Narora

After reviewing the plot over with the group members, we decided to make some changes to the plot. We, as a group, felt the plot was too much of a cliché, due to the fact that it has been shown in almost every single bullying movie. We wanted this video to be unique and different and in doing so we added something and someone to the story. Not much will change in terms of the overall plot, but what we basically did to make the video interesting for both the viewers and creators, is we added another main character. Therefore instead of looking at self creation through the eyes of one individual you see them through both. By doing this slight change we are now able to show contrast in both characters and their attempts to their own self creation.

Specific changes to the plot:

-Beginning-
Instead of showing one individual go through school and life, you see two. The importance of having two main characters is so we can build contrast and show two different perspectives of self creation.
*Our goal for the end of this video is to bring both aspects together to show one overall message*
Instead of seeing one harsh vlog snippet, there will be two on a "split screen," in a montage format. On the left you will see an individual who says a negative phrase about his life, for instance "Life SUCKS." Whereas on the right you will have a vlog of someone who loves the life they live, this will be shown through his statement where he states "Last night was AWESOME!"
The story begins with these two vlog snippets, whereby we make it obvious to the viewers who succeeds and who fails in there self creation.

-Middle-
We see both of them in different situations, such as sitting with friends in the cafeteria, studying with friend at the library, going to parties and getting ready for prom. In all these situations we will show the contrast in both characters but in doing so we do not want to make it very obvious. We decided to show them pass each other in the hallway and also with there friends to show how similar the setting is for both of them. The similarity of setting put more emphasis on the different personalities seeing as it poses a question. If they both go to the same school and faces the same challenges why is it so hard for one to fit in and so easy for another? Throughout the video we will show vlog snippets from both characters to show how each of them is participating in self creation in two different ways.

-End-
By the end of the video it should be fairly obvious to the viewers who succeeds in self creation and who fails. This will be shown through all the aspects of life as well as the vlog clips. The ending will still be the same, where the individual who fails in self creation has an outburst on one of his vlogs and decided to take his own life. The only change we made to the ending is, instead of ending off with the date (1992-2010) we end by zooming out of his vlog entry and seeing it posted on a "you tube" page. The big twist behind the whole video is that the person watching this vlog entry is the main character who succeeds in his self creation. We end the video with the character in shock, which is shown through the final phrase which is "that could have been me!"

The purpose of this video is to show how strong self creation can be and what is can do to an individual. We chose to show this through a video because it gives the viewer visual examples, making it look and feel more realistic.

Setting:
In terms of the setting we want to expand our environment and try to stay away from filming everything at school, seeing as the things that happen at school do not just stay at school, they stay with you wherever you go and impact your life in many ways. We plan to film in the following location:
-Rick Hansen Secondary School (cafeteria, classroom, hallway)
-Square one shopping center
-Mississauga library
-My house (vlog scene done in my bedroom)
-Joshua Paul's house (house party scene)

Characters:
-Main character #1 - Neeraj Arora
-Main Character #2 - Naeem Moosajee
-Best friend of #2- Andreas, Moaraj, Taha
-Other character in the background- Still deciding

Equipment: (List is still not complete)
-Video Camera
-Boom Microphone
-Web cam

Ida Walked Away from takcom™ on Vimeo.

After watching this video I really had no clue as to what the artist wanted me to get out of the it. Like I do with a lot of complex videos, I watched it again to see if I was missing anything. As I watched it again I started to see a pattern appearing. The video starts off with someone walking, it seems as if he is walking on air or even clouds for that matter, which can be understood through the light blue color underneath his feet. What I noticed, after watching the video 5 times, is that every time he looks up there is something blocking his view. The first time he looks up it is a city skyline and the second time it is a forest. From the title itself "Ida walked away," the artist could be talking about walking away from his fears. At one point in the video it seems like he is reaching for the divine, seeing as these random shapes begin to form a rope for him to follow. Once he reaches the divine he can fly over the trees and fly over the city, which to me, symbolizes the way he would get away from his fears. Everything from this point makes sense but as the video goes along I get lost and no matter how many times I watch it, I still do not seem to understand what is really going on. Having watched many videos, this is by far the most abstract I have ever seen. Abstract art is something I enjoy looking at, even though it may make my head hurt for the rest of the day. This is because it keeps me thinking.

This abstract video in particular is very interesting because it looks very choppy, but that choppiness is what makes it so interesting. It seems like the artist made it look like a rough video on purpose seeing as it adds to the effect and the message, which I have not fully understood. The artist uses a good selection of colors to go along with this theme of showing a rough messy video, which came out look very good in the end.

You maybe wondering why I chose this video if I did not even understand it. Well do you have to truly understand art to like it? And is it even possible to understand art as if it were you own?

In my opinion art is a game whereby everyone has there own understanding of what is actually going on and why it is that way. That is what makes art so fun!

