Hollywood Endings

It rains, and he stands there shouting her name up to the heavens from the street level.

She looks into his eyes on a foggy tarmac in Morocco
"but what about us?"
-we'll always have Paris
She flies off in a plane, never to see him again.

She urges the taxi driver to go back. Enters the English cottage and sees him there, a rare sight, tears streaming down his face. They look at each other, and are inseperable.

I really could go on about all the great Hollywood endings old and new there are. Some are sad but many promise the future of finding the one thing we all look for. Personally, as a lover of Romantic films and a firm believer in Hollywood endings, there is no reason why we shouldn't aspire to reach them in our actual lives.

We are surrounded by a culture of pessimism and faithless objectives engulfed in monetary agendas. What is wrong about wanting and aiming to become what you always wanted to be, and falling in love? Nothing is wrong with it. Here is why.

Hollywood films show the great lengths you must go to reach those goals, the heroes are never given an easy ride, much like all of us in our lives. Whether it is a dream job or a girl they pursue their passions and dreams despite all obstacles and adversaries, they fight through an odyssey of emotional, physical, and financial crisis. One thing is for sure, in the end, when all is said and done, they are a changed person for the better, and they lived fully. When one comes to such an epiphany such as myself, I realize I have held myself back from my Hollywood ending, because even when i get there I will not be finished. The search for love is a long perilous one, the journey for the job and life of your dreams is a great quest.

In order to achieve both of these, you need to create your own montage, find every moment to spend towards fixing your wrongs, winning a heart, and gaining the fame. You may have to go to hell and back, and then once more for good measure, but when you resurface from the real world, bearing the scars of your frustrations, abuses, self-doubt, and lifelessness, you will realize how proudly they look on you as you walk into the limelight screaming victory, walking back to the one you love in the rain. A Film is Two Hours on average, think of how short life is... it flies like a good film, make sure it ends well!

For all my friends, readers, and loved ones
Christian A.V. Petrozza

Compressing and Life

Recently I have been refurbishing my short films with my production logo at the beginning and sometimes at the end for artistic protection and branding. Unfortunately some of these shorts have been made on a different generation of mac and or made in HD as opposed to my usual DV formats and therefore, I need to add the logo which means I need to make sure I re-compress in the right format. It is not new to me that there are a million different variations on how to properly capture and compress video but it would save me a world of trouble and online research to figure out how to do this without error if the world decided to have three key formats and leave it at that. While compressing several wrong versions I realized this trial and error process reminded me of some life philosophies. These are a few I can come up with from the top of my head.

Compressing1: Just because you captured the video properly it doesn't mean that it will look high quality until it is fully compressed.
Life1: People hide the deepest part of themselves in labyrinths of personality,degredation, arrogence etc. But as they grow and mature into men or women, we see their true colours. Whether good or bad.

Compressing2: There are several different video formats, and two different ways (on my mac [compressor and FCP] in which to compress a film. Not all of them work for the type of format you captured in and must be careful to keep track of previous trials.
Life2: We go through so many phases as we grow, and are exposed to so many options, some of which we choose that can hurt or help us. Try to look at the history of those close to you or a past experience to lead your heart in the right direction.

Compressing3: Compressing something in high quality or HD takes forever just hope its worth it.
Life3: (No Dali Llama stuff here) make sure you did it right or all your work will just be another "I told you so" from the parents, or the big man upstairs.

Compressing4: Don't click cancel before something is done compressing, unless it freezes, because you may have been doing it right.
Life4: Never take the easy way out of a situation, unless it is stopping or slowing your life in a negative way. Working harder to get things straight is always worth it.

Compressing5: burn the good copy to DVD
Life5: Get the best of yourself out there and don't sell yourself short.

I may be reading too deeply into this but waiting for hours and compressing things as trial and error makes you think about more interesting things than the task at hand. I think my video is still going, down with deceptive mac loading bars. 5 minutes my foot, just jumped to 2 hours. Great

Christian A.V. Petrozza

Robin Hood, Formatting Practical and Life

On May 14th my wonderful girlfriend and I went to see Robin Hood, Directed by Ridley Scott. As many of you know, I have been anticipating the Crowe-Scott dream team comeback for quite some time, watching the amazing trailer over and over up until the release date. I have to say I was quite surprised at the differences in style and narrative that Ridley Scott chose to use in the film since it was not the typical dark-palette, smokey-lighting and gory battle-esque style that I expected. But all the same I loved the way they retold the legend.

