Possibly something unimportant on Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies was written by a great old man named William Golding. It was published in 1954, and it's all about a dystopian society made up of only adolescent boys trapped on an island (don't ask me because I have no idea how no females or adults would realistically not survive the plane crash). It may seem uneventful, but believe me these boys have no idea what they are capable of! One thing that's pretty cool about this book is that it earned 68th on the American Library Association's list of 100 books that were most frequently challenged in 1990-1999. Plus, it was also a reaction text to a novel called The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne. Another cool tidbit is that Lord of the Flies was actually Golding's first novel! You may start to think "wow this guy had no struggles making it as an author" but, similarly to most successful authors, his book did not start off with a bang. It didn't even become popular until a while later.
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But, of course it would end up becoming a novel that would go down in history and become an inspiration to many future authors, like Suzanne Collins! Plus, it would also be made into two films in the near future, adapted into two different languages! Just to brag more, the book was also nominated in the TIME magazine under the category of one of the 100 best English-Language novels from 1923 to 2005. So moral of my ranting, read the book!
"Lord of the Flies" Wikipedia. np. nd. Web. June 2015.
(Link in case you want it) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies
"Lord of the Flies" Wikipedia. np. nd. Web. June 2015.
(Link in case you want it) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies
Background and history of the plotThe book, Lord of the Flies is implied to take place during a nuclear war. It is not specified which war, but judging by the clothes they wore at their arrival, it was not current. I personally think that Golding meant for this book to take place during one of the World Wars, to enhance the fear of world destruction that people had. Or, maybe he meant for it to take place during the Cold War? Citizens all over the world had a large fear of nuclear destruction, and bits of information at the beginning of the novel imply that the boys had a fear of the same tragic ending. Piggy mentions that it will be hard for people to find them because everyone is off fighting the war or have already died in it. I don't want to give away the ending on the home page, but if you read the book, at the end there is more evidence of a current war taking place.
*BY THE WAY, IF YOU DONT WANT ANY SPOILERS DO NOT GO ON THE BLOG PAGE! START FROM THE BOTTOM (FIRST POST) UP IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO FOLLOW ALONG* :) |
Why do I care?
Why did I take precious time out of my day to write this blog? Well it's because it's for school. But honestly, writing this blog was so different from most school projects, and it kind of made me excited to make it as fun as I could make it! I like how I get to express my real feelings and reactions to the text rather than just write it in essay format and pretend that I'm smart enough to actually form those types of thoughts right after reading a particular section. This blog is really how I felt right after reading, and I hope that I didn't scare you away post reading my blogs!
Even though I actually enjoyed doing a school project (yes it's hard to admit so let's not discuss it any further) the only thing that I did not like about it was keeping up with the website. I'm not exactly the most tech savvy person, I don't even have an iPhone because I'm an old man. But it was hard to keep up with a blog because it was very time consuming. When your pretentious with a lot of dumb opinions like me, it takes quite a bit of time to write one blog post! But, I like the creativity of the project and I thought it was pretty cool to be able to create a website off a book I read, because I just love to talk and read!
Even though I actually enjoyed doing a school project (yes it's hard to admit so let's not discuss it any further) the only thing that I did not like about it was keeping up with the website. I'm not exactly the most tech savvy person, I don't even have an iPhone because I'm an old man. But it was hard to keep up with a blog because it was very time consuming. When your pretentious with a lot of dumb opinions like me, it takes quite a bit of time to write one blog post! But, I like the creativity of the project and I thought it was pretty cool to be able to create a website off a book I read, because I just love to talk and read!
Process of Film Analysis!
Why do people "read" movies you ask? Because they are too impatient to read the books (I kid, I kid). But honestly, even though it may seem burdensome to analyze a movie while you're trying to watch, it's actually a lot of fun and it enhances your understanding of the film on a deeper level. But overall, most people "read" movies in order to:
-Make a film easier to understand -Break it into parts and analyze each section -After, compare the small aspects you noticed to the work as a whole to help receive the message the director was trying to convey (with the cinematographer's help). It's not just as simple as that though. There are three levels to film analyze that viewers need to look for while watching. 1. Literary Aspect. The literary aspect if film is what movies share with books. Like plot, characters, setting, theme, and point of view. 2. Dramatic Aspect. These are the things that films share with live theatre! Things like actor choice, costuming, makeup and set design are what both movies and theatre have to make decisions on. |
3. Cinematic.
These are the things that ONLY films have to worry about! When deciding to make a film, you also have to decide on lighting and animation. Plus, the one good thing about film making is that you can fix any mistakes made by actors or technicians!
These are the things that ONLY films have to worry about! When deciding to make a film, you also have to decide on lighting and animation. Plus, the one good thing about film making is that you can fix any mistakes made by actors or technicians!
Cinematography
A cinematographer is a very important job to have on any movie set. They are the ones who help the director get their theme or message across to the audience. The cinematographer makes all the lighting and camera choices. They are the ones who add STYLE to the film. So, whenever you hear "cinematographer" think STYLE. Since the cinematographer is responsible for all the technical aspects of the image, they use techniques with lighting, color palettes, lens/camera choices, depth of field or change of focus, camera angles, camera movement, and manipulation of time to enhance the artistic elements of the movie.
So basically, once you have a handle on all the different types of techniques and the meanings behind them, you can become analyzing film! All you have to do is observe what is on screen, and then construct meaning from the scene. Wonder why the director chose to display this item or person and try to figure out what the director is trying to say from this shot. Now go have fun and good luck in all your movie analyzation!
What is my reaction to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire? Is that even a question?The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was directed by a lovely man named Francis Lawrence, and the cinematographer's name is Jo Willems. United together, they accomplished making the greatest film to ever exist, ever. Yes, that is a slight, maybe not so slight exaggeration, but it does not change the fact that this movie rocks. Just from watching the first couple minutes of the film, you can start to notice technique in Willem's cinematography. He uses quite a bit of establishing shots, shown from the back of the character. He does this in order to allow the audience to see what the characters see, and compare them to the world around them. Plus, Willems used establishing shots because Katniss and Peeta moved around quite a bit in this film, and the establishing shots were there for the audience to better understand the current setting. That's just one example of repeated techniques Willems and Lawrence used, and it's awesome. Now, although the style of this film is very modern, with no to little exaggeration of any film making techniques, it doesn't mean it's bad. Movies like Citizen Kane and Vertigo, which have extreme exaggerations of technique, are beautiful in their own ways, because their techniques allowed their films to go down in history, and they helped create basics of many modern film techniques in cinematography.
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