This week, we are asked to watch the Jane McGonagall Ted Talk. She tells us that game play people could solve more problems in real lives when they play more video games. I am interested in this topic, because to be honest, I like play video games, but during I play the games, I don’t find anything that is positive for human beings expect being relax. In the video, McGonigal said that “gamers are super-powerful hopeful individuals”, they are so determined to win and work hard to achieve their goals with their strategy and survival, and then they will be given positive rewards when they are succeeding. Indeed, when I play games, I felt the same way; however, I didn’t connect games with real life. Yes, I feel that I have to keep working harder to complete the level and I can’t give up. After watching this video, I ask myself, isn’t game similar to real life? We are born, then we grow up. Which means we get higher level, moreover, we have to deal with harder missions when we reach high level. Back to real life, we do totally different stuffs when we are children and adults.

The article “Why Some People love Horror Movies Whiles Others Hate Them” by Margarita Tartakovsky, explained why many people influenced by the horror movies. She writes about many different aspects of horror movie, which conclude the different stories, novelty, gender socialization and other reasons. To be honest, I hate that I like watching horror movies. Sometimes, I just couldn’t help watching them, although I know I really scared about all the stuffs in them. I guess Margarita discusses this in her article, which called “the excitation transfer process”. She also states that “when people watch frightening films, their heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increases”. I think this is the reason I cannot stop watching horror movies although I hate them so hard. It is because not only in mentally, but also in physically. There is another interesting thing when I watch horror films. I always know what is going to happen in the next scene, but when it is really happening; I still got shocked. And Margarita explains that in her article, she states that viewers’ sense are heightened after they watched the movie, which makes them feel enjoyable. Another reason is because people enjoy the adrenaline rush, a hormone that strengthens your sensory reception. In the reading “Why Horror “by Noel Carroll, she writes “the horror story is driven explicitly by curiosity. It engaged audience by being involved in processes of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation” (Carroll, 279). This point is pretty same to the article “Why Some People love Horror Movies Whiles Others Hate Them”, she said many people love to watch horror movies included myself because they make us to think, analyze and explore the different scenes and then hypothesize what will be happen at the end of the movie.

Since sometimes I make movie by myself, I always learn some movie shot skills from horror movies. Such as the background music, the camera positions and etc. I have already talked about my thoughts about the background music in the reflection. Therefore, I would like to share something about the camera position. Talking about camera position, there is another vital factor, which is the light. As we all know, a child always act a ghost by holding the flashlight under his or her face. This is a shot trick, which is that putting the light under someone’s face would make him or her looks scared. Moreover, there is also a mirror trick. Every  times, when I see a mirror in the horror films, I always know that something bad is going to happen. For example, a person doesn’t see another stuff at first place, however, after he washes his face; something just comes out. There is another trick, which is the illusion in the mirror is different from the reality.

This is my thoughts about horror movies.