Zahm vs. Plow

One of the greatest things about Ohio University's School of Media Arts is their willingness and eagerness to include the current students and alumni to be an active part of making the college the absolute best for the students there.  Last Tuesday and Thursday, I was fortunate to have two professors who really wanted their student's input on two candidates in the running to be a professor for a video production class, and was able to make it to both presentations that the candidates had.  The outline for each presentation was for the candidates to show off recent works that they have done, pertaining to video production, and then provide an hour of lecture material in order for their teaching styles to be evaluated.

On Tuesday, I saw Brian Zahm.  He introduced some of his experimental films, like 'Juice,' 'Wiggah,' and 'Headspace' and I was captivated by how visual his work is.  He went through what he has been working on the past six months and it was very impressive.  He is obviously a very hard working individual who takes advantage of every opportunity that comes his way.  His working mentality is very meticulous.  He has hundreds of drafts and countless layers when he works on a project.  His attention to detail would be an incredible assest for students to learn from.  He's very open with working with students outside the classroom for a better learning experience.  I could only stay for 20 minutes of his lecture, but he didn't seem as comfortable lecturing as he did about talking about what he has been working on. He used a lot of fillers ("um," "yeah," "so,"etc) and that made him seem unsure about how to address his audience on the subject on hand.

On Thursday, I saw Brian Plow.  His artistic style is so completely different from Zahm's.  He focuses on non-fiction films and documentaries.  All of his works have significant meaning to him and the communities that he grew up in.  'Home' was a documentary about building a stadium in Baltimore and how it impacted the community.  He lives in the Baltimore area.  'Day in the Sun' highlighted the lives of various artists in the community that he grew up in.  'Project PLASE' is a documentary filmed by individual homeless people near Towson University, documenting how they live their lives.  Plow's lecture was incredibly engaging.  He has incredible knowledge of the brain, body, and the psychology between the two, and also with history, literature and art that all apply to video production and getting your work to evoke a response from the audience.  Plow was very well spoken and used hands on applications of the material he was teaching.

All in all, I felt like Zahm would be able to teach us innovative techniques of the trade and would train our minds how to see the imperfections and make our work perfect.  Plow would be able to teach us the fundamentals from the ground up in order to prepare students to go their own way and learn their own, new techniques.  The reason I would choose Plow over Zahm is because, to me, video production is something that I would be able to use to better the world, and Plow would be able to teach me how I can use my video skills to help enhance my community and the people in it, whereas Zahm is self-motivated.

Some New Critics

Well, I won't be ashamed to tell you that I had no idea where to start in finding some new critics to follow (or really any critics at all...).  I began with a few quick Google searches to get better informed of the Critic situation on the internet and I ended up at the Critics' Choice Awards website which had a list of the BFCA and BJTA member directory.  Unfortunately, after going to a few of their websites I was greatly disappointed in their reviews of some of the new movies that have come out, like this one.  I ended up resorting back to Google, which led me to a list of the best film critics.  I started off looking though the first critic's most recent reviews and landed on this article which reviewed two movies I have seen, 'Les Miserables' and 'Django Unchained' and one I haven't, 'Amour'.  The article, "Love Hurts" reviews three films that deal with the difficulties that love ensures.  I thought that both the 'Les Miserables' and 'Django Unchained' reviews were spot on and incorporated everything that I thought while watching them into words.  The review of 'Amour' was one that I really enjoyed because it didn't give away the movie, but also explained the feel of it and it seemed like a film that I would really enjoy.  Plus, it's hard not to read it in an English accent when you know the author is English...

 Mary McNamara, who writes television reviews for Los Angeles Times, wrote a piece on the Sundance Channel's 'Restless.'  I wanted a woman's point of view for a review because I figured that I would be able to relate more.  When I was looking through McNamara's articles that she's written in order to read something about a show I've seen, I noticed that she writes about television shows that aren't necessarily mainstream or don't have a lot of publicity.  Her review for 'Restless' made the show seem very appealing to me, since she related it to shows like 'Mad Med' and 'Downton Abbey,' two shows that I have seen and very much enjoyed.  Although I think that she keeps her reviews fairly gender neutral, I think that she chooses shows that are geared more towards a female audience, which I am grateful for.  She reviews 'Restless' which has a very strong female lead and she also reviews 'Dragons: Riders of Berk,' which airs on Cartoon Network and is a show for younger viewers, who would have mothers who read criticisms.  I thought that her rendition of 'Restless' was very to-the-point and informative for a prospective viewer or for someone who wanted more information on what they just watched.

