Bloody Sunday Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bloody Sunday - Essay Example Internment was introduced by the state authorities. In internment, the individuals who protested or were suspects were imprisoned without any trial. And it is believed that this Internment basically targeted the Catholics as most of the individuals imprisoned were Catholics. This Internment and unjust treatment of their community led the Catholics to protest for their rights. This peaceful rally was arranged by the Catholics on 30th January 1972. The rally was going peacefully until it was stopped at an army barricade. The whole situation turned to be ugly from here on when the protestors started being aggressive and hurled stones at the army. In response to this Water Cannon and rubber bullets were fired back at the crowd which went on for quite a while. This situation went on for a while because of which the Head Quarters ordered the Parachute Regiment to be deployed. Unusual events took place after the deployment when gun shots were fired at the rally by the army personnel and sev eral of the protestors were killed during this process. 13 casualties were at first reported at the site but after some months another individual who was shot succumbed to the injuries raising the death toll to 14. The unusual events of the incident have been provided from two different sources. The government sources put forward the event in such a way that the army personnel were at first shot at by the civilians and in self defense the army personnel had to shoot back. An army source which was interviewed after the event said that the civilians also possessed nail bombs and they were about to use them to harm the army. On the other hand this source is clearly denied by another eye witness of the event who was also interviewed. According to the eye witness the civilians did not possess any weapons and the army personnel were the first ones who shot the innocent civilians. These unusual

During the placement identify a specific issue relating to nursing Essay

During the placement identify a specific issue relating to nursing practice. (Progression development in mental health nursing) - Essay Example It requires a perfect understanding of the health problem, its effects and implications for other life and health functions in older people. Therefore, it is imperative for mental health nurses to develop professional awareness of the dementia problem and its risks in older people, in order to understand the ways of addressing this problem, as well as the personal and medical needs of older people. This paper aims at investigating the issue of dementia in older people from the standpoint of a mental health nurse. The paper will discuss and critically evaluate the significance of the problem for older people. Prevalence of dementia in older people and its effects on the critical life functions will be discussed. The paper will analyze the challenges, which mental health nurses face, while trying to deliver high quality nursing care. Other aspects of mental health care will be discussed, including nursing paradigms and therapeutic approaches, the role and the boundaries of a mental hea lth nurse in dementia care, and the role of effective planning and nurse-patient interactions in caring for older patients suffering from dementia. Legal and ethical factors of dementia care will be evaluated. This paper will expose the key problems related to mental health nursing and its role in dementia care. Practical recommendations for mental health nurses will be provided. ... ing those with dementia, constantly grows, and (b) dementia requires that nurses develop complex approaches to care, in order to reduce its negative influence on other life functions. The World Health Organization believes that the growing proportion of older people to the total population is a global phenomenon, and increasing age turns chronic health conditions into the issue of the main health importance (Anonymous 2009a). Among the most common health problems in older people, mental health disorders and cognitive impairments feature prominently (Anonymous 2009). Dementia and depression as the two most widely spread forms of chronic mental conditions later in life (Anonymous 2009a). Needless to say, the higher the proportion of older people to the general population, the more acute the problem of dementia grows. In its 2009 report, WHO estimated that almost 36 million of older people worldwide would be diagnosed of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in 2010 (Sorrell 2010). Th is number is likely to double every 20 years (Sorrell 2010). These statistical results have far-reaching implications for health care systems’ operation and functioning. These implications are equally relevant to mental health nurses. Nurses need skills and knowledge to anticipate the development of cognitive changes in the older people and guarantee high quality care, which reduces social stigmatization of patients with dementia and improves their life and wellbeing. The problem is dangerous and complicated in the sense that dementia produces multiple negative effects on life and health functioning in older people. According to The World Health Organization, quality of life is â€Å"an individual’s perceptions of their position in life in the context of the culture and value system in which

Intellectual Property Essay Example for Free

Intellectual Property Essay Overview of Paper Whether we believe it is right or not, many of us have become accustomed to the fact that a large number people download copyrighted material regularly using Peer-to-Peer file-sharing software. As a result, the entertainment industry is losing billions of dollars in revenue, and is suffering from the infringements of many copyrights. Who should be held responsible for this? Is it the fault of the people who misuse the software or the fault of the software distributors for allowing this to occur? With the recent case of MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., these issues came to an even bigger showdown than the predecessor case of AM Records Inc. V. Napster in which the violations that its users were directly infringing the plaintiffs copyrights, that Napster was liable for contributory infringement of the plaintiffs copyrights and that Napster was liable for vicarious infringement of the plaintiffs copyrights, particularly after it was discovered that multi-platinum artists were finding their songs leaked to the internet long before an album had ever been released. (Vaver) Thusly, the basis of this paper will be to examine the relationship of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing services and how they violate copyrights, patents and generally, intellectual property. Further, I will discuss the impact on software developers, artists and the individual user who participates in utilizing P2P software on their individual and public access computer systems. The primary case that will be featured in this discussion is Metro Gold wyn Mayer (MGM) versus Grokster which took place in 2005. †¢History of participants (MGM) Theater magnate Marcus Lowe, who orchestrated the merger of Metro Pictures Corp., Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions, formed MGM in April 1924. With visionary Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg at the helm, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was a powerhouse of prolific artistry and filmmaking expertise that the studio famously said attracted more stars than are in the heavens. During a golden three decades from 1924 to 1954, the Culver City-based studio dominated the movie business, creating a Best Picture nominee every year for two straight decades. One of the more memorable years at the Academy Awards ® was in 1939 when MGMs Gone With the Wind and MGMs The Wizard of Oz were both nominated for Best Picture. Gone With the Wind took home Best Picture that year, along with 8 other Oscars. The Wizard of Oz secured two Oscars. United Artists was established on July 15, 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith and was best known as the company built by the stars. The budding company quickly left an indelible mark on Hollywood, revolutionizing the motion-picture business by promising creative freedom to actors and filmmakers, while offering the filmmakers a share of the films profits. UAs Midnight Cowboy, released in 1969 starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, was the first X-Rated film to be nominated and win an Academy Award ®. It won 3 Oscars ®, including Best Picture. It was changed to an R-rating in 1971. United Artists later joined the MGM family in 1981, and thrived as member of the lions pride.†¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨MGM boasts a total of 205 Academy Awards ® in its vast library. Among those are 15 Best Pictures. These films include; Rebecca (1940), Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Hamlet (1948), Marty (1955), The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (1961), Tom Jones (1963), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Rocky (1976), Annie Hall (1977), Platoon (1986), Rain Man (1988), Dances With Wolves (1990), The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Today MGM boasts an impressive library comprised of titles from the United Artists, Orion Pictures, and Goldwyn Entertainment and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment libraries. With approximately 4,100 films and over 10,400 hours of television programming, the library also includes the Rocky and Pink Panther franchises and the celebrated James Bond franchise, the longest running and most profitable series in film history. (MGM) MGM and other entertainment companies (24 in total): A collection of song-writers, music publishers and motion picture studios who â€Å"own or control the vast majority of copyrighted motion pictures and sound recordings in the United States.† Damages were sought as well as an injunction against Grokster for copyright infringement. MGM accused Grokster of distributing software which enabled users to breach copyright restrictions. They insisted that around 90% of data transferred using P2P software was copyrighted, costing them millions of dollars in lost revenues. They also argued that this type of copyright infringement would not occur if Grokster and similar software distributors did not make it possible. †¢History of participants (Grokster) Grokster Ltd. was a privately owned software company based in Nevis, West Indies that created the Grokster Peer-to-Peer file-sharing client in 2001. Grokster Ltd. was rendered extinct in late 2005 by the United States Supreme Courts decision in MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. (Duke) Grokster became popular after the collapse of Napster due partly because of its decentralized architecture. Grokster’s client application licensed the FastTrack network technology. Grokster was in a new client software application that was used to connect to the FastTrack and Gnutella’s decentralized P2P networks to enable its users to share files. This network was quite different from Napster in two primary ways: 1) users could search for any file type (they were not restricted to MP3s like in Napster) 2) the network was decentralized. The decentralized architecture prevented any single broken link, such as Napster’s index servers, from bringing down the network. Grokster removed the need for centralized index servers through its use of super nodes. Whenever a powerful computer with a high-speed connection running Grokster connected to the FastTrack network, it automatically became a super node and acted as a temporary indexing server for other clients on the network. It was believed that the decentralized nature of the network would insulate it from legal threats, however, this can also intimate a certain level of culpability in the act of sharing the files. (Giblin) So what is Intellectual Property? According to WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce. Intellectual property is divided into two categories: Industrial property, which includes inventions (or as we commonly know them: patents), trademarks, industrial designs, geographic indications of source (definition of geographic indications: a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin {e.g. a town, region, or country}. The use of a geographic indication may act as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities, is made according to traditional methods, or enjoys a certain reputation, due to its geographical origin†¦ example: Vidalia Onions or Florida Oranges†¦) and Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works like drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs. The innovations and creative expressions of indigenous and local communities are also Intellectual property, but because they are â€Å"traditional† they may not be fully protected by existing Intellectual property systems. Thusly, when industrial works and/or literary and artistic works are shared without proper compensation, any business, contract holder, artist or individual related to the copyright or patent has the right to seek damages in what is owed to them in relationship to the work in question. MGM V. Grokster – Facts and Decision MGM and several music and motion picture studios brought this suit against Grokster alleging vicarious and contributory copyright infringement for distributing peer-to-peer file-sharing software. According to MGM, over 90% of the material exchanged using Grokster’s file-sharing software is copyrighted material and therefore, copyright infringement occurs every time users exchange the information. MGM contends that Grokster contributes to this infringement by making the file-sharing software available to the public. The district court disagreed with MGM, granting partial summary judgment in favor of Grokster as to the liability that occurred from its present distribution activities. MGM appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit held that Grokster was not liable for contributory infringement because it lacked sufficient knowledge of the infringement and it did not materially contribute to the copyright infringement. According to the court, th e peer-to-peer file-sharing software distributed by Grokster was capable of substantial non-infringing uses. Based on this finding, the court held that Grokster could not be found liable for mere constructive knowledge, but must have had reasonable knowledge of specific infringement at the time it contributed to the infringement. Such knowledge was impossible in this case due to the structure of the network created by the Grokster software. Unlike previous file-sharing networks, Grokster did not maintain a searchable index on a centralized server. Instead, indexes were maintained on the computers of individual users, which prevented Grokster from learning of any infringement until after it had occurred. The network design also prevented Grokster from materially contributing to any copyright infringement because Grokster did not provide the site or facilities for infringement. (Duke) The Ninth Circuit also held that Grokster was not liable for vicarious copyright infringement. According to the court, Grokster lacked the right and ability to supervise the direct infringers. The peer-to-peer file-sharing software did not allow Grokster to block access to infringing users and did not provide Grokster with any opportunity to filter content. While MGM argued that Grokster could alter the file-sharing software to control user access, the court noted this was not a viable option because the software resided on the computers of the users and not on a centralized server. The court ruled against Groksters peer-to-peer file sharing program for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, effectively forcing the company to cease operations. The product was too similar in look and feel to Kazaa, which is marketed by Sharman Networks and Morpheus, which was distributed by StreamCast. Grokster along with Morpheus and Kazaa are considered second-generation peer-to-peer file sharing programs because unlike their predecessor Napster these file sharing programs allowed users to trade files directly between one another without these transactions passing through a centralized server. Because Napster maintained this fraction of control over the transaction of files through its server it was ruled illegal because it should have exercised its power over the server to stop the sharing of copyright infringing files. Grokster and this second generation of peer-to-peer file sharing programs sought to avoid this legal obstacle. (Duke) Issues at Stake In a peer-to-peer network each computer is both a server and client. Members need to download only the relevant software file sharing software, free of charge, and they may participate in the network to exchange files, which are more often than not, copyrighted. The owners of copyrights, in this case MGM believed that the software distributors are liable for copyright infringement of the software users: By providing P2P file-sharing software, MGM believe Grokster should be liable for the actions of the individuals who misuse it. A major debate rages over the issue that copyrights, no matter how numerous, do not give the holders a veto over certain advancements in technology. The copyright owners (MGM) relied on the two recognized theories of secondary copyright liability: contributory copyright infringement and explicit copyright infringement. In order for Grokster to be held liable for contributory copyright infringement, it had to be proven that direct infringement of copyrights took place by a primary person, party or group and that Grokster had full knowledge of the infringements. It also had to be determined that they also provided a material contribution to this infringement. For Grokster to be held liable for explicit copyright infringement there had to have been direct copyright infringement by a primary party, a direct financial benefit to the Grokster and an ability on the part of Grokster to supervise those responsible for the infringements. Precedent: The Betamax Case (Universal City Studios, Inc. et al. v. Sony Corporation of America Inc. et al. 1979) In this case it was held that video-recorders should not be banned, even though there is a chance they might be misused by the owner. This technology has substantial non-infringing uses, and so an outright ban could not be justified. Betamax technology was developed with the aim of allowing users to record television that they would have otherwise