Final Presentation

My guiding question is one that was influenced by all that is or is to become of the connections between all my classes. With my Humanities class focused on Equality alongside with my Steam class focused on Social Entrepreneurship and You, off the bat you wouldn't think that my guiding question had been imposed by the same question asked in our course text in a STEAM class. It had fascinated me the balance in which we were taught the making of a marketed economy and the self actualization of the YOU in which we are challenge to impose questions in the eyes of the audience being the measurement. Which then led me to believe the clear connection between the correlation with my Equality class is that it had imposed us to also think about past community's of historical unity which then led us to believe in the future in which we look at ourselves as the new generation. With time being a moment of exclusion I wanted to envision building unity within guarded walls of safety. As my guiding question calling to action I ask us all, 

What is the relationship between your needs, your family's needs, your community's needs, and the needs of the world at large?

In Times of needs we all see reason in where the problem is stemming from and whom fits to hold responsibility. Understanding the important roles we partake in allow us to secure us all. Precaution on Spreading is the number one step to action. 

Why spread Germs When You Can Spread Support
: Social Message To Social Distancing

Innovate the Arts

Social Entrepreneurship and You is our first unit in which we dove into the social behaviorisms within the business realm. In order to understand how a brand mission starts to establish we needed to understand the foundation of a mission. Our class had taken several personality test and self reflected conversations to be able to build our name in which we define how we would describe ourselves to each other. These practices allowed us to get a sense on how our qualities contribute to a working space. Once we dove into our external portion of our investigation we were able to identify these qualities in forms of work fields. These assessments was a great opportunity to see yourself setting goals in an area that benefits you as much as you benefit the space. Now that we learned from ourselves and our classmates we took that same practice to blueprint ideas through our space, GCE. The purpose of this Action Project is to propose an area in which can be improved through conducting feedback and our own jigg. 

Voices in GCE: I define myself possessing traits of being open-minded, risk-taking, creative, and a full time ROCKSTAR. After we were told to enter several personality quizzes what I once defined myself to be had changed. One of the quizzes we took was 16 personalities, I resulted into being a ENFP campaigner "type". An ENFP type is described to be fiercely independent, and much more than stability and security, they crave creativity and freedom. To get a more well rounded result I also took The Big Five assessment quiz to measure the percent in which follow the O.C.E.A.N(). After seeing the common threads I wasn't shocked at the results as I am a person who reflects on the way I am around my environment constantly because of the I had a sense in where these quizzes will categorize me to begin. Overall these quizzes allowed me to better identify myself in a working environment specifically the school. Knowing what I know about myself I can now better understand the role I play into GCE and for that I will be able to better asses myself and others into incorporating multimedia outlets into GCE. To further our understanding of GCE's connection with art I followed up with two faculty members and two students perspectives to tell me about there personal relation. - Marcus expressed how the arts is integrated into our curriculum as oppose to it being a main principle. He feels as if the arts is apart of the design aspect of the school as our goal is to become global citizens. Marcus also spoke about how he gets to experience art within GCE through example projects that happen behind the scenes when it comes to making the lessons and workshops for students. - Tirsa spoke on how many students in this school are involved in different forms of art but definitely no guided toward only the arts. Tirsa spoke how she likes to work on her music mixes in-between classes as she feels inspired by certain talks that go on in her classroom - Neymar expressed as if he is not able to fully apply his interest in the arts as much as he would like because certain action projects restrict him from being able to fully express his creative process within the curriculum. - Montse expresses teaching Spanish the most effective when incorporating culture and art into her teachings. When it comes to teaching a language having kids tap into art allows them to connect easier between subjects.

Organization:  SWOT is a technique used for project planning to further help tackle certain trends and practices to a intended outcome. In order to implement my plan for GCE I had organized the information I gathered to place into a SWOT plan. Strengths -  GCE excels in exposing students to forms of connecting art to world change by resources, support from staff, and a platform to display your interest. Weaknesses - Action Project is a form in ways students get creative yet the time constraints students from applying a more creative take into big projects. Students aren't given consistent art classes that effect the individual and one to graduate with art credits. Opportunities - Supervisors support leads to the opportunity for students to feel their creative process into class assignments.  Threats - School Schedule and curriculum timing. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs categorizes these words into a pyramid shape to point that without having basic needs its difficult to reach higher in the chart to later then receive stability in safety and esteem being two of them. I will use the practice of the chart to asses how GCE fits into these 5 categories. Self Actualization - Senior Capstone, Clubs, Independent Study Esteem - Action Projects, P.I.E Love & Belonging - Group Activities, Soapbox, Support Safety - Art Supplies, Shelter Physiological - Students tend to draw as a form of being present and comfortable in GCE Commons After collecting the common threads from the several conducted information I see that people feel the same in having the ability to express themselves in school yet all face the challenge of time being given to explore more of ones fascinations.

