Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Technical Obsession And Modernity Of Cinematic Reception

Chapter 1 Technical Obsession and Modernity of Cinematic Reception Case Study: The Man with the Movie Camera; The Artist This chapter conducts a comparative study of two films, The Man with the Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929) and The Artist (Hazanavicius, 2011), examining how they reflect cinematic technical developments of the 1920s-1930s. Director Dziga Vertov depicted one day in a Soviet city around ten years after the 1917 October Revolution, which had seen the Czar overthrown and the establishment of Lenin?s Bolshevik government[footnoteRef:1]. Roberts (2000) dissected the overall structure of the ?day? as, ?one-third rest, one-third work, one-third leisure.? The film portrayed the city chronologically from before sunrise-when citizens†¦show more content†¦Therefore, The Man with the Movie Camera combined the depiction of the city with reflexive representations of the filmmaking process and the auditorium. [1: Since 1921, Soviet society had seen the relative success of Lenin?s New Economic Policy and its ultimate transformation to full central planning by 1928, under Premier Stalin. The film is essentially a criticism of the New Economic Policy (Roberts, 2000, p.23.] The Artist covered a transitional period in cinema- indicated by the intertitle of the film as being 1927-1931- from the era of silent movies to the advent of sound. The film displayed the process of Hollywood silent movie star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) failing in his previously successful acting career, resulting from negatively confronting the emergence and subsequent popularity of the talkies[footnoteRef:2]. He attempts to revive the silent movie enterprise through the assistance of Peppy Miller (enacted by B?r?nice Bejo, Hazanavicius? wife), a star-actress of the new sound films. The finale resolves George?s quandary through his participation in musicals. The ending also attributes George?s initial fears around the advent of sound to him having a French accent. In accordance with the film?s theme and configuration, Hazanavicius presented it as a black-and-white, silent film[footnoteRef:3] framed in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Furthermore, the film was

Monday, December 9, 2019

Elegant Chaos free essay sample

I remember a day in eighth grade when our science teacher, hoping to kill some time at the end of the school year, showed the class a video attempting to explain String Theory. As one might expect, the vast majority of the 14-year-old class found the experience thoroughly confusing and was quite bored within the first half hour of the film. I, however, discovered something profound amidst the confusing graphical representations of relativity and the strange Greek squiggle-filled equations that flashed across the screen. Here at last was a bit of education that I could relate to: a concrete representation of how the world worked, or, perhaps, how we thought it worked. The serene blanket of space-time as depicted in the film was like a piece of the universe I could hold onto and experience firsthand. Science was elegant—here is the issue and this is the solution that we have come up with. We will write a custom essay sample on Elegant Chaos or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page But it was not the wholly theoretical solution itself that was fascinating to me: Whether or not it made sense, String Theory attempted to explain the entire universe in a single, simple equation. That attempt alone held the theory in high regard in my mind. If Science described the world at large, Writing, then, described one’s thoughts and opinions. More contemplative and less logical, perhaps, but almost a Science in its own right. My first serious exposure to the world of words was when my eighth grade homeroom teacher instructed us to write a paragraph about ourselves. It was near the beginning of the year, when neither teacher nor student really understood the other yet. As usual, I did not finish on time, and turned in half a paragraph. Turned out it didn’t matter, because the teacher then proceeded to explain why every last paragraph she received was utter garbage. Fifty percent of the paragraphs opened with â€Å"I was born†¦Ã¢â‚¬  or something equivalent, and a well-written paragraph, the teacher said, must grab the audience’s attention straight away. It must center around a specific topic—like the teacher’s own paragraph, which focused on her work as a teacher. Results were not immedi ate, but before too many class sessions I started to realize just how powerful writing was. Words fade, but writing endures. Before that day it was something you did for a grade; now it is a language, a means of capturing a moment with such elegance and precision that it could last literally forever. Soon I realized the predicament I faced. Much like the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics were seemingly in direct conflict, as described in the String Theory film, my two different worlds of writing and science seemed to have no time for each other. They were two separate entities—the ordered and logical, the expressive and emotional. I tried not to think of it, but I knew eventually one would have to take dominance over the other. I would like to say that my life at this point was tragically split down the middle; that I was simply overwhelmed by this conflict. I would like to say that I had no time to finish the numerous epic novels I started because I was busy deriving brilliant scientific theories that would alter the course of science as we know it. The truth is that I have started a grand total of one epic novel and that the only scientific theory I have ever come up with was proved almost certainly false mere hours after its conception. To be honest with myself, I spend more time playing video games than I do doing those things. Back to String Theory. An elegant, one-size-fits-all equation to every aspect of the universe. Unifying the two conflicting concepts of relativity and quantum mechanics. Was this what I needed? An elegant solution unifying science and literature? Here I am, writing about science. Not exactly the solution I was looking for. Before I know it I’ll be analyzing the science o f writing. That’s not it, either. Here’s the thing about String Theory: It doesn’t really make sense. There’s no way to prove it right, and yet no way to prove it wrong. It is a theory seemingly coming from nowhere. The concept is radical, bordering on the edge of silly. And yet if we suspend our disbelief for a moment, its applications change the way we look at science. It’s intriguing. It’s captured some of the greatest minds in history. It’s productive. What can I conclude from all of this? That my life makes no sense? That it in fact both makes sense and does not until one makes an observation on the system and it collapses into one event or the other? That there are really eleven spacial dimensions, not just three? Perhaps, like relativity and quantum mechanics, science and literature are not necessarily separated by a deep, dark void of confusion so long as one is willing to suspend his disbelief for a while. Perhaps Science’s most appealing aspect is also that of life: That, from the midst of utterly nonsensical and hopelessly uncertain mayhem, a man can pull out random bits of information and make an attempt to explain them. That, should he fail, it is the attempt itself that matters. Perhaps once the dust settles and the rubble falls one can at least pretend to make sense of the confusion. Once that happens, it should be possible to establish some sort of order and take control. I figure life doesn’t really have to make sense. It just has to be productive.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Psych unit 9 Essays - Reflexes, Childhood, Human Development

Psych unit 9 Are humans completely helpless at birth? In the past, some philosophers and psychologist believed that humans are born as blank slates - helpless and without any skills or reflexes. In fact, they believed this lack of reflexes was one of the factors that separated humans from animals. Researchers now know that humans are far from blank slates when we are born. All babies exhibit a set of specific reflexes which specific, inborn, automatic response to certain specific stimuli. Some important releases humans are born with are: Rooting reflex - is an infant's response to touch near the mouth or the check. The infant will turn their head to the sie which he or she felt the touch. Sucing reflex - when an object is placed into the baby's mouth the infant will suck on it. (the combination of rooting and sucking reflexes helps babies eat. Grasping reflex - is an infants clinging response to a touch on the palm of the hand Moro reflex - When startled, a baby will fling their limbs our and then quickly making themselves as small as possible Babinski reflex - when a baby's foot is stroked, they will spread the toes