Bonus Review: Johngivitus

I absolutly love how this video came out. The humor was inside, within the class, so maybe others didnt see why it was just THAT funny. John is such a non-threatening kind of individual so it was difficult to be scared of his school portrait. The concept was well thought out and brilliantly composed. The black and white footage was a nice touch which added the feel it needed to be threatening. I love how the whole thing was filmed within the 75 minutes given for class and I myself was probably late for a least 10 of that. Then it was edited in one night which is impressive for how well its done. I enjoyed filming it and I try to get anyone i can to watch it. 10/10

Blog #4 Genre Bending With Shawn

Brody Anthony

Mr. Edwards

EMS 30

09/06/15

                I  choose Shawn of the Dead, a 2004 zombie, romantic-comedy. It runs for 1h and 40minutes and that means its almost two hours of awesome! This is one of my favourite movies and that’s because its got a twist that sets it apart from your average zombie flick. It’s a genre bender if you will. This incredible movie really plays with the conventions of a zombie movie. For example, the cluelessness characters tend to have when the virus shows up. For whatever reason no one seems to catch on until they encounter one and even then they are still pretty clueless;  asking “what do you what?” or “what are you looking at?” This movie has all that but with a hilarious twist to take the edge off of the fact that everyone is dying. The relationship he has with his girlfriend sucks but he still has his best friend. That isn’t enough though. The apocalypse gives Shawn a reason to get his girl back by saving her life. This is where the romantic codes and conventions come in teaching lessons about never giving up and fighting for the girl. This makes Shawn of the dead a great experience to watch. Even with your girlfriend.

Review Series #3

Mini review #3
The Truman Show


I have always enjoyed the Truman show since the days of crappy cable when all we had to watch was Global and the Discovery channel. I watch this movie for the first time when I was about 11 years old and I love it then but didn't understand it as much as I do now. It was the vibe that the movie have off. It was really thrilling for me to watch a character that didn't know his life was a lie, I felt like one of the other TV viewers of the Truman show. I really like the idea of the Truman show and I'm very happy that the actor picked for the role was Jim Carry as he's like one of my favourite actors. The mid of emotions with his father and his crush makes it just the more suspenseful. Something I didn't like was how oblivious Truman was. It made me think he was a tad dumb because of how old he is. You think he would have figured it out before his age. Besides all that, great movie. Recommend to anyone who likes brain teasing movies.

Review Series #2

Mini review #2
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind


I have a hard time disliking anything that Jim Carry is a part of.
He's an incredible actor and in this movie he really breaks away from his conventional self and I feel really does an really good job at doing so. Rather than being funny and kooky he's very serious and thoughtful. He's confused and really trying to scramble through his thoughts as he's been wiped clean of memories. This is a really cool character to see him play. I enjoyed the entire movie, it's relatable even though we aren't being cleaned out as we watch the movie. We all have a difficult time letting go and this is where we relate with Jim’s character. We as humans are scared of change and we sometimes strive to hold on to things that hurt us emotionally. This can be hard to go through and this movie puts an awesome twist on this idea. I rate it 10/10 and would recommend to anyone.

Review series #1

Mini review #1
Psycho


I personally loved Psycho. Alfred Hitchcock was an incredible movie maker and did some phenomenal work while he was alive but Psycho is definitely my new favorite. The new pick I feel is slightly influenced by the fact that I absolutely love the spawn off tv show that uses the same set for the show. I loved the characters they picked. Both actors that play Norman Bates are similar which I enjoy a lot, both in appearance and in personality. The other roles were also very well done. I didn't like the shower scene however though the movie is notorious for that scene, and I also didn't like the scene when norman come down into the basement dressed as his mother, the scream seemed fake and his face was almost humorous, didn't seem thrilling enough for me. Other than that, loved watching how film makers were different from then and now. Great movie.

Media Profile

I think that media is very important in my life, not only because of entertainment but also because it’s my database for all information I may need now or in the future it’s also a large portion of the career I’m studying. I am mostly passionate about the visual forms of media; photos, posters, icons and logos. This is because I am studying photography and design and these things are very important to my studies.

The new forms of media that have arisen over the past few years as the internet developed are a bit questionable and debatable. Some are good and helpful but the stuff on the other side of the spectrum is absolutely horrible. It’s filled with; Hate, racism, prejudice people, violence, and promotion of all these things. Places like twitter can be a breeding ground for hateful comments, making people extremely upset all over the world, in places that have access to sites like twitter of course. People on Facebook are very similar but I feel twitter has Facebook beat with hateful bullcrap.

