Good Hair

I recently watched the documentary Good Hair to review for my media class.  I really enjoyed it and I wrote up a review on it, so please, read on.


When the daughter of the popular African American comedian Chris Rock asks him why she does not have “good hair,” he decides to go on a mission.  What exactly is “good hair” in the African American community?  Why is it so important for black women to have it?  What extremes will people go to to get “good hair”?  These questions are answered throughout Chris Rock’s documentary Good Hair.  This hilarious and well-made interactive documentary shows viewers a whole new side of hair.  Once the documentary begins, the viewer quickly realizes that Rock is not just examining black women’s hair styles, but issues of race, beauty, and self-image.  Black women want straight and flowing hair, or “white” hair.  He examines the different hair styles of black women, the costs and the talents needed to make them, and the forces behind the pressure to have “good hair.”  Rock looks at this issue with a wry sense of humor, making difficult topics funny and easy to discuss.
 

The movie’s main character is Chris Rock, himself.  He interviews African American celebrities, community leaders like Maya Angelou and Al Sharpton, and various women in beauty salons and men in barber shops, asking them about black women’s hair styles.  The celebrities say that the media pressures them and other women into having straighter, more flowing and more “beautiful” hair.  A group of students say that they feel the natural “nappy” hair would be unacceptable and out of place in a professional office.  The women in beauty salons say it is just something that everyone does and everyone should do.  Interestingly, black men in the barber shops do not seem to care about the women’s hair, but are confused by the price and commitment it requires.

The movie’s plot follows the methods of the black hair care industry and various ways in which African Americans style their hair to try to make it conform with what they see in magazines.

Rock first looks at chemical relaxer, which makes hair temporarily straight.  Going to a science lab, Rock learns that relaxer is made of an extremely poisonous chemical, sodium hydroxide, which can be blinding and burn the scalp.  Despite the pain it causes, women endure it.

Rock then looks at weaves, a method of sewing other people’s hair into pre-existing hair.  The entire process can take up to six hours and cost upward of $1,000.  Hair weaves are typically made from Indian hair.  The hair is shaved off the heads of Indian women in a religious ceremony called Tensure.  There is even a hair black market.

Interspersed through the movie, Rock follows an event called the Bronner Brothers’ annual hair competition in Atlanta, Georgia.  This trade show has hundreds of vendors selling various African American hair care products and features four competitors who each have 15 minutes to do a performance in which they style hair in a unique way.  This shows the money side of the industry.  The movie contends that there are only one or two black owned black hair care companies.  The others are owned by Koreans and Chinese.

The footage was shot on interview sets, in beauty salons, at the competition in Atlanta, and in India, where Rock goes to learn about the source of weaves.  The shots focus on both the people’s faces, as well as their hair, or what they are doing to someone else’s hair.  This helps to give perspective to the viewer and makes the viewer care more about what is happening.

Because of the filming locations, there are usually a lot of people in the shots at once.  This makes the movie very loud and energetic.  The diegetic sounds on busy streets and at the hair competition is very prominent.  The tone of the documentary is also very dynamic.  Rock has an upbeat personality and is always cracking jokes.  The music is always very lively and the film is shot under high-key lighting, making the atmosphere seem light and positive.

There are both strengths and weaknesses in Good Hair, mostly strengths though.  Rock tries hard, and succeeds, at making the documentary funny and engaging.  He also helps the viewer think about serious issues of race and beauty in a light way that one may.  The weaknesses are that sometimes the number of people on the set and the filming location make it difficult to hear what the people are saying – whether it have been because of the excessive background noise, people talking at the same time, or people talking too loudly or too quietly.  Another weakness I found is Rocks treatment of some of the issues is cursory. 

The ideas of conformity and what it means to be beautiful are displayed well in this film.  It allows the viewer to see the lengths some people will go to to fit in or be perceived in a certain way.  This movie is definitely worth seeing.  Its lively and light tone helps Rock get across a serious message about beauty.

Here is the trailer to Good Hair

 

 Good Hair, PG-13, 96 minutes, Chris Rock, 2009

Documentary Project

Our newest media assignment is to make a documentary.  We were given an option of four different types of documentaries to make:

1. A profile documentary - a documentary on an interesting person in our community. (NOTE: The video I connected the link to has some really graphic scenes of Chad Jones's leg.)
2. The C-SPAN competition documentary - make a documentary answering the question what should Obama do in 2013.
3. An indiegogo documentary - a documentary to raise funds for our change project.
4. An Op-doc - (this is what my group is doing.) a documentary showing your opinion on an issue.

