Lord of the Rings Final

In media communications we have started watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We have finished the first one The Fellowship of the Ring, and have started The Two Towers, the second installment of the trilogy; all of the films in this series are epic stories. Peter Jackson directs the movies. Some of the main characters include Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Merry, and Pippin, I will be discusses some of these characters and others in this paper. Some good epic characteristics are the main hero, vast geographical setting, and the quest or journey that they are trying to complete.

First, I will talk about the hero of these movies, Frodo. A hero is defined by having a power or ability that no one else possesses. For Frodo this is his purity, he is the only hobbit with a soul that is pure enough to carry the ring without getting greedy and power hungry. The way this is shown in the first movie is when he first gets the ring he offers it to Gandalf, but Gandalf goes crazy and tells Frodo he cannot carry it because if he does he will become power hungry. In the second movie Frodo starts to fall victim to the ring’s power. He becomes unable to sleep and is becoming attached to the ring and the power it gives him. He also starts listening to Gollum a former hobbit that has changed do to the ring, he calls it his “Precious”.

Another very important characteristic for an epic would be the vast setting. This story takes place in different settings that combined all make up middle earth. The first movie is mainly based in the shire then when Frodo starts on his journey he comes to Rivendell the home of the elves. The story really gets better in the second movie because there are more places. For example after the fellowship leaves Rivendell, they travel through the mines of Moria the land of the dwarves where they encounter the Balrog. After that they go through mountains and eventually reach Rohan this is where Gandalf basically performs an exorcicism on Theodred. Then they travel on to Helms Deep where they have a battle with the Uruk-hai, a breed of super orcs, that lasts four days and on the fifth day Gandalf brings an army that helps defeat the Urak-hai.

The thing I think is most important characteristic for an epic story to have is the quest or journey of the characters. The main character is the one who is tested the most on this journey. In these movies the quest is to throw the ring into the fires of Mt. Doom. Frodo and the other characters are tested many different times along their journey to Mt. Doom. The first test for Frodo is surviving when the Ring Wraith stabs him. This is hard because it’s supposed to kill him. Other tests include fighting the creature outside of the Moria mines, fighting the Balrog, fighting the Urak-hai, and Frodo fighting the temptations of the ring. Fighting temptation is Frodo’s hardest test.

Lord of the Rings

After watching the directors commentary of Lord of the Rings I liked a lot of things they used in the movie. One thing I liked is that they used different actors in different scenes to show the height differences. Another thing I really liked was the long shot they used to show the size of the village. I also liked that they used illusions to trick the viewers eye like when they were in the house and the table was two different sizes but it looked like one table this is called forced perspective. they used a shot called tracking zoom shot that isn't used very often. They also used shots from different places and different times of the day in a single scene and you can't tell they were different scenes.

Rocky Paper Scissors

This video was a parody on the movie rocky. it used similar music to the movie and they tried to make their voices sound like the movie's characters. one of the parts i liked is the guy coming around the corner every time he says something. i thought the video was funny and i really liked it.

The movie Carnival of Souls is one of the first movies that the main character is dead and doesn't know it. It was written in three weeks on a $30,000 budget but only cost $17,000. It was written after one of the writers saw this old abandoned outdoor dance place and thought it was really creepy. He then got the ideas to make a movie with dead people dancing there.

Guys Write for Guys Read podcast

First podcast

Current event

This post is about a photo published of a man that had been hit with a RPG (rocket propelled grenade). The RPG exploded and blew his legs off. I don't think this would have been such a big deal if the family didn't care. The family did care though and the press went against the family's wishes. They didn't want the picture published because it was their son. If it wasn't a problem with the family it would just be considered news.

I learned that photographers dont just show up and take one photo. They stay and take as many as they can. this makes me feel that there are things that are tragic and there are also many good things. these two photographs are very different. one shows great joy while the other shows great pain. the first photo is import in history because it is when the vietnam pows come home. the second is important because it shows the effects of a fire in boston.

Photo Manipulation

I chose this photo of a soldier in Iraq. It seemed like he was threatening the iraqi man and his child. In actuality this is two pictures combined. In the original pictures the soldier didn't have anything to do with this man. In one of them he was looking away towards his left. In the other he is looking in the mans direction but doesn't have his hand raised or gun pointed toward him. The photographer was Brian Walski he was stationed in Iraq to cover the events of the war for Time magazine. The reason this is considered a bad picture is the fact that it is a lie. This isn't even a photograph its two photographs digitally rendered into a picture. The original photos are below.

Book

I just started a new book in media communications. It is titled Guys Write For Guys Read. It contains many male authors telling stories from their childhood and how things have changed as they became adults. I enjoy this book because it is interesting to read their stories.

NFL

This is one of my favorite sites nfl.com. It's a football site. I like this site because im a football player. I also like it because i enjoy watching football.

playlist.com

This is playlist.com. I spend a lot of here listening to music. I like listening to music because it cures my boredom.