Blade Runner And Fifth Element Cityscapes Film Studies Essay

Blade Runner And Fifth Element Cityscapes Film Studies Essay Blade runner greets the viewer with a fascinating opening scene where the camera hovers over a vast industrial mega polis called Hades. The year is 2020 and overpopulated Hades is trying to reinforce itself. The place is filled with corroded skyscrapers which shoot flame and gases into the environment creating a sense of hazy and polluted atmosphere. Also, in this shot and in subsequent shots flying cars, called spinners, are seen moving around the cityscape. The entire Hades cityscape was a forced perspective miniature set with larger miniature elements in the foreground which get smaller and smaller as we approach the horizon. Special photographic effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull and his crew constructed the whole set on a plywood table which was about 20 feet wide at the back and 5 feet wide in the front. The actual horizon on the screen is just 15 feet away from the camera. They designed the table according the focal length of the camera, which provided them the base in accordance to field of view of the camera. This sort of careful planning enabled them to build the miniatures just inside the field of view without wasting valuable production time and money. Chief model maker Mark Stetson relied primarily on etched brass cutouts as elements to create buildings in the shot. But because these cutouts were two-dimensional, they had to stack a number of them together and stagger them across randomly to create depth in the whole shot. states that by using this technique Trumbull was soon posed with a problem: But as we got into putting the thing together, we realized quickly that the etched metal stuff would have given away the trick if wed use it too close to the foreground. They overcame this by building foam cast models and put them in the foreground. Those models were highly detailed and separately mounted using C-Stands. They were positioned carefully so that the camera could fly right in between creating depth. Another hurdle was creating the atmospherics in the cityscape. Director Ridley Scott wanted smoke and haze in the distant background to add to the drama of the whole scene. Douglas Trumbull created this effect using studio fans and smoke detectors. He first contained the set using black cloth all around it and set up the smoke detectors to trigger the fans. So when they fed smoke into the contained set, fans powered up and pushed the smoke around creating a natural progression of smoke in the environment. Describing his perception of the Hades cityscape, Mark Stetson states: I just had this scheme, I just wanted to do it as a series of silhouette and smoke. I wanted the smoke to really be the light and the light to light it up. Everything about that miniature had to be lights. The way light was used in this shot to create volumetric effects and reflections played a major role making it look real and credible. About 20,000 fiber optic cables (about 7 miles long) were used to light the Hades cityscape. The light cables were threaded up from beneath the plexi glass, on which the brass etched cutouts were mounted. They also mixed and experimented with a lot of interactive lights like axial, blinking, etc which created variety and helped improve the overall aesthetics of the shot. The flying cars (spinners) were a central impression throughout Blade Runner. Model maker Gene Winfield made four scale versions of the spinners, ranging from an inch to a gigantic forty-four inch long model, for different shots. Each model had its own light rig which could be tweaked to match the lighting of the shot. In order to integrate the cars into the shot, they had to shoot them as separate elements in four different passes and later on put them in using optical methods. Flying car model moves were created by Baker and McHugh using a Universal Hartland motion control unit. It is a hybrid method where they program simple motions like track and tilt and later on manually chart other controls such as pan, pitch, roll, etc. This enabled them to have a greater control over the placement and path of the move. For every spinner movement a corresponding matte was created to help composite it onto the environment. They created the mattes using front lit technique where the spinners were photographed as white shapes on a black background instead of vice versa. They shifted to the alternate in order to avoid the streaks caused by the motion control rig while shooting the mattes. discusses about the insertion of the spinners against the Hades cityscape: One of the most challenging aspects of the optical involvement was the insertion of spinners and other miniature elements into appropriately smoke-laden background plates-without having them come out looking like cutouts After great deal of testing and experimentation special photographic effects supervisor David Dryer got around this issue by generating a balance between the holdout and cover mattes. They are then lined up separately using the EEG system and fit onto the spinners onto the backplanes. In an establishing shot of New York cityscape in Fifth Element, female lead Milla Jovovich who was reconstructed from an alien DNA escapes from the lab and exits onto a narrow window ledge hundreds of floors above the ground. In consecutive shot, New York City in the year 2259 is portrayed as a towering urbanscape with huge buildings and heavy flying traffic. The lanes are parallel as if they were on a grid with old mid-fifties architecture all along and they extended until the horizon. states that Director Luc Besson vision was to show the 23rd century New York City in full detail and broad daylight unlike Blade Runner which is more dark. To produce this effect Special visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson used model photographs in conjunction with 2-D Matte paintings. Explaining about why they opted to not use computer generated imagery for the cityscape states that Mark Stetson states : We could have done it entirely in the computer but as large as Digital Domain is, with its several terabytes of disk space and hundreds of CPUs, there was still a practical limit. A totally CG New York would have been prohibitive in terms of time, storage space and processing power. For that reason, we chose to construct a big set of models. Stetson now made use of the advancement in technology which was missing back then when he was working on Blade Runner. He used computer pre-visualization and prepared models in different levels of details based on the camera lens, motion path, proximity of the miniature to the camera, etc. For the cityscape shot, about twenty-five buildings 25 feet high and above were built. Several CAD and town planning artists were invited to make plans for the layout of the city and the miniatures were placed accordingly. This helped them make the illusion of the vast mega polis more real and believable. To create a more natural look of sunlight hitting the vast cityscape, Supervising director of photography , Bill Neil developed a new technique called Fractured Sunlight which is a hybrid of direct and indirect illumination. They used a strong light source from one direction to mimic the sunlight which caused a lot of shadows on the other side. To minimize the effect, they had to use reflectors and spotlights to create an illusion of light bouncing back on the darker areas on the buildings. In order to add depth in the shot, they separated the cityscape into different parts with their respective mattes and then added atmospheric effects and made changes to the overall lighting. Also, they relied heavily on 2-D matte paintings to mix and create the effect of endless row of buildings which ultimately imposed depth in the shot. Flying cars were the crucial element in cityscape shot which left viewers in awe. Stetson initially planned to use miniatures for the effect. But due to development of technology, an effective CG pipeline was generated which allowed them to move to computer generated imagery. They first created primitive models of cars and rough patterns of the traffic flow to pre-visualize the shot. In order to distinguish between the traffic at various levels of the city, Digital effects supervisor Karen E. Goulekas created a weave pattern where traffic would travel in different directions at different levels. In order to create variation among the pattern of traffic flow, they keyed the cars to move at different speeds and stop at random points. Also variation of color and nature of the cars was accomplished by using special Renderman shaders. These programmed shaders allowed the artists to quickly tweak and create new variations of models easily. Once the traffic flow and detailing of the vehicles is completed, they would then run a script which replaced all the dummy models with fully detailed ones which they would then send for final rendering. Compositing supervisors Jonathan Egstad and Bryan Grill then carefully planned the allocation of resources which finally enabled them to generate the effects work in time. They used compositing packages (mainly Nuke, Flame, etc) to put together all the elements. Finally, color corrections and grading was done to complete generating the final imagery for the shot.

