Blogs Return & Formal Requirements 11/30/16 Kirk Brown

Well to start off the class the announcement was made that blogs are returning being the first in the alphabet i had the honor of making the first one of the marking period. We briefly went over it but the main thing that was important about the announcement is that blogs published after 10 pm will lose one point of the overall grade, and blogs published after midnight would lose two points from the over all grade. So the focus of today's class was to understand the formal requirements of a strong film review.

We then got this list:
1. Deliberately titled article
2. Credit relevant artists
3. Provide necessary context
4. Summarize plot
5. Evaluate content
6. Evaluate Meaning/Theme
7. Conclude
we only covered the first 3 in class

         1. Deliberately title article
we said a title should be an introduction to the tone/argument/ purpose of the review. Even though it is the first thing seen it should be the last thing you write, A bit ironic if i do say so myself.
An Example we had was

 ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Unleashes J.K. Rowling’s Magic on Old New York

A reference to the title fantastic beast because beasts are usually on leashes, clever word play.

Reference to the fantasy genre of books that J.K. Rowling is know to write such as harry potter and also fantastic beasts. It takes the word and applies it in different ways not just fantasy magic, Movie magic as well. This give the reader a clear view of the reviewers point of view on the specific film. 

Name dropping J.K Rowling gives fans of the Harry Potter series ,or even just people who are aware of the name, instant attention to the movie and review. As well as crediting the author herself for the original work.
                 Which leads to the the second on the list

          2. Credit relevant artists
this is who you want to credit.

Director, Actor(s) or actress(es), Screenwriters, Original authors, animators, musical producers/supervisors, etc.

There are two main ways to go about citing number one is just explicit;y saying it in a sentence of your review by talking about them and their role in the movie making process. The other being parenthetical when you state the the character or process and then credit them in parentheses such as Thor(Chris Hemsworth)

The third topic on the list was the last one that we went over for the day.

     3. Provide necessary context
 this one is background based such as information that is helpful to understand the the movie as a whole product such as if it is part of a series containing 2 or 3 or maybe even 8 movies (Fast and furious franchise)
this could also include  The circumstances of production like what happened among cast and crew, or current events around the movies release that have to do with the cast such as a passing of a cast member.

           

We used this article, this is Kada's pick for a well written movie review. Right away if you look at the picture two things draw attention the picture of Matt Damon and the title. first the title it isn't something simple like 'The Martian review'  that gives no context but this title gives a nice reference to the content of the plot of the movie. this is a good example of a strong title. And the picture catches the eye of the reader and the caption is an example of the second point. Its credits Matt Damon as the star of the movie. That was what we did today tomorrow we are going to discuss the ways our articles a accomplish the first 3 points.

Bridget van Voorst 11/8/16

Today in class we started off talking about our podcasts. After about ten minutes of discuss our assignment, podcast reflections. Some groups went out into the hall to listen while others stayed in the classroom. Our podcast reflections included listening to another groups podcast and analyzing how they did and what goals they completed. In addition to analyzing another group's podcast we had to listen and reflect on our own group's podcast. From the first round of podcasts discussing Ready Player One I believe that a lot of the class has improved their discussions skills. The reflections we preformed today helped solidify the fact that the class was improving over all.

With the time left Mr. Rivers allowed us to continue looking for our movies and books we have to read/watch for our personal podcast. The Ready Player One podcasts that we have to do are preparing us for the mini group podcasts.

Overall class was productive and offered more time to improve on our discussions skills. The rubric that was offered allowed each student to thoroughly evaluate their own podcast and further grasp the aspects they must improve on and the areas they have to cover in general. The time that was available to start planning was not much but was enough to lay out a possible foundation for movie and book selection for the next project. The addition of the rubric will also help with the min group project, especially having it before-hand.

11/7/16 Jack Simon

Today in class we made our podcasts with our groups about level 2 for Read Player One. Our job for homework or in last class to see what allusions were made in the book. The first thing we did in class when we got there was figure out what we were going to talk about in our podcasts. Like the first podcast, Mr. Rivers gave us a worksheet to help us figure out what we were going to talk about. The worksheet entailed of objectives or topics about the podcast, questions each person was going to ask, and things each individual person wanted to work on. The group could have as many objectives or topics as they wanted too. It was just there to help you figure out what your group was going to talk about. The questions that you and you table mates had to fill out, was to help you see what other people thought of level two and their different opinions. Also, another topic the groups talked about was the allusions made in the book affected the reader.

As the class came closer to the end, you and your group members was deciding and finishing what you guys were going to discuss. Whether it was different questions about a certain topic or about the overall chapters of level two. With about 15 minutes left in class you and your group would do a sound check to make sure your podcast was working. Some groups went out into the hallway, and one group went into the recording studio. The others stayed in the classroom.

Mr. Rivers would walk around and listen to your podcasts, while you and your fellow group members were talking. The podcasts lasted about 10 minutes and when your group was done, one of members would put the link to the podcast into the groups slide so others could listen to it. And thats about when class came to an end.

11/4-Amanda

Today in class we recapped the definition of allusion. An allusion alludes/refers to a text, film, short story, music, etc. it usually refers back to something historical. We then shifted to dominant audience vs. subsidiary audience.

The dominant audience is who the director/ author directs the attention to. The subsidiary audience is the sub audience. For example, in the movie Wall-E children are the dominant audience with parents being the subsidiary audience. 

