fallen angels

Zach Gardner

Guys in lit

Fourth hour

Fallen Angels

            Fallen angels is one of my favorite books of all time. I really like it because it is about war. Especially Vietnam. I really, really like war books and this is by far my favorite war book of all time. It has all the right parts to it; suspense, action, happy, sad, joyful, not joyful, and all the aspects of war.

             I really like a lot of Walter Dean Meyers other books like monster. I first read that in eighth grade and it is also really good. I think it is interesting how one author can write about two completely different topics so well and make it so interesting.

I really like how the names of the companies are like A B C D E alpha, beta, Charlie, delta, and echo. I think it is significant and important how the main characters are in the main company, alpha company.

            What I really like about this book is how they go on lots of patrols and it turns out to be a lot more. There is so much action and shooting and there are also really  a lot of injuries but not a lot of death which is good because if it was too sad then the whole story overall wouldn’t be nearly as good, good as it is.

            However, this book is not perfect. There are some parts where it is a little slow or boring or not too exciting but it is usually used to describe or explain something important that has just happened or is going to happen soon. The thing that I think is really unique about this book is  that there is no definite climax to the story which is very good but a little bit of a downfall. I like it that way because there are lots of different mini climaxes throughout the book but none of them are even close to being the same. The last exciting part of the book is definitely a climax though and it is unique the Walter Dean Meyers writes it. However, it is a little bit of a downfall because there is no huge dramatic and extremely suspense full climax like most books have. For example: Lord of the Rings; at Mordor, Star Wars; the battle between Luke, Darth Vader, and also the emperor, and Harry Potter; the final duel between Voldemort and Harry.

            I also like this book a lot because there is a lot of humor in it. Peewee and Perry are really funny together and also not together. One of my favorite characters though is definitely Johnson because he is so awesome. The way Walter Dean  Meyers describes him is so Bad ass. It makes him seem like everybody is afraid of him and that if he wanted to, he could be in total control but hes cool because he knows that that wouldn’t be the right thing to do. I really like it how he is like “the guy” because he has the only machine gun in the squad and he is described as really big and tall and it makes him seem that much more important and cooler throughout the whole story.

            Another thing I really am interested about in this book is how it describes the companies and how they are broken down into the individual squads. From what I read, there are battalions, then companies, then squads, then individual soldiers. And each squad has their own hooch.

            Overall, this is one of my favorite books about war and ive read it multiple times.



evaluation of movie clips

A-
I really liked how right from the beginhning, it has interesting lighting effects. before i thought nothing of it, but now i can tell that there was lighting either coming from underneath or reflecting off the table on to them. it really adds a casino sort of effect. Also, there is somewhat unique camera work. i think that in some parts it looks like a handheld camera to show a point of view, but also a regular camera to tell a story. I also noticed a lot of match on action camera work when multiple people were talking, not just two.

C-
This is one of my favorite movies and i really like how it has a great example of parallel editing when it shows the FBI agents going to Buffalo Bills house and it also shows Buffalo Bill inside the house. This is significant because it shows the two main opposing forces of good and evil coming together for the dramatic ending of the movie. But there is a big twist! The way the camera work is edited, we think they are at the same place when we hear the doorbell but really they are at completely different houses. You realize this when it shows one guy at the door, but Clarice goes in. It is ful of suspense and the lighting and camera works add a lot of effect and emotion.

E-
Since this movie is about Mozart, it makes sense that there would be a lot of music effects. The first things i noticed was how the piano/harpiscord goes inbetween diagetic and nondiagetic. The way it does this is by showing the music playing at regular time, but then switching to something else and it suddenly becomes background music. And it goes back and forth. also, when he is playing something else and suddenly the other man starts singing is interesting and very effectful.

F-
This clip was very short, but had a lot of things we learned about. It had a lot of backlighting and it was very shadowy. Also, the first time the camera move it is a pan over a wall. The last part was showing the three different sides(rule of threes) and how the depth works. On the left, there was a man far away, on the right, a woman close by, and in the middle, a large fire far away to focus on. Also, the whole shot was one big long take and it had a soft light to it which really makes you interested in what will happen next. There isnt a lot of talking so it makes you think for yourself.

movie of the year ratings

Social network

• Intriguingly smart
• gloomy lighting
• lots of sarcasm
• relates to America today

Kings speech

• olden feeling (clothing, accent, speech)
• darkness of happiness
• based on a true story

Toy Story 3

• lots of action for an animated kids film
• better thank the first two combined
• lots of new characters and theme and plot

Winters bone

• depressing story
• shaky cameras make it look real
• not well lighted, adds depressing effect

inception

• amazing story line
• everybody relates to it while watching
• a whole new idea about dreams/levels of dreams
• intense, suspenseful ending

true grit

• a modern western
• great acting by everybody
• not a lot of action, but more story

1.) The Social Network
This was my first favorite because i think that of all the others, it relates so perfectly to America today. Whats one of the most popular things on the Internet today? Facebook. What kind of movie will attract Facebook users? a movie about the making of Facebook. There were so many great quotes that really make you look back on the movie in the end. The other thing was how there were multiple story lines going on at once, which makes it unique, intriguing, and exciting. The acting was phenomenal, even though if it was a little more exaggerated than what really happened. Finally, the lighting of certain scenes adds effect. Dark lighted scenes are either important or sad, while the well lighted scenes are happy or funny.

