World Through Winter's Eyes

my perception of the world around me through an academic filter

[swinterwriting-blog]

Global Poverty - An Ethical Dilemma

Global poverty has been in existence since the beginning of civilization, and both the absolute and relative poor have continued to suffer as the world’s wealth has become highly concentrated. Ethical questions about poverty and responsibility balanced with self-interest remain unanswered. Social Contract Theory and Utilitarianism offer ideas about the ethical implications of poverty, especially in an era of binary oppositions, and juxtapositions of extraordinary wealth of resources with consequences of their depletion and abuse.

Authors of “Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong” Louis Pojman and James Fieser explain Social Contract Theory as one agreeing to give up some freedoms in order to benefit society as a whole. One agreeing to abide by this social contract instead of self-interest is justified by the long term rewards of morality. Hobbs, one of the core theorists for Social Contract theory posed the idea “Where there is no enforceable law, there is neither right nor wrong, justice or injustice.” With this in mind, Social Contract theory suggests poverty is wrong because it is a part of a cultural enforceable system, and poverty represents all of the things that one is hoping to avoid by working with the social contract and not acting in one’s self-interest.

In looking at poverty from a Utilitarian perspective, one of the most controversial topics is the idea of negative responsibility. Can one be held responsible for the actions one doesn’t take? As Americans, we put our power in our wallets, and define ourselves by what we consume.

In a New York Times article, author Peter Singer poses a controversial solution to world poverty, following along closely with what utilitarian ideas suggest of using one’s money to benefit the most people, for instance instead of spending $200 on a new windshield, donating that money to flood relief efforts. These ideas have become more complex as our world becomes more globalized and connected, but disassociated. Critics of utilitarianism argue that the moral demands of our society (a society of wealth) must be balanced with our purchasing desires. While many Americans condemn moral behaviors of other places, conspicuous consumption is a much more popular habit here then charitable contribution to famine or poverty. Singer’s idea is that all money that isn’t used for a comfortable existence (somewhere around $40,000 a year) should be used to help the poor in the world.

Poverty cannot be explained away as natural, or unavoidable, because the kind of wealth that lives at the top of our global system, and in Western nations, is one that could definitely be balanced to reduce absolute poverty to nearly nothing, however with the banking system, worldwide political systems, and ideological concepts supporting all of these systems, poverty is unavoidable, because the systems have created winners that do not want to abide by a true social contract, instead just using one as a mask.

Works Cited

Pojman, Louis P., and James Fieser. Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong. Cengage Learning, 2017.

Singer, Peter. “The Singer Solution To World Poverty.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Sept. 1999, www.nytimes.com/1999/09/05/magazine/the-singer-solution-to-world-poverty.html.

[swinterwriting-blog]

What’s To Never Come Someday

Inspired by the Union ethics on television series The Orville, which was inspired largely by Star Trek, my country on earth is named Pandora, and it exists in the year 2070. This is the peace-instilling and ethical lab for Earth, and came into being after the fall of the Western World due to climate change. Our country occupies what used to be Australia and New Zealand. The society has an understanding of the unsustainability of exponential growth models and industry. The religion is nature-based, as are education and commerce (though commerce takes a very different form than capitalism). Philosophies for life and communication within the society are based on tolerance of difference, and the desire for an inclusive and mutually beneficial conversation to reach utopian ideals.

The “Standard of Life” document outlines how my country will make decisions regarding basic justice and more detailed codes of law.

1.       Treat others as you would like to be treated.

2.       We all have the same life force within us.

3.       We are all different expressions of life.

4.       Non-human life is to be treated with value and respect.

5.       Look at consequences before taking actions.

6.       There will be no creation of a universal currency.

7.       If you intend to harm someone else for your own gain, prepare for their wrath, or prepare for the penalty of the law (consequences evaluated case by case, by the detailed “Code of Peace and Empathy”, which outlines the many different harmful violations that can be committed in their complexity, and the associated consequences that will maintain peace, societal order, and honor for those harmed)

8.       Rape and murder are punishable by death.

9.       We will learn to live as equals and as one with everything to the best of our ability.

10.   There will be no sale, trade, or distribution of weapons, drugs, or living things.

Works Cited

Hammer, Espen. “A Utopia for a Dystopian Age.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 June 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/06/26/opinion/a-utopia-for-a-dystopian-age.html.

Macfarlane, Seth. “The Orville.” Fox, 10 Sept. 2017.

[swinterwriting-blog]

Blog Post 2: Project Mapping

Since its beginning, my project has changed its structure, but not content or research. My Honors Thesis is titled, “Embrace the Martian: Ecofeminism in the Age of the Apocalypse.” Instead of having a collection of 3 short stories, In this project, a creative narrative about a pregnant woman surviving extreme climate change will be situated in larger ecocritical and feminist frameworks. Through both her physical and psychological journeys I hope to explore in-depth ideas about the dissection of land and bodies by systems of profit and regulation. I am roughly aiming for 2/3 of the thesis to be creative and the other 1/3 to be critical interpretation and context in footnotes. This topic will serve as creative expression and contribute to the larger conversations about radical abuse of natural resources and women’s rights happening around the world. As both ecocritical theory and feminist theory have come about and adapted relatively recently, this project aims to hit from a distinct angle, even though it will be functioning in hot topics and conversations with an uncountable number of participants. I hope to coordinate well-married creative narrative and critical commentary to speak towards our current era.

