Senior Footprint Project

Introduction

My senior footprint video was created with the intention of telling a story with as little use of words possible. I created a video showing my journey through high school which I learned in the past 4 years. Choices, was my topic as I demonstrate using lighting and angles to tell a high school story of the common choices every high schooler will have to make. Lighting and Angles give my video the emotional connection and say the words that aren’t heard.

Side Lighting

Rodrigo Cunha: Senior Footprint Project

Within this scene the use of lighting started off the story as it shows an angel and a devil opposing on my shoulders. The use of side lighting is essential to demonstrate the two choices where half of my face is covered in shadows and the other half is bright, this creates a conflicted, mysterious, or dangerous look to the subject. Side lighting allowed me to go wherever I really want to with the video because it was used in the very beginning of the video, as this is a very relatable topic the viewer understands the conflict in this story where every student has had to make similar decisions.

High Angle

Rodrigo Cunha: Senior Footprint Project

This scene successfully uses high angle photography to bestow an overlooking character on me, as I had made a bad decision and listened to the devils conscience I was caught cheating. The use of high angle photography is this scene gives the audience a sense of the subject being weak, powerless, and trapped as in this case the angered teacher looks much bigger and powerful is looking down at me. The audience is effected by high angle as they feel my fear and resent the bad decision I made and almost root for me to change.

Non-Diegetic Sound

Rodrigo Cunha: Senior Footprint Project

This scene was the climax in my movie where I decide to make the change and listen to my good conscience and do the correct thing, the change in song to a more exciting happy song tells the audience something has changed and becomes a more vibrant mood in the video. The use of non-diegetic sound sets a reaction and a mood from the audience where the characters in the movie can’t here but it helping the acting tell the story. This clip of the movie had the best use of the non diegetic sound as within the scene the use of high key lighting was also used to create a happy, and joyful change in the movie as it had all been black and white and downhill.

Conclusion

The use of many different techniques helped me achieve my goal of telling my story of how the choice of doing the correct thing is going to make you happier than doing the wrong thing. Where the system of high school is very hard to make your way around kids normally believe that they can and end up struggling more than the person who isn’t cheating, fighting, or sleeping in. The use of angles, lighting, and non-diegetic sound in my movie told the full story which began with me making bad decisions and being unhappy, afterwards flashing back to the beginning and showing exactly what it would be if I had been good. The theme of my story accomplished my goal of showing each viewer how high school is made of decisions and you can make it easy or make it hard by doing right or by doing wrong.

Joyful Lighting

Introduction

The film Edward Scissorhands starred a man created by an inventor, the death of his inventor who he believed was his father left Edward as an unfinished creation. His appearance and lack of social knowledge left him neglected by the suburbs he lived in. Tim Burton the director of the film uses different resources regarding emotions and tones by using lighting and angles to generate a feel of the film. The targeted technique utilized by Tim Burton is high key lighting, where the lighting in the scenes are made to create a bright and open looking scene, giving the feeling of happiness, joy, and peace.

Scene Analysis 1

Edward within this scene is being given an early Christmas present from his Inventor inside the cookie factory where he was created. It was a small moment of joy and peace where Edward and The Inventor believed this was the final touch to make him appear normal. High key lighting is used in this scene to create a euphoria for the viewer as well as feel Edwards emotions. The flooding of light all throughout the image represent the joy, happiness, and peace which allow the viewer to take part in being joyful for the characters in the scene.

Scene Analysis 2

Once Edward was found by Peg and welcomed into her home with a real family, Edward began to cut anything that needed cutting as essentially thats all he knew how to do. He wasn’t welcomed very well by the public, he picked up attention from the people in the neighborhood that he cut almost anything well. He began to cut hair of the women and kids in the backyard of his new home and he was content with the positive attention he was receiving. The use of high key lighting in this scene is crucial towards the viewer as a sign of happiness, and peace. Viewers are effected by how bright everything within the scene looks and make the viewer feel glad for Edward and how the community is accepting him for who he is and how he has overcome this big adversity.

Conclusion

Tim Burton uses high key lighting to portrait happiness throughout the film to give the viewer hope and a different view of how good and bad people can be once something different comes around. The scattered use of high key lighting in points of the film generate a relationship with Edward and the viewer, of good intention, and makes the viewer want to see Edward succeed and happy. The use of Lighting to create an emotional connection with the viewer is very important because doing so tells much more of a story than just the use of words. Without lighting there is no distinction in between joyful and depressed. On the other hand without the subject of the scene saying or doing anything the tone as been set by lighting. Tim Burton did a very good job with the use of this technique because he drew the viewer in to the joyful scene and connected with them. Once the viewer was hooked he dropped a very different mood of despair which made the movie unpredictable and told a very good story.

