Senior Video

DIY- Sk8er Boi

DIY- Sk8er Boi- Video Stills

Group Norms Video

Group Norms Video Still Frames

"Fit In or Stand Out"

Individual Norms Still Frames

Individual Norms Narrative

In todays society fitting in is one of the hardest things teens have to deal with. Sometimes it is about the way that they dress, the way that they talk, but mostly the way that they look. When someone is more of a bookworm and doesnt really care about how they look, chances are that they wont be hanging out with the group that parties all the time. When students start of high school a lot of them are at an awkward stage in there life where they are not really sure who they are. In the beginning students usually keep to themselves. However they begin to realize all of the people around them and start figuring out who they are. Then many teens begin to change, and do whatever they can to fit in.

"Reality Check"

The episode "Reality Check" in This American Life we are shown that human existence is based on what you have and some people do not really understand what problems other people have. Some people never want to give up anything that is close to them in life. Sometimes they even clone the object in order to make it live forever.

Kids and Money

We watched a documentary called "Kids and Money." In the documentary we heard from different aged kids of different classes. Some of the kids were really wealthy and stuck up, while others had to strive to get anything in life. We saw how materialistic people can be and how people really do think there are cliques. All of the kids, even the poor ones, realized that even though they were really poor they would buy whatever clothing that they needed in order to make themselves fit in at school and not be an out cast because they did not have matching, expensive clothing. This show made me want to hit some of the girls because the way that they think is completely wrong and they are spoiled and do not respect anything. Those are the girls that create the cliques at school and make people feel bad, to make themselves look better. The only thing i liked about this video was that it was really honest, and i like the way it jumped around the stories.

Vendela Vida "Bikinis &Tiaras: Quinceaneras"

Vida Vendela wrote a story called "Bikinis & Tiaras" which is about Quinceaneras. This story was found in the book Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-Bys, and Other Initiations. The story talks about how people are not respecting tradition and now are just having traditional parties in order to have a big party where they can dress up and impress their friends. Many traditions are changing in the Hispanic Culture. This story really made me think about the traditional celebration I had that I turned into a party. I took my religion for granted and I did not fully understand what I was about to do. The only thing that i was worried about was trying to dress nice and impress my friends with cool prizes and a fun night. This article made me want to think about my experiences and I enjoyed reading it.

Norms: Individual Vs. Society- Ritual Freedom

Oh man was I scared. Was I going to pass my permit test or not? Well the first time I took it I failed and I was so sad, but I passed it the second time. Yay! I was finally going to be driving on the road like I wanted to. My mom would let me drive everywhere, but with her or an adult in the car. I was a natural driver, and I was so excited. I knew that in 6 months I could get my license and finally be able to drive myself wherever I wanted to go. Finally the day had come I had scheduled my appointment and I was ready to go. However, the only that thing I had hoped wouldn’t happen did, the lady that was going to take me for my test seemed like the wicked witch of the west. She was the meanest lady I had ever met. But I was still good to go. I did a good job and got my license that day. I was so excited the day I got home my mom told me the rule; I had to call her when I got anywhere. That first day she let me drive to my friend’s house, because it was in a reasonable distance so my mom was okay with it. Now a day she makes me drive further distances just to take my little brother to practice. So in a way me getting my license was a rite of passage of freedom to both of my parents. I drive back and forth and thankfully they pay for my gas. I can mostly go wherever I want, so I gained some freedom, which was exactly what I want.

Alexander Amador "My Brown Eyes"

Alexander Amador rights a compelling story about life in the Hispanic neighborhood of the Eight Street Locos 13 gang. She has grown up with this gang her whole life and from watching them she knows that they are like a family. She see's that they have each others back and will do anything for each other. This gang is like her family, even though she doesn't partake in the gang, they still protect her. This is an interesting view on the life of gangs. For most of us we aren't aware with the way gang's work but we believe that all they do is fight and sell drugs. I can see this too because I know people who are in gangs and they are my good friends and when I was in need of help they were there to back me up.

