Thursday, March 19, 2020

Free Essays on Effects Of Music On The Mind

Effects Of Music On The Mind Are people typically geniuses? Statistically, people probably are not. In fact, most people probably aren't even intellectually gifted at all. Most people are likely to be pretty much average, maybe a little bit above average, or a little below, but very average none the less. It is universally understood that people strive to learn to become wiser and more informed about the world around them. The more people learn, the more powerful they can become. It is the speed at which people learn that separates the geniuses from the average people and from the learning disabled. Geniuses don't run into problems while learning, because they learn very fast. It is everyone else that could really use help. One solid way to increase the speed at which people learn is with music. People learn through music and their minds grow faster because of it. Some music, when implemented properly, can have positive effects on learning and attitude. Music is a powerful thing, and when we understand its significance, it can bring dramatic changes both positive and negative into our lives. The earliest stages of learning for young children are the most important. The fundamentals of learning are instilled into a child at a very young age. How much importance is placed on these fundamentals can have dramatic affects on the future of the child's learning. Music, when applied in a constructive way, can have positive effects on a child's ability to learning and can help them in many ways. One way that music can make learning easier for a young child is by implementing music lessons into a child's normal activities. A small study was done two years back involving ten three-year-olds who were tested on their ability to put together a puzzle and the speed at which they could do it ("Learning Keys" 24). After the initial test was taken, five of the children were given singing lessons for 30 minutes a day and the other five were given piano le... Free Essays on Effects Of Music On The Mind Free Essays on Effects Of Music On The Mind Effects Of Music On The Mind Are people typically geniuses? Statistically, people probably are not. In fact, most people probably aren't even intellectually gifted at all. Most people are likely to be pretty much average, maybe a little bit above average, or a little below, but very average none the less. It is universally understood that people strive to learn to become wiser and more informed about the world around them. The more people learn, the more powerful they can become. It is the speed at which people learn that separates the geniuses from the average people and from the learning disabled. Geniuses don't run into problems while learning, because they learn very fast. It is everyone else that could really use help. One solid way to increase the speed at which people learn is with music. People learn through music and their minds grow faster because of it. Some music, when implemented properly, can have positive effects on learning and attitude. Music is a powerful thing, and when we understand its significance, it can bring dramatic changes both positive and negative into our lives. The earliest stages of learning for young children are the most important. The fundamentals of learning are instilled into a child at a very young age. How much importance is placed on these fundamentals can have dramatic affects on the future of the child's learning. Music, when applied in a constructive way, can have positive effects on a child's ability to learning and can help them in many ways. One way that music can make learning easier for a young child is by implementing music lessons into a child's normal activities. A small study was done two years back involving ten three-year-olds who were tested on their ability to put together a puzzle and the speed at which they could do it ("Learning Keys" 24). After the initial test was taken, five of the children were given singing lessons for 30 minutes a day and the other five were given piano le...

