This is a full list of citations for all the items I have referenced in my report.
M. Night Shyamalan, viewed 2nd July 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_Night_Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan, viewed 2nd July, 2009.
http://www.mnightshyamalan.com
M. Night Shyamalan Online, viewed 2nd July 2009.
http://www.mnight.com
M. Night Fans, viewed 14th July 2009.
http://www.mnightfans.com
M. Night Shyamalan, viewed 14th July 2009.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0796117
M. Night Shyamalan's "Time to Dream", viewed 14th July 2009.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8251056578506918574&q=shyamalan
Flickr, viewed 14th July 2009.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/mnightshyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan Interview, viewed 20th July.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CpEpPbc4g8
Meet Manoj Night Shyamalan, the nest Stephen Spielberg, veiwed 20th July.
(hyperlinked for length)
Last Airbender Teaser Trailer, viewed 1st July 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0ZjjMBXMpk
Avatar Movie Interview with M. Night Shyamalan, viewed 20th July.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBiGRraX3Fs
M. Night Shyamalan - The Happening, viewed 21st July 2009.
http://www.sci-fi-online.com/00_interviews/08-10-29_m-night-shyamalan.htm
M. Night Foundation, viewed 21st July 2009.
http://www.mnsfoundation.org/home/index.aspx
23 July 2009
22 July 2009
Report Post 5 - Evaluations and Conclusions
As my first closing point I would like to briefly address the issue of print resources concerning my topic. I became aware early on that I might have some difficulty finding print resources on my topic, as I realised that M. Night Shyamalan is neither very old, nor overwhelmingly famous. During the course of my research I did find one print resource, an autobiographical book. However, reading about both the book and people's opinions on it I decided that it would not really be a suitable information source. I did note it down as a point of interest previously in this blog, along with a DVD mockumentary. This leads onto another point that I thought about. M. Night Shyamalan enjoys mystery and intrigue. The mockumentary caused a great deal of scandal, many people became disgruntled when they learned that the facts of the film were false. This doesn't so much lead me to suspect that information about him might be false, but it does make me aware that perhaps there might never really be as extensive a library on M. Night Shyamalan as there is on other people in the film industry, as he enjoys maintaining some sense of the unknown.
For the most part my searches were conducted quite quickly and simply. I think that this was mostly in part becuase I already knew what I was searching for and also becuase M. Night Shyamalan is a rather unique name. I think perhaps I was lucky, in that I found results that were what I wanted quite early in the list, with further results becoming less relevant to what I wanted.
At this time I would like to talk about the shortcomings of my own work, specifically in regard to print items. During my early research, when I realised my problem with print resources, I had the thought of looking for magazine articles, as I was sure I might find something there. However, I had very little luck searching for articles and so I gave up. I realise now, when it's too late that I was forgetting about a resource that I have had access to all this time, namely the General OneFile database, which does in fact have articles in it under the subject heading "Shyamalan, M. Night". I feel a bit silly for not realising that I had that resource available to me sooner. As it is, I feel as though I have an overwhelming amount of digital information and almost no information of any other form.
I've attempted to compile a list information that I felt was relevant, however with a free-form project like this I can't help feeling that I could have done more research, gathered more information and been more thorough. Although I did use delicious for a while and find some information, I could probably have spent much more time on that than I did searching for useful bookmarks.
For the most part my searches were conducted quite quickly and simply. I think that this was mostly in part becuase I already knew what I was searching for and also becuase M. Night Shyamalan is a rather unique name. I think perhaps I was lucky, in that I found results that were what I wanted quite early in the list, with further results becoming less relevant to what I wanted.
At this time I would like to talk about the shortcomings of my own work, specifically in regard to print items. During my early research, when I realised my problem with print resources, I had the thought of looking for magazine articles, as I was sure I might find something there. However, I had very little luck searching for articles and so I gave up. I realise now, when it's too late that I was forgetting about a resource that I have had access to all this time, namely the General OneFile database, which does in fact have articles in it under the subject heading "Shyamalan, M. Night". I feel a bit silly for not realising that I had that resource available to me sooner. As it is, I feel as though I have an overwhelming amount of digital information and almost no information of any other form.
