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Portfolio

Hello, My name is Armando J Sanchez II and I am a 22-year-old (as of writing this) journalism major. I grew up in the southern part of West Covina and lived there most of my life. Went to Walnut High School in my teen years and eventually started going to Mount San Antonio College after I graduated in the Fall of 2017. One thing that I’ve always loved is film because like any artform, it can connect to someone in a way that it may not for anyone else. Discussing film and other forms of entertainment is something that I’ve always been passionate about and I hope you enjoy the projects that I have worked on for the past three months. 

School Opinions on “The Batman (2022)” (Helped with Questions)

Campus-divided-over-batman

Ye (Kanye) or Skete

Top Five Disney Movies Pre-1950

Cancel Culture story

What Happened To Maria

Favorite Book of All Time

Avatar 2 teaser opinion piece

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard poll (helped with questions)

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"Avatar: The Way of Water" Teaser opinion

The real question about the release of the teaser for “Avatar: The Way of Water” is whether it has been too long for people to care about a sequel to the 2009 movie? It is hard to grasp the answer for this question. When the teaser was shown at the 8:30 p.m. IMAX showing of “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness” that I (Armando Sanchez) went to at the Regal Edwards Ontario Palace, many groans and “what’s?” were spoken throughout the theater. 

That being said, the teaser showed nothing more than the settings and tone of the new movie which all looked great on an IMAX screen. The teaser felt like one of those IMAX nature documentaries that they make every so often. 

At the moment, thirteen years seems like a long time for a sequel or even a follow-up in Cameron’s filmography. Although when looking in hindsight, “Titanic” came out in 1997 and Cameron’s next film “Avatar” came out in 2009. This would mean that Cameron made the highest grossing movie at the time, being “Titanic (1997)”, then took 12 years to make his next movie, “Avatar (2009)” which became the highest grossing movie of all time (only shortly being dethroned by “Avengers: Endgame (2019).”

There's a good estimation that this sequel will make its money back but considering the story of the first one, it’s hard to warrant critical acclaim for this movie yet. While this teaser for the second entry in this franchise made me excitedly curious, I still feel like it is hard to tell if there should be five movies in total. 

It is exciting to look forward to this new movie considering that many of the big blockbusters in the past couple of years feel like studio-controlled products whereas “The Way Of Water” looks like a Cameron-controlled movie. Even with The Walt Disney Company overseeing the distribution of this movie, it doesn’t seem like there's going to be an artistic powerplay between the director and distribution company like with other recent Disney movies.

In this day and age, it is hard to tell whether a movie will artistically be the vision that the writers and director wanted or if it will be a checklist from a studio. Seeing this teaser gave me a sigh of relief since I got the sense that this will one-hundred percent be a James Cameron movie.

So while it is hard to tell how this movie will perform both critically and financially, I feel like it is going to be the IMAX and theater experience of the year just as the first one was for 2009. Even though I don’t really know if we need three more sequels after this new one, I am still very much looking forward to seeing this in IMAX this December.

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Favorite Book of All Time

Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel “Dune” is my favorite book of all time. It’s the story of a boy and his galactic royal family learning how to survive and adapt on the cruel desert planet known as Arrakis. I first read this book from the recommendation of a Youtube influencer in the summer of 2017 and it opened my eyes to many new ideas. The first two chapters have such a dramatic unique tone to them that they hooked me in. I’ve read this book twice in my life and there’s so many themes about religion, ecology, philosophy, and politics that make this book more gray than your average good versus evil sci-fi stories. Many of the characters like Paul Atreides, Lady Jessica, and The Baron Vladimir Harkonen are some of my favorite characters of all time for how dense they’re written.

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What Happened To Maria (written pre-2022 Oscars)

The days following Mar. 19, 2022 were eventful for “West Side Story (2021)” star Rachel Zegler as she went from a no-show to a presenter for the 94th Academy Award Ceremony. 

It started on Mar. 19 when a fan on Instagram had asked what her fashion choice would be for The Oscars. “Idk y’all I have tried it all but it doesn’t seem to be happening :’)”, replied Zegler. She followed the reply by saying, “I will root for West Side Story from my couch and be proud of the work we so tirelessly did 3 years ago. I hope some last-minute miracle occurs and I can celebrate our movie in person but hey, that’s how it goes sometimes, I guess. I'm disappointed, too. but that’s okay. so proud of our movie.” 

Many fans of Zegler, “West Side Story (2021)”, and movies were outraged on Twitter when they heard about the situation. Several of them were confused since she was the lead in a movie that was nominated for seven awards. “It is to be noted that the studios behind nominated films are the ones to determine ticket allotments for Best Picture nominees”, an industry source said to Entertainment Weekly.

