WEEK 7 Reflections 1st June 2007

looking at our week 7 class notes, the elements of a dialogue include a character talking about himself.
through one simple movie that Mr Ryan had shown us, this element had been explain.
The character in this movie had shown us exactly what type of person he is, his background and even his likes and dislikes.
The old saying goes, “what you say is what you are”, is indeed very true.

i do agree that dialogues should be used sparingly.
i remember watching chinese movies whereby the dialogus are seriously very long. they just keep talking and talking, and ill just turn off the TV.
dialogues should be simple, straightforward and easily understood.

“Dialogues establishes relationships between characters”
i guess this is really subjective. i remember watching the short film, ‘Chairy Tale’
there wasnt even a dialogue. but it was really really entertaining. It uses purely actions and body language to show communication between the two characters. so i dont think only dialogue establishes relationships between character.

A story starts with character.
hmmm once again, cant a short story dont start with a character?
perhaps the story can begin by showing really torn down places, like after a war scene?
So in order words, the camera-man will focus only on the location to try to tell a story? isnt that possible?

“When you are developing a character, ask yourself:
- Who is my character?
- What does he want?
- What is her quest?
- What drives him to the resolution of the story?”

this reminds me of the many characters in LOTR. Each of them has their unique role in the movie.
Gandalf is supposingly the “angel”, who sends help at cruical moments.
Sam plays the humble and honest character who is always there to push the ring-bearer

Week 6 Reflections, 25th May 2007

Who Brings The Story To The Audience?

It is people who bring the story to people

Does this mean only the people can bring a story to people? What about animals? can’t animals bring a story to people?
imagine yourself seeing a badly injured dog limping towards you. Does it not bring a story to you?
how about a cat with scratches all over her body. Does she not tell a story to you?

i ponder.

that aside,
anyone who writes a memo or even this blog, post their comments and thoughts all because of their past experience and memory.
just like what was being told in the week 6 lecture notes.
Some of the storytelling tools include EXPERIENCE and MEMORY.
We all tell stories based on those facts.

However, what about authors who write fiction books? they definitely never had experienced fighting monsters or even ghost.
where the heck did they get their inspiration from? their dreams?
then what do we classify those scriptwriters who write scripts for movies like LOTR and Harry Potter?
i mean if storytelling is really based on experience and memory, then what about those scriptwriters who write FANTASY movies?

We all are writers honestly. Each type we write a reflection, we fulfill the following:
- To connect (emotions, able to visualize)
- Themselves (own past, history, life)
- Their unique vision
- The material
- The drama

- sometimes are reflection links us back to the past, thus even creating a DRAMA.
- each time we post our own view on topics, and even post rebutalls on the ISSUES discussion boad, we all
have our own UNIQUE VISION
- each time Joshua becomes EMO in writing this assignments, he is able to connect the EMOTIONS to the
audience
- when all T1B2 do their assignment for “dialogues”, we all are trying to allow the audience to VISUALIZE
what is happening.

Week 5 Reflection

Week 5 Reflection
And so today we watched a movie; I think it has a little bit of drama inside it too. I guess from the movie I’ve learnt that besides climbing your way to the top, you must also learn to maintain it.

Through, Miss …, we had learned how hard working you have to be so as to achieve what you want in life; however, we have also learnt that climbing the ladder to the top, and stabbing other people’s back to climb up that same ladder, is totally different.

Through Mr …, I’ve learnt that after climbing up the ladder, and being a successful man, with all sorts of great achievement and even a family; maintain this position up the ladder is difficult. Cause, once you slips and let your guard down, everything will come falling down on to you.

This movie also shows that life is based on god and destiny. If this is your destiny, you will have to accept it. No matter how hard you try, you just get pushed around and you still end up, following what’s destined to you. But is this really true? Can no human choose not to follow the path of destiny? Well, I think I’ve tasted a bit of destiny. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how much initiative I took to try my very best to change out of this course, destiny just seems to be pulling me back, right here.
But I won’t give up, just like Miss …. There are still two more hopes for me, and I will never give up.

In this movie, conflict had also occurred between Miss … and Paul. A conflict between man against man and also has a variation of sex, age and background. Miss .., is female, who comes from a rich background whereas Paul, a male, comes from a rather average well-off family. Both of them had worked equally hard to compete in the elections. I guess all conflicts will have to follow this format of either man against man, man against nature or, man against self.
And so in this plot, there are several conflicts that had also lead to changes such as relationships, location and lives.

Mr .., had gone through both relationship and location changes. Mr…, had gotten committed adultery and caused his relationship with his wife to turn sour, and eventually leading to a divorce; he then moves out of his home town and somehow, starts life anew.