Show the Story

Introduction

Tim Burton uses diverse angles and specific lighting to create and generate a well told story that make sound irrelevant. He directed the animated film “Vincent” which told the story of a young boy who lived a normal life, in contrary his imagination told a dark story about what his intentions are.

Alive in The Darkness

As Vincent is coming in through a hall filled with light he drags his way towards a dark room, as he stumbles into the darkness his imagination takes over. The author uses Low Key Lighting as the picture floods with darkness and barely any light is present, Tim Burton does this to create suspense and suspicion. Doing this he conveys to the viewer a scary thought with a lot of suspicion within the reader.

Two Sided

Once Vincents imagination is set off he looks around in his room with his face covered by light on one side and none on the other. The director used the lighting technique of side lighting where half of the subject is covered by light and the other half is within a shadow. The technique is used to create tension and make Vincent seem dangerous. The director used this to make sure the viewer understands that his imaginations aren’t something light they are mysterious and dangerous.

Photo by Tina Floersch on Unsplash

Conclusion

Lighting is the most clear way to translate something to a viewer, a picture tells a story. The story of Vincent and how his normal life opposes his imagination can be told without words due to the different angles and different kinds of lighting. While words explain some things, lighting and angles make the viewer feel the story.

 

Suburban Culture

Introduction to Suburban Culture

Suburban culture has come through a lot of change over time, the beginning of this culture consisted of suburbs being a home for migrant workers and the poor. Originally the really wealthy wanted to be as near to the city as possible, now the rise of the automobile and spacious quiet, gated communities make suburbs a wealthy destination.

The Suburban culture is very different from other cultures because the people who are nothing alike, some believe that suburban culture is a refugee for malice due to the privacy of the lifestyle. Matt Lassiter explains the element of hidden lifestyles and the history of how suburbs are a place where people caricature and get away with the idea that your doing something deep and profound. 

A Brief History

The rein of the suburbs began in the mid 19th century where the sheer pressure of population drove cities to expand outwards in cities like London and industrial towns like Manchester. Once the outskirts of the cities were home to many people, the concept of ideology within the society developed. The culture has four major ideologies of suburbs, Evangelicalism: Where corruption in the city occurs in the suburbs it is considered a “moral refuge”. Sanitarianism: Hygienic alternative suburbs are considered “clean aired”. Romanticism: Detached residences and private gardens are considered much more desirable than the close quarters in the city. Class Segregation: Cities became manufacturing centers filled with industrial workers and suburbs were seen as exclusive retreats. These four ideologies set up a unique group of people with its own special diversity within this culture. 

Photo by Daniel Barnes on Unsplash

Social, Structural, or Religious Aspects of the Suburban Culture

Social aspects of the modern suburban culture are very versatile. People from around the world live in the suburbs of big cities, which allows social groups of people from diverse religions to meet and become close friends and improve the atmosphere of the culture in general. Due to the element of working from home, men and women get very isolated from the outside world and form social groups as well as coach their youths athletic events and support the team also known as “team moms”. Religions within the suburban culture as a population is very diverse but christianity is very openly practiced. Children ranging from pre-school to high school have the option of attending christian schools where they will study the religion every day along with curriculum of a normal school.

Language

Individuals who grow up in the suburban culture speak of the suburb they live in as a very separate community, such as Windermere whenever someone mentions the city it is mentioned as “downtown”. Most suburbs are also reasonably small with a few big neighborhoods and gated communities, they use the names as a general location. Also something that is very common as a point of destination is the use of names such as the only mcdonald’s in that suburb people, use that as a broad location. In contrary to the big city where there might be three or four of the same fast food restaurant in that area.

Conclusion

I chose this culture because I have lived in both a suburb and the big city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I wanted to learn and figure out the culture I have been living in for the past nine years. I believe the element of Tranquility really helped me understand how the Suburban culture may not be for everyone, as well as how this tranquility and privacy might make a suburb a good place for unjust actions to occur. Matt Lassiter really opened up my view, when he stated that the feeling of something happening that is deep and profound. Many people moved to suburbs to get away from the malice that has been known to happen in the city, but suburbs aren’t as different as people think. The American way of life is very competitive, and suburbs allow the people to show what they have achieved such as big houses, fancy cars, private schools, and living in a neighborhood among many wealthy people. This ideal has grown suburbs tremendously in my opinion because it allows people to show off.