Norms: Individual Vs. Society- Versus "One Place, Different Face"

Word Count: 266

When I look around I see so many different people so many different faces. Some I can recognize others I do not. I categorize them, I know it’s bad but it’s what I do. I look at them and I see how they look, I listen to the stereotypes I’ve heard before. “He’s a nerd, she’s probably s hoe.” All of these thoughts put people in their different societies. I know with my friends I feel like I fit in. We’re weird and have our own sense of humor, but all of us understand. I know these are the people that have my back; we have created our own society. See from the inside we understand but we know people from the outside probably don’t. Maybe that’s how the people are that I stereotype. They might not fit in with the people that I think they do. Even though someone might look like a nerd and not dress the best they could hang out with the partying crew or the athletic teams. I need to stop thinking that people fit into specific groups because they might not. I think that’s the problem with our world, we all stereotype even if we think we don’t, and we make it harder than ever for someone to change. I hate the fact that in order to fit in with people you think are cool, people have to wear less and take more risks. We all live together in one city, one town, one school, but if you looked around the school you would never know because everyone looks different.

Alison Smith "Curve"

In Red: The Next Generation of American Writers--TEENAGE GIRLS-On What Fires Up Their Lives Today, Alison Smith writes a story called "Curve." This story is about a young girl who is troubled in her high school days. The problem is that she's skinny, which doesn't sound bad at all to most of us. However she is too skinny and she wants to be curvier. In high school you will see that most girls complain about their wait and always wish that they were skinny. When all of Alison's friends are complaining that they are too fat Alison complains that she hates her weight too. All of the girls hate her for that because they wish they were skinny like her. The only thing is that they don't know exactly what they're asking for. People are never happy with how they look. Someone always wants to change something, whether its our hair, our skin tones, or our weight; we are never satisfied. This story made me think about my life and what i want to change about myself, which inspires me to write about that.

Amy Hunt "Sleeves"

Amy Hunt writes her short story "Sleeves," in the Book Red: The Next Generation of American Writers-Teenage Girls-On What Fires Up Their Lives Today. Amy talks about her looks and how she is overweight. In today's society fitting in and feeling good about yourself has a lot to do with the way that you look and the way you present yourself. Sometimes Amy wants to fit in but she realizes she is not as skinny and confident as the other girls, so she's conflicted because she wants to be invisible. A lot of teens either want to get attention or be invisible. I feel like sometimes this is true but other times it is not. I think that at the school i go to and the groups that hang out together, we don't really see that people are judged on the way that they look, but mostly on the way that they carry themselves.

Cindy Morand "The Border"

People in society have to deal with racism, money struggles, and being accepted. Cindy Morand goes through all of these and talks about them in her short story "The Border" in the book Red: The Next Generation of American Writers-Teenage Girls-On What Fires Up Their Lives Today. Cindy finds trouble when she hits rock bottom, and has to deal with the change of culture and life style. She talks about the problems she had to overcome and how doing all of this helped her to get her life back together. Cindy realized that she had to accept the way that she lives in order to be happy. We see a lot of people in today's world doing this, they start from the bottom and work there way up and accept every challenge that comes there way.

Amy Goldwasser "Introduction"

In the book Red: The Next Generation of American Writers-Teenage Girls-On What Fires Up Their Lives Today, Amy Goldwasser compiled stories that many teen girls have written. In the "Introduction" Goldwasser talks about some teen girls and how technology has affected them. Goldwasser believes that technology is beneficial to teens now a days, contrary to popular belief. Many parents started getting mad at their children when they learned of there myspace's and facebooks, but she believes that by using these sites we are improving our knowledge. By figuring out technology, we can learn to move faster and teens can express themselves better. Blogs and social networks allow teens to show themselves to others and can express emotions they might not be able to show in person.

Susan Orlean "The American Man, Age Ten"

Susan Orlean writes a story about a young boy named Collin Duffy. She talks about the way that young kids think compared to the way that we believe they do. She realizes that kids are happy with the way that they live and they do not need to know more then they already do. All kids want is for nothing in there life to change. When I read this I realized it was completely true because when I think about my life, sometimes I wish I could be a kid forever. Being young is easy and there is no stress involved. Young kids can just be happy and smile because that is really all that they know how to do.

Social Networking

Samantha Cupingood wants to go to the moon (11:40 a.m.)

