Sunday, November 7, 2010

Fan fiction

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

This is the first year for Harry, Ron and Hermione in Hogwarts. Since the sorting hat has put them into Gryffindor, they have begun an interesting life in Hogwarts. They study together, eat together, and play together. They have made a lot of new friends, since one of the three is the famous Harry Potterthe boy who lived.

It is a Saturday noon, after Harry, Ron and Hermione finished their lunches, whey went outside to the yard to take a walk. They were talking about homework and teachers, when suddenly Hermione saw a girlfriend of hers.

“Hey! Kelly!”

“Oh hi Hermione, how are you?” the girl whose name is Kelly walked towards them.

“I’m good, just finish my lunch. Let me introduce my friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Harry, Ron, this is my friend from my room, Kelly.”

“Nice to see you.” Both the boys said.

“Well nice to see you too.”

“So are you also a fresh year student in Hogwarts?”

“Yes, same as you guys.”

After that meet, Kelly became one of the friends of Harry. After the Christmas holiday, everyone was busy studying and preparing for their exams. But there was another very important thing in Harry, Ron and Hermione’s headsthe Sorcerer’s Stone.

Kelly overheard the conversation about the Sorcerer’s Stone between them three, and when she was hearing it, she had a very strong physical feeling. It was like something was trying to get out from her body. But it only lasted for a second or two, and then her body was back to normal.

Although Harry did not tell Kelly anything about the Sorcerer’s Stone, she knew that they have been researching information for the stone, and they have got some information from Hagrid. Kelly did not know if she should tell Harry that she knew they knew the Sorcerer’s Stone, but she did not really have the chance after all.

Meanwhile, while Harry was focusing on the stone, the three hated Snape. Although Kelly didn’t think that Snape is as bad as they thought, she didn’t like the way he treats students. In addition, he seems knew something about the stone.

One day, after lunch, Kelly was walking in the yard and thinking about why she would feel physically strange when she had heard the Sorcerer’s Stone, she suddenly saw Harry, Ron and Hermione were talking to Hagrid. Kelly walked closer to them and hid behind a tree, she started listening to their talking.

Harry was asking Hagrid how he got the dragon egg, Hagrid answered it, but there was something that he shouldn’t have said, such as how to make an animal fall asleep, especially he mentioned this crucial information to the stranger who sold him that dragon egg.

All the sudden, Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other for a second, and then they run away by letting Hagrid sitting there by himself and regretting.

Kelly had a feeling what Harry would do next, but she followed them. They run to’s office and asked where the headmaster was, but there was no answer. Harry mentioned the Sorcerer’s Stone in a hurry then Professor McGonagall was shocked. She told them to go back to their dormitories and stay away from this. Kelly thought they would not do that, instead, they will do something that night.

Kelly was right, in the midnight, after Hermione froze Neville, the three of them went to the forbidden room, where the giant dog with three heads was guarding. They passed every step and Kelly kept following them without letting them aware. When she arrived at the wizard chess board, she found Ron was passed and Hermione was trying to wake him up. She was surprised when she saw Kelly.

“What are you doing here? And how did you get here?”

“I was following you.”

“Why are you here?” Hermione still seemed very panic about Kelly’s coming. But Kelly didn’t care. She has put her concentration on Ron. Several minutes later, Ron woke up and shocked about Kelly’s coming.

“Kelly, what on earth are you doing here?”

“I don’t know either honestly. I just followed my intuition. It told me to be here, so I came.” She looked at the door for going to the next pass and kept speaking, “I think I’m going to find out now.”

“I don’t think you can go in there.” Ron doubted.

“Believe me, I can, and I have the very right reason.”

“Which is??”

Kelly didn’t answer. She just said “take care” and then left.

With the steps coming into this big room, memories kept recalled to Kelly’s head. She remembers now. She was the Sorcerer’s Stone. Dumbledore had changed her into a human being and made the sorting hat put her in the same school as Harry’s. It turns out that the Sorcerer’s Stone has always been by Harry’s side.

At the moment, Harry was forced to look into the mirror which in the inside, people can fulfill all their dreams. Kelly knew what to do now.

“Good luck Harry.”

Harry heard a female voice when he saw the same himself in the mirror. The voice was familiar to him but he didn’t really have the time to figure it out. Voldemort has ordered him to look into the mirror and get the Sorcerer’s Stone for him. Harry had no choice. He saw the Harry in the mirror is smiling at him, and showed him the stone then put the stone in his right pocket. Harry touched his right pocket and tried not to let Voldemort see it. He felt it. He felt the stone, it is right into his pocket now. He was surprised how he got the stone, but it does not matter now. The problem is how to escape under Voldemort’s eyes.