On the other hand there are websites making a good name for themselves, like Tumblr. I use Tumblr so I talk from an experience standpoint. Now before I make my opinion I’d like to explain my use of the site. I have almost 200 followers, majority of which are female. I follow about 700 other blogs like; walking dead fandoms, bmx blogs, humor blogs, tattoo blogs, photography blogs, food blogs and support groups for people feeling a bit under the weather and looking for someone to chat with. First of all support groups are a thing, and there are tons of them. This already shows that people on this site care. I know Tumblr has a reputation to be for people with depression and that’s not it. It’s just that people with depression use Tumblr because they know the people (complete strangers too) on there will give a crap unlike people on twitter who would likely tell you to get over it if they didn’t know you. This is one reason why websites like Tumblr are elite to sites like twitter. Also I rarely see someone being shallow or hateful without getting away with it. Hell I hardly see hateful comments at all but when they do happen people are quick to correct them. Sites like Tumblr are good but they aren’t all like that.

Regardless of all the crappy stuff that’s in the media, I still love it. Information is easy to get and knowledge is power so that is a plus, you can see beautiful things and learn all about them, you can get visual or auditory pleasure like music or movies. My personal favourite is pictures. I love photos and looking at them wondering what the place is really like beyond the camera or what the photographer is like and why he/she is taking that photo.  I really over analyze what I’m looking at when it comes to photography but that’s why I like it so much and maybe that’s where my enjoyment with Tumblr comes from because it is almost entirely photos. Media is important in my life and this is why.

Blog #3

Media puts a large influence on the lives of adolescences every day, but more specifically, reality television shows. Are these influences positive or negative? Personally I believe that they can be positive in some circumstances but overall I feel they have a negative influence on the younger population of boys and girls anywhere where reality television is accessible. It creates unrealistic expectations, it gives a false perception and it creates poor decision making skills in teens. I can’t say that these things are positive.

Firstly, reality TV gives unrealistic expectations to younger viewers. It can make you believe that there’s less responsibility when it comes to life, take jersey shore for example, they all get jobs when they are put on the shore and when they have their jobs they hardly go, they get drunk or sleep on the job, they have other people take their shifts so that they can do questionable things instead of work. This can make people believe that this is normal when it comes to having a summer job. Just because everyone else is having fun it doesn’t mean that you can be unprofessional and irresponsible during your job. This is how you get fired. This is a convention in reality TV and it is a very negative force in our modern day pop culture.

It also gives off a false perception on life. It leads people to believe things about life that may not be true. Take man vs. wild for example, people watching that show may think that living out in the forest would be easy but trying to do what he does could land you in some serious trouble; you could poison yourself or develop an infection. You’d need to have the specific knowledge to duplicate the actions he takes.

Finally, it creates bad decisions. Teens are very impressionable and watching TV can really lead them to make some bad decisions. 16 and pregnant is a great example and I know that can be a touchy subject but being young a pregnant is not a good decision unless you are 100% prepared for the responsibility of a child and most of these girls on the show are not and being unemployed and still living with your mother are terrible conditions for  a new born. Except for the fact that the mother is there to help but that isn’t necessarily fair to her. But let’s not talk about just girls because boys can be just as impressionable if not more impressionable, Watching shows like jackass or nitro circus can lead to some extremely dangerous situations. Kids watching these kinds of shows may think that this kind of stuff is fun and may try it getting them seriously hurt or arrested. People on TV are on TV for a reason and this isn’t stuff you do outside of TV.

These shows, though are entertaining, they can be influential to the youth and can be a crappy force in pop culture of today. Shows like jackass, jersey shore, 16 and pregnant or nitro circus can be impressionable forms of media and can lead to some un-desirable lifestyles (ie. Broke, or hospitalized), people need to learn to be more cautious when watching television and that everything you see may not be true and that not everything is realistic about reality TV.

City & Colour - The lonely Life


Construction of reality:


Everybody has a particular dream in which they want to pursue but what happens when you lose your vision or your ability to progress. That will make any person feel like they've failed, likely with the want to give up. This is what this music video portrays, a construction that the life of the writer is a hard one as well as the artist (painter). Though I feel that this could be applied to a multitude of different lives.


Codes & Conventions:
This has a very lovey dovey type of feel to it though it still portrays a good message. it isn't cheesy just romantic. There are some stereotypes with this video like the damsel in distress stereotype and the man who comes running to help save her (knight in shining armor).


Creeds & Values:
This music video lets off a  "Don't give up" Kind of message to me. Its showing that even when you believe you are out and down for the count you can still bring yourself back to par by finding someone, rather that be a girl, family member or good friend to be there and help you through your struggles. With that you may still be able to bring yourself back continue doing the things you love with the capability to return to your former self.


Commercial:
This is an effective way to sell the song because it is relatable and people can confide in it by watching and relating. This video is can be targeted to almost anyone but maybe more particularly targeted towards people struggling, a fellow writer and/or painter. This video is defiantly appropriate for the song.


You can find the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBFQpX6mV8