The City With Wings-Personal Narrative

Geoffrey Hernandez, 18

The City With Wings

The city of lost angels. The city that I represent. A city well known around the world for famous and infamous events. I may live in the valley, but that doesn't mean I dont know anything about the restless streets down there. Time passes by slowly on the way to Los Angeles. Heavy, conjested traffic is everywhere, hundreds of people honking their horns at each other as the skyscrapers watch over us from above.
I get out my car and start to walk down the street. I see several restaurants, some opening while others are still cleaning up from last night's company. As I feel the wind pick up speed, I see dust pick up as trash bags move across the streets like ghosts, passing by crowds of people, screaming "Pick me up."No one listens. I walk towards the alley, thinking what movie should I get? What kind of clothing am I looking for? I see hundreds of people crowded in the alley, all moving like wild animals looking for the best bargain, giving money to people in need of it for exchange of goods they cant find anywhere else.
I finally get a movie and two t-shirts, all items in black bags not white. Now I'm at the park, sitting on a bench. As I look up at the blue skies, thinking what I should eat later on, birds keep me company while music plays in the background. Homeless people keep bugging me for change. I feel guilty looking at them the way everyone else does: like wild animals struggling to survive who once used to be like me. A person with a plan for tomorrow. As the sun begins to turn up the heat, I start walking again on the sidewalk. The many stories inspired by this city keeps running in my head, seeing the reasons why Oscar pursued his career as a professional boxer after being surrounded by poverty. Him, along with many others, thank L.A. for giving them strength to live their dreams, for giving them hope.
The sun slowly starts dissapearing. People start going to restaurants while others head to the parking lots. I start heading towards my car, breathing the limited air given to me. I feel a change in the wind, pointing me towards the way home and as I start to turn around the corner, I see different types of people walk the dark streets, all looking for something...anything. Like I say, its just another day in L.A.

"Entering New Territory-Personal Narrative"

Running throughout the streets of Los Angeles, seeing how much they have changed throughout the years is what the students of Theodore Roosevelt High School point out in "Entering New Territory", a short story describing Los Angeles and the beautiful city it used to be. Several visuals are presented by the writers, giving the reader alot of ideas, visualizing the city as being restless and always on the run no matter what time of the day it is. Nature is presented as barely existing, showing beauty to the runner in the story as something we may not see later on in the future. The story shows the difference between Los Angeles and other cities explaining the culture of L.A. throughout several observations shown in the story.

This helps me in film by adding commentary to my film while illustrating what I want the viewers to see upon what goes on in my mind. This short story is a good example of what kind of dialogue must be added in our films so it can appeal to the audience and seem more dramatic and easy to follow. Out of all of the short stories, I enjoyed this one more because it was easy to read and relate to.

This American Life "God's Close Up"-Personal Narrative

Religion is a powerful concept that has been alive for years. Many of us continue to worship the same ideas created thousands of years ago, visualizing several short stories told to us through other people, giving us ideas of what lies ahead of us tomorrow. in "God's Close Up", we see a short story told by a guy named Ben. Ben displays his view of religion by creating his own project in which he crosses several lines looking for men with beards although the religion he follows do not favor beards. When Ben finally convinces a group of men to pose as Jesus and his followers, he has a photo shoot of these men dressed up as disciples, and uses the images by painting them and using his imagination to add more details towards his work.

After seeing this video I first thought that Dan was crazy. By seeing him struggle towards finding volunteers, and seeing the idea of having strangers pose as religious symbols did not seem right to me at first because using his friends and family member along with people who were outcasts of society and complete strangers did not seem right, until I got the message he was trying to get through the viewer stating we are all God's children. This idea has been forgotten in our society and it makes me have ideas upon what to do for my next film, pointing out a universal idea and showing my side of the story.

This American Life "My Way"-Personal Narrative

When we first go to middle school, we still live in our own state of mind, living in an unreal world seen through television and in comic books. In "My Way", we see two different situations that connect to these feelings: one throughout the experiences of middle school children living in their own state of mind and another of an old man living his simple life through experience. Both situations are seen as being a way of life that can either change or remain the same. After seeing this video, I realized how much a person can use his or her imaginations and illustrate them through film.

