For our second unit in my class Ollywood, we learned mainly about different ways a film will use cinematography and all the different ways they use a camera. We also learned about how effective lighting can be, and all the different light they will use in certain scenes and how they will be set up. For the action project we had a partner that we both would pick a movie to watch and then make a film critique video about that movie. The movie I chose to do with my partner was Fruitvale Station , which was a wonderful movie. The purpose of this action project was to see what Siskel and Ebert, had to do when ever they created a film critique. I hope you enjoy!
NC & NVA Movie Critique from GCE Lab School on Vimeo.
References:
Fruitvale Station. Perf. Michael B. Jordan. The Weinstein Company, 2013. Film.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
Back To The Classics
For my new class Ollywood, we have so far learned about movies and why they are so special in a lot of different ways. The main topics we hit on were production design and costume design and how people really don’t think about how hard it can be to have the costumes made and to produce the movie. For our action project, I critiqued Back to the Future because I heard it was super good and I have never seen it before. Because I have not seen the movie before, I was able to watch and critique it with an open mind. The purpose of this was to see if a movie has a deeper meaning and what is the definition of one.
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| "Back to the Future" Graffiti Life. 2013. Wiki Commons |
Back to the Future is a science-fiction, fantasy movie about a teenage boy who accidentally goes back in time and may have messed up his present. This film’s screenplay was written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, who also directed the film. It was produced by Bob Gale and Neil Canton. Bob Gale was inspired to write this movie when he found his dad’s old yearbook from when he was in high school, and wondered if he would have been friends with his dad if they grew up in the same time period. I believe that this movie also shows how technology has developed so much over the years which makes the future better, allowing us to use decayed food to power cars. Also the 1980s was a time where technology was growing and slowly getting better and more advanced.
Back to the Future takes place in 1985 and 1955 in Hill Valley, California, a fictional town that is very happy where bad things rarely happen. Hill Valley features a small park in the center surrounded by little shops and a nice diner where everyone goes to eat.This set was actual created in the parking lot of Universal Studios. They couldn't find anywhere that would be perfect for featuring a realistic a 1980s and a 1950s town, so the set-designers created their own.
This famous movie follows our protagonist, Marty McFly played by Michael J. Fox a teenager with a wild spark. His clothing are very modern for the time. He is seen mostly in a jean jacket and pants with his iconic orange vest over it and a white T-shirt under his jacket. The quote that best describes Marty is, “Wait Doc are you telling me it is 8:25?! Damn I’m late for school!” This quote shows that Marty is a slacker that is motivated by how own wild spark. He works with Dr. Brown aka Doc played by (Christopher Lloyd.) He is the one loony of the town whose work as an inventor and scientist is not really respected. He looks like a stereotypical crazy, mad scientist, with his hair up like he just got shocked and wears a lab coat.
The movie starts with Marty planning to go on a camping trip with his girlfriend and when he goes home to get his car, he sees that his father George played by Crispin Glover being yelled at by Biff played by Thomas F. Wilson. George is a science-fiction fan who can’t stand up for himself who is bullied by his longtime nemesis, Biff who is always trying to prove himself. As a highschool kid in 1950, Biff is dressed in casual clothing and as an adult in 1980, he is dressed in a blazer and suit pants. But he looks really goofy in both time periods. The costume designer effectively showed Biff’s insecurities and his reasons to bully George through his costume. The quote that best describes Biff is, “Do realize what would happen if I hand in my reports in your handwriting, I would get fired. You wouldn’t want that to happen would you? Would You?!” This shows that Biff is a huge bully and will take advantage of people and try to always get his way.
Marty leaves the house to meet Doc at the mall where he sees that the Doc has turned a Delorean into a time machine. After a tragic incident in the Delorean, Marty gets himself stuck in 1955, where he meets his young mother Lorraine played by Lea Thompson and his young father. In 1985, Marty’s mom Lorraine is an alcoholic who does not approve of Marty’s wild spark or girls who chase boys. But, the young Lorraine we meet in 1955, has a wild spark of her own and spends her time chasing boys.
