Written Essay Part 2

                 A lesson that could be learned from watching Seven Pounds is, people should sacrifice something for those who truly deserve it. In the final death scene of Ben, it goes through flash backs of the accident where he lost his fiancée and killed six others. The flashbacks infer that he’s basically been dead since the accident (Seven Pounds). The whole scene is a show with low key lighting, a darkness which the audience can feel sad and sorry for him. The ice and the shower curtain look like the glass and the crushed steel from the wreck. . This lesson relates the theme because even though Ben when through something as horrific as he did, killing seven people, he decides that the better thing to do is even he still ends up taking his life, he gives back to people who are struggling. The scene where Ben and Emily are sitting in the field can relate to my image. Ben and Emily take Duke for a walk and they sit down together and have a heart to heart so to speak (Seven Pounds). This shot is very calming as they are sitting in the meadow as the wind is blowing. The shot can relate to my image by, both are life and death sitting right next to each other and neither can collate with one another. It also can say how Emily had kind of brought Ben out of a darkness he’s in. This film helps support my thesis because Ben has been very depressed since the wreck and when Emily comes into the picture, he starts to change his way of thinking about life. Gabriele Muccino says “he’s a dark whole” (Seven Pounds). This relates to my thesis very much because as my theme is, darkness can be help if you have someone there for you, which is what Ben is, Ben is darkness and as the movie keeps going it looks like his darkness is getting darker each shot until he starts spending time with Emily who eventually start to change his mind on killing himself, which is why he went back to the hospital to find what the chances were of her getting a new heart was. It didn’t work out in his favor which is why he decides to give his heart to her.

                    War ruins people both mentally and physically. PTS(D) is one of the most known side effects of war. It was extremely common in WWI and WWII. PTS(D) relates to my image very well as PTS(D) is darkness. When you go through something as horrific as war it can mess you up. When the SEAL TEAM SIX guy came in to talk to use, one of the things that shook me and gave the class a better understanding of PTS(D) was when he said “I can taste blood in the air at random times” (PTSD). PTS(D) has darkness all around it. It can get so bad than a person will kill himself just to make it stop. In the film The War is a good example of PTS as the father has times when he wakes up freaking out about dreams of the War. Also an example of PTS when he attacks the father of the kids that bullied his kids (The War). It relates to my thesis because when a person has PTS he/she has to have a person in their life that can help and slowly pull them out of there darkness.

                    You can overcome mostly anything with the help of a friend is a lesson that is learned from Smoke Signals. Thomas and Victor go off to recover Victors fathers ashes who left them when they were very young because of the fire he created that killed Thomas’s parents. Thomas asks Victor many times “Victor why did your father leave?” (Smoke signals), because Thomas really knew why he left and wanted to see if Victor would finally find out why he left and to not hate his father. Thomas is basically Victor’s healer as the journey continues with the both of them. It relates to my lesson because without the help from Thomas, Victor probably would have never have found the truth. This film relates to my image because Arnold, Victors father, ended up falling back into alcohol to try and cure him and forget what he had done. He also ends up cutting his hair which his native tribes is very frowned a pone because the meaning of hair is your life (Smoke Signals).

        

                    There’s a lot more you can find out about a music video if you look closer. My music video can relate to my lesson because, the video was about a family in distress in a hurricane and how it affects their lives. Help is on the Way by Rise Against is very touching in what the video makes you feel with the video combined with the lyrics (Visual Literacy). The mise-en-scene is where when you can pause the video you can tell the whole story. When the young boy is in the attic were they reside in when their house starts to flood, he looks out a crack in the house and see how high the water is and the destruction it caused. This video relates to the thesis on when the boy and the girl are on the roof and looking at the butterfly as it flies on his leg (Visual Literacy). Even though all this destruction and sadness is surrounding the children they see the beauty of nature when the boy and girl are laughing and smiling when they see the butterfly. It also relates to the image by how even though there’s darkness around them they still find some light to smile upon. The mom is trying to gather all the photos and images when the flood starts (Visual Literacy).  Its show the meaning of those items as even though the water is up to her knees she still tries to gather them.