Like I just said, my group is making an op-doc.  Ours is going to be about open and closed-lunches.  Our school has a closed-campus lunch and recently announced that they have made an agreement with local restaurants where the restaurants will not sell food to students during the day.  Obviously students should follow the rules to stay safe but the restaurants are also businesses that need to make money.

We plan on showing benefits and consequences to open and closed-lunches and even testing the policy by going to one of the restaurants and seeing what happens (we will have school approval, of course!)

I think this is going to be a difficult and long project (it goes through January) but I think that ours will turn out really well.

All About Meat

Based on last week's blog and other stuff I am interested in I thought I would make my blog about food and nutrition.  I haven't really decided how exactly I will blog about it - bullet points?, recipes?, surprising facts?, most likely some of each.  This week I think I will provide some interesting and surprising facts about meat.

• People in the United States eat about 1/2 (0.5) of a pound of meat a day (8 ounces). In Africa people eat 1/16 (0.0625) of a pound of meat a day (1 ounce).  In certain quantities meat is healthy, however in the quantities that many Americans eat it in is dangerous to the body.  Red meat can lead to heart problems and diabetes, and animal products in general are really high in sodium - which is important to help regulate water but too much of can cause a high blood pressure.
• The global production of pigs and poultry has quadrupled since 1980.  The number of cows, sheep, and goats has doubled. 
• 70% of the world's farmland is used for livestock production.
• The conditions in which major suppliers of meat produce raise the animals are so unsanitary that it is likely the meat is contaminated with disease or waste in some way.  The animals are so packed in that the animals' feces can get on the animals and wind up in the meat that is bought at the store.  Cases of meat with E. coli or salmonella have resulted in deaths.
• The raising of these immense numbers of livestock contributes to climate change.  Livestock creates around 18% of the planet's green house gas emissions.  From the processing, packaging, transportation, to cow gas, it all contributes to green house gases and global warming.

I'm not saying that everyone should become a vegetarian or a vegan and I like a hamburger as much as the next person, I'm just saying that the amount of meat people that most people in the United States (as well as some people in other countries) is really harmful to people's health.  I just think that we need to scale back on what we are eating and how much of it we are eating.

 

 A meat processing plant

 

Chickens being raised for slaughter

 

 Information from Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating (by Mark Bittman), BBC News, The New York Times, and Time Magazine

Image Sources: Meat processing plant
                        Chickens
                        Another picture to consider looking at, I find it a little bit gross though

The Most Delicious Black-Eyed Pea Salad

Last summer, my mom made this black-eyed pea salad and it quickly became one of my favorite foods.  Whenever we go to a friend's house for dinner we always wind-up bringing this salad and it always is one of the first things to be finished.

I thought I would put the recipe on my blog (click here to go to it!) as my post this week.  It is really quick and easy to make and it is really delicious!  You should definitely make it when you get the chance (and once tomatoes are back in season).

Also, it calls for canned black-eyes peas.  Sometimes I feel like those are kind of salty so I recommend just cooking up your own black-eyed peas when you make the salad.

Image Source: Black-Eyed Pea Salad

CAP Congress

In CAP, this past week has been fully dedicated to CAP Congress, which is exactly what it sounds like.

We were assigned to be either a MOCWA (Member of Congress with Agenda) or a MOCO (I don't know what this stands for).  You were a MOCWA if your assigned debate topic was chosen to be a discussion of our congress and they had to write a bill supporting their debate topic.  MOCOs had to write a page of notes on each of the six topics that were chosen.

The topics that we chose are Plan B in high schools,  the use of recreation marijuana, random drug testing for high school athletes, the death penalty, the dream act, and stem cell research.

I was a MOCWA arguing against the random drug testing of high school athletes. 

