Adaptation the Movie Is Based Around the Character Charlie Kaufman Essays

Adaptation the Movie Is Based Around the Character Charlie Kaufman Essays Adaptation the Movie Is Based Around the Character Charlie Kaufman Essay Adaptation the Movie Is Based Around the Character Charlie Kaufman Essay Jessica Layton HUMS 250 Fall 2011 November 8, 2011 Throughout this paper I will be analyzing a scene from the movie Adaptation. The movie is based around the character Charlie Kaufman and his struggle to write a screen play for the book â€Å"The Orchid Thief,† written by the character Susan Orlean. This movie shows us Charlie writing the screenplay, while it also shows Susan writing the book, through the use of flashbacks. We learn through interviews in the movie, that a man named John Laroche, the man who owned the orchid nursery, inspired the book. In this scene, John and Susan are speaking on the phone about what happened to John’s nursery. We learn that a car accident has killed his mother and uncle and put his wife in a coma. When she awoke, she divorced him and as â€Å"karma† for what happened, a hurricane came and destroyed everything and wiped out all of his orchids. This scene has many different elements that bring the whole scene together so that you really feel and understand the emotions and significance of the story. This clip is full of many different emotions and uses different lighting to portray those feelings. During the flashback, we see the use of natural light. The car acts as a reflector board, softening the lighting on the characters as they back out of the driveway. As John and Susan speak to one another, we notice that the lighting in their rooms is very soft and low-key. This kind of lighting for this shot portrays the seriousness and tragic emotions of this scene. Susan’s lighting is located behind her and very soft. The soft lighting is used to focus the attention on the character making everything around her out of focus. Having the lighting in the back of Susan creates depth in the shot, separating her from her surroundings and accentuating her. When the shot moves to John, we see the location of the light is from above. While he is answering Susan’s question, the angle of the camera and the lighting create the feeling of vulnerability and sadness. This type of lighting is also being used in the hospital room shot, where the overhead light is focused on his wife showing her desperation. This whole clip is shot in a tight, closed frame. The characters don’t have the room to move around. The proximities of these shots vary from character to character. Every shot that Susan is in is shot as medium-close up. This helps the audience see her expressions as they go from intrigued to find out the story behind his orchid nursery to showing the sympathy and grief she feels for John’s story. In contrast to her shot and expressions, the way John is shot reflects the expressions of Susan. When we first see John in this clip, we see him in a medium long shot. After the first flashback shot, we see him as a close up shot, helping to show his expressions and vulnerability. Editing in this clip is very important. The use of flashback helps the audience understand what has happened to the nursery and why he no longer has one. When the clip begins we hear Susan ask the question â€Å" what ever happened to the nursery? † John’s response leads up to the flashback to the day that his uncle and mother died in the car crash and the hurricane coming through. Their conversation is edited by using what is called intercutting. This type of editing shows the action of the two characters talking as one single scene rather than two different scenes. This way of editing shows the reactions of each character as if they are in the same setting. The characters used in this film are professional actors and well known. In this specific scene, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper play Susan Orlean and John Laroche. The portrayals by these two actors are very realistic. The story behind the scene and the reaction of the characters is very realistic. Their emotions can be felt through their facial expressions. For example, when Susan first asks John what happened, we see that it brings bad memories for him. He becomes very uneasy and we see his facial expression become very upset. After he tells her the story, we see that her facial expressions have gone from intrigued to sympathetic and upset. We also see how their costumes and settings further help to define their characters and their personalities. We see Meryl Streep in a nice nightgown and nice room with a big comfortable bed. When the scene switches to Chris Coopers character we see him wearing a flannel shirt unbuttoned with jeans lying on an old couch. Each character portrays a different level of the social class stereotypes of upper and lower middle class. Meryl Streep’s character is very sleek and put together even when she is lying in bed, while Chris Cooper’s character is very rough looking. In this short scene, we see how many different elements that are put into making a movie. Just by changing the lighting, dressing the characters in certain clothing and how a shot is framed, can impact how emotions can be portrayed to create the overall feel of a scene. After seeing the whole movie it helps to better understand the characters and the emotions behind what is being portrayed on the screen in this scene.

