Blog#10 How to make a film

Hello this is Shoko!! We have watched many films in this class so far. As you know there are various films: animation, short film, SF, action, comedy... There are already many films and other new films will come up in the future. By the way, do you know how to make a film?? We often see the content of a film but I am sure not so many people see the process. So today I would like to introduce how it makes. Reading this blog, you can understand the basic process to make film so that you will be able to make a film whenever you want!!



1. You have to gather a production crew. They could be your friends or family.
2. Find a director who is specialized in making a film.
3.Get the film
4. Assemble the cast. Having an audition is one way to find the best actor and actress.
5.Correct props and costumes.
6.Choose filming locations. Do not forget to get a permission to use.
7.Have rehearsals. After you make sure everything is set, then film it.
8.Make the film processed.
9.Edit the film.
10.Show at film festivals so that many people know your film.
11. Invite studios and distributors to a small theater and screen your film. Your film might be distributed if they like it.

As you can see, there are many things to make a film and each process takes a long time. Also, even the lowest budget will be over than $15,000. For instance, "Avatar" took 18 years and cost $237,000,000 to be completed.  Knowing this truth, I thought that we have to respect each film more.

This is the list of common tools for film making and this web site shows specific steps which I skipped.

Blog #10 The popcorn is prohibited !!??

Hi, this is Chiaki. As you know, the popcorn is very popular food at the movie theaters, and Takuto had already said that in his last presentation. I always eat it when I go to the theater and my favorite taste is CARAMAL!!! I think people eat popcorn only at the theater or at the Tokyo Disney Land, don't they?? But recently, eating the popcorn is getting to be prohibited at the movie theater because of its smells and making sounds.

Basically, we do allow to eat and to drink something which we bought at the theater, only at the theater. However, there are some people who bring food and drink in from outside the theater, and they eat and drink them during watching movies. Almost all people who eat popcorn buy it at the theater, but why they are criticized and are made disgusted? Some people say eating and drinking something in the theater is too noisy and makes smells which hinder them from concentrating to watch the movies, others say eating popcorn is one pleasure as watching the movies at the theater not at the home.

Actually, when I was under 15, I used to eat popcorn at the theater and it was one pleasure thing for me, and I couldn’t watch the movies without eating or drinking something because I cannot concentrate on watching too long movies such as Harry Potter series, but as I eat or drink something I could not be tired and fed up with sitting the same place for a long time. Time goes by, now I don’t eat something during watching because I want to concentrate on the movie and don’t want to eat something, maybe I think I was grown up.

To sum up, it is hard to prohibit to eat and to drink something because if the movie industries do that, their sales will decrease. The number of children tends to prefer to watch the movies at home than to go to the theater because of snacks, and the person who like eating popcorn at the theater tend to be less. The movie industry will have huge damages and may become bankrupt.

I have two ideas to solve this problem. First, the theater needs to be separated, it means, one is allowed to eat and to drink, another is prohibited. As to do that, the person can choose which theater is the best for them and they don’t have to worry about their eating and drinking or others’. Second, as this picture, people who want to eat popcorn would eat it before starting the film, it means during the trailer. Even though the amount of popcorn you can eat during the film decreases but you can eat!!! In addition I mention you that the calorie of popcorn is really high. 5kcal for 1g, 250kcal for 50g…so if you care about your health, you had better not to eat popcorn in the dark place where you cannot notice what you eat. In fact, I hope the popcorn will not be prohibited because I want everyone to enjoy watching movies which teach us new world and make us some sour of emotion.

Blog #9 TED Kathryn Schulz: Don't regret regret

Hello, this is Chiaki. I was surprised when I heard the next topic we use for our blog was TED because I have already known it and enjoy watching it usually. TED is the best material for us to learn English and to be worth listening. Today I'll introduce you a beneficial lecture by Kathryn Schulz: Don't regret regret. This lecture teach us an important thing not to regret what we have done but to live with the regret that we made, and it also encourage us to live after making a big mistake through her tattoo experience. This was filmed in November 2011 and posted in December 2011, it isn't a new one but it is really great.

