my thoughts on the mini-series ALICE

*so i basically copied this straight from my tumblr and changed it to be more...appropriate...for school. this isn't really a film review or anything, it's just sort of a...reflection on the series, which i absolutely loved! (right, reflections...ehk)*

Alice is a 2-part miniseries from Syfy. it’s based on the stories of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass except, well, it’s different.

in Alice, Alice is 23, brunette and a black belt in karate (or something similar. lol, i’m too dumb to tell the difference.) the Hatter is not mad and he’s kind of Alice’s guide to Wonderland and Alice’s love interest (well, one of them). Wonderland is a science fictional city that is sort of built upwards, and instead of a palace, they have a casino.

one of the most amazing things about Alice, apart from the chemistry between Alice and Hatter, is the “humanization” of all the characters. i love how they made the white rabbit an agent for the Queen of Hearts, with two white ponytails to symbolize his white rabbit ears. i love how they made the walrus an actual person (who looks a lot like a walrus, by the way), and i find it waaaay G that they made the March Hare an assassin who ended up with a rabbit head because they couldn’t revive him with his actual head. is that genius or what?

but the main reason i totally adored Alice is ALICE AND HATTER. honestly, i’ve never aaaaaawed over this couple as much as i aaaaaaawed over Alice and Hatter. from the first scene where they met, i totally like…MELTED. honestly. it’s like…instant chemistry, like Peter and Claire all over again, only, better (i can’t believe i’m saying this), because, well, they’re not related. and because they don’t have a 10 year age difference. i basically aaaawed over them for, well, throughout the whole 3 hours+ of the 2 episodes. even when they’re not in the scene i’m watching. it's like adding a romantic part to a traditional kid story (which is actually really smart of the writers, because everyone knows that a movie isn't a movie without romance.) honestly, even if you aren’t into science fiction and/or alice in wonderland, the sheer goodness of Alice/Hatter is definitely a good enough reason for you to check Alice out! :)

i hope i didn’t spoil the miniseries for you. it’s amazing! i honestly honestly LOVE it! it’s only 2 episodes, so if you haven’t checked it out, GO NOW. it’s an amazingly beautiful beautiful version of Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, with a sort of modern/science fiction twist to it. and the scenery and the effects and the buildings and the costumes and everything is just amazing! and Alice/Hatter is like, the cutest, most amazing TV couple EVER. they definitely replace Peter/Claire as the top couple on my list. (and Peter/Claire has been virtually unbeatable for 2 years, so that really takes something.)

PHOTOS, PHOTOS, PHOTOS--December 4th, 2009

No reflections yet, I promise I'll do them during Christmas break, I wrote down notes on everything I did and stuff, so I think I can reflect properly. Haha, I wish, I can't even reflect properly even if I did it right afterward. I got such a bad grade for my reflections (FOUR), but I think my other grades are quite okay, though I could work harder and try to work as a team more (because Ms Wong said we didn't work as a group enough, even though it's not exactly me and Vikki's fault because we did send them emails, but they either ignored us or didn't show up to the sessions...eek)
ANYWAY, photos! I took some photos of us on december 4th. Lea and Nadia weren't here, so Vikki and I were filming the documentary and doing research for sounds and stuff.

After we finished doing the VLog part of the documentary. :)

Setting up the camera :D
VIKKI HUI! thinking of ideas and doing research for the horsey sounds :) she looks like a news anchor. lol
Vikki Hui! hard at work! I was sitting on a chair when i took this, it looks kinda artistic :D
Such an ARTISTIC shot of Vikki :D :D :D

and then some old photos :)

we had to use a "vintage" camera that has to be connected to a power source, because all the cameras have been borrowed...lol it says "primary math" on it. :P

Log sheet for the first day we filmed :), I actually keep a log, except I kinda gave up a bit because Nadia and Lea don't seem to get that I need to log...

Anyway, the first part of the "Fu Guai Moon" finale is on right now and I'm watching it because dude, YATMING + RENE FTW. So I'll post all my reflections and stuff later :) Please like the photos, at least you won't have to see my ugly face :D

X.
i mean
Y.

QUOTE: I'M THROUGH ACCEPTING LIMITS, CUZ SOMEONE SAYS THEIR SO. SOMETHINGS I CANNOT CHANGE, UNTIL I TRY, I'LL NEVER KNOW. -DEFYING GRAVITY

MeYou Nate (random)

Okay, this is a video I made quite a while ago, dedicated to my LOVERS (JK. My best friends.) VIKKI and Nate (the guy in Logan's first video). Random...



