Brock

 Writing about Pulp Fiction feels almost like talking about a cultural reset. Directed by Quentin Tarantino in 1994, this movie didn't just push boundaries, it shattered them. It became a defining moment in cinema, and its influence is still felt today. Pulp Fiction is the kind of film that rewrote the rulebook, blending violence, humor, and pop culture in a way that was as fresh as it was daring. It’s a movie that reflects a generation’s disillusionment with traditional Hollywood and served as a blueprint for the indie boom of the 90s. One of the first things that stands out about Pulp Fiction is its portrayal of morally ambiguous characters, which ties directly into the ‘anti-hero’ theme that defined a lot of New Hollywood cinema. In Tarantino’s world, no one is truly good or evil. Take Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta), they're hitmen, but Tarantino doesn’t present them as one-dimensional bad guys, instead giving them depth. These characters exist in a...

  Blade Runner     This is a blog post I am especially excited to write since Blade Runner is one of in not my favorite movie of all time. Directed by Ridley Scott in 1982, this movie is one of the most influential sci-fi movies of all time. It does a fantastic job touching on the themes of a violent and paranoid society, as well as the changing sentiment of civil rights during the time. Teen rebellion themes are slightly present, but not as prevalent.      Starting with the violent and paranoid society, Scott shows a dystopian society that is dominated by huge urban environments basically inventing the genre of cyberpunk. It shows a government that employs Blade Runners, detectives that hunt replicants, genetically modified humans that were created to be superior to regular humans. These Blade Runners kill replicants without any thought or remorse, showing how the consensus during the time period was that people feared the government and its power. Things ...

 Rear Window     The movie I selected to watch for this blog post was Rear Window (1954) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The reason this movie intrigued me more than the others was because I have not seen a lot of Hitchcock's films despite his reputation within Hollywood, and I am glad that I chose it. I really liked the decision to have it set essentially in one room, with characters coming and going. Using locations like Thorwald's apartment but only from the outside looking in was such a unique choice that could not have been easy to pull off, which I heavily admire. Modern mystery and suspense movies tend to, in my opinion, not leave things up to interpretation. I recently saw Longlegs  (2024) directed by Oz Perkins, which was a mystery movie but after the characters found out what the solution was, it just explained all of it through dialogue. In this movie, I really liked how they left things up to interpretation. At a certain point I was pretty sure Jefferies wa...

 Introduction     This year for symposium day, I had the pleasure of attending the Augustana Student Films Award Show. This highlighted student made films that excelled in qualities such as cinematography and storytelling while dealing with heavy subjects like drug abuse and suicide. I am taking this opportunity to express my thoughts, praises, and critiques of these productions. Overall     To begin my review, I want to start by going over the event as a whole, outside of just the quality of the films. I thought that the event was set up very nicely and felt very professional with ballots and being in the actual theater made the experience very worth it. The only issues I had came from some members of the audience who were being a little disruptive but, they were way in the back so it did not take away from the experience of everyone I do not believe. Films Film 1     The first film I want to talk about is Bounty: Chapter 1 by Aron Stewart. This ...

Most Influential Pioneer of the Film Industry     In my opinion, the most influential person in the history of film (ending in the 1930s),   is Thomas Edison and the Black Maria Studio. While he is not the greatest person of all time, Edison was the first person to open a studio solely dedicated to making motion pictures, made the first filmed advertisements, made staged films, and pioneered Nickelodeons which would lead to the creation of movie theaters. While there were other inventors such as Louis Le Prince whose contributions thrust the whole industry forward, it was Thomas Edison that created the modern blueprint for movie production.     The Black Maria Studio was opened by Edison and in it, he began staging films rather than just filming things he saw in everyday life. This is where the idea of telling a story through film developed and motion pictures could be seen as something more than a novelty. While it was very simple stuff he was producing, ...

      My name is Brock Obmascik and I am a junior at Augustana College majoring in marketing with a minor in film. Part of my film minor requirement is to create this blog to answer prompts about film and TV history, given by my instructor. I hope to use my degree to find work in the business end of the film industry, preferably in the movie advertising sector. Some of my favorite movies are Blade Runner (Original and 2049), Dune Part 2, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Good Time, and Alien. I am especially fond of film noir as a genre and I love good prop design. I hope my blog is interesting to you!