Enneagram

"It is not clear from these test results which Enneagram type and wing you are."

I got "most likely a 9" and to take wings into account and "you seem to be a 4w3 or 9w8." It's weird though, because the first paragraph about Type Nine says "They tend to avoid conflict at all costs, whether it be internal or interpersonal" even though for all the questions about conflict I said that I didn't care about conflict. In fact, I see myself as the exact opposite of every aspect of type nine. Does this test some how know me better then I know myself? I think even with an unexpected result I would read the description and thing "Woah, that is me" but I don't at all when reading over type nine.

Values?

Whether you're an artist or not, you will eventually try to figure out what's important to you. You may be forced into thinking about it like we were today in STAC, or you may just come to a realization after doing things your not so proud/proud of. I don't think anyone is born knowing what ideas and values they believe in.

I don't know what my core values are for sure yet, but things on my list so far are:

1. Confidence
2. Not allowing other people to influence you too strongly
3. Thinking things through

What was easier for me was to spot one of my issues. Once Luke said to think back through all your work and see what's reoccurring I figured out the commonality in all of them immediately. I've constantly been testing the boundaries of the relationships between family members. I always try to test the strength of strong families I make up or try to break the weaker. I can pinpoint this back to the birth of my brother. I'm eight years older then him, and the eight years were I was an only child was spent begging for a sibling. I've always been strangely close to my brother. Yes, I admit, there are times where my hormonal teenage girl self snaps at him for a reaction, but more often then that I'm oddly protective of him. Less "big brother" and more motherlike. Not that I don't have a good mother -I do- but I can't help but be another voice of reason for him.

I also had discussion about time today. I can't write about this much because it's something I think about all the time and still don't have a strong point of view on yet. I need to digest.

Thinking About Thinking

I haven't done a lot of improv in my life - my first time ever was last September doing the car with Cassie in STAC - but today was the first time that I really couldn't do it. I had felt tongue tied, even though I had nothing to say. Reflecting back on today I realize what stopped me is the same thing that ruins my writing. Thinking.

I first started thinking because I didn't want to curse or be too obscene. I was trying to filter everything so I wouldn't let something slip tomorrow in STAC Live. Then Luke started giving advice -really good advice, at that- and I started thinking too much about incorporating what Luke was saying into my own improv. I was thinking so hard that I didn't even end up incorporating any of it. I wasn't some one doing improv, I was some one thinking about doing improv.

The relationship between thinking and my writing is the same. My natural voice in writing was always carefree, bold, and hardly grammar conscious. It was sassy and truthful. I never say things like this about my own work, but, it was good. But most of these works are pre eighth grade. By mid eighth grade I had learned the names and definitions of most of the writing techniques that I had been doing my whole life without realizing. All of a sudden I was no longer writing metaphors, but I was adding metaphors. I was constantly thinking and I couldn't let myself just be. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe thinking like this is supposed to make you a good writer and it just had some crazy opposite effect on me. All I know is that prior to September 2007 it was never hard for me to get into that mindset where all my writing becomes good.

Space Jam

Has anyone else heard about this space hotel? It's called Galactic Suite, and it's planned to start accommodations in 2012. Beyond wondering how people have money to spend, from what I hear, 4.4 million for a three night stay (at least 43 do - they already reserved), I can't help but wonder how on Earth (no pun intended) they plan to get this project up and running.

And then from there, I can't help but wonder if in five or ten years I'll be sitting wondering how I ever though space travel was ridiculous. Will there ever be a time where I'm taking care of my neighbors mail because he's at the six week training session in the tropical island where the space shuttle takes off from? Or is this assumption just as crazy as when 50 years ago people thought by 2000 flying cars will be the norm. This hotel, or rather shuttle, developer may be the biggest nut of them all, or the most innovative genius.

Pounding Headache

Forgive me if this post doesn't even seem to be in English, but I have the sudden urge to blog.

I can't even think straight right now. No, it's not my usual "I'm so stressed out that I'm going to jump off the Empire State Building after devouring fifteen bags of potato chips that I don't even like." It's a mixture of that feeling and physical pain.

I have this pounding headache that will not go away. It's been here for over 24 hours now. If it's not thumping, it's making me dizzy. If it's not making me dizzy it's keeping me from functioning all together. In fact, the only reason I can even type right now is the miracle of Advil.

The only reason I even went to school today was to take a math test. A math test that I couldn't even finish the last five questions of because every time I would point my attention towards my test sheet my headache would knock, as if mocking me and the fact that I'm not doing so hot in math without the German army rolling around in my head.

This post is not supposed to be in depth or meaningful in any way, shape, or form. In fact, I even told myself NOT to writeabout my headache. I had a whole bunch of things I wanted to post about, but they all disappeared. The pounding took it's place.

