Film week was pretty cool, but was a lot of work. I started off the week looking at Ken Burns’ video on inspiration and video storytelling. I really liked this video and posted about how his words translated to me as a journalist, and other aspects of storytelling. Then I watched Fritz Lang’s very creepy first seven minutes of “M,” which I really enjoyed analyzing and breaking down.

I read Ebert’s article on reading movies and used his ideas to help analyze the fight scene between Stringer and Avon for my “Look, Listen, Analyze” assignment. This was pretty cool to do and I liked looking so closely at video, then listening to audio, then analyzing them together.

My first assignment was making a healthy Vine from the dinner I made for my mother and sister. My second assignment was more difficult and I struggled a few hours to make it, but the finished product made me feel somewhat accomplished. I used a music video and replaced the sound with sound effects I strung together on my own. For another assignment I had a lot of fun compiling photos of places I want to venture to for a travel video assignment. My last assignment was Wire related and I took a scene from episode 8 and sped it up to give it a chipmunk and laughable quality.

My first daily create made me stretch my mind and write a piece on signatures. My second daily create I did was the zeugma assignment where I created a little poem describing my terrible day.

I posted Maggie Stough’s daily create on signature writing to the Inspire site this week because she always has such good work. I also posted Wafflestomper’s writing post on Downton Shabby, which was just clever and funny and all-around wonderful.

Wire:

Episode 8-

The ridiculousness in Hamsterdam just keeps getting worse. The people there are not even being protected, just rounded up, and things are slipping through the cops. Now there is a drug dealer getting help from the cops. The ranks of the cops are starting to question Hamsterdam now. I thought the scene with the people drawing machine was pretty insane. It was such an unimportant way to use a piece of technology that is used to find criminals, and criminals are actually using it to draw people for fun. I also loved the quote from the cop when he tells Kima, “You’re partner there, a bit of an asshole.” That summed up McNulty perfectly.

McNulty is meeting up with D’Angelo’s mother. When will they find out what actually happened? Someone will be in trouble if the mother finds out what really happened. Meanwhile, Stringer is trying to win at his new game, the game of the wider world. It’s interesting to see how hard it is for Stringer to get out of the gangster world and stereotype. No one wants to invite him into that world so he has to fight his way in.

Episode 9-

I can believe that McNulty left his kids alone to answer a booty call and that worries me. He just keeps getting worse. We also get a focus on politics with the tv at the beginning of this as well. McNulty tries to be interested but ultimately fails and watches a video on war instead. Could that possibly be a blatant symbol about the drug war? I think so!

Again we see the new technology with Perez’s new camera. I thought it was interesting that McNulty goes on and on about how no one else does what their team does with a case, even though it’s the technology doing all the work. McNulty has nothing but faith in the job and Lester ruins that for him, pointing out the emptiness of his life. This episode’s focus on Sunday was really interesting. McNulty is confused by the cops working and then Omar is angry about the disrespect of Sunday and the wounding of his older lady friend. Even the dealer is mad at the men who hurt her for what they did. Omar is now searching for revenge and his friends are leaving him.

I love the montage about the rules for building a kids gym. There is a guy trying to do something good and helpful, and he is getting trouble from everyone. Once again, we see the unhelpfulness of another institution. Stringer and Avon seem better than they were last episode. Again the “Sunday Truce” comes up and everyone is angry. Seeing McNulty out on the ground was really unusual and it was such a turn of events from getting Chinese food. Even worse so, Perez killed another cop. It immediately turns into a race issue and Perez says he gives up, and wants Lester to know he is sorry. I love the focus on McNulty as the men talk behind him, and then he gets up in a huff. It implies more than if something was said. Other bodies are just piling up, and Herc is being pushed to cover this up, but won’t. Hamsterdam is about to be found out and ruined. I like that the Sun newspaper is brought into the picture and Herc calls them to start a fight.

D’s mother finally gets to confront Avon about her son’s death/murder. Family is such an interesting thing here, but clearly there is something between Avon and Stringer and Brianna wants to find out. Perez alone in the office in the end was great. 

Episode 10-

The drug war continues, the sirens continue, the arrests continue, but the bowtie guy is back! Everyone is paranoid. “Don’t you know there’s a war going on?” the cop says, while bowtie says it’s “reform.” Carver is told he is not a good cop and that west Baltimore will soon turn into a crazy warzone, and cops are going to play the war game to raise themselves up. The drug war has gotten worse. A reporter is now interested, but is pushed off for a week. Stringer is getting in trouble for not controlling Avon, who is causing a lot of the war right now. “The game’s beyond the game,” Stringer tells Avon to try to get him back to paying attention to the bigger picture, but Avon responds with Devon’s death. I like the focus on trying to save the kids of the neighborhood with the gyms. I find it interesting that Stringer is going to the cops, what for?

This week was kind of tough, but I feel good about having figured things out on my own. The Wire is getting really interesting and the daily creates and inspires were fun to do.