I realize it's been a month since I've posted anything here. I wonder if anyone will notice. Well, to test it out, how about some good old-fashioned ranting? Disclaimer: Since it's hard for me to be dishonest, I must say that much of the below is vicious hyperbole. But this is my place to complain about things in order to make myself feel better, so I'll take advantage of it, dammit.
I really don't like the people in my film class. Not that I hate them. Not that they're bad people. But they are artists, and this is a liberal arts college that caters to people who consider themselves to be "different." I suppose I shouldn't be surprised if they're all pretentious children.
It's the boys that are especially bad. Not that I enjoy the girls much more; they're flighty, ditzy even at times, and several of them are actresses, which they proclaim constantly as though it wasn't already obvious from their behavior (loud and self-centered). After watching a film, they always kick off the discussion by announcing how much they identified with a particular character, and how all the other characters are jerks to her. Much of their analysis of the film will then center around that character's perception of their situation. Clearly, actresses.
But the boys are far worse. They all sit casually in their chairs, wearing jeans and t-shirts with obscure alternative/punk rock references, their hair cut in whatever fashion they deemed would make them look most artistic and "out there." They believe that their most solemn duty in life is never to be impressed, unless that which impresses them is thoroughly ignored by everyone else, so that they can pretend to be the only person who really "understands" it. With all the wisdom of their barely two decades of life, they dissect every film put before them as, at worst, the work of a "hack," and at best, riddled with flaws. They measure a film's worth as directly proportional to how difficult to understand it is and indirectly proportional to its popularity. Movies, apparently, are not art unless they leave their audience in a confused daze. Now, this isn't to say that the most popular films aren't often among the worst, but I'm certain that their reasons for feeling this way are singular: they don't want to appear to like anything that doesn't make them feel special and knowledgeable. They treasure their disdain as though it were the only thing that could garner them a shred of respect in this world, rather than the things they make themselves.
Clearly, artists. This college is full of them, of all disciplines, both male and female. They should all grow a little self-respect instead of relying on other people's mistakes to create some for them. Rant over.
7 comments:
Take your laptop to class if you don't already, and write down some of the things they say so we can amuse ourselves at their filmic stupidity.
What I can remember off the top of my head:
Some Boy: Robert Rodriguez is a hack.
Yesterday:
Note: I'm wearing my Iron Maiden shirt.
Boy Next To Me: I have one thing to say to you.
Me: What?
Boy Next To Me: *makes horns and pretends to headbang*
Me: *laughs awkwardly*
What should have happened:
Boy Next To Me: I have one thing to say to you.
Me: Is it something predictable?
Boy Next To Me: Uuuuuh...yes.
And another situation from yesterday with the same boy:
Boy: Have you seen this movie, I Forgot the Name?
Fred Strype: Why?
Boy: I saw it a while ago, and I liked it. But I want to know whether it was a good or a bad movie.
Me: If you liked it, why are you asking?
Boy: I just want to know if it was good or bad.
You know that Harvard kids are threatened by us, right? I have this theory about that. As Harvard kids, they feel this obligation to be uptight and straight-laced, so they feel that part of their tuition involves being threatned by hippies... but because they're Harvard kids, they can't just be threatened by any hippies. They need to be threatened by hippies no one has ever heard of.
Ho ho, my paladin sister!
Tee hee.
I think I like this better than just being "The Iron". Oh well, made a gmail account for nothing.
On another note, pretentious film students (we will call them PFS) oft think that they could shit out a better film than whatever moving image they might survey with their beady little eyes. However, in my environment I have noticed that this species of PFS is often the very same group that cannot, say, set up a grip stand or push a dolly to save their life, much less work a camera or write a decent script. It is easy to talk about movies. Much much harder to create them, I think.
Robert Rodriguez was 23 when he made (by made I mean he was the writer, director, and effing camera operator and lighting designer) "El Mariachi" for $7,000 in 1992. He could effortlessly flatten that PFS boy from your class in any kind of filmmaking challenge, and then consume his remains for midday-shoot lunch. So sayeth the Iron Maiden!
P.S. - It's a big joke, not an insult, to use the word "hack" at CSF. We actually make films here. So feel free to laugh at the PFS when they say it.
Post a Comment