Spencer Laube

Welcome back to my blog. As of the time that I am writing this blog there are a lot of crazy things happening in the world right now. Countries are on lockdown and people are being forced to self isolate, it is a global pandemic. Just before the Covid-19 virus really took off my class took a trip to Vietnam. While in Vietnam we got a chance to see how the other side of the world was dealing with the pandemic. Little did we know that when we got back to Canada life had changed. Upon arrival we had a mandatory 14 day quarantine. This was a shock because not 2 weeks earlier we were in school going about our business as usual.

Here’s a picture of my friends and I in Vietnam

After our mandatory quarantine was over it was time to get back to school. This was in a different form than before. Due to the social distancing policy put in place by our government we have now moved to studying online. With this change in our learning our smart teachers Mr.Hughes and Ms.Willemse started a unit called “The New Normal”. This was a unit focused on utopia and dystopia.

We started off the project by completing milestone 1. This task was to create our ideal utopia, we would then pitch the idea of our ideal way of life to our classmates and try and get them to join. Sam, Adam and I created what we called “Bearnstien”. This utopia had a list of rules and regulations that people had to follow in order to join.

Here’s the list

After we had presented and the rest of the project we had a vote. Our utopia came in a close second only losing to the winning group because they had more group members to vote for them. 

Next we moved on to the literature aspect of the unit. We had a choice of 4 books to read about different fictional dystopias. The books were 1984, Station Eleven, Handmaids Tail and World War Z. After doing research on all the books I ended up choosing World War Z. I had always wanted to read this book and after learning about how the format of the book was set up, I was sold. The book is a compilation of interviews that are taken from people all around the world as a global zombie Apocalypse is happening. As we read the book we made notes to help us remember key points. After we read a section of the book we had literary discussions with people in our class that read the same book. We talked about things we found interesting, connections we could make to present day events and many other things. An example of a connect I made was how the world leaders in both World War Z and current Covid-19 events are dealing with the pandemic. Both world leaders that came out of the pandemic successfully took immediate action, vs the ones that were in denial came out with more tragedy.

After all the discussions we moved into the 3rd milestone for the unit. This was to create a piece of writing no more than 500 words and it would have to connect the section of reading to the current events you are studying. I chose to connect my book World War Z to the similarities of the coronavirus. 

Now for the last milestone, we moved into our big project for this unit. This project left a lot of room for creativity. In our book groups we were asked to create a driving question to push our project. Our driving question was “How can we use literary dystopias to provide insight into the way human beings react to a worldwide pandemic?” In our book World War Z, the book is set up in an interview format. We wanted to create a presentation slash video of the current Covid-19 in the same interview format. We interviewed people from different cultures around the world and got their take on the current pandemic. We interviewed:

-An oil rig worker from Alberta and how the pandemic is affecting his job.
-A doctor stationed in Italy and how he is making a difference in Italy’s tough times.
-An older farm couple on how they were dealing with the pandemic and
– A protest sympathizer and how he was taking in the current events.

We compiled these interviews into one and it made a nice presentation. We showed the video to our class and talked about the comparison between our books pandemic and the Corona pandemic and how there are many similarities between how the human population is acting.

Here is our presentation

Overall it was really interesting to get to study a unit that is relating to such prominent current events in our world today. Learning more about how Covid-19 is impacting people around the world is very important. It will be very interesting to look back in 20 years and see the impact Covid-19 had on our world. 

After just completing our previous unit on significant events in history, we are now moving on to politics. Everyone’s heard of the political spectrum. You have the left wing and the right wing. Each end of the spectrum has a place for a political party. For example the Conservatives fall on the right and the Liberals fall on the left. 

For this unit we received our information in lecture format. We took notes on each topic so we could better understand the topics to be able to do well on the daily quizzes we would have. Our teacher challenged us to take notes in a different format than we usually did. We were given the note taking options of Memory-Key, Cornell, Standard, Concept Map and Mindmap to chose from.

When I first looked at the notes options, I chose Standard but looking back now I think that a Mind Map would have been the best option. I initially chose Standard because I was familiar with it and wanted to ensure I got all the information written down but Mind Map would have complimented the topic better and summarized the key points and ideas clearly.

Here are my notes from the lecture.

