Documentary Review

For my documentary review, I wanted to watch something interesting and out of the ordinary. I've seen most of the classics, and while I could easily sit here and review a documentary about the fast food industry, I decided instead that I would find one that caught my eye, and that I genuinely wanted to see. The documentary I ended up watching was "Born Schizophrenic - Jani's Next Chapter". This film depicts the story of 9 year old Jani Schofield, a schizophrenic child that had made an appearance and told her story on Oprah, but was later interviewed and had her story made into a film.

The documentary talks about Jani's personal experience dealing with schizophrenia, and how she's experienced strange hallucinations in the forms of numbers and animals. Some of these hallucinations are harmless, but some, such as "Wednesday", the imaginary rat, tells Jani to harm herself and her family. Jani's parents struggle on a daily basis to care for her, as she needs constant supervision and may lose control at any moment. Her schizophrenia is so severe, that at a certain point the family had to move into two seperate apartments, one for herself and one for her little brother, Bodi. Fortunately, Jani's disease mellowed down to the point where her parents felt it safe for Jani and Bodi to live in the same apartment again. The film also describes Jani's parents, Michael and Susan, and their personal struggles trying to raise Jani and Bodi, who later begins showing signs of childhood schizophrenia as well.

The film itself is very interesting, not only the story but the cinematography, such as different clips of Jani in her state of hallucination, where it's clear Jani isn't functioning like normal children should. Another key filming technique portrayed in this documentary is the scenes of her talking to and interacting with her imaginary animals, named numbers and days of the week, primarily. These scenes help to emphasize the point of the documentary, and they really make a statement about the severity of the disease, and how devastating it is, especially in children.

Everyone involved in the documentary has a clear concern for Jani and her mental health, and it's clear through the different interviews with her parents, and psychological experts, that Jani's case is dangerous and very severe. These literary elements also help emphasize the documentary's theme, as her parents are clearly very concerned and aren't really quite sure where to turn at this point. With everyday being such a struggle, it's obvious that Jani's parents are at their wits end.

The film is primarily shot at Jani's apartment, where her parents are seen on film in their everyday lives, behaving and interacting with their children as they normally would. Jani's personality, while charming and lovely, shifts so quickly into her state of hallucination is disturbing, but at the same time, so interesting.

Overall, I highly recommend this documentary. It gives such a personal, inside look into the world of childhood schizophrenia, and how devastating raising a child with this kind of mental illness can be. Speaking as someone who's always been very interested in psychology and matters of the mind, this documentary is definitely one worth seeing. It's definitely a little disturbing, but once you get past the general idea, I found myself eager to learn more about the illness and how the Schofield's cope on a daily basis.

The Holiday Season

I realized today that I'll have to change my blog's theme once winter's over. But for now, I really like it. Which is really kind of contradicting, because there's nothing I hate more than cold weather. But I love everything about the holidays. I love snow, and hot cocoa, and family, and egg nog, and christmas trees, and lights, and mittens, and hugs, and laughter and singing and just everything about the holiday season. I love the seasonal drinks from Starbucks. I love everything about the holiday season.

But mostly, I love my grandma. Her name's Nonnie. She's Italian. And she's definitely the most important person in my whole entire life. She lived through the great depression, so she knows not to take things for granted. She's the kindest, funniest, strongest woman I've ever known. I wish I could spend more time with her.

Nonnie lives in New York, so I usually only see her for 2 weeks at Christmas, and when she comes to visit at random times in the year. She got here yesterday, and I haven't seen her in almost a year. That's a long time not to see your grandma. For me, anyway.

I guess family is a big part of the holidays for me. I don't really spend that much time with my family, because when we do see each other, we're arguing, or getting rides, or passing each other on the way to a practice/rehearsal/show. I wish I was closer to my siblings. But I love the holidays, because I get to spend quality time with them that isn't conflicted with school, or any events. And Christmas morning is always a really special morning for my family. I get woken up at like 6:30, but I don't even mind.

