Midterm paper draft

Im not tooo sure if whether or not i go off topic or if I'm changing my arguments, i thought i had everything laid out, until i started writing. I feel like i kind of don't know where I'm heading...so help?! ....oh and also not sure if I'm citing correctly, i DON'T want to be accused of plagiarism !!

Lizzette Reyes
Dr. Lucca
Media and Society
April 29, 2010
Mid-term Research paper
Realistically speaking, how many people in this day and age do not own a television set in their homes? Except for the extremely minute percentage of the population that do not own a television set, TV has become more than a source of entertainment for a countless number of people in America and around the world. Day by day we sit in front of the screen and allow ourselves to be induced and polluted by the irrelevant absurdity that gets aired. One might think that with all the obvious nonsense being televised, people would not be as susceptible and get pulled into watching it, but that’s not the case. To top it all off, the content being put into the television shows are only worsening and in effect, worsening our societies as well. TV strongly influences child development and eventually follows into their adolescence, affecting their perceptions on what is acceptable and provoking certain behavior. Among the many things watched on TV, the most popular shows tend to be the ones that aren't as necessarily appropriate for a particular age group. Specifically, materials containing comedy for a mature audience and or aggressive or promiscuous behavior. Studies have shown that aggressive and criminal behaviors have some kind of relation to having watched an excessive amount of television, especially from mostly watching violent programs. Despite the fact that there is a strong correlation between violent behaviors and spending too much time in front of the TV, there are several other factors that we cannot ignore that also pertain to a person growing up and becoming violent, like parenting skills.
Television was first widely introduced and distributed in the 1930’s and its creation was a vast success among plenty. Almost half of all households had a TV, and in the 1950’s, when color TVs came out, its popularity rose. The majority of the first television programs were comedy based like “Candid camera” or “I love Lucy” and very few were of any other genre. Eventually shows like “Lone ranger”, “Gunsmoke”, “Bonanza” and “Alfred Hitchcock presents” made its way in and broadened the range of television shows. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has been around since the beginning, and was first organized to help prevent “indecent” material from being broadcasted to the public. The average hours, in which “appropriate” material was displayed, typically ran from 6am-10pm. There was some kind of censorship that was functional and there barely were any problems of unacceptable programs or material being aired. So where did it all go wrong? Society used to be so worried about sending out the wrong messages that even in shows like “I love Lucy”, the married couples would sleep in separate beds. Today, married couples are typically portrayed as not giving a damn about each other and having affairs with other people. The problem with that is that this is what us viewers find entertaining. No one wants to see anything “pure” anymore, everything has to have some kind of drama or thrill in order to keep us watching. Research shows that 44% of kids tend to watch different shows when parents are not around, and the most popular show amongst 9-12 year olds is “Desperate Housewives”(Facts and TV statistics), which in fact is not a kid’s show at all.
In addition to that, basically almost everything has some connection to sex. Even the advertisements and commercials are sending out messages that would be considered inappropriate for certain age groups to see. Marketing through commercials is the primary way to gain the customers’ attention. Back when there were very few TV shows to occupy time, it was the companies’ time to sell their products. One really popular ad that ran for about 18 years was for Winston cigarettes, “Winston tastes so good, like a cigarette should”(television advertisement). Eventually cigarette ads along with subliminal messages were banned from being aired. Again, what is the reason for allowing even worse material being released to the public today? There really isn’t an explanation as to why the content in TV shows have only worsened, but it is nonetheless affecting its viewers, specifically the younger ones.
The mind of a child is the most delicate thing, making the process of its development a very crucial time. Everything and anything a child interacts with will in due course have some sort of effect on them when they reach their older stages. A child in the toddler stages have not yet formed their sense of personal identities, therefore sitting them in front of a TV will cause them to imitate the behavior they see and lead them to think that that’s how they should be as well. Too much TV, even if educational, has the possibility of affecting the child’s brain development and even cause future problems, like developing ADHD (television and children). In relation to adolescents, TV is also a huge part of their generation and has influential effects on them, even if they are supposed to be more “advanced” than a child. Most teenagers understand that what they are seeing is fictional, but things such as reality shows can blur their own sense of reality even in the slightest way. Television can produce various effects on a group altogether; however, other aspects should be taken into consideration. Parents and society can take the easy route and point their fingers at TV and solely blame their child’s behavior on it, but truthfully TV is not an almighty brainwashing machine. Although an excessive amount of television can actually become a bad influence, other factors including their environment, natural tendencies, and other forms of media other than television may play a role in developing violent behavior.
“Not every child who watches a lot of violence or plays a lot of violent video games will grow up to be violent. Other forces must converge…” (L. Rowell Huesmann). One of the many debated points in psychology is the idea of nature vs. nurture, the idea of someone’s hereditary genes affecting their future personality and behavior, versus the environment they were raised in. This varies widely amongst each and every individual across the globe, therefore, making it almost impossible to merely blame only one facet out of countless possibilities. For example, someone who was abused as a child can possibly grow up to be violent or abusive themselves. The same can also happen to a child that doesn’t have both parents present, or witnessed a crime at a young age, or had been bullied at school. These scenarios can have a similar to an equal effect on kids just like the television is supposed to have. More possibilities could be that the child might even have a sort of mental illness or something like bipolar disorder, which can cause the child to act out without really having another cause or a sense of consequences for their actions. In relation to violence, “the biggest lesson we have learned from brain research is that violence is the result of a developmental process, a lifelong interaction between the brain and the environment” (Ramsland). This further emphasizes the idea that every interaction we have in our lives, not just solely watching TV, can play an important role in our future development.
Ultimately, it also all comes down to parenting; parents are the ones with the most control over their child’s matters until they are of the right age or responsible enough for their own actions.

