Podcast Review on Slumdog Millionaire

In this term, the last unit, "Post-Production," got me and my peers down to the bone of film creating. For this unit, we saw how much work the editors of the film had to do. We also discovered how important editing is to the flow and plot of the story. For this action project, we had to pick from a short list of movies and chose one to review. I chose Slumdog Millionaire to review. For this review we had to use audio as our source. I'm sorry for the lack of presentation but this was the only way I could find to complete what I tried to do. Thanks and enjoy my audio below, featuring a audio clip from Slumdog Millionaire!!

My audio is presented below:


Transcript Below:
Hello! Thank you for tuning in to my review on Slumdog Millionaire!!

This dramatic thriller released in 2008, was directed by Danny Boyle and co-directed by Loveleen Tandan. It features a handful of amazing actors; Dev Patel as Jamal, Freida Pinto as Latika and many, many more.

I will critique the film for elements of post-production including editing, special effects, sound effects, and soundtracks.

The protagonist of the story, Jamal Malik participates in a Indian version of, “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire” in hopes of the love of his life seeing him on the television. “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire” is a show where people answer worldwide questions and earn loads of cash. Jamal excels on the show and stuns people watching all across India. After being accused of cheating, he is then arrested and interrogated by cops. He claims that all of these questions pertain to certain events that happened in his life. He tells the back story of each and every question throughout the movie.

I will critique the movie through the feminist approach.

The feminist approach pinpoints the effect that women have on the film.

So feminism is a very strong and controversial approach to me. I believe they had a lot of feminist acts in the film. Latika was a VERY strong and influential character throughout the movie. From her being a child to being a slave to being free. Even for other women in India, not just Latika, prostitution and rape is a huge problem. Recently, I read an article on a woman who was forced to kill her child. This is just a taste of the harsh conditions that women have to live under in India. I think overall Latika shapes the structure and story of the movie. Without Latika, what does Jamal have to live for? Why would he be on the show?

The editing of the film was really traditional, but they still managed to make it interesting. I’d have to say the thing that stood out the most to me, was the persistent use of Dialogue Referent. This was when the questions where asked and Jamal recalled events back in time that were related to the question. There was also the before action shot of Salim in the tub of money, before Javed busts through the door. This scene had excellent placement as it occurred in the midst of the climax of the story where Jamal is answering the last question.

The film score of the movie was pretty amazing. I definitely had a hard time missing the music in the film. It was always defining the mood and adding affection & emotion to the setting and it’s characters. The music also emphasized the setting really well. I definitely liked that the music was native to the setting. I specifically like the end of the movie when the music is playing through the credits. It feels very exhilarating and rushed, like something happened or something’s going to happen. The music was most of the time, going fast with drums like a traditional Indian music.

I really liked scenes that involved guns!! So they definitely couldn’t happen without the sound effect of the gun going off. My FAVORITE scene was when Salim pointed that gun at Jamal and told him he had 5 seconds to walk and Latika lowered the gun but I still like when Salim shot Javed at the end. The guns in the movie, when they went off especially made this movie more realistic and suspenseful.

Although, I didn’t see much of any Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). The only semi-CGI content I could spot would probably be the set of the “Do You Want To Be A Millionaire” show. Some things were displayed on the screen in the show that can’t exactly be filmed so they may have used a computer to create it.

In all honesty, I would have to give this film no higher than a 8/10. Although it wasn’t perfect and some things weren’t as realistic as I wanted them to be, it was an overall good movie and I would definitely recommend it!

I would like to thank you guys for listening and have a blessed day!

References:
“Challenges of Women in India”, CNN. Sumnima Udas. Web. Jan 12, 2015.

Service Begins At Home: Service Project

For the last project in my Five Faces class we all had to complete our own service project following certain requirements. It was kind of hard to make the service convenient for me, let alone following requirements along the way, but I pulled through and delivered a nice video. This service project was a lot different than most. Lots of people wouldn't even consider this a service, but this was service in my eyes. If you're using your own blood, sweat, tears, and money then it's definitely service!! I cooked for my great grandmother and it made me feel AMAZING. I cooked things that she would usually cook to make her feel at home! She invited people over and so did I and it was all a success. It was truly a magnificent experience. As you will find in my video, she even shed a tear. That's the very first time I've ever seen her cry, it was really something special. Tears of joy are the strongest liquid to me.