My challenges with this project will be working with theoretical ecofeminist knowledge without falling into feminist apocalypse tropes. Ecocritical theory and feminism go hand in hand, but can also become redundant. To counteract this, I plan to use footnotes to create a parallel line of thought, adding layer and complexity. I want to find out why women feel paralyzed, voiceless, and fractured in today’s society, because time and time again women prove incredible strength and perseverance in the face of destruction. I am studying ecocritical theory because I want to find out why our Earth continues to be one of the last priorities for U.S. citizens, and especially those with the power to make change. With these aims in mind, I hope to engage readers in a narrative that allows them to explore human experience in our current era to better understand ecofeminist theory.

The conceptual problem I am looking at can be considered solved if my readers feel that through my creative/critical analysis they have an altered outlook on the current human experience because of the context of my research, or if my readers gain a greater understanding of ecocritical and feminist theory. In using prolific and well-known theorists, the goal of this project is to utilize the ideas in ways that those that are familiar with the theory can find intriguing, while offering perspective to less contextualized readers as well.

[swinterwriting-blog]

Blog Post 1: Ideas for Final Thesis

For my final honors thesis, I would like to combine creative and critical elements into a research project. The structure will be a compilation of creative essays, using critical theory to make my argument (largely in the use of footnotes).

The topics up for exploration will surround “consequences and sacrifices of identity, land, and bodies that are due largely to group influence and power imbalance. More specifically I would like to analyze the Western modes of dissecting and analyzing in sciences, geographies, structure and language. When it comes to thought and sexuality, as well as land, and ecosystems (life), the human need to categeorize, divide, and organize to make most useful is incredibly destructive to individuals and spaces, but can oftentimes be a complex negotiation to make “for the majority”.

I am able to explore these larger ideological concepts through feminist and ecocritical frameworks. The paralysis that many women feel is related to the dislocation of female identity by the patriarchy, and stories about women pose them as being life or death, angel or monster, all or nothing. Another idea I would like to research are expectations of women as mothers and implications of binaries are posed surrounding motherhood, and the impact these have on identity. The project could also further explore power dynamics within consent and sexuality.

Another concept I would like to further research on (for both the theoretical ideologies and creative inspiration) is the more “horror” element of doctor’s and fixing, helping, saving people. In the Handmaid’s Tale, The Bell Jar, and much explorative creative art there are many nods to the historical nature of medicine to work against minorities (women, mental disability, “freaks”).

One thread I would like to run through my creative pieces is the air of normalcy with which drastic measures can be imposed.

The first essay I would like to begin work on will be an “Embrace the Martian” creative apocalyptic piece about a pregnant woman moving through a world ravaged by climate change and survival of the most economically fit. For the thesis, I would like to dive more deeply into her psyche as a woman and potential mother, and also the implications of the boundaries drawn on bodies and lands in the world that came before her.

The theory sources I will be further analyzing and using to support my thesis as of now include Foucault’s History of Sexualization, Gender and Sex in the Media, Speculum of the Other Woman, and American Earth readings.

I would also like to connect the essays to current events, or relevant context. Articles like Harvey Weinstein and the Economics of Consent or “Sex Lies and Advertising” could help fully contextualize the creative portions of my thesis in theory, and further the relevance of my arguments.

[swinterwriting-blog]

3:10 to Yuma and Django Unchained

3:10 to Yuma and Django Unchained are two Western films that each approach the genre conventions of the Western from different angles, and build these conventions in interesting ways. The films use creative directing, mis-en-scene, cinematography, script, costumes, acting sound, and editing to achieve a distinct style, and the choices made by directors and creatives throughout the films consistently support the narrative. One Western genre convention that appears in both is the male-centric narrative, and setting around the time of the Civil War. Costumes and the outdoor scenes strongly characterize the films’ settings. The films are different in terms of narrative, time and space, and cinematography, directing, and editing.

One of the most distinguishing aspects of each film in comparison with other Westerns is the use of humor through mis-en-scene and dialogue. In 3:10 to Yuma, dialogue between Ben and Dan becomes conversational and humorous at the end of the film, intensifying the emotion for the viewer when Dan dies, and making the point that they have become friends, and each recognized their good and bad. This is especially evident in Dan’s refusal to admit his stubbornness to Ben. In Django Unchained, the scene in which the KKK have done a bad job at making masks before going to kill Django uses humor in an unusual context. One of the KKK’s member’s wife made poor eyeholes in the masks, and this creates physical humor, as the KKK is riding around blindly and foolishly on their horses hunting for the “inferior” (meant sarcastically) man.

Django Unchained is set around the Civil War in the Deep South. One of the explicit messages of the film is the brutality of slavery, and the reversing of that inhumanity onto the perpetrators through Django’s aggression. This is one of the most distinctive aspects of the film’s style. Tarantino used lots of gushing blood, and made the film extremely graphic, almost unrealistically so. Violence on the human body is used as a graphic property that becomes a motif. During action shoot-em-up scenes, slow-motion and closeups are cinematographic techniques used in these scenes, to show dramatic bleeding and injury to human flesh. In the flashback Dr. King Schultz sees of the man being torn apart by the dogs just before he shoots Candie in the chest, the violence creates more violence, as Dr. King Schultz imagines the dogs biting the man, he is driven to put a bullet into Candie’s chest when provoked, which then leads to the bloodiest battle of the film. The scene uses editing and mis-en-scene, as well as sound in the flashbacks, to build the narrative to the climactic battle, while driving home the message with intense violence.

