Dark Days

This documentary really opened my eyes up to a world that I didn't even know existed. When I saw The Dark Knight Rises this past summer, I thought that the whole sewer palace that Bane lived in was completely ridiculous. No one can really live underground; it just doesn't happen. But clearly, after watching this video, it does happen. Those people had a whole community down there! I mean, they would go to each others houses for dinner! Nonetheless, this was still a great documentary–I see what Owen was saying about how we're interested in things we aren't familiar with.

I really liked the way this documentary was shot and edited. The black and white filter helped to make me feel like I was actually in the dark myself. It also gave me this cold feeling and made me feel like I was alone, like the people in the documentary. In the beginning, there was a lot of darkness, which kind of made me feel hopeless for the characters, but once they moved into their apartments, the shots were brighter, so I felt hopeful, like it was a second chance for them to improve their lives.

I noticed the "shaky cam" thing, too, and I thought it added to the authenticity of the documentary. No one wants to see something that has been staged. It looked like Marc Singer had just lived the life of a homeless person for a month or so and just played back his film. Another thing that added to the authenticity of the documentary was the part where one of the guys introduced Marc to his friend and said, "This is my friend Marc." Some people use "friend" loosely, but even to do so, one would have to feel pretty comfortable around a person to call them a friend.

The documentary kind of reminded me of the movie Crash, where each person had their own story but they all ultimately ended up being tied together through different events. Character building made the documentary more personable because there were several different types of people, so the audience could choose a favorite person that they were more or less rooting for. The resolution was more favorable because the audience got to see his/her favorite character have the desired fairytale ending.

This documentary is different from the other documentaries we've watched because this is the first one that really seems to have been filmed over a long period of time, which allowed the story to be resolved in the end. Also, this documentary examines the lives of multiple people at the same time.

Documentary Ideas

For my documentary, I was thinking that I could maybe examine why people post what they do on different social media websites. I was also thinking that I could look at the lifestyle and personality differences between people who constantly use social media and those who don't.

TIB Music Video

Video Games

At first, I was kind of skeptical to say video games are art. I mean, what's artistic about Grand Theft Auto? Maybe it's the way the blood gushes out of each victim you kill, or the way that prostitutes switch when they walk. Art has such a vague definition that practically everything can be defined as art, including video games. The definition that my lovely dictionary (provided by Apple) gave me is "Art–the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power." According to this definition, video games are indeed art. There is no doubting that they are an expression of the imagination and that they evoke emotion from their users.

I think it is because video games evoke such emotion from users that they can sometimes tell stories in a better way than a book or an orator can. Growing up, I used to play Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? From that game, I learned about Egypt, the printing press, the vikings, etc. wayyy better than I did by reading a textbook or listening to an instructor. Video games are exciting and help disguise the fact that you are learning. Not to mention, you are more likely to retain something that was fun to learn about, opposed to something that you had to force yourself to stay awake and take notes on.

Since video games and movies depend on visual literacy, they are similar in their effectiveness in telling stories. A lot of video games actually show movie clips right before you are given a task to complete to add to the overall narrative of the game. I think that in this respect, video games can be more effective in telling stories because they actually involve the user, whereas movies require that you simply look at a screen.

Honestly, I didn't even want to write what I wrote, but technically video games do fall under the category of "art," and they can actually tell stories better than some other forms of art. However, this is not to say that I am in complete support of this idea for all video games. In fact, I think a lot of them turn your brain to mush.

Outline

Picture One: The first and second pictures are of me at my graduation party.

 

 Picture Two

 

Picture Three: This picture is going to be used to introduce social networking.

Picture Four: I will use this picture while discussing what people would do for likes.

 Picture Five: Mardi Gras Beads are the metaphor in my essay.

Picture Six: A picture of a "Like" is relevant to what I discuss throughout the essay.

Picture Seven: I included a case in which someone would keep scrolling instead of "Liking" a post.

 

 

Picture Eight: *Instagram picture of nails, including the number of likes*

Picture Nine: A case in which a girl does something mildly "scandalous" to try and gain more likes on a picture.

 

Picture Ten

Music Tracks

My first song is "Love No Limit" by Mary J. Blige. I thought this song was appropriate because it's a typical, old school, cookout song. As a matter of fact, it was probably even played at my graduation party. But because the lyrics are irrelevant to the purpose of my essay, I think I'll just use the instrumental version of the song. For my second song, I'm using Cindy Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" to add a little bit of irony to what I'm saying in my essay.

