The Lost Path to Perfection: I-search Movie

                                                             

                                 I SEARCH MOVIE LINK

        
         For the past two weeks, all 8th graders at Francisco Middle School had to complete an I-search, a research assignment based on a chosen topic. Jessie, Stephanie and I decided the best way to show our research would be to make a movie. Since everyone else was writing a 15-16 paragraph essay, we all felt very lucky with our choice. I think it turned out to be a very fulfilling experience for all of my team members and I. We learned many interesting facts about media influencing teenage girls while also having fun creating a script, and filming later on. I hope this movie reflects all of our hard work and dedication,as well as our research.

Article Project Questionnaire

 Answers

Which of the 8 rules of Media Literacy is illustrated in the Beauty and Body Image article? Why and how?

1. One of the 8 rules in Media Literacy that is reflected in the Body and Image article, is that all media is constructed. This article talks about a topic that discusses women's struggle and distress with their own bodies. It has been carefully organized into different categories that all backup the main idea they want to publish. Rule #2 is also shown in this article. In general, the way think is very much influenced by media, which we see in our everyday lives. As you read through this article, you will decide on your own opinion, and be able to make your own conclusion. However, with all of the evidence and facts this article provides, it will try to persuade you to think otherwise. Media around the world can be negotiated of how it will be presented to its audience. Rule #4,5,6 are also shown in this article. Media needs to be a profitable business, so it will always be trying to advertise something, whether or not the readers understand it from their perspective. In this article, a valuable message is trying to be enhanced by stating the dangers of being underweight, and the importance of being comfortable with your own body.

The article on advertising to children is a great example of media constructing reality (#2 rule of Media Literacy). Can you think of an example of media constructed reality aimed at teens? Tell me what it is and how it constructs reality.

2. A good example of constructed reality aimed at teens would be all of the T.V shows focused on school or the lives of teenagers from a very dramatic setting. It pinpoints life in middle or high school much more complicated than it really is. Some teenagers enter high school already thiking it will be the worst four years of their lives.

The commercial implications (#4) of media literacy are illustrated in The Economics of Ethnicity link. Do you think most media does a good job of showing what your real life is like? The number of minority people you see daily, the kinds of problems you have in real life, the way those problems get solved - are these things that you see in TV shows, movies and advertising?

3.  No, unfortunately, I think most media does not do a good job to show what my real life is like. First of all, all media needs to make a profit, so they need some sort of rating or awareness among the public they are trying to reach. I don't see many T.V shows focusing on our real daily lives or the common people we see everyday, because it would simply be too boring for any of us to want to watch. Even if a minor percetange of the media bussiness does try to make an effort to relate to its viwers, we all have a wide variety of problems in our lives, and most aren't mentioned out there.

Tour of Francisco Middle School Commercial

Our commercial my group (Jessie, Nicky, and Anthony) an I made was a short 4 minute film that basically gave a tour of Francisco Middle School. We introduced and filmed at the most common locations on campus: the cafeteria, the little theater, the gym etc. We also filmed mini interviews of about 40 sec each of the school staff (like the principal, or vice principal). Jessie and I were the camera crew, while Anthony and Nicky focused on the acting section of the commercial.
       Doing this assignment was a new experience for all of us, and we were able to learn new skills throughout the whole process. For example, we learned all of the steps there are to creating a commercial (creating a storyboard, learning our lines, etc.) The point of this film is to encourage new students to come to Francisco Middle School. We want to be able to persuade our audience, not otherwise. Hopefully, we were able to achieve our goal.

Tour of Francisco MS Commercial

       Our commercial my group (Jessie, Nicky, and Anthony) an I made was a short 4 minute film that basically gave a tour of Francisco Middle School. We introduced and filmed at the most common locations on campus: the cafeteria, the little theater, the gym etc. We also filmed mini interviews of about 40 sec each of the school staff (like the principal, or vice principal). Jessie and I were the camera crew, while Anthony and Nicky focused on the acting section of the commercial.
       Doing this assignment was a new experience for all of us, and we were able to learn new skills throughout the whole process. For example, we learned all of the steps there are to creating a commercial (creating a storyboard, learning our lines, etc.) The point of this film is to encourage new students to come to Francisco Middle School. We want to be able to persuade our audience, not otherwise. Hopefully, we were able to achieve our goal.

