Weekly News #4

I found an article on BBC World News about a young Yemeni boy named Fareed Shawky who was seriously injured after a missile hit his house in Yemen's third city of Taiz. A video of him being treated for his wounds (which contained very distressing images due to his inguries) was released on Facebook accumulating a large number of views . Now Thousands of Yemenis have began to use his words "Don't Bury Me" in order to appeal for an end in the conflict. I thought this could be compared to the young Syrian boy who caused the realisation of the severity of the migrant crisis to the world, just like how the video of this young Yemeni boy has caused upset resulting in people appealing against the bombings of civilians in Yemen. It is thought at least 2,300 civilians have already been killed (500 of them Children), I think it is sad that its only when a video or picture is released of children dying or already dead due to a certain war/crisis that people begin to feel sympathy towards the individuals suffering in the various wars around the globe. I think this article also displays the power of social media as Facebook meant people were allowed to share this video making more people aware of the current travesties happening in Yemen that people may not of been aware of, this could possibly result in more people appealing against the war in Yemen as they are now aware of it. This makes it clear that social media networks like Facebook have the potential to make a difference in the world due to many people being absorbed into the various social network sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram ) and realising the severity of the circumstances due to the release of the pictures or videos, like this one of the young Yemeni boy. 

Short Term 12 - Analysis

Short term 12 is a social realism drama which allows  the audience to gain a perspective on what its like for some children/teenagers who have been neglected or abused, the film is set in side a residential treatment facility where we get to to learn about the different characters inside the facility and some of the extreme mental and physical abuse they have endured through out their childhoods. I think the structure of the film was linear as we see a short glimpse of what life like in the facility in chronological order. 

I thought the use of cinematography was very effective in making you feel like you were almost involved in their lives as shots taken from inside the rooms made you feel like you were actually there increasing the sympathy and emotion you felt for various characters throughout the film. Close ups were also often used in order to capture a clear facial expression of the character and convey the exact emotion they are feeling. For example we see a close up of Marcus as he raps about his mum and the shocking pain he had to endure because of her, in this scene the close up shows his eyes filling with tears as he continues to rap, this enhances the emotion and sympathy you feel for him as we can tell from his detailed facial expression just how severe his circumstances were. I think audio codes also helped during the film to give certain situations the severity they deserved, if the audio codes were not used in these situations it would not of been so suspenseful making it less effective on the audience. When we see Jayden run back into her room as she realises her Dad is not coming to pick her up she threatens to cut herself as she pushes on the door in order to keep staff members out, as they push back on the door in order to get to her the tempo of the music increases making us think something bad is going to happen as a build up of suspense is formed, when she eventually opens the door and they restrain her it switches back to her shouting as suspense is released as she does not harm herself, giving us a sense of relief. I think the shark and octopus story Jayden tells to Grace is one of the most hard hitting scenes in the film, I think this as Jayden is denoting the abuse she has had to endure in the form of a children's story, I thought her devastating childhood was told in the form of as kids story purposely in order to give a strong message to the audience, and ultimately show that many children do have to go through circumstances like her, leaving much of the audience reflecting on how lucky they are as there are children that go through these travesties in todays world. 

I personally really liked this film as the visual and audio codes helped to create a realistic drama delivering a strong message to the audience, showing us that many children from all sorts of different ethnic backgrounds (as displayed in the film) have to go through some extremely tough circumstances and reminded me how lucky I am to not have to endure the physical/mental pain some people do in reality represented by the various characters in the film. 

Weekly News #3

In this weeks news I found on the BBC website an article which stated 'MH17 Ukraine disaster: Dutch Safety Board blames missile' , I immediately knew this was about the Malaysian Airlines crash that occurred in 2014, in further research I discovered this was the deadliest airline shoot down to date. All 283 passengers and all 15 crew members died, this was obviously devastating to everyone who had family members who were involved in this disaster, but was only made worse when footage was released showing russian rebels looting the dead bodies of their remaining possessions. David Cameron branded the looting 'a sickening violation of a tragic scene' as he spoke about the tragedy, I agree with this statement as i think this represents that particular Russian rebel group as being disgusting people as they strip dead people of their identities by removing their passports and personal items, also delaying the investigation of the crash resulting in even more upset for the victims families. 



