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If they are based on a small number of observations, it can be misleading to label the pie slices with percentages.

Adopting an integrated perspective, some researchers say these values and practices are ultimately the result of poverty itself (Small et al. 2010). These particular scholars concede that a culture of poverty does exist, but they also say it exists because it helps the poor cope daily with the structural effects of being poor. If these effects lead to a culture of poverty, they add, poverty then becomes self-perpetuating. If poverty is both cultural and structural in origin, these scholars say, efforts to improve the lives of people in the “other America” must involve increased structural opportunities for the poor and changes in some of their cultural values and practices.

On the other hand, some ethnographic research supports the individualistic explanation by showing that the poor do have certain values and follow certain practices that augment their plight

As Rank (2011) summarizes this view, “American poverty is largely the result of failings at the economic and political levels, rather than at the individual level…In contrast to [the individualistic] perspective, the basic problem lies in a shortage of viable opportunities for all Americans.” Rank points out that the US economy during the past few decades has created more low-paying and part-time jobs and jobs without benefits, meaning that Americans increasingly find themselves in jobs that barely lift them out of poverty, if at all

According to the second, structural explanation, which is a blaming-the-system approach, US poverty stems from problems in American society that lead to a lack of equal opportunity and a lack of jobs. These problems include (a) racial/ethnic, gender, age, and other forms of discrimination; (b) lack of good schooling and adequate health care; and (c) structural changes in the American economic system, such as the departure of manufacturing companies from American cities in the 1980s and 1990s that led to the loss of thousands of jobs

Regarding the latter point, they note that poor employed adults work more hours per week than wealthier adults and that poor parents interviewed in surveys value education for their children at least as much as wealthier parents. These and other similarities in values and beliefs lead critics of the individualistic explanation to conclude that poor people’s poverty cannot reasonably be said to result from a culture of poverty.

Regardless of which version one might hold, the individualistic explanation is a blaming-the-victim approach. Critics say this explanation ignores discrimination and other problems in American society and exaggerates the degree to which the poor and nonpoor do in fact hold different values

According to this theory, the poor generally have beliefs and values that differ from those of the nonpoor and that doom them to continued poverty. For example, they are said to be impulsive and to live for the present rather than the future.

According to the individualistic explanation, the poor have personal problems and deficiencies that are responsible for their poverty. In the past, the poor were thought to be biologically inferior, a view that has not entirely faded, but today the much more common belief is that they lack the ambition and motivation to work hard and to achieve success. According to survey evidence, the majority of Americans share this belief (Davidson 2009). A more sophisticated version of this type of explanation is called the culture of poverty theory

The explanation for poverty we favor presumably affects the amount of sympathy we have for the poor, and our sympathy, or lack of sympathy, in turn affects our views about the government’s role in helping the poor.

To be more precise, the particular explanation that people favor affects their view of government efforts to help the poor. Those who attribute poverty to problems in the larger society are much more likely than those who attribute it to deficiencies among the poor to believe that the government should do more to help the poor

It is critical to determine which explanation makes more sense because, as sociologist Theresa C. Davidson (2009) observes, “beliefs about the causes of poverty shape attitudes toward the poor.”

The first type of explanation follows logically from the functional theory of stratification and may be considered an individualistic explanation. The second type of explanation follows from conflict theory and is a structural explanation that focuses on problems in American society that produce poverty. The Explanations of Poverty table below summarizes these explanations.

The functionalist and conflict views focus broadly on social stratification but only indirectly on poverty. When poverty finally attracted national attention during the 1960s, scholars began to try specifically to understand why poor people become poor and remain poor. Two competing explanations developed, with the basic debate turning on whether poverty arises from problems either within the poor themselves or in the society in which they live

On a more lighthearted note, examples of the symbolic interactionist framework are also seen in the many literary works and films that portray the difficulties that the rich and poor have in interacting on the relatively few occasions when they do interact. For example, in the classic film Pretty Woman, Richard Gere plays a rich businessman who hires a sex worker, played by Julia Roberts, to accompany him to fancy parties and other affairs. Roberts' character has to buy a new wardrobe and learn how to dine and behave in these social settings, and much of the film’s humor and poignancy come from her awkwardness in learning the lifestyle of the rich. Thus, we are socialized into social class just as we are into gender and other social identities.

they all make very clear that the poor often lead lives of quiet desperation and must find ways of coping with being poor.

it does not necessarily try to explain why we have class inequality in the first place. Rather, it examines the differences that stratification makes for people’s lives and their interactions with other people.

