While we're all on the topic of documentaries I started watching Ken Burns' The Civil War documentary which is essentially 11 hours of describing the Civil War and all of the crazy cool things that happened during its progression. While I've only seen 3 of 11 parts so far, i can already tell that it's gonna be a really interesting movie. Burns has peaceful piano music playing in the background which really intensifies when the audio turns to explosions to simulate cannon fire from battle. The most amazing part has been the photographs amassed by Burns that are seen in the film. So many pictures and so much evidence exists of a war that most of us think of as too ancient for memory. The civil war is also different from all other wars fought in American history because it is the war with ourselves. It is much easier to go into combat with a enemy than a friend. New accepted studies are putting the Civil War American death toll at 750,000 the highest of any war. The war also ended up representing more than just the stars and stripes versus the stars and bars, it was a war about freeing the slaves, it was a war about the phrase "all men are created equal" it was about the motto of this country e pluribus unum, or from many, one.            

The Arizona Cardinals are falling fast. After a superb end to last season the cardinals looked formidable coming into this 2012 season. Fortunately for cardinal fans at the start of the year they didn't disappoint going a perfect 4-0. Sadly enough, the Cardinals haven't won a game since then, and currently sit at 4-9 tied for last in the NFC and are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. The reason the Cardinals luck has gone dry? offense. In the first four games of the year the cardinals averaged 22.75 points per game, but since then have averaged a mere 10.55 points per game, not nearly enough to win consistently in the league today.

       
To make my capture the fall video, I used my phone and shot the video in the woods as well as at E. Brooke Lee middle school and the birds are from the synagog on Kemp Mill road and Grays lane. To edit it I used Windows movie maker, and thanks to the many tutorials on Youtube posted by Microsoft the software was pretty easy to figure out. I used a dissolve affect for most of the shots and the reason that it only takes up the middle of the screen is because i didn't realize that holding the phone upright would make sideways images that i had to rotate, a lesson for future projects.

So this week's post could only be about one thing: the presidential election. The election had many interesting aspects to it. With Obama's victory, Obamacare will be here to stay, as well as more taxes on the wealthy, and the showdown between Obama and the House Republicans that has gone on for so long. The race probably came as shock to many people, such as Newt Gingrich who predicted Romney to have over 300 electoral votes, and George Will, who stupidly predicted Romney to win Minnesota. But out of this mess cam one man, Mr. Nate Silver, who correctly predicted all 50 states, Florida as by far the closest state, and Ohio as the tipping point state to put Obama over 270. He put the pundits who predicted an extremely close race in their place, and as he said in an appearance on the Colbert Report "When 23 state polls come out and 22 of them have Obama in the lead, its no longer just a coin flip." Nate proved that poll analysis and arithmetic can triumph over Gingrich's "years of experience. So my advice to those interested in having an idea about elections shut off the stupid pundits and look at real math at http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/ 

I used to play this game all the time during the bush years http://www.playitontheweb.com/games/Give-Bush-a-Brain-game.htm and its so much fun! Not only do you get to drop a brain into his empty head, but also you get to hear something funny upon inserting the brain. Just a nice game for when you need some laughs as you wait to lose power from a storm!

Last night I was watching the vice presidental debate and a graphic came up at the bottom that said go to some site to talk about and fact check the debate live. This made me realize how sad our politics have gotten recently, that we have to fact check our leaders and potential leaders. How low have we stopped, to where our leaders will lie to get more votes. Part of democracy is people knowing the facts so that they can make an informed decision at the voting booth, something that we are seeing slip through our finger tips every day. With parts of speeches being proved false, and ads saying that someone lying, its quite shameful that we as a country where we are constantly surrounded by the media and advertisments trying to sway us that most people already constantly tune them out, that we can't even rely on our commander and cheif, and our potential commander in cheif to tell what's really happening.

    This is a basic poster telling people to drink Bonum, the energy drink that helps to fuel the dystopian society in our film. I wanted the poster to be pretty basic to where it could be understood with just a glance, but also for it to pop out, like someone with extra energy would. If we are going to use it in the filming process is still unclear.

