Sustain Champlain Video Reflection

Here is our video for the Sustain Champlain projects.



I really enjoyed this project, especially since we had the freedom to put our own spin on the project. We basically could do anything we wanted as long as it pertained to the Sustain Champlain topic.

I think the heardest thing for us was the actual shooting. We had a few problems with the tripod and the weather was not the best for shotting. There was also a fairly heavy breeze during shooting, so we couldn't use any of the natural sound when we shot outside.

Editing took a pretty decent chunck of time, but it went by pretty quickly. The only problem we had with editing was actually finding the footage on the tape. We thought we lost all of our footage, when really it was just that Gregor forgot to turn off the camera before he put it in his pocket.

I think our video came out pretty well. We used a few of our power tools, like humor rhetoricial questions and others. The music fit the mood of the video perfectly, adding so much more to the video. The on screen text worked much better than any voice over in my opinion.

Top 10 Electronic Media Writing Revelations

REVELATION ONE: SO MANY JOBS!
I think my first revealtion would be how many different styles of writing there are for various types of media. I can't really quote a passage from the book because its pretty much the whole book that made me realize that there are SO many different styles and techniques for EVERY type of media. Each one has a different method or style, and it really just opened my eyes and made me realize that wow, there is more than your run of the mill movie script. There is something for everything.



REVELATION TWO: TV shows, simple entertainment or complex and in depth?
My second revelation has to do with TV shows. I learned so much this year about TV shows that I never knew before. While watching I never really realized all of the different things that go into TV shows. Like when Hillard states on page 21, right off the bat he states that a TV writer doesn't have to know all of the elements of the production, just basic knowledge of shots and angles. This was one of the first things I read from this book, and it really stuck out to me as something that never even remotely occured to me. There is just so much stuff that I never realized was happening, especially when it was something so familiar as TV.



REVELATION THREE: Power Tools!
My third revelation has to do with the power tools. I never knew that there were so many underlying techniques to commercials and such to try and get us to feel a certain way without even realizing it. It just blows my mind that a commercial can influence the way I think when I don't even realize it. Its truely amazing that this is happening everytime I watch an ad on TV, which if I'm watching a long program or a sports game, could be a lot of ads. Its also fun that I now realize these things and can say "Oh, that commerical is trying to get me to buy their product by using an attractive woman. Beautiful people!"



REVELATION FOUR: Scripts, Scripts, Scripts
My fourth revelation is about the scripting. The different methods of scripting really helped me out this year. I had no idea what a two column script was, or that I am supposed to have the audio in a certain format and the video direction is a different format, but then when Hilliard went and showed me, it was really useful to know, especially when I need to write scripts for other classes. These different types of scripts really helped me understand what to do, and probably got me better grades, just because I knew the correct format for a certain type of script. I now know a whole lot more about scripts because of this book than I did before.


REVELATION FIVE: Twitter-The Social Media From Hell
During this class, we have used Twitter on several different occasions. Let me tell you, this has just reinforced my raging hate for Twitter. I can't stand it. I, in no way, want anything to do with Twitter. I don't care what some celebrity did today. Oh, Ashton Kutcher went to see some obscure movie? Cool, I don't care. Little Jimmy had eggs and ham for breakfast? Awesome, let me throw him a party for EATING BREAKFAST! Everything about Twitter just frustrates me. If I wanted to know what one of my friends were doing, I would ask them, instead of getting "Tweeted" at or notified everytime someone says something. Its a huge waste of time, and personally, I think it is an invasion of privacy. Everyone doesn't need to know everyone else's business or what they are doing. End of story. I do understand the positives to Twitter, but my endless cloud of hate makes me bias. Yes, it can be helpful for work, yes. I might have a better chance of finding a job if I used Twitter, but honestly, I don't care. I. Hate. Twitter.



REVELATION SIX: Facebook.
Facebook has become one of the largest and most influential social sites of all time. And unlike Twitter, I don't hate facebook with a firey rage of a million angry gods. Quite the opposite actually. I think Facebook is a great site, and because of this class, I have learned even more about it and how it has been helpful. Personally, I use it to keep it touch with people from back home. I'm not going to call my friends once a day to talk to them, that would be creepy and a waste of minutes. Instead, I can Facebook chat them, making it much easier and convienent. Facebook can also update people on upcoming events or things like it. Facebook can be extremely helpful and is generally a great site for social media.



