Week 13 Questions

1) Journalists should utilize objectivity in their reporting. They need to show the news as it is and not slant it in any way or have a bias against certain information.

2) Filmmakers need to utilize originality as it is very rare that something fresh and brilliant is released in today’s rehashed and cliched film environment.

3) Designers need to be creative; their designs, products, and styles have to be new and up to the moment, not dull and repetitive.

4) Writers have to show cohesiveness in their writings so that they may be clear and succinct and not be following in the footsteps of authors like Nathaniel. Hawthorne.

5) If I had to gather information, I would have to figure out my main idea so that I would then be able to branch out in order to cover all aspects of the topic. Then I could go online or to the library in order to actually peruse information.

6) In order to brainstorm, I would draw a Venn Diagram or a flow chart in order to consolidate my information and make it easier to visualize my ideas.

7) I am able to identify visual elements in a film or television show if I watch a film more than once; the first time, I take in the plot and the characters, but any time after that I watch for camera work, editing, special effects, and other elements.

8) I am able to identify the point of view in a story when I see that the story focuses primarily on certain characters and their experiences throughout.

9) I recognize a well developed idea by trying to discover where it originated; if it has grown from its original state then it is most likely developed as it has undergone many revisions and much scrutiny and criticism from other, outside sources.

10) If an idea is not strong, I would ask someone else’s opinions so that I may be able to nurture and cultivate it and make it better. I would consider this outside feedback and try and fit it into my idea by either changing it completely or adapting it in order to make it much stronger.

11) I research an idea by figuring out the types of information and how much information will be needed. I then start using the knowledge and experiences that I already have before looking on the Internet or going to the library in order to gather information that I do not know offhand.

12) I produce ideas by writing them down and then refer back to what is written in order to make numerous changes and amendments. Then I ask other people for their opinions so that I may get some additional insight into what I have started to create.

13) I implement ideas by setting goals and following through by making decisions. If it is a group project, then I will pitch my formulated ideas to other people, but even if it is just my own idea, I will still ask others for their opinions so that I may get input from different angles.

14) Salvador Dali’s most famous work of art, The Persistence of Memory shows a surrealistic image of melting clocks in the sweltering heat of a desert. The painting is symbolic of the distortion of time in dreams, and there is an amorphous creature on the ground that vaguely resembles a human face; this is representative of a person in a dream-like state. There is also symbolism for life and death as well, as there is a pomegranate fruit, symbolizing life, that is being consumed by ants, symbolizing death.

15) The process of creating a metaphor is not too extensive, but it has to be done correctly. The point of a metaphor is to compare two unrelated objects or ideas based on a shared theme, quality, or aspect of both. One would first come up with various qualities of the main object in question, and then figure out examples of other objects that share these characteristics. Then, these new objects would be compared to the main object based upon the linking quality. An example of the main object could be a cat and its qualities then limberness, cleanliness, and independence. Choosing the quality of limberness, the cat could then be compared to a trapeze artist walking on a tightrope due to its own quality of limberness.

16) My learning process is pretty linear; I process information in a straightforward matter. I learn things sequentially, meaning that I build upon what I have previously learned in order to truly absorb something new. I am also a visual learner; I like to look at maps, charts, and pictures aside from just listening and absorbing information audibly.

17) Question number 9 in Part I of the midterm was difficult. It read, “All images are _______, meaning that they imply a ‘floating chain’ of signifieds, making the reader able to choose some and ignore others.” The correct answer that fills in the blank is “polysemous“. I did not know the definition of the word before I took the test, but I now know that polysemous means having the ability to have multiple meanings based on context.

Metaphors!