After the time travel, Marty is afraid that his presence in the past will ruin his future; he does everything he can get his parents together in 1955 to ensure his own existence in 1985. Marty tries to get George to man-up and ask Lorraine to the dance where he knew his parents fell in love.The biggest problem now is that Lorraine has the hots for Marty! Marty and George devise a plan to get Lorraine to fall in love with George, all the while trying to keep Biff away from Lorraine.
My favorite scene involves one of Marty’s scheme to keep Biff away from Lorraine. Marty dresses up in a Hazmat suit and tells George that he is Darth Vader and that he comes from the planet, Vulcan. Next, we see George rush to Marty and tell him he needs to ask out Lorraine so his brain does not melt. Then, Marty starts to tell George how can get a girl to fall in love him, and we see George taking notes. They walk into a diner where Lorraine is talking to her friends and George tries to talk to her, but fails by stuttering and stammering. Then, Biff walks in and starts walking towards George, but Marty trips Biff to get him to stay away. Marty punches Biff and Marty escapes. This scene really shows how in 1950 it was a lot harder to ask a girl out and you had more obstacles created from other men. It also shows how a bully will almost do anything to get his way.
After Marty is successful in getting his parents to the dance, he meets Doc so that he can return to 1985. The crisis occurs when Doc and Marty seem unable to get the Delorean to 88 mph which is the speed that is needed to time-travel.
Fortunately, Marty and Doc get back to 1985 and as the resolution, Marty awakes in his house in 1985 and everything is better than when he left. His parents are happy and back together, his brother is successful, his sister is dating, his mother skinny and rid of her drinking problem, and his father is a strong, independent man. Marty saw that he had his dream car and he was still going camping with the girl he was in love with. When they are about to kiss, we see the Doc in Delorean pop out and start talking about how they need to go to the future and fix the kids that his girlfriend and him are going to have; leading them on to their new adventure.
Overall, this movie was a great, the production design was impressive considering that it was made in a parking lot! The costumes and the acting really created realistic stories that would took place in the 1950s and 1980s. This is a must-see movie that will change how you view time travel. It makes you think about how what you do in the past it can really change the present. Michael J. Fox made Marty McFly a real character that we all know and love that made our childhoods.
References:
Thursday, November 13, 2014
The Creative Genius
For unit 1 of my new class called Five Faces of Genius, we learned about creativity and genius, as well as how similar/different they are. We also made a wall of pictures of people and things we find creative and or a genius; throughout the class we added to it after doing different assignments. For the action project we had to take people from the wall we made and find 3 patterns that connect them and with each pattern we had to identify 3 people that fit those patterns. Next we had to pick a genius from that wall and explain why they might be considered a genius or why they are creative. Last we had to talk about our creative side and what we find challenging in the world. The challenging part of this action project was finding the connections between different geniuses. The purpose of this project was to explore various creative people and what they do that makes them a creative person or a genius. Hope you enjoy reading about creativity!
Now creativity can’t be truly defined, but it will always be with us no matter what you do; anything can make you a creative person . Now I see three patterns that show up in diverse creative people or geniuses. First, they will make Childhood Influence (Seth MacFarlane, Eminem, Michael Jackson). I think that everything that someone becomes is because of what happened in their childhood; it affects all of our lives. With Seth, it is that he uses places that he has grown up around in his shows (Seth MacFarlane Bio) . With Eminem, he will always make music about his life from the past and how it affected him. With Michael, his dad always pushed him to be the best and he pushed himself to do better and he never forgot that and made everything he has made because of his childhood. Second, many geniuses have an English background (J.K. Rowling, E.L. James, Naomi Campbell). I think that is important, because the UK is very rich in art and they can affect people around them in various ways. This goes back to what I was saying earlier that where we grow up affects us and the UK can add a lot of influence, with all of its rich culture and I think that it’s strong foundation in the arts can lead to more geniuses (E.L. James Bio). Third, several geniuses grew up in a big city (Chance the Rapper, Kanye West, Flying Lotus). I think that a big city can make anyone into a creative person, because of what it has to offer to people, like all the different art works and styles that can inspire people.
