Self Evaluation

In this documentary, I worked as the producer, I filled out the daily logs everyday and kept our team on track to getting what we wanted done. I helped with the interviewing and filming alongside of the other members when extra help was needed. I also took part in the editing process by putting in my two cents of when and how shots should be used. Along with the written work I also created the movie poster for this documentary.

The part I did best was keeping our group on task and on time. I kept a list of the shots we wanted to get in order to make this film a success. I also learned the different ways to edit and how the editting process works. I was able to add and remove shots when necessary, how to change volumes on clips and so on, which is significant to me because I never knew how to do that confidently before this film.

If i had to change something for next time, I would reduce the length of shots and excess talking that was in our overall film. I would want to be shorter and more to the point so that audiences stay engaged in the film and not get distracted. To get to this I would be more clear on what actual questions I want to put in the documentary before doing the interviews.

I would want you to notice all the hard work I put into all the written aspect of this project, by keeping a daily log I knew exactly what gone and when and what order the shots would be in when it came to the editting process which saved us alot of time. Also along with the written work, I would like you to realize that even though I was a producer I really stepped up and helped out with all the other aspects when it came to making this film what it was. I want you to know how much I learned from this project and how much fun I had making this film and everything I learned about the Yorkmills music program.

The Sounds of York Mills

1~ the film is told from the point of view of a student in York Mills who is exploring the different bands at our school. The students are showing the different musical taleents and different stlyes of music found in York Mills played by both teacher and students.

2~ In this film the most effectively used documentary techniques would have to be interactive because we got involved by interviewing the different bands. And also observational because at some points we just filmed the bands jamming out and just being themselves. We were just watching as a third party not getting involved.

3~ The style of the film was to show who the bands were and the talents that they held. We did this by having interviews with the bands and some members individually and then filming the bands playing together. This serves the content because it exposes who the bands are to the viewers and then goes into detail about who the bands are and their inspiration(s).

4~ my favorite character in the film is Brian Davis. When we sat down and talked to him individually he gave us a very good insight into music in his life and music in his band. Brian was very natural infront of the camera and didn't try and put on a show he just told us what we wanted to know and gave us good answers. If I had to cast one perosn for this part I would cast no one but Brian Davis himself because noone else would be able to show the passion and love you can see in his face when he is playing or even talking about his music.

3D Mapping Technologies

3D Mapping is a new advertising technology that has been made recently. I personally think that it is a very cool and futuristic idea to project the advertisements like this, but as with everything there are pros and cons to it.

PROS:
- it easily draws attention to the advertisement
- a way for advertisement to keep up with movies, that are all becoming 3D
- makes the audience feel as if they are a part of the advertisement and makes them want to stay to see what this is and what is going to happen next


CONS:
- people might be fooled that it is real, and in this situation if they saw the building starting to crack they might call the police for help
- to see the advertisement the proper way you must be looking at it from a certain direction or else it will not work properly.
- The weather conditions and time of day must be perfect, you would not be able to project something like this if it is light out because you wouldn't see the projections very well and same with if it was raining

"Canadian-ness"

What is Canadian-ness, is the way we act and interact with each otehr and other people around the world. Being Canadian in this day in age is being multiculturtal. Accepting anyone not paying attention to their race or religion. In class we had a discussions about what we thoguht Canadian-ness was and someone said we are nice, Candians are known for being very nice to everyone, but after our discussion and thinking about the people I've met in different places around the world I came to the conclusion that Canadians are no more if at all more freindly than other countries. We are just more accomodating.
Canadian-ness is what the rest of the world knows us for, the things that they think we do. It has been thought we live in igloo's, but no that is not what makes us Canadian. Canadians are very similar to American's because the two countries are attached and rely so much on each other.
Canadians use the heroes to shape who they are nationally and internationally differently. There are many heroes and famous people that are known in Canada as Canadians but no where else in the world. One of the most famous icons we talked about is Laura Secord she was a Canadian and did great things for us. A chocolate store was named after her and is well known all over Canada but not in the US or elsewhere in the world. Thus it is not showcased to others what she did unless they take a course on Canadian History. An internationally known icon is Celine Dion, her music went worldwide and is one of the first to show the world that talent can come out of Canada aswell as the US.

Reel Canada Film Festival

In the morning I saw 'How She Move' and in the afternoon I saw 'Nurse. Fighter. Boy'
These are two Canadian movies, I know that they are Canadian because they both take place in places around Canada. There were a few of scenes and sets in the afternoon movie that i recognized a park or the area.

Most other Canadian movies i have seen, you can tell that they are Canadian because of the language. The way it's spoken and pronounced and the accents that the characters or people have are clearly Canadian, but both of the films I saw weren't like this. The characters either had another accent (Nurse. Fighter. Boy the women had some sort of African accent) or they were talking in alot of slang and thus the Canadian accent didn't show through as well as other movies.

