Reviewing the Great Gatsby

This 2nd term I took a class called Ollywood, where we learned how to critic a film. I learned about the elements to pre-production,production and post production to properly review a film. Pre-production involves location scouting, casting actors ,storyboard and costume design . Production is the shooting of the film involving camera angles and lighting .Post production is editing the film, sound editor and helping with the aesthetic of the film through CGI. In class, we watched Amelie,Jaws and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, after we  had to review and criticize the film based on its pre,production and post. In Ollywood, we got to get out of the classroom a lot, since film involves getting up and going around the city. One of my favorite FE's(field experience) was location scouting. Our class had to get excerpt from a book,visualize it by turning it into a scene and find a location that would best fit that scene. It was exciting to get out and I felt like a professional location scouter!

For the action project we had to choose a film we either hate or loved and had to give a review on it with a partner. My partner, CG(https://cggcelabschool.blogspot.com) and I chose to review, The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2013. I found this project to be enjoyable since I fell in love with The Great Gatsby the first time I saw it and was happy to critic it. One difficulty I had with this AP was the post production, editing videos can be tedious and can take lots of time for a small section. Specifically, my partner and I had trouble getting the blue-screen to work for a background. We had to watch videos and get help from our teacher, but it was an easy problem to fix in  the end.

The Reality of Life

In Rhetoric this unit, I learned about rhetorical artwork. I analyzed how a piece of artwork can challenge the status quo and provoke someone to think a certain way. For a homework assignment I analyzed the rhetorical devices of the song, Patience by Nas and Damian Marley. The message of the song is that humans must come together and make a difference in the world despite our differences and beliefs. For my 3rd action project, I had to choose a political topic I cared about and create a piece of artwork that unites people using rhetorical elements such as logos, pathos and ethos. I also started to make a song that depicted the same message, white privilege.

The topic i’ve decided to research about is white privilege. White privilege is having societal advantages that is beneficial to whites systematically,socially and economically. White privilege demeans the lives of blacks and minorities in America, for example black kids are 10 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than whites, even though white children are more likely to abuse drugs. This data exemplifies white privilege by showing that black males are stereotyped as criminals and will be stopped because of it. I decided to create a collage that depicts how white people benefit from white privilege and yet decide not to acknowledge it. I wanted to do white privilege, specifically white people recognizing their privilege.

The piece I created is called the Reality of Life, inspired by the board game Life,I decided to make a board game layout that displays how white privilege works through advancements. I used the life game title to metaphorically present the reality of how white and blacks live everyday. On the spaces there are spots that benefit the white guy(which would represent white privilege). This allows him to be much further ahead then the black guy in the game. There are more spaces that will negatively affect the black guy, that represents how hard it is for blacks to succeed at life with an oppressive system working against you. The Reality of Life unites people by accepting that white privilege is an issue that only benefits people who are white or look white. Reality of Life is an attempt to unite the black and white community by showing we all have to make it through life, but show that whites have more advantages because of their privileges.

The Reality of Life uses logos, as in facts or statistic. It also uses pathos, an appeal to emotion. There is an appeal to logos because the spaces provide facts that show how white privilege benefits only white people and demeans blacks and minorities. An example of logos in the Reality of Life is that there are higher wages for white males .Whites get paid a median of $21 per hour,while black or minority men make around $14 or $15 . Another example of logos I included was Jim Crow law. Jim crow law were laws that began in 1890, and started with the “separate but equal” way of life for African Americans. There were laws that enforced racial segregation,specifically in public places such as school, public bathrooms, threatres and neighborhoods. There is also a use of pathos in my art piece, by showing the hardships of African Americans and comparing their hardship to someone who is white life. My audience for this piece are white people who don’t recognize their privilege and ignore it because they don’t physically experience it. But this piece challenges that idea by using logos and showing that there are advantages that come with being born white. While someone black is born with years of oppression starting with their ancestors experiencing slavery to them experiencing police brutality.

The Reality of Life:

PRESENTING THE WONDERFUL, THE GREAT.... STORE IT CYCLE

In Design and Engineering this unit I learned about gear ratios, parts of a bicycle , potential energy, kinetic energy and calculating the surface area and volume of circles. The purpose of this action project is to create a bike that will benefit a certain user. I learned that bikes have gear settings that you can change depending on where you are biking. Mountain bikes are for riding on rocky roads and cruiser bikes are for leisure. For a homework assignment, I had to interview someone who biked often, and I chose to interview Kim Campos. I asked her if she could change anything about her bike what would it be, and she responded,"I would change the seat to be wider and cushioned for comfortability.” When designing a bike , I took this idea of making the seat wider into consideration. After finishing this project, I'm proud of how the bike came out. It‘s very sturdy and looks like an innovative design.