missed: thus, it’s intended and advertised use was not as an infringer of copyrights. (Vaver) Billions of files are shared across P2P networks each month a large proportion of which are illegal. If Grokster was made responsible for their actions, the amount of files transferred would be expected to reduce significantly as tighter regulations are enforced. If MGM won their case in its entirety, the owners of file-sharing software would be held responsible for copyright infringements of the software users. Even though MGM was attacking a certain type of software, many other technologies could be affected if MGM had been successful. MP3 players, CD burners, external hard-disks, and so on would have been drastically changed to the leisure (and working) time of many individuals due to the basic operating software included with each of those devices and the nature of their portability from machine to machine and platform to platform. (Vaver) A precedent would be set against which similar cases in the future could be examined. This is not a new problem, it has been going on for years between the Entertainment Industry and technology, which allows copyrighted material to be duplicated. The ultimate and unresolvable issue here is a trade-off between intellectual property rights and technological innovations, which will become more and more cloudy as social media and technological innovations churn ever forward and change at such a consuming and rapid pace. Repercussions In the wake of the case filing, Grokster began warning many users on the main page of their website that their IP (internet protocol: A unique string of numbers separated by periods that identifies each computer attached to the Internet) addresses were being stored. Prosecution of the file-sharing individual relies upon what has commonly been referred to as a process of a doe subpoena. If a doe subpoena is utilized, prosecutors are required to gain a series of subpoenas in order to find out the identity of the user behind the IP address in question. Following the shut down of Grokster blogs became inundated with concerned users fearful of the warning however there were and are no reports of the use of doe subpoenas in this case. Research into the effects of warnings such as the one left on Grokster’s website has shown that while these warnings can result in a substantial reduction in online file sharing of individuals, the overall availability of downloadable content did not diminish. Furthermore, researchers cannot account for how much of this reduction in individual file sharing is simply shifted to other file sharing programs. In cases where the RIAA has issued threats the users who conduct the most file sharing usually reduced their daily transactions to levels below the level of prosecution. In effect these warnings have only caused only a brief reduction in overall online file sharing. (Duke) Future Fallout The fear raised by some is that the Grokster findings would impose far too heavy of a burden on technological development, or discourage the dispersment of community information. The Grokster Court attempted to remain mindful of the need to keep from trenching on regular commerce or discouraging the development of technology with lawful and unlawful potential. The Court did not focus on the legality of the P2P networks but rather on the intent and conduct of the defendants. Finding the defendants intent unmistakable, the Court reasoned that such wrongful intent combined with defendants unlawful conduct could make defend- ants liable. Thus, the Court appropriately placed the blame on the malicious con- duct of technology developers rather than on the technology itself. (Grigorian) Under Grokster, businesses [can] continue to develop new technologies provided they do not encourage their users to violate the copyright law. Therefore, it is reasonable to infer from Grokster that P2P file-sharing software and similar technologies remain perfectly legal. This is a legitimate finding because, as the Court pointed out, file-sharing technologies can and have been used for legitimate, non- infringing purposes. For example, universities, business, and government entities use P2P file-sharing software for added efficiency and a more stable platform on which information can be shared [without being susceptible] to the types of attacks that a centralized server faces. (PC Review) Since the Supreme Courts pronouncement of Grokster, many legal scholars are eager to know the role the decision will play in future indirect copyright infringement cases, especially those involving file-sharing technology. Given the questions that remain unresolved after the Grokster decision, like those regarding the proper interpretation and application of Sony, future plaintiffs are likely to first proceed under the active inducement theory and, alternatively, plead contributory copyright infringement. To establish liability under the active inducement theory, plaintiffs must prove that: 1. The defendant took active steps with intent to cause infringement 2. The users of defendants technology did in fact engage in infringing activity. In cases involving P2P technology, proving intent is the trickiest of the two elements. However, copyright holders with legitimate claims will most likely be able to meet this requirement by showing that the conduct and activities of the alleged infringers in developing and marketing their technology would rise to the level of actively promoting the illegal sharing of said works. Courts will then need to examine the alleged infringers business models, marketing and promotional strategy and capability of installing filtering and monitoring systems in order to determine whether sufficient evidence of intent exists. Although it’s unclear as to how many of these factors must be present for a court to find wrongful intent, it is reasonable to determine that the more closely a persons behavior resembles that of a Grokster type entity, the more likely a court is to find liability under the active inducement standard. (Grigorian) This does not indicate that Grokster prefers copyright holders or offers them an automatic win. Some would argue that Grokster makes it more laborious for copyright holders to obtain damages because it forces them to conduct more extensive discovery and incur greater legal expenses in order to successfully prove intent. So while Grokster may appear unreasonably burdensome at first, it actually benefits all parties involved. By setting the burden of proof higher and requiring copyright holders to prove intent, Grokster will likely deter wasteful claims. The newly adopted standard also favors copyright holders because it offers clearer guidelines for those with legitimate claims to seek a legal remedy when their rights are violated. Therefore, in contrast to what some scholars may argue, Grokster successfully maintains a delicate balance between innovation and copyright protection. Conclusion The District Court of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Grokster, much to MGM’s disappointment. It was held in both courts that Grokster escaped liability for a number of reasons: 1.Grokster did not have constructive, adequate knowledge of the infringements. 2.The software distributed by Grokster was capable of substantial non-infringing uses. 3.There was no central server, thus Grokster could only obtain information of the infringement after it had already happened (i.e. they could not block or prevent copyright infringement because they were not able to directly supervise file transfers). 4.Grokster could not be found responsible for materially contributing to any copyright infringement. 5.Grokster did not directly earn money from this software, as it is free for people to download. Instead, they earned money through advertisements on their website. 6.Grokster was unable to change the software to control user access due to the fact that the software resided on the users’ computers and not on a centralized server. In the United States Supreme Court, the ruling of the appeal favored MGM. The unanimous ruling was that â€Å"one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.