class blog 11/30

An Interesting Review And Expansion of The basic Plot Triangle

Today Mr River class we learned about several key concepts. One of which was  ferytage triangle This is your standard triangle that you've been taught for years. Yet we went much more in depth with this chart and expanded upon the basic terms that we learned in our past English classes. First you have your exposition our beginning where you learn about your character or characters. Then you have your conflict to set the story. After that the rising action which builds the conflict until you have a climax the highest point of the story or the revealing of the mystery.then the falling action is the release of the tension this is often referred to as your  denuma (properly not spelled right french sorry). Then your resolution or new normal is the complete ending. A few great examples of these types of movies are Finding Nemo star wars episode three lord of the rings complete series really any major film work follows this example of story writing pretty well.

Yet things got interesting in class when Mr.Rivers started to talk a new type of narrative writing structure called the 3 act technique now we did not get much time to discuss this topic in class but we watch a 17 minute film discussion on the topic. I recommend that you watch it twice as it has a very challenge dialogue to understand. We will resume talking about the 3 act structure tomorrow  The link is on classroom reminders the 5.1 review excerpt is due tonight at 11.59 pm that is on feast. Something else I though a person may have thought could be useful is a picture of the 3 acts table as well as the freytage triangle for reference. A way in which one could use this information is to write a ood and captivating story or even keep someone interested in your personal story all by following the basics of these ideas

      Preview attachment IMG_1915.JPG

IMG_1915.JPG

2.6 KB

Daily log blog 11/30/17

Today in class we talked about the Freytag triangle (which had been around for thousands of years) and related it to literature and film. We reviewed all the parts of the triangle which are the exposition (which gives us the backstory, setting, and characters) the rising action (which exposes the audience to the tension of the novel) the climax (which is when tension reaches its peak and the conflict is solved) falling action (which releases the tension built up in the climax) and resolution(which is what happens after the climax- the new normal). After reviewing the Freytag triangle we watched a video explaining the idea of the three act structure, a more complex form of the Freytag triangle. In the video she talks about a number of films that follow the structure. She describes the eight sequences that go on during the film that release minor tensions to aid the major tension. She also explains how the three act structure can be divided because an act is where the main character can no longer go back and has entered a new stage in the sequence. The video is long and difficult to explain but I couldn't find it on youtube because the school restricts most videos so ask Mr. Rivers if you need it. The three act structure can be related to almost all literature and most films follow suit, so rewatch your favorite movies and see if they too follow either the three act structure or Freytag's triangle.

Daily Blog 11/30/17

Structure of Literature

 

Freytag Triangle/Arch

1. Introduction/Exposition - We get exposed to things like the setting, the protagonist and what the world and character is like normally. It is not as tense yet.
2. Rising Action - Causes tension and makes up the bulk of our story
3. Climax - It answers the conflict of our story. If we don’t have a conflict our story just goes into a straight line because nothing is really happening
4. Falling Action - denouement (french word for it) - tension is being released
5. Resolution/Conclusion - Major conflict has been solved and there is a new normal and the world and character has been forever changed.

Freytag was a German scholar who found this pattern in lots of literature all the way back to 500 BC and things like that. An example of a present day work of literature that follows this arch that we also watched in class are Wall-E, Feast, No Country For Old Men and Get Out. In Feast it starts off nice and happy and the conflict rises between the dog and his owners girlfriend and also the climax when the owner and her breakup so Winston runs and gets her. This causes the resolution and they learn to love each other.

I’ve realized that we can not only use this Freytag Arch to not only evaluate movies in class but we can use it to write our own stories or screenplays. It can help make planning out your writing easier if you use the Freytag arch and plan out what the general summary of each step will be. I also noticed that stories I have written in the best naturally fit this form without me even thinking about it and I think most people are like that

Three Act Structure in film - Most films have three acts and eight sequences. There are 2 sequences in the 1st act, 4 sequences in Act 2, and 2 sequences in the 3rd act.

