TheTreatment: Prom Fantasy

A teenage girl named Angelina is sleeping in her bed and the sun's rays shine on her. She wakes up and gets out of bed slowly. It's yet another day that she has to get through.She quickly changes into her school clothes and gets ready for school in the bathroom. She goes downstairs to get some breakfast and tell her foster parents about her soccer game after school. As she grabs a piece of toast and begins to speak to her foster parents, she is interrupted by her three foster sisters, who seek their foster parents' attention as well. The three sisters' voices overlap one another as they try to ask the foster parents about their plans afterschool. One of the sisters wants a ride to the mall and the other two want money to go the the movie theater after school. Annoyance...that is what her foster sisters are. Angelina is apalled by them and begins to yell at her sisters to stop talking and let her continue her conversation with their parents. The chatter stop and Angelina proceeds to tell her parents that she is playing in a soccer game after school and that she would love it if they come. Her parents look at each other and then to her sisters. Then they look at Angelina with a sad look and anwers a flat out no. Angelina's heart drops. It's not the first time her parents have missed a game, it happens everytime. But of course they have the time to take their perfect angels to the mall and the movies. She always comes last in this family. Hmmph.. family... Angelina looks at her family in dissapointment and fury and runs out the front door. She has had it with the world. Angelina continues running for five blocks and slows to a halt. She thinks to herself that she is worthless and unlovable. She has been unloved and neglected by everyone, even her birth parents and foster family. She wipes away her tears in her eyes and continues to walk to school. Not looking at the road, she bumps into her classmate, Nate. Dear Lord, the way his eyes glittered in the sunlight just melted her. He makes a look of concern and asked Angelina if she was ok. She smiled and says that she is fine, as long as he can walk to school with her. But to her dissapointment, he has already promised to drive his girlfriend to school. Angelina glances by his car and his girlfriend in the car glares at her with intensity. Nate's words pelted her heart and after a stunned silence she finds the strength to smile and walk past him. Yet another failure.

The last school bell rings and Angelina walks onto the field for her soccer game. As she tightens her shoelaces, Angelina looks up at the crowd, hoping that her parents changed their minds. She scans the crowd and finds not her parents, but Nate. He waves and gives her two thumbs up. She quickly turn around, wondering if he is refering to his girlfriend who is also on the team. Luckily there is no one behind her and she looks up at Nate and smiles. The whistle blows and the girls start playing the game. To an extented period of time the game goes in Angelina's favor, her team is definitely going to win she believes. Soon enough though, an aggressive girl on the other team approaches the goal where Angelina is standing and kicks the ball towards the goal. The ball hits Angelina's head with full force and she falls backwards onto the grass.

Angelina loses conciousness and enters a dream state, She imagines herself in a ball gown, dancing with Nate on prom night. The music is soft and romantic and Angelina feels the happiest she has ever been. Nate pulls her in closer and gives her a kiss on the cheek. She blushes and smiles at Nate. Their eyes lock and Angelina gets lost in Nates eyes and perfect smile. A teacher goes up on stage and speaks into a microphone that he is about to announce the prom king and queen. He opens the envelope of results and the students only hear drum roll, which transitions into Angelina's heart beating faster and faster. The sound of her heart beat stops and she hears the teacher announce her name. She is completely astonished. She won. Nate's name is announced next and he quickly grabs Angelina's hand and pulls her on stage. Tears fall out of her eyes. She receives a bouqet of roses and presses them to her nose. A tiara is placed on her head to complete her image. She looks to her left, Nate is wearing his crown and smiling at the crowd. Angelina is speechless and blows kisses to her classmates. Nate calls her name multiple times to get her attention. The dream slowly fades and Nate's voice is heard clearly, calling Angelina's name. Angelina, still lying on the grass, opens her eyes. Nate helps her up and walks her to the bench. She asks him what happened and he explained how his girlfriend, or should he say ex girlfriend kicked the ball at her in fury and broke up with him for spending more time talking to Angelina than actually spending time with her. He lets out a sigh but reassures her that there was never anything special between him and his ex girlfriend and that she is a much better person to be around with.