† Under these conditions, P2P file-sharing companies could now be sued for copyright infringements. Many as the most important intellectual property case have dubbed this case in decades (PC Review) Due to the extent of disagreement, which arose as to whether Grokster is protected under the Sony Betamax case, a new test has been developed to determine whether the ruling in the Betamax case protects the software in question. The test assesses whether or not the distributors of the software have promoted it as a means of copyright infringement. If such intentions were found, then the ruling of the Betamax case could not be used as precedent. As long as new innovations do not affect existing copyrights, then this ruling should not affect them. It is seen by the Supreme Court as a fair balance between the benefits gained by allowing and promoting technological innovation and the need to respect the intellectual property rights of artists. However, critics do not quite view it in the same light: they are skeptical that the test will work in their favor due to its inherent ambiguity. (PC Review) There are major concerns, however, that despite the good intentions of the court to strike a fair balance between innovation and copyrights, many investors may be put off. If there is a slight chance that a potential project is at risk from this ruling, then ideas are likely to go no further than the drawing board. This could have huge significance, especially regarding the creation of new digital technologies: Any threat of liability, and the idea dies Many argue that file sharing is not the problem, which needs to be addressed here; it is the issue of the individuals that abuse it. On the other hand, trying to hold millions of downloaders responsible for their (numerous) actions would be logistically impossible, and so a more preventative approach has instead been used. (PC Review) Therefore, Groksters message could not be any louder or clearer: innovators should continue to develop new technologies but they must do so with a lawful intent. In devising a new standard for liability, the Court in Grokster provided an alternative mechanism under which copyright holders could seek redress against technology developers and distributors that infringed on their intellectual property rights by proving un-lawful intent. The new standard appropriately focuses on the infringers conduct and intent rather than the technology itself. Works Cited 1. Giblin, Rebecca. Code wars†¯: 10 years of P2P software litigation. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011. Print. 2. Duke University School of Law, â€Å"MGM V. Grokster.† Web. 2004 2005. http://publiclaw.law.duke.edu/publiclaw/supremecourtonline/certgrants/2004/mgmvgro.html 3. â€Å"The Legality of File Sharing MGM Vs Grokster.† Web. 14 July 2012. http://www.pcreview.co.uk/articles/Consumer-Advice/The_Legality_of_File_Sharing_-_MGM_vs_Grokster/ 4. â€Å"The Official Website for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios: Learn More About the History of MGM.† Web. 14 July 2012. http://www.mgm.com/corporate/index.html 5. Vaver, David. Intellectual property rights†¯: critical concepts in law. London: Routledge, 2006. Print. 6. â€Å"WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization.† Web. 14 July 2012. http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en 7. Grigorian, Kristine. MGM vs Grokster: Adopting Patent Law’s Active Inducement Do ctrine and shifting focus to actual infringers. Maryland, Northampton, Journal of Business and Technology, Maryland School of Law, 2005. Print.

Formalistic Approach Ode to the Death of a Favorite Cat (Favourite) Ess

Formalistic Approach Ode to the Death of a Favorite Cat (Favourite) In Thomas Gray's poem "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat," we find many examples of the Formalistic Approach. In this poem, we find numerous examples of alliteration, rhyme scheme, puns, and creative word choice. This poem is very joyful and fun to read because the author is very creative in his choice of words and phrases. In the first stanza, we figure out where this event is taking place or in other words, we find out the setting. The cat is standing on a ledge in his owner's house looking down into a fish bowl and gazing at gold fish. In this stanza, we find patterns of rhyming. Within this stanza this rhyming pattern is A, A, B ,C,C,B. In the first stanza they would be the first two lines (side and dy'd), the third and sixth line (blow and below), and fourth and fifth (kind and reclin'd). Line six of this stanza states" Gazed on the lake below" (Gray line 6) represents word choice. Gray could have just stated that the cat...

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Essay

Alison Bechdel’s â€Å"Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic† is an exciting autobiography with comics that bring her story to life. Alison Bechdel wrote this book about her childhood, the relationship she had with her father and one of the many things they shared in common, their sexuality. In addition to their common homosexuality, Alison and Bruce Bechdel share o b sessive compulsive tendencies and their artistic ways, even using her artistic language to describe the father daughter relationship they had, â€Å"I was Spartan to my father’s Athenian. Modern to his Victorian. Butch to his nelly. Utilitarian to his aesthete.† This opposition was a source of tension in their relationship, as both tried to express their dissatisfaction with their given gender roles: â€Å"Not only were we inverts, we were inversions of each other. While I was trying to compensate for something unmanly in him, he was attempting to express something feminine through me. It was a war of cross-purposes, and so doomed to perpetual escalation.† At the center of where it all begins at â€Å"Fun Home,† Alison helps us envision her desperate need to make a connection with her father, Bruce Allen Bechdel. Father and daughter are playing a game of â€Å"airplane† that ends almost as soon as it begins because of her fathers obsession with keeping his old Victorian house he personally restored clean and what he seems to always want kept in perfect condition. Bruce â€Å"could spin garbage into gold† and â€Å"cultivate the barren yard into a lush flowering landscape.† â€Å"He treated his furniture like children, and his children like furniture.† Alison makes it clear by telling her story and drawings that he was so emotionally distant, that even before his death, she â€Å"ached as if he were already gone.† Before Bruce’s death, he and his daughter have a conversation in which Bruce confesses some of his sexual history; this is presented as a partial resolution to the conflict between father and daughter. Alison along with the rest of her siblings didn’t have the typical dramatic and sad reaction other people would express if there own father passed. Instead she describes it as â€Å"Dry-eyed and sheepish, my brothers and I looked for as long as we sensed it was appropriate. If only they made smelling salts to induce grief-stricken swoons, rather than snap you out of them.† Although Bruce’s death was assumed to be an accident, it was also a tragedy that started a long time before his life had even began which is why many readers, or even Alison suspect suicide because of the evidence Bechdel reveals to the reader. Four moths prior to his death, she came out to her parents that she was in fact a lesbian, she writes, â€Å"If I had not felt compelled to share my little sexual secret, perhaps the semi would have passed without incident.† This statement shows a hidden connection between father and daughter before the actual relationship beings. Her mother also shared the news while Alison was away at college about her husband’s affairs with men and interest in young boys, for example â€Å"more promising high school students.† – the muscular, male ones, it seems – to visit his home to borrow copies of great American novels like â€Å"The Sun Also Rises† and â€Å"The Great Gatsby.† Last but not least, two weeks before his passing, his wife asked for a divorce. Although these series of events that led up to Bruce’s death may seem very tragic, it allowed Alison to tell not just a story about herself but her fathers struggle to let his secret out as well. One of the most important key points in Alison Bechdel’s memoir is the connection both her and Bruce shared was expressing their sexuality through literature which plays a important role in Alison’s self discovery. She writes â€Å"My realization at 19 that I was a lesbian came about in a manner consistent with my bookish upbringing,† Alison chose to accept the fact and not hide from the issue, taking a female partner and going to â€Å"gay union† meetings, she was open about her sexuality before she’d even been in a homosexual relationship. Her  father, on the other hand, had had countless affairs with men but wasn’t open about it â€Å". This may be due to him being afraid of coming out, as the images show â€Å"the fear in his eyes† when the conversation topic almost ends up being about homosexuality. Alison Bechdel introduces her readers to many copied by hand family photographs, letters, local maps and excerpts from her own childhood journal, incorporating these images into her narrative. Since the reader is directly responsible for interpreting â€Å"action† in a comic, he or she is more directly engaged on a far more personal level. Fun Home is one such example of a graphic novel making use of comics as a means of opening a discourse about the scars family members leave on their children and finding some form of connections and closure through sharing these stories with others. This novel really shows how comics are moving in new directions and demonstrates a willingness to engage readers in new and challenging ways. Each image seems to give a very specific emotion that is carried throughout her story and the pictures contain elements of beauty, longing, memories, and hope. The bittersweet relationship of parent and child is held again and again in â€Å"Fun Home.† The memoir ends with two images that portray the bad times and the good. The top half of the final page shows the truck about to strike; the bottom half shows daughter, in jumping into a pool, waiting to be caught in her father’s arms. The bonding of the two images is compelling and striking. They also offer reader and author a choice appreciate what was had or continue to yearn. In completing â€Å"Fun Home† Alison Bechdel may have finally ended her longing.