         The 3-N-1 Alarm Clock has three main functioning alarms, all of which are meant to wake up a college-aged student. These three alarms are the recording and broadcasting of a personal alarm sound or phrase, a squirt of water from a water gun, and a pinch from a robotic claw. Three specific functions from one device represent multi-tasking and determination, and, as expressed in the first advertisement for the product (which stated, “When was the last time that Mom woke you up?”) a mother has already proven to be an adequate metaphor for the product. A mother watches over her young and ensures for their safety and success, all the while working hard and sacrificing herself for all of this to be so.

            To take this one representation a step further, a she-wolf is an even better metaphor for the 3-N-1 Alarm Clock in its determination and motherly love. A she-wolf is a mother wolf who cares for her pups by nursing them when they are very young, and she defends them from all sorts of predators before they grow old enough to fend for themselves. Wolves in general are sleek and strong, and they hunt in packs. They are symbols of determination because they are persistent in their hunts and in their caring for their young. She-wolves especially have a mystical quality to them as well; the founding of the city of Rome 800 years before the birth of Christ is said to have been by the brothers Romulus and Remus who, when abandoned as infants, were suckled and cared for by a she-wolf. What would be a better example of an Alarm Clock that is built upon determination in that it has three separate and subsequent ways in waking someone up than to compare it to the doting, but fierce, perseverance of a mother wolf?

            Another great example of a metaphor that would represent the 3-N-1 Alarm Clock would be an octopus. As mothers, octopuses are not as doting as wolves, but this is because they sacrifice themselves for their young by defending their eggs to the point where they are either killed by predators or die from hunger, both of which are due to the mothers’ weakened state from lack of hunting. The mother analogy aside, however, the octopus is still a great representation of the product. The 3-N-1 and an octopus share many similar qualities; octopuses are able to perform multiple actions because of their broad range of abilities, just like the Alarm Clock. An octopus has multiple appendages, or tentacles, and the clock has three specific functioning “arms” which serve the single purpose of waking up a college student. An octopus is very intelligent and is able to adapt to its environment and solve problems as shown in countless scientific experiments using mazes. The 3-N-1 could be considered a “smart” product as it is programmable by the user of the clock, specifically in recording one’s own alarm sound. The clock has a pinching claw, which can be compared to both an octopus’s tentacle and its beaked mouth. Last but not least, the octopus shoots out ink when threatened, as a diversion, or to confuse prey and this action can be compared to the 3-N-1’s water gun which squirts water at the sleeping subject. Thus, an octopus can justly serve as a metaphor for the 3-N-1 Alarm Clock.

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Notes on Story Basics and Structure Readings

STORY BASICS

Story - a narrative of an event - crafted to interest audiences

must have a 1) beginning 2) a middle 3) and end

Characters, rising tensions, conflict, resolution

Aristotle - created the “well-constructed plot”

documentaries can also be narratives - tell stories

EXPOSITION

 inside the story - necessary for understanding --- occurs in the First Act

originally - a minor character like a maid would tell the background in the beginning of a play

documentaries - have front-loaded narration - ex The Thin Blue Line - headlines

-Storytelling - must motivate presentation of exposition  -  audience wants to know more

too many details too soon = didactic and preachy

too little details = audience is disengaged 

THEME 

general underlying subject of the specific story

“lifeblood of a film”

foreshadowing

ARC

ways in which evens of story transform characters

PLOT AND CHARACTER

plot-driven vs. character-driven

plot-driven: characters are secondary to plot --- thrillers and action fils -- also, documentaries like The Thin Blue Line 

character-driven: characters are fleshed out - Daughter from Danang --- characters are distinct and memorable

other films are neither --- raise questions - AN ESSAY like Bowling for Columbine

Dramatic Storytelling - 

character-driven 

SOMEBODY

protagonist - hero or antihero - not even a person (ex. Ric Burn’s New York - city was protagonist)

GOAL OR OBJECTIVE - key

Active vs. Passive - goals and characters

good --- characters in charge of their own lives --- WORTHY GOALS --- not necessarily noble, but worth of character’s time and audience’s time

