drum roll please.....

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present you with my FINAL VIDEOS!!!!!

Personal Video

This video is about my change in eating habits while in France to adapt to the change in culture. 

Marketing in Europe

In this video I interview my friend Carlos, who does marketing for his family's hotel in Spain, about marketing in Europe.

Social Issue Video

After talking this video up for awhile now, I hope you will be able to see the way the excessive dog poop is interfering with the beauty of Vichy.

I am so thankful not only to have these done, but also to have been pushed to search deeper and take a more intensive look into the culture of France. It has been a privilege learning this culture and blogging about my experiences. I am now off on Spring Break...Milan, Florence, Venice, Verona, Prague, Budapest, Salzburg and Berlin here I come!!

Bon Voyage!

video progress

So since I will be on spring break when the videos are due I have to have them all done by this friday...eek!! But so far, I am on a good pace! I have finished my personal video and all the filming for my video of Carlos is finished, so I just need to edit that down. I have 23 minutes of film of him, so I have a good amount to work with. The third video is still just in the process, but I will have to have it done by the end of this week, so its progress in the making. I am a little stressed about the amount of work I have left, but I know I will finish and I know it will be good. I am excited to have these done and also to share them with you all!

Outline for Videos

Videos

Personal Video: My French Diet

I plan on starting out with photos of the typical American style diet, meat, vegetables etc then I am going to show the photos I have been taking of my meals here, which are all predominately pasta and bread.  I also have researched the specialties of my region in france. I have also gone and interviewed a restaurant owner here and I plan to put some of that in my video.  Then I video interviewed a lot of the other students here as they are making dinner, and how it changes from being back home. Then if need more time or more depth, I will talk about the lack of meat offered and how grocery stores mark up meat prices and how it compares to the pasta.

Marketing video

I am going to interview my friend Carlos who markets his family’s hotel in Spain, and what all that entitles. I am also going to show pictures from advertisements here and how in France they advertise more in public transportation areas than on television and on billboards. This is the video I have least developed, but I have some ideas that hopefully I can pull together. And I am hoping my interview with Carlos will spark some new ideas.

Social Video: Poop

I am really excited about this one! I plan on starting the video will footage I took while in Paris (playing nice sweet music) , and then I am going to flash photos of the dog poop I have taken (with ominous music.) Then I am going to talk about which place you would rather live. I have interview a student who is from the UK and she is looking for a job in France. She originally was going to try to get something in Vichy while she was here, but now has decided to look elsewhere because it is so dirty. I am going to talk about tourism in Vichy and how it is down, and how I feel it is because of the lack of respect by the residents for the city. I have some really great pictures that are perfect so I am going to use those as well!  Hopefully it will all come together the way I want!

I am one of those people that has ideas and becomes creative when I am working, so we will see what happens!

Finally!!! Internet and working posts!!! assignment 12

Facebook. Now I thought I was bad at being addicted to facebook, but man do the French students surpass me! I walk into the library to print off papers, there are probably 30 computers and not only will they most likely all be full but I can guarantee at least 90% of the people in there are on facebook. There is this one student that I see every time I go in there, sitting at the same computer...on facebook. I honestly question whether he ever leaves. Facebook is the social media of choice in France (as it is in America.) Facebook is convenient, accessible, easy to use, and social. It attracts users and retains them by offering options for communication and photos. Having met so many students from many nationalities during my time here, I am thankful for the social outlet of facebook to be able to maintain these relations when we all return. 

Another media outlet used often is the radio. Surprisingly the songs are predominately in English (for instance this is an extremely popular song here, I am talking 4-5 times a day I hear it Sun is Up ), however advertising on radio stations is more relevant than on television. Especially now that tv shows are recorded and then played back skipping ads all together. Advertisements are also found in the form of songs as well. "Funny Bear" is a childrens song used to advertise gummy bears, and it is also used for beginner French students. However I question it 1) because in the video the gummy bear's ear is bitten off and his pants are falling off and 2) the lyrics translate as followed
je m'appelle funny bear
je mappelle funny bear 
je m'appelle funny funny funny funny funny bear
J'ai un p'tit ventre mou et un slip kangourou
je suis pas comme les autres tout doux moi je suis un p'tit loup
literally means...
My name is funny bear
My name is funny bear
My name is funny funny funny funny funny bear
I have a little soft belly and kangaroo briefs
I'm not like any other sweet I'm a little wolf

Please watch the video...Funny Bear Creepy and a little disturbing right? Yeah! And this is what French children watch! Such a weird media outlet! 

Assignment 11: interviews

So for the three videos I plan to incorporate interviews into each. I have given it some thought and I believe for the first video on which I am discussing the dietary changes that I have made since being in France that obviously I myself will talk, but I also plan to ask my classmates what they made for dinner that night (and maybe some other nights) and use the responses to justify that they eat less meat and so many more carbs in France than in the United States. I would like to conduct these interviews in everyone's rooms while they are preparing dinner. I feel like that would help set the stage. I have also taken pictures of many of my meals and the grocery stores and I plan to continue doing that.
As for the video on Marketing in France, I am actually taking an international marketing course while I am here, so ultimately I would like to interview my professor and get his take on French marketing. I would ask questions like the popularity of marketing, what jobs are available, is it a predominate major at universities, what companies utilize marketing the most etc. I also have a friend here who does international marketing in Spain, so I might interview him as well and get his take since he is a young person involved in marketing.
For the video on my social issue regarding dog poop and how it distracts from the city and makes it a less desirable place, I plan to interview my friend Jo. Jo has already graduated college in the UK and is looking for a job in France. After living in Vichy, she refuses to search for a job here. I also ideally would love to interview a dog owner and of course some more citizens, but I need to practice my French some more for that one.
I am excited to start the interview process and begin creating my final projects!