Consistent with its micro-orientation, symbolic interactionism tries to understand poverty and economic inequality by looking at people’s interaction, experience, and understandings in their daily lives

Conflict theory emphasizes that individuals and groups at the top of social hierarchies have the power to make decisions about the nation that benefit them, which then reproduce existing social hierarchies. One concept that aligns with this perspective is the power elite, proposed by C. Wright Mills (of the sociological imagination), which describes the close ties between individuals at the top of the government, military, and corporate sectors. These highly-networked and wealthy individuals have strong influence over national policy decisions, such as the lowering of tax rates for the wealthy or the weakening of regulations for corporations, policies which benefit them. They may also pass legislation that cuts into social welfare programs, worsening conditions for people at the bottom of the social class hierarchy and widening economic inequality.

Conflict theory’s explanation of economic inequality draws on Karl Marx’s view of class societies and incorporates the critique of the functionalist view just discussed. Many different explanations grounded in conflict theory exist, but they all assume that stratification stems from a fundamental conflict between the needs and interests of the powerful or 'haves' in society and those of the weak or 'have-nots' (Kerbo 2012). The former take advantage of their position at the top of society to stay at the top, even if it means oppressing those at the bottom

conflict theory attributes stratification and thus poverty to lack of opportunity from discrimination and prejudice against the poor, women, people of color, and other marginalized groups. In this regard, it reflects one of the early critiques of the functionalist view that the previous section outlined. As we will see in this textbook, there are various obstacles that make it difficult for the poor, women, and people of color in the US to move up the socioeconomic ladder and to otherwise enjoy healthy and productive lives.

The term “minerals” as used in nutrition labels and pharmaceutical products is not the same as a mineral in a geological sense. In geology, the classic definition of a mineral is: Naturally occurring Inorganic Solid at room temperature Regular crystal structure Defined chemical composition Some natural substances technically should not be considered minerals, but are included by exception. For example, water and mercury are liquid at room temperature.

Although the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies was originally developed to be applied to social inequality and discrimination, it has since been applied in many other contexts, including interpersonal communication. This research has found that some people are chronically insecure, meaning they are very concerned about being accepted by others but constantly feel that other people will dislike them.

But each person’s self-concept is also influenced by context, meaning we think differently about ourselves depending on the situation we are in. In some situations, personal characteristics, such as our abilities, personality, and other distinguishing features, will best describe who we are.

I’m sure you have a family member, friend, or coworker with whom you have ideological or political differences.

We also organize information that we take in based on difference. In this case, we assume that the item that looks or acts different from the rest doesn’t belong with the group. Perceptual errors involving people and assumptions of difference can be especially awkward, if not offensive.

I mean the pace of the finished film, how the edits speed up or slow down to serve the story, producing a kind of rhythm to the edit.

ther ways cinema manipulates time include sequences like flashbacks and flashforwards. Filmmakers use these when they want to show events from a character’s past, or foreshadow what’s coming in the future.

The most obvious example of this is the ellipsis, an edit that slices out time or events we don’t need to see to follow the story. Imagine a scene where a car pulls up in front of a house, then cuts to a woman at the door ringing the doorbell. We don’t need to spend the screen time watching her shut off the car, climb out, shut and lock the door, and walk all the way up to the house.

He wants you to feel the terror of those peasants being massacred by the troops, even if you don’t completely understand the geography or linear sequence of events. That’s the power of the montage as Eisenstein used it: A collage of moving images designed to create an emotional effect rather than a logical narrative sequence.

he audience was projecting their own emotion and meaning onto the actor’s expression because of the juxtaposition of the other images. This phenomenon – how we derive more meaning from the juxtaposition of two shots than from any single shot in isolation – became known as The Kuleshov Effect.

ilm editing and how it worked on an audience. He had a hunch that the power of cinema was not found in any one shot, but in the juxtaposition of shots. So, he performed an experiment. He cut together a short film and showed it to audiences in 1918. Here’s the film:

but it is the juxtaposition of that word (or shot) in a sentence (or scene) that gives it its full power to communicate. As such, editing is fundamental to how cinema communicates with an audience.

