Who knew at Uni you could watch movies & tweet? I sure didn’t!
During the past few weeks of BCM 325, we have been analysing a wide range of sci-fi movies. During this time, we are required to live tweet during the movie providing any analyses, history & research each week. This blogpost will be a reflection of my tweets I did whilst I interacted with my #BCM325 cohort.
Week 1 – Metropolis (1927)
The dreaded silent-film…Metropolis was actually a fantastic way to start this subject as our world has a lot of symbolic references to the movie. But it was definitely interesting to say the least to tweet as it was silent I definitely missed a few scenes here and there… Plus it was extremely long which made it hard to continuously think of tweets.
For the first week of live tweeting it felt like I was back in BCM 112, as fun as it is…wow did I forget how hard multitasking was! In saying this, I did interact a lot with people and had a few tweets that students liked. The first one discusses something I noticed about the music which I thought was interesting that a lot of students interacted.
The second most interacted tweet was showcasing my 2 monitors that helped me with my live-tweeting, this was actually the most interacted tweet of the viewing which was really funny to me!
I wanted to also test out how interacting with people would go so I did a poll to see how the students were enjoying the movie and to my surprise 16 people interacted with this.
Week 2 – Space Odyssey (2001)
From reflecting my tweets in week one I didn’t know what to expect with the live-tweeting. I definitely didn’t prepare any materials prior to watching the movie, so I decided to have a few tabs open with various technological predictions that the movie makes.
This movie was a very good film, on the confusing side but the technological ‘predictions’ they have in this movie were very much crazy! We had in-flight entertainment, space food, facetime and even more. It was really cool to see so many things that became a reality from this film!
A lot of my tweets did quite well in this week, in particular 2. The tweet below was a perfect example of something so simple but educational! This also was my most retweeted tweet so far with 6 retweets and 6 comments. I discussed how in-flight entertainment never existed, it was predicted in this movie as one of the first with in-flight entertainment which was extremely interesting to me when researching.
Another really beneficial tweet about Space Odyssey was the tweet below about how the movie ‘predicted’ video calls being made in the future which had a lot of positive interaction as well.
The week before, I began interacting by doing polls, for week 3. I wanted to investigate what people thought about AI technology and the depiction of these robots in movies. I thought it was really interesting to see that 82% of people agreed and said that robots could turn against us…
Week 3 – Westworld (1978)
A topic I seem to bring up a lot is simulation and I definitely think it is an important subject to discuss as we are in an ever increasing technology world where our advancements continuously disrupt our everyday lives. Not only that, our busyness of our everyday lives makes us feel like we are not present, that we are on ‘auto-pilot’ that we feel a bit robotic, we may even start simulating conversations.
What was interesting from this weeks viewing was the fact that I gave myself the challenge to interact with as many people as possible to create conversations. Not simple conversations, but conversations that would make them genuinely think about it and I love talking about simulations anyway!!! I definitely noticed a shift in the way I was interacting and because of this I had some pretty great conversations about simulation and how we aren’t that different from robots, which was really interesting! It actually links with the most popular tweet I made that week as well which is:
I had a lot of really interesting points during this movie which I found really interesting. I realised that I didn’t do that much BTS research as I was just sharing my knowledge from studying BCM and all that we have learn from it. The tweets below showcase the same topics but different tweets, I am discussing how concerning the movie is with the depictions humans can essentially do ‘whatever they want’ in Westworld.
I realised that the best way to properly view these movies is to heavily engage and create proper conversations with people so I will do this more next week!
Week 4 – Bladerunner (1982)
This movie was both good and odd at the same time! I definitely feel the more I watch these movies the harder it is to remember what happens because they’re all similar topics and discussion points.
I had a lot of really great tweets during this movie which I found really interesting. I realised that I didn’t do that much BTS research as I was just sharing my knowledge from studying BCM and all that we have learn from it. The tweets below showcase the same topics but different tweets, I am discussing how concerning the movie is with the depictions humans can essentially do ‘whatever they want’ in Westworld.
The tweet below received 7 likes however, I think this was one of my favourite tweets I have written. Not because it is good but because it speaks the truth to how a lot of people would feel in this type of environment everyday.
One interesting thing I noticed about the movie was a coca-cola advertisement which I noted in this tweet. It received 9 likes and 3 retweets!
Week 5 – Ghost in the Shell (1997)
Finally, this movie! I want to start this week by saying I have never in my life seen an anime movie and I was really surprised by it…I genuinely didn’t know what to expect but it definitely was a really great movie. Again a little bit confusing in spots but definitely a good movie with some great discussion points again!
During this week of BCM 325, I provided some really great input for a lot of conversations! The movie also triggered a lot of post ideas which made it a lot easier to create unique tweets that were beneficial for other students as well. For example, the tweet below was orchestrated because of a line that was said in the movie it made me think about this and how we may not if our thoughts are really our own or if they’re ‘implanted by someone else’.
The interesting thing that happened this week was majority of my tweets were retweeted by at least one person, this also includes my comments as well. I definitely think my thoughts / ‘existential questions’ that allow students to think perform better than history of the movie.
So far, my progress in live-tweeting has gotten a lot better! I am able to have conversations that are actually meaningful and will benefit them. I think it is important to stimulate thoughts & ideas from tweets, my aim is to make people look at my tweet and question a few things. Very much like an existential question really…
Amy Micallef 
Reblogged this on Future Cultures.
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