14 Thursday, June 13, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Edited and managed by utudents at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@umich.edu Thursday, June 13, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom I9 KATIE BURKE EDITOR IN CHIEF ERIC FERGUSON EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR ELLIOT ALPERN MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position ofthe Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views ofttheir authors. FR UM TN D A LY The innovative mindset Expanding entrepreneurial programs would benefit students Entrepreneurship at the University has strong roots in the College of Engineering and at the Ross School of Business. Two separate cen- ters - the Center for Entrepreneurship at the College of Engineering and the Zell Lurie Institute at the Ross School of Business - have created strong entrepreneurial communities in their respective schools for students interested in the field. But these two schools combined only represent about a quarter of the entire student population, and their programs could be more accessible to the rest of the University. Although many of the CFE and the institute's resources are open to all students, the University should make a broader effort to bring entrepreneurship opportunities to undergraduates ZAK WITUSI Textual tension I'm watching him. He's Flirtatious Female (9:27pm): doing it right now: forward' Hey, whatareyou doingtonight? ing the same sexual solicitation Friend (10:00pm): Right now to a handful of girls. When his I'm at Chi Phi watching the iPhone lights up his face, I can game. What're you doing? see his acne scars. The pimples, Friend (11:01pm)i party at Chi scars-in-waiting, cast grotesque Phi later. You should come. shadows. If this round of texts Flirtatious Female (11:06pm): doesn't succeed, my friend Kk, hope ill see you! will probably lay in his bed for Friend (11:08pm): If you don't 20 minutes scrolling through wanna come, just say so! said in Twitter or Facebook or whatev- a sassy tone that tells you I'm kid- er other digital dope he desires ding. tonight, shooting up the super- Flirtatious Female (11:09pm): sweet social narcotic 'til he ODs. Haha:) He disgusts me, yet I love him. (He actually sent the itali- He isn't usually like this: I cized text, by the way.) suppose he's always been dif- So the question is, what the ferent online and over text than hell does she mean? His joke in person. I remember back in was hilarious, we think. Who middle school when I was over can interpret this? Seriously, at his house, he was instant help. She texts him, he responds, messaging a group of girls, she ignores, he politely follows trying to get them to send him up, she basically blows him off, promiscuous pictures (I think he makes a witty retort and she this kid may have discovered says "Haha :)." I don't know sexting before kissing). He what to make of it - then again, miraculously succeeded. But his texting has always been, at best, cowardly courting habits (i.e., pseudo-communication. sending flattering and witty It's an odd hookup culture remarks behind his cyber veil) we mingle in. We don't date, were to no avail for him during we text. We don't court, we high school - and they certain- @mention. We don't make love, ly don't help now. we gawk at photos of that hot Our freshman year of high theater girl. Someday soon - school, the hottest babe from and the science fiction writer in across the tracks told her friend, me says it'll be the day Google who told me, that she thought introduces the Social Media my friend was cute. "She thinks Sex Robot 3000, complete with you're cute," I told, him. He downloadable Facebook profiles orbited her the rest of the night - someday soon we won't even like a comet around a planet: want face-to-face relationships. coming in close, circling her, Many of us are already socially then passing away into obscuri- inept. I'm nearly certain I don't ty - trying to flirt by proximity, know how to flirt deliberately but obviously failing. He didn't - and I'm 100 percent certain do anything except go home and my friend doesn't. Getting more Facebook message her the next practice socializing electroni- three weekends. cally isn't helping either of us, He's never been on a date. because when you learn to live I don't think he knows what vicariously through the social to do on a date. This following network, as we have, you learn text conversation he showed me to love through it as well. recently represents the typical social problems he often faces: Zak Witus is an LSA sophomore. INTERESTED IN CAMPUS ISSUES? Check out The Michigan Daily's editorial board meetings. Every Monday at 5 p.m., the Daily's opinion staff meets to discuss both University and national affairs and write ' editorials. E-mail opinioneditors@michigandaily.com to join in the debate., SCHOOL OF SCARES Breathing new life intoM 'Mntrs' Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae talk resurrecting a Pixar favorite By SEAN CZARNECKI Daily Film Editor Thirteen years ago, "Monsters, Inc." took us to the world beneath our beds and behind our closet doors, where the scary stuff of our imaginations prowled. Like most Pixar features, it delighted us. It fed not fear, but the better part of our imaginations, turning that shadowy world into some- thing whimsical: It made mon- sters work-a-day scarers. Now, Pixar brings us a