This headache is like that annoying kid sitting behind you in the movie theater. No matter how hard you concentrate on the movie, and how badly you want to pay attention to it, you only notice the kid kicking the back of your chair. You find yourself counting how many times he kicks per minute, moving with the beat of his kicks, and even anticipating the exact moment where he kicks. The kid stops kicking, but you realize it's because the credits started rolling so he got up to leave. This headache is, undoubtedly, a pain in the ass.

Let The Right One In

1) How is the backstory handled?

Well for the most part there wasn't much of a backstory. You were only given the key information you needed to make sense of the story, and even when you needed backstory you got them in a subtle way. You found out Oskar's parents were divorced when you heard a moment of his mom on the phone saying "He's going to his father's next week." You knew about Oskar's strange news paper clipping fascination once he answered the police's question about how they could tell if a crime was arson, and you we're reminded of the hobby again once you saw Oskar looking through his clippings.

2) How is camera movement used?

The camera is rarely moved throughout, but when it did move it went super slowly. The movie was made mostly of quick shot changes, which once again only showed you what needed to be seen.

3) How is camera distance used?

The camera distance was always an extreme; extremely far or extremely close, there was nothing in between. When there wasn't much to a scene other then the actual character's movements or facial expressions the camera was way up close (one more time: not showing you more then you need to see). When there were scenes that were better off left to your imagination there was a lot of distance between the actual action and the camera, but there were sound effects to help spark your imagination.

4) How is the character developed other than with dialog, or how does the director develop character visually?

The one scene I really can relate to this question is the shot right after Oskar fights back, the camera is looking up at Oskar, suddenly making him seem like he's on top. Oskar is victorious and is finally no longer the one getting hit, and this jump in character was so easily portrayed just by having a camera look up at him from the ground.

5) Sound is used to incredible effect in this movie - how do the filmmakers use sound?

The filmmakers used sound to give the viewers enough for there imagination without actually showing any of the blood and guts. The sound also threw off my senses - everything seemed way too close to me.

6) Håkam - what's up with this guy?

Håkam and Eli's relationship is incredibly weird. I don't really understand why Håkam stays by her side. Håkam's actions are all fatherly though - his killing people just so the sweet Eli doesn't have to get as upset as she does after killing seems like an attempt to keep the already unhappy Eli from getting unhappier.

7) What is behind the puzzles? What do they symbolize?

I'm unsure about how to answer this question, but it basically seems like there are puzzles throughout Oskar and Eli's relationship. There's the Rubiks Cube that initiates the relationship, there's the morse code that is their own way of communicating, and I'm not sure but I think the egg that Oskar tapped was a puzzle Eli completed. Beyond the actual games, I think their relationship was a bit of a puzzle at first since Eli had a mystery about her after telling Oskar they can't be friends. Also, all of Oskar's news clippings seemed to end in mystery (since none of the crimes were solved) and Eli was actually the answer to all the deaths Oskar would read about.

8) Plot point one is?

I think plot point one is when Oskar hits the bully. This was the first time Oskar fought back, and he had a liberated look on his face once it was done. A part of Oskar's personality had changed after he took Eli's advice.

9) Plot point two is?

Plot point two is when Oskar "invites Eli in" after he saw her dying. After this point you knew that no matter what Eli was, vampire, human, boy, or girl, Oskar still cared about her. After the hug it was evident that the fact that Eli was a vampire became just a small detail in their relationship.

10) Is this a happy ending?

It's not a happy ending, Eli's still something she doesn't want to be and Oskar doesn't seem to be completely satisfied with his life, but it's not unhappy either. It's not a happy ending but it's happier then what there life was like previous to their meeting each other. They've been alone in the world, and now they can be alone together.

On another note:

Let The Right One In Trailer

I absolutely loved how fitting this trailer was. There was a total of three lines of dialogue in the whole thing, but it managed to get to me anyway. For me, the scariest parts of the trailer was when the loud and close to you sound effects kicked in and that first moment with the bully, which is incredibly close to the movies effect on me.

Lina Leandersson Interview

After I clicked on Lina Leanderson's IMDB profile and realized that she had no professional work before Let The Right One In I was intrigued. I found this interview where she says that she found out that they were casting online, and asked her mom if she could go to an audition. Out of the large casting Lina, a girl whose only previous experience was acting classes that got cancelled because not many people in the town had signed up for them, got the role of Eli.

last screenwriting workshop

We only went over three scripts today in the workshop, but I still got a few pieces of advice that I think will really help my writing now and in the future. In regards to Zach's piece, Steve mentioned that if your writing a story based off true events that happened in your life you shouldn't rewrite every detail of the event as it happened if it doesn't work for your story. If you can manage to portray the same meaning in a much easier and more effective way, do it - don't be focused on keeping the unnecessary details true to what really happened.

At the end of the workshop Steve urged us to make the best films we possibly can, avoiding all the classic high school film mistakes. At first I was unsure of my capability to even make something as good as a crappy high school film, but after creating my storyboard I think that I am closer to bringing this film to come out exactly as I imagined while writing it. Hopefully I can be as creative and innovative as possible during filming my script.