Wendy And Lucy Is A Story - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1666 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/03/19 Category Art Essay Level High school Tags: Film Analysis Essay Did you like this example? At the surface level, Wendy and Lucy is a story about a young woman and the struggles she faces as she attempts to find her lost canine companion on limited funds as she travels through a run-down Oregonian town. The setting of the story is confined to only a couple of days, and little to no background information is revealed about the titular character, Wendy, throughout the narrative†but through her struggles, and the way in which they are portrayed, the film paints a careful portrait both of the reality of people living on a budget with absolutely no room for error and of the mundane nature of life in small, forgotten towns.. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Wendy And Lucy Is A Story" essay for you Create order By Hollywood standards, little happens in the films 80-minute run: Wendy and Lucy pass through Oregon on their way to Alaska in hopes of a jobwith benefitsat a cannery, Wendys old, depleted car breaks down after miles of wear and tear on the drive from Indiana, Wendy is caught stealing food for Lucy, Wendy goes to jail for shoplifting, Lucy goes missing, and Wendy attempts to find her lost companion with no cash, no cellphone, and no clue where to begin. Through the intentionally quiet and stark nature of the narrative, co-Screenwriter and director Kelly Reichardt avoids explicitly revealing the films key themes through narrative and rather employs lighting and contrast, characterization, and cinematography to subtly reveal details of Wendys story, and the larger tale of poverty at play through a deeply realist lens. As a whole, the films overarching themes are achieved both through the consistent and general use of mise en scene and cinematography throughout the duration of the film as well as through deliberate constructions and manipulations of these elements in specific scenes. As Film Art emphasizes, perhaps no component of mise-en-scene is more critical to the essence of a film than, as phrased by Sternberg, the adventure of drama and light. (Film Art, page. 131) Wendy and Lucy follows that rule; through low-contrast, muted blue tones, the films lighting and color heavily influences how the reader perceives the films narrative. The high-key lighting employed in the outdoor daytime scenes†which make up a majority of the film†eliminates contrast and leads to a dull, flattened appearance that highlights Wendys muted, internalized emotional state†and further, highlights the dull, mundane existence of life in impoverished rural communities across the country. However, the opposite is true when Wendy finds herself in extremely vulnerable or even threatening situations; in a scene near the beginning of the film, Wendy comes across a group of vagrants in the woods after Lucy runs a bit ahead. The high contrast of the dark night sky and the faces of the men and women lit by firelight produce an entirely different emotional response in the audience than the low-contrast day-time scenes. The same effect is on display when Wendy goes to jail; the stark overhead lighting of the jail produces a harsh contrast, or chiaroscuro, that contributes to a feeling of heightened somberness and unease. With the inclusion of these high contrast scenes with low-key lighting in tense or uncertain situations, the film suggests that while daily life for people on the fringes of society tends to be dull and mundane, feelings of uneasiness and fear are only one unfortunate happenstance away. This emotional state explored via contrast and color is further emphasized through the acting of Michelle Williams as Wendy. Though concepts of realism in performance have drastically changed over time, Williams barebones performance falls on the minimalistic end of the stylized spectrum. (Film Art p. 132) There is no added flair to Wendys words or actions; she simply moves through space quietly. This is not to say that Williams performance is flat; Wendy displays emotional duress both when she is jailed and later when she has an intimidating encounter with a homeless man in the woods while searching for Lucy. However, Williams performance of Wendy is extremely small, and this acting style combined with Wendys characterization leads to a fairly limited scope of depth. Because of her circumstances, the viewer is able to make educated assumptions about Wendys inner thoughts and feelings, but the film itself does little to explain Wendys background or inner emotional state. In relation to depth, the films range is extremely limited; the audience possesses little information about any of the events in the story, and rather only learns of new information as Wendy learns of it onscreen. For example, one of the few details about Wendys life that the audience learns is revealed through a telephone conversation with her brother-in-law and estranged sister after she loses Lucy. Wendy calls from a public telephone, and the scene is shot from outside the paneled glass