Photoshop Re/De Construct

For our Photoshop assignment I decided to deconstruct an AIG logo. The reason I chose this logo was all the controversy surrounding the company right now and the relevance it has to our economy and every day lives.

I put Adventures In Greed underneath the logo instead of their usual American International Group because it is more fitting for a company who spent the tax payers money on illegal insurance transactions.

Media Journal Mar. 23- Mar.27

For my journal entry this week I am going to write about a part in the documentary "Green". The part I am going to be talking about is the end of the movie where the Indonesian man is shown flying a bird kite around. The man is surrounded by developing buildings and shops that are made of wood and located in what used to be a forest.

The irony of this part is that he wants to fly the kite to simulate a bird that they do not have in the village any longer after their homes were cut down, if there would not have been deforestation he wouldn't need to simulate the bird because it would still be flying around in it's habitat.

People do not realize just how long the chain or how many things they affect by using the things they purchase or use daily. In a rapidly growing civilization the resources for the animals are quickly becoming obsolete.

The Celluloid Closet

On Wednesday we watched "The Celluloid Closet". It was the first time I had seen the movie and I had no idea what it was about. The content of the movie shocked me but, was a new take on documentaries so I was drew in. The movie does a good job of pulling the viewer in with scenes of LGBT acts in movies which most viewers are not accustomed to seeing. The movie also uses humor and wit in their scenes to give it the comedic factor to lighten the mood.

The documentary has a good flow to it by not really bogging down the documentary with too much interviewing but, also does a good enough job of getting the confessions of the directors of GLBT and actors who are or portrayed to be GLBT. There are many scenes to portray what the movie is describing such as the Hays Code and the restrictions that were put on movies. That was supposed to decrease many things in movies, especially GLBT characters. It did, sortof. The characters were given more underlying actions of the LGBT preference.

The other thing I noticed in the movie was the support and extensiveness of their research. There are 70+ films featured and 26 credible people of the LGBT and film community in the documentary. I think that is the most impressive thing to me, they looked that deep and were willing to take that many personal opinions into account to make the documentary
well-rounded.

I especially enjoyed Tom Hanks' submission, it was very accurate and upfront about the gay scenes and what it was like to talk about them with your friends the next day. Adding in credible films and people make the documentary itself credible and makes viewers willing to watch.

This film was a good documentary and despite my usual bitterness toward documentaries because some documentaries are just as bias as they portray the people documented to be, I might watch this film again. It is weird to see how far censorship or lack thereof has come. Now we see almost anything on movies with nothing more than an R rating. It seems the Hays Code is long forgotten.

Media Journal March 16-20

For my weekly journal consumption, I am going to talk about the movie I saw this week. The movie titled "Role Models" features actors Sean William Scott and Paul Rudd and is a comedy.

The biggest thing I noticed about this movie was the dry, perverted, usual humor we have come to know all too well lately. There have been many movies that have focused on worthless older men mentoring young kids. The difference with this movie and the others is the ability of Scott and Rudd to make it an actual process and them actually doing productive activities with the kids. I believe this is the thing that pulled me into watching the movie.

The thing I liked least about the movie was probably the fact the kids were so degrading and put off such a negative image of themselves that it was tough to relate it with kids I knew growing up. I usually need some kind of personalization in a movie to like it and be able to really see it from the point of view meant to see it in. The fact that every 10 seconds some nonsense and bodily function reference coming out of the kids mouth was used is not effective and a played out method of comedy. We have seen this rodeo many times in Will Ferrell and other Sean William Scott comedies.

Overall, the movie is a B at best with some hilarious references but, mostly nothing we haven't heard before.

Documentaries: 61*

Over break I watched a documentary with one of my friends. The documentary was called "61*" and it was directed by actor Billy Crystal.

"61*" is about Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle chasing down Babe Ruth's homerun record of 60 set in 1927. The documentary is set in the 1961 baseball season while Maris and Mantle play for the New York Yankees. It goes in depth to show how the media portrayed Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle during that season and how it affected not only them but their family and their playing ability.

The documentary shows Maris was portrayed by the media as the villain of the Yankees and Mantle as the savior. Maris was sent death threats, media talked bad about him even after games he won. His family was forced to move away from New York because there were so many death threats sent to his house. On the other side, Mantle was shown as the golden boy of baseball and could do no wrong. Despite his great labels Mantle was actually the one who would come into practice or games hung over or still inebriated from the night before.

The movie does a good job of going through the season showing what they did in each game and at the end of the movie it shows Mantle deteriorating from alcohol abuse and injury and Maris still the scapegoat of the media. Despite that, Maris was able to keep hitting homeruns on a daily basis and in the last game of the year Maris hits homerun 61 to break Babe Ruth's record. He broke it in a half-filled Yankee Stadium with fair-weather fans in attendance.

I believe that's the biggest thing that shocked me was the fact the media had portrayed Maris as such a villain that on the day he can break the biggest record in sports at the time and barely half the fans show up? I think that just proved the fans and media's udder disdain for Maris. In the film he is shown as a pretty good guy that is just not understood in the media, yet Mantle is shown as a savior and he has alcohol problems. This just proves how much authority and spin the media has on the working America.

Documentaries: Chernobyl Heart

Over break I watched a powerful and intriguing documentary called "Chernobyl Heart". The documentary is about the families with radiation problems living in Chernobyl, Ukraine.

In 1986 there was a nuclear plant disaster in Chernobyl that released 90 times the radioactivity of the bomb that hit Hiroshima. The disaster left behind radioactive material in it's outer lying regions mainly Belarus. In Belarus only 15-20% of kids are born with normal vitals. 99% of Belarus is contaminated but most refuse to leave their homeland. By not leaving it is creating an even bigger problem for these people.

Most kids are born with defects such as thyroid cancer, congenital birth and heart defects and some are born with "Chernobyl Heart", which means there are holes in their heart which can be treated but the waiting list is miles long.

The biggest thing that stuck out to me was a part where an international doctor sent over to Belarus to treat a young girl for "Chernobyl Heart". The doctor gets caught up in what he is doing and after successfully operating on the girl gets overtaken with gratitude from the emotional parents. The parents cannot thank him enough and the doctor responds, ""I appreciate this is a bit of a miracle for them...but we have a certain responsibility to these kids."
The doctor gets a bit emotional and overtaken with his feelings for the girl and her parents but, continues to do his job because he has a responsibility and he knows it.

I think that scene just goes to show how blessed most of us are and how out of touch most kids are with what else is out there. I had no idea any of this was going on before watching this documentary. After watching it I feel a tad frustrated in our media because of how centralized and how much it lacks focus of what's really important. I recommend this documentary to anyone because of its powerful message and in depth view of what is going on over there after the disaster.

Media Journal March 2-March 6

For this weeks journal entry I am going to write about a book I finished reading. The book is called Cruise Control and it is written by Terry Trueman. Cruise Control is about a high-school jock named Paul who is a great basketball player and has a future ahead of him at a good Division 1 college. The catch is, he is a pretty troubled young man. His dad left him when he was young. His brother attends the same school but, is in special education. Paul also gets into fights on a regular basis. The story unfolds pretty well with good representation of Paul being troubled and his inner thoughts toward his brother, mother, friends, and people he gets into confrontations with. Trueman does a good job of keeping the reader engaged with vivid scenes and good dialogue. It is a pretty good read in my opinion.