“JKRowling Tales of Beedle the Bard” 2008. Internet: Flickr.
J.K. Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter series, and she is a very smart and creative person. She is a very talented writer that can make so many creative ideas, with her work she is very influential, and she is a hard worker that never gives up when there is an obstacle. She did have some obstacles before she was writer but if they had never happened she might have never written the books that so many people love. First of all she got divorced which put her in a dark place and then she had to take care of her daughter Jessica. Doing this alone she struggled with welfare and being able to provide for her daughter. The Harry Potter books are the only thing that kept her motivated and then the first three books, Sorcerers Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Prisoner of Azkaban, all made her rich in three years. (1)
When it comes to my creative side, there are three things that could make a creative genius: I am a fast thinker, I can pick up lessons really quick, and I am very good with math. Now some things that can be problematic for me are that I have a tendency to think past my limit of resources, so I am often faced with having to change my idea. Now, because I can pick up on things easily and am a fast thinker, I usually think of another good idea that is sometimes better than what I originally had because the lack of resources make it more fun and creative. In an interview I was doing Maria Beniaris said, “Always look at something with a deeper meaning and not for what it is.” I use this quote to help me think of better ways to do something and be more creative with an artistic point of view. Something that our world is faced with today is focusing on matters that don’t need tending to. For example, we are not taking care of our Earth at all, by dumping so much garbage, polluting the air affecting the ozone layer and so on. I think because I can pick up on things fast I would be able to learn a few things that have to do with the environment and then use what I have learned to think of a way to get children aware of what is happening so that in the future we could use our technology to fix everything. From this idea, we would have a cleaner Earth and a good way to get rid of things without ruining our planet.
References:
Beniaris, Maria. 2014. Personal Interview
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Overpopulation and Crime
For my last unit of my STEAM class Population, we learned about our population and how in 2050 it is estimated for there to be 10 billion people on earth. We also went over arithmetic and geometric sequences. Arithmetic is a sequence that uses addition and subtraction and geometric is when they use multiplication and division. Then, we went over different problems overpopulation might bring up like lack of food and water resources. Bringing me to the action project; we had to pick a topic that might become an issue with overpopulation. The issue I have chosen was crime and with this, I had to come up with a script to a comic strip on the issue. We also did the math together to see for ourselves on how many there would be exactly and we came up with 10,715,465,520. We used a geometric sequence because the number wasn't constant. This is a very good estimate, and something that could make the population higher is if we find more cures for diseases. What could lower it is if more diseases reach all around the world.
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| NVA "2050 population" 2014. Chicago |
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| Mel, George "Crime" 2009. |
[Mark and Mary having dinner talking about different issues in the world, mainly crime at this point]
Mark: Hey, what do you think is the greatest cause of crime. I think it has to do with different things like politics or racism. (1)
Mary: Really? What about the overpopulation?
Mark: Not really because crime has to do with stuff that is happening around a person.
Mary: And you think overpopulation isn’t something that is happening around someone? Think about it, if we have an increase in people, then everyone is going have to fight for resources like food or water and might lead to thefts. Our lives would become a big competition. (2)
Mark: Maybe, but in the last couple of years crime has dropped 5% from 2008 to 2009, and if I’m not mistaken, population is always going up so that just makes that percentage grow. (3)
Mary: Yes, but think about it, the government would not be able to control our living conditions like they do now, meaning more crimes could happen, and the government wouldn't be able to do anything. That percentage just went down. (4)
[Mark looks around in the room]
Mark: I guess, because if the population did grow too much, this restaurant might not be here.
Mary: Don’t you see now... yes, maybe crime is caused by other factors but if so and the population grows, those problems would grow and cause more crime in an area. Crime and population affect each other all the time.
