In english class, we’ve been watching the movie E.T by Steven Spielberg. After watching it, I chose a scene for me to look at carefully. I then took out the scene and explain all about the shots, sounds, and why the director decided to do that. I chose to do the first scene, which is when the aliens arrived on earth.
This is my script: Steven Spielberg, the director of this movie chose a mysterious background song to start with. In the first part of the movie, he decided to use a pan shot from the sky to the setting where the story begins which is the forest. Using a wide shot, they shot E.T’s spaceship. He also used the rules of third here when shooting this spaceship. The rules of third are used in photography the frame is divided to 9 sections, and to get a good picture, the object should not be placed in the center.
The next shot taken from behind the trees. This shot is a slow pan that is taken from behind the trees. The director decided to do this because he wants to raise the curiosity of the viewers. Here, If you look carefully, you could see the shadows of a few other aliens doing some things.
To help building the mood, Steven Spielberg also used sound effects of plants being pulled and the strange sounds of the spaceship. In the movie, the director uses a lot of silhouettes. Steven always put the lighting directly in front of the camera yet often behind the object so it would create the shadows. He used these silhouettes to create a sense of spookiness into the scene.
Notice that he hasn’t show any characters yet. We can only see either their hand or their shadow.
The second scene is shot from inside the spaceship. This scene is for the audience to know what the creatures are actually doing. Inside this spaceship, the lighting is very different. It has a warmer lighting but the setting is smokey and wet.
Going back to the original setting, in front of the space ship. Now there are more aliens taking the plants. But the director decided to still shoot from behind the trees. The lighting of this scene comes from the spaceship and Steven Speilberg decided on not to put more lighting from behind to add a more spooky sense.
These tall trees in the forest were shot from a low angle showing the cloudy and foggy bit on the top. Then the director used extreme wide shot and a slow pan to show the surroundings of E.T and what he’s actually doing.
This shot is called the point of view shot the purpose is to show what the object is looking at right now. Like what usually directors do, they then use the wide shot to show where the character is standing and then back to the point of view shot.
Photo A
Photo B
To begin our new unit we learn how to ‘read’ a picture. So we are told to take two pictures of the same object and then compare them. The differences in these two pictures are very obvious. From lighting, angle, and also how the object is arranged. Both of these pictures were taken using a phone, so the pictures are not really in high quality. And I don’t really have any experience with photography.
From observing the two pictures above, there are two things I find the most obvious in these two pictures. The lighting and the angle of the pictures. Photo A was taken in a certain angle but the lighting is boring. And on the other hand, photo B was taken in an interesting angle and the lighting is really good. I actually took the picture in ‘accident’ which means that I didn’t really want it to be a good picture and I didn’t really think about the angle and the lighting before taking the picture.
Look at the two photos above. Both pictures focused on the same subject, and that is cupcakes. As you can see, there is a big difference between Photo A and Photo B. From the lighting, background, angle, and also the way the cupcakes are put together. In my opinion the angle is the one making the huge difference between these two pictures. Photo A was taken from above which makes it really boring and plain and on the other hand, photo B is taken from the side and there are also some focusing that makes the picture more interesting.
The background of the first photo A is a plastic container and I think that background is annoying. The plastic just makes the picture look bad. I’m not sure about the background on Photo B but it doesn’t really matter on photo B because it’s blurry (blurry in a good way). The lighting on photo A is not really good since it’s a little bit dark and the colours doesn’t look good together. I think that sometimes we need to think more before taking the picture so the picture would attract interests from other people.
In english class, we’ve been reading a book about refugees called ‘Boy Overboard’. We have to write a letter to someone who we think is responsible. We debated about this problem, and I was on the ‘against’ side. So, I decided to write a letter to the PM, Ms. Julia Gillard . Here is my letter:
December 13th, 2011
Julia Gillard
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600Dear Ms. Julia Gillard,
My name is Sherry Novanka Tania and I’m a student from Sinarmas World Academy. Many people think that it’s Australia’s responsibility to take care of the refugees. Nonetheless, think about all the problems they would cause if we keep letting refugees into Australia.
Personally, I think that refugees should not be let into Australia. Although Australia is one of the active members in the UN, letting in the refugees could cause problems such as tax, racism conflict, and crimes. Therefore, please do think about the problems these refugees could cause.
To begin with, let’s talk about taxes. A lot of refugees are being let in to Australia everyday. They go to Australia to seek asylum, to have a better life and a better home. To have a better life and a good home they need money. Moreover, In most cases, refugees don’t have any money when they get to Australia. This means that the government of Australia have to spend tax money on the refugees. It’s not only shelter and food the government have to spend the tax money on, their kids also need proper education and medical care. However, I think that it is not fair for the Australians because they were the one who paid tax money to the government so they can make Australia a better place for the citizens.
Furthermore, most refugees that Australia is letting in are from Muslim countries like, Afghanistan, Irak, Iran, and Somalia. We all know that a lot of conflicts have been going on between the the west culture and the Muslim culture. A similar case that has been going on in France. In France, the government banned women from wearing burqa that triggers demonstrations by the immigrants. The same problem could happen in Australia. And when more Muslim refugees come to Australia, the demonstrations will get bigger and bigger and riots will begin. Australia will be in a chaotic situation. Another case is in Indonesia. A riot happened between the Chinese and the Muslims that was caused by job problems. Well, It is sometimes true that combining two different cultures can benefit us in different aspects, though a lot of conflicts will follow it. Besides, I am pretty sure that you don’t want Australia in a chaotic state.