The week following the soccer incident, Angelina opens her PE locker and finds a wrapped box inside. Her eyes light up and she unwraps it with anticipation. Inside the box is a single rose and a note asking her to prom. As Angelina reads the last line of the note, she realizes it was written by Nate. She drops the note and stares at the rose for a moment. She finally picks it up and smells it sweet fragrance. Now she has something worth living for...

Amelie Textual Analysis

Using the textual analysis questions from class, write a blog post that identifies 4 stylistic devices the Director of Amelie uses in the production of his film. For each device, you must include:

1. A "screen shot" as evidence for each of the stylistic devices.

2. A written description of the device and how it functions in the film.

3. An interpretation of what you feel is the director's intent and effect of the device on the film as a whole.

1. Magical Realism:

a) In this shot, young Amelie is taking photographs of clouds in the sky, but a closer look reveals that a cloud is actually in the shape of a bunny. Obviously, animal shaped clouds do not really exist in reality, but in Amelie's imagination in does. This stylistic device is called magical realism in which the director twists reality into the way he imagines it to create unimaginable things that awe the audiences.

b) The director chooses to use magical realism in the film because he wants to let us into the mind of Amelie. He wants to show his audiences that Amelie is no ordinary child. Because she was deprived from a normal childhood and never had the opportunity to interact with people her own age, she often relied on her imagination for amusement. Through magical realism, the director is able to effectively show the uniqueness and creative mindset of Amelie.

2. Sound/music:

a) In this scene, Amelie finally finds the courage to approach the man of her dreams. Her walk to Nino is complimented by a mixture of soft, yet edgy accordion and piano music. Unfortunately, when a tram carrying boxes and supplies hinders Amelie from continuing walking, she is overwhelmed with doubt and fear. As she turns around, there is a long accordion note, following with a loud, echoing bang.

b) The director's intent with the music in this scene is to create a suspenseful feeling as Amelie approaches Nino. As the music plays, the audiences get more excited and anxious as we believe that destined lovers will finally unite. Unfortunately, Amelie's fear of rejection and taking chances gets the best of her and she decides to turn around. After the tram speeds off, clearing Amelie's path, she turns back around, but only to find Nino gone. Thus, the loud, echoing bang in the end illustrates the devastation that Amelie feels because she has lost yet another chance to tell Nino her true feelings about him.

3. Subtext:

a) In this painting that the glass man painted, he explains to Amelie how he always had trouble painting the girl drinking from a glass cup. Amelie and the glass man discuss whether it is because of the girl's strange nature that makes her so difficult to paint perfectly. To the glass man, she is an outsider who does not belong in her society. The girl feels a void in her life and doesn't feel the same happiness as everyone else in the painting. She doesn't interact with the other characters in the painting, but just keeps to herself. But, to the glass man's dismay, the girl in the painting actually represents Amelie herself. The artwork hides a whole other meaning and content underneath than just a mixture of oils and colors. The painting reveals Amelie's true character and life story.

b) The director's intent with using subtext is that he wants to have Amelie do some self evaluation. By looking at a fictional character that represents her, Amelie will soon realize that before she attempts to help others with their lives, she needs to stop and sort out her own messy life. The director wants Amelie to always remember the little girl in the painting in order to have her transform from a reserved and lonely child into a confident and successful young woman. The subtext is a narrative structure to reveal Amelie's personal challenges.

4. Color correction:

a) Throughout the film, yellow was the dominant. It wasn't too overdone, but was still noticeable during high key lighting scenes. I first noticed the use of yellow color correction when the film began and even as the main character, Amelie appears, the yellow color is still apparent. The color is bright, soft, and yellow and gives the film a nice touch to it.

b) The director intended to use color correction to give the film a "storybook" or" fairytale" feeling. Since the film is a romantic comedy, it is appropriate to use the color yellow to create a positive feeling throughout. The color yellow symbolizes the happiness and change. Although the beginning of the film is quite depressing, there is also humor that relieves some of the gloomy feeling. The film highlights Amelie trying to do good for her community while trying to find happiness and love for herself. It is not the typical blockbuster love story. Because the story takes place in France, there is a romantic feeling that is generated as Amelie strives to find true love. The color correction effectively lightens the tone of the film and thus it fits into the romantic comedy genre.

