Frames

In this shot, my rabbit's body is in the lazy frame, while her head is to the left of the lazy 

frame. I think that all attention is on the rabbit in this picture.

In this shot, bunny is in the lower left of the frame. Although she is still the focus of the picture, more background is exposed which adds more detail to the picture.

Here we have my 13 year old brother, Bair, holding my bunny in his room. He is to the left of the lazy frame. I think that the background helps define him as the subject and gives the viewer a better idea of who he is.

Here is one of my dogs in our guest room. He is in the upper left of the photo. Although he is the subject, a lot of the rug is visible in the photo and you can see that he is under a chair. He is out of the lazy center frame entirely.

I don't really know why bunny is in a sink, but I guess she just is. In this shot, bunny is not quite entirely in the center frame, but very close. Granted there isn't a lot going on in the background of this photo, you can really see what a difference having the subject in the middle frame makes. The eye goes right to the subject and really stays there.

Here is Bair again. He is partially in the center frame here. There is a lot less detail in this photo and the subject is definitely the main focus.

Here is an unhappy Bair in the bottom center/bottom right of the frame. He takes up a big part of the lower part of the frame, but the rest of the frame is a detailed background.

Bair also takes up the most of the bottom half of the frame here, but like the previous picture the top half shows the background.

Bunny is in the lower part of the center of the frame. I think that the subject grabs the majority of the attention whenever it is placed in the middle.

Look, it's a bunny! (shot examples)

Medium

Long

Long

Close

Extra close

establishing shot

Depth of field

low angle

high angle

establishing shot

Fate or coincidences?

Fate is a hard thing for me to grasp. It is baffling to me that ones life could be a course of predetermined events. I can't wrap my head around the idea that my whole life has been planned out and that my actions have no effect on what happens to me. I do believe that things happen for a reason, but I don't underestimate an individual's power to control their own lives. I believe that events in my life have happened for a reason and that if I make the best decisions possible and work my hardest to be the best person I can be, my life will fall in to place. 

I really found myself relating to John Anderton from Minority Report. Anderton catches a glimpse of his future when precogs predict that he will murder a man named Leo Crow in 36 hours. Although he has been set up and it was not him who murdered Leo Crow in the vision, I still related to his effort to change his future. What I took away from Minority Report in terms of life lessons is that nobody's future is never set in stone, and that everyone has the power to take control of their own life. I don't think that the example of fate In Oedipus is very realistic. Oedipus being doomed to his fate despite any of his actions seems unrealistic to me but also very tragic. 

Across The Universe.

Across The Universe. 

Honestly, I am not a big movie watcher. I don't have much free time, but if I do have the time to engage in a quiet leisure activity, I tend to choose books over movies. I like the control I have as a reader to visualize things the way I choose to. However, I really, really love the Movie Across The Universe. The story revolves around all the Beatles songs, which made me like the movie even more. Across The Universe is classified as a musical romantic drama film. The story starts with Jude, a shipyard worker from Liverpool. He jumps ship to New Jersey, in search of his father, who his mother met while he was stationed in Liverpool during the war. Lucy, another main character, worries about her boyfriend heading for service in The Vietnam War. Jude finally meets his father who is the janitor at Princeton University. He befriends Lucy's brother, Max, who is quite the rebel and is always participating in crazy antics with his college friends. Max brings Jude home for Thanksgiving. Jude develops an attraction to Lucy. After a fight with his parents at Thanksgiving dinner about his lack of dedication to his college courses, Max drops out of school. Max and Jude move to an apartment in Greenwich Village. They are roommates with an aspiring singer named Sadie, and are soon joined by "Jojo", a man who left his home in Detroit after his younger brother is killed in the 1967 Detriot riot. Lucy's boyfriend, Daniel, is killed in Vietnam. She is stricken with grief and decides to visit Max in New York before college. Max has become a taxi driver and a freelance artist. She and Jude eventually fall in love. Because Max dropped out of college, he is soon drafted into the army. They attend a peace rally where Lucy decides to become involved with the Students for a Democratic Republic, an anti-war group. Max is deployed, which causes Lucy to become even more involved in the anti-war movement. Jude doesn't like the amount of time Lucy spends at SDR and it creates some relationship troubles for them. Jude follows Lucy to an anti-war demonstration at Columbia University. The protest becomes a riot and the police arrest the protestors, including Lucy. Jude tries to help Lucy, but is beaten by the police and arrested. Because he is in the United States illegally, Jude is deported back to England. Jojo's music career takes off (Jojo is supposed to be Jimi Hendrix), and Sadie becomes an alcoholic because of her loneliness. Max gets wounded in Vietnam and gets sent home. Lucy leaves the SDR after she finds the other members making bombs. One of the bombs explodes, killing the members of the SDR. Jude reads this in the news and thinks Lucy is dead, but Max informs her that she is alive. Jude comes to New York legally. Jojo and Sadie reconcile and put on a rooftop concert. All the characters are reunited and it is then your typical happy ending. I think I love this movie because it includes so many things that I enjoy in a  story. It has a historical component, which I really enjoy. I love that it has the Beatles music in it, and I especially love the counter culture involved in the movie. I found myself relating a lot to Lucy. We both grew up in very conservative households and lived in conservative communities, but became exposed to all different kinds of people and different activities. I think this is an amazing movie, and I never get sick of watching it.