 The reason is why I chose this lecture is recently I took an important exam but after taking it and handing it in I noticed my faults but of course I couldn't and must not rewrite my answer so I regretted it. Since then I have been thinking about my faults and think if I could notice my stupid mistakes earlier and could change them before handing it in, I could pass it, even though my result have not been arrived to me yet. I sometimes regret what I had done and I think everyone dose too. I have wanted to know how to remove such a strong regret so I chose it.

 Through this lecture, she talked about her the most regret, tattoo experience when she was 29. On that day she got a tattoo on her arm, she really regretted it and couldn't sleep well and got irritated to what she had done. She always doesn't regret so much because she hopes this word: Things without all remedy should be without regard; what's done is done, but in this case she was very regretted. Finally she found the way to live with our own regrets, not to regret what we had done before and not to blame ourselves through her experience.
Here are the best ways to remove from the disgusting feeling and to coｍforｔ ourselves.
 1. to find some comforts in the universality of the regret
 2. to laugh myself off
 3. to obtain the power of time

Through her lecture I could find the most interesting but profitable things, these are we can learn new things from what we had mistaken, we can find our own possibilities from what we had done, and we can comfort ourselves by ourselves. Because if we regret what we had done and hope the things could be changed, but it is definitely impossible. We should advance, don't stop. Inevitably we should live with our own faults without too much disappointment, so the best ways to do that are learning the way to comfort ourselves and having a new point of view, as she said, "we have to love non-perfect things with faults that we create and to admit ourselves who create these." I enjoyed this lecture and learned the most beneficial thing for me, so I will try to comfort myself and not to regret what I had done before. Spending too much time on thinking about the regret that couldn't be changed and the past that I am still not convinced kills our precious time. The regrets remind us of not the regret itself but the fact that I could have produced much better results depend on us.
Please watch it and lead a better life without disappointments!!!

Blog #10 Movies' Names in Japanese

Hi! This is Kimura Takuto.


As you know, during the cultural festival I went to Hokkaido and met many international students from all over the world. One of whom was from Britain. He asked me what is my favorite film, to which I replied BIOHAZARD (バイオハザード）. And then, he said " you know? the film called like this in Japanese is dubbed RESIDENT EVIL in English." I was surprised to notice that and decided to research on this. As to the film, which originated in a Japanese game, when the game was imported to occidental countries, it was named RESIDENT EVIL. And that is why the film has the same name.


Seeing films from America and Europe imported to Japan, you will easily figure out they have Japanese names. For example, we watched The Big Sleep in the class, which is named "三つ数えろ, Count to Three" and City Lights, "街の灯". And even though some movies in Japanese have the same (or alike, because of the difference in pronounciation between Japanese and English) title as those in English, they are named in Katakana, Top Hat, " トップハット", Paper Moon, " ペーパー・ムーン", and The Modern Times, " モダン・タイムス" not having the in Japanese version.

Who decides Japanese names? The answer is distribution companies. Movie distributors purchase not only the right to broadcast films but also that to name them. And since English characters are less familiar to the Japanese than Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana, they are likely to re-name.


But sometimes, titles in Japanese do not go with their stories, which movie companies in Europe and America are afraid of and make contracts to rename their movies only in Katakana with Japanese distributors. And also in Japan, there are some who do not like films with terrible names in Japanese, saying they are nonsence.


Now, English is intelligible to many Japanese. And I think movies from foreign countries need not be dubbed in Japanese, maybe Katakana is okay. Films mistakenly dubbed in Japanese would just confound spectators and benefit little to them. If movie distributors have time to discuss film titles in Japanese, they might as well make inpressing trailers.

Blog #9 TED:Peter Norvig "The 100,000-student classroom

Hello this is shoko. TED has many attractive lectures and I personally think watching TED talks is so much better way than watching boring TV programmes to kill your time. Today, I would like to introduce you this lecture:"The 100,000-student class" by Peter Norvig. This short lecture is about an online education system which was filmed Feb 2012 and posted Jun 2012.

I choose this lecture because I am interested in education and its effect on people. I am taking teacher training course and studying lots of things about teaching and learning. I actually knows online education has a huge possibility to change the current education system and there are already various online education courses which are provided by many education companies.  However his system is different from those ordinary ones and it actually seems an interesting way. So I would like to share his idea with you.

