I have watched every episode of every season of Criminal Minds and never have got bored of it. Some could say that it is the same stuff happening in every episode- there is a murder and it is solved by people who seem to be the smartest criminoligists and investiagtors known to man kind. I noticed a turn in the recent few episodes of season 10 where they are carrying on a break about one of the man characters being targeted and held hostage. It interests me to think about why they do this? are they trying ot attract more viewers? are people not watching the show as much anymore?

I saw this exact same thing happen in Grey’s Anatomy which I posted about a few weeks ago. T.V shows all seem to have the same intentions of trying to kill off a main character in order to engage more personally with their viewers. I know this show is unrealistic and not every crime can be solved as easy as they make it- but thats the fun of it. That is why people find it so interesting because it is so unrealistic. It makes me feel distress about these T.V shows when they try and kill off main characters- they are risking the fact of loosing viewers who only watch it for that characters role, but then again taking that risk means it creates much talk about the T.V show again in the media and engaging people to comment about what has happened through social media.

I feel as if it is always risky to make these moves about which characters leave the show or die because it can create distress for the viewers and either gain more or loose. Personally for me in the recent shows of Criminal Minds it has just made me angry because they never say why Derek is being targeted or who is targeting him. I guess this is what they want people to think so they keep watching their show. Its clever but annoying because it drags out the main point much more then they should.

Once again Criminal Minds has won my mind and I will watch ever episode on time until my favourite character is safe and sound.

In this creative self portrait video I was trying to communicate what it is like walking in the shoes of Cameo Turner. I feel in the background I chose the appropriate music as it is a song produced by my best friend called ‘no more’ which details to the viewer that there is nothing more that I need to say about myself then what is shown in this video. I opened my film with myself lying in bed which is what I tend to do most of my days, getting out of bed is one of the hardest things I seem to face daily as well as choosing what I want to wear. I made quick cuts between these shots to show this is my morning routine.

In the first part of this film I used text to describe my love of food as well as quick cuts of my daily fight against Nutella. I thought this communicated it well as it shows my over consumption of Nutella simply with the spoon inside of the container. 

I used voice overs in my film to describe verbally about what I enjoy doing, I feel this is beneficial because it allows people to understand what I enjoy doing in my free time and what makes me the sort of person that I am. It was hard to give a clear creative self portrait when most of what I know is back home in New Zealand, but of the few things that I have taken with me and that represent the sort of person I included these in my video, just on a smaller spectrum. For example I love teddy bears and art and at home I have more the I could possibly need but since I now live in a small room at College I had to only take my favourites.

I co-ordinated my speech to my film of my room as back home I was a very tidy and well organised person, but moving here without the help of my mother that has some what turned upside down. Dancing is also the only visual thing that I feel confidently good at so I included that at the end of my life as it is the thing I feel most passionately about. Dancing reveals my patient and driven side which I feel is important in understanding the type of personality that I have. I focussed the filming on my feet because that is the whole part of ballroom dancing that requires dedication and practice.

In our Media Lectorial for the first hour we talked about sound. I found this a eye opener because I had never really thought in detail about what I listen to compared to what I hear. Consciously I hear the sounds around me without even having to pay attention to it, but to listen I have to focus more intensely about what the sound is and concentrate to understand what is going on.

When thinking about sounds that I love or hate I associate then with periods in my life that I am happy or good/bad memories. For example when I hear the sound of cicadas outside it reminds me of being in my Beach House in the Bay of Islands where we spend the whole of summer with my family and friends coming and going. That is a experience I have every year and brings me so much happiness because it means that it is summer time and I get to surround myself with the people that bring out the best in me. There is not a certain sound that I can think of that I hate other then the classic nails down a chalk board… That is one sound that brings my whole body to shivers and irritates me so much. 

When I think about memories that evoke due to sounds I automatically relate to music. If i am listening to a certain song at the time something is happening, then relisten to it weeks or months later I automatically associate myself with that song. For example now everytime I hear the song ‘Someone New’ by Hozier I automatically remember the period before summer break with my Ex Boyfriend- as ironic as it is I try to avoid listening to that song because it brings back good memories but not ones that I need to be reminded of everyday in order to move on.