Plan:  My plan is to not reinvent the wheel. GCE is an environment that welcomes art to be into the conversation in many ways than one. This being said I believe GCE needs to apply consistency instead. When facing the ongoing and changing schedules every year its understandable that certain things get oped out. After doing this Action Project I see that art should not be a category that gets replaced. Many students who come to GCE set time to do whats required in that space, this becomes difficult when certain art workshops are not given to students as resources where they then have to find their own source of receiving the academic foundation while taking steps for themselves as creative learners. Looking into the assessments A SMART goal I came up with that personally impacted myself as well was art club. Art club had allowed students like myself to tap into a conversation of art history and learning more about styles and techniques I didn't know existed once before. Although art is implantednaturally through our planned courses I think its important for GCE to see art as a class that stays in our schedules because forming a space initiated by form of expression allows our community to support each others passions and bring them into the conversation! Once the conversation is given there is no telling what opportunities GCE can be making off from the support. Self Lab Rat During this action project I wanted to allow myself to do more art because like many of what my peers experiences I to face the problem of not doing art because of needing to keep up with school. I decided that'll it would be fun to allow myself a space inside GCE to continue creative outlets during the regular given assignments. Doing this self assessment made me realize how effectively I can balance in class discussions while allowing myself a space to not loose my motivation.

White Noise

In our last unit of Ollywood, we found out about the principal components of a film after creation: altering, scoring, and enhancements. So as to comprehend the significance of these components, our class broke down a few visuals showing how altering structures film, how music score sets the mood and the enhancements of special effects. For my propelled investigations of Kurosawa, I was entering during the time spent concluding my capstone. I led my very own Field Experience to YouMedia as an incredible method to use their space for equipment and editing software. Making this film I needed to set an alternate tone from my past tasks, I dove into the aesthetic and make importance into what I place inside the frame. The greatest challenge I faced during this unit must be the detail of sound. I deliberately put myself where I needed to mess around with sound, I needed to feel the befuddled energy I felt the first occasion when I snapped a photo with the camera, and the first time I had made a complicated effect on Adobe Premier and have that equivalent feeling with sound. It wouldn't have been an Akira Kurosawa study without the opportunity to watch his films. For the last unit, I watched Kurosawa last film titled Dreams. Dreams was altogether something new for Akira Kurosawa specifically his editing process. Akira expressed that altering had dependably been so natural for him, he would take an hour toward the finish of each scene that was shot and alter it on the spot. That was unquestionably not the situation for his last film made in the 90s when altering programming started to incorporate shading evaluation and CGI. I took motivation from Kurosawa's exploratory expressive decision by creating something other than what's expected from my typical style. ROLL THE CLIPP!

White Noise (2018)

pg-13 | 7min 44sec | coming of age | 27 January 2019 (USA) |

Director: Genesis Andrade

Writer: Genesis Andrade \ improv.

Stars: Ayana Sterling & Genesis Andrade

Description:  

White Noise follows a girl as she disengages herself from her feelings when shes faced with a significant other she obscures her battle of self-control by concentrating on time.

Annotated Bibliography

1. Dreams. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. DVD. Warner Bros. (United States) Toho (Japan), 1990

Dreams is a 1990 Japanese-American magical realism film of eight vignettes written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. It was inspired by actual dreams that Kurosawa claimed to have had repeatedly. This film has influenced the purpose of White noise. Kurosawa implements a compilation of shorts that share a common thread of focusing on Humanity. He does this by utilizing a wide shot all through the young man's voyage as it underlines on the on the truth of the fantasy. This led me to believe the audience empathy would focus on the world than the emotions of the fundamental character. I pursued this idea by excluding the audience perception of the main character and including her surroundings inside the frame in order for the audience to build their perception of her by themselves.

2. Kurosawa, Akira, and Akira Kurosawa, and Akira Kurosawa. Seven Samurai: and other screenplays. London: Faber and Faber, 1992.

This book holds the screenplays of three films directed and written by Kurosawa. Ikiru (1952) recounts the excruciating story of a Japanese government employee dealing with seniority and passing. In Seven Samurai (1954) the occupants of a little Japanese town utilize a wandering group of samurai to shield them. In Throne of Blood (1957), in view of "Macbeth," a samurai is urged by his significant other to slaughter his master. I utilized this book for a presentation I conducted to have the students annotate the script as I show the scenes of Throne of Blood.