I can't wait for the holidays this year(:

The Beauty in Song

Music's always been something that really speaks to me. Whether it be a form of therapy, or just listening out of boredom, or physically playing guitar or piano, music's always been an outlet for me. My love of music probably started when I was a baby. My dad used to bring me in my little baby carrier over to my great Aunt Winnie's house, where she used to teach him piano. So every Sunday, for the first year or so of my life, I heard hours of beautiful piano playing, and as I've grown up with pianos and singing and music of every kind, everytime my dad plays Moonlight Sonata on the piano, I get this sense of calmness, and relief. I guess that's what he must've been learning with my great aunt. 

I started actually playing music in maybe 3rd or 4th grade, my dad would teach me simple songs on the piano to keep me distracted for awhile. But I'd always be ready for something new. So, in fourth grade, when we were given a choice of instruments to begin learning, I decided to play the trumpet. Which I did, for about 3/4 years. And I liked playing trumpet, I did, but it was never really something that I did because I wanted to, or because I was passionate about it. I did it because it was homework, and because my dad always used to say "I love hearing you play trumpet, Harp." And being a kid, all I wanted to do was make my parents proud. 

But I gave up on trumpet. And I started playing piano more, and after a few beginner lessons from my dad, I started playing chords, and those chords turned into songs, and before I knew it I was just hopping onto the piano and looking up the chords for whatever song was playing on the radio, and spending my Saturday afternoons perfecting it. I still do that now, and it's really become not just a passion of mine but some kind of therapy. Something about playing music puts me at peace every time I sit down to play. 

I also started playing guitar about two years ago, and I play guitar just as often as I do piano. I love playing guitar, I think it's such a beautiful instrument and I love the variety of things you can play. My favorite kind of music to play on guitar is probably anything with picking in it, I've recently been working on Ronan by Taylor Swift and Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver.

Guitar and piano have both been such great outlets for me, and I took this week to write about music because a lot of people don't know how passionate I really am about it. I started writing songs probably when I was like 10, just making silly songs up on the spot. But they turned into real songs, and now I have a couple that I think are actually pretty decent. So, yeah. I hope you enjoyed this little look into how music has affected my life, because I think it's something everyone should enjoy, too.

Exercise and Things

Exercise is one of those things that you really can't do without motivation. And, like a lot of things in my life recently, I have no motivation to exercise, or participate in any physical activity. I feel like if I had more motivation, just in general, I'd get so much more done in life. I'd get my homework done, I'd study for tests and quizzes instead of just winging it, and I'd eat healthy and exercise. Part of me really wishes I had that motivation, and the other part of me is just so used to being dissatisfied with my habits that it feels as though there's no hope.

There was about one week in the past month or two where I really wanted to be healthy, so I bicycled everyday, and ran, and ate a lot of fruit and whole grain bread and stuff. And I have to admit, I did feel better. I had more energy, I was in an overall better mood, and I enjoyed the things around me so much more than I usually do. But for some reason, that week didn't extend past those 7 days or become a habit. I'm back to my diet of Cup Noodles and Poptarts, and I feel awful again. Luckily, I just started this swimming thing every Sunday where I can swim for an hour, and clear my head, and then come home and feel better. This is also super helpful because it means I'm forced to get my homework done earlier on Sunday, to be ready for swimming at 5:30.

At first I was kind of dreading it, just because exercise is one of the many things that I'm not good at and therefore avoid altogether, but it turned out to actually be really fun. And it made me remember how much I love swimming, and why I dedicate my whole summer to it, even if I'm not the best one out there. I'm not the most coordinated person in the world, so when I find a sport that I'm decent at, genuinely enjoy and can be consistent with, I don't walk away from the opportunity. So I'm happy that I'm doing this weekly swimming thing. It'll be good. And I think it'll also help me out in more ways than one.

Capture The Fall (Watch in HD)

My "Capture the Fall" video challenge. Okay, this was actually so much fun to make. I took my little sister and my puppy down to the park and we had so much fun filming and running around, and it was such a nice, happy, productive use of time. I probably wouldn't have gotten to enjoy such a beautiful day without having this assignment to do, considering I spend my entire life in front of a 13" MacBook Pro, so I guess I owe this one to Mr. Mayo. But really, this was such an enjoyable experience. I filmed it on my iPhone 4, and I'm surprised at how good the quality actually is. Sometimes it's really grainy, but it turned out really well for this. I think it probably had something to do with the awesome lighting.