prequel, "Monsters University," to that 2001 box-office smash. It's an origin story of what makes scar- ers scarers and how our favorite monster duo, Michael "Mike" Wazowski (Billy Crystal, "When Harry Met Sally...") and Sulley (John Goodman, "Argo"), met in college, and how an iconic ani- mation friendship flourished. To provide their fans insight into what it was like resurrecting this beloved work, director Dan Scanlon, in his feature debut, and producer Kori Rae shared their own stories in a conference call the Michigan Daily recently took part in. "We loved the relationship of Mike and Sulley and we always wanted to do something with them again," Scanlon said. "And that's where we started thinking about how these guys met, which led naturally to the college idea, and we loved the idea of doing something in a university." The idea of finding the film's heroes in a college set- ting inspired the two filmmak- ers, who had to perform some research of their own in recreat- ing that experience onscreen. "We wanted to make sure that since we were doing a university movie," Scanlon said, "that we had sort of the great university archetypes." "In the end," Rae added, "(We) 5ut them all together to create a campus that, although it's origi- nal to Monsters University, hope- fully it feels familiar to everyone. I would hope that everyone kind of feels like, 'Hey, that's my school!' " Among the more colorful dimensions of "Monsters Univer- sity" would have to be its Greek system, such as Oozma Kappa, described by Scanlon as the "scare rejects" who failed to get into the vaunted program. But aside from the humor and outrageous antics the college setting may offer, the two film- makers and their writers also conceived Monsters University as .a spiritual crossroads in the lives of its characters. "We have a character - a Scott Squishy Squibbles, who is kinda classic 18-year-old college stu- dent that hasn't decided what they want to be," Scanlon said. "They're sort of a ball of clay waiting to be molded. In his case, he's literally a mushy tiny ball of amorphous clay." "That's kind of where you first are out on your own, you just figure out who you are, who you want to be," Rae said. "You can reinvent yourself." Both Scanlon and Rae found they had some searching to do themselves in creating this pre- quel. This is, after all, Scanlon's directorial debut, and Rae has the awesome expectations of building upon a beloved 2000s classic children film that she herself worked on. But it's a challenge she's familiar with, owing to the wild success of Pixar in the 1990s. Lucky for her, those seemingly insurmountable expectations, imposed- time and time again, have forced her to learn more and grow. "We learn so much on every single film," she said. "You learn something different from each one, because you're working with different people, different direc- tors. I used a ton of stuff on this film that I had learned on 'The Incredibles,' let's say, in addition to 'Monsters, Inc.' and even as far back as 'A Bug's Life.' So all of that experience rounded me out and gave me a good base to pro- duce this one."- Like Rae, Scanlon has had a working career in Pixar, which includes award-winning features such as "Cars" and "Toy Story 3." But "Monsters University" is his first opportunity to sit in the director's chair. "Being a director, I got the rare opportunity to see everything. To see what everyone does," Scanlon said. "A lot of people I've worked with for years and eaten lunch with, but really had no idea what they did and there I'd be in a meeting with them and think, 'Oh wow. You're a genius, like you're the best person who does this.'" But for both filmmakers, the creation of "Monsters Univer- sity" gravitates back toward the same basic principle of every one of their works. "We always want to touch something in people, emotionally with our films," Scanlon said. With "Monsters University," in particular, he wanted his audi- ences to experience the char- acters' transformations that he himself faced in college. "You let go of the thing that you think you absolutely have to be to be happy in order to find out who you truly are," Scanlon said. "That feeling of realizing, 'This is going to be a lot harder than I thought.' Or, 'Maybe I'm not the person that I thought I was.' " Perhaps, then, it was Scan- lon who best characterized the confusion and angst our heroes endure in "Monsters University" in his description of the uncer- tainty of filmmaking: "Every Pixar movie goes through an awkward teenage phase where it doesn't make sense, or it's bizarre, or it's not quite working right," he said. "And you can get terrified that you're never going to crack it. And it's just this relentless jour- ney to keep trying new things." By KAYLA UPADHYAYA ManagingArts Editor When director Joss Whedon wrapped up last summer's box- office smasher "The Avengers," he wanted a vaca- tion. For most, this would mean a few days on the beach or just lounging around with some magazines. For Whedon, it meant gathering a merry troupe of Whedonverse veterans and a few newcomers FILM REVIEW 'Much' to love in Whedon's opus Much Ado About Nothing In Select Theaters Bellwether Pictures across the entire campus. At the moment, CFE offers the capital business. It should also pro- Program in Entrepreneurship as mote cutting edge research, music a nine-credit certificate program and the arts, educational reform available