JMC 201: 2007 Men's Panthers Basketball

Time to get things back on track





The reasons to be optimistic about this season





Last year sure was a painful season for the men's basketball team who had to play with a bunch of young players. They struggled through the season and won only 9 games after 20 plus wins for the last 3 seasons. This year though there are reasons to be optimistic thanks to a year under their belts for many of them and college transfers who are eligible to play this season.





Five reasons why they will be better

• Second year as starter for Guard Avery Smith and Forward Paige Paulsen


• The arrival of junior college transfer Torre Johnson, and Deion James


• A talented freshman class of five players


• A team that Jeter put together post Bruce Pearl.


• A favorable non- conference schedule

The National Outlook

The panthers are projected to finish fourth in the horizon league. They have four returning starters and a unbelievable scorer in Avery Smith. This team consists of players that Jeter has fully developed and brought in and they can now move away from the Pearl style of play.

Thoughts on 4/30 class

I enjoyed the internet film these we did this week. They seemed to get the class involved. The one that had us answer questions was fun because every was involved and was cool hearing people shout out there answers. Each of the films seemed as if you could control is actually what is going on. For example by choosing a certain pox in this one film a different sound will play. You could create your own song in a way. This type of work really gave you the opportunity to experience some of these things the person was going through that created this type of web film that they chose to do. This was different than most other films because you the viewer seemed to be more involved. I think it was good to learn about the different types of interactive ideas you could chose to create something on a web. In all it was a interesting and good learning experience.

Thoughts on the film from 4/23

I thought the film we saw on monday about watching the girls team from japan practice was interesting. The first thing that caught my mind was how organized the girls are when the run around the court. Everyone is in a straight line and nobody is all over the place. You dont see people run in an orderly fashion at a practice in the United States. Plus, the amount of running they did was unbelievable. I would have quit if my high school coach made me do that much running. The number one thing that really caught my attention was that there was no basketball hoops. I have never seen a practice in my life where no shooting was involved. That kind of made the film a little bit boring towards the end because i wanted to see how good of shooters and defenders they are when playing the game of basketball. I think this film was an example of how there culture is a lot different than ours. They do things in an orderly fashion and everybody seems to follow rules better there then they do here. In all i thought it was a good film and enjoyed seeing how they practice compared to the style we have here in the United States. Plus good camera work and it was good to keep the camera stationary it really kept the focus of me and made the film easy to follow

Thoughts on Hamilton by Porterfield

This film seemed to keep my interest more than the D Est film mainly because there was dialogue in the movie, but i do believe in both you could tell what the story was about. Watching this film it seemed to me that Joe was a man who had a child, but acted like he is still a child. Joe doesn't spend much time with the child and Elena. He keeps coming up with excuses like I am working. The problem is most of the time he is just sitting on the porch of the house he is staying at and doing nothing. Another thing is he argues with his mom and doesnt listen to her which are childish acts. Then at the end of the field the scene with him riding on a bike with another boy near by seems to show that he is still a child and is not ready to grow up and still likes to act like a kid. There just seemed like lots of tension by Joe in that he hasnt broken out of being a kid yet and is not ready to be the parent that he is suppose to be now that he has a child with Elena. The shoots are somewhat similar to D Est in that you see alot of different things throughout the movie and the camera doesnt sit on an image for a long time. I think this film and D Est are easy to stand focused on because they have more of a movie type feel to them and thats what are society is more used to these days. It was a good interesting film that to me represented a man who is not ready to grow up and in a way is a man in a boy's body.

Thoughts on 4/11 Discussion section

I thought that the discussion we had on wednesday was the best one of the semester. Many of the students opened up and gave there opinions about the first film we watched by Jennifer Montgomery. It is really a tough subject to talk about because of the fact that it is a very feminist and sexual film. That film made me very uncomfortable mainly because I am an only child and my mom was the only women in the house hold so i dont feel that comfortable with the femine issues that we saw in the film. I kind of fell asleep of and on in the film because when i saw some of the images like talking about her own organisms i just wanted to tune it out. I do believe that after hearing everyone's comments in discussion it should help me in the future to share my thoughts about difficult films like that one shown by Jennifer Montgomery. The film i enjoyed the most was her going to some of her old friends homes to get a hold of the cameras she had borrowed to them. It gave the film a conversational film and made it easy to follow and stay interested in the film. In conclusion, I enjoyed the discussion because it was good hearing about all the different emotions that first film we saw had on people.

Response to Moments of Intentional Vulnerability

I think a good example of awkwardness is having to meet your friends family for the first time at a party or some big event. Your standing there and feeling vulnerable because you don't know how they will react to you when the see how you look and how you talk to them. That can be how it is for a film maker when the present a film to a large audience at an event or in schedule class at school. The film maker doesn't know how you receive the movie and feel very vulnerable looking and hearing for body movements that can help indicate if the people are appealing to things you are presenting. The reason for times of awkwardness making us feel vulnerable is that the we aren't use to our surroundings, or even the people that you have to interact with at times. I do believe that moments of awkwardness are good in filming and in every day life because it would help you adjust to those vulnerable you have and help you in the future to cope better when you know a moment of awkwardness is approaching. Vulnerablity is important because like in anything in life it is important to improve at each aspect of life. There is also room for improvement is what i am saying.