Blog 14

Lizzette Reyes
Dr. Joyce Rhueban
American film
April 26, 2010

Sunrise Evaluation

The 1927 movie Sunrise was among many others to play a significant role in the development of film and movies. With its special effects and cinematic techniques, Sunrise became a well renowned film directed by F.W Murnau. After watching the film myself, it was not the film’s great use of special effects or camera angles that caught my eye, but the combination of the acting together with the lighting. Given that the movie is a silent film, the feeling of the movie depends highly on the acting style. The dramatized expressions and exaggerated emotions are very much needed to help the audience experience and sympathize with what the characters are feeling. In addition, the lighting also used in the film only further emphasizes their expressions and the mood. Without these two elements to the movie, it would be almost impossible to assume and understand the rollercoaster of emotions the characters experience throughout the film. I will show specific examples of how the actors used their facial expressions and body language to reveal their feelings, and how without that and the lighting used, it would be hard to grasp the emotion and feelings the characters are supposed to convey and interpret the intentions behind it.

Movies along with actors and actresses in the 1920s were rising with popularity. Most actors were former stage performers and their use of body language and melodramatic styles came in handy as they took roles in silent films. Specifically in expressionist films, the actors were required to exaggerate their expressions in order to illustrate the conflicts between the characters. Expressionism was not as popular in the U.S as it was in Europe, but it was a very successful style used in films for a while. Lighting is one of the major techniques used with the expressionist style, and it assists in emphasizing the mystery, importance, or battle between good and evil in any shot. With Sunrise in particular, throughout the movie there are several shots in which the lighting is manipulated in a distinctive manner in order to demonstrate the mood and director’s underlying intentions. From the beginning we are able to clearly see the contrasts between the characters and within them as well.

The first scene in which the acting style and lighting techniques clearly illustrate the emotions and conflicts with the characters is when the city mistress first presents the idea of killing his wife to the husband. The first shot is presented at a medium close up view on the characters, normal angle, and at a medium key lighting with high key highlights on their faces from the moonlight. In this scene the audience can immediately assume the forbidden relationship between the husband and the city woman. It’s a dark setting with subtle lighting from the moon to add mystery and highlight the expressions on their faces. When the mistress suggests to the husband to kill his wife, it immediately goes to a medium close up on his face, at a high angle, with high key lighting from the moon to emphasize the shock that made him draw back. The acting in these shots in particular is very valuable to the understanding of the struggle the husband briefly goes through. As soon as the mistress suggests murder, he immediately draws back with wide opened eyes and his hands pointed to himself as to say, “me?!” Then he pushes the woman off of him and they have a momentary fight as the woman is trying to get him to give in. Without these motions, there would hardly be a way to conclude that the man ever really weighed the consequences of the idea presented. It was dramatized in a sense in which the thoughts and decisions of the characters were clearly introduced.

