Your choice Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Your choice - Term Paper Example The shooting and development also includes motion pictures. For a movie to be successful, the relationship between cinematographer and director must be safe and comfortable with each other. Cinematographers need their independence at work in order to give good results. At the beginning of both the movies â€Å"Troy† and â€Å"Hunger Games,† the cinematography uses the extreme long shots. These enable them to show their audiences the entire location where the scene is to take place. This type of shot can also be called the establishing shot. When a movie shooting is on, how close the camera gets to the actors depends on the amount of details that the producer intends to show to the audience. The background of the location in video scenes is always instrumental to the viewers understanding of the theme of the story. The first impression that an audience gets from the opening scene determines their attitude towards the film as a whole. In â€Å"Troy† when Achilles a rrives at Troy walls, the cameras are placed in different angles to bring all the actors to view. The number of soldiers going to battle in this particular scene is enormous; as a result not all of them can be individually viewed. The cameras, therefore, need to be located at an angle where a large group can get captured at a time. It is I such instances that several cameras go into action at the same time. Extreme long shots are also necessary for capturing of these scenes with large number of actors at the time. The intention of these types of shots is to give the audience the idea circumstantial effect that is necessary for interpretation purposes. The long shots also came in handy and the filming of Troy, the moving soldiers, were spread in a large group a fact that was important for the audiences to note. Therefore, this type of shot was able to discern individuals face and at the same time show the others who were on the far end of the line covering an extensive view of the

Central Australian Food and Clothing Essay -- Culture Australia Essays

Central Australian Food and Clothing Weather and climate are immensely influential forces in every society, and central Australia demonstrates this nicely. Throughout history, the influence of weather has been evident. The aborigines, European settlers and modern Australians all had or have to negotiate the impacts of weather in their daily lives. The respective cultures of the aborigines and the Europeans are products of weather and worked together to create modern society in Australia. The modern culture has been produced by a combination of cultural and climatic forces and has changed over time as the different groups within it influenced each other. The cultural aspects that I will focus on in this paper are food and clothing. Both have been carefully shaped by cultural and climatic aspects over time, and demonstrate how the aborigines and European settlers influenced each other. In Australia the food commonly eaten today is a mixture of indigenous Australian food, food that was brought there by settlers in the 1800s, and food brought over by immigrants from Germany, Italy, Greece, Lebanon, Israel, and Southeast Asia (Avameg 2007). Before British colonization, the Aborigines mostly ate meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and roots. Grubs, lizards, snakes and moths were an important part of their diets as well. The name for this category of food that is indigenous to Australia is â€Å"bush tucker† or bush food (Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal 2007). Bush tucker is determined by weather and climate. The climate in a certain area dictates what can grow and live there. The aborigines eat whatever bush food is readily available in the area that they inhabit. An important staple for central Australian aborigines... ...ynergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-3010.1997.tb01069.x>. Lister, P.R., P. Holford, T. Haigh, and D.A. Morrison. 1996. Acacia in Australia: Ethnobotany and potential food crop. p. 228-236. In: J. Janick (ed.), Progress in new crops. ASHS Press, Alexandria, VA. November 25, 2007. . Martinez, Julia. â€Å"When wages were clothes: dressing down Aboriginal workers in the Northern Territory.† University of Wollongong and Australian Society for the Study of Labour History. 2005. November 27, 2007. . â€Å"Modern Australian fashion textiles.†October 12, 2007. Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal. November 25, 2007. .