On Monday and Tuesday we did some additional research to support our bill of banning drug testing for high school athletes and we made our presentation.  On Wednesday all the MOCWAs presented on their assigned issues.  Afterwords, we lobbied to everyone else with food we had brought to try to get them to vote for our bill.  On Thursday, we were split into the Senate and the House of  Represenatives; I was a Senator.  Inside the House and Senate we were split into committees, just like in the real House and Senate.  I was on the Education Committee, looking at the bills about drug testing and Plan B.  My bill made it through the committee, however, my partner's in the House got killed in committee.  After the committees finished looking at the bills and deciding which to bring into the full House or full Senate, we gathered as either the full House or Senate and began discussing the bills that the committees passed.  If either the full House or full Senate decided to pass one of the bills, it was brought to the other group.  On Friday, we finished discussing bills and then all the ones that were passed were brought to the president.  The bills that were signed by the president was the the one allowing for embryonic stem cell research, the one allowing for Plan B in high schools, the one abolishing the death penalty, and the one allowing the DREAM Act.

This assignment allowed me to greater appreciate what really goes on in the House and the Senate and how difficult it is to pass a bill.  It also increased my understanding of different governmental process.  While I got bored sometimes discussing the issues, I thought this assignment helped me a lot.

The basic proponents of my bill.
My presentation.

Fall Film

A few days ago I wrote about the progress of my fall film.  The assignment was to capture fall anyway we wanted to in 60 seconds.  I finally finished mine!

I have shots of trees that I saw and looked cool and leaves on the ground.  I also have shots of a creek and path near my house which look really nice in the fall.  I have various Halloween decorations and I have some different fall foods.

I'm really happy with how my video turned out.  I found an effect called "Old Film" in WeVideo which I added to my video and I really like.

If the time that I actually spent on the project is added it up, it isn't really much time; however there are gaps of about a week between the times I spent working on different sections of the project.  I first started working on the project a few days after it was assigned.  I did all the filming and the next day I put all the clips into wevideo.  Then, during our days off because of the hurricane, I did all of the editing and found the music I wanted.  I couldn't figure out how to import music into wevideo but today I finally learned how so I added the music to complete my video.

A few times when I was editing I got pretty frustrated with WeVideo.  It wouldn't let me put transitions between all the clips and I found it difficult to figure out how to cut clips and import the music I wanted.  Also, when I tried to export my video to YouTube I couldn't find where it exported to for awhile. Once I figured all that out though WeVideo worked really well.

All in all, I actually liked this assignment and I'm really happy with how my video turned out.

Finished Dystopian Trailer

So a while ago we started this project where we come up with a premise for a dystopian movie and then film a trailer for it - I wrote a post about it before where I put up a sample movie poster for it.  Anyways, we finally finished our trailer and I posted it above so you can watch it.

Our trailer is called iPower.  The basic story is that sometime in the future machines, specifically phones, will control everything and everyone but without the knowledge of the people.  The machines can send certain people back in time to kill those who have too much knowledge in the future.  Eventually one girl finds out what is happening so sends herself back in time to try to stop the machines from ever being invented.

I think that our trailer came out pretty good, especially considering that no one in our group really knew how to use Final Cut Pro before the project started.  It was all a learning process for us and I feel like that I am MUCH more comfortable navigating Final Cut than I was four weeks ago.  There is still A LOT more that I need to learn how to do on final cut; adjusting sound on music, key frames, transitions between shots (like fades), and overlaying clips are just a few to get the list started.

I enjoyed this project.  I liked how it connected things we were doing in English to Media and I liked how it gave us some freedom but it was guided (yeah, I know, kinda contradictory).   It was fun going out and filming and figuring out what we were even doing.  There were a lot of moments that happened when we were filming that might not have been so funny then but looking back now are hilarious.  My favorite is when we got yelled at by a farmer lady saying we were killing the planet by filming.

Even though this project required some dedication, I wouldn't mind doing another one like it.  And I'm really looking forward to Friday when we get to watch all the other trailers - I've seen a few already and they're really well done.

Pre- Fall Video

So last weekend I was working on my fall video.  The assignment is to "Capture the Fall" and make a 60 second video doing so.

I went to the bike path near my house and recorded the creek, a bridge, some leaves, a biker and a bunch of other stuff.  I also recorded various Halloween decorations I saw around and liked.

During our days off this week I worked on editing my video.  I used wevideo to use it and it worked really well, however it was kinda wierd because my video kept getting SHORTER, when I wasn't cutting clips.  Oh well, it all worked out.