This story connects to our film class by delivering personal experiences, along with personal ideas, as a different way of art shown. These two short stories made me see how powerful an idea can be illustrated and heard through one's vision into others. Overall, these two short stories are target points for us to use in order to create personal visuals for our own stories.

Just Watch-Personal Narrative

In "Just Watch", the writer creates tension between televisions and his family. He explains how television corrupts his life through his family members due towards lack of communication. Television is explained in his point of view as being the center of attention in which is followed like a religion. This short story points out several interesting facts about what we don't see everyday during our normal routines, one example of him stating crucial ideas of people in need of attention that we can respond to in the real world, but the thought of television being used in today's society as something more than just an escape from being alone to a hobby keeps one's mind away from other important news that can affect our lives dramatically.

Film class is similar to the short story by giving us,the directors of our own movies, several ideas to draw attention and provide self-interests, along with points of views, to create a visual movie that has a story attached to it. This relates to film by having different opinions and ideas set out to the reader, questioning them of what are the right and wrong ideas society sets out for us.

The Depth of Depp-Personal Narrative

When looking at an actor, one sees the true value of his or her work through their character and imagination. "In Red" the writer describes the beauty she sees in Johnny Depp and his acting career,explaining how much personality is revealed to the audience of him when acting as another person at the same time. We learn in the end about how much one individual tends to be focused on another when it comes to media reflecting our personalities.

After reading this short story I learned how emotions draw attention to the audience because of how much it appeals to them. This connects to film because the director wants to make his film be very appealing to the viewer, so he or she must use a lot of emotion to get the viewers attention.

90 Minutes of Music-My story

Give me a soccer ball and watch me dribble. Dribble around the field, kicking the ball, seeing it soar into the back of the goal, juggling the ball with my feet, knees and head, all to escape, to pretend I am anywhere but here, while playing to the sound of each track in my sidekick. This is what I live up to. This is what drives me. From the moment I began to walk, soccer and music has made an important impact upon my life. It first started out as a hobby, but soon it turned into an obsession. Playing soccer for ninety minutes, passing the ball to your team mates, scoring a goal or perhaps suffering a loss, it’s all the same to me.

Passing the ball to my team mate, knowing all that matters to me right now is this game, is a feeling I love to show off to my family and friends. No one but me knows how good it is to play soccer, to live a life where soccer is an escape from reality. When music came into the picture, inspiration came knocking at my door, so I invited her in. The collision of music and soccer is what drives me today. Listening to Incubus while juggling the ball is all that I could ask for, ignoring my parents from telling me to do house chores, keeping me away from essays I have to write and making me feel healthier the more I play. Music creates my environment while soccer keeps me from escaping it. Music and soccer is all I need to get by the good and bad times of life.

Red Personal Narrative

Each song listened to creates a mood in every person. There are happy and sad songs in which we choose to listen to according to our mood. Mood is an important element, just like water and fire that can either be used for good or for evil. Amy Goldwasser presents us with music as these elements because the very same elements used to compose a song are the same as we use to live life and go through its experiences. Goldwasser also adds emotion to the short story by adding personal events that she cherished the most in which relates to the music she has been listening to since she started walking. Music seems to play an important part to her life because it ran in her family's blood to worship different kinds of music. Music is everywhere. Music is art.

The short story helped me view music as art more and gave me ideas of adding descriptions to each song I listen to compare it towards my timeline and to share my own personal experiences with everyone who is willing to see my video. This story connects to our film project because it establishes how memory is an important factor that one must take into consideration while filming his or her own autobiography.

Perfect From Now On Personal Narrative

"Perfect From Now On" by John Sellers examines technology and its expansion towards tomorrow.Sellers gives us an additional point of view, describing how recent mp3 players, along with their programs designed for them, are ruining the beauty of listening to a whole album. He challenges pop culture by stating whether mp3 players are meant to be used for the good of one's listening pleasure and provides the reader with his personal experience of music at the same time. Sellers has proven to us as music gets older, its others ideas presented that make it new such as adding additional information to it and finding out more information about the song and artist.

This short story helped me view the way in which I want to make my own story by requiring my film to have all sorts of imagination fly everywhere in order to catch the viewer's attention and to illustrate art through imagery in my film class. This short story helped me relate to filming in this way so that I can see different ways upon showing the class my life experiences.