Hi folks,
Most of you folks will be conducting empathy interviews this week. Before you go about doing so, take a look at these videos. A lot of helpful information in here. You needn't watch all of them. Jump around. See which seem to have what you find most helpful.
NOTE: The second one does a great job of explaining empathy vs sympathy.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Pop Culture: Film Culture Product
Based on the work we have done in class around film culture, create a product that demonstrates your understanding of one or more of the following essential questions:
To what extent does film culture influence you?
To what extent do you influence film culture?
To what extent does film culture influence society?
To what extent does society influence film culture?
You will be assessed using the following rubric.
Due: November 25
HOMEWORK.
Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Film Poster.
Begin: Film Poster.
Due: November 25
To what extent does film culture influence you?
To what extent do you influence film culture?
To what extent does film culture influence society?
To what extent does society influence film culture?
You will be assessed using the following rubric.
Due: November 25
HOMEWORK.
Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Film Poster.
Begin: Film Poster.
Due: November 25
Monday, November 10, 2014
Pop Culture: Making Movie Magic Happen. (Sorta.)
Making the Movie Magic Happen. (Sorta.)
Stage 1. After watching a couple of clips under Mr. Ryder’s tutelage, try your hand at storyboarding, directing and cinematography.
- In groups of one, two or three, choose a film from the AFI Top 100 - 10th Anniversary list that you have seen or at least sorta kinda “know.” (This list is due for an update in 2017. I’m curious to see what happens . . .)
- Find a clip of a well-known scene from that film online. They are out there.
- Using either people or LEGO minifigs and either digital photography or sketching, recreate that scene shot-by-shot, angle-by-angle
- As you are producing that recreation, think about the placement of the camera, the framing, the movement. Do your best to create as honest a reproduction as possible. The point? To see if you can see filmmaking from a creator’s point of view and become more aware of how the filmmaker’s convince their audiences to see and think about the subject matter in a particular way.
Which takes us to Stage 2.
After recreating that scene to develop a sense of how it all “works” in a finished product, use your skills to tell the following story.
Choose and recreate the camera angles to the best of your abilities from the following sources:
Great tool because it shows you examples from actual films
Fantastic explanation of camera angles
Several great examples of storyboarding at work
Stage 3. #ShowYourWork by Creating a Google Presentation, Prezi, or other slideshow to show how your team did. Post that to each of your blogs.
DUE. End of Next Class.
HOMEWORK.
Blog: 3+ Posts
Due: Friday, November 14
Req'd Post: Movie Poster.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Pop Culture: Digging Deeper Into Film Criticism
We'll start class by developing criteria for our teaser trailers and film festival programming. We'll divide into groups of folks who are most interested in creating each one. From there, based on the research you've done and experience you've had, you'll determine the criteria by which your product should be assessed. I will turn this criteria into a rubric for Thursday. Products will be due at the end of next week.
From there we will examine several clips from critically acclaimed and culturally relevant films. Our goal is to identify the qualities that make up a quality film and also to get a better sense of the techniques filmmakers and actors use to engage the audience -- as well develop meaning and intention.
Here are the clips we'll be working with though not necessarily in this order.
HOMEWORK.
Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Film Review.
A. Read through the four reviews of the first Hunger Games films linked here.
Roger Ebert here
Lisa Schwarzbaum here
Peter Travers here
IMDB.com User emptygravity here
B. Choose a film you feel worthy of your time to write about. It may be because you want to tear it apart and it may be because you want to sing its praises. It may be a little bit of both.
C. Write a 2-3 paragraph film review in which you attempt to copy the style of one the above reviewers by using the same techniques in your own review.
You might consider which of the above reviewers use the following:
References to other films in which the actors have appeared
References to other films the director has made
References to the source material for the film (in this case, a novel)
Summary of the plot
Spoilers and/or spoiler warnings
Spoiler-free discussion
Vivid and descriptive language
Casual and general langugage
Use of 1st Person "I"
Some form of review coding system: numbers, stars, thumbs, etc.
D. In a final paragraph, explain which reviewer's style you were trying to adopt for your review. To what extent has this influenced how you watch films?
DUE: Friday, November 7
DESIGN: Film Festival or Teaser Trailer
DUE: Friday, November 14
From there we will examine several clips from critically acclaimed and culturally relevant films. Our goal is to identify the qualities that make up a quality film and also to get a better sense of the techniques filmmakers and actors use to engage the audience -- as well develop meaning and intention.
Here are the clips we'll be working with though not necessarily in this order.
HOMEWORK.
Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post: Film Review.
A. Read through the four reviews of the first Hunger Games films linked here.
Roger Ebert here
Lisa Schwarzbaum here
Peter Travers here
IMDB.com User emptygravity here
B. Choose a film you feel worthy of your time to write about. It may be because you want to tear it apart and it may be because you want to sing its praises. It may be a little bit of both.
C. Write a 2-3 paragraph film review in which you attempt to copy the style of one the above reviewers by using the same techniques in your own review.