The Mystic River Film Review Essay Example

The Mystic River Film Review Essay Example The Drama Mystic River Essay Example The Drama Mystic River Essay Example The drama Mystic River directed by Clint Eastwood is rather serious, tragic, and deeply ambiguous about the lifelong human ties. The film has got two Oscars, numerous positive responses from critics and, to my mind, it is really worth attention. Mystic River depicts the development of three male characters on the back of a tragedy which happens in Boston, 1985. One event, happened in their childhood, has changed all the further decisions of the boys and later men. One of the main reasons which predetermined the further events development was closely connected with the sense of guilt felt by Jimmy and Sean. But finally, this feeling does not appear to be stronger than distrust and suspicions. I believe that only two of the men, Dave and Jimmy, have stayed real friends after all. Though they could feel pity and some guilt for Dave, they were not able to understand deeply what he felt those awful days which he spent captivated by pedophiles. Although three friends grew apart during the last ten years, they still are linked together by the event happened in the past and by the native neighborhood which always reminds about their boyhood. According to Barbara Mennel, the image of the city is quite important in the movie; hence, besides the influence of human upbringing and the wider public behavior on the characters’ formation, it is essential to examine the impact of the peculiarities of Boston neighborhood on the depicted events (15). From the first view Boston, like any other city, is â€Å"a tremendous concentration of buildings, images, and people,† as Georg Simmel would call it (Macionis and Parrillo 170). Nevertheless, people always react on the physical environment of the cities in different ways and, therefore, the image of Boston neighborhood in the film becomes essential. All the events take place in the same dull Irish district of Boston where the main characters, being children, were writing thei r names on the wet concrete of the sidewalk. Two heroes, Dave and Jimmy, have remained living in the same surroundings, and only Sean, who has become a homicide policeman, moved out to another district of Boston. Regardless his move, the murder of a girl makes Sean come back to his native vicinity and reunite with his old friends. Speaking about the urban neighborhood and limited mobility, it is essential to recollect that Lynch discovered such five elements as paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks as those which build the image of the cities (Macionis and Parrillo 170). Therefore, it is necessary to highlight that in Mystic River, the heroes do not move to distant places much: even when taking his son to school, going to work, or to the bar, Dave goes on foot, as every point of destination is not far from another. The Charles River can be defined as the major edge which separates the districts of Boston from each other. At the same time, it becomes a symbol of the past wher e Jimmy hides the evidences of his criminal activities. All the residents of the above mentioned neighborhood are different, but this does not prevent them from creating â€Å"gemeinshaft-like relations† (Macionis and Parrillo 184). A tight social network, connecting all the members of the Boston Irish neighborhood, can be traced. There are numerous examples from the film, which can prove it. The first one is the connection between three main heroes Sean, Dave and Jimmy who were friends in childhood and knew each other well. The second one is the fact that the wives of two of these men are cousins. Another one is that a guy who was in love with Katie appeared to be the son of the man, killed by Jimmy. The partner of Sean has heard about Dave because he works in police and knows about the pedophilic case in which he was involved. Finally, two boys who were the murderers of the 19-year-old girl appeared to be her boyfriend’s brother and his friend. The neighborhood ties all these different people together into one social netwo rk where each of them takes his own place. All the characters are different and not obligatory acquainted with each other personally, but strong ties between the urban neighbors are obviously forged. It shows how the city unites all the residents into one big community where finally, the deeds and behavior of one member would influence the life of another. The difference between three main characters can be also observed even regarding their appearance. Sean, who has been quite law-abiding since the very beginning and has left the same, has got the profession of a homicide policeman and always looks neat, wears a suite. His appearance reflects his inner world which tends to do the right things and make the right decisions. Jimmy is also well-groomed and makes him appear as a well-adjusted and successful man, but his tattooed body is the reflection of his criminal life. At the same time, the wind-blown hairstyle of Dave and his clothes only supply to his image of a psychologically volatile person. All the above mentioned descriptions bring the men’s appearance into accordance with their characters. The friends were estranged from each other not when they grew up and one of them left their native neighborhood, but much earlier. It becomes obvious when regarding the behavior of Jimmy who kills his old friend. Finally, he says that he has lost his friend long before the murder when he watched him sitting in the car and going away with two cops in childhood. He was sure