I've attempted to compile a list information that I felt was relevant, however with a free-form project like this I can't help feeling that I could have done more research, gathered more information and been more thorough. Although I did use delicious for a while and find some information, I could probably have spent much more time on that than I did searching for useful bookmarks.
Report Post 4 - Official Websites and Fansites
The third piece of information that I wanted to find concerning my topic was some kind of an official website. I wanted to find out if my topic had an official website not just as a point of reference to say that I found it, but also because it may provide some of the other information that I wanted, or directions to a place where I might find some. In this post I will detail my findings and take a look at the websites.
During a review of some Google results I found that M. Night Shyamalan does in fact have his own website. The URL for the website is quite simply www.mnightshyamalan.com. Exploring this website I learned that I probably wouldn't be using this website for information, however it does contain some contemplations and inner thoughts, a number of personal thanks and information on all the movies that he's directed. The website itself is quite artsy; it's essentially a long interactive movie, slightly creepy, very heavy on the graphics.
Something useful that the website did give me was a link to the M Night Shyamalan Foundation website, which is a charity organisation founded by M. Night and Bhavna Shyamalan.
I've mentioned the two fan sites; MNightOnline and MNightFans before now, but they too belong in this category. They both have useful information that I have used in this report and they both have community forums. One thing that I feel I should mention is the fact that I have been using Google Reader to receive news updates from MNightFans and also to receive blog updates from MNightOnline, however the blog on MNightONline seems to be broken, as I can no longer view it (I had it up, then navigated away, then I went back and it was gone, now the page is blank every single time I try to look at it).
The main thing to be concerned about with these fan sites is that they are of course fan sites, and not actually affiliated with M. Night Shyamalan.
During a review of some Google results I found that M. Night Shyamalan does in fact have his own website. The URL for the website is quite simply www.mnightshyamalan.com. Exploring this website I learned that I probably wouldn't be using this website for information, however it does contain some contemplations and inner thoughts, a number of personal thanks and information on all the movies that he's directed. The website itself is quite artsy; it's essentially a long interactive movie, slightly creepy, very heavy on the graphics.
Something useful that the website did give me was a link to the M Night Shyamalan Foundation website, which is a charity organisation founded by M. Night and Bhavna Shyamalan.
I've mentioned the two fan sites; MNightOnline and MNightFans before now, but they too belong in this category. They both have useful information that I have used in this report and they both have community forums. One thing that I feel I should mention is the fact that I have been using Google Reader to receive news updates from MNightFans and also to receive blog updates from MNightOnline, however the blog on MNightONline seems to be broken, as I can no longer view it (I had it up, then navigated away, then I went back and it was gone, now the page is blank every single time I try to look at it).
The main thing to be concerned about with these fan sites is that they are of course fan sites, and not actually affiliated with M. Night Shyamalan.
Report Post 3 - Audio Visual Information
As well as Biographical information I felt that I should find a few pieces of AV information. Specifically I wanted to find some images of M. Night Shyamalan and perhaps a video, preferably of an interview, something that expressed his thoughts. In this post I detail my finding and talk about their sources.
Because I'm not that experienced with using this blog yet, I can't simply post the pictures here for you to view, so instead I will link to them and hope that you will be able to see the pictures by clicking the links. I'll do the same with the videos, as I'm also not experienced with embedding.
Here are some pictures of M. Night Shyamalan that I found on Flickr.
Picture 1 - At a movie premier.
Picture 2 - Also at a premier.
Picture 3 - Taken while filming The Happening.
Here also are some videos that I have found; much to my delight, I found a few interviews. Although I did and still do have some concerns using videos from YouTube, especially with the interviews.
Interview Clip 1 - A rather long interview with M. Night. I was hesitant to include this, as it was recorded off of the The Sixth Sense DVD. From YouTube.
Interview Clip 2 - A short clip from IBNLive; filmed close to the release of The Happening, this clip talks briefly about paranormal themes in M. Night's films.
