Our Content Nation

People nowadays can't live without internet, without this invisible interaction because they're everywhere.

In China, there is a website just like Facebook, which is called "RenRen" net. It is, according to "Content Nation", "a social-network punlishing". Once you input your personal information, you can track down your friends, your schoolmates, your ex-schoolmates, and even someone whom you've never met but have some special connections with you. "It enables people to build and use relationships with others". I felt so excited when someone I have lost contact with for a long time became my friend again, through RenRen Net. Do you have the same feeling?




Here is the website of the Chinese version of Facebook. Welcome to check it out~
http://www.renren.com

Another amazing function of social media is Personal markets. Online shopping greatly changes our living pace and style.I still can remember the first time when I buy something through the internet. I felt so nervous because I was afraid that I might be frauded or the stuff was not what I wanted. I checked out the website for thousands of times, comparing the product from one online seller to another. But nowadays, the online shopping system gets more and more mature and comprehensive. We feel safe and convenient to buy stuffs before we actually see and touch them, before we talk to the seller face to face.

"Social media's influence may be broad or narrow, long or short,but it's value almost always benefits more from people who want to be ahead of other people than from those who are trying to catch up with others."

The function of social media is enormously powerful, and infomations we get indeed do us a great favor, but sometimes they can be wrong and mislead us. That's why we also need to discriminate and discern right from wrong.

my movie-- extra-normal

This is my first movie. Thanks to our group members' great and extra-normal creativity, we came up with this crazy idea. It made me think of "Spider man"...
Anyway, we also had another short movie about interviewing a job, also very interesting.


Xtranormal is a great website, it helps those who have no knowledge of movieshooting and editing, like me,  make their own movies. It's really fun, and I am going to try some more times and work out my own idea. Maybe I will post my movie next time.

My Progress

It's really exciting that my group think that my idea of interviewing kids on what they wish to do when they grow up is interesting. They took my idea, and expand it into a more thoughtful one: not only interviewing kids, but also ask adults about their dreams when they were young and see how many of them realize their dreams. It's a little amazing and pity that the other group came up with the exact idea, but we will try our best to make it the best we can do. I think it's the process that matters most~! Hopefully, we can end up having a pretty cool movie.

Right now, I am looking for the music that we may use as sound track or background, or transition. I still haven't gone to the place where we could borrow the flipper or camera. One reason is that I had a crazily busy week. The other reason is that I can't find so many local people to do the interview, because my acquaintances are basically all Chinese. So I want to wait and see if I can work with my group member.

It's fair to say that I haven't really started. But my group will have a discussion this Sunday afternoon in the library. We will check the videos we take, and divide them into groups. Our next step is depending on how much progress we have.

The Conversations

Finally finishing reading the reading, I have to confess that there are several pages I skipped. But the book is very interesting and it gives me an opportunity to look behind the screen and think about film editing. I have never thought about editing, not as much as I think of directing and acting. But after reading this chapter, I realized that the job and responsibility of a director and an editor is quite different and somehow related tightly.

The sentences below are some of my best or impressed me the most:

*The director is ultimately the immune system of the film.

*The editor works at both the macroscopic and microscopic level : ranging from deciding how long precisely each shot is held,to restructuring and repositioning scenes, and sometimes to eliminating entire subplots.

*Editing with eyes half opened-- you can't express your opinion unreservedly.

*You need to get out, to be part of something larger than yourself, yet you're drawn to this particular film in the hope that it will speak to you directly.

*What we think of as normal is largely a question of what we are most often exposed to.

This book let me see film making in a new direction-- the editors' aspects,whose work has not been accredited enough. I understand that editors must see the values that others may not see, they must construct the frames in a way that can arouse direct emotions to each audience.

I like the part where Murch and Ondaatje talked about the similarities and differences between writing and editing films. It made me understand editing better, though I still don't know nothing about 'sound tracks'. Anyway, it's a new experience.

Magic Website

Hey guys~You've gotta check this out!!

This is a magic website: http://en.akinator.com/#

RULES:

1.enter your name, and start the game;

2.keep a name in your mind, better be a famous figure;

3.answer the questions one by one, it won't take too long ...

4.Finally, "He" will guess exactly what you have in mind!


My friends and I have played this game for hundreds of times, it almost hit the target everytime.

Female or male, singer or politician or even cartoon character, it can always come up with the correct answer, as long as you are honest with it.

It's so weird and unbelievable!

Check this website out, check the Magic out~!

Blog Critique ~ Usability

Besides words, I added some photos into my blog, just want to show you something interesting happened in my life. But there is no video, url links, citations or other MEDIA FORMS, which makes my blog a little bit boring I suppose. I will try to improve it in the future.

I think even though the CONTENT is kinda restricted to the assignment of the class,it is still interesting because my ideas are new to the audience. The length of the post is, I suppose, just fine. However, it's lack of scannability because the articles seem to be large chunks of sentences piling together, don't have subtitles or other distinguished marks to catch audiences' attention.

Talk about DESIGN. The style of the whole blog is Amateurish. Its idea is simply to express my feelings and thoughts, so there's not so much additional setting that could distracts audiences' attention, thus, I don't think busi-ness nor background noise is a big problem. Also, the text font, size, color is clear and readable; the layout is clear and well organized. . Because I am using the template, the blog fits the convention, which makes each icon operational and self-explanary.

BUT, I recocgnize that the blog is over-simplified, and due to the content limitation, I think not so many people will have patience to read all the stuff unless they are required to Comment On 3 Other Blogs~~,so I think I am gonna make my blog more coloful, more "me"!!

By the way,"alt text”? I don't think I can handle that yet~! Ha Ha!

Cool Blog, I Love It !

On Wednesday's class, we watched a fancy blog which has several interesting tests to help us detect our personality, but its true intention is to predict what kind of car could be 'the one',that is, to sell cars.

The test asks you to pick one statue which you think resembles you the most and one pair of gloves that you picture yourself wearing in the future; imagine how many people at breakfast; what kind of engine do you prefer to setting in your car; which scenery is the most common one when you're driving, etc..

The form of the blog is very simple and clean, not so many additive decorations or redundant instructions. All the icons and images and movements enhance the quality of attention, and the setting and sequence of the questions make me more and more curious about what kind of result can I get.

The sound of clicking a button is various: when clicking on a statue, it sounds like moving a stone away; when choosing the animal that represents your desired engine, it actually sounds like a real animal. These sounds not only make the tests vivid and interesting, but also help us to imagine the given situation and make our choice. And everytime when you click a button, you see the movement, then you can actually feel like you're touching those things or moving the chairs, or setting the table, or driving on your way...

As the test involves a lot of personal and individual attitudes, preferences, experiences,emotions, dreams, and hopes, so it indeed arouse our thinking. It makes feel delighted and relaxed, also a little bit surprised, since I cannot possibly connect these questions to a result of "what kind of car will you buy?".

It's the most creative and intersting blog I've ever seen.I love it! Do you?