I was very interested about social media critics when Virginia Heffernan was mentioned in the assignment, so I decided to read a few of her reviews.  In 'The Social Economics of a Facebook Birthday,' Heffernan uses humor and practicality as a basis of her review for the Facebook birthday reminder feature.  She says that it's incredible useful and also uplifting when it's your birthday.  But she not only allows her opinion to be the center of her article, she allows the other side of the argument to be recognized by quoting a Slate article by David Plotz.  She discusses how his viewpoint is different and instead of bashing it, she embraces that there are two sides to be seen, and that really says something about the character of the Heffernan.  I appreciate that she is able to put both sides in her article to keep her readers informed on the issues at hand.

Alan Sepinwall Changes TV Criticisms

When reading Josh Levin's two article on Slate about how Alan Sepinwall has changed the way television criticism is written, I realized that I've been in the dark when it comes to criticisms and their influence on people.  I'm not the kind of person who relies on other people's opinions to dictate what I watch on television, and honestly... I'm glad I haven't, especially in the more recent years of blogging criticisms.  Levin's article reinforced the idea that criticisms have gone from "sampl[ing] a few episodes and then issue an informed recommendation" to "validate your interest in the shows you're already watching."  This may be a good tool for people who are dedicated to the same shows every week, but in my current college environment it seems that the dynamics of watching television have changed dramatically.  People are no longer bound by the time restrictions of shows on television.  Therefore, people have been known to watch entire seasons of a show within a week time period thanks to tools like Netflix.  Blog criticisms are irrelevant to a lot of people and the fact that they have been morphed into weekly recaps does nothing to promote me to read them.  I would much rather prefer that a solid criticism inform me on shows that I would have otherwise never known about.  While I understand the pleasure that critics get by being able to pick apart every single episodes of their favorite shows until nothing is left, I would much rather spend my time reading about a new, promising show or a show that has been overlooked over the years.  

Inside these two articles I meandered through the hyperlinks and clicked on Sepinwall's open letter to NBC about Chuck returning for another season.  This stood out to me because Chuck is a show that I was really into, more than the others shows that were mentioned in Levin's article.  I was also really interested in how Sepinwall managed to convince NBC to being Chuck back for another season.  That, to me, seemed like an incredible task for someone who doesn't have a lot of power in the television industry.  He did a really good job at convincing the co-chairmen and the president that it is possible to continue Chuck for another season in order to avoid the repercussions that canceling it would have caused.

I was very curious about the other blogs that did criticisms (because I'm not very well informed when it comes to critics and I wouldn't know where to start to get interested in them) so I clicked on the AV Club's hyperlink. I've heard of The Onion, but it never really interested me because I would rather read real news stories than fake ones... although I did get a giggle out of when China's People's Daily was convinced that Kim Jong-un was names Sexiest Man Alive.  I was skeptical that the reviews would be just as farcical as The Onion, but was pleasantly surprised by their large selections of shows that have been reviewed.  Although I am not quite up to date with the most recent shows and therefore choose to not read a review of a show I have not seen, I will most definitely come back to this site whenever I want to geek out about a really great episode that I just watched. 

Media Profile: TV Shows

Current Shows That I'm Watching:

 Adventure Time

 Duck Dynasty











Downton Abbey

I'm in a lull from TV shows because of the Oscar films that are out which I focus on this time of year.

Peripheral Shows (shows I watch because someone else watches them):

Tosh.O

NFL Football

Workaholics









That 70s Show

Guilty Refusals (critically acclaimed shows or shows suggested by friends that I will not watch):

                                                      

Once Upon a Time








Trailer Park Boys















The Sopranos









 How I Met Your Mother

Guilty Pleasures:

Vampire Diaries

Say Yes to the Dress

Catfish

Chopped

All Time Favorites:

Game of Thrones

No Reservations

True Blood

Mankind: The Story of All of Us

Planet Earth

Adventure Time

Avatar: The Last Airbender, 

Shows I Used to Like, But Not Anymore:

Charmed

Friends

Numb3rs

Law and Order: SVU

Shows I resisted for a Long Time, But Now I'm a Fan:

The Wire

Weeds

I Would Rather Eat Charcoal:

Curb Your Enthusiam

Favorite Movies:

The Lion King
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Pride and Prejudice
How to Train Your Dragon
Inglorious Basterds
Midnight in Paris
Moulin Rouge
Seven
Lord of the Rings
Mean Girls