The filmmakers behind Deadpool (2016), for example, shot 555 hours of raw footage for a final film of just 108 minutes. That’s a shooting ratio of 308:1. It would take 40 hours a week for 14 weeks just to watch all of the raw footage, much less select and arrange it all into an edited film![2]

When the screenwriter hands the script off to the director, it is no longer a literary document, it’s a blueprint for a much larger, more complex creation. The production process is essentially an act of translation, taking all of those words on the page and turning them into shots, scenes and sequences.

The special effects make-up for the gory bits of your favorite horror films can sometimes take center stage.

Drawing on setting, character, lighting and composition, mise-en-scène is more than any one technique, it’s the overall look or even feel of a film, and it is far greater than the sum of its parts. Which is why I chose to start here in our exploration of how, exactly, cinema works the way it does.

Notice the stark realism of the setting, the wardrobe, the way the camera tells us exactly what we need to know. Now check out this analysis of the film’s mise-en-scène:

These films were notable for their consistent use of surreal, exaggerated set design and very low key lighting schemes. The films were full of dark shadows and macabre settings

Another important part of the process of designing a shot is the choreography involved in moving the camera through the scene, whether on wheels, on a crane or strapped to camera person.

As should be obvious, you can’t have cinema without light. Light exposes the image and, of course, allows us to see it. But it’s the creative use of light, or lighting, is what makes it an element design

Putting on the wardrobe, seeing themselves in another era, a different hair style, looking older or younger,

But we can also examine how the physical design of a character, through costume, make-up and hair style, not only contributes to the mise-en-scène, but also helps fully realize the work of both screenwriters and actors.

Those objects could be in the background providing context – framed photos, a trophy, an antique clock – or they could be picked up and handled by characters in a scene – a glass of whisky, a pack of cigarettes, a loaded gun.

In that case, the setting must be augmented with computer generated imagery (CGI). The most common way this is implemented is through the use of green screen technology.

roduction designer. The production designer is the point person for the overall aesthetic design of a film or series. Working closely with the director, they help translate the aesthetic vision for the project – its mise-en-scène – to the various design departments, including set design, art department, costume, hair and make-up. But arguably their most important job

Denis’s films generate an enveloping atmosphere that you can almost taste and feel, and all of that is part of her consistent (and brilliant) use of mise-en-scène.

But if there’s any hope of that final product having a unified aesthetic, and a coherent, underlying theme that ties it all together, it needs a singular vision to give it direction. That, really, is the job of a director. To make sure everyone is moving in the same direction, making the same work of art. And they do that not so much by managing people

But the idea is simple. Borrowed from theater, it refers to every element in the frame that contributes to the overall look of a film. And I mean everything: set design, costume, hair, make-up, color scheme, framing, composition, lighting… Basically, if you can see it, it contributes to the mise-en-scène

The idea that status impacts your access to information is nothing new

My hope is that someday more academic information will be freely available. Until then - we should all be part of this fight.

cognitive

The transverse plane is the plane that divides the body or organ horizontally into upper and lower portions.

The frontal plane is the plane that divides the body or an organ vertically into an anterior (front) portion and a posterior (rear) portion.

The sagittal plane is the plane that divides the body or an organ vertically into right and left sides.

A plane is an imaginary two-dimensional surface that passes through the body.

Anterior (or ventral) describes the front or direction toward the front of the body. The toes are anterior to the foot. Posterior (or dorsal) describes the back or direction toward the back of the body. The popliteus is posterior to the patella. Superior (or cranial) describes a position above or higher than another part of the body proper. The orbits are superior to the oris. Inferior (or caudal) describes a position below or lower than another part of the body proper; near or toward the tail (in humans, the coccyx, or lowest part of the spinal column). The pelvis is inferior to the abdomen. Lateral describes the side or direction toward the side of the body. The pollex (thumb) is lateral to the digits. Medial describes the middle or direction toward the middle of the body. The hallux (big toe) is the medial toe. Proximal describes a position in a limb that is nearer to the point of attachment or the trunk of the body. The brachium is proximal to the antebrachium. Distal describes a position in a limb that is farther from the point of attachment or the trunk of the body. The crus is distal to the femur. Superficial describes a position closer to the surface of the body. The skin is superficial to the bones. Deep describes a position farther from the surface of the body. The brain is deep to the skull.

