Tuesday, January 28, 2020

The Art In Cinema Film Studies Essay

The Art In Cinema Film Studies Essay Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating   or indoctrinating   citizens. Film may be combined with performance art and still be considered or referred to as a film, for instance, when there is a live musical accompaniment to a silent film. The act of making a film can, in and of itself, be considered a work of art, on a different level from the film itself.. A road movie can refer to a film put together from footage from a long road trip or vacation. Intuitively, some films qualify as artworks and others do not. All film is art, though some of it is better art or higher art. This, it turns out, is not just a question for those with a special interest in film. It has interest for aesthetic value more broadly, because film can serve as a test case for definitions of art. Some theories of art seem too restrictive, because they prevent us from classifying certain films that are aesthetic masterpieces into th e category of art. The intentions of the creators in attaining status as art. Sometimes, however, creators do not conceive of their creations as primarily belonging to the class of artworks, but viewers come to recognize that they can be fruitfully regarded in this way. This is not to say that a work becomes art when its taken up by a art-consuming audience. A theory of that kind would face the difficulty of saying which audiences had the power of conferring art status. Moreover, audiences do not transform works into art, rather they discover that a works deserves to be regarded in that way. If this intuition is right, the key to understanding what makes a film count as art is what goes on in this discovery process. India is well known for its commercial cinema, better known as Bollywood. Almost every Indian is well versed with onscreen running around the trees singing songs, the fight sequences, twins meeting each other pachchees saal baad, topped with some dose of mush and lots and lots of spice. However there are other types of movies which focus purely on story- minus the masala. This genre is sometimes referred as Pheeka or Bina namak mirch wala (bland) kind of cinema. In addition to commercial cinema, there is also Indian art cinema, known to film critics as New Indian Cinema or sometimes the Indian New Wave. A true admirers of cinema and people who consider movie-making as an art call it the Offbeat or The Art House Cinema. Many people in India plainly call such films as art films as opposed to mainstream commercial cinema. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the art film or the parallel cinema was usually government-aided cinema. Such directors could get federal or state government grants to produce non-commercial films on Indian themes. Their films were showcased at state film festivals and on the government-run TV. These films also had limited runs in art house theatres in India and overseas. The Indian Art Cinema or the New Wave sometimes called has had a humble beginning. This genre doesnt boast of foreign locales, hopelessly expensive clothes or the big star cast. The sole strength of these kind of films is the story. The Indian Art Cinema has beautifully transformed and re-invented itself. From socially relevant topics of Child Marriage, Dowry, Female Foeticide, Widow Re-marriage to a simple love story. The Art film-makers have done it all. Its amazing to see how some of the very talented film-makers have gifted their audiences with some of their magnificent work. There is Shekhar Kapoor who beautifully told the story of a man struggling to make his illegitimate son a part of his family (Masoom) and we got one of the all time masala entertainers Mr India from the same director. The person who gave us Zubeida, Ankur and Manthan came up with something as entertaining as Welcome to Sajjanpur and the very recent Well Done Abba. The Gen-X today are more intelligent and open to a wide variety of topics. At the end of the day the purpose of the film and the audience should be served. The audience wants a good story and a really good way of putting it and thats what the film makers are supposed to do. Yes masala flicks are welcome but too much of masala can cause acidity! A good mixture of masala movies and intelligent cinema is what the audience wants. Brainless comedies work, but again not always. In this new context of art-house appeal to the mainstream, of limited box-office appeal is striking, if not, perhaps, inaccurate. On the other hand, general conceptions of art house have come to describe films simply on the basis of their production outside the Bollywood system, regardless of their status as conventional dramas or slightly offbeat comedies. Surely a film with a 30-crore budget, Bollywood stars, and wide release does not fit the standard art-house profile. And yet a documentary about global warming w ith art house written all over it-complete with its charisma-challenged star, Al Gore-enjoyed sold-out screenings at huge multiplex theaters across the globe. From the very inception of this genre, there has been a difference between art and commercial cinema. However with changing times this gap has been bridged. The themes of art movies have witnessed a change. The earlier trends in Indian Art movies were more specifically related to the Indian audience, while the recent incline is towards the global concept. Quite ideally therefore the Indian Art cinema has gradually emerged itself as a reflections of the happenings in the society. Now many of these Art Movies or small films are grossing major profits and competing for space at the big multiplexes as well as finding their audiences at the small cinemas devoted to specialty fare. What will be ideal is an exclusive chain national art house cinema multiplexes to mark the new era of these specialized cinema. The audiences today look out for good films rather than the serious or popular films. Hence once a while a multi-starrer movie bombs and a small budget movie like Aamir is much appreciated by the cine goers. The need for better subjects, the desire to watch something more feasible on the screen and the boredom that has set in with the regular candy floss cinema are some of the reasons for this apparent change. If this trend continues then the day is no far when there will be no commercial cinema or art cinema, but just good cinema and bad cinema. India is full of art and that is depicted in Indian movies. But a commercial or non commercial movie, both need art. Commercial movies need art in form of background, sets, getting a shot right. Both have got distinct way of describing art through movies. There are a number of genres and styles of Indian cinema that a viewer encounters, such as, romantic comedies, gangster films, horror films, westerns, melodramas, musicals and historical films. While some of these genres are present in Indian cinema, often as a consequence of the impact of the western films, the Indian filmmakers have also created some styles of their own, that are acknowledged as their own. This is clearly discernible in the popular tradition of filmmaking in India. The knowledge of Indian cinema provides an entry into the thought-worlds and performance-worlds to the people interested in this art. Many Indian film directors, right from the pioneers such as Dadasaheb Phalke to the modern ones like Yash Chopra, have deployed their creativity along with traditional forms of dance mime, folk classical music to enhance the communicated experience. Indian popular cinema has evolved into a distinctively Indian mode of entertainment by imaginatively amalgamating music dances also and the works of veteran directors like V.Shantaram. Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor bear a testimony to this fact. So, through Indian cinema one can also enter the larger world of Indian aesthetics. Film makers like Ketan Mehta has made a movie on the life of 19th century painter Raja Ravi Varma named it as Rang Rasiya. Its a very artistic movie showing us the reality of the society in the 19th century. He had also directed Mangal pande which was againg very artistic from the sets to costume everything gave you the feel on the 18th century. Aushitosh Gowarikars Jodha Akbar is another epic story in which art played a very important role. To add on the list is devdas Sanjay Leela Bhansali did a brilliant job with art direction. Indian cinema has presented a detailed version of India from its different historical movies to its present scenario movies. The distinct genres of films depicted by the different filmmakers have helped in the study of India from a different and distinct angle of vision. Thus, one cannot help but realize the fact that indeed it has been the old traditions and the cultures that have actually framed the Indian cinema, which have been an encouragement to uplift India and make it one of the renowned countries in the world. By seeing the cultures and traditions of the distinct societies, people can examine their own country`s culture with fresh eyes and with a special vision and approach.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

