5x5

Clips Used

1. Putting on headphones
2. Walking across room
3. Walking to workbench
4. Adorning gear and walking toward garage door
5. Opening garage and twirling axe\

Camera: Nikon Coolpix (point and shoot)

Editing: IMovie 06

I did not use an online editor and I did not run into any problems along the way.

I am very pleased with how my 5x5 turned out. Since I wanted to use music, I played it in the background, which I thought the camera might not have picked up, but it did.

For our next video challenge, we could:

• Make a music video of a song that doesn't already have one (a semi-popular song) with a neighbor that is in CAP or by yourself. This project might take more time to do.
• A video in which there is one main color (red, blue, green etc.)

Dystopian Trailer Critique

Terminator Salvation . Joseph Nichol . PG-13. May 14, 2009

In the year 2018, an artificially intelligent network of robots and computers called Skynet have taken over the world, with the goal of eradicating humans. John Connor (Christian Bale), is the fated leader of the resistance against the robots. He encounters a prototype humanoid-cyborg named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), that he hopes will help the resistance destroy Skynet. Marcus and John are able to destroy the Los Angeles branch of Skynet, but unfortunately, John was wounded in the battle and needs a heart transplant to live. Marcus gives his heart so that John will live. The war is far from over, but the resistance has dealt a crippling blow to Skynet.

Here is the link to the trailer.

The trailer for Terminator Salvation is exemplary because it exhibits dystopian premises, controls, and protagonist  and uses many effective cinematographic techniques to expose the setting, create suspense, and make the viewer want to see the movie.

In the trailer, citizens are under constant surveillance by hunter-killer robots, that will kill or capture any human that leaves his or her hideout. Citizens fear the outside world and Skynet, and thus, their freedoms are restricted. Since humans are under the constant threat of attack, they live in a dehumanized state; not trying to improve their living conditions, having little food, having little to no contact with the outside world, in order to remain unnoticed by Skynet. These dystopian premises expose the general setting and premise of the movie.

Skynet uses Technological and Post-Apocalyptic Controls in order to control, oppress, and kill humans. The robots and Skynet are in themselves a Technological Control. The robots then nuke the earth so that most humans are killed. The rest of the world lives in a post-apocalyptic world where they are not able to gather natural resources. In addition to the dystopian premises, the types of dystopian controls are also used to set up the world in which the story takes place.

The protagonist in the trailer, John Connor, resists the powerful Skynet, and is the leader of the resistance. The characteristic of the "society" that is bad and that John seeks to change is fairly obvious: humans are being eradicated by Skynet. John is simply the protagonist because he is the leader of the resistance and the character upon which the film focuses. By introducing John Connor as a character, the film begins to shows the conflict that will take place in the film.

The trailer contains various cinematographic techniques that are used in order to enhance the message and overall effectiveness of the trailer. The video is shot with hard light (dark blacks, bright whites, lots of shadow), and is desaturated. This gives the video a depressing and post apocalyptic feel. In addition to this, the music sets the tone and mood for the trailer. Finally, there are a voiceovers with very charged words making the trailer epic and exciting. These cinematographic techniques enhance the mood and setting of the trailer and film, and make the viewer want to see the movie,

Depending on what my group's final idea is, we may use some, all, or none of the techniques I have mentioned above. I particularly liked the cinematographic aspects of the trailer (darkness, desaturation, music), and I hope to use them in my trailer.

Personalized Learning Article Reflection

 For homework I read the article Preparing Students to Learn Without Us By Will Richardson. The article is about how students nowadays are able to learn autonomously by creating their own assignments, relating their studies to their passions, using technology in and out of the classroom, and personalizing their learning experience.

A quote from the article that I found interesting was:

"Students keep blogs, which Smith regularly comments on, where they archive their work, reflect on their learning, and connect with potential teachers outside the classroom. Smith uses Google Reader, an RSS feed aggregator, to collect all of her students' posts and support her review process. Students also use podcasts to capture and share presentations they give in class." (Anne Smith, Arapaoe High School)


All of this is interesting, and in some ways our class already does this. What I thought was particularly interesting was the part about students using podcasts to share presentations in class, because it could be used in our film class to give tutorials, instructions, or assignments to the students.


 Something that I found surprising about the article was that it says "personalizing the learning experience is not just a possibility—it's almost an expectation" (Will Richardson). I feel like this is a very broad generalization. It is almost an expectation according to whom? Another key piece of information that the article omits is: How do students that use this learning style compare to students that learn other ways? How do they compare in tests and grades?

A topic that I am interested in and would like to learn more about is how to use Final Cut Pro. My most recent problem was trying to import the clips from film individually, as in iMovie06, rather than in one big block of film.

Link to annotated article:
http://diigo.com/0sx4o

Movie Review

Today I looked at the "Blades of Glory" movie in the New York Times by Stephen Holden. The link to the movie review with my annotations is at the bottom of this page.

Holden talked mostly about Will Ferrel and his acting in the movie. He seemed to jump around from character/actor description, to the plot, then back. He avoided talking about the cinematic aspects of the film, but did interject some of his own opinion into the review. When he talks about the plot, he doesn't reveal enough of the challenge that the skaters face, but reveals too much about what happens toward the end of the movie. Holden gave the movie a positive review, as would I, it is hilarious and a classic Will Ferrel movie.

For our class quarterly movie reviews, I believe we should give a brief plot summary of the movie, then write about something interesting, good, or bad that we saw in the movie. We could wirite about actors,  cinematography, etc.



http://diigo.com/0ssxu

About Myself and Film

Images That Describe Me:
Welcome to Zephyr, my blog. My name is Connor. I have four years in film experience, starting in sixth grade at Silver Spring International Middle School. In sixth grade I started LCL, seventh grade LCFL, eighth grade LCML, and ninth grade CAP Scriptwriting.

Some of my favorite film projects I have participated in are:

• Creator vs Creation Stopmotion Project

Can't Let You Go from mrmayo on Vimeo.

• Short Middle School Film (Five Star)

Five Star from mrmayo on Vimeo.

I like to do almost all of the jobs in a film production. Director, Actor, Cinematographer, and Editor; but if I had to pick my forte, I would say that it is editing. At MBHS, we have Macintosh computers with finalcut Pro, which is awesome compared to iMovie06, which is what I used at SSIMS.

Other ways we could use our blogs in class are to ask questions to our teachers and collaborate with other students to create better films. This can also be applied to other CAP Classes, and our Change Project. In terms of film class we can use the blogs to brainstorm film ideas and collaborate on existing ideas in order to make them better.