5x5: Beach Trip

YouTube is being stupid again.  It doesn't accept my change of the thumbnail, and it won't let me view the video.  I don't know why Safety Mode is not letting me view the video in school.  There's nothing wrong with it.

I'm going to try to embed the link here.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX_BQmOi2Rw

1. Ferry ride
2. Walking towards the water
3. Sand games
4. Waves
5. Walking down the beach

I used the camera in my mom's Droid to capture this video.  I used WeVideo to edit it. 

I tried YouTube's video editor, but it had far more problems than I could deal with.  You had to upload footage to your channel as independent videos, then trim those clips to how long you want them, THEN put together the video.  Basically, you can only arrange videos on your channel into the order you want.  There's very little editing that you can do in the actual video editor.  Trimming the clips also was weird; it would trim them, but it would just take the length of the clip you wanted from the beginning of the video instead of where you actually wanted them from.  It was altogether a nightmare.  WeVideo made much more sense.

I rather like my 5x5.  I just wish the school system would actually allow me to watch it.  I hope Mr. Mayo's computer works better.

I would love to put together something along the lines of a 5x5, but with an actual story.  Creating a story in that short of a time is difficult, but can be done very well.

Dystopian Trailer

I, Robot.  Alex Proyas.  PG-13.  2004
In a future version of earth, robots live peacefully with humans and are programmed not to harm anyone.  When a detective, who is mistrustful of the robots, is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of the robots' designer, he uncovers a conspiracy that could threaten all of humanity.

This trailer effectively communicates the dystopian premise of the movie through its organization.  The beginning of the trailer focuses on the main character, a police officer, and the inciting moment: the death of the robots' creator, which the main character suspects is murder.  Then it goes back and fills the audience in on the robots' code, role in society, and other things that make it hard to believe the robots could commit murder.  Following this, there is a series of clips highlighting the main character's singularity in suspecting the robots and his fulfilling of the role of dystopian protagonist.  Another character is shown to be at least villainous, if not the villain.  Finally, the trailer reveals a final, big problem: if the protagonist does not convince humanity of the robots' defection, the sudden upcoming increase in robot population will threaten the lives of all humans.  The increase in speed of the clips follows the quickening of the pace of the movie.  The focus on action scenes and characters more than the plot is mainly for marketing purposes.  In my dystopian trailer project, I will likely use the same acceleration in pacing from the beginning to the end.  We will also likely follow a similar organization, with the main characters and premise at the beginning, then the problem, then the bigger problem.  The trailer for I, Robot will be a good model for my group's dystopian trailer.

Online Connected Learning

I would first like to add that in idea #1 of the prompt, you used the wrong "it's/its."  You used "it's," the contraction of "it is," when you should have used the possessive "its."

The article "World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others" can be summed up in one sentence: teachers need to update their teaching methods to include modern technology, in order to better teach and prepare students for the rest of their lives.

I particularly liked the quote,

"The technologies we block in their classrooms flourish in their bedrooms. Students are growing networks without us, writing Harry Potter narratives together at FanFiction.net, or trading skateboarding videos on YouTube. At school, we disconnect them not only from the technology but also from their passion and those who share it."

The best way for students to learn is to teach them more about the subjects they enjoy.  We will learn and collaborate with or without the support of the school, and if we do have the support of the school, all the better.  If teachers want us to learn about something , the best way to do that is to tie it in to something that we enjoy.

I thought it was surprising that the eleven-year-old girl from the opening anecdote had a worldwide-viewed blog.  Considering that sites like Google and Tumblr require an age minimum of thirteen, the fact that an eleven-year-old has a blog at all is surprising.  That she shared her age with the author of this article is also surprising.  It reminds the reader that personal security is as important as sharing, because the internet is not exclusively comprised of cooperative information-sharers - there are those who would be quite interested in her age, and such people should be deflected whenever possible.

I think that connected learning is an excellent idea, and an exciting one.  It would be quite easy to do poorly though - I have a feeling that (no offense) the teachers would completely miss the point.  They would give us too much structure and make even the fun concept of collaborative learning echo the dull, guided "learning" of the traditional classroom.

I would really like to learn more about how exactly the internet works, and how internet-based markets like iTunes work.  I would also like to learn the legal implications of the internet.  Not an entirely CAP-related topic, but one that I would really like to know.

Annotated article: http://diigo.com/0sw5x

MOVIE REVIEW

[Sorry this is late.   I'll take the 10% off.]

"Class Dismissed," a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 by Manohla Dargis, focuses more on the growth between the first and last movies than the final movie itself.  The New York Times' critic's pick article first discusses the actors, and the growth of their skills from Sorcerer's Stone to Deathly Hallows Part 2.  Then it talks about visual effects for a while, and goes again into acting - mentioning the plot in passing.  The article is more of a discussion of the franchise than the movie.

This is not exactly what we should do for our movie reviews, but it brings to light an important point - not all reviews are created equal.  We should have more license in what we want to cover about the movies.  We should also review a movie that we enjoy or we think is relevant, as opposed to a movie from a list.

Here is my annotated page: http://diigo.com/0sw4s

Introductions and such

Hi, I'm Stephanie!  I like sharing things I like with people I like.  

I am incredibly proud to be a nerd.  My motto is "Never apologize for your enthusiasm."  I am a nerdfighter (DFTBA!) and if you don't know what that is, I suggest you look at this FAQ.  

I love books and reading.  If you were to stick me in a massive library for the rest of my life, I would be ok with that.  As long as I had food and water.

As for filmmaking, I love every aspect of it except scriptwriting.  In particular, I like cinematography and editing.  Cameras are fascinating and all of filmmaking depends on good cinematography.  Editing takes the scattered takes and storyboards and turns them into a coherent, polished whole.  The creative aspect of both cinematography and editing is one of my favorite things about filmmaking.

I have been working with film since 6th grade.  One of my favorite projects was the short video I helped to make at summer camp this year.  All My Super Smash Brothers is a parody of reality tv with a Super Mario Brothers twist.  I played Toad and helped to shoot and edit the footage.  I also thoroughly enjoyed the suspense project in 7th grade Media Production class; I worked with two of my best friends and had a lot of creative freedom.

I am super excited about this blog!  We can use it for all sorts of things.  This would actually  work very well for my change project.  

• The interfaith group that my group is planning to create could definitely use an online resource like these blogs.
• We could use these blogs to publish online stories for Journalism class.
• We can use the blogs to publish the videos we make in Film class.

This is so exciting! Yay.