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? 

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

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!

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!

Homework

Logo Tag

Due: Wednesday Oct 7th, 2009

1. first make a new post- it must be titled Logo Tag. 
2. find a logo (any logo) and post it- be sure to reference the URL  by telling me the site's name and linking to it (remember no www!).
3. Once you have yours in "play" please make another new post- you will need to go to another classmate's site and "tag" their picture; copy their picture to your site and reference your classmate's site.
4. you are done.

This is to see if you understand and can grab pictures and link- this is the concept of hyperlinking!  Good Luck!

Last Week Review (end Oct 2)

Looking at my agenda it's blank.  That can mean one of two things- eithr we did nothing or we did so much that I didn't have time to record it...  (we won't even think of the third option- my procastative nature...) but looking back at the week this is what we did:

1. Looked at old cigarette commercials which make great examples of branding.  If you want the "fun" to continue just do a Youtube search for cigarette commercials. 
2. By looking at these commercials we saw the use of "distances" used by advertisers to make a product "friendlier"- these distances are: 1) Social, 2) Personal, and 3) Intimate.
3. We also looked at the definitions of Lobbyist and Spin- techniques used by advertisers, companies/corporations and politicians to convince people of their point of view.  To support this we watched the satirical movie "Thank You for Smoking"

Coming up:  We'll be looking a bit more closely at the integrated project and Power Point presentations- getting you ready for your Oct 22 project due date.  We will also continue to look at branding/logos and advertising- consentrating on the Visual image in the advertisement.  Later to look at Companies and their presence on the internet and how they advertise.

logo tag

this is where you go to get to the Jobs with Justice

Last Week Review (end Sept 17th)

This last week we looked further into the process of how we make decisions. This process (Identify, Analysis, Design, Implement, and Evaluate)is something that we do sometimes in split seconds and other times it takes us weeks and months to do.  This is the outline you will follow for your Integrated Project.  We looked at how advertisers attach themselves to this process and create either a NEED (Got Milk?) or a SOLUTION (Sham-Wow) by using HOOK STATEMENTS. 

Designing a good hook statement is not the easiest thing to do; the hook statement should hint at the product while targeting the audience (TARGET AUDIENCE).

We also looked at what makes a good Power Point Presentation- the amount of information, the pictures and their arrangement on the slide is key.  Be sure when you are arranging those things that you take into account their size, color and form (these are basic elements of design).

Coming up: we are going to look at the concept of target audience, logos and branding

Homework:

1. Response to Class Questions/Ideas #1 with a picture to illustrate your thoughts
2. Integrated project idea (sadly very few people have done this... not so good...)
   

Homework: Class Questions/Ideas #1

Respond to one of the ideas/questions that are below- The idea here is to build a discussion from our thoughts.  With the questions asked and your answers we can get a discussion going- feel free to let your mind wonder on the topic- sometimes the best thoughts sound the silliest at first.  Give extreme examples of your ideas (make them up if you want to...) and remember you are talking about media...

1. You begin to trust them when you start seeing that people around you follow what is being said in the media- Leo.  How strong is a peer group... and what if you pay one person in the peer group to influence the rest of the peer group... how much "free thought" does a group have?
2. We have looked at how we make decisions, Do we truly make our decisions?
3. How can trust (or how is) trust gained between a product and the people who (might) buy it?  How do you get Brand Loyalty? 
4. ...most news we pay attention to is American .we hear their perspective on things .What they believe is going on in Iraq.But once we hear how the Iraqi people look at things we then soon see ourselves thinking outside the box. - Marianna  Talk about this idea of perspective;  Who has the power?  Do they have the power if they have the media?
5. Reacting to something Sally said- when is there too much "Media"?  Is there ever too much?  Are there some things that are NOT media worthy?
   

It should be a paragraph the size of this entry minimum and also needs to have an appropriate image to illustrate what you are talking about.

Last Week Review (end Sept. 11)

Last week we worked on looking to see how the mind builds information. The steps we follow: Identify (the need), Analysis, Design, Implement and Evaluate are key to understanding how minds work and better yet how Advetisers and other interests manipulate our interests.

Coming up: We are now looking more closely as to how we can manipulate the verbal language of a media message to add to its impact.

Homework:  You should have posted an image that shows stereotypes and write why you think this.

Welcome!

This year we are going to look at media to become aware and socially conscious. Looking at websites, watching movies and TV, talking on cell phones is not enough! Don't let the technology put you to sleep! We need to take control and start sending our own messages- our own product out! The best way we can do that is if we understand the media that we are using (or being used by)!


The materials that you will need for this are as follows:

• USB memory stick (1 gig minimum)
• a notebook with lined and/or blank (whatever you are most comfortable with)
• pens, pencils, markers, colour pencils- anything that can make marks
• have internet access!
• glue stick

This course has not only your media awareness component but is also where you will create/produce the integrated project! This is a self-motivated, self disciplined, independently created work. You have the whole year to do it- will it be enough?!?

Oh- and did I mention that we're going to have fun?

First assignment (week of: September 1-4):

1. find at least one media image
2. create your own blog and become a "follower" of this one (that way I can link back to yours and see it)
3. Post your first response (by Monday, Sept 7th)