Senior Footprint Project

Introduction

My senior footprint video was created with the intention of telling a story with as little use of words possible. I created a video showing my journey through high school which I learned in the past 4 years. Choices, was my topic as I demonstrate using lighting and angles to tell a high school story of the common choices every high schooler will have to make. Lighting and Angles give my video the emotional connection and say the words that aren’t heard.

Side Lighting

Rodrigo Cunha: Senior Footprint Project

Within this scene the use of lighting started off the story as it shows an angel and a devil opposing on my shoulders. The use of side lighting is essential to demonstrate the two choices where half of my face is covered in shadows and the other half is bright, this creates a conflicted, mysterious, or dangerous look to the subject. Side lighting allowed me to go wherever I really want to with the video because it was used in the very beginning of the video, as this is a very relatable topic the viewer understands the conflict in this story where every student has had to make similar decisions.

High Angle

Rodrigo Cunha: Senior Footprint Project

This scene successfully uses high angle photography to bestow an overlooking character on me, as I had made a bad decision and listened to the devils conscience I was caught cheating. The use of high angle photography is this scene gives the audience a sense of the subject being weak, powerless, and trapped as in this case the angered teacher looks much bigger and powerful is looking down at me. The audience is effected by high angle as they feel my fear and resent the bad decision I made and almost root for me to change.

Non-Diegetic Sound

Rodrigo Cunha: Senior Footprint Project

This scene was the climax in my movie where I decide to make the change and listen to my good conscience and do the correct thing, the change in song to a more exciting happy song tells the audience something has changed and becomes a more vibrant mood in the video. The use of non-diegetic sound sets a reaction and a mood from the audience where the characters in the movie can’t here but it helping the acting tell the story. This clip of the movie had the best use of the non diegetic sound as within the scene the use of high key lighting was also used to create a happy, and joyful change in the movie as it had all been black and white and downhill.

Conclusion

The use of many different techniques helped me achieve my goal of telling my story of how the choice of doing the correct thing is going to make you happier than doing the wrong thing. Where the system of high school is very hard to make your way around kids normally believe that they can and end up struggling more than the person who isn’t cheating, fighting, or sleeping in. The use of angles, lighting, and non-diegetic sound in my movie told the full story which began with me making bad decisions and being unhappy, afterwards flashing back to the beginning and showing exactly what it would be if I had been good. The theme of my story accomplished my goal of showing each viewer how high school is made of decisions and you can make it easy or make it hard by doing right or by doing wrong.

Joyful Lighting

Introduction

The film Edward Scissorhands starred a man created by an inventor, the death of his inventor who he believed was his father left Edward as an unfinished creation. His appearance and lack of social knowledge left him neglected by the suburbs he lived in. Tim Burton the director of the film uses different resources regarding emotions and tones by using lighting and angles to generate a feel of the film. The targeted technique utilized by Tim Burton is high key lighting, where the lighting in the scenes are made to create a bright and open looking scene, giving the feeling of happiness, joy, and peace.

Scene Analysis 1

Edward within this scene is being given an early Christmas present from his Inventor inside the cookie factory where he was created. It was a small moment of joy and peace where Edward and The Inventor believed this was the final touch to make him appear normal. High key lighting is used in this scene to create a euphoria for the viewer as well as feel Edwards emotions. The flooding of light all throughout the image represent the joy, happiness, and peace which allow the viewer to take part in being joyful for the characters in the scene.

Scene Analysis 2

Once Edward was found by Peg and welcomed into her home with a real family, Edward began to cut anything that needed cutting as essentially thats all he knew how to do. He wasn’t welcomed very well by the public, he picked up attention from the people in the neighborhood that he cut almost anything well. He began to cut hair of the women and kids in the backyard of his new home and he was content with the positive attention he was receiving. The use of high key lighting in this scene is crucial towards the viewer as a sign of happiness, and peace. Viewers are effected by how bright everything within the scene looks and make the viewer feel glad for Edward and how the community is accepting him for who he is and how he has overcome this big adversity.

Conclusion

Tim Burton uses high key lighting to portrait happiness throughout the film to give the viewer hope and a different view of how good and bad people can be once something different comes around. The scattered use of high key lighting in points of the film generate a relationship with Edward and the viewer, of good intention, and makes the viewer want to see Edward succeed and happy. The use of Lighting to create an emotional connection with the viewer is very important because doing so tells much more of a story than just the use of words. Without lighting there is no distinction in between joyful and depressed. On the other hand without the subject of the scene saying or doing anything the tone as been set by lighting. Tim Burton did a very good job with the use of this technique because he drew the viewer in to the joyful scene and connected with them. Once the viewer was hooked he dropped a very different mood of despair which made the movie unpredictable and told a very good story.

