Leonnut’s Weblog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRICBWsDTUA

The link goes to youtube where the video shows some of the funniest advertisements i’ve ever seen. One even shows a baby crying only to be pacified no less by a fat man’s, well, nipples. Ironic enough, each of this commercials convey their message well enough through the verbal and non-verbal visuals that play on humour, sacarsm and even sexual innuendos.

So much of communication is about how the message is conveyed, as Macluhan suggests in his theory of media determinism that ‘it is not what the message is but how it is conveyed’. As such, these commercials i feel, have done it well as humour, being one of my most favourite mediums second only to music, is well used and captivates the audiences. The first commercial alone touches on sexual references men are probably most familiar to. Be it just visiting the washroom or in this case the sauna, curiousity sometimes occurs resulting in such a reaction. Of course the end message goes that the newspaper is so interesting to the point that the guy on the left constantly stares at the other’s crotch. However, where this commercial has failed is by failing to explain why if the newspaper is so engaging, why has the guy on the right fallen asleep? Communication in this is totally non-verbal and the facial expressions of suspicion, curiousity and surprise are priceless. Needless to say, it is effective, but with that minor glitch as everything counts in communication.

The second and third are probably more effective especially the third where a whole lot of physical movement can be seen. Cheering along with the venting of frustration on the vending machine to get the goods, all this play a part. The message of cheering and how it leads to producing results as shown through how the lady got her product, has been effectively portrayed in the verbal shoutings and kinetics in which the possible manager and another lady are jumping up and down cheering her on.

Lastly, the final ad on picture blowing up. With the sexual innuendo itself in ‘blowing up’, the ad conveys many messages though it may have unintentionally sparked off some outrage. Still, the good-natured humour in mindless pranks such as that prevails and the communication is successful as though no words were spoken, the visual non-verbal shows how pictures going through them become a whole lot ‘livelier and interesting.’

In conclusion, ads, which are a major source of communication, serve to promote and convey messages about products, services and even issues. As such, they must be properly supported with verbal and non-verbal back-ups that amplify their message. Though this may be true, they still however must avoid inflammatory and unethical ads that may prove to backfire and are too provocative. Good-natured humour, though not for serious topics, i find, are the best in conveying simple messages.

Naitomea The World (Death Note theme song)

Back to the visual-kei/Jrock  scene, is another well knowned band named Naitomea or also Nightmare. This band started within the visual-kei fashion as can seen from their dressings and style, yet have slowly drifted away and finally decided to break away from visual-kei and instead maintain a slight oshare kei, kind of like a toned down version, but i’m not going into details. The song The World is also Death Note’s theme song, an anime many people here are probably familiar with with the movies Death Note 1 and 2 and the latest movie L changes the World.

During this period, the band was still within the visual kei scene with its outrageous dressing. The scene may have drawn criticism and flak at first, yet along with the otaku culture of anime and cosplay, these scenes are fast becoming the norm and desired fashion in Japan itself. (hopefully here soon) As shown, the media, in this case broadcasting, music etc all play an important role in shaping people’s mindsets and perception on certain things like the fashion and style. What may seem queer and forbidden at first has become one the most popular styles and even Singapore is fast picking up the otaku and cosplay cultures. Communication plays a big part in this acculturation as it sends messages constantly and shapes the thinking of people around the globe, people who watch and enjoy. At the same time, word of mouth and visual dressings by these people also communicate about the cultures themselves, further increasing the spread.

Anime is another form of communication where people’s fantasies are usually put into cartoons that somehow reflect life. Some show monsters while some just rely on good old school days. Whatever the case, the question of whether art reflects life or the other way around comes into mind. What culture and even what anime shows people watch are all part of communication as they tell you exactly what kind of people they are. A few years ago, it was you are what you eat. Yet now, with media determinism and the other theories, people are really in fact what they see as constant viewing of something changes a person.
In conclusion, we must always take notice of what we watch and what the media is showing as all these play an important role to viewers such as ourselves. What the television of internet is showing reflects only too well the message other people are trying to communicate across.

Jeff Dunham And Walter Part 1

“Women age like fine wine…” “Mine ages like milk!”

This ventriloquists gives a new twist to the word humour. Black humour as people know it, plays on the darkness of certain topics such as racism or gender biasness etc. Yet, there is a very thin line to cross from being funny and insulting. Jeff, as usual balances very narrowly, toeing almost cheekily at that intangible barrier. What separates him from others and draws me to him is his unique ability to play on incorporate common personalities and characteristics of mundane people into his dolls. Such is the character Walter, an ‘oppressed’ old husband who is sick of his wife and is not afraid to show it. He displays qualities of a real mand that being of stubborness, hard-headed and even ‘captivity’, as i am sure is common enough in marriages.