Reptilian Humanoids

Introduction

The idea of Reptilian shape shifting extraterrestrials began with David Icke, a former BBC news sports reporter in 1998. The theory states that an elite group of lizards are our leaders today as said in the article The Reptilian Elite. “our corporate executives, our beloved Oscar-winning actors and Grammy-winning singers, and they’re responsible for the Holocaust, the Oklahoma City bombings and the 9/11 attacks.” Quoting David Ickes’  first book The Biggest Secret where he presented this possibility of reptiles living among us.

Body

Within the article How to Spot the Reptilians Running the U.S Government  provides evidence suggesting that maybe even people around you are reptiles. The uses specific points in history saying “Thousands of years ago the reptilian beings (from the constellations Orion, Sirius, and Draco) intervened in planet Earth and began interbreeding with humans.” This quote means that a long time ago reptilian beings inserted DNA into humans and now the diversification of humans, it is impossible to notice a difference.

Photo by Ronda Darby on Unsplash

David Ickes’ biography on the article Do Reptilian-Human Hybrids Run our World? tells a story about what David Icke has been through,  how he has been considered insane, fired from BBC, and also been in politics as a member for the green party. But it does help convince the reader of what he’s saying is true, he demonstrates the deep study he had done in Peru where he had a spiritual awakening. He became a laughing stock through the awakening but shows possibilities that interest now 12 million people.

Ten Things You Should Know About the Reptilian Elite Conspiracy  enacts companionship on the subject, humans when told something they are very resistant to believe things. Especially if someone says that there are lizards running our world, with the facts supporting that 12 million people believe in this conspiracy and  that they are believed to have been on earth before mankind is a whole other speculation.

Conclusion

I don’t believe in this conspiracy theory, as it does contain some valid points and interesting ideals on the beginning of mankind. There are many other things that throw me off about the topic, such as the fact that only one person who was considered insane has done thorough research and made the majority of the assumptions on this breed of humans. I am a strong believer in something that is closely connected which is extraterrestrial, I believe that something else other than just earth is out there. The mindset is so small compared to the universe we live in, and thats why I also think that the media doesn’t need to keep anything like this away from people.

 

Controlled

How controlled?

The internet has turned a large majority of the world into an unseen dictatorship, where people are influenced by anything on the internet. An untraceable addiction where the giants such as Facebook, google, Instagram can flip an election. This is a powerful resource used for malice as well for well being. The article Mind Control: It’s Happening to You Right Now speaks on the world today and how some of the giants of the technology world got so giant.

It’s Happening to You Right Now

Its not only happening to you right now according to Wayne Chilicki in the article Mind Control “When it comes to targeting kid consumers, we at General Mills follow the Procter & Gamble model of cradle to grave. We believe in getting them early and having them for life.” Mind controllers in other words a lot of our every day uses of technology, use a field called Captology where technology is used to change peoples attitudes and behaviors. Its a world of dictatorship used by humans on humans.

Photo by Arthur Osipyan on Unsplash

Feed

The novel Feed  by M.T. Anderson is a long step ahead in the future, an exaggerated and futuristic version of people being controlled by technology. The book begins with a couple guys taking a casual trip to the moon and find some girls to go along with them, they found out the moon on this school break was a cool place to go to through an advertisement. They arrive at the moon and didn’t look much like the pictures, but continued on following ads and technology to shape their trip.

Conclusion

The article Mind Control is a very basic beginning to what the book Feed suggests in the climax of technology being in control. Mind manipulation through use of an everyday necessity is something that can’t be stopped anymore, the study of captology is a giant in the money market and it was used on many of the tools we use every day such as google. Google can flip an election without notice and that is all through the use of controlling people through the use of technology. The technology that people used to cherish as a facilitator is now what controls them to sway one way or the other.

 

 

People Gone Bad

Responsibility

The government’s intelligence and resources make it the most powerful and potentially the most dangerous organization in the world. The government “accidentally” creating a zombie virus outbreak would make them completely responsible. They have to be accountable for their actions if a government run corporation is assigned to experiment with viruses and try to change the way people are for instance in Serenity. 

The government attempts to create world peace and experiment by releasing a peaceful virus which is exposed to millions of people, one thing goes wrong and it became a rage virus where people turned into brainless killers. The natural flow of humanity shouldn’t really be changed through science although it seems like a good alternative, there is a lot of room for chaos. In the film Serenity the main authority was fully responsible for the outbreak and released the whole galaxy into a war, not only with the zombies but in between people as well. 

