Wasteland Movie Review

Explain if you think the directors ethnic,professional, or cultural background payed a part in this movie?
Vik Muniz is Brazilian and an artist. He uses waste to make art and this film incorporates this so I do think that his background had an effect on the filming of this movie.

The artist travels to Rio. I think this is amazing. He used the visual of the trash and transformed it into art in his eyes.He uses recyclable materials and forms at. This is a wonderful way to demonstrate recycling by using visuals in the world.

The typical person would see the trash pile and only see trash. Instead he saw something with potential. He wants to make an impact on the pickers by using art. There was a nice excerpt on www.imdb.com. It went like this.

"Vik recalls an event when he was very poor and lived in Brazil. He tried to break up a fight between two men, and he was shot when he was walking to his car. Later the shooter gave him some money that allowed Vik to travel to USA. Vik and his friend Fábio spend two years in Jardim Gramacho and get closer to a group of pickers of recyclable materials and takes pictures of them. He uses his talent to make art using recyclable material and photographs the results. Then he travels to London and sells one of the portraits in an auction with the money, the pickers buy a truck, equipment and build a learning center and a library. The pickers that worked with him learn how to improve their lives and leave Jardim Gramacho"

Crash movie Review

What do you feel is the message the director is trying to express in this movie? Support your answer with examples.

• It feels as if the director wants you  to value your life. After watching this movie only once I remember now why I never watched it again. The lesson is good, but hard to watch. After all the events where people almost die and some actually do. It is very depressing to think that we only find out who we are when the situation actually happens to us. We can say one thing, but when it becomes realistic see who our true selves are.

If applicable , discuss if you think this movie has accurate depictions of minorities or if they are situational? Why or why not?

• The views on minorities sadly are pretty accurate. It seems most places I go that there is some racist view. However the years have improved. When applying for jobs, now there are specific places that will mention that all people are welcome and discrimination is unacceptable. Unlike the scene in the movie where the man complains about his lock not being fixed. The black man tries to inform him that his door needs fixed not just his lock and the Persian man thinks he is trying to rip him off.

Explain if you think the director’s ethnic/cultural/professional background played a role in directing this film?
What groups (people of color, nationality, culture, class,gender etc.) may be offended or misinterpret this movie and why?

• I do not think the directors background played a role, but I do think he made observations  in the real world and applied them to this movie. He has been around for a while therefore seen the good and the bad in people. We all have one time or another I am sure. There were so many racist remarks in this movie. Some of the remarks were comments on being called Arab when they were Persian, the term "nigga" being loosely used, and white people was also quite common throughout this movie.  

What the movie added to your visual literacy?What kind of artistic and/or visual means did the director use in the movie to focus our attention?

• One of the visual literacy parts of the movie that stuck out to me was the dad and the Persian man who owned the store. The Persian man had ventured to his house planning on killing him, but the daughter interjected. Earlier in the movie the dad was using his hands to imagine a fairy;s cloak being placed on the daughter. She remembered this and wanted to let her daddy use the cloak because it would protect him. As the young girl ran towards her dad who had just been shot at I could picture visually what they cloak she was trying to share may have looked like. It was a very emotional and touching part of the movie.
• here is the scene I am talking about
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxBw8RB1H54&feature=related

ad council

To start with here are a few wonderful videos that Magda Galloway shared in our Visual literacy class

seat belts are important and this ad proves it

a father shares some time with his daughter

On the website www.values.com:

• you can create your own values billboard
• take a screen capture
• command-shift-4 will screen capture on macs

Here is an example of mine

Wag the Dog

I just want everyone to know that before viewing this movie I was thinking of a dog wagging its tail and it started out with a quote that went directly with what I was thinking!Why does the dog wag its tail? because the dog is smarter then the tail. If the tail were smarter it would wag the dog. Also because I read the words and pictured a dog it could be a form of visual literacy.Happy reading!

What do you feel the director is trying to express in this movie?

I noticed that authority played a big part in this movie. It almost stood out to me. I am thinking that the director wanted the give the audience a challenge. As soon as I read this I was like how is that even possible? and why would he want to start a movie with this quote, but then I got to thinking hey maybe he wanted me to question his thinking.

Explain of you think the director's ethnic background played a role in directing this film.

Well as I stated Barry does question his viewers in other films just like he did in this one. He usually takes things that are fact and wants to question them. This is just from reading other articles on movies that he has directed.After doing some research I found that Rain Man also has this effect. Tom Cruise finds out he is lied to  and that he has an older brother with mental issues.

Which groups nationality race and color may be offended by this movie?

This is a difficult question to answer.Voters in general may be offended. I do not think that any particular race would take offense to this film.

What did the movie add to my visual literacy?

With all the visuals within this movie and quotes given you would think that they would have applied the technology to editing of this film. I took from this a new view on voting. The visuals throughout the film, made me think about voters that can not always think about voting for themselves.

Video Games and Visual Literacy

PC games- are played on regular home computers
Examples:

• Monkey Island
• Dragonage
• Mass Effect
• 2000 every 2 yrs to stay current

Console games-playstation sony xbox

• hardware can be flexed
• only invest every 5-10 yrs

Casual and app style gaming-played on most phones, portable devices, internet browsers.
Example:

• Angry Birds

First video game-Tennis for two 1958
William Higinbotham
A computer was able to calculate the trajectories of ballistic missiles

Are video games art? not according to Robert Ebert
Reasons why they could be in other peoples eyes: you can beat it, people work hard to make the games, it is well designed, not all video games has blood

Reasons they may not be in his eyes: they are not in principle, he thinks they resembles chicken scratch,good art and bad art you can tell

In some video games you are given the option to be good or bad.Is this morally wrong?

Honestly the choice is left to the gamer and all gamers will have their own opinion of what is morally wrong and morally right

What about women in video games ? Has the image of women improved?

This is the oldest version of Laura Croft's image in her video game

and this is the most recent

It seems that the image has slightly improved, but i still notice that her chest is quite large. In this image howeer the player may be more distracted by the dirt on her body then the size of her chest. What do you think?

all images taken from google

morals and visuals

Morals and visuals

-Talks about why it is important to discuss morality in visual media

-Morality vs. ethics good and bad

-Theories

What are the relationships between ethics, morals and visuals in the media according to you?

-ethics usually display what we think are good and bad

-morals are also what we think that may be good and bad. People usually set morals for themselves whereas an ethic might be what the world thinks is right and wrong

-visuals usually include the bad and the good within the media. Some examples are maybe that perfect guy in your life, falling in love and it being perfect.

In the book it states: the most basic dispositions of humans to our desires,emotions,intellect,actions, and the earths ecology.

Wilson (1990)

Are pictures used to do something to you?

I think they are. When viewing a young girl crying or a baby do we not feel sad or think it is cute? If we watch a couple get happily married, do we not picture our perfect wedding and hope for the same thing? I think pictures can effect our emotions without us being aware.

Can manners promote good morals?

-I would say that they might have good ethics, because they have codes of conduct that people follow, but I would not consider them good morals. Anyone can be polite and look you in the eyes and shake your hand, but it takes more to actually see the person beneath.

Ethics: explicit framework supported by the morals of a community/group. Includes statements of how to live/act.

www.theethicsguy.com

ethics and you quiz

Can you see morality in visual media?

-we can identify visuals good or bad by assessing our reactions to the content and purpose of visuals.

How do we know how we ought to be?