Jamie Lammers
Stories (150/0)
The Essential Point of Me vs. Animals: How it Breaks the Typical Essay Format
On the surface, Benjamin Percy’s “Me vs. Animals” feels more like a collection of eight short pieces rather than a complete essay. It tells eight separate occurrences throughout Benjamin’s life of his encounters with various animals, from moose to mice to rattlesnakes. Each of these stories is engaging on its own merit, with writing that is stylized in a way that sounds like Benjamin’s speaking style. However, by the end of the piece, it becomes unavoidably clear that this collection of stories works best when read all at once as an essay, as it threads together a narrative that demonstrates that man is much more dangerous than any animal ever could be.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Humans
Text vs. Subtext in The Paper Menagerie
As an explanation for this and the many other short story reviews I've been posting recently, these are reading reflections that I wrote for a creative writing class I took at the end of last year. These short story reviews allowed me to gain a better appreciation for narrative through writing and for reading in general, and I am super proud of these short reviews.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Humans
Dialogue vs. Subtext in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Joyce Carol Oates uses dialogue and subtext to her advantage to portray the fear of being sexually abused in her short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Talking first about what is actually said by the primary characters of the story, we see the fifteen-year-old girl Connie trying to ask this strange boy that arrives on her driveway about why he’s there. This boy, who reveals his name as Arnold Friend, reveals how much she has heard about this girl and how interested he is in her. She dodges the fact that her name is Connie and tries to understand where this boy is taking her but doesn’t get any answers from him. Eventually, her anxiety about Arnold escalates so much that she threatens to call the police on him, and he retaliates by saying he will come into her house if she calls the police. By the end of the story, she unsuccessfully tries to call for help but is eventually taken by the young boy.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Humans
The Colors of What Dreams May Come
It makes sense that a movie focusing on a man killed in a car crash who discovers his own personal heaven would want to focus on the colors of his supposed desired afterlife. It is no surprise, therefore, that the film What Dreams May Come, directed by Vincent Ward and starring Robin Williams, is so colorful. Meaning can be extracted from the use of most, if not all, of the colors and their use in the film. Orange could be associated with the ethereal (the aura around Cuba Gooding Jr.’s ghost character Albert, the glowing fires of hell, etc.), green could be associated with the natural progression of the relationship between Williams’s Chris Nielsen and Annabella Sciorra’s Anna Nielsen (its use in scenes involving their eventual falling out and discussion of divorce, for instance), etc. However, there are three colors that have a particularly significant meaning throughout the course of the movie -- red, blue, and purple.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Geeks
Contextualizing Terror: Why 102 Minutes That Changed America's Footage is Morally Acceptable
This is an essay that I wrote for a film class in high school last year about the History documentary 102 Minutes that Changed America. The essay as a whole summarizes my opinions on the importance of archival footage, documentary filmmaking, historical preservation and education, and filmmaking as a medium. Unfortunately, 102 Minutes is a rare documentary and its DVD is currently out of print. There are still DVDs available on Amazon if you're curious about the documentary, but I hope that someday the documentary will be accessible for a wide audience again.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in The Swamp
The Genius of Psycho's Score
One of the most important aspects of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho is Bernard Hermann’s tense score. In addition to Hitchcock’s brilliant direction that feels meticulous in every shot, the music serves to convey the emotions of the characters, the terror in their eyes, their deepest fears, and their determination to learn more about the strange events at Bates Motel. At its most prominent, the score allows us to get inside the head of Marion Crane, feel the weight of the actions of Norman’s mother, and accentuate the actions of the characters with the help of the editing.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Beat
The Mise en Scene of Inception