In addition, refugees that we are letting in are doing crimes in Australia because refugees that moved in to Australia came from a country in a war condition that has no strict laws. It takes time for the refugees to adapt to a country like Australia. These crimes will increase the amount of criminals in Australia, making the citizens feel unsafe. Again, Australia have strict laws, and for the younger ones, they probably never experience a life with law which increases the possibility of doing crime. As an example, a 19 year old Somali refugee did an armed robbery with violence and another Somali that did 2 knife attacks. These crimes are very dangerous for the Australians and should not be happening and will never happen if we stop letting in the refugees.
In conclusion, I think that the refugees should not be let in to Australia because they would cause so much problems and they have a lot of negative impacts to the citizens. Even though I’m Indonesian and you may think that it is non of my problems, but I think it is a big problem that needs to be solved. Again I repeat, we should not let them in. Think again. Do you want Australia to be in a chaotic state? Do you want to be accused of stealing money from the Australians? Do you want more crimes happening in Australia? Do you want more problems? I hope you can think about my opinions and thoughts. Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Sherry Novanka Tania
A few days ago I play this simulation, us being the asylum seekers. Our mission is to get out of Australia because it wasn’t safe anymore to stay in the country.
In this game, I was a 30 years old woman that has a daughter named Lala. In the beginning, we are placed in a community centre. There are a few people that you can talk to. They could be nice and resourceful or they could just be a useless person standing in the scene. In every scene I was in, I talk to everyone of them. The first scene that I went to was the embassy. It was very busy and a lot of people were in line. I talked to 2 women working there, and told them that I’m getting a passport. I need to wait for 10 days to apply for passport, it’s a long time but I had no other choice. Finally, I got my passport and I went to the airport. To buy a ticket I need $10,000 but I didn’t have enough money. So I went to the black market to get a job. I worked and I was really tired. I went to the airport once again and bought the ticket. But we still need to go through the security. The security wouldn’t let me in! I had to try another way to go out of the country.
I went to the black market hoping for somebody that can take me away from Australia. The guy told me to go to the docks. I went there and I found 2 men and I decided to talk to both of them. And both of them offered asylum, but one of them is cheaper than the other. Since my money was running low, I go with the cheap one. Traveling with the boat took a very long time. When I finally got there, my choice was either to go to the refugee camp or the shady hotel. I went to the refugee camp. There, I met somebody for the UN that could help me. To be a refugee, you have to wait for years until the process is done. I didn’t have any place to live. So I went to the shady hotel, I thought they might help me find somewhere to live. Then I found a guy that gave me a cheap price to stay in that hotel. I can’t stay there for too long so I stayed in the refugee camp until my refugee application is done. When it’s done I got reunited with my daughter Lala and I got a good job.
2 days ago we had a skype call with an Afgani named Nasim Fekrat, a blogger and a photographer that lives in the United States. For me, the skype call wasn’t really exciting because the video wasn’t really clear and his voice, too. But the story he told us about him living in Afghanistan was awesome. We asked a few questions about the war in Afghanistan and in the end he told us a few things about blogging and photography. He also talked about him having no childhood, which is sad. But I like how he said that sometimes a bad thing could lead to a good thing, like his life. He had to move out of Afghanistan, but then he ended up in the US became a blogger and a photographer. Next time we have a skype call, I hope the internet connection is good so we can hear him clearly~ :]
Thank you Nasim~
I almost finish the boy overboard book and I decided to write a blog post, answering one of the questions from the chapter brief explanation that we made. From all the questions available, I was really interested in the question, “Why can’t they have school in Afghanistan?” Personally, I think that schools are forbidden in Afghanistan because they think that if they let the kids go to school, the kids will be more creative, open minded, and become critical thinkers and in the future they could go against the government or taliban. And in Afghanistan, boys are still allowed to get education, but not girls. The talibans believe that girls should stay at home and not get education because they think that in the future, girls don’t need to work and they only need to cook and clean the house.
Maybe there are more reasons on why can’t kids have school in Afghanistan, but after searching for quite a while, I can’t really find a different answer for this question, so maybe if you have an answer or an opinion, please comment on this blog post. :]
Photo: Flickr
I think nationalism comes from school, friends, teachers, and sometimes family. I don’t really know where my nationalism comes from but I do love my country, Indonesia because of its people, its landscapes, and its culture. Even though sometimes there is this feeling, when something not good happened in the country and by the government. Those events sometimes annoy me and a “hate” feeling just pop out. But I still love my country. Some people loves their country too much and they can start conflicts among countries which is not good. I learnt these things when I’m in elementary, in my old school. I think nationalism is very important, because we have to respect and love our own country. And without nationalism a country is not a country.
Picture: Link
This is a movie me and Riam made for english class to start our new term using pecha kucha style. It’s about Afghanistan and its culture. It wasn’t the most interesting project I’ve ever done, but it took quite a while to find good pictures and write the information. I think I did a pretty good job and I really want to try Afghan food! :9
We are going to contact an Afghan that doesn’t live in Afghanistan anymore about the war that is still going on in Afghanistan, what is the reason and how much damage has it caused, Is there famous singers that sings pop songs? Is there good education in Afghanistan? Do you still want to go back to Afghanistan?
enjoy the moviee~~
Bibliography:
Kabul City Centre, Afghan Dish, Afghan Music, Leather Crafts, Afghan Clothing, War, Afghan Landscape, Afghan Flag.