Advertisement - This is an advertisement for American Express that M. Night made. I think personally it is a good representation of what his movies are often like. It's not immediately clear what is happening and it takes you until the end to find out. It also features M. Night as a character. Much like Alfred Hitchcock (who M. Night apparently admires), M. Night often makes appearances in his own movies. The biggest part he has played so far, was as a young writer whose works would change the world in The Lady in the Water. This video is from Google Videos.
Clip 3 - This is a teaser trailer for M. Night's upcoming movie The Last Airbender, from YouTube. I also found an interview with M. Night and the creators of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender (warning, the interview is quite long).
Interview - While this is unfortunately not a clip, it is a transcription of an interview from Sci-fi Online.
My very first search for pictures of my topic was done using Google image search and I found many. But I decided that searching for pictures of my topic would be best done using a dedicated picture database, because Google images, while it may yield a great deal of results from many different places, the results are difficult to filter and evaluate. The picture database Flickr became quite useful for me, as I was able to do a tag search for M. Night Shyamalan and find many results; not just pictures of M. Night but also pictures of actors that have been in his movies and photo captures from his movies.
Searching for videos was a bit harder than I originally thought it would be. The first place I went was YouTube, as it seems that almost anything can be found on YouTube. However, despite fruitful findings I was hit with a small realisation. I could not use most of what I had found, because the majority of the videos that I found had been recorded off of DVDs and television shows and then uploaded to YouTube later. While it is true that many people use YouTube to host their own work, including some celebrities, many more people upload videos that they have taken without permission. In the end, I have provided links to two of the interviews that I looked at. I did this against my better judgement. If I were more educated on the situation of copyright in this instance, then the amount of videos shown here might have been different. The next time I do a research project I will have to read up on copyright laws.
Because I'm not that experienced with using this blog yet, I can't simply post the pictures here for you to view, so instead I will link to them and hope that you will be able to see the pictures by clicking the links. I'll do the same with the videos, as I'm also not experienced with embedding.
Here are some pictures of M. Night Shyamalan that I found on Flickr.
Picture 1 - At a movie premier.
Picture 2 - Also at a premier.
Picture 3 - Taken while filming The Happening.
Here also are some videos that I have found; much to my delight, I found a few interviews. Although I did and still do have some concerns using videos from YouTube, especially with the interviews.
Interview Clip 1 - A rather long interview with M. Night. I was hesitant to include this, as it was recorded off of the The Sixth Sense DVD. From YouTube.
Interview Clip 2 - A short clip from IBNLive; filmed close to the release of The Happening, this clip talks briefly about paranormal themes in M. Night's films.
Advertisement - This is an advertisement for American Express that M. Night made. I think personally it is a good representation of what his movies are often like. It's not immediately clear what is happening and it takes you until the end to find out. It also features M. Night as a character. Much like Alfred Hitchcock (who M. Night apparently admires), M. Night often makes appearances in his own movies. The biggest part he has played so far, was as a young writer whose works would change the world in The Lady in the Water. This video is from Google Videos.
Clip 3 - This is a teaser trailer for M. Night's upcoming movie The Last Airbender, from YouTube. I also found an interview with M. Night and the creators of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender (warning, the interview is quite long).
Interview - While this is unfortunately not a clip, it is a transcription of an interview from Sci-fi Online.
My very first search for pictures of my topic was done using Google image search and I found many. But I decided that searching for pictures of my topic would be best done using a dedicated picture database, because Google images, while it may yield a great deal of results from many different places, the results are difficult to filter and evaluate. The picture database Flickr became quite useful for me, as I was able to do a tag search for M. Night Shyamalan and find many results; not just pictures of M. Night but also pictures of actors that have been in his movies and photo captures from his movies.
Searching for videos was a bit harder than I originally thought it would be. The first place I went was YouTube, as it seems that almost anything can be found on YouTube. However, despite fruitful findings I was hit with a small realisation. I could not use most of what I had found, because the majority of the videos that I found had been recorded off of DVDs and television shows and then uploaded to YouTube later. While it is true that many people use YouTube to host their own work, including some celebrities, many more people upload videos that they have taken without permission. In the end, I have provided links to two of the interviews that I looked at. I did this against my better judgement. If I were more educated on the situation of copyright in this instance, then the amount of videos shown here might have been different. The next time I do a research project I will have to read up on copyright laws.
