Thursday, March 24, 2016
Individual Hitchcock Activity
After reading through other group's interpretations of Hitchcock and his works, it seems to me that Hitchcock was an experimenter of his generation. He dared to use new things, like the camera angles to create suspense, suspicions, and distrust between characters. Hitchcock also brought up ideas that most others would not. These include having a women be a drunk and be an undercover spy for the United States. He found ways around rules with the multiple short kisses rather than one long one. Hitchcock used events from the current time period as well. He incorporated the fighting and suspicions between the United States and Nazi Germany from World War II era. Hitchcock had a very unique style for motion pictures in the time that he lived. He used different psychoanalysis, sciences, and historical events than what most people would at that period of time.
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Small Group Hitchcock Activity
During the 1940s, morals and ethics played a large role in motion pictures. Hitchcock portrayed ethics in some very interesting ways in his films. In many scenes, he also found ways around being completely ethical, but still staying within the guidelines. Some specific parts where this can be seen in Notorious are in some of the women’s clothing, the kissing, alcohol and drunk driving, women being a part of an undercover job, and women participating in adultery.
The clothing that women wore throughout the 1940s was meant to form a sort of silhouette. Woman wore dresses with broad, wide shoulders and tight waist bands to form an hourglass shape. In Notorious, you can see that Alicia wears long, tight waisted dresses with square shoulders. This gives her an hourglass shaping to her body and makes her look professional. You can even see when she wears the suit on the airplane that it still follows these ideal aspects.
Throughout Notorious Alicia (Ingrid Bergman) and Devlin (Cary Grant) begin to become closer as they work together undercover. Eventually, the two find themselves in love. Of course being in love requires some kissing scenes, though this was difficult in the 1940s. The Production Code of 1930 was created to set some moral guidelines for motion pictures in the United States. This occurred during the period of Silent Movies switching to Sound. Due to the code, “Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, were not to be shown.” This meant that even though they were in love, Ingrid and Cary could not show their characters’ true emotions. Hitchcock’s way around this was to have the couple do multiple short kisses, rather than one long kiss. Though it may look odd if you were to watch Notorious today, it was a very clever way around the rule then to be able to still show passion in his movies.
One scene portrayed in Notorious showed Alicia driving a car with Devlin after a party. The scene clearly shows Alicia is under the influence of alcohol as she is swerving all over the road and she cannot see straight. After World War II, the car market was on a rise. Everyone was buying cars and most drivers were uneducated. Laws prohibiting drunk driving began in 1910 but intoxication was not clearly defined at this point. In the 1930s lawmakers stated that a driver with a BAC of 0.15 percent or higher is inebriated. By the 1970s DUI laws become more strict and the legal drinking age was raised to 21. Today, drunk driving is an incredibly unethical action and a driver with a BAC of 0.08 percent is considered inebriated. In 2014, 9,967 people died and 290,000 people were injured in accidents due to drunk driving. In the 1940s, drunk driving may not have been seen as unethical as it is today because the laws that were placed then were not as strict as today. Also, less accidents had been reported then versus today.
In Notorious, we see one of the main characters, Alicia Huberman played by Ingrid Bergman, get thrown into the world of covert intelligence and spy business. What many don't know is that if this was actually set in the late 1940’s, Alicia might not be there. Women were not a big part of federal intelligence agencies during that time period, as far as field agents. Now during WWII, there was a substantial increase in women police officers, but even they were put on leash for what they could do while in the law enforcement. Indeed there were women in agencies, but they were doing desk work. Field agents were seen as a “thing only for boys”. It wasn't until 1972, that women were allowed to join FBI training. This goes to show that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make his film stand out, and probably got heads to turn when they saw what a woman was doing in the film.
During the movie Notorious, after Alicia and Alex get married, Alex keeps suspecting her of having an affair with Devlin. Back in this time period, there was a different belief about marriages. They encouraged women to think of marriages as a successful career. They believed that it was the women's job to make sure the marriage was happy, his career was successful and that it didn’t end in divorce. Even if the problem in the marriage was alcohol or an affair from the men, it was the wife's job to change something to bring him back home. There was a thought back then that the wife was supposed to make the marriage work and nothing was her fault even if the man was having an affair. If a woman had an affair in the time period, it was much more taboo and less common than a man. If the woman had an affair it looked bad on the husband and not her.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Dear High School Senior...
Dear High School Senior,
High School is fun and, as some make think, easy. The teachers are usually pretty lenient, and they are generous when it comes to breaks. Assignments can be found right in the book or directly online. The homework load is never too bad because the teachers know that there are student-athletes and many busy students. If you plan to take on the life of a college student and think that your life will not change, you're in for a rude awakening. College is a completely different ballgame than High School with a multitude of differences.
One difference that you will run in to is that high school teachers are considered generalists; whereas, college professors are specialists. High school teachers usually, only know so much on a number of different topics. A college professor is going to know a lot of information on a specific type of topic. Personally, my high school biology teacher was also my anatomy proctor, but she also had taught anatomy. She also teachers other forms of science, just like my chemistry teacher. He teachers chemistry, physical science, environmental science, and a few other sciences. Most of my college professors only teach specific kinds of classes. One of my professors only teaches the introductory level course for my major.
Another difference between high school and college is that you will have to have a lot more motivation and self-discipline to do the work that is required. You will have a lot more time and distractions during college than in high school. Some night, your friends may ask you to go out, but you have a paper due in two days that you barely have started. You will not have parents or others to tell you that you have to stay and get your paper done before you can do anything. Therefore, you go out with your friends, and the next night you're up until 1 o'clock getting your paper done. This goes for classes as well, your parents are not there to tell you to go everyday. This is why incoming students need to find some motivation and self-discipline to get things done. The biggest problem I have with this is pushing off my online class assignments and having to do them for hours on Friday before it's due, instead of being with my friends.