that everything would be different if he was the one who was taken away by those men. He could not trust that the kind soul of Dave could be sensitized against the offenders and people of their kind, but not against the young girl Katie. Jimmy, being in prison, became much crueler than Dave who has suffered from pedophiles’ abuse. The mate of Sean was the first who noticed the print of prison on Jimmy. Sean tried to believe into Dave’s innocence and seemed to be his friend longer until he got the evidences making him think that he was a murderer. On the contrary, when it goes about Jimmy, regardless he knew about the money he sent to the families of those men whom he killed, Sean has not betrayed him. The cinematic vision of Boston in Mystic River emphasizes the public spaces, especially the streets (Mennel 20). Through the entire movie, the heroes, who are the Boston inhabitants, are mostly walking along the sidewalks, and all the buildings look alike and dull. Nevertheless, all the pedestrians are on the street for a reason (Macionis and Parrillo 177). For instance, the scene with the boys who were playing hokey in the street can be regarded as a crucial moment of the movie. The street where they played was not crowded, and there were no people to help them. It can also be regarded as a symbol of human’s unconcern about what is happening to others. Another important fact connected with the sidewalks is the concrete with three boys’ names: the names of two boys are written completely, and only a half of the last one is imprinted on the sidewalk. This makes the observers understand that he is different from two others. It is also essential to highlight the importance of communication in the family between the wife and the husband. In Jimmy’s family in comparison to Dave’s one, mutual love and support predominates. Be it any decision of a husband, the wife supports him even when it goes about the murder. In Dave’s family, no loyalty can be observed. Dave’s wife has much suspicions and distrust about him: instead of being kind and supportive, she is eager to help strangers rather than her husband. The fact that Dave was not willing to talk about his feelings and even about what happened with him the evening, when Katie was killed, is one more example of the importance of the communication. Being more sincere and frank with his close people could prevent many negative consequences. The murder of a young girl was considered to be a crime while the murder of Dave was regarded as something inevitable. Jimmy was ready for everything to revenge and to find a murderer of his daughter, and even though he has killed the wrong person, he was â€Å"justified†. He did not feel himself guilty and his wife soothed him as she considered the life of her daughter to be more precious than the life of some weird guy who has had a psychological trauma in his boyhood. Afterwards, not only Jimmy’s wife but almost all the inhabitants thought so. Everything mentioned above proves that there are many factors which influence the person’s character development and, finally, people can never understand the feelings of another person until they feel it themselves. The psychological trauma carried by Dave has influenced not only his personal development, but also the attitude of the society to him. Though common secrets and neighborhood usually unites people, the sense of guilt and the common past can also tear them apart and build a high wall of misunderstanding between them. live CHAT

Monster Energy Drink in Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Monster Energy Drink in Russia - Essay Example According to the research findings, it can, therefore, be said that world economies are becoming more interdependent. Moreover, because of saturation and stiff competition in local domestic markets, companies in developed economies have to actively pursue newer markets to improve their revenues and profit margins. Today, countries in the BRICS block of countries, i.e. Brazil, India, China, South Africa, and Russia are increasingly attractive to companies seeking to expand their revenue streams and gain competitive advantages over their competitors. A situation analysis seeks to identify micro-environmental factors that influence a firm, as well as macro-environmental factors that influence the firm’s environment. This analysis indicates to a firm about the product and organizational position, along with the overall business’ survival in the identified environment. In order to understand capabilities of the firm within the identified market, the firms should be able to i dentify problems and opportunities in their external and internal environment. Monster Beverages was founded in April of 2002 as an energy drinks company by Hansen Natural Corporation, becoming the first energy drink marketed in 16-ounce cans and rising to become the second most successful energy drinks company in the world after the Austria-based Red Bull GmBH. Previously selling natural soda and fresh fruit juices, Monster Beverage revamped its product in 2002 by launching its Monster Energy drink line by increasing its caffeine and sugar content. This also prompted its change of name to Monster Beverage from Hansen Natural, reflecting a more aggressive image compared to the previous subtle impression as a fresh juice manufacturer. With energy drinks accounting for 92.7% of the company’s net sales in 2013, while juice-based beverages and carbonated drinks accounting for 5.3% and 2%Â   of net sales over the same period, the energy drinks market has become the most critical for Monster beverages.