Archive for January, 2012

Smallville The Complete First Season

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 4:39 pm

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Find Smallville The Complete First Season at Amazon

Shoebox Dioramas are a portion of each school year and in just when it comes to each grade they serve as a terrifi learning tool. They are applied to learn the arts and crafts of making things and they are used to also learn regarding subjects. This article shows you a heap of originative ideas from both the arts and crafts aspect and the learning aspect.

The Arts and Crafts of Shoebox Dioramas

There are a lot of mutual ways to make a shoebox diorama and they include tape, glue, construction paper and all the regular assortment of arts and crafts stuff but there are a few things you may do to make a diorama just a little bit special. Here is a list of ideas:

If you are doing an underwater scene you may cover the front of the box with Saran Wrap or thin plastic. This gives the diorama an underwater feel
Use string to utilize the full three dimensions inside the box; suspend objects from strings or tie strings from side to side and top to bottom and attach objects to the strings. This works well for flying objects like bird, pterodactyls or even clouds and stars.
Cut slots in the back and top of the box and use this to insert objects that you may move all over the diorama. Make a bird, boat, comet or galore other type of moving object then attach a tab to the back of it. Insert this tab in the slot then you may grab the tab from the back and slide the object all over the diorama. This adds a nice little interactional element. This works well with all kinds of things from a rising sun, flying bird, erupting volcano or just with regards to anything else that would move.
Think outside the shoebox! There is no need to run out and buy a new pair of shoes if you don’t have a shoebox. A more than adequate box may be made from scraps of cardboard or even a few cereal boxes cut and taped together. And there is no need to make a typical shoebox shape. Be originative in the shape you make. It adds a dimension of interest to the project. Half round, amphitheatre shapes are ordinarily employed for dioramas and look great.
Achieving Depth – The most mutual trait of an intermediate shoebox diorama is that it has a prettified background and objects placed on the bottom surface. You may add an beautiful touch by embellishing a strip of paper that is when it comes to two inches wide with a foliage pattern then attach this to the inside bottom of the diorama when it comes to an inch from the back wall – it reaches all the way from the left side to the right side. This adds a lot of depth and makes it look much more interesting.
Using substitute materials – You don’t have to use cardboard or boxes. As an example, if you are doing a polar bear or penguin diorama you could use white packing Styrofoam. If you are doing a desert scene you may apply glue to the bottom of the diorama and sprinkle real sand on it.

Theme Ideas and Learning Tools

The biggest point of a shoebox diorama is to show a natural habitat of something. In the procedure of drawing and cutting out the respective objects a child is learning with regards to the habitat. This is outstanding but you may take it to new levels with a little thought and a little creativity.

Freezing a moment in time – A diorama is a moment in time and you may focus on this. Some good examples are you may have a meteor streaking throughout the sky of a dinosaur diorama; this explains a theory of extinction. Or you may show a huge predator fish with regards to to eat a littler fish as it is eating something even smaller. This dramatic moment in time is a good display of the feed chain.
Interactions in a habitat – The focus of a diorama is oftentimes to in the right way tell apart and place the right objects for a natural habitat but you may take this to a new level by focusing on the interactions within the habitat. The upper layer of canopy in a rainforest blocks out sunlight from the lower layers and this is an indispensable aspect of the rainforest. A coral reef provides shelter for numerous creatures in the sea and a diorama may display this.
Adding a Fact Sheet – This is a great tool that will have to be added to each diorama. You must make a fact sheet that may be glued to poster board and stood up near the diorama. The sheet explains the basic facts of what the diorama is about.

Diorama Ideas

Here are a heap of ideas you may use as a theme for your diorama:

The Natural Habitat of just regarding any creature like fish, polar bears, black bears, penguins, wolves, humans, dinosaurs, camels, lions, tigers, monkeys, elephants, dolphins, and well you get the idea!
A Desert theme finish with pyramids, mummies and camels is fun
A Rainforest is a good diorama for instructing when it comes to diversity and the fundamental interaction of species
An astronomy diorama finish with sun, planets, comets, and stars in the background
A medieval Castle scene finish with catapult or dragon
Underwater scenes are always popular
Arctic themed dioramas are fun because of the originative choices for snow and icebergs

Whatever diorama you choose to make you ought to take a little time to make it dissimilar and distinctive and there are a large total of originative ways to do that. Have fun with your project!

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful.
Legacy
By R. J Rey
Before battling the forces of evil, Clark Kent faced his greatest challenge: high school. The WB’s engaging hit drama has finally arrived on DVD. A devastating meteor shower strikes the peaceful town of Smallville. For most of the townsfolk, the event brought great losses and unexplainable results, but for the caring Kent Family (John Schneider & Annette O’Toole), it blessed them with an amazing gift: a son who will become Earth’s greatest champion. Producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have developed an original and appealing twist to the Superman myth. “Smallville” is the popular live-action comic book series that follows the young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) adapting to his superhuman powers, his friendship with future arch nemesis Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) and the developing relationship with sweetheart Lana Lang (Kristen Kreuk). The series is a surprising mix of coming-of-age drama and comic-book fantasy. “Smallville” also features a top-notch cast and stunning visual effects. The first season of “Smallville” definitely keeps viewers entertained but too many “Villain of the Week” episodes give the show a repetitive nature.