After going through multiple amazing lectures from Mr. Hughes and Ms. Willemse about ideology and the different types of political views that are in our societies around the world, we had to look back at our notes. We edited our notes to refine them and make them better. This is a great skill that I will use to study more often. Editing your notes after a lecture gets you to think more about the topic at hand. The ideologies that we looked at were Liberalism, Conservatism, Socialism, Fascism, Capitalism, Totalitarianism, Anarchism, Environmentalism, Feminism, and Nationalism. Each of these ideologies fall on a different section of the political spectrum. The factors that lead to the placement of an ideology on the spectrum are the values of each party. Each ideology has different views and values. For example, Liberalism believes in equality, individual liberty, supporting private property and individual rights. These are also the factors someone would consider when choosing a ideology to be a part of or who to vote for if you could vote for a leader.

As part of our homework one day we were assigned to take a quiz that would tell you which political party would best fit our views. The quiz asked you questions on different problems that our society faces. An example of the question to help place you in a political party was “ What is your view on the death penalty?” The political compass quiz plots you on a chart along with the location of the other parties. This quiz really helped me understand where each party falls on the spectrum. Here is the outcome of my political spectrum quiz.

The last part of the assignment was to create a poster. This poster helps explain the knowledge that was gained in this study.  While looking back at my notes I remembered all the important information that I learned during this unit that I can take into every day experiences. I found it hard to wrap my head around the entire topic of ideology’s and the political spectrum. I created this poster to help people that may be in the same place I was. This post makes it easy to understand the spectrum and literally puts faces to parties.

Here is the poster that I made

Hello teachers and parents, today I will be speaking to you about all the learning I have done so far this year and how I am going to make improvements from this point forward. I will specifically be talking about my ‘Monster In the Mirror’ project, ‘We didn’t start the Fire’ project and my ‘Taming of the Shrew’ project. So without further ado, let’s jump right in. 

Taming of the Shrew

Let’s start off by talking about each project in chronological order. The first project we did this year was the ‘Taming of the Shrew’. This project has many different aspects to it. I wrote an essay explaining why ‘Taming of the Shrew’ is a classic piece of literature. This was very good for me because in prior years my writing had not been my strong suit. I felt that this essay was great example of the growth I have shown as a writer. The way I answered the question related to the essay was another reason why I was proud of piece of literature. The feedback that I got from my teachers was positive which kept me in the right mindset to write. The last part of the unit was the big animated short that we were assigned to create. This short story showed our understanding of the time period that we were assigned as well as show the necessary parts of the play ‘Taming of the Shrew’ that we felt need to be included to explain the social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional settings. My group that consisted of Adam Robbie and myself were assigned Act 4. Act 4 had a number of different scenes in it. We worked as a team to create a good first product that we thought would suffice. We handed in our first draft to receive critique and feedback from our peers and teachers. We took these pieces of critique and feedback with open arms and made changes to our animated short. Both the essay and the animated short were great examples of how I took critique and feedback from my peers and teachers and evaluated and changed my product. In the future I would like to understand more about the critique and feedback that my peers and teachers give me to create the best product possible.

Monster in the Mirror (field school, movies, book)

The movie-making process tested our work as a cohort and tested our ability to work in big groups. This movie had to answer our driving question for the unit, ‘Why is horror such an effective way to reflect and comment on our society’?  We picked an issue that is relevant in today’s society which is mental health and violence that relates to mental illnesses. Our teachers were the executive producers and they assigned roles for the movie. We had two producers who were second-in-command to the teachers but still in charge of the rest of the class. Next in line was the director and his job was to look more at the artistic side of movie. I started off being the second line producer as well as the camera operator. We learned a lot about planning during the pre-production stage and the different roles need to make a movie.

Heading into the production stage, there were many challenges like trying to find filming times outside of school hours when people would be available since everyone is so busy with different activities. There was a lot of work done but partway through the production, the teachers decided that they wanted to go in a different direction with the leadership. I was nominated and elected to replace the two producers. It was quite a difficult to jump into the top leadership role of a project that had already been half started but I was happy to try it. First I reviewed the team’s feedback on their roles to understand their perspective up to that point. I had to think on my feet with questions and creative ideas coming forward from many people. I considered everyone’s input but I also think the project benefited from my more centralized decision-making to move things along. I had to clean up some situations but at the same time I could use some of the good ideas that the previous producers had. The unfortunate part of the move was the product wasn’t as long as originally planned. Due to timelines and other unforeseen setbacks we were unable to finish all the filming that we had planned in the allotted time. These setbacks included camera malfunctions, discontinuity in props while shooting and the hardest part of this process was scheduling.  Combine all these problems as well as many more and you can start to understand the struggles we went through while trying to make this movie. Sometimes you can’t win them all, this time we had to compromise and come to a decision to make a trailer with the footage that we had already shot. On the positive side, moving people around gave us a chance to try out different roles and gain new experience.