The Cruelty Of Animal Overpopulation - 1015 Words

in cages for long time and sometimes for a year so they are being forced to euthanize the animals.(â€Å"Animal Rights Uncompromised: ‘No-Kill’ Shelters,† n.d.). Large numbers of animals are simply abandoned in the streets suffering from a lack of basic care such as food water shelter and veterinary care.(â€Å"Companion Animal Overpopulation,† n.d.). There is a cruel contribution to the animal overpopulation of companion pets, specially the ones living on the streets. People are well known to always be dissatisfied with their pets for many reasons so it is easy to find animals left in the shelters just because they are unwanted. The continued suffering of animals that are left on the streets causing the uncontrol of many diseases and more proliferation is in fact a people responsability. Many unwanted companion pets with a good health are killed every day just as a results of the pet overpopulation. Starvation, disease, freezing and roadkill are some of the consequences of the cruelty through animal overpopulation. Abandonment and neglect is one form of animal cruelty. Dogs and cats abandon are experiencing continue suffering for days or weeks and sometimes they can die; therefore, in broward county animal cruelty is against the law (Reporting Animal Issues, n.d.). Another way of cruelty is the pet cloning.The protection anima l and welfare is against the pet cloning whose every day is given arguments on why people wants to do a reproduction of an animal companion.There areShow MoreRelatedHow to Save an Animal Life Essay1636 Words   |  7 Pageslived a long, healthy life and it was finally his time to go. Many animals today are being taken out of this world in the same manor that Happy did, but the only difference is that it is not their time. This is due to overpopulation in animal shelters. 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Narrative Film Story

Sample details Pages: 19 Words: 5849 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Cinematographic Art Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? This essay will look at the importance of narrative in two CG animated films which are Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Hironobu Sakaguchi, 2001) and The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004). The essay focuses specifically on the narrative and the spectacle of the films and how through the cinematic medium, they help each other to deliver a visual story across to the audience. The essay will discuss if a solid storyline is needed for a successful feature length animated film or are the animated films just a platform for spectacular imagery. This essay will discuss topics such as the different narrative theories and how the majority of contemporary films have a similar narrative structure, how films have become more sophisticated in terms of raw video footage being just one element necessary to complete a single shot in a film. It will also discuss modern film techniques and how it can help the story being told. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Narrative Film Story | Film Studies Dissertations" essay for you Create order The essay will first focus on the various theories of narrative and a brief history of the spectacle of cinema before moving on to the analysis of my chosen case studies. People have been communicating since the day they have been born. From gossiping, bed time stories to little white lies people have been subconsciously or consciously telling stories in some form of a narrative structure. By this I do not mean that all human discourse takes the form of a true story itself but the elements of the basic narrative structure such as having, a beginning, middle and an end are present. Vast majority of mainstream films have the classic three stage act structure of the 19th century stage melodrama, set-up, conflict and resolution as the basic linear structure.time is experienced as linear (past-present-future). From starting to read this essay to the end time has passed. Narratives that have manifested itself into other forms of medium more or less have a tendency to follow this fact. Dreams, flashbacks, characters or a narrator reciting earlier events or future events which are due to happen are eccentric elements of breaking up the linear time format. Hence the arrangement of the plot being the story or as described by the Russian formalist, Viktor Shklovsky, fibula (story) and syuzhet (plot). A prominent example of this is in such films as The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995) or Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) where the plot and story are quite different, the story not being presented chronologically. Narration, the plots way of distributing story information in order to achieve specific effects. Narration is the moment by moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot. Re-arranging the plot of narratives can be a powerful technique as it can easily create suspense, curiosity, fear, satisfaction, motivation to know more of the situation. Film as a narrative medium, more or less does have closure of story or events, as in the end order is established, stability has been restored. In other words restoring the balance, a theory concluded by Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian structuralist. Todorov reported that the majority of narratives have the same structure, i.e: in a linear storyline, initially all the forces are in balance (equilibrium) and by some event or another the forces are disturbed and majority of the storyline involving around further complications of the initial situation at hand and eventually the balance being restored in the end, even though this balance is not the same as it was at the start of the narrative. When speaking of events happening or that have already happened to disturb the equilibrium, I am referring to character driven and event driven plots or moments. Major film blockbusters tend to follow this pattern with a high tendency of closure with the notion of appealing to the mass audience. This concept of commercial aesthetics may or may not be frowned upon by directors, producers or the script writers but I can comfortably agree with the fact that major film studios highly consider what will or wont appeal to the audience, how much funding they are willing to provide, generating revenues, running time, sequels and prequels and this greatly effects the quality of the storytelling and spectacle of the films, thus the directors or producers true vision of the film not being fulfilled. There are many theorists in different fields of study who have studied to devise logical ways of thinking about narratives. The main theorists I have looked at are Carl G. Jung, a Swiss physiatrist who studied Archetypes and their influences in western storytelling, Claude Lvi-Strauss, a French anthropologist studied that narratives were made up of binary oppositions and that key terms in narratives had differences. Joseph Campbell, an American professor studied mythology and religion. His works have been published in a book, Hero With A Thousand Faces. He described the term monomyth, an idea which he outlined some archetypal patterns that he realised. He focuses on the role of the hero and the various events that the hero can go through. Gustav Freytag, a German critic suggested a method for representing and analysing plots through a simple diagram of a triangle. The triangle highlighted the setup, conflict and resolution of conventional narrative structures. Starting from the left side (setup), going up the triangle would suggest the apex of the crisis (conflict) and falling back down to the end of the story or the equilibrium being restored (resolution). Meanwhile going across the bottom of the triangle would be the time passing by in relation to the events in the story. This triangle is an adaptation of Aristotles work on narrative structures. Aristotles work has been collected together into a book called The Poetics which is a series of lectures and workings, which essentially sums up that there are causes and effects that occur over time. Tzvetan Todorov and Viktor Shklovsky I have mentioned before as theorists in narrative and finally Vladimir Propp. They all came to the conclusion of their own theories of narrative however, it will be most useful to concentrate on two particular theorists whose works compliments each others quite well. all conventional films are characterized by the same narrative structure by the work of Tzvetan Todorov and Vladimir Propp. The majority of mainstream films have a similar narrative structure and the works of Todorov and Propp are evidently clear within these narratives. Vladimir Propp, a Russian critic and folklorist analysed many folk tales to see if they shared any common attributes and structures. He concluded that there are eight main characters such as the dispatcher or the donor