I just have one more thing to do before my video finishes which is adding music.  I found some music that I like that I think works with my video except I can't figure out how to import it into wevideo.  I think that wevideo might not let you import music which is really frustrating. They (meaning wevideo) have their own selection of music to choose from which I'll probably just end up doing.

I'll have the video ready to post next week so I'll probably be adding on to this post then.

DON'T Start School Later

I don't really feel like reviewing another article, but that was really the only idea I had so I thought I would write about this whole petition to start school later.

I don't agree with this and I don't think that it will be easy to sway me in the other direction so I'll try to give some of my logic behind this - I'm not saying it will make sense or anything though.

Reasons That I Don't Want to Start School Later

• First of all, if school starts an hour earlier than it will end an hour later.  Therefore, for high school students in CAP and Magnet, they will not get out of school until 4:00.  For me that would mean I would not get home until 4:30, for most of my peers it means 5:00 or after.  We have A LOT of homework and that hour we spend in school is lost, meaning it is no longer homework time, so we will be staying up an extra hour.  If you're following my logic, we really will not be getting any extra sleep.  Also, sports practices will not end until 6:30, meaning  that we would not get home until 7:00-7:30.

• This petition would make it so middle and elementary schools would start later as well because the buses wouldn't be able to get all three age ranges to school at 8:15.  Elementary schools would not start from 9:50-10:15, which is a HUGE inconvenience to parents.  My parents at least would not have been able to stay home that late.  Many parents need to get to work by 8:00 or 9:00.  They would be an 1-2 hours (even more in most cases) late to work, meaning they would have to stay late and not be able to be there when their kid gets home.

• The petition also says that this will allow kids to get more sleep.  But come on, lets be honest, kids will just procrastinate on their assignments that much longer.  Also, we're just going to stay up later than we normally would because we'll get to sleep later - again, we won't be getting any more sleep.  If kids want to get more sleep than it is their responsibility to do what they have to do and get themselves into bed at a decent hour.  It is no one's fault but their own when they claim that they haven't been getting enough sleep.

I have tons of more reasons for not starting the day later but those are my main ones.  Also, and most importantly, I don't want to start school later.  The afternoon is my time to do what I want to do.  A random hour in the morning is not enough time to let me have soccer practice, or hangout with friends, or go to a movie, or do some other thing that teenagers supposedly like to do.  And losing that time in the afternoon is not going to let me do those things either.

So there you have it.  Please don't make school start later.  Or at least not until I graduate - but even then don't do it either.

Another Passion Post, But its Not Really on a Passion

So this is my second post where we have to write about a passion or something of the sort.  Unlike many of my more inspired peers I will not be dedicating this blog to a certain topic, mainly because I can't really think of one thing to just write about for however long we have to do this.

Yesterday I was looking at different articles on sciencenews.org and I found this one called Fasting Hormone Helps Mice Live Longer, so obviously I opened it.

The author, Tina Saey, writes about a hormone called fibroblast growth factor-21, FGF21, that somehow increases the life span of a mouse.  The average life span of a mouse is about 28 months but 1/3 of the female mice producing FGF21 lived 44 months.

When certain species, like fruit flies and dogs, cut down on calorie intake but still maintain good nutrition, life expectancy is extended.  The hormone FGF21 produces a similar result to caloric restriction by hindering the reactions of a insulin-like growth factor.  This also increases life expectancy.

The mice who were genetically engineered to produce the hormone tended to be leaner and have better health.  However, some of the mice had a low bone density and some females were infertile.

Saey writes that scientists still don't quite understand how FGF21 works.  All that they know for sure is that it is made in the liver and is produces similar results to that of caloric restriction, but the only place the two interact is in the hormone interference of the growth factor.

So for those of you who are still reading this, I think that this is pretty cool. I find that even realizing that it was FGF21 increasing the life span is impressive.  And I think that what the hormone does is even more impressive.  And when scientists figure out how the hormone works, I'll definitely be reading that article.

I'm not sure if I need to make some sort of citation for this article, but I will, just in case, because I don't want to get sued or something.  So:

Saey, Tina Hesman. "Fasting Hormone Helps Mice Live Longer." Science News.
     Society for Science & the Public, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
     <http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345907/description/
     Fasting_hormone_helps_mice_live_longer>.