“What do you see?” Voldemort asked.

“Nothing, I see nothing.” Harry tried to make his voice sound calm.

Voldemort didn’t believe him. He found out Harry was lying any way.

Voldemort tried his best to get the stone but he didn’t succeed because Dumbledore arrived in time.

When Harry woke up, he was lying in the bed of the school hospital. A week later, all their exams are finished and they can finally relax. Harry’s been feeling sad about the stone, which is also Kelly. Dumbledore told everything to Harry and Harry told Ron and Hermione. None of them was not surprised that Kelly was that stone. Harry recalled that female voice when he was looking at the mirror and trying the stone, he was aware that the voice was from Kelly, who was about to change back to the stone.

“No wonder I felt it was familiar to me.” Harry said to Ron and Hermione. They were having sitting on a long chair and enjoying the last few days before leaving Hogwarts.

“I still can’t believe it. This is really unbelievable. I mean how great Dumbledore’s magic can be to change a stone into a real person.”

“Then I guess it would be much greater if he changed me back to human again, forever.” Said by a girl’s voice which behind them.

They turned around and surprisingly found Kelly was standing there and smiling at them.

“Kelly?!!!” They yelled.

“Yes, it’s me. Professor Dumbledore gave me an actual body and changed me back. I’m not that stone anymore. I am a human being now.”

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

week 12

How have game shows influenced reality TV?

Hill (2005) said that “popular entertainment refers to programmes such as talk shows, game shows, sports and leisure programming, all of which are part of the development of popular factual television.” This sentence demonstrates that game shows have some influence on reality TV shows. And also, “in addition, talk shows, game shows, sports and leisure programming often perform well within the international broadcasting market, with successful formals sold worldwide, and locally produced to nationally specific requirements” (Hill, 2005). It means that some one has performed game shows on TV and it was successful. There are two reasons for game shows being acted on TV and they are “it is cheap and easy to produce and is extremely exportable” (Hill, 2005). Examples for these two reasons could be “who wants to be a billionaire” and “Survivor”.

Why is reality TV so popular for both programme makers and TV viewers?

“Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors” (Wikipedia.com). From this definition we can see that reality TV is mostly based on real stories and usual people, it is not totally act. For programme makers, reality TV as a new type of television can bring them profits and unlike drama and love stories, screenwriters do not have to make up a lot of story lines, they just need a little to connect facts together. For TV viewers, reality TV is new to them and the facticity is highly than other types of TV program. After watching so many unreal stories, they will feel that reality TV is showing them the truth. It may be cruel, and sad, but that is the reality that happens around them all the time.

Reference List

Hill, A (2005). The rise of reality TV. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 15-40). Oxon: Routledge.

Reality Television. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 3, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Week 9

Wilox and Lavery(2002) identify 9 defining characteristics of “quality TV”can you apply any of these to another television serious that you have reviewed recently?

1. Quality TV usually has a quality pedigree. (Gossip Girl)

2. Quality shows must often undergo a noble struggle against profit-mongering networks and nonappreciative audience” (Gossip Girl)

3. Quality TV tends to have a large ensemble cast. (Glee)

4. Quality TV has a memory. (Sex and the city)

5. Quality TV creates a new genre by mixing old ones. (Sex and the city)

6. Quality TV tends to be literary and writerbased. (Glee)

7. Quality TV is self conscious. (True Blood)

8. The subject matter of quality TV tends toward the controversial. (Gossip Girl)

9. Quality TV aspires toward ‘realism’. (The legend of the seeker)

Are there any other characteristics that you could add to their list?

Here, I would like to talk about story lines. This story line I am talking about is not really about how to attract audience’s eyes. It is about how to keep audience’s interest for next season. The screenwriter has to make up a really good and reasonable spot to hook the audience. The spot could be anything, for example, in Glee, the spot for the final in season one is although the glee club did not win the Regionals, they have got another year to beat their opponent; in True Blood, the reason for season two and season is very obviouslylove, which is the relationship between Sookie and Bill, though Eric has stepped into this relationship. In addition, the spot for Gossip Girl is as the same as True Blood. What the difference is, at the beginning, audience may care more about the relationship between Serena and Dan, as the fourth season has been coming up, it seems like people care about would Blare and Chuck get back together. As a result, different TV serious has different Spot in order to keep the audience’s eyes for next season.