However, communication is successful as verbally, Jeff touches on subjects people can relate to such as an overbearing wife, small cars, customer services and different cultures. Every bit of his lines includes jokes that help captivate audiences and keep them interested. Success is seen from the constant laughter and applause by the crowd. Touchy subjects such as wierd customs are also expressed comically, another form of communication, as by adding humour, the insult itself is lessened and people accept it as ‘just a joke’. Sarcasm plays big part in telling jokes for Walter as he constantly speaks of things in the same, disgusted tone which not only does not arouse anger, it brings about laughter. Also, the frequent conversing between Jeff and Walter helps add life as it shows 2 viewpoints from supposedly 2 different people, another tool in communications that aids in its effectiveness as the model depicts both ends as active and not passive.Communication is also crucial from the audience as Jeff has to constantly evaluate the expressions and mood of the audience so as to avoid crossing that dangerous line.

Non-verbally, even as they are just dolls, Jeff does his best to mimick real facial expressions, giving the audience more to see and understand as the stuck-up old man has a constant wrinkled brow and condescending look. Along with the doll, Jeff’s expressions of being puzzled and laughing also helps audience relate and shows them how normal people should react on certain obtrusive or unobtrusive issues.

To conclude, such communication throught the internet media shows that there are endless possibilities in the different forms of communication as it is found everywhere and messages can be conveyed anywhere, depending on how you do it. Such a video also sends the message that we as audiences should try to be more open to comments as some of them are indeed humourous and only by accepting this freedom will life become more interesting.

Gazette-Cassis

A new generation of music, japanese rock or more commonly known as J-rock. This music consists of your usual rock music, with an added twist of different types of angsty solos, soft rock like this song cassis, and even heavy metal as such from other bands like one called Girugamesh. Jrock originated a long time ago back where indies music was hip and pioneer bands include X-Japan or even Lunar Sea. Of course with each type of music, comes along its own culture and behaviours.

Music, i find is the one of the most effective ways of communication as verbally, every bit of the song has the ability to connect and move the audience. Lyrics play an important role of conveying messages and even changing the perception and views of its audience. As such, every bit of the song must be carefully thought out as it cannot be inflammatory, which could result in adverse effects and a whole lot of flaming.

Back when times were uncertain and troubled, blues and hip-hop played an important role of swaying the crowd with its constant reference to the tough times with teenagers resorting to drugs and booze, yet most songs always had a message behind it saying there would be better days. As music is one of the main source of release and outbursts, this definitely assisted the public and possibly prevented many possible deliquents.

Referring back to communications, Macluhan once said in his theory of media determinism that it is not the message that is important but how it is conveyed. Music sets the mood, a jazzy tune relaxes someone, dead silence raises tension etc.

As the music affects a person through its lyrics,non-verbally, the bands actions, visual appearance also play a big part in communications. Jrock culture goes to Visual Kei, a fashion that involves make-up, gothic outrageous clothing and even cross-dressing, not to mention extremely long hair even for the guys. Audiences may be affected by wanting to imitate and follow their fashion, follow their views on the world.

The clear desolate background tells of the sadness and loneliness within the song. Along with the clear overtone and gives the image of a relationship maybe falling apart along with the fast guitar solo in the middle of the song, adding to the climax of the song. As the song builds up from slow and quiet at the beginning to finally the ending solo, which is slow, yet soulful, this gives the image of  a conclusion that the relationship has not ended. 

This isn’t some emo song where everybody ends up cutting themsevles and covering their faces so as to avoid looking at the world. Visual Kei represents a culture far more diverse as i will explore in later entries and deep, and finally beautiful.

Hmm, Jesmund’s comments did ring a bell, especially about the image part. As mentioned before, the lasting impression i felt was more important than the entire movie itself. As for ‘Alone’, despite the few appearances of the ghost, the main idea throughout the show was mainly to show how Man, and not the supernatural, is in fact more cruel and gruesome by nature. That is the ugly truth and hence, the movie bases it self showing mostly of the main character and hardly any horror at all. The storyline, though cliched alittle by the twist still brings about its message strongly with the end violence through not so scary music but sad and slow, adding a different impact from others. I shall not disclose more as that would reveal the plot ;p. Jesmund don’t make me do it by accident yo.

