Slideshow Story - Cafeteria

For my group project, I plan on doing a slideshow and story based off the Lyndonville school cafeteria.

I plan on taking photos of the cafeteria, and also have planned interviews lined up with some of the staff that works there (which includes the manager Michael). Using the audio and images I will create a story that explains how a usual day goes in the Cafeteria for the staff, and even the students.

I myself have previously worked at the school cafeteria (and I have plans to come back, but currently am busy with loads of classes, so am unable to), so I have experience with the place, and am familiar with how a normal day goes for the place. Cleaning, putting food again, refilling the ice etc… All of those things will be shown in my slideshow.

Working at the cafeteria was never an easy thing for me, and what I often saw was that some of the students were often irresponsible when it came to their use of the cafeteria.

Its one thing to pick up a mess (I’ll admit I’ll left some mess at the school cafeteria), but it’s another to just leave your civil ware there and expect people to pick it up for you. The people who work hard at the cafeteria are not people’s servants, they are just regular people, who are simply doing their jobs, and most of them would very much appreciate if more people weren’t so careless.

The purpose of this project is to give more insight into just how hard working at the cafeteria can really be, but it is also to show that more people should value the school cafeteria then they seemingly do. It's cool and nice to chat with people, but sometimes cafeteria workers just don't appreciate huge messes, especially when those messes seem more careless than accidental.

I’m doing this slideshow all by my own, with no help what so ever.

Fish Chart

Slideshow Assignment

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/audioslideshow/2014/mar/20/learn-how-build-table-budget

The first link is to the audio slideshow.

This audio slideshow is about how to build a table using reclaimed or recycled wood.

The audio helps to explain the images in the video, and explains how to do the task of making a table with recycled wood. Without the audio, the images would simply be confusing, but the audio makes thing much clearer and easier to do.

http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/slide-show-oldest-place-earth

The second slideshow (the one without sound) is an article I found from The New Yorker. The images show the people of Japan Nagano, who are said to live longer than anyone else in the world (the woman average 87.2 years, while the men average 80.9 years); as these images showed me, their lifestyle is relatively quiet and peaceful, and the food along with their daily practices help to keep them living longer.

Truly interesting stuff. The slideshow was very solid in showing it's points.

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/

The third link was for the photo gallery / album and was from The Hubble Site showing an expansive collection of images of planets, stars, nebula's etc...

The images show the vast galaxies and stars and so on, as seen from The Hubble telescope. Even without the descriptions and texts that were written about the images, they are still amazing, fascinating, incredible and even scary to look at and think about, showing us tales of the various encounters and sightings that were spotted coming from outside space.

Both the slideshows (audio and non-audio) and the image gallery, serve good enough functions as storytelling tools. The best of the three was the non-audio slideshow as the images were strong enough to tell a tale of the people of Japan, Nagano and their "healthy" lifestyles, and show how they manage to live for so long.

Audio slideshows (such as the one I used) often help as they explain what the images, especially if you have no idea what's going on in the images themselves (such as the images from the table recycling wood article, if you looked at those and had no idea, you'd probably be a little confused).

Both slideshows (audio and non-audio) and photo galleries can both function well as storytelling tools. It all comes down to how they're used, and if any of them are really needed.

Any story that would be better off being explained, would no doubt need audio, while any story that is easy to follow just with images would probably be better off using a photo gallery or a non-audio slideshow.

There is no real difference when it comes to quality overall, as far as I can tell. 

Twenty Highest Grossing Films Chart - A Summary

The graph I have made is of the twenty highest grossing films in the U.S. of 2014 thus far.

I have explained to Alex Johnston (a fellow roommate of mine) about what the data is supposed to represent.

On the x side of the graph we have the amount that the movies made, while on the y side we have the names of the movies themselves.

The intent of this graph was to show the current trends in movies. What kinds of films are popular, and what tends to draw moviegoers in.

Of the twenty highest grossing films of 2014, thus far only three of them were original properties (not directly based off a preexisting brand or movie), those being Neighbors and Ride Along (both comedies) and Lucy (a sci-fi film). This means that the 17 remaining films were either based off already pre-existing properties (The Lego Movie, Maleficent, Godzilla, Mr. Peabody and Sherman etc…) or were sequels (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, 22 Jump Street etc…) to already popular franchises.

Compare to this a previous year such as 1995, where of the 20 highest grossing films of the year, only seven of the highest grossing films were based off pre-existing properties or sequels.

Additionally this chart shows that comic book movies are the most popular type of film out there, as of the 20 highest grossing films six of them were based off comic books. Those being Guardians of The Galaxy (the highest grossing film of the year), Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: Days of Future’s Past, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and 300: Rise of an Empire.

Of note is that the three highest grossing “original” films were sold on star power (the main actors who tend to star in more hits than flops and are considered box office draws by the major studios).
What this research and graph tells me, is that this most moviegoers are tending to play it more “safe” these days when it comes to going to the theaters. Speaking with their wallets the average moviegoer is going to sequels and films based off pre-existing properties that they liked previously, because the effort to go the movie theater just isn’t worth it any more due to rising ticket prices.

Based off this graph and chart, Hollywood will continue to rely on franchises and sequels for years to come, as well films based off star-power. Most original movies will likely come from independent studios and filmmakers instead.