What is the attraction of so many teens to Facebook or Myspace sites? Many kids think that if they involve themselves in the social networks they can gain friends and share who they are. People post their pictures; update their status, and communicate with their friends. This way of living is one that I don’t agree with. Many teens that use these sites, in my mind, are taking the easy way out of communicating with people in the real world. If people start using technology in everyday survival they are going to forget how to survive in reality. In today’s technology, people learn about each other because of pictures on their sites and comments that they read, or things that they post about themselves. I feel as though people don’t even try to get to know people by simply sitting down and having a conversation anymore. The internet is diminishing society as we use to know it. I know that when I would use Myspace, people I didn’t know, only heard of, would add me and start a conversation. I hated meeting people on the internet I believe that it makes a person sound pathetic. If you want to meet people then go out to events and be outgoing and talk to people that you don’t know. I think that everyone should go back to meeting people the old fashion way because otherwise I think that people are becoming fake because they don’t allow people to find out who they are, they tell people who they are.

Peggy Orenstein "The Way We Live Now: Growing Up on Facebook"

In the New York Times, Piggy Orenstein, talks about the group of older people who have created a new society from their world of yesterday. Adults have created facebook so that they can add old friends from the past and bring up the good memories. She talks about how this gives adults the ability to create a new idea about how their past really was and could resolve many problems they might be having. Facebook is now affecting many adults because they all want the ability to bring up friends they haven't talked to in many years.

Hal Niedzviecki "Facebook in a Crowd"

Hal Niedzviekci writes his story about how he lost all of his friends and had hoped to gain a lot of new friends by creating a party on Facebook. By doing this he is trying to create a new society and instead of doing it the old fashion way he is using technology. He believes that he did good because he has a lot of friends on facebook, however when he invited all of them to the party no one showed up except for his new friend, Paula. I think that it is sad that people have to go online to make new friends instead of being able to go out to parties or places and having to communicate with people.

Zoe Sandvig "Staring Down Facebook"

In the Washington Times an article was written by Zoe Sandvig about college students and their experiences with Facebook. One student that was discussed was Mr. Ross. Mr. Ross use to have a facebook and then he realized he might have better study skills if he deleted his social networking and focused more on old fashion note taking. A bunch of college students decided to get together and create a facebook "fast." The students needed to realize the affect that technology is having on their lives and how technology has created a new society.

Virginia Heffernan "The Medium: Being There"

Virgina Heffernan, from the New York Times, wrote an article about her experiences with facebook and people's experiences she knew. The society that she talks about is that of facebook and the way that they have created a new way of life. She writes a lot about how now checking peoples facebook status updates has become a thing of everyday life. The norm's about this article consist of people constantly updating their status but not always about what they are doing but what they felt. People also add random people that they don't know but only know some of their friends.

Karen Goldberg Goff "Social Networking Benefits Validated"

Karen Goldberg Goff wrote about kids on Myspace and their parents who are trying to protect them. The article talks about the fact that Goff believes teens need to have myspace and facebook because it will keep them up to date with the rest of society. Students use social networking to connect with other students, but this has its positive and negative points. She believes that students still need rules on the internet because they are not sure of what not to post, but instead of parents restricting them from online networking they should show them what not to post.

Danah Boyd "Why Youth <3 Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life"

Danah Boyd writes about individuals who are active users of myspace and their parents. She talks about how teens are creating a hierarchy on the internet of what they think is cool to post on myspace. The social norms and school norms are creating different identities for people. Myspace has become its own new society, and has different rules. Students show a different side of themselves and they can tell people who they are instead of people coming to conclusions about them. Teens can also make themselves look "cooler" online then they are in person.

"Rigor Article" Tony Wagner

Tony Wagner did a very good job of forming a question and being able to research it. Students need to learn more then they are now because more is expected. Students need to be better at analyzing situations and ideas. The things I have learned to become is an effective communicator and teamworker. A lot of the time I am also good at problem solving.

Personal Narrative Video

Personal Narrative Video Still Frames

STAN CHAMBER JOURNALISM AWARD: "What Matter's Most"

The Place We Live In
What am I supposed to become? Is this the way I should be living. Things just don't seem right in the world. Everything seems out of place and no one is taking it seriously. The problem of no discipline scares me. Nothing in my life is really important to me because the world changed, but I feel like everything should be back to the way it was; when children were given rules and punishments by their parents instead of the children ruling their parents. Sometimes I feel as though parents have given up, so everyone else should too, except for me. I feel like I don’t fit in, because I want rules and I want structure. Recently I’ve figured out a lot about myself, and I don’t like how the world is at all. Children need rules.