Django Unchained relies heavily on setting and clothing. For example, Candie is colorfully and lavishly dressed. Slaves are costumed in muted, scrappy clothing. When Django is free, the scene in which he chooses his clothes is visually stunning because of the bright blue color of his chosen attire. Visions Django has of Broom Hilda show her in a bright yellow dress, in stark contrast to her clothing as a slave, or even dressed up as a server in the house. Costumes are used to indicate status throughout the film, as Django’s changing wardrobe demonstrates.

Nondiagetic music is used throughout Django Unchained, and is unique and important in the film. The song that opens the credits is typical of an old Western, with a grand classic, sound. But other songs deployed at crucial points in the narrative don’t usually appear in the Western genre. For example “100 Black Coffins” is a popular rap song used during Django’s journey as a Mandingo expert that creates emotions for the viewer by sending a message about violence on black bodies indirectly. The use of a rap song also breaks conventions of the old Western.

Editing in Django Unchained supports the narrative and also gives the viewer a perspective within the action. Closeups are shown of spurting blood, but more extreme graphic violent acts, like Dr. Schultz’s flashbacks of the dogs eating the slave, or the Mandingo fights, are shown in bits and pieces. One way of reducing the exposure is that these violent scenes are cut with reactions of other characters or side conversations, in order to disturb the viewer without crossing the boundary. Salient techniques used in the film are closeups and extreme closeups, crane shots, zoom-ins and zoom-outs, flashbacks/visons, and lots of blood.

A final example of this film’s extraordinary style within the Western genre is in the scene in which Candie is threatening Broom Hilda. Here, Dr. Schultz is actually a dentist, and he knows that Candie’s medical claims about skin color impacting brain functions are ridiculous. Medium shots of Candie and Broom Hilda are cut with long shots of the whole table, showing that Django is the farthest away from his wife. Stephen is always placed right on Candie’s shoulder, a position of power and influence, but also leashed to him. Django and his wife being so close in the same room, but unable to help each other creates a sense of helplessness and anxiety in the scene.

Django Unchained is a unique Western, and is unusual in many aspects, including that the story focuses on a black antagonist killing white men, as white cowboys are typical of the genre. Many elements, including unique use of humor and music, with mis-en-scene, costuming, and editing create a narrative that is not a typical Western.

3:10 to Yuma uses mis-en-scene from the start. Fire is a motif that appears many times, from the first match, to the burning barn and stagecoach, to the fires that light the night scenes. The first scene of 3:10 to Yuma opens on William lighting a match, and hearing his brother wheezing. The limited light of the match sheds light on the cover near his bed, a symbol that reads “The Deadly Outlaw”. This scene begins with the lighting of a match, and has a parallel completion with the burned down barn, making both the match and “The Deadly Outlaw” important props and graphic properties. “The Deadly Outlaw” is a visual hint to the viewer about the antihero of the film, Ben Wade.

One example of the importance of mis-en-scene and dialogue is shown in the final hotel room scene. Ben Wade is shown doodling in a Bible, and it is when William runs in later that this prop left by Ben Wade shows Dan’s picture on the first page, another symbol. This moment of realization and respect is made much stronger by the dialogue employed by all characters in conversations throughout the film, including Ben Wade. Conversations about Bible verse’s and God/hell are has throughout the film. Ben’s portrait of Dan on the front page of the Bible demonstrated Wade and William’s respect for Dan his character arc reached its peak.

Cinematography in 3:10 to Yuma is directed largely by its form as a remake of a 1950s Western, but also by the modern capabilities of creating an action film in the digital age. 3:10 to Yuma, and Django Unchained, frequently capture long shots of uninhabited scenery. Editing is important in the film, and can be seen in the scene in which Dan is knocked out by Ben’s boot. After a quick glimpse of the boot the viewer is also “knocked out” with Dan, before a flash cut, and then a close-up shot of Ben’s face is shown to indicate that he is waking up. In addition, elliptical editing is used throughout the film to make the journey to Yuma much shorter, and highlight the most important points along the way.

Sound is an incredibly important aspect in 3:10 to Yuma. In the moment of Dan’s death, the grand, heroic music is chopped, in order to emphasize the importance of the moment. The only noise is the chugging train, and the halted music parallels the end of Dan’s heroic action. Another important sound is Dan’s son’s cough. This motif is brought up in the opening and the final scene as the reason that Dan was fighting to keep his ranch, for the climate for his son. With this angle in mind, the director began the film with a cough that is key to the narrative.

In 3:10 to Yuma, the viewer is given unrestricted, omniscient knowledge. The narrative structure begins with two distinct storylines of Dan and Ben that become increasingly intertwined. When they combine forces a third storyline is introduced--Charlie and the Ben’s gang, chasing down the group transporting Wade. Expectations the viewer develops from the beginning of the film through dialogue and hints are fulfilled through the granting of information about the characters as the film progresses. For example, Dan’s injured leg is brought up early in the film at dinner, and again in the last scene as an important reason that Wade agrees to help Dan do something heroic. Wade’s expert knowledge of the Bible is explained as an important character trait because of abandonment by his mother as a child. Ben’s leg explains why he refuses to let Wade walk away from justice, and Wade’s Bible represents how he can be heartless and have a conscience at the same time.