Act 1

1 - Point of Attack

2 - Incident of Attack

Act 2

3 - Lock in Establish main tension

4 - Milestone

5 - Midpoint

6 - New tension started

Act 3

7 - Twist grand focus to personal focus

8 - Character growth that revisits characters

Daily Log Blog: Tonal Flavors 11/29/17

Rivers reminded us that the Ready Player One theme post is due at 7 am tomorrow and that reviews are due tomorrow at midnight. He then dived into explaining that reviews are a process and how we can use that process to our benefit. He also explained how we should add flavors to our reviews. Rivers asked use to look at two important questions, “What part(s) of the object does this review EVALUATE?” and “What LANGUAGE develops the positive or negative tone(s)?” We then looked at a review about Get Out. Rivers then explained to many students that our review due at midnight tomorrow is only to be two, five sentence paragraphs, about Feast. The review we looked at next was a review about Adam Sandler in “Jack and Jill.”, evaluating using those previous questions. He then directed our attention to the classroom page to a transition resource, hoping for us to utilize this in our future writings. We then began working on the reviews on classroom and he reminded us that is it due tomorrow at 11:59 pm.

(Flavor count: 5, Mr. Rivers is getting dangerously close to Guy Fieri levels of flavor.)

What we learned in class today isn’t just relevant to the classroom. These skills can be used ultimately be used in a workplace as some people professionally review movies and other forms of media for a living. They do so in exactly the way we discussed in class today, rather than say “good” or “bad”, they convey their ideas with words that have strong tones behind them. It is important to review something with tone rather than be neutral to give the reader a sense of purpose behind the review.

Daily Blog 11/29/17 The 3 steps of viewing and reviewing film

Daily Blog 11/29/17 Period 2

Today was a day where we primarily reviewed how to properly wright reviews for films while keeping them short and sweet for our up and coming assignments that are due in class. We began class by reviewing 2 separate film reviews one on Get Out the most resent film that we watched in class and the other on Jack and Jill. The review Get Out was a positive one that focused on setting, characters, and the genera when Jack and Jill did similar things but they both had very different views on the movie. It just goes to show how we can be short and sweet and still get our point across regardless of what our view on the movie is. By using certain word choice to directly capture our feelings and being specific with our examples and quotes were truly able to capture the film in the best setting.

After we worked on both of those reviews we went on to writing our own reviews on Feast the film we had been watching in class for a long time (the reviews will be due at Thursday night). We should use all of the three step process that we learned for writing film reviews and in using these examples we should succeed in our efforts. 

3 Steps of viewing and reviewing film:

Viewing #1: Enjoyment!

Before (Optional):

Preliminary research to establish context

• Artists
• Production?
• Expectations- Trailer

During: Let the Movie happen!

After:

Initial reactions

• What does your gut tell you?
• Is that gut reaction subjective or objective.

-----------------------

Viewing #2: Examin meaning

Before:

Based on the initial responses what parts will you evaluate.

During:

Analyze the development of those parts of the film

After:

Planting seeds for paragraphs

• Establish claims
• Find evidence

----------------------------------------------

Viewing #3: Precision

Before: Determin where  you will be looking for evidence

• Content (to be evaluated)
• Theme (to identify and evaluate)

During: Search for specific scenes to help you

After: Refine analysis

• Replace natural language with tonal flavor
• Clarify relationships with transitions
• Clarity/Specificity