Using my Seer face, I visualized my success before my service occurred:

"Before" DNR Jan 9

"During" DNR Jan 9

"Post" DNR Jan 9

Using my Observer face, I detailed my project to perfection! I made a table to help me organize what I needed and what I had to do to make this service successful. I needed to buy the food, I needed 10 guests, and I needed seasonings and silverware. The cooking took roughly 2 hours. The meat and potatoes took up most the time. We also had salad, bread sticks, broccoli, and macaroni. 

Thanks to the Alchemist face, I used my love for Pineapple Pop and Orange Juice to mix them together and serve at dinner. I also used my great grandmother always making us nice meals as inspiration for my service.

Using my Fool face, I flipped the script and cooked for my great grandmother as she is always cooking for me!

By taking advantage of the Sage face, I made everything traditional and simple. I had everything laid out and detailed. I also utilized simplicity and created a crafty title that summed up my project: "Service Begins At Home: Service Project".

What Face Are You?

In my second action project this term, the second unit, "Understanding the Five Faces," was all about learning the five faces of genius and who they apply to. We researched an assortment of famous people who displayed distinct features of each face. For example: Chance The Rapper is an Alchemist because he loves to mix different genres to create his music. I now look at people differently because of learning these faces, I like to just sit and observe and it has been a fun experience. This project was slightly easy because it’s mostly opinion-based, like how you can pick the famous people you want to review. It’s also really fun to analyze some of your favorite role models to see how they think.

There are five faces of genius. These five titles are given to certain types of people:

1. Seer: A Seer is someone who uses visualization in everyday life, like picturing things and visualizing the past and future. 
2. Observer: An Observer is someone who is trained to look at all the small details and then come to a conclusion from them. 
3. Alchemist: An Alchemist is someone who is normally inspired by something and likes to combine two things to create something, sometimes even more beautiful.
4. Fool: A Fool is someone who doesn't look at problems as serious or simple. They like to mix things up and are inspired by absurdity.
5. Sage: A Sage is someone who uses simplicity and history to think about things. 

Earlier in this course, I took a survey that helped me define who I am. I definitely agree with my five faces survey. My more dominant faces are based off absurdity, which should not be much of a surprise to those that know me in real life. For example: whenever a problem occurs, I usually say something ridiculous and my friends just ignore me. This happens a lot. This can very well classify me as a Fool. My second face is Alchemist, for example: I use my characteristics of absurdity to make up ideas, one of my ideas was mixing Pineapple Pop and Orange Juice to make a Pineapple Orange Pop which is delicious by the way. My least dominant face, that I scored 0% in is the Seer face. I'm not really surprised since I am always denying my ability to be visual and also because visualizing things isn't the first thing I look to when in a situation.

I interviewed TC, a student from my school. I asked him a question that I found interesting. As all my questions were yes/no, I felt like this was one of my more dominant questions that identify Sage: Do you find simplicity as a benefit to society? He answered yes to this question, which definitely could classify him as a Sage. Also TC answered all my Seer questions yes, identifying him as a Seer.

“Do you find simplicity as a benefit to society?”
"Yes"

Me And TC. Interview, December 10. 

Adora Svitak is a 12 year old that believes adults should embrace “childish” beliefs and that adults should be more willing to learn from kids. She shows signs of Fool and Sage. She uses absurdity because kids don’t teach adults and this is quite crazy because it elaborates on the fact that she is one of the more educated children in the world. She also uses Sage techniques because of the simplicity of her thinking, it may sound crazy, but how simple would it be to just reverse the roles of teachers and students.

I love the quote below because it's stated in a sarcastic way and it makes me smile because I can definitely relate to being called childish:

"Every time we make irrational demands, exhibit irresponsible behavior or display any other signs of being normal American citizens, we are called childish."

"Adora Svitak"  Wiki. Web, December 13th. 

Chancellor Bennett, also known as Chance The Rapper is one of the most inspirational people to me. He displays characteristics of a Fool and Alchemist, as do I. He likes to make music using different genres like jazz and R&B. Also if you really follow Chancellor, he displays Fool techniques in plenty of his personality. He loves to have fun and make people smile and laugh, and he is definitely absurd because if you know anything about him, he is always making statements that are rather peculiar and unreasonable in his music and in his personal life. Maybe this is why I follow him, we think alike!

I love the quote below because it defines how I think about the world. The man who created the iPhone is no different than the man who created Peanut Butter, “we just people with ideas” 

“In the real world, we just people with ideas.”

"Chance The Rapper" Wiki. Web, December 13th. 

