FINAL PORTFOLIO

www.laurensenglishportfolio.weebly.com/

Please Grade Essay #4

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA REVIEW

The beginning ten minutes of The Devil Wears Prada sets the scene for the rest of the movie. The opening scenes of high class working women rushing to get dressed gives the audience some idea that the movie takes place in a city and possibly a well- known company. Anne Hathaway's character is portrayed as the complete opposite of these working class women. The producers of this movie show you this so that when she arrives at Runway magazine you assume she has no chance at the job. She seems under dressed, not prepared, and like she doesn't belong at a high end fashion magazine company like Runway. Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt are were casted perfectly for their roles in this movie. Meryl Streep really captures the audience and leaves you curious as to what impossible task she will have Anne Hathaway perform next. This movie is exciting and hilarious and defiantly worth going to see.

The movie I chose to write my movie review on is the movie 50 First Dates. Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore star in this romantic comedy. In the movie Drew Barrymore's character is a middle aged women who was involved in a horrific car accident that eventually causes her to suffer from short-term memory loss. Adam Sandler (Henry) plays the role of someone who is single, lives in paradise, and spends every night with a different woman. He eventually runs into Drew Barrymore (Lucy) at this small breakfast place one morning and decides to pursue his feelings for her. He eventually finds out that he suffers from short term memory loss. This doesn't stop Henry from trying to get her to fall in love with him even though everyday it starts over as if they had never met before.

I chose take a look at Beth's English Portfolio and comment on it http://bethsenglishportfolio.weebly.com/index.html. Beth's portfolio was very well set up and easy to navigate. Everything was separated at the top into the six different categories of the Home page, Biography, Blog Entries, In- class writing, Literacy Narrative Project and the Culture Society and Me project (making it easy to find what you were looking for). My favorite part about Beth's portfolio was reading her biography I was able to learn a lot about her and her family that otherwise I would not have known. I thought the pictures really accented her portfolio and tied it all together. The only thing I would have changed about her portfolio would have been to add a description of what blog entries, in -class writings etc. were about and why they were important to the website. Overall I think Beth did a great job on her midterm portfolio and I am excited to see what she creates for her final portfolio.

Explanation of Ad

The ad I choose is a Gatorade commercial. In the commercial you see snapshot images of famous athletes playing their sport. After about every two pictures or so you will see the image of an ice cold half full gatorade bottle. The argument of this ad is that gatorade is a drink that can enhance your athletic performance if you drink it before, during, and after a game. By using well- known athletes in this ad they are trying to show the audience that if the best athletes in the world drink Gatorade to step there game, then you should drink Gatorade to perform better as well. Another important part of the ad is the context of how they use the letter G. They use it to symbolize the word Gatorade and also use in other phrases such as That's G. G also represents they newer version of gatorade which helps the product appeal to a younger audience. Another key advertising trick they use was on the side of the gatorade bottles that pop up in this ad there are words like no excuses, bring it and shine on. All of these words can be associated with sports and represent an athletes mind set during a game.

Reading for week 10/23

This reading discussed how images in advertising are made to drawn in the publics attention. Many times the way the person in the image is looking whether it be straight on or profile is how they want you the audience to interpret the meaning of the image. It also talks about how many ads in magazines and billboards are sexual because many ad agencies believe it appeals to the audience better. One example of this is the image of Nelly with his shirt off in a Got Milk ad campaign.HH008.jpg. This ad should be trying to sell milk and nothing else. The reason for using Nelly is because he is a famous rapper who many children know, so if they see him drinking milk they will be more likely to drink the milk too.

PORTFOLIO WEBSITE

http://www.laurensenglishportfolio.weebly.com/

10/7/09

For my project I choose to create a DVD cover. I think I want my cover to reflect a sports movie since sports are such a big part of my life. One of the movies is was thinking of relating is to is possibly the DVD covers of Coach Carter or Friday Night lights. The DVD cover for the movie friday night lights seems to fit my athletic career the best because it has three football players on the front. These football players on the cover could possibly resemble the three sports I played in high school (lacrosse, Basketball, and field hockey). Also the crowd in the background would act like my family and friends and everyone who has cheered me on and supported me throughout my career. Coach Carter could also work because of its relation to me playing basketball. I think this project will be fun because you are able to be as creative as you want, and show to everyone the things that are important to you.

The reading from this week I enjoyed the most was the story of Richard Rodriguez His achievements in school are eye opening and the really represent true determination of a student. one of the statements he uses in the story which I completely agree with was, "without extraordinary determination and the great assistance of others-at home and at school- there is little chance for success". From my personal experience in school I know I couldn't have become the student I am today with out my family, teachers and close friends pushing me to do my best. Rodriguez"s childhood was different than mine, because of the fact he grew up in a spanish household. Similarly we were both given the impression as a young child that schooling is important and college is the ultimate achievement. Understating this at a young age is the reason for my success today and for me to be able to attend Virginia Tech.

9/25/09

I really enjoyed working on our projects this week in class. Our group was assigned to make a powerpoint on the comma. We decided to make ten slides containing ten rules on how to use commas. Each person in our group will talk for two minutes, one minute on each of the slides they were assigned. Everyone in our group worked well together and contributed to work diligently and get the project done.

Reading for week 9/7

The readings I enjoyed looking at the most this week were the examples we looked at for our literacy narrative. It was interesting to see how other people decide to present there projects. I also gave me a better understanding of things I should not put in my project and things that will make it more exciting to look at. The project that stood out as the best one to me was a video where they guy really expressed through his images how he took the necessary steps to become a better writer. His music also related very well to what was going on in the video which kept my attention throughout the project. http://blorsbon.weebly.com/visual-literacy-narrative-project.html. His music starts out slow because in the beginning he struggling in school but as he puts his mind to it the music changes to an upbeat song. This project was very well written and was a great visual that showed his journey throughout his education.

ENGLISH PROJECT

Sports have been a big part of my life whether I am watching them on TV or playing them. I not only played three sports in high school (lacrosse, basketball,and field hockey) but you would never catch me missing a New York Jets football game. I was a die hard fan. So in 5th grade when we were assigned to write an essay for a contest about how our families related to a sports team I knew just what to talk about. My essay was about how my family and how each person has there role similar to a football team. I ended up winning this essay contest and won a basketball signed by the varsity basketball players. The head basketball Coach Frank Sciolla had also invited me to read my essay over the radio at one of the home basketball games. This meant a great deal to me because this essay came from something I loved to do with my family and by myself. Winning this contest gave me the confidence I needed to know that I am a good writer and if I put my mind to it I can create something great. On of the ironic things about this is that come my senior year in high school my english teacher happened to be Mr. Frank Sciolla. I felt ready to take on his challenging class because my past experience in his contest. Mr. Sciolla also happened to be the boys varsity head basketball coach while I was on the girls basketball team so he not only inspired me to become a better writer but to become a better athlete as well. This topic of sports and writing was a significant moment in my life that changed my views on writing and I feel will be a great story to create my visual literacy narrative from.