Surround sound screaming? haha, i selected the seat at the side so i was kinda safe. Anyway, different people watch horror shows differently. For example in ‘Alone’, why would one constantly look at herself and be afraid? Sure it is bloodied up alittle, but still. Images left are mostly of gore and the constant fear of something popping up behind you in the dark. More often than not, one constantly feels threatened and this goes away only after a few days. Such is the impact of the movie. Exorcism of Emily Rose left me unable to sleep after 3 for about 3 days. However this 2 movies did hardly anything for me except for weakening my interest in the paranormal and showing me there is always rational explanations for such ostensibly occult manifestations.

By the way, Happy New Year all!

Lol, our group has decided to watch another movie (jokes Mwen), namely Alone. This Tbai movie was chosen due to lack of references to Body 19 which was too new and since we still needed to duplicate the movie for the boss, it had to go. So it was on to Alone which I watched on crunchyroll at home alone. Watching a horror show with 7 girls and you being the only guy was definitely an experience.

Alone is about a woman Pim who leads an ordinary life in Korea before moving to back to Thailand where her mother is sick and she is forced to move back into her old house where she begins to see supernatural things. As if being haunted was not enough, she was being haunted by the ghost of her conjoined twin who was said to have died in the separation. Technically, it was like looking at yourself, and, being afraid of it.

As usual, the plot involves a final twist but unlike Body 19, this one has a higher success and is a lot closer to achieving the standard its predecessor Shutter did. Of course i still prefer Shutter but this show boasts of the use of superstition to add to the suspense and a cast of convincing actors and actresses who plays both the victim and the ghost. Ironic.

Graphics were not bad and convincing enough. Oversimplification was never a problem and the script was well-written enough to build up the tension and the thrilling finale. This movie has a lot more to work on and i am sure the project would be able to go further with this.

  4/5

So here comes the 2nd post, a few days late but still, better late than never. Comms this week have been pretty hectic with sudden outings such as our outing to The Cathay, mainly me n 5- 6 or my group members, to watch a horror movie for the project. The choice? Body19, a supposed horror thriller with as usual a twist behind as expected from Thai horror shows. Having seen others such as Shutter, Body19 comes as a weak excuse and possibly imitation of style as the twist behind does little to improve the already less than scary show. In fact, the twist totally spoils the show, leaving me and my group mates with not a disturbing and lasting impression, but instead a (as singaporeans go) “chey!”.  i will not disclose too much about the plot but i will comment on the visual experience altogether.

Exploring the visual first, the show depicted mutilated limbs and many bloody corpses around. the music assisted in building up the tension, complimenting the mood of the scene and ending of with a sudden bang where the ghost appears. This, all part of the horror movie magic. Facial expressions including crazed looks and even popping eyeballs add to the feel and atmosphere, allowing the audience to be totally immersed along with the characters. Such was the scare of the show.

Somehow or other, whenever a scary scene comes up, the poor person is always alone and the weather, stormy. Jokes about the movie, after the second scare, we all grew numbed by the poor visual effects. One of which was a bloody baby crawling into the victim’s room which was more cute than scary. Horror shows, in my view, are meant to shock and instill fear, not really appear slowly and have matrix-like moments with the victim. Everytime the ghost (severed naked woman with open stomach and popping eyeballs) appears, time would slow and her hair will suddenly grow all over. Talk about bad hair days. Along with the too obvious 3D effects, one could not help but laugh instead. Music and acting were ok, but the weak plot and graphics dampened the show’s atmosphere and spoilt it for me.

 1.5/5

First entry of the COM101 blog. What to write? This is my very first blog. The classes so far have been interesting despite their early timings and my having to travel 1 hour just to attend that 1 and a half hour. Our lessons begin with basic definitions and introductions to the history of Communications going on to the various fields. Mundane as it sounds, the videos did help to liven things up. From commiting suicide to peeing in the open, the teacher illustrates her points through the different effects of facial emotions, silence etc, all a part of communication. “Communication is a process of simultaneous exchange and mutual influence and exchange between communicators; it is influenced by the environment surrounding that communication.”

Going on to the groups, mine consists of 7 girls and me. Wow! Hopefully it works out. Between them. -.- Music is probably my favourite form of communication. Be it rock or just jazz, i find music is still the most moving. Music helps in studying, destressing and it carries more emotion then probably a boring speech or television. Maybe it’s the age. Lessons should have music to go along to help us listen and understand better. lol.

ps: my time is screwed

 Scribbles of the day

   Afro dog muahaha

  Some hairstyle i saw sitting in front