These are some ways I can implement the five faces in making my service project effective: For Seer I could make it look nice and presentable, I could also use Seer techniques to envision my own success and make my goal easier to reach because of my confidence in succeeding. For Observer I could make sure everything is in the right spot and things come together nicely. Also for Observer, I could use small details in my art to create a better experience for my local Chicago people. For Alchemist I could mix things up and create things using two ideas, such as: using quotes from real celebrities that people look up to or follow and making their quotes useful to my cause. This combines press and art, or trends and art. For Fool I could use absurd thinking to create problem-solving by maybe implementing abstraction to my art. I feel like abstract art can make a very nice contribution to my piece by attracting more attention. For Sage I could keep it simple, understandable, and relatable. As far as these three aspects go, I think they make things feel real for the viewer. I feel like making things simple and relatable, it will make the viewer understand me more. It will feel like I'm there in person presenting it to them. I was thinking about raising awareness for resource distribution problems by leaving a mural or some art in a public park somewhere because I feel like we have the food and resources to feed millions but these things are being wasted because we aren't sending them to the right places! I could also make stickers that say Don’t Shoot to contribute to that cause because I am growing really interested in that campaign. Or maybe even put "Don’t Shoot" on napkins around the Chicago area! The "Don't Shoot, I Want To Grow Up" campaign is something related to the violence and shootings in Chicago, and I want to join the cause. 

"Hands Up Don't Shoot" Flickr. cactusbones. Web, December 17th. 

References:

"Top 10 Dopest Lines" Vibe. Web, December 13th.
“Adora Svitak” AS. Web, December 13th.

Becca and Deshawn's Review on Fruitvale Station!!

In this term, the second unit, "Production," made me and my peers understand what it takes to create a presentable screening of a movie or play. We discussed actor's performance, lighting, camera angles, and what the producer envisions. Throughout this unit, I have broken down the actual excellence of actors and how good they are. I now have a better understanding of how to analyze the performance of some of my favorite actors and see how excellent they actually are. I didn't have that much of a hard time putting together this assignment, it was really fun and the film was excellent. Check out my video review of Fruitvale Station below!

Movie Review on "Beasts of The Southern Wild"

In this term, the first unit, "Pre-Production," allowed me and my peers to dive deep into what it takes to create a film. We watched several movies and discussed their costume designers’ and set designers’ inspiration. We came to the conclusion that movies aren't just a story, it also includes the setting and costumes. This unit made me respect the art of making the movie more. Even though, I hate when some of my favorite movies are called "bad" and "stupid" by critics, I have created my own Movie Review for the film, "Beasts of The Southern Wild."

Tribex. "Beasts of The Southern Wild." (2013)

"Beasts of The Southern Wild" is a film released in 2012. "Beasts of The Southern Wild" is a critically acclaimed movie that took the risk of hiring a 5 year-old girl as the lead. This film is about a little girl who is one with her homeland. She said in the film, "when it all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me flying around in invisible pieces. I see that I'm a little piece of a big, big universe." This quote summarizes her as a character because her curiosity about the world drives her as a character throughout the film. She tries to interpret her own definition of life by going on a journey to become a man. Her father believes he should teach Hushpuppy to be a man because that’s the only way she can take his place and survive. This excellent drama-filled movie was created & produced by a man named Benh Zeitlin. The setting of the story was inspired by an assortment of different isolated fishing communities under attack by erosion, hurricanes, and rising sea levels. It is a tribute to places with such environments, specifically in Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana. The inspiration of the screenplay was the one-act play, "Juicy and Delicious" from Alibar. Based on real-life inspiration for the film, it is no surprise that the content of the story had to be so strong.

“Beasts of the Southern Wild” takes place in a bayou town in Louisiana, named “Bathtub”. It was filmed at a location in a Terrebonne Parish town in Montegut, Louisiana. The set design was effective in making the film more powerful and meaningful. The town appeared messy and unorganized which was a consistent tone for the entire film. The protagonist of the film, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) is a six year-old girl who is struggling to survive with her dad, Wink (name the actor) in their small community, the Bathtub. Hushpuppy dressed in a ragged white tank-top, ill-fitted jeans, and white tube socks throughout the entire movie shows that she has more important things to worry about than her appearance. However, there is a little flower on her shirt that gives her a sense of femininity despite her father’s persuasion for her to be a “man”. Young Hushpuppy(Quvenzhane Wallis) and her father Wink(Dwight Henry) are struggling to survive in their small community where they live off farmland and fish. Hushpuppy's intelligent mind seems to get her in trouble multiple times throughout the story. She questions how her existence affects the world as she goes on with her life. Her father has different plans for her. He believes that everyone should be a man. Wink gets really sick and refrains from telling Hushpuppy this. Hushpuppy realizes this and starts to remember that she was the one that initially caused the heart failure. She got so mad at her father that one day she hit his chest with force, using both hands and said, "I hope you die and after you die I'll go to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself." After this incident, Wink got sicker and sicker to the point where they were abducted by the outside people and he couldn't support himself anymore so he wasn't under care of others. After the two escape the outside place, they try to subsist off nothing in the place they once called home. The rest of the story is Hushpuppy trying to make her dad proud one last time by going on a journey to bring him food from a woman who is supposed to be her mother.