We Didn’t Start the Fire

The last project that I’m going to talk about today is the most recent one.  Since Christmas break we have been working on a unit called “We didn’t start the Fire.” by Billy Joel. This song is over 30 years old and talks about significant events and people in history. This project is based all around this song. We were given a list of all the references to people and events that were mentioned in the song. There are over 100 different positive and negative lyrics in the song. As I scrolled through I made a list of five that stuck out to me as significant. The list consisted of the Watergate scandal, the assassination of JFK, Einstein, the moon landing and Little Rock. I ended up choosing the assassination of JFK to be the point of my project. The next part of the project was to research your topic. This research document consisted of 5 to 10 pages of a MLA format with at least five different sources. After finishing and submitting your research we were tasked to think of a media that we could use to explain our facts. I chose to create an informational video that explains why the assassination of JFK was important. The final piece of the project was to present our findings to our class. To help myself and others understand the significance of the JFK assassination I took the approach of asking the difficult questions. I asked myself what would today’s world be like if Lee Harvey Oswald missed that day? Would Nixon have ever been president? Would Watergate ever have made the American people lose faith in their country? Would MLK ever have been assassinated? Would JFK have been able to follow through with the 1964 civil rights act like LBJ did? All these questions really showed me how significant that presidential assassination was. In the past, presenting hadn’t been my strong suit because I would start to rush through my presentation and talk very fast. This presentation was different, I had practiced many times before the presentation date and when it came time to do my presentation I was ready.

For the upcoming school year I would like to focus on two major points. I would like to work on my writing and my public speaking skills. I will continue to practice my public speeches un private before I present to become more comfortable with the material and focus on the public speaking skills. For my writing goal i will continue ask for feedback and revise my writing with the critic that I get back. I would also like to consistently ask myself more questions while doing projects to better understand the topic at hand.

The horror genre of movies is the most captivating category for audiences that want a thrilling movie in the safety of a movie theatre or their own home. This project used many of my skill sets such as my artistic, teamwork, leadership and problem solving skills. For this unit we were assigned a project that the previous grade 12 PLP cohort had done two years ago. As a class we had to create a film in the horror genre that responded to the question ‘Why is horror such an effective way to reflect and comment on our society?’ In other words, we would be making a horror movie as a class and including a social issue in it.

We started off this project by taking a trip down to Washington state and studied the greatest horror movies in history. At MoPop or the Museum of Pop Culture we visited an exhibit about the history of horror movies and how they draw their viewers in. Some main headliners at the exhibit were major blockbuster horror films like ‘Halloween’, ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and ‘Frankenstein’. These exhibits focused on the impact that these older horror movies had on newer movies of this time period. We also went to the Georgetown Morgue Haunted House. This was an elite haunted house that was set just outside of Seattle. This haunted house is no joke. The creators of this attraction have taken an old abandoned morgue and turned it into a 8-minute hair-raising walk through a haunted maze. The majority of our class took part in this activity. This is definitely a ‘one and done’ activity for me. It was definitely scary and I don’t plan on going back.

