Commenting and Social Media

The first link I followed was one posted by Shawn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy3RTFFhSYs
As soon as this video started playing I was already dancing and singing along to the Fraggle theme song. Total blast from the past. I can see how this would make a great conversation piece for this class. Maybe though adding another video of shows from the 90's just for some of us younger viewers. 

Another link I followed was from Miranda, A Knight's Tale. Ive already seen this movie, many, many times and I can definitely agree that it would make a great addition to this class. That too would make a great discussion piece, especially about the music and costuming. Plus this is just a film that everyone should see, its that good. 

The next link that I followed was one posted by Zoee:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-forger-of-art-tells-all-03-03-2013/
I think this link should DEFINITELY be included in the class discussion. It has to do with that most of us are doing in college (art), thievery, skill, masterpieces...it really all depends on how you view it. I think this could form some really interesting conversations. It would be cool to see what people think about it, if the man is right forging the paintings or if he should be punished etc. 

I also watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6DfeyBxH2k that Zoee had posted. I think this could have the same issue as the link mentioned above. It certainly would provide some entertainment. 

The last link that I didnt have time to read would be Alice Looking Through Glass by Linda Woolverton and Lewis Carroll. I have heard great things about that and im sure it would be an awesome read and conversation topic. Plus it's another classic.

Curate Yourself

For this class I think some things that should be included would be:

Animal Farm by George Orwell:
http://msxnet.org/orwell/print/animal_farm.pdf
-The size of this book is definitely manageable for this class
-It's simple enough to understand fairly easily 
-The allegories. This book is known for all its wonderful allegories. The more you get into it and the more you decipher, the better you'll like the book
-The narration is clear and forward
-It's a classic. 

Memoirs of a Geisha (The Film)
-The storyline is fantastic
-The execution of the film itself is gorgeous
-Any art student can appreciate what went into this movie, the sets, the costumes, the makeup
-It's fairly educational
-It's enjoyable

Maybe even 
Hellboy 
-Mainly to view how a comic could be turned into a phenomenal movie

Reading the Multimodal Narrative

For this assignment I read Persepolis. I had actually already read this last semester for an Islam class I took, so I thought id refresh my memory and read it again because i remembered I liked it. I am a person who likes to read, just not when it comes to comics. I prefer my comics to be mainly image based with minimal words. Persepolis actually has a nice distribution of images and text, not too much not too little. The artwork is certainly interesting. Being an illustration student im going to be judgmental, but i think for the story the style of artwork works. The style actually reminds me a lot of the stories that I used to read as a kid. Very simple and very straight forward. The comic was both entertaining and educational, it kept my attention. I wish I could tell my life story through a comic. I think it might bore people though.

McLuhan and Media Future

(This is not my image)

Social media to me is a love hate situation. I hate it with a passion because it takes away from the things that really matter in life. Who cares if someone likes a picture of you or gives it a thumbs up?! Who cares if someone likes your stupid status about a dog who dances in a circle. We've become so absorbed in our own little world that we fail to see what's really going on around us. We fail to see our friends and family. We fail to see the planet we live on. The only time something like that comes up is if someone posts a video about it. It makes us realize for a slip second what were missing, but then we dive straight back into the social media bull crap. I wont lie, i do have multiple social media things that i keep up with, which is where i contradict myself. I like getting likes on my images on instagram, or sharing silly videos with friends. I like knowing that people care about me, even if its just a split second of someone liking an instagram photo. But is it ever going to be enough? My generation and the ones coming into the world now are all dependent on people liking them, thinking positive things about them...all online though. I wish i could just throw my phone and laptop out the window sometimes and get back to my roots. Go running, go to the beach, play sports with friends....all without having to post about it or tell people what im doing. Unfortunately that is easier said than done. 

Voice and The Auteur Theory

I decided to watch 3 Wes Anderson films due to the fact that i had already seen a few. Anderson, unfortunately, is one of my least favorite directors. I really dont like his work.
Some of the key features that I noticed throughout his work are:
-He makes obsessive and comedic use of rostrum camera insert shots
-He ended all of his films with a slow motion shot
-He likes to shoot with extremely wide-angle anamorphic lenses with barrel distortion
-Frequently uses a take/double take technique
-His films often focus around a broken or unorthodox family
-At least one of his characters is usually a grown man seeking the approval of a parent or parent figure.
-All of the titles are in yellow
-Themes of white middle-class and upper-class issues
-Many straight on shots

Adaptation

I decided to choose Interview with a Vampire for my movie screenplay, and viewing it as a costume designer. I think the first place I would look would be the time period the film is set in. You wouldn't want to have a vampire movie set in the 1800s with characters that are wearing clothing from present day. That has always been a pet peeve of mine when movies are set in one time period but dressed inappropriately. It just makes the film bad to me. Either way, i would first look to the time period and then to the description of the outfits if there was one. If not, I would do as much research as possible on that time period for clothing. Maybe adding a bit of personal touches but nothing that would make it seem unrealistic. Each scene would have specific costumes which would require it's own research. Honestly, I would base it on personal preference and historical facts.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Personally I thought this film was a little confusing to follow, until someone mentioned what they thought about it. I think that this film...play was mainly based on what happens to minor characters once their scene was done. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were bounced around from scene to scene so much that I really didn't make all that much sense. I did like though that we got to view Hamlet through their eyes, we got to see the story through a sort of "behind the scenes" perspective. After doing a little more digging I found this statement "If life were a play, most of us would be minor characters in it. Sure, we might imagine it differently, but very few of us live our lives as Hamlets. In general, we more closely resemble the silly characters that only occasionally get caught up in the central action, characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. We call ourselves "masters of our domains," but when we think about how many things in our lives we actually have control over, it's not necessarily a long list". This actually helps put the play into perspective for me. We have little to no control over what happens in our lives. Whatever happens to us is fate.