Imagine the planning required to choreograph that sequence. Everything had to work like clockwork (pun intended). And yet nothing was sacrificed in terms of cinematic storytelling. Welles is able to move in and out of close-ups, medium shots and long shots, overhead crane shots and smooth tracking shots, directing our attention, revealing information and creating suspense. All without a single cut.

an unmotivated camera move that isn’t serving the story reminds the viewer they are watching a movie. The move becomes visible instead of invisible, and usually, that’s the last thing a filmmaker wants. All of this is supposed to be invisible, remember?

But if you want the camera to actually move through the space, not simply move left to right or up and down, there are a few options. You could just pick it up and move it. That’s called, appropriately enough, a handheld shot. But if you want that movement to be more subtle, or at least a lot smoother, you’ll want more precise control over how the camera moves

But there is also the extreme close-up, medium close-up, medium shot, medium long, long etc. Each term means something specific in terms of composition. A medium long shot, for example, will typically compose a character from the knees up. A medium shot will be from the waist up. Having a specific term for a specific composition saves time (and money) on the set during production.

But just like three-point lighting, the rule of thirds is really just a starting point for understanding how composition can be used to help tell a cinematic story. Framing the shot is really about directing our attention, showing us where to look in the shot or scene, and ultimately how to feel about it. There are lots of ways to do this.

rule of thirds. The idea is to divide the frame into thirds horizontally and vertically and line up areas of visual interest at the intersection of those points. Here’s an example:

But before a cinematographer can start to think about how to properly compose a shot, they have one more decision to make: the shape of their frame. Okay, every frame (for now) is some variation on a rectangle. But the proportions of that rectangle will dictate how people, objects and setting are arranged within it.

Note how the figure of the man lighting his cigarette is isolated from the background, focusing our attention on the spark from the lighter. This is an example of narrow depth of field

Focal length determines both the angle of view and the magnification of the image. The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view and the smaller the magnification.

color temperature. Color temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin. The lower the degree Kelvin, the warmer, or more “red” the light. The higher the degree Kelvin, the cooler, more “blue” the light. The orange glow of a tungsten bulb is around 3200 Kelvin. Daylight is around 5600 Kelvin.

Cinematographers can control the quality of light by adjusting the size of the light source and its distance from the subject. Typically, the smaller the light source and the closer to the subject, the harder the light:

nd artificial light refers to light generated from any number of different technologies, LED, incandescent, fluorescent, etc. Each source will have its own particular characteristics, exposing a shot in its own particular way. Artificial light allows a cinematographer an incredible amount of freedom to manipulate and shape the light.

Each new scene will require the cinematographer to consider their light source and how they want to shape it. And a big part of that calculation is intensity. How bright is the source and how is that going to affect exposure?

But there are a number of reasons why a filmmaker might choose to film in black and white over color, even today. They may want to evoke a certain period or emulate some of those “old” movies.

Cinematographers can also manipulate the frame rate to render super sharp imagery. For decades, the standard frame rate for cinema has been 24 frames per second. That produces a familiar, cinematic “look” to the finished film in part because of motion blur, the subtle blurring that occurs between still images passing at 24 fps. But film shot and projected at 48 or 96 or even 120 frames per second renders an ultra-sharp image with almost no motion blur as our brains process far more detail between each individual frame

Today, film stock is made from a much sturdier plastic. And on that plastic is a gelatin coating containing thousands of microscopic grains of light-sensitive crystals called silver halide.

But aside from the esoteric lingo on the set, there are a few key terms everyone should know. The first is the shot, the most basic building block of cinematography. As mentioned in Chapter Two, a shot is one continuous capture of a span of action by a motion picture camera. A finished film is made up of a series of these shots, of varying length, that ultimately tell the story. But during production, each shot may need to be repeated several (or dozens or even hundreds of) times until everyone gets it right. Every time they repeat the shot, it’s called a take.

The lighting department is, well, responsible for all the lights required to shoot a scene. As should be obvious, lights require electricity. And electricity can be dangerous. Especially when you have 100 crew people running around trying to get a shot before lunch. So, the head of the lighting department is a skilled electrician, known as the gaffer

There’s also the 1st assistant camera (1st AC), who is responsible for the camera components, swapping out lenses, and most importantly, keeping the camera in focus. Though that last job is sometimes given to another dedicated member of the team, the focus puller. Then you have the 2nd assistant camera (2nd AC) who assists the 1st AC and often operates the slate, or clapper (more on that later).

