Sweeney Todd

As you can tell by my name, I love Sweeney Todd, the 2007 film directed by Tim Burton. It stars Johnny Depp as the demon barber of Fleet Street who seeks revenge for his wrongful imprisonment and the death of his wife Lucy. Opposite Depp is Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the cunning yet sensitive pie-maker Mrs. Lovett. Sweeney Todd is a musical based on the 1979 musical thriller by Stephen Sondheim.

Last summer, my sisters and I decided to recreate every song from the movie; using the CD as a guide and lip synching. And with nothing but a miniDV camera and Windows Movie Maker, we have been able to complete eleven of the twenty songs. For almost three months we've battled bad weather, schedule conflicts, technical difficulties, and uncooperative actors (and there are only three of us in the film), yet Sweeney Todd is still in production.

The first song we ever did was "Johanna", which focuses on Sweeney singing while he kills the customers by slitting their throats. One of the greatest challenges in filming this was when blood had to shoot from the victims' necks, which was something we had never tried to do before. In the end, the "victim" had to hold a Ziplock bag filled with colored water and squeeze it at the exact same time Sweeney slashed with the razor. It worked out perfectly! The only problem was cleaning the water off of the ceiling and window.

Four days after that song was finished we went on vacation to the beach (which happened to be the title of one of the songs we had to sing). This was when we officially decided to make a spoof of every song so we tried to make it as true to the movie as possible. This was where we encountered several sisterly quarrels as well as some continuity problems. Some of the scenes had to be filmed back at home so we needed to make a detailed list of every different scene and the costumes/props that were needed. All that effort payed off and it is one of my favorites.

"Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" and "The Contest" were two more songs on our list. What was so difficult about them was that a specific set was needed. We ended up filming on the playground of an elementary school in the blazing sun. Somehow two ladders, six costumes, two chairs, two giant signs, several wigs, and a table were stuffed into the car and transported to the school. Not only were we on a tight schedule but each of us had to be two characters. I learned that it is important to plan everything out and stay on schedule.

At eleven o'clock at night on the roof of our house, my sisters and I filmed "No Place Like London" for the third time. The last two tries had horrible lighting and it was almost impossible to see Sweeney and his acquaintance Anthony. Luckily, this was during Halloween time and we bought a fog machine. That with the addition of a lamp created a creepy effect that made it look like the two were really on a ship. The great thing about making spoofs of movies is that you are able to try different methods to match the lighting, camera angles, etc.

Just last night I went out with my sisters to film another scene from "Johanna". Unlike "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" and "The Contest", it was freezing cold outside and the CD player was not working properly. By this time, however, we had seen the movie so many times that we didn't even need the music. It's amazing to see how far we've come just in the last three months. Even though there is always a problem (whether it be the weather or someone's costume), all this practice has prepared us to deal with whatever could happen.

It may not be a Stephen Spielberg production, but I'd say we're pretty close. Film making is demanding and takes a lot of planning and creativity, but if you manage to get the right people together it is one of the most gratifying things in the world.

Here are some photos of the characters in our movie and Tim Burton's:

Sweeney Todd

Mrs. Lovett

Judge Turpin

Beadle Bamford

Anthony

Johanna

Signor Adolfo Pirelli

Toby

Beggar Woman

All Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street pictures come from http://www.fanpop.com/external/1520732

The Things They Carried

It is difficult to describe life's changes when you have only been alive for seventeen years. I have yet to reach a point in my life where I can look back and think, "Wow, I've been through a lot, " and be able to compare the different stages. Tim O'Brien's quote from The Things They Carried is an interesting look into the future. One must wonder whether they will feel the same way or not at that age.

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I disagree with O'Brien and his assertion that humans do not change in the important ways. One example comes from Elie Wiesel's memoir Night. "The night was gone. The morning star was shining in the sky. I too had become a completely different person. The student of the Talmud, the child that I was, had been consumed in the flames. There remained only a shape that looked like me. A dark flame had entered my soul and devoured it" (Wiesel 34). In tragedies such as the Holocaust where people lost their families and friends in the most horrific ways, it is understandable how they would lose themselves. Being denied so much and offered only work and coldness, many felt their old selves dying with those in the gas chambers and the fire. Starting a new life once they were liberated seemed the only way to forget what happened. In many ways this is a good thing. By losing the person who suffered so greatly, they are able to rebuild a life unaffected by the memories. O'Brien states that after all he experienced he was the same boy in the photographs. I question how he was able to live after coming back from Vietnam, the sound of gunfire and screams always in the back of his head.

One does not need to be involved in or witness a tragedy to lose their essence. Some are transformed by the people around them. An example of this would be William Golding's Lord of the Flies, in which several of the main characters join together against several others after they are marooned on an island. Rather than focus on themselves, they grouped together and became a savage gang. This mob mentality completely erased who each of them was and replaced it with one communal identity. This way, they could protect one another and not have to worry about themselves as individuals. Even today there are gangs that focus more on what's good for the group then what's good for you. Like the victims of tragedies, these groups feel safer than before with the new life.

Why I Write... by Jeanette Walls

My parents always pushed for academic excellence. No matter where we were or what hardships we faced, school was always a priority for us kids. And this is where it started, at the kitchen table (or wherever else we did homework depending on our current situation) completing assignments while Brian did his work and Lori helped Mom grade her students' papers. I learned all about the technical aspects of writing, the fine detail,s the do's and don'ts, but I still found no connection. It was a task I was expected to complete whether or not I wanted to. That is why I am able to write. I had the necessary skills, I just needed some inspiration.