In the mornign movie there was an actor that I recognized that I know for a fact is Canadian. The actor was Shawn Desman, although he has been in US movies and music was released in the States, he is truly Canadian and living here currently. Shawn now owns a dance studio in the Toronto Area which he teaches at and runs.

One last way it was easily noticeable that the movies were Canadian and not American was that it was easily visible that their budget was low because the quality of the movie wasn't the best. The cinematography in both the films, I found to be very shaky almost is if it were a home video. American movies have a much higher budget and thus the quality is much better. They can spend more on effects and such. Canadian movies have to be very resourceful and creative with their ways.

Pros and Cons of Reality TV

Reality TV consists of many shows ranging from The Swan to American Idol.
There are many Pros of these shows for example with Identity change situations like The Swan, 10 Years Younger and What not to Wear the people are found with new looks and thus they are happy and confident with themselves, with their bodies and styles. In these situations there are also some Cons including the fact that the person and their personal style is taken away. They portrey certain hidden messages including;
- You need to look a certain way to fit in and be happy
- If you're not comfortable with yourself come to us and we'll make you feel like you are
- Materialistic consumerism
Once these hidden messages are portreyed then stereotypes start building. Stereotypes including;
- You have to be be pretty or you won't be liked
- You have to fit a certain mold in our society
- You're not happy unless you're pretty
These hidden messages can be harmful to mostly women and especially young girls who are watching they will grow up thinking they ahve to be pretty and thin and look a certain way and that is how things such as eating disorders start to develop.

One major Con of a certain kind of reality TV is that poeple can benefit and be aided in shows like Extreme Makeover Home Edition, people who have had a tragic incident in their family or life get their house, that is falling apart or not big enough, rebuilt and remodeled. The Con of a show like this is the poeple always end up with these massive. gorgeous houses that they don't have the money to maintain.

Some general Cons of Reality TV are that people get a false sense of who they are and what they can do. And they get a false sense of reality. Most people that part-take in reality television are attention seekers who wish to just be seen on TV and would follow along with anything that is said or done.

I think if I were to pursue a reality television show I would go with a talent show like American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance, because those don't have hidden messages that tell people they can't be happy the way they are, these shows simply showcase the talents that people have and let them be known for what they are good at.

In general I do not recommend reality television because there is no show that is completly 100% reality all of them have some pieces of script or the people who are being filmed are asked to do something differently to make the show more interesting. On shows like SYTYCD and American Idol votes can be screened and rigged and also the shows aren't actually live. The shows are filmed earlier in the day and then aired at airing time.

12 bits of technology we would uninvent

In class we discussed a site found on the internet with the 12 recorded things that people would choose to uninvent if they could. Some of the major ones that I agreed with were;
- The car alarms; I think we can all admit that when we hear them we don't go running to see if someone is breaking into the car it is coming from (which is why they were originally made) we choose to ignore them, then get angry and annoyed when they continue unheard and unstopped. They are an invention that nobody pays attention to and would rather not have to listen to.
- Indestructible blister packs; I understand the reason that they were made which is so that the product can't be take out of it's package and stolen but these packs are pushing it to an extreme. They are impossible to open without some sort of sharp utensil. It gets tedious trying to open them and i would rather buy another company's product that didn't wrap their product in this packaging.

Then there is one major one on the list that I don't agree with:
- The automated checkout scanners, I personally like these because first of all there are several with shorter lines and thus you get through faster. Also I know when I make trip's to the grocery store it is usually before or during my dance nights I will walk over to the local Sobeys to buy some dinner and I will be listening to my Ipod. I'll find what I want, go up pay and not have to take it off where as if I went to a person doing check out I would have to be respectful and take off my Ipod. If I didn't I wouldn't be able to hear them. I'd rather keep my Ipod on listen to my music, then listen to some chashier try to make small talk and fake a smile at me.

If there was one thing I would choose to uninvent that is not on this list it would probably be the microwave although helpful to heat things up, they are completely unnecessary and just harms our bodies. Everything you do in a microwave you can do on the stove or in the oven or in a toaster or even a toaster oven. The only need for the microwave is to do this faster but in reality most foods just get soggy when microwaved (or so I find). Also factor in the fact that microwaves let out microwaves aka radiation which is known to cause cancer and is bad for our bodies. So why put our bodies at harm when we can do the same things a safer way and get the same outcome?

Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan published a world famous book in 1964 called Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man in this book he made many statements about the media that have become famous. One statement in perticular is "The median is the message", this basically means that the median embeds itself into the message. This creates a link between the two and means that the medium influences what the message is going to say. McLuhan went on to compare the reading of soemthign and the watchign of soemthign. When reading if you didn;t understand it you can simply reread that line, where as when watchign a movie you have to rewatch an entire segment. He claims that watchign TV or a movie requires more thinking and processing on the viewer's part because they ahev to enterpret what they are seeing.