Thoughts on readings from thislife.org

The first reading was titled Golden Apple. It talked about how Nancy Updike who worked at the grocery store talked to two guys that played the accordion. Also to an ex couple would come into the store and tell her who was at fault for the two of them breaking up and that it had happened over 3 years ago. In Act two girls and guys go to the Golden Apple to look for someone to be with. Also that cops were in there talking about their daily life and what they watch on tv. I thought this reading was kind of like everyday life in a way for most people. I can imagine older people coming to my job and telling me about there problems in life and about the people that get on there nerves. I thought the part about two girls go to the club being a pretty normal thing today to look for someone to be with. I also can imagine cops taking it easy on there jobs and talking about what they do in there free time instead of the few things they may do in a day while at work.

Then i read My Pen Pal that Andrea had wrote. I thought it was interesting that a man named Ted Widmer talked about two pen pals in The New World. I thought it was very odd that after John Winthrop sent Roger Williams to jail for saying church and state should be seperate that the two of them would be friends and continuely write back to each other. Not every day do you see someone become a friend with them if they have sent that person to jail. Then act one seemed to be strange to me because not every day does a 1o year old girl have a pen pal who is a drug trafficker, and a murderer. If i was her i would definately not stay in contact with that person. The last act i read on the reading was about Janice Powell's husband who was sent to prison for being an abusive husband. It seemed very odd to me that the two communicated through letters for eight years. You would think if you were her you wouldnt want to continue to associate with a man that was abusive to you. What i thought was funny is that she thought they had a better relationship for having this happen.

I thought both readings were interesting and seemed like everyday issues some people have that you don't hear about in the news at all. Very interesting and unique stories in all.

Thoughts on the Camera Obscura presentation by Ethan Jackson

I thought that was very interesting would i walked in that small room and saw live images of outside being shown on a wall upside down. When I saw this I felt like maybe i would like to do something like this. It is not that expensive to do that either. All he did was cut a hole in a box big enough for the lens that would show outside and project the live images on the wall. I kind of like that it was an overcast day because the sun peaking through the clouds was a beatiful image. It would have been nice if there would of been more activity outside to make the obscura feel more lively. When he showed us that film during his presentation it showed me that these camera obscuras being projected on a wall gives you three a four different types of things you may be seeing when looking at each side of the wall that it is being seen on. Camera obscuras make you see things in a few different ways and thats what i liked about seeing examples of the obscuras on video. I would of like to known how doing a camera obscura would like at night but he had no examples. It was nice learning how easy it can be to do one and how much time it would take to set one up. I really enjoyed the visit and the camera obscuras were interesting to see because not everything is shown to you live like that was.

Thoughts on March 5 films

This weeks films had a lot to do with seeing things through a projection booth, also through 2 frames on top of each other and following the camera as it moves and gives you different views of an image. I think these films were good resources for showing how your eyes work and understanding what you see from looking at something with two viewing frames on top of each other like in the film called Performist artist. The undeveloped eye really makes you stay focused and in away you can see those hallucinations that your seeing on the screen be going on in your head also. The film i thought was the strangest was by Brant Coconnor in which we observed pounding noises coming from the left side of the screen and then to the right side of the screen. I was having trouble understanding the point to this film until i saw images which were a boy on a bike and them showing the woods, and people on a roller coaster ride. I think this film was showing someone relieve their past and show us some of the things they have experienced in life. It also my be how they feel about there life they might think that they are always on the move like a bike or always have lots of ups and downs like a roller coaster. I thought these films used the camera well and these films really dealt with the topic of camera obscuras which we are now starting to learn about in class and will be learning more about it next week.

Thoughts on this past weeks films

I enjoyed the visit by Laura marks on Monday. You could really tell she enjoys films by how she talks about them in a exuberant way. She seemed to be thrilled with all the good questions asked by the students in the class. I thought the best film of the day was the film called resistance. I could get a sense that shapes and designs going in different directions made me imagine that it was a person dancing like the film was portraying. I think the music which was kind of exotic and free going would be perfect music for a belly dancer to use. I thought the reading we did called Convulsive fables reading was associated with the film we saw we people stood on that sacred church and were looking up to the heavens for help in life. I thought the film that had the most going on it was In this House because it showed the man talking about the house, people digging for something they were looking for and had a separate section on the screen that indicated who was talking at the time. I think that film is a good example of how the media can put a few productions on at the same and still make it easy enough for you understand what is going on while viewing a particular film like the one. In all I thought the films were good and it was nice to see how people of other countries observe the religion they believe in.

