Dystopian Trailer: The Script

So far, my group has a finalized draft of our script. The premise of our trailer is the story of a society in which the government distributes food aid to the poor, disabled, sick, and unemployed. These people are placed under constant surveillance, and if their conditions do not improve, the government puts poison in the food aid in order to eventually eradicate all those who are keeping society from being perfect. In our trailer, we will have a nurse who disributes food aid, but does not realize that the food she is giving out is poisonous. She then meets a girl whose parents perished after consuming the government's food aid. Together, they work to expose the system.

Within our trailer, we will emphasize dystopian elements primarily through dialogue from our actual scenes and possibly voiceovers. We have a total of fourteen scenes in our trailer. Although it sounds like a lot of scenes, some of them are only a couple of seconds long. The structure of our trailer is chronological. Events will be placed in the order they would be placed in if our trailer was made into an actual film, except the ending, of course. Overall, my group is happy with our finalized script. We will begin filming this weekend.

5x5

Clips:
1. Car window
2. Rain streaming down pavement
3. Car running over puddles
4. Rain begins to stop
5. Rainbow

I used a DSLR to film and wevideo.com to edit my 5x5. I was confortable with using my DSLR, but using wevideo.com was new to me. I was worried at first, that I would have a lot of difficulty figuring out how to edit on wevideo.com but it turned out to be pretty easy (although I had some trouble figuring out how to trim clips at first).

Overall, I am satisfied with my first video; however, there were a lot of things that could have been better. I wish my footage could have been more exciting. It was difficult for me to think of a theme or topic to film. I am used to taking photographs instead of filming, which was a challenge when it came to this project because I feel that in film, there always has to be something captivating going on on the screen, whereas in photography, only a moment is captured, and, unlike film, the photo is artsy moreso than exciting. This was the main challenge that I had with this project. I felt that some of my footage would have looked better as photographs instead of footage. Overall, however, I am happy with my editing, and I was happy that I was able to figure out wevideo.com.

In our next video, I think we should film something that reflects our personality and interests.

Dystopian Trailer: In Time

In Time

Director: Andrew Niccol  

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: October 28, 2011

In the future, people are programmed to stop aging at the age of 25; however, after the age of 25, one must "buy" additional time to stay alive. When Will (Justin Timberlake), a man who is running out of time, meets a wealthy time-loaner's daughter, Sylvia (Amanda Seyfreid), they rebel against the system by robbing time banks and distributing time to those who need it.

Director, Andrew Niccol develops a dystopian protagonist and emphasizes the elements of the dystopian society prevalent in In Time through the incorporation of relevant film clips, words, and voiceovers. The beginning of the trailer depicts a disintegrating world, which is described through voiceovers and text.  Elements of a dystopian society are emphasized in the following film clips. It is evident in the film clips that citizens of the society are living in a dehumanized state in which poor citizens cannot afford to live past the age of 25. The society depicted in the trailer is also an illusion of a perfect world because one side of society stays forever while living extravagant lives. These elements of a dystopian society are emphasized primarily through film clips, but also through voiceovers and words. Andrew Niccol establishes a dystopian protagonist in the trailer by incorporating film clips in which protagonist, Will, expresses his contempt for the system. In the trailer, Will is seen fighting the system through rebellious acts, such as robbing time banks, and killing government employees. Additional film techniques that add to the effectiveness of the trailer include suspenseful music, sound effects, and usage of a variety of camera angles.

In my trailer, I want to be able to emphasize elements of my group's dystopian society through the usage of footage, voiceovers, and text, similar to the In Time trailer. I also hope to embellish our trailer through the usage of music and interesting camera angles in order to make our trailer more captivating. Overall, In Time's trailer is an exemplar trailer which I would like to use as a model for my group's dystopian trailer.



Learning Through Collaboration

World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others is an article that discusses the usage of technology to connect with others in order to educate oneself. The article talks about the role of technology in today's classrooms and the importance of technology as a means of connection, communication, and a learning tool. Author, Will Richardson, believes that it is important for everyone to be able to connect through technology, especially in a fast paced world in which there is always new news. He also believes that technology as a means of communication in a classroom is extremely important because it allows students to collaborate and learn from each other.

I was surprised when I read the part of the part of the article about the 11-year-old girl who had a blog with views from all over the world. I thought that this was very impressive for such a young girl. A quote that stood out to me was, "Much of what our students learn from us is unlearned once they leave us; paper is not the best way to share our work, facts and truths are constantly changing, and working together is becoming the norm, not the exception." I definitely agree with this. Collaboration with others is "becoming the norm" because it is easier to learn when you are collaborating with others.

Overall, I believe connected learning is a good idea. It allows us to hear each other's ideas, which we can definitely learn from. Also, personally, I find it very easy to learn from my peers. Collaborative learning through technology is a good idea for our classes.

A possible topic I would like to learn about pertaining to school is the complete filmmaking process. I would like to learn how movies are made, step by step, from pre-production to post-production.

Annotated Article

Movie Review

I recently read a movie review from the New York Times for The Blind Side, one of my favorite films. A.O. Scott, author of the review, began the review by describing the premise of the film. Throughout the entire review, Scott discusses the key plot points while weaving his own commentary into the review. He places emphasis on the literary aspects of The Blind Side over the rest of the aspects of film. Scott touches on the dramatic aspects through his commentary on the acting, does not mention anything about the cinematic aspects. The author's tone is quite casual. Throughout the entire review, he expresses his fondness for the film. Aside from the fact that this review does not cover all three of the aspects of film in detail, it is thorough and well-written.

In our quarterly movie reviews, we should have a general structure that isn't too specific. The main requirement should be to mention all of the three aspects of film. For literary aspects, we should only mention the most important ones, such as plot, characters, coflict, setting and theme. Point of view, mood and symbolism do not necessary have to be mentioned, because generally, these points are not as significant. The rest of the aspects should be mentioned. They also shouldn't have to be very long because long movie reviews can become boring and bland.

Movie Review: http://diigo.com/0stza

Introduction

          Welcome to my blog. My name is Song-Binh. I am a sophomore in the Communication and  Arts Program. In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, playing tennis, and vacationing at the beach or near the ocean. My favorite aspect of flmmaking is the creative freedom that you have while filming and editing. I like being able to be creative and do whatever I want when it comes to scriptwriting, filming, or editing. I've worked on several film projects in the past. A while back in media class, we were given an assignment to script a suspense story and make a short film out of it. I worked on the script, as well as the editing. I really enjoyed this project because it allowed be to be creative and collaborate with others. Another film project I've worked on was the InfoFlow show open that we filmed last year. It was fun being able to come up with a creative idea and putting it into film. My partner and I both were scriptwriters and editors. I also worked the camera. This was one of my favorite film projects.

Ways we can use our blogs:

- Collaborating on various projects

- Sharing our work with others

- Peer editing/review of work

Photo: Footsteps