Culture of India Essay

Indian culture can be compared to a rapid river, which takes source from a little well high in the Himalayas and flows down among blossomy valleys and thick forests, beautiful gardens and farms, small villages and big cities. Many tributaries join it, and the mainstream becomes stronger and more powerful. There is a great variety of ethnic groups and communities with their beliefs, languages and culture living in India. However, numerous aspects of exclusive traditional Indian culture can be easily spotted everywhere. For centuries, the country lived through a lot of changes, assimilated various elements of other cultures, but it successfully preserved its ancient traditions and legacy. The progression of Indian culture started from the early civilizations. Historical records of Hrappa and Brahmanic epochs (5000-800 B. C. ) prove that a great deal of traditions and cultural elements (such as Sanskrit, yoga, early Hinduism, etc. ) were practiced in those times. Buddhism and Jainism emerged in the 5th century B. C. The epoch of Mautya and Gupta Empires is called â€Å"Golden Age† of Indian culture. The Emperors of Gupta dynasty loved arts and favored the development of literature, music and early plastic arts, mostly dominated by religious motifs. As a result of European and Oriental colonization, Indian culture absorbed the elements of Greek, Roman, Chinese and other cultural traditions. Muslim conquests in the 11th-15th centuries had a great impact on Indian social and cultural life. In particular, Hinduism adopted many philosophical ideas of Sufism, and the influence of Islamic artistic traditions can be seen in Indian architecture (Gol Gumbaz, Taj Mahal), literature (the works of Amir Khusrau Dehlavi and Kabir) and music. In the 16th-18th centuries, Indian culture was again influenced by European domination that resulted in adoption of English educational system and other progressive social standards. Since Christian missionaries started changing religious and social awareness of Indian masses to a great extent, in the end of the 18th century a great reformatory movement for cultural and spiritual revival of the nation (known as Brahmo Samaj) was initiated (Henderson). Modern India has a complex ethnic composition and very diverse linguistic lines. Over 400 languages and 1,100 various dialects are spoken. Southern ethnic groups use Dravidian languages, including Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada, which are among the 15 official languages of the country. Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujatari, Bangali and others, are used in the northern regions. These languages take source from ancient Sanskrit and are used by almost one third of Indian population (Culturopedia). Indian social culture is one of the most conservative and rigid in the world. Such traditions as cast system or arranged marriages are still widely practiced. On the other hand, local social environment is connected with everything relaxing, joyful and colorful. Traditional Indian clothing (sari, Lungi, Dhoti, ect. ) has a plethora of styles and colors. Also, India is known as a land of celebrations, fairs and festivals (Diwali, Ganpati, etc. ), crowded ceremonies, communication, dancing and other social leisure activities. Religious practices are central in the life of every Indian and people spend a lot of time in Hindu temples, where they socialize, listen to music and dance. Indian cultural environment is a cradle of Buddhism, one of the most influential philosophical concepts and â€Å".. a seed bed for human rights† (Henderson 4). At the same time, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Zoroastrism and other world’s religions are quite popular in modern India as well. Indian visual arts have a great range of forms and motifs, starting from intricate architecture of Hindu shrines and ending with traditional decorated textiles. Such crafts as stone work, wood work, metal works and glass products are very popular in today’s India. Indian painting has been flourishing for centuries, and there are a number of traditional artistic schools (such as Pahari, Kalighat, Kangra, Tanjore, Rajput, etc. ). Modern Indian art is dominated by social, philosophic and humanitarian motifs. Cinema industry in India has more than 100 years of history and is extremely successful and lucrative. Indian movies are being watched in many countries of the world, and they have a tremendous influence on domestic economy and cultural life. The movies portray political and social aspects, and some are based on local folklore. Indian literature and poetry take source from ancient Sanskrit, Vedic and epic texts (Ramayana, the Mahabharata) and embrace a lot of schools (Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, Manipuri, etc. ). R. Tagore is the most known Indian writer and poet, who got the Noble prize for literature in 1913 (UCLA). In modern Indian culture, music is mostly associated with cinema, because Indian movies are filled with songs and dancing. However, there are a lot of people who are fond of classic Indian music styles (Hindu devotional dhrupad, khayal or raga). Such music is played with traditional Indian folk instruments, such as sitar and surbahar, as well as with flute, violin, tabla, veena, etc. Indian dance culture is very diverse and unique. Its roots go back to ancient epochs and have clear spiritual, expressive and cosmic elements, symbolizing human emotions (9 rasas of emotions) and unity with Gods. The contribution of Indian culture and science to the world is unprecedented. Chess, the decimal system and the concept of â€Å"zero†, significant innovations in astronomy, new medical approaches and therapeutic techniques, the first university in the world are among the most valuable and precious gifts of the Indians to the humanity. India has a unique and rich cultural heritage, which can be characterized by unity and diversity, traditionalism and innovations. Taking into account all these numerous achievements of Indian nation, it is impossible to question the opinion of Will Durant, who wrote that â€Å"†¦ Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all† (Culturopedia). Works Cited: â€Å"Encyclopedia of Indian Culture. † Culturopedia. Treasure House of India’s Culture and Heritage. 2008. 19 Oct. 2008 . Henderson, Carol E. â€Å"Customs and Culture of India. † Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. â€Å"Manas: Culture of India. † UCLA. College of Letters and Science. 19 Oct. 2008 .

