Kurt's Blog

     This blog post is in response to a discussion we had on our last day of class. We were discussing whether movies should be shown in class or assigned to watch on our own, and some people said they preferred to watch movies alone. However, I would like to say that I loved watching movies together as a class, and doing so even changed my viewpoint on watching movies that i had in the past.     See, for most of my life, I've preferred to watch movies on my own. I just appreciated the comfort of being alone in my room and being able to get completely lost in the movie I was watching. But I realized something about what happened when I watched movies on my own: I often didn't give them a solid chance if I wasn't liking them. If a movie was just not impressing me, I could turn it off very quickly, whether it be out of boredom or active dislike for something going on in the movie. However, in class, we were forced to watch these movies, despite whatever we felt of...

    Despite knowing about The Social Dilemma for years now, I finally watched it for the first time last week. And overall, I'd describe it as a great film with a wonderful and very important message. Honestly, I don't use social media much at all, and haven't for many years now. And part of it is because I just am a rather introverted person, so I don't feel the need to post and share about my life very much. But also, I think I saw glimpses of what this movie was really describing and emphasizing. I think social media can be a very negative, and a very addicting force in someone's life, and I think it's often the case for people that less social media use is better for them in the long run.     So going into the movie, I feel like I already agreed with the main message, so I was already nodding away at everything the movie was saying the whole time. But I also think the editing, cinematography, and especially the writing in this movie is very good, and could p...

     On the first day of class, each of us were asked what our favorite movie was. My answer was Titanic, and despite difficulty of choosing just one favorite movie, I really do believe this one had the most impact on me. And I believe a lot of this is due to very smart filmmaking strategies that were use all throughout the movie. Now this fact, combined with us watching another blockbuster (Jaws) in class, has encouraged me to write a post about my favorite blockbuster of all time.     Now first off, I'm aware that Titanic has kind of a moderate reputation in the film world, with it being very common to make jokes and memes about the movie. But I also think the film has a ton of something that I find really hard for a movie to pull off well, and that's mass appeal. I think Titanic is such a popular movie because it pushes the audience to care about the people on the ship. The movie uses a relatable story and relatable characters to allow the audience to emphasi...

     I've been waiting to do this post for almost the whole year now. First thing's first, I am a big fan of reality TV shows. I like reality shows such as The Amazing Race, The Circle, Big Brother, but my favorite one has to be Survivor. Now, I know reality TV often gets a bad reputation, but I'm here to prove why this genre has wonderfully cinematic moments and can show true moments of human emotions, using Survivor as my example.     I actually don't have to go back very far in Survivor's 43-season history to provide an example of the excellence of this show. Just this past week, the current season released an episode that provides one of the best moments in the show and reveals such a unique and honest look into the emotions of betrayal of close friends.  Let's set the scene: Survivor is a game show where each week, players are forced to vote one member out of the game, with the winner ending up being the last one remaining. In this season, two gentleme...