A2 Wonder and Imagination CC-Expository Paragraph

Fairy tales play a big role in our world for children still today. I say this because fairy tales teach kids morals and life lessons in a way that is enjoyable and entertaining for them, but this is not to say that the original stories should be used. I think that updated versions would be better suited since the originals go a bit too far and have outdated morals. these updates would ideally make the stories a little less dark and, more importantly, alter the morals to fit society today. This is not to say that the old stories should be abolished all together, but just that updated versions would be more appropriate for young children. At some point, i believe it is good to learn about the original tales so that we can see what the times may have been like when the story was written, how far things have come since then, and since the stories still have good morals, just that a few are more relevant for different times.

Section B7-before viewing-student responses-ELA A10

Response 1- I don’t really consider anyone my hero but I know about plenty of people who have positively and tremendously changed the world. Nelson Mandela was one of them. I know he was a friend to many and a hero to many more, and he will be missed. I am ashamed that the only time and reason I learned about him was because he died. He was one of the closest things to what I consider people’s hero.

I chose this comment over the others because they don’t consider anyone their hero, which is similar to me. I look up to many people, but I don’t think of anyone as a hero. I also like the response because it connects with those who knew Nelson Mandela well, and sees how they viewed him as a hero, knowing of all the great things that Mandela did in his life. Another way that I connect with this comment is how I learned about Mr. Mandela. While I beleive that I Heard about him before he died, I didn’t experience his many hardships and achievements, and would have liked to witness them while they were happening.

Response 2- My heroes are the people that go out of their way to help someone in need. Someone that doesn’t stop at an obstacle they get around it and keep going. Someone that always gets up if something knocks them down. Someone that won’t ever give up. They will keep fighting forever. I think that he was this kind of man. That he had a goal in mind and nothing was going to stop him until he got that goal accomplished. I feel if I was part of South Africa he would he my hero.

This comment is interesting to me because of the way that they say everything. This person doesn’t have any specific people that they would call a hero to them, but they do know what qualities a person must have to be called a hero, which is important if someone or something moves you later in life, so you can tell if they could be a hero or not. The commenter also emphasizes with those that were affected by Nelson Mandela’s actions, by saying that he fits the qualities of a hero to him, but he didn’t feel the impact of it. When the response states that “if I was part of South Africa” that they would have been more affected by his actions and would have felt his death. This comment shows that even some of the greatest heros can’t affect everyone, but can still be appreciated by others.

 

A5 CC – The Village

The film The Village has a very unique style, and some interesting techniques. This style includes things like avoiding what would usually be considered the main focus of the scene, like the monsters. This is done in a variety of different ways, by moving the camera slower than the motion, so that you don’t see much or any of the action. The film also uses a blur affect when the subject is on screen, leaving the viewer with a distorted view. Even when the creatures are shown on screen, they are not shown for very long, until the end of the movie. An example of this is the scene in the watch towner when a creature ran underneath the tree, we see only the view from the perch through the hatch, which has a very limited view. I found these techniques interesting at first, but at some points, the technique doesn’t work, because you don’t know what is happening, and could leave you confused rather than freighted.

What separates this film from the Slasher horror films is the message it leaves you with. Slasher films often will give you the indirect message that you should always be weary in bad situations, but The Village Choses to take a different approach, leaving the viewer with the message that some rules can and may need to be broken in certain situations. This is shown throughout the film when the elders are deciding if anyone should be allowed to leave their Civilization, and who is to go. When Mr. Walker goes behind the backs of the elders, he directly is breaking rules of the town to attempt to save Lucius.

If I was to rate this film, I think that I would put The Village higher than some of the other films in the image, but his earlier films were definitely better. I would place The Village higher because, while this isn’t my favourite film, I enjoyed the use of a new style of horror, even though it isn’t that scary, and the technique with the camera gets old. Compared to the other movies of the list, I would put The Sixth Sense first, Signs second, then The Village.