Not to mention the importance of editing, sound and performance. Put it all together and cinematography becomes the anchor point to a much larger cinematic experience.

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The cells convert excess glucose to an insoluble substance called glycogen to prevent it from interfering with cellular metabolism. Because this ultimately lowers blood glucose levels, insulin is secreted to prevent hyperglycemia (high blood sugar levels)

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the brain, along with the rest of life, was created by a non-material source or divine being and that therefore the mind has divine origins

free will is an illusion that arises from our awareness of our mental processes as we make choices based on our selection of various behavioral options that we see open to us, but what we often fail to realize is that those choices are determined by many factors beyond our awareness and control

communication in a sentence or two

Moving the decimal point one place to the right gives −5.1204 × 10−2.

If a person of a different race cuts another driver off in traffic, the driver is even more likely to attribute that action to the other driver’s internal qualities (thinking, for example, “He or she is inconsiderate and reckless!”) than they would someone of their own race.

So not only do first impressions matter, but having the ability to form accurate first impressions seems to correlate to many other positive characteristics.

This is because our expectations are often based on previous experience and patterns we have observed and internalized, which allows our brains to go on “autopilot” sometimes and fill in things that are missing or overlook extra things.

Think about how your communication with someone might differ if he or she were introduced to you as an artist versus a doctor. We make similar interpretations based on where people are from, their age, their race, and other social and cultural factors

Describe an encounter that you have had with a law enforcement officer (if you haven’t had a direct experience you can use a hypothetical or fictional example). What were your perceptions of the officer? What do you think his or her perceptions were of you? What schemata do you think contributed to each of your interpretations?

For example, as you filter through radio stations, you likely already have an idea of what kind of music interests you and will stop on a station playing something in that genre while skipping right past stations playing something you aren’t interested in.

Creatures ranging from fish to hummingbirds are attracted to things like silver spinners on fishing poles or red and yellow bird feeders

We also group things together based on similarity. We tend to think similar-looking or similar-acting things belong together. I have two friends that I occasionally go out with, and we are all three males, around the same age, of the same race, with short hair and glasses. Aside from that, we don’t really look alike, but on more than one occasion a server at a restaurant has assumed that we’re brothers. Despite the fact that many of our other features are different, the salient features are organized based on similarity and the three of us are suddenly related.

I’m sure we’ve all gotten sucked into a television show, video game, or random project and paid attention to that at the expense of something that actually meets our needs like cleaning or spending time with a significant other. Paying attention to things that interest us but don’t meet specific needs seems like the basic formula for procrastination that we are all familiar with.

It is probably not surprising to learn that visually and/or aurally stimulating things become salient in our perceptual field and get our attention. Creatures ranging from fish to hummingbirds are attracted to things like silver spinners on fishing poles or red and yellow bird feeders. Having our senses stimulated isn’t always a positive thing though. Think about the couple that won’t stop talking during the movie or the upstairs neighbor whose subwoofer shakes your ceiling at night. In short, stimuli can be attention-getting in a productive or distracting way.

small watch glass

“three shape object”

sugar

37% Elsevier Scholarly Publishing

23% Google Technology

22% Apple Computing

5G mobile phones

3D printing

2 billion people live without mobile phones

While 80% of people in advanced economies have access

I have access to many databases and journals through my college library.

I have a personal computer and/or smartphone with a data plan and internet access.

As mentioned at the start of this chapter, the 1960s media theorist Marshall McLuhan took these ideas one step further, with the phrase “the medium is the message.”

We use all kinds of terms to talk about media. It will be useful to clarify them. It will be especially important to distinguish between mass communication and mass media, and to attempt a working definition of culture. You likely are reading this book as part of a class dedicated to mass communication, so let’s start with mass communication first. Note that adjective: mass. Here is a horrible definition of mass from an online dictionary: Of, relating to, characteristic of, directed at, or attended by a large number of people. But the definition gets the point across. Communication can take place just between two people, or among a few people, or maybe even within one person who is talking to himself. Mass communication is communication of, relating to, characteristic of, directed at, or attended by a large number of people. That’s pretty ugly. Let’s try the following: Mass communication refers to communication transmitted to large segments of the population. How does that happen? The transmission of mass communication happens using one or more of many different kinds of media (people sometimes forget that media is the plural of the singular, medium). A medium is simply an instrument or means of transmission. It can be two tin cans connected by a string. It can be television. It can be the Internet. A mass medium is a means of transmission designed to reach a wide audience. It is not tin cans on a string, unless you have a lot of cans, but it can be television or the Internet. Media are more than one medium. So mass mediarefers to those means of transmission that are designed to reach a wide audience. Mass media are commonly considered to include radio, film, newspapers, magazines, books, and video games, as well as Internet blogs, podcasts, and video sharing.

