"The Conversations" Walter Murch

When reading the first section of "The Conversations" book, many new interesting facts about "movie editing" were revealed. Walter Murch was given the idea by a friend to do a remake on the movie Acropolis, which he also took part in when the movie first came out in the 70's. If taken into consideration, this proposal would certainly have to consist of improving the graphics of the film, along with unique sound effects that would make it engaging for all who sees it. Seeing that this remake movie was originally made years ago, one would think it would probably be a lot easier because of the fact that the plot of the movie would still be the same from before, but that's not the case. From editing a film comes great responsibility; a lot of critical thinking is required in order so that the film turns out with better quality, and this is exactly what Walter Murch incorporated into the film. Our standard audience usually watches movies from an audience perspective, and they perhaps rarely never think about the concept of how that movie became a part of the media. Just by reading the troubles, and hardwork that editors have to put up with has truly opened my eyes, and has made me more appreciative of all movies. I now will take into mind these insights of "film editing" whenever I watch a movie. To sum it up, I'll end this blog with a quote that I found appealing to my eyes, stated in the very beginning of this book in the "Introduction" section, "It is hard for any person to believe that only one man or woman makes a film," (Michael Ondaatje, The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film).

My Blog Critique

Use of Media: My blogs do not yet contain any images, but I do provide a link in one of my blogs that I think relates to the media. I also have not yet taken the time to post a video. One of my blogs had to do with websites that I checked out from time to time that actually included blogs, and I definitely left a link for others to go check it out. It's about celebrity makeovers. I did mention the movie "Matrix" in one of my blogs, but I didn't put a link for others to check out details of the video.

Scan Ability: I believe that some of my blogs are intimidating chunks that are engaging, but I also feel as though that some of my other blogs are skimmable. As far as whether my entries are portioned out into clear defined areas, I think I could certainly make an improvement in that area.

Design: Well in my opinion, I do like the design of my site, but to be honest, I plan on changing it just because I saw another person's site who had the same exact design. My site is light green with polka-dots. The text, font and size are definitely readable, well at least to me they are. I have no type of noise on my site so therefore that's an issue that I dont have to worry about for now. I don't think my entries contain needless words. I try to make my tag lines descriptive and engaging, but I guess there's no shame in making the titles more eye catching. I actually do find my blogs to be clear and reasonable, I've gotten several comments from other students that also agreed on my views about certain things. I think that my site is organized well, I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm a pro because I'm new to all this blogging stuff, but I'm not bad, either. My blogs are absolutely appropriate for everyone to read.

Guys.. In my recent blog, I made a mistake, instead of Friday I meant Wed.

Cool Websites!!!

On Friday our class watched as our professor went through some really cool, interesting, entertaining websites that were just amazing, well really I thought the last one was amazing lol. Anyway, the last site had the most significance to me because apparently it connected with its viewer right from the beginning. While your viewing the website, each page that you come across is like a different stage in your life that you've already encountered or are hoping to experience. For example, the site asked us about what kind of engine would we prefer in our car, and we had to choose between the three animals such as a cheetah, horse, and deer look alike, and of course everyone agreed to the cheetah engine (Super Fast!!!). Aside from what kind of engine we wanted, each of the animals that we had to choose from looked almost exactly as the ones in real life, and on top of that, the noises and movements that they each made were identical as the ones in reality as well. In general, the creators of this website did more than a fantastic job on it, it seems well updated with all the cool sounds, styles, and movement techniques that it has. I would recommend it to anyone to watch, after all, if you want to know what car suits you the best, take their individual personality test and get your results today. Good Luck!!!

Creativity!

Ok, so yesterday in my communications class, we watched two clips of the Ted Talk that dealt with the topic of creativity. The first clip was presented with the host , Sir Ken, who I actually find very entertaining and interesting at the same time. His talk about creativity went into details about how when we are first introduced to the world as newborn babies, we are automatically instilled with creativity. It is through the educational activities in our childhood, and adolescence that our parents put us in that take that drive away from being creative, and from children being children. I completely understand this because parents do at times tend to want to keep their children busy with school work which I can understand because they want a good life for their kids, but at the same time, you don't want to bore the children to death. Mixing some of their activities with arts, music and dance could actually improve their studies even more because it could in some way relate. The other Ted Talk was with the host Elizabeth Gilbert, though her talk about creativity was a bit different. She spoke about how when she was younger that she had always wanted to be a writer, but that many people pressured her about her work, and basically gave her no hope. With that fear that they had instilled in her, she was skeptical about her writing, however she didn't give up, and eventually she fulfilled her dreams about being a writer. I also agree with the message that she was trying to convey because in reality people do try to form as obstacles in your way, and tell you what you can or can't do. The truth is that only you know what you are capable of doing, and if dancing, music, art, writing, acting...is what truly defines you, then go for it all the way. "Dreams are real, and all you have to do is just believe in.." (Quote by Ashanti)

What a Surprise!!!

So apparently, I didn't know what the main purpose of blogs were for. As far as trying to figure out what it actually was, really did me no good because I only had made one attempt, and did not quite understand what exactly a blog was. Anyway, I just recently found out that a website that I tend to go on every now and then is actually considered a blog. It's basically about the celebrity makeovers, and it's website which I just found after having a hard time is: http://makeovers.ivillage.com/new-look/0,,9lk1rtvx,00.html. I find this site quite interesting and entertaining because of the comparisons of the many different looks that celebrities had from back in the day to the present. Some made drastic changes in their appearance, you probably would not recognize them, well no, actually I'm lying because who wouldn't recognize a celebrity visiting their town, but anyway, the point is that they just look different from when they first stepped into stardom. Lol Definitely check it out if you're curious, you might even see one of your own favorite celebrities in either a cool or wicked look. Enjoy!!!

Video Clips Review..

As far as the video clips that we viewed in class, I just think that it is pretty scary and insane all at once. Basically, everything that we live by or mainly use will be runned by a machine or a "robot". This kind of brings me back to to the hit movie, the "Matrix," where every single individual was controlled by a machine, and the people failed to notice what the reality was. What really grasped my attention in the video clips was that as each year went by even to the point where it reached to the future, more and new technology was being created and installed throughout the universe. Every electronic device was literally upgraded to the highest degree. Items such as the "Internet TV" had been invented for the future which is awkward because these are things that I never knew would be transformed in a whole new way. This just gets to show us the potential of technology, and how far it can go. In general, it has made me to wonder if the future will really be that way, such as companies buying other companies for the sake of the "Second Life," which is not considered real, but then again, it is considered real in its own way. I just pray that whatever is to come for the future, may it be something positive.

My first blog ever..

Just testing it.. :)