I first discovered my passion for writing when I was in the seventh grade and began working as a proofreader for The Maroon Wave, our school newspaper. It was a tedious job that enabled me to see another side of life. So much happened in the world that I was not aware of since my parents always put their own spin on the stories. It felt amazing to be able take in and interpret the events as I saw them. Ninth grade was when I first stared writing articles for the paper and by junior year I was editor in chief. I was finally allowed to express my creativity without worrying about being judged or made fun of. Not only was I writing for myself but also for society. Reporting news was my way of helping others find the truth in the world.

It is difficult to talk about anything without mentioning my family's history. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, is affected by their past. I write in order to share a little piece of myself with the world, so if anyone else has a story like mine they will be inspired. Not only do I report facts but also a story about the life of a girl who started out looking for food in the Dumpster and ended up living in New York City. It is not a coarse of self-pity or even regret, but a way of connecting with those who are or have been in similar situations.

The sentence "I write because..." is almost impossible to complete with only one word. I write because I want to help others see what is beyond their doorstep. For some, it is a interview with the famous comedian that they idolize. For others, it is about the story of survival. Writing is my passion and my life.

The Glass Castle

"You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find laughter in anything, even poverty, you can survive it." Bill Cosby

This quote could have come straight from the pages of Jeannette Walls' memoir The Glass Castle. It focuses on the hardships her family faced and how they managed to survive - one of those ways was through laughter. Rex Walls, her father, was a master at not only making people laugh during a miserable situation, but also completely turning it around and no one remembered why they were upset. "Dad got out of the car, knelt down, and tried to give me a hug. I pulled away from him...he said, 'you busted your snot locker pretty good.' I started laughing really hard...I told Brian and Lori and Mom about the word, and they all started laughing as hard as me. It was hilarious" (Walls 31). (At the time this occurred, Jeannette had been hurled from the car and left stranded in the middle of the desert until the family came to retrieve her some time after.) Rex was not trying to get her to forgive him, he was just doing what a dad should do - comfort his child. However, that single statement was enough to make Jeannette forget all about what happened and proves laughter can lighten a situation. No matter who said it or how it was said or why, we are always looking for something to brighten a bad situation.

The second part of the quote explains how powerful laughter can be. According to Bill Cosby, even something as miserable and degrading as poverty can be lightened with a little humor. Throughout The Glass Castle, Jeannette and her family were forced to move from place to place with nothing but bare necessities. And yet, despite every time their father came home drunk or the roof leaked or there was no house to come home to at all, they survived. "We didn't have many toys, but you didn't need toys in a place like Battle Mountain. We'd get a piece of cardboard and go tobogganing...we'd jump off the roof...The thing we like to do most was go exploring in the desert" (54). Although they did not have much, the Walls were able to make the best of every situation. In this example, rather then whining about not having anything to do, they used their imaginations and came up with interesting ideas that brought hours and hours of fun. Laughter, in this sense, came from all the time Jeannette spent with her family having a good time and not worrying about their current social and financial situation.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW0XVno-0gM&feature=related - This is a link to a video I found on YouTube with Jeanette Walls reciting parts of her book. Her mother is also in the video showing some of her paintings - she is actually a very good artist. I thought this would be a great way to associate the characters from The Glass Castle with the real people (kind of like when we saw those pictures of the Clutters and where they lived).

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - 12

Besides the fact that Oskar participated in his school's production of Hamlet, there are several more connections between the two based on parallel structure of the families.

Both Oskar and Hamlet are affected by tragedies dealing with their fathers. In the latter's case, King Hamlet was killed by his brother Claudius. Hamlet was suspicious of his uncle, even though it had not been proven that he orchestrated the murder. Those feelings towards Claudius were fueled by his unresolved anger and frustration all stemming from the death of King Hamlet. Although he had a right to suspect Claudius, Hamlet lost focus and his emotions turned into a blind search for revenge. This same situation is also present in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Although Ron did not kill Oskar's father, he replaced him as the male figure in the family and thus all negative feelings were channeled towards him. In Oskar's eyes, Ron was stealing his father's position and did it intentionally. In both of these stories one can find examples of Sigmund Freud's Oedipus complex, which describes the subconscious sexual feelings a young child feels towards the parent of the opposite sex as well as hostility towards the parent of the same sex. With a new father entering the picture, both Hamlet (even though he is not a young child) and Oskar felt threatened.

Another example of the parallel structure between families is the relationship of mother and son. Hamlet and Gertrude did not have a particularly strong relationship. They were distant from one another and could not understand each other's points of view on King Hamlet's death and Claudius' new position. This barrier between the two isolates Hamlet as well as the fact that he has no father figure to confront. Instead, he is forced to search elsewhere for someone to understand. And although he has Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, there is no one he can trust implicitly except for himself. Like Hamlet, Oskar and his mother have a distant relationship. With Ron suddenly thrown into the mix as a "friend", as well as their unwillingness to see the other's point of view, Oskar is left with nothing but his troubled and questionable thoughts. "...but they didn't even hear me, because they were playing music too loud and cracking up too much...Even though I knew I shouldn't, I gave myself a bruise" (Foer 37). Due to the sudden disappearance of a father figure and the lack of attention and understanding from their mothers, Hamlet and Oskar are alone.