Mark: Hey Mary?
Mary: Yeah?
Mark: Can we move to the country side?
- “Top 10 Causes of Crime” Inferix. Top Yaps. n.d.
- “Effects of Human Population” n.p. Everything Connects. 2013
- “A Crime Puzzle: Violent Crime Declines in America” Claude Fischer. Berkeley Blog. 2010
- “Negative Effects on Overpopulation” n.p. Essay Forum. 2013
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Hero and Superhero
For Unit 3 of my Stories class, we learned about a man named Joseph Campbell who created the idea of a heroes journey. The idea was that the hero goes through 12 steps, 1. The ordinary world, 2. Call to adventure, 3. Refusal to call, 4. Meeting with the mentor, 5. Crossing the threshold, 6. Tests and Enemies, 7. Approach, 8. Ordeal, 9. Reward, 10. Road back, 11. Atonement, 12. Return. For our last action project, we had to use these steps with a fictional character that we like and also apply them to a hero/idol in our actual lives. The fictional character that I have chosen is Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow from the TV series Arrow. The hero in my life that I chose was a man named Richard Owens who is a lawyer, I believe that a lawyer is a hero in the way that they help people in everyday problems that a police officer/ superhero can’t help. When we had to do the interview we had to record it and make a comic strip of our fictional heroes journey in one episode.
In a way Oliver Queen and Mr. Owens’s journeys were very similar because they both had to deal with the time issue. I say this because when Oliver was on the island his problem a lot of the time was being time, and Mr. Owens said in the interview that time was his greatest problem because of all his assignments and getting everything ready. They also used those skills that they learned to help others in some type of way that.
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| NVA" Arrow Comic Strip" 2014. Chicago |
Me: “What motivates you to keep doing what you do?”
Mr. Owens: “Number one, I like it, I like what I do very much its a good reason for me to get up in the morning. 2. Im good at what I do, so people tell me. My track record shows that to be the case. Thirdly many times I find myself, in a situation where i am the only remedy or means to a remedy that my client has protect himself.”
Me: “Who would say most helped you become a lawyer?”
Mr. Owens: “I knew I wanted to be a lawyer very young when I was, maybe not in elementary but certainly in high school.”
Third Person: “But was there someone is particular?”
Mr. Owens: “I honestly can say there was no one in particular person who was a mentor or I looked up to as a lawyer. That is something I would like to do, No I just knew. I had seen law programs on television, like everybody does. And I know it is not like that in real life but as a teenager you don't know that. And I like what I saw and I said that was something that I would like to do. So no there was no particular person that motivated me no there wasn’t.”
Me: “How was the transition to your line of work, what were you doing before you entered this type of field?”
Mr. Owens: “The practice of law? I was a college student. You know just normal teenager in high school, I enjoyed high school. I was relatively good at it, if I studied as hard as I did in college I would have been a straight A student, and if I would studied as hard as I did n law school I would have been a straight A student. But it was sufficiently good to get into law school. My life prior to becoming an attorney was very ordinary, nothing special.”
Third Person: “You were a caddy.”
Mr. Owens: “Pardon?”
Third Person: “You were a golf caddy.”
Mr. Owens: “Yes I was a golf caddy, when I was in my teens up into my well I became an the assistant caddy master. Up until my 20's, which was a really nice job. There wasn’t anything special about my life prior to becoming a lawyer. It was very ordinary, I was a very average middle class kid.”
Me: “Did anyone go against what you were trying to achieve?”
Mr. Owens: “No, my parents were very supportive of it, my sisters said, “Oh that's great that's nice!” even when they had there own thing going on. Jane was getting married, Donna was already married Tommy was going into priesthood. My parents were supportive of it my grandmother nana who was someone that raised me said, “Hey thats really nice we have never had a lawyer in the family before.” So they were very supportive of it. They liked the idea.”
Me: “Okay, What were some of the challenges you had to face?”
