Final Project Update

FINALLY the project is done. Unfortunatley, I kind of had to change ideas at last minute to finish. It is not that I could not do my other idea. It is just that I had some footage on one of my friends personal camcorders, and after Thanksgiving about half of my footage was erased and I had to start from scratch. However, I am pretty happy with the way my project turned out. It is a little cheesy, but it definatley has its moments. Also, I have liked the song I use for a long time and I am happy that I was able to create something with it. Although I could not do my other idea, I still knew that I wanted my project to be some type of video, and I am satisfied with the way it turned out.

Project Rough Draft/ Progress

Unfortunatley I have no video to upload on to the blog. Not because I have nothing on film, but I was not in class on Thursday and I had no idea this was due. I do not also have much to show, but I have everything ready to go. I have plenty of people to interview, professors and students. I am still working on being able to talk to the parking patrol, but here are some questions I have lined up for most people to answer:

• are you a commuter?
• How long have you been commuting on to campus?
• Have you ever recieved a parking ticket, (if so) how much in total?
• (if so) have you ever been towed from campus
• Do you park in the same parking lots ever time?
• How early do you leave your house/apt to park?
• do you think there is a solution for the parking madness?
• Do you know all the rules concerning Clemson parking? which times you can park in green, why students can or cannot park in visitors spots, the times on the weekends you can park anywhere...etc.

If not drivers

• how do you get to campus?
• has your bike/motorcycle/moped ever been ticketed? towed?
• how much is a parking pass for non-car drivers?
• if you do not drive a car because you have no car, would you rather have a car and park in a busy lot or continue to use alternative ways to commute?

Professors:

• As a professor, is parking any easier for you than the students?
• Have you ever recieved a parking ticket?
• Are the penalties worse/ more lenient for teachers?
• is there more courtesy amoungst professors in parking lots or is it still an every man for themselves type mentality?
• As a professor, what do you think is the best way to commute to campus?
• Do you think most professors know all the rules of parking or do they just follow the same routine everyday?

Aside from interviewing random people around the university, I hope to be able to expose how parking tickets effect the budget. Unfortunatley, I am a terrible researcher, and I have been unsuccesful in finding this information thus far. But thankfully the library is full of eager librarians and assistants to help students like me. If all goes according to plan, the video should be just as informative to students as much as it shows the parking knowledge Clemson students have.

Downfall

In my opinion, Downfall did an excellent job visually portraying the story of WWII from the German point of view. The actor playing Adolf Hitler did an excellent job. From the beginning of the film, the director shows exactly how dynamic and powerful Hitler's presence was. Mor importantly, he is able to illustrate the line between genious and insanity that Hitler so mesmorizingly flirted with. As we begin the movie, the group of girls waiting for Hitler in the hollow, cold, and empty room right away show the power of Hitler. Each girl displayed a nervous emotion on their face, mixed with almost an overwhelming joy to actually meet the man. The downfall of the German army at the battle of Berlin mirrors Hitlers downfall as an individual. As his army begins to deteriorate, so does Hitler. Within the first few minutes of the movie, we know that this is taking place during the last hours of Hitlers life. However, it is not until Hitler begins to understand the he is losing the battle and his city, that he begins to fall apart. On several different occasions throughout the movie, we notice Hitler holds his hand behind his back, in an elegant and sophisticated sort of stance. However, the audience can see that his hand is violently shaking as if he is sick or perhaps nervous.

The camera and mise-en-scene of the movie do a lot to further illustrate the downfall of Hitler. The city of Berlin is in shambles. As the Russian army approaches, Hitler orders the army to destroy everything. We see documents and papers and enormous piles of equipment and supplies being burned and pillaged, simply so the Russians couls not get their hands on it. The camera angles and frames often help to illustrate the situation. As bombs were dropping and exploding, the camera would shake violently, as it would for a soldier first person. In one particular scene filmed in the bunkers below ground, the camera zooms in on a glass of water sitting on a desk, that shakes and the water ripples as the bombs overhead continue to drop.

The director also is able to very powerfully illustrate the horrible effects the war had on the civilians, especially the children. Multiple times throughout the movie we see civilians running helplessly for their lives while bombs and guns are being shot everywhere. In the scene with the young boy who refuses to leave the bunker he is firing rockets from, we see how desperate Hitler's army becomes. In the instance of the doctor who ran into the hospital to try and retrieve medicine, we see him running down halls empty of people, yet littered with anything imaginable in a hospital. We can hear his footsteps echo throughout the hospital, and when he comes across the room with the old and dying people, we immediatley see how helpless and powerless the civilians have become. Not only is Hitler doing nothing to supply them with help medicinally, but they are helplessly stuck in a hospital that is in the middle of a war zone.

PROJECT PROGRESS

Well, to be honest, there has not been much progress on my project thus far. Everything behind the scenes is ready, like people to interview and questions to ask, it is just a matter of getting the wheels in motion. On a good note, the filming aspect will not take as long as first anticipated. I have enough people ready to give interviews and share ideas and stories related to parking. It is just a matter of getting the camera and shooting.

Sunday Picture

This is the picture i took at 12 noon on sunday. Well, it is not exactly noon but close enough. Anyways, my bedroom is right next to the front door, so after opening the door i simply pointed, and clicked. The railings and colomns of my front porch are visible in the foreground, with my car parked in the middle, my front lawn, and a car driving past the light pole just as i clicked, that is why it is blurry. I think for just a random picture, it turned out pretty good.

Movie Titles

The first movie title I looked at was from the 1984 classic Terminator. After a brief scene showing the chaotic war against the machines in the year 2029 and a short description of what exactly how this came to be, the title scene begins. The entire title scene is battle music playing while the letters which spell Terminator cross across the screen backwards, so that the R-O-T-A-N come from left to right, and the T-E-R-M-I come from right to left. Initially, it is unclear what the letters are doing, or if the images on screen are even letters. However, by the end, the camera zooms out and The TERMINATOR is clearly written. Although the graphics are from 1984, you can tell it was the directors effort to make them look as high tech and futuristic as possible since the movie is suppose be about a war taking place in the future. Also, I feel that the letters are a similar representation of the movie because they are unclear to the viewer until the very end, which is similar to this movie. The answers to the audience's questions are not fully revealed until the end of the movie.

Diana George- Deflecting the Political

Everyday on the news America is updated on the war in Iraq, whether it is telling us we now control a certain city, or perhaps it is just a tally of the death count for that day. Either way, Americans are only exposed to a small fraction of the actual action happening in the war. If every American had total access to seeing the war every step of the way, do you feel like we would still be in this war? And if not, how long would we have lasted? If every American had that type of technology during the times of teh Vietnam War, do you believe a Desert Storm or War in Iraq would have even came to be?

Do we naturally sympathize with the execution of women, even if their crimes are equally as brutal as those of men? Is it easier to see a man be executed than a women?