Photographer Zana Briski

In the late 1990s, Zana Briski, a London-born Cambridge University theology student turned photographer, ventured to India to document, as she puts it, the particular hells that women can go through; sex-selective abortion, dowry deaths, the treatment of widows, child marriages. It was never her intention, she says, to photograph prostitutes until she was introduced to Sonagachi, the red light district of Calcutta. When I entered the red-light district I had a very strong feeling of recognition and I knew that this was why I had come to India, she says in an e-mail interview. I spent two years gaining access - it took me that long to be offered a room in a brothel so I could live there. I photographed the women when conditions allowed and spent day after day just hanging around, watching, listening. Fate took yet another turn when Briski began interacting with the children of the prostitutes. I would play with the children and let them use my camera. They wanted to learn photography - that was their idea not mine. So I bought point-and-shoot film cameras and chose several kids who were most eager and committed and started to teach them in formal classes, she says. From the very first class, she adds, I knew something special was happening and that I needed to film what was going on. I had never picked up a video camera before, but I bought one and started filming as I was teaching the kids and living in the brothel. Eventually, Briski persuaded her friend, filmmaker Ross Kauffman, to join her in India. Over the next two years, the pair documented Briskis efforts not just to teach the children photography, but to get them into good schools where they might have a chance at a more hopeful future. The result was Born Into Brothels, a gritty and poignant account of Briskis time with the red-light kids of Calcutta, as they came to be known. At turns joyous and heartbreaking, the film focuses on eight of the kids in particular, including Kochi, a painfully shy girl who almost certainly faces a life in prostitution unless she can escape the poverty and despair of Sonagachi and gain admission to a boarding school; and Avijit, the most gifted of Briskis students who nonetheless nearly gives up on photography after his mother is murdered. With the kind of eloquence that comes only from children, Avijit tells an interviewer early in the film, there is nothing called hope in my future. Shot on a shoestring budget, in a setting light-years from Hollywood, Brothels might have languished in obscurity. But the film not only garnered raves from critics; it won the 2004 Academy Award for best documentary feature. Meanwhile, a book of the childrens photos was published and Briski set up a foundation, Kids With Cameras, to help pay for their schooling. Sadly, fairy-tale endings are all-too-rare. Even with funding and encouragement not all of the red light kids, now young adults, have fared well in the intervening years. Briski confirmed a BBC report that one of the girls featured in the film later became a prostitute. She did so by choice and I respect her choice, Briski says. I dont consider that a failure or a shame. I trust she knows what is best for her. Many of the other children did go on to school in India, some even in the United States. Briski said Kochi studied at a prestigious school in Utah for several years before returning to India to finish her education. And recently Avijit, the child prodigy in Brothels, graduated from NYUs film school. Amazing, Briski says. I am so proud of him and all he has accomplished. Most people, having won an Oscar for their very first film, might be expected to continue on that path. But Briski felt pulled to return to her first love, photography, and a project called Reverence, in which she photographs insects around the world. Asked why she chose not to continue with filmmaking, Briski, 45, says even after winning an Oscar: I do not consider myself to be a documentary filmmaker or a journalist. I move through the world in an open way and I respond to what is around me. Born Into Brothels and Kids With Cameras were not planned in any way. They were a response to what I discovered in the world. Photography is my medium, she adds. I am a traditional black-and-white photographer and I still shoot film and work in the darkroom. Reverence, Briski says, came to her through dreams of a praying mantis. The experience was so strong that I had to pay attention. Strange praying mantis coincidences would happen and I began to follow the clues - clues that have taken her to 18 countries to photograph and film mantids and other insects over the past seven years. Currently shes photographing jaguars in Brazil. If all goes as planned, the culmination of Briskis work will be a traveling museum with large-scale photographs, film and music. The project, which Briski hopes to open when she receives enough funding, is about respect of all life forms and changing our point of view. Not so different, she adds, from what I did in the brothels - bringing attention to those who are feared, ignored, abused, from their point of view.