Marvel Studios, I’m pretty sure everyone knows about it. Representative works: Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, THOR (my favouriteeee), Guardian of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and The Avengers. I have watched all besides Hulk, Ant-Man and Guardian of the Galaxy. We were told to look up for the films and search for the connections between the films, and I learned something amazing, which I have never noticed when watching the superhero movies.

2008, the year when the first superhero was premiered, Iron Man. He is the start of the Avengers, the first superhero to be in the team among the Avengers. Here comes the connection. Phil Coulson, the agent of S.H.I.E.L.D is first introduced in Iron Man, and he is the main representative for S.H.I.E.L.D in the superhero film series. He is seen in Thor (2008) as he confiscates Jane Foster’s scientific investigation on Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. He is also a big fan of Captain America and presented Steve Rogers a deck of Cap’s cards for signature. Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D is also first introduced in Iron Man, and he was also the one who initiated to form Avengers Initiative. Thor’s brother, Loki plays the villain in Thor, Thor: The Dark World (2013) and The Avengers (2012). Natasha Romanoff plays as the highly trained agent who has long known Tony Stark (Iron Man) and scouts her to be part of the Avengers. Bruce Banner the Hulk and has a past with Tony Stark which is shown in the film The Incredible Hulk. Clint Barton the Hawkeye is also seen in Thor when Thor fails to pick up his Mjolnir. Apparently these superheroes and agents are all connected and therefore, the superhero stories can expand.

Each of us in my class had a one-to-one talk with Daniel to talk about the research essay. I initially wanted to go for the topic ‘Story is dead’ and write an essay either to support or attack the idea. I thought it would be easy since story is alive in my opinion. For example, when the interaction between the characters in the story and the audience occurs, like when I can relate myself to the character, it makes the story feels alive. But it was harder than imagined, trying to find appropriate scholarly articles to oppose the idea or even articles that are related to the topic. Conclusion, I gave up.

Trying to figure out which to write about, music or relevancy of agency to games, I have no idea. I did research on both topics and I couldn’t come up with a conclusion. It’s due on 10 April, but I still haven’t got it started. I am so dead.

I wasn’t feeling well since Monday (last Monday actually) but chose to attend Tuesday class (condition got worse so was absent for Wednesday class). It was worth going as we were asked to read each others short story and think about the further developments of the story, what kind of experimental or unique elements does the story contain, and the strengths or weaknesses of the story, later then post it as a 4-5 sentence of blog comment. I thought I read a really good piece of short story. It did not show what the title was for the short story but I thought it would be a one-word title if there is a title (my opinion). The story was rather unique and it did not need for further developments.
We also watched how does transmedia storytelling work and I thought it was really cool, especially after watching the marketing campaign that went viral for The Dark Knight. This transmedia experiment with millions of people across the countries, whether on the internet, prints, broadcast, or mobile phones. The amount of participants really showed how highly-anticipated the movie was. I personally think that this sort of marketing will only do a very good job if it’s under thriller, crime or mystery genre.