As we returned home it was time to get down to study more of the horror movie culture and how it impacted society. First our class watched the iconic horror movie ‘Halloween’ with Michael Myers. This movie sets a precedent for many horror movies to follow it. The director used Michael’s silence to intimidate the viewer was the key to the movie. The other fact that scares people is that Michael never seems to die in the movie. The main character Laurie seems to kill Michael multiple times in the movie and this is where you get scenes of relief. Next thing you know Michael is coming right back at her just as she feels it is safe. After analyzing ‘Halloween’ we moved on to watch another horror movie which was the movie ‘Get Out’. This modern horror flick was nominated for over 23 different awards ranging from the NAACP’s Image Award for ‘Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture’ to the Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’. This movie comments on racial profiling in the modern era as well as stereotypes. As we watched this movie we looked for examples of these types of discrimination. The movie follows an African American man going to his girlfriend’s house to visit her parents. There he is auctioned off to the highest bidder which seems very strange but that is why it is a horror movie. I don’t want to give too much away but this auction speaks to African American history, where people were auctioned off as slaves. This is an important movie about injustice in society and I suggest you watch it. Next we moved on to an old classic, ‘Frankenstein’. This movie has been seen the world over. People of all ages have seen some version of the Frankenstein story. The monster that is created by the crazy doctor comes to life and destroys the town. This is known as a classic Halloween or horror movie. The 1920s black and white version is the best one to watch because it gives the viewer a sense of how classic the story is. The last movie we watched was an interesting piece of cinematography. The movie ‘Gods and Monsters’ gives the audience a peak into the life of the director of the original ‘Frankenstein’ movie. This movie shows the director’s struggles with being a boy and growing up during the war and the lasting impact that those events had on him.

A snapshot from the movie Get Out

Another milestone in this project to get us ready to create the horror movie was to read the classic novel, Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.  Although we also watched the movie, it was also insightful to read the book. Although it was first published a very long time ago, in 1818, ‘Frankenstein’ is a name that is still commonly known today.  The scientist, Victor Frankenstein, decides to put together body parts and bring a creature to life and creates a ‘man-monster’.  He thinks his project will lead to further scientific advances but once he has brought the monster to life, he has big regrets.  The monster wreaks havoc and readers learn how lonely and desperate he is for companionship.  There are many twists and turns but in the end, Frankenstein dies and then his monster creation goes off to die.  Mary Shelley highlights the importance of thinking about the consequences of scientific work and being prepared for the good and bad outcomes.

The final step of this project was the part where we were actually making a horror movie. The movie-making process tested our work as a cohort and tested our ability to work in big groups. This movie had to answer our driving question for the unit, ‘Why is horror such an effective way to reflect and comment on our society’?  We picked an issue that is relevant in today’s society which is mental health and violence that relates to mental illnesses. Our teachers were the executive producers and they assigned roles for the movie. We had two producers who were second-in–command to the teachers but still in charge of the rest of the class. Next in line was the director and his job was to look more at the artistic side of movie. I started off being the second line producer as well as the camera operator. We learned a lot about planning during the pre-production stage and the different roles need to make a movie.

Heading into the production stage, there were many challenges like trying to find filming times outside of school hours when people would be available since everyone is so busy with different activities. There was a lot of work done but partway through the production, the teachers decided that they wanted to go in a different direction with the leadership. I was nominated and elected to replace the two producers. It was quite a difficult to jump into the top leadership role of a project that had already been half started but I was happy to try it. First I reviewed the team’s feedback on their roles to understand their perspective up to that point. I had to think on my feet with questions and creative ideas coming forward from many people. I considered everyone’s input but I also think the project benefited from my more centralized decision-making to move things along. I had to clean up some situations but at the same time I could use some of the good ideas that the previous producers had. The unfortunate part of the move was the product wasn’t as long as originally planned. Due to timelines and other unforeseen setbacks we were unable to finish all the filming that we had planned in the allotted time. These setbacks included camera malfunctions, discontinuity in props while shooting and the hardest part of this process was scheduling.  Combine all these problems as well as many more and you can start to understand the struggles we went through while trying to make this movie. Sometimes you can’t win them all, this time we had to compromise and come to a decision to make a trailer with the footage that we had already shot. On the positive side, moving people around gave us a chance to try out different roles and gain new experience.  Even if the final product has been changed, there has been a lot of learning in the journey and milestones to get there.

Take a look at the trailer below. I will also link a document outlining all the roles that are necessary in making a movie and a description of what each role does.

I have a different understanding of the genre of horror movies than I did before.  Now that we are done the project, it is time to re-visit the driving question ‘Why is horror such an effective way to reflect and comment on our society?’  I think that it forces readers or viewers to face their fears on topics they may not be comfortable with.  Horror stories can be a platform for presenting important social issues like discrimination or mental health and the unfair consequences that can occur.  They present possible bad outcomes that should be avoided or can present good outcomes that give people ways to deal with situations in real life. As students, we had the chance to experience the horror genre personally, at the haunted house, through movies, literature and then by creating our own video.  I was happy with my work on this project. Working on the film, I learned about the technical parts of movie production, planning, teamwork and took on a leadership role partway through a difficult project. I demonstrated my communication and decision-making skills and that I was flexible in coming up with an alternate way to wrap up the project. These are all skills and experience I can take with me for future leadership roles.