My Experience/ Perspective with the Current Economic Climate

Sometimes I get scared, scared that our economy is going to collapse. I am scared we are all going to end up poor. The truth is that our world is going through a change, and it feels like we are going to become a socialist country, not the land of the free. Now the government basically owns all of the banks so that makes it socialist. Sometimes we make jokes about what is happening but the truth is were scared of what our world is going to become.

"Pilot Episode," My So Called Life (1994)

The main character Angela is being followed and we, the audience, learn about the person she is and the choices that she makes. In the video she tries so hard to impress a boy that it leads to her loosing her best friend and almost her mom. She starts doing bad things in order to get a different reputation. This is the typical story of high school girls, they do anything to fit in and get a boy, you can see it everywhere. Angela doesn't stick up for herself but finally in the end she realizes how much she's hurting herself and others and cries to her mother. This episode showed a lot of emotion and feelings.

Teens Learn From Credit Mistakes Of Others" by Jenna Jakowatz

Jenna Jakowatz talks about the way she see's her world and the problems it has with the economic crisis. She says that she wants the world to change so that hopefully one day the economy will return to the way it was. Jenna talks about what she believes our economy has become.

Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run

This video exceprt was telling a story of Bruce Springstien and his road to creating his video Born to Run. He was a major singer in the 70's and he liked to created simple songs. During his career he was feelinh the pressure that he had to be great and acheive freat fame. In the video he showed us what he was surrounded by and what affected him. In my video I plan on showing this too.

"God's Close-Up," This American Life (2007)

We watched a video on a man who was trying to repaint Jesus's Crusifiction and in order to do that he needed to take pictures. He went around trying to find men with beards and he finally found his perfect Jesus. The man was atheist and had a girlfriend who was raised in religious home but claimed she was atheist too. Her boyfriend playing the part of Jesus brought up bad memories of her past and how she was raised.

Samantha Cupingood, 17 "The City that Made Mee"

Word Count: 242

When I wake up this is the place I see, this is the city belong to. Los Angeles is the place that houses all of my friends and all of my enemies. This is the city that made me who I am. The scenery rarely changes but the weather is another story. One day it can be raining and freezing cold and the next it will be sunny. Figuring out what to wear in this place is probably the hardest thing there is, besides trying to find fun things to do. The only problem in this city is that there is so much to do, but my friends and I are not old enough yet (well some of them). Any ways in order to get anywhere we have to drive pretty far, but I guess that’s okay because we all have our licenses. Having my license made living here a whole lot better. I have this map in my head, I can figure out where I am and where I need to go. If I am given cross street I can pretty much get myself there. The only thing is my mom doesn’t really let me go wherever I want so most of the times I see the same scenery and the same people day after day. The days are usually all the same nothing exciting ever really happens. But I love this place and I don’t think I want to leave.

Steve Abee "Echo Park Avenue"

This is the story of a very analytical man who was aware of his surroundings. In parts of the story he contradicts himself about his thoughts of echo park. This is the story of Steve Abee on his ride on the bus. In his neighborhood he feels like he should be the top of the chart but in all reality he is the minority because his city is over populated with illegals. He provides good visuals and his language is interesting.

Juan Rodriquez "Running"

This is the story of a boy who lives in Boyle Heights. One night he falls asleep and has a dream of running and gives very good descriptions. Then when he wakes up he feels like he was running and then makes his dream a reality.

"My Way," This American Life (2007)

"My Way" was a video about how a young kids are trying to decide their futures when they are young. They decide how they want to live and the goals that they have set for themselves in the future. They all talk about how they view the world and what is important to them. This was a good video because it made us as an audience think more about our lives.

"Lauren G & Cappie," High School Confidential (2008)

On this episode of High School Confidential we heard the stories of Lauren and Cappie. They both had very different stories. Lauren had the perfect family life and talked to her mom about everything. She also was homecoming queen and was liked by many people but then she was diagnosed with having a brain tumor and had to have surgery. After the surgery she was fine and continued on with her life. Cappies story was a little different, she lived with her single mom and she was looking for the attention from guys in being the party girl. After a while she got tired of her reputation and she decided to focus more on school. I think watching these made us realize we can relate to highschoolers in other states too.

Grace Habegger "The Depth of Depp"

Summary: This is the story of a 16 year old girl who has an obsession with Johnny Depp. Her name is Grace Habegger and her story is the "Depth of Depp." Her greatest goal in life is to meet him and perfom with him. She says Johnny Depp is her greatest inspiration.


