Partner(if applicable): Katrina Litsos
Issue: Villains in the Media
Production Elements Organization -research, -presentation, -creative process We first started off our research on the internet to make ourselves aware of the different villains in different types of movies. We then decided to group each of the villains in specific types and label their general characterisitcs and look for each type of villain which makes connections between the different villains. We then researched world issues that were going on starting from one of the first and well known movies - The Wizard of Oz. From there we began to connect these villains with issues around the world that were going on such as racism or the Holocaust. We portrayed this through our timeline, pictures on the board, and our slideshow.
Participation. Comments about co-operation, diligence, support. To what degree partners contributed to the overall work and success of the project?(if applicable) I beleive that Katrina and I did really well in being able to balance and co-operate with eachother. Both of us met up everytime to work on the project and we discussed ideas together and took notes in the beginning of the project - and right from the get go we had ideas. After finding out we were sort of researching the wrong topics - we worked together very well in order to transition and find what we were supposed to be focusing on. We worked together and researched movies and we also did a really good job of balancing the workloads. We made sure to have all our notes and each of us had our parts on the slide show to work on - but since we were together we also shared eachothers input so we got the best out of our work. In making our Disney Movie we also worked together in order to get different clips and incorporate them in the slide show to make our presentation as successful as possible. I found it really easy to discuss ideas, and also easy to talk to Katrina if I felt different ideas didn't work.
What aspects were most successful? Least? What I would do differently? I think the aspects that were most successful was our teamwork, we never were alone in doing the project and each and everything we did - we had two minds constantly criticzing them to try and make it better. We did make mistakes of misunderstanding our topic after researching a lot of issues - and I beleive we did a wonderful job in order to transition to focus on the topic we were supposed to be talking about. I beleive next time, we shouldn't just jump into the research and work before knowing the topic perfectly - because this ended up wasting time for us.
Theory: How did we use a variety of medias to get our point across? Why did we choose what we did? What worked? What didn't? Our main presentation consisted on a powerpoint - in this powerpoint we had our main points and also a lot of pictures to present this. I felt the slideshow was easy to put together and organize our thoughts as well - and it let us be creative with setting up each slide differently to convey different issues. Along with going with the slide show, we also made mini movies to play for each topic we discussed. We were able to compile different clips from popular movies and put them together and I felt this was really good because it let people realize some similarities villains had in movies that they probably never noticed before. It also allowed people to be amused with movies they may have seen recently - or haven't heard of since they were young, which helped to keep attention of everyone. I think incorporating the powerpoint with the movies kept it fast paced, and the movies sort of provided a "break" in between the talking we were doing. Along with this we also had a bunch of pictures in the board - for when we broke from the computer and started talking and describing different types of villains which also caught peoples eye. Lastly, we used a timeline where we had a giant bristol board to relate events in world to the progession of villains in the media. I beleive this also worked really well because it was able to show years and you could clearly make the connections through the timeline. I beleive we had really good ideas and ways to convey our topic however, next time I beleive we should talk more about the time line. We didn't spend enough time talking about the timeline so the effect it had on people was probably not as effective as it could or should have been.
How did we explore the use of technology/media concepts in relation to our issue? Since our issue was villains in the media, it was fairly easy to explore and build upon the uses of technology. We talked about how villains in the past - in movies such as Disney- were mainly the same. They all have the same characteristics in movies and since technology was not very advanced yet - it was easier to make all the villains relatively the same and obvious. We talked about through the years of media, these villains started to seem very realistic in some types of movies - however the "masked" villains turned out to be very scary with the use of technology.
Analysis: How much of our presentation was based on research? On opinion? (whose?) INCLUDE A LIST OF RESOURCES, CITATIONS Part of our presentation was based on research but - majority was on comparisons and contrasts we saw ourselves. When relating villains to the media and world issues - we had a lot of research put in. The reason for this is because we wanted to find out what was going on in the world at the time, in relevance to any movies that may have been released. We found a lot of articles trying to make a connection between touchy topics such as racism and villains in a lot of populaur Disney Movies. Otherwise, we found the relationships ourselves such as connections we made like the villains of today seem to be more multicultural because in today's society, multiculturism is in fact encouraged and promoted. Katrina and I also came up with the different classifications of villains such as masked, unmasked etc in order to make the most out of the information we collected and the relations we made.
Depth of content: To what degree did we introduce new ways of looking at this issue, new information? Was this class 'educated' or just 'entertained'? Personally, when first reading about our topic I found it to sound absurb. Just because I didn't beleive movie makers tried to make any relations with the world and that stories were something that people just came up with in their minds. However, after doing a lot of research and making these connections - I learned so much. I beleive our presentation made people educated - because we pointed out a lot of things about villains and the world that people would never connect. I beleive we left the class with shocking information but- I also beleive it made them aware of the little things you should pay attention to in movies. I think it taught everyone to dig a little deeper when looking at villains and realize there are those secret connections with the world around them.
How well did our examples reinforce and illustrate our points? We arranged our topic into different subpoints on the types of villains. In each subpoint we would have a bunch of different pictures of the villains - but we also had movie clips from these villains to be able to illustrate the points we were making about them. I beleive the movies were able to make people realize a lot more and make the connections then the still moving pictures. We made sure that there was an obvious connection to all our points and our villains in each subpoint. I also felt the time line did a really good job of bringing the comparisons we were making together and make it obvious to the class what was happening.
What new skills did I develop during this project?I felt this project at first sounded a little ridiculous - being able to relate villains in movies to society. However, this project helped me analyze things to the smallest detail and actually realize that you won't always notice these things and paying attention will help you become a better well rounded person in the world.
What new things did I learn about myself in the process of working on this project? (related to the content and/or process) I think I learned that I tend to look on the outside of things. For example, the Disney character villain connections- when I watch the movies I am so engulfed in the plot and the different things going on in the movie that I don't notice little things. Even when researching, we would find different sites where they would talk about small things that went wrong in movies such as objects missing in scenes. This made me realize that I need to stop looking at the outside of things and pay attention to what's going on around me.
What might I do differently if I were starting over? What skills can I transfer to my next assignment in this class or others?(or life!) Starting over this project, I would probably like to talk to people around me and get their views on the topic. This would make me realize where this topic stands and if it actually affects people or not. It would also gather information from different people about things they've noticed, and even find out their favourite villain and why. I would also fix up our presentation a little and add more information to our time line when talking to the class and I would also ensure that we have some kind of class activity to get everyone in the class to participate and also make sure they will listen. This project helped me learn how to analyze different concepts that I may not be that interested in, and it made me be able to make connections in two completely different things (villains and the real world). This will definetely help me out in other classes to be able to do this but, it will also help me as a person to become more aware of what's going on around me.
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