DIFFICULTY AND TANGIBILITY - of goal

need tension for story to continue and audience to be interested

TENSION - not resolved when we want them to be --- leave us uncomfortable - interested 

through conflict - struggle between opposing forces ----- ANTAGONIST or THE OPPOSITION

Argument on an issue - 2 sides (Pros and Cons) --- tensions

Personification of the opposition --- ex Southern segregation --- represented by racist sheriff character

WORTHY OPPONENT 

• one-dimensional = bad
• must be complicated but not the mirror image of the protagonist ---- shades of gray - flawed - good and bad

TANGIBLE GOAL 

possible to achieve - concrete and realistic 

worthwhile and noble but not doable - “curing cancer” 

manageable

EMOTIONAL IMPACT & AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION 

“show, don’t tell”

should not tell us what to think --- lead us, but we make our own assumptions

audiences should want to be right there with characters, not watching them

as Story, Characters, Tensions progress, we get more invested

No unnecessary drama ---- soap opera --- details can actually detract from the story

Melodramatic -- music, sound effects, narration - false storytelling - “boy who cried wolf”

RAISING THE STAKES - danger is increasing

SATISFACTORY ENDING

Resolution - unexpected AND inevitable

must resolve the story you set out to tell

never one correct ending

factual ---- unethical to slant facts for more emotional and dramatic ending

not necessarily wrap up all loose ends, but does not leave audience wanting more ----- leaving some ambiguity strengthens picture’s themes and goals

STRUCTURE

Documentaries - may seem pointless - good beginning but random ending ----weakly developed situations and characters ----- problems with STRUCTURE - foundation on which story is built --narrative spine -- filmmakers must meet or confound expectations of audiences - increases investment in story - ELEMENTS:

SHOT

single take - movement or static - close-up, wide, pan, tilt, etc.

camera is turned on and off

point of view, time of day, emotion, mood, etc.

“reversal” - plot twist - example: camera moves from water fall to tram full of tourists

SCENE

consecutive group of shots in a single location - subset of action

may also contain reversals - ex. Michael Moore is answered by Charlton Heston in driveway - not expected 

Each scene has its own beginning, middle, and end

essence needs to be conveyed in less than real time

Reversals in scenes ---- turning points - motivate or shift action in story 

SEQUENCE 

collection of shots and scenes that tell continuous story, but is only a piece of larger story

like a book’s chapter

Robert McKee - Scene has a reversal that is minor, Sequence has a reversal that is moderate, and an Act has a reversal that is major

May cover a series of locations - advances larger story

ex. Bowling for Columbine - 4 scenes that relate = a sequence - Moore then makes decision to interview Heston

ACT

series of sequences - drives to a major turning point - Climax - leads to next series of sequences in next Act

Traditional 3 act -- 1st covers exposition (hero in a tree), 2nd covers tension (rocks force hero further up the tree) and 3rd covers climax of tensions and resolution (hero reaches top branch and is about to fall but is then able to climb down)

3 important things about acts:

1. drama helps stories
2. documentaries don’t fit exactly in this format so it is an approximation
3. structure can be used in a different way- still needs compelling characters and tensions - but does not necessarily need 3 acts

INCITING INCIDENT 

event that sets story in motion 

Lalee’s Kin - slavery and sharecropping - devastated Mississippi

POINT OF ATTACK

where filmmaker enters the story - hardest decision to make

almost always guaranteed to change as time goes on --- themes are more clear - evolution

BACKSTORY 

form of exposition - not synonymous however

events that happened before story starts - title cards, interviews, narration

when motivated - enhances and enriches the story - adds depth to characters and keeps audiences interested

THREE-ACT STRUCTURE

staple of Hollywood - My Cousin Vinny for example

ACT ONE

one quarter the length of the film

introduction of characters and problems - Inciting Incident 

“first turning point” 

audience knows what is at stake by Act’s end - emotional peak

ACT TWO

longest portion of the film - one half

pacing increases - complications arise - twists and reversals - even bigger emotional peak

cannot bog down plot though

ACT THREE

less than a quarter -- character approaches defeat --- darkest moment of the film --- tensions intensified -- story finally pushed to resolution - loose ends tied up

