Anacondas Eating People in Hollywood - Live?

Are anacondas eating people now? Well in Hollywood movies, yes. The most famous of the movie was the release of Anaconda in 1997 starring Jennifer Lopez, Jon Voight, Ice Cube, Eric Stoltz and Owen Wilson.

That is where you can immediately appreciate a killer snake like the anaconda eating heads, foots and people! The movie is about a National Geographic film crew that picks up a crazy snake hunter looking to capture an anaconda. Sure, crazy snake hunter in the rain forest may be a bit of a stretch but not beyond the realm of possibility.

It is a movie after all and some suspension of disbelief is acceptable. The movie then proceeds with the anaconda causing all sorts of trouble for the crew, stalking them, hunting them and waiting for them to make one wrong move so it can exact its vengeance. This is where all realism disappears.

The movie is a good one for those who like the genre. It is at times campy and sometimes scary with plenty of gore thrown in for good measure. Added to that is the anaconda itself, a CGI special effect that was very well done if not at all an accurate depiction of the snake. The movie snake was shown to be a stalker and hunter. It ripped at its victim flesh when it was angry so it could eat them. It threw the victims around a bit and generally wreaked havoc wherever it went.

The reality, however, is much different. Anacondas do not stalk or hunt nor do they get mad. Instead they wait and they eat. When prey gets close enough it attacks by coiling around the animal and squeezing it, cutting off blood flow and air supply until the victim dies.

It may also drag the animal underwater where the combination of the constriction and drowning will cause its death. The anaconda will then eat the animal, whole, head first. While it does have teeth, a bite from an anaconda is not fatal and anacondas are not poisonous. The teeth are used to hold prey, not tear it open. Of course, anaconda movies would not be nearly as suspenseful if they were based entirely in reality.

The other significant part of anaconda movies that can be hard to swallow is how the snake is attacking people. In reality, anacondas are shy creatures and will generally avoid people. There are instances of anaconda attacks on people but they are very rare. There has to be just the right set of circumstances available before an anaconda will resort to attacking a person.

Even the few known anaconda attacks on humans, though, have not resulted in death. If a human is attacked, odds are they will be able to escape with some bumps and bruises, especially if not alone. Whether or not anaconda movies constitute good cinema is certainly debatable and prone to your own tastes.

However, whether or not they provide realism is easily answered: no. Anacondas do not act in a manner that is depicted in movies nor do they deal with the practical aspects of killing prey in the manner depicted. Unfortunately, anaconda movies perpetuate myths like anaconda eating people regarding these creatures but the truth is they are no real threat to humans at all.

The Truth About Hollywood Film Schools

So you want to be the next Spielberg or Peter Jackson or maybe just Oren Peli, who directed the hit "Paranormal Activity" for under fifteen thousand dollars. It makes sense to consider Los Angeles film schools because most of the industry is right here. But the most important question you have to ask yourself is: how much are you willing to shell out?

USC is the most famous of the film schools in the metropolis, with alums like George Lucas, Robert Zemeckis, Judd Apatow and Bryan Singer. The cost for just two semesters? More than thirty thousand dollars, not including supplies or room and board, as per the USC website. Come to think of it, that would be the cost of two Paranormal Activities! They do have great professorsÖ but some classes can have hundreds of students in them.

The American Film Institute is another renowned Los Angeles film school. Tuition for one year alone is roughly forty thousand dollars, as per their estimates. For some people, that amount is nothing compared to the fact that you would have the reputation of graduating from the same school where Darren Aronofsky, Ed Zwick and Terrence Malick came from. But then again, there may not be sufficient space for one-on-one activities with a class size of over a hundred.

UCLA costs a meager six thousand annually if you're a California resident, but if you're not, it's over twenty thousand. Even though you'll be under the instruction of such luminaries as Peter Guber and Joe Roth, classes are still so big.

Another notable school that offers an undergraduate degree on film and television is Loyola Marymount. Their fee is around USD 34,000 a year. Student-teacher ratio is ideal, around thirteen-is-to-one.

Now there is the Los Angeles Film School, founded in 1999. It has featured guest speakers such as Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody. Cost: over $41,000, with a student body of 595. A recent graduate co-directed the feature film "Gamer" starring Gerard Butler.

While the programs provided by these reputable schools are equally prestigious, they still follow the typical classroom setup. None of them offer true one-on-one mentors where a student can observe a professional at work regularly and learn on the job.

Women in Film looks like a promising academy but searching the internet proved to be futile - there were no success stories associated with their program.

CBS, fascinatingly, offers a mentor program (in fact, they offer two mentors) for television writing. One of the mentors is a senior-level writer for one of current drama or comedy series of CBS. Over the course of the program, the participant gathers creative feedback on their writing as well as tips on their career objectives. The other mentor is a CBS network or studio executive with whom they meet regularly to discuss their work, get feedback and also get support in furthering their career. This course and the Women in Film program are both free to participants.

It seems like Los Angeles film schools are missing out on a great opportunity - if they offered such one-on-one mentoring programs, there would probably be a lot more stories of great achievements from their students.