Welcome back to third instalment in the trilogy that will make up the movie blog posts for this unit. So far I have reflected on two prior films. One was “Halloween”, a great movie that some consider a classic horror movie “with universal appeal”. The other movie was “Get Out”, a newer movie by a comedian named Jordan Peele that did very well at the box office for its commentary on inequality and racism in today’s modern society. This time we will be reviewing two movies and one book and comparing and contrasting these pieces of horror media. I will be ending this post by answering the driving question: Who is the monster?

These pieces of media are all different in their own way. In no way would I consider these in any way related to horror at all. First we were told to read the original book and original rendition of “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. This book was a total shock and a total 180 turn from my childhood understanding of the story of Frankenstein. This book is more of a love story than a horror story that is trying to scare the reader. In this book the creature kills for revenge after he is denied a partner in his depressing life. The unit question is: Who is the monster? I believe that the ‘monsters’ of this story are the people around the creature that force him to live a secluded and individualistic lifestyle that makes him create feelings of depression and loneliness. This is what forces him to kill and act on his urge of revenge

The book was published in the early 1800’s. The subsequent piece of media that we received to review was the next version created in the 1930s, which was the original movie of Frankenstein. This is the edition of Frankenstein that everyone knows of and watched on Halloween when they were a kid. In the film Dr. Frankenstein created his own life form. He created a monster that took on an unjust way of going about his life. In the movie, the monster was given a “criminal brain”. This brain caused the creature to lead a criminal life and act in terror. He killed a child and tormented a town. The town fought back and they ended up killing the monster in an act of rage. The monster in this story can be interpreted in many different ways. The creature can be understood as the monster because he is terrorizing the city and killing people. Just like in the book, the townspeople can be the monster in this story. They are getting revenge on the monster for the terror that he inflicted on the town. Or Dr. Frankenstein could be the monster for creating the beast in the first place. After realizing all the answers to the question and analyzing them I believe that the monster in this story is townspeople. The creature didn’t know a difference between right and wrong. Dr. Frankenstein was the creator of the creature and had no intent to make him a killer. The townspeople made the creature feel like an outlier with no place in the society. They didn’t give him a chance.

Lastly, the newest movie in the horror line up that we Looked at is “Gods and Monsters” directed by Bill Condon. This was the strangest movie of them all. Gods and Monsters was a movie about the director of the original Frankenstein movie that was just previously mentioned. As a boy the director grew up in World War I in England. In the movie Mr. Whale (the director) receives flashbacks of the traumatic war. During the movie Mr. Whale has an obsession with his landscaper Mr. Boone. While talking to Mr Boone, Mr Whale reveals that “the only monsters are here” (God’s and Monsters) as he points to a picture of the war. The soldiers that killed his friends are the monsters.

All these stories share one thing in common. The all have a monster that the story hides for the viewer to uncover. Some of the stories hid the monster better than others and some have multiple monsters that each viewer can uncover using their own personal understanding and perspective. I have analyzed each story and understood the meanings behind each story. This is with the exception of the final movie as I had a hard time coming to a understand of the message the director was trying to send. The Frankenstein movie was my favourite out of these three because it brought me back to my childhood.

This will be the second blog post that will come together with the others in this category to make a collection of all the different movies we have reviewed in our PLP Monsters in the Mirror horror unit. This time we will be jumping from 1978 to present day. Well almost present day, we go to 2017. The critically acclaimed horror movie Get Out takes a look at the racial side of horror movies and puts a cultural spin on the horror movie genre.

This movie puts somewhat of a science fiction spin on the aspect of horror. The main character is a young African-American man who goes to visit his girlfriend’s family. The mother is a hypnosis therapist that he was told would help him quit his nasty habit of smoking. The mother puts him into a trance that he later learns will be his demise. The family is actually recruiting young African American men and women to use as bodies for their customers. These customers who are near the end of their lives, go through a procedure to put their mind and conscience into these young men and women. The customers are in control while the African Americans just watch helplessly as they are just passengers in their own bodies. The horror of being a passenger in your own body is scarier to some than death itself.

