Reading through The Influencing Machine I found the objectivity and bias pieces most interesting in the book. I immediately though of the War on Terror and the surfacing of a lot of feminist commercials showing girls in a different light than mainstream media is used to. I wasn’t quite sure which bias (Visual, Narrative, Status Quo, Commercial) these commercials follow but I thought I’d show everyone some of the commercials I had in mind. The first  highlights what it means to be a girl and how people tend to use girl as an insult when doing something related to sports or power positions.

The second one, which happens to be one of my favorite, shows women bleeding from being active outside. It’s very different from normal tampon and pad commercial that make me feel uncomfortable. I remember watching Fantastic Four with the commentary on and actors were expressing how much they didn’t like the final scenes because Jessica Alba’s character, Susan Storm, was shown bleeding while holding up a force field. I recall her counter arguing that it was nice, because it showed her being strong. It also proved that women superheroes could get just as dirty as the men and elude the same amount of strength. I think that this commercial is awesome because every woman looks strong with their blood and are not shying away from it. Personally, I think every tampon commercial should look like this, or make a woman feel powerful. Instead, it shows us ways to hide our periods and woman are only confident if it is a secret.

https://youtu.be/Y5vmo_oUnJo

I’ve used the first two minutes of this clip in my analysis.

 

Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuarón enraptures several different themes in today’s society giving credence to the damage that war can create internationally and externally, while entertaining the idea of what infertility can do to a dominant species in society. A significant scene towards the end of the film, expresses just how important the role of women and children are in times of distress. In this scene (which roughly being around 1:31:00) main character Theo is shielding Kee and her newborn child from multiple gunshots from outside. He is shown trying to get her out of the building and far from harm’s way. However, in this scene of heavy warfare, there is a momentary ceasefire and the Fugees (immigrants), counteracting militia, and military soldiers take a moment to observe the child. Through study of Mise-en-Scéne, cinematography, and editing, one can further understand the significance of this scene and what meaning it gives to the film as a whole and the role of its characters.

Mise-en-Scéne

            This scene is incredibly realistic as people have seen war footage and the damage that it can do to a building. In this scene, sounds of gunfire and bombs are continuously going off in the background and lends to the reason why the walls are shot up and the building is in disarray. There are several misplaced bricks in the background used as props and the characters are covered in dust from the the has ricocheted of the wall from gunshots and destruction. Their clothes are very worn and bloody from their own wounds or other’s blood. More importantly, when the camera continues to switch between Theo’s point of view as he’s walking down the hallway and what is behind, you can see a wounded woman sitting on the ground, and notice people behind them still being shot at. This signifies that a war is still occurring despite the visual of people actually shooting. When a man approaches them at the steps, he is holding a gun to both Kee and Theo. This prop not only connects us to the background sound but amplifies the dangers to come outside of the building they are trying to leave from. To the next group of soldiers who continue to ceasefire, we see their expressions change. Like the intial man with the guy, the soldiers’ faces change to one of determination to awe as they gawked at the baby Kee clutched to her body. Without the continuous presence of the supporting actors stopping in the tracks as they interacted with Kee and her baby, it would be hard to identify that the baby was the most significant factor in the scene. Further, the costuming of Kee, Theo, and the Fugees in contrast to protestors with Guns and the military, allowed us to see the different positions each character played and how vulnerable Kee and Theo were to being harmed.

Cinematography

With heavy observation, I’d argue that scene was recorded with handheld shots because the camera remained slightly unsteady causing tension and anticipation. In addition, there were several following shots, and a lot of refocusing and cuts to display the expressions of Theo and Kee and the expressions of the Fugees and people shooting. In the beginning of this scene, there is a shallow focus on Kee and Theo, which signifies the baby they are protecting is most important. However, the shot is still long enough to capture the mayhem around them and show what dangers they encounter. Where ever, Theo and Kee move the camera follows. For example, as they fall to the ground the camera tracks their movements and remains low until they get back up again. While they are down, the camera remains low, but angled upwards towards the two. The camera continues to slightly shake which instills a feeling of uncertainty in viewers as you are forced to wonder what is going to happen next. It then begins to zoom-in to Theo’s face as his expression changes and forces you to wonder what he is looking at.

The setting in the film present a strong sense of realism and often forces me to reflect on the environmental activism advertisements that show heavily polluted areas, albeit land, water, or air. The movie showed areas we very much could associate with real-life however, the way they were presented exist in areas of the world already, and could possibly be something we continue to interact with in the future should people continue to live unsuitable lives. I could go out on a limb and also note that whenever Theo was faced with a lot of turmoil from outside forces, he was in a highly industrialized area (near his workplace or where the Fugees were held captive). Scenes were he was running (really driving) away from the madness in order to get Kee to a safe haven, were in the country with a lot of green landscapes. Here we can think of Jasper’s home and the safe house that Leon took them to. Roads that lead to these places seemed pure and untouched.