21 July 2009
Report Post 2 - Biographical Information
One of the pieces of information that I decided I needed was Biographical information concerning my topic. In this post I will detail my findings and take a look at their sources.
A short biography of M. Night Shyamalan, composed by myself from my research -
M. Night Shyamalan (pronounced "Shah-mah-lawn") was born Manoj Nelliyattu Shaymalan, in Pondicherry, India, on the 6th of August, 1970. His parents, Nelliyattu and Jayalakshmi Shyamalan were both doctors who immigrated to the United States after the birth of their first child and M. Night's older sister Veena. M. Night was raised in Penn Valley, in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He attended a private Roman Catholic grammar school, which his parents chose not because they were Catholic, but because of it's strict academic practices; followed by an Episcopalian High School. He later went on to graduate from the School of Arts, at the New York University, which was where he adopted the name "M. Night".
When he was eight years old he was given a Super-8 camera, which is when his passion for film-making began. By the time he was 17 he had already made 45 homemade movies. In 1992, the same year he graduated from NYU, his first film, the semi-autobiographical Praying With Anger, was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. To this day many people consider it one of his greatest works.
In 1993 he married Bhavna Vaswani, who he met during his time at NYU. Currently they have two daughters and reside in a suburb of Pennsylvania, not far from his favourite filming locations.
The movies that he is most well known for to this day are - Praying With Anger (1992), Wide Awake (1998 - his first commercial film), The Sixth Sense (1999 - the film that in essence made him famous, also reported to be one of his favourite films), Unbreakable (2000), Signs (2002), The Village (2004), Lady in the Water (2006) and The Happening (2008). He is currently working on the film The Last Airbender (scheduled for release in 2010).
A full list of films that he has been involved in can be found here.
As I mentioned before, one of my first stops was to Wikipedia, which I have used in the past to enhance my own general knowledge. When searching for information on the Internet I've learned through experience to approach everything with a reasonable level of scepticism. Particularly with Wikipedia, as I have been given incorrect information by Wikipedia before. However, one thing that I have realised through use is that Wikipedia, even if it's pages might contain information of a questionable authority, often gives links to other sources of information, which can be very useful. It was the Wikipedia article on M. Night Shyamalan that gave me the links to two "official" fan sites - MNight Online (which has a blog that I was able to view but unfortunately does not appear to be working now) and MNight Fans. Both these sites also have biographical information, which I was able to compare to the information on Wikipedia. Not knowing anything about M. Night Shyamalan personally, I have a limited number of ways to determine if the information on these sites is of any use. During a later class I was searching for M. Night Shyamalan on Del.icio.us and I was directed to the Internet Movie Database. I've used IMDB before to find information so in hindsight it probably should have been one of my first stops. The IMBD in particular is useful because it has both biographical information and information on all of the movies that M. Night Shyamalan has been involved in.
The primary problem with using information from Wikipedia is the fact that anyone can edit articles and while there are measures in place to try and keep the articles correct and impartial, this is still a fact. Two things that can be done are - checking the citations on the article and checking the discussion page for the article, both of which can help to determine if the information in the article is correct. The same sort of problem applies to both of the fansites that I'm using for information. By comparing the information on these sites I can see that they contain the same basic information; so, using some logic, I can deduce that unless all four of these websites have taken their information from the same incorrect source, the information is most likely correct.
In the case of the IMDB, I have to admit to being less sceptical than I usually am with information on the Internet, because I personally trust the site to give me accurate and up-to-date information. The database is run by a business than began as film hobby club, it has representatives in multiple countries and offers both free and paid services.
In the end it does really come down to a matter of trust; I have to trust that the people who put the information onto these sites have done their own research and care enough to make sure that the information is as correct as it can be.