Zegler took it upon herself to respond to the comments the following day. “Appreciate all the support, I really really do. We live in such unprecedented times, and a lot of work behind the scenes goes into making movie magic happen,” said Zegler on Twitter,”...let’s just respect the process and I’ll get off my phone.”

On March 23, The Academy posted a picture on their Twitter account showing the sixth slate of presenters for this year's Academy Awards ceremony. Zegler’s name was in the picture announcing that she would attend the ceremony as a presenter. 

She eventually presented the award for Best Visual Effects while making a little side joke about the whole affair.

Even though she had the opportunity to present an award, the real question is why did it take this long? Variety awards editor Clayton Davis explained by discussing how COVID-19 precautions reduced the capacity for attendees at this year's awards ceremony. 

But wouldn’t that affect the smaller actors in a movie rather than the lead actor? What if there were other components that contributed to the drama?

One factor could be that Disney prioritized the actors from animated movies rather than their other productions. “West Side Story (2021)” was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture under the 20th Century Studios label. It was shown during the red carpet that about 14 members of the cast and crew of ”Encanto (2021)” were present at the red carpet.

Another factor could be the lack of actual nomination for Lead Actress. While many critics praised Zegler for her theatrical debut, it was quite shocking to hear that she had not been nominated for Best Actress this year. There have always been people who have been snubbed an Oscar nomination and Zegler’s snub was one of the most controversial ones this year.

One last factor that could contribute to the original decision to exclude her could be the controversy regarding her co-lead, Ansel Elgort. Allegations from a Twitter user arose in July 2020 claiming that she had been sexually assaulted by Elgort in 2014 when he was 20-years-old and the user was 17-years-old at the time. Following came other accusations from other women having encounters with him through Snapchat. 

When “West Side Story  (2021)” was close to release, many of the cast members were asked about the allegations. Actors Ariana Debose and Rita Moreno declined to give their input but Zegler spoke out about it. 

“A lot has changed in the world [since shooting the movie in 2019],” Zegler said. “A lot has changed very publicly, and privately as well,” she went on. “There’s been a lot of awakening. You just hope that the people involved are okay, that they are asked in a respectful manner, and that they are given the opportunity to answer for themselves.”

In late Jan. of this year, Rachel posted a picture on Twitter of her seated next to co-star John Andrés Rivera as they were screened “West Side Story (2021)” for the first time. Someone replied with a picture of Zegler sharing a moment with Director Steven Speilberg with Elgort in the background. Zegler replied to that user with the same picture but having Elgort cropped out.

It was later reported that Elgort was not present at the 94th Academy Award ceremony. 

It could be possible that the Academy excluded her initially because of her spoken and indirect comments on the matter itself. While the only info that we had received was the comment about COVID-19 precautions, we now have some idea if anything else contributed to the situation. All we can do is hope that nothing like this happens again in the future.

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https://www.vulture.com/2022/01/ansel-elgort-sexual-assault-allegations-timeline.html  https://twitter.com/rachelzegler/status/1487019787083468801

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Cancel Culture Story written on May 5, 2022

A Quick Opinion on Cancel Culture

Heading: Students give their opinion on cancel culture

Nutgraph:  The Arts and Entertainment group went out to get a small number of opinions but the opinions had depth.

With social media more front and center than ever, our social media apps have become part of the fabric that is the modern world. These platforms have given people the opportunity to speak and even call out practically anything and more importantly, anyone. Cancel culture, while rooted in the right place, seems to have become overdone over the years. Mt. Sac students are here to tell you just how tired they are of the repetitive digital witch hunt. 

Students gave their opinion on cancel culture recently to a team of SAC.Media reporters. Many of the students asked believe that the action of canceling itself is unfair, and many shared the same sentiment. 

The Arts and Entertainment group (A&E) were intrigued to hear from students in light of the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard defamation trial that is happening at the time of this writing. Recent information surfacing from this case sparked an opinion of one of the individuals that was asked.

“[cancel culture] It’s not a good thing,” Omar, 19, said, “It just spreads a lot of negativity around and probably just a lot of false information that is probably just led by a lot of prejudice and bias.” Omar shared afterwards that he felt angry about the attempts to cancel Johnny Depp.

Another student shared how they felt about Amber Heard’s involvement, “It's very harmful to like women's rights, and a lot of people have been fighting for that,” Leane, 18,  said. She also felt that it’s toxic in general since people don’t do enough research when they cancel or attempt to cancel someone. “[people] just like to jump on it because it's like a trend to do so,” Leane said.

