Blog 14: Draft of ENG 103 Research Paper

Brandon Miller
11/16/10
Dr.
ENG103
Major Research Paper


New York, to some, it is a smelly, filthy, rude, and crazy place. But to most of us only some of that is true, but we also see so much more to it. Through out history, many have either come up with what they think New york is like, but for the people who actually live in New York know what the truth of New york living is really like. Such is true in films and other such mediums. They either go with what is the truth of the New york or create their own version. In the case of the movie The Producers, the director decided to keep it authentic for the most part, with only a few exasperation of some aspects of New York live. The Film does a good job of showing the social aspect but leaves some things out.
The Producers follows two men by the names of Max Bialstock and Leo Bloom. Max was once a great Broadway play producer, who as now fell on hard times with some of his more recent films being flops. He is a bit of a con man, being that he tricks several old ladies into giving him money for his next big play, due to him not having any. He is constantly trying to convince others and himself of his great play writing powers. He is a bit of a brown noser and will convince others to do his biding. Leo Bloom, is tax accountant that is a bit strange. He gets very hyper over simple situations and carries a blue blanket he had since a child he uses to calm himself down. He is kind hearted and generally wants to do the right thing. When the duo first meet, Leo goes over Max's finance books and find that there is $200 missing from his last play to which Max says he spent it on himself because the play was a flop anyway. Leo says this is fraud and he could go to jail, but Max is able to sweet talk Leo into making up the $200 from some where else As he does this he relises that a producer can make more money from a flop than a hit. Hearing this of course Max immediately plans to make a flop to make a lot of money. And after treating Leo like a child to convince him to join him. (Literally, he takes him to the park to get a hotdog and go boat riding.) The two set at to make a surefire flop and run with the money. They go through dozens and dozens of plays to find one that will fail, when they stumble across one entitled “Spring time for Hitler” A movie about World War II and Hitler, they are sure to fail. They go about finding the writer Frank Liebkind, an actual German soldier now living in an apartment watching over a flock of pigeons on his roof. With his permission the three team up to make the movie, with Frank unaware of Leo and Max's plot. Next, they set about gaining the money with Max once again coning old woman to giving him the money, which eventually turns out to be over 600% of what they needed for the play. Lastly they go to see a 'colorful' pair of men Roger De Bris and Carmen Ghia get actors for their production for the play. Roger is a transvestite who is trying to win a contest for wearing female clothing. He is strait forward, but has a bit of a short temper. Leo and Max talk convince him to help them find their Hitler for the film. They set up auditions and go through an entire day and lots of Hitlers but in the end come up short. That is, until, a hippie named Lerenzo St. DuBois, also known as L.S.D. He has one ear ring on his right ear, tghie high boots, flowers, and a can of Campbell soup as a necklace around his neck. He says 'baby in a lot of his sentences and even sings a song about his flowers and peace. The group instantly hire him on to play Hitler. As the play is being prepared Max takes the time to celebrate his definitely successes as he starts buying a fancy new and a female Polish assistant. Leo warns him not to spend too much money, just in case the play turns out to be a hit, but Max won't hear any of it and continues to smoke his exspensive cigar. Finally, the play is ready for opening night and if all goes well, it will close half way through. Max bribes one of the reviewers who want accept it to finish the deal. The curtain rises and the play starts with a song about Germany coming to power with such great lines like “Look out, here comes the master race.” and “Spring time for Hitler and Germany. Winter for Poland and France.” and “Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party.” Rather understandably, people start to leave and grow upset with such an offensive play. No one cheers when it is over. It looks like smooth sailing for Leo and Max.

Until.

