Samantha Kelly Lit and Media

What is your reaction to what you just read? I thought Suddenly, a Knock on the Door, was very self-aware and intentional. From my understanding, it addresses the issue of current events and how it is presented to the public through media. The three characters; the bearded man, the pizza guy, and the surveyor all represent the general public and their want and need to be feed news that breaks the pattern of what they have been systematically presented with in the past. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the week with which you were able to connect. News in the US, especially since the past presidential election, has been tainted with bias and false truths. News is supposed to be news; facts. It is our right as citizens of this country to be in tune and aware of the events affecting our county, but you feel like you cannot be dutiful in this right due to the corruption of the news and media. You never know what is true or just the medias p...

Sex trafficking prevention and rescue is a cause almost anyone could get behind. It is a heartbreaking topic that we all should be aware of. Our own town of Sarasota is unfortunately known as being a center of activity in sex trafficking. There are ways we all can help. From joining a group that assists in rescue and treatment to being aware of what to look for in being alert for possible victims, I hope we can all at least be aware and learn more about this issue. Rapha’s House is one group working to end the trafficking industry and help survivors. They state their mission is to, “end the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children through aftercare for survivors, prevention for the vulnerable, and awareness for all.” Rapha House is a Christian organization that strives to help all being held captive by the sex trade. Websites: Raphahouse.org National Human Trafficking Hotline: humantraffickinghotline.org Documentary: “Finding Home” is about three Cambodian wome...

Star Wars Costuming When it comes to costuming what is the first thing you think of? Cosplay, conventions, anime, crazy scico nerds who have no life? How about charity? I am a member of the Rebel Legion, an international Star Wars costuming group that focuses on charity. We visit hospitals, local community event, libraries, and sporting events among other events and spread the love of Star Wars. There is nothing much more beautiful than the face of a child who just had a visit from their favorite star Wars characters especially when they are constantly in and out of the hospital. If we help them forget their unfortunate situation for just a minute, is it worth everything! We never get paid and don’t want to get paid. We volunteer our time and devote our money to create our costumes. This community is dependant on social media. It is how we organize ourselves, help each other with costumes and reach out to the public. Below I organized most of the social media groups, websites, a...

The Medium is the Massage For all of the past readings I have utilized the audiobook versions. For this week’s reading, I did not have any preceding knowledge about the book and I did not read anything about the Medium is the Message before starting to listen. You can imagine my confusion when I hit play! It was an array of sounds, words and music with no tempo and no organization. At first I thought it was a short snippet of music or sound effects that accompanies the prologues of most audiobooks, but I soon realized that this was the extent of it. I obviously made a mistake in choosing the audiobook instead of physically reading a copy, but it gave me a unique experience. I could not make sense of anything in the chaos of sound coming out of my computer. After about a half an hour, I was starting to go crazy and turned it off. You don’t know what it was like to listen to the jumble of sound for as long as I did. It was sort of like when you are in a public place and there a...

Stranger Things Stranger Things is a Netflix original series. It has two seasons and the third season will come out in August. It is about a group of kids dealing with a mystery in their town. A classic coming of age story with a supernatural twist.   It takes place in the 1980s which only adds to the nostalgia of the work. The first season revolves around one of the boys disappearing and then a mysterious girl showing up in town. The group of friends, the mysterious girl, and some older teens in the town, the town sheriff, and the mom of the boy who disappeared all work to solve the mystery of what is going on in the town. The season really held my interest. I thought placing the series in the 80s made it even better. People have a deep connection to the 80s. This is something that I discussed in another blog post. The plot is a little confusing, but a lot makes sense at the end. The second season starts out with the mysterious girl missing and the boy who was found the ...

My Favorite Thing is Monsters I found this graphic novel very interesting and different. It was unique in style and content. I loved how the story was presented through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl. You were not sure if what was presented was real or if you were just seeing these events and characters through her eyes, the eyes of a young girl. The way a ten-year-old girl sees things is drastically different then the way most people do. But I loved this about the story. You knew that Karen’s life situation was less then secure and comfortable, but she never thought anything of it. You don’t see her complain about the trash in the city or that fact that her brother is not the best at times. To her all this is normal, it’s the way it has always been. Therefore, these things are presented to us in a way where we are expected to just accept them as normal. This again pulls you into her world. The book is designed to look like Karan’s journal. I think that was my favorite part abou...

Wes Anderson Wes Anderson is one of those directors that when you see his work, you know right away it is his. His work has a quirky style that blends the lines between reality and fiction. From Moonrise Kingdom, about the love story of two children, to The Darjeeling Limited, which is about three brothers on their quest to reunite their relationships, and The Life Aquatic, which is about a group of documentarist on a journey to revenge the death of a coworker, all of Wes Andersons movies portray his unique style that people love. Wes Anderson has a specific way he designs his shots. He uses mostly flat shots with one point perspective, unless another shot is needed. These shots are usually avoided in movies unless they are used in a specific strategic manner, but Wes uses them as a default. This gives his movies a very artificial look like the scenes are set in a play. This adds to the style of story he presents. Wes Anderson’s movies are mostly about realistic everyday even...

A New Hope When I read the screen play from A New Hope, the first movie in the original Star Wars trilogy. I was surprised at how simple it was. The dialogue seemed too simple. It really showed how much the abilities of the actors make or break a movie. I was also surprised by the lack of detail. I guess I expected it to show a lot more information on surroundings, but I suppose it was just meant to give the actors a little detail as they were learning their lines. While reading, I wondered how long the actors have to memorize the lines and if they do small chunks at a time or have to learn them all at once. I would be interested in comparing a movie screenplay to how it actually turns out on in the movie. I wonder how much they change the lines as they go along and how much the actors add to the lines. I enjoyed seeing the screenplay. I think it gave me a better feel for how hard everyone works to produce a movie.

Ready Player One There has been a lot of talk about virtual reality in the past few years. What was once thought to be impossible is now realized. Ready Player One may be more a sign of our future then just a fictional story from the past. I went to Disney the other day and tried out The Void. It’s a Star Wars VR experience. A friend and I were strapped in our vest and a headset and placed onto a closet sized room. They closed the door and all of a sudden we saw each other, but not as each other - we were both stormtroopers. K2SO showed up and told us to follow him through the door way. Knowing that the door was indeed not there before, I was very confused, but took the chance and walked through into a warehouse. You could reach out and touch things, pull levers, pushbuttons, shoot others, and even get shot yourself. It was one of the coolest experiences! We were taken through a multitude of rooms like a maze. You got to the point where you were so immersed, you forgot you wer...