Media influence the way the brain works and how it processes information. They create new patterns of thought and behavior. Looking back over time, McLuhan found that people and societies were shaped by the dominant media of their time. For example, McLuhan argued, people and societies of the printing press era were shaped by that medium. And, he said, people and societies were being shaped in new ways by electronic media. Summing up, in one of his well-known phrases, he said, “The medium is the message.” This book’s title uses McLuhan’s title—and adds culture. McLuhan well understood how media shape culture. However, one weakness in McLuhan’s work, especially his early work, is that he did not fully account for how culture shapes media. Culture can be a vague and empty term. Sometimes culture is defined in a very narrow sense as “the arts” or some sort of fashionable refinement. Another definition of culture is much more expansive, however. In this broader sense, culture is a particular way of life and how that life is acted out each day in works, practices, and activities. Thus, we can talk about Italian culture, Javanese culture, or the culture of the ancient Greeks. Another communication theorist, James Carey, elegantly captures this expansive view of culture. In “A Cultural Approach to Communication,” Carey wrote the following: “We create, express, and convey our knowledge of and attitudes toward reality through the construction of a variety of symbol systems: art, science, journalism, religion, common sense, mythology. How do we do this? What are the differences between these forms? What are the historical and comparative variations in them? How do changes in communication technology influence what we can concretely create and apprehend? How do groups in society struggle over the definition of what is real?”James Carey, “A Cultural Approach to Communication,” in Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. 2nd ed. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2006, p. 24. That large sense of culture will be used in this book. The chapters to come will provide an in-depth look at the relationship of media and culture. We will look at many kinds of media and how those media shape and are shaped by culture. Media and culture shape each other around the globe, of course. The focus in this book primarily will be on the United States. This focus is not because U.S. media have such global reach but because understanding media and culture in one setting will allow you to think about media and culture in other settings. This intellectual journey should be interesting and fun. You live, study, work, and play with media in culture. By the book’s end, you should have a much deeper appreciation and understanding of them.

Sociologists and other social scientists have warned since then that the status of people of color has actually been worsening in many ways since this report was issued (Massey, 2007; Wilson, 2009).Massey, D. S. (2007).

Nazi racism in the 1930s and 1940s helped awaken Americans to the evils of prejudice in their own country. Against this backdrop, a monumental two-volume work by Swedish social scientist Gunnar Myrdal (1944)Myrdal, G. (1944

In other words, motion along an equipotential is perpendicular to E.

Questions to Ask Yourself What are your learning objectives for the course? How many are you teaching in a given lecture? In a given exam period? What conceptual links between material are important for your students to understand? What depth does a concept need to be covered? How are you going to assess your content? How many sample problems should be included?

A major element of the power of the priesthood in the Mesopotamian cities was the fact that the priests claimed to be able to soothe and assuage the gods, to prevent the gods from sending yet another devastating flood, epidemic, or plague of locusts. It is not too far off to say that the most important duty of Mesopotamian priests was to beg the gods for mercy.

They did not only tax the wealth, the crops, and the goods of the subjects of Uruk, but they also had a right to demand labor, obligating the common people (i.e. almost everyone) to work on the irrigation systems, the temples, and the other major public buildings.

Genre distinctions are handy for us as viewers when deciding what kinds of stories we want to engage, but they are even more handy for producers and studios when it comes to meeting the demand of audiences.

theme – what the film is really about. Star Wars (1977) is about a farm boy saving a princess and defeating a planet-destroying weapon wielded by the evil Empire. That’s the plot. But it’s really about believing in oneself and the difference one brave person can make in the face of overwhelming evil. That is its narrative intent.