The film builds on genre conventions, and fulfills viewer expectations. One example of this is Ben Wade not being entirely good or bad, and the last seconds of the film, in which he gets onto the train to Yuma by choice, but whistles for his horse, indicating to the viewer he will be getting off shortly, is a final testament to his good intentions and self-serving actions shown throughout the film.

[swinterwriting-blog]

Chicago

Chicago, is a musical set in jazz era Chicago (1930s) that explores the scandal, performance, and spectacle of the justice system. This film’s soundtrack is iconic (sidenote: I have also performed to many of these songs) and the music serves a variety of purposes within the film. One of my favorite scenes is the “Cell Block Tango” sequence. The scene is set with jail bars, and the costuming is also riddled with long running lines. By the end of the scene there are also dancers in the background silhouetted to create a theatrical looking jail cell block.

The song beings with the sound effect of a faucet dripping to set a rhythm. As the beat begins, the faucet is mixed with stepping sounds, and then the dialogue of the girls each repeating their words in rhythm. The words they say (pop, six, etc.) are the words associated with their murders. This serves to not only set up a great musical number, but also to emphasize the breaking point at which they committed the murder. As each of them takes their turn with their lyric, Velma is given particular emphasis through her volume, and timbre.

The scene is set up as a stage. The jail bars the six murderers begin behind also serves an important storytelling purpose in directing focus. The bars provide a barrier, so that each woman is able to tell her story spotlighted in front of the bars, while the others linger less noticeably in the background. The women use different anonymous men as props through the scene for both dancing, and demonstrating how they committed their violence. They do this through the use of movements and props, using red scarves to show violence. Each storyline takes a similar form of sound, the women begin at a lower volume, speaking instead of singing, to create a build. As they speak, the background music is quieted drastically. The music is halted abruptly altogether when they confess the murder to create dramatic emphasis.

This song is shot in two parallel film “universes”. Shots from the theatrical cell block performance are cut with shots of the women in the real jail. As they tell their stories, the dream world and real world are tied together closely through the editing, and the consistency of the song and dialogue through the scene. Cuts to the real world are intentionally placed once a character is already singing/speaking her section, so that it is clear to the viewer that the scene has not changed, but that there are two different sets being used to create one timeline.

One of the most important functions of this song serves narrative and political purposes. Katalin is the Hungarian character introduced as one of the six murderers in the “Cell Block Tango”. When it comes time to tell her story, she is unable to speak English, the only words she can say are “not guilty.” In her performance, she is the only one to have a white scarf instead of red, and this demonstrates to the audience she is telling the truth. Later in the film, Katalin is the first woman in Illinois to be hung. This is a strong message, as she is the only woman who was innocent. This message would not be understood by the audience if not for her confession of innocence in this musical number. Her status as a non-English speaking immigrant are character traits that demonstrate corruption and injustice for minorities and poor populations in the U.S. justice system, and her likely inability to pay for a lawyer like Billy also sends a message about money and the way we have placed value.

The song also serves the purpose of fulfilling viewer expectations. The film begins with Velma’s arrest for murder. The viewer is shown the blood on her hands, and is given the knowledge of her missing sister, but is left in the dark about what happened. Velma is able to not only tell the viewer, but demonstrate why she killed her sister and husband for the viewer in the song with dramatic flair.

Chicago offers a critical take of some of the most glamourized “temptations” to this day in the US—fame, murder, passion, and money—while examining the justice system as a literal “circus.” The choreography, mis-en-scene, cinematography, and acting come together to create a film with unified sound and visual that is classic.

[swinterwriting-blog]

Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is a Steven Spielberg film set in WWII that begins while taking Normandy. The mission to save one man becomes a raw narrative of the complexities of war. The portrayal is realistic, some men die, and some men live, and there does not seem to be much sense to who is able to go home. The images of war are brutal, and gory, showing bullets piercing bodies from all angles, men being eaten by fire, men with their insides falling out, and often the deaths are not valorized, but contextualized with true screaming, crying, and pleading.

The film’s attitude towards war is a combination of many different tones. The first is respect and honor. This is demonstrated strongly in the opening and closing scenes of the film, opening with an American flag, and an old, respectable Private Ryan and his family visiting a beautiful memorial where he is brought to tears. This introduces the film and the war as one that had some noble and valorous acts in it. The film honors those who have lost their lives in WWII, and offers respect to veterans and military.

The film also takes a stronger moral tone, often directly making statements about how lives are valued and wasted in wars. Some of these are ironic, some tragic, and some both. In the scene in which Captain Miller and his team finally find Private Ryan, Ryan makes the argument, why me? Why not any one of you? Which is exactly what everyone had been hinting at the entire trek. Miller also speaks to this when talking about his hope for the men sacrificed to be saving that number of people tenfold, and that idea being what helps him rationalize his day to day duties.

The film provides a strong view inside the mind of those fighting the war, showing Captain Miller sobbing and shaking after making a choice that killed his medic, and the translator paralyzed in fear as his companion fights for his death and is brutally stabbed in the chest with his own knife. In this scene parallel editing and crosscutting are used strongly to convey the direness of the soldier’s situation and the paralysis the translator feels while throwing the audience into panic. Cuts are made from the different storylines of the soldiers. These situations show the more surreal side of war, the moments in which reality is not so real to those living within it.