and that there are 31 narrative functions such as villain is punished or the hero is pursued. His analysis also mentioned that not all these are evident in all narratives. Todorov and Propps theories have been influential in modern narratives and work fluently with my chosen case studies and I will apply their theories in more detail later. One last person worth mentioning is Christopher Booker, an English journalist who published the book, The Seven Basic Plots. This book outlines that all narratives fall into one of the seven various forms of storytelling. These plots are overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy and rebirth. These plots all had alternative darker versions, except for tragedy which already is the dark version. Furthermore two new plots were added outside this list, rebellion against the one and mystery. Both my case studies fall under the plot, overcoming the monster which I will briefly look at later when analysing my case studies. The pleasure of looking scopophilia has been central to cinema since the beginning Film is a visual storytelling medium. More people are keen on using their eyes to visualise the story as the audience willingly lose suspension of disbelief, sitting in a film theatre staring at a flat wall for two hours as the story unfolds before their eyes. Before I discuss some of the contemporary film techniques of storytelling I will briefly focus on the cinema of attractions an expression used to describe the early cinema by film historian Tom Gunning. As technology began to evolve over the 20th century, the moving image was born. People were overwhelmed by this form of medium and what technology could do thereafter. It was all about the wow factor, the look of the film. Since most films during this time were unedited sequences of footage, the narrative was not an important issue. Film makers were more fascinated with the possibilities of this particular medium and capturing the real and what they could do with it. There were people like the Lumiere Brothers (Auguste Marie (1862-1954) and Louis Jean (1864-1948)) who successfully captured the real-life imitation of film. One famous example is the short film called LArrive dun train en gare de la Ciotat (1895). When this film was shown people were so shocked and in fear that the train was going to run them down they fled the theatre. This was a turning point in film history as the Lumiere Brothers inspired so many other film makers. One particular other magician turned film maker was Georges Melies (1861-1938). He was another French film pioneer who made over a thousand films, the most memorable ones being Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon, 1902). His views on film making was not to mimic real-life but to explore other possibilities, using the camera to subvert what the camera sees into abstractness or creating illusions. He discovered the dissolve effect by chance when his equipment jammed. He explored the magical possibilities of the camera and other techniques such as split screen techniques and stop motion photography. He was a pioneer in cinematic special effects and also a film maker who inspired the likes of Jan Svankmajer, Terry Gilliam, etc. Films made during this period were only a couple of minutes long and over the years up until the present films have got longer, in the nineties being an hour and a half but now the average running time is at least two hours, which I definitely support the idea of, since we at least as the audience will be getting our moneys worth. This is not to say that quantity is more essential than quality but I would like to argue the fact that film producers and directors are adding extra running time to enhance the narrative, by adding sub plots or developing characters to improve the story or explain situations or events clearly and not to extend the running time so the spectacle can be the main attraction, even though Hollywood has a tendency to refer to its films as motion pictures rather than film. This can be a signal that Hollywood is faithful to the spectacle of the moving image. A new cinema of attractions has risen, particularly within action genres, where plot and story are of less importance than the spectacle. This can be true since the action genre relies on the spectacle to deliver the film. The action genre is an area where the narrative is simply a platform for spectacle where the audience can sit back, relax and enjoy the film visually, instead of participating in the story and working out clues and problem solving the story. It is more or less the dominant element, meaning in days to come we will remember the spectacle but might fail to remember what actually happened. Furthermore I think films in theory have to have at least a sequence where the narrative is disrupted and spectacle takes over, such as a car chase or a well choreographed fight scene. In theory the cinema of attractions still exist to this day with the huge cinema screens with surround sounds and films still offering the spectacle as the attraction. In Russia during the Soviet Union (1920s) spectacle was still the attraction but besides that, editing of films was also used to draw the audiences attention. Editing created powerful effects on the spectators. One particular example I would like to mention is the famous Odessa steps sequence from Sergei Eisensteins, Battleship Potemkin (USSR, 1925). This well known sequence is where the army restores order among the sailors and civilians of Odessa. He used a montage type of editing to create a pulsating attraction after attraction to intensify the feeling and effect. The point I am trying to make here is that spectacle can be a potent technique in storytelling without the strong element of narrative. Editing has evolved over the years and has become an art form in itself. It can be used to clarify events, establish a location and to build up tension and emotions. Editing itself is a unique process of shots being composed together to maximise the dramatic effect of the story. It combines the mise en scene of the shot along with all the rest to make sense of the film. It is how information can be held back to the directors content, what to reveal and what not to the audience. Filmmakers are editing in specific ways or cutting more shots out of the final film recently since the audiences sophistication grows. This can also be referred to as restricted and unrestricted narrative. Restricted narrative is when we have limited information as to what is going on, we only know what the characters know, being it false information or not. We are told information from a first person perspective, as if we are in the films ourselves within that space. Unrestricted narrative is where we are told everything, we know things that the protagonists dont as in a third person perspective. Editing shots in a way that one shot transitions into another giving the sense of a smooth, flowing edit is called continuity editing. This is a technique where a seamless edit takes place, this can be helpful as it can interpolate the audience into the physical space where the action is taking place. But some narratives shots require the edits to be visible to achieve a particular effect such as the Odessa steps sequence as mentioned before. In continuity editing there is rule known as the 180degrees rule. This rule takes place seamlessly also within the film. When two characters are talking, the action is shot on one specific side of the characters, being the one side or the other and the camera being placed anywhere on that side. This is just to clarify which direction the characters are facing and to establish the space in which they are in. This rule can be used for close-ups for intimate conversations and happenings or far out as we look on as spectators. Another important aspect of storytelling is mise en scene. This is a term given to describe everything involved within that particular shot. It is everything that makes up the frame, i.e: actors, dialogue, the music, diegetic material, cinematography, cg elements or as Richard Maltby describes, arrangement of screen space as a meaningful organisation of elements Lev Manovich a professor in visual arts, wrote an article among many, but one that I found particularly interesting was on Digital Cinema and he quotes, Cinema is the art of the index; it is an attempt to make art out of a footprint. He states the fact that contemporary cinema has become a platform where film-makers can edit and simulate real world actions through different forms and techniques such as CGI. Cinema has evolved from movies being mostly live footage to contemporary digital cinema where the live footage in film has become little or used as a basis for experimentation, 3d manipulation, etc. The fact that he used the expression an attempt to make art out of a footprint in reference to raw video is an indication as how it is used as a ground element for the CG to build upon