Starmites

This weekend I went to see my little brother in his high school musical. He is a senior this year and had one of the main roles, the bad guy. This is one of the wierdest plays i have ever seen. The singing was amazing and my brother as well as all of the students in the play did awesome. The story line is hard to understand. Its kind of a major mix of peter pan, the wizard of oz, lord of the rings, the goonies, and jumugi all rolled into one. CRAZY! my brother played a lizard (think gollum in lord of the rings), that actually turns out to be the villian. Despite all the wierdness i decided that plays (musicals and broadway mostly) are one of my most favorite forms of entertainment. Theater has the awesome ability to allow the audience to interact with the characters. the play is 3 demensional. Characters can jump off the stage, run around in the audience and feel much more real than characters on the screen. Errors happen much more often because there is no cutting and editing. The actors in the play have to be incredibly efficiant in their abilities. They have to be able to make corrections on the spot. This requires long hours of practice, and the "takes" are rediculous. Movie making does take alot of skill and effort, but i give mad props to all of those individuals that have ever been in a play or musical, especially high school kids. All in all i love musicals and always will.

here is a video of my brother. Its kinda crooked but pretty cool...he is kinda weird at first but its fun to watch!!!

FRIENDS

Television is a major part of my every day life. It is amazing how many Semiotic domains evolve out of television shows. I have made friends on the basis of liking them the same shows. Two of my friends are guys and i became close with them because of the television show FRIENDS. we are all obsessed with it and quiz each other on FRIENDS trivia. We text each other when our favorite episodes are on. I have every season and every episode in my dorm room and they also have a very extensive collection. It is funny that FRIENDS is such a huge part of our culture. It ran for ten years, and as a result each of the characters have developed a place in our world. I cannot watch a movie with Jennifer Aniston or David Schwimmer and not think of Ross and Rachel. Board games like "Scene it' developed friends versions of the popular show. When the show ended, advertisers payed millions to show their commercial during the last episode, and peices of the set were auctioned off for thousands of dollars. Hows does a show like this impact our society so much? I do not have a complete answer for this. The show was very unrealistic in its portrayal of relationships, sex, and even friendships at some times. I mean nobody in the show was EVER at work...and when they were it wasn't for long. They mostly lounged around and did nothing. Their lifestyle was so entising and every girl wished she had Rachel's hair and best friends like monica and pheobe. The show had a huge impact on everyone that watched it, and it seemed effortless to the viewers, but in reality the producers spent hours developing the show into what it was so that people would enjoy it. Its a crazy process but i totally applaud the work of the producers of the show for writing and creating something that held my attention for 10 years and continues to consume my life.

Print Media

I was raised in a household that put great emphasis on the value of reading books. My aunt is a first grade teacher and taught me to read before i was in kindergarten. Growing up my parents did not allow me to watch much television or movies because they were strict on what they wanted me to view. My main form of entertainment was books. I had a small library in my room. When i asked for toys i was turned down, but any book that i asked for my aunt and mother would definately buy them for me. I grew to adore books and made it a rule to read a book before i saw the movie that it was based off of. On vacation i read a book a day. I love everything from "To Kill a Mockingbird" to "Harry Potter." Because of my ubrining i think i have a high respect for the value of print media. Reading, especially at a young age, helps children develop better writing skills. It expands their vocabulary and helps them be better thinkers, talkers, and readers. Reading gives us the ability to exercise our imagination in ways that movies don't always allow us to do. I feel as though it is true that the process of reading "makes the common person more articulate, contextual, and capable of constructing sophisticated & elaborate arguements."

World of TV Show

We have learned that movies, television, and music or all media sets us up in a way in which the artist wants us to view them. They create a world in which they expect us to see their way, and by doing so help us to view the media in a particular way. If the world was even slightly different than it would change the entire dynamics of the viewing experience. We talked also about how some shows like to blur the lines of their worlds. Spin offs to television shows bring in characters to other shows and that character still represents their original character. I saw this in shows such as friends when Phoebe's identical twin sister shows up on the set as her self. Her twin Ursula was on a tv show called "Mad about you." I remember thinking about it and thinking it was so interesting that one character could share a world with a character from a completely different show. This week, creators of the shows Greys Anatomy Private Practice decided to also blur those lines of the world. Addison, a character that used to be a doctor on Greys Anatomy, now has a spin off. She works in a "private practice" in Los Angeles. When her brother becomes ill she now has to call on her old friends (from her old tv show Greys Anatomy) to help save him. Both shows run for 1 hour time slots on tv. During the whole 2 hours i was completely unsure if i was watching Greys anatomy or Private Practice. All of the characters from both shows knew each other in a past life before both shows. They fit together so seamlessly that it was impossible to know for sure what show I was watching. In two weeks the characters will go back to their original shows but until then, it is amazing to watch how to worlds can collide so effortlessly and we all accept this, only because we have been trained to understand the worlds in which these characters live.

Merchants of Cool

I only got to see half of the video in class because my dumb alarm clock decided not to go off this morning. However, the video was so interesting and so true to life. During the time of Dawson's Creek, 7th Heaven, and all of the other crazy shows, i was a a tween trying to figure out who i was and where i belonged in this world. TV shoes in the 90's had a tremendous impact on my peers and I. Spice girls drove me to wear platformish shoes and crazy scrunchies. Movies like clueless not only entertained my friends and I, but gave us a reason to model our behaviors around the same girls portrayed in these movies and shows. I began talking, walking, and dressing like these characters. Their interests became my interests which may or may not be good. I remember gossiping was the cool thing to do, and anyone with out the latest clothes, shoes, or accessories just wasn't cool. For these reasons my parents decided not to allow me to watch many shows or movies that might influence me in these ways. They did not like the way the characters acted or talked to each other. Many of them were talking about sex, and other things that a young girl should not be worried about yet. My friends made fun of me for not being allowed to watch "cool" media. Even though some may have considered me sheltered, i see now how beneficial my parents' decision was for my life. Young children, especially girls, are incredibly influenced by media. Celebrity females set a standard for how people should look and act. Young girls are so influenced that they will go to extreme lengths to be like these celebrities. The media has such a huge influence. Even though those involved in creating the media may be just trying to mirror their audiences, alot of times their younger audiences mirror the media negetively. I think it is very important for parents to monitor what their children watch in the media.

Diegetics

I recently watched the movie "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" for my world cinema class. The story itself was incredibly interesting, but i understood and loved it more because of the way it was filmed. The story was about a magazine editor that suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed and mute. He communicated using his only working eye and did so by blinking it. Most of the film was filmed through his eyes, literally. The story begins as he is waking up from his coma. His eyes blink slowly open and the vision is blurry. Everyone in his sight are close up, directly in his face. Because he cannot move his head it is imperative that they stay within his line of veiw if they want his attention or wish to talk to him. The way that this is filmed gives you amazing perspective on what the character "Bauby" is going through. You the viewer are limited to what he can see and hear. Bauby's brain is still completely functioning. While the story is being layed out through his eyes, the viewer can also hear what he is thinking. He expresses his frustrations through his thoughts in a way in which he cannot do so to outsiders and those taking care of him. The world of the film is carefully set up so the veiwer becomes emotionally attached to Bauby and what he is going through throughout the film. most of the shots are closed shots, leaving the viewer wanting to know more, but restricted because Bauby is restricted in that way. In some ways the director lets the view in on Bauby's life through memories and his imagination. These shots are open shots and often do not include close ups on any one in Bauby's life. By doing this the viewer understands that this is not reality by a memory. The director truely created Bauby's world in a way that i could make it my own, it was a true work of art.