Maybe Not So Dark Days

The documentary was really interested for a variety of reasons including the people they chose to talk to, the way it was shot, and the tone of the film. I was surprised that most of the characters highlighted in the documentary were men because from my experience with the homeless in downtown Knoxville, most of them are women. I appreciated that the people in the film were so willing to let the audience into their life, I thought it was really intriguing that they were worried about things being clean and attractive even though they were living in tunnels. I was also interested in the building of actual semblances of housing that could be distinguished from others. I also thought that it was really valuable to have a variety of age groups talk about their lives in the tunnels and what they do for money.

            I was interested in the choice of black and white shot selection. I was anticipating the documentary to be depressing or talking about people who had “given up.” By the end of the documentary, that clearly wasn’t the case. There was so much hope shown by the people living in the tunnels when they were told they would have real housing. I thought that the film could have ended with them breaking down the tunnel housing but in retrospect I was glad that I got to see them in their new homes because it showed that the government did in fact follow through when they told Amtrak that they would get everyone out of the tunnels.

            This documentary was much longer than the other ones that we watched but I thought that it was necessary because instead of it being an interview like The Archive it was much more of a story about different people and their lives and how they lived and it showed change over time. Even though it was so long, it did keep my interest the entire way through. 

Short Documentary Ideas (4)

1) How do you use Facebook to gain knowledge about someone (how do you navigate someone's page/what parts of their profile are you interested in)?

2) What kind of image do you aim to get across through your profile, how is that compared to the way other people see it?

3) Why/why don't you have a Facebook?

4) How do you decide which users to accept as friends?

This I Believe Audio Remix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEY1HuCUvxk&feature=youtu.be

Video Games Video Games Video Games

           Some how all of the guy friends I have play copious amounts of video games. I have the friends who when we hangout would rather play video games than do almost any other activity. My friends in high school were more interested in games with more high quality graphics and more intricate plots. My friends here at UK have a strange obsession with bad, and I mean bad, video games. They play games such as Anticipation (video game Pictionary, with stick figures) and a game where the goal is to bring a yogurt machine to some really wealthy business people who are determined to cause problems.

            The woman giving the Ted talk focused on how video games began similar to paintings. She made a connection between cave drawings and much more famous works. Similarly games like Anticipation could be compared with games such as Halo. I felt that the woman giving the speech was rather dry, uninteresting, and a slow speaker. I did not agree with her assertion that video games are becoming an art and I had a difficult experience trying to listen to her and follow the points she was trying to make. I am more in agreement with the author of the article that advocated that the art form was in the process of forming the video games.

            I think that the art of video games is created during the process but I also agree with Ebert in that I don’t think that video games, in themselves, are art. I am ignorant in the fact that I have played on a game system no more than 10 times in my lifetime but I do not see them as an art form.  I completely respect the amount of art and creativity it takes to put together the images and plot for the game but I feel that the actual enjoyment of the game is entertainment instead of art. 

Song Selection

Two of the songs that I think would represent my topic well are: Lana Del Rey's This is What Makes Us Girls and One Direction's That's What Makes You Beautiful. I think that This is What Makes Us Girls is a good fit for the This I Believe Speech because it captures almost perfectly the sentiment that I was trying to express about objectification. I feel that One Direction's song provides a good contrast because it is far more up beat and it focuses on a girl who is beautiful both inside and out.

Video in Pictures: Roses

After watching the music video for Roses by Outkast several more times I found several pictures that are able to tell the story without the entire narrative of the video.


(This screen capture shows that Caroline is in charge of the school)


(Benjamin starts the song by praising Caroline)


(But then the song turns into being about how she needs the best of the best)


(He also emphasizes that she is a "witch" for how she treats everyone)


(The video is rather unclear as to whether Benjamin like her or not because although he makes fun of her, he still fights with Big Boi Freddy Floater for her.)



(The yearbook pictures of Benjamin and Freddy are important to the story because it shows that two popular guys with a lot going for them both like Caroline but she is too blind to see that and she is only looking for what she perceives to be the best.)



(Even while the song is making fun of how vain and selfish Caroline is, she pretends to check herself out)



(Freddy is trying to win Caroline over and is even willing to fight for her but she is still incredibly uninterested in him.)


(Caroline perceives this stranger to be the best of the best and is wooed by what he has to offer)

Music Video Analysis

I spent a lot of time looking for a music video that had an narrative worthy enough to critique and I eventually settled on Outkast’s Roses. The video uses rhetorical devices to make the message of the song clearer. The main rhetorical device that the video uses is metaphor. The metaphor of the rose is repeated though out the song I also thought that the metaphor of the “golden calculator” was interesting. Based on the song it seems as if the infamous Caroline is only looking for the best of the best  and isn’t willing to really work hard at anything. The video works well for the audience because it shows seemingly suitable guys competing for her love while she ends up with a guy that she perceives to be the “best of the best.” 

This I Believe

Growing up I was the “ugly duckling.” All I wanted do was be as beautiful as the girls in the magazines. After being verbally abused by my peers in middle school I decided that I wanted to prove them wrong. I began to change a lot of things such as the way I dressed, the way I acted, and the activities I participated in. By the time I got to high school I was becoming the person I thought I wanted to be. My older sister’s male friends were paying attention to me. I had mistake objectification for beauty.  When I moved to Knoxville from Cincinnati I was recruited to model for an up and coming boutique. I thought my life couldn’t get better. I had finally shown them. The more involved I got in “the industry” I realized that people didn’t care that I had climbed LaConte (the third highest mountain in the Smokies), that I am a great photographer, or that I am a certified scuba diver. They did care, however, that I had relatively big boobs, a little waist, and a good butt.

            Last spring there was a large poster that was put up in downtown Knoxville with a picture of me on it. I went to being anonymous at school to being anything but. People that had never talked to me wanted to be my friend. I thought this was what I wanted until I started dating a boy I had been friends with for a long time.  That week the local newspaper had pictures of a fashion show I had been in over the weekend for a charity called Scarecrow. He showed me the picture and commented, “who would have thought I’d date a model.” I was shocked. I was dating him because of his personality and because I thought he was a good guy while he was only dating me because of my job. I have gotten other comments like that throughout high school but the most offensive was “it would be fun to be seen with you.”

            Since I graduated I have spent a lot of time working on my digital image. I have changed a lot of things on my Facebook in an attempt to show my other interests and skills instead of just showing off the latest pictures from a recent show I was in. I have spent a lot of time trying to show that inner beauty truly is more important than anything else. I am not cocky enough to see my self as beautiful but I do see that I have been objectified. I want to show the world that I am more than different parts of a whole. I realized that I would much rather be known for my obsession with 90s music, or my love of books than that I was in a fashion show. Although I am still in love with fashion and what it says about one’s personality I want to be known for more than just being shown in the clothing. I want to show my worth to society. I believe in personal worth.