Friday, September 6, 2019

Puberty Blues Essay Example for Free

Puberty Blues Essay The TV show I have chosen to talk to you about today is Puberty Blues. It is aired at 8:30pm, Wednesday on channel 10. It doesnt have a specific genre, but more like a mixture. I would classify it as a teen drama. Puberty Blues doesnt work in plot twists but offers a suprising reality. The best part about the TV drama for me is how we get a glimpse into the life of a 1970s teenager. Puberty Blues is set in Cronulla, Sydney, in the late 1970s. Majority of the time, Debbie and Sues houses are used, but the greenhill gang are also featured hanging around by the beach. Puberty Blues tells the story Debbie Vickers and Sue Knights. They are both very clever but somewhat unpopular high school girls who wants to raise their social standings in order to go out with boys. Through out the episodes we get to know the girls parents- Judy and Martin who are closed off and dont interact with each other much and Pam and Roger who have a far more open relationship. The sixth episode was directed by Glendyn Ivin and written by Fiona Seresis. The main plot is when the greenhill gang including Debbie and Sue, get wasted, go driving and flip the car, killing the driver. Any other show would have sent the characters into an instant panic but the writers of Puberty Blues understand that the shock combined with drugs would have caused everyone to burst into disbelieving laughter. The car crash wasnt the only plot in the episode though. Debbies parents, Judy and Martin, got to couples councilling because Martin has strong feelings for a women at his work. Cheryl, a member of the green hills gang, is flirting with her mums boyfriend to prove she is more desirable than her mother, who resents. The social issue pressented in the show was definitely driving under the influence. This message is easily interpreted in the car crash scene were the driver and passengers are drunk and stoned. This wasnt my favourite episode from Puberty Blues but it was still solid like we have come to expect from this series. I would recommend the show to high school students and older as there are some mature themes and sexual references. I love this show because it takes awkward and serious situations and brings out their bright side.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Visual Effects Development in Early Days

