Toodles

This year we got our word out to the world though many different medias. First we made blogs and filled it with blogs, photography, pod casts, short films, epics, vlogs, digital nation, youtube, and how the media communicates with us. Coming into this classroom on the first day of school I already knew that the media had some control over what we bought and how we lived our lives. I didn’t, however, know just how much control they have.

Something I was most interested in this year was the youtube and digital nation section. It sort of amazed me how so many people opened up to the world through a web cam, a blog, and chat rooms. I think because I was most interested in this that I was a better learner. When we did our epic section though I was most distant as a learner because it seemed to drag on and never end. I became bored with it and no longer interested in it. If we could have done things differently I think that we should have started off with how the media communicates with us instead of putting it in the end.

I think that is what the class should have been about and later brought in getting our own message out. I think it would have been cool to being in making our own short films more. We should have gotten into that and dug down deep, studied how to plan, how to film, and how to edit these movies. Again I think we should have really cut down on the epic movie. Maybe next year pick out a single epic movie and work on that for many two weeks and then move on.

Media literacy is the process of analyzing, evaluating, and creating mass media in an assertive and non-passive way. We need to be able to do this so that we can choose how to live our life on our own terms and not on the terms of four huge businesses. Over all it was a good year, and I did like the class. Just a few minor tweaks and it would have been loads better though. I also think that next year the class should work on talking together as a whole and not beat each other down until no one even cared about it anymore. Leave some room to think and to let other’s get their idea across as well.

book vlog

Food Inc.

This movie was very interesting to me. Basically our food is controlled by a small group of people. These people are doing anything it takes to make our food grow faster and bigger while keeping it cheap. Why keep it cheap? They have to keep it cheap because we "vote" with our checkbook. The animals that we eat for food are kept in horrible conditions and are given hormones to make them grow faster and bigger than they should. It's not just our meats that they control. They control out vegetables too. They can actually own a seed because their product has gotten into a personal seed. They control our farmers with this.

How do we avoid and keep this from continuing to happen? Well there are a number of things that can be done. We can grow our own food. We can buy from local farmers and butchers. We can also stop voting with our check and pay more for organic foods. The companies we buy from do hear us. By not buying the unhealthy food the companies will be forced to adapt to what we want if they want to make money. By eating the unhealthy foods we are paying less for them, but we are paying for them with medical bills. I dare you to send a letter, to stop buying this junk, or to sign petitions. The companies see this. They hear this. And they will eventually be forced to listen.

digital nation blog

Living Faster

*** One thing that was talked about in the living faster section of digital nation is the fact that technology is causing teens to lose empathy for others. They came to this conclusion because on a field trip to the zoo the children were looking at turtles. The turtle was not really doing anything so a young boy suggested they put in a robot turtle. They took this as the boy didn't value the turtles life. I think this is completely obscured because the boy just wanted to watch something he wasn't telling them to like get rid of the turtle or anything. I think that this some over analyzed. Another thing that was spoken about was multitasking and the fact that people can't sit and concentrate on one thing they have to have a zillion things going on at once. I agree with this but we are a generation that needs a fast pace. When I am doing homework I personally have my radio on, facebook up, instant messenger going, and youtube playing all at the same time. I've learned how to give attention to each thing separately yet all at the same time.

Learning

*** This section explained how video games are changing the way people learn. They said that there are two schools now, the school where you learn English and arithmetic, and then the school where you collaborate and complete different tasks. Both of these "schools" are giving one skills that will help them in their later life. They both give one skills that make them an asset to companies.