I read the article "A Voting Issue That Isn't" by Eugene Robinson. He does a good job of highlighting the struggle that we will have to go through to preserve our right to vote against tough, powerful opposition. Also I enjoyed the simple way in which he explained the republican effort and showed how terrible it is.

http://diigo.com/0t9j1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zElhrWOM47g&feature=g-upl

1. Bus coming to the stop
2. Luther Rice Church out of the bus window
3. Screen saying "STOP REQUESTED" on bus
4. Goats at a house that I pass
5 .Me opening the door to my house


     To make my 5x5 I used a simple point and shoot camera. I stated at the bus stop, and took a shot of the bus coming around, which lasted about 20 seconds. Next I took many shots along the ride, but I decided after some long weighing of the shots that the one of Luther Rice Church was my favorite. As a transition shot to show the end of the ride, I chose to show the screen saying "STOP REQUESTED." Then, I always thought it was really cool how I walk by goats every day, so I had to include them. And Finally to show the end of my journey, I thought that opening the door with the key was a great idea.
     To edit the video i used the web based, WeVideo, which was not the hard part of the post production, it took upwards of a half hour to figure out how to upload the clips, a process that included me having to install a new software. Overall I am content with my 5x5, considering my lack of experience and skill I think I did pretty well.

For a new video challenge we could make a video of a typical day at blair  

Dystopian trailer

V for Vendetta James McTeigue R 2005

     V (Hugo Weaving) , a fighter against the rule of the totalitarian government, rescues Evey (Natalie Portman) from the hands of the police. Together, they try to fight against the government in search of freedom.


      The trailer for V for Vendetta is exemplary because it clearly illustrates many characteristics about a dystopia and a dystopian protagonist, such as oppressive government, and a protagonist who has been cheated by the system, and finds someone to motivate her to do good. The government in the trailer is shown to be oppressive through shots of marching soldiers, people shooting at V, and torturing Evey in an attempt to get his whereabouts. Also the dramatic music helps to build the idea of forceful power. Next Evey shows many characteristics of a Dystopian protagonist. Firstly, the shots of her parents getting taken away, and her young innocent voice shows what the government has done, which she reflects upon later while talking to V. Also Evey has V who leads by example, and sets the course for her to act out against the opressive government.

I read the article, World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others and made some annotations to create a page that shows the article, with some highlights I selected that are interesting. The article discusses how we are entering the age of collaboration, and that "experts are at our fingertips, through our keyboards or cell phones, if we know how to find and connect to them. Content and information are everywhere, not just in textbooks," Meaning that the technology has arrived to allow us to explore the vast world, even from the school classroom. This came as a shock, I mean I know how vast the internet is, but I didn't realize that it was as plausible as the article displays it to improve your skills by collaborating with people and talking to experts worldwide to improve your own skills, I think it's a phenomenal advancement that we can all use to our benefit. For example I would love to learn about how to shoot professional sports, and other students could learn about whatever topic they want, to create a more advanced learning society as a whole.  

For my movie review I read a review on NPR.org about the film the ambassador. It was pretty unusual because the ambassador is a film about a guy who takes a false identity to go into the Central African Republic and see what's going on. It focuses a lot on how he got his fake identity to get into the CAR. For our reviews I think we should have much freedom because then we can express our true emotions. Also background would be really cool to add too!  

Intro Post

                                              This year I hope to ascend to new heights!

My name is Jacob and this is the first blog that I've never made. I'm not huge on film making, and I've never made an out of school movie. Last year however, I had a really fun time making news broadcasts, especially during the TV production interdisciplinary last year. During that project, I filmed, did sound, floor managed, as well as hosted my own show. It was really interesting to see the way live television is made, as well as the quick decision making required to run a live show. Hopefully this year I can have more fun shooting live and gain more of a liking for film making.

The blogs can be a key tool for:

• Posting movies and pictures to reflect on the year
• Coordinating meetings for school assignments
• learning how the internet works