window covering the booth. The reflections of the cars passing by is shown on the glass, and the sounds of the car engines is nearly as loud as Wendys voice as she speaks. By placing importance on Wendys surroundings during the phone call, the film shows that although Wendys world is falling apart†she has literally lost Lucy, her companion, with no indication that she can be found and has no way of looking for her because of her broken down vehicle†the world in the small town around her persists on as usual. This phone call scene also serves as a small glimpse into Wendys reality, though it perhaps raises more questions than it answers; Wendys brother-in-law presents a friendly voice, but her sisters harsh comments in the background show that she and Wendy do not share a particularly pleasant relationship. Wendy is clearly affected, if not surprised by, her sisters lack of compassion toward her situation. However, as she states on the call, she wasnt seeking help. She was simply seeking a connection in a time when she desperately needed it, but when she fails to obtain empathy from her sister she neither cries nor gets angry; she simply soldiers on with a quiet determination†because to do otherwise is literally not an option under the circumstances in which she was existing. Wendys characterization as portrayed in this aforementioned scene is critical to understanding the films overall theme. Along with characterization and lighting, the cinematography in Wendy and Lucy contributes to the films meaning. The film opens with a wide angle long shot of trains, and this type of wide angle long shot can be seen repeatedly throughout the film. An example of this is the scene following the train shot in which Wendy and Lucy are walking through a field; the scene is shot with a wide angle long shot and the camera tracks right along with Wendy and Lucy as the walk forward. A number of scenes in the film employ this wide angle long shot as Wendy walks through the space on a mission to find Lucy. This choice contributes to a feeling both of repetitiveness and of Wendys relatively minor importance in her large surroundings; when the film returns to the familiar visual of Wendy walking seemingly across the scene from a far distance, it cues to the audience to recognize that she is once more on a hunt to find Lucy. Perhaps most notably, the film is generous with the screen time given to seemingly unimportant shots such as the ones mentioned above. By tracking Lucy and Wendy walking for multiple minutes in the aforementioned scene, the film establishes early that it has no intention of following conventional Hollywood standards of shot length and pacing. By granting gratuitous minutes to those slow moments within the narrative, Wendy and Lucy further defines itself as a work of realism and once more emphasizes the monotonous, wearisome routine that Wendy experiences every day. This phenomenon is best exemplified through the scene in which Wendy searches for Lucy at the pound. The cinematography breaks from continuity editing momentarily to highlight the hopelessness of the situation; rather than show Wendy searching for Lucy in an establishing shot, the film continuously and slowly tracks left from the onset of the scene to reveal each worn out dog in each worn out cage. Like in the scenes discussed above, the scene is gratuitous with the time it spends doing so; the camera tracks down the aisle of the pound for over a minute without any interruption from Wendys point of view. Finally, the shot switches to Wendy and tracks her in a close up as she walks and continues to search for Lucy. The shot then switches back to the pound in a parallel tracking shot. Then, the scene cuts to Wendy walking out of the poorly lit, high contrast pound after she fails to find Lucy. The lighting, contrast, and realistic sounds of the dogs barking and howling contribute to the sense of realism in the scene, but its ultimately the choice to linger on each shot for a greater-than-normal length of time that contributes most to the films realistic outlook. Typically, in films the filler is cut out or at least shortened, but in Wendy and Lucy, this filler is heavily emphasized to mirror real life. Overall, through the meticulous use of lighting and contrast, characterization, and cinematography, Wendy and Lucy tells a story of life for people living on the fringes. As an audience, we are actually explicitly told very little about Wendy and her circumstances, but these aspects of film form and style work together to demonstrate the reality of her situation: washed out cool blue tones and the use of low contrast in daytime scenes lead to a feeling of muted, dull emotion while extreme high contrast in nighttime and some indoor scenes leads to a feeling of uncertainty and unease that people like Wendy often encounter; Michelle Williams acting style and Wendys characterization through costume and actions lead to a sense of a calm, steely resolve born out of a necessity to survive; and long, sweeping wide angle shots accompanied by longer-than-standard filler shots contribute to the films overall feel of stark realism.