and to manipulate it until all the elements are finalised to complete the shot. How did cinema arrive at using animation in its projects? I am going to try to explain this as short and briefly as possible. Cinema was born when the moving image was created, a sequence of images, footage or hand drawn, which theoretically is animation, since a series of images give the illusion of movement, hence animation. Film makers took this new format and made films in the tendency of the Lumiere style or the Melies style as mentioned before, adding animation as a supplement. As technology developed, the future made digital cinema possible incorporating animation and special effects as the main essence of films while live recording was used as the basis or even reference, hence, the production becomes just the 1st stage of post-production. Manual construction and animation of images gave birth to cinema and slipped into the marginsonly to re-appear as the foundation of digital cinema. The history of the moving image thus makes a full circle. Born from animation, cinema pushed animation to its boundary, only to become one particular case of animation in the end. These contemporary film techniques and processes which I have just discussed are clearly evident in the two films of my choice. The first film I want to examine is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. The film is the first photorealistic computer generated film ever to be made as all the cast are life like computer generated characters. The film is set in the future and it focuses on Dr. Aki Ross and her finding of the eighth spirit, in doing so will erase the alien phantom spirits from earth who have more or less taken over the world and left a barren like wasteland. The film follows a linear narrative structure and even though the film shares the same title as the computer games it bears no reference or relation to any of the stories in the computer games. Todorov suggests that conventional narratives are structured in five stages and this films narrative structure seamlessly integrates within those five stages. The first stage is clearly the equilibrium, however the film starts off with an already unbalanced state, which is the world has been laid waste to an alien race. The second and third stages, is the equilibrium being disturbed by some event and the recognition of this disturbance, which also has already happened before the story has begun, in being that the aliens have crashed on planet earth, and the human population reacting to this by evacuating to gigantic like plane hangers cities around the world which are protected by some sort of special field against the threat. The majority of the film is in reference to stage four which is trying to repair the unbalance, meaning Dr. Aki Ross with the help of a special task force unit trying to find the remaining spirits. The story finishes off in the fifth and final stage where the balance is restored in the end and the alien race eradicated from earth. Final fantasy also bears a resemblance to Christopher Bookers work and his theories of the seven plots, specifically overcoming the monster. The phantoms are the great and mysterious evil which the world has fallen to. The source of threat is the phantoms. The hero is Dr Aki Ross who is armed with the seven spirits and with the help of the scientist Dr Sid, they set out to travel to the source of the evil and with some amount of struggling, finding the last spirit and finally by discovering the eighth spirit the monstrous entity is destroyed. The threat has been lifted and the world has been saved with the loss of her companions. Looking at the film, the sense of photorealistic spectacle can help intensify and value the story better particularly the scenes of the phantoms. To clarify this notion in the scene where Dr Aki Ross is having her dreams of the phantoms charging towards her, I would find it quite difficult and would feel emotionless if the CGI was unrealistic to say the least, you wouldnt feel threatened because they didnt look real or menacing enough. As a serious science fiction film the visual look can help communicate the narrative across at some points in the story by making the scenes more authentic and grittier. To be honest that is the only positive aspect I can mention about the look of the film. But on the other hand a point worth mentioning is the fact that the digital actors were quite emotionless. This lead to the notion that they were artificial. In traditional animation, the facial features and body movements are extremely vivid. The motions are slightly exaggerated to give the illusion of life and personality so the movement can blend from one frame to another and that is why films that are made by pixar are so rich in character because their animators have strong backgrounds in traditional animation. Nonetheless Final Fantasy strived for life like replicas of real human people. The films photorealistic look with the serious live action feel can also be considered as its weakness. While they did look amazingly real their emotions and actions were lifeless which lead to the fact that they were artificial characters. The characters had no chemistry with each other on screen, an example is the love/romantic scene with Dr Aki Ross and Captain Gray Edwards, I did not feel like they genuinely liked each other, it was not shown successfully with their reactions or on their faces. This brings me to my next point. My initial reaction to the life like characters was mostly surprised and mesmerised. But striving for the human believability of the characters solely on the look was not enough. Maybe if the characters were created for a still image in a magazine for example it would have been suffice. But for a motion picture, the digital characters felt strange and eerie. This might be down to the fact that, the photorealism in an animated feature film was a first but I would like to believe it was down to a theory hypothesised by a Japanese roboticist, by the name of Dr. Masahiro Mori. His theory was that the more human like a robot becomes or looks like, people are fascinated by it, but when the robot borderlines human likeness the natural response by people is negative. People focus on that negativity. The human like robot is considered odd and bizarre and leads to the feeling of strangeness within the viewer. This theory was named The Uncanny Valley. Imagine a perfectly human-looking face that suddenly grimaces or smiles in a non-human way Its profoundly disturbing when something blurs the line between human and non-human. I myself, think the story was not strong enough for the film, it does not hold up to the magnificent CGI. I personally thought it failed to articulate the plot well. It is why I think the film was a let down. Some questions were left unanswered. Why were the alien phantoms a threat to the human race? Why were the alien phantoms fighting each other on their home planet in Dr Aki Rosss dreams? Why did their home planet explode? Some of these questions, answered would have given us as the audience a better understanding of the plot. The narrative was simply a platform for spectacular imagery. When I watched the film for the first time I suspended disbelief on the visual realism, I was attracted to how believable the characters and environments were. I was conscious to the excellent CGI being shown the whole time. In the future looking back at this film, people will remember this film and automatically think of how brilliantly photorealistic the animation was, how life like the characters were and how new and ever evolving technology made this possible. My next case study is another feature length animation made by the incredibly talented people at pixar studios. Pixar have been making animated feature length films and short films for over 10 years now and each one has been more successful than the previous one. The Incredibles is a computer generated film that is not photo realistic. It does have that classic pixar look, heavily stylized with human attributes. It is arguably, one of my favourite animated films mainly because it is not just the typical comedy from pixar. It does have its comedic moments but what sets this apart from any other animated film especially from the studio of pixar is that it is darker and has some form of violence. It feels like a live action film. It has moved away from the cute, lovely characters from previous pixar films. I liked this notion because it mainly appeals to a much wider audience. The narrative structure does follow Todorovs linear theory of equilibrium but I would like to apply Propps theory of character types with Gustav Freytags Triangle. The story film begins with an equilibrium, superheroes exist, living amongst normal people saving the world and keeping peace and order in society. Problems begin to evolve as the main Hero Mr Incredible is being sued for injuring the same civilian he just saved moments