When I am in a bad mood I always know the type of music I need to listen to in order to either lift my mood or keep me calm. I feel like this is a really important thing to do because when I am in a bad mood or not enjoying the situation I am in- I like to isolate the sounds I hear and listen to what makes me happy. 

This lectorial really impacted on me because sometimes I feel as if I have selective hearing towards what I want to hear and don’t either because I’m bored or it just doesn’t interest me. I want to be more aware of the sounds going on around me because I feel as if it enhances the atmosphere I am in.

Last night I was extremely tired after a overloaded week so I decided to watch 8 Mile in bed. I have always been a huge fan of Eminem, but for some reason I had never seen the film about how he made it so big in a African American Culture of Music. I decided to do research about Eminem and why he has been so huge over the past decade where it brought were controversy about how he was the first big ‘white’ rapper who rapped about things no parent would want their child to listen to. It shocks me how the media publicised Eminem to be so bad when really all he was talking about is the experienced he had throughout his childhood. It make me question ethics of media in the past and now, why do we always look for the bad part in something rather then the good?

Eminem literally made it with nothing, he did it all on his own and even if he talked about things you wouldn’t normally want to hear it was his way to express himself and I respect him more then anything for sticking by that and being in the media for over a decade instead of just being a one hit wonder.

In our media workshop this week we once again played around with the ‘hat’ system of feedback which I feel is very beneficial as it gives us personal development and new ideas. We went around our tables and looked at each of our blogs, how they were laid out and what people were discussing in their posts. This helped me a lot because it gave me clarification about different writing styles, length of posts and topics of discussion I hadn’t previously thought of before. I feel as if now I am more confident about my blog and what I post where I can launch more of my own ideas rather then always following the criteria of what we discuss in class. I have never thought about keeping a blog until, now I really understand why as it is such a great place to learn and help others learn.

This morning I watched an online video set for us from David Gauntlett and his discussion about his new book. He made it very clear that Media is something that will continue to grow for many years to come and more then looking at Media as a whole it is split up into two parts of creativity/making things and surveillance/exploitation. Its not so much of how they are different but how they are put together in a positive way. One key point that stood out to me is the idea that people are so consumed about learning about media rather then learning with it. Media is changing at a fast pace everyday so it is better to move with it then focus on it, it is all about “moving forward” rather then looking backwards on it. Another point that he discusses in his book is media is a medium for triggering experiences, a place of communicating with people, exchanging and transformation to making our lives better. I feel this is important because it shows the positive sides of media and how we should use it to benefit our lives and exchange with one another.

I feel media should be used as a learning tool and something we can benefit from rather then a place we just retrieve information. Looking at media from the point of view from another person points it in the direction that media is anything you want it to be and if you really want it to have an impact on your life you can grow with it and interact in a beneficial way.

During our Media Lectorial we looked into the movie Casino released in 1995 and how the editing and cuts impacted the audience so quickly in such a short scene. This really took my interest because in under 5 minutes I could already establish what the film was about and the directors intentions.

I feel as if this is very important and a hard task for a film director, being able to edit the film and include positive footage in order to support what they want the audience to think and know at each point in the film. 

We watched a scene which acted upon Walter Murch’s theories of editing which I talked about in a earlier post. The story is told through the eye contact and 2 different angles cut together in order to show a love story blossoming even when not a word is said. This is what impacted me the most and feel it is very clever of the director because they didn’t directly have to tell the audience what was going on but could show it through the use of editing and different point of views. I never realised the huge impact that music has on a film and how it can set the mood/tone of the film without the audience even realising it.

Watching this film has made me critically analyse other T.V shows and movies I have watched over the past week, making me think deeper about the intentions of the director and why they cut something in a certain way. I have had a huge appreciation for directors always having to look in the eyes of the audience and doing what they can to get their messages across without having to directly give it away

At the beginning of the class we were evaluating other peoples creative self portraits that we were assigned to make from the week before. In order to evaluate others portraits we did the ‘hat’ feedback strategy where each person would either say a positive or negative review, what they could work on and what came to mind when they first saw it.

I found this a helpful last because it allowed me to get the opinions of others on my work and also get ideas from other people about how they created their self portrait, laid it out and uploading photos and videos to different sources such as vimeo and flickr.

In order to complete our next assignment of making a video self portrait I felt this task was relevant in order to make my video more personality inflicted and be a symbol that represents the type of person I am.