D' Est

The D' Est film i thought was better then most of the films we watched. This film at least i had a good understanding from the reading where she was at when she was filming the people among the Eastern part of the united states. The only thing that made it hard for me was trying to figure out what was going on in each scene of the film. It makes it hard to understand what is going on when there is no one speaking english or a narrator telling you what is happening throughout each scene in the film.

What i can remember seeing from this film as seeing roadways, trees moving in the wind, a few musical events being attended, and several people standing around waiting for whatever it is that they were waiting for. I also noticed that the film took place in the winter and that most of the footage was at night. The film did allow me to understand that this crisis had the people seem very edgy and i didnt get the feel for many happy moments going on during the film.
In conclusion, I feel i could understand what was going on better in this film then what was going on in other films and that it kept my attention better and always kept me guessing on what may be going on next in the film.

Film thoughts for the week

I dont really have any more topics to about for the week but how i feel after writing journals for five straight days. I felt this was a good idea to do because it made me think more deeply about the films we had talked about for the week. I thought these films these past week really emphasized the importance of the camera and the images it painted into our mind. I thought the film with field and the music could create thoughts in the mind. I also thought the film about bad day dream was good because the pounding noise kind of felt like being in a bad dream. I thought the exercise we did in discussion was good and got to hear some very interesting responses from others about the films. In all i believe this was a very good week of understanding the films for me.

Day 4

I was reading my parents blog who is Amanda Kurtti and it thought her response for day 2 was a very good and unique journal. She talked about Jonas Mekas diary and why someone would do a diary like that and didnt feel it was too associated with the films we have seen so far. i feel that the film was alright, but having a diary on yourself that expends over a few years to me seems kind of crazy. I don't really no what else to say about that film, but i thought it was alright because it kept me focused on the film compared to some of the others that make feel bored watching them after awhile.

The strangest film of this past week award

I would to have to say the strangest film of the week was Every Day Bad Dream by. Fred Worden. I thought it was very strange to be looking at a black dot the whole time which continuously got bigger and smaller at times. Also with the loud pounding noise that was occuring it practically gave me a headache by the end of that film. Also, what topped it off and made it very strange was revealing to us that the block dot was the eye of a daffy duke hat. To me i was like what was the reason for showing that hat at the end. This is one of those films that leaves me with alot of confusion about the whole point of it after viewing it.

Film (Discussion work)

The paper i ended up with asked me what Robert Breer was trying to accomplish by you using quick images that didnt have any realevence to the narrative? What Breer was trying to accomplish like the person who answered the question on the paper was the by showing one image after another causes quick motion which is cinema. So, this film i believe fits into the cinema atmosphere because everything is coming at you one after another. The story may not make sense to you, but you must remember its up to the author if they want it to be understandable to everyone. Then someone on this piece of paper i have asked if Sue Friedrich's film was a narrative? The person responding saying it had a narrative by what you see through the shots that were being taken. To me i agree with that response to because that is the that person chose to get there point to the story across. The last question asked on my sheet of paper was what is the difference between a video diary and narrative? They said they really dont know. Well i somewhat i agree with that but i think they are kind of linked. I feel that by reading each day of the diary you will build a story up that will have a ending at sometime.

In conclusion, I feel that this information was interesting and i thought it was helpful for everyone to express how they felt on certain films. I believe its important to get an understanding of the meaning of a film you may not of understood well by being able to read some of the responses others wrote down about a certain film. I really thought this was a good discussion exercise today.

film

I am trying to write something for five straight days, so i am going to start off by just saying what i thought was the best film from this past monday we saw.

I think the film by Ronaldo Menali was the best because i thought it was interesting to see that he wrote something new everyday that he had learned. The other films didnt seem to actually cover any real life topic like that film did

Film week 2

After watching some of the videos on v log and the jonas mekas website i felt many of these films are to intimate or personal for my taste. Like most men i dont think they really care for personal displays or inner thoughts. The films though and the videos we viewed during the week were better then the many of the projection films we saw in the first few weeks from the aspect of it that it feels more like i am watching a movie. Today the film industry is huge on presenting us things in a movie perspective. So the films we saw on projection to me don't really emphasize the importance of movies. These videos this week make it easy for a person to associate with what is being discussed in the video compared to what is being talked about in the projection films we have saw. I believe it is important though to show these personal films because it allows to understand the person better who has produced the film and helps you gain more respect for the film productions that they produce. The videos this week will help someone people feel like they may have went through some of the events some of the people did that were in the videos shown this week. I thought some of the videos i saw on the websites dealt with some of the aspects talked about by acconi that deal with using confessions, demonstrations, and testimonies. In conclusion i thought the funniest film of the week was the Theme Song in which the man in the Theme Song is smoking and singing and laying on the ground. It seems funny to me because not often do you see some one doing something like that on video. The way he was acting just seemed hilarious and very odd in how he was acting. So i felt it was a funny video to watch.