LSD comes on stage and starts acting like a 'Hippie Hitler' The crowed loves it and decided to stay with it. Leo and Max come to the office to find many positive reviews and congratulations. With the successes of the film, Leo and Max get desperate and decide to blow up the theater. But things go wrong and they end up getting caught and thrown in jail. Now in prison, they still decide to stay together and try to make a new play.
The movie show cased New york, and America in generally calm and happy time. The real 1968 however, was nothing like this for every. Assassination, riots, protests, war. None of these aspects are disused let alone mentioned. In the movie, The city is very clean and the people, while some are quite the character, are for the most part going about their day as if nothing is going on at all out of the ordinary. When in reality New York is dealing with inflation, assassination, riots and war.
For one thing. America was in the middle of a war in Vietnam. A war in which many citizens protested about, saying we had no business being there to begin with. Many started to riot in the streets. Many people, mainly Hippies, tried to convince those for the war to 'Give peace a chance'. That the world was to violent as is. But unfortunately, due in part to that many hippies where doing on illicit substances or another, many choose to ignore them or say they were just freeloaders. With war reaching it's mid way point of the war and has taken many lives, the people were becoming more angry and wanted it to end soon.
Another thing was the assassination of both Martian Luther King Jr, and Robert F. Kennedy. MLK was the leader of the civil rights movements for African Americans. There were many African Americans trying to gain equal rights and were struggling to get respect. There were speeches, marches, violence and police brutality and just general chaos. When MLK was assassinated, this caused an uproar, not only in New York but all over America. Crime increased in New york as there were more break ins and and vandalism. There was a large cry for justice felt all through out the nation.
The other major assassination of the year was Robert F Kennedy, who was shoot after winning the primary for becoming the next presidential candidate for the democrats. His body was laid in New York at St. Patrick's Cathedral for people to mourn until it was later buried. It was because of his death that they created the secret service.
With the trials African American's had to go through to get their equal rights, many woman decide to strike while the iron and tried to gain rights for themselves. Mainly in trying to gain the right to vote. Many woman died during this time in order to help liberate woman from the shackles of oppression.
The movie however does not cover any of these topics. It stays focused on the plot and nothing else. But it probably was because they wanted it that way. With the time period the film, being in the middle of the Vietnam, they could have very easily done the same topic of the play but have it focused on that war, rather than the second world war. The play would have been easier for the audience of both the play and the movie to connect to. But they most likely decided to avoid any touchy subjects, and with world war II over for twenty years, it would have been easier and less risky.
But the film does do a good job of showing a realistic view of how much money people had during that time. The average home costs about $26,000 with the average salary being around the $7,743. How ever it is different with a play producer because it comes down to how much money they need for the play and how long the play runs for. Ironically, only about 10% of plays and musical on Broadway make any money so it was really interesting that they decided to make a flop anyway. But even so their movie ended up being on of the lucky successes, unfortunately for them.
Another change was at the end. When Frank finds out what a mockery Max has made of his beloved Fuhrer, he goes on a rampage and try's to to shoot down Leo and Max in their office. After he calms down a bit, the three of them set out to blow up the theater to prevent the show from continuing , with failed results. However, if this were to actually happen, it would have not have come that far. After Martian Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy's assassinations, the government called for stricter gun control laws, and set up ways prevent just anyone from getting a fire arm. It would have been much harder for him to have that gun to begin with. Not only that, but it would have been impossible for him to get any kind of dynamite.

Blog 13 Minorty Report Response

Brandon Miller
11/13/10
ENG 101
Blog #13 Minority Report response.