Metamorphosis Animation Project

Concept- Where did you get your idea. What were you trying to do?
I got inspiration for my project by watching a project in the art of video gallery. It is the one about a fairy who turns a frog into a boy, but then the boy eats the fairy expectantly. I loved the beauty of the fairy and the environment that the characters were in, so I decided to do something involving a creature with wings. What I came up with was a butterfly. Ever since I was young, I was enchanted by a caterpillar's transformation into a butterfly. The point of the short animation is to demonstrate the process of change. The caterpillar represents myself as a freshman, entering a new environment, known to all as high school. The cocoon represents myself as a sophomore, just beginning to evolve. The cocoon just at the brink of revealing itself represents myself as a future junior. Finally, the butterfly represents myself as a future senior, fully transformed and ready to explore the new world.


Green Screen- How did you incorporate it into your project? What challenges did you have with it?
This was the first time that I used a green screen in my whole life. It was new and interesting because I realized that I could place myself anywhere in the world. I had to shoot a long shot of myself standing straight and raising my arms up and down. The next shot is a medium shot of me smiling at the camera. These two green screen shots creates the illusion that I am a new born butterfly flying around in the air. The green screen was challenging because it was difficult to eliminate all the green edges from my face and body. Also, somehow my shots weren't bright enough and I looked darker than usual.

Photoshop- How did you incorporate it into your project? What challenges did you have with it?
For this project I photo-shopped the caterpillar, the butterfly wings, and the background. The caterpillar was tricky because I had to animate it somehow. The solution was to copy and paste the individual body parts of the caterpillar and arrange them one by one. By doing so, I had a straight caterpillar and a curved caterpillar as well. By having a image of a straight caterpillar, followed by a curved caterpillar, and repeating the same pattern several times, I was able to make the caterpillar crawl across the leaf. For the butterfly wings I just had to distort the original open butterfly wings and cut out the body. Following the same pattern as the caterpillar, I placed and image of open butterfly wings in the timeline of final cut and then followed by the closed wings. Changing the duration of the two creatures made them seem more realistic because their movements were more smooth. The challenges with photoshop while doing this project was making a straight version of the caterpillar because the image I found online was a curved caterpillar. It took patience and time to make the caterpillar just right, so it was amazing to see the little guy move in final cut.


























Title Animation- How did you incorporate it into your project? What challenges did you have with it?
I used Live Type for my opening, closing, and production titles. They are very advanced and professional, so I really enjoyed using them in my project. For my opening title, I have a leaf as the background, and within a few nanoseconds the word "Metamorphosis" literally grows out of nowhere. My production title corresponds with the whole nature theme--hence the "Nature Productions" title. In the background of the production title is a river and the title is complemented by river sounds. My closing title basically says that I am the creator of this project and it includes a colorful stream background with river sounds as well.























Overall- How well does your finished project match your initial vision? What do you like most about it? Describe any new skills you picked up over the course of this project.
Overall, my finished project does not exactly match my initial vision because I made many major changes. First of all, I couldn't have my cocoon hang from the leaf that the caterpillar was crawling on, so I had to use a picture of a cocoon hanging from a branch instead. Because the background of the branch didn't match the caterpillar's, I had to photoshop it. Also, I originally planned to change the sky of the background from day to night and vice versa, but I didn't have enough time. Looking back, I like my caterpillar the most because its movement on the leaf seems so realistic and it tops the cuteness scale. I also like my butterfly wings because they flutter beautifully and it is what I am most proud of. A new skill that I picked up over the course of this project is learning how to use green screen shots in my projects and how to animate 2D objects. These skills will come in handy for future projects, broadcasts, and assignments. I look forward to the challenges and the accomplished feeling afterward.