Ryan Ryersen 11-29-17 Daily Blog

Today in class we continued what we did yesterday. We started today’s class by elaborating on the process of the third viewing. Mr. Rivers told us that the most effective way to analyze and evaluate film is to watch it three times. We have already watched the short film, Feast, twice and we started by talking about how we should watch it the third time. Before the third viewing, it is important determine what specific scenes you expect to find evidence that will help your argument. You should also determine a theme that you want to watch its progression throughout the film. During the actual film you should look for actual evidence that will help to expand and support your evaluation. After the watching the film you should refine your analysis by replacing neutral language with tonal flavor. Another thing is that you should clarify relationships between ideas by using more effective transitions. Also, you should maximize specificity and clarity in your evaluation. After this we looked at some professional reviews.  We looked for things such as tone in New York Times reviews about Get Out and Adam Sandler where the former took a very appraising tone while the latter received far worse feedback.  First we looked at the Get Out review we started by identifying the “parts of the object” that were present in the film. In my group we identified themes, settings and characters. As a class we identified the review address antagonist, plot and tone. We then evaluated the author’s language and its relation to these objects. For example “tantrums of entitlement”, has a very negative connotation and says a lot about the characters and plot. After this we looked at transitions and how they can enhance your writing by effectively relating multiple ideas. There is a document on the google classroom that has a list of many transition phrases.
In order to connect this to the world at large I decided to connect this to another New York Times article. This is an review of Interstellar, by A. O. Scott. There are many objects in this review one object is plot and directors. Scott talks about these two objects when he says “The Nolans cleverly conflate scientific denialism with technophobia, imagining a fatalistic society that has traded large ambition for small-scale problem solving and ultimate resignation.”This is one sentence so it is efficient however despite its size this sentence is able to convey the premise of the film, evaluates the plot with tonal flavor with words such as “cleverly”. This also gives a hint as to Scott’s opinion of the film. 
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/movies/interstellar-christopher-nolans-search-for-a-new-planet.html

Daily Log Blog 11/29/17

Today in class we continued the topic of looking at our reviews as process. We started class by looking at two excerpts and answering the questions what are the parts of the object? And what language evaluates that object? What this means is that we looked deeply into the excerpts looked at the parts that make up the objective part of the excerpts. After we found those parts of the object we looked at what was the connotation towards those parts of the object.

The first excerpt we covered in class was about the film Get Out. After reading the passage we came together as a group, trying to find as many parts of the object in the passage. After consulting with our groups we came back as a class and shared our findings. The class came up with the parts of the object like the setting, antagonist, plot, director, genre, and tone. Then we grouped up again and tried finding the language the author uses to evaluate those objects. We again came back to the class and shared our findings. The language the author uses to evaluate these objects seem to be all positive. Something we noted was that the author uses one sentence to evaluate more than one object. The author was a able to take such a rich topic and make it into a few sentences.

The second excerpt takes on a hold different perceptive and really focuses on the actor Adam Sandler as a whole. Just like before we came together as a group to see what we could find for both parts of the object and the language that the author uses to evaluate those parts. We covered object parts such as  director, Adam Sandler and his age, plot, comedy, characters, theme, and the ending. The author uses very strong language and ethos to evaluate these objects.  Some examples are negative sounding words like curdling. Use of negative tone to analyze to the objective parts, use of sarcasm to prove how Adam Sandler is a nice guy, and use of specific parts of the film. The author manages to take this topic and make it into three rich and flavorful sentences.

With the last little bit of class we had left we moved over to the concept of transition.  We talked about how different transitions can make the difference from a well constructed piece to what the paragraphs are trying to get across. We then wrapped up class with the overview of the assignment 5.1 and was granted time to start working on it. 

The questions what are the parts of the object? and what language evaluates that object? are seen in critiques and reviews everywhere. These abilities to find the parts of the object and the use of language to evaluate those objects are very real. Professional critiques and reviewers have to use this process every time they write about something. They must go through the text they are analyzing and find what makes up the objective parts of their text. They then must express their feelings and have to expand those parts with their language. By finding the parts of the object and identifying the language, it allows us to really dive into a piece of text and allow us to be better reviewers and critiques. 