The next scene that helps in accentuating the conflict of emotions within the characters with the acting style, is when the husband is about to kill his wife and then changes his mind. The first shot is viewed at a high angle, ¾ shot, and high key lighting from the sun. In the next couple of shots, the camera moves in from medium shots to close ups as the wife is becoming suspicious of the husband’s intentions. The husband never once picks up his head, so the wife has a worried look in her face as she tries to peek down and get a good look at her husband’s face. The acting in these shots help to build up the suspense for what’s about to happen, because we know what he’s about to do, but we don’t know how. In the seventh shot of this sequence you see the husband slowly get up and tower over the wife. He doesn’t make any immediate actions, but the wife puts her hands together as she pleads for her life as he gets closer. With no words we know that the wife has figured out her husband’s intentions and is begging for her life. After that it goes to a medium shot to the husband’s face as he thinks for two seconds and covers his face when he instantly regrets what he was about to do. We can physically see their thoughts acted out, therefore making it easier to understand the direction of the silent film.

A shot in which the lighting is clearly valuable, is in the church scene when the husband is begging for forgiveness. We see when he first breaks down and truly regrets his actions while he’s watching a couple getting married. He cries into his wife’s lap and there we can see her feel sorry for him. They move into a different spot where they’re leaning against a wall and the shot changes. It’s in a medium shot, normal angle, and the background is in low key lighting. In this shot in particular, the lighting helps to place some significance in it. They’re in a church, he’s begging for forgiveness, and small rays of the sun are peeking in through the window and highlighting the characters and their faces. Behind them is pretty dark but there’s sun shining on them, as to say they’re in the light, because that’s the moment in which the wife is consoling the husband instead and trying to tell him that everything is ok now. It might also have a tie to the fact that they’re in a church and the sun is a sign of light, purity, and forgiveness, not only from the wife, but maybe from god as well.

The next scene in which the acting adds suspense and allows interpretation for the characters’ thoughts and actions, is when the wife takes the husband to the barbershop. There is where a stranger flirts with the wife and the husband gets extremely upset. The husband could have easily left with his wife or told the man to leave her alone, but that’s not what he did. Instead, he slowly walks up to the man to make the audience wonder for a few seconds, “what is he going to do?” The camera goes into an extreme close up at a normal angle to show the husband slowly pull out a knife form his pocket. In the sixth shot of this sequence, it goes to a ¾ shot at a normal angle and somewhat medium key lighting. He keeps the suspense going as the man is showing a terrified expression and the husband gets closer, only to cut a flower off of him instead of his neck. The husband’s body language in this shot gives off signs of danger and intimidation, especially carrying a knife in his hand. It shows his character in wanting to protect what’s rightfully his, his wife. The lighting in this shot is also useful to it’s interpretation, because the lighting on the husband casts a shadow on the wall over the man sitting down, providing a sense of superiority as well as a dark and mysterious feeling to what he’s about to do.

Another scene where the acting is used to further heighten the comprehension of emotions conveyed in a shot is when the husband is out looking for his missing wife. He’s frantically running all over the place trying to get help from the town and you can clearly see the look of anxiety and fear on his face. The particular shot in which you can unmistakably identify the character’s frustration is filmed at a medium long shot, normal angle and at a low key lighting. It first gives you a view of the setting, the boats on the lake, and as it goes into a close up on the husband’s face, the look of fear intensifies as he’s losing hope of finding her. He specifically holds his hand to his mouth to illustrate him shouting for his wife, and his eyes widen to its fullest when he thinks he sees something. His body language demonstrates his level of desperation as he leans over the boat, almost touching the water, to show how badly he hopes to find his wife. From this we can conclude how much he loves his wife and how he is so determined to recover her.

