media appreciation #5: Questions for Be Kind Rewind

Media Appreciation #5

Questions for Be Kind Rewind

1.     Casting; Do the actors suit the roles that they were cast in?  Are they believable as part of the reality they are in? 

a.      Jack Black as Jerry Gerber

b.     Mos Def as Mike

c.     Danny Glover as Elroy Fletcher

2.     How does technology impact the community at the beginning of the film?  At the end of this film? 

media appreciation #4: SPOOFS

These are the comedy pieces that spoof the oil and plastics industry (an oil product derivative). I'm sure if you look hard enough you can find more... Does Big Oil deserve to be made fun of?




This is the link to the Senator Interview

media appreciation #4: Beyond Oil Ad

media appreciation #4: Cute new BP ad

Here are the two BP OIL ads, "Beyond Oil" and "Cute BP Video: Say Hey".  I encourage you to watch these on You Tube and look at the other videos that come up in the recommendations.

  

media appreciation #4: CBC News - World - Massive oil spill hits U.S. coast

Follow this link to watch news about theFollow this link to watch news about the Massive Oil Spill.  Be sure to look at the link to the videos!  Remember the video we saw in class was from April 29th.  Feel free to look around at other news services to see how they are reporting it.

CBC News - World - Massive oil spill hits U.S. coast  

media appreciation #4: the Questions

Questions for #4 media appreciation!

1. Discuss and review the two BP Oil ads.  Why does BP Oil choose the images/style it does to use in their ads?  What is the target audience(s)?  Which images stick in your mind and why?

2. In light of the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, is BP’s slogan (Beyond Petroleum) and Logo (the flower) appropriate?

3. Consider responsibility; considering that it was BP’s oil rig that burned in the Gulf of Mexico and the resulting oil spilled would have been BP’s profit, do BP and other oil companies deserve to be ridiculed, made fun of, and/or satirized?  

Homework- Media Appreciation #3: media of the future

Here you are looking for something out there that will possibly be the "wave of the future"!  For an example do a google search of the X-box 360 project Natal.

1. Find “something” new that we’ll see in the future
2. What is the immediate use for the maker’s product?
3. What impact will this product have on us, the users,and/or the world?

All these appreciation excercises should be about a page typed on your Blog.  You have until June 4th.  If however, your assignment is posted 2 weeks after the posting of these quesions, you will get penalized.  There is no set answer, so let your thoughts ponder the questions and go in whatever direction it takes you (as long as you don't go too far from the overall topic).

Homework- Media Appreciation #2: Buffolo Bill

This is the second in a series of "Media appreciation" assignments.  This is based on a documentary done about Buffolo Bill- (link here- but to see the whole thing you'll have to become a member of Veoh Video)

1. Give at least 3 examples (with details) where the lines between reality (history) and entertainment (media) became blurred during the life of William Cody (AKA Buffalo Bill).
2. What reasons do we have to call Buffalo Bill the “original world celebrity”?  Explain.
3. How could Buffalo Bill have benefited from new media?  Who would have been some of his Facebook friends?

Homework: Appreciation #1

This is your first media appreciation response for term 4.  It is looking at Videogame culture and videogaming by responding to David Perry's presentation.  (link to the Talk here)

1)  Where do you place yourself or your peers in video game culture?  Why?
2)  What do you think of video games and video game culture?  Why?
3)  What do you see in the future for our culture and the impact video games will have on that future?
4)  Discuss one thing (quote, statistic, etc.) from David Perry's talk that you found interesting.

Respond to 3 of the 4 topics.  A decent response is about a loose-leaf page in length; but I will only accept blog posts.

Homework

You have your integrated projects to work on.  While you are making your own schedules- please stick to them!  The idea behind you choosing your own schedule is that you become aware of how you work and how you learn and, most importantly, that you learn to set goals that you can attain!

Week in Review (week end Feb 12)

We have been doing a lot of work in class- Re-booting your integrated projects, finalizing your logos (Photoshop) and working on little Flash interactive movies.  All these things are going to come together in the Flash movie due at the end of February, before March Break.

Remember doing a button is the basis of interactivity!

You all have been doing a great job and have been making class a pleasure to be a part of thanks!

Coming Up!:
We are going to continue to work on the integrated project- please bring your projects to class if they can be worked on in class!
Meanwhile we have the Flash movies to work on and the photoshop logos to finish.  In the far future (March) we will be starting to make mini movies...

your words of advice put through WORDLE

Coming up

So it is the start of term 3- we will be using the Blogs a bit more this term-

This term will also have an LES/ES which will cover the topics of New Media, Flash and Film.  It will take place at the end of February- just before the March Break!  This way when it gets to the end of the term there will be less pressure- though you will have your Integrated project due at that time.

If there are any questions- feel free to ask or come by for Recoup- Tues., Wed., Thurs. until 3:30 unless more time is needed.

This Week No Homework.

Homework- blog response

Respond to two (2) of the following three question sets on your blog.  The work is due Tuesday at 12:00.

Christof

We've become tired of watching actors give us phony emotions, bored with pyrotechnics and special effects. 

While the world he inhabits is counterfeit, there's nothing fake about Truman himself.  No scripts, no cue cards.  It's not always Shakespeare but it's genuine.

1. Have we reached this point in our "entertainment experience"; where we are tired of the fake and need the "real"?
2. With films like Avatar- using completely created characters, 3D animation, CGI, etc.- is there a point where we, like Truman, can no longer believe the created reality?
3. Is Truman's whole world fake or is it real?  Is What Christof says above true or is he just justifying the world he has created?
   

Happy New Year!

Well we'll be back to work in a couple of days.

This is a reminder to all of you that have due dates for your projects coming up- do not forget!

We'll have a pretty easy week doing some film appreciation! And then we'll be working further with film and Flash getting those Logo Applications sorted.

Again Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you all on the 4th!