The video is posted on you tube.com the link is listed below. Check it out and tell me what you think. The video is no where near done, there is still a lot of editing that needs to be completed as well as a lot of scenes that need to be added. We could not upload the whole video because it was too large of a file (4 GB) so we decided to just show the first 5 mins of what we have done.
This is a very controversial topic and is getting a lot of bloggers and writers talking. What Ontario is basically doing is they are amending the sex-ed in all Ontario school's and in doing so they are shifting the time for which students learn certain topics. This is how it is broken down:
Grade 1: Students will learn the bodies parts of both male and female
Grade 3: Students will learn the proper names for all parts, as well as masturbation
Grade 6: Students will learn about Anal, oral and vaginal sex as well as the diseases that come along with it.
The reason for why Ontario is taking such actions is because they feel that the sooner children know about these topics, the easier it will be for them to avoid the problems that come with it. In The Toronto Star they show statistics throughout the past 5 years and how as generations get older children are getting involved in sexual activity without knowing the consequences. The question that keeps popping in my head is whether or not children in grade 3 or even 6 are mature enough to handle this information? From what I remember when I first learned sex-ed, people would laugh and joke about it. In some cases the boys would tease the girls or vice-versa. Does it matter when you teach a child about his body? Or for how long they let it sink in? It seems like not matter when children learn about sex and masturbation they will always laugh and joke at first, but the longer you let it sink in, the more normal it becomes. Ontario is trying to test this point by educating children at a young age, so that when they do hit puberty and enter high school they will be mature enough to know better and act in a more logical manner.
Even though Ontario Parliament is doing what is best for society, they are ignoring the ethnic groups that this maybe effecting. Due to this change in the Ontario education system, Muslim children are being pulled out of there school board and put into private school or in some cases being sent back to there home town. Is it right to ignore ones ethnic belief, even though it may help those living in your country? Is it not true that Canada respects all religions and there beliefs? Then why are they ignoring the beliefs of the Muslim community?
One thing that I thought was very shocking is how fast they came up with this idea. The idea of changing the sex-ed in all school boards in Ontario took place over a span of 5-6 months, which is not very long considering it is a life changing matter for children, teacher and also parents. The fact that this amendment was taking into consideration so quickly scares me because if one person can change the curriculum of a school board in a few months what can someone do over night? What if this one change in society sparks people to make there own changes that they feel will benefit themselves? are we all going to become self centered and only care about what we think is right ignoring everyone else?
Ontario Parliament also has to realize the amount of pressure they are putting on teachers and whether or not they are suitable for the job. Is it okay if a 20 year old teacher teaches his/her grade 6 class about masturbation or oral sex? Are they capable of doing this at that age, with very minimal experience teaching this topic? In my opinion changing the sex-ed in the curriculum will result in both good and bad things.
The Good -Children will be informed at a young age, which will give them time to sink in the information
-They will be aware of the consequence before they hit puberty, which may reduce the amount of sexual activity at a young age
-Children will be more mature around the topic of sex
The Bad
-It goes against certain ethnic religions
-It may reduce the amount of student who will attend school
-It may result in riot and protest, due to parent as well as teachers thinking it is not right
-Teachers may not be qualified or even mature enough to talk to there students about such a topic
-Teachers may give the students the wrong impression which can change there perspective on sex
-Children may take it as a joke and might cause fights between friends or even genders
This topic is very controversial. In terms of were I stand, I think it is a good thing that children will learn these topics at school because it make them more aware allowing them to take more time to sink in before they enter high school. On the other hand if this sex-ed is going against ones ethic group it is not worth it. Canada cannot say they are a country of freedom and multiculturalism, if they ignore any country they want when it comes down to business.