Art History :: essays research papers

EXTERNAL HISTORY: .Considered along with LAS MENINAS to be one of the most important masterpieces of DIEGO DE VELAZQUUEZ , as if final perido,this metological scene despits Minerra ´s dispute with Arachne over weaving abilities.Traditionally cosidered to represent women working at the tapestry workshop of Santa Isable but it now prored that it is mythological subject.It was probably painted around 1657.The title of "THE SPINNERS",as it ispopularly known,is a later invention and seems to have been inspired by the women who are spinning in the foreground they were workers in the Santa Isabel tapestry factory in Madrid.This Velazquez painting, considered for a long represent a generic theme,actually hides the depiction of a mythological theme draped in the everyday labour of a tapstry workshop.In the mid forties,sepcialists refused to interpet it as a simple every day scen.Their doubt were clarified when reearcher Maria Luisa Caturla brought to light aninventory in which an unknowed Velazquez ´s Fable of Arachae was mentioned,owned by huntsman to King Philip 4th,Don Pedro de Arcc.One of the problems that hindired the identification of the subject lay in the fact that the work did not belong to collections and documentary information existed about it. INTERNAL HISTORY: The Fable of Archa,as related in Ovid ´s Metamorphoese,tells how Minerva,goddess of the arts and of war,competes with Arachne,famous for her skill in spinning in weaving a tapestry.The young spinner was insolent enough to prevent in her work one of the love advantures of the goddess father Jove,and by way of punishment,she was transformed into a spider. ICONOGRAPHY: Even so,Velazquez had used Baroque recourse of inserting a picture within a picture since he was a youngman, and he linked to reverse the order of important of the story(i.e putting the trivial forward and the fundamental behind) This canvas was added onto it in the 18th century,on the upper part and both sides.It is not know if this aws done to restore it to its original state (it was thought to have suffered damage in the Alcazar fire of 1734) or if it was simply and attempt to complete the scene to make it larger.Certain scholar say it is an Apology of fine arts,intended to show the superiority of the art of painting over the hand crafts, while others see it a Political Allegory after Ripa ´s Iconology. TECHNIQUE: The Spinning wheels turns rapidily showing the loose Velazquez technique.The canvas was probable damaaged by the fire in the Alcazar(1734) and an upper s