Another strong message about war the film offers is that of brotherhood. Brought up by the translator as the topic of his book in the beginning, Private Ryan brings this hopeful tone full circle by deciding to stay with his “brothers” at war instead of going home to his mother. This message of brotherhood is heightened by the idea of a home, of another life they all hope to return to together one day.

Spielberg relies strongly on rhythmic relations between shots to create the chaos of war for the viewer, and the opening scene is iconic for its cinematography and editing. As the film is a journey to find Private Ryan, elliptical editing is used throughout to condense the story time and the journey.

[swinterwriting-blog]

The Hollywood Reporter: An Industry Trade Publication

The Hollywood Reporter (THR) is an American publication for film, television, and entertainment industries. The magazine is a hybrid, offered both in print and online, and offers a wide range of articles on popular culture film and television. While the articles are not as numerically oriented as some from Forbes or Time magazines might be, they provide relatively critical discussion of the art and industries. The attached articles below are examples of The Hollywood Reporter as it can relate to each aspect of media creation in the digital age.

Content Creation

Production

Mandates and Regulation

Distribution and Aggregation

Technological

The Hollywood Reporter has had its fair share of scandal and controversy in its years of operation (founded in 1930 as a trade paper). One of the more interesting ways the magazine intersects with the entertainment industry is through hosting a variety of award shows for television and film. The magazine also features lots of coverage on awards like the Emmy’s and the Oscar’s, further establishing industry norms of value in the Hollywood awarding systems.

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Inception

Inception is a movie exploring the dream world, and cinematography is a key element of the believability of the film, and in directing the attention of the viewer. The mis-en scene is staged to make the dreams feel like reality for viewers, and often subtle cinematographic changes bring our attention to the fact that they are occupying a dream world. Taking this different realistic approach, instead of clearly signaling to viewers with surreal techniques that characters are dreaming, rewrites film conventions.

The cinematography helps to build varied dream worlds, but also keep layers of the dreams separate with clear distinctions between the filming of them to guide viewers through a complex film. The film is shot using a wide angle and normal lens, and uses distinct colors schemes to distinguish the dreams from each other. The first layer of the dream, a car chase through a city, is darker and is focused more grey and dark blue, the next layer in the hotel is a warmer yellow palette, and the last layer of the dream set in a snowy mountain fortress is white and grey.

Scenes throughout the film show the director’s and cinematographer’s creative impact on the film. The scene above picturing the bus falling off the bridge, is depicted in slow motion in order to help the viewer grasp the concept of time in the dream world, and that each layer of dream time passes quicker. For the characters to be able to act at a normal speed, slowing down the fall of the van served to give a clear visual both of the rate of time in this shot compared to other layers of the dream, and also give viewers a countdown before the van hits the water. Other scenes in the film also use altered speeds to indicate the way time feels within these imaginary worlds.

The “kick” also serves as a way to unify all of the dream worlds. When the van is pictured in slow motion, a cut to the gravity in the hotel layer is shown to be suspended, and cuts to an avalanche in the snowy layer being caused are all framed in succession to connect them for the viewer, to help indicate that even with the varying amounts of time, that all worlds are experiencing something caused by the real world. The example of this in the first scene closely ties the character’s slow motion fall into the tub with the water that is invading the dream. The narrative and storytelling elements of the film depend on cinematography to make sense of a confusing world for the viewer.

One of the most iconic scenes is the hotel room gravity defying scene, in layer two of the dream after the van has gone off the bridge in the first layer. For this scene, once again creatives made framing decisions that highly impacted reception of the scene. The camera distance and level stay consistent through the scene, capturing the fight in a combination of medium long shots and long shots. Instead of cutting, drastically moving, or creating lots of action with the camera, most of the action happens with actors on set, and the camera takes a position at the base of the floor in the scene. Once the viewer has become acclimated to the shift, towards the end of the scene the camera begins to adopt the walls and ceiling as its new floor base, still remaining rather steady. This creates shots that are shocking, truly looking like a fight in shifting gravity, and allows the viewer to see most of the fight action. The scene only uses a few cuts to medium close-ups in the fight over the gun to create a sense of action, and to give the viewer visibility, but overall, the filmmakers used the camera in this scene to help stabilize the viewer while the elements within the scene are in commotion.

Also in the hotel dream world, this scene is particularly impressive. The angle of the camera, shot from directly above the set, allows the stairs to be an optical allusion when the camera pans back to a straight angle to show that the stairs have become a “paradox”. Arthur is shown from a straight angle running down the stairs, then the camera cuts to the above angle. As Arthur runs down the stairs, the direct above angle allows him to actually run up the stairs and hit the man at the top of the stairs from behind. The camera then takes a drastic movement (as to explain what has happened to the viewer) and moves much closer to the characters, while also tilting and completely reversing to a more distant low placement below the characters where the stairs he was running down used to be. The use of angle and framing in this scene are extraordinary, and make this dream sequence realistic looking. A straight angle in this scene would have made the change in stairs almost unbelieveable.

Mirrors are also used throughout the film, in combination with the level, distance, and angle of the camera, to create odd effects for viewers. In these shots, the combination of the mirrors and camera (as well as special effects) show the audience that one character is actually disguised as another.

Inception is one of the most interesting and complex films I have seen. The cinematography throughout has made the movie the realistic and mind-bending action it is.

