#month 12

I’m a few days behind - meant to do this last weekend.  But I was caught by surprise by an insanely hot couple of days - it was 40 degrees C (over a hundred, if you think in F), drier than a blast furnace, and the end of the hottest November on record for my city.  Which does not bode well for summertime, especially when I remember the terrible bushfires we had during ‘Black Summer’ last year.

Things continue to improve where I am regarding the pandemic, which is positive.  Borders are continuing to open up internally and local case numbers are down to very low/non-existent levels each day in nearly every state and territory.  However, our external borders are still firmly shut and there are still thousands of Australians, stranded around the world, desperate to get back home.  (Let alone the thousands of international students whose continuing absence means my job remains uncertain for the foreseeable future - working in the higher education sector.)

And when I look around the world and see numbers rising in Europe and particularly in the USA... with winter approaching, I am afraid we will see those numbers go higher still. :(  Lives lost, families devastated, on a scale that is hard to imagine.

So I am thinking of you, my friends around the world - and sending positive thoughts your way.

Coheed & Cambria:Three Evils (Embodied In Love And Shadow)

Silversun Pickups:Catch And Release

Flickerstick:Direct Line To The Telepathic

Everclear:Father Of Mine

Snow Patrol:Chocolate

The Xx:Sunset

The Cranberries:Zombie

Santigold:Lights Out

Toadies:Backslider

10 Years:Picture Perfect (In Your Eyes)

My Vitriol:The Gentle Art Of Choking

M83:Midnight City

My first goal of this course was to learn proper and helpful pitching techniques. This course did not directly cover pitching techniques as much as it covered presentation techniques. I find, however, that my goal was met regardless, and these techniques go hand in hand. We had a guest lecture from a professor from the creative presentation course to remind us about the key components of a great presentation. Also, the presentation of my business plan gave me an opportunity to display these skills to create a great presentation. This is a great skill to have moving forward.

My second goal was to learn how to positively take professional criticism and incorporate it into creating a better product. This goal was definitely met between last month's course Business Plan Development and this month's course. Last month, Steve gave each student personalized critiques for every section of our business plan that we turned in. This month, Bill gave us even more suggestions for our business plan as we added the final sections and made other changed to our plans. Even during my final presentation, I received more critiques and recommendations from the panel. Throughout the past two months, I've been given a lot of feedback that I had to practice receiving with grace and incorporate to the best of my ability.

December 16, 2018

Mastery Journal- Month 12

For this final Mastery Journal entry, we were asked to watch and analyze a film of our choice. I chose the film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013). This film is based on a short story of the same name, written by author James Thurbur in 1939. Although this film, starring Ben Stiller in the title role, is different from the original story, the heart of Mitty’s vivid imagination and daydreaming heroic feats remains intact in the 2013 film.

This film centers around a seemingly bland and almost invisible man, Walter Mitty, who has worked for 16 years at LIFE Magazine, which is being transitioned from print to digital throughout the film. Having seen it as his responsibility to care and provide for his mother and sister since the death of his father years ago, Mitty spends his days going back and forth from home to work, and back home again. His only solace is co-worker and potential love interest, Cheryl Melhoff, played by Kristen Wiig. When the negative of the final printed cover is lost, Walter embarks on an adventurous journey to find the photographer and photo before the last issue goes to print.

The genre of the film could be described as a mix of adventure, comedy and drama. This is clearly articulated by the story of how Walter Mitty begins the film as a shy man lost in his daydreams, too afraid to truly engage the world he lives in. Encouraged by Cheryl, he begins his heroic journey to find the lost negative and end up traveling to Greenland, Iceland and even Afghanistan, encountering new people and engaging in adventures he’d only have dreamt of before. Mitty jumps out of a helicopter into the ocean where he briefly encounters a shark before being plucked to safety by fishermen, skateboards along beautiful Icelandic roads to an active volcano, and finally tracks down elusive photographer Sean O’Connell, played by Sean Penn.

When Walter finally finds O’Connell, he is watching a snow leopard in the Himalayas, where he learns that he himself had the missing print all along, tucked away safely in a wallet that O’Connell had given him as a gift. Upon meeting him in the flesh for the first time, it’s clear that Mitty is not what O’Connell expected. In a pivotal moment in the film, O’Connell beckons Mitty to look through his camera lens and see the world as he does. The elusive snow leopard passes and Mitty waits expectantly for O’Connell to take the picture, but O’Connell never does. Instead, he explains to Walter that sometimes, if he’s enjoying the moment he keeps it for himself, and just stays in it.

