My Responses to the Films "Awakenings" and " Lorenzos Oil".

Marie Amanda Frances E. Cruel 111021 PSY 106 – B PCN:14 Awakenings/ Lorenzo’s Oil Since I started university in the Ateneo two years ago, I’ve heard many things about the subject Physiological Psychology from friends in older batches. They warned me all about the difficulty of the course but told me the really fun things we would experience in class, like donating blood and watching Dr. Cuenca demonstrate the action potential through body gestures (“action potential, action potential, sliiiiiiiide!”). However, no one ever told me that we would watch two movies that would have enough power to really move me but at the same time help me see how the lessons taken up in class can be realistically applied in life. In this paper, I will reflect on the things I’ve learned through the two movies regarding life and the power of the spirit. The two movies applied the lessons discussed in class in real life. Both movies drove me to the realization that the things I learn in this class are not merely a boundless amount of terms and definitions to memorize or color coded illustrations presented on an overhead projector that are meaningless. The structures we learn about in class are indeed real, and I know this

  • Word count: 1402
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Media Studies
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Describe The Elements Of Style And Narrative Applied To The Films "Hard Candy" And "Silence Of The Lambs" And How They Cause Emotional Response

JOE MOORCROFT 13G Two elements of two chosen texts and how they cause emotional response My two chosen texts are Hard Candy and Silence of the Lambs. In these films many film techniques and elements are relevant and vital to the construction of emotionally captivating and encouraging sequences. The two main and most important elements are style and narrative. A film element is something used by a media producer or a film company to create a desired emotional response and a desired positioning from the spectator. This process is called mediation and it is the most vital thing to cause emotional responses in films, as it has the ability to portray an ideology onto the audience and captivate those who wish to be targeted, and also expose emotionally, those that are in the line of fire. Film narrative is the depiction in the medium of film of a series of events in cause and effect relationship occurring in time. Loosely speaking film narrative is a story constructed from production and story elements. Story telling in film is dependent on production processes. Production elements of camera, sound, editing, lighting, acting, visual composition (or mis-en-scene: sets, props, costume, make-up), and special effects (such as CGI) combine with story elements of character, setting, plot, cause and effect and create the power behind enforcing an emotional response from audiences and

  • Word count: 2779
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Media Studies
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How does the director, Jared Hess, create the personalities of the main characters in his film, Napoleon Dynamite?

Film Study: Napoleon Dynamite How does the director, Jared Hess, create the personalities of the main characters in his film, Napoleon Dynamite? Napoleon Dynamite, directed by Jared Hess is a film that revolves around the main protagonist ‘Napoleon’ and his slightly unorthodox family and friends. The film doesn’t have much of a storyline, in the sense that there is no climatic build up, or clear problem that the protagonist’s try to overcome. Rather, the film focuses largely on the outlandish personalities of each of the main characters, and how they overcome their personal flaws. This emphasis on character development is achieved through the use of diegetic and non-diegetic music, unique character consumes, and discrete traits within each of the characters dialogue that change subtly throughout the film. Napoleon’s true character is revealed to the audience right from the beginning of the film, as we immediately label him as awkward, nerdy and anti-social judging by his appearance and attitude. Similarly, Hess decides to introduce Napoleon’s brother, ‘Kip’, with a clear indication as to what sort of character he is, as we quickly learn that he is just as unusual as Napoleon. Finally we are introduced to “Rico”, who is the cousin of Napoleon, and within the first few scenes we discover that he is somewhat stuck in the past. Napoleon is introduced to us

  • Word count: 866
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Media Studies
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Analysis of the Representation of Ethnic Minorities in "Training Day" and "Se7en"

An analysis of the representation of ethnic minorities in Training Day and Se7en. Representation of ethnic minorities is a controversial issue. This study explores the representation of Denzel Washington in Training Day (2001) and Morgan Freeman in Se7en (1995). Although there have been many social developments and shifts in cultural hegemony, ethnic minorities are no longer restricted to the number of roles they play and ethnic minorities are not so explicitly stereotyped. The movie Birth of a nation represented black people as ‘savages’ and in one scene a black man sexually assaults a white women thus representing black people as if they are possessed by lust. The movies glorifies white people and in this case the Klu Klux Klan. The movie stereotypically represents black politicians and shows them devouring chicken and ogling white women once the inter-racial law was passed. Black characters didn’t seem to be allowed to deliver a self fulfilling performance and were instead placed into one of five preset characters. These characters were the ‘House Nigger’ who is a black person who does their best to please white people even if that means disowning their own racial identity or ‘ the Coon’ who is someone who stereotypically represents black people i.e. conforms to generalisations of black people. Furthermore, other preset characters include ‘The Mammie’

  • Word count: 1983
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Media Studies
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Does Hollywood have a negative impact on the world?

In this piece of writing I will be looking at the impact of 'Hollywood' on the world. The word 'Hollywood' is used as a collective word across most of the world when we talk about media throughout the world such as; films, television programmes, music and global broadcasters such as MTV and Disney. It is believed that Hollywood affects a lot of things people do, think and say. I will be looking at whether Hollywood affects the world in a positive or negative way. Hollywood films promote sex and violence. This affects moral values of a majority of people and leads young people to think this is right. "My parents won't let me see any movies that really have violence," said Seth, an 11-year-old student in a school in America. "But some of my friends got to see Small Soldiers, and they pretended to be the guys in it and they would fight a lot." Not all films are the same, Most films, whether they have sex or violence in them or not, tend to express the importance of moral values such as women's right's, the worth of human life, success through hard work etc. Some films give children positive role-models that they would like to be like. For example, "The princess diaries" the main character in this film is a young girl with very good manners who is to become a princess while trying to juggle the values of family life, her friends and her self-respect. Hollywood affects the