Miss… had gone through a change in live. She eventually climbs up the ladder, living her dream to becoming a lawer.

Changes are common to everyone, we all must learn how to adapt to changes and, know how to deal with it.
In life, we all get pushed around; we all fall down and have to pick ourselves up once again. It’s all about knowing how to deal with the things that happen to us in life, and being proactive =)

4th Week Reflection

Week 4 Reflection

I would definitely agree with the definition of Greek Tragedy. A tragedy would be written on something similar that had happened. The narrative of a tragedy must be well expressed with words, to describe the feelings and emotions that occurring at that time, so as to allow the reading to understand what exactly is going on in the situation and, in the people’s mind.
And therefore agree that this definition of a tragedy is correct. A tragedy would not be successful if a narrator did not describe the feelings and emotions going on. Just imagine, a bombing took place in the heart of America; but the narrator only described the time, location and the cause of the bombing. Would the audience have any idea how badly had the people suffered? It does not bring out mood and the seriousness of this effect.

In every tragedy, there would be a cause and effect chain. Tragedy is all about having a cause to happen first. For example, terrorist bombing up the twin-tower or, a massacre happening in a school; would be a cause. And the effect would be, the lost of their love ones or, probably even taking revenge. Besides occurring in a tragedy, the cause and effect chain happens almost everywhere; be it, in a discussion, a competition and a quarrel. For every cause, there will definitely be an effect.

I will now discuss about the Episodic Plot.
The Episodic Plot is, the only thing tying together events in such a plot is the fact that they happen to that same person.
According to Aristotle, he disagrees with it, and believes a story should have the beginning, middle and the end.

In my opinion, I would agree with Aristotle. I believe that every story should have it’s beginning, the climax, and the end. Regardless of how it ends, be it an incomplete or a mysterious one, it is still an ending. During this three process, there would definitely be some other characters that would affect the main character’s life directly, or indirectly. If every movie today were to follow the Episodic Plot, I believe movies would be rather dead. There would be no creativity, motifs, formal expectations and suspense. Everything would be rather dead because that fact that everything happens to only that same person. If there was a story where A and B are different people, and have different events occurring to them at the same time; however, the audience only finally realizes that the events happening in A and B lives is nothing more than, a cause and effect between each other, won’t the story be much more interesting? Than a movie, that has everything got to do with only one person, A.

But must every tragedy have a rich and famous character? Why can’t it be between two poor people? Perhaps it could be a tragedy between two beggar sects fighting each other?

3rd Reflection

Well, last friday firstly we went through other people’s 50 word stories.

I felt that mine sucked, totally. Lacked of inspiration and mood.
I guess that was wad caused my english Os to drop by one grade.
HA.

But Jacky and Sabreena 50 word stories were really good. We all should go read em.

I couldnt quite get why ryan wanted us to write the openers and 50 word stories.
What was he trying to test us?

Oh well, all-in-all, i felt everyone did fairly well in their 50 word stories, especially Sabreena; Well done! *applauds*

After that, we were told to do some research on Aristotle. All went well i guess. HAHA. I just did the typing while Nurrein and Kim did the research.
=)

Then finally, homework! (as usual)
told to the People Watch, basically, we were told to observe people.
Observe every single minor detail of the person
This should be interesting.
Oh well, we shall see.

Today’s lesson was most slacked.
And i enjoyed today’s lesson the most.

Hurrah!

2nd Reflection

Lesson:
We humans face conflicts everyday.
Sometimes we don’t even realize it.
Sometimes we find ourselves not good enough for a certain task, or maybe, we feel unhappy with that guy over there.
But ultimately, we realize that there are so many problems facing us. But there is one phrase many people failed to keep in mind, that is, “it’s not about what happens to you in life, it’s all about what you do, to the things that happen to you, in your life.”

The environment is every-changing too. We need to realize we ourselves are responsible for our own survival in this world. We need to quickly adapt the changes and strive forward.
It’s not an easy task; but there are many capable people around us who had made this difference in their own lives; thus making it seem so easy.

The Movie:
The first movie, shows us Singaporeans, the life of a foreign unskilled worker. He gets bullied, he receive negative influence from his friends and, even learns to lie to his family back in India. We all too often, judge people we all having all the facts right. Thus, our impression of these workers is, perverts, uncivilized people, unhygienic and lowly people.

But on the other side of them, these workers too have their families to support. Adapting a life in a totally new country isn’t easy. These workers slaved under the hot scorching sun, enduring the mental and physical setbacks just to improve our lifes, and create a better Singapore for us.