Monday, March 2, 2020

How to Craft Marketing Copy That Wins Over Your Dream Audience

How to Craft Marketing Copy That Wins Over Your Dream Audience It’s every business owner’s dream to work with their ideal customers. But most of the time, we’re stuck working with clients who are either a wrong fit or difficult to work with. Being able to attract your dream audience can make an amazing difference in how you work. It not only makes you more motivated but it’s also a healthy way to run your business. With that said, part of attracting the kind of people you want to work with lies in your marketing copy. When people go to your site, the first thing they’ll read about you is your message. When you convey the wrong things, you might receive interest from people who often don’t end up as customers or just aren’t a good fit for you. That’s why it’s important to be conscious in what you communicate so you get targeted business prospects that love what you do and whom you’d enjoy working with! Improve your copywriting with these free templates!Get Your Free Copywriting Templates Getting to Know Your Ideal Customers A crucial part of establishing the right message lies in who your ideal customers are. Never just assume who your likely audience is. You need to do some sort of market and competitor research  so you don’t have to go through numerous trial and errors. Don’t waste your time doing guesswork when it comes to your message. Follow the steps outlined below to make sure your message resonates with your dream clients! Discover and Understand Who Your Dream Audience Is One of the secrets of winning over your ideal customers is all about getting clear on the type of people best suited to you. That’s why finding who your best and true customers  starts with what you like. The best person to work with is someone who won’t just pay you handsomely (although that would be awesome as well), he or she should be a joy to work with as well. Once you know who exactly to look for, everything else just falls into place. But first, you have to start by being clear on who your dream audience is. This could either be a company or person you’ve worked with in the past, or even a fictitious persona you’ve just drawn up. Start by asking yourself: what kind of people do you (or would) enjoy working with? List out a number of traits or look back at past clients who you liked. Let me give you an example of one of my dream client profiles: My first deal client is a small to medium-size company looking to grow their sales. My person of contact wields a significant amount of decision-making weight. He (or she) can decide on copy matters without having to consult with a reviewing panel. He’s not afraid to try new things and knows what he’s looking for, which he makes sure to communicate clearly to me. Moreover, he values me as a crucial member of the team so my rates aren’t an issue. He knows the value of my work and frequently contacts me for any project he might need help in. Once he sees the results of the past projects, he continues to send work my way. The more detailed your customer profile is, the better. More than just adding a significant amount of details, you can also create more than one ideal customer profile. You can develop an ideal client profile similar to the above with just three steps. Here’s how: 1. Define yourself first to establish the attributes that make them ideal. If you know who you are as a person, you’ll most likely know the type of person you’d love to work with. Start with the usual key traits that show up whenever you’re working with a client or interacting with customers and base off from that. For instance, if you’re the independent type when working, you might prefer someone who lets you do your thing and won’t micromanage you. If you’re the kind of person who likes being heard, include in your customer profile that they need to be open to feedback and suggestions. If you have a non-negotiable stance on your rates, you can include that he or she is the type who won’t lowball your rates. 2. Define your customers’ basic details. Now that you’ve established the part about what makes them your dream customers, it’s time to determine the other details. You can start with the following details: Company size Industry Location (local or anywhere) Work role Online hangout places above are just some factors you can consider to start with. Feel free to add more if you think a detail is relevant enough to be included. 3. Don’t be afraid to delve deeper. The last step is the most crucial of all. You need to get to know them deeply to have an effective message they’d want to read. Get familiar with their needs and wants to make sure your message speaks to their innermost desires, needs, and problems. 6 questions to ask customers to improve your sales.You can ask the following  questions to start with: What do they like? What does he or she value the most when it comes to choosing someone to work with? What are their struggles? What are their most prominent beliefs and opinions? What do they aspire in their life and business? What keeps them interested? These are just a few questions to help you imagine who your likely ideal audience is. Once you have a distinct image of the kind of customer you want to attract, writing a message that speaks to them becomes much more manageable. You can also add other psychographic details such as education level, personality type, fave blogs, and political affiliation, among others. Including most of the above will definitely allow you to build a complete picture of who your ideal customer is. Once you have that, crafting a message that speaks to your target market will be a much easier task! Determine What Their Pain Points Are Now that you have a complete overview of your ideal customer, it’s time to zero in on their pain points. This is a particularly important part because crafting the kind of marketing copy that attracts is your dream audience is all about knowing their problems and needs. However, it’s important that you don’t make any assumptions about your audience during this process or your message won’t likely resonate with them. That’s why you should start by asking the right questions. Use focused and open-ended questions that will allow you to learn more about your prospects and their struggles. For example, if your target is small business owners looking to expand, you may ask them questions like: What has stopped you from growing your business so far? Why? What aspect of your business has taken the most time and money? Why? What’s your number one complaint about running your business? Why do you think it’s happening? If you noticed, the above questions sought to pinpoint a particular issue first and then the reasoning why that problem occurred or keeps on happening. This line of questioning allows you to get to the root of the problem and gain much deeper insights on how you can help them solve that particular issue. Another method you can do is to analyze how they interact online. Should you have limited or