Connection & What I Learned: I learned that people can be who they are because of someone that they see on television. This can be made into a film because you can show her obsession and what she does and she gives descriptions.

Saskia Boggs "Just Watch"

Saskia Bogs is a 17 year old girl who tells a story that television is her problem. She discusses how it takes her away from family and friends but she doesn't do anything about it. She says that watching shows has become a part of life and a way of life. She relates to an inanimate object. Saskia seemslike she is careless and lazy. Television made her who she was.

"The Road Warrior," The O.C. (2006)

We watched this video to see what a voice over was. Many of us watch this show during our normal life and it was good to see that we can connect one of our favorite shows to a class that we have in school. From this film I saw that a voiceover is when someone is not talking but we can hear what theyre saying or hear there thoughts. Voiceover's add drama to scenes, because we know something other characters don't.

My Story

Samantha Cupingood "No More Hearing Lies"
Word Count: 255

Everyday I face it over and over again, I’m scared, I wonder what they are saying now. Each day I wonder if one of my friends is going to tell me someone else was saying lies about me. I know they’re lies I know that everything they say is wrong but I don’t think other people do. When people are told things they usually always think they are real, why would they think someone made things up about me. But the truth is that I know where some of these stories came from and I know the people that made them up. Some people think I’m a partier and I like to drink, but the truth is that I never go to parties I would rather hang out with my friends at my house or watch a soccer game. That’s the person they don’t know, I’m really a simple girl, I don’t ask for much and I don’t talk about people I don’t know.
When I go somewhere I know people know me I feel weird I see their faces. Maybe I’m just paranoid sometimes but a lot of the time I am right. For a while now I’ve been hiding, I want to make sure they have nothing to say. But I’m going to college soon, and in a different state too, no one knows me there, and my friends that are going are my true friends. I get to start over, I get to escape everything, I don’t have to be scared anymore.

Kali Moriarty "Appeal From an Angry Not So Emo"

Summary: This is the story of the typical high school scene, where people judge others that they don't know. This is the story of Kali Moriarty and her friends. People in her school call her and her friends "emo" when they are not. She tells of how if people don't take control before things can get really bad and a war can begin.

Connection & What I Learned: This connects to film because she is telling her story and stories can be told in film. You can also show the types of people because there are sort of descriptions. I learned that different people feel the same way and that we shouldn't judge each other, because the truth is that we probably don't know what we are talking about.

Sarah Schelde "What Truthiness Taught Me About being (Un)Cool"

Summary: This is the story of a 14 year old girl named Sarah Schelde. She tells about how she realized that she has to be herself and stand up for what she believes in. She says that this will get her farther in life because she is being creative.


Connection & What I Learned: I learned that the narrator is right and that we shouldn't just follow what popular tv shows tell us we should be and how we should look. This could be made into a film that showed her being different from the rest and sticking up for what she liked and getting farther then the girls who thought they were perfect.

I Am From Poem

I am from a happy, loving family.
I am from smiles and laughs,
of all of my cousins, aunts and uncles, parents and sibling.
I am from the valley
where the people are all close
I am from the school that people talk about each other.
I am from all of those rumors that were spread,
all of them affected how I felt and who I am
I am from being a true friend
and always having my friends back
I am from caring for everyone
(no matter how much they hurt me)
I am from having fun and living my life
I am from taking responsibility
in a very irresponsible place
I am from athleticism,
My sport (soccer) gets me by and makes me sane
I am from my true friends always having my back.
I am from a place that fake people exist
and I’m always hearing lies.
I am from a city that everyone always has something to say
(about someone else).
I am from a happy place though,
A place where I have no worries,
A place that I know I can be myself,
A place that I grew up in an believe I have friends
I am from my family.

Olive Panter. "Play."

Summary: When you grow up and are born with something you usually depend on it your whole life. Olive Panter, 16, tells her story of her connection with music. She finds that music is that only that that really can make her happy. She seems like a very artisitc girl and she enjoys singing.

Connection & What I Learned: This story connects to film production because the girl grew up around artistic parents and her emotional connection to music can be shown in a film. I learned that anything that you grow up with can affect who you are and what you are going to be attatched to. I can relate but in a different way. I have never really been away from my mother so I am usually dependent on her being there. The only bad thing is I cant bring her everywhere so I will mature and learn how to survive with her not being there.