Elias Frieling Daily Blog 11/28

Today’s class started off with Mr. River’s reminding us to have Ready Player One level 2 read by thursday. In addition the assignment must be completed before 7:00 A.M. Thursday morning. We then went into talking about the short movie Feast. We jumped right in from what we did yesterday talking about the changing aspects during the short movie that each group chose to analyze. The topics chosen by each group were, music, mood, color, and characters. Each group then came up with 2 claims that could be turned into themes from the topic they chose. Our group’s claims for mood were, “The changes in music change the mood of the film from happy to sad, and then back to happy” and, “The juxtaposition of the the owner and Winston changes the audience mood when they see how depressed Winton’s owner is after the breakup”. After this every group came up with 3 abstract topics and 3 concrete topics in Feast. We had love, depression, and relationships for abstract, and dog, food, and dieting for concrete. From this each group turned one abstract into a theme and one concrete topic into a theme. Our abstract theme was “A relationship can be created with anyone or anything at anytime”. Our concrete theme was, “Food can be a great way to bond with another individual”. We ended the class talking about what to do during the third viewing of a film which included determining where to look for evidence, searching for those specific themes, and refining your analysis.

The short movie Feast reminded me a lot of the beginning of the movie Up. The way the mood changes very quickly from happy to sad is similar to Up, where the there is a happy buildup showing the relationship between Carl and Ellie, and then a very sad downfall when Ellie’s health deteriorates and she passes away. Both of these films use the happy buildup to make an even more depressing downfall as the audience quickly grows attached to the characters, and gives a much bigger emotional roller coaster to the audience than just having the whole part be sad.

Daily Log Blogs 11/28/17

Today's class was the build off of what we worked on yesterday. We focused on the topic of writing as a process, not as a product. While diving into the movie Feast, we really focused on evaluating the pieces and potential objects of the film.  The potential objects are the parts of the objective part of the film and these parts are something we can sit down and analyze in our reviews.  The examples that our class looked at during the film Feast were setting, food, symbol, music, and framing. Each group focused on one topic during the film and analyzed the development of their part of the film. After the film is done it was time to identify ideas for body paragraphs.  Some topics are to establish your potential claims, establish films potential themes, and to identify the scenes to best support you and your claims/themes. Next, each group came together and drafted their claims. Examples can be found on classroom under #5.1: Review Excerpt. 

After the claims, we started to discuss about theme. We went over the idea of concrete themes and abstract theme. An example of concrete theme would something tangible like food. Abstract theme is the exact opposite of concrete theme. An example of abstract theme would be something intangible like love. The class then came up with abstract and concrete concepts and soon discovered that topics can be both abstract and concrete. For example the idea of a family is abstract, but the physical identity of having a family is concrete. We then came together as groups and came up with abstract and concrete themes found in Feast. We then covered the idea of that to be a theme it must be able to stand on it to own feet and apply to the real world. Examples of the abstract and concrete themes can be found on classroom under #5.1: Review Excerpt, just like the claims.

To rap up class we covered that the third viewing should consist of precision. Before viewing the film you want to think where can the content be found in the film, based on your theme and topic? 

During the viewing you want to search for the specific scenes and expand your support for your evaluations. And after the viewing you want to replace the neutral language with tonal language. The whole point is to be specify and clear. 

The topic of writing as a process, not as a product is applied in the real world every day. Writers and critiques go through this process while writing their text. If critiques did not analyze every part of the film in detail, they would not have a liable review. Critiques have to establish potential claims and look at the objective parts of the film. After they establish these claims, they then have to turn those claims into themes. Once the objective part is over, they then have to  incite their subjective qualities into the film also, while all being specific and clear. Writers also have to go through a process. They themselves must come with claims and themes and have to apply those concepts into their text. While keeping a decisive plot and story line. Overall, the process of writing is very specific and takes time. Without the specific process of writing, there would not product. You can not end up with product, but must go through the process first. 