i phone, blackberry, Play station 3, 3d television.....the list goes on. When you first read this list the first thing that comes to mind is all the interesting features that come with it. As society grows older the technology seems to become a lot more advanced, which can be both a good thing and a bad depending on how you look at the situation. In my opinion, people are making themselves a bit too dependent on technology, which will one day come back and haunt them. It seems like people are inventing new gadgets that will basically take over there lives. For instance the i phone can do almost anything you want it to; it can start your car, turn on your television, wake you up in the morning, and also reserve your seats to almost any event. To some people, this maybe a good thing but if you look at the i phone ad campaign, apple is basically trying to tell its consumers that you do not need an alarm clock or a car opener or even a remote control for that matter. Does that seem like a good thing? Is it smart to have one gadget which you must depend on all throughout the day?
The one thing most people fear about with new technology is the loss of knowledge. A great example of this would be the calculator, which many people depend on today to get all there number work done. With the invention of the calculator people do not feel the need to learn how to multiply or divide. What would happen to those people if one day something happened whereby calculators were banned from everyone on earth? I could only assume people would begin to suffer because of there need for technology. University students would begin to fail due to there lack of knowledge for there basic multiplication. This same concept can be said for the i phone. People put there lives on this device but what they do not realize is that if it ever shuts down so will there brain. I am not saying these devices are bad or that they should not be invented for the public, but what I am saying is that we need to stop being so dependent on them. Instead of putting your weekly schedule on your blackberry, write it down on a piece of paper or on a calendar. It may not be convenient but at least you can be sure it will not turn off on you or crash due to a virus.
I fear that if people get too attached to these new devices they will forget the old ones and sooner or later they will not longer exist. It has already happened with music where we use to have cassettes to play our music, but with all this new technology mp3’s are the new devices to play our music. It no longer exist on cassette and what people need to understand is if mp3's begin to fail and crash, the music they once had will no longer be heard. A great example of this would be on January 1st of 2009, New Year’s Day, the Microsoft Zune crashed and all data on the mp3 player was no longer accessible. Microsoft said it had something to do with the timer in the device, which was mis-dated, but how does that help with all the music you lost on your device?
Before watching the movie I decided to look up the definition of the word Memento. Dictionary.com, defines memento as "an object or item that serves to remind one of a person, past event, etc.; keepsake; souvenir." I felt that knowing this definition would be essential in order to better understand the kind of person Leonard (main character) really is.
Memento is unlike any other movie I have even seen before because it did not follow the typical story structure. The beginning of this movie is actually the end and as you watch the movie it becomes very obvious how the movie is going to end off. But knowing the ending of the movie did not spoil how good it was going to turn out. I found this movie to be well directed because as I was watching my mind was always thinking about how the story was going to play out. The good thing about knowing the ending of any kind of story is that it allows you to analyze what happens before it. It also keeps your mind guessing and connecting the pieces to the puzzle to understand how the movie will end off like it is suppose to. This movie would definitely be in my top ten list of movies, not only because of its unique use of plot but also because of its insane video effects.
The movie is about a man named Leonard who suffers of short term memory loss. The thing I found interesting about his character is how co-operates with this dis-function. Whenever something significant happens in his life that he has to remember for the next day he writes it down, sometimes on paper, but if it is really important he tattoos it on his body. He makes notes for himself so that the next morning he knows what to do and where to go. He wakes up one morning and looks at himself in the mirror and sees a tattoo that says "John G. rapped and murdered my wife," and that basically begins his journey to finding the killer. The movie in my opinion was very well directed because when the movie started I had a lot of question running in my head but by the end of it they were all answered. For instance when I realized how dependent he was on these notes, which guided him to his wife's killer I began to question whether he could trust them. How does he know if these notes are real? Or if they are written by someone else? I realized how easy it would be to set him up to have him kill someone else, thinking it was his wife's killer all because his notes said so. As the movie goes along these questions get answered. Even though he lost his short term memory, he perfects in all his long term memory one of which involves his writing style. He can always tell his writing from another person, which eases his fear of someone setting him up.
