5x5

1. My sister coloring with chalk
2. My sister running through the yard
3. My sister jumping on the trampoline
4. My sister swinging
5. The sun

I used my iphone to take each of the clips, and I then downloaded them onto the computer and edited them using youtube video editor. At first youtube wouldn't uplaod my clips, but after that it was fairly simple to edit my 5x5. I am happy with how my video turned out seeing as this is my first time editing video not on Final Cut Pro. Our next video challenge could be an extended version of the 5x5, but it would contain more clips and have to tell a story of some sort.

The Matrix Trailer

The Matrix. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. R. 1999

Neo (Keanu Reaves) discovers he lives in an alternate reality controlled by artificial intelligence and tries to break free and defeat the Agents.

The trailer for The Matrix clearly identifies the dystopian premise of technological control, and uses quick action shots, voiceover, and text to develop the protagonist who fights against the Agents. The trailer starts with a hook and then begins explaining the premise of the movie. This gives the audience a good idea of what to expect. Many scenes are played while an excerpt from one conversation in the movie is heard. There is a moment where "forget everything you know" flashes onto the screen. This reinforces the idea that the citizens of the society are being controlled and is also intriguing to the audience. The trailer also introduces the dystopian protagonist, Neo, and uses short clips to demonstrate that he questions The Matrix and feels that something is wrong. The quick editing and putting together of clips that are important to the movie is key because it gives the viewer a hint at what the movie is about, but leaves them wanting to continue to view it. In my trailer, I will make sure to include many different clips that would be from different parts of the movie. I could also have characters talking about what is happening while other scenes are playing to make it more interesting and concise. 

Personalized Learning

             I read the article "Preparing Students to Learn Without Us," which can be basically summarized in two words: personalized learning. Will Richardson describes that there are many different ways to learn the same material, and each students has to find their own thing to relate the material to. He starts if the article by wondering how his son, who loves basketball, could apply this knowledge to math lessons that he needs to learn in school. There were millions of possibilities that his son could relate basketball to. What I found interesting, however, was another example he gave, about a boy who cared more about being a star football player than school. He was in British literature, and had to explore a theme in said literature. The teacher helped him decide that "he should explore the medieval version of a football star—a knight. It then developed into looking at how British literature addresses masculinity; he was really able to reflect on his own ambitions through the literature."
            The article also mentions the use of google docs, diigo, and blogs, all things that we use here in CAP 10, as good ways to personalize learning and stay connected. I agreed that each of these are good tools. We could also use the blogs to not only do structured assigned posts, but also posts about subjects that interest us and their relationship to film.We can make this class more personal by subscribing to bloggers who share the same interests as us in the film-making process. For example, I could subscribe to bloggers who write about camera work because that is something that I am interested in.

The article and my annotations: http://diigo.com/0sxlb

Movie Review

I read a movie review review for The Bourne Legacy, which I saw this summer. It was student written review posted on Silver Chips Online. Sam Lewando, who wrote the post, started off by giving his opinion of the movie. He then goes on to describe the plot and talk about how it ties into the Bourne Trilogy. The review is mostly focused on whether the movie lives up to the other three, and the writer skims right over most of the dramatic aspects, except the music, which he dedicates a paragraph to. The review has serious aspects, but is mostly written in a fairly casual tone.
I think we should definitely be given at least some freedom while writing our movie reviews. We had to write multiple reviews last year, and I'm sure that everyone has the hang of it. Last year, our reviews had very specific guidelines that didn't give us a chance to demonstrate how we felt about the movie. Because of this, the review should not be so structured this year. We should be able to chose what aspects of the film we would like to focus on, although there should at least be a minimum or maximum length so people don't do too much or too little.

My annotated review: http://diigo.com/0su7q

First Post

 Hi, I'm Emily, and I'm a sophomore at Blair. I've never blogged before and I'm not very tech savvy. Even though I've been at Blair for over a year, I still get lost sometimes. I enjoy playing sports and hanging out with my friends. I am most interested in the actual video taking process of film making. I would like to learn more about cinematography and the different ways that one can manipulate the camera to get a shot.
I also find the editing aspect of film intriguing and I want to learn more. I have two favorite film projects that I've done, one in seventh grade and one in ninth grade. In seventh grade, we had to write a horror story, record it as voice over, and then create a bunch of clips to go with the audio. My group and I had fun experimenting with the camera and taking different types of shots. My other favorite film project was done last year and was a twenty second long intro to our school's news show, InfoFlow. I think this blog will be great for any group project that we do in CAP 10. We can link each other and work together on the web. By working from our blogs, it ensures that we can access the files where ever we are.

Image source: Beach Sunset