Setting + Comparison | Maggot Moon

Maggot Moon is set sometime in 1955~1975 when the space race was on. (I have a theory that it could also be a future where humans rebuilt and forgot about going to the moon before.) The space race is one of the main events in the book and there are many mentions about it. The location is most likely somewhere in Germany with a lot of right arms being raised and heels being clicked, likely to give the impression of a closely watching government. A lot of people are affected greatly by unseen characters who are only mentioned as "them" or "the Motherland".

Aspects of setting	Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner	1984 by George Orwell	The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Time	Past/Future (undecided)	Future	Future
Setting - physical	Broken houses in the neighborhood, a school, a wall, cameras, moon movie set	Screens, crowded streets, apartments, urban towers with	A wall, a forest, a citadel, a large battleground
Setting - organisation of people	Watching government, murderous teachers, mean kids, helpful grandpa and teacher	Watching government, hidden intelligence, snitches, language deletion, guidelines to live by	President Snow watching over everything, rebellious kids, rules

Protagonist VS Antagonist | Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

Standish Treadwell is an okay kid. He is the 15 year old protagonist, narrator and main character of Maggot Moon. So far in the novel he has been bullied by prefects, seen to have a reading and writing age of around 4 years, and made the mistake of going over the wall to get a ball with his bud Hector. Well, all humans have those sides. His hero side is not too bad, but could use some working on. One heroic action was trying to stop his teacher from kicking Little Eric to death... but he failed that. Another one was standing up to Mr Gunnell, but sadly that was what led to Lil' Eric laughing at Mr Gunnell till he couldn't take it anymore.

So far the biggest antagonist is the government as they are watching everyone with cameras, bugs and spies. They are currently antagonising students and teachers at Standish's school through an intelligent-looking cloaked proxy with a gun, who I will refer to as "Cloakman."

Another antagonist (before being shot by Cloakman) was Mr Gunnell. This short-tempered, mean-spirited government fanatic of a teacher had done many offences against children such as beating them with a cane. After killing Eric, Hans Fielder (one of Standish's prior antagonisers) stood up for Standish as he had tried to save Eric. Cloakman believed the truth and shot Mr Gunnell in the face after seeing Eric's tarpaulin covered body.

The very first antagonists were the prefect Hans Fielder and his gang, who wore long trousers unlike the usual shorts. They were bullying Standish because they believed he was a dumb runt compared to them. After a bench was put in the far corner of the playground, they used that as a screen to hide the beating on him and other kids they considered "runts."

An Introduction to Maggot Moon

In English class everyone has been forced to read an exact genre of book, that genre being dystopian fiction. The book I "chose," Maggot Moon, is written by Sally Gardner.


It seems to be set somewhere in Germany. Every now and then there are people clicking their heels, stiffly raising their right arms and hailing the Motherland. The protagonist, Standish Treadwell, lives in Zone Seven. It is a place scattered with bombed-out houses and dodgy neighbours here and there. While reading this book, there are constant reminders that everyone is being watched. Cameras at school, a man in coat with a gun, government-paid spying snitches, and forced references to the Motherland. Even the evil government-loving teacher gets killed for kicking a student's head in.

Standish Treadwell writes very strangely. It reminds me of how I tell stories; he jumps from present to past to other time periods all the time, which would make it complicated for many people to follow. I for one am captured by his writing style. It highlights that he is mentally different from the other kids. You can also see that he is bullied, as he actually gets beaten up by a guy called Hans Fielder and his gang. He and his friend Trevor imagine about going to this planet called Juniper with Croca-cola plains and other beautiful scenery. Sadly, Trevor has already been established as someone who will disappear from the beginning of the novel.

The key challenge Standish faces is pleasing the government. If he gets out of step or continuously acts different, he will very likely be eliminated. (Some other challenges are bullies, cloaked men and angry teachers.)

Hope that was satisfactory.
Aight, I'mma head out.
Kyle

(Includes video) A film about a toaster

If you want to understand the following video, it is a good idea to read the article it is based on (either before or afterwards): http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-426



Even though my camerawork, directing and editing skills weren't well practised, I had fun making this film with my friends. I also learned that the recruiting technique was used this time was not good or easy for both the recruited and the recruiters. However, in my view it was the best one for school, as nobody has ever gone to my events because of one of my posters. Mr. Hanson also suggested that I should continue thinking big, but scale my ideas down to a size that will not scare off other students.

Foley Job Application for Media Studies

A Foley's (named after the Jack Foley) job in film creation is to add ambient sounds such as footsteps, door creaks and paper rustling that can not be easily picked up by a boom mic. This helps the movie feel less empty of normal sounds. With that said, here is my job application.


I am good at remembering and recalling small moments in a film.
I can write on paper, allowing me to be able to plan what I should do at what time to create the intended effect.
I can think of creative and effective ways to create matching sounds.
I have some experience editing my own sound if needed.
If I miss something important I will attempt to re-record it.

Media Studies | Ajax the Kea dog

Today at Media Studies we examined a DOC video of a man and his one-of-a-kind Kea finding dog, Ajax. 

The first thing I did after watching it was examine the sound.

Music	At the start of the video, the music sounds chill and ambient, sort of like a status quo in the the forest. When the man finds a dead Kea nest, the music has more of a sad piano sound to it. After Ajax the dog finds a Kea the music suddenly gets a much more bass-y sound and happy chords come in.
Dialogue	The dialogue has a New Zealand documentary feel to it. The man talks a lot about what happens on the job and him and his dog's daily life being Kea finders and monitors.
Sounds	Sound design is good. They have very well fitting noises such as water flowing, bush rustling and other nature sounds. They also have kept in (or got a Foley to recreate) sounds that the two workers had made on the trip around the mountains.

Aferwards, I read the instructions wrong and wrote up my first impressions of the camerawork and what I liked in general.

The camera changes scenes and moves around a lot to keep the viewers interested.

There are interesting shots such as these:

I especially enjoyed this overhead shot of the dog going over the river, as it is something the cameramen would actually require a drone for.

Also, the grading after the empty Kea hole scene was very good for what they wanted to portray, which was that the man was feeling down.

In the end, I wrote that my first impressions of the music was that it was so well done that it was near unnoticeable, like Minecraft ambience going on in the background as you play.

Cya later,

Kyle