Visual Effects Development in Early Days Before the arrival of Cinema, there were some forms of visual entertainments in Europe. The first one was Chinese Shadow Puppetry. It was introduced in Europe in late 17 century from Far East. This type of light show is the one of the popular performances in shadow theatre. The second one was Panorama. It was started by a Scottish artist Robert Baker. Panorama is a simple illuminated view which tells the story from circular paintings. Another popular visual entertainment was the Camera Obsura. The inverted image of the outside world appears on the wall of a dark room through the small hole. This process was later adapted for the pinhole camera and magic lantern. Magic Lantern was like a today projector. The light source inside the room was used to project images through lens into the darken room. The stories were painted on large glasses. The illusions of Magic Lantern such as beheading and beatings were much more improved by making dissolve and using multiple layers. An optical toy called Zoetrope plays the animated sequences to be viewed through slits in a rotating drum.   {{Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Figure 1; Chinese Shadow Theatre Figures Figure 2; Illustration of the Camera Obscura Principle Figure 3; Illustration from Kircher, Projection of Death Figure 4; a modern replica of a Victorian zoetrope Kinetograph By late 1890, Edison and his assistant Dickson developed a device called the Kinetograph. A single viewer needs to bend down to watch the moving images through the keyhole. That is why the nickname was given as What the Butler Saw. Kinetograph can take rapid sequential images and displays images using the loops of 35mm film. But Kinetograph cannot project the moving images on the screen as the viewers demanded. {{Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Figure 5; 1895 Version of Kinetophone in use Cinematographe Lumiere Brothers developed a Cinematographe that is improved on Edisons Kinetograph. Cinematographe was an all in one device. It can be used as camera, film printer and projector. The device was lighter than Kinetograph because the film needs to be hand cranked rather than relying on electric motor. Lumiere Brothers used Cinematographe to show the short clip in the basement of Grand Cafà ©, in Paris. They charged one franc for a twelve strips. It was last for one minute. Since then, the world first cinema market had begun. Arrival at a station (1895) made by Lumieres Brothers shook the audiences. In that film, the viewers thought that train would burst through the screen as train was approaching the station. {{Pinteau, Pascal 2004; Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Figure 6; Auguste (1862 1954) and Louis Lumiere (1864 1948) Father of Special Effects Figure 7; Georges Melies (1861 1938) A pioneer who discovered many special effects and influenced the visual effects world till today was Georges Melies. He was a magician and a youngest son of a French shoemaker. He used to work in family shoes business until his father retired. He then bought a theatre to make his dreams come true. He designed the innovative stage illusions and performed in his way of comic style. Magic lantern show was one of his great attractions. George Melies realized the benefits of Lumiere Brothers Cinematographe device that brings together the theatrical projection and technology. Therefore, George attempted to buy the Cinematographe device from father of Lumiere brothers. But he was refused to own the device as Lumiere Family wanted to ensure the exclusivity of film production. {{Pinteau, Pascal 2004; Rickitt, Richard 2006}} George did not give up easily. He went to London and purchased a device developed by Robert William Paul to work together with Edisons Kinetograph. George then hired two e ngineers to build a new version of camera. The First Special Effect Trick George discovered his first camera trick by accident. When he was recording the traffic, the camera was jammed. After one minute later, he continued to record the traffic. When he joined the break, he suddenly saw the bus changed into a hearse and men changed into women. Since then, he realised the importance of effect by substitution called Stop Action Trick. Stop Action Trick was already used in the Execution of Mary Queen of Scots (1893) produced by Edison before his discovery. But this one became the first trick of his incoming special effects discovery. {{Pinteau, Pascal 2004; Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Georges produced many genres. Among them his fairy tales and fantasies films were more famous e.g. Cinderella. In Cinderella film, his stop action tricks attracted the audiences by turning pumpkin into horse cart and rags into Cinderellas dress. Figure 8; a scene from Cinderella (1889) Figure 9; stop action trick used in Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895) The Worlds First Special Effects Facility The Black Maria was the Edisons world first film studio constructed on the train rotating turntable so that studio can be oriented to face the sun like sunflowers. {{Ezra, Elizabeth 2000}} In 1896, Georges Melies also made a first special effect film called The Varnishing Lady in his first special effects glass studio in order to avoid the ruin of illusions by the weather. The studio was constructed by iron structure, glass wall and wooden floor. It was designed by Georges with trapdoors, winches, pulleys, mirrors and flying rigs. The studio was a most sophisticated one at that time. {{Pinteau, Pascal 2004; Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Figure 10; Edisons The Black Maria Film Studio Figure 11; Georges Melies glass studio Georges Split Screen Process Indian Rubber Head (1902) made by Georges Melies was used a split screen process. In order to create the illusion of an expanding head, Georges zoomed in on his head and superimposed this onto the film. Some areas of films were masked off to isolate the certain part of the picture to split the screen. {{VisualFx Hub 2017}} Figure 12; a scene from the man with the rubber head The First Science Fiction Film A trip to the moon was an earliest science fiction film made by Georges. The two minutes story is about a group of Victorian explorers visiting to the moon. In which film, Georges created the three dimensional depth illusion by painting. This is a very innovative film that covered a lot of Georges camera tricks such as superimpositions, double exposures, dissolves, stop-motion, matte paintings and miniatures. He even introduced the colour to the screen through hand painting and tinting. {{VisualFx Hub 2017}} Figure 13; the iconic image of the Man in the Moon Georges last days The masterpieces created by Georges were self-explanatory and visually stunning to be enjoyed by all audiences from all over the world without subtitling. But Georges films had been pirated and distributed illegally in United States and other countries. In 1913, Georges abandoned the filming after his wife death. In 1914, George was bankrupted and sold his all properties including his masterpieces to creditor. He spent the rest of his life just by running the toy shop at the train station in Paris. Nevertheless, his visual styles and special effects will never be forgotten. {{Pinteau, Pascal 2004; Rickitt, Richard 2006}} Other contributors in early days of Visual Effects There were many other innovators as well who had been developing the techniques for visual entertainments at the same time with Georges Melies. Robert William Paul was a scientific instrument maker from London. Robert built his own camera and projection for his production after he was refused by Edison to duplicate the Kinetograph. Although Robert was not a film maker, he produced a number of special effects featured films. E.g. The Motorist (1906) was the one of his remarkable films which is equally visual stunning as Georges Melies Masterpiece. The film was decorated with all available special effects to depict the story of a couple driving the car on the rings of Saturn in the space. In 1910, Robert abandoned film production and destroyed all his films. Another pioneer called Georges Albert Smith was an English photographer who built his own cameras and produced many trick films. Santa Claus (1898) was a notable film made by Georges A Smith. He created the earliest opening title s equence in Santa Clause film. He used the techniques of multiple exposures, stop action tricks and image within image in this film with the help of Georges Melies. {{Rickitt, Richard 2006; American Movie Classic Company 2017}}

