Dystopian Trailer- Propaganda Poster

I actually created the poster for our film this past Wednesday. I like to think it is bold in its simplicity. The poster is advertising the "Nurse Nancy"s in our dystopia, and are meant to be slightly creepy. We've already included the posters in our filming.

Giraffes

Hey guys, please go sign this petition.

One of my close friend's in Florida sent this to me saying that her local zoo, which is way too small, is trying to bring in a new giraffe. The cages are nowhere near as big as they need to be already, and this will make things worse.
This is important to me, please sign at the link below!

Help the giraffes!

Thanks!

5x5

• glass
• opening refrigerator
• getting cider
• pouring cider
• empty glass

I used a Nikon Coolpix L26 to shoot my 5x5 and I used imovie to edit my clips. I originally tried to use wevideo, but after uploading my clips twice it still wouldn't recognize that they were uploaded. My 5x5 is kind of plain, but I like that it's sort of simplistic. For our next video challenge I think we should shoot a silent movie.

Dystopian Trailer Critique

2081 . Chandler Tuttle . Unrated . 2009
In the year 2081, the government has created equality by handicapping those who excel. George Bergeron (James Cosmo) watches as his extraordinary son Harrison (Armie Hammer) rebels on live television.

The trailer for 2081 is exemplary in that it clearly sets up the premise through film clips, text, editing, and style and connects all of these by a pivotal aspect of the story, the handicaps. The film clips and text throughout the trailer clearly depict how the Bergerons live in a dehumanized state by showing George's handicaps and the pain they bring, as well as spelling out much of the premise in bold red text in simple powerful phrases such as, "No one is better. Everyone is worse." The editing also revolves around the handicaps in that the text flickers from the screen in time with the noise that the intelligence handicaps transmit. This underlines the premise by showing the effect of a handicap. The style of the trailer is rather dark, with the exception of the stark white costume of ballerina that Harrison involves in his rebellion. This bold contrast shows accentuates the line that, "But in a world where the extraordinary is outlawed, only the outlaws will be extraordinary."The style as well as simply the handicaps themselves show how Harrison and his father are trapped both physically and in their dystopia. I hope that I can pick a certain element of my dystopian premise to develop my trailer around. The focus on the handicaps in the trailer for 2081 creates a unity in the trailer and makes it very powerful.

Connected Learning

"World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others"by Will Richardson is a call of action to educators to begin incorporating the knowledge and technology of the online world. The article first makes the point that "The Collaboration Age" is about the important networks of communication the internet and new technology allows us to have. It continues on, explaining the importance of establishing a connection to "The Collaboration Age" and learning, and then lays out the possible downfalls, such as the relinquishing of traditional schooling.

The quote, "It's about solving problems together and sharing knowledge we've gained with wide audiences," shows both the importance of bringing the internet into the classroom and also illustrates how beneficial it can be to the students.

I found it surprising that the author acknowledge that when we are restricted from the internet at school, in some ways we are restricted from the things we are passionate about.

In theory I like the idea of connected learning, but I think it is difficult to find a balance of using the internet to improve upon our school work and learning without having too much freedom. But in turn, the amount of freedom we have dictates the amount of knowledge and creativity we glean from the internet. I also think that connected learning won't work as well in practice, because it's relying on the students to guide the learning and participate, and some students may oppose to it.

For the two topics that I would like to learn more about, documentaries and how media affects the american society, connected learning will be very beneficial.

Movie Review

In our last media class, we each read a movie review and annotated it using Diigo to experiment with Diigo and identify possible structure for movie reviews we will do in the future.

I read "'Brave,' Pixar's New Animated Film" by Manohla Dargis, published on NYTimes.com. The review had a paragraph of introduction with a bit of opinion before it quickly tied in a plot summary. The summary smoothly went into an analysis of the animation (which would also be the point of analysis of acting, costuming, and set in other movies) and then back to a little plot to wrap up with the theme. The review was peppered with jokes, creating a playful tone to fit the playful movie.

I think that our quarterly movie review should be very open to creativity. There should be a list of maybe 4 or 5 essential questions that we must touch on, including the 3 aspects of film, and then a following list of 6 to 7 questions that we should pick a couple from to answer. It would be fantabulous to have complete creativity on how we must answer these questions.

Diigo Annotated Movie Review

Introductions

I am Ravyn, a sophomore at Montgomery Blair High School in the Communication Arts Program, and this blog is a part of my media class. I am interested in theatre, baking, ASL, and I am passionate about volunteering. I am interested in the influential role of media on society, and I am also interested in learning about documentaries.
In the past my favorite film projects were at an acting camp where I was in a program called Acting for the Camera, which involved the complexities of adjusting acting to effectively convey through film. In the projects I was primarily an actor and film crew member, and I had very little to do with the actual editing process.
A few possible ways CAP students can use these blogs:
- To connect during group projects for collaboration, editing, and peer criticism.
- To share are completed projects.
- To share resources for projects.

This is a picture of hand decorated plates in a Peruvian market. This past summer I spent most of time time volunteering and learning about cultures around the world. Peru is one of the places I began to have a deep interest in this summer.

image source: Peruvian Plates