I made this yesterday in class! completely forgot to post it :O.


http://goanimate.com/movie/0550HgQgwNIY?utm_source=linkshare

Videos

                I enjoyed all of the youtube videos that we watched in preparation for the short film we will be making at the end of the semester. Being a future Film and Media Studies (IDS) major, I am greatly looking forward to this assignment and think it will be a great way to integrate technology into our studies. I liked the mixture of videos that we watched. Some were funny, some were serious, and others mixed the two. I am hoping to do a video that mixes both as well. One of my favorite youtube videos is one called “Facebook in real life” and it is a satirical take on Facebook and many aspects of it such as the people who typically requests you as a friend, the gifts applications (where you can send your friends virtual gifts), the poke feature, Farmville, friend suggestions, and more. It is a hilarious and memorable video that has always stuck with me. I would like to aim to make a video in the same sort of style by taking parts of a social networking site and exaggerating them for comic effect. Seeing as though our class videos only have to be 2 minutes long, this should be fairly simple and only requires a few features to be exaggerated. I have an HD Sony video camera so I think I will use that to shoot the video and I will probably edit it with Windows Movie Maker which is free software for windows based computers (I have a Dell) that I have been using to edit various projects for a number of years. I like it a lot because of it’s simple user interface and wide range of tools. I look forward to seeing the videos that all of the other groups produce and I think it will be a great way to end the class.

Catfish

Catfish is a documentary, or mockumentary depending on how you look at it, film that was released in 2010 and was directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. The movie documents a young photographer, Nev Schulman’s odd relationship with a family through Facebook. It all started when a young girl, Abby, sent Nev a painting of one of his drawings. She then continues to do this as he sends her some of his photos. Her family members then start to add him on Facebook and thank him for what he’s doing for Abby. He then continues to correspond with them quite frequently through many different mediums (phone, email, Facebook). He even begins to become emotionally involved with Abby’s older sister, Megan with whom he texted, messaged, and called regularly.  Everything is going seemingly normal until Nev discovers that the songs that Megan posts on her Facebook as originals are all exact recordings from various professional singers. A web of lies then begins to unfold. As Nev becomes suspicious about the family, they decide to pay them a surprise visit and learn the truth. While there, he finds out that the mother, Angelica, masterminded the entire relationship. She created multiple Facebook accounts using fake photos, friends, and information, and contact Nev as if she was them. She even posed as Megan and talked to Nev using a different voice.  The story only gets crazier from there and more lies are revealed. Partly because of how relevant the topic of this movie was to the hundreds of millions of people using Facebook, the film was very successful upon its release.  Despite the fact that most, or even all, of the film may be fake, it still does offer a very chilling portrait of how people can manipulate and misuse technology rather easily to trick unsuspecting victims. This is very important for us to remember in such a technological age.

Zines

A zine is a small self-published booklet or magazine that is usually aimed towards minority and obscure subjects and topics. These are usually released to a small circulation and reproduced using a copy or Xerox machine.

Over the years, zines have evolved greatly.  The first known zines were created in the 1930s and 40s by Science fiction fans. Tired of having their stories scrutinized by fans when printed in distinguished publications, sci fi authors began to respond to their fans letters and print the responses. This allowed fans to find each other’s addresses and exchange “fanzines” which contained fan written stories, and personal musings about fandom itself.  Zines were mostly used as a part of science fiction subculture up until the 1970s when the first punk zines emerged. By the 1980’s zines had developed their own following and have had such an audience ever since. 

In many ways, Zines were the old print form of a blog.  Anyone could be a producer and/or consumer of one and could write about anything they wanted. They offered a sort of freedom that had not been available for writers before they existed.  However, in our current technologically advanced age, I think zines are not a viable means of relaying information. Now with sites such as blogger, tumblr, and Wordpress, people can do the same things as they could with zines and not have to worry about printing or even distributing them.  Blogs are faster, cheaper, and read by a larger audience than zines.  Before we talked about them in class, I, along with many other students, didn’t even know what zines were. While they may have been a great way to express personal opinions and stories in the past, there are now many seemingly  better and more advanced outlets through which people can share these things.

Essay Brainstorming/Initial ideas (Prompt #4)

                In one of the articles included in Critical Terms For Media Studies, Mark Hansen explains that while defining New Media, it is important to remember that, “each new medium operates by exteriorizing some function of human cognition and memory, it involves both gain and loss.” This is an extremely interesting statement that according to Hansen should be able to be applied to any form of New or, in Paul Levinson’s categorization of the mediums, New New media. Facebook is one such medium that fits into these categories.

                Facebook, which was created in 2003 by Mark Zuckerburg. With over 800 million members and growing, it is the most popular social networking site in the world.  Why is it so popular? In large part, it is because of the many functions of human cognition and memory that it exteriorizes. When Mark Zuckerburg created Facebook he was an undergraduate student at Harvard University. Originally, the fundamental idea behind Facebook was to find a way to put the entire college experience online. First, users are able to create a public (or private) profile that lets people know their sex, age, birthday, interests, education, work or school place, religion, sexual orientation, and relationship status. In the past, these were details that you would learn about someone over the span of a number of encounters or discussions but now, it is all located on a single page that we can access right after meeting someone. The biggest component of this exteriorization of memories is Facebook’s photo sharing app. Through this, anyone can upload all of their personal photos from any event and tag their friends who are in them. Instead of having to get photos developed days later, we are now able to upload pictures mere minutes after an event finishes. This allows people to relive the event for months and years to come.  