In this particular film there aren’t any true killings but instead there is taking of a life. The motivation behind this cruel act is not very clear in the movie. It seems to me that the family that runs this service profits off of their business in the form of money from their clients. This is evident in the movie when the father of the family holds an auction for the main character Chris. 

This movie is a very new horror movie that has taken techniques and skills learned from prior movies to make the best piece of cinematography that they could. The use of long, drawn out shots play a key role in how the movie leaves a lasting impression on the viewer. The sound effects play a big role in leaving the viewer with angst. The use of silence in the movie also leaves the viewer wondering what will happen next. This free time in the movie lets the viewers mind wander and create alternate realities about the movie.

This movie is an amazing example of the use of present day problems. The movie has an overarching theme of racism and inequality in the world, mainly looking at the African American population. The use of the family’s grandparents as servants ties into the history of slavery of the African American community as well as the auction that takes place for the main character Chris. This is again an example of the history of slavery where slaves would be bought by their owners through auctions. If we look at the present day, we can see different times of inequality. This is where the father of the family seems to put Chris on a pedestal and tries to make him feel as if they share commonalities. As he shows Chris the family’s estate, the father talks about cultural differences. He tries to relate to Chris by saying “ I would have voted for Obama for a third term”. This movie is full of little tidbits that connect to present day revelations.

This movie will be viewed as a revolutionary movie that will be watched by people for years to come. The points that I mentioned help to better understand the complex plot and how each action has a hidden point behind it. The article “How Get Out Deconstructs Racism for White People” outlines a lot of these hidden meanings. This article gives great insight behind each point. For example, in the movie when Rose calls the cops after hitting a deer, the cop asks for Chris’s ID. Rose seems to defend Chris and stops Chris from giving the officer his ID. The director said that the true meaning behind Rose defending Chris was so that there wasn’t any trace of Chris. The article also suggests that the viewer watch the movie multiple times to really see all the cultural cues.

The last time I wrote a blog post with this criteria it asked us to compare the Halloween movie to Frankenstein and look at the similarities and differences. With my knowledge of reading the Frankenstein book and later watching the Frankenstein film tell the story slightly differently, my perspective has changed about the monster and his morales. When we look at the similarities and differences with the movie Get Out, we see that both main characters, Chris and the monster, are being hunted. A difference is that in Get Out, Chris overcomes his hunters and escapes. This is unlike the monster, where he finds his fate later in the movie and unfortunately dies. Another difference between the two is that they weren’t being hunted for the same reasons. Chris is being unlawfully hunted due to the colour of his skin.  The monster is being hunted for the act of murder that he committed.

Get Out will be a movie that will continue to teach for years to come. The hidden meanings behind little scenes in the movie keep the viewer engaged. After watching the movie three times, I see new meanings each time. The great camera work and amazing use of music and sound effects is what takes the movie to the next level. I would recommend this movie to anyone.

In the PLP Humanities class we are studying a very interesting topic that I wouldn’t have thought I would be studying in high school. This unit which is called Monster In The Mirror takes us on a journey to help us understand what draws people in society to horror movies. What about these movies interests us and makes us stay? The movie that we were shown first was the classic movie that started the infamous slash era in horror movies. The iconic classic directed by John Carpenter, Halloween.

The movie Halloween does a great job of leaving the viewer with a sense of fear. Michael Myers, who is the killer, has escaped from prison and is back again for more. He was locked up 15 years prior for killing his sister on Halloween night. Michael, who upon his escape, returns back to his childhood home which had been abandon for many years. He becomes infatuated with a girl named Lory. This is where one of the big fears arises. The fact that Michael had no relationship with Lory and knew nothing about her makes it seem like there could be a Michael that is after you. It doesn’t take anything special or you don’t need to have any special relationship to the killer. This was a new concept when the movie first came out because this was just before the first big epidemic of serial killings happened, for example Jeffrey Dahmer. Another factor of why the movie is so scary is the fact that Michael Myers does not die. This monster of a man is invincible in the movie which makes the viewer feel as if there is no end and that they will never be same. This was one of the first movies that started the category of the ‘super-fiend’ killers.

Halloween, as mentioned previously, was a pivotal movie in the horror movie scene. It paved a lot of new paths for different types of horror movies. One category of this was the obscene killings. As a viewer, while watching this movie, you are always left to wonder what is it that connected Michael to Lory and her friends? This makes the viewers wonder what about themselves could connect them with a killer? What is the real reason Michael is attracted to a Lory? The true answer is uncertain, which leaves it up to the viewer to interpret the real answer.