The MH17 flight was supposedly in a no fly zone according to the Russian Government, Investigators later found the flight was over the 32,000 feet restriction zone, reading about the crash I constantly saw how the Russian rebels blamed the Ukrainian government and how the Ukrainian government claimed to have no part in the launching of the missile. All evidence points to the missile being fired by the Russian rebel group as it was identified as a Russian made missile fired from Russian rebel territory.However Rumours speculated at the time the Malaysian Airline flight was not the intended target of the missile, from the video evidence above we can see a Russian carrier plane refuelling and returning to base, apparently this was the intended target for Ukrainian forces but the MH17 flight was hit accidentally. Regardless of who fired the missile I personally think it is scary how these missiles can be accidentally fired towards passenger planes by small groups of people (like the Russian rebels at the base) and cause so much devastation so quickly due to human error. 

Crash Analysis

Crash is a realistic drama which interweaves the lives of people living in Los Angeles, giving us a viewpoint on how different people are viewed and treated due to perdomedently the colour of their skin, there are also the themes of class and family but i thought race was the central theme throughout the film. I think Paul Haggis cleverly uses a non-linear structure in order to keep the audience engaged in the film due to a sense of mystery about each of the characters as we get to know them better, he uses stereotypes at first to make us feel a certain way about the individual characters (like how the two black men steal a car using guns). This makes the audience think the two men are nothing but criminals as they carry guns and steal cars for a job, as their individual storylines climax we get to see the men are not who we first see them to be as one is religious and the other gives freedom to the lives of people who may be sold into slavery.We also realise the two men are not murderers as one of them gets beat up due to not being able to kill the man while attempting to steal his car, I thought that the two men may of been stealing cars because they maybe found it hard to get a normal job at the time due to racism towards Black people at that time in America. 

I think Paul Haggis uses the most trusted (possibly most likeable character (the young white police man) to commit the only successful murder in the film as this crime informs the audience anyone is capable of murder whatever colour you're skin,we know he carried out the murder as he thought the black guy had a gun when really it was a religious statue, he may of thought the man was carrying a gun due to the stereotypical thought of black men being dangerous criminals, this view could of possibly been passed on to him from his former partner who we know to be racist. 

In conclusion I think Paul haggis was very successful in the creating of the film, as he used a variety of peoples lives from different ethnic backgrounds,race and class to show us that even though racial stereotypes may make us think a certain way about a certain person, we are all capable of the same things ( mainly shown by the young white man committing a murder), I also thought that the love and compassion the different people expressed towards different people at the end of the film emphasised that we are all the same and capable of loving someone whatever their skin colour, as we see the rich white women telling her maid that she is her best friend as she was there for her when she needed her most.

Weekly News #2

In this weeks news a man called 'Chris Harper Mercer' opened fire in a class room in Oregon killing nine people and then himself when police arrived to the scene. He left a letter explaining his grievances, the man was supposedly having dating problems and his mum explained him to be suffering from mental problems (Aspurge's Syndrome). This yet again makes it clear to us something needs to be done about gun laws in America as this is the 994th mass shooting in the US since Newtown and around the 300th this year alone (according to the guardian). I think the gun laws need to change immediately  as almost anyone over the age of 18 can buy a gun, even if suffering from a mental illness like Chris Harper was, these gun laws create a severe threat to anyone in America as we found out in the Newtown were Adam Lanaz  shot 20 children and 6 staff in a elementary school. This event created an up rise and prompted background checks to be put in place for people buying guns, and the banning of certain firearms containing more than 10 rounds of ammunition. I personally think it is disgusting how America continue to sell guns as mass shootings like this continue to happen all over the country in unbelievable numbers, it shows the extreme greed of America as they are willing to sell guns and ammo just because they make millions on the taxing of guns. Federal taxes on guns reached a high of 875 million in 2013, this was the year after the mass killing in the elementary school, these shocking facts show Americans still  want guns maybe for protection,sport or to carry out a mass killing but because the government make so much money from taxing the guns they are not willing ban them any time soon. 

How Adults are represented in the media

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