The article “Zombie Virus” Possible via Rabies-Flu Hybrid? is not futuristic, this can happen in our world today. The closest thing that the world has seen today to a zombie virus is rabies, this infection if it spreads as a Flu Hybrid can spread a major “rage virus”. Although it will effect a lot of people it would have to become much more contagious and the only way that can happen is through government experimenting. “Thanks to pet vaccinations people rarely contract rabies in the United States today.” This really reduced the threat a long time ago of a rage virus, why would government want to test and learn more about what has been almost completely eliminated. 

Photo by Darkness on Unsplash

Going too far

Too much of something is never good, the Zombie Virus article states under section “engineered zombie virus possible?” that theoretically it is possible to engineer a zombie virus by mixing different contagious viruses. This would be the point where I feel would be too far, why would government create something that could jeopardize humanity for the sake of almost useless knowledge?

Serenity is a perfect example of where officials past the point of going to far, it is the aftermath of the experiments and basically turned the universe into a war zone. Releasing a virus into the open world as it transformed people into dead killers, the natural flow of humanity should not be changed and although there are a lot of problems with aggression and the different types of people in the world, killing everyone accidentally is not the solution and I believe we have enough information as of right now on what shouldn’t be done and that the experiments need to stop, because there is no point in pursuing problems. 

 

“Utopia”

Introduction

A Utopia is a living strategy everyone reaches for, when people believe that they are living the best they possibly can trust is credited to whoever gave them the life. It depends on what a Utopia is to an individual and how do they know what is best for the others who follow the lead.

Jonestown

Jim Jones believed that he could create a perfect utopia, as the whole nation of the United States did with him. He recruited all the people who didn’t have anything during time of segregation and poverty then took them to “peoples temple”, The mistreated society fell in love with the vision of having someone like Jim Jones who cares about everyone and tells them “If you need a father i’ll be your father. If you need a god i’ll be your god.” As his vision turned into something extremely large he felt the need to get away from the city as he relocated peoples temple to the jungle in Guyana. He gave everyone a home and a happy environment, eliminated money and poverty which gave these people everything they have ever wanted, that was impossible to achieve in the real world no matter the cause.

It seemed like a perfect life for anyone who had previously had been treated with inequality. Moreover, certain people became uncomfortable and threatened by Jim Jones, people where stuck if they requested to leave they would be treated with affection and would feel guilty and stay. They were forced to work almost 20 hours of the day, and whatever Jones says is done, along with the experiment of loyalty; Jones serves the people in Jonestown juice and they all drink it, then tells them its poison just to see who wasn’t loyal.

People started noticing that he had to much control and this turned Jones into a bad image to all of his people and it spills out into the world, changing Jonestown from a Utopia to a Dystopia.

 

The Village

Culture is the biggest factor of The Village the movie shows how the elders: the group of founders that have established a safe haven from the outside world. Limited the technology from the rest who were raised in this safe haven, and present them with a lie to keep them away from the rest of the world. The elders were like a government who made all the decisions in this society and scare people into staying in this village. The elders all had a reason to why they didn’t want to live in the world.

A costume and a mythical creature was established to contain the village of oblivious citizens within this threshold. The death of a young boy sparked a change in the mind of his close friend Lucius, who asked the elders for permission to go to the “towns” which was the name of the outside world. Denied to go outside of the boundaries, love created a conflict and he was stabbed and very ill, the girl he was engaged with Ivy was not giving up just yet as she herself chose to venture into the towns and pass through the forbidden lands.

Through disgust one of the elders decided that it was not right to contain this feeling and hold someone back from attempting to help someone, she discovered it was all a lie and made it back with supplies and helped her true love live.

Photo by Evan Kirby on Unsplash

Jonestown & The Village

Many societal problems tend to be similar with dystopias. A lot of people want to escape from reality and it is because the real world is a horrible place for most, these utopias gave people an alternative and it never starts with bad intentions. When someone or a group of people believes in something they will go far distances for other people to understand and live the way they live. The problem is where they get lost, to where they think: because the outside world isn’t for them, why would the others go out there and even try? At that point the leaders such as Jim Jones and the Elders lose track of what is right and what is wrong.

Utopias turn into Dystopias very quickly, the one incredible thing that the world can never take away from people is difference. Once people settle in utopias and lose the right to be different, it isn’t a utopia anymore through the effect of containment.

Self contained societies are the closest things to utopias for a certain amount of time, until someone different, combats the idea of it being good. Societies such as the Village give no choice through being scared but there are no walls holding people back from doing as they wish, in the case of the village the combination of love and a conflict changed everything.