to all students, and stu- and even affecting policy through dents can make appointments to grassroots campaigns. At its core, discuss their concerns with the entrepreneurship is about inno- faculty at the institute. In addition vative thinking, taking risks and to these two programs, there are a creating change. The University number of student organizations, can incorporate such ideas into an such as MPowered, that are focused intensive program even broader on entrepreneurship as well. These than that which it already has - programs are a good start, but the perhaps in the form of an academic fact that the University-educated major or minor program - in order founders and CEOs of such promi- to encourage an innovative mindset nent companies as Google, Skype, in students of all majors. Along with Twitter and Groupon attended years adding to the depth of the Univer- before CFE or the institute's incep- sity's academic mission, this could tion suggests that there's untapped also benefit Michigan's economy by potential within the student body. giving University-educated student But any new program shouldn't entrepreneurs a stake in the state. simply emphasize launching tech Promoting social entrepre- startups or getting into the venture neurship and the idea of serving a greater public good should also be a priority. The University has already produced a number of socially con- scious entrepreneurs such as the team at Warmilu - a company making strides at reducing infant mortality across the world. Social entrepreneurship has great poten- tial for making an impact on the world at large, and a concerted entrepreneurship push across the University should look to both existing academic programs and student organizations in order to take advantage of that potential. The University is already one of the foremost academic institutions in the country. Broadening the entrepreneurship system and giv- ing the student community access to more resources would enhance the academic experience offered. to shoot a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy "Much Ado About Nothing" in his home in Santa Monica. In just 12 days. The result? An infectiously fun romantic comedy that captures the spirit of the original play, with touches of Whedon's own genius, including some brilliant- ly blocked physical comedy that seems so simple and yet warrants the huge laughs. The low-budget aesthetic - .scenes supposedly taking place in the local police station look more like they were filmed in a barely disguised living room - makes it feel, at times, like the whole production is just a bunch of old friends hanging out, drinking wine and doing theater together. But it's exactly this un-cinematic quality that adds to the whimsi- cal charm of the endeavor. Shot on a 35 mm digital camera and then rendered in black and white, the production is stripped of the pomp and circumstance that accompany many Shakespeare film adaptations. The performances, too, are stripped down. Whedon coaxes magnificent performances out of almost everyone. Fran Kranz delighted as wise stoner Marty in Whedon's "The Cabin in the Woods" last year, but here he makes a 180-degree transfor- mation to become the lovesick, clean-cut Claudio. "Firefly" fans will rejoice at the sight of Nathan Fillion as the dimwit local sheriff, who is - it should be noted - an ass. But it's reunited "Angel" co- stars Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker (as reluctant lovers and verbal-sparring mates Benedick and Beatrice, respectively) who tackle the text most masterfully, their quick tongues spitting out line after wit-soaked line dur- ing their characters' famed quip wars. Denisof captures both Benedick's charisma and more dickish qualities, and Acker daz- zles with an award-worthy per- formance. The script is almost complete- ly faithful to the original text, with the exception of an added flashback that serves as excel- lent exposition for the Beatrice- Benedick love battle. Whedon modernizes with nuanced ease: One look at the sleek suits worn by Don Pedro (Reed Diamond, TV's "Dollhouse") and his crew reveals that the "war" they've returned from is one waged not on a real battlefield, but in stock markets and boardrooms. Pot, tequila shots, iPods and Barbies ground us in our own world. The dialogue only feels jarringly anachronistic in a few moments, particularly as characters chat of arranged marriages and next- day weddings as they mill about Whedon's HGTV-ready kitchen. But again, the power of the performances allows for sus- pension of disbelief. The natu- ral response to Beatrice asking Benedick to murder Claudio to avenge her defamed cousin Hero (newcomer Jillian Morgese) is to laugh, but Acker's conviction in her- subsequent monologue reveals that Whedon's "Much Ado" has more to offer than boozy, woozy fun. Acker por- trays Beatrice as the feminist hero she's meant to be, and her rage-filled monologue is easily the film's finest moment. "O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace," she punches with commanding pres- ence. Turns out, Whedon doesn't need slayers or superheroes or space cowboys to make magic. Give the man 12 days and a Shakespeare play, and he'll give you summer's sleeper sensation. FOLLOW DAILY OPINION ON TWITTER Keep up with columnists, read Daily editorials, go on our blogs and join in the debate. Check out @michdailyoped to get updates on Daily opinion content.