The next time you are watching a film or series, take a step back and ask yourself: Who or what is telling this story? Not what character are we following or with whom do we most closely identify in the story, but who or what is actually relaying the events. Yes, there’s the screenwriter and the director and ultimately the editor who are all responsible for narrative as we receive it. Just like the author of a novel. But moment to moment, the primary narrator in cinema is always the camera.

a protagonist should at the very least be interesting, and that does not necessarily mean they are inherently good. In fact, often the most interesting protagonists are flawed in some fundamental way

But as cinema has evolved into other forms, including television and streaming series, so too has narrative structure evolved.

e “rule” of how effective the three-act structure has become. Not just because screenwriters find it useful, but because we, as the audience

But the obstacles could also be internal, some part of the protagonist’s own psychology. Either way, there’s usually a midpoint, right around page/minute 55 or 60, where the protagonist has a choice:

cinema, just like novels or short stories or even poetry, come in all shapes and sizes, otherwise known as genres, from thrillers to westerns, comedies to romance.

And as much as a screenplay can and should be a great read, it is, ultimately, a technical document, a plan for something exponentially more complex.

Nor do you notice anything about the music,

hough rarely meant to be read as literature, it is a literary genre unto itself, with its own unique form, conventions, and poetic economy

not to mention new innovations in virtual reality and immersive technologies that will push the boundaries of what is possible in the years to come.

In other words, you don’t have to necessarily like a movie to analyze its use of a unifying theme or the way the filmmaker employs mise-en-scene, narrative structure, cinematography, sound and editing to effectively communicate that theme.

cinema reflects the dominant cultural norms of a given period, or the way it sometimes rides the leading edge of change in those same norms

However, just as we can analyze technique, the formal properties of cinema, to better understand how a story is communicated, we can also analyze content, that is, what stories are communicating to better understand how they fit into the wider cultural context. Cinema, again like literature, can represent valuable cultural documents, reflecting our own ideas, values and morals back to us as filmmakers and audiences.

his increases the compositional possibilities exponentially for cinema, allowing filmmakers to layer in even more patterns that serve the story and help us connect to their thematic intent.

composing a shot is a powerful way we tell stories about ourselves every day. Filmmakers, the really good ones, are masters of this technique. And once you understand this principle, you can start to analyze how a filmmaker uses composition to serve their underlying thematic intent, to help tell their story.

We can say the same about the relationship between cinema and theater. Both use a carefully planned mise-en-scene – the overall look of the production including set design, costume, make-up –

theme, an idea that unifies every element of the work, gives it coherence and communicates what the work is really about. And really great cinema manages to suggest and express that theme through every shot, scene and sequence.

implicit meaning, the deeper, essential meaning, suggested but not necessarily directly expressed by any one element. Moby Dick is explicitly about a man trying to catch a whale, but as any literature professor will tell you, it was never really about the whale.

It’s called cutting on action and it’s a critical part of our visual lexicon, enabling filmmakers to join shots, often from radically different angles and positions, while remaining largely invisible to the viewer.

Cinema can’t communicate without it, but if we pay too much attention to it, we’ll miss what it all means. A nifty little paradox. But not so strange or unfamiliar when you think about it. It’s precisely the same with any other language.

The same applies to cinematic language. The way cinema communicates is the product of many different tools and techniques, from production design to narrative structure to lighting, camera movement, sound design, performance and editing. But all of these are employed to manipulate the viewer

Don’t talk during the movie. That’s super annoying

. Mise-en-scene, narrative, cinematography, editing, sound and acting will all still matter. And our understanding of how those tools and techniques not only shape the medium, but also shape our culture will also still matter. Maybe more than ever.

That independent spirit in American cinema also created space for women and people of color to have a voice in the art form. A quick scan of the history above and you’ll notice there are not a lot of women’s names. And almost all of the men are white. But filmmakers like Shirley Clarke, Julie Dash and Allison Anders didn’t wait around for Hollywood to give them permission to make great cinema. Nor did the filmmakers of the early so-called Blaxploitation movement (though their success was eventually and sadly co-opted by white filmmakers)

If all of that makes your head spin, you’re not alone. In short, back in 1983, 90% of all American media was controlled by more than 50 distinct companies. By 2012, that same percentage was controlled by just 5. By 2019, it was down to 4: Comcast, Disney, AT&T and National Amusements

AWS (1975) cost $9 million to make (three times more than Universal budgeted) and took 159 days to shoot (three times longer the Universal had hoped), but it grossed more than $120 million in its first theatrical run. It hit Hollywood like a tidal wave.

he Exorcist (1973) broke every accepted norm of cinematography, sound design, narrative structure, editing, performance and even distribution models. And in the process broke every box office record.

