Monday, December 2, 2013

Haiku

Tonight you have to write a traditional Japanese haiku.

Haikus - traditional Japanese poetry involving strong imagery and heavy symbolism.  It is three lines, 5-7-5 syllables per line, and it involves nature and a season.  The season must be clearly identifiable.   

Examples:  Here are two of the most famous of traditional Japanese haikus.   (these are both translated from Japanese into English, so the syllables don't match the 5-7-5)  

The old pond

A frog jumps in -
The sound of water




No sky
no earth - but still
snowflakes fall.

So....as you can see, a traditional haiku really portrays one single "picture" - a frog jumping in a pond, snowflakes falling in a still sky.  However, it is a very VIVID picture...and we can tell that these pictures evoke or represent something, at least a strong feeling.  Haikus are all about saying many things with very few words.  You know how a picture is worth a thousand words...that's kind of what a haiku tries to do...lots of meaning in just three lines.

Terms you need to make and understand for an awesome haiku (yes, there will be a test on these terms, so copy them down into your notes....


Imagery- creating a strong picture with words, usually involving sensory details.

Symbolism:  Having a thing (object, season, or color) represent some bigger idea.
       Metaphor: two things compared using a form of "TO BE"
       Simile: using "like" or "as" to compare two things.

Oxymorons: when you place two "opposite" things close together to show their contrast.  To find some really good examples, click here.

Enjambment: when a line of poetry does not end in end-punctuation (periods, colons, or semicolons)

End-Stopped:  when a line of poetry does end in end-punctuation (periods, colons, or semicolons)

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Go here to find your poem

It will take some hunting around, but these are the only places from which you can find your poem.  Read a few, and find one that catches your eye.


http://www.poetryfoundation.org/browse

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/565



Find it by the Monday you get back and be prepared to share WHY you think it is quality.


Thursday, November 21, 2013

If you want to know the definitions for your spelling words...

Follow these links...

Honors
CP
Standard

Spelling Words

Here are the spelling words for the honors list


And here are the spelling words for the college prep...


And here are the spelling words for the standard quiz...


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Film Study: Cinematography

Here are two clips from what we watched yesterday.  Feel free to write your paragraph about one of them!






Wednesday, November 6, 2013

12 Angry Men Film Study Paragraph

You are going to write a paragraph on the cinematography used in a scene from the movie, and how it affects the story.

An example topic sentence would be something like:  "In the scene about .... (describe the scene you chose) ... the director used many types of cinematography to enhance the story."  Then, pick some of the terms that were used, and discuss how they were used.

Cinematography terms:


  • overhead "God's Eye View"
  • underneath "Ant's Eye View"
  • dolly in, out, or across
  • pan down, up, left, or right
  • rack focus from one subject to another (action/reaction)
  • over-the-shoulder (character's perspective)
  • establishing shot
  • landscape (wide), group (medium), close-up, or extreme close-up (extreme emotion) 
  • musical score/soundtrack
  • lighting (dark=something to hide, light=exposed and open)
  • costuming

Friday, November 1, 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Camera Angles and Cinematography terms!


A director uses these elements to enhance the TONE and the THEMES of the movie.  We'll be applying it to Twelve Angry Men.

Score: music composed for a specific film to enhance emotion.

Establishing Shot: a shot that introduces a location and/or character.  It gives us the context, the "big picture" of the movie...so we know where this is, what the setting is.

Pan: when the camera turns on a single axis.

Dolly Shot: a steady camera movement through a scene in a single shot.

Rack Focus: a shift of focus from one element on a screen to another.

Wide Shot: shows the whole character.  More of a distant feel to it.  It's used often in introducing characters.



Medium Shot: shows character from waist to head.  Often used for dialogue.  This is the most frequent type of shot used in American film, and most of a movie is at this distance.


Close Up: shows a character's head and shoulders (although it can be of an object like a knife).   This gives you a chance to see the character's facial expressions.  Often used when we need to see a character's emotions.


  

another close up.....


  


Extreme Close Up: shows only a portion of the the face, ex: eyes or mouth.  These are the closest shots you can get and are used to focus on emotion.

 

another extreme close up...


and another...


and one more!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Shot-by-shot breakdown of the 12 Angry Men trailer...

