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