REVELATION SEVEN: VISUALS AND MUSIC
Music has influenced a large chunk of my life. When Hilliard made the statement on page 314 about how visuals need to be integrated with a program to hold the viewers attention, it instantly made me think of music videos, and I realized how much this is true. A good music video can boost a song infinite amounts because of the viewing it will receive on the airways such as MTV or FUSE. The same could be said about a bad video, if it has a bland, boring video, it may not do as well because TV stations won't play it as much.



REVELATION EIGHT: INTERVIEWS
When reading the section on interviews, I learned a lot of good things I never would have know without this book. I never knew that many, if not most large interviews were not on the spot, but rehearsed beforehand. While this may make sense, I always thought that the beauty of interviews had to do with the on the spot answers, and that's what made them good, so when I found out many interviews were rehearsed beforehand, it kind of took away a bit of the interest in interviews for me.



REVELATION NINE: DOCUMENTARIES
While reading the chapter on documentaries, it made me realize that documentaries are probably them most unappreciated form of film. I may be going out on a limb to say this, but I would say that when most people are presented with the idea of a documentary, they immediately are opposed to the idea, even if it is a film that has won the same awards as a feature film. They are just viewed as boring educational tools, instead of interesting films that take just as much, if not more effort to make than a regular feature film. But when presented with a well liked documentary such as the most recent series, Life, most people don't even realize that this program is in the same category as all of the boring films they watched in middle school.


REVELATION TEN: ALL OF THE AREAS SOCIAL MEDIA IS USED
During this whole course, I was really awakened to the fact that social media and electronic media writing is being used in almost literally every job these days. In some way or another, something I have learned in this course will be applied in any future job I may have. Whether it be my job from hell (using Twitter all day) or something as simple(or not) as a potential job checking your Facebook to see if you have any "incriminating" evidence, it is now a prevalent force in the workplace, and having more knowledge of these things could boost anyone up from having a job or not.

Media Meditation III: Miracle at St. Anna

I watched a movie a few weeks back called Miracle at St. Anna. It was about a black group of soldiers in WWII. It was a great movie in an overdone genre.



There have been countless Saving Private Ryan knockoffs since the movie first came out, most of which crash and burn for being a lame excuse of a war movie. But Miracle at St. Anna was different. It was like a breath of fresh air in a giant pit of garbage.

This movie is about four black soldiers in WWII who get stuck in a village in Italy after their company was attacked. They develop relationships with the villagers while trying to keep from killing each other. There is everything a war movie should have, from great action, to excellent character development to that final battle scene in every single war movie that has ever existed.

It was also definitely refreshing to see black soldiers being the focus of a movie, instead of the typical white battalions that are portrayed in the other war movies. Even if it wasn't perfectly historically accurate, it makes the movie stand out from your run of the mill WWII movie, which was quite nice. The movie also focused more on the characters and their predicament and how they dealt with it, rather than just senseless battle scene after battle scene of American soldiers slaughtering Nazis.

This movie made you think a bit, which really focused on the limbic and neocortex brains, but it also had its fair share of good action scenes which made your reptilian brain scream out in awe and wonder. The three together fit perfectly for this movie, just increasing its value of a movie.

This movie was a great movie. You really get attached to the characters, which is always a plus in my book. The action scenes are excellently done, giving it another wow factor. Pretty much all aspects of this movie were well done, from the acting to the directing to the writing. An excellent movie that stands out among a very, very large genre.

Media Meditation II: Dance of the Dead

I recently watched a movie called Dance of the Dead. It was hilarious.



This movie was probably the one of the best low budget zombie movies I have ever seen, if not the best, and I have watched a lot of zombie movies. It incorporated so many things I love in a movie, and it did them all extremely well, especially with such a low budget.

It is a typical zombie movie, where some phenomenon makes the dead rise from their graves, on the endless quest for the living brains...and limbs...and organs. Pretty much people in general. As the zombies wreak havoc on a small town, it is up to a group of dateless prom goers to bring the news their fellow classmates before it is too late.