Ryan Ryersen 11/28/17 Daily Log Blog

Today in class we watched the end of the short film called Feast. All of the groups had to pick a particular aspect of the film to focus on. Yesterday we were told to merely watch the movie therefore, this time we would try to focus on a certain part of the film. Many groups focused on various parts of the film such as the music during the film or the composition of the film.  My group on the food in this film. After a discussion with our groups we crafted claims pertaining to our object and the film. In our group, one of our claims was “The type of food the man is consuming is reflective of his mood in that scene.” This claim is rather general, but some groups had more specific claims. This was the first step so our claims were pertained exclusively to the movie. Applying claims to outside world things was part of our second step in which we constructed themes.. After we established claims about the film itself, we then began constructing themes. We started by differentiating between abstract and concrete ideas. We said that an abstract idea is present yet not tangible, nor easily interpreted or quantifiable. Examples of abstract topics include but are not limited to love and greed. Conversely, concrete ideas are things that are either tangible or easily interpreted. Examples are food or sound. Using these topics we then crafted a theme regarding a theme that pertains to one of these topics. One example of a theme is “Empathy can overcome jealousy and can lead to more acceptance to change in a relationship.” This theme pertains particularly to two abstract ideas which are empathy and jealousy. These are considered abstract because empathy and jealousy cannot be put into a numerical format nor can they be interpreted by any of the five senses. In this instance, relationship takes a concrete format as it is referring to the physical relationship. With that being said it is possible for words such as family and relationships to be both abstract or concrete depending on context. We then reviewed what we will look for in our third viewing.
An example of this process used in an extracurricular manner is in another movie. For example, I have seen Interstellar twice and in the second viewing I noticed many things that I did not pick up on the first movie. One topic that I noticed had an incredible importance in Interstellar was time. I realized that time had an impact on literally every part of the film from the setting, to the plot, to the sound, to the characters, to the organization of the narrative and everything in between. A claim I could make pertaining to time is that when is that while Cooper in his crew were on Miller’s planet, time was drastically dilated, therefore the few hours that Cooper and his crew were on Miller’s planet translated to 23 years on Earth. (Link 1)This claim pertains exclusively to the movie. A theme that pertains to the world outside of the film is that time always continues forward, regardless of dilation, therefore you should be deliberate with the time that you do have. If I watched this for a third time I would look for specific evidence to support this theme.
Link 1-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoLkabPK3YU

Nick Elnasser Daily Log Blog 11/27/17

Hello Class,
Today in class we took a lot of notes and had a heavy learning day. When we first came into class Mr.Rivers kindly reminded us we have our ready player one reading and assignment for level two due Thursday. He then went on to tell us that he is going to push back our pre academia research because he felt as if we were doing too many things at once. That will be returned to at a later date. Next, we got on with the notes for the day. We learned how to critically re-watch something today which will eventually teach us how to critically write better. Critically re-watching movies is a process and takes time; there's no way to watch a movie once and retain every single piece of information. Usually, you would want to critically re-watch something three times. During the first viewing there's a few things you should do. Before the movie is played you should do some preliminary research such as finding out the artists or watching the trailer. During the movie you should pretty much do nothing and just let the movie happen as if you were normally watching it. Finally, after the movie, you should review your initial reactions such as: what does your gut tell you? Is that gut reaction objective or subjective? During viewing number two before the movie starts again you should go over your initial reactions and figure out which one you want to focus on. We did not get to the during and after parts of the second viewing but we did watch a short Disney movie, "Feast," two times. After the first watching our class came up with a few things to focus on the next time such as lighting, music, the main character, and the perspective of the film. Right after the second re-watch the bell rang and we did not have time to discuss those things but we will tomorrow during class.