This was a really fun assignment, and I really enjoyed not only filming it, but picking music and putting it together. It didn't feel like homework to me, it just felt like a hobby; something I wanted to do. I like editing and filming and stuff, that's why I want to get into photography. But I have yet to buy a DSLR, because I spent $250 on really good seats to the Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran concert. Anyway, I basically just filmed a lot of pretty trees, and different shots of fallen leaves, and my dog and my sister. I'm glad I had to do this. If we did more creative assignments like this, where we just get a theme (like "fall") and we can do whatever we want with it, I'd look forward to those. So, yeah. That's my capture the fall challenge. Enjoy.

Little Things

Recently One Direction released a video for their new song, Little Things. Personally, I don't think One Direction is worth all the hype they get, but I mean, that's what's expected to happen when you take 5 attractive boys that can sing and have british accents and throw them into the music industry. I don't think they're terrible, but I don't like their music and I feel like they get so much credit when they really aren't that great. Anyway so their most recent song, Little Things, is absolutely beautiful, and it's written  by Ed Sheeran. 

Ed Sheeran is honestly one of my favorite musicians ever, he's so incredibly talented. Not just because he can sing, but because of his songs, and how they read like poetry. One of my favorite songs of his, Kiss Me, has some of the sweetest, most beautiful lyrics. "I'm falling for your eyes, but they don't know me yet, and with a feeling I'll forget, I'm in love now." His music resonates so much, when you hear a song of his all you can think of is the sheer brilliance it takes to write something as magical as some of the songs he's released. They're not all amazing, obviously, but unlike a lot of musicians that have a few great songs on an album and the rest mediocre; songs that fill space on an album but aren't that amazing, Ed Sheeran's album "+" is just one beautiful song after another. You can tell how hard he worked and how much the album means to him because all the lyrics are so personal, and so real.

The first time I heard Little Things I knew it didn't sound like regular One Direction pop singles and I recognized the intricate and personal lyrics, I even recognized his style of songwriting. That sounds weird, but his songs are so distinct that it's pretty easy to pick out an Ed Sheeran song. It kind of bothers me that One Direction's like hey, this is our new song, isn't it beautiful? And they're not telling the complete truth and being straight up like we didn't write this. One Direction's fans are obviously just gonna eat it up, because anything they put out is gold to them. I feel like people are gonna assume they wrote it and that's gonna kill me, because Ed Sheeran should get the credit he deserves for writing such a beautiful song.

Hurricane Sandy

I hate natural disasters. They scare me so much. You don't know when they're coming, how long they're going to be, how dangerous they are, how to prepare, etc. You don't know anything! They just happen, and then homes are destroyed and people are dead and cities are flooded and there's nothing anyone can do, except donate to endless relief funds and pray. Hurricane Katrina was probably one of the worst natural disasters to ever occur in the US, and even today we look back and see how terrifying that must've been. Obviously, this hurricane taking over the east coast isn't going to be nearly as bad as Katrina, but it's still terrifying to know that there's really nothing we can do except wait for disaster to strike. 

You can buy as many flashlights as you want, but what if all our houses get flooded? What if our homes and everything are destroyed? See this is the kind of thing that worries me endlessly. So I've taken it upon myself to write a list of things I would absolutely 100% need in case hurricane Sandy is really bad. This list doesn't include electronics. Because electronics die. It also doesn't include my family. Except my dog.

1. My dog.
2. My candles.
3. A lighter for my candles.
4. Batteries for the lighter.
5. Some food that never goes bad, like Chef Boyardee or goldfish.
6. Some crayons.
7. Paper.
8. Magazines.

You know. While writing this list, I've realized how absolutely lost I'd be without my electronics. It's sad but like honestly I can't live without my phone/computer. This hurricane is like a test to see if we can survive, and hey, we did the first time, right? During that huge storm when nobody had power for like 5 days? We survived then! My whole neighborhood, rallied together in the darkness. It was great. I spent 5 whole days at my neighbor's house, everyone bonded over the misfortune that was nature.

But then again, my neighbors had a generator. And therefore electricity.

Also another note, last weeks blog post was literally just a list of youtube channels. I need to get more creative. So from now on I'll try to write about something more interesting so I don't get like an E on my weekly blog post.

Kbyeee.

