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The film The Departed follows the stories of three particular men, each of whom lead vastly different lives in a corrupt, current-era boston. The first man we’re introduced to is Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), a ruthlessly efficient mobster who has amassed a close following of loyal associates. The next man is Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) whom we’re introduced to when is only a boy being raised by his grandmother, when Costello is giving him a hefty supply of groceries, courtesy of the small deli he is extorting. After a few more interactions between Costello and Sullivan, it is clear that Costello is a bit of a father figure and mentor for Sullivan, whom we next see as a graduated police cadet. Sullivan gradually works his way up the ranks to work in the SIU (Special Investigations Unit) of the Massachusetts state police; a unit responsible for taking down mobsters much like Costello. And finally we have William Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), a police trainee who comes from bad blood. After a hostile discussion with Captain Queenen (Martin Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) of SIU regarding his family of thugs and mobsters, they use his tainted family name to their advantage; using him as a mole inside of Costello’s crew to help bring him down. 

This is where the movie starts picking up. The cast is established, the setting is clear and the main task(s) are clear. For Sullivan, that means to subtlety sabotage SIU’s efforts and keep Costello informed, for Costigan it’s to keep SIU informed and build a case against Costello, while Costello (with Sullivan's help) must keep on evading the law, which with the help of Sullivan won’t be too difficult. One particular method Sullivan has for tipping off Costello that something is up is the line “Dad, I don’t think I’ll be home for dinner”. The line is used several times throughout the movie with the occasional garnish to add flavor to the dialogue, and also convey an important part of the message. This line is especially significant because Sullivan grew up with his grandmother, so while Costello was a mentor to Sullivan, he is also a bit of a father figure.

But while Sullivan is trying to keep Costello in the clear, Costigan is doing his best to gather compromising information to bring him down. Somewhere in the intertwined actions of the warring spies (referred to more commonly as rats in the movie), Costello catches wind of a member of his team being an informant. Much of the conversation on Costello’s end from here on in the movie shifts towards the rat and it even portrays itself in the visual aspects of the film. One scene in particular speaks to this with a sudden cut to a piece of paper that Costello is drawing a horde of rats on, before he and Costigan discuss the matter of finding said rat.

As the movie progresses and the action starts coming to a climax the lines between good and evil start to blur. Who is worse, the rat who works to bring down other criminals but helps the kingpin, or the rat who works with the police to bring down the kingpin, but actively perpetuates corruption and crime to earn and maintain the kingpin’s trust? It’s incredibly difficult to go more in-depth without giving away large plot spoilers so I’ll leave it at a line of dialogue that Costello says to Sullivan when Sullivan is a bright-eyed boy learning the life of crime, “They used to say we could be cops or criminals, what I’m saying is when you’re looking down the barrel of a gun, what’s the difference?”

Here, I have:

Large Clear Object:

For my large clear object, I chose to draw a water bottle. I used only a mechanical pencil and some charcoal on a large sheet of paper. The pencil is indeed my favorite and most used choice of medium. I started out by outlining the bottle, at eye level, to get the shape just right. I’m very particular about some things, so I knew that I also had the background to really help give a sense of being able to see through it. So using perspective, I placed the bottle in front of a table and I also added a floor for even more perspective. Another thing to note is that I didn’t use a mid-tone at this time (I wasn’t very fond of it), but instead, I located my shadows, and from there, I smudged to give it that look. More specifically, to show that there was water in the bottle, I had a bit of a cloudy appear to it; it was darker where the water brimmed the edges of the bottle, and lighter towards the center. I added the same shadow effect to the top of the bottle, where I brought out my lights to show light reflection, and well as a transparency of the bottle. The most challenging part would definitely be getting the shape of the bottom part of the bottle and also capturing the shadows. It caved and erected in a pattern, meaning that I really had to find the appropriate areas to highlight. Overall, I think I was successful in capturing the bottle.