The Digital World Essay -- Technology Machines Internet Papers

The Digital World The digital world of today can be understood as a product of late-Victorian construction of the machinery of information organization combined with Modernist visual forms. In his doctoral dissertation, The Engineering of Vision from Constructivism to Computers, Lev Manovich, professor of New Media at the University of San Diego, states it is the influence of Modernist visual forms, mainly Soviet era Constructivism, that shapes the look of the current digital world (e.g. the Internet). Professor Simon Cook of Duke University, in his recent paper, Late Victorian Visual Reasoning and a Modern History of Vision, argues that Manovich overlooks the importance of the Victorian period in influencing the aesthetics of our present digital design. Cook bases his argument on the concept of an orderly and well-catalogued Internet, as if the system had been developed in nineteenth century Britain. However, due to the chaotic, disorganized and ever-changing look of the digital world, the argument of a Victorian based system is flawed. The late nineteenth century does not have the impact Cook believes it does, whereas Manovich remains on track in his original argumen t. Still, Manovich’s ideas can only be regarded on a temporary basis, because the face of the digital world has changed drastically since its development, and will continue to in the near future. Before exploring the look of the current digital world, it is first important to look at its physical development. I will concentrate mainly on the Internet and the more recent phenomena of the World Wide Web, although software look also has a significant role. This concentration follows from my prediction of the future look of computers, which will be more web-bas... ...ent. Current world politics and economics may play just as a significant role for the future digital world as Soviet Constructivism does for the current one. Bibliography Cook, Simon, online papers: http://www.duke.edu/~sjc68 Cook, Simon, Late Victorian Visual Reasoning and a Modern History of Vision Linton, Berry; Vinton, Carl, et al. A Brief History of the Internet, http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml Manovich, Lev, online archive: http://www.manovich.net. Manovich, Lev, The Engineering of Vision from Constructivism to Computers, online Ph.D. Dissertation, 1993. Manovich, Lev, Database as a Symbolic Form Manovich, Lev, Navigable Space Manovich, Lev, Avant-Garde as Software Richards, Thomas. The Imperial Archive Smith, David, Constructivism and Suprematism, http://users.senet.com.au/~dsmith/constructivism.htm

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Global awareness about education Essay

