Dark Days Documentary

                After watching the documentary, “Dark Days,” I have a new light on the subject of homeless people. Compared to the other documentaries we have watched in class, I actually enjoyed the length because it gave time for each of the characters to develop their story and the audience was able to connect with them more. Unlike the other documentaries it gave the audience time to fully understand each character and it wasn’t just cut off with unanswered questions.

 It was very interesting to hear each of their stories and see how they each became homeless. It’s crazy to think that more than 80% of them were crack addicts. Many had husbands or wives that had kicked them out of their home. Many of the characters also had children that they left, or never got to meet because they had been in jail. One man explains that he was in jail when his daughter was born, and then was released, but by the time she left the hospital, he was back in jail. When his daughter was 5 years old, she was raped, her arm and leg were cut off and she was badly burned. My heart just breaks for these children that have no control over their parents and the environment that they are brought into the world in. These homeless people have created their own community together. Many of them have been living in the tunnel for years. So when the police came and ordered them to leave, they had nowhere to go. They had been living there so long, that that was home to them, and they didn’t know anything else.

I noticed that when the director would be filming the documentary and a train would pass he didn’t cut that out. He left if to remind the audience of where these homeless people were living and that it was literally right next to an active train track. He also added some shots of the rats that lived amongst the homeless people. These different shots add a lot to the film. The many different kinds of shots that the director uses, makes the film more interesting. If there were just shots of the different characters being interviewed or occasionally in their home, it would get boring and just repetitive. But adding all of the shots of the train, and different shots of their community down there, gives the audience the ability to experience it and fully understand what they are going through.

This film was shot in black and white to add to effect to the documentary. If it was done in color, I feel it would change the whole mood; it feeds off of the title, “Dark Days.” The black and white coloring gives it a depressing and gloomy feeling. It adds to the darkness of living in the tunnel with the rats and disease that goes along with it. Music also adds a lot to this film. At the end when they are all tearing down their homes, music adds more emphasis of the fact that they are moving on with their life and they have a new beginning.

Documentary Ideas

1. How Facebook is essentially like a "timeline" throughout the years
2. How Twitter can be peoples insight to the outside world
2. How Facebook and Twitter can keep people connected

Audio Essay Final Project

Video Games

Are video games art? This is a question I have never really asked myself or thought of whether video games are art. If you think about it, almost anything can be a piece of art in some way or another. Art is really a pretty broad idea. When most of us think art we think of a gallery with drawings, paintings or sculptures but not really much of anything else. When I think of art I wouldn’t automatically categorize video games as artwork, but the more I think about it video games are pieces of artwork. Someone has taken the time to design how the game will run and all the features and scenes to go along with it. Similarly I wouldn’t think of like TV or movies to be art, but in a way they are. They take artistic ability to make and design the show or movie, not so much of the artistic ability we think of, like drawing or sculpting, but in the way of designing scenes, outfits and scripts.

When we see a painting we tend to think about what it means or how the author thought of the design, so it draws us in and makes us interested in the artwork, no matter what kind it is. When playing video games we don’t exactly think about it in that kind of aspect but it does draw us in, in the fact that it can be appealing and somewhat addicting. So in different ways, both things have an emotional pull towards the artwork.

With as many video games as there are out there, there are so many different kinds and so called “art” incorporated in them. With the different character, and scenes involved in them the spectrum is so wide of the types of art.

As technology is developing the definition of art is broadening. Back a hundred years ago when they didn’t have TV, movies, or video games their art was limited to paintings, drawings or sculpture. But now with all the IPhones, IPads, and computers available, each in their own, are pieces of art.

So, I guess I have never thought about art in the different ways that it could exist. I have always just thought pictures or drawings were art but now I understand how other things can fall in the art category.

Storyboard

Quickly and easily contact others

Something everyone can relate to

Keeps me updated with all of my friends

Keeps my life organized

Moments like these we will remember for a lifetime

The people that I will be friends with for the rest of my life

Capturing memories we will never forget

Making memories with the people I have become closest to

Keeping in touch with friends even though hundreds of miles apart

Making new friends along the way

Music for Essay

"Wanted" by Hunter Hayes- Instrumental Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16u_STkjar0

"Sweet Serendipity" by Lee Dewyze- Instrumental Version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b9mDTMSsn8


I love the guitar and piano in both of these and I think will go well with my speech.