Show the Story

Introduction

Tim Burton uses diverse angles and specific lighting to create and generate a well told story that make sound irrelevant. He directed the animated film “Vincent” which told the story of a young boy who lived a normal life, in contrary his imagination told a dark story about what his intentions are.

Alive in The Darkness

As Vincent is coming in through a hall filled with light he drags his way towards a dark room, as he stumbles into the darkness his imagination takes over. The author uses Low Key Lighting as the picture floods with darkness and barely any light is present, Tim Burton does this to create suspense and suspicion. Doing this he conveys to the viewer a scary thought with a lot of suspicion within the reader.

Two Sided

Once Vincents imagination is set off he looks around in his room with his face covered by light on one side and none on the other. The director used the lighting technique of side lighting where half of the subject is covered by light and the other half is within a shadow. The technique is used to create tension and make Vincent seem dangerous. The director used this to make sure the viewer understands that his imaginations aren’t something light they are mysterious and dangerous.

Photo by Tina Floersch on Unsplash

Conclusion

Lighting is the most clear way to translate something to a viewer, a picture tells a story. The story of Vincent and how his normal life opposes his imagination can be told without words due to the different angles and different kinds of lighting. While words explain some things, lighting and angles make the viewer feel the story.

 

Suburban Culture

Introduction to Suburban Culture

Suburban culture has come through a lot of change over time, the beginning of this culture consisted of suburbs being a home for migrant workers and the poor. Originally the really wealthy wanted to be as near to the city as possible, now the rise of the automobile and spacious quiet, gated communities make suburbs a wealthy destination.

The Suburban culture is very different from other cultures because the people who are nothing alike, some believe that suburban culture is a refugee for malice due to the privacy of the lifestyle. Matt Lassiter explains the element of hidden lifestyles and the history of how suburbs are a place where people caricature and get away with the idea that your doing something deep and profound. 

A Brief History

The rein of the suburbs began in the mid 19th century where the sheer pressure of population drove cities to expand outwards in cities like London and industrial towns like Manchester. Once the outskirts of the cities were home to many people, the concept of ideology within the society developed. The culture has four major ideologies of suburbs, Evangelicalism: Where corruption in the city occurs in the suburbs it is considered a “moral refuge”. Sanitarianism: Hygienic alternative suburbs are considered “clean aired”. Romanticism: Detached residences and private gardens are considered much more desirable than the close quarters in the city. Class Segregation: Cities became manufacturing centers filled with industrial workers and suburbs were seen as exclusive retreats. These four ideologies set up a unique group of people with its own special diversity within this culture. 

Photo by Daniel Barnes on Unsplash

Social, Structural, or Religious Aspects of the Suburban Culture

Social aspects of the modern suburban culture are very versatile. People from around the world live in the suburbs of big cities, which allows social groups of people from diverse religions to meet and become close friends and improve the atmosphere of the culture in general. Due to the element of working from home, men and women get very isolated from the outside world and form social groups as well as coach their youths athletic events and support the team also known as “team moms”. Religions within the suburban culture as a population is very diverse but christianity is very openly practiced. Children ranging from pre-school to high school have the option of attending christian schools where they will study the religion every day along with curriculum of a normal school.

Language

Individuals who grow up in the suburban culture speak of the suburb they live in as a very separate community, such as Windermere whenever someone mentions the city it is mentioned as “downtown”. Most suburbs are also reasonably small with a few big neighborhoods and gated communities, they use the names as a general location. Also something that is very common as a point of destination is the use of names such as the only mcdonald’s in that suburb people, use that as a broad location. In contrary to the big city where there might be three or four of the same fast food restaurant in that area.

Conclusion

I chose this culture because I have lived in both a suburb and the big city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I wanted to learn and figure out the culture I have been living in for the past nine years. I believe the element of Tranquility really helped me understand how the Suburban culture may not be for everyone, as well as how this tranquility and privacy might make a suburb a good place for unjust actions to occur. Matt Lassiter really opened up my view, when he stated that the feeling of something happening that is deep and profound. Many people moved to suburbs to get away from the malice that has been known to happen in the city, but suburbs aren’t as different as people think. The American way of life is very competitive, and suburbs allow the people to show what they have achieved such as big houses, fancy cars, private schools, and living in a neighborhood among many wealthy people. This ideal has grown suburbs tremendously in my opinion because it allows people to show off.