The last scene that utilizes both acting and lighting to distinctly convey the emotions and conflicts between the characters, is when the husband goes to kill his mistress. At a medium long shot, the mistress goes to the door of the house as the man is about to step out. Here, the light is flushing out of the house, but the husband manages to be dark and difficult to see. He stands there with a murderous look, as his shadow is reflected on the floor and over the mistress that’s slightly below him. It presents him in a dark manner to illustrate his characteristics at the moment, vengeful and dangerous. He runs after her into a dark alley, where the long shot then focuses into a ¾ shot, and he catches up to her to begin choking her. Still at a ¾ shot frame, it moves into a high angle as the husband is over her choking her. The lighting is low key, with faint highlights of the moon on their faces. He’s furiously strangling her and the poor mistress can barely fight for her life. The setting is really dark, but it appears, when the nanny calls from the house, that it seems to brighten as the husband slowly rises and changes his persona. It almost shifts as the character himself all of a sudden has a change of heart.

Ultimately there are more than enough shots in this movie that fully demonstrate the valuable use of lighting and acting style. Taking into consideration that the film is silent, the acting provided combined with the lighting, were effective ways to allow room for interpretation of the characters and the erratic changes of their emotions and actions. Sunrise as a whole was a well structured movie, with various useful techniques, justifying its success and many positive critiques.

Sunrise draft

So far i have completed a full outline for my paper and wrote down all the examples i plan to use to back up my claim.I have already started writing and am into the second paragraph of the paper..."In this paper i will show specific examples of how the actors used facial expressions and body language to reveal their feelings, and explain how without that and the director's expressionist style, the film would lose it's emotional connection to the audience.

Research report

Today i started by researching a bit on the history of television and I was able to find a few sources with some good information. After that i noticed that i didn't really have an outline to guide me in knowing exactly what else i was going to research. In order for me to properly do a paper, especially a long research paper like this one, i have to have a guide or an outline to help me out, so that's what i worked on. I basically finished most of it so now i can move on comfortably in looking for more evidence to support my claim. I don't think i need help with anything, once i have all the information i think i need I'll be able to actually start writing my paper. Maybe when i get to that point, i might need some help, but until then i feel better now that i have an outline to work with.

Blog11

What did you say you were going to do?
I said that I was going to think of some ideas and organize them to help me in knowing the exact information I needed to research. I also said that if I had enough time I would begin my research.
What did you actually do?
I tried to generate a much stronger and clearer claim/thesis to help in giving me an outline more or less of what my paper was going to be arguing. I started organizing the intro and looking up a few sources to get going.
What do you need to do for the next class?
I need to have my ideas completely together and focus on gathering evidence to support my claim. Once I feel satisfied with whatever I collect, I'll be able to start writing my paper.

Why I said what I said to Cynthia's and Barry's posts

When I read both of their posts, at first I had to reread them. I understood more or less the points that they were trying to convey but at times it was very unclear. In Cynthia's post I thought that she focused too much on explaining the ad itself when it was pretty self explanatory. She had a good idea in terms of the message behind the ad, but it got lost a bit as she went on to repeat herself on the actual image. In Barry's post, it seemed as if he went back and forth on the ad and what it meant but it was somewhat unorganized and made it hard to understand. They both had really good ideas but i think they had the same problem in focusing too much on trying to describe the ad instead of its meaning, so their ideas were kind of overshadowed by that. I think being a stranger to the paper's topic did somewhat affect the way i responded simply because i didn't know exactly what they were supposed to do, but it wasn't that big of a deal. After this exercise i basically learned to just focus on what needed some work and highlight the good aspects of whatever it is they're writing. You don't want to just bash that person's work, you want to point out what they can improve on to make them better writers.

Blog 9

Thesis/Thesis statement: is a statement that is the basis for your research. In it you should include what you intend to prove and give your readers a sense of your viewpoint on the specific topic you’re asked to write about. It should also be something that can be argued.
Research: is the process in which you look through various forms of sources to get information on a certain subject. It isn’t just looking through a book to find one piece of information. Everything you gather should be able to give you a better understanding on the subject.
Argument: an argument could be a discussion that has different point of views to it. It can be persuasive and encourage you to collect facts to back up your point and make for a good and valid argument.
Claim: a claim is more of an assertive comment on your topic of discussion. Your claim is what you want to own and hold to be true. For example, “she claimed that he was telling the truth”.
Reason: is your explanation or justification for whatever it is you’re doing/saying, etc. Your reason is based on your personal opinions and or assumptions that lead you to develop a conclusion on something else.
Evidence: is your proof. It works to prove or disprove something by providing facts and making the truth evident. For example, in a court case, the prosecutor looks for and finds evidence that the defendant is a murderer because his prints are on the gun.
MLA citation style: is the Modern Language Association style. It’s used to cite and identify the sources you researched and used. It’s the form in how you order the sources in your bibliography or works cited list, typically in alphabetical order. There is a different format for each source depending on the one you use. For example, this is a list of the sources I used for this blog in MLA format:
"argument." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 06 Apr. 2010. .