Ooh! Look it fits!! Remember to feed the fish =====>
:D
@thefakeleiahyk

FINAL CUT

LONG VERSION:

On Location "Reflection"

Dear reader,
I'm sorry I did not do any reflections. I am kind of slacking off right now, and I get like that after like the first month of school, sadly yes. BUT, the good news is, we spent time during midterm FIL-MING! Aaaand, our friend Nate (Nathan Woo, the guy in Logan's video) took some pictures of us. He's like our voluntary assistant, he like carried the tripod and stuff. Really, he's really nice :D

JOBS (for filming during mid term)
Producer, Director, Camera Person: Yvonne Kwong (ME!)
SOUND PERSON: Vikki Hui
Assistant Camera: Nathan Woo (and ME, who did the logging and brought the camera home)
Assistant Director: Vikki Hui, Nathan Woo

Sooooo, we have some On Location photos, please don't laugh because my underpants can be seen in some photos :)

We went to Hung Hom and we were trying to get the cars from the other side on film, I think we got some, but it was kind of hard to see the screen because the light makes a glare, so I had to do this:*UNDERPANTS ALERT*

That's Nate's hoodie, and yes, we're pretty disorganized and the camera bag and the log sheet are on the floor (it almost got blown away one time, so did the tripod bag)...my arms are fat.

FILMING IN DISNEYLAND (this is actually day 1, and that was day 3, but whatever :D YES, i was wearing the same shirt I wore on the day when the pictures above ^ were taken...yup, same outfit on both days. I'm really religious about these things...not really)

Vikki and me setting up in the middle of the place outside Disneyland. Me and the tripod,the most annoying piece of equipment to carry when going on public transportation, though I think the boom pole beats it because it doesn't even have a bag. Luckily I have Nate to help me carry it most of the time during filming :D

I look like I'm playing the tripod like it's a cello or a something, don't you think??

Vikki Hui, my awesome lov-ah, and sound person setting up the shotgun mic for capturing sound from our surroundings. Don't you just LOVE her shirt? :D

Okay, that's all. I just love filming! It's like the best part of this whole course, the filming, I just LOVE doing it. Really I do. The one thing I like about this course better than I like filming is the responsibility. Since most of what we do is out of class, we have to be responsible for our own schedules, our equipment and our own group members and stuff.

As the producer, I'm supposed to organize everything beforehand so filming would run smoothly, that already give me a lot of responsiblity. I'm not usually a responsible person (as you can probably tell), but since most of our group members are either not free or unavailable, Vikki and I were like the only people who did stuff during midterm (and honestly, we did like 5 times more than other people). I actually kind of like it (actually, i REALLY like it), sending out emails, mass texts, making plans, "on the spot" shotlists, even carrying a bunch of stuff onto the MTR. No really, I like it. I also like it that I got to do most of the things I wanted to do and got to make most of the ideas Vikki and I came up with. I don't usually get to do this because most of the time other people are in charge and they kind of just ignore me. But now that Vikki and I are doing most of the things by ourselves (and with Nate), I got to get my ideas out there, because Vikki and I share our ideas and develop them and do them and she listens to my ideas because we're like BEST FRIENDS and I LOVE HER.

Okay, I think that's all, considering that it's 2AM and all.

OVER AND OUT
X, i mean, Y.

(P.S. I would like to thank Nathan Woo for helping us so much while we were filming even though he didn't have to because dude, he's not even in our school. He helped me and Vikki a lot and showed up at more filming sessions than our actual group members did. He helped me adjust some of my camera angles and stuff to make them look better, at least in his opinion, and set up for us the stuff for us, which saved a lot of time and enables us to slack off. Nate's a film student in his school and he's a vidder like me and he's awesome because he helps me carry the tripod!!! That's one thing I love most about him--cuz he carried my tripod :D)

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: "CAN RECORD SOUND?!" --Thomson Loong

MafiaReturns.com - The Action
is Yours. The Reaction is Not.

just to prove that i am here but not doing what i'm supposed to do

HELLO
sorry about no reflection for a LONG LONG time
i did write SOME of it.
but not the full thing yet.
so OOPS SORRY
no reflections yet.
sorry to disappoint.
now now.
i'm just gonna post two of my new videos and then LEAVE.
please don't watch them, okay?
thank you.