Adhd And Its Effects On Children s Brain Growth - 834 Words

In this technology driven society, we often find ourselves handing children an electronic device to â€Å"occupy† them. Maybe we are on an important call; maybe the restaurant is busy and you don’t want them to cause a scene. Whatever the reason may be, the fact remains, we do not think twice about handing over our devices to a child. Without realizing, we are hindering our children’s brain growth. Too much screen time, without enough family connection time, can lead to the misdiagnosis of ADHD. A new national survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that: One-third of children diagnosed with ADHD were diagnosed young – before the age of six. The percentage of children diagnosed with ADHD has increased steadily since the late 1990s and jumped 42 percent from 2003-2004 to 2011-2012. Of these cases, the majority (53.1%) were first diagnosed by a primary care physician.1 There is not a specific test for ADHD. Health professionals can only do some testing that â€Å"might† help detect this condition. In other words, they check the child hearing, eyesight and take a blood sample; To rule out other underlying conditions that may be mistaken for ADHD. For the most part, though, they listen to parents or teacher complaints of what the child is exhibiting. For instance, when parents complain of impatience, unable to sit still and lack the ability to focus. All classic signs in ADHD. However, what primary care doctors are failing to ask, is how muchShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Stress On Infants And Young Children1711 Words   |  7 Pagesyoung children. Similar to many other psychological disorders, ADHD has roots early in life. After birth, stress continues to affect infants and young children in comparable ways when they exposed to stress. 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Malware review Free Essays

While technology in computing continues to rise, computer hackers and crackers are also evolving. Cracking even started at the early age of computer technology. It started from simple codes exploiting bugs in Operating Systems. We will write a custom essay sample on Malware review or any similar topic only for you Order Now And now, it becomes a hobby of some. Stealing passwords and exploiting computers are common way of cracking. Some people termed it as hacking. Everyday, anti-virus companies are also upgrading their systems since viruses and other harmful softwares are upgrading. Piracy is another story. It is an act of duplicating someone’s work and sells it. Before, it is not common and hardly be seen. But as devices and softwares are upgrading, duplications can be made in a split of seconds. For some consumers, it is good but for the industry, it is a disadvantage. Piracy is one of the major problems that media industry is facing. But, technology cannot be fathom; it is continuously evolving in exponential manner. Music publishers (the entertainment industry is the ones affected) released their cure or prevention for such exploitation. The program is called â€Å"rootkit†. Basically, its task is to hide copy protection on computers.   With its ability, people can no longer copy music. In this way, piracy can be prevented. But, Sony admitted that someday somehow people will try to crack its code and continue on pirating. But for sure, media industry’s cyber security personnel well not let crackers succeed. On the other hand, due its capability to control computers, rootkit was distinguished by most anti-virus software as a malware. On an article on Technology Review published by MIT and written by Wade Roush, Technology Review interviewed Bruce Scheiener a computer security guru. There, Scheiener discussed about the tool and its capabilities. In â€Å"When Copy Protection Becomes Malware†, the computer security guru specifically identified the work of the rootkit and why it is called a malware. Basically, malware is a form of software that can control the system. Some malwares are harmful. But in the case of Sony, it has no other functions except to hide copy protections on users’ computer. The reason why it is distinguished as malware is because of its capability to manipulate the system wherein the user’s freedom of the product is given limitations. Added by Scheiener, computer users or consumers often times do not know what they are buying. Advertisements are so broad that buyers only see the outside appearance of the capability of the product. Consumers do not know what else their product can do. With this weakness, rootkit see an opportunity. It can’t be distinguished by consumers as harmful except when their anti-virus reacts on it (after distinguishing it as a malware). But these days, rootkit is accepted by anti-virus companies as useful software and now freely preventing music from being copied. In my opinion, it is illegal and unethical to copy a product. The ethical nature of copy protection and its implementation on the other hand is discussed in relation to a new set of copyright laws called The Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This act protects the media industry. It punishes those people involved in illegal duplication of digital products. In some point, consumers do not freely get what they needed for a product. Consumers buy digital products to satisfy their needs. But with this technology, some consumer’s rights are somewhat by passed. If we try to look at some point, there is a contradiction. Consumers wanted to buy a product that will make their lives easy. But this objective is not met since producers have the capability to control the product they want to sell. But, we can also say that it is a part of technology advancement. It is like before. There are no copying devices before so digital products are secured. It only came when the technology advances and devices able to duplicate are manufactured. Digital products vendors are only upgrading their system. They only restore what was lost. With the rootkit, digital products today have similar limitations before, except that it’s more advance and more easy to use. There’s another important thing the article discussed. The rootkit was not detected by anti-virus softwares before. There are people who know that Sony rootkit is freely exploring their computers. One of the reasons for this is that, Sony’s technology or program is more powerful than the anti-virus available that time. There were customers who noticed it. Some make noise that their anti-virus software did not detect the rootkit. It’s really shame on the part of anti-virus provider. Their software should be able to protect the computer from harmful viruses yet rootkit passed the test. We can picture out that programmers are getting their codes better in order to cross the gate which are set by protection softwares. However that did not last a long time. Anti-virus software providers developed further their products and able to detect the rootkit. Scheiener was asked if Sony will not make another program similar to rootkit. The guru said boldly that Sony will again do it when the controversy is over. Well, we cannot blame the company for it. They are only protecting their products from pirates. If more piracy will happen the digital industry will not also last for long. There will be no marketer on the said or similar products. It is also their way of saving their jobs and professions. Malware is really a big issue. Rootkit is not free from that controversy. The process will just create a cycle. There are people who will continue to find ways how to pirate a digital product. Crackers will continue to write codes in order to exploit bugs of every technology. While that is happening, cyber security personnel will find ways to prevent their products from being stolen. This is indeed an indication that we passed the days of low-technology and now experiencing a high-end digital technology. Nonetheless, copy protection will still be recognized as malware unless anti-virus provider withdraws its security on the program. Reference: Roush, W. (2006). When Copy Protection Becomes Malware. Technology Review. Retrieved How to cite Malware review, Essay examples