"claim." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 06 Apr. 2010. .

"evidence." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 06 Apr. 2010. .
"Handouts and links :Thesis statements." The writing center. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr 2010. .

"reason." wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr 2010. .

"research." wikipedia. N.p., 2 Apr 2010. Web. 6 Apr 2010. .

"MLA Citation Examples written by HCC Library." Honolulu Community College Library. N.p., 09/20/04. Web. 6 Apr 2010. .

MOMI Scavenger hunt & Reflection

Browse through the excerpts about the displays, exhibits, pictures, etc.
1. How much is admission?
2. What year was "A fine madness" shot?
3. Look into "who does what in movies & television" on the computer, who hires the director?
4. Why is a supervising editor hired?
5. What is the music editor's job?
6. What floor are the classic video games located on?
7. Where would you find a picture of Shirley Temple?
8. On the wall of actors, what number is James Dean?
9. What were the average number of portraits William Walling shot per day in a period of 3 years?
10. How does a wig maker create a wig?
11. What movie is Al Pacino's lifemask taken from?
12. Who worked on Marlon Brando's plumper for "The Godfather"?
13. What material replaced layers of cotton and highly flammable collodian for makeup effects?
14. How many costumes can you try on in the Magic Mirror?
15. Name one director that was able to maintain their creative independence and be recognized as authors of their films?
16. Whose paintings inspired production designer Kristi Zea for the movie "Silence of the lambs"?
17. In what year did elaborate set designs begin to appear?
18. How many outfits are displayed from the movie "Chicago"?
19. Who played Gumby in a SNL skit?
20. How many outfits did Sarah Jessica Parker wear in "Honeymoon in Vegas"?
21. What company manufactures Barbie and Ken dolls?
22. What year was the first fan magazine created?
23. What year did the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi comic book release?
24. Who is the music composer for "The nightmare before Christmas"?
25. What movie did Jerry Goldsmith compose the music for in 1999?
26. How long is the "Great train robbery"?
27. Who directed the Great train robbery?
28. What is the name of the theater where they show movies everyday on the 2nd floor?
29. What year did the Roxy theatre open?
30. How much was it to watch a movie in the kinetoscope?
31. Who invented the kinetoscope?
32. What was the very first video arcade game?
33. Who founded Atari?
34. What year was Asteroids released?
35. How many arcade games can you play on the 2nd floor?
36. What is the name of Lyndon Johnson's presidential campaign commercial?
37. What is the important element to the Feral Fount?
38. Who invented the Feral Fount?
39. When was the first motion picture camera made?
40. How many different cameras are on display?
41. What year were the 35mm cameras used?
42. What did filmmakers use to help record sound?
43. How long is the "Building a Soundtrack" film?
44. What is the name of the original song used in the scene in "Twister"?
45. How many filmstrips can be found on the 3rd floor?
46. Who said "Films are fantasy and fantasy needs music"?
47. What is the 3rd and final stage in the film making process?
48. What is the purpose of a green screen?
49. Which popular horror movies are on display on the 3rd floor?
50. How many old fashioned TVs are on display?

My trip to the Museum of the Moving Image was very interesting and entertaining in my opinion. The whole film making process is a personal interest of mine and to have been able to learn about it all and look at some memorabilia and classic collections was cool. It was just very educational overall and entertaining at the same time with their little interactive exhibits. What i really found to leave me somewhat mesmerized was the Feral Fount. I felt like a little confused child as i looked at it, but i couldn't stop. I loved it and it was cool to have been challenged in that way to try and figure out how it worked before actually reading into it. It wasn't such a huge museum with a ton on display, but i guess for the people with a personal interest in it, it's a nice trip. I did have to end up going twice myself and i had the same reaction to it both times.