EFFY STONEM: BOSTON



PETER/CLAIRE: FOUND YOU



okay. over and out people!...person...no one. okay. just. BYE.
i have FILM RELATED stuff to do! :D
x

REFLECTION (September 4th, 2009)

"Today" (today with the quotes because it's NOT today) Vikki, Katrina and I went to film for our interview "task". We borrowed a tripod and a camera (no microphone because apparently we're not supposed to use it, but then it kind of caused some problems, I'll get to that later) and we went around the school looking for people to film.
Since this was our first filming task we were all kind of confused and we didn't know what type of shots we were supposed to use, so Vikki and I went to look for THOMSON LOONG (the NUMBER ONE FILM NERD) and asked him but *GASP* HE DOESN'T KNOW. Luckily we bumped into Alex, who is in our group, on our way up and he told us that we were supposed to use the long shot, medium shot and close up.
I was originally supposed to be interviewer but when I started testing the camera I kind of got hooked and I switched roles with Katrina so I became Camera Operator and she was interviewer. Vikki was the sound person/assistant camera operator (because she had the earphones).
We decided to film in the library since there are a lot of people in the library and there's bound to be someone who is willing to be interviewed, and also Lizzy is in the library and she promised Katrina that she will be interviewed.
SO ANYWAY. THAT'S WHEN THE PROBLEMS START COMING COMING....COMING!!
At first we wanted to film in the bags area, with Liz and Katrina standing near the counter and me at the shelf (so I could get the long shot, and NO I'm not very skilled). But then we sort of realized that we were BLOCKING A BUNCH OF PEOPLE and the people all thought we were from the CIS Friday Morning News (NO!!!) and started asking us stuff like "what's on the news?" "is this Friday Morning News?" "Can I be on the news?". So we moved away because that area was too cramped anyway. And then Katrina has a brilliant idea, WE GO FILM FROM THE STAIRS! So Lizzy and Katrina stood at the bottom of the top part of the stairs while me and Vikki stand on top and film down. We ended up taking up the whole top part of the stairs and no one could go up or down and a bunch of people were crowding around us waiting to go down (i don't know why they all suddenly want to go down, I mean usually not that many people go down anyway). I, being the awesomely nice camera person, let them down the stairs between shots and closed off the area when we started, BUT WHEN WE STARTED AGAIN KATRINA AND LIZZY BOTH MOVED so it won't have good continuity. PROBLEM. The thing is I don't know how to switch shots without cutting in between shots. Last year in film Ms Riddell said that in interviews they do the scene a few times, each filming from a different angle with a different type of shot, but we don't have the time so we had to pause! And I MESSED UP, you'll see why when you see what I made, but Lizzy did the interview very good and provided us with detailed answers.
The second person we interviewed was a Year 8 kid who was really interested in Global Issues (I know he is because I interviewed him last year for FMN and he said he liked the News as his favorite TV show). We filmed from the shelves at the back with me standing at the "front" of the shelves and him standing at the back. He did the interview quite well and understood the instructions that we gave him, but I MESSED UP because I said "go" a few times before they actually started so I think the microphone picked that up (PROBLEM with using the built in microphone), but we could always edit it out.
We had some problems looking for the last person, because it's about the Blue Sky Campaigne and almost NO ONE has heard of it. We tried asking the librarians, but they were all busy so in the end we asked Kenneth, who hasn't heard of the Campaigne, but I thought it would be good to have someone who doesn't know about it answer the question because that would probably show that the general public doesn't know about the Campaigne and that it should have better publicity. THE PROBLEM with this part was that Kenneth's friends were standing next to us and they were talking and Vikki and I could hear them from our earphones (the other people were all really smart and stopped talking when we filmed, but NO-OH...) so we had to "shush" them a couple of times before we started.
Overall, I think it was quite a fun experience and I learned quite a lot about the actual techniques of using a camera when we are given some shots that we HAVE to do. Last year we just had to find movement and it didn't matter how we filmed it at all; and in Friday Morning News, everyone just used Medium Closeups or Medium Shots and sometime Long Shots and edited in the closeups and everything when we did our editing. I also learned that MAKING SACRIFICES IS A PART OF FILMMAKING, because we had to SKIP LUNCH and stuff. Next time, hopefully we could be more organized and try not to block other people when we film, because I think we caused quite an inconvenience to those people. I think we should also USE MICROPHONES, but the chords aren't that long so it might be hard to do the long shot. ANYWAY, I have to SLEEP...