2.) King's Speech
This was my second favorite because it felt like you were apart of the story and that you went back in time. It portrays how something so small, can be such a big deal. it all depends on who you are. There were so many important characters in the storyline. It doesn't just show the happy parts where the kings voice is perfect. Its actually the opposite in meaning that it shows mostly only parts when he gets frustrated, then shows him learning more. The acting by Colin Furth was absolutely amazing. It was easily some of the best acting I've ever scene. Finally, the dialogue was so well written it adds to the effect of the great acting.

3.)Toy Story 3
This was my third favorite choice because it was so much better than everyone thought it would be. Not saying that it looked bad, it looked amazing, it was just better in a new kind of way. The first two movies were really good. but both of them combined and then compared the third is a huge difference. Not only was the third one just really good, but it had a whole new kind of story line. In the first one they try to stay with Andy. in the second, they try to save the other toys. in the third however, they do both in a whole new way. There are so many new characters introduced in this movie that if i hadn't seen the first two, i would have thought that one was the first. Its story line was just so fresh and amazing that it easily has a chance to win.

4.)True Grit
Overall, i really liked True Grit. After the first preview i saw, i thought it looked really bad. after the second preview, it looked really good. Even from the previews and trailers i could tell that it would have that traditional western theme. I thought that Jeff Bridges looked really good. After i had seen the movie, i was slightly disappointed. I was looking forward to a lot of shootouts, cowboys, and traditional western movie features. Not to say that True Grit didn't have these features, but just not a lot of them. I was thinking i would be an action movie but it was more like an action and drama. In my opinion, there were a few too many nights sitting around the fire talking about drinking water from horse footprints. But there were also lots of cool things i didn't expect; some of these were the man in the bear suit, finding Chaney in the creek, and the hung man in the trees. Overall, i placed True Grit in fourth place, not because it was bad, but because the others were just a little better.

5.)Inception
I think Inception is a lot like Avatar last year. Everybody thought the graphics and special effects were unreal and completely new and modernized and cool. The thing that everybody seemed to attach onto about Inception was the storyline. To themselves, everybody thinks about their dreams and how the work and what not. Like The Social Network, when something like that is made into a movie, people are going to want to see it really, really bad. I think the overall best feature of Inception was either the special effects or how they went further than just explaining dreams (dream levels, totems, inception and extracting ideas from other people). I think that Inception was more of a "cool" movie than a great storyline movie.

6.)Winter's Bone
There were some parts in Winter's Bone that were really good and intriguing. Most of the movie though, was her either walking, making food, or talking to people. Not the most exciting thing. But i do think that the effects, such as zoom, lighting, and camera work, really added to the sadness of the story. I think it was too much of a sad movie or "downer" to win movie of the year. My main opinion is that it didn't start getting really good until the end. But i still thought that it was a decent movie.

Slaughterhouse-5 Blog

Essay Improvement-

1. Put more depth into elaboration sentences
2. Have a more relative intrpductory quote
3. Have an effective restated thesis
4. Have an effective concluding statement
5. Have a strong topic to write about
6. Make sure of proper grammer and punctuation
7. Find appropriate quotes that fit theme of essay
8. Have a clear expression of the main point
9. Use an effective quote to correctly illustrate the main point
10. Have an effective explanation of the quote relating to the main idea

Thoughts about Slaughterhouse-5-

1. The original three dimensions make sense to humans because thats the way we see it on Earth
2. It was interesting how Tralfamadorians see Time as the fourth dimension because humans don't see it like that
3. How Billy talks about the Tralfamadorians AFTER the plane crash is significant because he could just be crazy
4. The book really makes you think about how time works
5. it is significant how when Billy's wife dies it just says "So it goes"
6. How the story revolves around three different times in Billy's life is interesting
7. i think it is interesting how little detail there is about what the Tralfamadorians look like
8. i think it is funny that Billy is kept in a zoo on Tralfamadore
9. i think it is also funny how the Tralfamadorians are green, what most people would picture an alien to be
10. it is also funny how "zillion" is apparently a made up number but the Tralfamadorians live over a zillion lightyears away from earth
11. I think that it makes you think about death and how real it really is
12. i really like how it talks about scenes of world war II
13. i think it is intrigueing how tralfamadorians have five sexes when humans only have two
14. I think it is suspenseful when it talks about billy's friend's execution
15. the book makes you wondre what sort of afterlife there is, if there even is one

Themes of Slaughterhouse-5-

1. Death is not as important as we see it
2. There could be other lifeforms in the universe
3. Time travel can be possible to a certain extent
4. we relive the significant times in our lives in the afterlife
5. time is the fourth dimension of the universe

Conversation-

B- Are you scared of death?
Z- A little yeah
B-its nothing to be scared of, its just part of everything else.
Z-well okay.... did it hurt a lot?
B-there was nothing painful at all. except for the mere feeling of knowing that you won't exist except for in the past, which is what i learned from the Tralfamadorians.
Z-so if i thought really hard about a past memory of you, i could relive it with you?
B-Not quite, if you and i were both dead, then yes, we would be able to relive memories from the past. the really significant memories of our life.
Z-Thanks! now i understand what you mean!