3. Kurosawa, Akira, and Bert Cardullo. Akira Kurosawa: interviews. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2019.

This book holds several interviews that quote Akira Kurosawa's. I was so interested in getting this book because there are nearly any interviews with Kurosawa on the internet. I wanted to learn more about Kurosawa as a person by reading the way he answers to question so this was a very enjoyable read.   

4. Prince, Stephen. The warrior's camera: the cinema of Akira Kurosawa. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1999.

This book discusses Stephen Prince study of Kurosawa's films. Prince discusses how Kurosawa had influenced well known Hollywood directors some being, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and George Lucas. Most importantly it talks about Kurosawa's visual symbolism that touches on the post-war Japan dynamic systems. I used this passage to understand the easternized influences in western culture.

5. Wilde. Dir. Brian Gilbert. 1997. https://youtu.be/l4x3ADf0eBo. 9 May. 2009 <https://youtu.be/bcIClng5K94>.

Wild is a documentary on Oscar Wilde touching on his complex creations and sexuality. Wild had discussed a specific quote that stuck to me, “Does Life Mimic Art or Does Art Mimic Life”. As I looked into what it means for art to mimic life or life to mimic art I had seen it as anti-design v.s modernism. This brought the question of art taking its shape or art being modified. I then compared this to the irony of the film Dreams and how it builds collective dreams into reality. Which I then used as inspiration on forming my scenes.

6. Yoshimoto, Mitsuhiro. Kurosawa: film studies and Japanese cinema. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.

Yoshimoto starts off mentioning Kurosawa's films immense impact on the way the Japanese have viewed themselves as a nation and on the way the West has viewed Japan. Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto definitively analyzes Kurosawa’s entire body of work, from 1943’s Sanshiro Sugata to 1993’s Madadayo. Yamashita then argues the tension Akira had stirred with his works. He discussed the “problematic” image Kurosawa portrays and the effects that have on japan's image and the West image on Japan. Yamashita then analyses the cliches of Japan's social-cultural and Institutional dilemmas being shown in every piece of Akira’s work. He then goes to reflect on the larger issue of Japanese film history by seeing the recurring negative patterns of national and cultural identity. Although Yoshimoto had strong opinions towards the works of Akira he acknowledges Kurosawa achievements. The biggest reason I read this was because I wanted to. I wanted to get a different perspective on Akira's work and the negative effect his films had caused towards the “partnership” of Japan and America.

In conclusion, this has been one of the most influential experiences that changed me in many different ways. The feeling I got when I read articles, books, and videos about Akira Kurosawa forming eastern and western cultures had made me love film even more. I had really enjoyed the internal investigation as it led me to absorb the external investigation more profoundly. By knowing the history I was able to pinpoint Kurosawa's metaphorical stylistic choices and build better analyses. I was always the type of person who learned more on hands-on experiences to perform an understatement of a subject it was very interesting how I had felt otherwise in my Independent Study. I've never felt so driven to learn more about the history of anything! ever! but having the opportunity to dive into my passion in an annotative lens changed the way I see myself as a leaner. I can only really thank Brent for allowing me to have me in his class again and work with my discoveries along the way. 

1) what is one unexpected thing you learned /experienced?

2) How did wl1 work toward

What's your meaning of life?

Welcome to the second unit of the senior humanities class "Journalism." In this unit, called "photography." we explored the photographic side of journalism. We spent a lot of time looking at influential photographs. We discussed how these photos influenced the public and how we take photos today. One of my favorite assignments was when we picked one photograph from each decade of the 20th century. I really enjoyed looking through photographs of the past century. It was interesting to see the historical events captured in influential photographs. For this unit's field experience, we went to Columbia College to sit in on an introductory journalism class. We were able to learn more about journalism while getting to see what a college class looks like and feels like. We also participated in Chicago Ideas Week. For this action project, we had to interview someone about what they thought the meaning of life is. I had some trouble trying to figure out who I should interview, but the simplicity of asking the person I spend my time with made the most sense insightful.