My user is a 15 year old girl named Malia, who travels 5 miles from her home to get to school.Malia's parents are going to buy her a bike because she works at the library and is going to have to do grocery shopping. She lives in Logan square and will ride on the 606 to get to school and when she gets home she will park her bike in the garage. Malia will need a bike that is comfortable, safe at night and can carry large books and grocery bags.

The Store It cycle is great and perfect for Malia because it provides comfortability,safety and storage.  I included 2 baskets, one on the back and one on the front. Both have buttons that make it close automatically and lock, which is good because our userneeds to carry books and groceries. I also included taillights and front lights in the middle of the handlebars, the front lights allow Malia to see where she is going at night, the taillights include turn signals allowing people to see her at night. Lastly, I added a wider and cushioned seat because she has to ride for a long time from school to library.She should believe in our design, because I created a design that would help and benefit her circumstances.She will gain potential energy as she is slowly riding up the hill on the 606, and when Malia rides down the hill that potential energy will transfer to kinetic because she is in motion.

Malia lives 5 miles away from school, she lives in Logan Square and travels on the 606. It takes around 30 minutes for her to get to school. To find how many miles a minute you do d/t, which is 5/30=.17 which is around 10 miles per hour. For our scale, we took the original sketch and converted that to 1inches=4inches. The wheel’s diameter is 26 inches, the radius is 13 inches and the circumference= 81.68 inches. The gear ratio is 26/12.

Rotations= distance/circumference

5/81.68=

614.455 rotations to get to school.

When trying to design a creative and innovative bike, I ran into some trouble. I overcame it by looking up different types of bikes and took the best ideas and tried to create a bike that combined off of those ideas. Sketching the idea was also difficult because it's challenging to draw something out rather than writing ideas down. I overcame this by continuing to draw out my design until the design was perfected. I built the finish product with cardboard and wooden stick by hot glueing the pieces together.


Below is a labeled sketch of the bike design:

LD,Sketch of bike,(2016)

Finished bike design:

LD,Bike Design.(2016)

Tupac Trapped in The Rhetoric of Changes

In Rhetoric, my class learned about brave people who went against the majority and spoke about what they care about. We visited Mike Pfelger for our Field Experience on the South Side of Chicago. We asked questions about how and why he challenged the status qou. An important idea that stuck with me when speaking to Mike Pfleger was that rhetoric without action is nothing, I agree with this statement because you can't make a difference without physically doing something about it. For the second action project, I had to choose a person who challenged the status qou and prove how. The purpose of this action project is to rhetorically analyze how someone challenged the status qou with a speech, a song, or video. This AP made me understand that a song can be as rhetorically effective as a speech because the artist can also convey a message with the same rhetorical techniques and devices.

Solving The World's Issues One Grippy Grabber At a Time

In Design and Engineering , our class learned about simple machines. We learned how to find volume, surface area and area of different shapes.The purpose of this action project is to create an ergonomic gardening tool for senior citizens because most tools aren’t fit for their weaker bodies. My customer in my mind is a senior citizen who needs to grab things when gardening or for everyday life, but cannot because of their weak bones and joints. By creating an ergonomic grabber, it will make their life easier. In class we also learned about empathy, which is putting yourself in someone else's shoes to understand what they’re going through. When creating a tool for senior citizens, I must imagine myself as a senior to create something that I think would be best for them. Before creating our tool, we had to interview a gardener. My interviewee informed me about gardening. Some of the best advice she told me was, your hands are your best tools because it is the most consistent and easiest, that planting takes time and effort, and that before you plant you must plan. My partner's interviewee told him,”if I could make my own tool, I’d make a device that lessens work for the elderly when bending down and getting up. Something that moves and can elevate or descend.” We tried to take both of the gardeners’ advice and create a perfect tool that is easier for senior citizens to use. We also researched examples of other grabbers and noticed the main things that people change were how long it is, the type of lever, and how the claw open and closes. My partner and I took some of these ideas and created our own tool called the Grippy Grabber.

