Blog Analysis

Last week, my class conducted a blog analysis on some great blogs that have been made by other students in the past. Out of several blogs, we were assigned to choose two which we wanted to analyze, and I chose Wade and Riley's blog. 

I decided to start off with Wade's blog. 

An engaging post contains a description, analysis, and a reflection. Including a bit of personality and obstacles increases how engaging a post could be.

In Wade's "The Rise of Trent Marley" he began with a humorous comment, where instead of calling the main character "Host" and driving himself insane, he would give him a name and call him "Trent Marley". While it wasn't completely in order, he included several descriptions and an analysis of the character, and finishes the blog with the following steps that he needs to take.

In Riley's "One part down, one to go", she begins by describing why she is not done with the film opening and what she needs to do for the CCR. Her humorous twist engages the reader; she says that she is 99% done with the film opening, but not yet, because she needs to complete the CCR. She then includes a video from Vogue as an example of what medium she would like to use for her project. She finishes by mentioning that she likes the idea of Vogue's video and plans to put her own spin on it moving forward.

These blogs taught me a few things. I learned that I need to pay more attention to my humor when writing blogs. Showing personality helps in blogs, and while I also plan to focus more including description, analysis and reflection in my blogs, I keep forgetting that personality is allowed in Media Studies, as it is a class that entails a more artistic and broad approach to writing and expression.

Themes: Carpe Diem

One theme is to be in the present moment.

Jim Carrey's role as "Lloyd Christmas" in Dumb and Dumber.

In Dumb and Dumber, Lloyd Christmas is one of the main characters and lives life in the moment for the most part. In our film, Zach and Martin are very similar to Lloyd as they are spontaneous and always try to have fun because they believe that's the only way to truly live. However, the rich businessman character is always stressed and overworked and rationalizes it by saying it's for his future. 

Another theme is not to change yourself to please others.

Zach (on the left) and Martin (on the right).

If you act a certain way because it's who you are, you shouldn't change to please someone. Zach (George Washingless) and Martin (Jorge Santana) are dumb, yet they don't know or care that other people think they are. They have dreams and ambitions that outweigh any criticisms made by anyone other than themselves.

Role in Another Project

Today, I played a role in Male Ojeda's project. She had scheduled to record it earlier the week before, but we had an important lesson on the CCR. There were other roadblocks, such as having to do a shorter lesson and an assignment the same day that we recorded the project, but the shots ended up pretty good, for the most part. She had to re-do some shots with the main character, though.

My role in this project was a guy going by the name of Caleb Jimenez. I am the boyfriend of Summer Park, and my entire role in this film opening is just to be her boyfriend for a couple of shots.

This is Caleb's color palette. I ended up wearing a long sleeve shit and cargo pants in all black, and it was okay for the role.

The filming process was, to be frank, embarassing. I had to re-do a shot of me hugging a girl from behind about 10 times in the middle of the most public place in my high school, the courtyard. I also had to say "hey babe," and "you ready for class?" Personally, I think I nailed it, but my soul did not. It may have taken some additional damage from the embarassment.

Nonetheless, I'm glad that I worked on this project. Seeing the process and the way Male did her shots served as a sort of a framework for my filming process in the future. While she is skilled and talented at filming, I am not. The whole process was informative and, even through the damage, I'm glad I did it.

Filming Schedule and Filming vs Editing

Scheduling is an important part of filming any piece of media. Today, Zach and I have scheduled when we will record our project. It will be recorded during spring break, and we will try to film it as soon as possible. We have already decided on a possible location: Palm Islands. This is Eric's (the rich guy) neighborhood. However, we have asked Eric and he is still not 100% sure if we can do this.

Eric's car is a modded Subaru, kind of like this:

Our back up plan will be to use Zach's Dad's car instead. It is a convertible, and Zach would end up playing two roles: the rich guy and one of the dumb guys. However, I would end up setting up most of the shots, and also editing in the end, as I always offer to edit.

Although I do not necessarily enjoy filming, it is of course mandatory for editing. I enjoy editing because everything is at your fingertips and you can control where anything goes, unlike filming, where you could think of an amazing shot, but you might not have the facilities to achieve it. I will end up editing this project in one or two days, as I am in TV Production and I edit very quickly. Last project, however, was a little sloppy, and I will make sure to make less mistakes moving forward, as any skill is a constant improvement.

Creative Critical Reflection

On Friday, my class was instructed on the nature of the CCR, or the Creative Critical Reflection. In other words, we were informed on what it is and how to do it. It is the final "post-production" step to our film opening, and I understood its purpose in three categories: to reflect on the production, repond to the questions, and to express personality.

It consists of two media products that should respond to four questions. A variety of media products can be used, and in fact, anything works as long as they creatively address these questions. Here are my notes:

While incorporating info throughout my CCR, I will make sure to answer all four questions in accordance to the rubric I was given and my own creativity.

Film Opening Outline

Yesterday at 7 PM, Zach and I got into a call to discuss our film outline. We discussed the scenes, the possible shots to demonstrate them, how we should act, and their order. As a result, we came up with a rough sequence of eight scenes:

(insert picture when u get home)

Although the scenes are not in visually linear order, we numbered them to clarify their actual order. This is because our thought process was scattered as we figured out how the film opening should encapsulate both comedy, cohesive cutaways, and a shocking ending to entice the viewer.

Next, we plan to make the storyboard. With the scenes to add direction, the storyboard will be much easier to create, as per to the essence of planning: facilitation.

So far, our scenes demonstrate the contrast between the cool rich guy Eric and the two goofy, dumb guys that will, unknowingly, steal his dog. The scenes will end (and we might take the cursing out) with Eric screaming for his dog. This is added as a final "shock" factor to incline viewers to watch the rest of the film.

An Unprecedented Barrier

While I was already receiving larger amounts of work from other classes, an even larger concern has crossed my path. I had forgotten that I signed a contract to stay for Musical Theatre rehearsals. They are rehearsing Legally Blonde, and my role is to be one of the spotlights. I have to stay after school until 5:30 or 6 pm, every day until Thursday, March 9th, the final day of the show. 

Zach and I are doing the storyboard today after my practice anyway, and I will have to stay up late doing other homework for several classes after we are done.

Although school is draining me in addition to increased personal and physical issues, I plan to finish my job in Musical Theatre and push through all my assigned work.

I feel as if in a way, education is useful and I am grateful for it, but there are extremes to every situation. Teens are not meant to sacrifice their sleep for something that very well may not benefit them in the future. Schools need to prioritize more important subjects for students, whether it be finding a job or paying taxes. 

However, one of the defining benefits of school is the fact that out of everything else, it teaches students the ability to think. The benefit of thought-provoking activities like math or certain English assignments assist the brain's development, and schools need to practice this more instead of continuously giving students assignments. To do is not necessarily to think, and if school focused on this idea, while also having shorter hours, students would perform much better than they do now.

Media Studies is a genuinely valuable class, and I wish that I had more time to allocate for this class. But mental fortitude is something that develops as a result of hardship, and knowing myself, I know that I will eventually do all my work, and everything will end up fine.

Moving forward, I expect to have large amounts of work during next week, but I will, like always, push through it and continue to work on this project and my personal life.