Day Dreaming a Meaning

GA, "run", 2019

"We gaze in what seems to be important at that moment, what passes through your life is a choice of what you practice.” In response to my lingering questioning of life Gabori Partee had curiously sparked several more questions through our conversation as we sat on a stoop staring at the trees. I had asked Gabori what specifically seems to be holding meaning in a moment as I was curious as to what is it the dictates substance in his life. I saw the frustration in his speech as he ironically concludes by saying how It becomes increasingly too difficult to come up with life’s ultimate lesson because it depends on how that lesson reveals suitable to your life at that moment. The lesson that we might think applies to our life varies because of all the different challenges that we have currently and the ones that are upcoming in life. It then became clear to me that Gabori is one to hold true through thinking that living in the present is what sets a person's future. As I continued to question I had asked what is it that dictates one's “ultimate lesson” in which he responded by saying it's like a mental game of patience and acceptance. I then paused by taking in on what he said as I felt like it deeply resided in my life as well. As the sun began to set we headed towards the river where he then questioned, “ Would one want to look back on their life and think that they did not accomplish all the things that he or she had hoped or wish that things had turned out differently? This just means that you have not fulfilled all the tremendous things life brings.” As he took a moment to recollect his thoughts I proceeded to ask if he is one to hold regrets. Very confidently he remarked on regrets not being existent as it is what builds your life to construct on everlasting change and practice by the moments. He had then brought up how “patience is underrated as it is easier to overcome for a human than acceptance of one’s situation or state. Therefore, having a meaningful life establishes life’s greatest lesson.” It was evident Gabori had sensed in what a life with meaning looks like so I had questioned him on how a life without meaning looks like. He voiced that, ”such as death, fear, and aging, which are all elements to having a meaningful life. So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." Gabori’s answer unclouded the conclusion of what it means to have meaning, it was clear to him that in order to find life looking in would never be the solution to that never-ending question of life as it is important to see yourself in others and your surroundings in order to see what grounds you. He frustratingly points out, “ If people could apply this approach to their own life, things would be better for all of us but some people are too devoted to themselves that they cannot find their purpose in life.” As the scene began to get dark our conversation took a turn of its own as we discussed how death plays a big part in it too. Gabori explains how preparation and acceptance illustrate the importance of dealing with the fact that we all are going to die at some point. “Everyone knows they’re going to die, but nobody believes it. If people accepted that they are going to die, people would do things much differently. Knowing that you could die at any time forces one to really appreciate life and the people in their life.” As it becomes obscure into a paradox of how one thinks life is meant he ended our conversation with, “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Taking in moments of silence I then felt as if I was ready to capture the image. I had taken my image with my DSLR camera so that I will be able to have the most control over the aperture, shutter speed, and the overall composition. As I noticed outside had gotten darker I immediately knew I needed to change my settings so that I will be able to capture him with as much light as I can manipulate. I set my settings to 800 on exposure so that I can overall brighten up the frame without using to much grain, the shutter speed had been set to 200 frames per second so I can capture a cleaner motion picture, and lastly the aperture was set to f 2.8 so that I can have as much light come in as well. Now that I was ready to capture my shot I had asked Gabori in the count of 3 to run pass me so that I can capture a moving image. Luckily on the first try, I was able to obtain the image we had both wanted. Overall I was more than happy as to how my image and my interview had gone and felt as if was a great way for me to combine something I love into my learning.

Greening the Screen

This is the second and last unit in my senior STEAM course Economics. In this unit, we looked more in-depth about thinking like an economist. What led us to our internal portion of our investigation was a book by Kate Raworth titled, "Doughnut Economics- 7 ways to think like a 21st-century economist". In order to tackle the 7 parts of this book we paired in two and prepared a mini-lesson presentation for our peers. The importance of this was to understand the book's proposals in bettering the economy while saving the eco-system. For the external portion of our course, we visited We Work where we then met up with Rheaply. We had the opportunity to talk to the CEO and team members of this company where we learned how their business is innovating a circular economy by sharing professionals resources inside their industry. With the knowledge a
nd experience we gathered up we then took action into our learning by thinking how do we view the economic world. I decided to have my focus be the sustainability in film production. By taking Raworths lesson of a closed-loop economic system I am proposing for this model to be imposed in the film industry.