Marshall McLuhan has impacted the media to an extent. He changed many peoples perspective on it. Personally I agree with McLuhan, the new technologies in media are taking away from our learning. It is a proven fact that you don't absorb what you read on a computer as well as what you read from a printed version, so why do we force ourselves to have to work harder? It is also proven that when watching a movie or TV that your brain isn't fully concentrated on the show, you're either multi tasking (doing homework at the same time) or your brain is wandering off thinking about other things. Every time you watch a show over you will see something new that you didn't notice before. Once again we are putting ourselves through more trouble, and having to spend extra time rewatching things to see the part you missed.

Media Education

Dr. Leech
Last week we had a presentation from Dr. Leech talking to us about Media Education. We learned about commercials and how all commercials have two layers of menaings. There's the text which is what it says out loud to you, and there is the subtext which is what goes on underneath. The subtexts are what the commercial are assuming or implying. Subtexts are often abd and are what drag a viewer intot he commercial. They scare the viewers into buying the product. Subtext is not acceptable when a need was created that didnt used to exist.
Throughout this peresentation I learned how to identify what the subtext and texta re. I learned to not fall for the subtext that is making me want to go out and purchase the item that i didn't use to need, or even want. That night when i went home, when i sat down and watched TV, when the commercials came on I sat there and analyzed them. I saw a commercial for the H1N1 vaccine saying that if you did not get the shot you would get extremely sick and even possbily die. Before learning about the double layers this commercial probably would have scared me, but instead i took it into perspective and thought aboutt eh facts. The fact is that if 75% of the population were to get the needle which almost that amount of people ahd then 5% of people get the flu and learn how to fight against them then it will be cancelled out. In my family there are 6 people that live in the hous 4 of them have gotten the shot and both me and my older brotehr who ahve not gotten teh shot have had the flu, and thus havebuilt amunitiesto it and knwo how to fight it off. Then i saw a commercial for Axe spray for men, the commercial showed that if you used the spray women would follow you around. I thought about this and this commercial is using women as a game. The media portreys women and men in terrible ways.
I think that after this presentation I wont look at a commercial the same I will think about what it is actually saying and not take it to heart.

Media Consumption Inventory
Media consumption is everybit of media or advertising that you encounter through out the day. You can probably tell that this would therefore be alot of thigns from cell phones to books to billboards. After some little tallys in class I discovered that i have 120 hours of media consumption per week. Considering there are only 168 hours in a week that is alot. That only leaves me 48 hours of sleeping and doing other thigns that don't involve media consumption. I tallied that i have 23 hours of print media consumption. The most of those hours are spent on readinfg internet sites, and close behind is hours spent reading magazines. The amount of hours spent reading novels and books is very low. Then we Have electronic media consumption, i have 96 hours of it. After reviewing the amount of hours in this section i found that I spend the most time, by quite a bit, is the amount of hours i spend on my cell phone with 35 hours. Then at 15 hours i have both the amount of hours spent surfing the internet and the amount of hours listening to pre-recorded music. As I said media runs our lives, almost anything we do has some sort of media involved in it. Media is everywhere, and will only continue to be a major influence of our lives.
Since the amount of hours spent on my cell phone is the highest amount of hours between anything, I have decided that for one hour everyday i will turn it off and not use it. I am already on the road to doing this 5 out 7 days in a week when I am at dance i turn my cell phone off, and onyl turn it back on once I'm leaving or need to use it.

Learning Styles:

website #1: www.educationplanner.org/education_planner/calc_frames.asp

I found out that I was a Tactile learner, my overall results for this are 25% Auditory, 20% Visual, and 55% Tactile. I learn by touching and doing 'hands on' things. I prefer to touch, move, build, and draw things to learn them. I learn better when there is physical activity included in the process, and have much difficulties sitting still. When bored i will find reasons to move around, or fidget. While sitting in class I am not able to sit still, whether im tapping my foot playing with a pen or doodling i will be doing something. I am very coordinated and have great athletic ability.

This show alot about me, because I am a dancer, coordination is greatly needed and while dancing there is not one point where at least one point of your body is not moving. This shows that if i want to learn something i best bet to do this is by physically doing it, for example learning a new dance move, the teacher tells me what to do then i have to keep doing it over and over again until i prefect it.

website #2: http://homeworktips.about.com/library/quizzes/bltypeac.htm

After taking the test on this website i found out that I am a visual and Tactile learner. I would benefit from using sight and life experiences, and then using them to relate back to work. I can pickup information really easily by listening to it, but I am too active to listen to it all without speaking out or stop listening. I understand work well from class demonstrations, group studies, and learning games. I tend to sit in the back but would do better off in the front, because I get distracted very easily.

This shows that although i have lots of potential to do well if i tried, the classroom setting isn't the best for me because since I do get off topic easily I need to take lots of short breaks to keep me going. I now know that to help me concentrated it is perfectly fine to fidget and do something like tap my pen.