Those who would trade freedom for their protection deserve neither. This quote by Benjamin Franklin speaks volumes. Unfortunately, that volume is not loud enough for the people of the movie Minority Report. For the citizens and the movie have found it completely acceptable to have the government and even business to know where you are, what you are doing, and even have teenagers peer into the future and know what you will do before you yourself know. Granted they have been successful in eliminating all murder in Washington DC for over the last six years but the thought of privacy, and even freewill have now become a myth rather then standered. It may have thought it sounded like a good idea, but as they say, the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
Due to an alarming rise in homicides, and other such crimes, the government has been forced to step in to remedy the situation. With the creation of pre-crime, they have been able to stop the act of a murder before it can be committed. While this sounds like a full prove plan with being able to see in to future and intervene there are problems. One such problem is, what if the the future is wrong, and the killer ended up not killing anyone at all. The government would have arrested someone who was innocent. Another problem would be the people who are allowed to see these futures. Granted they do it to prevent a maraud but what right do they have in doing so? What if the person that was about to be killed was a cereal rapist, or even a mob boss. Granted they are still killing someone but it could have been for the grater good, even if the chances of that are slim. Another problem is that they have no right going in to our business to know these things. When I was a child my sister brought up a good point that I still stick with to this day. One of the worst most offensive super power a person can have is to look into a persons mind and see and look at what they are thinking. The mind and imagination is the last and only real free realm of man left. Even if you live for example in a country where they limit the freedom of speech, and the press can't write what they want, no one can stop you from thinking it and expressing it in their thoughts. You might not be able to kill your boss but you can hit him/her over the head repeatedly with a rusty pipe in your mind. That said, how dare you try to look in to MY future and make the destination on what I will do next. It is MY life and I will do with it as I please. It is different when someone try's to calm some one down when they are angry while it is happening and then they change their mind, that's fine. But when you have the preset knowledge of exactly what I will do and then you take the decision completely out of my hands, that is a serious violation. If anyone should have the knowledge of what is going to happen in the future it should be the people involved and then they should make the decision not pre-crime.
Another such violation is is the constant scanning of a persons eyes. This is to know who goes where, which was probably a first attempt to stop the crime. Instead of having cameras everywhere where you might not see the person who committed the crime, you scan the eyes and know who and where everyone is. To be honest, I don't know which is worse, the fact that the government thought of this and out is in to effect, or the fact that the people have just accepted this and let it be. The government can now have complete accesses to anyone's where at just about any given time. They know when you go the supermarket, to mall, they even know when you go to McDonald to go stuff your face. There are two major problems with this. The first being that the government has absolutely no right to do invade someones privacy like this. Some may argue that with the share amount of people residing in the United States, the government and security agents are probably only focusing on on about sixty percent of Americans. So as long as you are not doing something to noticeable it is fine, right? Wrong. For starts who is in charge of checking this information, it can just go to anyone, it might fall in the wrong hands. Do not be fooled, just because someone is given a title a human is still a human and all the faults that come with it. They can still make mistakes, they can still misuse their power. That being said, can you imagination what someone could do with ALL the information on any given person, passports, social security, birthday and birth place, and now they know where they like to go. Depending on that they can do some serious damage do a person. The other major problem is that if government is willing to do this, and the people just accept it, when does it stop. Will we just accept any thing the government does, Maybe in the future, the government will create a device that even knows when you go to the bathroom and even can tell what how did and measure your...leavings. Or they will install a device that knows what your are thinking, saying, and doing at all times of the day.
Actually,come to think of it, this future is not to far off from what America is like today, In fact it is very, very similar to how we live now. With the creation of the credit/debit and the internet, and anything else electronic, It is so easy to track and find out who you are and what you are doing. When you buy something with a credit/debit card, that information is stored on the website, and is logged down and saved. You can check what you brought at anytime you had it. The government can find out had a whooper jr and large fries at burger King on August forth, 2002, even if you don't remember. And lets not forget the internet, any information you put on it can be found out by the government. Heck the government can check what I posted here on this site, granted I am giving away this info on a free site and anyone can see it. What about Google maps and Google earth You can figure out about where a person lives and what it is like around that area. It is like a Stalkers wet dream come true.
Have we become so lazy as citizens that we just accept anything the government says is 'for our benefit' and not only challenge it, but not even question it? How long are we going to use the excuse that 'They are the government and we can not do any thing about. They should not forget, we appointed them to power meaning we think they can do a good job. We gave them that power and we can take it away if they don't do a good job. Just like our teachers they work for us to get a pay check so we should get everything we ask for in an education, if we need help or need something to change we should confront them on it.

Brandon Miller Special Project. MOMI Activity

Brandon Miller
11/09/10
Special Project. MOMI Activity


During our trip to the museum of the moving image, we saw the evolution and progression of movies, film, and the human eye. We started out on the third floor with the start of the production to see a picture move. We saw a wheel with multiple pictures next to a mirror, when it spun we were able to see all the pictures quickly to give it a n appearance that it was moving. We saw the same thing with the spinning hand clay thing and when the light kept blinking we saw it move. As we delved deeper in to the heart of the movie we say early penny arcades and then we saw the slow progression of the first video camera. What was funny about that is that I actually took a video using my camera of all the old cameras. It interesting because almost all the cameras were bigger, heaver and in most cases could not record in color. Meanwhile, my camera fit in my pocket, could take hours of footage and pics, and took only a hours minutes to charge. We then moved deeper to see some of the first editing devices and how they where used, we didn't see to many of these so we moved to the next thing. The next thing we saw were the first early T.V.'s the first view were huge and bulky and black and white, but they came up with smaller more clever cabinets to not only store the t.v but other devices such as radios and such. On the other side of the T.V displays were the the early projection devices to take the movie on the go. As we progressed down to the lower level, we saw how the actors played a bigger part in the latter years and were even given toys and other merchandise based off of them and even given magazine articles. So the reason of the museum for the layout was to show the way that the moving image slowly advanced over the years, from multiple pictures spinning, to HD 3D mega blockbusters that last 3 hours the museum did a great job of showing it evolve and grow.

Blog # 12 Major Research Paper Outline

Brandon Miller
10/8/10
ENG101
Blog # 12 Major Research Paper Outline

My film is The Producers. It is a film about a Broadway play that is supposed to be bad. The film was created in 1968 and gives no indication on being set in a different time period so I will assume it takes place in 1968. My main topic will probably be on the Broadway aspect off the film and how the movie portrayed it in terms of production quality sets and costumes based on the time period. Also the style of clothing choices, car's, cleanliness of the city (the movie showed as being very clean.) and also how certain personality were shown, (The “hippie and homosexual.) I will close off with showing if a movie of that caliber could have been created based on subject matter and if it could have been financed, and money in general.