Music Video Analysis Pt. 2

At first, I was thinking, how the hell am I going to explain the narrative of this Beyonce video? It might as well be a 2 Chainz video. But now I think I understand how the message of the song ties in with the music video.

The music video opens with a head shot of Beyonce. Here, she looks very soft and innocent, she even batters her eyelashes to add to the effect.

Time plays a big part in this song; I mean, it is called countdown. The ticking in the beat is parallel to Beyonce moving her hands like a clock in this shot. Essentially, she is saying that her time with her husband won't run out. She even says, "I will always be with you" in the song.

All of a sudden, she makes this face and says, "If you leave me, you're out of your mind," almost as a threat.

The colors of the background, Beyonce's makeup, and her outfit in this particular scene are constantly changing, showing that she has several different sides to her personality. She admits, "There's ups and downs in this love," and she's "got a lot to learn in this love," so this scene also indicates her mutability in the sense that she is ever changing and ever adapting to make her marriage work. Relationships are give and take.

In this scene, Beyonce is absolutely gushing over her hubby and assuming the "perfect wife" role. She is pictured in the same outfit, updo, and makeup as the first shot when she appeared sweet and innocent. Look at her posture and the way her toes are pointed; it practically screams submissive. The lyrics scream submissive, too: "I'm all up under him like it's cold–winter time. All up in the kitchen in my heels–dinner time." The all black outfit almost makes her look like she should be cleaning houses.

Ten Beyonces are shown here, all of them doing different dances, which says that she can pretty much do it all. She's that woman who has a third arm, eyes in the back of her head, etc.

Here, the "perfect wife" role is more evident. Beyonce shows that not only can she cook and clean, but she can... um... please her man. She's wearing a man's button-down shirt but still has her hair pulled back in that bun and her make up is still very soft and innocent looking. She's submissive.

This shot shows the "real" Beyonce. She has on natural looking makeup and an unflattering outfit. The bra strap shows a hint of sex appeal, but nonetheless, this, in a sense, is how Beyonce would look at her worst. She is baring her true self without all of the superficial stuff.

Just as we see the "real" Beyonce, we're hit with this Dream Girls, glammed-up version of her. I mean, she is a celebrity, so it only makes sense that she is showing this side of her too.

In this scene, it's literally black and white. All of the different shades of Beyonce still make up the one person that she is. Basically, she says "take it or leave it," but "leave it" isn't really an option, as mentioned earlier.

Finally, the video concludes similar to the way that it started: with a smile and battering of the eyelashes.

Overall, Beyonce is selling herself in this video. She admits to her imperfections and is willing to change them with a little bit of work. Although she has imperfections, her good qualities significantly outweigh them. You'd be crazy to not want a woman like her. She can do everything.

Music Video Analysis

I chose to analyze Beyonce's "Countdown" video. Seriously, they need a warning for people who have seizures. When I first saw this video on T.V, I was like whoa, what just happened; I need to see this again! There's so much going on with the music, choreography, and visual effects, but it all works so well together.

In the song, Beyonce is talking about how much she loves her husband and how everyday she loves him more. You can see a fifties element in the way that she dresses and even dances in the video, which adds to the overall meaning of the song. The era that we most commonly perceive as "perfect" is the fifties, and in a sense, Beyonce is saying that she is the "perfect" wife. This idea rings in the chorus when she says, "If you leave me you're out of your mind."

Something else I noticed in the video was the way that everything was sped up or slowed down to mirror the song. The song itself is very complex since there are really three different songs compiled into one. In the beginning, where she starts by saying, "Oh, killing me softly" is one song, and the video is played at regular speed. The transition to the next song starts when you see her hands ticking like a clock as if to signal the "countdown," or the second song, in which the video is sped up to match the ticks of the beat. Finally, the transition to the third song, the actual verse, is when she is moving her shoulders, still sort of fast to the ticks of the beat but slower than in the previous song with the countdown. Each of the "songs" has a shared element, in the beat, with the song before it or after it to make the transition unnoticeable, just as each section of the video has parts that are sped up or slowed down to transition into the next scene in the video.

I also really liked the contrast of the playful, bright colors with the harsh black and white backdrop (and vice versa); it added to the visual appeal of the video because the colors kept changing with the ticks of the beat. Around 1:58, there is a ripple of ten Beyonces doing different dances that all end up as the same one, all the while the colors of the windows are changing with each tick. There are so many cool things like this in the video, and I can't find the words to put it all down!