Whatever the reason, Warner Bros. bankrolled Bonnie and Clyde (1967), tried to bury it on release, but ultimately had to admit they had a huge hit on their hands. It was as bold, unpredictable, and transgressive (for its time) as Beatty had hoped. And audiences, especially younger audiences, loved it.

The result was a dramatic contraction in output as studios made fewer and fewer movies with increasingly expensive, freelance talent hoping to hit the moving target of audience interest.

, Olivia de Havilland, a young actress known for her role as Melanie in Gone with the Wind (1939), sued Warner Bros. for adding six months to her contract, the amount of time she had been suspended by the studio for refusing to take roles she didn’t want. She wasn’t the first Hollywood actor to sue a studio over their stifling contracts. But she was the first to win her case.

Despite all of the restrictions imposed by vertical integration, central producers, and talent contracts, the house style of a given studio meant that all of their resources went into making the very best version of certain kind of film.

By owning and controlling every aspect of the business, production, distribution and exhibition, those companies could minimize risk and maximize profit by monopolizing the screens in local theaters

Warner Bros. was a family-owned studio run by five brothers and smaller than some of the other larger companies like Universal and MGM. But one of those brothers, Sam, had a vision. Or rather, an ear. Up to that point, cinema was still a silent medium. But Sam was convinced that sound, and more specifically, sound that was synchronized to the image, was the future. And almost everyone thought he was crazy.

Eisenstein, his friend and colleague, applied Kuleshov’s theories to his own cinematic creations, including the concept of montage: a collage of moving images designed to create an emotional effect rather than a logical narrative sequence.

His most famous film, A Trip to the Moon, produced in 1902, transported audiences to surface of the moon on a rocket ship and sometimes even included hand-tinted images to approximate color cinematography.

One of the first films they produced was a 5 second “scene” of a man sneezing.

Muybridge pocketed the $25,000 and became famous for the invention of series photography, a critical first step toward motion pictures.

where n = 3, 4, 5, 6. As a result, these lines are known as the Balmer series. The Swedish physicist Johannes Rydberg (1854–1919) subsequently restated and expanded Balmer’s result in the Rydberg equation: 1λ=RH(1n2l−1n2h)(2.1.2.2)(2.1.2.2)1λ=RH(1nl2−1nh2) \dfrac{1}{\lambda }=R_H\; \left ( \dfrac{1}{n_l^{2}}-\dfrac{1}{n_h^{2}} \right ) \label{6.3.2} ,

Capítulo 3 –

potentially renewable resources

Because recycling cannot keep up with the increasing demands for metals

unfortunately inconceivable in the current political climate

‘we do not inherit the Earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children’

flow of financial capital, and the facilitation of commerce, including the knowledge, skills, competences and other attributes embodied in individuals that are relevant to economic activity

Per capita emissions of carbon dioxide between the United States and Switzerland

One of the most notable ways Zurich is leading global sustainability efforts is their dedication to keeping their carbon dioxide emissions low

The level of awareness regarding the health and environmental impacts of inadequate waste disposal remains rather poor

countries generally failed to stabilize their greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by 2000 as required by the Climate Change convention

The first comprehensive global assessment of biodiversity put the total number of species at close to 14 million and found that between 1% and 11% of the world’s species may be threatened by extinction every decade

aquaculture which is a known source of water pollution, wetland loss and mangrove swamp destruction

where crop production is seriously reduced

Deforestation remains a main issue

As a country, the immediate benefit from the continued use of fossil fuels is seen as a positive component (because of economic growth). All countries, however, will share the negative long-term effects.

In a society that believes in the freedom of the commons, freedom brings ruin to all because each person acts selfishly

In fact, the skill of speaking is so important that it has been formally taught for thousands of years

many of us do not like or want to give speeches.

Gage had lost a lot of blood, and the next days that followed were quite difficult. The wound became infected, and Phineas was anemic and remained semi-comatose for more than two weeks. He also developed a fungal infection in the exposed brain that needed to be surgically removed. His condition slowly improved after doses of calomel and beaver oil. By mid-November he was already walking around the city.

It encompasses the branch of biology that deals with the anatomy, biochemistry, molecular biology, and physiology of neurons and neural circuits. It also encompasses cognition (thinking) and human behavior.

Figure 1.2.31.2.3\PageIndex{3}: The wild lupine Lupinus perennis is the host plant for the Karner blue butterfly.