5 Photoshopped Pictures:

Link to the photos and descriptions: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2236943/PHOTO%20SHOPPED%20PICS.pages

Copy A Master:

For this “Copy A Master” assignment, I chose to copy my favorite and most inspirational artist, Masashi Kishimoto. Using one of the volumes of his world popular manga series, Naruto, I copied a page that had half of a poster of the 3 main characters. I drew Naruto    using a .5 mm mechanical pencil, and HB, 2B, 4B, and 9H shading pencils. Pencils are really my favorite medium because it is simplistic, yet definite. While it’s not impossible to be abstract using pencil, I think that it’s better to be straightforward with the image- but of course, the perception of its meaning will vary. So my basic routine involves starting with the head of the model, and I tried to guide my hands using my eyes along the already sketchy lines. Since it was a line art picture to start with, I just tried my hardest to really capture the shadows and the perspective. Indeed, the hardest part was really capturing the partial “worm’s eye” perspective; to be more specific, it was hard catching the view of someone in front, and slightly higher than you. This was one of the perspectives that I hadn’t really toyed with before. What I really enjoyed was capturing the parted lips and the eyes. I think that I really got the shadows on the lips and the above the right eye. Also, I captured the shadow around the jaw-line and nose especially. Through the wonders of a nice dark mid tone and smudging I was able to capture this image.

Unfinished Products:

Internet Sculpture:

What I did for my Internet sculpture was one of my own designs: using old shorts and turning it into a mini-tote. I used two old shorts and for the first side of the bag, I sewed the front of one to the front of another. Overall, I ended up using:

-A sewing machine

-2 pairs of shorts

-Several pieces of fabric

-Needles and thread

-Measuring tape

-Fabric marker

-Safety pins

Ultimately, the design was to have one solid back of the back and then use a different jean color for one half of the front. I then wanted to make a patchwork of jeans and fabric material for the other side. I started by measuring an inch of inseam for where I wanted to sew onto, and proceeded to make one side. Unfortunately, I did not finish this product. I wanted it to be the main piece, but even an artist gets caught up. Perhaps, I was dedicated to completing everything else.

The Kingdom was a great movie that I recommend for everyone to see (however, I wouldn’t suggest it for younger kids) and was a definite eye-opener, especially the ending. The ending was completely unexpected, and really made me think. I assumed that the ending was going to be the stereotypical happy conclusion where everyone went home feeling good because they avenged their friends death and prevented future terrorist attacks, and right from there go straight to the credits. However, the ending was not that at all, and definitely did not disappoint.

A killer with Amnesia ? There are very few Suspense/Thriller movies with this concept. When you think of a killer, you almost consider that person an animal. In this case he would technically be an animal because the one of the things that separate a human from an animal is in fact memory.  Go figure.  What this character represents, the structure of the film and the refreshingly new idea brought to the table is what made this movie great, brilliant. Leonard is on a quest of vengeance.  

Film Review: the Grave of the Fireflies

The film begins with a scene of the boy Seita after he is dead, giving the audience a understanding of this movie that it is a tragedy.

The way of using color in this movie is very unique. The scene of dead Seita is shown by using reddish color to portray the character and background, which is attractive since the dead Seita sometimes has some interaction with the actual world, or his memory. For example, when a guard at the train station threw away the candy can that carries Seita’s sister, Setsuko’s bone meal, the dead Seita, or his soul picked it up.

On character portraying, the film shows a strong contrast between different characters. In the aunt’s house, Seita and Setsuko’s cousin always spoke for them while the aunt was mean. Also in the later part of the film, when Seita and Setsuko lived the abandoned mine, without anything to eat, other boys ran pass them with nice clothes and went to fishing happily. Meanwhile, those adults are all different with each other on the attitude of treating Seita and Setsuko, for example, the aunt’s selfish but a little compassion, the old farmer’s sorrow, the doctor’s indifference and the demobilized soldier’s abhorrence, each person has his or her idiosyncrasy.

