5x5 Video Project

1. The first clip is of my dog standing on our stairs.
2. The second clip is of him eating a treat.
3. The third clip is of him running up the stairs from outside.
4. The fourth clip is of him walking through our house.
5. The last clip is of him licking his paw while sitting on the couch.

I used my phone to take the video and used YouTube video editor to edit it. It took me awhile to figure out how to edit it because I am very technologically inept. I think my video turned out fine for it being 25 seconds long. I think for our next independent video project it shouldn't be so unstructured. We were told to go out and film anything we wanted so it was a little bit of a joke. Also I feel with all our other homework, doing an independent video project is not something we are going to fully invest ourselves in and they won't be very good.

Movie Trailer

V for Vendetta

I watched the R-rated trailer V for Vendetta, directed by James McTeigue in 2005. In the movie, a masked character who goes by the name V, saves a girl (Natalie Portman) from the secret police and takes her on as an ally to help destroy the totalitarian government. I'm sure it is much better than I am explaining it, seeing as I've never actually watched the movie.

Even if I haven't seen the movie, the trailer really makes me want to see it. It is exemplary in the fact that it draws the audience in and makes them want to watch it. At the same time it also reveals just enough to explain some of the move, but not enough to give the plot away. While I'm sure that the director made the movie fantastic, I can't comment on how his directing is because I've only seen the trailer. The trailer only shows clips of the movie and can't accurately say how the movie is going to turn out.

What I did see, however, really drew me in. To make our dystopian trailers good we need to try and draw the audience in. We need to try and explain the premise of the of our movies without spoiling our movie idea. This might be hard seeing as we don't have the equipment to make our trailers professional looking. Paying a lot of attention to the pre-production steps is going to be very important in making our trailers good.

Personalized Learning

Is personalized learning a good option?

The article Preparing Students to Learn Without us, by Will Richardson, discusses the idea of personalized learning for students. While it explained what personalized learning was, it was very long winded about it. According to the article, students learn better when they are passionate about what they are doing. For example, if a kid likes basketball a lot and they learn math based on different things they do in basketball, that kid is more likely to retain the information. The article also gives information about schools that are already using the idea of personalized learning in their classrooms. Many schools allow students to make plans of what they want to learn and they get guidelines of when to get assignments done. Then they go off and use their guidelines to learn about what the school wants them to, but in a way the students want to learn.

Technology is a very important factor in the idea of personalized learning. Many students do personalized learning through blogging, and that is similar to what we are doing. I think that we can use our blogs for personalized learning about things we are doing in CAP. We can research the thing we are interested in and then write a blog post about what we learn. I feel, however, that personalized learning would apply more when doing projects. If we have to use them for personalized learning, then I am interested in the dystopian societies we are learning about in English. I want to learn more about how authors came up with ideas for their societies. I can research these things and then post about it on my blog.

Movie Review

Batman: The Dark Knight rises, Movie Review

I read a movie review by Todd McCarthy about Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, on The Hollywood Reporter online. The tone of the review is formal, but not overly so. The review touches on the literary, cinematic and dramatic aspects of the film.The literary aspects are the plot, storyline, theme, conflict and etc. The cinematic aspects are the cinematography, lighting and sound, editing, and special effects of the film. The dramatic aspects is the acting, settings, and costumes.

When we write our own movie reviews, I think we should include an image from the film, as the Hollywood Reporter included for the Batman review. Also, we should mention each of the three aspects of film in our reviews. We should include of summary of the plot, and the theme of the movie. Our reviews shouldn't be too long, however, and don't need to go into extreme detail. I think it's most important that we watch movies we enjoy and try to have fun while writing the reviews.

About me.

(The skaters in the picture above are my friends. I train with them.)

Hey there, I'm Alia. I am 15 years old and I come from Maryland. Ice dancing is my favorite sport and I've been doing that since I was 5 years old. This is my new blog for my film-making class in school and I haven't ever blogged before.


My favorite part of the film-making process is either cinematography or acting. The news show we did last year is one of my favorite projects I've ever done. I was the news anchor in this project and it was really fun. I also enjoyed being one of the cinematographers for this project.

Ways I think we can use our blogs:

• A way to show other people what our change projects are and what we are doing for them.
• A way to continue learning outside of school.
• A way to express how we feel about certain aspects of what we are learning.

I can't wait to start blogging!