I really wonder, how many of us, actually appreciate such people? Have anyone thought, without these workers, who will willingly replace them? How about the workers who go about block by block to empty our rubbish chute? Instead of covering our nose when we walk pass them, why not say thank you in lieu of that?

The Movie:
In the second movie, we basically see a young girl who refuses to learn piano but is being force by her mom. Feeling desperate, she tries to end her life, but failed to do so.
I felt that, ultimately, it won’t do the child any good if she or he isn’t interested.
As kids, they should be allowed to try out different sports and instruments to broaden their interest, and eventually discovering their passion. At the same time, they shouldn’t be deprived of their fun and be allowed to enjoy their innocent childhood.
lu
I also felt it would be very crucial to keep poisonousness objects away from a child’s reach. After watching the movie, we realize how innocent a child can be and, should always bear these little things in mind.

1st Reflection

What i feel about today’s world is an obstacle not everyone can cross, not everyone will survive. Only those powerful within the brain, will survive.

In a small little island called Singapore, you can roughly gauge how the world is like, simply by walking down Ochard Road. Let me explain, being be an average car-enthusiast, i can see many Lambogini(s), Ferrari(s), Lotus, Aston Martini DB9(s), Porsche(s), Rolls Royce(s), Nissan Fairlady(s) and Skyline, and many many other exotic cars humbly driving down the roads of Singapore (with many-humps). I remember, just last week, i was happily walking down Orchard Road when a PAGANI ZODA S came roaring across the road; i went “WHAT-THE-F***”

After reading the paragraph above, you will start thinking, how on earth did these people buy those cars? Seriously, to me, getting a driving a license is already damn expensive. Now think. To buy a car, you…..

Pay for driving license (theory and practical)
Pay for Car and COE
Pay for insurance
(now u’ve gotten the car, well done!)
Now u pay for road tax
Pay for ERP
Pay for the car food (fuel)
Pay to bath the car
Pay to make your car look b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l
Pay for car coupon
Now what else did i miss out?

Ha.
My whole point being is, there are so many successful people in this world. The saying goes,
‘The Rich get Richer, the Poor gets Poorer.’
Those who suffer continue to suffer. Those who are rich continues to enjoy being rich.
Speaking of succesful people, there are also quite a number of powerful people in this world.
There is a huge range for the type, and area these people are powerful in.

For example, my lecturer, Mister Ryan, being one of the many peple AROUND the world, to be selected by this Japan Company to tour about the different ports in this world, must really be powerful in a certain way.
And he is right here in my school. I get to see him every Friday too. How cool is that?

In lesson that day, i felt Mister Ryan approach to try to get us better through that game is an effective one.
As we all are trained with a different accent since young, it would be hard to pronounce names of a totally different accent to you. And that was what Mister Ryan was trying to overcome through the game. To me, it was good.

From my experience, this is only effective if all of us knew how to speak english fairly well.

I’ve been to Indonesia for my scouts camporee and, i had problems communicating with them. What actually connected us was the similiar interest we had inside. For an example, songs and simple dance-games. We taught those Indonesia Scouts this dance-game and they could understand it. Not through language mind you, but through simple hand gestures.
Although we still couldn’t know them well enough due to the invisible language barrier, we felt that we were connected through some way. Perhaps from the heart.

Back to the lesson. We were then taught how to write in a third person perspective. I seriously couldnt quite understand what he meant, till i was called out to read what i wrote. From there, he pointed out my mistakes and, I managed to see the whole picture. I guess that’s why people say ‘to learn, is to participate’.

Okay, end of reflection.

Assignment:
Qns: Jacky puts on his hula girl outfit and enters the temple. Continue your story from here.

Ans:
Jacky puts on his hula girl outfit and enters the temple. With only a few steps in the tempple, he notices many people staring at him with shock. Trying his best to ignore the stares, he looks down and quicken his pace.

He then stops to take a quick look back at his friends behind the door, cheering him on. Turning back, he approaches further into the temple where he sees many people prying and chanting away. He then walks right into the middle of the crowd and shouts out loud. Everybody then turns to him, and stares in shock. All attention was on Jacky. Jacky then quickly does a sexy and erotic dance, moving his entire body in a seducing manner. He first places his hands on his chest, crossing them and slowly moving it down to the hips. He then shakes it vigourously. He moves his hand further down to the groin area and massages it, with his tongue sticking out, while staring at one of the old lady.

Before he could finish his dance, he hears some angry voices far away; getting louder and louder each second. He quickly turns back to see some monks holding their broomsticks and spade charging towards him, like in the war movies. Jacky then quickly dashes for the entrance, and calls out for his friends to run away; and never to return again.