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Technology in the Classroom Essay -- Technology Technological Essays

Technology in the Classroom Classrooms of the future will be different than they are today; as they will include more and newer forms of technology. These technological advances will be readily available for use by both students and teachers. I see my classroom making use of the many forms of technology that are available, including: PowerPoint presentations, electron microscopes, video conferencing, web-sites, and smart boards. These many forms of technology available will serve both educational and informational purposes. As technology changes so too must classrooms. This is why I see my classroom being different than those of today, the ones we are used to. I see my students making more use of PowerPoint for their presentations. This will be in place of posters and will help get students ready, early on, for more technology that can be a little challenging. PowerPoint could also help more with the creative process and be used for small (2 or 3 students) group work. Working on these presentations would be very beneficial for cooperation skills as well as make use of communication. Students would also take more ownership of their presentation when they invest more time with it, a great advantage of PowerPoint. Although PowerPoint is already widely available for upper lever classrooms, middle school and beyond, I can foresee them used in elementary school as well, third grade and beyond. Electron microscopes will also be used in my classroom to help with insects on insects or other small animals. These will most likely be used in a science environment and would aid in better understanding of anatomies. For example, a classroom from the Clear View Charter School used these ... ...s and becomes more advanced, readily available for use, so too will my classroom. I will adapt teaching and learning approaches, for students, with use of new and innovative technologies. Students will make use of technology and become more involved with the lesson being taught. As a result, learning would happen with more ease and less confusion. Works Cited Orrep, Becky. (2005). Smart Boards. Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. Retrieved April 19, 2005, from the World Wide Web: http://web.gvtechnologies.com/products/smart-boards.htm GLEF Staff. (2000). The Project’s Culmination. Edutopia. Retrieved April 19, 2005, from the World Wide Web: http://www.edutopia.org/php/article.php?id=Art_638 GLEF Staff. (2000). Student Researchers. Edutopia. Retrieved April 19, 2005, from the World Wide Web: http://www.edutopia.org/php/article.php?id=Art_632

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Moving Around as a Child Essay example -- Personal Narratives Courage

Moving Around as a Child So far in my life I have moved eight times and been to twelve different schools. I’m not talking about just moving houses. I’m talking about eight times, packing all of my things and moving to a whole different state. In all this I have learned the most important quality that anyone needs to get through all of the hardships and changes in moving. That quality is courage. Courage is as stated in The New International Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language to be â€Å"the capacity to meet danger or difficulty with firmness.† In my mind courage has always meant doing what you had to do, and dealing with it because you had to. I never had a choice in my life whether I wanted to move to a different city or not. I just would get told one day that I had about a month before I had to pack up all of my things, say goodbye to all of my friends, say goodbye to my school, and leave everything I had know for the last year or so and move to a whole different place that I didn’t know. For a young child this can be hard. I learned early on, that I was suppost to â€Å"stay strong,† as my father always said. He would tell me that I had to be courageous, and a trooper through all of this and that it would be a new adventure. That’s how I looked at it, as another challenge to face. Courage has to be found deep within you. It isn’t always easy to find, as I have learned from experience, and every time a hardship or a difficult situation comes up yo...