no chance to survey your ideal customers, you can look at the places they hang out on online such as social media  and forums. Some things you may want to look at are: What do they frequently ask about or discuss with others? What kind of information are they consuming? Are they frequent readers of marketing blogs or news sites? What can you glean from their online behavior? Do they spend more time on social media than any other platform? Why could this be so? The key here is to keep asking and asking until you get to the crux of their behavior. Maybe they’re on social media so much because they’re invested in the personal lives of others or are managing their business pages. You can then note the info down and see later on if it’s something you can use in your message. Whether you choose to engage with your ideal customers directly or analyze them from a distance- the important thing is to listen. Listening well will allow you to peel back the layers of their persona and what they’re struggling with. If you’re able to do that, you’ll be able to glean valuable customer insight that will allow you to speak to their inner desires and concerns. But don’t just resort to using your knowledge of your customers’ pain points to twist the knife and aggravate their pain. A more sustainable and non-icky route is to use it so you’ll know how to position yourself as the solution. Once you know what makes them tick, you’ll know the exact things they’re experiencing and would want to avoid. You can then use the information so you can figure out which pain points you can then help solve. From there, you can also figure out which desires you need to fulfill or fears of theirs you can help overcome which can be the basis of your business offer. Position Your Offer as the Answer to Their Pain Points This takes us to the next step which is to position your offer as the solution to their problems. You have to be able to convey how you can provide value in their lives and how you can help solve any of their particular pain points. You can include any of the following to position your offer: Name your target audience. It’s important that it’s clear to your ideal customers that your business is geared toward them. You can do this by naming them directly or characterizing them in your message. Here’s a great example by Lever: In their message, they make it clear that their target audience mainly consists of recruiters and hiring managers. Show them that you understand them. This is where your research comes in. Mention a specific issue they’re likely still struggling with and include that in your message. This conveys that you know them and are intimately familiar with what they’re facing. Toggl (image below) does this by including the line â€Å"Where did the time go?† For many of us, it’s easy to lose track of time and wonder how you spent it all along. The brand aptly addresses the said concern with the headline they used in their homepage. State your key benefit. For this part, make sure you include the most compelling reason why they should do business with you. Buffer does this below by stating that they can help you save time when it comes to managing your social media. Provide a context on how you can help them. To make your message more powerful, it’s not enough to mention a specific benefit. Take it a step further and provide an instance when your product or service can be valuable. This makes it easier for them to understand how your offer  fits in with their needs or problems. Shopify does this by stating that you can use their platform â€Å"whether you sell online, on social media, in store, or out of the truck of your car...† It makes it easier for Shopify’s visitors to self-select whether the platform is suitable for them or not. Add your most compelling differentiator. It’s not enough to offer them the solutions they need, you also have to let them know what makes you different from your competitors. You can do this by mentioning a USP that fulfills a specific problem your core audience.Dreamland does this perfectly by stating that they’re â€Å"The only brand with the rights to use the patented Miracoilâ„ ¢ springs - the world's most advanced spring system to date.† Once most or all of the above are in place, you’ve now made a solid positioning that will grab the attention of your ideal customers! Here's how to craft copy that your audience will connect withCrafting Copy That Your Audience Can Connect With Now that you’ve got their attention, it’s time to craft your marketing copy in a way that your audience can resonate with. No matter how well you’ve positioned yourself, it won’t mean a thing if you can’t properly translate that into your message. That’s something you can accomplish through the below tips. Create the Perfect Hook Through Social Listening Leading with the right hook allows you to build on the interest of your prospects and encourage them to read more about your message. To craft the kind of hook that will win over your audience, it has to first speak to what they’re going through- specifically their wants and fears. You’ll know what those are by doing social listening research  that involves: Tracking mentions of your brand or business on social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) Checking out review sites on what customers are saying about your products or services (e.g. Amazon, Yelp) Analyzing your online metrics to see if there are any patterns or trends you should take advantage or steer clear of (e.g. increased traffic from Instagram, backlinks from bad sites) Doing the above can clue you in on the conversation that’s going in on their heads and what kind of words they’re using. The key here is to use the same words in your message so they can resonate with what you’re trying to convey. For example, if the primary concern of your ideal customers is self-improvement, use words that would tie in with that concept. Using words like success, purpose, transform, achievement,  and their variations to hook your target prospects is an effective way to cater to their deepest desires and needs. You might craft your hook like this: Transform your life and finally achieve the business success you’ve always wanted! Let me help you become more confident and proactive in building a business that aligns with your life’s purpose. Craft Boredom-Free Messages That Stick to Mind If you haven’t noticed, today’s web readers get bored fast. And bored people hop on to the next thing that will catch their attention. So once you catch your ideal customers’ attention, you need to be able to keep it with a boredom-free marketing copy that will stick to their mind even after they’ve finished checking you out. One of the ways you can do that is by writing conversationally. Why? Because people won’t be able to connect with your brand or business if you’re always talking jargon or doing a lot of â€Å"business speak.