The brilliance of this movie is that it is almost like a typical teen movie with the same humor and plot, but while the teens are trying to get dates and worry about how they will look for prom (You know, the important teen issues) zombies are trying to eat everyone. It also incorporates the typical zombie movie, with the blood and over the top gore of people getting eaten and zombies getting wrecked in awesome fashion. There are also some very startling parts in this movies, which just adds to the awesome of this movie. With the combination of all these elements, it makes it into a perfect horror comedy, with enough laughs to counter the scares.

This movie targeted every part of the brain. It had scary moments where your reptilian brain kicked in, but then it had other parts where your neocortex and limbic brain did its fair share of work. It worked all three parts to a perfect level, making it one of the best zombie movies I have seen.

RSS feeds: Information Finding for the Lazy Man...or Woman.

RSS feeds have been one of the most helpful tools for me this year. Here is a simple video explaining what they do and what they can do.



Once leaning about RSS feeds and what they do, they have helped me in countless papers and other school related topics, in several classes.

This semester I had/have a quite large research paper due. It is on America's foreign dependency on oil, and I needed sources for research. So I went to my Google Alerts and typed in my subject, and not even five hours later, I received an alert saying how an online magazine had published an article on my exact subject. Bam. One source done. The next day, I checked again, and lo and behold, another source! If I hadn't have tapped into this relatively unknown resource, I would have had a large amount of research to do, where as now, I have cut the amount of work almost in half, if not more.

RSS feeds can be helpful in other ways too. I have used RSS feeds on several website that are constantly being updated, so whenever something new is posted or updated, I know about it. This is very helpful, and saves me the trouble of checking a bunch of websites and finding out there is no new info or updates each day.

RSS feeds could also be very helpful in the business place. If you are selling a product you could use a keyword to find other products or updates on products you are trying to sell, before anyone else does, therefore giving you the upper hand in whatever market you are in, which could mean the difference between staying in business or going out.

There are pretty much countless uses for RSS feeds, ranging from recreational use, like wanting to know about you favorite sports team, to school work, to using RSS feeds in the business place. They are an extremely useful tool, and one that is often overlooked, when it can save a lot of work for anyone.

Midterm...fInally! Part dos.

Thesis:
Technology is hindering many students in college, especially when the classes are not teaching students what they really need to know. Much of it is useless information that is just added work.

Five facts:
-200 hundred students made 367 edits.
-Only 18% of teachers know students by name.
-Students had to read eight books for class.
-Students will have to write 42 pages of homework for class.
-A student can listen to music up to 2.5 hours in a day.

Triune Brain:
Neocortex-Reading the facts and words displayed on the video.
Limbic-Analyzing the facts in the video
Reptilian-The sounds of the doors, other sound effects.

Seven Principles:
Production Techniques-Camera angles, editing techniques, sound effects, ect.
Individual Meaning-Each student had a different fact, each student can interpret the video in their own way.
Value Message-The video is a value message about college and its classes.
Pacing-Each message was spaced apart in about the same length of time.

Eight Trends:
Aesthetic-
Epistemological-Its a Youtube video, online.

Six Persuasive Techniques:
Testimonial-Guy in first quote.
Group Dynamics-Its a classroom full of people.
Symbols-Writing on pads of paper, using laptops, all relates to subject of video.
Repetition-Use of notebooks or laptops.

Midterm...FInally!

1. After studying media for eight weeks in this class, what have you learned? Be specific.

I have learned a lot about Web 2.0 and its benefits it can have in the workplace. The web can help just about any business do anything it needs from advertising to actually doing the work.

2. What is the most important thing you have learned about yourself as a 1. Critical reader 2. A writer, and 3. a critical thinker in this class so far?

1. I realized i can analyze text much better than i thought I could.
2. I learned that my writing could use a bit of improvement.
3. As a critical thinker, I need to delve deeper into things and not just look at the aesthetics but the deeper meanings.

3. What is one thing YOU would do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?
Manage my time better and get work in on time.

4. What is one thing you would like ME to do differently this first half if you were to take this class again?
Maybe a bit more work time in class, so if we have any questions we can ask you right there.

5. Please comment on the usefulness of the course blog, your personal blog, our films, and our book as learning tools.
I think the blog is a very useful tool. It saves a lot of work and hassle by just putting work online. On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the book. It just isn't written in a way that catches my attention or sparks my interest.