Reflection Essay

Reflection Essay

I’ve always loved english so much, it has been one of my all-time favorite classes. I just have always easily understood it and it comes easy to me, unlike other subjects like math. When I picked this course I was really excited and throughout the class I really enjoyed it and it was different than any other english class I have taken. When we got told we had to make a documentary, not going to lie I was kind of mad, but it turned out that I actually really liked it. I had a lot of fun making the video with my group and learning about our topic. My biggest struggle during this project was probably making sure we had enough good footage to complete the requirements. Finding enough people to interview, and definitely finding times and ways to get out and go shoot, especially where they trained was kind of far away. Thankfully, we made it work and go through it! 

The aspect of the documentary that makes me most proud was just how the video played out together, and how to footage looked when it was all put together. I thought that it looked better than I expected. It looked smooth and put together, and I really liked how the music fitted right in with what was happening on the screen. Something that I might have changed in the documentary, would be to have gotten different footage of the horses and the riders. I would of loved to go to an actual meet or competition and see how that is, but unfortunately we could not and we had to work with what we had.

During this project I was personally responsible for the citations and emailing (contacting each other). Citing meant I had to cite who we talked to, things like that. Group work is probably one of the most stressful things, you have to make sure everyone is doing their work and that you are not working alone. To promote a healthy group atmosphere I tried to just stay calm during situations that could be frustrating, and I tried to be positive and say that we could do this and make the documentary great. I wish that I could of been more apart of the editing process, a thought we all chipped in, it would of been cool to see how to do it, and all the different things we could of done with the edits. I do feel like I contributed a fair amount to this project!

This course definitely helped me on my critical thinking skills, this course made me realize that you can look more deeply into things. A reading in the class that stuck out to me would be the naked celebrity leaks because there were so many different opinions on it and it really made you think. The project did not really make me think about the campus differently besides the fact that I did not know how many different clubs there were. Something that we did in class that I was dreading was the public speaking. I have always hated it, but the speech that I gave made me more confident because I actually did really good. It made me realize to not be afraid to do it. I really enjoyed learning about different styles of communication function, I would rather be doing what we did than writing essays.

I thought that your style was helpful because it was different and I do not think we had that before and it really made you think and work. I would not have wanted to sit and listen to lectures, your way made it easy and fun to come to class, I actually wanted to come to this class. Everything that was done I really liked and would not have changed it. Something I would do to make the class better and to change one thing about the course would obviously be the participation grade because I hate talking in front of people like I said, and I hated raising me hand and most of the time I would forget and that really affected me. Besides that, I really loved this class and would recommend it to anyone. 

Music Video

I chose to do the music video of Waves by Mr. Probz, Robun Schulz remix. I picked this because one, I love this song, and the other I've never seen the music video so I thought it would be cool to choose this. The music video is basically him stuck on an island and it starts flashing back to the vacation he was just on with his girlfriend, and this vacation lead him to be stuck on the island. The longest shot in the video was 7 seconds long. That particular shot was him walking and he looks over and he "sees" his girlfriend walking along side of him, but once he passes a tree she isn't really there and its all in his imagination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MH9qWemtPo

Born into Coal

I thought that Born into Coal was definitely more of a human interest documentary more than a standard narrative. I think it fits human interest more because it was following these families around and they were telling their stories about what it is like to have their husbands/dads as coal miners. They stressed their concerns and emotions about the coal mining industries and how it affects them. I think it is human interest too because it makes people want to listen more because it has emotion and these families experiences. One shot that caught my mind that I liked was when they first introduced Arianna's dad. I liked how he was just standing there in front of the mine, and then it zoomed in close on his face. His face was dirty, and then it showed his hands and they were also dirty with dirt under his fingernails. I chose this shot specifically because it just showed how hard this job could be, he looked exhausted and it made you think what him and his family must go through. This shot works for the bigger context of the film because you see his emotion on his face, the exhaustion and hard work that goes into this job and it is trying to raise awareness and I think it did so. I think this is definitely a shot my group and I could re-create. We could show how much hard work is actually put into eventing and how much hard work goes into being the rider too.