The Grippy Grabber is used to grab things that are far or unreachable. It grabs things with a clamp that opens and closes with a gradual switch. As you slide the switch the clamp closes at the same speed. This helps you choose how wide you want the clamp to open. The parts included are the switch, the extendable arm/pole inside, a button to press so the arm is able to extend, and the changeable slips and blades. We included the switch because senior citizens’ finger joints and muscles are weaker, and it is much easier to slide something instead of exerting force by holding down a lever. The extendable arm is to reach things that are further away and the button makes it easier to extend. The changeable slips and blades are for customers who want to grab all types of things, as only having one material(rubber) is limiting. The changeable blades are to get a better grip onto the object you are trying to pick up. The Grippy Grabber is a great tool because it uses an ergonomic switch that makes grabbing things easier and comfortable for everyone. It’s an example of a lever because when the senior citizen slides the switch the clamp closes. The Grippy Grabber includes using a fulcrum, a fulcrum is the point the lever is supported on. The persons hands are being used as a fulcrum in this case because the customer must support the Grippy Grabber when using.


height=36in

diameter=4in

Volume: v= 3.14(r^2)(h)

3.14(2^2)(36)

Volume = 452.16in^3

Surface Area: 2(3.14)(r)(h) + 2(3.14)(r^2)

452.16+25.12= 476.28in ^2

  

Imagine A World Where Everyone is Represented in TV shows and Movies

In Unit 1 in Rhetoric ,we learned about rhetorical devices and persuasive speeches. For this Action Project , I had to create a question that involved political importance and answer with persuasion using ethos ,pathos and logos. The purpose of this action project is to answer the question you've created with persuasion in 2 minutes. After finishing my first action project I am proud of getting the video done in at exactly 2 minutes and choosing a topic that I can talk about from experience. This AP made me realize how hard it is to persuade someone in the most effective way using all three methods and, how much logos matter when trying to get your audience to receive your message.

The question I chose to answer is ,"how does lack of representation in the entertainment industry affect how children grow up to view themselves and others?"I chose this question because I felt as if minorities were not being represented as much as white people are . It causes self-esteem issues, lack of confidence and changes the way society views people. People ignore this problem, I wanted to shed light onto it and persuade my audience that it is an issue and affects our society.

For my first action project I am proud of getting the video done in at exactly 2 minutes and for choosing a topic that I can talk about from experience. In part of my speech ,I talked about how lack of representation affected me. I wanted to get my audience to feel as if they could trust me by sharing my experience. I knew that not only me has been affected by lack of representation. I am also proud that my video ends at 2 minutes, I thought I would have trouble trimming some of my speech out, but I got to say everything in the time frame.

This AP made me realize how hard it is to persuade someone in the most effective way using all three methods( pathos,logos,ethos), and made me realize how much logos matter when trying to get a message across. While editing my videos , I learned how to add watermarks and a logo on a video. When I typed out my speech , I found it was difficult to use ethos, but found pathos and logos easy to use. When using only 2 methods, a speech isn't as effective as it could be if someone would use all 3. When making my logo, I wanted to make something that went with my message , I decided to create a different skin tones raising their hand in a television to show diversity.

This Unit 1 AP was a good learning experience, I learned about rhetoric and rhetoric devices(pathos,egos and logos). I got to know the process of creating a persuasive speech, by putting together statistics, knowing who your audience is , using emotional appeal and establishing credibility.

Below is my Action Project speech.

Script:
Lack of representation in the entertainment industry has a negative effect on children who are minorities and results in self esteem issues .Hollywood and big name productions in the industry are known for casting majority white actors. When casting roles for minorities they assign a specific role or a role that is stereotypical, this is called type casting.

For example African Americans are usually cast for slave movies, or thug related roles.
Asians are usually cast to act as an ethnicity that they are not.Indians/ or middle easterners are cast to act as terrorist and talk with a stereotypical accent. Mexicans are cast for thug related roles and as cholos.

Children begin watching tv and movies around the age of 2 or 3 , the age when their minds are starting to develop opinions . When they don’t see themselves represented in tv shows and movies they begin to look for themselves in other races. If they do see themselves represented ,but in a stereotypical way, it will have a negative effect on how they view themselves.When minorities see white children act in main roles continuously, they start to put white people on a pedestal and demean their own race or culture.

When i was younger i used to watch disney channel, most shows had a white main character except for one show, That's so Raven. watching white main characters, I couldn't relate to them. Watching a main character that was an african american girl helped my self esteem because i looked like her and could relate to her issues.

In 2015 and 2016 all oscar nominees were white this caused backlash from the viewers. The angered viewers created a hashtag that depicted the lack of diversity in hollywood.In politics, when choosing who to vote for the president , people tend to vote for the candidate whom they think will help the country the most.But race influences that decision. In 2008, african -american candidate Obama was running for president, some racist voters decided to vote for his opponent John Mccain simply because he was white. Growing up and seeing african american roles as slaves and thugs, that mentality stays with you as you get older. But because Obama was elected president he has been dismissing those negative stereotype toward blacks.