OVER AND OUT :)

QUOTE OF THE DAY: When life gives you lemons, make apple juice.

REAL reflection (September 1st, 2009)

OKAY, today I've decided to TRY to write a REAL reflection. Really, I try, but it's a really hard thing to do, write all formal and stuff. Especially if it's a blog, because usually for blogs you can use all sorts of slang and stuff.

ANYWAY, today, Ms Wong wasn't here (*GASP*) and Ms Rosati came and taught us about film stuff. She put us into groups and I'm in the same group as VIKKI HUI, Katrina, Alex and Logan. We learned how to log in to the Mac system and went over our 5 questions and picked the "best" five to ask the people. I picked the one where I asked them to compare our air quality with the other places they have been to. Some of my groupmates and Ms Rosati all said that people may not have traveled and stuff, but really, Hong Kong people ALL travel. They must have at least been to Macau or something and YES there is a difference. Most of the people you see on the street in, say, Causeway Bay would have been to at least ONE place outside of Hong Kong. It's probably like Taiwan or something but it's still SOMEWHERE, you know? So I don't think that would be a problem. You know what would be REALLY interesting though? We could as a homeless person, or a beggar. Because they spend like all day outside on the streets, so they would probably be affected more than us, and it would be really interesting to see what they think. :)
After we did all those things we learned about doing camera work and we got to see different shots on the screen while Ms Rosati used the handheld camera to film the shots. I think that's a really good way to teach us camera angles because last year we only looked at the PHOTOS and it's sort of different looking at photos and looking at someone actually DOING the shot makes it easier to understand how to do it and what effect it has on FILM. And then we looked at the ending of Bonnie and Clyde. I've never watched the movie, though I have heard of the name somewhere. When I got home I searched the name up and found out that Bonnie and Clyde were actually real people who robbed banks in the 1930s, so I probably heard their names in some teenage book I read where the main character (usually a girl one) always refers to old things and compares her friends or people she knows. I actually kind of want to watch the movie now, even though it is quite old (it was made in 1967), but the clip we saw, the ending, looked really interesting and the editing and camera techniques are very good. I also have a feeling that the style of the film is different from the films we usually watch today and will be worth analyzing since lately I have been wanting to watch something that is different from the "mainstream movies".
We are supposed to draw a storyboard for part of the clip we watched. I had a little bit of experience with storyboarding because Ms Riddell told us to do a storyboard for our first assessment last year, but it ended up more like an artistic comic thing, but still...So ANYWAY, I'm going to work hard to try to fit all the different shots into SIX boxes and it's quite HARD because I'm really bad at "condensing" things. But then, I can still TRY. :)

The most interesting part of today's lesson (at least it's SUPPOSED to be the most interesting part) was the part where we got "jobs" and tried working with the camera. I was assistant camera operator, which means I don't do much apart from stand next to the camera and assist Logan, who was the camera operator. We were supposed to have a go at making a shot of something and Alex, who was our director, chose this horribly boring shot of the Mac computer screen and it turned out looking kind of weird. But anyway, I had fun being called a professional-sounding name AND I learned that the person who does lighting with the reflectors is called the Gaffer. :)

I don't think Ms Rosati likes me very much because I'm such a bad student and I talk a lot and I have really different opinions (compared to a lot of other people), but I think she's really PROFESSIONAL and stuff so it's really good to have her teach us and it's good that we could hear someone's professional opinion on things.

Vikki, Katrina and I are supposed to go and ask 3 people our 5 questions during the weekends, I don't really want to do it during the weekends and stuff because I don't have time and Katrina can't do it so we decided to do it on Friday. It'll be kind of hard finding people in school to interview, I know because I was with the Friday Morning News last year and we had a HORRIBLE time finding interviewees, really. But we'll try hard and I really look forward to doing our first real filming "task". :)

QUOTE OF THE DAY: PAIN IS PART OF LEARNING WHO YOU ARE.

OVER AND OUT. :)

ABOUT the grammar of the film/shot/screen grammar/whatever...