About the film itself, I have some opinions. Firstly, I consider Setsuko an innocent poor girl suffered in the war, but Seita a ignorant and lazy boy with a simple mind filled with militarism. If Seita really loves his sister, what he should do is not taking her to the seaside and play with her but trying his best to find a work or help his aunt’s family by doing housework. Although he was only thirteen or fourteen at that time, although he was brought up in a rich family, he should have grown mature enough to handle things, and the decision he made to move out of his aunt’s house is totally wrong and childish.

Secondly, being a Chinese, I really abominate what Seita thinks about war. Even before Setsuko is almost dead, he is still dreaming to join the army. What will he think him be doing? Killing Chinese or Americans? Although the main theme of this movie is about anti-war, Seita is apparently some sort of advocator for war.

Thirdly, the film itself is really moving and touches deeply into one’s soul.

Everybody knows from the beginning that this film is a tragedy, but people still feels sad or even cries for Setsuka’s Death. Seita and Setsuka's desperation  reflects the theme of protesting to war and a wish of hope. In the entire war, countless families like Seita and Setsuka's are broken and destroyed, and even seldom does one know whether their government is right or wrong. This film no longer shows a tragedy of a family, but a tragedy of a whole nation, a whole world.

Despite the fact it's a terrorist movie which I tend to not like the movie overall was actually rather amusing. There weren't very many parts which I could say were bad or parts I'd really want to critique. It was well done story line wise. The visuals of the movie were very nice with an exception of the angles in some of the running scenes, in the very beginning of the movie there was a scene with the US military running towards a building but the camera was looking at them from almost ground level so the majority of the image was the floor lower body of the people. I felt as if they could have done that better. There was a scene within the movie where they chased down a young terrorist the organization recruited and threw him off the side of a bridge to get hit by a train the angles and the way the camera was worked during the chase scene and the body being thrown was done well. The music in the movie kept it alive it made me feel some what on the edge of my seat as I watched. 

As the main character Samir Horn was organizing and selling bombs to the islamic organizations. He was a former U.S soldier and Citizen. The FBI, and the CIA begin to track Samir as he tries to set up multiple terror attacks on all 50 states. The movie ends with Samir saving his country he puts all of the terrorist on the same bus and it only ends up killing a few citizens and he becomes hospitalized and once he is better he is greeted by Clayton the man who was chasing him down.

Chart 1:

This chart shows the ages of voters. There is a clear trend: as people get older, they become more likely to vote for Gingrich or Romney, and less likely to vote for Santorum or Paul. My theory is that this is caused by the kind of advertising the candidates use and who their policies appeal to. I find the divide interesting: Paul and Santorum, who are kind of on the fringes of the campaign, appeal to young people; Gingrich and Romney, who seem to be the two main contestants, appeal to older people.

This chart shows the incomes of the voters. Each candidate has a really interesting trend. Ron Paul's strongest support is in lower income households, and becomes less and less popular with groups of greater incomes. Gingrich has relatively high support across all levels, but his strongest point is definitely in the middle – he has less support among the richest and poorest groups. Mitt Romney is popular in exactly the opposite way as Gingrich: among the richest and poorest, he is popular, but less so among middle classes. Santorum is, like Gingrich, most popular in the middle – but less so among the poorest and wealthiest voters.

Chart 3:

This chart is the results of the polling question, "What quality matters most to you in a candidate?" I found a few things most interesting. First, each candidate has a clear weakness: clearly, Romney does not appeal to anyone who wants a "true conservative", and Gingrich is not considered to have strong moral character. Santorum is not popular among those who want an experienced candidate, and Paul is not favored for beating Obama. Another great analysis of this chart is the fact that there seems to be an inverse relationship between having strong moral character and being able to defeat Barack Obama. Clearly, people do truly believe that those who are morally true can succeed in politics. And, apparently, for good reason: there is also an inverse relationship between those who are favored for experience and those who have strong moral character!