High School Acceptance Letter

      For me having to apply to schools in San Francisco, has always been a problem. We have to go through what you call a Inter School District Transfer, since technically I live in Daly City, not San Francisco. I had applied to SOTA here in SF, Carmon in San Carlos, Terra Nova in the Pacifica, and Westmoor in Day City. When I opened my high school letter acceptance letter, it said I had been accepted into Terra Nova High School. Getting into this school was way easier and faster, since it's actually part of my district. The SOTA letter also came in, and it said I was being placed on a waiting list. It's alright, since 've decided to attend Terra Nova High School next year.

TV Advertisement Assignment

Cocoa Puffs Commercial, CLICK HERE

      An Advertisement, I would always find extremely funny would be the COCO FOR COCOA PUFFS commercial. That rooster jumping up and down crazily yelling COCO FOR COCOA PUFFS, COCO FOR COCOA PUFFS!!! was so hilarious... Anyways usually everytime my mom and I go grocery shopping, we can't leave out the COCO FOR COCOA PUFFS cereal out of our shopping list.

The Secret in their Eyes Film Review

        The past can turn into something so scandalous, so obscure that makes it difficult to forget, in "The Secret in their Eyes." This drama filled movie is a blend of mytery, and violence, along with tinge of comedy marked in some points in the film to create a better perspective. And what's a dramatic movie without a forbidden love story?

        This film takes place in present day Argentina, with occasional fashbacks to the 1970's where a former ivenstigator, Benjamin Ricardo Darin can't forget a specific case that treated with the rape and murder of a woman. Even if he had never met her, the memory of her corpse haunts his dreams. Her case was never solved, with the culprit still at bay. Years later, Benjamin decided to a write a story on this specific case, which also reunites him with his former colleague, Irene. This takes him back along the road of unforgotten memories tinged with regret of never being able to solve this case which had also taken great effect on hisown life.

   

       The lighting in this film is really quite extraordinary, wrapping main characters, like Irene or Benjamin, with a more solemn or subdued style, in order to reflect their moods, or the loss and regret they both feel. There are also many low light, sort of shadowy, foggy scenes that give a pretense of the mystery itself in the film. Even the clothes the charaters are made to wear, are very well chosen to reflect of this style of lighting.

Music in this movie, can bring tears to your eyes, or make you laugh, depending on what it's set out to do. It also wraps many scenes with its own unique melody, bringing you to share a scene's mood on a more personal basis.

      Overall, this movie can easily meat anyone's standard of a good dramatic film. I think it definately deserved to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2009.

Vampire Movie Assignment_2010

      During Summer Young Writer's & Film Camp, we were given the assignment to take footage others had filmed and edit it to make it our own. All of us campers came up with different styles and methods, and we all ended up with different projects, even if we all had started with the same footage. This film was created by me and two other fellow campers. Even is this was only meant as a warm up exercise, it a very fun experience.

Podcast 19 Assignment

     This week in our Media Arts Class, I have completed our latest podcast refering to the topic of Word Generation, a Strategic Education Research Partnership, created in order to increase students's lerning abilities. This is the 19th Week of the Word Generation Podcasts, so if you take a look at earlier podcasts, you will be able to see that as a class, we have improved and learned many skills such as learning how to create better animations, put more emotion in voiceovers, or even create our own music.

To see Podcast Week 19, Click here:

PSA Evaluation: Making Your Values Matter

    To see our PSA: Making Your Values Matter, click here

        Creating this PSA, gave me a chance to learn a different part of the media world. It gave me a chance to expand my knowledge into actually brainstorming and helping to write the script for a public service announcement. What was also very unique about this project, is that at the beginning, we all had different ideas for a PSA. But my teammates (Jessie, Stephanie) and I were able to combine them and create the theme, or main idea that our whole PSA is based on: Youth Empowerment: Making Your Values Matter. The San Francisco Film Society helpers, Kirthi, Ryan, and Masa were also a great help to all of our class. Even when we thought our film was done, they helped us point out many little things that needed to be corrected, before being able to finally export it.
 
