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media type="custom" key="8399584" There are many reasons why I enjoy this video. For one, it is outside the realm of anything I thought was possible in film. It is also well edited to the music, which is well composed to the eerily growing ice crystals. I love watching this type of film as it makes me question my own boundaries when it comes to filmmaking and is intriguing.

My experiences with video production stemmed from an acting for camera class I took 5 or 6 years ago. I took this course for over 3 years, and this led me to acting on 3 different professional film sets. These led to an understanding of the different dynamics that put together a film set, and my interests shifted to working behind the camera. I have attended Gulf Islands Film and Television school, in the Film Production program, for 3 summers, and am hoping to go back this year for an internship. I took both Media Arts and Photography in grade 10. I have also taken directing and playwrighting workshops and have many years of experience on theatre sets, especially with Kaleidoscope Theatre.

 My taste in movies varies greatly, so it is hard to pinpoint a single favourite out of so many different genres. However, if I am choosing a favorite in both story and composition, it would be Adaptation. Not only is it directed by my favourite music video director, Spike Jonze (cliche, I know), but the story itself is brilliant. It follows the story of a writer who is attempting to adapt a book about orchids into a screenplay. Stressed out and neurotic, his aim is to create a movie which is solely about flowers, with no violence or dark twists. On his journey he encounters both of these, and the audience realizes that the movie they are watching is the screenplay that he adapted. The fact that it has not one, but TWO Nicholas Cage's (he plays the main character and his twin) and yet still manages to be watchable shows the work of great minds (Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman).

 I think the most important aspect of a movie is it's visual appeal. A movie has to be a visual and artistic masterpiece, or else the viewer may as well just be reading the book. For example, Valhalla Rising, which follows the journey of a pagan slave-warrior in Roman Britain to the shores of Canada, does not have a very substantial storyline. However, it is still a great movie which feels almost like a full sensory experience. The colours are rich, the shots are beautifully calculated, and the music is ominous but moving. So, although I believe that a good movie should also have a good share of smart dialogue, I believe that the cinematography and editing are the most important parts.

 Media controls many aspects of day to day life in North America, as it is everywhere and seemingly omniscient. Wherever one may go in a city, media follows in the form of billboards, commercials, movie trailers, huge televisions at the side of busy intersections, etc. Most people rely solely on the media for information about the outside world, leaving them vulnerable to censorship and a bias towards world events. Young kids and teens look to the television for role models, shaping their lives on celebrities from Miley Cyrus to Bear Grylls.