Mr. Owens: “TIME, time is the biggest enemy to a law student has and time is the biggest enemy a lawyer has. It’s a very disciplined study, your teachers are I wouldn't say rough but you have to know what you are being taught to practice law. Because you are representing other people and you have to know what you are doing. The washout rate is very high during the first year, kids just don't make the grade, so you are up all night studying very hard. Study of law is a strict discipline there is a lot of reading, a lot of reading and some writing. And as you progress, its even more writing, but the amount of reading doesn't let up, so it is a very difficult study.”
Me: “Once you became a lawyer what was your biggest challenge besides time mainly?”
Mr. Owens: “Biggest challenge is being not being, (as a new lawyer) intimidated by the opposing attorney who is almost always more experienced than you are and knows more than you. Also knowing how to speak to the judge, I spoke differently to a judge then than I do now.
I am much more confident in myself you become more confident in yourself with more experience of course. Certain judges I know on a personal level, I can somewhat for a better word I can joke with them. But a courtroom is still… A courtroom is a very dull setting and a very serious setting. Some judges i call them by their first name outside of court. A lawyer would never ever do that while the judge is on the bench that would be very disrespectful. So the biggest challenge I had was confidence in your own self. So you weren't intimidated by the other attorney and by the judge.”
Me: “Will you use what you have learned to help other might be going through the same thing?”
Mr.Owens: “Oh yeah, sure when I was practicing law some years ago, the bar association had a program I don't know if I want to call it mentoring, it as a certain assortation to it, but to take questions from senior law students and they would ask you question they wanted to try to help them overcome the hurdles that a brand new lawyer would encounter. And the best way to deal with those problems which I encountered and how I overcame them. I haven’t done that in a while, but I did it for maybe 15 - 20 years.”
Me: “Alright. What skills have you held on that might still help you today?”
Mr. Owens: “What fields?”
Me: “No, skills.”
Mr. Owens: “Oh you have to constantly read new cases, the law… What’s up. (To Third person)”
Third Person: “Read the question again.”
Me: “What skills have you still held on to that might help you today.”
Mr.Owens: “What skills have I held on to. The discipline of getting what I needed to be done early and not waiting to the last minute to do it, as too many lawyers do. studying and continuing to study my case file, knowing my case file, knowing my client. The reason lawyers get in trouble is because, they don't communicate with their client. You have to remember a lawyer is kind of an employee of the client. He is paying you and the person who is paying you is your employer. To many lawyers don’t look at that way, lawyers think that they are the boss, they are not! A lawyer is a counselor and an advisor. Those are what they define themselves as they are people that give advice. The client makes the ultimate decision, you would give an opinion on what you think the client should do, but the ultimate decision is client’s. It has to be the clients its his money and his stake in the game. I have no stake.”
Third person: “Maybe organization helped you?”
Mr. Owens: “I have always been told I have a good organizational skill. Which means you have to keep what the files very organized, I always tell my friends I could go blind and I would be able to know where all my files are.”
Monday, October 13, 2014
To Mars
For Unit 2 of my Population class, we mainly went over central tendencies which consists of mean (average), max, min, range, mode, median, 1st quartile, and 3rd quartile. Then we learned how to put some of that information on a number line showing where they would be the name of this is a box and whisker plot. Next we learned about standard deviation which shows the quantity of something in a group and comparing it to a population of this thing. For the action project, we had to pick an animal from a rescue that is in our town and tell why we would think it would be best fit for Mars, also how it would help the Mars 1 project. The purpose of this action project was to show an animal would do in these kinds of conditions. My favorite thing about this project was that I got to learn more about Mars and its lands.
Mitch “American Eskimo” 12 Sept, 2009. Internet: Wikimedia Commons
“Westie”. July 23, 2009. Internet: Flickr
Since this animal would be living with humans, food, air, water problems would have been solved. That being the case, I believe it would best if the people settled in a dry plain area where the ground is flat. This would be best because there is more heat in the soil so when it gets fairly cold, it would be easy to get heat because there are no obstacles blocking it. If water does become a problem they can have something to extract the water in ice form from the ground. The animal I have chosen is in the video below.