This movie in my opinion had one of the most unique plots I have ever seen. Throughout the movie we go back and forth from black and white scenes to color scenes and from my first time watching it, I could not understand why. When I watched it a second time I decided to ignore the main plot and focus on the separate scenes itself and what I realized is that all the color scenes are playing in a normal sequence but the black and white scenes on the other hand are playing backwards. As you reach the end of the movie you realize that they meet up in the middle, therefore basically the color scene include the first half of the movie and the black and white includes the second half.
The reason for why I decided to blog about this movie is because of the message the director is trying to tell all film makers. This movie shows us how unimportant the plot structure really is. It also shows us how making a movie complex can be good for the viewer because it causes them to think throughout. This director did not want to feed us the plot because it would not be as effective towards the overall story. From my previous blog I talked about how art in today's era is focusing on simplicity, this cannot be said for the film industry. It seems like in film the more complex the story is the more attention is put towards it.
While watching this movie I began thinking about my existentialism project and how it relates to this movie. After watching this movie I can say that seeing Leonard (Main character) write things on his body was his own self creation. He was basing his personality and thoughts on his notes, for instance he has picture of all the people that are significant in his life and at the back of each picture he has some notes about there personality and the kind of people they are. I think that this kind of self creation would be very interesting to incorporate in our own project. Even though we have started the critique stage I think this minor change in plot would make a big difference in the overall message of self creation.
In the year 2000 Electronic Arts introduced a new line of games called The Sims, which to this day is still a very well known series. The Sims is unlike any other console game, seeing as there are no missions, checkpoint or even bosses for that matter. The overall concept of the game involves you playing the role of another individual in a world of your own. How can such a simple concept last 10 years? Does the popularity of The Sims have something to do or say about the lives we are currently living? Is it really that hard to live a life where you only experience the fun activities? Or is it just because society is getting lazy whereby all we want to do is sit on our butts and control our lives with the click of a button?
There are many questions that come along with the popularity of this game, but one this is for sure and that is the fact that the graphical styles have nothing to do with it. When The Sims was first introduced in the year 2000, I was not a great fan of what I was looking at, seeing as the graphics were horrible and the concept was truly simple and childish. As I got older I decided to give the game a try and for some reason I found it to be very fun and intriguing. There was something about this game that made me feel happy; it took me away from all the stress and frustration of life by giving me a fresh start. Even though it may not have been graphically impressive, it was a game that made me feel like I was living in two different worlds.
The question we must all ask ourselves is whether this idea of creating a new virtual life is a good thing for society? Or will it just spark a lot more anger in those who feel they do not have a successful life? The majority of people who play this game are middle aged men and women, which was shocking at first but if you consider the amount of stress they have, why won’t they play a game where they can start over and experience a whole new life in a whole new way? Even though this game allows you to control the life of a hit actor, with millions of dollars, should we push ourselves to be like them? People tend to take matters a bit too seriously and cannot seem to distinguish the difference between what is meant to be real or fake. In my opinion, the idea Electronic Arts came up with was pure genius because it allows those who are stressed to kick back and relax in the shoes of someone else for a couple of hours.
This game has been a great hit for 10 years for specific reasons because it allows us to see what life would be like in the eyes of another individual. Even though it may have its problem with people taking the game a bit to seriously, society must realize that there real life is far more superior to there virtual one.
Ikea is a franchise that can be found all over the world and has made a huge success with the products they sell. Ikea's furniture is found in a lot of high class housing magazines and is now being seen in the art industry, in museums and now in the daily news. How does a simple neighborhood warehouse become worldwide and popular? I, being a proud consumer of Ikea products, can say that buying furniture and appliances becomes a lot easier at Ikea. Aside from the easy assembly of furniture, the style they produce in there products bring an artistic look to any room you desire. Ikea has always been known for there sleek design in table and chairs but it was a shock to me to hear that they had been producing furniture that was good enough to be seen in museums. Does this have something to say about the new designs of today? It seems like Ikea has begun a whole new era for design from TV’s to automobiles. We notice how TV's are becoming thin, shiny and more compact. The same can be said for furniture. If we were to compare a high class house from 1999 to 2010 there would be many significant differences. You would notice that in 1999 the chandlers would be a lot longer, wider and denser. Whereas in 2010 the chandler would look thinner and more abstract. In my opinion simplicity is the key to any design because it allows us to focus more on certain aspects.
