English Portfolio Final

http://bchoe58.weebly.com/

Movie Review: Saw

Saw

The movie I decided to do my movie review on is the 2004 horror film Saw, directed by James Wan. The first of currently 5, and more upcoming sequels, this film is a breath of fresh air from the whole slasher/gore genre. This film takes more of a psychological aspect rather than the whole jump out and scare you type of movie. For a quick summary: The film begins by putting the viewer right in the middle of the action. 2 men awaken to find themselves shackled to a run down, abandoned bathroom with no consciousness of how they got there and who the other person is. They realize they are the latest victims of the notorious Jigsaw killer, who places his victims in traps that will kill them if they don't complete a task within a time limit. The victims of these "traps" are people who have neglected the value of life, and to escape, they must cause self-mutilation to themselves. While not necessary a "killer" Jigsaw finds a way for his victims to kill themselves and he has quickly established himself as an icon of horror up there with the likes of Freddy, Jason, and Mike Myers. A fun, keep you on the edge of your seat, thriller. This film and its sequels is a must for any fan of the genre, and the big question, who is the Jigsaw killer?

11/13/09 Practice Movie Review

The Devil Wears Prada

Upon watching the first ten minutes of "The Devil Wears Prada" it is obvious that this film is intended for people, mainly women who have an interest in fashion, as judging by the importance fashion takes within the opening scene. Anne Hathaway plays a women who is applying for a position for a top magazine called "Runway," whos editor in chief is played by an indifferent, brute, and blunt Meryl Streep. As Hathaway approaches Streep for the interview, Streep mearly brushes her off and doesn't give her a chance. A lighthearted, witty film with two big name stars, this film is for anyone who has a knack for fashion.

11/6/09 Portfolio Comments

For this weeks blog, I decided to comment on Danny's portfolio. Upon viewing his site, I noticed it was very easy to navigate, for the links were on the left side of the page going down vertically. I liked the overall theme of the page. It wasn't too flashy or too bland. Was simple yet artistic. One thing that I liked most, was how he included a brief biography of himself on his website, something that I forgot to include. One thing that I might reccommend is keeping the font size the same throughout the writing. But overall good webpage.

10/30/09 My advertisement

For those of you who wish to view my ad.

http://mimpiituaku.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/wonderwoman-aids.jpg

My advertisement is basically marketing a deadly virus. While most of the ads you see on tv market products such as deodorant, make-up, beer, etc. This ad markets something that will destroy your life. In the ad is wonder woman, a superhero of great power, lying helpless and sickly on a hospital bed with a look of apathy on her face. She is in her trademark uniform, attached to an IV, and the words "AIDS makes us equal" as a caption on the bottom of the ad. I suppose the argument of this ad is saying that, while everyone is different, AIDS is the common thing that makes us equal. We are all vulnerable to it, and once diagnosed, its a fight you can't win that saps your strength and life. The intertextuality of this ad uses wonder woman as an AIDS victim because it projects the image of a mighty heroine with super powers and seemingly no weaknesses as a normal human being. If it had just an average joe in the ad, no one would think much of it. Having wonder woman there is more powerful just because of the reputation she has throughout popular culture.

10/23/09 Reading the Gaze

For this week's blog post, I will write about the reading on p220-226 Reading the Gaze: Gender Roles in Advertising. After reading and viewing the advertisements, I was most interested in learning how "the gaze" is primarily determined on how the position of the person in the ad is viewed by the reader. I was surprised by how much sex appeal is included in some of the advertisements, not just in the reading but everywhere in general. As for the article, I agreed with the author when he said that the way the person in the advertisement is looking at the reader, plays a big part in the social relationship that the viewer forms with the ad. ex.) a smile asks the reader to enter a a relation of social affinity with them. I didn't disagree with anything since the info was based on actual advertisements. This article was well developed in the sense that it proved how gender roles in advertising does in fact play a huge role in marketing.

10/18/09

http://www.bchoe58.weebly.com

Midterm Portfolio
English 1105
Fall Semester

10/06/09 CD Project Ideas

For the second essay/project we're doing in this class, I decided to put together the CD Package. I chose this over the Movie package because it seemed like a better, more practical way to get my ideas across. Plus it would seem sort of fun to think of song titles about your life and whatnot. This project gives us a way for us to showcase our creative and aesthetic side, and does so in an enjoyable way. As for the CD cover and liner notes, I'll use some time during fall break to look into some CD's I own and draw examples from there.

9/30/09 Reading for 9/28-30

For this week's blog, I decided to read From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle, by Min-Zhan Lu. p153-162. What I found most interesting about this reading was how much the English language was condescended upon during the Anti-Rightist movement. Just speaking the language itself was considered an anti-revolutionary act and for the author, made life much more difficult in the midst of the two conflicting worlds. Transitioning between the "home" and "school" languages could not have been done without contradicting one or the other. The same concept also surprised me in the sense that once she became fluent in the voice of the Working-Class student, the English meaning of the word "class" began to lose its meaning to her, after much exposure to her "home" life. I agreed with pretty much everything she wrote in her piece, because it was an autobiography to some extent and. Overall, I thought this real-life experience of the author was a very enlightening story to read and really depicted how the struggle between her "home" and "school" life caused her to go through the hardships and confusion at such a young age. It really makes us think about how far the education system progressed from that time to the day today.

B Choe

9/23/09 Group Punctuation Project

Well, first off. Lets say this is one of the more "outlandish" group projects that I've done in the history of all the group projects that I've done. A powerpoint presentation about a semicolon...Although the educational value was great in the sense that I actually learned all the uses of a semicolon, in about 99% of the writing that I have done, I have never used a semicolon, much less thought of incorporating one in my material. Maybe its b.c. English is not my first language or maybe its the fact I'd rather use the simple comma, in use with a conjunction word to get the same point across. Either way, I hardly think I'll ever use the semicolon unless its required for something. Fun, quick, easy group assignment that I think was slightly out of the ordinary, but an easy A nonetheless. ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

-B choe

9/10/09 First Blogg

I guess I'll do my first blog post on the youtube video we saw last class about the drastic changes our world undergoes every day. Some pretty interesting stuff, particularly the one segment where the # of text messages sent/received each day exceeds the population of the planet. I was surprised that every 8 seconds, 34 babies are born. which means on average, every day 367,200 people are added to the population. Pretty much agreed on everything and disagreed on nothing since it was a video based on facts and there's nothing much I could do to dispute the evidence in the clip. Even though the clip was only 4:13 long, it captured my attention through the whole duration primarily b.c it presents things that a normal human would overlook or wouldn't even think about on a daily basis. Although it was the shortened version of the original, it did its job of convincing me that the world we live in everyday is changing exponentially. Crazy stuff.

-B Choe

9/03/09 Visual Narrative Topic

For my visual narrative, I will discuss and present my experience with music during my life and how it helped me communicate in a different way then with the words you speak. From my childhood experiences with the piano and saxophone, to my teen years playing and teaching guitar, I learned that with music, you are able to express emotions with diversity, creativity, and passion.