The POV shot has become a staple in not just horror movies but in any type of movie today. The director, John Carpenter, was a major contributor to the success of this shot because of how he used it in this movie. The point of view shot was used very wisely in this movie to help give the the viewer a sense of the monster’s thoughts and feelings. Another type of filmmaking that was used was a part that might get overlooked but is a very crucial resource. Music has a major role that a lot of directors use in horror movies to help set the mood. Sound is one of them thought to be scarier than watching something because the brain uses these sounds and creates its own personal fears and creates its own image of the worst possible scenario. 

Some of the different current events that took place around this time period were evident in the film. For example the infamous Milwaukee cannibal or Jeffery Dahmer started to wreak havoc around the same time. 1978 was relevant because it was around that time that the world really got a sense of the first serial killers and the horrific acts that they were committing.

I did some research online about the movie Halloween and it seems to me that this movie is beloved throughout history. The article that I read online was 7 Reasons Why John Carpenter’s Halloween Is One of the Most Beloved Horror Films of All Time. The article listed points I mentioned above such as the director’s excellent use of music to draw the audience in before the big scare. Another great point was up until this time, horror movies always had an ending or a part to help the audience understand a conclusion. This was unlike Halloween where John Carpenter chose to leave a lot of the endings and outcomes to the imagination. 

The original book of Frankenstein is considered the earliest version of a type of media relating to horror. The book is what would be considered now to be somewhat of a love story but there are many aspects of these two stories that are the same and many that are different. The two characters in the stories that feel neglected and forgotten about share the same view in terms of lashing back. Michael Myers and the monster both feel as if they are forgotten about and can’t seem to find someone that connects with them. This drives them crazy and causes them to lash out. Another point of similarity is that in their stories both Michael Myers and the monster seem to observe a group or a single character and get attached to them. The observations cause them to become obsessed with the character and the study how they move and what their actions. Some differences are that Michael Myers seems to be killing for the sake of fun, whereas the monster is reacting to an emotion that causes him to lash out.

The story Halloween has frightened men and woman of all ages for over 40 years. The fact that it is still able to have the same effect on people today, after all that time, is nothing short of a magnificent feat of cinematography.

Hello and welcome back to the 4th installment of tPOLs on this blog. This year I will be answering the question, Why do I feel I am ready to advance to the next grade level? This year I think I have again continued to take great strides in my learning. I have shown again that I am capable of thinking outside of the box and not sticking with the norm. I have opened my mind to accepting new ways of living my life and new ways to increase productivity. So without further ado, let’s jump right into this tPOL and explain to you examples where I have shown these different characteristics.

Marshall Plan

Let’s start off with a great example of my revision skills and my ability to take criticism and feedback and to turn it into a great product. I feel that the project that shows this skill the best would be the World on the Brink unit and essay. This unit was based around the Cuban Missile Crisis and the 13 days that the American government and the Russian government were on the brink of destroying each other’s countries alongside the rest of the world. We watched the movie ’13 Days’ that outlined events that took place over these days and as well the final result of the disagreement between the two. We also did a lot of research about the events such as the Bay of Pigs and the interaction between the American War ships and the Russian tankers. As a class we were assigned a task. Individually we were told to choose a part of the Cuban missile crisis that was the make or break point of the nuclear bombs being set off. I decided to rethink the question and go in a different way then the rest of the class. I choose to focus my essay on the Marshall Plan and how it lead the way for the Cold War. 

My essay topic was surrounding the Marshall Plan and how it prevented the world from nuclear war. My final thesis for this essay was “The Americans devised the Marshall Plan not just to gain allies in Europe but to create a constant reminder of their presence.” My argument for this was that the Americans saw an opportunity to create economic wellness for themselves and the countries that needed aid after World War Two.  The Marshall Plan saw the United States contribute billions in economic aid to European allied countries and economic opportunities for the United States.  The Americans were also having worrisome thoughts about Russia spreading communism so they thought if they helped European countries, they wouldn’t be vulnerable to communism. By having allied counties surrounding Russia it gave the US easy access to missiles if they needed to use them on Russia. This put a burden on Russia and enhanced the American presence around the Soviet Union. I worked hard on this essay and I did about four revisions to keep improving it and make it better and better.  It was hard work but I learned a lot in the revision process about things like a thesis, formatting, citing references and proofreading.

