Friday, March 30, 2012

Introductory Preso Experience

To introduce ourselves to our classmates we had the opportunity to use whatever media we wanted to use. At the time I was still fascinated by iMovie so I created a short little movie about myself. We also had to critique our presentations and I did a PowerPoint to review mine. I wish that I would have done the review on YouTube instead. My partner and I were confused as to how it is that we were supposed to work together, so we just approved each other’s messages at the end of our presentations. It was hard in the beginning to have to work with someone who you just met for the first time. We also had different experiences with technology and interests which is why our introductions differed a little bit from the others.

Some of my classmates also did movies, some did PowerPoints, and some even used poster board. My favorite presentation was from Jenna and Nicole. They shot themselves on campus and used short clips of popular songs to tell about themselves.

It would have been great if we could have redone our presentations at the end of the semester to see how much everyone’s presentations would have advanced after everything we learned.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Crash - Personal Review


  1. What do you feel is the message the director is trying to express in this movie? Support your answer with examples.
    1. The director wanted to express how the issue of race is still so prevalent in society today, maybe even more so. It is always said that the United States is the melting pot of cultures, but I believe it is more like a tossed salad because none of the cultures are mixing, they are staying strong to who they are. Crash is the ultimate depiction of tension of nationalities and races.
  2. If applicable, discuss if you think this movie has accurate depictions of minorities or if they are situational? Why or why not?
    1. This movie has accurate depictions of minorities on a stereotypical level. It has African-Americans stealing, Asians driving badly, Hispanics working low-wage, service job and Caucasians as the rich, snooty people.
  3. Explain if you think the director’s ethnic/cultural/professional background played a role in directing this film?
    1. The director’s professional background consists of him always thinking outside of the box. With his work, he wanted to make people think about his movie critically and argue about what they had just seen. He wants his films to spark conversations that maybe not be easy to discuss, but that need to be discussed. The issue of racial, cultural and socioeconomic tensions are topics no one wants to discuss and in Crash, Paul Higgins just put all of it out there for people to see.
  4. What groups (people of color, nationality, culture, class, gender etc.) may be offended or misinterpret this movie and why?
    1. There are many people who could be offended by this movie. African-Americans could be offended by the way they were made out to be criminals. Asian could be offended by the way they were made out to be smugglers of people and bad drivers. Hispanics could be offended by the perception that they work low-wage, service jobs. Caucasians could be offended by the way they are portrayed as racists.
  5. What the movie added to your visual literacy?
    1. The moved added the asset of focusing on one character at a time and building on their life. The environment in which they lived and those who they surrounded themselves with developed their characters. This was depicted visually and not just through dialogue and exposition.
  6. What kind of artistic and/or visual means did the director use in the movie to focus our attention?
    1. The director used overlapping storylines as a way to artistically tell the story. The characters had major impacts on each other’s lives. An event for one of them would lead them to react in a way that affected another character’s life.

Thank You for Smoking - Personal Review


  1. What do you feel is the message the director is trying to express in this movie? Support your answer with examples.
    1. The director was trying to express how big corporations such as the tobacco industry can hire an influential man to make a subject like smoking look so glamorous.
  2. If applicable, discuss if you think this movie has accurate depictions of minorities or if they are situational? Why or why not?
    1. This movie consisted of no minorities. All of the characters were Caucasian Americans.
  3. Explain if you think the director’s ethnic/cultural/professional background played a role in directing this film?
    1. The director’s parents are Jewish and Christian. Both of his parents are Caucasian. His simple background has set the tone for the mostly white cast that he has in his other films as well, such as Juno and Up in the Air.
    1. What groups (people of color, nationality, culture, class, gender etc.) may be offended or misinterpret this movie and why?
      1. The group that could be offended by this movie is businesswomen. Nick’s female friend who was a big executive in the alcohol industry was perceived to be a cold and callous woman who only cared about being on the top of her game. It definitely depicted businesswomen in a negative light.
      1. What the movie added to your visual literacy?
        1. This movie didn’t really add anything to my visual literacy. The only part that I found somewhat unique was the beginning when they showed the animation of the different designs of tobacco packages. It’s fascinating to me how they take an “adult” product and try to sell it to children from very early on. They make the images appealing to them so that they wonder for years what is inside of them and how “cool” they are.
        1. What kind of artistic and/or visual means did the director use in the movie to focus our attention?
          1. The captions that were shown when Nick was first introduced were used to show how Nick was kind of a kid at heart. He basically just wanted people to believe him and to like him. The animation of the different designs of tobacco packages were used to show how the tobacco industry uses upbeat visuals to make tobacco seem exciting and fun and something people show be a part of.

        Monday, March 5, 2012

        Aha Blog 3: How to be Visually Literate

        My little brother had an assignment to design a musical instrument over the weekend. As I was helping him create the instrument and come up with a song I realized that music would be really hard to compose for one who isn’t visually literate. He had to visualize each of the symbols and think of what it is that they stood for and then draw them to write his song.

        It is so fascinating to me that every day I discover something new that I had never associated with visual literacy before. Just this morning I was watching the weather report and images are used so much. They are universal images that we all understand and for the most part seem to associate them with the same thing. The stimulation of rain falling is pretty much the same so even if the weatherman wasn’t talking at all we would be able to understand what was going on. That would also explain why it is that whenever my grandparents (who speak no English at all) came to visit us here they would only watch the weather reports.

        Earlier I mentioned that visual symbols are all over and that the struggle is being able to train your eyes to notice them. I don’t think that it’s a matter of training your eyes anymore. I have come to realize that I don’t appreciate them which is why I haven’t been able to notice them. By looking at everything and practicing visual literacy (thinking about what message the image is trying to convey) it would be hard to miss any symbols!