This New Post Assignment About My Passion or Something

So today I read this article from the Washington Post called Montgomery County students adjusting to healthier school lunches.  This article sort of inspired this post, but their only real connection is the main topic of nutrition and the role schools play in it.

I'm into the whole healthy eating thing.  I've read some books on different nutritional philosophies and how the human body was made to eat (small amounts of food throughout the day) and what it was made to eat (grains, with all their nutritional values still packed in there, and less than 3 ounces of meat and animal products in general a day, according to Mark Bittman).

Anyways, the point of this post is not to give some lecture on what you should be eating.  I just want state a sort of opinion on the issue revolving around child obesity.

This is where the article I read plays in.  The article talks about how some Montgomery County schools have been introducing healthier school lunches.  I am a big supporter of this, especially because I believe what kids eat at school is a factor in child obesity.

At my school, and at my past schools, the lunches have all been the same.  Greasy pizza (wet cardboard with stiff cheese), nachos (stale chips with oil), slurpees (wonder where those are made...) and so on.  None of these include essential nutrients, or seem particularly appetizing.  These foods, which kids consume once a day for 5 days a week, some more than that if they buy breakfast at school, make up a good percentage of kids' food intake.  These foods are not particularly healthy and they send the impression that these are the foods that one should regularly be eating.

I know this has been kinda disjointed and all so I'll try to sum it all up real quick: I think that if people really want to do something about the child obesity issue it needs to start in the schools, with the schools only offering healthy and nutritional foods, not just some "alternative" that kids are encouraged to take (or required to take but just throw away).

                                     Is this really the best they can do... really, what is that????

Image Source: Gross School Lunch

"Obama and Romney ready to enter the ring" Annotation

I annotated "Obama and Romney ready to enter the ring" by Kathleen Parker of The Washington Post.  Parker wrote about how Obama and Romney currently stand in the election and what role the debates will play for them.  She writes how Romney seems to have lost the majority of women voters and he has insulted the 47% of Americans who do not pay income taxes.  She also writes how Obama is lacking in how Americans view the United States and in his demeanor.

Parker keeps a relatively unbiased position as she reviews the presidential candidates.  I enjoyed this, for it allows the reader to see a fair evaluation of the candidates, instead of only seeing the highlights of one and the faults of the other.

Link to my annotated article

Dystopian Trailer Progress Report

While we finish up on our dystopian movie trailer script and get ready to film, I am creating a propaganda poster for our trailer.  Our movie premise focuses on how machines, specifically phones, are taking over the world.  That is why, in my poster, the central picture is of an iPhone.

I have completed the poster.   It is very simple, so that the central idea is not lost.  As can be seen, the central picture is an iPhone, and on both sides of the phone the poster displays the words "OBEY".  This is to show the machinery gaining control.

This poster will be used during filming.  It will appear as characters go through the motions of their everyday life, whether it be on TV, in a library, or just out on the streets.

Click here for a link to propaganda poster.

5 x 5 Video Project

This is my 5x5 video project.  It shows the walk I take to the bus stop each morning.

1. The first clip shows my feet walking up my street.
2. The second clip is a shows a road I have to cross to get to the bus stop.
3. The third clip shows the bus pulling up.
4. The fourth clip shows the bus pulling into the school's parking lot.
5. The fifth clip shows me walking into the school.

 I created my 5x5 when I was walking to the bus stop one morning.  I used a little hand-held video camera to shoot my clips and I edited my 5x5 with WeVideo.  We video worked really well for me.  It was easy to figure out how to use and easy to use.

I am really proud of my project, mostly because I edited it by myself and learned some basic editing skills while doing so.  I think that it turned out pretty well.  I found some good clips in the ones that I made and put them all together.

I don't really have any ideas for our next video challenge.  I have not really done any video classes so I don't know any typical film projects.  Maybe we add on to our 5x5 with an opening or closing credit and some music. 

Dystopian Trailer Critique

The Hunger Games. Gary Ross. PG-13. 2012
When 17 year-old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is sent to fight to her death for the entertainment of the cruel Capitol, she uses the opportunity to ignite a spark and start a rebellion against those taking away the freedom of the people.