Most students come into college with a large culture shock. I know I did! I came from a small town in Northwest Ohio. Coming to college, I realized everybody wasn't from the same race anymore. There was a lot of difference and a lot of different color. The best way to deal with this is to go in with an open mind. Some of your best friends could end up being from a completely different race than what you are.
If you come into college as a student-athlete, you will also experience many differences than high school athletics. It can get very difficult juggling a college sport, academics, and a social life. Some athletes may find it to be too much stress and not fun anymore. Someone once told me, "College sports are not necessarily supposed to be fun, they are like a job." I found that to be very true. College sports take up so much time in your day, that it is basically like having a job that you go to everyday. Now, I'm not saying that you will not have any fun. The bonds that are made between teammates can be amazing, and you can have a lot of fun while participating. The best thing to do is to learn how to organize and manage your time so you can have that fun while playing.
A large thing to do that will help you with coming to college is to not believe it is not different than high school. You are essentially lying to yourself if you think that it is the same, and it will lead to being completely unprepared for college. This could lead to getting very behind on assignments and other works, that college won't be any fun. The best thing to do is to make sure that you understand college is a completely different world than high school. Also, always know that you are able to talk to upperclassmen or professors that you may know and ask them questions about the transition. They are always willing to help in the most positive way. I hope your transition goes the best way it possibly can.
Sincerely,
Michaela Bauer
High School is fun and, as some make think, easy. The teachers are usually pretty lenient, and they are generous when it comes to breaks. Assignments can be found right in the book or directly online. The homework load is never too bad because the teachers know that there are student-athletes and many busy students. If you plan to take on the life of a college student and think that your life will not change, you're in for a rude awakening. College is a completely different ballgame than High School with a multitude of differences.
One difference that you will run in to is that high school teachers are considered generalists; whereas, college professors are specialists. High school teachers usually, only know so much on a number of different topics. A college professor is going to know a lot of information on a specific type of topic. Personally, my high school biology teacher was also my anatomy proctor, but she also had taught anatomy. She also teachers other forms of science, just like my chemistry teacher. He teachers chemistry, physical science, environmental science, and a few other sciences. Most of my college professors only teach specific kinds of classes. One of my professors only teaches the introductory level course for my major.
Another difference between high school and college is that you will have to have a lot more motivation and self-discipline to do the work that is required. You will have a lot more time and distractions during college than in high school. Some night, your friends may ask you to go out, but you have a paper due in two days that you barely have started. You will not have parents or others to tell you that you have to stay and get your paper done before you can do anything. Therefore, you go out with your friends, and the next night you're up until 1 o'clock getting your paper done. This goes for classes as well, your parents are not there to tell you to go everyday. This is why incoming students need to find some motivation and self-discipline to get things done. The biggest problem I have with this is pushing off my online class assignments and having to do them for hours on Friday before it's due, instead of being with my friends.
Most students come into college with a large culture shock. I know I did! I came from a small town in Northwest Ohio. Coming to college, I realized everybody wasn't from the same race anymore. There was a lot of difference and a lot of different color. The best way to deal with this is to go in with an open mind. Some of your best friends could end up being from a completely different race than what you are.
If you come into college as a student-athlete, you will also experience many differences than high school athletics. It can get very difficult juggling a college sport, academics, and a social life. Some athletes may find it to be too much stress and not fun anymore. Someone once told me, "College sports are not necessarily supposed to be fun, they are like a job." I found that to be very true. College sports take up so much time in your day, that it is basically like having a job that you go to everyday. Now, I'm not saying that you will not have any fun. The bonds that are made between teammates can be amazing, and you can have a lot of fun while participating. The best thing to do is to learn how to organize and manage your time so you can have that fun while playing.
A large thing to do that will help you with coming to college is to not believe it is not different than high school. You are essentially lying to yourself if you think that it is the same, and it will lead to being completely unprepared for college. This could lead to getting very behind on assignments and other works, that college won't be any fun. The best thing to do is to make sure that you understand college is a completely different world than high school. Also, always know that you are able to talk to upperclassmen or professors that you may know and ask them questions about the transition. They are always willing to help in the most positive way. I hope your transition goes the best way it possibly can.
Sincerely,
Michaela Bauer
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Spring Break
I have never had a Spring Break vacation. I didn't even have one when I was little. My dad was Hicksville High School's head baseball coach before I was born, therefore, he was always coaching baseball during spring break. By the time he was done coaching baseball, I was in Junior High and playing softball. High School passed with still no Spring Breaks, and now I'm in college. Even though I will be playing softball over Spring Break, it will be somewhere other than Northwest Ohio. I will be in warm, sunny Florida! I am very excited to finally be done with my last 5 A.M. of my Freshman year tomorrow. Then, we leave Friday afternoon at 1 P.M. We are staying in Tennessee on the way down, then when we get to Florida Saturday, we will practice. Games start on Sunday, and we play a total of 10 games while in Kissimmee, Florida, with a day off on Wednesday. We will leave the next Saturday morning, and stay in the same Tennessee hotel that night. We will then get up early Sunday morning and travel back to Defiance, arriving around 4 P.M. in the afternoon. Granted I will still be playing softball, but I am definitely looking forward to being in a different, exciting place for Spring Break.
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