Conversing about The Conversations

After reading the first chapter of Michael Ondaatje's The Conversations, a series of interviews with expert film editor Walter Murch, my appreciation for the hours of work and compilation that go into the making of any film has definitely grown. 

It would have been a lot easier to follow the dialogue had I seen many of the movies they were talking about. Even so, I found the first chapter really interesting. 

It's amazing how many different people contribute to the whole film making process. I had never even considered the editor as a major component, which he or she clearly is. 

I also found it really interesting that women were largely the first editors in the film business. It makes sense, though, that editing would originally be considered a woman's task, similar to knitting and stitching. They cut and weave the film together in a delicate process. Its cool that woman had such an influential role so early on, even if they did not get proper recognition for it. 

Reading The Conversations made me eager to go out and rent a whole bunch of movies. It also made me eager to start testing out my film-making skills in the upcoming project. Hopefully my group and I are up to the task. 

Blog-Critique

I just looked at my blog for the first time from a critical perspective. Some things I definitely need to work on: 

editing out text that doesn't need to be there. I can be really wordy in places where I don't need to be. I should also work on the structure of some of my posts, which are just blobs of intimidating text on the page. 

citing/providing mentioned links: I mention videos and other websites in several of my posts. I need to remember to provide links, making it easy for readers to click and see exactly what I am talking about. 

I definitely need to add more pictures, its looking a little bare now1

I'm debating switching up the font and or font color, but am unsure. Any thoughts? 

Webby Winners

I spent a long time browsing the Webby award winners the other night. My favorite was definitely The Onion, a mock online magazine, which won the webby for humor: Home | The Onion - America's Finest News Source. I especially liked the "opinion" section, which has a bunch of blurbs, all ridiculous and hilarious. I definitely recommend browsing the site if you're looking for a laugh. 

I also really liked dreamgrove.org, which won the Webby for netart. The whole site is devoted to people's dreams, broken up 

into categories like "hope" and "anger", and a lot of others.

 The design of the site is really cool; each dream is represented by a colored dot on the screen, which you click to read.

 Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas 

is another cool site, which won the people's choice webby for netart. The site is a blank canvas which you drag your mouse across, splattering paint over. Click the mouse to change the color. Its easy to use and extremely entertaining.

 I've never stopped to appreciate websites in such a way before, coming from a critical standpoint. I am developing an appreciation for the work that goes into developing and designing such intricate websites. 

TED talks on creativity

Yesterday in class we watched two TED talks on creativity, one by Sir Ken Robinson,Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com and one by the writer Elizabeth Gilbert,Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on TED.com . I loved what both of them had to say about creativity and education, and how it is a shame that creativity is not more encouraged and developed in formal education when compared to other academic subjects.

I was especially interested in Gilbert's talk, as I hope to be a writer some day. I've haven't dealt with nearly the level of scrutiny she has had to, as a critically acclaimed writer. I connected to the anxiety she described, the raised eyebrows when I tell people that I am studying to become a writer. People automatically assume I want to be a teacher when I tell them I am an English major. It is incredibly infuriating, and its starting to give me the impression that the only reasonable path for an English major is teaching. Which, of course, is not true.

It goes along with what both Sir Ken and Gilbert discussed during their TED talks. Pursuing careers in the arts is widely viewed as risky. But shouldn't creativity be encouraged in student who has natural creative talent, and enjoys it?

How bleak is the Future of Communication?

This is a blog in response to the videos we watched in class this past week. I thought the first one, The Future of communication, was a lot harder to swallow than  EPIC 2015. 

The internet has become the most prominent source of sharing and finding information as newspapers and magazines become increasingly obsolete. I did not like the idea of Second Life and virtual identities becoming the new technilogical craze in the coming years, and I don't believe it will be. 

I can imagine some people taking advantage of the chance at a complete virtual identity, as Second Life is growing in popularity now but I like to believe that the majority of people will bypass the new technology in favor of human experience. I know I would. "The Future of Communication" offered to me a bleak view of the future of communication, whether or not that was the intention. I don't believe that newspaper, television and radio will become completely obsolete anytime soon. I know I prefer television, regular radio, and printed newspapers to the electronic alternative, and I'm sure there is a large population that agrees with me.

"Epic 2015" appealed more to me and seemed a lot more plausible at least for the near future. It had some of the same plausible ideas that "The Future of Communication" had, such as the prediction that Google and Amazon will merge with other companies on the web creating superpowers in the electronic communication industry. Google is already so expansive and easy to use, it is not hard to imagine it taking over other companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo. This video had the same idea as the first that printed news will eventually go out of use. The idea of the printed New York Times becoming an elite publication requiring a subscribtion seems very plausible, as it will continue to grow outdates with the growing use of online newspapers. 

The sharing of news and ideas between any two people anywhere is not only a dream of the future any longer, it is possible today. I am excited as well as a little apprehensive to see the future of technology and communication.

Online Identity

My online identity is a little more outspoken than my in personal identity. I've never had a blog before, and I've never had to have an identity besides the obvious one. It should be interesting, and I'm not sure exactly how it will turn out.