Photo by Smart on Unsplash

 

Player One is Ready

The first 93

The first 93 pages of the book Ready Player One demonstrates the life of a teenager Wade Watts. The greatest video game ever created turned into a competition not to only those who used video games but to the whole world. A competition intended for the world of the future worth hundreds of billions of dollars, after the death of the creator of this video game who turned into one of the richest after his creation announced that whoever finds the “easter egg” had all his riches.

The world had come to a state that no one imagines today, where the earth has overpopulated to the rim and people are fortunate if they find a job, the alternative however to life for people of all ages was the OASIS. Halliday’s ultimate creation. Where this game was a life on a different planet in a video game console, everything that the world couldn’t supply anymore the game supplied, education, sports, movies, books, it was a real world.

Photo by Tomasz Frankowski on Unsplash

Utopian Society

OASIS is an escape of the future into a different future. Imagine a world within a gaming console, that is used as jobs for people, daily activities, all of your life essentially other than food and where you sleep is in that console.

In Wade Watts case like majority of others in the world, escaped for a reason into the virtual world. There were many reasons for Wade to stay into this virtual reality but the main reason was because of who he was and his background. His parents died when he was young and his guardian which was now his aunt, he wasn’t welcome in her room and couldn’t bring anything of value home or she’d take it and sell it. He spent most of his time and slept in his hideout, this is where he kept the computers that he went on for the OASIS.

Most people who lived in the stacks didn’t have jobs at all, the future overpopulated as ever made life really hard for people without jobs. The OASIS was the nearest thing to a good life possible. “The school strictly enforced dress code, and required that all avatars be human, and of the same age and gender of the student.” (Pg. 28) The school had rules like the ones in the real world. That means that everyone even with all this overdose in people still get educated and rules are still taught and enforced and if not the students are disciplined. The real world was not a good place anymore it turned into a wasteland and it was overcrowded. “The real public school system, the one run by the government, had been an underfunded, overcrowded train wreck for decades.” (pg.31)

 

Its Real

Ernest Clyne makes the future feel like technology is the new living. Lives are in technology literally! Big games today that are free roam, large maps games allow you to create an avatar give it a name and live a very basic scaled life within that game. This book is that concept in a much larger scale.

The book up to the point thats been discussed is a Utopia in a sense of the future. It is very unhealthy because things like, exercise don’t really exist, and food is all in packets, pollution fills the air. But it allows people to almost go back in time where, they can enjoy the little things such as mrs. Gilmore go to church and Wade can hangout with his friend, and can get educated although he has no money. This utopia isn’t for the time being because its not a perfect world for the humans of today, but maybe someday it will be.

Future in the Making

The New World

Since the beginning of time humans have been creating the future and facing challenges. Inventing fire, Agriculture, The first modern solar calendar was invented. The world kept innovating and increasing in population. Now we are in the new generation where we are facing a new adversity created by humans that might be the toughest one to overcome for the general population.

Robots are taking over many jobs that the general population specializes in and large firms and companies support the movement into this technological world. The movement is economically beneficial to them, robots mess up less than humans and don’t require wages. The question is why are humans so special?

Photo Credit: Katya Austin at Unsplash.com 

Education

Stephen Sanger the chairman for Wells Fargo believes that U.S jobs are at “high risk” of automation and as many as 38% of U.S jobs can be taken over. The country that everyone always seem to fit into and make a steady living regardless of the education and skill level is in a dark path back into the cold war.

Areas with low education the U.S is more vulnerable than any other nation in the world, for instance the financial and insurance sector has a much higher possibility of being automated than the British ones because the American finance workers are less educated.

The Truth

Although this all sounds overwhelming automation in my opinion will be slowed down and the situation is very “hyped up”. A such thing would never happen due to economic decisions, sometimes having a robot might be more maintenance, and more expensive than a human with a wage.

The government could never allow all companies turn into a monopoly, they could impose high taxation on firms that are automated and make it so they would eventually start giving jobs to people. The government could also start turning this problem into an advantage, where people all still have jobs but with better education and with robots working where people are under qualified for.

Photo Credit: Alex Knight at unsplash.com

Conclusion

To answer the essential question of why are humans so special? It is because we as humans are always going to be competitive and are always going to adapt and change into different circumstances. It is so simple to think of automation taking over but it is also so simple to think that humans are going to give their jobs up and drop economically. Why would the government protect humans, and compete with the other economies and strive to be in the best shape economically to demonstrate the best living.   Automation is going to be one of the best human creations ever and will help the economy strive like never before.