Week 14 was devoted to the presentation of your speeches. I have little to report on this other than most of you did a great job. I did see an effort to integrate rhetorical elements in your speeches and an improvement on your delivery. There was also a lot of creativity in the contexts and situations chosen and the topics dealt with. On the other hand, many of you still have to deal with your shyness and fear of public speaking. Too much reading and looking at the page instead of the audience and little gesture was present in many of the presentations.
Next week we will work on documentaries.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Week 13
Some of you might have disliked the movie. That's normal since the sequences of violences and the sarcastic view of society the film portrays are hard to watch for many viewers.
Here are some reviews and viewers comments about this film. I hope this comments can serve as model for your own comments when you present a film review in two weeks.
Agent10 wrote in IMDB: Even after 34 years, this film still speaks volumes about our current culture, which many ideals are ringing true today. The younger generations are out of control due to lack of parental control, junk culture is becoming commonplace, violence is desensitizing the masses, and we all seem to be enjoying the ride on the way down. It's very difficult to find movies which can make such startling commentary, yet hold on to such accusations for an extended period of time.
Christian Jahnsen wrote in IMDB: with all the perversity bursting out of this film, you will probably NOT like this film the first time you see it. I know I didn't. Fortunately, I gave it a second chance, and thought: Hey, it was actually not bad at all. After the third time, I was lost for words.
After the fourth time, there was little doubt in my mind, that this was the finest film ever made, and regardless of how many great masterpieces I see, A Clockwork Orange still towers above them. I'm sure you'll agree, if you give it the chance it deserves, although it may require for you to see it more than once.
Ikcytang wrote in IMDB: The first viewing left me speechless, unable to describe how weird and terrible I felt. I thought it was the film that left me in this mood, so of course that was the easy target to blame. It was just a bad movie, overrated and stupid and a waste of time. But upon further thought, I realised the film did exactly what it was supposed to. It showed how the world can be a weird and horrible place, and how this young man who goes around torturing people and being a wicked person ultimately doesn't have to pay for what he does. And it's funny too. So this film brilliantly satirises this world, showcasing pure evil and people who ordinarily do not perform such evil are forced to laugh and observe what we all hate to admit is the truth. It's sick, but at the same time brilliant. And when one gets down to the core, you can't really explain it. It just is what it is. It's real.
varun_iitian wrote in IMDB: Another glorifying feature is the central idea of the movie. If a human is striped of the choice to choose from good and evil, he no longer remains a human, he becomes a clockwork. When Alex is brain-washed and "programmed" to choose only good, he wasn't accepted by the society and this shows the irony in the objectives of the British Government. The word Orange from the title presumably comes from the word "Ourange" that loosely means man. And hence the title is so appropriate to the movie.
The artificiality in dialogues and sets give the movie a unique feature and enhance the grip on it. This also means that the viewer has to get more involved. This is definitely one of the best technically shot movies, another masterpiece of Kubrick like the Space Oddessey.
Lastly, I would like to say that you may be compelled to leave the movie in between, but if you are watching it for art and cinematic experience, I recommend you to sit through.
Reviews were taken from: "A Clockwork Orange" at the Internet Movie Database.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Week 12
Are there some common characteristics to great speakers and presenters? What is it that makes them so compelling? Is there a common pattern to great speeches and communications? According to Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design in Silicon Valley the answer is “Yes”.
Nancy Duarte says that the best spoken genre, the one that resonates in audiences and lingers in time, is story. She claims that great communications (either speeches or presentations) follow patterns that are similar to the patterns of great stories. After making her point, she comes with a “shape” of great speeches and she walks us through this shape using two great models of American speakers and some of their most famous public addresses. Here’s her presentation at TED:
Remember, effective speeches mimic the pattern of great stories, but you, the speaker, are not the hero, but the mentor and you have to try to convince the audience they are the heroes. At the level of structure you have to come back and forward between the status quo and the ideal and better future. This applies for commercial presentation (competitors vs. your product) as well as political speeches (the author candidate vs. “me”).