        To me what most fun about creating this PSA was editing it. It gave all of us a chance to be creative and make this movie really ours, and enjoyable for others to watch.  However, what was most hard for me would have to be filming. Now that took a lot of focus and teamwork from all of us. I have to say that standing in front of a camera was not as easy as it seemed! For a minute I thought we would never be able to get all of our scenes filmed in time, since all of us just kept messing up! In the end, our PSA didn't quite follow our script. In fact, we had all decided to delete or change many scenes. Kirthi explained this happens very often in the media world, and these small alterations can actually help improve our film.

    Overall, I enjoyed being part of this project in creating a PSA. It was a wonderful, new experience working with Kirthi, Ryan, and Masa. I'm sure we wouldn't have been able to start or finish these PSAs without them. I hope all of our hard work is displayed during Friday's screening, and that they'll actually listen to all of our messages being promoted throughout all of our videos.

PSA Assignment

         For our PSA, Jessie, Stephanie, and I  will be doing a video about helping kids around the world by just donating a small amount of money. The message we're trying to send is that people don't need to make big, hard sacrifices in order to help starving children. Every time you want to buy something, or need something, think of those people, and spare them a dollar. The audience we are trying to reach are kids our age, ranging from 12-17 years old. Jessie is like the camera person. She will be taking the pictures, and helping to film the video. Stephanie will be working with the sound, so she'll be helping to choose our music. I will be editing the film in imovie. Lastly, Stephanie will be gathering all of the props, which most of them, we already have. 

M.C Esher Assignment

M.C Escher Assignment Description

       This week in the 8th Grade Media Arts Class, we were asked to try to imitate a drawing,"Relativity", by M.C Escher, an artist specializing in tessellations. When I first glanced at the picture, I was unsure if any of us would be even able to come close to such an amazing drawing. What's so extraordinary about this piece is that all of those different perspectives and dimensions make you want to inspect every single detail, in order to be able to capture the drawing.

        My kerpoof picture diplays 3 different perspectives. Each staircase has someone walking up or down from what would be his/her point of view. All of those perspectives are trying to connect with each other, in order to piece together a unique image. Creating this picture turned out to be just as difficult as I expected! It's not easy trying to imagine something from a different perspective you aren't really used to. Which is why I've come to admire M.C Escher's Work. However, it was a fun and interesting experience to work on an assignment that takes you out of the ordinary!

Homework 1/27/11

      This week, I am helping out with the yearbook pictures. Jessie, Stephanie, Aquarius and I went to the soccer game in order to take pictures. I will upload them to schooloop tonight, in order to have them ready for Friday. Nicky and I will also be trying to take pictures of Student Council and try to upload those as well.


                                           Star Wars Questionare Paragraph

   In the movie, Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back",  the Death Wars was a code name for a poweful weapon that had the efficiency to destroy entire planets. Of course this issued a sense of terror of anihilation to any planets that dare commit treason. The Death Star had been under a secret construction under the command of Emperial commander, Grand Moff Tarkin, before being discovered by Rebel Alliance spies. The Death Star was actually used to destroy Pincess Leia's peaceful world of Aldeeran, completely turning it into ash and debri.

    However, before this happened, Princess Leia had stored all of the technical schematics, or contruction plans of a  Death Star. She hid it inside R2-D2's memory card, in order to keep it safe. Because of this, Darth Vader along with all of his stormtroopers chased her around the galaxy with the goal of being able to obtain these schematics. ON the other hand, the Alliance Rebels along with Princess Leia had vital information of how to destroy the Death Star now that they had these plans on their side.

   Luke Skywalker plays a very important role in this movie because he is a very important member of the Rebel Alliance leading a war against the Galactic Empire. Luke is actually Princess Leia's frateral twin brother, without having any type of knowledge about it. He trained with the Jedi master Obi Wan Kanobi in order to become a Jedi himself. Turns out, Luke was also the one who triggered th final detruction of the Death Star itself.