The trailer for Gary Ross' The Hunger Games is exemplary in its portrayal of a dystopian society, characteristics of the protagonist, and summarizing the movie's plot.  The first thing one notices are the characteristics of the dystopian society which are captured through the telescreens, images of everyone dressed in the same drab grey color, a fence separating the outside world, and so on.  Then one notices the outstanding personality of the protagonist, Katniss.  One sees her ability to hunt, her caring and motherly side, her slightly weaker side, and her strong will to achieve her goals and her courage.  Finally, as the trailer finishes, the viewer comes away with a sense of what the movie will be about.  Through a voice over, one learns what the Hunger Games are; through words one learns of the intensity of the games, and through snippets of dialogue one learns of the struggles the characters will endure throughout the film.

In my dystopian movie trailer I plan to show several shots of dirty, run down neighborhoods to show how the society is falling apart.  I will include pieces of dialogue from the protagonist to help develop who they are and to show what their hopes are to change the society.  Finally, I plan to use words to establish when and where the trailer is taking place and voice overs to help establish the plot.

Article Annotations

I read the article World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others by Will Richardson.  This article talked about new technologies, such as blogs, that are allowing students to connect online and discuss things that they are interested in.  Richardson wrote that some schools even work off of blogging type websites.  He writes "middle school students connect almost daily through blogs, wikis, Skype, instant messaging, and other tools to discuss literature and current events."

I find this interesting, students connecting online to discuss what is happening in the world.  I think its cool that people can connect and talk about things that they are all interested in from so far away but I also think face-to-face time is important.  That is one of the things I found surprising in the article.  The author never talks about the disadvantages of online connections.  I would have liked to see more of the opposing side.

Overall, I think that the article is interesting and it presents new ideas and ways of learning that I had never heard of or thought about before.  I think that blogging and connecting online with people who are interested in the same thing as us or can teach us about film making is a good idea, but, like I said earlier, I think that face-to-face time is important as well.

Previously, I have said that I was interested in editing, but after last class when Final Cut Pro kept crashing on us I don't think that I am really interested in that any more. Directing and working the cameras sound fun to me and I would like to learn some the skills needed for directing and some cool ways to make camera shots more unique.

Here is the link to the article I annotated

Movie Review

I read a movie review of "Airplane!"  It was written by Janet Maslin in July of 1980 and published in the New York Times.

The review starts by talking about the energy that "Airplane!" has.  The writer states their opinion, calling the movie "clever and confident" as well as "furiously energetic."  The review slowly leads into a  brief synopsis of the plot and then it talks about some of the characters and their best moments in the movie.

Maslin weaves in the three aspects of film, literary, dramatic, and cinematic, by bringing up different actors and different scenes as the review and plot go on.  The review focuses most on the literary aspects of film.  It often mentions different characters, the plot, and the setting.

The tone of the movie review is lighthearted.  Maslin reccomends "Airplane!", as do I, and only speaks highly of the movie.

For our quarterly movie reviews I think we should be given some basic guidelines but mostly freedom.  Some suggested questions that we can touch on if we get stuck would be helpful; however, I think we should have more freedom than we have guidelines.

Here is a link to my annotated movie review: http://diigo.com/0ssum

My First Post

 

My name is Zoe and this blog is for my CAP classes.  I chose this picture of a mountain because I think that it is a really cool picture and also I think that in a way the mountain represents a possible turn-out of this school year: a fun yet challenging obstacle (very cheesy, I know).

Some aspects of film making that I am particularly interested in are directing and doing the actual filming.  I think that directing would be cool because they get to make decisions and have a major role in the final outcome.  I think filming, as in being the camera man, would be fun because there is not too much to it.

My only film making experience is from second semester last year so I do not have many options to choose from for my favorite film project.  If I had to choose it would probably be the InfoFlow show open because you could be creative with it and we had pretty much no guidelines.  Part of that project was hard though because we had to edit it completely on Final Cut, which I had, and still do, no idea how to use.

 We can use our blogs this year to:

• Help with our change projects.  One example is talking about the projects so other people interested in the cause.
• Talk about different projects we have done so our teachers can see how the projects either helped or did not help us.
• Gather information about the CAP classes all in one place so that the information that we need will be easily accessible.

 Image Source Mountain View