A short biography of M. Night Shyamalan, composed by myself from my research -
M. Night Shyamalan (pronounced "Shah-mah-lawn") was born Manoj Nelliyattu Shaymalan, in Pondicherry, India, on the 6th of August, 1970. His parents, Nelliyattu and Jayalakshmi Shyamalan were both doctors who immigrated to the United States after the birth of their first child and M. Night's older sister Veena. M. Night was raised in Penn Valley, in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He attended a private Roman Catholic grammar school, which his parents chose not because they were Catholic, but because of it's strict academic practices; followed by an Episcopalian High School. He later went on to graduate from the School of Arts, at the New York University, which was where he adopted the name "M. Night".
When he was eight years old he was given a Super-8 camera, which is when his passion for film-making began. By the time he was 17 he had already made 45 homemade movies. In 1992, the same year he graduated from NYU, his first film, the semi-autobiographical Praying With Anger, was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. To this day many people consider it one of his greatest works.
In 1993 he married Bhavna Vaswani, who he met during his time at NYU. Currently they have two daughters and reside in a suburb of Pennsylvania, not far from his favourite filming locations.
The movies that he is most well known for to this day are - Praying With Anger (1992), Wide Awake (1998 - his first commercial film), The Sixth Sense (1999 - the film that in essence made him famous, also reported to be one of his favourite films), Unbreakable (2000), Signs (2002), The Village (2004), Lady in the Water (2006) and The Happening (2008). He is currently working on the film The Last Airbender (scheduled for release in 2010).
A full list of films that he has been involved in can be found here.
As I mentioned before, one of my first stops was to Wikipedia, which I have used in the past to enhance my own general knowledge. When searching for information on the Internet I've learned through experience to approach everything with a reasonable level of scepticism. Particularly with Wikipedia, as I have been given incorrect information by Wikipedia before. However, one thing that I have realised through use is that Wikipedia, even if it's pages might contain information of a questionable authority, often gives links to other sources of information, which can be very useful. It was the Wikipedia article on M. Night Shyamalan that gave me the links to two "official" fan sites - MNight Online (which has a blog that I was able to view but unfortunately does not appear to be working now) and MNight Fans. Both these sites also have biographical information, which I was able to compare to the information on Wikipedia. Not knowing anything about M. Night Shyamalan personally, I have a limited number of ways to determine if the information on these sites is of any use. During a later class I was searching for M. Night Shyamalan on Del.icio.us and I was directed to the Internet Movie Database. I've used IMDB before to find information so in hindsight it probably should have been one of my first stops. The IMBD in particular is useful because it has both biographical information and information on all of the movies that M. Night Shyamalan has been involved in.
The primary problem with using information from Wikipedia is the fact that anyone can edit articles and while there are measures in place to try and keep the articles correct and impartial, this is still a fact. Two things that can be done are - checking the citations on the article and checking the discussion page for the article, both of which can help to determine if the information in the article is correct. The same sort of problem applies to both of the fansites that I'm using for information. By comparing the information on these sites I can see that they contain the same basic information; so, using some logic, I can deduce that unless all four of these websites have taken their information from the same incorrect source, the information is most likely correct.
In the case of the IMDB, I have to admit to being less sceptical than I usually am with information on the Internet, because I personally trust the site to give me accurate and up-to-date information. The database is run by a business than began as film hobby club, it has representatives in multiple countries and offers both free and paid services.
In the end it does really come down to a matter of trust; I have to trust that the people who put the information onto these sites have done their own research and care enough to make sure that the information is as correct as it can be.
Report Post 1 - Introduction
For my research topic I chose to gather information on movie maker and director M. Night Shymalan. I chose him as my topic because he is the director of the "Last Airbender" movie that is currently being filmed. The film is based on the animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender", of which I am a fan.
To begin my search I applied two broad and probably well-used techniques for expanding my basic knowledge. First I put the name of my topic into Google search and looked through the results; second, I searched for my topic on Wikipedia. I didn't expect to find any specific information at this stage, only an idea of places that I might look to find things. While doing this I was keeping in mind the specific pieces of information that I had decided I needed. I'll list them here, not necessarily in order, but as they came to me.