My Documetary Piece on Danielle Fellguth

I decided to do a documentary on my best friend, Danielle Denise Fellguth because I was inspired by her disability pride. Although she has cerebral palsy, she has the self-determination to be proud of her disability and share with others about her experiences and spread disability awareness. I didn't really have to do any research about Danielle because she is my best friend and she tells me everything-from her accomplishments to her life challenges. I did; however, had to research about Danielle's disability, cerebral palsy, since I never knew what it was about. My questions were focused and direct because they touched on Danielle's life struggles, the benefits of having a disability, and how she balances her disability advocacy with her school and friends. For my documentary piece, I imagined shooting b-roll of Danielle being a typical teenager who is capable of accomplishing whatever she sets her mind to.


I chose to film at school and my friend's house for my documentary piece because they were the most convenient places to shoot. The quality of my b-roll are pretty good, despite the fact that I had limited amounts of time to shoot them. My most creative shot is of Danielle talking on the phone and working on her computer. This scene is suppose to show that Danielle is on an important call with members of the disability awareness national board she works for. I like the shots for this scene because I used a lot of different camera angles. I did a over the shoulder, close-up, and medium shot of Danielle in the scene in order to make the scene more interesting for the audience to watch. I did use a variety of shot selections, such as scenes of Danielle's daily school routine, Danielle hanging out with friends during lunch, Danielle in the office switching wheelchairs, and Danielle working on homework. My camera moves when shooting the b-roll was a little shaky because I didn't use a tripod. However, by using a tripod for the interview, it all turned out well because the shots were more stable and the audience wouldn't be distracted by the shaking of the camera and the seriousness of my topic would reach out to them more effectively. I tried my best to avoid zooming too much, but I couldn't help panning while shooting. The lighting in my shots are not too bright, but not too dark. The focus in my shots turned out pretty well because Danielle, along with a number of other people in the shots, weren't blurry and remained in focus throughout each shot. My opening and closing voice-over was loud enough to hear and clear enough to understand.

My opening voice-over introduces who Danielle is and how she will be the main focus of the documentary. In my voice-over, in order to grab the audience's attention I said "She is a typical teenage girl, but one thing that makes her unique is her life-long disability". This statement will immediately grab people's attention because it is rare for them to view documentaries on disabled people. My documentary was definitely informative because it tells others that disabled people refuse to let their disabilities hold them back in society. My closing voice over states that although Danielle is disabled, she has the strength to be whoever she wants to be and accomplish any goals she sets her mind to. The final thought I want people to have after viewing my piece is that everyone is equal and everyone has the capability to accomplish anything in life.


While the audience hears my two voice overs and the interview, footage of Danielle doing her daily school routine and working on disability advocacy is shown. I edited it this way because the message in the voice overs link to what the audience will see. The only transitions I used were fade in/out and cross-dissolve. I used the software, Livetype, to create my title and it was amazing how it lets you select from dozens of title animations to use. Throughout the documentary it is apparent to see the unusual jump cuts that break the rules of continuity. This was especially difficult to fix because Danielle often forgot what she was going to say during the interview, or she messed up, so we had to start over.
















What I like the most about my piece is the focus on reality, as opposed to fiction. I like the fact that it speaks the truth about our world and how people struggle and thrive in our world. If I had more time to do my piece, I would re-shoot my b-roll, select better background music, and fix the jump-cuts. After working on this project, I've learned that you never know what people are dealing with so it is always better to get to know someone before you judge them.

"Going Beyond the Still Image"- The Cabbie

1. Characterization- who is in the movie
2. Conflict- what is the climatic moment
3. The resolution and feeling left in the film

The main character is the taxi driver who finds a teddy bear on the ground after dropping off a passenger. He seems very dark and mysterious at first because we don't know what his intentions are with the teddy bear. He decides to bring the bear home and we continue to question his actions. However, when the audience sees him tucking the teddy bear under his daughter's arm and kisses her, we understand that the taxi driver is harmless. At that moment we realize that he loves his daughter very much, so he gives her a present (although he picked it up from the ground). The minor character is the daughter. She seems innocent as we watch her sleep. She is surprised and delighted when she discovers a new toy beside her.

I think the climax of the film is when the daughter finds a hole in the bear and pulls out a key. She holds it up in front of her and her face blurs, while the key begins to be focused more. I think the discovery of the key is the climax because all along we believed the bear was a harmless toy, but in reality it was hiding a mysterious key. It gives the story a twist and the plot heads in a different direction, less on the father and girl, and more on the scary crate containing the unknown.