STRUCTURING MULTIPLE STORYLINES 

A stories, B stories, and C stories

A story is primary weight - other plotlines are introduced around A

Lalee’s Kin and Yosemite: The Fate of Heaven ---- additional stories to make film more complex

WHAT THREE-ACT STRUCTURES IS NOT

film is not just divided in 3 parts - each part needs to advance the story ---- therefore, there can be stories told in more or less acts --- need to be truthful to material

THREE ACTS IN FIVE OR ONE OR TWO

one act plays - five act plays

commercial breaks for television shows

Proof - two acts - Act One is all of the original One and part of Two and Act Two is the second part of original Two and then all of Three

Biographies --- follow chronological order - not necessarily acts

DAUGHTER FROM DANANG

 78 minutes in length

Hedi Bub - Amerasian woman raised in Tennessee - originally from Vietnam - wishes to meet her birth mother

filmmakers did not want to do a chronological story --- used concept of memory to push story -- start with Bub and her memories and contrast them with her actual experience in Vietnam

ACT ONE

1975 Operation Baylift - 2000 children sent to US for adoption - separate interviews of Bub and her mother in Vietnam --- plot established -- Bub wants to meet her mother - tension of the story

ACT TWO 

Bub is out of place in Vietnam having been in American for so long

Thinks her bad memories will go away

Questions still unanswered - Who is her father? Where is her adoptive mother?

Film shows her deteriorated relationship with her adoptive mother ---- foreshadowing of future

Her father was an American soldier

She is homesick --- does not like her family - they want money

ACT THREE 

Bub wishes to leave - neither side understands one another - she achieves her goal but does not receive the answers she wanted

EPILOGUE - resolution - two years later - ending is ambiguous as Bub says that he is still open to meet with her family again

Bowling For Columbine - Michael Moore

ESSAY-LIKE STRUCTURE ---- poses series of questions as plot escalates

Still vaguely built on three acts in terms of themes:

Opens with old NRA footage

Overview of Columbine killers going bowling on morning of their shooting

“Typical America” - opens a bank account to get a gun

Charlton Heston established as antagonist - NRA head

Meets with various people - humorous accounts, etc - get his point across

Twenty minutes into film, people get shot - start with comedy and lead to crisis

Transitions to Lockeed Martin - weapons production

US bombing of Kosovo on day of Columbine shooting --- 3 minutes of police audio

Littleton, Colorado - NRA convention 10 days after shooting - also mentions guns bought at the KMart

School security measures increased - says kids weren’t the problem - but was it music, television. broken homes, bowling? ---- why does America have the highest violence rates?

Culture of fear - on the news, on Cops, etc. - poverty

goes to Flint, Michigan, another site for a school shooting as well as another NRA convention - attacks President Bush for not caring about the poor

Again brings up Lockheed - corporations and politicians get what they want in all of the fear

goes to KMart with Columbine students and gets them to stop selling bullets

Goes to Heston’s and speaks with him - “glorious time to be an American” - bowling

APPLYING FILM STRUCTURE

Some apply structure when editing - others apply structure from the start - outlines, scripts, revising and reshaping

if a film is working, leave it alone - storytelling is an art, not a science.

Character Development in WALL-E

         Pixar has consistently released modern masterpieces, especially 2008‘s WALL-E; critics and fans alike have deemed the futuristic love story between two robots one of the animation studio’s best all-around films. While many people might have initially questioned Pixar’s choice to primarily focus on two robot characters that barely utter any dialogue, there is no doubt that the WALL-E and EVE experience much character development over the course of the film, as well as the three major human characters, the Captain of the Axiom, John, and Mary. All of these characters experience change in their way of thinking and in their actions; they realize the importance of following their hearts and not being ignorant as opposed to keeping with the established status quo.