Monday, September 2, 2019

Lazy is the American Essay -- Argumentative Technology Technological P

Lazy is the American Today’s American society consists of many technological achievements. The cars we drive, the classes we take, and even the things we do in our spare time has changed due to the increasing amount of technology that is available to us. Technology is a wonderful thing to behold, but then we can look at the one thing technology has done to humans and especially Americans. Technology has created a society of many lazy people. In order to support my argument, I believe that it is imperative to answer one question in great detail. How has technology made us lazy? Laziness has gradually increased in the past ten years. Kids no longer want to play outside. â€Å"It’s too hot?† or â€Å"Let me finish this game!† are just a couple of excuses kids make these days for staying indoors and not enjoying an outdoor activities. Air-conditioners and video games have done some extreme damage to youths and their physical activity. I am only 19 years old but I remember playing a pick-up game of baseball or wiffleball after school or during the summer in the afternoon. Kids these days have forgotten how to enjoy the outdoors. Sure there are those few kids in town who still enjoy doing such things. Hell, I still enjoy playing a game of baseball or wiffleball. But for most kids, the interest is non-existent. Kids in the 90’s grew up with new inventions such as the Playstation and the PC. Why go outside when all you need is inside? Nowadays there is a television in almost every room in many typical American families’ home s. Kids even have televisions in their rooms with their game consoles plugged in and their computer next to their bed. Our family had one TV to share and a game system was connected to it. I was forced to share... ... or shooting some hoops with mom or dad, can resolve some laziness both as a person and as a parent. Parents could also focus on helping their kids with homework or keeping up to date on their grades. This is no technological achievement that has been made to act as a parent and there shouldn’t be one. When that child grows up to be a parent, their attitude will reflect that of his parent’s, a majority of the time. This is a society that makes excuses for our laziness. Technology has helped induce our laziness. We shouldn’t do away with technology, but we should use technology when we are lacking in time to spend being active outdoors or when we are spending time with our family. Technology should not be used for everything we do either, such as cooking, traveling, or even doing basic chores because sometimes technology hurts society more than it helps society.

Sunday, September 1, 2019

A person’s mind is a very simple venue for many interesting cognitive

A person’s mind is a very simple venue for many interesting cognitive phenomena, unusual ways of thinking and mental mistakes, no matter how trivial or significant, which are usually unconsciously committed by a person even in the most mundane of mental tasks.This paper shall focus on number of interesting cognitive phenomena and mental lapses or mistakes which are chronologically presented based on what the writer perceives as the most important and common.FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR Fundamental attribution error is a very common human tendency when a person is placed in a social situation. It occurs when a person attributes someone’s behavior or reaction to a situation as having been caused by the person’s disposition or personality rather than by the situation at hand.According to Lee Ross, a professor of social psychology at Stanford University, a fundamental error forms the conceptual bedrock for the field of social psychology. He coined this term based on the classic experiment conducted by Jones and Harris.In the said experiment, subjects where placed in a situation where they were made to listen to pro- and anti- Castro speeches.They were initially made to believe that the persons who gave the speeches were freely given a choice as to what stand to make (i.e., pro- or anti-), the subjects naturally rated the persons who gave the pro- speeches as having a positive attitude towards Castro, and people who gave anti- speeches as having a negative attitude towards Castro. Before the experiment, Jones and Harris hypothesized that behaviors resulting from freely given choice shall be attributed by the subjects to disposition, while actions or behaviors resulting from chance to situation.However, this hypothesis was proven wrong when as part of the experiment, the subjects were told that the person’s choice of position (pro- or anti-Castro) was determined by a coin toss. It turned out that the subjects were still of opinion that pe rsons who gave pro- speeches were still, on average, in favor of Castro than those who spoke against him.Therefore, the subjects were unable to see the speakers as merely persons who were tasked to perform by virtue of chance or circumstance. They could not refrain from attributing the speaker’s actions or behaviors to situation rather than to disposition (Fundamental Attribution Error, 2007).

Cultural Oppression Essay

Both African Americans and Asian Americans have suffered racial discrimination, slavery, persecution, difficulty in receiving citizenship even though their children were born in the United States and challenges in demonstrating their cultural identity. They experienced difficulty in classifying themselves as purely American because of their outward appearance. Moreover, they always tend to feel insulted that white Americans will always judge them by stereotypes, not by what they really are. African Americans have suffered dual consciousness in the United States, always struggling to receive social and economic equality, both as a Negro and an American. Although political equality has been granted to African Americans, they still suffered inequality in terms of achieving social and economic wealth. The effects of cultural oppression on African Americans have put them at high probability of suffering continued hindrances to achieve societal empowerment and affirmation. However, the richness of African cultures that place importance on collective lifestyle has helped African Americans to be accepted in the United States. Asian Americans were pressured to learn how they could assimilate themselves into different cultural society in the country. The cultural oppression suffered by Asian Americans has helped them to establish their own community in order for them to become self-sufficient. The impact of the Eastern philosophies, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, on Asian culture has helped families to become paternally oriented and hierarchical. The notable reason why some Asians have the tendency to avoid debate and discussion or to appear indecisive is because of these philosophies that teach them principles of harmony, balance and peace. This Asian culture has provided them to act in a positive way and to learn the importance of having self-knowledge about how others behave towards them. Reference Information on Specific Cultural Groups. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from http://education. byu. edu/diversity/culture. html.