Ikea has made a huge name for itself not only as a furniture store but also as an artistic style.
This weekend I decided to take some time off my hands to go watch a movie with a couple of my friends. I did not think this movie had much to talk about but while watching the film I kept thinking about our class discussion about a true superhero.
Kick-ass was more than just a movie of humor and all out destruction. It brought a lot of meaning to the world of superheroes and the legacy they lead. This movie posses the question that we must all ask ourselves and that is, what makes a superhero so special?
The movie starts off with a kid who thinks he is invisible from all the popular kids in his school. He wants to do something with his life and make himself a better person and in doing so decides to be his own superhero, fighting crime all across the city. This movie may sound like a typical Peter Parker, Spider-man tale but as the movie progress you begin to understand the true definition of the term superhero. You realize that a superhero does not have to be strong or have magical powers but rather a superhero is someone who stands up and does something about the cruel things people are doing in society.
This movie, in my opinion, make superman and spider-man look very childish because it gives the wrong impression of what a superhero is suppose to be. The reason why Superman is a superhero is not because he can lift a car over his head, it is because he does things to help others from harms way. In this movie the only super power we see falls in the heart and the mind of a normal individual, living a normal life. Throughout the movie we see how the heart and mind of an individual can overcome any obstacle. At one point in the movie we see how Kick-Ass gets published all over the news and how people then begin making there own heroes, but in the wrong way. People start becoming there own superheroes with guns and knives, which causes Kick-ass to think less of himself due to his lack of strength. In my opinion, even though a gun can make you physically stronger, nothing can beat the strength of your mind. The movie Kick-ass shows us how we can all be our own superhero in our own unique way. Besides the humor and action of this movie I found it to be very inspiring and meaningful to all superhero fans. It is a must see movie and is way worth the $10. So if you have not watch it yet, I strongly advice you do!
We finally were able to solidify our thoughts on the plot of the film as well as the cast who would be involved in it. We have now begun our production stage. These past two weeks have been devoted towards filming all the scenes necessary for our video and I have to say, it has not been easy. Filming has become a lot harder then expected due to the fact that we must co-operate with our surroundings. For instance filming our specific basketball scene has put us behind on our schedule, either because cast members could not show up or because it was raining outside. As the schedule kept changing so did our setting. We had to change the placement of some of our scenes to do the lack of lighting. Setting was not a big problem, seeing as all we had to do was move from Josh's house to Naeem's house. In terms of our progress most of our major scenes have been shot and the editing process will soon begin. I feel that the changes that are being made with setting and plot are making the film better and more realistic. For instance we redid Naeem's "wake up" scene and rather than filming it at 3 in the evening we actually filmed it at 8 A.M. to get the proper lighting and effect that we wanted. I feel that the only way we can get the audience to believe what we are saying and connect to it, is by making it look as realistic as possible and if that mean we have to re-due a specific scene then it has to be done.
In my opinion we made a good move by making me and Naeem the two main characters for the video, seeing as we are able to work around our own schedules to get major scenes filmed. We can also use our class time more productively. The only problem with us being the main characters is the fact that we are not drama students and cannot act as good as others. That does not mean the acting in the film is cheesy; it just means that we have to put a lot more effort into acting, which requires more takes. In my opinion, the hardest scenes to film would have to be the vlog scenes, seeing as I have to make it look as realistic as possible. After watching a lot of vlogs I noticed how no one scripts the things they are going to talk about. Everyone seems to improvise throughout, which put a lot more pressure on me and my acting skills to make it seem realistic. I never noticed how hard it would be to do a vlog till now. It is hard to imagine that when you are talking into a camera, in a room by yourself, thousand of people are watching you on there own computer screens, judging every little action you make. But with all problems that I have encountered, I have been able to overcome them no matter how hard it maybe.