Facebook

            I remember hearing about Facebook for the first time from my best friend’s older brother in 2005. At the time, he was attending the University of Florida and was therefore allowed to register for and use the site. When he explained that it was only available for college students, I put it out of my mind. A year or two later I created a MySpace page (that was obnoxious in its design and amount of stimuli) and forgot all about Facebook. I used Myspace fervently for a good amount of time but by the end of 2007, a lot of my friends stopped using theirs and switched over to Facebook. I finally caved in on March of 2008 and joined the social networking behemoth myself. Upon first using it, I loved it. The simple layout and the ability to find friends quickly, both made me love the site. After a few months of using Myspace and Facebook, I ended up deleting my Myspace page and never looking back.

            It is hard to say what the long term effects of the mass usage of Facebook and other social networking sites will be on our society. One thing we can already see happening is a decrease in attention span. Facebook, and other technological gadgets, mediums, and websites, have played a large role in making sure that people have the ability to be informed 24/7 about nearly any subject. With this comes a cultural shift in which people expect their new, entertainment, and social connections now. People are so invested with Facebook now that I don’t think it will lose any of its popularity in the foreseeable future. In fact, with the new changes that are being made to Facebook, I thinks it’s user base will only increase.

            I have a ton of family on Facebook. Four cousins, four aunts, two uncles, and my parents are all on Facebook.

My Media Diet

On a typical day I will wake up at around 9:20 AM. Upon waking, I will check my Twitter and Facebook immediately. Along with these, I will also check Teefury to see what their shirt of the day is. After scanning through each, I get ready for the day. If there is any time left over before my first class, I will spend it reading my favorite website ever….Slashfilm.com. While on Slashfilm, I generally just scan through the large article headlines and will then click on four or five that interest me. After class, I will go back to my dorm and work, while listening to some sort of movie podcast (usually the /filmcast, Film School Rejects Radio, or old episodes of Scene Unseen). I then eat lunch and go to my next class. After that, I go back to my dorm, play some PS3 with my friends for a few hours (we play FIFA and/or Call Of Duty). We then eat at either Broward Dining Hall, or at the Reitz Union. I then go back to my dorm and do work again for a few hours. After my work is done, I watch a few episodes of various shows (Dexter, Breaking Bad, Lost) on Netflix watch instantly, which I can stream onto my tv, and then I go to sleep. Also throughout the day, I constantly listen to my music. Whether it be through my computer, my ipod dock, or just straight from my ipod, I always have to have my music playing. With any leftover free time I also like to check my goggle reader account from which I follow about 12 blogs. These include Cracked, Gizmodo, First Showing, High Def Digest, The Consumerist, Ain’t It Cool News, Film School rejects, Slash Film, Film Drunk, Film-The A.V. Club, and Box Office Mojo. I used to check all of these sites individually but it saves me a lot of time to have all of the sources in one area.

Entertainment News (Blog Post #2)!

Sidney Lumet’s critically acclaimed 1976 film, Network, is in part a satire and a warning about the state of television news programs, their business structures, and the effects they have on their viewers. The movie follows the story of Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch, an aging newscaster who becomes an overnight sensation after ranting about the “hypocrisies of his time” on a national news program. This sparks the producers of the show to change their traditional, informational format to a more, superficial, and entertainment based program. The film culminates with Beale being killed off by hit men hired by his own show’s executives for garnering low ratings after his musings took a turn to a more depressing and somber tone.

I think that the plot of this movie is very relevant to the television age in which we live today, which constantly blurs the line between what is news and what is entertainment. In the years following the release of Network, major news channels across the world gradually, in a very similar, yet more subtle, fashion to the aforementioned example presented in Network, started to switch their programming towards a more entertainment based slate. This can easily be seen by the current popularity of news/entertainment shows such as The Soup, Showbiz Tonight, E! News, Inside Edition, and TMZ News, along with many others. It seems as though as we venture into a new technological age, we crave to take in our information in a way that’s faster and more superficial than ever.

Network, also presents another very prevalent warning. Towards the end of the movie, Howard Beale’s proclaims, “You’re beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here, you're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion.” This is something that the general public should think about today at a deeper level. It is something that now refers not only to television news anchors, but also to anyone through whom, or even anything that we receive our news and information through. 

Turn and face the strange changes (Blog Response #1)

Technology, as a whole, is constantly changing. Old phone models are being updated, new multimedia devices are being created, and current products are being refined at this very moment. With every addition, modification, and change that is made to the technological world that surrounds and engulfs us, we must ask ourselves a question....how these new advances will affect our everyday lives. This is a question that is dealt with extensively in Plato's dialogue, Phaedrus and in Tom Hooper's The King's Speech.

In Plato's Phaedrus, the characters within the dialogue discuss in depth various topics including, true love, madness, and the soul. Another thing that is discussed at great length is rhetoric, its many forms, and its possible uses, for both good and bad. Writing in particular is also critiqued. It is easily discerned that the characters are very hostile towards the writing down of ideas. They feel as though true knowledge cannot be learned through this medium and it can only remind people of what they already know. Also, they feel it is very impersonal. Seeing as though the writer of any given text cannot read into and respond to their audience’s ideas and thoughts, they can’t refute an opposing argument, and they can’t modify or revise their stance in any way.  

Tom Hopper’s Academy Award film, The King’s Speech, deals with the advent of the radio and the varying effects that it had on politics and popular culture. In the movie, which mainly focuses on King George VI’s speaking struggles, Radio is portrayed as a both a blessing and a curse. It is known to the royal characters that the radio provides them with a new outlet through which they can communicate with their many subjects. They are now speaking to each of them directly no matter where they reside. This also presents them with a problem. Now, they must not just dress and act like royalty, but they must be able to speak like royalty. They need to be able to sympathize with, arouse, and rally their countrymen through nothing more than their speeches. Hence, Radio is presented as a double edged sword.

Technological changes of any kind are bound to yield both positive and negative effect. This is shown in both Plato’s Phaedrus, and Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech.