Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Summative Statement
By writing about these events I've learnt to fully understand the big picture of things and look at them more critically than I normally would. When rereading my analysis of the events I can see that even though they are all completely different, they are the same in the way that anything can be broken down and analysed if you take the time to do so. I have also seen that doing this can open your mind to new ideas and encourage you to think more creatively, which was the overall purpose of the task.
Event 8
I've been watching the tv show documentary 'World War II in colour', that's been on Prime for a while now and shows real footage from world war two.
I find it very interesting, but it's also sad. I think it's amazing how people have been able add colour to the black and white film that was taken, it makes it much more clear about what was happening I think. Another thing that astounds me, is how much actual footage was taken during the war, and then how the producers of this show managed to find all of it.
Even though to some people it may sound boring, I find the whole history and story of what happened during the war very interesting. I think that seeing the actual footage put together effectively and having it all explained, makes it much more interesting than if you were just to read it.
The show tells everything, the decisions made, the mistakes, all about the leaders, the countries, each different weapon, strategies and more. My great Uncle was in the war, so this also makes me remember him.
It's terrible how many people died during the war, and astounding the number of ships, tanks, planes and people they had. When they say how many people died, the numbers are huge.
What also amazes me is how one man, Hitler, can start so much and can be responsible for so many deaths. It's not finished yet, and I look forward to seeing the next episode.
I find it very interesting, but it's also sad. I think it's amazing how people have been able add colour to the black and white film that was taken, it makes it much more clear about what was happening I think. Another thing that astounds me, is how much actual footage was taken during the war, and then how the producers of this show managed to find all of it.
Even though to some people it may sound boring, I find the whole history and story of what happened during the war very interesting. I think that seeing the actual footage put together effectively and having it all explained, makes it much more interesting than if you were just to read it.
The show tells everything, the decisions made, the mistakes, all about the leaders, the countries, each different weapon, strategies and more. My great Uncle was in the war, so this also makes me remember him.
It's terrible how many people died during the war, and astounding the number of ships, tanks, planes and people they had. When they say how many people died, the numbers are huge.
What also amazes me is how one man, Hitler, can start so much and can be responsible for so many deaths. It's not finished yet, and I look forward to seeing the next episode.
Event 7
I watched the new, well most recent, Star Trek movie last night. I had gotten it recorded on sky so that I could watch it whenever. I haven't seen any of the earlier ones and I really didn't know if I was going to enjoy it. One of the main reasons that I wanted to watch it was because of the actors involved, including New Zealand actor, Karl Urban.
I really wasn't sure what to expect from it, having not seen any of the previous ones, although I knew that it had been given quite good reviews and ratings. I was quite surprised that I actually really enjoyed the movie. It was entertaining and engaging from the beginning and I didn't get bored half-way through, as happens with some movies.
The movie was a mix of mostly comedy and action, and of course science fiction. All of the acting was very good, and it seemed like the right people had been chosen for the right characters and each realistically, or as realistically as you can get in a sci-fi movie, portrayed the personalities and basic characteristics of their own character.
I was kind of disappointed that they had to make Karl Urban use an American accent instead of just keeping his normal one, although I suppose that is to be expected in an American movie. I think the story line was good and wasn't confusing making it easy to follow, but not so much as to downgrade the rating or the entire film. The special effects were also good and effectively added to what was happening in each scene.
They've obviously left an opening for a sequel and when that comes out I think I might actually see it at the cinemas rather than just waiting for it to come on tv.
I really wasn't sure what to expect from it, having not seen any of the previous ones, although I knew that it had been given quite good reviews and ratings. I was quite surprised that I actually really enjoyed the movie. It was entertaining and engaging from the beginning and I didn't get bored half-way through, as happens with some movies.
The movie was a mix of mostly comedy and action, and of course science fiction. All of the acting was very good, and it seemed like the right people had been chosen for the right characters and each realistically, or as realistically as you can get in a sci-fi movie, portrayed the personalities and basic characteristics of their own character.
I was kind of disappointed that they had to make Karl Urban use an American accent instead of just keeping his normal one, although I suppose that is to be expected in an American movie. I think the story line was good and wasn't confusing making it easy to follow, but not so much as to downgrade the rating or the entire film. The special effects were also good and effectively added to what was happening in each scene.
They've obviously left an opening for a sequel and when that comes out I think I might actually see it at the cinemas rather than just waiting for it to come on tv.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Event 6
A couple of my friends came over last week. They're old friends from high school and I haven't seen at least one of them for probably over a year, maybe more. I hadn't realised how long it had been until I really thought about it before they came. With having not seen them for so long it was great to see them again and also gave me a chance to re-evaluate their personalities.