I would love for you to read my essay

Marshall Plan Essay

Carousel of Communism

Next I am going to move on to an example of my teamwork and different instanced where I showed the I can work well with my fellow classmates. This is probably the easiest example for me because I have grown up my entire life playing team sports and on team sports the most valuable lesson you learn is how to work with others. For this example I am going to go back to the middle of the year and talk about the Carousel of Communism (I take credit for coming up with the name). This type of project was totally new to my PLP year.  This was because it was the biggest group project and we had to work as one entire class for the first time. The project had a three prong approach to it. The Crucible’s Witch Trials, the McCarthy Trials against Communists and the present day Russian investigation on Donald Trump and his presidential election. The idea was to create an interactive play of sorts that would take place in the 1950’s. This play encompassed the three parts seamlessly to create one big story. To pull this off our team or class would have to be on one page and be able to understand each part of the exhibition and what each person’s role would be. At this time I specifically had just been to the ER twice in three days so I had a head injury with stitches and a badly sprained ankle. My goal for the project was not to let these setbacks get in my way. Unfortunately it did make me miss some school and on some of the important planing stages but I made the best of it and overcame the adversity to take part and contribute. In terms of my teamwork, I was a leader of people for building and design work and this required a lot of teamwork.  I demonstrated team skills with my peers as we put together the plans and had to be creative on the spot to address unexpected things. Overall this project was a complete hit. It was very fun and a way for me to better my teamwork skills. The feedback from the participants was great and they said they loved it. 

Civil Rights Comparison

Next I am going to talk about responsibility. I sat here before writing this and thought of different ways to represent this topic in my learning before writing this section. I am going to talk about the responsibility that I took when I was assigned a very important and special topic. This topic is the civil rights movement and the different people within it. When I received this assignment I felt that I was obligated to produce the best work possible to fully do these people justice for such an important topic. I felt that I was responsible for this. How can the actions of an individual change a system? This is the question I answered. I compared two important people from different time periods with different careers. There were commonalities and connections between Barack Obama become the first African American president and Jackie Robinson being the first African American professional baseball player even though they had different jobs. These two men worked hard to achieve their goals and optimized their talents and skills to make a change. Although they were famous in different fields, they both paved the way for others to follow their lead. They showed how people can improve civil rights no matter where they are starting from in life or which path they take. I felt that I showed my best work in this blog post. I rose to the occasion and followed my responsibilities for this important topic.

Time Machine

Lastly I am going to talk about the piece of work that I am most proud of this year. This is the work that may not be the best or the most impactful from someone else’s eyes but for me it was very important. I am going to talk about my Time Machine project. This was best product that I made this year in my eyes because it impacted me the most. This year as part of the PLP program we were all told that we had to take part in PGP. This program was supposed to re-evaluate the way that we go through our lives. At first I was very skeptical about this program and what it would teach me. As we went through it I learned that it was actually extremely helpful and that for the final project I want to share this great knowledge. For the Time Machine I created this visually-pleasing interactive presentation that resembles a stop-motion technique.  It will help you to better understand how to create your own goal ladder and how to take bigger strides to achieve the goals that you want to meet. This is why I decided to choose this as my best piece of work. Not because it was the best in the eyes of the normal abcd curriculum but the best in the eyes of  the overall greater good for kids and other people who should do the PGP program.  It helped me achieve many of my goals this year academically and with extra curricular activities.

This year has yet again been the best year for me so far in Seycove Secondary and the PLP program. I have enhanced my knowledge and understanding of important events following WWII and improved many of my skills. These examples of each discipline and skill are the best work that I was capable of at the time. I believe that I can do better now that I have gained even more skills from each individual project. This year I believe that my work ethic improved again since last year because I found myself procrastinating a lot less. My work habits have definitely increased positively in the past year because of the PGP program and the different goal setting that I have done this year. I do believe that there is always places to improve in each area of ones life so for me I would like to see myself improve my overall public speaking to be more relaxed and more natural. Now that I put all of these skills together to create even better outcomes I should be able to produce outstanding work that will be new and inventive next year. This is why I think that I should move on to PLP 12.