Foremost was biographical information, I wanted to find a detailed, but not excessively complex biography of M. Night Shyamalan. As well as this information, I felt that I should also find a list of all the films that he had been involved with and some basic details about them. Next, I needed to find some visual information on my topic; some pictures and perhaps a moving image (video). I wanted to find an interview with M. Night Shyamalan or something similar but i felt that perhaps this would be difficult to find. Next, I wanted to know if there was an official website concerning my topic, if he himself had one, or if there was an "official" third party site. I felt that finding such a site would help me a great deal with finding other information.
These were the three basic things that I wanted to find, any additional pieces of information that I found while searching for them I thought of as bonus information. There were difficulties and problems with each that I will outline in a future post.
This concludes the introduction to my report; In my next post(s) I will talk about each of my desired areas of information, give samples of what I found and talk about the problems and difficulties I encountered.
- Piff
To begin my search I applied two broad and probably well-used techniques for expanding my basic knowledge. First I put the name of my topic into Google search and looked through the results; second, I searched for my topic on Wikipedia. I didn't expect to find any specific information at this stage, only an idea of places that I might look to find things. While doing this I was keeping in mind the specific pieces of information that I had decided I needed. I'll list them here, not necessarily in order, but as they came to me.
Foremost was biographical information, I wanted to find a detailed, but not excessively complex biography of M. Night Shyamalan. As well as this information, I felt that I should also find a list of all the films that he had been involved with and some basic details about them. Next, I needed to find some visual information on my topic; some pictures and perhaps a moving image (video). I wanted to find an interview with M. Night Shyamalan or something similar but i felt that perhaps this would be difficult to find. Next, I wanted to know if there was an official website concerning my topic, if he himself had one, or if there was an "official" third party site. I felt that finding such a site would help me a great deal with finding other information.
These were the three basic things that I wanted to find, any additional pieces of information that I found while searching for them I thought of as bonus information. There were difficulties and problems with each that I will outline in a future post.
This concludes the introduction to my report; In my next post(s) I will talk about each of my desired areas of information, give samples of what I found and talk about the problems and difficulties I encountered.
- Piff
20 July 2009
Updates and Physical Wellbeing
So, it turns out that for the past few weeks I've actually been fighting off a dose of flu, which explains my nausea, aches and pains, the dry throat and the constant fatigued feeling. I should have suspected, I guess, having had flu before but last time I was very sick, whereas this time it wasn't serious enough for me to realise. I'm feeling a bit better now, although still a bit achey, I hope I didn't infect anyone.
Anyway, my fluctuating health aside, I'll be starting to post the body of my actual report here in a series of posts over the next few days and then presenting this blog on Thursday. I'm not really sure how I'll go about presenting this blog. I assume that maybe I'll talk about how I've been using it to keep track of things, perhaps I could bring up posts and talk about them in detail. I think I'll save talking in detail for things like my evaluation, where I look at the quality of information and the authority of my sources.
- Piff
Anyway, my fluctuating health aside, I'll be starting to post the body of my actual report here in a series of posts over the next few days and then presenting this blog on Thursday. I'm not really sure how I'll go about presenting this blog. I assume that maybe I'll talk about how I've been using it to keep track of things, perhaps I could bring up posts and talk about them in detail. I think I'll save talking in detail for things like my evaluation, where I look at the quality of information and the authority of my sources.
- Piff
16 July 2009
MNight DVD
While doing some browsing on MNightFans.com, I came across some information on an M. Night Shyamalan mockumentary - "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shymalan". This is the scandalous hoax that M. Night and the SciFi channel people perpetrated that I was reading about on some other sites, filmed during the production of "The Village".
Seeing as how it's a mockumentary, not a documentary, I don't think it would be a good idea to use this DVD as a source of information.
It seems a lot of people were quite put out by hoax, based on some of the reviews.
Citation -
Kahn, N. Foster, M. 2004, The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan [videorecording], Blinding Edge Pictures, USA.
Seeing as how it's a mockumentary, not a documentary, I don't think it would be a good idea to use this DVD as a source of information.
It seems a lot of people were quite put out by hoax, based on some of the reviews.
Citation -
Kahn, N. Foster, M. 2004, The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan [videorecording], Blinding Edge Pictures, USA.
14 July 2009
Infrequent updates and social bookmarking
Today is our sixth class and we are looking at Delicious.