One seemed the same as the last time that I had met up with her, even though that probably was nearing a year ago. The other seemed different in some way, though I can't really say how or why exactly, but for some reason she didn't seem the same. This is not a bad thing, and seeing as I can't give a reason, because I truly don't know, it's not necessarily a good thing either. It is merely my opinion.
I think maybe one reason for my perception of the differences in their personalities is because of the different lengths of time that I have last seen them individually.
For example, I have seen my friend who seems the same, more recently than the one who seems different. I also talk more often to one than the other. All of these comments are just my opinion based on simple observations. None of them change the fact that it was great to see them again and also hope I will see them again before another year has passed.
One seemed the same as the last time that I had met up with her, even though that probably was nearing a year ago. The other seemed different in some way, though I can't really say how or why exactly, but for some reason she didn't seem the same. This is not a bad thing, and seeing as I can't give a reason, because I truly don't know, it's not necessarily a good thing either. It is merely my opinion.
I think maybe one reason for my perception of the differences in their personalities is because of the different lengths of time that I have last seen them individually.
For example, I have seen my friend who seems the same, more recently than the one who seems different. I also talk more often to one than the other. All of these comments are just my opinion based on simple observations. None of them change the fact that it was great to see them again and also hope I will see them again before another year has passed.
Event 5
Reverse cinema project
For our thriller movie we were going to do most of our filming in Zoe's apartment at the Wellesley Student Apartments(WSA). We had no back-up plan. As we were walking to the lifts, past what I'm guessing is a sort of reception desk, carrying all the obvious equipment e.g cameras and tripods, we were stopped by a woman bringing bad news.
After asking us what we were doing, and us giving an honest(big mistake) answer, we were told by this woman that we weren't allowed to film in the apartments - and especially the bedrooms. WHAT!?!?! We had absolutely no idea about this rule. We were also told that you're supposed to give them 24 hours notice - that's half of our filming time gone, and quote; "your faculty should have told you". WHAT?!?
So we went upstairs and checked the apartment handbook, which apparently they're always using to tell you what you can't do, and guess what.. there's absolutely nothing in the handbook saying that filming is forbidden. So we went downstairs again, understandably slightly annoyed, and told this incredibly annoying woman our new discovery. But... "it doesn't matter if it's not in the handbook, you're not allowed" - (I'm not sure if that quote is exactly word for word, if not, it is at least very similar to what she said). We also told her that we had release forms signed by the other people in the flat, giving us their consent. But that still wasn't good enough for her, she wanted us to write a letter which the manager would have to sign.
We went to James, who had no idea that we were supposed to ask for permission. So he called her and I think had basically the same conversation as we had. The final outcome of that was that we had to write a letter. So we wasted some more time by writing the letter, emailed it to James who made it nice and pretty and professional. He also added his signature. In the letter we put, what we were going to do, what we weren't going to do, the times in which we were and weren't going to so this things etc.
Seeing as we had been told that we weren't allowed to film in the bedrooms, which is where we wanted to film, we decided to leave that part out of our letter. The point being, that if they signed it then we would be allowed to film in the bedrooms. They did sign it, so we took that as permission and filmed in the bedrooms.
So in the end it did get sorted, but it wasted so much time and it definitely wasn't a good start to the day. Our feelings towards the WSA managers etc are not too kind now. We've shown some of these feelings in our movie credits, look carefully for a comments between 'video editor' and 'production co-ordinator'.
Despite all that we did get it sorted. The whole thing was frustrating but it was a new experience and shows that things won't always go your way.
For our thriller movie we were going to do most of our filming in Zoe's apartment at the Wellesley Student Apartments(WSA). We had no back-up plan. As we were walking to the lifts, past what I'm guessing is a sort of reception desk, carrying all the obvious equipment e.g cameras and tripods, we were stopped by a woman bringing bad news.
After asking us what we were doing, and us giving an honest(big mistake) answer, we were told by this woman that we weren't allowed to film in the apartments - and especially the bedrooms. WHAT!?!?! We had absolutely no idea about this rule. We were also told that you're supposed to give them 24 hours notice - that's half of our filming time gone, and quote; "your faculty should have told you". WHAT?!?
So we went upstairs and checked the apartment handbook, which apparently they're always using to tell you what you can't do, and guess what.. there's absolutely nothing in the handbook saying that filming is forbidden. So we went downstairs again, understandably slightly annoyed, and told this incredibly annoying woman our new discovery. But... "it doesn't matter if it's not in the handbook, you're not allowed" - (I'm not sure if that quote is exactly word for word, if not, it is at least very similar to what she said). We also told her that we had release forms signed by the other people in the flat, giving us their consent. But that still wasn't good enough for her, she wanted us to write a letter which the manager would have to sign.