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Young Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein is a film that could be put into the Parody, Slapstick, or Romanic Comedy genre. The cinematography of the film and mis-en-scene adhere closely to 1930s monster films, even using a 1:37:1 aspect ratio to create the comical parody. The film being shot in black and white is one of the creative decisions that has placed this film with the classics. The director, Brooks also filmed the old western parody Blazing Saddles in the same year, showing his respect and knowledge of cinema.

The dialogue of the film is comical, many of the most memorable moments are made through dialogue and framing. For instance, one of the most infamous lines comes from the pun made by Inga “Vould you like to have a roll in ze hay?” before falling back into the hay in the cart and rolling around. In the scene previous, Dr. Frankenstein is saying goodbye to his fiancé, and after a long shot establishing the train in the background, his fiance is shot in close-up, and it makes the dialogue dramatic and comical, especially when she exclaims as he ruins her pampering. Many of the jokes in the dialogue also come from characters having misunderstandings.

Action throughout the film creates comical situations. One example of this is the scene in which Dr. Frankenstein and Igor are moving the body from the grave to the castle, the body begins falling out of the wagon, and they hear an officer coming. Dr. Frankenstein solves the problem by pretending the dead arm is his, while casually leaning against the wagon. This joke’s comical effect is completely dependent on the angle, level, and distance this scene are shot at, as well as the placement of the characters in the space. The film relies heavily on off-screen space, usually only filming one character or part of action/conversation at once.

This film is much like the films it is modeled after, using monster movie character stereotypes extensively for the use of the comedy. Igor’s character demonstrates this, often filmed often in close-up, and often from above to make him seem creepy and strange. One parodic element of his character is the clear change from Igor’s hump from one side to the other pointed out by Dr. Frankenstein. Frau Blucher is stereotypical, but also humorous if one understands her name (it means glue in German, eliciting the horses’ reaction). The way she angles herself (to seem cold, confident, and collected) has her facing away from characters during conversation, and she is often filmed from a straight angle.

The most obvious motifs are the cinematic motifs, framing angles, perspective, height and distance, as well as character stereotypes that make the film a close parody to a 1930s monster film. Another, one of the recurring motifs of the film is the Frankenstein violin song used to control/ attract the monster throughout the film. The comedy also relies on the motif of the mechanical arm of Inspector Kent, being used as a comic relief as a lighter, a dart board, and a pole with which he is used to break down the castle doors.

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Industry Lore

“Rather, industry lore describes myths regarding what audiences like or don’t like and explains how these beliefs become entrenched and seemingly unalterable.” (162)

In media industries, creative workers have some amount of agency over their work. Yet, the similarity in many of our media show the power of society and culture in creating industry lore that guides creative personnel’s thinking. Examples of this include the exclusion of black families from horror films, the dividing of books into chapters, and the inclusion of guns/violent acts in videogames. These are all things that guide the creators based on ideas about what can be popular, as well as what messages can be sent with these texts.

One of the most obvious examples of industry lore is the exclusion of women as action heroes (or any women in action films being objects of the action regardless). Much of the lore in our media is created by the leading executives and corporations in the industry (and the media that has been embedded with the lore impresses its ideals on everyone in the society). When your executives are lacking any diversity in class, race, gender, ability, or sexuality, only one perspective of seeing the world is created, along with the industry lores that will accompany those singular opinions. This type of lore can be seen most clearly in television, film, and videogames. Texts that break this lore include Tomb Raider, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Jessica Jones. Many of these texts have proven extremely successful, like Wonder Woman, and have challenged industry lore keeping women in disadvantaged roles in media.

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A Salon.com article: How AI and augmented reality are transforming the fashion industry

How AI and augmented reality are transforming the fashion industry

In the Salon.com article written by Alistair Charlton, the wide range of impacts, both current and future, that artificial intelligence can have on fashion are discussed and speculated on using current developments in the joint industry ventures. The article begins by highlighting a problem retailers have with online shoppers—unexpected fit, size, and coloring of clothes--and then poses a possible solution--depending on people’s trust in AR technologies to suggest clothes and demonstrate how they will fit accurately to reduce costs to retailers.

Next, Chartlon discusses the industry buzzword, ‘blended reality’ using a magic mirror concept to help consumers try on clothes in-store that already exists. The most compelling example of this is, the Memory Mirror from Memomi, a company founded in 2013.

“The color of clothes you wear in front of the Memomi mirror can be changed with a tap of the companion smartphone app. The logic here is, if you're happy with the fit of a dress but want to try a different size, you can do so with the tap of a screen instead of changing…The company even claims patterns can be changed, and you can add virtual accessories to the outfit. As with other smart mirrors, you can snap images and take video of yourself, then download them, send to friends for advice, or compare one outfit on a display behind the two-way mirror with the one you're wearing.”

While this might exist already, it is still largely unavailable to the masses. Another example is given of clothing brand Zara, who is using AR in a way similar to museum displays. You scan a code on a product you like, and see it on the models with an online listing.

This magic mirror technology changing the way we purchase in fashion can enter our homes for fashion purposes (our own magic mirrors, capable of connecting to apps or online stores), or even change the way we live, the consumerism involved in having a home, making our homes surfaces’ magic mirrors. An example of this beginning to occur is the Amazon Echo Look,“an Alexa-equipped device with a camera and microphone. Designed for your bedroom, the Look takes portrait photos on demand, then uploads them to your smartphone, where each outfit can be viewed, compared and catalogued. Using artificial intelligence, the Echo Look ranks your outfits and picks the best of any two you offer it, based on personal fit and current fashion trends.”

