Film and More Opera

I watched "La Boheme" the other day for my Opera Paper. It was very similar to the musical Rent with a few differences in the relationships and occupations of some of its characters. La Boheme means "The Bohemians" or people who live an alternative lifestyle. I found it interesting that back in this century it was seen as against societal norms to be a painter or a poet. For the modern day rendition, Rent, the cast is made up of not only literally starving artists, but many of them are homosexual, one is a drag queen, one a stripper, one an in your face political activist and many are suffering from AIDS, rather than in La Boheme when there is only one character dying from sickness. I'm brainstorming ideas for the paper but am nervous about it. I'm not used to classes where I don't receive much direction or guidelines. I know that was Santiago's intent and that the paper is meant to push us to think outside the box. We'll see what I can come up with!
The other day's class was interesting. I didn't know about the concept of hand coloring in early early film, even before it was projected on a screen. It was beautiful! Also the Daguerre pictures were fascinating. I had no idea pictures of dead people were the precursor to film. Again, nervous about the flip book assignment but we'll see how it goes!