Topic 3 - Alphaville

Lecture-

For our lecture we watched The film Alphaville , by director Jean-Luc Goddard. Prof. Stockwell had a short introduction to the film, to help us get our heads around some of the obvious contradictions to story and film, i.e the futuristic galactic civilization looking like 1965 Paris. I gave the film a long time to make its gist apparent, but that never came. So I resigned myself to watch the film, remember as much as possible, and try to see the subtleties later. This film was by no means entertaining, and I suppose if I had put myself in the mindset of people at the time it would have blown me away, however computers these days are so commonplace, the dreaded prophecy seems to have come true.




Tutorial-

We spent most of our tutorial exchanging blog url's with each other. During the time before class we spoke about the film and it's lack of entertainment value, or the parts that seemed to have little or no relevance to the story. I understood while watching this film that it was not intended to entertain, however some things need to be made clearer, such as your antagonists purpose, and the protagonist's purpose for that matter. Also a sentence or two explaining the odd behavior of the citizens of this dystopia would have helped keep people from getting frustrated, with confusion. We also listed some similar movies which entertained and explained everything so the audience could understand (e.g. Equilibrium) . I obtained a slightly better understanding of why the movie was as odd as it was.

I know several people online who I have never met. This is an interesting sort of relationship, because although you can know just about everything about a particular person it doesn't count for much if you have never spoken to them in person. That true closeness can only reslly com with personal contact. So having an online relationship will always keep both parties at a distance, both literally and figuratively.
I have been using the Internet as a communications tool since early adolescence, back when AOL chatrooms were in full swing. Then, like most people I realized they were an utter waste of time. Luckily newer means of communications developed as people grew tired of the old.
The fact that all my "IRL" (in real life) friends were already using them made me feel as if I should catch up and join with this new phenomena.
Privacy is an issue online, but as always people will always only know as much as you make available. As long as individuals are careful with their information it won't be picked up by undesirables.




Readings -

The readings indicate a lot about Goddard's style, and how it came to be. In his own words Goddard would look for things that have never been done in film before, then do them. This would certainly account for his unorthodoxy in film making. When this film was originally released, it's concept and style were both completely unheard of, yet very compelling which would explain the film's longevity, even in today's society there are extreme contrasts with it's style, and that of any contemporary medium. To put it simply, It tells an interesting story, in an extremely odd way.

Topic 2 , Is email dead?

Lecture-
We discussed spam email at great length, most notably the Nigerian scam emails that were rampant several years ago. The motivations behind these are obviously money driven. Blogging was also discussed briefly, as a form of journalism, or for recreation. We also saw a short Daily show clip about how bloggers have been exposing reporters for misrepresentation. It was fairly informative, but felt like random subjects at some points.

Readings-

Blogs (or weblogs) are an extremely flexible form of information broadcast. They have been most commonly associated with news blogs done by journalists, or just anyone. However limiting blogs to this function alone would severely limit their potential as a creative medium. Blogs can be a free form of expression conveyed through online diaries, poems, stories, and general opinion pieces. As variable a communicative technique as it is, blogging as journalism is the most controversial of these platforms, as there are neither restrictions, or inhibitions to keep journalists from fabricating stories, other than their own personal standards and practices. Once a blogging journalist gains noteriety in the community for being fair and accurate however a news blog can be one of the most objective reports one can read; assuming the journalist sticks to a strict personal code of conduct and remains truthful and fair. Also nations with governmental control over the news and media in their respective countries can be subverted with the use of these blogs, as they have no real way of regulating what is said. Overall Blogs are an extremely useful form of communication that is just beginning to find a niche in our online world.

Tutorial-

The format and expectations for our blogs were laid out with the utmost clarity. I had arrived at class with 200 words about the readings which you see above, already printed out. So clearly I needed the clarifications that were provided. I was also taught to look for the meanings behind all the talking in the lectures. Although it may seem the lecture is tedious or long-winded there is an underlying purpose to his statements we must discern for ourselves. I imagine I'll have to pay better attention next time. I enjoy this class and look forward to both the lectures and tutorials; I plan to learn a lot from this course.

Intro

Greetings, I am Clinton Thomas. I'm a 1st year student at Griffith. I am a southern california native, currently living in Australia. I did some college in Cali, with no real focus. After working to support myself for a couple years I decided to get back into school to get something accomplished. Currently pursuing a bachelors of communications. I like movies, music, and video games.