The protagonist is in fact, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis), the real actor playing the part of Hushpuppy. Quvenzhane is eleven now, but at the time they started filming she was only five years old. The antagonist could be a lot of things, but in my case, I'm going to pick nature. I feel as if nature made everything complex. If nature hadn't caused all these catastrophes, then there wouldn't have been as much stuff going on. It may have even saved Wink's life. Maybe the plot of events is what killed Wink. There was a lot going on.

The setting played an amazing part in making the film more powerful and meaningful. The movie was filmed in Terrebonne Parish town, Montegut. The producer, Court 13 made good use of props in making the land a lot more messy and unorganized. He did a good job because it made me feel as if this film was real, because I can relate. My room is dirty and Hushpuppy's land is her room so we are alike in some cases. I also feel as if the setting and clothes are both equally amazingly presented. The clothes worn in the film are amazing for the plot and fit the characters very well. Clothes describe the people's personalities. Hushpuppy has a flower shirt on showing her feminine side but she also doesn't quite care about her appearance in the movie, so she isn't afraid to get dirty.

Director Benh Zeitlin has not been working on anything new as far as my sources go but I believe this film is a definite MUST-SEE. I give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars! Very famous movie critics like Roger Ebert gave this movie 4 out of 5 stars. I really believe that this is an amazing film to share with others that are interested in evolution, adventure, love, and curiosity. This film allowed me to feel a lot of empathy for the characters, as if it was based on a true story! Go watch it now!

"Beasts of The Southern Wild" has earned a number of awards including:

• Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival
• Seattle International Film Festival's Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director
• Sutherland Trophy for Most Innovative Debut
• Nomination for Four Oscars, in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director (Benh Zeitlin), Best Actress (Quvenzhané Wallis), and Adapted Screenplay (Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin)

References:
"Beasts of The Southern Wild Movie Quotes," Movie and TV Quotes. Web, November 16th.
"Hushpuppy & Director," FlicksAndTheCity. Web, November 16th.
"Hushpuppy & Wink," HitFix. Web, November 16th.
"Beasts of The Southern Wild," bbfc. Web, November 16th.
"Quvenzhane. A small force of nature," Rogert Ebert. Web, November 16th.
"Beasts of The Southern Wild Info," Wiki. Web, November 18th. 

If Only We Could Define Creativity: Chance The Rapper

In my first action project this term, the first unit, "Life Genius," helped us define what being a creative genius means. We looked at multiple people around the world that were seen as creative geniuses and we even picked our own. This project opened my eyes because I now know creativity is everywhere. Life itself had to be created and many fail to realize this. I found little difficulty completing this project because it's more opinionated. I had a fun time speaking my mind, though!

By personal experiences, I have observed Kanye West, Chance The Rapper, and Eminem create their own styles of music through different inspirations and genres. Some geniuses create things, like how Jonathan Ive created the design of the iPhone. So wouldn’t creating your own style potentially classify you as a genius?

After doing some research, I have learned that Kobe Bryant, Dr. Seuss, and Jerry Lewis all grew up in high middle-class or upper class families. They start off in a pre-made background so they have the resources and connections to do what they want to do easily.

The last pattern I found was that Eminem, Chance The Rapper, and Kanye West also had a hard time getting their careers off to a good start. Since they were so passionate about music, the coming up part was a piece of cake for these three because they kept on grinding and ended up being REALLY famous.

Dan Hyman. "Chance The Rapper." (2014)

Chancellor Bennett (Chance The Rapper) is a Chicago rapper from the South side. He grew up as an average kid with a mother, father, and 3 year younger brother, Taylor Bennett. At the age of 9 or 10, his significant other, Ramie Bonds’ mother got him “College Dropout” for his birthday, the Uncensored version, which later was confiscated by his mother because it was too “dirty.” Later it was returned to Chance as the clean version. This was the first album Chance ever listened to, so Kanye West was Chance’s first inspiration. Years later, attending Jones College Prep, at the age of 18, he released his first Mixtape, “10 day.” This mixtape was inspired by a ten day suspension he received from smoking marijuana outside his school. Not too long after that, Chance released his more popular album, “Acid Rap” in 2013. Following his “Acid Rap” album, his younger brother released his own album called, “Mainstream Music.” As his younger brother gained some recognition for his music, he was arrested for the assault of a college student at a party. Chance the Rapper is currently working on a new project called "The Social Experiment." I think Chance is someone to learn from. He came from less than I did, now he’s sitting on millions, doing what he loves to do. The message is clear: stay dedicated and inspired, and good things will happen. He continues to tour the world and live out his dreams of being a big star, reppin’ his city.