 

 

Peter Norvig is a computer scientist and currently the Director of Research at Google Inc and he used to be a teacher at the Stanford University. Through his teaching experience, he noticed that even contents of each lecture have been improved, the way of teaching has not changed at all for long long time.  In the fall of 2011, he started to change the way of teaching and learning: he made a  free online education system. People can watch the high level lecture movies on the web. In addition, in his system, he gave students homework and decided due date so that students can study as if they actually take this course in class. After student completed their course and if they pass them, they can receive an actual certification.  

 

Online education system is no longer interesting and new thing. What attractive thing in this lecture is his original ideas. He tried to make online web course more real: he gave small quizzes during a video and homework assignments.  Also he changed the way of teaching: he adopted man-to-man teaching method. In order to make a content easier to grasp, he divides a long lecture into small 2~6 minutes video. Those characteristics are really effective to motivate students to keep studying. Because an online course does not have a class, students have to study by themelves and in that situation, they often lose motivation easily and quickly. Therefore, this difference from other online lecture courses amazed me.

 

Free online education system has huge possibility. It enables poor and busy people to learn high quality contents whenever they want and gives opportunity to people all over the world.  However, only people who have a computer can do this program and other the poorest people cannot. This is obviously an attructive education system. However, we also have to think about people who really cannot study in their life. More than 160,000 students from 209 countries enrolled Norvig's web site so this system actually does work. This system can be impoved more and more in the future for people who need it.

 



Blog #9: TED Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts

Hi! This is Takuto.

I was surprised to hear in the class about TED, which I had been using as a study material when I was in highschool. There are many stories I recommend you to watch, but this is the best I have ever seen.

I chose this story because, as you know ( or don't know?) in the class, I'm not so talkative person. That is why the first time I heard her story, I was completely encouraged and came to think I don't have to pretend to play an assertive person, but I have only to be honest to my personality.


"There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas." [10:36]


Susan Cain states introverts have talents to come up with unique, innovative ideas which are usually hidden inside their minds and never let go, and we should not underestimate them. The story begins with her uncomfortable experience when she took part in a camp in her childhood, forced to become "ROWDIE". And then, she casts a doubt on the society we live in, in this talk she puts school and workplace as examples,  praising aggressive, appealing people and denouncing those rarely expressing themselves. After that, she mentions cultural history in western countries including America to show why introverts have got so excluded. In conclusion, she says though she knows the importance of groupwork or communication, sometimes extroverts should be isolated and work alone to raise creativity, and as for introverts, they should expose their opinions a little more.


In my opinion, I doubt if introverts are wiser than extroverts, however, I absolutely agree her thoughts that introverts should be much more welcomed to the society, which means we should understand these sorts of people. And once in a while, we must need time to think alone.
If you are fed up with pretending to be energetic, this story will give you the courage to follow your true characters.

Blog # 8 Minimalism

Hello! This is Kimura Takuto.

Even though it is far from the end of this year, I have begun cleaning my room. And I have sold some card games I used to play with. When cleaning my room, I recalled an article in Courrier Japon. This is about minimalism.

Minimalism originated in art, design and music, and means erasing all unnecessary things and making works simple without characteristics. But recently, it has been incorporated in lifestyles, living a life with only 100 belongings including furniture and clothes.

To become a minimalist, five things are required.

1. Throwing away all unnecessary things

2. Having a good eye to distingish precious things from your stuffs

3. Cherish what you have chosen, not discarding it so easily

4. Never look at huge empty space in your room as sad, but as pleasant

5. Change your life style over and over again. Never linger in one particular style


If you don't see what I'd like to say, please refer to this, written in Japanese.

Thanks to tablet PC and smart phones having many functions, not so many things are needed when living. ( For example, clock, weather forecast, TV, newspaper and so on can be replaced by these devices.) And since economy is still dipping and people are likely to refrain from spending money on luxuries, minimalism would become appreciated.

However, there are some dissidents arguing eliminating unnecessary things also means eliminating memories and emotions reminded from them. Think about toys you used to play with. Can you erase them without any compromise?