You might consider which of the above reviewers use the following:
References to other films in which the actors have appeared
References to other films the director has made
References to the source material for the film (in this case, a novel)
Summary of the plot
Spoilers and/or spoiler warnings
Spoiler-free discussion
Vivid and descriptive language
Casual and general langugage
Use of 1st Person "I"
Some form of review coding system: numbers, stars, thumbs, etc.
D. In a final paragraph, explain which reviewer's style you were trying to adopt for your review. To what extent has this influenced how you watch films?
DUE: Friday, November 7
DESIGN: Film Festival or Teaser Trailer
DUE: Friday, November 14
Friday, October 31, 2014
Pop Culture: Movie Festivals
We are going to focus our energy on movie festivals today.
There are resources in your Pop Culture 2014 OUT folder on Google Drive.
http://www.sundance.org/pdf/film-guide/SFF14-FilmGuide.pdf
http://drafthouse.com/austin
http://www.miff.org/
There are resources in your Pop Culture 2014 OUT folder on Google Drive.
http://www.sundance.org/pdf/film-guide/SFF14-FilmGuide.pdf
http://drafthouse.com/austin
http://www.miff.org/
AP Lit: Quarter Review Discussion
Today we discuss the year thus far, exploring the ideas with which we've been grappling and the manners in which we've been grappling with them.
A great day for constructive criticism and adjustments we can make to the class to improve moving forward.
HOMEWORK.
Indie Book Discussion: Next Class!
Due: Tuesday, November 4
Indie Book Projects: No More Dumpster Projects! Woot!
Due: Thursday, November 6
Complete: Design thinking process packet (don't wait until the end! That defeats the point! It becomes busy work!)
DT Packet: Look for the packet in the AP Lit 2014 OUT folder
A great day for constructive criticism and adjustments we can make to the class to improve moving forward.
HOMEWORK.
Indie Book Discussion: Next Class!
Due: Tuesday, November 4
Indie Book Projects: No More Dumpster Projects! Woot!
Due: Thursday, November 6
Complete: Design thinking process packet (don't wait until the end! That defeats the point! It becomes busy work!)
DT Packet: Look for the packet in the AP Lit 2014 OUT folder
Humanities: Speak, Music, Manliness, Empathy & Discussion
Today, we grapple with the final pages of Speak.
And we are going to revisit some of the issues we brought up the other day, after learning of what Andy Evans did to Melinda. Rather than just sit and talk, we are going to explore three different texts: a TED talk video and two songs.
Transcript here.
"Sic Transit Gloria" lyrics here.
"Face Down" lyrics here
Then we are going to use a discussion format called an Inside/Outside Circle. There are lots of versions of this. In ours it will work like this.
Half the class will sit in the middle and discuss the topic at hand, while the other half of the class sit around the outside with copies of the lyrics, the books, and the transcript of the TED talk in hand.
The outside circle listens and searches for evidence in the texts to back up what they are hearing in discussion.
When the circles switch, the outside circle must make connections to what the inside circle said and back it up with connections to the texts.
For Example: "I like what Randolph said about Melinda struggling with expressing herself. It reminded me of "Sic Transit Gloria" where it says, "He's holding back from telling her exactly what it really feels like."
The cycle switches back and forth until each group has been in both locations multiple times.
HOMEWORK.
PREPARE:
Graded Class Discussion on Monday. Inside/Outside Circle
Bring moments from Speak, the songs, the TED talk, that you want to discuss.
Questions you want answered.
Points you want to make.
Refresh. Catch Up.
Gear Up for Q2.
Choose your focus for our design thinking project: fidget or signage.
And we are going to revisit some of the issues we brought up the other day, after learning of what Andy Evans did to Melinda. Rather than just sit and talk, we are going to explore three different texts: a TED talk video and two songs.
Transcript here.
"Sic Transit Gloria" lyrics here.
"Face Down" lyrics here
Then we are going to use a discussion format called an Inside/Outside Circle. There are lots of versions of this. In ours it will work like this.
Half the class will sit in the middle and discuss the topic at hand, while the other half of the class sit around the outside with copies of the lyrics, the books, and the transcript of the TED talk in hand.
The outside circle listens and searches for evidence in the texts to back up what they are hearing in discussion.
When the circles switch, the outside circle must make connections to what the inside circle said and back it up with connections to the texts.
For Example: "I like what Randolph said about Melinda struggling with expressing herself. It reminded me of "Sic Transit Gloria" where it says, "He's holding back from telling her exactly what it really feels like."
The cycle switches back and forth until each group has been in both locations multiple times.
HOMEWORK.
PREPARE:
Graded Class Discussion on Monday. Inside/Outside Circle
Bring moments from Speak, the songs, the TED talk, that you want to discuss.
Questions you want answered.
Points you want to make.
Refresh. Catch Up.
Gear Up for Q2.
Choose your focus for our design thinking project: fidget or signage.
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