The Sea Inside Post #3

Refer to your notes on camera technique, camera angles, and camera movement. What scenes, in particular, do you remember where the film technique underscored meaning and added to the message the director was sending? Describe the shot, its significance, and its meaning in detail

The most significant scene i remember is a close-up of when Ramon hits his head on the ocean floor. This shot is a close up because Ramon's head takes up at least 80% of the shot. I believe the director chose to make this shot a close up because he wanted the audience to see clearly the difining moment of Ramon's life. This is the single moment that would mold the rest of his life, in order for the shot to have meaning i belive it was an excelent choice on the directors behalf to make it a clase up. A second shot i reacall was a tilt. It was used when Julia was in the hospital and she looked to the sky, as the sky continued and the camera came back down it was the sky of the view from Ramon's window. I belive this shot showed importance because it conveyed that they are not far apart from eachother, and are connected wheather they know it or not. A third shot i vividly remember is when the director used firehosing to show the environment of where Ramon lived. The shot continued along the hills and around his home. I belive this shot was important because it showed where Ramon would no longer go, he couldn't hike in the hills or take a walk down the street from his house.

The Sea Inside Post #2

Compare and contrast The Sea Inside to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. What similarities and differences do you notice? In your opinion, which was more powerful.

The Sea inside and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly were in my opinion two very similar tales with very different smaller points. For instance, they were each the tale of a man with who is confined inside his body, unable to move. However, in The Sea Inside, Ramon, is able to move his neck and head and he is fortunatly able to talk. Whereas, John Bauby spoke to the world with the blink of an eye. In The Sea Inside, i felt Ramon's frustration to be more vivid and intense than Baubay's, this could be because Ramon suffered from his condition for over two decades. One major difference between the two tales is in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Bauby has no desire to die. He does not want to end his life out of frustration that he is unable to move. This contradicts the purpose of The Sea Inside because the whole purpose is to demonstrate how Ramon wants to end his life. In my opinion, The Sea Inside was a much more powerful story to hear. It may have been because i got to actually see and see his emotions being portrayed on film. I think it was because he was a man who was not fighting for his life, but his death.

The Sea Inside Post #1

Q:What is your general reaction and response to the film? What do you think of Ramon's request for assisted suicide, the court's response to him, and his eventual actions? What do you think of his friends who agreed to help him?
My first and foremost reaction to the film was that it was very sad. Towards the beginning of the film i was angry that he wanted to kill himself. I just couldn't even imagine what it would be like to want to live anymore, i thought he was out of his mind. But through out the film i began to understand how difficult it would be to want to do so many things but have to live with the reality of not even being able to wiggle your fingers. The thought of being confined solely to your body for numerous years would give you infinate time to think about things. I know i would not want to end my life not being able to do the things i love. So in conclusion, i was very inspired by this film and was very interested in the way it helped me understand someone like Ramon's position on how he feels. My thought on his friends who agreed to help him is disturbing. If one of my friends who i cared about and loved was in a situation like Ramon there is no way i could ever help them end their life. I understand that i would want to help my friend who trusted me to ask for help, but i know i would never be able to do it. I would not be able to live with the thought that i ended my friends life, even if it would make them happy, i know i would be unable to proceed with it.

MR HATTEN-

Mr. Hatten,
My 3rd and 4th post are opposite order, i talked about it to you in class but you told me to give you a reminder on my blog.