John Sellers. "My Impression Now."

Summary: This story was told by John Selers and what he thinks about music and how music affects him. He doesn't like to listen to the new music. He doesn't want to listen in the new way because he doesn't think that all of the good music will be heard.

Connection & What I Learned: I learned that things in music really have changed and that they can affect how we live everyday and who we are in life. This connects to film production because you could have a movie that a character is really connected to his music and you can show how the change is affecting him. The only thing was that this story didn't really have a lot of descriptions so therefore it is hard to picture the image in your head and create it into a film.

Mixed CD Poem

Word Count: 352

I can hear them telling lies, well that's no surprise
I don’t like what they say and I can’t understand why they say it.
They say I get Krazy
I’m not who they think why can’t they understand.
I thought they were my friend’s, they told me their secrets
but I would never tell because I’m a true friend, they’re not.
You can put it on my shoulder's, I can hold you.
The thing is that everything they said about me was all a lie.
I’m the kinda girl that would never hurt my friends,
the one that they can all turn to when they need someone to talk to.
Now when I hang out with people, sometimes I worry what they think about me.
Maybe they heard those ridiculous rumors, maybe not but I’m in a daze, that bottom is wavin’ at me.
How am I supposed to feel when people I don’t even know talk about me.
I worry bout the wrong things, the wrong things.
When I hear it so much it starts to hurt, Dem haters in my way.
So I sit on my bed all by myself and shut off any form of communication, I'm good without ya.
Sometimes I’ll stare out the window and I wonder about things, I hate this part right here.
Music helps me too; it helps me to escape from reality.
Sometimes I want to start over somewhere
Cuhz the best is, no one knows who you are,
Just another girl: alone at the bar.
But that’s not me that’s who they think I am.
I don’t really wanna spend your whole life alone.
I want someone who will care and won’t leave me, someone who will keep their promises.
So I get up and realize everyday I need ya.
I have to realize that as long as I know who I am
No one else matters
I move in my own way.
I create who I am and who I want to be,
I'd like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve,
Now I’m Miss independent.

Mixed CD Story

Personal Narrative: RUMORS
Word Count: 443

People say what they want to say what they want to say and hear what they want to hear. Some people would pretend to be my best friends but it was all fake because they were the ones who were starting the rumors. No worries, they are no longer my friends. I have come to learn who I should trust and what I should and shouldn’t say. High School is a complicated place; there are many relationships that are beginning and ending and different status’s students want to have. Sometimes people are so desperate to fit into a group that they will do and say whatever they have to. For my entire life I have never tried to impress anyone I have always been myself. When I find people I can relate to and hang out with it takes me a while to begin to trust them now. The rumors that people started about me gave me a reputation that I don’t want to have. Now I have to live with that reputation and it sucks because no matter how much I try to convince people that the rumors aren’t true, they don’t believe me. I would rather not tell what the rumors are exactly but the truth is that there is no way they can be true. Some of the things people say and think that I do, I have never in my life done because I have class and I respect myself. Sometimes I think that these rumors were started because of the people that I hung out with, and then I realize that’s probably true. It sucks when I hear from my friends that someone was talking about me. The worst part is that sometimes I don’t even know who the people are. The music tells my story. I started off believing that people were my true friends and they would never spread rumors about me. However I came to realize that they would and some of the songs explain who they think I am. Then comes the songs that explain how I feel, I actually listened to these songs when the rumors really get to me and make me sad. By the end of this journey I come to realize that I am Independent and I am my own person. If people don’t know me how can they have the right to talk about me? That is something I will never understand, but I have honestly given up on caring what people say anymore. As long as I know who I am and what I do that’s all that matters because I define myself and no one else can.

"Handwritten" Playlist

Luis J. Rodriguez, "The Republicof East L.A."

Summary: Cruz Blancarte grows to realize that it is better for him not to try and fit in. He realizes that way he doesn't have to worry about what everyone thinks. He shows the reader that he can see life from all aspects and therefore tries to create his own life without doing bad to others.

Connection & What I Learned: From this reading I learned that it does not matter what people think about you and believe what they want. As long as you know who you are you can do what it is you want. I learned that people think you do certain things because of what you were born like when the truth is you could just honestly like that style. This writing was very descriptive and showed a lot of imagery and could easily be made into a movie. Since in movies you have to grab the readers attention you could tell his story.