Fans of the WB drama will be satisfied with “Smallville: The Complete First Season”. All 21 episodes of the first season are presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format. Its picture quality is quite bright and reasonably sharp. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is satisfactory with decent surround effects. The box set includes two commentary tracks by series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, several deleted scenes from the pilot and second episode, “Storyboard to Screen” featurette, an interactive tour of Smallville, some promotional material and DVD-ROM extras. Overall, “Smallville: The Complte First Season” scores a “B”.

93 of 103 people found the following review helpful.
Best superhero show on television!
By A
Ever since the pilot episode of “Smallville” came on, I was instantly hooked. And also ever since then, I’ve been watching the show every Tuesday night and have not missed an episode. “Smallville” is the story of the teenage Clark Kent (Tom Welling), living in the town of Smallville, Kansas, who will one day be known to the world as “Superman”. In the first season, we learn that Clark is an alien with super powers. He has amazing abilities such as super-strength, can run as fast as the speed of light, and has X-ray vision. But all Clark wants is to be able to fit in with the rest of his peers. He is also trying to win over the affection of the beautiful Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), who is dating their high school’s football star, Whitney Fordman (Eric Johnson). Clark lives with his human adoptive parents, Martha Kent and Jonathan Kent (Annette O’Toole and John Schneider) on the Kent Farm, and befriends the rich Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), after he saves Lex from a car accident. Clark also has two other friends, Pete Ross (Sam Jones III) and Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack), who help him out.

The plots in every episode keep getting better and better. The storyline is amazing and every actor is superb in their roles. The special effects are great, too. I really hope they bring “Smallville” to complete season DVDs because it really is one of the best shows out there right now. Even beats out “Alias”, though “Alias” is a good show, too.

I highly recommend “Smallville”.

Score:
100/100
A+

101 of 116 people found the following review helpful.
Great Series! (but a shame about the theme song)
By Matt Martinez
NOTE: This review was actually written about a Canadian DVD release of the first two episodes of the series which were edited into a feature-length movie.

I was mighty skeptical when I first heard about Smallville. Mainly, I was disappointed that Warner Bros. Television decided to go with this instead of the proposed Bruce Wayne series about his world travels before returning to Gotham to become Batman. Aside from that, it looked like (as one of my friends dubbed it) “Dawson’s Krypton.” To further complicate things, I discovered that Lex Luthor was to be one of the main characters. Basically, it seemed like it would never work. Boy, was I wrong.

I began watching the series in the summer, right after the season finale, when WB started rerunning episodes. I was immediately hooked. (I preordered the Canadian import DVD of the first two episodes right after it was announced.) What struck me immediately about the series was its attention to character development. While the series is mainly episodic, there are usually several subplots that continue from week to week that advances the characters’ relationships to one another. The ongoing story of Clark and Lana is especially poignant and heartbreaking due to the fact those who are familiar with Superman lore understand that, even if the two of them get together, their romance won’t last. (Thankfully, Tom Welling and Kristen Kreuk have wonderful chemistry and are fully capable actors.)

The main plots are the show’s weakest points. I would imagine it’s difficult to come up with a way for Clark Kent to be a superhero from week to week, thus they gave themselves an equivalent to Buffy’s hellmouth, the kryptonite rocks. The villains can get fairly ridiculous, such as the bugboy in the second episode (included on the DVD). Fortunately, the writers understand how to turn this into a strength. Rather than focusing entirely on the villain, we get to see how the villain or the situation he/she/it causes affects the characters. (A good example comes later in the series when Clark’s powers transfer to another boy and he gets to live a normal life for a short period of time.)

As to my iffiness about the inclusion of Luthor, once again, my initial reaction was completely off-base. The makers of the show have managed to make Lex Luthor the most interesting character in the series, thanks in no small part to the outstanding performance of Michael Rosenbaum. I’ve never seen the character given such depth in a non-comics medium and it is absolutely a breath of fresh air. Watching his transition from hero to anti-hero [to villain?] will be fascinating (providing it happens in the course of the series).

Of course this review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the terrific work of John Schneider and Annette O’Toole as Clark’s adoptive parents. It is important to understand why Clark decides to use his powers to help those in need. The Kents are honest, hard-working people who have instilled Clark with a strong sense of right and wrong, and Schneider and O’Toole pull it off brilliantly.

As the title of my review suggests, I only have one major misgiving about the show, and that’s the use of Remy Zero’s “Save Me” as the theme song. I normally like watching the opening credits of shows, but since I don’t care for the song, I usually fast forward through this one. It’s a shame, since Mark Snow composed a great theme for it. (It can be found on the DVD’s menu screen and during the end credits.)

I hope WBHV decides to start releasing entire seasons on DVD here in the U.S. soon. I’m certain this is a series that will get better over time. (The addition of Jeph Loeb to the writing staff points to this. To those unfamiliar with the name, check out his and Tim Sale’s Superman For All Seasons.)

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