The Glass Castle: Final Post

Summary:
In the final section of the book, The Glass Castle, Jeannettes older sister, Lori, escapes Welch and persues her life in New York City. Jeanneatte follows in her sisters footsteps, and a year and a half later, after she finishes high school. In the early time of her new life in New York, Jeannette and her sister lived at the Evangeline, a woman's hostile in Greenwich Village. Jeanette landed a job a hamburger joint. In mid summer, the two girls moved into an apartment in the South Bronx. In the fall, Jeanette began working an internship at, The Phoenix, a local newspaper. About a week later, Jeanette landed a permanent mob at The Phoenix and quit her job and the hamburger joint. Jeanette wrote to Brian ofter, and the day after he graduated his junior year of high school he hopped on a train to New York City to live with his big sisters. Jeanettes eyes were opened to the thought that she could have a better job, so she enrolled in Columbia's sister college, Barnard. When Maureen was 12 years old she moved to New York City. Three years after moving to New York, Jeanette's parents joined the rest of their family and moved to the Big Apple as well. They lived in various places. Jeanettes father got sick and ended up in the hospital for 6 weeks. Jeanette graduated from Barnard in the Spring, Brian was the only family memeber to attend the ceremony. Jeanette met a man named Eric and they were married. Lori was working as a freelance artist. Brian joined the police force right as he turned 20. Maureen graduated from high school, but never applied herself in city colleges. She stabbed her mother, her mother was fine but Maureen was arrested. When Maureen was released she moved to California. Rex had a heartr attack where he was kept alive at the hospital by machines, but the family decided he would not want to live like this so they turned the machines off. A year after her father died, Jeanette divorced Eric. She later married a man named John who had two daughters.
Reaction:
I was very pleased to have read this book . At times it could be very frustration with the continuous moving and Rex constantly screwing up. However, i believe it really nailed the thought family. The Walls' family never gave up on eachother even though all of them messed up a time or two. But over all i enjoyed this book, and will recommend it to others.

About the author: Jeanette Walls

Jeanette Walls was born in Phoenix, Arizona. Her family moved around a lot, before they settled in Welch, West virginia. Jeanette graduated from Columbia University's Barnard College. She became a reporter for New York magazine, Esquite, USA Today and MSNBC.com. She has appeared on numerous television shows such as, the Today Show, CNN and PrimeTimeLive. Jeanette now resides in northern Virgina, she is married to writer, John Taylor.

Information from:

http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=1128

Reaction: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Reaction: The Diving Bell and the Butterly

My thoughts on the Diving Bell and the Butterly are that it was a very complex book written with a dry sense of humor. His thoughts obviously had significant meaning to him because of the fact that he blinked his was though to get his thoughts accross. However, I think it was a little difficult to understand with the confusion of each chapter. I think Baubay began to understand the true importance of life through his devistation experience, and that things we may think are important, are really not. I thought his ability to imagine all different kinds of things, his chilren, delectable meals was incredible. His story inspired me not to take anything, even the smallest things in my life for grantid. He showed me that just the smell of french fries could brighten someones day. I am so fortunate in my life right now, this book really inspired me to understnad that everything could change at anytime. Today could be your last so live every day to its absolute potential of greatness. When Baubay says " I need to feel strongly, to love and to admire just as desperatly as i need to breath" (p. 55), it really spoke to me about his characer. It helped me understand how his compassion showed through his illness, he wanted so badely to show his love and admiration, but he was limited with only the blink of one eye. It made me sad to find out all of the things Baubay wanted to go and do in his life once he returned to his old self, but he did not live long enough to do those things. In conclusion, I believe even though I had some trouble understanding this novel, it opened my eyes to the way I will go about my life day to day.

The Glass Castle Post #3

Summary
In the third section of this book, the Walls' family was still living in Phoenix, but Rex was getting tiered of the city and wanted to move back to the wilderness. He was starting to drink heavily again, and was becoming reckless while he was drunk. He became so bold as to steal a portion of the familiesincom to support his habbit. One afternoon after Brian and Jeanette had returned from school they realized that their fridge was bare, yet they werefamished. They decided that they should check out the dumpster a ways down their alley in search of food. They found a few scraps and were satistifed for a while. The most dissapointing event of their life in Phoenix was Christmas, the Walls' children had learned to not expect gifts on Christmas, but this Chrismas was different. Their mother had let each of them have a dollar and they had all preceded to buy gifts for one anotherEveryone was overjoyed, except her father who lit everything on fire while he was enraged. On Jeanette's birthday there was only one thing she wantedso she decided to ask her father for it. She asked him if he could stop drinking, he was afraid she was ashamed of him, and then he sat and thought for a while. Then they were gone again, on the move unaware of where they were going to go. They ended up in Welch at Rex's parents house.The children enrolled in Welch Elementary School, Jeanette got into a fight with the black girls at her school. Jeanette's parents drove down to phoenix for a while to retrieve things they had not been able to bring the first time