† That’s why it’s important to craft your marketing copy like how you talk. Use â€Å"you† a lot and don’t make the mistake of only talking about yourself or your business. Just like in real life, no one likes people or businesses that are always full of themselves. Your message should be about them and what they could get from you. Another way to keep your readers from being bored is to avoid marketing buzzwords. Using marketing drivel doesn’t add any value to your message and will only serve to make you sound hollow. Moreover, it makes you sound like everybody else which is the surest way to be thrown into the â€Å"businesses no one really remembers† category. The key thing to remember here is to just make sure your brand sounds real. If your brand is a reflection of yourself, incorporate parts of yourself that you want to show. Maybe you have a straightforward, no-BS approach way of communication, then make sure it’s evident in your copy. One particular example of a business that does this well is Firebox. It’s a fun, humorous brand that likes incorporating amusing takes on gift-giving. Check out their latest homepage copy: They tweaked their site’s headline in light of the Christmas season to let people know (cheekily) that the holidays is really all about the gifts. You don’t always have to use humor to make your message interesting. Just do most, if not all, of the above tips and you can make your brand appear more accessible and easier to connect to! Sell Without Using Hype Hype-based selling is all about using exaggerated tactics to fire up readers so they would be more compelled to buy. Although it’s common to see this type of tactic used on today’s marketing copy, it can easily backfire since you’re trading your credibility for short-term returns. It’s much better to go for a method that’s much more viable to use for the long run because it’ll help build loyalty toward your brand. A good example of a hyped up claim is, â€Å"If You Know How to Write, You Can Be a Published Book Author in 2 Weeks – Guaranteed!† As a writer myself, I know that it takes more than just knowing how to write to be a published book author. You have to have specific knowledge of what you’re writing about and be able to self-publish and market it or get a publishing outfit to help you distribute your book. More than just that, it would take more than two weeks to publish a book. The only way that kind of claim would be valid is if they’re churning out ready-made books for people to publish. This type of implausible claims can only appeal to those who are impatient for results and such people would likely drop you the second you fail to live up to your claims. If you’re looking for long-term customers who will stick with you, that isn’t just the way to go. Even without hype, you can write powerfully persuasive marketing copy  by tailoring your message to resonate with your ideal customers’ needs and wants. Because at the end of the day, conveying your value is still what seals the deal. Write With Specificity Including specific details in your message is another remarkable way to increase your credibility. It’s not only more believable but it also positions you as a knowledgeable source when it comes to that topic. Sharing specific data means you did your due diligence in advance so you can provide your prospects the right information to aid in their buying decision. Rev does this by sharing a statistic on their ad that they can tie in with their services. While in their caption, they provide a specific turnaround time (24 hours), their accuracy rate (99%), and their price per minute ($1). This goes beyond your standard spiels like â€Å"quick service† and â€Å"accurate work.† After all, people will have different definitions of what fast or accurate is so it’s better to be specific on the exact meanings of your claims. You can also apply the concept of specificity when it comes to your benefits. Just choose one specific benefit that has the most advantage for your target market. This helps your message to immediately resonate with them. TransferWise uses this method to  make  their home page’s web copy more compelling. They start out by stating how much exactly do banks typically charge when sending money (up to 5% in hidden costs) and that they’re actually â€Å"8x cheaper,† which means more savings for its users. By using the above tactics, your target prospects will be going, â€Å"This is for me!† in their heads long before they’re finished reading what you have to say! Converting Your Best Prospects to Lifelong Customers Now that you’ve managed to grab their attention and attract them to your brand, it’s time to convert them as lifelong customers. Once you’ve got good people looking at you, it only makes sense to have them on your team- for good (or as long as possible). Overcome Barriers to Purchase Most people don’t just buy on a whim. If it’s an especially big purchase, you can bet that your customers will likely take their sweet time thinking about whether to buy it or not. Converting your target prospects  into actual paying customers means you have to be able to pre-empt any concerns they may have about buying from you. A good way to do this is to reframe the cost of your offering especially if the product or service you’re offering is expensive. Cast your pricing in a different light by positioning the cost as an investment for them. Let them know that they’d only need to pay a high fee once and that they’ll be able to reap the returns repeatedly in the future. Or you can also break down the total cost to a much more digestible amount. For instance, if you’re offering a $30 monthly membership course, let them know that they’ll get to learn from your expertise for just $1 a day or for less than the cost of one Starbucks coffee. Whatever paints a better picture for your audience. Another way to make the buying process easier is to offer different price tiers  such as the one below: This is because not all costs can be reframed. That’s why in such cases, it’s better to just have a variety of pricing points that your audience can choose from. Lastly, take away the risks of buying from you. Offer a free trial or a money-back guarantee for a specific period of time. Using the above tips will definitely ensure a much smoother buying process to help your prospects become your lifelong customers. Get People to Act on Your Message with a Strong Call-to-Action  Copy What’s a superbly crafted message if it doesn’t compel your target audience to act? Now that all the other elements are in place, the next logical step is to move them toward a specific action. For that, you’ll need a call-to-action or CTA to end your message. Compelling calls-to-action prompts your prospects into engaging with your brand or website in some way. And for that you’ll need two things: a compelling button copy and a striking visual presentation.  Here’s an amazing example by HubSpot: In the above example, they ditched the standard â€Å"Sign Up† and â€Å"Free Trial† CTA copy for a more benefit-oriented one: †Convert More Visitors.† Moreover, they made sure the CTA button popped out by using the color green to contrast with the orange background.