                   Alcohol doesn't pull you out of depression, it drags you deeper. The Ceremony relates to my lesson because in the book the soldiers always fall back on alcohol, expessually Tayo. Tayo always reverts to alcohol in and attempt to forget his brother Rocky getting killed. It doesn't help that his family doesn't except him for who he is because of him mother. Tayo is half whit, half Native American and isn't accepted by either side which is very hard for him. 

Visual Essay Final

Seven Pounds Essay

                    In Seven Pounds every scene has a very important meaning as you look deeper into what's going on. The way the Character is positioned, his or her type and or the color of clothing, the lighting, and many other things can tell you more information on the story and can give you more feelings towards the movie. In the film Seven Pounds, the meaning of water is very important and significant to Ben himself. Another important object that is significant to Ben and makes the audience think of him when you see it is the box jellyfish that the audience sees in the beginning of the film. Some other important descriptions you can go into are the colors that Ben, Emily and Ezra wear. Seven Pounds is about a guy named Ben who is an NASA engineer. Earlier in his life, he and his wife were driving in a car when he looked down at his phone and ended up swerving into other car killing seven people including his fiancée. He was the only survivor. For two years he was living with the pain that he carries and ends up giving away his organs to people he felt were worthy, in an attempt for redemption. Tim donates a lung lobe to his brother. Six months later he donates part of his liver to a child services worker named Holly. After that, he begins searching for more candidates to receive donations. He finds a man named George, a junior hockey coach, and donates a kidney to him, and donates bone marrow to a young boy who assumingly had cancer. Two weeks before he dies he gives his home away to a woman named Connie, who was being abused by her boyfriend. When he dies he gives his heart to Emily, who he started falling in love with, and his eyes to a blind man named Ezra. The two most important objects in this film that give off the most meaning are the water and the jellyfish that fallow Ben around where ever he goes. 

                    Water has a very important meaning in this film that directly relates to Ben. Water has a duel nature meaning in this film because it symbolizes both life and death which is what Ben is often looked at as. Ben is "death walking" but also is life by how he is saving other people by giving away his organs. In the beginning of the film, Ben is swimming the open ocean as his voice is saying "God created the world in seven days, and in seven seconds, I shattered mine". The scene is shot in a reversed gods/bird’s eye view. The scene is shot with a low-key light as Ben swims towards the sun which is the only source of light. The color of the scene is mainly blue (Seven Pounds). This shot gives off a calming feeling with the blue ocean water as the color blue means calm, stability and peace. But at the same time it gives off a different meaning as blue can also mean depression. The scene is shot from a reverse gods/bird’s eye view which means looking up at Ben from an abyss or a hell. The low-key lighting gives off a darkness that Ben is trying to swim away from into the light, given that the way he’s been feeling with what he had done. Another scene with water is when Ben is on the reef looking out into the ocean. Ben has been depressed for a long time with the regret of seven deaths on his shoulders. The scene has Ben standing on the top of a rock by his beach house looking out into the ocean as the waves are crashing into the side of the reef (Seven Pounds). The scene is shot with an extreme long shot as it lets the audience see the ocean and look at Ben from a distance peering out to the ocean. This shot can also be considered as an establishing shot which tells the audience that there is something off. The meaning of the wave crashing into the rock and rising as it hits means on the path to virtue, which means path to worthiness. The next scene that features water is when, Connie comes running back to Ben asking if he really can help her. Ben brings her and her children to his house saying that he wants to give her his beach house and all she would have to do is sign the papers that moves the house into her name. She ends up signing it hoping that it would start and new and better life for her and her children (Seven Pounds). In this scene it shows the audience Connie staring into the ocean at sunset. The scene is show with a high key lighting which gives you a calm feeling and gives the audience the prediction that Connie and her children’s life will get better. She is also surrounded by a beautiful nature setting, which means, happiness, healing, Innocence and hope. Connie is also looking out into the calm blue ocean which gives you another calm feeling. The symbolic meaning behind the ocean can mean two different things, but in this particular scene, it means hope and truth. As been realizes that he really loves Emily, he runs to the hospital to find out what the chances are of her getting a heart. He finds out that there is a less than five percent chance that she’ll get a heart with her rare blood type. This is when Ben accepts what he must do in order to save Emily’s life. He calls his lawyer while he’s walking outside, while it’s raining telling him that he is going through with his original plan (Seven Pounds). In the scene is shot in shallow focus, which focuses the audiences’ vision directly towards Ben as he calls his lawyer. Also in this shot, Ben is not in the middle of the frame, as he is to the left of the frame. Also as he is on the phone it’s raining which means,  rain or pouring rain is often use to create a sense of foreboding, or impending disaster.