Reptilian Humanoids

Introduction

The idea of Reptilian shape shifting extraterrestrials began with David Icke, a former BBC news sports reporter in 1998. The theory states that an elite group of lizards are our leaders today as said in the article The Reptilian Elite. “our corporate executives, our beloved Oscar-winning actors and Grammy-winning singers, and they’re responsible for the Holocaust, the Oklahoma City bombings and the 9/11 attacks.” Quoting David Ickes’  first book The Biggest Secret where he presented this possibility of reptiles living among us.

Body

Within the article How to Spot the Reptilians Running the U.S Government  provides evidence suggesting that maybe even people around you are reptiles. The uses specific points in history saying “Thousands of years ago the reptilian beings (from the constellations Orion, Sirius, and Draco) intervened in planet Earth and began interbreeding with humans.” This quote means that a long time ago reptilian beings inserted DNA into humans and now the diversification of humans, it is impossible to notice a difference.

Photo by Ronda Darby on Unsplash

David Ickes’ biography on the article Do Reptilian-Human Hybrids Run our World? tells a story about what David Icke has been through,  how he has been considered insane, fired from BBC, and also been in politics as a member for the green party. But it does help convince the reader of what he’s saying is true, he demonstrates the deep study he had done in Peru where he had a spiritual awakening. He became a laughing stock through the awakening but shows possibilities that interest now 12 million people.

Ten Things You Should Know About the Reptilian Elite Conspiracy  enacts companionship on the subject, humans when told something they are very resistant to believe things. Especially if someone says that there are lizards running our world, with the facts supporting that 12 million people believe in this conspiracy and  that they are believed to have been on earth before mankind is a whole other speculation.

Conclusion

I don’t believe in this conspiracy theory, as it does contain some valid points and interesting ideals on the beginning of mankind. There are many other things that throw me off about the topic, such as the fact that only one person who was considered insane has done thorough research and made the majority of the assumptions on this breed of humans. I am a strong believer in something that is closely connected which is extraterrestrial, I believe that something else other than just earth is out there. The mindset is so small compared to the universe we live in, and thats why I also think that the media doesn’t need to keep anything like this away from people.

 

Controlled

How controlled?

The internet has turned a large majority of the world into an unseen dictatorship, where people are influenced by anything on the internet. An untraceable addiction where the giants such as Facebook, google, Instagram can flip an election. This is a powerful resource used for malice as well for well being. The article Mind Control: It’s Happening to You Right Now speaks on the world today and how some of the giants of the technology world got so giant.

It’s Happening to You Right Now

Its not only happening to you right now according to Wayne Chilicki in the article Mind Control “When it comes to targeting kid consumers, we at General Mills follow the Procter & Gamble model of cradle to grave. We believe in getting them early and having them for life.” Mind controllers in other words a lot of our every day uses of technology, use a field called Captology where technology is used to change peoples attitudes and behaviors. Its a world of dictatorship used by humans on humans.

Photo by Arthur Osipyan on Unsplash

Feed

The novel Feed  by M.T. Anderson is a long step ahead in the future, an exaggerated and futuristic version of people being controlled by technology. The book begins with a couple guys taking a casual trip to the moon and find some girls to go along with them, they found out the moon on this school break was a cool place to go to through an advertisement. They arrive at the moon and didn’t look much like the pictures, but continued on following ads and technology to shape their trip.

Conclusion

The article Mind Control is a very basic beginning to what the book Feed suggests in the climax of technology being in control. Mind manipulation through use of an everyday necessity is something that can’t be stopped anymore, the study of captology is a giant in the money market and it was used on many of the tools we use every day such as google. Google can flip an election without notice and that is all through the use of controlling people through the use of technology. The technology that people used to cherish as a facilitator is now what controls them to sway one way or the other.

 

 

Player One is Ready

The first 93

The first 93 pages of the book Ready Player One demonstrates the life of a teenager Wade Watts. The greatest video game ever created turned into a competition not to only those who used video games but to the whole world. A competition intended for the world of the future worth hundreds of billions of dollars, after the death of the creator of this video game who turned into one of the richest after his creation announced that whoever finds the “easter egg” had all his riches.

The world had come to a state that no one imagines today, where the earth has overpopulated to the rim and people are fortunate if they find a job, the alternative however to life for people of all ages was the OASIS. Halliday’s ultimate creation. Where this game was a life on a different planet in a video game console, everything that the world couldn’t supply anymore the game supplied, education, sports, movies, books, it was a real world.

Photo by Tomasz Frankowski on Unsplash

Utopian Society

OASIS is an escape of the future into a different future. Imagine a world within a gaming console, that is used as jobs for people, daily activities, all of your life essentially other than food and where you sleep is in that console.