Youtubers

Recently I've been obsessed with youtubers and following all these vloggers and stuff. I love spending time on youtube watching different people, from like cooking channels, to beauty/fashion channels, to random vloggers that just talk to their cameras and somehow make it really funny. #dailygrace Also, a lot of beauty gurus (people that do makeup tutorials, etc.) have second channels, where they vlog about their life. A lot of them have third channels where they vlog from their iPhones. I'm fully aware of the amount of people I watch and that it's ridiculous. But in case you wanted some entertainment, I thought I'd share them.

So here's some of my favorite youtubers:

Beauty people and their other channels:  
Tracy/Stephanie and more Tracy/Stephanie
Ingrid and more Ingrid
Bethany and more Bethany (even though she barely posts on her second channel)
Fleur (she's british!) and more Fleur

People that have way too many channels:

JUSTINE:
Main
Vlog
iPhone
Reviews
Gaming

Funny people that I like:
Hannah
Grace
Mamrie
Joe Santagato

Cooking Channels:
Laura Vitale
Chef John

Cute sisters that sing together:
Cimorelli

Last one I swear:
Charles/Ally

^They've been making videos everyday for 1266 days.

Okay I'm really done. That was way too many. But yeah. K bye.

A Fresh Start

So this week's edition of the Harper Rants About Nothing show is gonna focus on something a little unusual. Our teachers have decided to let loose the reins and let our "creative spirits soar." Nobody really said that. I just threw it in for effect. But anyway, I haven't been to school in a week, and I'm not gonna talk about why because I already made the mistake of telling a few people, who told some more people, and now pretty much the entire cap program knows about the inner workings of my personal problems. 

I haven't always been the attention-seeking, spotlight-hogging, "does not play well with others" type, I think I grew into it. Which doesn't really make sense, seeing as I'm the oldest of 3 and spend most of my life teaching and caring for kids as little as 5 months old. I have no problem interacting with kids who are younger then me, probably because I like a sense of authority. But when it comes to people my own age, geeeeez things get out of hand. Everyone's always telling me how I'm such a social, people-person, but in reality, I think that's becoming less and less accurate. I like people, I like being around them and interacting with them and spending time with the people I enjoy. But the two ends of my I-enjoy-your-company spectrum are worlds and worlds apart. There are some people that I love, and there are some people that no matter how hard I try to like them, I can't stand being around them. I probably have the same effect on some people, it's a natural part of life. But I think I need to work on being more accepting and open to people.

This post really didn't end up being much except a very intense personal reflection. But hey. Whatever.

Here's a cute cat:

Dystopian Trailer

Equilibrium. Kurt Wimmer. R. 2002.

In an emotionless society, heavily oppressed by the government, authority figures are resposible for destroying anyone showing any sign of emotion. This lifestyle is fueled by the daily dose of Prozium, a drug that suppresses emotion, and when government agent John Preston (Christian Bale) misses a dose, he becomes aware of his situation and realizes he is the only one that can change it.

The trailer for Equilibrium is proven to be exemplary of a dystopian society through the use of violence, suspense, climatic music and excellent editing techniques. This trailer focuses mainly on the climactic points of the film; the confrontations and the action sequences which assist in highlighting the clear dystopia. The sequences edited together using advanced techniques and high quality shots emphasize the intense action taking place on screen, as the trailer begins with shots of the dystopia and leads up to the actual action sequences. 

The film shots, including advanced techniques such as reverting from close ups to motion shots, etc, emphasize the importance and intensity of Bale's rebellion against the government. Text is also used in this trailer to highlight the different signs of a dystopia, including nostalgic phrases that remind the audience of a "better time", such as, "freedom is a thing of the past".

As for my own dystopian trailer, I plan on using the same kinds of shots, such as the motion shots that portray just how intense and suspenseful the climatic moments of the film are. I also plan on using text to illustrate the key messages intended for the audience, as it was successful in this trailer in creating sympathy from the audience. I also plan to include suspenseful music in my trailer, that will tie everything together. 

5x5 Challenge Thing.

Clip 1: Bananas being cut up for the smoothie. I used a regular, yellow banana. 

Clip 2: An apple being cored, using an old and sometimes violent apple core-er. The juice sprayed everywhere and hit my eyeball.