                    Another important aspect in this film is the meaning behind the jellyfish which ends up killing him in his final scene. The jellyfish is just like water as it also has a duel nature as although the creature is very beautiful and majestic, at the same time is extremely dangerous and deadly. The symbolic meaning of a jellyfish is acceptance and faith. When Ben moves into the hotel, he brings his box jellyfish with him. He flashes back to the first time he seen a box jellyfish while filling up the tank. He’s with his father and brother staring into an aquarium with jellyfishes in them. His hands are pressed against the glass as he is mesmerized by their beauty. While he, his brother and his father are watching the jellyfish, Ben said that he never forgot what his father said, “they were the most deadly creature on earth” (Seven Pounds). This scene is shot with low key lighting and the only light used is the brightness from the aquarium. It uses deep focus as both Ben and the jellyfish are in focus as well as everything else in the scene to reference that it wouldn’t be the last time these two meet. There’s a little bit of foreshadowing as Bens hands are pressed against the glass which is also what the jellyfish rapes around him in the death scene. The shot is a medium close up to show that the jellyfish and Ben are one. After Ben goes to meet Ezra in the diner, Ben is seen with the jellyfish in his hotel room. Ben is facing away from the camera as the jellyfish is seen on his right hand side when he gets a call from Emily, which ended up back in the hospital (Seven Pounds). The scene is a close up just enough to fit both the jellyfish and Ben in the shot. It symbolizes that both of their lives are intertwined. It’s shot with a low key lighting again, as they are trying to make mostly everything around Ben a darkness. Ben is not facing the camera which gives the audience the feeling of sadness for Ben. Also in this scene there is no items around Ben and gives a emptiness feeling deep within. Another scene with the jellyfish is when Ben comes back to the hotel with Emily’s dog after he visits her in the hospital when he asked her to look after him until she get released. It’s also when Emily gets the pager after she learns that she needs a new heart. He also brings food for the jellyfish. In this scene the shot is focused on the jellyfish as it kills the fish Ben brought for it. Ben is out of focus directly behind the jellyfish as it overlaps him. When Ben gets a call from Connie they both go out of focus (Seven Pounds). This is in shallow focus as it focuses solely on the jellyfish killing the fish. Ben is out of focus directly behind the jellyfish giving another hint that the two lives will meet soon.

                    Both of these aspects of Ben’s life finally met at the end when Ben decides to commits suicide to save Emily’s life and give Ezra the ability to see again. As Ben calls the ambulance, he flashes back to the whole story behind why he is doing this.  It shows him and his newly fiancée in his car when he glances at his phone which causes him to get in an accident killing seven people including his fiancée. As Ben gets into the tub filled with ice, the jellyfish is next to it with the note left on the ground for the ambulance telling them what to do with his organs (Seven Pounds). The scene is shot in a gods eye view looking down on Ben as he’s getting into the tub which symbolizes his coffin. The color in the shot is all blue except for his shirt. Blue in this scene means healing and purification and he is finally giving back what he had taken. As the scene progresses, Ben dumps the jellyfish into the tub which latches onto his arm, killing him. As the jellyfish is killing him he pulls the curtain down. His shirt turns to the color of his fiancées dress when they got into the car accident. The ice was thrown up by throwing himself around (Seven Pounds). In this shot, it’s used with a close up on Bens face while he dies which gives the audience more of a sadness feeling. The curtain that was pulled down looks like the crunched steel on the car Ben and his fiancée were driving in the accident. And the ice that was thrown out looks like the broken glass in the accident. Both of these can tell audience that in his death he is with his wife back when the accident happened. It also tells the audience that he feels like he died two years ago with his fiancée.