I am not really sure what the grammar of film is, but from what I've read, it's the things that filmmakers usually do and have sort of became "rules", even though they're not. "Expert practitioners" break them to create effect, just like "expert" writers keep breaking the rules of the English grammar to create their own style.
According to the Wikipedia article, a frame is like a letter; a shot is like a word; a scene is like a sentence and a sequence is a paragraph. But the other thing I read started talking about camera angles and stuff, so this is where I got kind of confused. So I think it's like a mixture of both? Like it's the camera angles and the thing about the shots and the camera angles is kind of like the...vocabulary? I have no idea and now I feel so DUMB because I don't know. BUT part of learning is not knowing something and ASKING, so I will be an INQUIRER and start ASKING questions and probably read more about it when I have time (and believe me, I don't have time right now.)

OVER AND OUT. for now.

SOURCES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_grammar , http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/gramtv.html

FIVE QUESTIONS about air quality...

1. Compared to other places that you have been to, do you feel that Hong Kong's air quality is good or bad? Why?
2. Have you ever tried to contribute to making Hong Kong's air cleaner? If yes, how? (um...bad phrasing)
   
3. Have you or anyone you know ever had health issues that are related to air pollution? If yes, what is it?
   
4. In all the places that you have been to, which place do you think has the best air (quality)? Why?
5. How do you think Hong Kong could learn from the place you've mentioned in terms of making the air better?

Great...I am not only very unoriginal, I am also not sure whether this is what we should do...=.="

REFLECTION (August 31st, 2009)

YO. I KNOW YOU WANT TO READ THIS, OKAY, SO HERE GOES...
Today in film class the Clean Air Network came to "brief" us on our project (okay, I stole the "brief" part from Vikki). The guy gave us a lot of statistics and how like 3 people die every day from air problems. I guess we should all be scared and feel threatened by the air problems that could KILL US and OTHER PEOPLE, but honestly I don't really care if people die. Just as long as Vikki doesn't die before I die, and I really don't mind dying. At least I can contribute to the statistics, right? :)
Anyway, so we listened to this guy talk and he made us feel like these "corporate soldiers" (I'm sorry I don't think that's the right term, but it kind of just POPPED into my head and it sounds nice, but anyway), we, or I, felt all "professional" and "official" and stuff, like we were in a real meeting, I think it's the shape of the room, really. And I'm actually kind of excited to make the things, because a) it makes me feel professional, and I like that feeling, b) I get to fight for something I don't (really) believe in, actually I do believe in air pollution, but I don't really think that the main reason for reducing air pollution is to save the people, because we have too many people in Hong Kong anyway (oh my Gawd, I'm going to FAIL this course because I said that, aren't I?). ANYWAY, that is a skill that all debaters need to learn, so I should learn it through FUN stuff, like making a film.
Also, this lady from Focus On Film came to teach us about making films and she showed us 2 clips (okay, 3, but we'll get to the 3rd one later). I think the soundtrack of the first one was a kind of annoying but I'm glad that it's there because the whole video would be kind of awkward if it wasn't, really. Of course, they should choose better music, but if you don't want "disruptive" music, I think that music's okay for a video like that. (Being a music video person, I pick the music first and then time the clips to fit the music, sort of like the James Bond one, but not as good).

