Saturday, January 8, 2011

In my everyday life I love to pay attention to detail. I am an avid reader and so I pound through many books each year. I think simply from reading a lot that I have developed a sense of what is most important as I read. Every morning I receive an update from the New York Times about what is current. Also in daily life there is constant homework and reading from sometimes very difficult textbooks. Several times a semester I will be called upon by testing to demonstrate my critical analysis of what I have studied. I normally try to retain different themes that I think are important from each thing I read so that I can remember and retrieve that information when I need it.
I also pay attention to detail when I watch films. I love to watch the various camera angels as well as editing techniques used to visually tell a story. I have taken several art history classes at BYU. These classes have taught me to analyze the composition of a painting much in the same way I analyze the choice of camera angel and shot length.
Both film and literature provide me with much joy. These are the mediums I use most when I engage in media. Another source of media is youtube.com and the Internet in general when it comes to consumption.
The tools of analysis that I use are asking theoretical questions about the media I engage in. If it is a book I will often wonder why the author told this story, and why they chose to describe things in a particularly stylistic way. In film there is auteurism (auteur theory) and a sense that some directors have a particular way of telling a conventional narrative or non-linear story.
In essence the tools I employ are the ones that I learn about through my education. Before taking TMA 102 I had known I liked films, but after that class I was given an arsenal to explain why I liked various films. The components of cinematography, editing, narrative stories, production design, screenwriting, and dialogue where now terms I could use and evaluate because I knew about them. I still do not know much but it is exciting to learn new ways of analyzing media.
-Jeremy Ashworth

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  2. This is how I see film too. I really liked the Intro to Film TMA 102 for that same reason... it provided me with different terms and tools to help me see film in a way that was different than what most people see it. So yeah I completely agree with you. I am also very excited to learn more about other kinds of techniques and things to look for when it comes to viewing either a film or even something on TV. Since that class I have noticed things like camera angles, lighting, sounds, etc. And yeah, Youtube is pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. :) It is just awesome to see just how many things people come up with nowadays to entertain thousands, millions of people.

    -Melissa Marquez

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