I Hope You "Like" This... (Revised)

"They love me, they really really love me," I said to my grandma as I gaped at the 50 plus family members at my graduation party. I couldn't help but feel like a superstar. My family had flown in from the Bahamas, Oklahoma, Myrtle Beach, and elsewhere just to come to my graduation party, not even the actual graduation ceremony! Growing up, I never had big parties; I considered myself lucky if two friends showed up to one of my sleepovers. The day of my graduation party was the first time that I genuinely felt popular, and it wasn't just the Facebook popularity that lasted for 24 hours when you made top news.

Social networking sites such as Facebook thrive on popularity. Essentially, every time I log onto a social networking site, I'm confronted with the same question: "What would you do for 10 'Likes?' 20? 50?" It's almost like Mardi Gras in New Orleans where everybody is doing scandalous things to earn a pair of cheap, plastic, Dollar General beads that you could've easily bought yourself. The only thing special about these beads is the person handing them out, because they ultimately decide if you deserve a pair.

Although you can only give yourself one "Like," "Likes" are comparable to Mardi Gras beads in the respect that they have no real value. The value of the "Like" comes from the fact that a majority of your Facebook friends are uninterested in what you ate for dinner, so they keep scrolling. However, the two or three that stop to click "Like" propel you three "Likes" towards popularity. If I can get 20 "Likes" on a picture of my nails, I have successfully reached my popularity goal for the week. Most people aren't content with just 20. They want more, so they do more to earn those "Likes."

I believe the "Like" is more powerful than we realize. So often, people will sacrifice who they are just to gain a "Like," which is ironic because I always hear people say, "I don't care what people think of me." Bullshit. Truth is, we all care about other people's opinions, and we all just want to be "Liked."

This I Believe Part Two

I went through pages of essays and was starting to give up on finding something I didn't like. But then I realized that I kept picking categories that I could relate to on accident, so I chose the "Atheism" category, and unsurprisingly I didn't like the very first essay, "There Is No God," by Penn Jillette.

Because I didn't like the message of the essay, I felt that I was more inclined to pick at the little things I didn't like, such as the author's voice. His tone was almost sarcastic in the beginning which kind of offended me, a believer in God. For the most part, I think I'm pretty open-minded, but reading the beginning of his essay immediately turned me off. Nonetheless, there was nothing structurally wrong with his essay. Towards the end, he discussed the love he has for his life and how he feels that not relying on forgiveness from his family and God helps him to be more aware of the things he says and does. Reading this changed my view of his beliefs. Perhaps if Jillette would have started his essay saying this, I would have reacted differently since he was showing a more personable side of himself.

This I Believe Post

It's no shocker that I picked the essay "Returning to What's Natural" by Amelia Baxter-Stoltzfus. In her essay, she used dying her hair as a metaphor to describe the growing process. I could personally relate to her message because I too have had purple, red, and black hair, and I, like everyone else in the class, am faced with growing up.

Honestly, I still feel like I'm twelve, and it sucks that now I have all of these responsibilities that I didn't even want. A few weeks ago, I celebrated my 18th birthday, and that's when it hit me: I can actually go to jail now. The thought of going to jail was pretty depressing. There have been a few nights where I've awaken in a cold sweat after having a nightmare about never seeing the light of day.

But anyways, I really liked the way the author compared dying hair (with semi-permanent dye) and growing up. What I extracted from her essay is that growing up is basically a trial and error process. In order to "find yourself," you experiment with different things to determine what fits you best, just as you would experiment with different hair colors. All the while you are trying to venture out, you develop a longing to hold onto some things from your past.

A personal example of this is when I was 15, I HATED going to the mall with my grandma; she wasn't cool enough to hang out with me in public. But now, I practically have to beg her to come to the mall with me. I miss being able to spend one-on-one time with her. Although I want to hold onto the past, I also want to be independent and give this "adult" stuff a go. I definitely don't miss having someone telling me what to do and when to do it.

Concisely, this essay tells you to go out there and try living life as a big girl/boy. Know that you will always have your family behind you, as well as the morals and values they raised you with, so it's okay to take a leap of fate. At the end of the day, you can very well turn around and take a leap back.

*p.s. If you didn't read this essay, you should. I think it's fitting for us as young adults.