  • Word count: 689
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Media Studies
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The Matrix

The Matrix Coursework The Matrix is a movie about computers taking over the world and how one man changes everything. The opening shot is a shot of computer generated pixels, next there is a reverse zoom shot which reveals the word 'searching'. A computer sound is then played, which sounds like something is downloading. The reverse shot is than cut, which shows Keanu Reeves, known as Neo, lying down on his head, looking pale whilst listening to music. The shot then cuts back to the computer which shows a picture of one of the main characters, Morpheus, that we will later see. Next to the picture there is writing saying 'Wanted fugitive'. The camera cuts to the back of Neo's head and on his headphones there is an advertisement for Panasonic. Next there is a high angle circular shot of Neo's room revealing computer paraphernalia. This informs the audience that this character is a computer 'nerd'. We generally think people that use computers a lot are weak, ill, 'a nerd', uninteresting and have a boring life. A down shot makes him look vulnerable. There is a close up shot of the back of Neo's head showing the computer which reinforces that Morpheus is a fugitive. The computer then goes blank in the same shot and green text begins typing itself, showing us that the computer is in control of its actions and encourages a sense of mystery. There is an extreme close up shot of

  • Word count: 1061
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Media Studies
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Jaws - Media Studies

Analyse the ways the director builds suspense and scares the audience in the film "Jaws". Steven Spielberg directs the movie "Jaws" in 1975. It is about a great white shark terrorising a small city in the USA called Amity. The movie is set on the big American holiday: July the 4th.At that day everybody goes to the beaches and it is very dangerous for the people especially with shark in the water. "Jaws" is one of the biggest blockbusters of the period. It immediately becomes the most watched movie for the 70's with packed out cinemas and very scared audience. The opening scene in the movie is really affective. At the beginning the audience listen to music, at first everything is black, the music is building up and we wait for something to happen. This makes us use our imagination and the faster the music becomes, the more nervous we go. This kind of sound is called non-diegetic: the audience cannot define where the music comes from- it's a soundtrack. The black screen then turns into underwater swim seen trough the eyes of the shark. While we see the swim the credits are going. This is often used technique in movie industry. The scene then cuts to a beach party. Spielberg delays the action of the shark and makes people to wait for the real horror to happen. The party is near the sea with beach fire and mouth organ is playing. The camera goes trough all the people in the

  • Word count: 1368
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Media Studies
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Macro essay

Macro Essay The film I will be analyzing is "Blade runner," a film directed by Ridley Scott and based on Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," can be classed as a Classic Film Noir, as well as a Science fiction. Ridley Scott plants bits of Film Noir throughout, from the subtle like cigars, to the obvious: the washed-up cop for the main man. The film uses the original 'film noir' motifs and some that Ridley Scott created himself. The film is a sci-fi film as it is set in the future. The main film noir motif as such that Ridley Scott incorporates into Blade Runner is the use of the film noir characters. Although there are many differences between Deckard and the classic film noir anti hero, he is defiantly the anti hero. He tends to wear a long trench coat which is a classic costume for the film noir genre. He also appears to be a loner which tends to be a film noir anti hero trait. The story is about the protagonist character, a policeman named Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) in a decrepit 2019 Los Angeles whose job it is to "retire" four advanced technology robots, known as "Replicants". The four fugitives, Pris (Daryl Hannah), Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), Leon (Brian James), and their leader, Roy (Rutger Hauer), have escaped from an off-world colony to find their creator and make him expand their four-year life span. This film originally came out in 1982 but

  • Word count: 919
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Media Studies
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Let Him Have it

In the film version of the case of Craig and Bently-"Let Him Have it" the director has chosen to be bias and uses it in different ways. Bias is when you only have a one sided view of something. The film can show that the director is biased. The things that show this are that you get much more background information on Derek Bently and his family. Immediately this favours Derek Bently as the audience watching feel closer and more informer on his background, so therefore they know more about him and want him to win this case. The director has chosen go give information and situations of Derek's epilepsy. The first scene of the film is of the blitz in the war and Derek under the rouble. This is what the doctor's thought caused the epilepsy. The director also chooses to show Derek in a situation where he starts to have an epileptic fit, once his parents have decided to let him go out on his own. Both these ideas that the director has selected can make the audience feel pity for Derek seeing as in the film the doctors say that because of his condition he is believed to have the mind of an 11-year-old. On the other hand Christopher Craig has not been focussed on as much as Bentley. The only background information given about Craig is that he is a bad influence and can be a gangster, as he has grown up with an older brother. The director chooses to show the audience the

  • Word count: 1111
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Media Studies
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'Let Him Have It' film review.

'Let Him Have It' was a film produced in 1991. The film is directed by Peter Medak and screenplay is by Neil Purvis and Robert Wade. It is 115 minutes long and is in full colour. The main character, Derek Bentley, is acted by Christopher Eccleston. The movie is a true story, based in post-war (1950's) London about a 19 year old boy wrongly hanged for murder. Derek Bentley is an easily led boy with a low I.Q. When he is accused of a murder which he did not commit, he is manipulated by the jury which results in him being hanged on the 28th January, 1953. Since then his innocence has been proven. In this piece I will consider all the aspects of the opening four scenes that make Bentley appear in a sympathetic light. I will look at camera angles, music and how other media devices have been used, as well as how characters are portrayed. Different techniques are used in the opening scene to create sympathy for Derek Bentley. First of all, during the opening credits we hear sirens and panic before we see anything. The opening credits simply use white writing on a black background; this is very plain and creates a depressing mood. The sirens etc. cause the audience to experience feelings of apprehension, nervousness and curiosity, wondering what the sounds could be about. The chaos is heightened as it is set at night; the darkness makes things more confusing. Amongst

  • Word count: 1238
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Media Studies
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