Scriptwriter(s): Continue editing and revising your scripts. In your two column script add scene breaks for each new scene. Write an update on your blog describing how your script is progressing. Describe how your script is incorporating all the dystopian elements as well as weaving together a storyline with characters. For example, are you using voice overs for the narration or dialogue from the actual scenes? How many total scenes are in your script? (I understand that some scenes will be longer than others) Describe the overall structure of your trailer. 

 

Our script is progressing nicely, and we have almost all the dystopian elements in it. Most of the exposition is delivered in a voiceover by one of the main characters, but the voiceover stops halfway through, and then the story is conveyed through dialogue. We have 9 scenes total, although some are very short. Our trailer begins with a speech by the main antagonist, and then scenes from the actual plot are interspersed between shots of the antagonist giving her speech. 

At the Library

Entrance to Bethesda Library- Circulation desk and check-out
Bookshelves in the Fiction section
The "Teen Section" of the Library- Chairs and tables specifically for teens to read at.
The computers
A girl and a man reading in the Periodicals section

For this project, I used my mom's iPhone to shoot the clips and iMovie to edit it. Thankfully, everything went smoothly. I had never used iMovie before, but I found it very easy to understand. The only thing I had a little trouble with was keeping the camera steady, because my hands tend to shake. Hopefully next time I will be able to find something to steady the camera on.

I am relatively pleased with my 5x5. I am happy with the topic, because the library is somewhere I go a lot, and I really enjoy spending time there. The only thing I am unhappy about is the shakiness of the video, which detracts from the viewing experience.

Next time, I'd like to be able to do something with a plot. Maybe we could try and convey a simple plot with just a couple of still shots, like a backpack and a bowl of cereal would represent a morning, or a birthday card and a cake would represent a party. I think that would be challenging intellectually, but it wouldn't involve a lot of technical expertise.

Soylent Green, Richard Fleischer, PG, 1973

A police detective in a futuristic New York crippled by overpopulation investigates why a secret about the main source of food in this society, Soylent Green, has led to the murder of a famous industrialist. In the process, he endangers himself and his friends, and learns the terrible secret of Soylent Green.

This trailer is exemplary for its development of one core concept as the center of the plot of the film. Throughout the trailer, the words "What is the secret of Soylent Green?" flash repeatedly on the screen. This clearly establishes the secret of Soylent Green as the irrefutable center of the plot of the film. The voiceover used to read the words also helps establish the main protagonist as well as the other characters in the film, and makes the trailer much clearer and easier to understand than it would have been if there had not been a voiceover. The use of clips of food riots and various shots of the setting help to establish the society in the film as a broken and chaotic one, and the overall hectic and dramatic tone of the trailer helps with that also. In my trailer, I also intend to use a voiceover, although instead of having a narrator, I will use a speech delivered by one of the characters in the film. This should help clarify the general plot of the film. I will also use various clips from the film in a style similar to this trailer, where they are organized according to what the voiceover is saying.

This week, I annotated Tom Friedman's column from September 18th, entitled "Look in Your Mirror". It called for Muslims who were protesting an American anti-Muhammad video to take a look at their own attitudes towards other religions. Friedman argued that although many Middle Eastern Muslims complain about how other people disrespect Islam, they themselves are often incredibly intolerant towards other religions. He cites several examples of inflammatory anti-Christian and anti-Jewish rhetoric from the Middle East, including an article from the Muslim Brotherhood that describes Americans and Jews as "the descendants of apes and pigs".
Friedman's tone in this article is fairly aggressive at times, and he calls the use of a YouTube video as an excuse to attack an American embassy "shameful". He also uses words such as "chauvinistic" and "bile", which present a more educated if no less angry tone. Friedman's words conjure up images of angry protesters, radical Muslims, and other slightly unsettling images. He gives direct links to the various intolerant articles from the Middle East to support his claims. Friedman's language is approachable and his syntax is simple, but he nonetheless manages to convey a complex idea.

Annotated Link

For this particular project, I read the article World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others, by Will Richardson. The article discusses how schools today need to embrace technology, and more specifically the internet, as a source for learning and work. Richardson gives examples of teachers who have done this, as well as students who have prospered because of this. He is generally in favor of using the internet for schooling; however, he also cautions people to be safe on the internet and make sure the content they are seeing is accurate and safe. He writes that the internet and learning on the internet is "about being able to form safe , effective networks and communities around those explorations," and  "trust and be trusted in the process". This is a very important point, because many times people who try and find information on the internet do not filter their sources, and end up with inaccurate information or something that is unsafe. This, to me, is the biggest flaw in the idea of learning off of the internet. It is difficult to trust anything on the internet, because there is virtually no way to completely verify whether someone is telling the truth about something they put on the internet. I thought it was interesting and surprising that the author acknowledged that issue, because generally I find that most people seem to trust themselves to sort through real or fake things on the internet. In the context of this class in particular, I trust that we will be able to filter our information enough to make connected and internet-based learning a useful reality. I think that connected learning would be very helpful when it comes to learning about editing techniques for film, as well as acting for film, both of which I am relatively unfamiliar with and would like to learn more about.


World Without Walls Article

My name is Natalie, and I am going to try my best to make this post more interesting than just the bare basics of what we are supposed to say. I enjoy editing films on Final Cut, which is what I usually end up doing when we work in group film projects. The first time I ever used Final Cut was also my favorite film project so far. That was in 8th grade, when we made documentaries based on our trips to New York. I also enjoyed our stop-motion commercials we made in 6th grade, because they were very creative if extremely time-consuming. I wrote the script for my documentary with my partner, and we both worked on the editing, though I did most of the actual work on the computer. I am extremely excited to do the CAP Hollywood project, because I'm looking forward to creating an actual movie with a plot.

I think  these blogs could be really helpful when it comes to:

-Communicating with teachers over breaks, because sometimes it can be difficult to contact a teacher via email

-Working on big projects, especially if a member of the project doesn't use GoogleDocs or something similar

-Showing our work to people outside of school, such as our friends and family

-Posting and sharing useful links for CAP-wide projects

Image Source: Old Books