Movie Scene-Elizabeth Town

The scene I chose for this assignment is scene #21- The road trip.
In this scene we see the Mitch driving in his car. Then we see on the passenger's seat an urn.
That urn turns out to be Mitch's dad, who died while away from his family.
Mitch is supposed to bring him back.

In the scene we see how the camera shifts between shots oo closeups of Mithc and closeups of the Urn,
Mitch is having a heart to heart conversation with the urn (his father).
He tells him that they should have taken that road trip a long time ago.

The scenes shift from Mitch to the urn. Mitch talking and patting theurn as he would have his father's shoulder if he were there.
We see Mithc laughing and mitch crying and mitch angry and mitch laughing again.
The scene sequence is

1-Close up of Mitch, close up of urn
2-Tracking shot of the car moving in the empty road
3-Close up of laughing Mitch, close up of Urn
4-Flash back of Mitch's childhood(playing with his dad and doing some hand gestures), Mitch in the car doing same gestures as in the fashback
5-Close up of Cryinh Mitch, close up of urn
6- Close up of Mithc Laughing again
7- Low angle shot of Mitch's arm out the window spreading some of his father's ashes into the air.
8-Long shot of the open road and lonely lands.

I believe that the scequence of scenes was crated to establish a bond between father and son. As one would in a conversation, taking turns one from the other.
The different shots of Mitch in defferent moods and then the close up of the urn was done to recreate the feeling of a parent being there for you in all you different times and moods.
The arm out the window spreading the ashes is as to physically proove that the father was there on the road trip with him (at least his ashes were).
The longshots and the tracking shots were used to create the sense of lonelyness that Mitch felt. He felt all alone in the world and so was the road and the scenery.

Another scene I liked from this movie was the ending.
Mitch is on a "scavenger's hunt" following clues left on cards for him at a Farmer's Market.
There we haveTracking shots of Mitch finding the places and the clues, and the longshot to establish the crowded place he's in. There are closeups of him and there are people walking and moving fast all around him. There's a zoom shot of a carousel inmovement, which represents how he feels going round and round looking for the girl. There are Tracking shots too of him searching until he finally sees her and she sees him (All this accomplished through zoom shots and close up shots.
They run towards each other and embrace, people walking around them not nmoticing them. (It's to symbolize that it's just the two of them in their world).
We then hear his voice talking about the Brittish army slogan, about plants breaking through theground and salmons and we are actually presented with scenes of a pilot in the air, a green plant breaking through cement and blooming, and salmons swimming against the current, to symbolize that everything is possible. We hear what he says but we also see it as he says it. Great technique.

Ligia

Teaching Media Studies

I remember taking English in my high school years and let me tell you, the only thing I enjoyed was reading because it was an escape from the teacher and the classroom. Eventhough English was a second language to us,I went to school in Puerto Rico, the school's curriculum used books for native speakers of English. we had two periods of English, one for Language and one for reading. We would disect sentences into the grammar diagrams, most of thepeople not knowing what the sentences meant. Reading was done inthe classroom, with everybody falling asleep over their texts. We would then answer questions onthe board. I To top things up, our teachers were native speakers of Spanish and their English was not very good either. So you get an idea of the kind of pronunciation we were taught. Sometimes, a studenthad to jump in and correct the teacher for pronouncing or defining a word wrong. This is how bad it was for me. It was pretty boring and not to mention unproductive.

Here is a plan that I would like to defend in the creation of new ideas and the integration of media and technologies into the English curriculum. Hopefully, it will make teaching and learning English a more pleasurable and productive explerience.


The English Curriculum in our district has been quite diffrent for some time. We have ben tyring to enhance the new technologies that are up and rising in our community. Today, technologies play a big role in our lives.Everybody is esposed to media some way or the other. We believe that the curriculum in schools should provide our students with the literacies nessesary to operate in the world. This said, we should not ignore the Basic of reading, writing and critical thinking skills that must be developed in English class.

Our new perspective on the curriculum is to integrate media to the curriculum through integration.
Let's take reading first.There are studies that prove that once students can relate to literature, they can better understand and appreciate it.
Our purpose is to make students combine media with literature. We could do this through the use of:

Computers/ internet- Students can post their ideas and reactions to the books in a way where they will not feel thay are doing homework. It would be simmilar to what they do when they speak to their friends on web groups, email, blogs etc. The teachers may create a source of communication in the virtual world, such as yahoo groups.
The teachers will correct for reading reactions and cover the grammar correction as well. Teachers will state their rules and grading criteria before they begin the process.

Movies- after the students read and discuss a book, they can watch the movie and discuss other people's interpretations. They can by the way notice the diffrence between a boolk and a movie and better appreciate the readinmg experience.

Advertising- Reviewing and criticizing adversitements in the print, film, and virtual media. They can find allusions to the classics in the advertising, they can interpret and develop their critical thinking skills. they can learn to distinguish when they are being influenced by the mainsrteam forces.

With theintegratoin of technologies and median into the curriculum teh students will still be able tolearnthe use of correct grammar, they could still rad their novels anc classics, and they can develop critical thinking skills in new environments.

Writing and composition, and even typing, skills will be developed with the use of a computer.

Reading, and research skills will be developed trhough the search and reding of e-books and the use of virtual libraries.

Critical Thinking skills will be developed through discussion forums online, both in chat and in asynchronic forums.

Diction and pronunciation- ESL students can benefit greatly from listening to video clips and dictionaries online that provide the correct pronunciation of words. They cn also learn the idiom sof the american culture throught the viewing and listening of films and advertisements.

Welcome

Hello all!

My name is Ligia and you might remember me because I got to the class late and I walked in with my daughter. Her name is Laura Sofia.

Well, This is my first semester at the U. We moved in from PR two weeks ago. We've been very busy these days. And as you could see, I still haven't found a sitter for my daughter yet!
Do you know anyone who is trustworthy?

I hope to get to know you guys wellduring the semester and let's have some fun in this class!!