Then we proceeded with the next genre in our syllabus: movies. Movies can be defined in different ways. We can say that a movie is a sequence of pictures in motion that narrates a story or that a movie is an audiovisual text that present a piece of fiction (these definitions were given by you in class). Movies can be classified by genres (action, horror, comedy, etc.) or by the age of the intended audience (PG, PG-13, R) or even by the kind of producers (commercial movies vs. independent movies). As other narrative, movies have a main character with a desire or problem, there is a climax or a crucial event that turns the character’s world upside-down and then a resolution, after which the character is transformed. We also looked at some of the ways in which meanings and emotions are conveyed in movies through music, lighting, cinematography and other visual elements.
Friday. we started watching the movie assigned for this semester: Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange . Although this movie is quite old, I think you will notice the validity of many of the points it makes and how current its topic and technical style is. I leave you with its trailer:
Nancy Duarte says that the best spoken genre, the one that resonates in audiences and lingers in time, is story. She claims that great communications (either speeches or presentations) follow patterns that are similar to the patterns of great stories. After making her point, she comes with a “shape” of great speeches and she walks us through this shape using two great models of American speakers and some of their most famous public addresses. Here’s her presentation at TED:
Remember, effective speeches mimic the pattern of great stories, but you, the speaker, are not the hero, but the mentor and you have to try to convince the audience they are the heroes. At the level of structure you have to come back and forward between the status quo and the ideal and better future. This applies for commercial presentation (competitors vs. your product) as well as political speeches (the author candidate vs. “me”).
Then we proceeded with the next genre in our syllabus: movies. Movies can be defined in different ways. We can say that a movie is a sequence of pictures in motion that narrates a story or that a movie is an audiovisual text that present a piece of fiction (these definitions were given by you in class). Movies can be classified by genres (action, horror, comedy, etc.) or by the age of the intended audience (PG, PG-13, R) or even by the kind of producers (commercial movies vs. independent movies). As other narrative, movies have a main character with a desire or problem, there is a climax or a crucial event that turns the character’s world upside-down and then a resolution, after which the character is transformed. We also looked at some of the ways in which meanings and emotions are conveyed in movies through music, lighting, cinematography and other visual elements.
Friday. we started watching the movie assigned for this semester: Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange . Although this movie is quite old, I think you will notice the validity of many of the points it makes and how current its topic and technical style is. I leave you with its trailer:
Week 11
In this week we closed the topic of humor with an example of a classic American joke (who's on first?) and with some smaple clips from two very popular sitcoms that Katie brought to class.
Next week, we will took a more analitic view of speeches and close this topic. After that, we will start our next genre, movies.
See you next class.
Then we
moved to speeches as another genre of oral texts. We discussed the different
types and purposes of speeches and its main characteristics. Speeches are
usually example of public speaking, they are planned and are related to the
special social event in which they are produced. For example, a commencement
address occurs in a graduation act at college; while a political speech might
occur in the context of an election campaign. Some speeches have the aim of
being inspirational, others are intended to thank people, but most have a
persuasive purpose. Some may have more than one purpose.
In class we
studied and discussed two speeches that are considered exemplary in English rhetoric:
Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stratford University and Martin Luther King’s
“I have a dream speech”. Here’s the video of the “I have a dream” speech.
Next week, we will took a more analitic view of speeches and close this topic. After that, we will start our next genre, movies.
See you next class.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Week 10
Another week gone by. This week we finished the activities and contents related to humor and stand up comedy. here's the last clip we watched in class about euphemisms:
On Wednesday and Friday we continued with your class presentations and finally on Friday we started a new topic on telephone fraud, which we will finish on Monday. On Monday, Katie will be back to visit our classroom and she will bring an activity to review and close the subject of American humor.
On course management, here is the update of the entries recorded in the extensive listening form. With this list you can keep track of which and how many videos you have already done. I'd like to highlight that by this date you should have, on average, around 12 to 14 entries on record. This is not always the case.
Finally, I have already updated the options for the speech assignment. You can check the updated guidelines here.
On Wednesday and Friday we continued with your class presentations and finally on Friday we started a new topic on telephone fraud, which we will finish on Monday. On Monday, Katie will be back to visit our classroom and she will bring an activity to review and close the subject of American humor.
On course management, here is the update of the entries recorded in the extensive listening form. With this list you can keep track of which and how many videos you have already done. I'd like to highlight that by this date you should have, on average, around 12 to 14 entries on record. This is not always the case.
Finally, I have already updated the options for the speech assignment. You can check the updated guidelines here.
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