before. One thing leads to another and all superheroes have been forced to live normal lives under a superhero witness protection program. Thus the balances have been disturbed and according to Freytags Triangle the density of the problems are growing as time goes on and as the story makes its way up the triangle. The hero by temptation has been called into action by the villain into using his powers. The hero without knowing what he is doing has willingly helped the villain in his master plans and when Mr Incredible realises what he has done he is inevitably captured. His family are now on their way to release him. This is the peak of the crisis or triangle as all the problems are laid bare and the tension has built up, we know what Syndromes (villain) intensions are. The climax or the solving of the problems are to follow next as we climb down the triangle, as the family of superheroes solve the problems one by one. The family now together try to find a way to stop Syndromes plans and save the world, restoring the balance in the end and the story coming to an appropriate closure of the current events. I say appropriate closure because the films ending is more or less an open possibility for a sequel or maybe more. I loved the narrative as it has a bondesque feel about it, saving the world from a mad man. I was easily and simply able to establish who the heroes and villains were and the fact that the story had a suitable closure as all the loose ends of the story were tied up. Examining the narrative overall I can safely say that the relatively straightforward narrative fits Freytags triangle perfectly in view of the fact that all the problems that grew were resolved in the end. I would like to mention the beginning of the film was a parody to the 1950/1960s U.S superhero comics and films. The likeness is significant in the terms that the film begins in the past and works its way to the present day and when the superheros lived alongside average citizens and the fact that the look of the film mimicked the same style of news reporting when the superheroes over the world were being sued. In addition the stylised characters with the large upper torso, broad shoulders, square jaw and smaller than average legs evidently represented by Mr Incredible were mimics of the 1950/1960s U.S superheroes. This parody worked well as it gave the film authenticity and it felt that time had moved on within the film to the present day. Even though the characters were not photorealistic, the animation sold the concept that they were real. The exaggerated motions like I mentioned before convinced me that these artificial characters had feelings and they genuinely exist. This was quite an achievement for pixar, as cg characters before The Incredibles, whether in television adverts, cartoons or short animated films have not been quite rigid but lacked that sense of energy and dynamic in them. This can raise the question, is animation only successful with non-human or non-realistic characters? This question in itself is worth another essay, to be studied accurately, but in short I would like to think not, since there have been films that have major success such as The Incredibles clearly, Toy Story 12 also made by people at pixar studios, Shrek 12 by Dreamworks Animations and feature length films which include CG doubles of their live counterparts. Again the theory of The Uncanny Valley comes into play as successful films of non-realistic characters maybe down to the fact that people find it strange when CG characters end up looking too real on screen. The appearance of the film was simplistic, almost approaching a minimalist look and stylised but not over done as to steal the limelight of the narrative. The narrative is the dominant element within this film as I believe that the spectacle supported but did not dominate the narrative. On watching this film I was drawn into the story, what was going to happen next, it was engaging and I wanted to know more. I felt that an actual story was told to me, that I was watching the events unfold from a third person view within the film, that I was successfully entertained. On first time round watching the film I was not thinking how that was made. The film will be remembered for its entertaining, excellent storytelling factor, a film the whole family can watch. All feature animated films that have been produced by the pixar studios have had massive success. I think of pixar as any other major film studio emphasising on telling an entertaining narrative but telling it through a specific medium of film. Films such as the Toy Story series, Finding Nemo, Shrek series, Ice Age series and Madagascar all have had major success due to the strong narrative element running through the film. All films are non photo-realistic as the spectacle supports and is just the platform for story. It is kind of ironic that a photorealistic character felt unconvincing in Final Fantasy but felt realistic in The Incredibles even though the creators of Final Fantasy were aiming for realism. It proves my point of the fact that intending to achieve realism will only go so far without the narrative, vigour or the personality behind it. Narrative is compulsory in giving spectacle depth and more over life so it will become believable and to work and blend as one as a feature length animated film. So is story and plot less significant in feature length animation then spectacle? I think not. I strongly disagree with the fact that spectacle is more vital than narrative primarily because of the apparent reason that the whole idea of feature films is to tell a story. The public go to cinemas to be entertained for two hours. They set out to be enthralled by a story, that is what a film is, a narrative in by which the spectacle helps to communicate the information across. As CG effects get more complicated the audiences want more than spectacle, they yearn to be motivated by other means rather than to watch a sequence of frames. To lose the sense of reality and be mesmerised into a fictional world of wonderful computer generated characters and environments. I believe that full feature animation is just another medium of spectacle that stories can be told through, that narrative is essential for a successful CGI animation, as only recently due to new software and powerful hardware more and more CGI feature films are being made and it is technically quite a new process as filming the real has been done for a while. There is of course the excuse of the cinema to show off how the latest technology can create spectacular imagery and special effects, and show off new film and CG techniques. I also agree that spectacle can sometimes enhance the narrative being told, by exotic scenery and sets that would be impossible to manually build on location, or unrealistic physical attributes such as walking on water or punching holes in walls. The visual storytelling medium has changed, evolved for better or worse due to commercial aesthetics in meeting needs for the mass audiences to ensure that the films being produced are logical and understandable. An interesting point to note is that technology can be put to work either to create a convincing of the real or create the opposite and in my chosen animated films Final Fantasy is clearly the Lumiere Brothers tendency of cinema while The Incredibles is more of the George Melies tendency of cinema. Modern cinema has become quite impressive, in terms of merging old and new practices into one product, a hybrid of traditional narrative plots with the wonderfully executed animation and special effects. The reason I think why such established narrative theories are still present in contemporary cinema is the fact that, it is how film makers today are still able to captivate the mainstream mass audiences. Again the notion of commercial aesthetics might have an influence on my opinion but nonetheless, it is another fact which proves that a well-built narrative structure along with spectacular imagery can provide a successful film. While speaking of traditional practices, both films still respect the cinematic language, meaning that the hand held camera feel, camera shake and the established cinematography, such as mise en scene, editing and continuity editing are without a doubt evident. These techniques are clearly apparent in both of my chosen case studies. These techniques provide the film with that cinematic, live action/motion picture feel rather than just another animated film. I think it helps to blur that difference between animations and motion pictures because in the end feature length animations are inevitably just another manifestation of the cinematic medium where narratives can be told through. Other animation studios around the world are producing feature length animated films because this is a booming market and as long as they keep a balance between the story and the look of the films they can inevitably become successful movies.