Group Contract

Shelby: (Citation, and email). Shelby will write down all sources from interviews to if things were taken from the internet to be later written down as cited. She will also be communicating with the group members over email if we have to upload something from all to see, or just another way of getting in touch.

Kaelyn: (Storyboard, and interviewer (scripting)). Kaelyn will make sure our documentary goes smoothly by having a storyboard saying what's going to come next, and she will also be in charge of setting up whats going to be said in the interviews so that goes smoothly as well.

Najwa: (Interview, and group coordinator). Najwa will be the one who actually speaks to the person being interviewed, and she will also be in charge of getting the group together and talking about our project.

Ben: (Filming, editing, and file storage). Ben will be in charge of the filming like the camera, because he has access to all that. He will also be in charge of the editing process like getting us all to meet up and discuss what edits fit best for our documentary, and lastly, he will be doing things that have to do with file storage because he's good at making sure we don't get our files lost and he has a flash drive etc.

Death Penalty

The death penalty is such a huge contraversial topic where everyone has a different opinion on. When I think about the death penalty, I still don't know how I feel because thinking about it is sad, but then sometimes you think that they deserved it considering what they did. If I was in their shoes knowing that I would die later, I would be so shaken up and scared. In the project No Seconds, I liked how there was a contrast between what we see and what we know happened to them. I thought it was almost creepy that when you looked at the food being served it looked good and happy, but you know that it is going to someone who is about to be executed. I also thought it added something a little more with the fact that what they did to be put on death row was added in the text. I think Henry Hargreaves point was to show this delicious looking food and put us in their position, and then knowing that they will die after this. For the Last Meals Project, I liked how the mug shot of the person was in the background, and how it was blurred because it made it more personal. But, also them being blurred made it not the first thing you looked at, you looked at the crumpled paper with the information on it, and then what they had to eat. Overall, I liked No Seconds better because the meaning to me stood out more, it was sinister, and it made me think about it more.

Speeches

First things first, I hate listening to myself talk in a video or anything like that. I think I sound so weird, but I didn't think that this one was all that bad. I was surprised that my voice wasn't shaking because usually when I give speeches I get so nervous to the point where I have to stop and take a breathe because I forgot to breath. I was also surprised that I moved around, because usually I'm awkward and wouldn't move. I try to give myself pep talks that no one cares that you're talking, and no one knows what is true and what isn't. If you act like you know it, then your audience will believe so too. I think what I did badly, was that I didn't scan people and look them in the eyes for a couple of seconds, I felt that I looked more towards the ceiling. My presentation went better than I thought and I thought it went better than I expected, and I was happy that I didn't shake, stand still, and I didn't think I played with my hair too much either. Doing this speech and seeing how well it went for me personally, makes me feel better about giving speeches in the future. Now that I know I can do it and make it work, makes me less afraid or nervous to give one.

The Rise of the NBA Nerd

In the article "The Rise of the NBA Nerd", by Wesley Morris he talks about a lot of different things that made it a little harder to catch onto the major point that Morris may have been trying to get across. I personally think that Morris' main point was to say that things have drastically changed over the years. Dressing nice was once looked at as being nerdy and was an open invitation to being bullied, as he gave an example of Carlton Banks from the "Fresh Prince of Bell-Air". Carlton was constantly picked on by Will because he was "such a nerd" because he was smart and they way he dressed. But, like Wesley stated, Will actually learned a lot from Carlton. I think Wesley was saying that dressing nice especially for African Americans was looked at funny since people thought of them as not having money, and it was almost like a culture shock when Carlton played this part. He's trying to tell us that the black culture is so stereotyped and we see what we've heard it to be, so it abnormal for us to see a tie incorporated into the wardrobe. These NBA players are showing that they are successful and they can dress successful and professional too. Everyone looks at them as these basketball players and only see them in their uniform, but they can be professional too and look sophisticated. What we wear can have a huge affect on society in our lives. Even for me, I've noticed it. On the first day of college, people talked about if you dressed up for class you would get looked at weird. What we wear tells a lot about who we are or what we may be feeling that day. We have accusations about people's clothes all the time. I am a firm believer that what we wear can have an argument, but I don't think that it's right always. Someone who wears nicer things isn't necessarily always rich and someone who does not dress up doesn't mean they are poor or any less educated as someone who does.