Sole allusions for Wall-E would be the allusion to "Hello Dolly!" This reference shows the romance in Wall-E. 

We then switched gears to ready player one and how Wade refers to War Games within the first 2 chapters. After discussing allusions in ready player one we broke off into our groups and started to prepare for our second podcast on Monday for level 2 of Ready Player One. 

My group with Bridget, Jack, and Drew, we started to discuss sources that can allude to Ready Player 1. We started to talk about how Wade alludes to the movie Back to the Future because of the Delorean car that he drives in the OASIS. Alluding to the Delorean car shows that Wade is into the 80s and the time period is in the 80s.  

Wade alludes to the song "A million Miles Away" which was written in 1983 and he knows exactly who wrote it and when which also goes to show how much Wade is obsessed with the 80s. That was the last thought that we talked about before the bell rang. 

11/3 Joe Schwab

Today in Mr. Rivers class we began the period talking about our real group blogs and that we will be needing to have our pics in in six days. Then we went over the day's objective which was to analyze multi-faceted functions of allusions. Mr. Rivers then brought up a slide with illusion and Allusion on it so the class could discuss the difference. The class said illusion was something seen by the eyes like a trick and Mr. Rivers then brought up a video of Weird Al doing an optical illusion. Then the the class moved on to what an allusion was and we decided it was when in a text or film they refer to another text or film either directly or indirectly. After that the class talked about what allusions do for a literary text or film. Mr. Rivers then brought up a slide saying allusions can reward and define an audience. The class discussed this and we decided it does this by giving the audience satisfaction, by producing humor if it's a direct allusion. This was shown with a clip from Step Brothers when one of the brothers imitated something that happened in Good Will Hunting. Then Mr. Rivers showed us an example of an implicit allusion with a screenshot of Monsters Inc. where one monster was holding characters from other pixar movies. Then Mr. Rivers talked about how an allusion could give honor to another film or it could also be a parody to make fun of the thing it is alluding to. We finished up class talking about the audience and that different audiences could connect to and understand the allusions differently.

11/3/16 Lauren Mitchell

Today in class, we shifted gears from the previously made podcasts.  We started discussing the difference between an illusion and an allusion, and why allusions are so effective.  Mr. Rivers began by asking the class what an illusion is.  We responded by stating that an illusion is something perceived by our senses and is completely different than the allusion we learn about in english class.  An allusion is a reference to something in the past, whether it be historical or literary.  It was learned in class that allusions can be explicit or implicit.  Explicit, meaning the text/film states directly where the allusion came from, and implicit, meaning implied or suggested but does not state directly where it is from.  Then, Mr. Rivers threw a question at us that made us think some more.  What do allusions do?  We watched some clips of films that utilize allusions and then we were able to realize how they reward and define the audience.  It rewards the viewers by giving them a sense of satisfaction.  This can be done in different ways.  Through humor (makes the audience laugh), through honor (respects the past), and through parody (makes fun of things from the past).  Who the allusion is targeted towards and who should understand it is what define is meaning.  For example: in Wall-E, the children become the dominant audience and the parents become the subsidiary audience.  Lastly, at the end of class we wrapped it up by discussing how allusions are able to specify characterization.  They help give more details about characters, and allow the audience to understand information about these characters.  Class was very interesting today, and now we all understand why using allusions are a good idea.

11/2

Today's class was a different type of class today. Yesterday during class there was a podcast going on and a large group of people were not in attendance. So at the start of class we went over how the second part of podcast process was going to work. The second part was more of a reflection of the podcast it's self. In the second part of the podcast we are suppose to look at the 8 goals of what a podcast is suppose to do and to create a comment from that. These comments are to talk about how they can improve on their next podcast. These comments aren't suppose to be mean or hurt anyone in any way. These comments are to provide constructive criticism. These comments will also let groups know what they did well in the podcasts. Also another part of the second part of the podcasts, each group will listen to their own podcast and see what they think they can improve on the next time around. Groups should also remember that these podcasts should have questions that are evidence based. These questions should also relate to the film and book. So as the class got to work on the second part of the podcast it was time for me and the rest of the kids who missed the first part to start on that. The groups were mixed between tables since other class members were here yesterday. So as the groups got arranged we were gathering questions to say in the podcast. These questions were to be evidence based and they could also have the option to relate to both the film and book. In my groups podcast we had a very strong conversation about the relationship between Ready Player One and Wall-E. As Mr.Rivers said in the beginning of class it was very hard to end the podcast at around 10 minutes. There was so much to talk about in such a short period of time. I felt that our group did a great job of talking about what is going on in the book.

Brooke Rossiter 11/01/16

Yesterday in class, we completed our podcasts comparing Wall-E and Ready Player One. In the beginning of class we worked on our pre-podcast discussions. In our groups we came up with three topics we wanted to come across during our podcasts. We then brainstormed some discussion questions that we wanted to ask our group. I came up with the question "How does Auto from Wall-E and The Sixers from Ready Player One relate?" I thought this was a good question because it is a thought provoking question that will lead to an in depth discussion from my group. Mr. Rivers helped us create good questions that would increase the value of our podcasts. Once we completed this we turned our pre-podcast form in on google classroom. After this, we began to record our podcasts. Our podcasts had to be ten minutes long, which my group had no trouble reaching due to our in depth conversations between Wall-E and Ready Player One. After we finished recording our podcast, we then submitted the link on Google classroom. This class helped see the relationships shared between Wall-E and Ready Player One.