Shot-by-shot breakdown of the 12 Angry Men trailer...

0-3s: Group shot, 10 yelling at the group

3-7s: Medium shot, 4 stabbing the table, dolly-shot towards knife, pan downwards.

7-14s: closeup of 8 in back of knife, rack focus to knife, 8 stabs second knife into table.

14s-16: closeup rack shot from 4 to 3 standing in back of him, reacting to second knife.

16-43s: Begin by over the shoulder shot of 8, looking at group.  Dolly towards 3 who walks up to 8 and closeup of both, demonstrating knife angle.  Rack focus from 3 and 8, to group, back to 3 and 8.

43 - 56s:Slow pan down from sky, landscape of outside of courthouse.

56s - 58s: Medium shot of 8 and group.  8 says what he thinks happened.

58s - 1:00: Medium of 3 and group.  3 asks how the old witness can be positive about anything.

1:00 - 1:05: Closeup of 10 talking about how people are bringing up picky little points that mean nothing.

1:05 - 1:22: Closeup and top-down angle of jurors hands on table, passing back secret ballots.  Voiceover of judge from beginning, followed by voiceover of narrator telling viewer to pay attention, because one day, you may be one of them.

1:22 - 1:27: Medium of 8 talking to 4, with group behind.  Voiceover of narrator saying how the have the smell of violent death in their nostrils.

1:27 - 1:29: Medium of 8 with group behind, listening to 3's rant at the end of Act 1.

1:29 - 1:32: Closeup of 3 continuing rant

1:32 - 1:35: Closeup of 8 with three jurors behind asking 3 if he is the executioner

1:35 - 1:37: Extreme closeup of 3 saying "you got it"

1:37 - 1:39: Extreme closeup of 8 saying 3 is a self-appointed public avenger

1:39 - 1:43: Extreme closeup of 3's face, quivering eyebrow as 8 calls him a sadist off-camera

1:43 - 1:48: Over the shoulder of 8, Medium of 3 lunging towards 8 saying "I'll kill him" as held back by 5 and 6

1:48 - 1:50: Closeup of 8, 3, 9, and 12 standing in judgement of the last line, as 3 continues off-camera.  Voiceover of narrator talking about the men turning into animals.

1:50 - 1:57: Pan right, medium shot as 8 grabs tic-tac-toe sheet from 12 and 3.

1:57 - 2:15 (end) Pan up of landscape outer courtroom towards sky.  Dramatic music.


12 Angry Men Trailers

12 Angry Men Trailers

Friday, October 25, 2013

What to think about over the weekend

On Monday we will begin filming trailers for 12 Angry Men in your pre-assigned production groups.

Over the weekend, I'll post our brainstorm list of good qualities for movie trailers, a list and description of camera angles, and the rubric that you will be graded upon.  They will all be up by Sunday morning...stay tuned!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Watch these trailers

Your job:  watch the following trailers.  Write down five things that an effective movie trailer must do/have.  We will discuss tomorrow.  You will be called on to answer.



Thursday, October 10, 2013

Prepositions Notes

A preposition is a word that relates a noun or a pronoun to some other word in the sentence. 
The boy by the window is a dork.
The word by in the sentence above is a preposition.  By shows the relationship of the word boy to the nounwindow.

Here are some (45) commonly used prepositions:
about
before
during
off
to
above
behind
for
on
toward
across
below
from
onto
under
after
beneath
in
out
until
against
beside
inside
outside
up
along
between
into
over
upon
among
beyond
like
since
with
around
by
near
through
within
at
down
of
throughout
without

But wait, it gets even more complicated!  Some prepositions consist of more than one word…..uhg!           
Kate likes Sawyer instead of Jack!

Here are some (12) common compound prepositions:
according to
aside from
in front of
instead of
across from
because of
in place of
on account of
along with
far from
in spite of
on top of

Now…the moment you’ve been waiting for…..the REALLY tricky part: prepositional phrases!

A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun in the headword position, called the object of the preposition.  Prepositional phrases, as a whole unit, act like either an adjective or an adverb…..ai carumba!  The following three sentences each have two prepositional phrases.

The painting near you is by a Brazilian artist.

The dog across the street ran in front of the car.

The dork in front of you is really into grammar exercises.