Below I’ve attached still frames from moments that I believe truly address pollution. In the effort, I say that infertility in this case symbolizes the way in which war and malicious practices can damage the Earth. If done too much, it can also cause irreversible damage like oil pollution in the Amazons.

In this frame, I wanted everyone to pay attention to what is being shown outside of the guarded window. The train passed a large amount of what appeared to be garbage. This could have given credence to they way in which we carry out waste practices. Waste today is taking up a lot of land mass, using remote areas of trash islands.

 

 

Cows could have been a natural prop to the open land shown on the sides as Jasper and Theo were driving. HOWEVER, these cows were set on fire. This could have been referenced to bad farming practices like slash and burn or the mistreatment of animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This shot was a mobile frame following Sid’s truck. When heading to the detainment center, you noticed a lot of degradation to the land as the bus Sid is driving Theo, Kee, and Miriam in turns into the opening gates. At the forefront, you can see a barrel in the water (could have been filled with oil), muddy water and pathways that damage the grass areas. In the second frame, notice on the bottom left the dirty sewage water being leaked out and the dead animal. Past the road and at the top of each frame you can see heavy clouds of smoke from towers, and what appears to be an urban skyline. This reminds me of driving on the highway in New Jersey and looking as massive factories.

Each of the shots were backgrounds and showed the car that drove onto roads as minuscule. Environmental damage is all around us, and yet it isn’t really treated as a priority. Pollution is mentioned once in passing by the Christian protestors in the beginning of the film. Yet, most settings and landscapes chosen are portrayed as damaged in several parts of the movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bringing Up Baby was pretty funny from start to finish. Here you have a troubled paleontologist paired with a free-spirited woman (although some may refer to her as absentminded) trying to find a leopard. Just going off of the title I assumed that the show would be about a married couple raising a child, but it was the complete opposite. I argue that this movie was about letting go and learning to appreciate life. Further, one should always focus on what makes them happy and not be assuaged by the judgement of others. I’ve gathered this solely based on the change of character portrayed in the main character, David, as he interacted with Susan.

 We first notice that David may be unhappy when his fiancee, Alice, insinuates that he nails his meeting with Mr. Peabody in order to guarantee a million -dollar donation to the museum. While he is most excited to get married and enjoy his honeymoon, Alice is more concerned with David finishing the remake of the dinosaur. She says  “Once and for all nothing will interfere with your work” and “Our marriage must entail no domestic requirements of any kind.” David face continues to drop when he realizes that his wife wishes not to have children and only wants to focus on the future of the museum.

Throughout the film, he continues to try to impress Mr. Peabody to get the donation (probably for his wife’s sake) but Susan always gets in the way of that. First with stealing his golf ball and car at the golf course, ripping his suit at dinner, and later (after she’d drawn affection for him) she sends his clothes to the cleaners knowing it would delay his wedding. While he’s well aware that she continues to inconvenience him, I noticed that after agreeing to help Susan look for her missing leopard, he stops worrying about missing his wedding day and practically gives up on trying to be liked by Mr. Peabody. Instead, he concerned with getting the Leopard back to Susan’s grandmother to make Susan happy.

Towards the end, Alice confronts David in the Museum when the fiasco is over and says that she doesn’t like the change in David that he has endured while spending time with Susan, and decides to leave him. Although he seemed discouraged, as soon as Susan arrived and told him that she had gotten him the money for the museum (which essentially was what he was after the ENTIRE movie), he did not seem in the least bit excited. However, what he did realize was that he was in love with Susan. In the bigger scheme of things, him realizing that his time with her (Susan) was the most fun he’d ever had, was an indication that he wanted to do more with his life. Frankly, after the dinosaur collapsing it was probably much easier to leave his career at that final point. Susan represents the change in his life as she made a big impact on him in such short time.

 

SO. This blog shall be about my reaction to first class. Just analyzing at the photograph, At the Time of the Louisville Flood, may have been one of my favorite parts of class. I rarely take the time to fully analyze a photo. Sometimes I refrain because I like the initial feeling I get when I see something, and if I were to fully analyze it would completely change my perception. I also enjoyed the exercise we did with the beginning of Apocalypse Now. Since watching that clip and several others, I am convinced that analyzing sound is my favorite part of understanding a film. I was given the task to pay close attention to the sounds that were featured in the movie, and assess how well they played with the scenery. I noticed that the more I tried to focus solely on the sound, the more overwhelmed I felt because there were so many crashing sounds. Most movies that I watch I pay attention to the music that is played because I am an avid fan of movie soundtracks. I just think that sound carries a movie and if they don’t match, you don’t want to pay attention or get frustrated like when the sound doesn’t match up with the pictures of the screen.