Month: June 2023

Top Gun Maverick

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Top Gun is a movie about a veteran pilot training many other pilots that are considered the best of the best for a mission. Maverick (our main character) is a very experienced pilot and recently made a world record in flying. Even though he achieved this goal, he continued to push and eventually crashed. His rights to fly were confiscated and he was called in by one of the hr. If he ever wanted to fly again, his only chance was to accept training some younger students and prepare them for an important mission.

My favourite scene was near the end with Maverick and Penny. I liked to see Rooster and Maverick overcome their past and work together to help fix Maverick’s P-19 Mustang. It was great to see Maverick and Penny finally make it official again and see their daughter Amelia happy.

I would recommend this film to other schools with early teens or younger 9-10 years olds because it shows great examples of angle use, contrasting and displaying the characters emotions.

I’d give this film a 4 out of 5 because of the intense fighting scenes and how realistic and eerie the whole movie’s plot was portrayed.

In the most simple terms, Top Gun is a movie about a veteran pilot training many other pilots that are considered the best of the best for a mission. Maverick (our main character) is a very experienced pilot and recently made a world record in flying. Even though he achieved this goal, he continued to push and eventually crashed. His rights to fly were confiscated and he was called in by one of the hr. If he ever wanted to fly again, his only chance was to accept training some younger students and prepare them for an important mission. His training was not easy, and at failure, trainees were made to do 200 push ups.

Costumes and angles portray the characters superiority and how their personal style is. He wears shades, tank tops and flowy shirts often, portraying he is a beachy surfer type of guy who is chill and cool. Jake is a pretty chill guy, but he is very very cocky. He makes sure everybody hears of his achievements and he always boasts about how he is better than everyone and would be the best leader of the mission.

Jake’s call sign is “Hangman!”.

He treats the other characters in the movie lowly. He especially has something against Bradley Bradshaw as he is his biggest competitor for mission leader.

I think Jake will be important to the story near the beginning, but Bradley will pull through and realise his potential. I think Jake is the antagonist as the film doesn’t seem to be centred on him and rather on the growth of Bradley.

Bradley Bradshaw, call sign ‘Rooster’. Bradley is a pretty experienced pilot working towards mission leader. Although.. his trainer is somebody who messed his life up in the past, accidentally killing his father. I believe later on in the movie he will realise his potential and make lots of progress as a pilot and hopeful achieve mission leader.

Natasha, call sign “Phoenix”. Natasha is a strong willed and adventurous pilot working on her personal skills. She is a strong believer in Bradley and wants him to grow as a pilot and achieve mission leader. She always believes in herself and learns from her mistakes. I think later on in the movie she will do well in the mission and make it home safe.

Murder And Mayhem

In social studies we have been learning on a slide calling Murder And Mayhem.

Jack The Ripper’s Victims

In social studies we have been learning about Jack The Ripper’s Victims. Jack The Ripper was a serial killer and still remains unidentified to this day. This is my slide with information about Jack The Ripper’s Victims.

We are practicing writing a Lawyer Paragraph about the significance of WWI to New Zealand.

World war I was a significant event for New Zealand.

WwI had a significant death toll and impact on New Zealand. This was worsened by the fact we had a small population, meaning everybody knew somebody who was sent to Ww1. Due to the gaps in the workforce, many mothers and children had to fill in to keep up with economy.

In 1914-1918 New Zealand had a population of 1 million. Of that population, 103,000 men served in World War 1, which was 10% of all people in New Zealand. Considering how small the population was, there was a significant amount of death. There were 18,500 people who died and 50,000 were wounded.

This tells us that World War I was a significant event for New Zealand.

Allies vs Central Powers

Allies: Ireland, England, France, Portugal, Africa, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Romania, Albania, Belgium, Luxembourg 

Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria, Montenegro

Anzacs In The Face Of War

In social studies we have been learning about WWI. We have been learning about the ANZACS, the ANZACS stand for Australia New Zealand Army Corporation. This is my slide with information about the ANZACS in the face of war.

We have been learning about the Gallipoli Campaign and ww1. We have been working on understanding the significance of the Gallipoli campaign.

This is my research on the Significance of Gallipoli.

This term we have been learning about Gallipoli and world war 1. This is my assessment/diary entry using my knowledge and historical dates to make it seem believable. I used my idea of Rua Kenana’s perspectives to complete this to the best of my ability.

