Charles in Charge

I have been spending a lot more time with my brothers lately. After moving back home from Western to attend gaston college i have been seeing them more and more often then i have for the past few years. I realized one very important thing over these past few months, my brothers rule. We all get along so well, we almost never fight, and we always seem to have each others backs in tough situations. My younger brother and i live at home, and our older brother lives just over a half hour away. We all get together a few times a week to just hang out and play, and we have some of the most fun i have ever had in my life. Its great, and i love my family.

End of the Year

Well the semester is winding down, and i must say I have had a great time these past few months. Now that im actually getting into classes that pertain to my major im doing much better then i used to. The workload seems more managable when you're having fun doing what you love. I find it odd to think that i used to dread getting up and going to clas every day, but now its almost a relief to get to go shoot film or edit movies. Im having a blast doing this kind of stuff, and really look forward to more in-depth projects. I have all these ideas for new films to make and i cannot wait to put them together. The most enjoyable thing i did this semester was definitaly for my video production class. I was allowed to make any kind of movie i wanted, and having that kind of creative freedom was increadible. I loved taking my vision and making it into a corporeal thing! Hopefully ill get to do more stuff like that in the future.

SF4

Street Fighter 4, the long awaited new installment of the Street Fighter series of videogames, has finally been released. I must say that i am really impressed with the way it plays. Street Fighter, for those who are unaware, is a fighting game where two players each select one character and proceed to beat the tar out of each other. It is a venture into violence at its most primal and base nature, and it is fantastic. This latest venture into the art of fighting in the streets (and sometimes in odder locations) is a wonderfully balanced and varied game, where there are different characters to suit every style of play. The game is paced slower then most other fighting games, where each match is more of a tactical back and forth then a straight up brawl between combatants. Being able to utelize each characters moves effectively and quickly is the key to victory, and experience plays a large part in each victory.

I give it 4 karate chopping fists out of 5

The General part 2

But the men stood fast with their guns on their shoulders, not knowing what to do with these contradicting orders, the general said he would do his own duty but he would extend it no further, the men could go as they pleased.  But not a man moved, their eyes gazed straight ahead till one by one they stepped back and not a word was said.  The old general was left with his own words, echoing in his head.  He then prepared to fight.  He said...

I have seen the others, and i have discovered, that this fight is not worth fighting.  And i've seen their mothers, and i will no other, to follow me where im going.  So take a shower and shine your shoes, you've got no time to lose, you are young men you must be living.  Go now you are forgiven.

The General part 1

There was a decorated general with a heart of gold, that likened him to all the stories he told, of past battles won and lost and legends of old, a seasoned veteran in his own time.  On the battlefield he gained respectful fame, with many medals of bravery and fights to his name, he grew a beard as soon as he could to cover the scars on his face, and always urged his men on.  But on the eve of a great battle with the infantry in dream the old general tossed in his sleep and wrestled with its meaning.  He awoke from that night just to tell what he had seen, and walked slowly out of his tent.  All the men held tall with their chests in the air, with courage in their blood and fire in their stares.  It was a grey morning and they all wondered how they would fair, until the old general told them to go home.  He said...

I have seen the others, and i have discovered, that this fight is not worth fighting.  And i've seen their mothers, and i will no other, to follow me where im going.  So take a shower and shine your shoes, you've got no time to lose, you are young men you must be living.  Go now, you are forgiven.

Movie Shoot

Yesterday my brother recruited me to go help him with a movie shoot he was working on. It wasnt going to be a lot of work, but I decided that getting to see how a set works would be pretty interesting. We drove out to an old abandoned stripped down house where the shot was going to take place. We then spent about 2 hours setting up the one room we would be using that day. After that the actors arrived and I was ushered out of the room for the next hour, left with naught to do but twiddle my thumbs. After a short while the director came out and told me I would need to stop traffic when they shot, as the mics were very sensitive and picked up the sound of cars driving by. He then handed me a vest and two traffic cones and sent me on my way. For the next half hour, every time the director yelled "Stand by" that was my cue to sprint into the middle of the road, slam the cones down, and try to keep people from honking their horns, swearing loudly, or trying to run me over. It was, all in all, a very entertaining time. I got to spend a good while helping out with lighting, getting random stage effects such as rain prepped, and trying to fix continuety issues between shots. This was a very interesting expedition, and i would love to try it again sometime.

New Game Day!

Today, friday the 13th (ooh scary), Resident Evil 5 finally hits storefronts. RE5 is a shooter/horror videogame for the xbox 360 and playstation 3, and it is going to be fantastic. I feel as if my homework productivity will decrease significantly until the game has been conquered beneath my thumbs of fury. Resident Evil is a long running game series, and has steadily increased the quality of their games with each main installment. As it has gone so far, they are only going to improve their formula as they go along. One of the new features to this iteration is the introduction of Co-operative gameplay. For the first time you will be able to take one of your friends into the game with you to face the hordes of infected zombie monsters.

All is not well in the world of RE5 though, for a large amount of controversy surrounds the game. The game is set in africa, which means that all of the zombies you fight are africans. It also doesnt help that the main character is a white male. As you can probably guess, this has aroused a little unrest amongst a lot of people. However, no problems arised in the series 4th edition of the game which took place in Europe where the white male main character destroyed wave after wave of hispanic zombies. The series has never set a precedent for racism in any form before, but it doesnt seem fair that locations are off limits completely just because of the people who live there. To do it any other way would just be unrealistic. Nobody would believe that there is a city of 2000 white zombies in the heart of africa. Just not gonna happen. One of the main keys to making a game like this good is to engage the player in the story, and that means making the story stand up to scrutiny.