In Wade Watts case like majority of others in the world, escaped for a reason into the virtual world. There were many reasons for Wade to stay into this virtual reality but the main reason was because of who he was and his background. His parents died when he was young and his guardian which was now his aunt, he wasn’t welcome in her room and couldn’t bring anything of value home or she’d take it and sell it. He spent most of his time and slept in his hideout, this is where he kept the computers that he went on for the OASIS.

Most people who lived in the stacks didn’t have jobs at all, the future overpopulated as ever made life really hard for people without jobs. The OASIS was the nearest thing to a good life possible. “The school strictly enforced dress code, and required that all avatars be human, and of the same age and gender of the student.” (Pg. 28) The school had rules like the ones in the real world. That means that everyone even with all this overdose in people still get educated and rules are still taught and enforced and if not the students are disciplined. The real world was not a good place anymore it turned into a wasteland and it was overcrowded. “The real public school system, the one run by the government, had been an underfunded, overcrowded train wreck for decades.” (pg.31)

 

Its Real

Ernest Clyne makes the future feel like technology is the new living. Lives are in technology literally! Big games today that are free roam, large maps games allow you to create an avatar give it a name and live a very basic scaled life within that game. This book is that concept in a much larger scale.

The book up to the point thats been discussed is a Utopia in a sense of the future. It is very unhealthy because things like, exercise don’t really exist, and food is all in packets, pollution fills the air. But it allows people to almost go back in time where, they can enjoy the little things such as mrs. Gilmore go to church and Wade can hangout with his friend, and can get educated although he has no money. This utopia isn’t for the time being because its not a perfect world for the humans of today, but maybe someday it will be.

What were sports made for?

Logos

I believe soccer is the most well balanced sport when it comes to physicality and exercise on the same field. Soccer players run for 90 minutes up and down long fields that sometimes can reach up to 140 yards long and 60 yards wide.

With  other sports such as football and lacrosse are also very tiring but has been proven by scientists that is very unhealthy for your mental condition and has a much higher risk for career ending injuries. Recently a movie has come out named “concussion” this exploded in the NFL. It was a drought when they were being accused for letting players practically kill themselves because of how hard they hit their heads and caused them to go crazy as they reached old age.

Soccer as a more historical sport has had injuries but never caused death on a pitch you would think these football players are some of the highest payed athletes in the world, they would have to be since they were all taking this giant risk. It turns out that they are very underpaid athletes, and that soccer players have a higher wage. I used logos in these paragraphs to define logic and why players should play soccer as a healthier and less risky sport for the same ultimate reward and stay in the same condition of being an athlete.

Ethos

I have played many different sports throughout my years in middle school and high school. I have played soccer for the longest time and plan on sticking on to it, I played football for 5 years and stopped as soon as I watched the movie “concussion”. I play lacrosse but do not plan on playing for much longer. Football was really fun for me until I was icing some bruise after practice.

I pulled my groin last year and regret playing like that every time I’m about to exercise I have to stretch so it doesn’t happen again. Lacrosse to me has become a sport where I’m very neutral now since I dislocated my vertebrae which was one of the scariest experiences in my life. I used ethos is these paragraphs to gain the attention and trust of the readers by showing my experience and knowledge on soccer compared to other sports and some effects of the other sports that make me feel like soccer is the healthiest sport.

 

Pathos

Soccer players aren’t all just rich kids who kick a ball around and dive. It is for most players the way out of poverty, soccer is biggest in Europe. But the power of those big clubs takes in and makes kids with no future something great, for example Neymar. A famous soccer star today was found in a small school is santos, Brazil near a favela where he originated. He knew how to play soccer and played his first professional game for his towns team Santos F.C at age 13 he was playing for his struggling family, At age 17 he was contracted in Spain for F.C Barcelona the second richest club in the world. 

Cristiano Ronaldo is the best example of a soccer player, his doctors claim that he has not seen an athlete who does what he does be so healthy physically. The large wages and bonuses these players earn every year are used on charity, Cristiano Ronaldo won last years champions league with a penalty in the shootouts. The $600,000 he made as a bonus went straight to charity along with 5 million dollars to fix the earthquake wreckage and homes in Nepal. I used pathos in these paragraphs to demonstrate sorrow and show how soccer has made careers for many unprivileged individuals and how the high wages aren’t just players getting overpaid.

The way around the clock

“I believe in myself.” – Muhammad Ali

Make your daily Routine:

The most difficult way to get through high school is without a routine, you can’t come in to class and do something different to get your assignments and study for your tests every day. I created a system that worked for myself everyday, with the help of my advisors and teachers since I was struggling.