Relationships

*** The Internet gives people the ability to have their own little part of the world where they can say whatever they want. It has turned into the kid's way of communication. Teens connect to each other through facebook, myspace, instant messengers, and chat rooms. With all this freedom comes something that isn't so good, cyberbullies. Cyberbullies have come in different forms there is the anonymous way of doing it and then there's putting your name to it. Being cyberbullied can be a hard thing because on the Internet you're allowed to put your real self out there without being judged and the next thing you know someone is judging you and teasing or bullying you. The people on digital nation say, " Stop. Block. Tell." Don't let these bullies get to you and then stop them from getting to anybody else.

vloooooooog

Vlog 3

vlog 4

Keith Hannah

Army of Darkness vs. Lord of the Rings

Keith's PowerPoint over Army of Darkness and Lord of the Rings was very good and very interesting. I like how he used a hero different from what everyone else used. He used Argorn. There were many good points that compared Ash (the hero in Army of Darkness) and Argorn (the hero in Lord of the Rings). Both heroes are brave, tactical, and want the best for the world around them. I think it is really good that the story takes place in today's world and 700 years ago. The Evil Necromicon is a book that Ash goes back to find which is the quest of the whole movie. The Themes of both movies is to save the world so these two movies had a few things in common. This was a very nice PowerPoint. : )

Reece Massey

Iron Man vs. Lord of the Rings

Like Keith's move Reece's heroes also have a lot of the same traits brave, determined, smart, and selfless. The sub heroes also are a lot alike, Pepper pots is the sub hero from Iron Man and Sam is the sub hero from Lord of the Rings. They both give a ton of emotional support and help save the hero's life multiple times. The valors in both films are numerous battles, battles, and betrayal. This PowerPoint was really cool and it kept my attention. Reece did a very good job of going deeper into his information making me really want to see Iron Man.

Justine

Harry Potter vs. Lord of the Rings

In Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings the quest is to destroy something very evil. In Harry Potter the evil thing they are trying to destroy is Voldemort and in The Lord of the Rings The Ring is what Frodo is trying to destroy. In Each movie of both series the hero gets a little bit closer to completing the quest. Both films had a huge setting featuring just about every element on earth. These two films also have many supernatural forces from wizards to spells. There are different languages in both movies as well, Harry Potter has Parseltongue, which is the language of the snakes, and The Lord of the Rings has Elvish, which is the language of the elves. The guides in both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings are best friends, wizards, and members of Phoenix Order or the fellowship. Harry Potter is very much like The Lord of the Rings, but they are still very different. Good job Justine

Lord Of The Rings / Titanic

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The Playground Battle

The

Lord of the Rings Reflection

From what I saw of the cometary of Lord of the Rings I found a few things interesting. One of the things I thought were interesting was that they had to make a lot of double sets so that the hobbits would look smaller than all the other characters; like the bar and Bilbo's home. They also do a lot of long shots to show how big of a place Middle Earth is. These shots give people watching the movie an better understanding of how long of a journey this really is. I remember seeing parts of this movie from a few years back so while I was watching the commentary I would get lost in the scene behind what they were talking about making me want to just watch the movie. I think that if we ever saw a commentary again we should watch the movie first and then watch the commentary.

The Lord of the Rings Paper

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers directed by Peter Jackson have a huge variety of screen arrangements, framing, color and lighting, movement and positions of the camera, points of view, and music. These two films are also perfect examples of an epic. There are several epic points to this movie, but I’m going to cover three of them, courage, supernatural, and vast setting.

Courage is the first epic point I’d like to talk about. For me courage means to find something deep down in yourself to do something that takes a lot of bravery. Frodo is the main hero in this series because he is the one carrying The Ring. This itself shows that Frodo has a lot of courage. No one but Frodo would or could take it. Then later on in The Two Towers Frodo goes off alone with Sam who chose to go along because he didn’t want to break his promise to Gandalf. Sam also has an abundance of courage for the fact that he stands by Frodo through everything; he is risking his life time and time again to be a loyal and true friend to him. In almost every screen shot the camera is moved to show Sam just behind Frodo’s shoulder. Sam also has the courage to look beside the bad and find the good in all situations. Sam accepts Frodo’s decisions and tries to make the best of everything.