Education has become the foundation for socio economic development in the 21st century. Awareness in education varies with each state and continent, South Asia as a region is home to a mass of illiteracy with some 412 million illiterate adults while the situation in Europe or North America is completely opposite. But in order for us to make these estimates we have to keep in mind the definition of a literate person. Literate person is defined as one who can write a simple letter and read a mere newspaper but then again, there is no mechanism to confirm the credentials of a person who claims to be literate. AWARENESS IN PAKISTANI SOCIETY Pakistan’s illiteracy rate remains not only alarming, but concerning too, as over the years it has failed to make a noticeable improvement and still remains at 57%. 25 million children are currently out of school while 3 million have never seen the inside of a classroom. Only a small percentage of individuals exist, and those too from the elite class who afford high grade private education while the majority have never even joined school. The conditions in the rural areas are the worst as the people are not aware of the benefits and the government’s impotency only encourages this. Lack of education only gives rise to other issues such as a higher crime rate; failure to improve the percentage of women educated also keeps them not only suppressed but more prone to domestic violence. Under the 18th amendment, the government re-emphasizes the importance of education but seized to make such a difference. To summarize, it is lack of opportunity and will that serves as a barrier to education and literacy.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Explanation and Chart of Ser Versus Estar

There are few things more confusing for beginning Spanish students than learning the differences between ser and estar. After all, they both mean to be in English. Differences Between Ser and Estar One way to think of the differences between ser and estar  is to think of ser as the passive verb and estar as the active one. (The terms arent being used in a grammatical sense here.) Ser tells you what something is, the nature of its being, while estar refers more to what something does. You might use soy (the first-person present of ser, meaning I am) to explain who or what you are, but youd use estoy (the first-person present of estar) to tell what you are being or doing. For example, you might say, Estoy enfermo for I am sick. That would indicate that you are sick at the moment. But it doesnt tell anyone what you are. Now if you were to say, Soy enfermo, that would have a different meaning entirely. That would refer to who you are, to the nature of your being. We might translate that as I am a sick person or I am sickly. Note similar differences in these examples: Estoy cansado. (I am tired.) Soy cansado. (I am a tired person. My nature is to be tired)Estoy feliz. (Im happy now.) Soy feliz. (I am happy by nature. I am a happy person.)Està ¡ callada. (Shes being quiet.) Es callada. (Shes introverted. Shes naturally a quiet person.)No estoy lista. (Im not ready.) No soy lista. (Im not a quick thinker.) Another Approach to Ser vs. Estar Another way of thinking about the two verbs is to think of ser as being roughly equivalent to equals. Another approach is that estar often refers to a temporary condition, while ser frequently refers to a permanent condition. But there are exceptions. Among the major exceptions to the above way of thinking is that ser is used in expressions of time, such as Son las dos de la tarde for Its 2 p.m. Also, we use estar to indicate someone has died—quite a permanent condition: Està ¡ muerto, he is dead. Along that line, estar is used to indicate location. Estoy en casa. (I am at home.) But, soy de Mà ©xico. (I am from Mexico.) Ser, however, is used for the location of events: La boda es en Nuevo Hampshire. (The wedding is in New Hampshire.) There are also a few idiomatic expressions that simply need to be learned: La manzana es verde. (The apple is green.) La manzana està ¡ verde. (The apple is unripe.) Està ¡ muy bien la comida. (The meal tastes very good). Note that sometimes estar is often modified by an adverb such as bien rather than an adjective: Estoy bien. (Im fine.) Although rare, there are a few situations where you can use either ser or estar. A married man  describing his marital status could say either Soy casado or Estoy casado. He might be more likely to use soy because he considers being married as part of his identity, although he might use estoy to indicate that he had been married recently. Present Conjugation of Ser and Estar Both ser and estar are irregularly conjugated. Heres a chart of the indicative present tense: Pronombre Ser Estar Yo soy estoy Tà º eres està ¡s Él, ella, usted es està ¡ Nosotros somos estamos Vosotros sois està ¡is Ellos, ellas, ustedes son està ¡n Sample Sentences Susana es atenta y con buena comunicacià ³n. (Susana is thoughtful with good communication skills. Ser is used with a personal quality.)Susana està ¡ atenta a la situacià ³n de su amiga. (Susana is attentive to her friends situation. Estar is being used to characterize behavior.)Roberto es nervioso como mi hermano. (Roberto is as nervous of a person as my brother is. Ser is used here for describing what kind of person someone is.)Roberto està ¡ tan nervioso como mi hermano. (Robert is as nervous as my brother is now. Estar is used for an emotional state that is independent of personal qualities.) Quick Takeaways Ser and estar are the two verbs most frequently used as the equivalent of the English to be.Ser typically is used in describing the nature of someone or something.Estar typically is used in referring to a state of being that isnt necessarily innate.