. Mark Wahlberg in 'The Basketball Diaries', 1995 (IMDb) "[Kalvert] only said that to three people - Tupac, Will Smith and myself, "Wahlberg told The Huffington Post in 2014." He said, "You should be actors and you will be actors. He called me for the film. Leonardo said, "No way, I'm not making a film with Marky Mark." Like many others. " "We had a strange break-in during an MTV Rock and Jock basketball game," he continued, explaining how the hostility between him and the actor of "The Revenant" began in the 90s. "I was playing in my underwear at half time and I think I had blocked a shot from him. I was a punk. I was a jerk. I was not nice to Leo that day. " And like DiCaprio's disinterest in acting with him, Wahlberg thought that the former was not exactly meant to play the role of Jim Carroll, either. "He was not a New York basketball player," Wahlberg told The Huffington Post. "I was like," I saw this guy playing ball! "So we both had a little bit on the shoulder. But we started to read the scenes - and I looked at him and he looked at me - and I thought," Oh shit. This guy is good. "" Meanwhile, DiCaprio struggled to maintain its public image. Off-camera visuals recovered during his stay in New York in the middle of filming were splashed in various tabloids and he was portrayed in an unflattering light, like that of a real-life bad boy who he said could be far from reality. In 1995, he told the New York Times, "So it looks like I'm going to clubs to destroy myself, to fight, to sleep with all the angry girls over there. It's true that during filming , Marky and I went outside for a little dance, a little socializing, a little flirting ... " "But people want you to be a crazy, uncontrollable teenage kid. They want you miserable, just like them. They don't want heroes; what they want is to see you fall." Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio in the audience during the 79th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theater on February 25, 2007 in Hollywood, California (Getty Images) Despite the initial animosity, the two eventually became quick friends, but the baseless story about them arguing in the middle of filming seemed to have just stuck and Wahlberg only came to clear the air, about 20 years ago. later. Wahlberg also denounced the fact that it was Dicaprio who helped him land the lead role in the cult-classic teen thriller, 'Fear', which propelled him to celebrity status. Director James Foley first approached Dicaprio with the role of Reese Witherspoon's boyfriend (who eventually became his executioner). However, he refused and approved Wahlberg for the party instead. At the end of it all, though `` The Basketball Diaries '' didn't do exceptionally well at the box office and received mixed reviews, it drew a huge fan afterwards. And while many criticized Dicaprio for being misinterpreted for the role, others thought his acting was perfect and perhaps what had propelled his talent to international fame. And for Wahlberg, this was just the start of some of his best work. However, that sealed his friendship with Dicaprio, no matter what the rest of the world thought of them.If you have a scoop or interesting story for us, please contact us at (323) 421-7514 !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window,document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '430778077119553'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); https://oltnews.com/leonardo-dicaprio-and-mark-wahlberg-did-not-want-to-act-together-in-the-basketball-diaries-meaww?_unique_id=5ea14b2fd7cff

[hnd1dgavinross]

Catch Me If You Can - Research

Using a variety of apertures, shutter speeds, composition and varying focal lengths a task was set to take photographs at a live sporting event.

Considerations

The event must be an actual competitive event and not a training event.

Whether an indoors or outdoor event, both have their own challenges. As the year progresses toward winter there is the chance of any outdoor event may be affected by inclement weather which could result in either a cancellation of the event or the weather being so bad that photographing becomes secondary to sheltering from the weather conditions.  

Both indoor and outdoor events have the additional challenge of lighting conditions not being sufficient.  With an outdoor event the light will constantly change throughout the event depending on the overhead weather conditions or the position the photographer is in relation to the sun. With us entering Autumn, a lack of direct sunlight is an issue to consider.

With indoor events the lighting will be artificial and may not be of sufficient quantity or of the correct colour to facilitate god shots.

Taking these factors into consideration a sport which is held in a venue which affords brightly lit conditions may be the more appropriate choice.

Access

Gaining access to events is not always the easiest and major events require accreditation to obtain entry to the available areas. This is not always easy to obtain.

The first thought I had was to contact a former colleague who holds a high ranking position within the Scottish Football Association with a view to obtaining access to a Scotland football game. This request was made and my contact enquired on my behalf but the request was declined due to over saturation of media requests from non press related organisations.

My next port of call was a friend who is the club representative for Strathclyde University Boat Club. Whilst access to events would not be an issue the next events suitable to photograph are not until later in the winter and the access to the river bank at that time of year is not advisable.

I then made contact with Braehead Curling who were completely unhelpful and quite rude in their response and did not seem to have any way of having a civilised communication structure to deal with enquiries. 

I also made direct contact with the Emirates Arena in Glasgow to see if they could assist with any sports held within their building. Having previously signed up to the Glasgow Life volunteer opportunities as recommended by the college I assumed that the Emirates may be a good point of contact.