This could obviously be used many different ways in the real world. If you wanted to start your own blog this would be a huge help to critically write about any movie out there. You are sure to get tons more information watching a movie three times then if you did once. You could pickup key information that you may have missed the first time you watched it. Let's face it, when a movie is watched for the first time most people only figure out whether or not they subjectively enjoyed it not whether or not it was objectively good. By re-watching films a much better understanding of what the director was trying to accomplish is seen. This can be seen by mise-en-scene elements such as lighting and color. Ultimately, this could be very helpful in the real world.

class blog 11/21/17

Hello my fellow classmates mr. Rivers class we discuss several upcoming . the most important one in my opinion Is the level 2 academic analysis. mr. Rivers highly recommend that you get a head start on this because you only have one class to right . This short essay is around 4 paragraphs long  and is on a chosen academic ideal of your choosing. I would recommend that you get several quotes  from Ready Player One level 2. the other assignment is about Showing the development of our theme throughout Ready Player One level 2. These are the upcoming due dates that we have discussed in class today.

Then for the second part we worked on are analysis of A film review. my  group chose  The Wolf of Wall Street to analyze. we are still continuing our work on it we know several key features where the text  a quick example of this would be the title it was “when greed, is good”This is showing that greed which is in the movie is good and also advised that the movie is good because they say greedy in making it. Lastly  I would say that this class today with relate to the outside world through the proper analysis of a review of something which is an important thing to understand because one day you might have to give you something for your boss and this process will help us develop that review.  This will be the last long for this week so have a pleasant turkey day.

Daily blog

Hello, my fellow classmates! Welcome to my first blog of the second marking period. Today we got two new assignments posted to the classroom page. The first assignment is to be done on our own time due in class by November 30th. This assignment is to take our theme(s) that we made up from Ready Player One Level One, and write two to three paragraphs with textual evidence explaining how the theme has developed throughout the novel. The second assignment is one that will be done in class on November 30th. So, classmates, make sure you are keeping up with your reading and working on the assignments.

Today in class we continued working on our analyses of the film reviews  we found yesterday with our groups. My group personally read a review of The Hangover, which we found to be a pretty effective review. Each group was instructed to create percentages for the following categories of the reviews :

Crediting relevant artists

Providing necessary context

Summarizing plot

Evaluating content

Evaluating theme

Concluding

In addition to these, we had to say the total word count of our articles. The word counts and percentages varied greatly from group to group. Some articles had shorter articles and some had very long articles.

What we did today can relate to the world at large because reviews are everywhere. Nowadays, pretty much anybody can be a critic of almost anything, with films included. However, if someone wants to have any credibility they should know how to write an informative review of whatever they are writing about. To write a good review, it would be very helpful for the critics to know the parts that were listed above.

Blog 11/20

Notes today were on movie reviews, and the 7 tactics that are needed to write a substantial review. Blogs are now increased in points, and Mr. Rivers stressed that waiting to the last minute isnt a good idea. As for the tactics, they consist of:

1.Deliberately title article
2. Who is important
3. Credit explicitly - naming artist within your sentences/ paragraphs
Credit parenthetically - did you mention a character but don't want to spend the whole review Provide necessary content
4.Premise- the main basis/ conflict for the film
5.Evaluate Content
6.Evaluate meaning/theme
7. Conclude

For the rest of the class, we looked at NY times movie reviews, and began to analyse them for their parts shown above. This is an ongoing project, and will continue to be done tomorrow/, 11/21.