The resolution of the film is when we see a close up of a mysterious crate. The camera slowly zooms out until the audience sees a long shot of a mysterious crate in the middle of a dark room. We don't know what is going on. This leaves the audience with a lot of questions. Does the key open the crate? What does the crate contain? What is the girl going to do next? How is the father going to react? Who put the key in the teddy bear? Will the story end in tragedy? The ending of the short film leaves the audience with far more questions than answers, so we are left to imagine what the final ending of the entire story will be.

Exotic Travel to The Island of the Bahamas

If I could travel to any exotic land in the world, my first choice would be the Bahamas. The Bahamas is an English-speaking country consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets (rocks). Its total area is almost 14000 kilometers squared, with an estimated population of 330,000. Its capital is Nassau.

The second the plane lands and I step into the Bahama sun, I know I'm in paradise. After checking in at a hotel near the beach, I grab my snorkeling gear and run to the waters. I put on my mask and snorkel and swim a couple feet. I deep my head into the clear water and immediately I am amazed by the exotic sea life. I see lots of tropical fish, turtles, coral and sharks. After 20 minutes or so, I swim back to shore and go back to my room to change.

I return to the beach with a towel, sun tan lotion, sunglasses, and my Ipod-- ready to lay in the sun to tan. I lay out the towel,rub on sun tan lotion, lie down, put on my sunglasses and turn on my Ipod. Absolutely perfect.

After an hour, my stomach tells me that it needs food. I hurry to slip on a sun dress and go to the nearest restaurant. The waiter recommends that I try their famous conch-- ocean mollusks. When my dish arrives, I sink my fork into the meaty flesh and put it in my mouth. The meat was absolutely delicious. The conch is saturated in lime and served with coconut. I melt into a state of admiration.

The first half of my day complete, I think about what to do next. Then it hit me...hiking! I pack all the necessary supplies I will need and I head off to the mangrove marshes of the island. While hiking, I see crepe murtles, Bougainvillaea, orchids, Hibiscus, and the national flower of the Bahamas, Yellow Elder. I spot horses, raccoons, turtles, and iguanas. My surroundings really make me stop to enjoy nature. It is so difficult to stop and think while in the city. But, here...it's so calm and majestic.

It's near dusk when I return to the beach. The last thing on my list is horseback riding. I never get the opportunity to ride horses in America, so I'll get my chance here. Excitedly, I get on the saddle

and gallop on the beach at sunset. It's so relaxing. My love for the island continues to grow. Having enough fun for the day, I get off the horse, pet it and walk slowly back to my hotel room. The warm sand seep between my toes. Too tired to do anything else, I jump into bed and sink into a deep sleep, dreaming about what adventure lies for me tomorrow...

Short Film-Reverie

This is a screen shot of a guy sleeping on the couch. He fell asleep while watching t.v., forgetting that he was suppose to meet up with a beautiful woman soon. The environment that the director chose to film had low lighting, but he made the right choice in choosing the DSLR- Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera (Canon D7). The camera is able to create selective focus and capture light due to its lens. The camera may be advanced enough to search for all available sources of light, in this case the television.




This is a screen shot of the guy riding in a helicopter. He is in a helicopter because he is searching for the beautiful woman waiting for him. He is probably late and needs the fastest kind of transportation. The lighting is very interesting here. It is difficult to tell if the environment is dark or not because the guy seems very bright. The camera is very successful in excluding the low lighting and focusing enough to create a brighter shot. The possible light
sources that the camera may find to help itself adjust to the environment in order to create the right contrast is the moon or sun, and the city lights.





This is a screen shot of the two main characters meeting together for the short film's climax. We've been watching the guy racing all over town to find this one beautiful woman, and now he has finally found her. She is ecstatic to see him. He grabs her passionately and pulls her in for a kiss. The lighting, once again, is very low in this environment, but the camera has special abilities to create selective focus and capture all available light around it. In this case, the available light source is the bridge in the background.