       A major influence on their development into three-dimensional and lovable characters along the lines of other Pixar favorites, such as Woody and Buzz from Toy Story or Marlin and Dory from Finding Nemo, is definitely the almost entirely silent opening third of the movie, which results in WALL-E and EVE developing emotionally through their use of facial expressions and body gestures, as well as the film’s music and cinematography. They are personified to convey human emotions such as loneliness, frustration, determination, sadness, and love, and they act like humans, albeit without the ability to talk beyond the repetition of their names. The latter half of the movie occurs away from an uninhabited earth, aboard a spaceship with the last remaining humans, and it is the robots’ interactions with these humans that helps to really flesh out their characters.

      WALL-E is the film’s main character, a small robot whose purpose in life is to clean up the toxic, trashed terrain of Earth. He is the last remaining functional robot on Earth, and so while he dedicatedly partakes in his primary function of stacking garbage into blocks, he also collects various items out of pure curiosity. He has developed a human-like personality through his interaction with these human products, such as a cigarette lighter and a Rubik’s Cube, but he is most influenced by a video tape of the Barbara Streisand musical Hello, Dolly, which teaches him about the human emotion of love. He is extremely lonely on Earth and wishes for a partner; his only interaction with another personality before EVE arrives on Earth is the cockroach that he keeps as a pet.

        Once EVE arrives, he strives to impress her, but is unable to do so because she is focused  solely on her directive: finding sustainable life on Earth in the form of vegetation. Upon her arrival, she is very cold and has quite a tempter, blowing up various rocks and garbage with her arm cannon in the frustration of not locating life. During WALL-E’s attempted courting of EVE, who eventually seems to be lightening up in her opinion of him, he shows her a plant he found and she immediately turns into an inanimate beacon, calling her away from the planet. WALL-E is determined to court her even as she is in this sleep mode, but to no avail; however, he plucks up his courage and holds onto the ship that takes her far away from Earth to the new human habitat, the starship Axiom. 

       Aboard the ship, EVE is reawakened and the ship’s Captain is told that EVE’s directive, securing the plant, will lead the ship back to Earth. The Captain, like all of the other humans on board, is quite obese and cannot walk, both as result of 700 years of living in zero gravity as well as an extremely lazy lifestyle. All of the humans sit in hover chairs, eat and drink liquified meals in cups, and stare into hologram computers every waking moment of their lives. They are doted on by countless robots and their daily lives are superficial, materialistic, and shallow because of their total reliance on technology. Only through WALL-E and EVE’s actions are the humans exposed to the ignorance in their lives. When the ship’s Autopilot plots against returning to Earth and steals the plant, WALL-E and EVE try to rescue it. While attempting to find it, WALL-E knocks a man named John out of his chair and then turns off a woman named Mary’s computer. Both are totally shocked that anything interesting actually exists beyond their computer screens, but they discover that the Axion has a pool, that the ship’s windows lead to an awe-inspiring view of the stars, and that each of them exists physically and not just through a video chat. The Captain too becomes open to an existence beyond the status quo; he discovers the beauty of the Earth that existed long ago by asking the computer to define various terms from human life before they left on the ship, such as “sea”, “farming”, and “hoedowns”. It is during his wonder at the definition of “dancing” that EVE and WALL-E are totally changed. WALL-E is ejected into space in an escape pod after the plant and EVE is devastated when she thinks that WALL-E has been blown up, but he uses a fire extinguisher to propel himself away from the exploding pod. Her joy that he is alive results in the movie’s most beautiful and poignant scene: the two robots dancing in space to the computer’s voice-over about the world. 