Saturday, February 15, 2020

'Majority rule is the right response to resolving disagreements in Outline

'Majority rule is the right response to resolving disagreements in society.' Discuss - Outline Example Government is an institution majorly formed to create stable society for the people that it governs. The people are however a complex group with widely varying wishes, needs and ideas as such the government must always turn to majority rule. The government cannot in anyway please everyone all the time. It must focus on making most of the people happy in order to gain stability faster (Web, N.d). Right is conformance with justice, law or morality. It is fair and effective. Rights can also be defined as entitlements to perform certain actions, or to be certain in states or entitlements that others perform certain actions. They dominate modern understandings of what actions are permissible and which institutions are just. They structure the form of governments, content of laws, and distribution of freedom and authority. Thus to accept a set of rights is same as to approve a distribution of freedom and authority and hence to endorse a certain view of what may, must and must not be done ( Wenar, 2010). Many theorists agree that A’s claim-right gives B a second order reason not to act on some first order reason. To go by this route we would need to tamper the conclusiveness of the conclusive reasons implied by assertions of rights to accommodate the fact that some rights have priority against others, and if any, few rights outweigh absolutely all non-right considerations in all circumstances (Wenar, 2010).This paper will focus mainly on the principle of majority rule and the rights of the minority. The main arguments are that majority rule is the right response to resolving agreements and supermajority rule is a better response to resolving disagreements in the society. Majority rule is right to resolving disagreements because it provides utility and fairness. Utilitarian argument The principle of utility states that in any circumstance that action ought to be done and that institution ought to obtain all the alternatives available, produces the greatest net ba lance of happiness over unhappiness when we sum up all happiness and unhappiness over all sentient beings from now in to the future (Cohen, 2002). The main feature of utilitarian political feature is that it calls for the maximization of happiness summed over all and not any particular distribution of happiness and subject to the constraint of everyone is above a certain minimum level. Thus from this emphasis on aggregation, utilitarianism requires that we trade off the burdens on some people and benefits to other people. The utility principle reduces highly contested and vague issues of right and wrong to problems that can actually be addressed through public methods of observation and calculation rather appeals to equally vague and contested intuitive ideas. Because of the gains in analytical tractability one may be able to secure greater public agreement about what is at stake in a political dispute and how to resolve it. Hence this principle represents one way to treat people as moral equals and it assigns the happiness of each affected party equal weight in determining what ought to be done. In actual sense the principle of utility represents a refinement of the intuitive idea that conduct and policy are right just in case they have the overall consequences or best results (Cohen, 2002). Egalitarian argument Egalitarian view that equality is the special sense of comparative equality but the prioritarian view that