Christopher Nolan has shown himself to be one of the most meticulous directors working today. From making an audience feel like they are experiencing a beach-side battle with World War II soldiers in Dunkirk to creating beautiful new planets and sci-fi worlds in Interstellar, his films are some of the most original and well-crafted films out there today. However, there is possibly no film of his that masters mise en scene, or the arrangement of visual elements of a movie, more so than Inception. The sci-fi thriller about a team of agents who retrieve information from people’s dreams is incredibly assembled, from the choice of effects used to Nolan’s meticulous story direction to the incredibly intense editing. While it may be confusing upon the first watch, all of the pieces fall together by the conclusion of the story, after which viewers will be rabid to re-watch to catch all of the elements they didn’t the first time around. There’s something about Christopher Nolan’s filmmaking that completely sucks in the audience, even if they don’t understand what they’re watching for the first half-hour or so.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Geeks
Creating Pandora from The Ground Up: The Special Effects of Avatar
James Cameron’s Avatar has received criticism in the years after its initial release. Although it was incredibly hyped at the time of that release (becoming the highest-grossing film of all time until Avengers: Endgame broke that record in 2019), many people now chastise its cliche plot and one-note characters. However, the one thing that no one has ever denied about the film is the ground-breaking visual effects implemented in it. James Cameron originally wrote the film in the late '90s and intended to start filming after his equally successful and box-office-record-breaking Titanic, but he realized that the technology available at the time was not good enough to accomplish his vision. In 2005, he started working on the film again, the technology finally starting to catch up to his ideas. In 2009, viewers were able to lose themselves on the alien planet of Pandora and experience the culture of the Navi people, watching a science fiction world unfold in a way that they had never experienced before, because of what the filmmakers were able to do with those special effects.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Geeks
CGI and Its Use in Cinema
It seems today that many people feel the addition of computer-generated imagery, or CGI, to films is going to completely ruin the age-old tradition of filmmaking by replacing actors with computer-generated models, creating a less authentic world, and simply making it easier to make a film. However, it is incredibly important to take into consideration just how much work goes into a CGI film or even just one scene that utilizes CGI. It’s important to realize that CGI can enhance a film’s storytelling and that not everyone uses it in order to make a great film. If used properly, CGI can be a fantastic tool to enhance the storytelling of a film.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Geeks
5 YouTube Channels That Expanded My Taste In Music
There are many YouTube channels out there dedicated to reviewing, recommending, or discussing music, and those who are interested in discovering new tunes can browse these channels and check out music that catches their ears. There are quite a few music channels on YouTube that have inspired me to check out songs and albums I never would have otherwise, expand my taste in music as a whole, and even change the way I look at the world because of those new discoveries. Here are the five YouTube channels involving music that I would recommend to anyone.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Beat
I Looked Across
I look across the bar. I freeze, recognizing someone. There she is, standing in the middle of the bar, talking with her friends. Her long, blonde hair bounces on her shoulders as she laughs along with them, unconsciously covering her smile as she does so. Her green eyes glitter as the lights of the bar shine over her. I want to know what they’re laughing about, what they could possibly be talking about. I think of all the possibilities. Maybe they’re talking about all the homework they have to complete tonight. Maybe they’re talking about some crazy story another one of their friends told them earlier today. The thought crosses my mind that maybe they’re talking about a guy she walked by today and couldn’t help but think was kind of cute, and I wish that guy was me even though I know for a fact it isn’t. I gather all of my thoughts and come out of my trance. I walk over to the bar counter, take a seat, and order a beer. She’s only a couple feet away from me now. I can’t help but look right at her, entranced by her face. Her eyes. Her nose. Her smile. That one smile, a smile that beams like sunshine from hundreds of feet away despite the fact that she always covers it. I’ve always wanted to tell her how much I love that smile. How much it brightens my day.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Humans
Paperback Writer: The Beatles Song in Short Story Form
“Hey, excuse me? Can someone help? I need somebody to read my book!” I look around at the busy publishing center. People are rushing like mad to sort files and take phone calls. It’s pretty chaotic. Thankfully, someone’s at the front desk to take care of the clients that come in looking for their magnum opus to be released to the public and maybe become a bestseller, if they’re lucky. The nametag on his desk says “Mr. Kite.” He takes a second to look me up and down.
By Jamie Lammers3 years ago in Humans