My account name for Delicious is "Piff333", which is my standard fallback when I discover that "Piff" is taken, which is not actually that often.
At a fist glance, Delicious is rather odd. Despite apparently being a Gen Y-er I've never thought that social netowrking on the internet was that crash hot, it always seems to me to be rather pointless. My friends that were on social netowrking sites I usually saw often enough for me to wonder why I needed to visit their MySpace/Facebook/LiveJournal/Misc other scoial networking site to learn about the lastest in their lives if I could just ask them about it in a day or two.
I'm starting to warm up to the idea (even if I still don't check my emails every day) and see that it's not just about +friend counts, superpoke and comment wars.
Perhaps it's becuase I've been introduced to it with the idea that it can be a useful resource, instead of "Hey, I made some bookmarks on Delicious, you should so check it out!" that's made me change my ideas a bit, Or maybe it's the fact that by doing a bit of tag searching I've found some information that might potentially be useful for my research topic.
M Night Shyamalan on the Internet Movie Database, has a full list of movies that he's directed, written, and made himself, as well as some interesting facts and information.
A neat little movie, called "Time to Dream". Done as an advertisement for American Express, where Shyamalan is the focus of a scene in a cafe.
Citations -
M. Night Shyamalan, viewed 14th of July, 2009.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0796117/
M. Night Shyamalan's "Time to Dream", viewed 14th July, 2009.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8251056578506918574&q=shyamalan
My account name for Delicious is "Piff333", which is my standard fallback when I discover that "Piff" is taken, which is not actually that often.
At a fist glance, Delicious is rather odd. Despite apparently being a Gen Y-er I've never thought that social netowrking on the internet was that crash hot, it always seems to me to be rather pointless. My friends that were on social netowrking sites I usually saw often enough for me to wonder why I needed to visit their MySpace/Facebook/LiveJournal/Misc other scoial networking site to learn about the lastest in their lives if I could just ask them about it in a day or two.
I'm starting to warm up to the idea (even if I still don't check my emails every day) and see that it's not just about +friend counts, superpoke and comment wars.
Perhaps it's becuase I've been introduced to it with the idea that it can be a useful resource, instead of "Hey, I made some bookmarks on Delicious, you should so check it out!" that's made me change my ideas a bit, Or maybe it's the fact that by doing a bit of tag searching I've found some information that might potentially be useful for my research topic.
M Night Shyamalan on the Internet Movie Database, has a full list of movies that he's directed, written, and made himself, as well as some interesting facts and information.
A neat little movie, called "Time to Dream". Done as an advertisement for American Express, where Shyamalan is the focus of a scene in a cafe.
Citations -
M. Night Shyamalan, viewed 14th of July, 2009.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0796117/
M. Night Shyamalan's "Time to Dream", viewed 14th July, 2009.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8251056578506918574&q=shyamalan
02 July 2009
M Night Shyamalan's Oficial Website
M. Night Shyamalan has his own website: http://www.mnightshyamalan.com/.
It's his official website, is kind of creepy, kind of hard to navigate and very graphic heavy (due to it being one long interactive video), so people with slow Internet beware.
Unfortunately it doesn't really have much in the way of information about him, it's mostly a fun little site with information about his movies, what his latest project is and some of his thoughts.
Alternately, the site M. Night Shyamalan Online, http://www.mnight.com/, which is a fan site dedicated to him, might be worth a closer look as another online resource, although it's not quite up to date with it's information.
- Piff
It's his official website, is kind of creepy, kind of hard to navigate and very graphic heavy (due to it being one long interactive video), so people with slow Internet beware.
Unfortunately it doesn't really have much in the way of information about him, it's mostly a fun little site with information about his movies, what his latest project is and some of his thoughts.
Alternately, the site M. Night Shyamalan Online, http://www.mnight.com/, which is a fan site dedicated to him, might be worth a closer look as another online resource, although it's not quite up to date with it's information.
- Piff
Starting Out
Now for the work stuff.
In our last class we worked on finding a print resource on our chosen topics, which would be one of our five required citations. As I was searching, I realised that I might have difficulty finding a print resource on my topic, as I'm unsure of whether or not M. Night Shyamalan has written a book or been written about. I'm going to see if I can dig up a magazine article featuring him.