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Mterials & manufacture 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Mterials & manufacture 2 - Essay Example Metal matrix composites have been receiving significant attention in recent years, particularly in the area of processing techniques. In many instances the properties of a reinforced metal have been shown to provide a performance advantage over monolithic metal, but the high cost of producing the composite has prohibited widespread commercial use. Of the many potential metal matrix systems, aluminum alloy matrix composites have been the object of much research, primarily due to the light weight, low cost, and ease of fabrication of aluminum. Within the class of Aluminum alloy matrix composites there exist two distinct material systems, namely (i) discontinuously reinforced composites, with the reinforcement taking the form of a particle, a platelet, a whisker, or a chopped fiber, and (ii) continuously reinforced composites, with the reinforcement being a unidirectional or a multidirectional array of continuous fibers. Discontinuously reinforced aluminum alloys have been fabricated by various means, including solidstate processes, such as powder metallurgy techniques (blending of metal and ceramic powders followed by hot pressing) [2], and liquid-state processes, such as compocasting (blending ceramic powder and molten aluminium, agitating and casting) and pressurized liquid-metal infiltration. During this practice work, we had study a Metal Matrix Composite (MMC). This MMC contains 10% of Aluminium oxide or Alumina (reinforcement) and 90% of Aluminium alloy matrix (2618A). The aim of MMC is to improve the properties of this material. Indeed, Aluminium is ductile and Alumina (Al203) is stiff and strong. When we combine these two materials we obtain a composite with better properties. The aim of this laboratory it’s to compare the â€Å"green† density with the sintered density. Moreover, we can see the different structures, between â€Å"green† and sintered density, by an electron microscope available in the

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Interpretations of William Faulkners A Rose for Emily :: A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner

Interpretations of William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" has been interpreted in many different ways. Most of these rely solely on hints found within the story. I believe that his life can also help one analyze this story. By knowing that Faulkner's strongest influence was his independent mother, one can guess that Miss Emily Grierson's character was based partly on Maud Falkner. William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25, 1897. His family moved to Oxford, Mississippi when Faulkner was five years old (Larinde). His parents were Murry and Maud Falkner (Zane 2). Faulkner added the "u" to his last name on his Royal Air Force application for unknown reasons (5). Faulkner's great-grandfather, Colonel William C. Falkner had moved from Tennessee to the Mississippi Delta in 1841. The Colonel was a Civil War hero, plantation owner, railroad builder, and even a writer (Larinde). Faulkner's grandfather and father were both respected, though not wealthy. They were also both alcoholics. Faulkner and his father never had a very good relationship. He and his mother, though, were very close. Maud gave him his love of art and literature. She influenced Faulkner more than anyone else with her strong independence (Zane 3-4). She may have been the inspiration for the strong, independent character, Emily Grierson. "William Faulkner was a quiet but mischievous child, polite and rude, loving and withdrawn" (4). He did well in grade school, but began showing signs of truancy during adolescence. Faulkner dropped out of high school in eleventh grade. In 1918, Faulkner attempted to enlist in the U.S. Army but was turned down. He then applied to the Royal Air Force where he adds the "u" to his last name. He was soon discharged and returned to Oxford, Mississippi. Here he attended the university for two year. "In the decade that followed, Faulkner donned a host of other identities, alternately and aristocrat, a bohemian, or a derelict" (Zane 5). Faulkner established himself as a major novelist in 1929 with the book The Sound and the Fury (Larinde). He wrote twenty novels and many short stories (Zane 1). His greatest achievements were the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950, the National Book Award, and Pulitzer Prizes. All of these awards came after he was fifty (7). Although Faulkner lived in Canada, New Orleans, New York, Hollywood, and Virginia, most of his life was spent in his native Mississippi (Faulkner 177).