One of our senior staff reporters at SAC.Media, Robbie Doctor, 23, had very strong opinions about cancel culture. He believes that the action of canceling itself is immature especially for the age group of those who do initiate it. “I can’t believe that the generation that was raised on Family Guy, Adult Swim, is like the generation that’s gonna literally report every fucking thing,” Robbie said. 

One individual by the name of Ahmed gave rational and thoughtful insight on the matter when the A&E group asked him near Mountie Cafe. “I dont think it's a bad idea, cancel culture, I just think the way it’s like going around and applied is kinda bad,” Ahmed said. 

“Like, if someone is actively doing something, and you wanna take him out for that, that’s fine. But digging up stuff that people did like 20 plus years ago, and tryna cancel them for it now, especially if they’re like changed people like they tried to right their own wrongs and you know, be a better person then that just seems wack to me”

Overall, students seem to believe that cancel culture has a negative connotation. It may have once been driven by integrity and honesty, but now it seems to come  from biases and malice. Whether this current Depp v. Heard case will change the grounds that cancel culture stands on, is to be determined. 

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Top Five Disney Movies Pre-1950

You’d think that a company like Disney would have its humble beginnings but I think that some of their very early films are the best that the company has ever put out. While they're not the newest of movies, these five films really stand the test of time and are still movies that should be watched. All five of these are available to watch on Disney Plus.

5. Fun and Fancy Free (1947):

 This film came out in 1947 and it was one of the package films that disney made. Package films were essentially movies with two or three thirty minute shorts. They were made because of funding issues the animation studio had from the effects of the second world war. This movie has two shorts in them, one following a circus bear named Bongo and another one retelling the “Jack and the Beanstalk” tale with Mickey, Donald and Goofy. 

The two shorts have some of the best gag and comedy writing out of the package films that came out in the 1940s. While the animation looks cheap in some areas, I think these are really good tales to show to anyone who wants to appreciate the disney at their lowest financially.

4. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937):

It’s no understatement of how important this movie is in general. If it wasn’t for this film, there would be no animated movies in general because no one would believe that 70 plus minute cartoons could be successful like they did when Walt Disney pitched this movie to his friends. It’s the tale of a princess named Snow White who is forced to run away from her kingdom and stay in a cottage with Seven Dwarves as she wishes for a prince to marry her.

While Disney did reinvent the tale to make it more timeless  and memorable than the actual original story, there are parts that do feel dragged on. The animation studio had worked on shorts called “Silly Symphonies” before this movie, to train themselves for this movie. A good twenty to thirty minute chunk in the middle of this movie feels like a Silly Symphony segment that doesn’t really push the plot forward. That being said, the characters, the story, and the aesthetic of the movie are aspects that are still memorable to this day.

3. Fantasia (1940):

“Fantasia” is more of an experience than a movie in my opinion. It’s a series of animated segments that correspond with classical musical pieces composed by Leopold Stokowski for the recording of the movie. The movie has seven animated segments with the last one including both musical pieces “Night at Bald Mountain” and “Ave Maria”. 

This movie is such a captivating experience as every one of the segments is just gushing with love from the animators. It  also brings in new experiences to pieces that are known like how there’s a “Nutcracker” segment with fairies and spring plants coming alive. While not every one of these segments is a favorite of mine, I can name about three that are my favorite shorts that Disney has ever produced.

2. Bambi (1942):

“Bambi” is the tale of a young faun who learns how to grow up and survive in the forest with other creatures around him. It was adapted from the novel “Bambi, A Life in the Woods” by Felix Salten. Many people remember it for not just its likable characters and beautiful animation but also for its G-rated interpretation of the realities of our forests and the wildlife that live in it.

This movie is the one out of the five in this list that hold up the most in not just animation but in themes as well. It’s not trying to be subtle in its messages about forest and wildlife preservation because they were relevant back in 1942 and they still are today. It’s also the one with the most child-like dialogue out of the five here since you are watching a deer grow up. I also believe that this movie paved the way for non-Shakespearean aspects of “The Lion King (1994).”

1. Pinocchio (1940):

This movie was the animation studios follow up to “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” and it came out the same year as “Fantasia”. That fact just blows my mind considering that both movies are great in my opinion. “Pinocchio” is not only the best Disney movie of this era but it is one of the best animated movies of all time. There's so much charm in big aspects like the characters and little aspects like the environments and settings.

If you can only watch one of the movies on this list or revisit it, this is the one. If you aren’t interested in Disney movies but want some variety of movies for your kids to watch, this is the one that will leave an impact on them. Besides “Bambi”, this is the quintessential coming of age story that people of all ages should watch if they never had the chance to.