Sheffield, Rob. "Love is a Mixtape"

Summary: This is the typical story of a boy in a school trying to get the attention from girls. In this particular story this young boy uses music as his connection and decides he will do his part in the school dance. Along the way he finds that more girls start talking to him. His motives are sneaky.

What I learned: This story was very fun to read because there was a way to relate to the character. He goes to school dances just like we do and all of us are always looking for love there. The boy is very descriptive with his writing almost as though i can see it in my head. Making a movie like this would grab teenagers attentions because they could relate to it.

Feig, Paul. "Kick Me:Adventures in Adolescence"

Summary: This narrative was written by Paul Feig in "Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence." In this story Feig tells of how hard it is to be a kid. He first introduces the reader to the unfair things that can happen to adolescents. He shows that his nickname came to be Fig Newton, but it wasn't that bad because everyone always wanted to be the Fig Newton man because they would try and memorize the song he sings. At first this nickname made him grow up but he thought it was unfair. Then he missed it when it was gone.

Connection & What I Learned: This story was one that we can all relate too. I know that people still make names out of my last name, but I am alright with it. You can't really make a story like this into a movie because it is not really an even that happened it is just a story of him.

McAdams, Dan P. "The Stories We live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self" "

My Summary: This story was written by a personality psychologist. Since his job was to figure out why people are who they are he has to listen to their stories. One lady that he is working on her name is Margaret Sands and she has decided that she wants to improve the meaning of her life, but first she must share the stories of her past. In this story the woman is a mother and one day decided that she wanted to take her daughter on a trip and she wrote on a wall. To Margaret this made her feel in powered but to others it looked like an act of vandalism. The psychologist talks about how we live and that we are who we are because of the stories that we have. We can not describe who we are but we must look at what we do and find meaning in that. When bad things happen in your past they might hold you down in your future. Everything that happens to you affects the way that you live. Then, when we tell the stories of our lives we see that the people we tell try and relate to them.

What I learned and Connection to Film: While reading this preface and story i learned a lot about how our lives can be affected by stories. In film you can affect another persons life because if they have a problem the same as one of your characters they might relate to them and do what they do. Also in film we see short bits of what people are, but the stories that are told are the ones that give a film a dramatic affect. We can use this to make a film by creating a documentary or by telling a story in the third person. In a story there needs to be a beginning middle and an end and therefore that needs to be in the movie to.

Patricia Hampl "I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns in the Land of Memory"

Summary: This story was written from the perspective of a girl who is remembering her past experiences and writing a memoir. She is puzzled at the fact that she can remember some memories better than others. The girl tells us that when she writes a memoir she has changed some of the facts and otherwise told little lies about things. Memoirs are supposed to let the reader try and imagine and picture what the writer is talking about. The girl gives a lot of stories and vivid imagery to help the reader visualize the situation. She speaks a lot about how her father was a violinist and in this way she connects herself to him because he got her piano lessons so that they could have piano- violin duets.

Connection to making a Video: This story can be made into a movie and gives ideas for movies. We, as directors of our own movies, can look at memories from our past and retell them and add in different things that we find necessary to make the film more enjoyable for the audience. We can tell of stories that we have or obstacles we came across. On the other side, we can be narrators of our own story and jump around to different memories in our life, or talk about what we were thinking at the time of the memory while we replay the memory in the background.

The Scooby-Doo Remake Video

Scooby-Doo Still Frames

"Be Kind Rewind"

"Be Kind Rewind" was a movie that used comedy to recreate videos. There is the old man who owns the video store and he doesnt allow one guy to come in the store but one day he gets in a demagnitizes the videos. The old man goes away and leaves someone else in charge of the store and when he realizes that no one can watch the videos he decides that he must remake all of the videos. So the man and Jack Black set of to recreate all of the videos they need. Their videos become a hit and people line up out the door and down the street for rentals. This movie was very creative and helpful in helping us to figure out how to remake our videos.

"Son of Rambow"

This was a video about a young boy who is trying to remake the video about Rambow. During his filming he meets another boy who says he will help him. This young boy decides instead of being Rambow he wants to be Rambow's son and go on an adventure to find his father. This movie was very brilliantly put together because it was very craetive. During some parts of the movie the boy would be running in a cartoon and that was cool to try and figure out how they did that.