Friday, January 17, 2020

Memento – Film Review

Memento is an extremely unique ‘film noir' drama directed by Christopher Nolan, famous for his recent re-birth of the Batman series and currently at the helm of the long awaited ‘The Dark Knight'. Most of his films are difficult to put into a set genre, as they often contain elements of drama, horror, mysteries and action all at the same time. Since his directorial debut 11 years ago, Nolan has been heavily praised as a ‘true visionary' and named ‘one of the greatest intelligent directors of all time' by multiple critics, as well as being renowned for his efficiency and perfectionism both whilst filming, and in the editing room. It is no surprise then, that the content and style of Memento is so different to any other mainstream movie you might see this year. The film follows Leonard Shelby (portrayed by Guy Pearce), a man whose wife died after being raped when two men broke into his home, violating her and leaving him with an injury that causes anterograde amnesia. However, only one of the assailants involved is caught and arrested, causing Leonard to become a vigilante and avenge his wife, using notes and tattoos to help him track down the villain who killed her. This is where Nolan shows his ability to play with film in order to change the audience's perception; because the main protagonist can only remember things that happened before the incident and about three or four minutes before the current time, the film is divided into many short scenes. These scenes are played in reverse order, so that the film begins with the ultimate act of revenge, and from then on back tracks through time to display every shocking detail about Leonard's condition and story. As if this wasn't complicated enough, not everything is as it seems, and small hints of this start to trickle through fractured memories from the very beginning. The film opens with a close-up shot of a flapping Polaroid photograph in somebody's hand of a body lying face down on a bloody floor, immediately grabbing the attention of the viewer and leaving us to watch in bewilderment as the image within the white frame slowly fades to blank. This intrigue is further developed when the photograph is pushed back into a camera which then flashes and we realize that this scene is being played to us in reverse. Then we finally see the face of the main character, appearing scarred and distressed behind the heavy camera before a quick cut to him returning the camera to his pocket. What follows is another close-up, this time a shot taken with the camera laying on its side (something rarely done in cinematography) of blood running across the floor, retreating back into the body that lies there; which cuts again to the shell of a bullet rolling slowly across the ground and yet speeding up, and then a quick transition to a pair of glasses lying upside-down and flecked with blood. Again we see Leonard, this time holding his arm above the ground, where a gun jumps into his hand from the ground below and he begins to point it in front of him. And then everything comes to life in a short burst, with the glasses bouncing and flying onto the face of the body, the shell of ammunition soaring back into the gun, spatters of blood diving from the walls into the back of the corpse's head, and a sudden flash of light from the weapon before showing the open mouthed scream of the man who appears to have just sprung to life. The scene ends abruptly, fading to black, with us throughout the entire short sequence hearing only ambient noise, a gunshot and the reversed yell for help from the man about to die. This is the only reversed scene in the film, although the scenes themselves run in reversed order with distinguishable grayscale scenes interweaved between them that explain Leonard's story further, which eventually fade into colour and continue the main narrative. The fades and transitions are so subtle that you probably wouldn't notice them unless you looked for them. The casting for the movie is brilliant, with every character having their own unique traits and purposes. There are only three principal characters that we see on screen for long periods of time, and this helps in building convincingly realistic characters, as the director has not had to juggle with many actors and actresses. It may take us a while to relate to the main character, as we first see him commit murder before we even hear him speak, but it's not long before we feel that we can be on his side. Leonard plays a complicated role, which is further complicated by both his condition and his actions that we don't always know about, but Guy Pearce fits the role majestically, and pulls off the frequent loss of memory with great finesse. Originally, Brad Pitt was considered for this role, but personally I'm glad he turned it down, as Pitt isn't known for roles like the disabled Leonard, and is instead renowned for anarchistic or secret agent-type parts, and although I would only want to praise his acting ability after seeing him in David Fincher's Fight Club, it may have been harder to take his character as seriously as Guy Pearce is able to bring the character to life. Joe Pantoliano stands out in his performance as Teddy, a police officer and seemingly the main character's friend, though Leonard has to be reminded of who he is every time they meet, as the director's first choice for this role he succeeds in showing his capabilities of feeling both pity and having to lie on screen at the same time, a great challenge for any actor. The costumes reflect the gritty and dark atmosphere of the movie, as everyone in the film is of average wealth, there are no extravagant items of clothing that would distract from the essential points of the film, without all the character's looking the same. Some costumes help for suspicion about the characters to accumulate, as is the purpose of Leonard's expensive suit, of which we find out how he obtained very late into the film. The setting of the film could be any American city, which helps to emphasize that it is the drama and characters that are important and not the locations. There is a typical cheap motel, an abandoned industrial park and a peaceful looking residential estate. These carefully selected locations and the places between them serve for the majority of the film's scenes, and as our familiarity with these places increases, we further realize how Leonard can't feel the same recognition. The soundtrack consists entirely of an original score composed by David Julyan, and sounds quite emotive even without the film alongside it. As with many independent films such as Donnie Darko, the soundtrack is used sparingly and is normally inserted at times of great distress or peril. It can't be denied that the background score suits the imagery of the film throughout and sympathizes with both upsetting and upbeat scenes at both ends of the movie. As indicated in the description of the opening scene, the editing in this film is particularly clever, showing the audience everything in the scene that they need to see, and yet restricting them until the end what they really should have known throughout. Quick cuts are often used, as well as choppy editing for mundane sequences such as Leonard taking a shower, which as well as protecting the actor's modesty speeds the sequence along tremendously well. The camera work for this same scene is also done very effectively. As we see through the eyes of the main character looking through the frosted glass of the shower, we see a dark shape approaching slowly as opposed to seeing an external view of the shower and the clear image of a man sneaking up, as would be done in most movies. Watching this film for the first time is like seeing a Rubik's cube assemble itself in front of your eyes, and it's not likely that every piece will fall into place until a second viewing at the least. This may not appeal to many casual film-viewers, as well as those who may not be intelligent enough to comprehend the plot, and people without the patience to think while watching a film. This may also be the place to be critical about this movie. Although it remains gripping and enthralling throughout, by the end you may be tired and perhaps even confused by all the information fit into just less than two hours. The pacing can also be a problem for people eager to find out what is really going on, with not much going on about three quarters of the way into the film except for scenes that set up what came before them. As the end of the story happens at the beginning of the movie, the end of the movie could be seen as anti-climatic, as it is only really the audience that really finds out what is going on, although it is likely that you'll be in so much of a shock at the twist revealed at the end and thinking about what has already happened that what happens next seems unimportant in comparison anyway. The movie is full of loving nods to other independent movies and isn't without its own dark, sometimes ironic sense of humour, which is injected at regular intervals and can help to push the film along. The film made an astonishingly large profit in both cinema and DVD sales, and continues to baffle even the sharpest critics today. It won no less than 40 different awards and was nominated for more than 30 on top of those, and currently has a place at #29 on the Internet Movie Database's top 250 films of all time, with over 180,000 voters from around the world. If you do get around to seeing this movie, it will be one that you want to see again, perhaps straight afterwards to fill in the clever blanks and notice the subtle allusions that the filmmakers have included to puzzle us the first time round. Whatever you make of it, and whether or not you understand it all at once, you'll probably find it hard to stop watching, and it's not a movie that you will soon forget.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