We went to James, who had no idea that we were supposed to ask for permission. So he called her and I think had basically the same conversation as we had. The final outcome of that was that we had to write a letter. So we wasted some more time by writing the letter, emailed it to James who made it nice and pretty and professional. He also added his signature. In the letter we put, what we were going to do, what we weren't going to do, the times in which we were and weren't going to so this things etc.
Seeing as we had been told that we weren't allowed to film in the bedrooms, which is where we wanted to film, we decided to leave that part out of our letter. The point being, that if they signed it then we would be allowed to film in the bedrooms. They did sign it, so we took that as permission and filmed in the bedrooms.
So in the end it did get sorted, but it wasted so much time and it definitely wasn't a good start to the day. Our feelings towards the WSA managers etc are not too kind now. We've shown some of these feelings in our movie credits, look carefully for a comments between 'video editor' and 'production co-ordinator'.
Despite all that we did get it sorted. The whole thing was frustrating but it was a new experience and shows that things won't always go your way.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Event 4
I was sitting on the train at Britomart station a few weeks ago, waiting for it to leave. After it had been waiting for approximately 5 minutes over the scheduled time a woman announced over the speaker that the train had a signal failure and would be a while until it would be able to leave the station. So all I could do was listen to my music and wait semi-patiently while they fixed the problem.
Eventually the train was able to leave and begin on it's long journey south towards Papakura, and my destination, Manurewa. There's not much to do on the train so the journey gives you time to think. So I just listened to my music and watched the other passengers around me.
When we got to Sylvia Park, the driver announced that everyone going anywhere other than Papakura, had to get off and wait for the next train. I seriously wonder if anyone actually stayed on the train. So we all got off and had to wait in the rain for about 15 minutes. While we were waiting I started talking to a guy who was standing next to me. He was interesting and nice to talk to. Having someone to talk to made the wait a lot less boring.
When the next train came we got on and continued talking. One of my first thoughts when the ticket person was coming round and discovered that everyone had already paid, was how easily someone who was only just getting on, could slip into the crowd of people and therefore not have to pay.
And so for the rest of the journey I was able to talk to the new friend I had just made and have a rather more entertaining trip than it otherwise might have been.
Eventually the train was able to leave and begin on it's long journey south towards Papakura, and my destination, Manurewa. There's not much to do on the train so the journey gives you time to think. So I just listened to my music and watched the other passengers around me.
When we got to Sylvia Park, the driver announced that everyone going anywhere other than Papakura, had to get off and wait for the next train. I seriously wonder if anyone actually stayed on the train. So we all got off and had to wait in the rain for about 15 minutes. While we were waiting I started talking to a guy who was standing next to me. He was interesting and nice to talk to. Having someone to talk to made the wait a lot less boring.
When the next train came we got on and continued talking. One of my first thoughts when the ticket person was coming round and discovered that everyone had already paid, was how easily someone who was only just getting on, could slip into the crowd of people and therefore not have to pay.
And so for the rest of the journey I was able to talk to the new friend I had just made and have a rather more entertaining trip than it otherwise might have been.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Event 3
One of my old school friends came over to my house so I could help her with some uni work. We see each other every Wednesday morning on the train and occasionally other days as well.
She's doing event management at University and on the way home one day, we were talking about a project that she's doing, because she wanted to see if I had any ideas that could help her.
This was just after we, at BCT, had finished doing the claymations which I had told her about that morning. She was really interested in it and liked the idea of using a claymation for her project. We were talking about how she could do that and by the time we got back to our station she was really enthusiastic about doing it. I told her that I would help her, seeing as I had just finished doing some myself.
She came over on the weekend so that we could work on it. Earlier, she had emailed me her ideas so that I could tell her whether they would be possible. The ideas she had sounded really cool, but some of them were too complicated and time consuming to be able to do.
We made all the figures and objects and got everything else organised. Although, once into it I knew that some of it would not work. When we had all the photos I put them into imovie, just to see what the video would look like. As I suspected, some of it didn't work very well. There were parts in it that looked good, but the majority of it didn't turn out how we planned.
This shows that even if an idea is good, it needs to be executed and carried out in a way to make it even better and most importantly, successful.
She's doing event management at University and on the way home one day, we were talking about a project that she's doing, because she wanted to see if I had any ideas that could help her.
This was just after we, at BCT, had finished doing the claymations which I had told her about that morning. She was really interested in it and liked the idea of using a claymation for her project. We were talking about how she could do that and by the time we got back to our station she was really enthusiastic about doing it. I told her that I would help her, seeing as I had just finished doing some myself.
She came over on the weekend so that we could work on it. Earlier, she had emailed me her ideas so that I could tell her whether they would be possible. The ideas she had sounded really cool, but some of them were too complicated and time consuming to be able to do.
