Final Thoughts

Mood: Hyper!
Music: Diplo Rhythm - Diplo

So the reviews are finally done, so it's time for my final thoughts (that sounds like a Jerry Springer thing to say...)

The War of the Worlds review I am happy with. Managed to wrangle some sarcasm in, I think it does fit The Advertiser and I am happy that it is not a completely positive review. I think that my dislike of Tom Cruise is conveyed strongly, but a review is an opinion and I have every right to mine.

The Pride and Prejudice review uses more advanced vocabulary, which I am happy with as well, as The Australian is a more refined publication. I think it was interesting though to read two reviews from The Australian and to find that they were written in very different styles. In addition to this, The Australian goes into greater detail, with each review being about 800 words.

Overall, I am happy with the results. It is something I enjoyed doing. Hardest part of the whole thing? Coming up with those headlines! I'd type something, then delete it straight after. 20 minutes of absolutely unproductive work!

Basics of War of the Worlds

Title: War of the Worlds

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin and Tim Robinson

Synopsis: The year is 2005 and the aliens have decided to attack. Ray Forrester, a divorced father of two, has custody of his children during the time of the invasion and must fight the odds to keep his kids alive.

Appealing: Special Effects, perfomances by Justin Chatwin and Dakota Fanning

Unappealing: Tom Cruise and, well, Tom Cruise

Notes: This film is also an adaptaion, based on the book by H.G.Wells. Visually very pleasing, although it has an incredibly weak ending with a lot of plot holes. (How does Robbie get to Boston? How come when Ray gets sucked up the tripod, everyone pulls him down but nobody tries for anyone else? Is it because it's Tom Cruise?)

Basics of Pride and Prejudice

Title: Pride and Prejudice

Director: Joe Wright

Cast: Keira Knightly, Matthew MacFayden, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench

Synopsis: Elizabeth Bennet is the second eldest of five daughters born to a middle class English family. The year is 1797 and Mrs. Bennet is desperate to have her five daughters married off so that they may live comfortably. The wealthy Mr. Bingly arrives to Derbyshire, accompanied by his sister and the enigmatic Mr. Darcy. Mr. Bingly immediately clicks with the eldest Bennet, Jane, whilst Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth seemingly take an instant dislike to each other. However, first impressions are not what they seem.

Most Appealing Aspects: Costuming, setting, acting, dialogue

Most Unappealing Aspect: Drags a bit in places.

Notes: Film is the latest adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, which makes it appealing. Also it has been made remade and adapted several times, so it is interesting to see a large budget movie attempt to stay true to the era and customs.

Proud and Prejudiced

Mood: Tired
Music: Swing Swing - The All-American Rejects

Ok, so progress thus far:

• War of the Worlds review is completed and adapted to the format of The Advertiser. Has been proofed. Facts have been checked
• Pride and Prejudice review: The bulk of the writing has been completed and proofed, just needs to be adapted to the layout appropriate for The Australian.

So yes, I have changed the intended publication for the Pride and Prejudiced review from Dolly to The Australian. It was just too hard to reach 400 words in what I have affectionately labeled "Bimbo Language". Instead, I've chosen to use The Australian as the vocabulary featured is more developed and I found it to be a much easier format.

Now that the actual reviews are completed (or pretty much completed) it is time to turn my attention to (drumroll please) the oral!!!!

Despite my earlier inclinations towards doing the oral on tape, I have decided to do it in front of the class. Yes, I'll be ridiculously nervous, but less preparation is involved and I think I'll do better if I can do it off the top of my head and speak naturally. The plan is to have a cue card with dot points of all the things which I need to address. Hopefully it should go well. :)

Haven't updated in a while

Mood: Good...which is quite possibly the most undescriptive word in the history of the world.
Music: Non-existent

Alright, so I haven't worked in this in a while, which is very, very bad of me. I had intended to do a lot of this over the course of the holidays, but unfortunately life got in the way. I have, however, thought of it to a great degree.

The two movies which I'm reviewing are War of the Worlds and Pride and Prejudice. The two styles I'm undertaking are the Sunday Mail and Dolly.

Problem? Well let's see. Dolly's film reviews are only about 50 words or less. However, it is more the style and target audience which I want to imitate. I figured the furthest I could get from a Sunday Mail audience and review, would be to write a review aimed at adolescent girls.

First of all, the language used is very different. While the Sunday Mail is primarily aimed at an older demographic and thus I am able to use more complicated vocabulary as I have in this sentence. On the other hand, Dolly is, like, aimed at the totally awesome teen girl crowd who look for totally different things when they're going to watch a movie. When a teenage girl goes to watch a movie, it's all about hot guys and happy endings. They're not really aiming to see a movie which challenges them.

My War of the Worlds review has mostly been done. I just need to alter a few words, come up with a ground-breaking headline and change the format to fit the Sunday Mail format. I'm pretty happy with it, although it is a critical review.

Process of reviewing War of the Worlds was:

• Rewatch the movie (borrowed the DVD from my cousins, however, I stayed away from the special features because they would have altered my perception of the movie)
• Sat down and wrote an initial review (What I thought from just seeing the movie, not overanalysing it and looking for particular film techniques or symbolism)
• Researched a bit (Headed over to IMDB to find out about the cast and crew, looked up reviews on www.rottentomatoes.com)
• Looked at reviews in the Sunday Mail, the format, the writing style

That's as far as I am so far.

So far on Pride and Prejudice I have watched the movie about four time (I love that film!), looked up the cast and crew on IMDB and read some reviews. I've also read some reviews in Dolly and Cosmopolitan to see the style.

Bada bing bada boom, that's how much I've done as of now.

Change of Plans

Time constraints have meant that there is probably minimal odds of me finishing a website by the deadline.

So yea, that has been delayed until the second application. Instead, I am film reviewing. Got lots of notes from Ms Rosevear about film reviewing, so right now it is definitely the better option.

Going to be reviewing two British films, Notting Hill and Pride and Prejudice, movies which I love. Not really linked properly, as one is a period piece, but oh well.

So new project, new timeline. Yay! Go me!

Stalemate

Mood: Tired
Music: Black Balloons - GooGoo Dolls

I've hit a stalemate (as the title might suggest) in my English Comms project. Right now, my drive for this project is in the negatory. I just...can't. Too much of everything going on right now. I will get it done, but right now I've lost my drive.

Hopefully it'll kick in after Sports Day. I mean, so many photo ops in one day? Who can resist!

Updates in the progress of the page: I have managed to get access to everyone's ID photos and I have a house list now of everyone in it, which is awesome. Also, I managed to have a look at the house crest...and it's not all that impressive. An atom on the crest? Nah.

Carter Site Front Page

Mood: Tired, which is nothing new
Music: Is non-existent. Nothing but the sweet sound of typing

Finished the carter front page, just have to put it into dreamweaver and do the hyperlinks. I'm not sure if I like the sky in the background or not. Might change it to water or something. I have to watch my copyrights from where I get photos though. Definitely going to have a long credits page. It's fun doing this right now, although I have no idea how to actually build the website. I seriously mean NO IDEA. Hopefully I can get someone to help me. Or find the 'Dummies' Guide to Web Design'. Just a thought, I have a second cousin who's a web designer who i can get to help me!

Clark Trial Run

Mood: Lazy
Music: Smallville TV Show

Made a mock-up front page for my site using Clark photos, so here it is.