Anyway, using the good old general knowledge enhancer Wikipedia, I looked him up and to my surprise I found that there had in fact been a book written about M. Night Shyamalan : The Man Who Heard Voices. Looking at the information on this book it appears to be about Shyamalan's movie making process for his film "Lady in the Water" rather than about him in general. The book deatails the processes that went on before and during the making of the film, focusing on the troubles along the way; Shyamalan's falling out with Disney, problems with casting actors, script re-writes and attempts to provide a look into Shyamalan's decisions and thought processes.
Reading the reviews of this book I was surprised to find out that the author of this book, Michael Bamberger, is a sports journalist, which I found quite strange. Another thing I noted while reading the reviews was that many people consider this book a bad representation of M. Night Shyamalan, even though it provides insights into the process of making a film. I probably wouldn't trust this book as a source of information if I really wanted to read about M. Night Shyamalan as it appears to consist more of biased interpretations and observations of an author, than thoughts and opinions of the person it's supposed to be about.
Citations -
Bamberger, M. 2006, The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale, Gotham Books, New York.
M. Night Shyamalan, veiwed 2 July 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_Night_Shyamalan
Reviews for the book.
- Piff
In our last class we worked on finding a print resource on our chosen topics, which would be one of our five required citations. As I was searching, I realised that I might have difficulty finding a print resource on my topic, as I'm unsure of whether or not M. Night Shyamalan has written a book or been written about. I'm going to see if I can dig up a magazine article featuring him.
Anyway, using the good old general knowledge enhancer Wikipedia, I looked him up and to my surprise I found that there had in fact been a book written about M. Night Shyamalan : The Man Who Heard Voices. Looking at the information on this book it appears to be about Shyamalan's movie making process for his film "Lady in the Water" rather than about him in general. The book deatails the processes that went on before and during the making of the film, focusing on the troubles along the way; Shyamalan's falling out with Disney, problems with casting actors, script re-writes and attempts to provide a look into Shyamalan's decisions and thought processes.
Reading the reviews of this book I was surprised to find out that the author of this book, Michael Bamberger, is a sports journalist, which I found quite strange. Another thing I noted while reading the reviews was that many people consider this book a bad representation of M. Night Shyamalan, even though it provides insights into the process of making a film. I probably wouldn't trust this book as a source of information if I really wanted to read about M. Night Shyamalan as it appears to consist more of biased interpretations and observations of an author, than thoughts and opinions of the person it's supposed to be about.
Citations -
Bamberger, M. 2006, The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale, Gotham Books, New York.
M. Night Shyamalan, veiwed 2 July 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_Night_Shyamalan
Reviews for the book.
- Piff
The First Post
This is the first post of this blog.
This blog has been created for my class and I'll use it to keep track of my progress on my report. I'm not sure if I'll use this blog as a way of presenting my report yet, but it's something to think about if I'm going to be recording most of my information here.
I'm creating this blog during our fourth class. I was supposed to create it during the second, but the computers at the Polytechnic were being very temperamental that day and I wasn't the only person who couldn't log on.
The topic that I've chosen to do my report on is movie maker and director M. Night Shyamalan, who is currently directing the Last Airbender movie, which is based off of the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series. you can read about the movie HERE; and you can watch the trailer on YouTube. I really liked the series, so I'm looking forward to the movie; I hope it will be good.
- Piff
This blog has been created for my class and I'll use it to keep track of my progress on my report. I'm not sure if I'll use this blog as a way of presenting my report yet, but it's something to think about if I'm going to be recording most of my information here.
I'm creating this blog during our fourth class. I was supposed to create it during the second, but the computers at the Polytechnic were being very temperamental that day and I wasn't the only person who couldn't log on.
The topic that I've chosen to do my report on is movie maker and director M. Night Shyamalan, who is currently directing the Last Airbender movie, which is based off of the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series. you can read about the movie HERE; and you can watch the trailer on YouTube. I really liked the series, so I'm looking forward to the movie; I hope it will be good.
- Piff
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