The second clip was a trailer for the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. It's basically your typical action movie trailer, and from what I've noticed, they have a pattern. It's basically like this (of course there are some exceptions, but from the ones I've watched, and I'm not a pro or anything so for those of you who are pros, please feel free to correct me, still...): the trailer starts off with either some really dark, mysterious clip (which this trailer used) after the production signs and stuff come on, or it starts on some brighter, rather normal-looking clip then something INTENSE comes up and THEN the production signs come on. Either way, there's always someone doing a voice over, whether it's a narrator or a character doing some kind of off screen talking and then the camera showing the guy talking. Anyway, there are always these fast fade-out-to-black scenes that keep fading out even if it's virtually the same scene and stuff. But somehow it has this effect on people and people go like *GASP!* when they watch it. Okay, so after the quiet part with a lot of audio comes out, there's always this bit with this really intense action music that sounds really LOUD and the people edit in all the scenes where the guys punch each other and shoot at each other or use their superpowers on each other and stuff and make the movie seem all INTENSE (even though in most cases action movies tend to be rather SLOW most of the time when there's no real action). They put in all those scenes from flashbacks and the really intense parts at the start of the film and make it seem like it's the "peak point" of the film and stuff even though when you watch the movie you'll find out that it's actually just a flashback that lasts for like 2 seconds or something. But people like that too. And then there's this quiet part where someone says something and then BOOM the action music comes back on and we all have heart attacks and we keep watching it. THE GENIUS OF THE TRAILER EDITING PEOPLE. Honestly, in my opinion, they're the real geniuses, NOT the directors, NOT the cinematographers, NOT the actors, the Trailer people (whoever they are, okay, maybe the directors directed them to do it so they're genii too, whatever). Because the real success behind the film is how many people WATCH it, NOT how many awards it gets (even though it really does count), NOT how good the camera is, NOT how good the plot is, it's how many people WATCH it. I mean who cares if the critiques all say it sucks when the people all buy tickets to watch it, AND the trailer guys MAKE the people WANT to watch it. Okay, I see that I have gotten off topic again. I'm sorry. BACK TO THE REFLECTION. I think the trailer's really good because I really want to watch the movie after I watched the trailer and it makes me want to watch it RIGHT NOW, which is good because if people all want to watch it RIGHT NOW the box office would be flooded on the first day and BAM it hits the top of the Box Office Hit List, whatever it's called.
After that we watched a clip from this movie, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which I know and wanted to watch but never watched because of some reason. The clip we watched had a lot of cinematic techniques with the cool lenses and really good shots and stuff. There was this one shot that I liked a lot, like when Brad Pitt as Jesse James was standing in front of the train and the steam of the train comes out all at once and sort of covers him in this really magician-like way, I kind of felt like he was about to DISAPPEAR, you know? Like in those really creepy movies that aren't even sci-fi where the main characters have these peak-human abilities to like disappear really fast or something. But we never got to see whether he disappeared or not because they cut into another shot. So now I really want to watch the movie. :)
I kind of forgot what I was about to write after I wrote all that really useless stuff about those action movie trailers...but I'm really looking forward to starting the film project because I really like feeling all professional and stuff. I think it's good that we can say our own opinions because I have a lot of opinions that are different from others and other people also have different opinions so it's a good chance for us all to be OPEN MINDED (referring to the IB Learner Profile). So anyway, that's all for now.
Over and Out.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: IMAGINATION CAN'T RESIST THE LAZINESS...from Happiness and the Fish

REFLECTION (August 28th, 2009)

"Today" was the first day of the Year 10 Film course so we didn't really do much except go through all the basic stuff and review some of the we learned (or should have learned) before. We also went over the rules for the Multimedia Lab. I have only worked in the Multimedia lab once (for a week) when I took this film editing course with Mr. Chiang two summers ago and I liked using the Macs because Macs are cool. I know a little about using Macs because my friend has a Mac and I helped him with some of his video editing problems on Final Cut Express before so I'm really excited about learning more about all those Mac stuff.

Anyway, we mostly just sat there and listened to Ms Wong talk about the basic things about film. I knew most of the things (such as the diagetic sound thing, I actually knew it but I just didn't say it in case I was wrong. Mr Ubly, my english teacher last year, told us when we were analysing films) because I took film last year and even though Ms Riddell wasn't here for a few weeks I still remembered most of the things. But there are still a lot of things that I don't know, such as the 180 degree rule, which is this rule that tells you to only film from one side of an "imaginary line" because if the camera is on the other side of the line the people will look like they are in reversed places. I never really thought of that before, but I know that a lot of films have continuity problems. In one film I watched, called Dead Like Me, there was a scene where two girls were talking and at first one girl's hair is in front of her covering her front part and then it cut into the other girl's face and when it got back to the first girl the hair was behind her shoulders and the third time it was in front of her again. I think editors in movies should really pay more attention to the little details when they edit the scenes together so it would look better because the audience always notices things like that and they concentrate on the little "goof" instead of what's going on next. However, I think it's okay to break the 180 degree rule if you include the part where the camera moves from one side of the line to another instead of just editing two clips together because that would actually make a really cool camera technique in a way.