Book Selection Hw

     We were assigned to choose a book relating to the topic we are currently learning, the development of LucasFilm or of George Lucas himself. To tell you the truth, we were all rushing, so therefore I didn't find enough time to actually pick a book. However this one in specific, captured my eye, with its titlle, Take Ten Years (1970's) by Clint Twist. I knew it would refer to a specifc point in time in general, so it spiked my interest. The book I decided on captivated my attention while I was reading, for it took me back to the beginnnings of the 1970's. The cool thing was, it not only talked about the movie, Star Wars or American Graffitti, but about the tragic or important happenings throughout the world. I think this helped me make a connection from the movies George Lucas created or directed, to the year they were made in. It made me realize their true impact on their audience.

Star Wars V: Plot Summary HW

   The film, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back, begins with a setting of a frozen, remote ice planet called Hoth. Luke Skywalker along with others of the Rebel Alliance have been forced into hiding in this cold, terrible place. During his turn patrolling around the base camp, Luke find a curious meteor crash. At the exact moment, he gets attacked by Wampa (the snow monster), and taken as its prisoner. At the same time, Darth Vader, who is obsessed with trapping Luke Skywalker, have already landed in the planet Hoth along with his Storm Troopers.
    Trying to escape from the Wampa, Luke is able to use his lightsaber to cut out his arm. However, he isn't resistant to the freezing weather outside of the Wampa's cave. Just before he collapses, the spirit of his late mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi materializes, instructing him to had towards the planet Dagobah, in order to train the Jedi master, Yoda.
     Han Solo, Luke's friend, is able to rescue him, before he's warned that Darth Vader had ordered an attack on their base (on Hoth), after finally locating it. Han Solo, along with princess Leia escape on a ship called the Millennium Falcon towards hyperspace, with the help of their friends, C-3PO and Chewbacca. Luke is also able to escape from Hoth with R2-D2, and accidentally crash lands on Dagobah, where he meets Yoda. He is immediately put under intensive training, but not for long. Luke has a vision of his friends, Han and Lei in danger. So against his master's advice, he leaves to help them, under swearing an oath to return.
     I find this movie very captivating, for it's like a time warp, a window that lets me see how people from the 1980's were able to enjoy this film. It gives me a chance to be able to appreciate it more, under its circumstances. It's true that technology has evolved a lot since that movie was last made, but you have to admit that for a film created back then, it's pretty amazing. All that puppetry or special affects were still being introduced in the world of film making. I think they did a great job of putting it all together. The music also has a special quality of tying the whole movie together. In overall, I'm really enjoying this film, and can't wait to finish watching it!

George Lucas Biography Assignment

    Born to Dorothy Lucas and George Lucas (father), George Walton Lucas (son) was born in Modesto, California on May 14, 1944.  However, his passion for filmmaking did not start at an early age. In fact, George began with an interest on the race track, and dreamed of becoming a race car driver. Yet this only drove him to a near fatal accident on June 12, 1962. He decided to attend Modesto Junior College, in which he developed his love for cinematography. After displaying characteristics of a promising photographer, he transferred to the University of Southern California (USC) School of Cinematic Arts to pursue his passion.

     After graduating with a bachelor degree in fine arts in film in 1967, George Lucas re-enrolled himself in USC as a graduate student. He went on to direct films such as Electronic Labyrinth, which won first prize at the National Student Film Festival. He was later on awarded by the Warner Brothers, with a student scholarship and given opportunity to work on a film of his choosing. 

    George Lucas obtained his own production company in the year 1971, named Lucas Film. Around 1977, George Lucas went on to create one of the most successful movies of all time, Star Wars. He also took part as executive producer and story writer in the Indiana Jones movie as well. As the years went by, newly developed technology encouraged George Lucas to make use of to enhance the Star Wars movie series. Currently, he is still one of the best film producers, screenwriters, and directors of our time. George Lucas is also one of the most financially successful independent producers, holding an approximately wealth of $3 billion dollars.

Star Wars Goofs Do now

    This movie Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, is the fifth episode of the series. Since this movie was made almost 30 years ago, the technology enforced on the movie cannot be compared to what we use nowadays. Therefore, many Continuity goofs were made, without actually being known. This movie starts out with Luke Skywalker in the blizzard/snow scene. He gets attacked by a white monster, and then kidnapped. He wakes up hanging up from the ceiling, and desperately tries to get back down to grab his light saber when the monster comes back in.