First blog post of grade twelve? First blog post of grade twelve.
Let’s get right into this, how does style and form effect meaning? This was the topic of our first unit in English twelve, and it is what our class has focused on throughout the past month. Throughout this treacherous month of intense English studies, we worked through three timed essays, an on-paper essay, and many worksheets that worked on our style and form. Our iTunes U course had materials to teach us different essay formats such as narrative, persuasive, and expository. We assessed different ways to approach each kind of essay, and the importance and effect of different styles. 

The first project of my grade 12 year in PLP has been in the works throughout the past week. This project was based solely upon creating satire! But, what is satire?

We spent an entire class before starting this project, in which we learned what satire was, how to differentiate satire and parody, and what a good example of satire looks like. In this class, we discussed the essence of satire, and what it brings forth. A good satire pinpoints something wrong in our society, and uses techniques such as humour, irony, and exaggeration to bring up that point. The purpose of bringing that point up is to induce change, and allow the viewer to see the problem at hand under a new light. We watched a variety of different videos, some of which being satire and some being only parody. Our class was asked to identify which videos were satire, and which were parody.  This exercise helped our class to learn what satire was, and how it differentiated from parody. Here is one of the videos we watched explaining the difference between satire and parody.

Before starting to work on my own satire, I decided to do some research. I wanted to create a satirical video that focused on the wrongful actions of corrupt CEO’s. My goal was to create a video that highlighted the terrible things that some CEO’s of major companies had done, but revealed it in a humorous and satirical way. I went to the internet, and  scrolled through YouTube in  search of inspiration. I came across a video uploaded by Jimmy Kimmel called “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets”. This is a series that many people are familiar with, in which Jimmy Kimmel sits down a variety of celebrities, and have them read mean tweets about themselves. It is hilarious to watch these incredibly rich celebrities read a mean tweet about themselves, and then laugh about it. The series is very popular, and has had spinoffs such as NBA Players Read Mean Tweets and much more.

As I watched the newest episode uploaded just last week, I realized that this would be a perfect theme for my satire project. These celeberaties laughed at the tweets targeting them, since the tweets were often very ridiculous. I decided to create my own spin off of this program, in which CEO’s of different companies were to read mean tweets targeting them. Instead of having the tweets be ridiculous, and untrue like the actual show, I decided to base the tweets off true facts about the companies. While writing the tweets for my video, I thought it would be humourous if I added a punchline to each tweet. Therefore, the tweet would be a real fact about something the company has done, followed by a punchline to induce humour. I spent two classes writting nine tweets targeting different CEO’s, and researched information for each one. Here are the nine tweets I wrote before doing the filming.

Once my tweets were ready to go, the filming began. I started by creating a background similar to the one Jimmy Kimmel uses in the actual series. By using different app such as Superimpose, I created a background and text bubble for the video. I also used an app called Explain Everything to create an intro very similar to the one Jimmy Kimmel uses, but with my theme instead. Below is how my creations look compared to Jimmy Kimmel’s.

With all of my assets ready for filming, it was time to cast people. I used student from my class to play as the CEO’s, and filmed them in front of a green screen. All of my filming was done inside of the classroom, and thus there was a high amount of background noise. This was a major problem, since there is no background noise in the original show. I had to compromise, and thus downloaded a software on my computer called Audacity. By using this program, I could edit and remove the background noise using their features.

I was within the final stages of my project. I used Explain Everything to put the final touches onto my video, and proceeded to edit it in iMovie. I downloaded a laugh track online, and put it over the punchlines of each tweet. By doing this, each tweet was meant to sound like a joke. The CEO’s would laugh along with the audience, yet the tweet itself was filled with terrible things that company had done. This is where my satire came in, as the CEO’s would laugh about their own wrong doings. Here is CEO’s Read Mean Tweets.

I used the lessons I learned in style and form throughout my satire project. Sarcasm was used throughout the video, as each CEO’s response was incredibly sarcastic. They would laugh, and comment on the punchline rather than the fact stated. Irony was used, as the CEO’s were expected to react to the facts stated, but rather reacted to the punchlines. I used paradox, as the entire video is a parody on Jimmy Kimmel’s projects.