L'Esquive

As a poor college student it has been very hard to find time to actually go down and sit to watch a movie in theatres. However, I didn't even realize that I got to watch french films for free all of the time in my french class! The film that I am going to be talking about today is called Games of Love and Chance or the french version, L'Esquive. This movie is filled with drama, love, violence, family matters, and friends who go to a whole different level. The story is focused on two friends named Krimo and Lydia. It starts off with Krimo and Lydia just being "homies" as they call it, in the beginning. Suddenly, Krimo begins to take a sudden interest in acting-- Lydia's favorite subject in school. He decides to try out for the school play, but is unfortunately really terrible (or is he?). He decides to take "lessons" from Lydia and asks for help after school. One thing leads to another and Krimo decides to kiss her spur-of-the-moment and asks her to be his girlfriend. Lydia not seeing these underlying intentions of their after school practice that Krimo had all along, she runs away scared. After Lydia evades Krimo for quite some time his friends begin to hassle her friends and it turns violent and they run into some legal trouble. How will the love story end? I can't tell you... because I HATE spoiler alerts! However, if you're into the whole teenage love thing, it may be something you like. As for me, I'd give it as a whole a B- , and that's because of the ending... which will not be stated ;)

Au Revoir !

photo by Patrick McConahay

EDDIE MONEY!

On Friday I got to go see musical sensation Eddie Money! In a way, I say this with sarcasm because I have never heard of this man, however, I surprisingly knew one of his songs! He came to Charles Town Races for a free concert and the place was packed with a WIDE variety of people rocking out like it was the 1980's again. The most popular songs (this being the only one I knew) that may be familiar to my viewing audience would be "Two Tickets to Paradise." In the picture above Eddie Money is singing his famous, "Take Me Home Tonight" in which I was shunned because this is a song I should have known, apparently. Overall, even though I did not know many of the songs, it was definitely a fun time and a blast from the past. Many people spoke about how old he was (60...? 70...? ) It seemed that the age guesstimate only continuously increased. However, no matter how old this man is, he was still up there playing the sax and his harmonica like a pro! Who knows what adventures will entail next...

Cultural Culture.

Hey guys! This past week I have experienced many fun things as far as culture and small town living goes:). On Thursday, I got the opportunity to go to the Capstone for the English and English Education department. There were six presentations that day on what each person chose for their final assignment. The one I enjoyed the most was from graduate Molly Rogers, an English Education major who spoke of her experiences with student teaching in both middle school and high school. She spoke of the day to day struggles, student to student conflict, grading papers, and her lesson plans. My favorite part is when she showed how the teacher she was working with randomly gave her a book and was asked to teach it to the students. The teacher said that these students had never passed a test and after Molly was there, they had amazing test scores that were ABOVE AVERAGE! It may be partially my passion for children that sparked this interest in hers more than others, but when one person is able to turn a negative into a positive and show substantial results because of it, I find that incredible and worth of mention. Anyway, that's my little blurb for the day... Oh yea! And here's my smiling face at the event:)!

ReCAP

So, Capstone was probably the most fun events (in my Comm Nerd brain) that has occurred in my Mass Communication career. Being able to see how everyone's project took off was actually a pretty amazing site considering most people still do not know what our major is or have much respect for it. Most people think that in Communication you just want to be a on a radio or you want to go work for a phone company-- NO. Mass Communication is so beautiful and expanded that you can take this degree and do whatever your heart desires. With that being said, that is one of the main reasons that I chose a path that is so broad leaving me with so many options on what to build on for my future and career. At Capstone you were able to see what type of skills everyone had learned as a whole, but more importantly, the passion behind it. You were able to see what specifically interested each person and what they were good at. Although we were there as a group, we were able to hold our own spotlight. Personally, as many know, my passion for children is something that will never change. To me, being able to do a project on a nonprofit organization that benefits the people around me was an honor to ME and no other way. My hope is that as this journey continues I can begin working with companies such as this or start one of my own. I am so excited for this next step in my life. So many amazing paths can be opened, and so many lives can be changed-- I'm ready to make it happen!

photo by fruitymonkey

A Storms'a Brewin'...!

photo by daspader

So presentation just passed and I feel like for the most part all is well. I have done a significant amount of work so far this semester and it is steadily coming along. I am definitely satisfied with the final project, however, it is your audience that truly matters and after getting some feedback I have realized some of the changes that need to be done. In general, these adjustments should not take too long, but as long as it took, I was hoping for a greater response. Anyhow, on the bright side, the company that I am working with is fairly satisfied with my work and I hope that that continues!

As for capstone, it seems like this is only the beginning as there is still so much to do as far as getting the poster together, business cards, so on and so forth. The build-up of the presentation is so coming sooner and quicker than seems possible! However, I am confident in what I can and WILL bring!

For now Frankenstorm has seemed to have put a pause to things... (on the virtual side, anyhow)

Until next time fellow Capstoners and world!

To Be... Or Not To Be...

So, I'm going to break it down like this... to be completely honest, there is not that much exciting stuff to blog about this week. I am incredibly stressed, but am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Although everything is pieced together, I am extremely picky with how my work looks, especially when it comes to sound design and video and I want it to be absolutely perfect. Every time I think I like it and don't want to touch it anymore, I go back and I start to fix something-- I am literally going to drive myself nuts! But, hey... a good project is never truly complete, right? (Not sure if Kevin, my professor, said that, or if I heard that somewhere along my life time, but it applies nonetheless). Basically I am becoming really paranoid and very frantic! That's all for now! *Key panicky scream* AAAHHHH!!!



It is either going To Be great Or Not To Be great-- and I'm just hoping that they are on my side!

Putting the Pieces Together...

photo by Bludgeoner

Let me start off by saying this past two weeks have been extremely exhausting. Doing home visits and getting video footage and recordings is very time consuming and repetitive...especially with children. Understandably, most children just want to do their own thing, so a lot of what I have done has been very "in the moment." My days have become increasingly longer with waking up earlier to meet deadlines, but I feel like its definitely going to be worth it. All of my recording and photography done and now the fun part can finally begin-- putting it all together:)!!

I didn't start out with having an exact idea of what I wanted in the video because honestly, you never know the type of magic that a child will bring into the picture. I felt that by writing something in stone would limit myself to what type of creativity could be produced. Thankfully, I went with my gut and already have an idea of what each video will look like.

My next step (besides creating the actual videos) will be to take before and after screenshots of the site to show how it has progressed and how I have improved it in a substantial way. I just can't wait to show 'em what I got!


Bring ittttt!