13 November 1915

================================================================================

Today I got a letter in the mail from the government and apparently I’ve been conscripted to join the war. I’ve heard from some of my community members that it is now legal for all men aged 20-45 to be conscripted..

I don’t think that is right and this shouldn’t be legal! I mean.. If people didn’t sign up obviously that means we don’t want to go. I don’t believe that killing or harming anybody in any way is justifiable. I believe that there is always a way to settle things appropriately without introducing violence. Maybe a video chat, or a meet up of governments. Why do people think war and showing power is the only way to resolve things? I think the decreasing number of volunteers deserves to be mentioned. The fact we are running out of volunteers shows how deadly the war is. I don’t understand why anybody would want to fight knowing almost all of our troops are dead/injured. 

I’ve been reading the newspaper and I guess they are trying to push all of us Maori men to sign up? I will not stand for this, why are they singling out my people? When the war first started we weren’t even allowed to sign up because they didn’t trust us. Do they expect us to wait for their orders obediently like we’re their puppies? If they didn’t want our help before, why do they feel entitled to force us to join now?

March 19 1916

================================================================================

Today there were police officers at my door. Apparently I have to attend court but I truly believe that I’ve done nothing wrong. They are accusing me of ‘sedition’ because I outright told them I didn’t believe in war and that I am a pacifist. Pacifists and people with specific beliefs should 100% be awarded exemptions. It’s unbelievable that they have set a court date for my arrest. I should be able to stand for my people and not be punished for it. I’m not going to attend court, I need to complete my harvest first.

March 26 1916

================================================================================

Today a policeman showed up at my doorstep claiming there was a warrant out for my arrest and I must go with him. Of course, I didn’t. I slammed the door right in his face, I can’t believe they really want to arrest me over defending my beliefs and my people.

April 7 1917

================================================================================

Today I finally walked out of court. On April 2nd 1916 my home was ambushed by a large force of armed policemen. Nobody expected it, they even had to get violent. Through this ambush, shots were rang out and my son was killed. When I was brought to court, the judge believed that I fired first, the police completely manipulated the evidence. My trial in the courtroom was VERY long, 12 months to be exact. I was found not guilty for the sedition claim, but I was found guilty of resisting arrest. I was sentenced with 

12 months of hard labor and following, 18 months of imprisonment. Yes, I’m devastated but I’m hoping my story will be heard and in the future, more of our Maori men will speak up instead of following everybody else.

Film Techniques – Top Gun

On Friday we watched the first 42 minutes of Top Gun. During those 42 minutes, many different film techniques have been demonstrated. Some of these include extreme long shots, close ups, over the shoulder shots, long shots, higher angles and lower angles shots.

In the most simple terms, Top Gun is a movie about a veteran pilot training many other pilots that are considered the best of the best for a mission. Maverick (our main character) is a very experienced pilot and recently made a world record in flying by reaching an altitude of 10. Even though he achieved this goal, he continued to push and go up to 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 but then.. he lost control of the plane and crashed. His rights to fly were confiscated and he was called in by one of the hr. If he ever wanted to fly again, his only chance was to accept training some younger students and prepare them for an important mission. His training was not easy, the first training he taught was how to stay in control of the plane. Two groups of 2 are put in fighter planes and are put against the test by Maverick. Their objective is to “shoot” well rather aim in, towards the other plane (having a clear shot) to get the opposing plane out. Everytime, Maverick overcomes every group of 4 easily and as a punishment, all losers do 1000 pushups. Maverick has a rocky past with one of the trainees, and Maverick and the trainee put themselves in a very dangerous situation to assert superiority towards eachother. At rapid speed, they are both tumbling downwards swirling around eachother and get VERY close to the hill and are about to crash. Last minute, Maverick aims in and the trainee is eliminated, the trainee doesn’t take this lightly and does multiple push-ups after his already 1000.

By recording using a higher camera angle, it makes the character appear weaker or less in control. While recording using a lower camera angle, it makes the character appear stronger or more powerful. The use of camera angles are very important in a fast pace action movie such as Top Gun. Extreme long shots are used to show the entire scene or show how large something is. A long shot can be used for a few different things, such as showing the perspective of a character, showing the size of something or depicting a birds-eye-view. Extreme or regular close up shots, are used to pull the focus in onto a certain character, to show their importance or superiority in the scene. Over the shoulder shots are usually used when a character is speaking to another character and it simply shows the perspective from the character included in the conversation.