        After this, WALL-E gets badly damaged aboard the ship but he is willing to sacrifice his life and his love for EVE; he tells her to leave him and to bring the plant back to the Captain rather than save him since it is her directive. EVE, on the other hand, disobeys her directive by putting the plant aside for the moment as she feels that WALL-E and love are more important than returning to Earth. However, EVE realizes that saving WALL-E would be possible if they return to Earth; the Captain courageously helps the two robots by defeating the rogue autopilot in order to bring the plant to the ship’s core so that it may return to Earth. He bravely gets out of his chair and physically walks in order to enable the Axiom to go to home. As soon as the ship steps down on the barren surface of the planet, EVE rushes to repair WALL-E with the various parts he had collected over the years. However, the brave little robot seems to have lost his personality as well as his love for EVE as he fails to acknowledge her presence once fixed. In fact, it appears that he has been reset to his original condition where his only concern is crushing garbage into blocks mindlessly; the “humanity” that he had gained is now gone. EVE, originally a tough and cold robot with little personality herself, is now brought to tears because she believes that WALL-E has forgotten her. A spark from the “kiss” that she gives to the brain-dead robot reawakens him and the two hold hands in joy.

        The film ends with the two robots in love; they have learned that love is one of the most important forces in the universe, and that it is even more important than the tasks for which they had originally been designed and programmed: their directives, or the status quo. In the same regard, humanity, which had become so shallow, materialistic, and lethargic, had been revived by John, Mary, and the Captain, who opened their eyes to the possibility of change in their lives and the beauty of the universe, especially over the premise of having their own planet again. The major characters were all able to change during this journey, and they would use the changes in their lives and their personalities in order to make a better life for themselves by rebuilding Earth.

Works Cited

WALL-E. Dir. Andrew Stanton. Pixar Animations Studios. Walt Disney Pictures, 2008. DVD.

Comparison Between 2 Media Sources - Blog Post #6

      On February 26, 2011, after almost two straight weeks of protests in Libya, and especially after recent days of intense violence and bloodshed on the part of the ensuing government crackdown, President Obama has finally called for dictator, Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, to step down. The White House issued a statement, which was a summary of what Obama had said over the phone to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It read, “When a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now.” This statement came very soon after the United States pulled its remaining citizens out of Libya on a ferry; until that point, the United States had remained silent on the issue of Gadhafi stepping down. The statement was praised by the leader of an interim government that has been established in one of the eastern Libyan cities under the control of the rebellion. Although the United States does not have information regarding the power or numbers of Mustafa Abdel-Jalil’s supporters, the Libyan Ambassador to the US, Ali Aujali has vouched for him. Both the New York Post, a daily newspaper from New York City, and The Huffington Post.com, an online blogging site, covered this story, and while both articles included the basic events that occurred and reasons for the policy change, they had some major differences as well.

      The New York Post is owned by media conglomerate News Corp., which in turn is owned by Rupert Murdoch, a major conservative voice in world politics. Therefore, it has somewhat of a right-wing spin to its news stories, headlines, and especially its editorials. The article, “O: Time to go, Mo: Prez calls on Khadafy to step down,” starts off discussing President Obama’s sudden reversal in foreign policy, using phrases such as “the strong words from Obama, who had previously stayed mum on the Mideast madman’s fate” and “before the president’s call for Khadafy to end his...stronghold on the...nation, US officials had called only for an end to the bloodshed. More than 1,000 people are thought to have died since the rebellion began.” The article appeals to those who had been critical of the President’s previous decisions regarding the crisis. The article also goes beyond talking about US policy and discusses Khadafy’s attempt to keep control of his country as well as the recent victories of rebel forces. The article says, “Rebel forces hold Benghazi, as well as a long swath of the country’s 1,000-mile coastline. They also captured a general and a soldier from an airbase in Tripoli,” before mentioning that the United Nations had placed sanctions on the country and called for Khadafy to be charged with war crimes. The New York Post article also uses a strange spelling of the Libyan dictator’s name. Instead of the normal “Muammar Gadhafi,” the paper uses “Moammar Khadafy,” which seems to be a more American form of spelling his Arabic name.