Greening The Screen

GA, "sustainable filmmaking", 2019

   As we imagine ourselves creating a story in action our mind immediately goes to wanting the best location, costume design, storyboard, equipment, etc. Although in pre-production, production, and post-production is meticulous in thinking about whom and where our sponsors and resources are coming from, we still tend to lose our focus in the waste that gets made behind the glamour. Sustainable film production isn't a new topic thankfully but nevertheless is it enforced or talked among our culture. One of Raworth's passage speaks on a circular economy. A circular economy works in eliminating waste and the production of it by ways of sharing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling in the results of having a decrease in pollution and carbon emissions and an overall balanced community. Although this isn't an idea that raises surprised heads it still raises questions as to how this can be infiltrated in a working society. This is the same question Raworth asks us as she states, "the job of today's economist is to figure out what kind of finance systems, regulations, and government support is needed to make that happen because the design will already do it but the finances, government, and business need to realign with redesign meaning that an economist job is to figure out how do you design the institutions to make this possible." This exact idea of thinking the solutions are already set for us but placing ways we can have this be a requirement in our growth as individuals, business owners, and community builders is what influenced me to think of this in a field of film. Filmmaking becomes scary when data shows that the making of a big-budget blockbuster can generate 3000 tonnes of C02 and one hour of tv production generates 9 tonnes of C02. This data puts you at a halt when you closely look at the quick changes that can be practiced within these film studios. My model focuses on the benefit of sustainable production. The amount of money that can be saved by reducing set construction by 20 percent and then reusing 25 percent of the material could save about $20,500. This being just one form of the bigger solution comes from turning accessibility to credibility. On our FE we spoke to Rheaply where we discussed how they use a circular economy module in working with the businesses. This led to the relationship between film studios and how much more of a closed net it can become if transparency was set in a way that was accessible for them. One of the team members that we spoke to at Rheaply spoke on how creating a platform that allows businesses to be part of the process allows Rheaply to gain credibility and allows the business to reduce waste through partnerships in their community. Although America is not confined to this type of model... yet, this is when we have organizations like the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to learn from. The BAFTA encourages sustainable production through a selection of 12 of the U.K.’s largest production companies. Consequently, the Academy has its own carbon calculator and a nonprofit organization named Media Greenhouse that promotes sustainable production practices in the industry. This form of placing value in waste reducement is what sets us up to want to meet the standards. Fortunately, when thinking of cinematography as a worldwide language we have a grand hope that America will to learn from studios like the UK and become a closed net community.

Cited Works
- “News.” Sustainability Could Play Leading Role in the Film Industry – Green Production Guide, https://www.greenproductionguide.com/sustainability-could-play-leading-role-in-the-film-industry/.

Voice of the Century

The third and last unit of my Senior Humanities course News coverage. In this unit, Sound, we learn all around sound news coverage. We tuned in to diverse podcasts and inquired about the voices of the century. This was an task where we had to choose a voice from each decade of the 20th century that speaks to what happened in that time period. We did comparative assignments. I truly preferred this task. It was a cool way to encounter sound from history. For our Field Encounter this unit, we went to Roosevelt College to see a photography display around worker detainment centers. This FE would have lined up superior with our photography unit, but there was sound within the show. For this action project, we had to form a podcast profiling and famous or influential voice. I had a difficult time considering of who to profile, but when I thought of powerful voices I knew I had to do Michael Jackson.

Tune In:




Read Along:

TIME	WHO	WHAT
0:00 0:50 1:15 1:37 2:33	GA Erin GA Father GA	“When we think of Michael Jackson, we think of his high-pitched shrieks, twirls, moonwalks, and impactful songs that changed music forever. His mark on the industry alone is enough to make him a legend — but that’s not all people remember him for. One of the most significant ways Michael Jackson influenced the world was through global culture. The music legend wasn’t just famous in the United States. He was famous all over the world, Through his influence, he was able to bring a sense of connection — He envisioned the world coming together in peace and harmony and created music that unified.Jackson's music took root in R&B, pop and soul. His play on different mediums and pop culture had gravitated all kinds of people to take a listen and tune in. These are some voices captured by the love of Michael Jackson” “There are so many songs out there that I feel like are inspirational but one of them I would say Man in the Mirror because that one really represents wanting to make a change and that change has to start with yourself before letting that out towards everybody else. I listened to him a lot when I was younger but one of the songs I remember listening with my brother was leave me alone, we used to always re-watch that video over and over again. I don’t really know why but I just always remember him being someone I listen to to this day.” “ Just like the youth gets impacted by the voice of Michael Jackson lets not forget about the old soul who grew up listening to Michael Jackson” “My favorite song is Billie Jean, I like the music of that song. My first time when I listened to was when I was in high school. Now that I am older and in my early 50’s and sometimes when i feel tired in the job I listen to that song and I get more energy because of the music makes me remember my young age and gives me so much energy to finish my job” As it seems to be Michael Jackson gave life to many people and that is why he is one of the most influential voices of the century.”