                    Everything comes together in the end in the suicide of Ben Thomas as he is in the water as the jellyfish kills him. In the end Ben is with his fiancée as he is dying and then as his heart is being transferred he is with Emily. He never expected to fall for Emily which is why he went to see what the chances were of her getting a heart to see if they could be together without him dying. But in the end he had to do what he felt was needed which brought the two most important symbols together.

Culture and Communication Essay

               For many years the culture in classes have been split apart in fine art, literature, and classical

music. Now the two classes have began to combine with the help of the mass media, technology, and public

schooling. Some people are very much against the fact that both sides have began to unite with the help of

the mass media and other effects. There are some out there that think that the combination of the classes is a

good thing.

               The elite culture known as the rich and the ruling class its the high culture. "During the Middle

Ages a caste system kept the culture of the elite separate from the folk culture of the peasants. The elite

culture consisted of fine art, literature, and classical musical." (Culture and Communication 4). As we get

into our age the culture of the elite class has became accessible to the middle call with the help of TV, for

instance, the royal family in Britain. "ordinary people can at least observe some of it on TV shows featuring

the "rich and famous" and in the supermarket tabloids, which often feature the British royal family and

celebrities" (Culture and Communication 4). With the help of television we are now being educated on

how the elite class lives, which very many of us are intrigued about. When the death of Britain's Princess

Diana occurred, the funeral was aired world wide and was watch by million. Even though the funeral didn't

air until 8 A.M. eastern time, and 5 A.M. pacific time, the estimated viewing audience was at 33 million

people, which tells you how fascinated the popular culture is with the elite culture. "During the Middle Ages,

society was highly stratified; people belonged to one of three groups-clergy, nobility, or peasants/artisans-

and their social rank virtually never changed." (Culture and Mass Communication 22). And now even  if

you were born poor you could get a good education and get academic scholarships and become a wealthy

businessman. It also occurs a lot with professional athletes. Another way the the two cultures have

combined is the access to fine art, and literature.
             
               Fine art has been apart of the elite culture for many, many years. In order to see a very rare and

popular people of art you had to be apart of the elite class and you had to have a lot of money. But now

because of our accomplishment with technology have been so great, now the access to fine art is very is to

be accessed by the middle class with the use of the internet. All you need to do is type the art you wish to

see and it pops up an image. Its not as memorable or fascinating as seeing it in person but its still accessible

that not seeing the art at all. This is known as democratization. This guy "Olafur Arnalds-Ljosio" (Press 

Pause Play) was discovered by his youtube video which had the combination of paint the moved to the

classical music which became very popular. Classical music was restricted to the elite class until things like

iTunes and youtube came into play. Now you can by a recording of the band for one dollar instead of

paying a lot of money to go to a performance. Another way that the culture of the classes have became

accessible to each other is with literature. In early ages if you weren't in the elite class you couldn't even read

which is were school education came in. "Printing became the first mass-produced and mass-distributed

commodity in this new Western culture" (Culture and Mass Communication 23). When printing came into

play, literature was even more easily to be accessed and the "Most books published during the first century

of printing were reproductions of traditional religious works, such as the Bible" (Culture and Mass 

Communication 23). Technology has made more things accessible to the world. "Instead of picking up a

guitar you pick up a computer." (Press Pause Play). Even if you don't know how to play guitar you can go

on a computer and have the computer basically play it for you. Also if you're on the internet it makes you

more known.

               A lot of people say that our generation is selfish. "In 2007 TIME magazine gave the award for the 

person of the year to “You”. It’s you and I. It’s just global masturbation." (Press Pause Play).  The reason 

why they say this is because our generation is about use. The technology that we have created is about us. 

Also another reason why is all the media that we have created like, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and 

Instagram that make it all about us. 

               The way our generation has formed the culture we live in today is a good thing. It gives more 

people a chance to become known and do what they love to do even if they didn't start out rich. It also 

gives a different perception to other people who do and send out more ideas to other artist. 