No response was forthcoming from any enquiry made via web or email to the Emirates and a subsequent telephone enquiry was met with a clear lack of knowledge by staff as to how to go about gaining access to sporting events and a further lack of knowledge as to the photographer opportunities on the Glasgow Life website. 

At this point I decided to take matters into my own hands and emailed Glasgow Rocks basketball team via their website. A prompt response followed and I was invited along to any game I wished. I chose a game on 30th September 2018 at the Emirates Arena.

Email to Glasgow Rocks

Good Evening,

I am a student photographer at City of Glasgow College studying 1st year HND as a mature entrant.  As part of the course I have to find a sporting event to photograph and it was recommended by the college that I contact a local sports team and make an enquiry.

As opposed to photographing the usual sports choice of football which most choose I decided to go down a different route - hence this email to you. Would it be possible to obtain a photo pass for access to an upcoming event to photograph and enable me to complete the part of the course that requires me to have a sports brief.

Naturally I will be happy to supply any photographs that I take should I be successful in obtaining a media pass from yourselves for this event.

I appreciate this is an unorthodox approach but sometimes this is the best way of doing things.

I hope you are in a position to assist.

Many thanks in advance,

Gavin Ross

Emirates Arena 

The arena is a 10 minute drive from my home address and with ample parking the option to drive as opposed to use public transport was the most suitable.

Event

The event is held in the athletics hall used for indoor athletics and it is a large area. In comparison the basketball court is small with a huge area for seating on all 4 sides and advertising hoardings on all sides of the court itself. A large press area was set aside with full facilities for image viewing and immediate upload if required for those that bring their own laptops with them. Full wifi and power supplies were readily available. 

On arrival I also observed that there were many other photographers in the press area and more arriving around the same time as me. There were also film crews to contend with.

The media accreditation gave unrestricted access to the court side and, providing I did not encroach on the actual court during play, or block the views of spectators, I was free to roam where I chose.

The lighting on arrival was not ideal but this soon changed when the pre-show entertainment from the teams cheerleaders entered the court. The overhead lights were brightened making it a much easier shoot than it could have been.

This gave ample opportunity to document the entire game from the players warm up, the team entrance complete with the Glasgow Rockettes as entertainment and the team briefings during time-out periods of the game.

As the game commenced I quickly realised how fast paced the game was going to be and had chosen a maximum ISO of 2000 with a shutter speed of 250 sec at f2.8 on manual. 

The intention was to use varying shutter speeds and ISO through out the event to obtain the variety of shots I needed whilst returning to my base level of 250 sec f2.8 when required. This strategy was relatively successful though the higher shutter speed required a higher ISO which resulted in images with too much grain for my liking.

In total I took just under 1000 shots over the course of the game.  Editing was a relatively straight forward matter with initial selection, star ratings and basic corrections made in lightroom. The selected images were then exported to a separate folder. I then created a contact sheet and carried out cropping, sharpening and any other image corrections I deemed required before final canvas selection of 6 images.

It would be possible to select. many more than the ones I settled on though some of these would be repetition, although from a different angle, of the same style of shot.  

Equipment

Nikon D850 DSLR

Nikon 24-70 f2.8 lens

Nikon 70-200 F4 Lens

Second body - Nikon D800

Contact Sheet

The final 6 selected images were then decided on and placed on a canvas in 2 rows of 3 images before being sent for print.

Final Images

Analysis 

A fast paced game that took me by surprise at first with its speed.  Once I worked out the shots required for the speed of the game I found this to be an exceptionally interesting experience to take part in and one that I am keen to repeat for experience purposes though would use a faster shutter speed and live with the added image grain that this brings.

Lens selection is important with this sport and having the 24-70 f2.8 made a huge difference as I found that the 70-200 being only F4 was not fast enough unless I took the ISO to a level I was not happy with using.

However, the potential for action shots during the game is almost endless and was worthwhile doing.

Being accustomed to shooting in very low light and high ISO but in a much smaller shooting area than the size of the basketball court I had no real idea of what would and would not move to where and how fast it would happen.  The range of movement over a much larger area brought its own challenges and issues.

Having a second full frame camera body in the D800 was of use though that was the one the 70-200 F4 lens was attached to. The ISO handling of the D800, whilst good, is no match for the D850 I use as my main body. This contributed to the more unacceptable grain levels when straying outside my comfort zone with that body. 

I recall Andy Buchanan telling us he knows nothing about the sports he is shooting - I am exactly the same in that respect, knowing almost nothing about sport, particularly basket ball, having been 15 the last time I played which was at school where I had no option.

Having some knowledge of the sport would have assisted but I very quickly decided what I wanted to achieve from the shoot and that Buchanans advice is valid - it is simply not possible to know everything about every sport if that was the genre of photography I was involved in.