Assignment 10

Globalization is the interconnectedness of the world through the increase of telecommunication and technology increase. The world is getting smaller. You can contact your friend in Egypt with a long distance phone call, and it wouldnt be any different than you talking to your friend next door. This increase in communication with the world has led to the invention of terms like Cultural imperialism.

Cultural imperialism is the act of thinking one culture is better than the other culture. To be imperialistic towards another country represents old colonialistic values and attitudes. For instance, one person might have a smug attitude about their country, lets say for kicks, its Bolivia. Bolivians would look down upon Venezuelians because they think that they are culturally "better."

Assignment 9

To me, a good commercial needs to have three things. It needs a catchy song, a funny (but not overly "trying-to-be-funny" comedy) premise, and something that will grab my attention or exhibit some type of emotional response. My favorite types of ads are the sports ads where they are talking about inspirational stuff.

In this specific ad, all three of my favorite things are inside of it. The music is epic, the premise is smart and clever, and the the overall thought after the ad is over was, "that was a cool commercial". It sticks inside of your mind when you talk to your friends. "Did you see that new nike ad? It was great." Is what I say to people.

Assignment 8

The skeleton of the movie is the movie structure. The structure includes the way the story flows and how it reaches its peak. The use of the three act, five act, and classic structure of movie's judge what is going to happen throughout the movie. Classic act structure includes a beginning middle and then end. The climax occurs sometime in the middle and changes the momentum or shade of the movie.

In the movie, Braveheart. The plot is a classic shakespearian structure. The movie is moving along until the English representative of the Scottish town, takes a liking to Mel Gibson's new wife. She refuses and starts a fight with the evil doer. Mel Gibson heroicly shows up out of nowhere and saves the day. However, they are separated and his wife is killed by the English lord. From that moment on Mel Gibson's character channels his inner hero and goes against his previous sentiments of peace. He joins the fight and is forever changed by the murder of his wife.

This classic structure follows Freytag's Pyramid. Where the middle is the climax and it changes in a different way than the beginning of the movie.

Assignment 6

One of my all-time favorite movies is The Graduate. In this movie there are many scenes that depict human emotion. In one of the very last scenes of the movie, Ben (Dustin Hoffman) rushes to get back his love, Elaine. The first part of this scene at :52 seconds there is an extreme longshot, showing that he is alone in his pursuit to get her back. As he is sprinting to get to the church, it shows another long shot of the church when is trying to get in. The extreme longshot shows the size of the church. It looks overwhelming compared to the size of Ben.

The medium shot of him running up the stairs at 1:25 shows information of what he is trying to do. Ben is frantically trying to get into the church. You can tell by how fast he is moving and that he will do anything to see Elaine.

The close ups in this scene are just awesome. At 1:37 there is a close up of Ben when he realizes he might be too late. You can truely see the tears starting to emerge from his eyes. At 2:26 there are close ups of the Robinson's. Both of them are cursing Ben for being there, but there is no sound. This is to show the emotion of these people. As you put these three scenes together you get one of the best scenes in movie history due to the raw human emotion radiating itself onto the audience.

5th Assignment

The assembly line of making movies that was so popular in classic hollywood cinema was successful in many ways. The movie making machine made atleast 4-5 movies a year using similar actors. The most important part of this aspect was the stable income of movie gems. These gems include movies like Casablanca. These movies were made as the premier movie of the assembly line. The studio would make 3 or 4 other movies that werent supposed to live up to the hype of the gems, but they were entertaining nonetheless.

These big movies were important because they showed that, even though it was quickly assembled, they were THAT good. Its unbelievable to think in an age where it takes around 2 to 3 years to make a movie that these movies were made so quickly.

In the event of Casablanca, the studio heads picked a director who had directed other movies, but not with the magnitude of Casablanca. They inserted him into the formula, wrote a great story, inserted Humphrey Bogart and a lot of international actors and actresses. The end result, is arguably the best movie ever.

Assignment 3

The technology we use is always changing. It's always getting better, more advanced, and faster. The technology used in the 1920's was an industry boom that changed radio forever. The industry boom that was introduced in the 1920's received a huge demand for radios. Millions of Americans bought radios and used the wonderous talking box as entertainment for the night. Families huddled around the radio listening to their favorite shows on a nightly basis. Children were brought up on the radio listening to stories of adventure and excitement.

The increase of technological and demand for the radio increased the amounts of radio channels to choose from. The boom led to channels in all sorts of genres. Action, adventure, news, entertainment, comedy, morning shows, sports, and all you can think of. The radio introduced music to the people as a whole. Therefore leading to the buying of records. The economic gain from the expansion of the radio was very significant. The radio created jobs, entertained, and spread its influence due to the growing popularity.

In the US, radio has become a staple for entertainment, music, and marketing. The current time has XM Radio where there is no ads, but it is more expensive. The constant evolution of the radio has led it to be on of the leading media outlets to people in the world.

Assignment 2

Do you ever hear a song either on the radio or on your ipod and a product comes to mind? Apple has used this to perfection using hip upbeat music for their ipod commercials. Priming is a weapon used by advertisers to put an emotion or feeling on a certain image or sound. Everytime you hear that song you are compelled to think about a product or an emotion that comes from that. Catharsis is similar to priming in that there is an emotional charge that is felt when an event happens. Catharsis is something you may feel at the end of a really dramatic movie. I feel that priming and catharsis are two very important words that involve the media and the masses.

An example is the opening slow-mo scene in Reservoir Dogs. Where George Bakers "Little Green Bag" is used to perfection in setting the tone for the rest of the movie. Whenever I hear that song, I always think of the suit-clad gang walking, without a care in the world, to their ultimate destiny.

I was watching TV the other day and this ad came on. Instantly you catch the jingle in your head and it is forever affiliated with that ad. It is so annoying and catchy you cant help but listen.