Blog #28

This week in class we continued our presentation on music video analysis. I look at music video more closely now that we've been analyzing videos for the past week. I presented Help is on the Way by Rise Against. What I found is that this video was about Hurricane Katrina, which was pretty obvious. But as I dug deeper into it I found more meanings to the video such as when they focus on the butter fly on the boys leg which means innocents even though all these bad things are surrounding them. And even when they focus on the water jug which is almost empty, means survival. Also in one of the presentations "Hey Brother" there was a lot of red, white and blue which is all about America, and it fits with the story because its about his father went off to war and unfortunately didn't make it back. Also in another presentation which featured Rise Against, Hero of War, had a scene were the lead singer was in a park which had the hidden meaning of the lose of innocents. These presentations have really opened my eyes to look closer into music video to help finding the meaning behind the video and the lyrics.

Part II: Mise-en-scene & Part III: Cinematography Analysis

This is a an image from the show Spartacus Blood and Sand. This shot gives a good description on lighting from the sun. This is the last episode in this season and the beginning of the war between slaves and nobility in this show. The sun draws your eyes up on Spartacus as he attempts to kill his master.

This scene from Continuum show a good portray of decor. This is the first time Kiera goes back in time to attempt to save the future. It really sets the mood in the whole series with all the destruction in the background as Kiera first realizes where she is and what she must do.

This shot in Arrow is a good example of low key lighting. This is the first time in the show where you see the vigilante and he eliminates three bad people. This shot shows that even though Oliver, the vigilante, is doing this out of good, it is still dark which is why setting this shot low key works in the way they are trying to portray his character.



This is a scene shot from the show Dexter. As you can see this is an example of high key lighting as it focuses on Detective Quinn as he sees Dexter looking at him as he is seen pocketing a wad of cash from a crime scene.

This is a scene from The Walking dead. This is the beginning of the apocalypse when Rick first wakes up from his injuries in the middle of the apocalypse. He has no idea what is going on and rides through the city finding out that its abandoned with military vehicles there as well. Also gives the meaning of the path as Rick is riding down the road the never ends.

This is a scene from Arrow when John first join Oliver in the fight to protect the city. John is seen wearing blue most of the time. The meaning of blue is loyalty, stability, trust and faith. John is really the only person Oliver really can trust. John holds Oliver in check and keeps him calm.

In this scene of Spartacus Blood and Sand, uses shallow focus really well in focusing only on Spartacus himself in the Christ sacrificial pose while the audience is out of focus. This is when Spartacus finally accepts himself for who he really is and realizes he does want to live and fights for his freedom.

 This shot from Spartacus Blood and Sand is a good example of deep focus where it focuses on both Spartacus and Varro. Spartacus and Varro were very good friends and they were to fight for a show for there guess, but no one was suppose to die, it was suppose to be just a show. A young kid for his birthday was allowed to determine the outcome, death or life. He was forced by blackmail by Llithyia to have them kill one another in the attempt to ruin Spartacus.

In this scene Spartacus become the champion of Capua with the use of a medium close up. After he defeats the unbeatable beast. It starts raining which also means cure. It was the first time it rain in a long time and he was also nicknamed the bringer of rain at that time as well. the scene is shot from kind of a gods eye view while he's in the Christ pose.

This scene uses the effect of framing when Neal is on the right side of the screan while the glass reflex the city. 

This week while listening to presentations I learned some pretty cool things. The first presentation was about the Lone Survivor which is about a SEAL team that was in a mission that went wrong. The whole team was killed except for one. the next one was A Long Way Gone which is about a child soldier in south Africa. It shocked me how they send the child soldiers in battle while they were hyped up on drugs like cocaine mixed with gun powder. I also was shocked how they mad the kids behave. they would kill the other kids to show the others that they mean business. My brief history is about the famous Stephen Hawking. Its just about his life and his equations for the universe including his opinion of the big bang theory. Two kiss for Maddy is about a single dad after his wife passed in child birth and how this book was for Maddy how he didn't quit on her and to show her how her mother was. Chronicles is about Bob Dylan. the book was kind of confusing where he when from 1960 then to 1990 then back. but it was funny how his interviews went where he made sarcastic comments.