I think that the director tried a new type of film instead of straight blood and violence to make a name for himself. By making the film different, the film could gain attention from people who are looking for a larger story line, but still like horror. This may leave the movie with lower views, but many will enjoy this type of film. Years later, lots of people know the name M. Night Shyamalan. I think this attention is partly due to The Village, being one of the better films by the director and one of his earlier films.

Section A2 CC- Be the Set Director

I chose to describe how I would create a movie around the “Frankenstein” poem. I thought through how I would set up the set in terms of location, lighting, props, costumes, actors, make-up and sound effects/background music.

For my scene, I would start out with the setting. The poem would start off in a large grassy area with trees in the background. There would be a village with small houses with straw roofing, and not held up very well. The background would include the towers of stone castles in the distance far beyond the village.

Fire lit torches would light the scene, since it would be nighttime. The torches would be mounted in the village on posts and on houses, along with being carried by the villagers who are chasing after the monster. The light would put out a glow across the ground, and reflect off of the people.

Few props will be required in my version of the “Frankenstein” poem. The only major props would be the torches and pitchforks that the villagers are holding. The torches would be splintered and broken, probably leaving slivers in the hands of the villagers. The handles of the pitchforks would look very simalar to the broken torches, except that these hadles would be a lot skinnier. The end of the pitchforks would be make out of rusting metal, with dull points on the end of the forks.

Costumes would also be very limited, including the tattered, muddy clothing that the villagers wore. The clothes would be made of some sort of natural material like cotton. Frankenstein’s monster would need to be made a suit. The suit would have a green tinge to it, and be lined with stitches along the joints and around the neck. The suit would also need to be very bulky and large, larger than an average person would be, towering over the villagers.

The make up or actors in this scene would need to vary a lot from person to person. Most of the villagers would be large, with strong, hulking arms. The men would have, large, scruffy beards, as if the shaved very rarely. Most of the villagers would have big, heavy blacksmiths aprons, as if they had just finished or left the blacksmiths shop to chase away the monster. Frankenstein’s monster would have a kind look on his face, only searching for something or someone who would not reject him imitately.

For sound effects, they would be rather limited, but I would have the sound of ruffling grass from the mob of villagers chasing after the monster. The mob would also need a grumbling sound, and angry yelling. Frankenstein’s monster would be making grunting sounds, having troubles just from running from the mob. Finally, the scene would require a flickering sound from the torches all around.

Current events reflection

In the first few current events classes, I started by looking at North Korea, because I have been interested in that country for a while. I looked at what living in North Korea was like for the average citizen, finding that people who work with the military or government have more rights, like being able to travel outside of the country. They are only allowed to do this when they have a family back home, so they are able to hold them hostage if they try to escape when they are outside of the country. I also discovered that the leader, Kim Jong-un, see’s himself as a god, and teaches this in classrooms. I then turned my focus towards a possibility of World War III. This started with the United States having war ships and submarines near North Korea, followed by a warning being sent to the U.S that they have powerful wepons that they are not afraid to use. This was confirmed with reported weapons testing outside of Pyongyang, the nations capital.

In later classes, I began working on something closer to home. I looked at the carbon tax in Canada, and why the sask party doesn’t want to have a carbon tax in Saskatchewan. This was also when I first posted to twitter about what I was researching. What I found was that the province want to wait for our economy to improve, like how jobs in the oil patch are sparse, and the Canadian dollar is poor. A few of my classmates and I agree with this, especially with the buget cuts effecting Saskatchewan right now. Most other provinces think that the car bin tax is a good thing right now, and a few have already put one in place. I still believe that Canada is not one of the first places to have a carbon tax, because we have a considerably smaller carbon footprint than other countries. I think that renewable energy or resources are important, but we should start by enforcing clean energy, not punishing non renewable resources.

03-understanding the past

there seems to be many examples in history of fake history being published. There is also examples of fake news currently. This all seems very strange that people will go so far out of their way, just to try and fool people. The problem comes when the fake news is only in one country, and when you talk to someone grime another country, this could start a problem. One thing that comes to mind today is North Korea, and how everyone there believes something that is incorrect. I think we can still trust news in the future, but only need to be aware what people can do.