This Salon.com article highlights the vast ways AR can change industries, and the economics of industries. Technologies with this aim are already out there, and in use, it is just a matter of time before a consumerist culture invites and accepts them into its masses.

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The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel is an aesthetically magical comedy following the buddy action genre, following two mismatched characters escaping the law and revealing more about the duo throughout. While the material is serious, including chopped off fingers and a potentially tragic ending, the dialogue is witty throughout, and there is a hopeful air to the film, created by the beginning and ending scenes of the woman with the book at the memorial. Cinematography is integral to any understanding of space, time, and development in the film.

For example, to show the difference in time, scenes set in 1985 (1:85:1) are shot in a different ratio than those shot in the 1960s (2:40:1), and the scenes set in the 1930s (1:3:1). The more square nature of the scenes shot in the 1930s works well with the square, central, and parallel framing used throughout the film to create a perfect “story” written in the book we are shown at the beginning. This multilayered film uses different cinematographic techniques to indicate different time periods.

The majority of the story, scenes set in the 1930s, are in a red color scheme, from the hotel lobby view of the grand staircase, to the train car, and the church. The 1960s universe of the film employs the strong use of color, following a yellow scheme. However, later in the film, the scene showing Gustave’s death is shown in black and white, a drastic tonal and color change that indicates the seriousness of the scene, and draws attention to its important, and the narration makes the scene a flashback.

Framing throughout the film is extremely uniform, and speaks to the style of Director Wes Anderson. Almost all shots are straight views of characters and scenes, at a level, straight angle, and a great number of shots of characters are medium shots. The film uses the square shape and medium shots from a straightforward angle to also create many frame within a frame shots.

In the scene where the will is being read, the cinematography creates the comedy of the scene. After hearing that Gustave will receive the painting, Dmitri begins to threaten Gustav, who then claims “I go to bed with all my friends.” Following this explanation, he is hit by Dimitri. The camera then edits to a medium shot of Dmitri, the person throwing the punch, who is punched Zero, and then edits to a still straightforward medium shot of Zero punched by the villain, Jopling. Jopling is then framed in a close-up shot with a darkened circle encompassing everything but his face. This also has an important narrative function for the viewer, as this comedic scene sets up the rest of the film, Dmitri making threats and Jopling fulfilling them. The framing of the characters is quick following of the sequence of punches without mobile framing, just from different angles and perspectives. Also, the angles come from above the person throwing the punches shoulder, giving it a POV touch.

After this, a cut is made to three other men in the room for comedic relief (one of them asks where the dead Selene is at). At the close of the scene, after taking more threats Gustav abruptly makes the statement, “Let’s change the subject, I’m leaving” before the camera quickly cuts to a long shot of him rushedly walking out with a towel over his bloody nose, making his polite statement all the funnier due to the framing and focal perspective.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a cinematographic masterpiece with a light, comedic aesthetic.

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Pyscho and Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most remembered directors of all time. Two of his films, Psycho, and Vertigo are pioneering films in suspense and psychological drama. Vertigo is a 1958 film, following the story of an ex-detective hired to follow a “possessed” bourgeois wife. After falling in love, she kills herself, only for him to go crazy and find her (among many plot twists) before she dies again. Psycho is a 1960 film tracing the story of a woman who is on the run from the police, and is murdered by an inn-keeper’s mother. The rest of the film follows her family and lover trying to figure out what has happened to her, and investigating the iconic Bates’ Motel.

Both of these films display many of Hitchcock’s mis en scene techniques. He employs close-ups of characters in both films, and jagged edits and cuts to indicate and replicate their distressed psychological state in viewers. In both films, he also uses shots to give the camera human qualities. In Vertigo he uses point of view shots to demonstrate the protagonist’s vertigo and fear of heights. In Psycho during the iconic murder scene, the viewer is taken between quick cuts of the killer’s point of view, and the fight over the knife. This creates further suspense for the viewer, because the killer is unseen, and the viewers relate to the protagonist even with the change in point of view.

In both films, the audience is given more information than the viewers. In Vertigo, the viewer finds out long before the protagonist that his lover was not a bourgeois wife, but an imposter employed for a scam of which he was the victim. In Psycho, the viewer knows the danger of Bates before any of the character’s do. Even so, at the end of both films, Hitchcock still has one trick left in his sleeve to shock knowing viewers at the end of the films. Both films also create an empathy for the antagonists, due to their circumstances. Both films also have a death that one would expect at the end of the film long before the actual climax in action. This creates a sense of almost two chapters of the films, the before “death” and the after death.

These films also show the progression of Hitchcock’s career in their differences. The character’s in Vertigo (ex-detective, innocent lover, wealthy/conning wife and husband) are much more typecast than the character’s in Psycho (working woman, sister, split personality hotel owner). The tones of the films are quite different-Vertigo is set in San Francisco, and throughout the film, the cinematography is bright and colorful during daytime scenes, and lots of scenery is shown. Psycho, on the other hand, did not have the same funding, and was shot in black and white, which largely changes the aesthetic. While both films involve a search, the way the searches are framed is radically different. In Vertigo, the ex-detective takes a voyeuristic angle, and we follow the beautiful wealthy wife through the beginning of the film from a distance, without her knowing. In Psycho, the search does not begin until our leading lady is already dead, and the search takes on a different, more dangerous twist.