From looking at The Chicago Canine Rescue, I will use the amount of years to show my data on the animals. Below is the box and whisker plot.
The standard deviation for this sample was 3.63 (3 years 7 months), and with a group with an average of 3.47, this shows that there is a very small age variance with the animals. With an outlier of about 3.98. The American Eskimo mixed with a Terrier is 3.63 standard deviations above the mean.
Sunday, October 12, 2014
The Home Making Aardvark
For Unit 2 of my Stories class, we mainly went over the different types of character and how they can affect a story, we also learned about fables and how they all use personification and have a moral. Another thing we learned about was symbols and how anything can be a symbol. For this action project we had to make a fable of our own with a moral that relates to our life with a symbol. The moral I have chosen for my fable was that no good deed goes unpunished and symbol in the story is hole because it shows how two opposites can come together. The purpose of this was to see how a fable can teach any lesson, and feeling about something. What I really liked about this project was that I got to play around with the characters and do a lot of dialog.
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| NVA "Jonas and Tom" 2014. Chicago |
“No! What are you doing? I thought we were friends. HELP. HELP. HEL…”
In the dry African Savanna, there lives an aardvark named Jonas. Jonas is a very kind aardvark who loved to build homes for any animal who asked, only if they saw him as a friend and not food. Jonas has a very welcoming voice that makes it seem like he’s always happy and long nails that help him dig. He will always makes exceptions when building for an animal that sees him as food, but only if there is good reason. This meant that every day he would have new animals asking him to build them a home: ducks, warthogs, snakes, and even a porcupine.
One day Jonas had a new customer who looked dangerous. He walked towards Jonas laughing mischievously with a creepy smile on his face. Once Jonas saw him clearly, he shouted, “RUN EVERYONE, RUN!” He quickly tapped at the top of each hole to warn everyone. The hyena quickly ran after him and caught up to him and pounced on Jonas. Jonas asked nervously, “Please make it quick?!”.
The hyena responded quickly saying, “No no! I am here to ask for a home. I am very desperate and I have three small children.”
Jonas responded frightened saying, “You are a Liar, I never give a home to someone who has killed my own kind!”
The hyena said, “No, I am telling the truth!”
Jonas said, “Then why did you come here with that weird laugh?”
The hyena responded, “Because I am a laughing hyena. Just listen my name is Tom and all I want is a home. Can you please help me?”
Jonas said sadly, “yes.”
After the talk they had Jonas and Tom talked a little more, and soon became friends. Jonas asked, “Why did you come here for a home?”
Tom said, “because my pack was killed by hunters, and its just me and and my three sons.”
Jonas was shocked and knew that these hunters were the weird people with no fur and a tall bodies. Jonas asked, “Where are your three children?”
Tom responded saying, “Behind that tree. Kids come here!” The three kids came out, “This is Dylan, Ryan, and Victor.”
“So when do you think my house will be ready?” asked Tom.
Jonas answered, “In a couple of days. I have to find a spot to dig the hole and make sure it would be large enough for your family.”
“Do you know anywhere else I can stay for the time being?” asked Tom.
“You can stay with one other person I know, Oliver the porcupine. He is nice but mess with him and it can get nasty.” Jonas said with a smile on his face.
The day came when Tom and his kids were ready to have their own home. “I found the perfect spot that is against a wall of dirt so it would make it easier for you to enter,” Jonas said happily.
When they walked over to it Tom said, “It is perfect! Children what do you think?”
“Looks amazing!” The kids replied. Jonas decided he would show them their new home, and in it was a nice space to rest and eat. “What is this?” Tom asked.
“Oh that is another way to get in here, just so you don't have to walk around this whole thing.” Jonas replied. When Jonas was showing himself out.
Tom said quickly, “Oh wait there was one more thing I need help with.” So Jonas walked back and responded, “what is up?” Tom replied in an eerie voice, “Just lunch!”
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