Coca-Cola Essay

If we told you that Coca-Cola had operating units in 50 countries around the world, you probably would not be surprised. If we told you that Coca-Cola had been in business for almost 125 years, you probably would not be surprised. So, you tell us †¦ how many different beverages does Coca-Cola produce? 100? 500? 2, 000? Are you surprised yet? Worldwide, Coca-Cola produces an amazing 2, 800 different beverages. When an organization is that big, has that sort of worldwide presence, and boasts what is perhaps the most well-known brand ever, you can bet that a multitude of IT systems are constantly churning in the background, not only keeping the organization running, but also keeping it running ahead of the competition. To support internal collaboration efforts, Coke created something it calls its Common Innovation Framework, a Web-based system that combines project management capabilities with business intelligence. Using the Innovation Framework, anyone from any of the operating units worldwide can search for, find, and apply concepts, strategies, development successes, and marketing approaches that have been used elsewhere in the organization. For example, when introducing Georgia teas in Australia, the Coke people Down Under can research what marketing strategies worked well in related countries such as New Zealand. As Jean-Michel Ares, Coke CIO, explains if, â€Å"Once you have aggregated the pipeline of innovation, the object is to assess and prioritize the best allocation of resources in the organization. Beyond internal employees, Coke is reaching out with new and innovative IT steps. Recently, it rolled out a new line of software services based on hundreds of business processes to its extended family of bottlers. These software services each perform a specific common business function and run within SAP’s ERP software and are delivered by Coke’s IBM hosted date centers. The goal is to create a standardized business and technology platform across all Coke bottlers, most of which are independent franchises. (There are some partly owned by Coke) If Coke and its bottlers are speaking the same language, so to speak, and using the same technology, then supply chain management applications will be the more efficiently streamlined. Standardized in their case equates to saving money by reducing expenses associated with supply chain activities. And even beyond its extended family to bottlers, Coke is using technology to create loyalty and engage more with its customers. Its award winning Web site, My Coke Rewards at www.mycokerewards.com, is the second most popular consumer packaged-goods site, behind only www.kraftfoods.com. My Coke Rewards attracts some 300,000 visitors per day. Offering everything from magazine subscriptions to electronics as prizes (just look under your bottle cap). My Coke Rewards has reconnected Coke with its loyal drinkers. The site has teamed with pop culture crazes such as American Idol, soccer, and auto racing to bring even more consumers into the fold. You can even find Coke-labeled songs through iTunes. Questions: 1.Describe the various IT-enabled initiatives discussed in this case study and categorize them as either above-the-line, below-the-line, or some combination of the two. 2.Why is standardization so important in supply chain management? Coke is developing its own set of software services for bottlers to use. Do you think Coke charges the bottlers for these software services? Why or why not? 3.Describe two different forms of e-collaboration in this case study. For each, articulate the benefits to Coke. 4.How is My Coke Rewards an example of a switching cost? How can a switching cost not have a monetary penalty associated with it. 5.Referring to the diagram below, what do you believe to be Coke’s overall organizational structure? Why? How does Coke’s use of technology support your decision? 6.What sort of business intelligence could Coke gather from its My Coke Rewards Web-site? How could it use this information for customer relationship management activities?

University of Sioux Falls Admissions

With an acceptance rate of 92%, the University of Sioux Falls is largely accessible to those who apply each year. Interested students will need to submit an application, which can be found on the schools website. Additional required materials include high school transcripts and scores from either the SAT or the ACT.   Admissions Data (2015) University of Sioux Falls Acceptance Rate: 92%Test Scores -- 25th / 75th PercentileSAT Scores:SAT Critical Reading: 470 / 550SAT Math: 440 / 540SAT Writing: - / -ACT Scores:ACT Composite: 20  / 25ACT English: 19 / 25ACT Math: 20  / 26 University of Sioux Falls  Description In the early 1880s, a delegation of area Baptist churches chartered an institution of higher learning, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, originally calling it the Dakota College Institute. Throughout the coming years, the school merged with neighboring colleges, lost and regained accreditation, and went through various other changes; the University of Sioux Falls now offers 40 undergraduate degrees and a handful of graduate degrees to its students. Outside of the classroom, students can take part in over 100 student-run clubs and organizations, ranging from the academic to the recreational. On the athletic front, the USF Cougars compete in the NCAA Division II, in the Great Plains Athletic Conference.   Enrollment (2014) Total Enrollment: 1,482 (1,224 undergraduates)Gender Breakdown: 41% Male / 59% Female82% Full-time Costs (2015 - 16) Tuition and Fees: $26,240Textbooks: $950Room and Board: $6,900Other Expenses: $3,510Total Cost: $37,600 University of Sioux Falls  Financial Aid (2014  - 15) Percentage of New Students Receiving Aid: 100%Percentage of New Students Receiving Types of AidGrants: 100%Loans: 77%Average Amount of AidGrants: $16,011Loans: $9,095 Academic Programs Most Popular Majors:  Business Administration, Accounting, Nursing, Elementary Education, Exercise Science, Criminal Justice, Biology Transfer, Graduation and Retention Rates First Year Student Retention (full-time students): 72%4-Year Graduation Rate: 37%6-Year Graduation Rate: 54% Intercollegiate Athletic Programs Mens Sports:  Football, Golf, Basketball, Track, and Field, Cross Country, BaseballWomens Sports:  Basketball, Cross Country, Soccer, Track and Field, Softball, Volleyball, Tennis University of Sioux Falls  Mission Statement The University of Sioux Falls, a Christian University in the liberal arts tradition, educates students in the humanities, sciences, and professions. The traditional motto of the University is  Culture for Service, that is, we seek to foster academic excellence and the development of mature Christian persons for service to God and humankind in the world... USF is committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to the integration of biblical faith and learning; it affirms that Christians are called to share their faith with others through lives of service. The University is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches, U.S.A., and welcomes students of any faith or denomination.