Semester

From inquiry one I took away the idea that movies can have multiple messages and we can pick up on them by doing close reading. Before this I didn't really think to look in the background of a movie to find things that would relate back to the ideas of the movie. I thought they were just backdrops really.
From the second inquiry I took away how to research a movie. I never knew there were cites that would show you old critics review. I found that really interesting as well as the fact that there are several online movie review websites. I never knew this and now use them a lot.
From Inquiry three I learned that everyone is going to like something different and that's okay it only lead us to be curious as to what is out there that we haven't seen, heard or read. I walked away from this begin more open minded about texts and even the word texts in general.
I think I will uses some of my first paragraph of inquiry one because I used a lot of voice and I found this paragraph to draw the reader in which is what writing should do. If we weren't drawn in we wouldn't keep reading the text. I also think I will use some of my research arguments from inquiry two that highlight what my theses was because I really liked my theses and think it was strong for this type of paper. Overall I think I improved as a writer and a movie watched throughout the semester.

reflecting

I found the topics that were presented on Thursday to be almost as good as the ones on Tuesday. I really liked fantastic Mr. Fox to be a movie I would consider viewing. I was also pleases to see someone had grey's anatomy on their list. I really like that show and agree that it touches on both medical senerios as well as teaching life lessons.

Cannon reflection

I really liked Rachel's fly away home video. I remember watching it when I was younger and now really want to watch it again. I also liked the last leaf video. I really would like to look at that as well. I was also interested to find out that Incubus did so much philanthropic work.

Canon

I have found after reading the articles that the canon is truly a male dominated, white dominated grouping of writings. Even after years have past women and writes of color have not seemed to make a dent in the list. This brought me back to high school when we had to read "the classics". It surprised me that many teachers teach them with no relevance to how they relate to our society today. For example we have come a long way form when Of Mice and Men was publish and it is till taught but why? To show that we have changed and what life was like back them. Yes its important to get a view of the past but we need to document the present to because shortly it will also be the past. I like that some teachers are wanting to share new books that have meaning to their classes. Our values have changed slightly the american dream is no longer to own a house with a fence when we have so many towns and skyscrapers. We need more diversity in the canon so kids can truly understand why these works are great other than begin just dead white men. What is valuable now is accepting one another and begin who you are. being an original and the cannon doesn't always do that. Thus it needs to be revises.

My Cannon
The host -Stephanie Myer
Just Listen -Sarah Deesen
Dream Land- Sarah Deesen
Ender's Game
Shakespeare
Silver Linings Playbook
The Help
Boy in Striped Pajamas
Anne Frank
Pride and Predigest

Galaxy far away

My thesis is : Is Avatar the New Star Wars?
I hope to prove thought my research that it is not because of its lack of developed characters and lack of advancing story line. I hope to use research that will point to the facts that Avatar was so progressive using a lot of technology to make the movie but not a lot on the actual story and that its one we have heard before. I also want to focus on the fact that Star Wars was a new breed of science fiction movie that is still highly remembered to day and is constantly being revived with toys and mini series and games as well as keeping true to the original story that everyone knows. Because of this it was nominated for several things that highlighted its originality where as Avatar swept the technical awards and may have just been too advanced for movies now a days. I may have been better released now which is 5 years later when we are more used to 3d and things.

History

http://www.infoplease.com/year/1977.html
The same year Star wars came out we were testing space shuttles and lasers. These are two of the biggest parts of the movie. It all takes place in outer space and on different planets and the main weapons are light sabers and laser guns. Turns out history may have helped propel this movie forward.

I can also use this because in the same year we were getting over the Vietnam war and pardons were begin issued to deaf dodgers. This important because it is said that a lot of the fighting in the movie AVATAR resembles that of the Vietnam war in the fact that we are using lots of new technology and hunting people down in the forests to kill them.

This site can help provide some historical support to both movies in an understanding of why the movies may have taken off.

No Awards

"Voters not ready to honour digitalized acting; Zoe Saldana's performance in Avatar ignored in best-actress nominations." Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia). (February 4, 2010 Thursday ): 442 words. LexisNexis Academic. Web. Date Accessed: 2014/03/06.
Most of the actors that were nominated for awards because of their roll in AVATAR  were denied an award becuse the film comitee denied that the movie was actual acting. They said that the actors should have been nominated for best vocal actor instead. THe movie widly noted for its snimation had taken a toll on the actotrs in it. Yes, ti has become a must see movie but not a highly awarded one because it is so new. 

I can use this to compare how this movie may have been too advanced to get recognition where as star wars is not. It got nomintations for several aspects but the animations of AVATAR sent a new pecidence that the oscors were just not ready for yet.