Assignment 10:Tropos of digital videography

Well, I did not realize that I have literally posted zero videos on my blog, and since I am in the process of shooting and editing final projects I am going to post a video I found on my town in France, Vichy. Some background before you watch: Vichy was the capital of the Pro-Nazi government of France during WWII. While there is zero to little evidence of this "ugly side" of Vichy, that is what comes to most people's minds when mentioning the town. Vichy also was and still is a spa resort town. The natural "healing" waters of Vichy are world renowned and people come from all over the world to bathe and drink their ailments away. There are of course different springs that heal different ailments, but let me be the first to tell you the water tastes absolutely disgusting! There is an area where you have to have a prescription for this water, because too much can do more harm than good. But apparently it really works (or so I have been told) It is definitely an interesting theory!

Now I know that the narrator speaks in a monotone and is somewhat boring, but his information is accurate and extremely interesting! Now to discuss the tropos of this video. Obviously choosing the subject had to do with explaining the history behind my beautiful Vichy. This man does "revists" of French cities, and since Vichy is rich in history and culture, it was an easy choice for one of his documentations. I enjoyed that there seemed to be no bias in any way towards or against Vichy, he very accurately explained the role of in the war, but also the luxury experienced here. My only complaint is that he kept saying things that led the audience to believe that Vichy no longer thrives on luxury, and although Vichy is very small and very old, there are still some luxurious elements, and the spa resorts are still thriving. Also by including the old photos, the narrator was able to place in our minds the picture of what he was describing. Although a video reel of Vichy would have been nice, he did a good job using the photos to illustrate his points. His use of zoom on certain part of the pictures helped capture the drama and the depth in the photograph, again telling the story he wanted to tell. 

If it ever gets sunny again here, I will go take photos of the places you saw in the video and you can see for yourself the way things have changed and remained the same. Have a wonderful weekend all!

Geneva!!!

Geneva!

So I just got back last night from Geneva! It was absolutely amazing! I had heard mix things about this city, so I went in with an open mind and I was completely blown away! Upon arriving we immediately located a McDonalds so that we could access internet to find our hotel in relation to the train station. Once located Ally and Tyler went to check in and BJ, Hayley and myself went to walk down by the river and wait for Michael (who had missed the train (surprise surprise) and was getting in a few hours behind us) It was absolutely beautiful! In that time waiting for Michael we saw street performers get arrested, walked by the river, got free wine and cheese and ended up sitting on rocks out in this peninsula in the lake. The sky was blue and the weather was fair. It was amazing!

The rocks where we sat! probably spent an hour there just relaxing

So after we finally caught up with Michael we attempted to find our hotel. Attempted being the key word in that sentence. We ended up on some other side of Geneva in some residential district, however the greatest part of being "lost" was we stumbled upon this chicken griller who literally just had a truck on the road, was potentially the best chicken I have ever eaten! (might have something the do with the fact that French people hardly ever eat me, and therefore I hardly ever eat meat) After walking sketchily across some highway (after asking approximately 7 people where our hotel was) we managed to make it!   That night we went into the heart of Geneva for dinner (note: the buses are free for non-locals) Everything in Geneva is super expensive, but we managed to find this little Italian place that was too bad. It ended up being a terrific decision! There were two people who worked there/ owned it and they were hilarious! They spoke some English too which helped! We had pizza and pasta, but the greatest part of the evening was when BJ told them it was Michael's birthday, so they brought out their signature tiramisu. Now if you know anything about me you know that my absolute favorite dessert (besides my grandmothers german chocolate cake) is tiramisu. I was in heaven! It was fabulous!

The Italian restaurant, it probably sat 25 and was packed! (for good reason too it was excellent!)

Tiramisu!

On saturday we got up and went exploring Geneva! We started at a "flea market" in the center of town. Essentially it is a large yard sale, it was something I highly recommend experiencing! It was crazy to see everything and how the people interacted with others. I definitely enjoyed it. After the market we went to find the Hotel De Ville (town hall) and the cathedral. We walked around for hours just taking in the sights. After a lunch of sandwiches we did some shopping (chocolate shops, H&M, etc) then we headed to the UN. Unfortunately we couldn't go in since it was the weekend but it was cool just being there. Then Ally, BJ, Michael and Tyler headed to the 81st International Auto Show while Hayley and I (who didn't know enough about cars to pay the money and actually care) went back to do some more shopping/exploring and then took naps!

flower clock

United Nations

Reformation wall

Hotel De Ville

Jet d'eau

Cathedral St. Pierre

On sunday we woke up and walked around a little bit more than headed to the train station! We had a sleeper train from Geneva to Lyon, so I took a nice two hour nap. We arrived back in Vichy around 10:30 pm. Geneva was an amazing weekend! I loved it!