Music Video Snapshots

She is crying over the loss of her boyfriend.

They used to be inseparable, spending so much time with each other

She is sick to her stomach over his death, and her mom is also so upset at her daughters loss.

She is chasing after him, after he leaves.

They were very much in love with each other.

She is lost without him.

Seeing his empty seat in class is killing her.

They were young lovers.

She is very depressed over his death.

Music Video Analysis

I chose to analysis the song "What Hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts. This song was released in 2006 in their "Me and My Gang," so I have been listening to this song for a while. I have always enjoyed Rascal Flatts music and when I was listening to this song I had never fully understood what it meant until I saw the music video. Normally when I listen to songs I don't stop and think about what they are saying and the meaning of the song. It’s helpful though to watch the music videos to help understand what some songs mean. I understood that it obviously was about someone being upset and hurt about losing someone, but I didn’t know what they had fully meant by losing someone. When I was just listening to the lyrics it made it a bit hard to decipher. However, now that I have seen the music video I understand more of the meaning behind why they wrote the song. At first it starts off with a girl crying then lashing out at her dad and screaming at him. It is clear that she is upset and blaming her dad for something. Then as the video goes on, I start to discover more about her boyfriend and how close they were and they spent a lot of time together. Throughout this there are little snip-it’s that she is very upset without him and I start to understand what is going on. They show her alone in class, sitting next to an empty seat and her in tears, at first I just thought that they had broken up and she was just very upset. I don’t start to fully understand the meaning of the entire song until the very end when you see her chasing after his truck and he gets in a car crash and she ends up next to a cross on the side of the road. Then once the video is completely over I started to put all the pieces together of what the song was fully about.

At the very beginning when the girl in the video is screaming at her dad, I later find out that he didn’t approve of her boyfriend and made them break up. The day that he came over and they broke up; after he left her house he got in a car crash and passed away. So she blames her dad for making her break up with him and she is just so upset that her life is in shambles. The video shows a scene of her in the bathroom puking because she is just so sick to her stomach from all of the depression. It shows both of her parents also feeling the pain with her; both of their hearts are broken with saddens for their daughter. Music videos seem to help a lot with understanding the full meaning of songs. With a visual along with audio helps me put the two together and make complete sense of the entire product.

TIB Rough Draft

While Facebook is great to have all your friends in one place, and you can quickly find what there up to, but it’s also a place where there are so many of your so called “friends.” While all of us have those friends on Facebook we know from school but we wouldn’t actually spend more time with them then we have to. There are actually a select few off of our total Facebook friend list that we spend a lot of time with. While scrolling through my timeline there are a few people that just clog up my news feed with silly pictures or status updates that we all know no one cares about. For me there are really just a few people that I care to see what they are up to. For all the rest of them I honestly don’t care what high score you got on some game or this random page you liked. Facebook randomly seems to pick and choose what it thinks it wants you to see, and it tends to show you some things from certain people and not other things from that same person.

The reason I love Facebook so much is that it is so convenient being that my best friend lives 8 hours away so by getting on Facebook I can easily see what she’s up to. I can see all of her new friends and it feels I can experience a small part her life. Even being hundreds of miles apart, I still can communicate, connect with her, and it is all easy to find in one place. Between messages, chatting, and commenting on pictures, we can keep up with each other and stay in touch. Without Facebook keeping in touch with her would be much more difficult.

“Creep” is a word that has definitely changed since Facebook has gone so global. Before Facebook “creep” was a word that tended to be a little sketchy and make some people feel a bit uneasy. Now everyone is guilty of creeping on Facebook. Half of the point of Facebook is for people to find others and look at all there pictures and everything on their profile, to “creep” nonetheless.

However it’s also crazy how Facebook has changed the definition of what a “friend” is.  Who would you consider your “friend”? Are all your Facebook friends your actual friends? When you look at all the friends you have on Facebook, how many of them would you call up to hang out with? Probably not many, I know most of my Facebook friends I’m really not that close to. And when you look at all these people who have a couple thousand friends, it makes you question how they a) know that many people and b) be close to that many people. Most likely they couldn’t be that close to all of them, I would be surprised if they were close to half of their Facebook friends.