I think Chance brings a lot to the table in terms of uniqueness, variety, humor, flow, talent, and a raspy voice. Chance excels in the music industry with these traits & attributes. In the past, Chance has struggled to catch the eye of someone of any importance. This hurt his chances of having a fast start to his career. Even now that Chance has the fame and the money, many people still continue to say he's "weird" and "not good enough." Chance's music is directed towards certain groups of people. He isn't a drill rapper like a Chief Keef or an R&B Singer like a Jeremih or Chris Brown, but he uses all genres of music to create his own genre that is less appreciated in the industry by those who are used to more "mainstream" tunes. As he did in the past, Chance continues to make the music he likes to play for his fans as he blocks out all the hatred. 

"I think creativity is something that lives in the heart of a person, it can’t have any true definition. It’s just what’s inside of you, how you see the world," said by SJ in my interview with her. Her definition is very relevant to mine because I believe creativity can't be defined as well.

I believe I show three very positive traits: Determination, Skill, and Intelligence. Determination and creativity are two things that could potentially drive each other. For instance, you could be determined to do something creative. You can be determined to do anything. Skills usually define what you might be creative at. If you are skilled in basketball, then maybe a crazy shot or different way of scoring might be interesting or creative to you. Intelligence is the key to creativity. Intelligence means expanding your range to thinking outside the box. 

Sometimes I fail and then don’t learn from it because I am not very crafty with a lot of things. I am determined to work through things and find ways to bypass my problems. The world lacks the knowledge of Resource Distribution. We have the resources but, they are not going to the right places. If I am determined enough, I could definitely help the world, or at least raise awareness of the bad world distribution of resources.

References:
"Nardwuar vs. Chance The Rapper," iamOTHER. Web, November 16th.
"Chance The Rapper," Chancellor Bennett. Web, November 16th.
"Chance Facts," Craig McCutcheon. Web, November 16th.
"Chance The Rapper: Acid Rap," Evan Rytlewski. Web, November 16th.
SJ. Interview Over Phone. November 9th. 

Bon Appétit! Or Not? - Future Global Hunger

In my third and final action project this term, for the third unit, "IF/THEN," we looked at the world population and what problems could emerge from overpopulation. Population is more than a number. It changes every second. Someone dies or is born every second of the day, and I have failed to realize this. This project focuses more on the downside to high populations. It is actually interesting to see how different people think there is going to be problems with high populations and some think the same thing, but for different reasons. 

My class and I calculated the World Population in 2050. We used geometric sequences and the current world population to determine the world population in 36 years. Our work is shown below:

AMK. World Population, 2050. (2014)

For our project, we wrote a script to inform other teenagers about the problems associated with 

population growth. The script is for an animated cartoon that will be put on social media sites.


[Dillan and Savannah sit outside on a picnic blanket, talking about life]


Dillan: I’ve been waiting for this moment for a while Vannah, haha.


Savannah: Haha, all you had to do was ask! This is really nice by the way.


Dillan: Thanks, it didn’t take too long, just made some sandwiches and stuff. It was actually kind of fun, since I was excited you finally said yes…


S: But Dillan… this is the first time you asked.


D: ...but anyways I used so many different recipes, trying to get all this food made correctly. My garbage had a bad stench because of all the food that was in there!


S: But Dillan you know there’s millions of people around the world that are starving because they can’t afford food to feed themselves and their family.


D: ...Vannah, that’s silly, we both know that people are hungry because the population is increasing and food is becoming scarce because we can’t produce enough!


S: No, hunger, poverty, and food prices are linked. Almost all hungry people are poor.


D: ..well--


S: Millions live with hunger because they simply cannot afford nutritious food.


D: ..I see, but--


S: And also the world produces 17% more food per person today than 30 years ago. But almost a billion people go to sleep hungry every night!


D: ..Vann--


S: Plus we already grow enough food for 10 billion people. And our world population is 7 billion. Now what did you have to say? 

D: Nothing anymore. Wow, Vannah I wasn't aware!

S: Yea, there's a lot of things we may not be aware of.

D: So you want to just go grab some food from the garbage? 

S: I never said that! Haha