-source- http://new-art.blogspot.com/2010/02/more-gentle-uncertainty.html

In The Globe and Mail, this past week, it had been said that Canada recovered its second art piece from the New York art gallery. The specific piece was called the "Bronze Henry Moore," which is valued at $80, 000. Reading though the article, even though it may have been highly interesting to read about the 350, 000 missing art pieces in the data base, the only thing that kept wrapping around my mind is why the dollar value is more important then the art itself? In today's modern society, people make it seem as if artist create art for the main purpose of money, which in my opinion is wrong. A true artist creates art to send a message and that message should not have a dollar value connected anywhere near it. If one of my art pieces were stolen the first thing that would come to my mind is the amount of work, effort and meaning I put into it and not the amount of money I have lost. I have noticed that as society become more advanced, the need for money becomes more essential and this is also being shown in art. Going back to the 16th century, when the Mona Lisa was first invented, people did not look at art and ask how much it is worth. They did not look at the Mona Lisa and wonder how much the artist would sell it for. People analyzed art and in doing so asked questions to themselves such as, why a painting of a women sitting on a chair is so famous. If we look at this same artwork in today's society we see how we focus less on the meaning of the art and more on its value. We see movies of people who spend years trying to steal art for money rather than observe it and embrace the message they are sending to the viewers. I am not saying that art is worthless because that is indeed not true, but what I am saying is that as we grow older and we become more advanced we are ignoring the meaning of a lot of things and are putting the dollar value of art over everything else.

This leads me to another question, if art is worth more does that make it better?
How do we determine how much art cost? If I make art at home with a paper and pencil does that mean it is not good?
All these questions and controversies occur due to the fact that we put art and money together, when they do not belong together. Just because I make art at home does not mean it is worthless. Art should not be ranked in any way, shape or form seeing as all art is good depending on how you look at and understand it.

-source- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/second-stolen-artwork-recovered-in-canada-within-weeks/article1512502/

When I first got introduced to the assignment and its requirements I had many thoughts running around in my head. I had all sorts of ideas, all of which included different mediums. When deciding on a basic concept I went back to the main purpose of the assignment, which basically involves the display of existentialism or in other words the display of self creation. Knowing the purpose of the assignment and the equipment we had to work with, we were pushed toward the idea of making a video. We felt the video would give the best effect on the overall meaning we would like the viewers to leave with. The brainstorming stage, in my opinion, is one of the most important stages of any kind of creation. If you do not plan out your ideas how can you expect things to fall in place by themselves? We were given the assignment before the March break and of the time given a week and a half was put towards brainstorming because the more time we spend in this stage, the less time will be needed in the later stages due to less confusion. In the brainstorming stage we decided what medium we were going to stick with, as well as the overall basic plot of the video (beginning, middle, and end).
The basic plot is as follows:

-Beginning-
The video starts off with a snippet of an individual’s vlog whereby he says a harsh statement about his life, in a monotone voice. Ex. “Life SUCKS.”

*These vlog snippets will scattered throughout the video and will be very essential because it shows the emotions of the main character as well as his thoughts on his own self creation*

After we see the emotional status of the main character in his vlog, we cut to the school and see how he fits in with others. We want to confuse the viewers at this point by making his presence at school normal and also by making him act different from what we saw in his vlog.

*In my opinion, creating this confusion is important to a successful video because at the end when it all comes together the purpose is to shock the audience or at least cause them to put the pieces together*

-Middle-
The middle is still a work in progress. The overall idea we had for the middle portion of the video was to show different aspects of the characters life. These aspects involve hanging out with friends at the mall, setting up a game of basketball with people at school, studying with people at the library, getting ready for prom etc. Throughout these aspects you, as the viewer, should start to see a fake personality being portrayed by the main character, which results in him having no close friends. Throughout the vlog snippets the character will acknowledge how he has no true friends and in order to be himself, he must act like it. In doing so, everything goes wrong; he becomes more isolated and shows his anger and frustration in his vlogs. At one point he has an out burst in his vlog, seeing as he starts talking about how life is not worth living and how if people do not like him for him self will they ever?

-End-
At the end of his last vlog, a date appear (1992- 2010). This is done to show how he failed in his own self creation and as a result he took his own life. We decided to show the date so that it would not be obvious but instead shocking and unexpected.

We end the video off with the death of the main character to strengthen the message. Instead of showing the success of self creation, we show failure and how it is not easy to create this perfect individual who everyone likes.

"Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you?" -Fanny Brice. Art is not something you follow, it is something you invent and create a piece at a time. When an artist creates art they are trying to tell a different story each time. The one thing that makes an artist superior from the others is their unique ways to show society how they can take an object and turn it into something we have never seen before; something that hold a stronger meaning then what meets the eye.