Clip 3: The putting of fruit into a blender.

Clip 4: The blending of the fruits in the blender.

Clip 5: The pouring of the smoothie into a glass. Which was then drank by my little sister.

I created my 5x5 video with my iPhone 4, which has an 8 megapixel camera. It's not great quality, but it's pretty decent, and it does the job. I edited my clips using iMovie, which is already on my Mac. It was pretty simple, I just imported the clips into iPhoto, dragged them into iMovie and voilá. There she blows. I think it turned out pretty good, it was fun to cut up fruit and make it into art. I don't really have any ideas for more independent video projects, but I'm sure my fellow Cappers will have lovely contributions to the group. Actually we could pick a random, individual topic and make a video about what that topic means to us. It'll give us a chance to express ourselves, and show people kind of what we like to do/how we are in that environment. 

Learning Styles: Social Media

The article I read discussed the importance of technological use in the classroom, and allowing students to communicate on various networking sites as a way to express themselves, and explore their interests in an educational way. Will Richardson quotes, "These are allowing us not only to mine the wisdom and experiences of the more than one billion people now online but also to connect with them to further our understanding of the global experience and do good work together." I think this quote really reflects how important it is, and how effective it could be if more technology and social media sites were used in the classroom. They allow students to be able to work together, give each other feedback, comments, etc. and communicate while at the same time exploring their interests and learning new things. 

I was surprised at the intensity and passion that came through in this piece, Richardson clearly strongly believes that technology and social sites should be a part of the school system, and that they're the most effective way for students to express themselves, and explore their passions. I think this could be useful in our class, as we use blogger already to express ourselves and at the same time, learn about cinematography. The idea also relates to our Youtube sharing, which gives us a chance to share our work with the outside world, and get feedback from people other than our teacher and peers. 

I'm interested in exploring different kinds of cinematography, and how to edit videos to make them really high quality, and nice to watch. My favorite kinds of videos are videos that are high quality, nicely edited and overall professional looking, so I think it'd be interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes of impressive videos like that, and maybe make one.

Annotated Article

Movie Reviews: Ted.

The movie review I read was one that, in the end, I really just didn't agree with. It was called, "The Lady or the Teddy?" and it was written by A. O. Scott of the NY Times. It was very opinionated, and didn't really address much of the plot or the acting, and completely left out the cinematography. The whole thing had a pretty negative tone, and having seen the movie myself, I feel like it should've been given a little more credit.

It basically just takes shot after shot at the humor, the plot and the "lack of originality" of "Ted" throughout the entire 655 word article, which is honestly just a waste of time. It wasn't even informative. Usually I don't rant about random things like this but honestly it was kinda ridiculous. I don't really know what triggered this apparent hatred for Seth MacFarlane, because I think he's hilarious. But whatever. I guess everyone has their own opinion.

For the quarterly movie reviews, we should be able to watch any film we want to, but the type (like documentary, different genres, silent film, etc.) should be assigned. Then the criteria should just be to talk about what you thought of the movie, and include all the different elements. That'd be interesting, and a lot more fun to write since it's not so structured, and we're more free to voice opinions.

That's just my take.

Thanks.

Annotated Review

My Life & Stuff.

Hey. I'm Harper. I'm 15, I'm a sophomore at Blair. I have 30 candles because I collect them all the days. I don't take myself too seriously because life's not fun that way. I have a 5 month old golden retriever puppy, and I love him more than life. That's why I chose a puppy as my picture. I babysit, and act onstage, and sing sometimes. Not that well though. This blog is for school/cap/media class. That's why I made it. But like. Probably other stuff will end up on here too.

My favorite part of filmmaking is performing, but I also like filming. I like acting, and being silly, and capturing fun moments on camera. I like actual filmmaking too. Especially with nice cameras that cost more than my house, because the videos are pretty and I like watching them.

I haven't actually done that many film projects, but I'm excited to make some this year. I want to actually film something. And go through the process of editing, and seeing the final product and knowing I accomplished something.

I think there's a lot of ways we can use our blogs this year. We can use them to communicate and socialize with our teacher, and each other. We can share ideas and information, and use them to work together on different projects. Change project groups can look at each others blogs for inspiration, and ideas.