Over the last four years, I’ve worked in the Chinese Youth Organization Project (CYOP) as a committee member and intern. I work with other youth and mentors. Sometimes working with people around my age is hard because everyone is so strong on their own ideas. The experience I had throughout working with others inspired me to choose Communication as my topic for my capstone. I decided to create a workshop about Communication. I researched the different types of communication and some tips on communicating. Finally, I planned the entire workshop and presented on CYOP ‘s school year events to other youths.

Orginal Capstone Final Product - in Chinese

Translated Capstone Final Product - English

Annaotated Bibliography

For the second lit log, I decided to revise a movie poster for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The way this poster was laid out was mainly inspired by Marion’s death scene and continued with some tools and elements that are included in the movie. I renamed the movie on the poster as “The Room.” The room refers to the hotel room, basement room, office room, and the room where “Mrs. Bates” lives in. By renaming The Room I’m also referring to the spaces that we see in those places and the way the camera frames the size of different scenes. Some of them are more open spaces and some are more limited spaces. Using Marion’s death as an example, she’s inside a bathroom of a hotel room. Both spaces are open and limited depending on where the part of the room you are. When she walks in to take a shower, then there’s limited space for her, and when she gets stabbed the camera had zoom in a close for the shot and the frame was limited space that we can only see a certain part as well as limited space where she’s standing. As I had mentioned in the stabbing scene, that’s where the knife on the right corner comes from and the blood splashes around the title. I want it to make it as the blood comes from the knife stabbing and it splashes everywhere. The knife had not just used in Marion’s death scene, but also it comes up again in the later scene when Bates tries to kill Lila. Given the clue, I’m also assuming that the knife that “Mrs. Bates,” which is Bates uses, is the tool that represents him. The bottom half of the poster is more picturing the scene of the motel location and the surroundings, as well as the car representing Marion’s death. The car shows a relationship between the money Marion took in the beginning and her death in the motel and where she got put in the back trunk after. If she doesn’t steal the money and run away, maybe she wouldn’t be dead. The trees and the reflections are representing it’s around the lake because Bates had put her in the trunk and drowned the car down the lake. This is also the reason why the car is sided so it looks like it’s going down. The splash of blood on the bottom was to make it represent Marion is dead and is in the back of the trunk. The overall color of the poster is black because the film was in black and white. The tittles and blood are red are referring to the movie’s genre of horror and thriller that makes people think it’s scary. In conclusion, this was the inspiration for me to revise the poster, and I hope the poster catches your attention!

The film “Rear Window” was released on August 4, 1964, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It’s a story about an injured leg photographer who had to sit in a wheelchair while healing and believes that he witnessed a murder crime from his apartment. Throughout the storylines in the movie there are a couple of interesting points that I think can be connected to the real world. This includes the actions that Jeff, the main character, takes. The way he approaches watching his suspicious neighbor is questionably legal. Even though Jeff’s behavior paid off and the neighbor was arrested, the steps he made to get to that point may not have been morally correct.

First off, Jeff was bored of having to stay in the apartment until he recovers. One day he found that he could see the apartments across from him and he started to watch and look across the apartment every day as his daily routine during his recovery. There’s Miss Lonelyheart, Miss Totes, the newly married couple, songwriter, and Lars Thorwald and his wife. Everyone seems to have some things to do in the apartment that kind of connect with their jobs and seems like they have some troubles in the beginning. Lars Thorwald is a salesman, he lives with his wife across from Jeff. His wife usually just stays in bed and eats in bed. One day Jeff suddenly realizes that he hasn’t seen Mrs. Thorwald for a long time and starts to look deeper at Lars Thorwald’s apartment. Jeff had kept watching Lars Thorwald’s actions and even want to go in and search for evidence to support his thought. The actions Jeff takes leads me to think that in the real world is it legal to watch people from your house all day every day? In my opinion, if you watch or see something of other people on the street from your house then, of course, it’s legal. As well as if you watch it or accidentally see it then it’s also legal. In Jeff’s case the actions he takes, it goes a bit too far, from watching it a couple of times a day to all day even at night time. Then, I think it’s illegal in real society because it eroded the privacy of others. In the movie, it’s legal that he even get his neighbor arrested and had evidence and everything right for it which is questionable and makes this connection interesting.

Continuing on it also makes me wonder, where does it stop being just watching and becomes stalking? In Jeff’s case what he does, I think the change started once he knowest the dog was died and reminded him of the little flower garden that Mr. Thorwald was working on earlier. Jeff started looking at Lars Thorwald’s apartment and knowing his wife wasn’t in there as well as the blind was closed for a few days and there were no shadows of a person. He starts to use the camera for looking into the apartment and even took pictures of it. The moment he starts taking pictures and watching his actions 24/7 it turns to stalk instead of just watching for fun. In real society, the action of stalking is illegal, and taking pictures of it will get worst in the real world which will turn into a crime and go to jail. If they result in that situation then they might end up with a penalty of up to 5 years in jail.

More on to the legal and illegal issue another idea that I have is that was what Jeff did morally right? In the movie, Jeff’s behavior paid off and the neighbor Lar Thorwald had arrested and confirmed the crime of murder. In my opinion that helping to find the murderer and being brave enough to stand out as being a witness with evidence is really morally right. At the same time, the way he gets the evidence could be not morally right because you shouldn’t be looking and watching others on what they doing in their house and taking pictures of them. Opinion wise I think that the definition of morality and if what Jeff was right or wrong cloud be different depending on the person’s view of seeing it and thinking about it. It’s also really interesting that when we watch the movie we are also watching others’ daily life from the same point as Jeff’s views and we even view Jeff’s daily. In conclusion, Jeff’s actions of legal and illegal, as well as morally right or wrong, and the possible result difference between the movie and real society is an interesting point to think of.