Friday, January 18, 2019

Partners In Time | A History Themed Board Game

Hello all history teachers and buffs welcome to your dreams come true! 
What is it you ask? Partners in Time!
Partners in Time is a game where you join Steve Howard and Dino in their adventure from 1880 to 1990. Compete with other players to collect as many artifacts as possible and win. This is a history-themed board game that I made with SR and MT for people who love and teach history. Its fun and exciting while also having educational elements!


 
Check out the rules below!




This slideshow has pictures of some of our first prototypes before we finished the game!




This project was really a wild ride! From the start, my team and I knew that we wanted to create a fun, themed game that engaged everyone. The art from the game is inspired by the Steampunk culture and style. We decided with this style because we wanted to stand out from other time travel games. We got the idea for Steve Howard and his dog Dino when we found little figurines in a bag of bottle caps. We decided they would be the perfect characters to follow along in our game. Playtesting the game was one of my favorite parts seeing people excited and having fun while playing the game we worked so hard on really was an amazing feeling!

For Partners In Time, I designed the Artifact cards, the back of the Symbol Cards, the Symbol Dice, and the Masterpiece. I was really pushed to use skills that I knew but hadn't ever used before like, using the laser cutter and 3D printer. I even learned some lettering skills! I am most proud of the art for the cards. I think it looks so smooth and really captures the aesthetic we were going for. I think that I could improve at working in a team. I think that I was really lucky and we had a dream team but, there were times when certain aspects of the game got confused and that was fixed with better communication.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Stand by My Review | A Culturalist Film Review of Stand by Me

Hello and welcome to my final Action Project for the class Ollywood. In this AP I reviewed the film Stand by Me with a culturalist lense. A culturalist looks at the importance of culture in a film and how that affects its viewers. In this final unit, we have been discussing post-production elements like editing, musical score, and foley artist work. You will hear more about those elements and how I rated them in stand by me. There is some language in the sound clips that could be considered offensive. Listener discretion is advised.



Transcript
 Be advised. This film review contains sound clips from the film with vulgar language. You've been warned.

 The movie stand by me is a film based off the book The Body by Stephen King and directed by Rob Reiner. This is a culturalist film review done by Tymony.
Stand by me is a cult classic and many who watch it say they related and found themselves within the movie.I, however, did not. But let's talk about the film's’ impact before we get into my cultural gripes and misgivings. The film contains a ragtag gang of white kids from a small town all of which have some type of domestic issues at home which gives them the perfect excuse to be able to disappear for two days with no worry.

We open the film with an older Gordie portrayed by Wil Wheaton reading a newspaper with a rather disturbing headline. He begins narrating and we see the group smoking cigarettes and being extremely foul-mouthed. We are now introduced to Christopher portrayed by River Phoenix, Vern portrayed by Jerry O'Connell and Teddy portrayed by Corey Feldman. Vern tells the gang that he overheard his older brother and friend talking about a dead kid that they had found in the woods. This is where our adventure begins.

 A piece of the film that I think really had an impact on the boys watching this film when it came out in 1987 was the fact that each of the boys were brought to tears at one part. They were shown crying but were never made fun of for it, instead, they were comforted by their friends which were really refreshing to see in a late 80’s boys film I use quotations. The acting in this movie is so incredibly well done especially by the children actors. You can forget the teens and adults in the movie, none of their characters stuck out and they blended all together. But the work done by these 12-year-olds was really nothing to shake a stick at The scene where Christopher tells Gordie that he deserves smarter and better friends than him. I found the maturity in Christopher's character sort of off-putting at first but when you tie it into his character's background, it makes sense and gives him depth.

 The film uses no CGI which makes sense for the type of film and also the time it was made. However, one endearing yet disgusting scene makes me chuckle and this is the scene where Gordie tells the story of an overweight boy and how he gets revenge on the town. There is vomit… a lot of it. But it is quite obviously coming from a hidden hose and not the actors. This scene also is very intentional in not having any filters over it so you know that it is a story, not a dream. While also having a brighter look highlighting it from the other real-life scenes. music.

The score was made up of songs that you would hear on the radio in 1959 from rockin' robbin to Yakkety Yak this film really puts you in the 50s groove. Ending it all with the films namesake stand by me. The film used effective sound effects to the point that you wouldn’t even realize they are there. Thank the foley artist Rick Ash for that! Now, would this film hold up if it came out in 2019? No. There is no cultural diversity in this film and in today's world that is the first thing people look for in a film. Also the constant use of the r-word, this would not make it very far.

 Truly I think we do need something like this in today's world but to be able to make a move like it did in the 80’s we’d have to see more diversity. By saying that I am not saying the legitimacy of the film is lesser what I am saying is that this movie played to the narrative as whiteness being the default. In a 2019 remake, we would have to see something that a-lines with what Americans see not necessarily what they are comfortable seeing. A remake would also take a revolutionary stance if it included people of color. Since you don’t see many boys of color insensitive, harmless and playful roles. So is Stand by me a good film? Yes! A film I would keep in my repertoire? no. but don’t let my opinion keep you from watching this great film. It's one to watch actively though constantly giving you a reason to feel weird about getting older and experiencing grief.

All sound clips from the film Stand By Me Rob Reiner 1986
Bazelon, Emily. "White People Are Noticing Something New: Their Own Whiteness" nytimes.com
The New York Times Company, 13 June 2018. Web
15 Jan 2019

Frontiers

 Hello and welcome to my final action project for my STEAM class Frontiers. In this action project, we were asked to create a conference pos...