O’Connell  tells Walter that “beautiful things don’t ask for attention”. In that moment, it seems as if the double meaning of O’Connell’s wisdom is lost on Walter. When the now found negative 25 is seen on the cover of LIFE, it is revealed that Sean took a photo of Walter himself, sitting outside staring at the page of negatives that Sean had taken, trying to find a possible connection between them and the then missing negative. O’Connell stated that this photo captures the “quintessence of life”. Walter himself is a “beautiful thing”, never realizing his true potential until he takes a literal leap into a helicopter, setting him on a journey of self-discovery that will build his confidence. Like the elusive snow leopard, Mitty never asks for attention, but rather seeks to embody LIFE’s motto, which boils down to encouraging people to truly engage life, and appreciate the small moments, relationships and people we encounter.

This can be seen as mirror of the journey Mitty goes on throughout the film. As he learns to truly embrace and live his life, he daydreams less and less. He is engaging the adventure and does things he never thought possible trying to retrieve the missing negative. Ben Stiller also serves as director for the film, and it is clear that he has a passion for this project, and deftly brings his vision to life through sweeping cinematography and a soundtrack that swells in moments of Mitty’s bravery on his journey to self-discovery, and at other times calls to him to embrace life to its fullest. The music seems to compliment the story and adds a layer to the world-building.

In addition to the beautifully sweeping cinematography and music, the tone of the film can be seen in the choices for color, lighting, shots, the edit, writing, and performances. One example of the role of color in the film is how Mitty stands out in his drab work clothes, and white jacket, stark against the tide of dark colored business suits as he travels the streets of NYC to work. The lighting employed by the film is high-contrast, and the edit moves deftly between Walter’s daydream sequences and what’s happening in real life, so much so, that at one point when Walter has just embraced his heroic journey, he encounters a shark in the ocean and has to ask the fishermen who rescue him if it was real. It was.

The edit moves at a good pace, allowing the story to breathe along with Walter as he begins to open up and embraces life, and the adventure he’s on. Walter is so unassuming, he accomplishes feats that most people wouldn’t attempt, such as skateboarding down a steep and winding road into an Icelandic town right before a volcanic eruption, and climbing deep into the Himalayas.

Stiller has a real eye for camera placement, and captures Walter’s emotional state throughout his journey. He also uses a physical suture of Mitty’s beard growth to help show how he is evolving and growing over time, no longer the nearly invisible man we meet at the start of the film. Both Stiller and Wiig give wonderfully subtle performances, while Adam Scott plays a worthy villain in his corporate suit who is in charge of the transition, but understands nothing of what LIFE means to the people who helped to create the magazine. A welcome surprise is Patton Oswalt’s performance as Todd Maher, the customer service rep from eHarmony whom Walter befriends through a series of phone calls regarding Walter’s online dating profile.

The writing of this film seems to understand that the essence of life is the journey itself, the people we meet and the relationships we form along the way. The audience is sutured throughout the film by an emotional connection to Walter, the protagonist, as we root for him to become the brave hero he longs to be. We see the connection he has with Cheryl, his love interest, and how she sees him, even before he goes through his transformation from worker bee to adventurer.

The entire move is a scenic metaphor for life. This film encourages us all to embrace life daily, and to find joy in the small moments and relationships we forge as we travel unknown roads. Life is a grand adventure that calls to us, we need only answer. Walter Mitty is a man who was buried under a shell of loss and responsibility, but becomes a man full of wanderlust and confidence in his accomplishments. It’s a wonderful journey to watch, and Still as both director and lead actor take the audience on a journey of self-discovery and imbue a sense of wonder and appreciation for nature and those elusive perfect moments where we know we’re a part of something greater than ourselves, and are participants in the adventure called life.

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This photo is inspirational because it represents the culmination of a year of hard work earning this degree. It was a crazy busy year, full of long hours, but it was well wroth every minute. Here’s to embracing the adventure!

I Mother Earth:And The Experience

Coheed And Cambria:The Suffering

Chomsky:00:15:00

Better Than Ezra:Desperately Wanting

The Killers:Smile Like You Mean It

Matthew Good Band:Load Me Up

Foo Fighters:Everlong

Silversun Pickups:Circadian Rhythms (Last Dance)

Placebo:Meds

Burden Brothers:Walk Away

Smashing Pumpkins:Ava Adore

The Xx:Basic Space