In all of his films, Hitchcock employed a direct use of symbols, from the stuffed birds and money in Psycho, to the swirls used in the introduction of Vertigo that are employed throughout the film (along with the necklace, the flowers, and even the style of the wife). While the films take on different tones, plots, and elements of Hitchcock’s directing style, both films are considered classics.

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Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock is a master of cinema, and his films create suspense by using minute details, and entering into viewer’s psychological states. In his 1960 film Psycho, he creates suspense in viewers even by today’s standards. In one of the early scenes, Norman Bates is explaining to Marion Crane that “only birds look well stuffed because they are passive to begin with,” before explaining that his mother is not dangerous. In the scene below, it demonstrates the foreboding elements of the scene. Norman is in the foreground, with a perched and stuffed owl in the background. The perched owl on his left, looks like it is about to leap off the wall and attack him as his mother does to both him, and more violently the rest of the guests.

In the next screenshots, I found that the parallels between the scene of Norman carrying Marion’s dead body and Norman carrying his mother down the stairs speak to how the relationships between mothers and children, and husbands and wives become distorted and twisted. He carries both of them, dead body and crazy mother, the same way, as a wife would be carried by a husband. This is also alluded to in the beginning of the film, when the first scene focuses on Marion’s conversation of love and marriage. These details in action come together to create a suspenseful and powerful film.

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Regulation of Media Industries

In “Understanding Media Industries” written by Timothy Havens and Amanda Lotz, they state, “Although media industries may not face substantial state enforced regulation they are still very much regulated by an array of assumptions and perceptions about the nature of their products… In this case, commonly held beliefs by media workers—about what audiences want, what might worry advertisers, and what might succeed (by commercial measures)—impose strict regulation on the possible range of media products created.” (Havens 70)

Besides broadcasting, which is much more government regulated in America and most other places in the world due to its use of radio waves on the electromagnetic spectrum, most media regulations on content and ratings are created by the industries, companies, and individuals creating/distributing content themselves. Most industries have created formal regulations, while companies and individuals tend to lean on informal self-regulation, which is based on what will sell.

Copyright laws are crucial regulations that largely govern the economics of various media industries. Copyright laws have been around since the invention of the printing press in the 1600s, and have become complex and adjusted with time. However, the digital age threatens the power of the copyright, as material sharing and distribution is much easier, and new businesses models are beginning to challenge this copyright law setup further.

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Milk

In the film Milk, the protagonist is a gay man (Harvey Milk) in the 1970s who, in his fight for his own rights, becomes the first gay man to hold a major political office, and Milk ultimately became a politician and leading gay rights activist. Milk is not portrayed as being mythically heroic, but a truthful and flawed man just trying to create a place for oppressed, working people to have community and rights. Milk faces many antagonists, including larger social and political forces, as well as individual politicians, and even his lovers encourage him to slow down, his first lover leaving him and the other committing suicide.

The beginning of the film opens with his many failed attempts at running for office, and the film is actually narrated by a tape recorded by Milk previous to his death, during which he explains his journey in the case he is assassinated, prompting the viewer to expect his death throughout the film. His death is particularly dramatic, because the viewer knows he is about to be murdered, but in congruence with the rest of the film, he follows his nature and instinct to be open and accessible, and enters into the office where he is murdered. In the film he is a hero on a quest, an underdog against society, and his campaign team is a family against a crisis. The film, and insight into Harvey Milk’s personal and political life, create great empathy in viewers, and confront gay and human rights that are still on the forefront of today’s politics and confrontation, in light of Jared Polis being elected the first openly gay governor in Colorado.

Harvey Milk is a complex character. He is introduced as a Republican in the introduction, and a businessman. He often uses humor as a way to open conversation, and his campaign was a careful balance of playing the political game, the theatrics, and the unedited truth. For instance, he highly encouraged people to come out around the country, but in his early activist days, shaved and cut off his long hair, adopting a suit and more traditionally “straight” appearance. 

 Because he is introduced as the narrator, we see the events that follow through his point of view. His fight for equal rights, as well as his journey to power, was not simply an ascension but a bumpy ride. In the process of creating an open environment, given really aptly in the example of the disabled teen who is given hope by his actions, he also deeply hurts those closest to them, and struggles balancing his domestic life with his political career, which in this film is not about greed, but equality and even distribution of power. His borderline obsession with political activism opened up the world for many people like the teen, but also (in Milk’s own opinion) drove his lover to hang himself. Throughout the film, from his narration tapes, to the murderous drawing on his fridge, to the final warning from his secretary to ignore White, we, and Milk, have a feeling of doom that Milk is going to be violently murdered for his activism. His pursuit of human rights through the danger, and his personal losses, makes him a martyr.

Milk is a relatable character, and the viewer learns from his actions, even though his flaws. In his struggles to get conservative politicians like Briggs to openly converse and debate with him, as well as his openness to help and talk to anyone who called or showed up at his door, and even his final agreement to have the conversation with White that ended his life, Milk stood for freedom of speech, and the power of language and conversation in power, equality, and democracy. Throughout the film, in his own personal ups and downs, he never closed the conversation, he never would be silenced, and even in his death, the viewer is shown the sheer power of his speech and image as being a lasting impact.