The Humanistic Theory Possibilities in Terms of Nursing and Nursing Education Free Essay Example, 2250 words

The humanistic theory presents relevant points for nursing education. Various experts consider humanism as an inherent part of the change in nursing philosophy as it covers the multinational population including different practice needs. The specific concern of humanism being an educational theory is on the dignity of autonomy of man (Billings and Halstead, 2009). Humanism arises from existentialism which directed most of its activities on focusing on the role of the individual in terms of his commitment and personal choice. Educators who support the humanist philosophy of education support a setting where students are primarily responsible for their learning, focusing on the freedom of choice within the educational process. The student directs learning and the educator is the guide (Purdy, 1997). The educator makes the most of the student s personal learning and development, supporting the student as he matures as a person and as a learner; and also supporting the non-authorit arian applications in the educational process. The educator also helps the student reach self-actualization which as discussed by Maslow (1954) involves the full exploitation of talents and potential. Humanist learning must indicate a chance for the student to learn via different experiences, reflecting on them fully, thereby promoting self-knowledge (Billings and Halstead, 2009). The general goal of this humanistic theory is to help learnings in securing and reaching their maximum potential. As such, its application as a learning theory, in this case, is very much appropriate. We will write a custom essay sample on The Humanistic Theory Possibilities in Terms of Nursing and Nursing Education or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page