Sunday, May 26, 2013
May 26, 2013
Today I printed out 3 posters that I will use for my 2 Hour Presentation. Each poster has my essential question written on it, along with an answer on each. There is one for central message, characters, and conflict. To be honest, I'm very happy on how they turned out. They look really nice. I hope many others like them as well. Here are the pictures of them. I'm not sure on which my favorite is.
Friday, May 24, 2013
May 24, 2013
Today I found a great example of a zombie short film that contains a powerful central message. The name of the short film is Cargo and it is about this man who gets bitten by his wife and after they get into a car accident, he escapes with a baby girl. The man, afraid of turning into a zombie and wanting to attack his child, straps the baby onto his back, ties his arms, and attaches a bag full of guts in front of him to help distract him so he won't attack the child. As he seeks for a safe place to take his daughter, he gets shot and another group of survivors find the baby and take care of her. I believe this is a great short film to show due to the fact that the film itself does not use any dialogue but is still able to send a point across: A father is willing to do anything to ensure the safety of his child.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013
After school today, Lucas and I worked on creating our props and decorations for our two hour presentations. We went to Walmart to buy plastic, spray paint, and liquid foam insulation. We made guts out of the liquid foam insulation and fake blood along with the red spray paint. It was pretty easy creating our props, the only problem was that they took a while to dry and when the liquid foam got on something it wasn't supposed to, it took a while to get off. Other than that, the task was simple and we were able to make it look disgusting which was exactly what we were going for.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Blog 25: Mentorship
Literal
- Mentorship Log
- Contact Info: Matt Mogk Phone: 310-266-1868 email: mogk@zrs.me
Interpretive
The most important thing I have gained from this experience was the ability to communicate with others. For example, I had to communicate with all of the radio show hosts, zombie fans and authors, my partner Luke Boyd and mentor Matt Mogk in order to raise money for the once existing George Romero Star Campaign, get the interviews/ interview proposals done, and update the ZRS blog. Another important thing I gained from this experience was the ability to understand what it is that zombie fanatics like to see. I have learned that zombie fans would rather prefer to see articles that they could connect with through humor and those about a popular zombie film, book or video game. Most of the fans on the ZRS page absolutely adore George Romero for Night of the Living Dead, Max Brooks for his book World War Z, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg for their film Shaun of the Dead. I have also learned to be patient when it comes to setting up meetings with other people because often the people I'd work with would often have a busy schedule.
Applied
My experience has helped me answer my essential question,"What is the most important factor for successful zombie fiction?" by allowing me to view for myself what it is that interests zombie fanatics. Helping Luke Boyd and Matt Mogk run the Zombie Research Society blog allowed me to see which movies and books were most popular and why. For example, when the novel World War Z was adapted into a film, Max Brooks himself admitted that he wasn't too sure that the film would fulfill World War Z fans. He even claimed that the only similarity between his book and the film was the name and that he had practically no involvement with the making of the movie so he can't guarantee that it'd be good enough to live up to his fan's expectations. This helped me realize that if an author isn't involved with the making of a film adaptation, then the entire story behind it will be distorted and may have a less chance of becoming as successful as the novel due to the different interpretations.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions
1. What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your question and why?
My essential question is "What is the most important factor for successful zombie fiction?" My best answer is central message and theme. The reason why a work of fiction's central message is important is because it is what defines our society and culture. The things we find interesting in media are those that we can relate to as a society. For fiction to be successful, it must contain a central message we all understand and value.
2. What process did you take to arrive at this answer?
At the beginning of senior project my essential question was originally, "What makes zombie culture so popular in today's society?" Upon performing days of research, I came across various answers that were just too general and in all honesty quite obvious. Then I realized I had to change my essential question so that it could pinpoint to just one solid answer. From then on out I didn't really know what to do, so I asked my mentor Matt Mogk (head of Zombie Research Society) and he told me I should research cultural anxieties. I wondered why cultural anxieties, and after doing what I was told, I realized that was what zombie fiction was all about. Then I figured that there must be more to what makes zombie culture popular. I thought that in order for zombies to become popular in society, they must be portrayed throughout some sort of media such as cinema, literature, and gaming. This finally led me to my current essential question, "What is the most important factor for successful zombie fiction?" Since most successful works of fiction aren't those simply about zombies but about something more meaningful as my mentor said, cultural anxieties, it has become my best answer.
3. What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?
Some problems I faced were getting the first interview done on time. My mentor was out of town at the time to go speak on behalf of Zombie Research Society at a convention known as Infect Scranton which takes place in Pennsylvania. In order to resolve that issue, I contacted Matt multiple times to remind him about the interview and followed up on the day he was actually able to be interviewed. Although it was a bit complicated to get done at first, I eventually got it turned in so I'm proud to say that I managed to make it through. Another problem I faced was figuring out what to do for Independent Component 1. I asked my mentor once again for advice and to my surprise he had a project set for me to work on. He assigned me the George Romero Star Project in which I was to help raise money to try to get George Romero a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I was to have this done by contacting thousands of zombie fanatics and spreading the word of this campaign. All had been going well, the Zombie Research Society and I raised around $17,000 out of the $45,000 that was required. I had even gotten an article published on the LA Times Hero Complex to support our campaign but unfortunately the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce weren't too happy that the price to maintain the star was announced. So the project had to be called off and we are as of now trying to come up with a new way to honor George Romero for all of his great work in advancing the zombie genre into what it is now.