The second epic point I’m going to hit on is Supernatural. My definition for supernatural is a quality or material item that the ordinary world doesn’t possess. The Ring is like a spirit that can see and draw others to it, this is supernatural. Watching the movie I noticed the camera zooms in on The Ring showing its point of view giving it a sense of power. When Frodo puts The Ring on he goes into a different dimension seeing The Eye see him. Everything goes into slow motion and is either light blues and white with the Ring wraiths or black and red showing a close up of the fiery eye. A prime example of supernatural is in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship when Gandalf and Saruman have their battle using nothing but their staffs and magic. Gandalf also brings the King back to normal with his magic in the second film, The Two Towers. Watching Gandalf bring the King back was very interesting. First he is this old man and slowly his eyes begin to clear, and his face becomes young again; transforming him into his normal self. Not only are the wizards supernatural beings, but the elves are as well, they are immortal, meaning they will never die of natural causes or old age. They also have material gifts that are extraordinary. Sam’s rope is one of those gifts, the rope won’t untie until its owner wants it to let go. They also have robes that the elves let the entire fellowship borrow. These robes have the power to making the owner become invisible.

Most every epic story has a vast setting with mountains, rivers, valleys, and several different towns. In the very beginning before everything is dark and evil, The Shire is a very peaceful, ideal, fairy tail-like place. When Frodo goes to leave The Shire, there are high angle pannings of the Middle Earth showing the mountains, rolling hills, and waters. Rivendale is where the elves live and it is a world of silvers with a feeling of calmness. In contrast to Rivendale and The Shire is Moria that is the dark and scary. Moria is where the fiery demon (Balrog) tries to kill Gandalf. In this scene the camera is at a high angle looking down throwing his tail into slow motion for a dramatic effect. In The Two Towers, Helmsdeep is where the major battle is with thousands of orcs are. There is a long shot showing all of the orcs file in and then the camera switches to Aragorn showing his determination with a medium close up. Frodo is on a long journey having to travel over all of this land, this vast setting.

As one can see The Lord of the Ring films have characters full of courage, several supernatural incidents, and a huge setting. Not only is this movie a great entertainment, but also it has many good characteristics and moral aspects to it. Peter Jackson did an exceptional job of bringing different lighting techniques, musical emotions, and viewpoints within the film. This is an amazing movie that I would suggest to anyone.

Lord of the Rings

In The Lord of the Rings there are a lot of effects with the camera. When the ring falls on Frodo’s finger everything goes fuzzy to show how unreal it all is. I think it is interesting how they would make more than one house for each person or how they’d make 2 bars, one to make the elves look small and one to make the people look bigger. There are a lot of different angle in this movie I like how when Frodo is lying down and looking up at Rubindale. Rubbindale looks like she is glowing and fuzzy to show that Frodo is slowly fading away. There are interesting sound effects too I especially liked how when they are running through the woods and all u hear is the music and the sounds made by the horses.

Rocky Paper Scissors

In the Lawrence High School Focus Film Festival video "Rocky Paper Scissors" I like the way they do the freeze shots at the beginning to introduce the people who took part to make the movie. The beginning shot is good to how that he still loves what he used to do and misses it. It is kind of weird though how the coach comes around the corner every time he speaks, and that’s just editing problems, or they could have done it for comedy. The way they switch screen shots with the beat of the music is very creative, and it keeps the audience’s attention. I like how they change from color to black and white on the stairs. It’s funny how the coach waits around forever to go to save Rocky. The music choice in the fight makes the scene more intense and dramatic. All in all a very creative and entertaining video.

Carnival of the Souls

Carnival of souls was made by a crew of only five people because of this everyone had do play more than one role in the making of the movie like the director also being the custodian. The budget was only seventeen thousand dollars and because of this none of the serious companies would even look at it. Carnival of Souls was made because this guy got an idea of dead people dancing in an abandoned outside ballroom and the story formed around it. When this first came out in 1962 most children and young adults liked it, but the older adults weren't fans of it. Since the older adults didn't enjoy this movie it wasn't a good seller. Later on the movie was featured in best movies of the 60's and 70's, and shown on occasions on television. Carnival of Souls started being followed more and more and was finally let out in theaters almost thirty years later. The writer of this movie said, “Everybody gets ideas but what matters is when they get the idea." I think this means that a writer has to wait until the people are ready for the idea.