Become A student athlete

I didn’t start off freshman year as a student because I needed to get into the first step which to athletes I believe is the most essential step. If you are a high school student and you do sports after school or sometime during the day you are a student athlete, this means everything you do school comes first. It means friends and social life on weekends are something you can have but you need to say no to your friends at times and go do what you have to do. Without good grades sports don’t matter because they won’t let you play, if you can’t preform theirs no point in using all that time to practice and use all that time. Become a successful student athlete.

Ryan Fitzpatrick – “Harvard man”

Time management with obligations

Then comes time management with your obligations, if it is out of school or in school find time. Any time is precious if your game is on rain delay do homework, on the bus on the way to a game do homework or read something so you have less to do when you are home. Manage your time wisely plan out your days one by one. keep in mind your teachers are always there to help!

Talk to your teachers!

Going to see your teachers is probably the best way to organize yourself and keep track of your due dates. Send them an email first in advance addressing the subject and come in when he/she can receive you and help, my teachers have been really useful to ensure a really crucial grade at the ends of quarters because what I would do is send in an assignment early and check with them if there was anything missing so I could fix it ahead of time.

Always do your makeups!

When there is an opportunity for make ups which is very usual at this school take the opportunity because you don’t know how much a couple points mean! It’s not only the couple points its showing you care about your grade and that you want to do better then you currently are, and that can mean a lot under certain circumstances. Another good point is to always turn your assignments in, if you are on the verge of being that late where you will not get any points for this assignment if its not in. Turn it in! even if its not complete its better than receiving a zero or a missing grade.

Take notes

Taking notes on everything showed to you in class is essential!! I know friends are distracting and writing things manually is a big lazy factor now, its the best way of memorizing things and covering all the bases so you can reach the best grade possible!

 

 

Presenting Success

“When I go to the press conference before the game, in my mind the game has already started.” – Jose Mourinho

What does the common person think of when they here the word art? They think paintings, movies, sketches, sculptures, photoshop. Most of the time they think of something crafted by someone. Anything that is mastered or worked on by someone is a form of art.

 

Statue of David – Known as a famous piece of art a presentation

 

 

 

 

 

Camine Gallo published an article in Forbes that is titled  “70% Say presentation skills are critical for career success”. In soccer its the same way for most players today, they perform in practice get a salary make a team and when the day comes to present their skills to the world they either make it or just don’t impress as they should. For example the Brazil international team loss against Germany in 2014 they thought they were gonna win, and Brazil biggest loss they had ever had.

Meme of Brazils biggest loss

As Gallo states that the fear of presenting is very real in todays modern day America, for him he uses something to help him keep on track and new so that is it innovative and helps people understand how incisive and clear he wants to be. It’s very relatable to soccer coaches as people believe they are very cocky people they say their players are the best and his team, so all eyes are there and trusts himself and his team to perform and succeed. For example Jose Mourinho has so much trust in himself and the team he builds that he has won a major championship in every league! He doesn’t fail to impress many people. When he knows he’s gonna win he makes it clear before the game and intensifies his image to all that watch.

Jose Mourinho – Most successful manager ever

On a separate video David JP Phillips shares his thoughts on powerpoint and describes it as an art, then asks a question that puzzles me. “Why do power points look the way they look, how can we except the way they look as a form of presenting them for your well being?!” This quote is very similar to ads when it comes to presenting clothing or athletes, they want to present an athlete and get their word across with a slogan they created. For example the risk everything nike commercial where they got the worlds top players of different nationalities and placed them in this commercial in a very simple but interesting way.

Risk everything Nike commercial – Best and most known players from every country. 

“If it isn’t written, Write it yourself” Mr. Phillips says as he had gone through similar problems with boredom in presentations, he read books, searched for seminars, and tried books but then he came across this quote that sparked his intelligence in presenting. As in many of the players I have looked up to is because of the belief in the quote “If it isn’t written, write it yourself” because theirs no better way in presenting success if you don’t leave your comfort zone, or try something unexpected. Lionel Messi signed a contract at age 13 with FC Barcelona a famous club in Spain. He moved from Argentina to Barcelona and became the worlds best player 5 times.

Ronaldinho Gaucho – “King Of Barcelona”

Lionel Messi – Best player in the world 5 times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big idea of presenting is making it so its not one of the others. If its not written for you write it yourself and present it yourself, The big idea isn’t so big its simple but shows so much more intelligence in its simplicity.

“Im not a number i’m not the same, I different”

– Jose Mourinho