The filming process is taking a little longer than expected but we understand that the more time we spend on this stage, the better the overall film will become. Before we started this project we assumed filming would take the least amount of time to accomplish and editing would take the most. What we did not realize till now is that as we film, we also seem to edit at the same time in our heads. We also begin to change the overall plot in minor ways because even though it may sound good to the ear, it may not look the same way on the screen. One thing our group it grateful for is the equipment that is available for us to use, which was given to us by our teacher and without it our video would not turn out the way it was suppose to :)
There has been a lot of interesting news about 3d televisions and the question that many people still have is whether or not it is worth the price. 3d TV's are currently going for approximately $4000 and the glasses are going for $250 each. In order for you to get the full 3d effect you must wear the glasses at all times, which to me sounds silly. It is funny how people have to wear glasses in order to watch movies and television. What concerns me in particular, is my ability to wear the 3d glasses on top of my own glasses. From looking at the picture it seems like it is not possible to wear both pairs, which in that cases makes it pointless for me to buy.
Are we taking the idea of high definition too far? When HDTV first came out I could not believe my eyes, because the quality was amazing. When I watched sports games in HD it made it seem like I was watching it live. 3d TV's on the other hand have been said to have poor quality when compared to HDTV's. This posses the question of whether you want to have a better quality picture or a picture that pops out of the screen. Talking about 3d TV's makes me laugh because it seems like it is too good to be true. The only problem is people have been sending complaints about the TV such as, headaches and dizziness. Like many new invention there are always flaws but in my opinion the 3d TV has had the most by far. In my opinion, the introduction of the 3d TV has come out too soon. People are still sinking in the new idea of High Definition sports and movies. It seems like companies rushed the introduction of 3d TV's and buying one now would just be a waste of money. If you look at the overall trend we are following with our TV's, we are basically trying to bring theater style entertainment to our own homes. We went from old tuner box TV’s to Plasma HDTV's and now 3d TV’s. In my opinion, we need to stop inventing/creating new TV's and start putting more effort into the TV shows and movie production. Why buy a 3d TV when all there is to watch is The Simpson’s or Bruno. The amount of hit movies is diminishing as the years go on. This past year, in my opinion, there were only 3 excellent movies that were released, one of which was created by Pixar. We need to stop worrying about the visual quality of entertainment because most of us already have 20/20 vision; we need to start worrying about the concept of entertainment because now there seems to be no meaning to most of the shows we watch today and a great example of this would be 90210 or The Hills.
Students from all across the Peel District school board took part in the Walk the Art exhibit. Only certain students were chosen, those who showed more to there art than just bright, flashy colors and good composition. These students created art that had meaning and that displayed their opinion on current events such as, child abuse, teen pregnancy and the highly debated topic of violence in hockey. These students are true artist who express their feeling on these issues. When art has meaning it can change society in many ways, both good and bad. A great example of this would be propaganda, which forced many young Americans to go to war untrained, seeing as it was said to make them more loyal to there country, when in reality is was a death waiting to happen. Does all good art have to talk about cruel event in society? Is it because society likes to see people get killed? Or is it because of the strong message it has to society? Student taking part in the exhibit must be asking themselves these questions everyday. In my opinion the artists taking part in the exhibit are doing more then just being artist they are becoming heroes. A hero is someone who saves people from harmful things in society. Spider man had to battle against Venom, Batman against joker and now these kids are battling a whole bunch of issues in society. Rather than using superpowers they are using their skillful art to get out the message. The more people know, the faster we can cure the problem.