        The Huffington Post.com is a liberal blogging site founded by Arianna Huffington in the 1990s. Its articles are the complete opposite of the New York Post’s as they are written by those with political views from the opposite side of the political spectrum. Thus, the article “Libya Protests: Obama Says Muammar Gaddafi Must ‘Leave Now’” presents a much stronger case for Obama staying quiet and then acting tough at the time of the article’s writing. The article uses the phrasing “Ratcheting up the pressure,” “until now, US officials have held back from such a pronouncement, insisting it is for the Libyan people to decide who their leader should be,” and “the administration upped its pressure a day after it froze all Libyan assets in the US that belonged to Gadhafi, his government, and four of his children.” The article explains how Obama waited for all of the remaining Americans in Libya to be removed by a ferry and airplane before issuing his statement. He also called for the world to speak with one voice against Gadhafi, conferring with world leaders and sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Geneva. The Huffington Post.com article also goes into a lot more depth about the US change in policy, other countries’ reactions such as France, an overview of the rebellion in the country, and information regarding the United Nations’ response. The article is about double the length of the New York Post’s, as it was released online and did not have to fit the physical page of a newspaper. It was also written on February 26, the same day that Obama issued his statement. The New York Post’s article was written later that night but it was published the following day on the 27th of February. 

       The New York Post and The Huffington Post.com are both leading sources of news in the United States of America. They are two different mediums and are of two different political ideologies. Therefore, while they may report the same events, they tell the stories quite differently.

Works Cited

Klein, Melissa, and Tim Perone. “O: Time to go, Mo. Prez calls on Khadafy to step down.” New 

  York Post. 27 Feb. 2011. Print. 

“Libya Protests: Obama Says Muammar Gaddafi Must ‘Leave Now’.” TheHuffingtonPost.com.

           TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc, 26 Feb. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.

           http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/26/libya-protests-obama-gaddafi

           leave-now_n_828712.html?view=print

Aliens - Blog Post #5

       Looking back on my life, I can say that my four years as a rower on my high school crew team were definitely the four most stressful, painful, and especially influential years of my life. Not many others can relate to the torture that were the 2k and 5k tests, nor can they imagine the toll that hundreds of hours of practicing over the course of each season of the year takes on the growing human body. Not many people can grasp the concept of waking up on weekends at 4 in the morning to drive three hours to race sites, spend six minutes on the water, and then drive all the way back late in the evening. Even more so, not many people realize the amount of dedication that all of this took, especially when every stroke of a race brought tears to your eyes and extreme doubt to your heart. However, in the end of the day, it was victory that kept me coming back for more. Rowing made me into the person that I am today.

That being said, I also dealt with something that I believe no one else has ever had to deal with: contact with an alien. This alien happened to be my coach. And I do not mean from another country; I mean, from another planet. You are probably quite skeptical right now and are wondering if I have any proof for this claim. If you had asked me even when I was on the team, I would have looked at you as if you were the alien in question and had three heads. No, I was not sure of anything for the longest time, but by the time I had graduated, I was as certain that my coach was an alien as the sport of rowing was difficult. 

My coach was an odd one, but usually when you spend large amounts of time with someone for four years, you tend to pick up on their quirks and idiosyncrasies. My coach had plenty of them, but this should not mean that he was an alien, right? He had quite a method of remembering names, and usually it never worked. Twice he named people who did not exist as captains of the team, and he would come up with statements and words of advice that did not make sense in any known language on this planet, especially English. On other days he would claim to speak other languages such as Spanish or German, but judging by his many attempts, I really doubted that he did. He had an odd obsession with ducks and always quacked at them when he passed in his motorboat. My teammates and I would constantly discuss his craziness but we could never put our finger on the reason for it. Maybe he was just a quirky guy? For some reason, I did not buy that either.