Big Warning here, NO SPOILERS!!! But I will set up the film so that if you are one of those people who enter a movie clueless but with expectations *cough*everycriticwebsite*cough* then you will not be dissappointed after reading this. THIS FILM IS A SETUP to the original legend, which means it is the events that lead up to the out-lawing of Robin and his band. The film takes very original liberties with the Robin Hood legend but also mixes them perfectly with the factual interpretations of figures such as King Richard, Friar Tuck, will Scarlett, and little John. Due to Ridley Scott's love for medieval history. He has added some great depth into the family structure of the plantagenets and their political toils between Eleanor of Aquitaine, a now aged and cynnical mother of a cowardly son and a warmongering king. The relationships and connections between them and the Robin Hood legend run very close together in the film as well as the legend which made this film great to watch as a history tid bits, with that creative touch of folklore.

Also if you are looking for a bloodfest like kingdom of heaven or gladiator you will not find it. The film has great battles and seiges, and as Scott's history films usually do, give a great look into the life of the soldier during wartime. Robin Hood is not a forgotten tale, it is known by the eldest of men and women to the youngest children and because of that the fights are kept at a 5/10 ranging from Narnia-Braveheart. I am a sucker for a good battle, and in saying that I can proudly say the film, despite the lack of blood, did not dissappoint in the slightest. Along with a great mix of comedy, romance, action, and glamitics (glamourous politics, kings queens, affairs, and gold chainmail). This film deserves an eight out of Ten, I felt the story pace was great but some of the editing in the first half to be a bit too abrupt. I will probably change my mind after watching it again. BUT GO WATCH IT IT IS AWESOME.

I was going to Write about how rendering videos on a mac is like life, (which is scarily accurate) but I got carried away with the greatness of the movie and what I wanted to say about it. Stay true and steadfast with your cameras and remember.....

Film and Film again, until PA's become Producers

Christian A.V. Petrozza

Comedy is in Brevity: That Guy With The Glasses Goes Viral

An online film critic and founder of the "(Film) in 5 Seconds" internet phenomenon, That Guy With The Glasses (TGWTG) has made countless movie lovers, and haters come together in laughter at the spoofed and satirical renditions of films in their shortest form. Of course these films are either summarized in the most critical but comical manner but at the same time summarizing their value in their visual and stylistic aesthetics and poking fun at them by leaving most of the plot out.

The video below is one of his videos on Amadeus, a critically acclaimed film with an elegant and stylistic aesthetics. Instead of embracing them, TGWTG decides to use only the parts in which Mozart cracks his most contagious and nerdy laugh (which he does often in the film) and end it with his abrupt and gritty death. This struck a huge chord for me because upon first seeing the film and reflecting upon it those were the parts that I remembered, and like many others I nodded at my computer screen and thought That's pretty much the whole movie.

Since his videos became viral, many people have made other "5 Second" summaries of films not yet done, often crediting TGWTG in the very abrupt and quick end credits.

This culture of re cutting or critiquing a film through its key themes, or elements of style and script which could make it funny has also led to the internet phenomenon of re-cutting films into genre-specific trailers. 10 Things I Hate About Commandments (Based on Footage from Heston's The 10 Commandments) is an absolute favorite and prime example of how movie lovers engage in post-production activities to pay homage and have fun with their favorite good, or bad film.

Christian A.V. Petrozza




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First Post!

Hello Blogger! I am Christian Petrozza a competitive fencer, independent film maker, and film major. Since I have recently been injured and reading week is coming up, I thought I would begin re-posting some of my old blogs from the other Blog I write on Transmedia TV. I will also be posting some new content as well once all my blog posts have been re-enstated on this site. On this blog I will look into popular media, technology, the sport of fencing (the best sport evar!) and mostly my defence for films which I enjoy but critics hate, which has been the case soo many times before, pretty much since siskel died. I hope you enjoy my posts, interests, and the occasional anecdote or experience.