4. What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?
Two of the most significant sources I have used to answer my essential question were
-First Interview with Matt Mogk because it helped me find my first answer and get everything to fall in place.
-The Living Dead by John Joseph Adams because it helped support two of my answers: central message and characters.
5. What is your product and why?
My product is the ability to communicate with others more effectively. I can now arrange interviews very easily due to the fact that's practically what I did the majority of the time during my mentorship. Besides having to set up interviews for senior project, I also had to set up interviews for Matt on radioshows. I was required to contact every talk show host on a specific list to set up an interview regarding the month of May- Zombie Awareness Month. I have also gained connections with a few zombie authors (Matt Mogk, Jonathan Maberry,Don Roff, John Joseph Adams, Steve Hockensmith).
My essential question is "What is the most important factor for successful zombie fiction?" My best answer is central message and theme. The reason why a work of fiction's central message is important is because it is what defines our society and culture. The things we find interesting in media are those that we can relate to as a society. For fiction to be successful, it must contain a central message we all understand and value.
2. What process did you take to arrive at this answer?
At the beginning of senior project my essential question was originally, "What makes zombie culture so popular in today's society?" Upon performing days of research, I came across various answers that were just too general and in all honesty quite obvious. Then I realized I had to change my essential question so that it could pinpoint to just one solid answer. From then on out I didn't really know what to do, so I asked my mentor Matt Mogk (head of Zombie Research Society) and he told me I should research cultural anxieties. I wondered why cultural anxieties, and after doing what I was told, I realized that was what zombie fiction was all about. Then I figured that there must be more to what makes zombie culture popular. I thought that in order for zombies to become popular in society, they must be portrayed throughout some sort of media such as cinema, literature, and gaming. This finally led me to my current essential question, "What is the most important factor for successful zombie fiction?" Since most successful works of fiction aren't those simply about zombies but about something more meaningful as my mentor said, cultural anxieties, it has become my best answer.
3. What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?
Some problems I faced were getting the first interview done on time. My mentor was out of town at the time to go speak on behalf of Zombie Research Society at a convention known as Infect Scranton which takes place in Pennsylvania. In order to resolve that issue, I contacted Matt multiple times to remind him about the interview and followed up on the day he was actually able to be interviewed. Although it was a bit complicated to get done at first, I eventually got it turned in so I'm proud to say that I managed to make it through. Another problem I faced was figuring out what to do for Independent Component 1. I asked my mentor once again for advice and to my surprise he had a project set for me to work on. He assigned me the George Romero Star Project in which I was to help raise money to try to get George Romero a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I was to have this done by contacting thousands of zombie fanatics and spreading the word of this campaign. All had been going well, the Zombie Research Society and I raised around $17,000 out of the $45,000 that was required. I had even gotten an article published on the LA Times Hero Complex to support our campaign but unfortunately the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce weren't too happy that the price to maintain the star was announced. So the project had to be called off and we are as of now trying to come up with a new way to honor George Romero for all of his great work in advancing the zombie genre into what it is now.
4. What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?
Two of the most significant sources I have used to answer my essential question were
-First Interview with Matt Mogk because it helped me find my first answer and get everything to fall in place.
-The Living Dead by John Joseph Adams because it helped support two of my answers: central message and characters.
5. What is your product and why?
My product is the ability to communicate with others more effectively. I can now arrange interviews very easily due to the fact that's practically what I did the majority of the time during my mentorship. Besides having to set up interviews for senior project, I also had to set up interviews for Matt on radioshows. I was required to contact every talk show host on a specific list to set up an interview regarding the month of May- Zombie Awareness Month. I have also gained connections with a few zombie authors (Matt Mogk, Jonathan Maberry,Don Roff, John Joseph Adams, Steve Hockensmith).
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Blog 23: 2014 Interview
1. I interviewed Cesar Lopez, a student in South House.
2. Cesar: I am thinking along the lines of "what it takes to run a successful business"..Something like that. I've always kind of wanted to own my own little business of anything. Or like go into some kind of business area.
3. Cesar: Well, for career day they had someone come in to Pang's room and I was going to ask to see if he could be my mentor. I haven't kept in touch with him but he gave us a card and everything, so I'll get in contact with him as soon as I can.
4. Cesar: Well I'd like to see something in the architecture parts, business parts, engineering maybe, something along those lines. Maybe even culinary arts.
5. Cesar: Do you actually have time to complete your mentor hours and take young scholar classes?
My response: Well, I don't take college classes but my friend Amanda does and she said she's taken two classes and yeah, it was a bit stressful but it wasn't that bad. So you have time for that.You can take classes, but you just have to manage your time wisely.
2. Cesar: I am thinking along the lines of "what it takes to run a successful business"..Something like that. I've always kind of wanted to own my own little business of anything. Or like go into some kind of business area.
3. Cesar: Well, for career day they had someone come in to Pang's room and I was going to ask to see if he could be my mentor. I haven't kept in touch with him but he gave us a card and everything, so I'll get in contact with him as soon as I can.
4. Cesar: Well I'd like to see something in the architecture parts, business parts, engineering maybe, something along those lines. Maybe even culinary arts.
5. Cesar: Do you actually have time to complete your mentor hours and take young scholar classes?
My response: Well, I don't take college classes but my friend Amanda does and she said she's taken two classes and yeah, it was a bit stressful but it wasn't that bad. So you have time for that.You can take classes, but you just have to manage your time wisely.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
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