How can an artist display their talent if it involves being a criminal? In most major cities, graffiti art found in parks and building sides are considered to be criminal offenses, which in my opinion is unfair for those artists who perfect this skill. Why should an artist be forced to follow the status quo? This basically implies that an artist is someone who can paint a master piece on a canvas, which is wrong in many ways. Art has no boundaries, which is why I think that banning graffiti art is giving artist and society the wrong impression. Art is not like process work, you do not follow a set of guidelines but rather you do what your heart tells you to. If that involves substituting a canvas for a large downtown building wall so be it. Art is not created to discourage the viewer but is done to inform them.

Source- http://bannedart.umwblogs.org/2009/08/27/is-this-art/

When people think of the word "art" the first thing that comes to mind is a very famous painting known as the "Mona Lisa." Artists are using their creativity to expand art as we once knew it. In doing so we have been able to take the typical paint brush on canvas and change that perception of art by displaying it in many different forms, whether it be on a t-shirt, billboard, car, wall or even something a simple as a goalie mask. The NHL has taken its toll in the art department and has taken simple hockey equipment and given it a whole new meaning. There is a long history when is comes to goalie masks, from the vintage white plastic goalie mask (we all use for Halloween to look like Jason) to the fully designed fiberglass goalie masks. It all began in 1972 with Ken Dryden, the former goalie for the Montreal Canadians, who felt that putting a little team color to his mask might make him look a little more presentable. From that one mask change all goalies felt like it was necessary to design their goalie mask so that it would be one of a kind. In the early stages it was basically a play with colors and stripes but as the masks got more complex so did the emotions the goalies had towards them. Goalie masks became a huge artistic battle in the 1980's as some goalies would hire an artist to air brush a personal design for them. At a certain point people began to look at the masks in detail and realized how much one mask says about a goalie. Some goalies would spend up to $2000 on a design, which leaves us with the impression that money was not an issue when is came down to the artistic and graphic quality of their masks.

Art has changed dramatically from being seen on a canvas to being displayed on a goalie mask. From this I began to realize that art is everywhere, whether is be graphical or even abstract. We do not need to go to a gallery to see art because I can guarantee that an individual sees at least one piece of art on a normal day, whether it is found on a t-shirt, wall, billboard or even a car. Like I have said many times before, even though you do not realize it....ART IS EVERYWHERE!

The national anthem, a song that has been sung for many years, is now being changed due to 5 words. In my opinion this change is just showing Canada's desperation for attention from the media....As if the Olympics were not enough, Canada is finding more ways to show its amazing "Charter of Rights and Freedoms" in action. This whole arbitrary issue began due to a few words, which were considered to focus on essentially on the male gender. These lines include: "True patriot love in all thy sons command," which to me sound fine. I find it odd how we have been singing this song everyday for many years and haven't said anything till now. It seems like people are trying to show how powerful our Charter can be by building such stupid issues, when there are more serious things to focus on. In my opinion the national anthem should not be changed, it is something that we have heard for many years and by changing it we are showing our immaturity towards our country. If we keep changing things due to minor miscommunication there would be havoc uprising in this country. Would it be alright if we made a few changes to the Mona Lisa, just because a certain group of people think something is morally or ethically wrong with it.......

Source- http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/774649

Sony has done a great job with there line of PlayStation Consoles and have been able to dodge the huge competition in the gaming industry through there unique design and composition of the PlayStation 3. However on March 1st Sony "hit a brick wall," seeing as thousands of PlayStation Consoles malfunctioned due to a network error which blocked users from accessing their PlayStation Network. Not only did they lose all access to their friends list, they also were not able to play their games both online and offline, putting many people in great stress. It was said that the reason for this mishap was due to a minor date error. Apparently the PlayStation 3 Console had confused the leap years, which caused all online updates to shutdown while also setting the date back to Jan 1st 2000. This caused great havoc to those who owned a PlayStation 3, as they were left with, what they thought, was a broken console that would not be fixed. That in some cases was indeed true. Apparently this error not only stopped game play but also resulted in hardware damage, which is something that cannot be fixed unless replaced for a $200 cost.

Many people look at this day as PlayStation 3's breaking point from its former competitor XBOX 360. In my eyes it makes no sense how one event can cause so many people to turn there backs on PlayStation. They make it seems as if the console they bought will be perfect, which cannot be said about any kind of electronic device. If you compare the problems people encounter with the ps3 as apposed to the XBOX 360, you will notice that even though PlayStation encounter one major problem, XBOX 360 is bound to fall face first more often. The 360 is one console that is guaranteed to shutdown on you at least once within the first year of use. People already have a name for this problem and is known as the "Red rings of death." I think that if you look at PlayStation throughout its existence rather than on one current event, you will realize that if you are looking for a reliable console that has a longer life than other you can count on PlayStation. Many people think that due to this one event PlayStation has lost all strength in its consoles but what they don't understand is that as soon as this problem hit Sony was able to resolve the conflict within the same day. In my opinion that shows commitment and dedication on PlayStation's part towards its consumers. Compare that to the well known "red rings of death," which takes 2 weeks to fix and you can clearly see that calling this one event a "take down" is foolish.

Source- http://dvice.com/archives/2010/03/playstation-3s.php