What I realized after reading about this exhibit, is that a lot of art today displays all the bad things that are happening in society, such as global warming and smoking. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Will all this art, about society’s lack of help, encourage us to change or discourage us due to our own self pity?
After brainstorming our ideas and removing all the flaws to the script, we began the production process. This involves gather all cast and crew together to see who is available for filming on certain days. Identifying when people are available, allows us to get a sense of when certain scenes need to be filmed and with which actors. It was hard to get our cast together to begin filming, seeing as they were busy with other course work. As a group we decided to change a couple of roles and in doing so we gave those who had more free time a bigger role and those with limited free time minor roles. Knowing that they are volunteering puts a little more stress on us as the directors, seeing as if they do not show up when needed, we cant do anything but move on to the next scene or find a replacement.
In terms of the filming equipment we needed to change the camera due to the fact that we could not attach a boom mic to it. We obtained a great lose in quality when we changed the camera seeing as the resolution is a lot smaller and also because certain effect could not be done on the new camera. We realized that the change in the camera was not a big problem, seeing as we were still giving out the same overall message, which is more important than the quality of the video.
Our plan for this upcoming week is to begin filming certain scenes. Knowing that this week is going to be a lot smaller due to the literacy test, we decided that we should get the cafeteria and library scenes out of the way at the beginning of the week. All the other scenes, such as the vlog snippets and the park scenes, will all be done after school and on the weekends when the camera is available for us to use. Our plan, as a group, is to get the filming out of the way as soon as possible because the editing process will take up the majority of our time. This is not to say that we will rush the filming process, but we will be minimizing a lot of our social time on the weekends to get the filming done early. The goal we have set for this assignment is to have the filming done by April 17th/10. This will give us approximately 2 week to edit the clips we have collaborated and prepare for the critique.
I realized that even though we are encountering a lot more problems then I expected we are handling them quite well. The reason why I think that is because with all the changes we have made to the script, staff and equipment we have not yet lost the overall meaning of the video.
Guitar Hero first came out in 2005 and was a big hit to a lot of different generations. It was a game that was played by all different age groups and became a huge hit for about two years from its release date. Aside from the great sensation of button mashing to gain points, this game also brought back classic songs from the 90's into the younger generations. Harmonix, the creator of Guitar Hero, began creating other similar games such as, Rock Band and Dj Hero. All these games basically have the same idea. Whether you are playing the drums or mixing some music, in reality you are basically trying to hit a button on your device at the right time. Today, in 2010, people are beginning to wonder whether Harmonix is getting old and whether people have finally realized the simple concept of the game they are playing. In my opinion, it seems like Harmonix took the concept a bit too far. At first it may have been fun, but in the long run, once people play the game a few times they begin to realize the idea of the game, which require you to hit 4 colored buttons at the right time.
Why is it that people are willing to spend $150 on Guitar Hero when they can put that money towards buying a real guitar? This just shows how much advertising effects society. From looking at the game cover itself you can see guitarists holding real guitars that can be tweaked and tuned. Why don't you get what the cover is showing you? Is it still fun to play GUITAR Hero without a guitar, but instead a plastic toy with four buttons on it? Why do people play video games? In my opinion, it is because video games allow you to do things that cannot be done in real life. I play games like Halo, Bio shock and Fear because it allows me to experience fictional events. Games like Guitar Hero and NHL 10 are not games that go far in the gaming industry, seeing as gamers begin to realize it is pointless to click buttons on a pad to gain the experience of hockey, when they can go out and play it themselves.
In my opinion, people are correct when they say Guitar Hero is getting old, seeing as the concept never changes. Harmonix basically took the concept of Dance Dance Revolution and applied it to our fingers, instead of our feet. The game maybe fun for the younger kids, but in my opinion, I would rather play with a real guitar that way I can experience how playing a guitar in a band really feels like. If there were to be a change in the overall concept such as strings instead of buttons, then maybe people would still be interested in the series.