So far I have enjoyed this course (but my "opinion" might change when we get to the hard stuff haha) but Ms Wong was kind of speaking really softly and my ears are all messed up from too much iPod so I can't really hear but I think the Powerpoint is really useful because I can watch the screen to get the general idea of stuff when I can't hear clearly. I think I should also find a better seat because the Macs are sort of blocking my view of the board and Ms Wong writes on the board a lot. ANYWAY, I have to work HARDER to get a nice looking 6 or 7 in film because I have BIG PLANS for myself. Not really. :)

QUOTE OF THE DAY: HIGH SCHOOL NEVER ENDS

now the serious stuff: IB LEARNER PROFILE

As a Year 10 film student, I can be...

AN INQUIRER by looking up interesting things and/or things I don't understand about films I watched at school or at home or just films in general. I should also ask questions about things that are related to film that I find interesting so I could learn more.

KNOWLEDGEABLE by looking up the history and facts behind the events in films inspired by real people/events and also by learning more about the jobs in "occupational" films (or normal films), such as cop movies, doctor shows...etc. I can also read about the places films are set in before or after I watch them.

A THINKER by paying attention to things in real life and how they could fit into film or the things we are learning. I can also pay attention to different camera angles and techniques and soundtrack inside films when I watch them (whether it's for school or not) and think about how they affect the way the film looks and what effects they have.

A COMMUNICATOR by actively sharing my ideas with the teacher, my group members or other people in the class (and maybe even my parents...) and maybe, uh, making a video about my ideas?

PRINCIPLED by being responsible for what I do inside the multimedia lab and during class time and obeying all the rules. I also need to hand in all my assignments in time and do my part properly when I'm doing group work.

OPEN-MINDED by being open to ideas presented by other people in the class and accepting views and opinions that are different from my own. I should also be open to watching films that I don't usually watch and using techniques and software that I am not used to. When doing work in groups, I should be okay with doing things that I might not want to do (such as using an idea that I don't like) if it benefits the group.

CARING by putting the group before myself when doing group activities and thinking about how to be environmentally friendly when making props and other things for our projects. Um...

RISK-TAKERS by trying things that are out of my comfort zone when making films, such as crazy camera angles and really fast editing or maybe even being in the scene instead of behind.

BALANCED by balancing between having fun and learning when I am in class (because film is a fun subject) and doing our projects. I should also do a bit of everything (like being cameraman, editing, acting) when we are doing our create stuff instead of just focusing on one thing.

REFLECTIVE by thinking about what we did during class after class and writing thoughtful reflections and try to learn more about myself and what I'm good/bad at through the things we do in class. I should also accept other people's feedback and try to improve myself.

read at your own risk:INTRODUCTION (because all blogs need one)

THIS IS ENTIRELY IRRELEVANT TO THE YEAR 10 FILM COURSE. SO IF YOU'RE MS WONG, YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ IT. HOWEVER, IF YOU'RE NATHAN WOO, YOU HAVE TO READ IT.)

FIRSTLY, the name. Happiness and the Fish is a song by my favorite band Our Lady Peace and I'm seriously loving that song right now so for now my blog's called Happiness and the Fish.

SECONDLY, you should all watch Temptations (yes that means YOU too!). Temptations is a fan-made music video series made with clips from TV shows such as Heroes, Gossip Girl, Skins and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and also the Spiderman movies. It's created by one of my favorite Youtube vidders (video editors), luvinbigbrother, and it's amazing so you should all watch it!



That's the short promo for Temptations. Since Miss Wong says we should post stuff on our blogs, okay RELEVANT stuff, but this is pretty relevant to me, so anyway, I'm going to post it here. I have the long promo on my iPod but I can't find it on Youtube. So there.

THIRDLY, I can't spell, so please try not to pick on my spelling.

FOURTH, a little thing you should know about me. I'm a vidder on Youtube, which means a person who edits copyrighted stuff and risk getting arrested while they're bored. Yes, I do that, so TRY not to arrest me, okay? Thank you. :) My username's midnyte2811, in case you're interested in knowing. I'm the proud editor of THIS opening sequence:



Yes, now you get how bad I am. Try not to lower my grade because of this. Because it's not relevant.

Now, SECOND TO LASTLY, we should all watch Nate's videos. His username is absolutelygossipboi.

Aaaaand, I know you're really desperate for me to finish, so LASTLY, I am going to work SO HARD now, really. So I'm going to start doing real things instead of Youtube stuff. But you've got to admit, Youtube is awesome, and useful.

SO THERE...
P.S. I turn 14 and 9 months today. Yes, I'm very old.