We made all the figures and objects and got everything else organised. Although, once into it I knew that some of it would not work. When we had all the photos I put them into imovie, just to see what the video would look like. As I suspected, some of it didn't work very well. There were parts in it that looked good, but the majority of it didn't turn out how we planned.
This shows that even if an idea is good, it needs to be executed and carried out in a way to make it even better and most importantly, successful.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Event 2
A while ago I went to see Avatar with a group of 7 or 8 people, most of them family, and a wide range of ages. I saw it in 3-D at the imax theatre on Queen street. In the building there are a number of different levels connected by escalators, making it look almost like a multilevel maze. The actual theatre is huge, both in screen size and seat numbers. Looking at both the inside of the building and the theatre, one of my first thoughts was of a fire. The design of the building is terrible if you take into consideration the possibility of a fire. Despite the size of the cinema, and also the price of the tickets, it was completely packed with people. This was obviously because of all the hype and publicity that the movie had been given. I was expecting an at least above average movie, because despite all the great reviews it's never good to have too high an expectation.
I thought that the special effects were excellent, which I also think is what advertises the movie the most. The storyline was typical and has been used many times in other movies. But even though many people criticise movies on being predictable or overused, I don't think that's always a bad thing. As long as the overall story is good and correctly fits the movie, then it's not necessarily something to downgrade it by. This is my opinion of Avatar, the overall storyline has been seen many times, but it was well made, well acted and entertaining. It is also suitable for a large range of ages.
In simple terms, I enjoyed the movie and don't regret spending precious money to see it.
I thought that the special effects were excellent, which I also think is what advertises the movie the most. The storyline was typical and has been used many times in other movies. But even though many people criticise movies on being predictable or overused, I don't think that's always a bad thing. As long as the overall story is good and correctly fits the movie, then it's not necessarily something to downgrade it by. This is my opinion of Avatar, the overall storyline has been seen many times, but it was well made, well acted and entertaining. It is also suitable for a large range of ages.
In simple terms, I enjoyed the movie and don't regret spending precious money to see it.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Event 1
I went to a Girl's Night Out with my sister and few of her friends. The event was held at Alexandra Park, just above the race course.
The theme of the event started pretty much at the door, where a person was handing out a single rose to each one of the 'guests'. Once inside, the decorations and setup were made to look typically 'girlish', with mostly pink decorations.
There were a number of stalls advertising, testing and selling products. In the middle of the room there was a catwalk, with the seats(optional) around it labeled VIP, to make the guests feel special. On the catwalk was a woman dressed as barbie, with a blonde wig, armed with a microphone and the most annoying fake voice(well I hope it was fake) that I've ever heard in my life. It was the most horrid and excruciatingly painful type of entertainment that the organisers could have thought up.
Everyone was given a bag filled with a few things, such as; some brochures, vouchers, and the most popular, a pair of pink cubic zirconium earrings. A lot of the bags were left behind and in most of them the only thing missing were the earrings. In addition, everyone had the option of a free drink, as well as being given $5 to use on a bet at the races. There wasn't that all that much to do, and we got through what there was to do pretty quickly.
After that we went down to the races, and with my free $5 I almost won $870 on a randomly chosen trifecta!! (That's eight hundred and seventy dollars!!).
Overall, the event wasn't that great as there wasn't too much to do, and the imitation of barbie made me want to get out as soon as possible. Despite that it wasn't a huge waste of time and was mildly successful.
The theme of the event started pretty much at the door, where a person was handing out a single rose to each one of the 'guests'. Once inside, the decorations and setup were made to look typically 'girlish', with mostly pink decorations.
There were a number of stalls advertising, testing and selling products. In the middle of the room there was a catwalk, with the seats(optional) around it labeled VIP, to make the guests feel special. On the catwalk was a woman dressed as barbie, with a blonde wig, armed with a microphone and the most annoying fake voice(well I hope it was fake) that I've ever heard in my life. It was the most horrid and excruciatingly painful type of entertainment that the organisers could have thought up.
Everyone was given a bag filled with a few things, such as; some brochures, vouchers, and the most popular, a pair of pink cubic zirconium earrings. A lot of the bags were left behind and in most of them the only thing missing were the earrings. In addition, everyone had the option of a free drink, as well as being given $5 to use on a bet at the races. There wasn't that all that much to do, and we got through what there was to do pretty quickly.
After that we went down to the races, and with my free $5 I almost won $870 on a randomly chosen trifecta!! (That's eight hundred and seventy dollars!!).
Overall, the event wasn't that great as there wasn't too much to do, and the imitation of barbie made me want to get out as soon as possible. Despite that it wasn't a huge waste of time and was mildly successful.
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