Daily Blog, 11/20/17, Terry Rippon

       Today's class revolved around the formatting of our blogs. Mr. Rivers made sure to mention that a lot of people left out the extension portion of the class blogs, and that from now on we must title our Be Reel blogs in a more creative, review-like manner. The first part of the format we discussed was the title, which should actually be the last thing you write when you are writing a review. It should encompass the entire passage's argument, tone, and/or purpose. Another crucial part of a review is crediting relevant artists. Names should be mentioned, and those names deserve credit for their role in the film making process. In addition to giving credit, one must also provide the necessary context of the film, such as mentioning whether the film is the first of a series, a sequel is soon to follow, or if it was based off of an event. A concise summary of the plot is also required, but must contain no spoilers, in order to draw in a viewer without giving to much away. This summary, according to Mr. Rivers, can be limited to a single sentence that is both specific and clear. Next, a reviewer must evaluate the content of the film, which should be done in short paragraphs, because a review is not an academic essay. Another important aspect of the review is the evaluation of the meaning/theme of the film. Find and share what the film asserts, and zoom the review out to get it ready for a conclusion. The conclusion's job is to answer the question "So what?" for why someone should read this blog, in 1-3 sentences.
       After talking about blog format, we put these new skills into action by finding a movie review article online, and examining it using these tactics we learned today. Not only will I remember these points when reading reviews in the future, but I will also be able to use them whenever I want to review a movie, or even just explain it to a friend. Most importantly, these tips will guide us when writing our Be Reel blogs, because I know for sure that I will not forget a creative title in the future. I will also include theme analysis and context, even though I did not in my previous blogs, because they are crucial to a review.

Daily Blog. November 20, 2017. Tori Flynn

Today Mr.Rivers started class with the usual good morning and then went into reminding us to sign up for our blogs for MP2. The sign up calendar can be found on classroom. He told us that Be Reel Blogs are now going from 30 points to 50 points  so he warned us it would be a very bad idea to leave them til last minute and try and cram them in at the end of the marking period. After talking about this Tony brought up a great question of after you post your blog or even be reel blog, can you make improvements. Rivers told us that we can make a draft of our blogs BEFORE WE POST and bring it to him or Mr. Moriarty and they will help guide us and make sure you hit all the points giving us feedback but they won't let us edit after we already post and already have a grade. Todays notes were about what we want to hit in our blogs and our movie reviews. Here were my notes I took in class today in case any of you who were absent or are just reading these blog posts need them or missed something while taking them!

Notes:  Talked about what we hit in our blogs

1. Deliberately title article
• Title is the first introduction to the tone/argument/purpose of your review
• We looked at 3 different titles and saw how two of them incorporated the Author which still keeping their argument clear and the last one was intriguing because of the hair puns.
• ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Unleashes J.K. Rowling’s Magic on Old New York
• Interstellar - 'science trumps story in latest Christopher Nolan epic'
• Tangled: rooted in traditional animation with 3D highlights.
2. Credit relevant artists
• Who is IMPORTANT?
• Director's, Actor(s)? Screenwriter(s)? Original Author(s)?  
• Credit EXPLICITLY - naming artist within your sentences/ paragraphs
• Credit PARENTHETICALLY - did you mention a character but don't want to spend the whole review on him? “On the ship. Neo meets other futuristic characters like Mouse( Matt Doran) and Cypher (played by the deliberate rat faced Joe Pantoliano) .” from the Matrix
3. Provide necessary content
• What do we NEED to know about this film/its production?
• Series?
• Does it reflect a certain current event/ trend?
• What is happening OUTSIDE the film( or as part of the films production)?
4. Summarize Plot
• AVOID SPOILERS!!
• Premise- the main basis/ conflict for the film
• One sentence premise: you should be able to explain the main focus of the narrative in a single sentence that is both specific and clear.
• The Matrix follows Neo as he learns that the world is not(and has never been) what it seems
5. Evaluate Content
• BULK of your review: specific paragraphs
• Remember that this is not an academic essay:
• Paragraphs may be short!
• SPECIFIC paragraphs about SPECIFIC content
• This is where objectivity comes into play
6. Evaluate meaning/theme
• Consider the text as a whole: what does it ASSERT?
7. Conclude
• BRIEF AND SPECIFIC
• In 1-3 sentences, you should be able to answer “So what?”

After we concluded our note taking in our groups, partners or by ourselves we had to find an actual review of movie, go on the classroom page, open the document posted and paste the whole review in the document so tomorrow we will be able to read the review and comment on those 7 steps we learned about today. The overall objective of this class was to help us be able to realize what should be hit when we do our Be Reel Blogs. This really helps us outside the classroom as well because as you can see in bullets 3,4 and 5 it teaches us how to avoid spoilers when reviewing, how to summarize what is important and what is not and to consider the specific information which makes the movie/ TV shows objectively pleasing.

 

11/17/17

Lauren Zanetakos

period 3

11/17/17

Today in class we started off by writing a thank you note to one of the adults that works in the building. I sent one to my math teacher because I am awful at math,

Intro about blogs: Mr. Rivers introduced the 2nd marking period blog requirement because the start of the new marking period means that each student is responsible for four blogs, two be reel movie blogs, and two class summary blogs.

Daily Log Blog (2 per MP, 20 points each)

Two times per marking period, you will post a 300-500 word summary of our class that day. Your post should include:

A specific enough summary of the day’s learning that a student who was absent would be caught up (50%)

An extension that extends what we learned in class to the world at large (50%)

A title

Mr. Rivers highlighted the requirement about the extension because throughout the marking period our blogs have not been meeting his requirements. (Hint hint, wink wink)

After we handed in our letters, we as groups started crafting a theme that we will focus on while reading level two.  Our theme is focusing on the real world vs. the virtual world

“The increasing presence of the virtual world led to the decline of the real world due to humanity being able to hide from their problems instead of facing them head on and solving them.”

Since the contest in the virtual world led to death of Wade’s friends and family into stacks. In this day in ago we find that most people are addicted to social media and rather having conversations face to face. The advances in technology is gearing the future generations towards a more VR reality. For example most of assignments are on the computer instead of classic worksheets.  

Be Reel Blog: Shrek 3

Shrek 3 is the third move in a long list of Shrek movies. Shrek is one of the greatest children's movies ever and I even think teenagers and some adults would like the Shrek series. In the third movie Far Far Away is taken over by Prince Charming after the King's death. Shrek is the heir to the throne but does not want to be king so Charming seizes the opportunity and takes control. Soon Shrek would realize he has to do what's right and take back the kingdom while also gaining the throne. In terms of enjoyment, I did very much enjoy this film. It took me back to my days as a kid and, at times, Shrek 3 was a actually humorous. It is a good watch for all people no matter how old or how young they are; all people can enjoy this movie. The problem comes in when talking about objective quality. I understand this is meant to be a children's story but every single children's story doesn't need to feature the same story line. Every single children's movie has a hero that does something wrong and then has to fix and resolve by the end of the film. Shrek 3 is no different; These movies need to broaden a little bit and maybe change the story line a little bit. It would make for more people watching the film so that they don't see the same ending every time with different character. This is why I give Shrek 3 a.....

BAD GOOD

Be Reel Blog: Captain Phillips

WARNING: SPOILERS INVOLVED
Captain Phillips is an awesome true story about a Captain that has his ship overtaken by pirates while on the job. Phillips is captaining a cargo ship off the coast of Somalia when pirates find his boat and hold him hostage in the middle of the ocean. I personally believe this was a great film because it's a real story but its also a bit different than what actually happened (the usual Hollywood effect). once the pirates take over the ship the crew hides so the pirates can't find them and completely over run the boat. The Somali's leader finds the crew but the crew manages to take him hostage. The pirates and the crew then work a deal that if the crew gives back the pirate leader, the pirates will give back Captain Phillips. The pirates got cold feet and took back their leader but still held Phillips hostage. They took him out on a small lifeboat in the middle of the ocean but the US military would come and save the day. The film has a great story line and was produced very well. Tom Hanks did an excellent job playing Phillips and while some of the information was not true, all of the information together created a great movie. The movie made everything seem so real even though it wasn't and that really drew my attention in. It made you feel for the whole crew and most importantly, Captain Phillips. Ultimately, I would rate this movie a 10/10 and I also will give it a GOOD GOOD rating.