A Study in Techno Scarlet

Hey Everyone, Just a little introduction, my name is Gabriel Walker. I'm 24 and a junior at Ferris State University. Previously, I got an associates degree from Kalamazoo Valley Community College and spent a semester at Utah State University in 2012 before going on a two-year mission for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I just recently got married in June of 2018. My wife, Samantha, and I met at church--she was attending Kalamazoo College and I was attending Kalamazoo Valley Community College. She graduated there with a major in Psychology and Spanish in 2016 and is now working towards grad school at Central Michigan University. Thanks so much for checking out my blog, I hope you enjoy it. Gabriel

America has always been obsessed with free speech. It is a right given to us through the constitution and often touted and cited, but is it done so correctly? What is the extent of freedom of speech? As America has grown, new ideas and technologies have found their way into our lives. With these ideas and technologies come new challenges in applying the freedoms and rights we hold dear. Just as a toddler learns that the stove is hot when he touches it, America learns how to deal with certain aspects of free speech as a reaction. Then In June of 1917, Charles T. Schenck, the general secretary of the U.S. Socialist Party, believed that the draft was unconstitutional. America was entering World War One at the time and needed soldiers. Schenck believed that the draft that was implemented was 'involuntary servitude' and broke the thirteenth amendment. After passing out 15,000 leaflets outlining his ideas, he was arrested for breaking the Espionage Act which prohibited obstructing...

Horror films, in my opinion, are an art-form, and true mastery over horror requires mastery of all aspects of filmmaking. Every detail, from sound design to lighting, is done to promote a singular effect: to frighten and has to be done precisely, if not the whole movie will fail to achieve its goal. While I may be a little biased about it, I think every filmmaker should try their hand at horror, to hone their craft in the very least. There are three distinct golden eras in horror films, and we are burgeoning on a fourth. Interestingly enough, the golden era of horror has corresponded with major historical times of despair and overall dreariness. The first golden age, the Universal Age, grew out of the great depression, the Hammer Films Age stemmed from the Cold War era, and the Auteur Age stemmed from the Vietnam war. The current golden age comes from the entirely crazy world we live in, the divided, Trump era. Then The first golden age of horror is known as the Universal Era,...

For over a hundred years, horror films have been on the innovative front when it comes to special effects. From flying bats to splatter-gore to animatronics, horror has everything you could think of in terms of special effects. The driving force of horror's innovation is the core of horror itself: to frighten people. While dramas and action films may have used some special effects in their infancy, horror films have always been heavily laden with it. Then The very first horror movie was The Haunted Castle in 1896 made be George Méliès. The film itself is very short--only three minutes long--but it is rife with special effects. Most common in the film was camera tricks to make characters and objects transform and teleport in an instant. However, what made the film more striking was the costumes and makeup, which allows the silent film to tell its tale. Most of the special effects in the early days were costume and makeup based. An early master of makeup was Lon Chaney. Chaney w...