"Inside Out" Documentary Treatment

     For my next film project I've been assigned to do a documentary over any topic of my choice. I've decided to analyze the topic of teen depression and through this documentary I want to explain and bring to light that people suffering from this affliction aren't alone. The reason why I chose the title to be called "Inside Out" is because I want people to grab their thoughts and emotions from inside and express them outward. For the interviews Ive gathered a group of students who are brave enough to testify to their own experiences with depression and anxiety and what their friends have gone through. I'm also going to interview my dad who is a family practitioner doctor who deals with many patients who suffer from anxiety and depression as well.

   Im going to conduct my interviews in a certain way when its just the person talking and the question appears onscreen before-hand. I want the documentary itself to be in black and white because the feeling and idea of colorlessness is what I associate with depression. At the end of the documentary I would like to put a telephone number for mental help.

"Beyond The Valley of the Dolls" Movie review.

 
    Within the past half year or so I've had this freakishly outlandish movie called Beyond the Valley of the Dolls grow on me. The film was made back in the 1970s back in the golden era of hippies, rock'n roll, sexual revolution, experimentation, and exploitation. Directed by the great Russ Meyer, commonly known for his fem-sploitation flicks has crafted a psychedelic mess of a soap opera combining the genres of Rock musical, comedy, blaxploitation, art house, and horror. What really stuck out at me is that the screenplay of this movie was written by one of my favorite movie critics Roger Ebert which makes the movie even more investing. The plot basically revolves around the characters Kelly, Casey, Petronella, and the manager Harris who are apart of "rock group" The Kelly Affair accompanied by numerous subplots and other campy characters they get involved with upon their arrival to Los Angeles to find fame and fortune. John Lazar's performance of Ronnie "Z-man" Barzell's character is a major part of the reason why this movie sells to me as true 70s camp entertainment. This character is an eccentric record producer who instantly attracts and persuades the main protagonist Kelly MacNamara to sign a deal with him to be their new manager leaving Harris out which spawns a major conflict in the movie. The course of this movie plays out as a story with interwoven plots and stereotypically different characters. The film's dramatic and violent final act is what makes this a memorable and distortingly surreal experience.

  Overall this movie is purely enjoyable schlock that is by no means supposed to be taken seriously, people will miss the point. All you should do while watching this is to suspend your disbelief and embrace the cheese. At the same time this movie is in its own way quite heartfelt and concludes with a nice philosophical message which is partly what makes this film so memorable. The color palate used in this movie is bright and gorgeous, I personally dig vintage technicolor. This movie is meant to be seen more than once for it's highly rich in its story. I give this movie Grade: A.

Blackfish Documentary review

     
     Blackfish is a very sad, disturbing, and at the same time effective documentary. The documentary focuses on the lives of killer whales who are held in captivity away from their natural environment to perform in front of crowds their whole lives. The documentary featured several interviews from trainers and employees from Sea World that have decided to come forth by telling their side of the story. One killer whale, Tilikum was the films main focus due to the reason of his history of aggression towards his trainers. There were several incidents in the past not only involving Tilikum but several killer whales at Sea World and throughout the globe lashing out at their trainers even brutally killing them due to high stress being accumulated while in captivity. This documentary showed the abuse that was being afflicted on these intelligent and naturally harmless creatures. Many of these large animals are locked in dark cages barely large enough to accomodate their size often leaving scars and abrasions. These animals are caught in the wild when they are young and barely premature to look after themselves, their mothers are separated from them and killed in some cases. This list of abuse goes on and on...

   Overall I was quite impressed with the way this documentary was presented and really affected my emotions leaving me feel really sorry for what these intelligent creatures have to go through. It really does make me wonder how these animals are being held captive being exposed to high levels of stress leaving their trainers at risk of these animals lashing out. It leaves me to question if what they are doing at Sea World, exploiting these animals for entertainment purposes is really humane or not. In either case  I will never go again or look at it the same way, I find the whole act barbaric in a way. I highly recommend anyone who is a film maker or animal lover to watch this movie. The only question that remains is how this will affect the audience attendance at Sea World in the future. Grade: A-.