So I go back thirty-five years to when I was eighteen years of age. The year was 2010, and it was one of those early morning practices in March where every drop of water that landed on our three layers of clothing froze solid. The one difference though, was that instead of having practice at a normal time such as 8 o’clock, or even 7, we sat on the water at 5 a.m. While we  stood on the dock with our boat in the water, grumbling that we were up at such an extraordinarily early time, let alone working out on less than four hours of sleep, our coxswain had an even bigger problem to figure out: it was still pitch black out, as the sun did not rise for another hour and a half! Of course, when this situation was brought to the attention of our coach, he laughed it off and said, “Oh, I have a light for the boat. Hold on.” At this, he proceeded to take a little reflector out of his pocket, which, since there was no light for it to reflect, did not help this problem at all. As he bent down to put the reflector on the bow of the boat, an extremely strange sight caught my eye and caused me to do a double take. By this time my eyes had grown somewhat accustomed to the darkness, and I saw an odd glow in Coach’s eyes as he looked into the reflector while he put it on the boat. I nudged one of my teammates, and pointed at Coach’s eyes.  “How are his eyes reflecting light if there isn’t any light to begin with?” I asked, to which my teammate just shrugged and whispered something about it being too early to think about anything.

I tried to shrug this off as I climbed into the boat and began to row, hands numb from the cold and muscles heavy from lack of sleep. As soon as we began our pieces, the glowing eyes slipped my mind as I was too busy worrying about not passing out from exhaustion. It was still dark out and I could barely make out the back of my teammate sitting in front of me. The only reason I knew that I was on the water was the motion of the boat and the slight splash of freezing-cold water on my legs. Even the coxswain’s voice was subdued as I assumed that he must have been scared to death. Having to maneuver a boat filled with eight other people on a river in complete darkness sounds like a terrible task, and I began to think about the possibility of crashing into something like a bridge or the riverbank due to our coxswain’s blindness. I was yanked out of my daydreaming when I heard a strange sound coming from somewhere outside of our boat. I looked out of the boat and peered through the darkness; out of the corner of my eye I could see that my teammates who were behind me in the boat were not paying attention to this sound.

       I continued to squint through the darkness and saw that there was a strange light moving along with us. After a few moments, I realized that it was Coach’s eyes. I watched as he maneuvered the launch that he was in further up the river past our boat, and thought, “Why would he leave us here in the dark?” Again, I noticed that none of my teammates had changed their body language which meant that I was the only one seeing these strange turn of events. At this I knew something was definitely wrong. My gaze followed him up the river as we continued along, and I did not care if I messed up the consistency of the strokes. When Coach reached this one inlet along the side of the river which contained a few old, rotting docks, I saw a really strange flash of light and a shadowy figure emerge. I let out a yell, and apparently it was quite loud as the coxswain asked if we needed to stop the boat because it sounded like I was in pain. I did not answer, but swung my head in the direction of the light, which had passed. I could still make out Coach and his glowing eyes talking to a shadowy figure on the dock. Before I could catch my breath to finally acknowledge this strange sight aloud, a whirring noise became very audible. A large shadow seemed to descend from the trees on the river bank and hovered above the shadowy figure to which Coach still seemed to be talking. Our boat came to a stop as everyone strained their eyes through the darkness in order to see the strange transaction that was happening before us. We were dumbfounded; all of a sudden the whirring stopped and the two shadows seemed to rise up and disappear. Coach turned around, the glow in his eyes fading. He powered the boat back over to us and held up his megaphone and said, “Why’d you guys stop? I was just talking to some ducks!” Up and down the boat, we looked at one another, realized that we had no idea what was going on, and started rowing again. 

That day will always stay with me. Although I have no physical proof that he is of another world, I firmly believe in what I saw, and I have eight other witnesses that agree with me. Whatever did occur that one, dark morning was truly a strange sight, and I swear on my life that I am telling the truth. Ducks, indeed!