Reference List

Wilcox, R. & Lavery, D. (2002). Introduction, in R. Wilcox & D. Lavery (eds) Fighting the forces: what’s at stake in Buffy the vampire slayer. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.

Monday, November 1, 2010

My Fan Fiction

Moro and Princess Mononoke
Moro was a wolf god who had freely roamed the forests for centuries without a care in the world. Lately however her world was changing and not for the good. Humans had started destroying her world. Every day they would chop down trees and every day she would retaliate by attacking them and sometimes eating them but only if she was very hungry as humans did not really taste so good.
One day she was paid a visit from the deer god who told her that something had to be done to restore peace to the forest before it all disappeared. Moro told the deer god that there were only so many humans she could eat. The deer god said that killing humans would never save the forest and then said that all forest creatures must find common ground with the humans if the forest was to survive. Moro could hardly believe what she was hearing. As far as Moro was concerned, the blame lay solely with the humans. The deer god could see how angry Moro had become and decided now was the time to leave but he said he would be back with a gift for Moro and she had better be ready. Moro had no idea what he meant and did not care much for what he had to say, even though he was the most powerful god.
As the months went by Moro went about her daily business of attacking the greedy humans. Then one day Moro felt a change in her body. It was a change Moro was familiar with; she was about to become a mother again. Moro was excited that once again she would have a new family member that depended on her. One morning when Moro awoke she was not feeling well at all in fact she could hardly move. Moro spent that whole day lying down and then later that evening as sun faded away behind the mountains Moro began to give birth. Moro knew that it was too early for her to be bringing new life into this world. It was only a few moments later and Moro had given birth but the little wolf was lifeless and Moro was unable to save her newborn. Never before had such a thing happened to Moro and never before had she felt as sad as she did now.
A short time later the deer god appeared and he had something with him this time and the little something made a crying sound just like a human. Moro moved closer to the deer god and then she recognized the scent of human. The deer god had dared to bring a human into this neck of the woods. Moro could hardly believe it. The deer god told Moro that this human would one day help save the forest and that it was Moro’s duty to make this happen. Moro was now becoming very angry with the deer god; after all how could he even think that she would consider anything that involved a human, especially after what she had just been through. The deer god looked at Moro and then told her that if she really wanted a future for the forest, then the only path for her was to accept this human as her own and teach it the ways of the wolf, for only then would man and beast be able to come together and form an alliance to save the forest. The deer god then left the baby at Moro’s paws and disappeared.
Moro felt insulted and just wanted to leave the baby however the baby began to cry which somehow had an effect on Moro. A part of Moro could not leave this baby to die even though another part of Moro knew that the path ahead would be difficult at best. Deep down Moro knew the deer god was wise and never wrong. Hesitantly Moro picked up the baby and canned it back to her den. Moro then lay the baby human on the ground. This baby was somewhat different to the babies Moro had seen the humans carrying round. It actually had a fine coat of fur that felt like silk and its eyes were bordering on a yellowish colour, similar to that of a wolf. Moro began to wonder if this gift from the deer god was actually a god itself. The days went by and the bond between Moro and her new arrival grew stronger and stronger. Moro decided to give her the name Princess Mononoke after a great wolf god who in a time passed was worshipped by both wolf and man.
Over the years Princess Mononoke grew up to know the ways of the wolf and identified herself as only a wolf. Together Moro and Princess Mononoke were a force to be reckoned with. They would kill any human who dared to destroy any part of the forest.
One day while hunting in the forest, Moro and Princess Mononoke were paid a visit from the deer god, who told them that the time had come for Princess Mononoke to make herself known to those who lived in the realm of the humans. Moro became very upset at the prospect of losing Princess Mononoke. Their bond was so strong that it was often talked about among the other animals of the forest. Moro asked the deer god why Princess Mononoke must leave when together they can fight the humans. The deer god said that Princess Mononoke was a gift to all those who live in the forest and then said he would return in a few days and send Princess Mononoke on her journey to save all who lived within the forest.
Once again Moro’s life had been turned upside down and once again she would find herself alone again. Moro struggled with the fact that she was going to lose Princess Mononoke. One night Moro explained to Princess Mononoke that here would always be a place for her at home in the den but for now she had to follow the wishes of the deer god. Later that evening the deer god turned up with a human who he introduced as Ashitaka. Ashitaka could see the sadness in Moro’s eyes, so he went over to reassure that he would protect Princess Mononoke and make sure she returned safely from their quest to save the forest. For Moro this was a sad day but also a proud day as she had raised a daughter who would be responsible for saving the forests of this beautiful world.