Research Assignment About How Movies Affect Our Life

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How Movies Affect Our Life
As the adage goes, ‘all work and no play make life dull and boring’. After a long day putting one’s nose on the grindstone, a man needs to relax with some sort of entertainment. This entertainment may come in form of drinking a cold beverage maybe by tasting the Coke feeling, playing your latest Modern Warfare game on the console, participating in a bowling game at the community hall or even watching your favorite TV program, maybe NCIS or Doctor Who. The Film industry has evolved in a way that people have ready access to their own copies of this form of entertainment. With the development of the movie industry, from the silent movie to the movie with sound, from two-dimensional movies to the three-dimensional ones, the development of the film is a microcosm of the progress of our lives. This development has led into the variation in which we view movies, from just watching for pleasure to indulging all our senses and emotions and being part of it thereby forming an enhanced exhilaration. Movies play a significant part of people's life during their spare time. The film is a masterpiece of art, creative thinking, and inspiration of people's imagination. Movies come from our life, and most importantly, movies serve our life. Movies have a profound effect on human life. So how does film affect our society throughout the time? How can movies change our mind? Films raise awareness our attentions about this world, about minor things around us that we never notice. It gives us an absolutely new understanding of our society.
Background
Through the ages human beings have tried the best they can to devise ways in which they could enhance the charmingness of life. This has either been done through engagement in sports, dancing, poetry, dramatics and other performed arts or hunting which have been favorite pastimes as recreational activities. The modern man however has gone an extra mile, made a larger leap towards finding something unstraining and at the same time amusing and exhilarating. Advances in science and technology drove man to untended fields to tap from the pleasuring of thoughts in the form of films. Movies tend to portray the day to day life of individuals through an advanced distortion both in a parodical or extra reality. Humans have tended to have an inclination towards virtual reality which would appeal to their subconscious feelings in a dreamy way. Genres such as sci-fi, horror, thriller and fantasy have delved into matters which in reality feel farfetched but through the use of real life performers or actors, people can easily relate to them in their abstract form (Schwartzel,wsj.com).
Human life has gone through a lot of metamorphosis ever since the advent of television and movie media. This changed the traditional way of how people would spend their leisure. Actually, with the bushfire-ish spread of the motion picture mass media all over the world, people’s behavior and thoughts have changed, making film a great part of our livelihood. For instance, in 2009, across the world, there were over 6.8 billion admissions in cinema, which created global income of about $30 billion for box office. This is without including those who view the movies in the black market, which could make the figure higher (Shah, thoueconomics.com).
Historically, the movie industry can be traced back to the late 19th century whereby short skits of motion pictures were produced without sound. Feature films were introduced during the First World War where they even began to charge higher prices. ‘The Cinema’ was aimed at providing amusement and entertainment in a simpler and cheaper way (Bordwell, p18).
Actors such as Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle redefined comedy through the cleverness and subtlety of their gags by introducing a more dramatic plot with a concoction of sentiment. These actors made great steps into shaping the modern day Hollywood as we see it, a home of entertainment as well as the most consistent entertainment production hub in the world. As movies are simulations that imitate life, most movies by these pioneer performers were based on impressing the audience with their witty performances as they portrayed day to day lives in a clever way. For instance, the movie ‘The Great Dictator’ by Charlie Chaplin is a parody of the world war whereby the Jewish were mistreated and annihilated by a megalomaniacal leader. Portraying himself as the dictator Heynkel (a parody of Hitler) of Tomania and also alternately as a certain Jewish barber, he expresses all these scenes where he resists the armed movement who directed attacks at the Jewish businesses. Through such parodistic stunts, viewers could get amused and at the same time highly condemn and reprimand anti-Semitic radicalism and xenophobia. This movie drilled the feeling of racism home in pointblank projection though on a lighter note (Crowther, nytimes.com).
The development of film from emulsion on a light strip to video recording on 4K and 3D cameras has been immense. Lately, movies have adopted extra editing and filter to re-create the world into hyperrealism historical environments or give it a simulated futuristic or fictional habitat that human beings are anticipating. These advancements have led to a form of revolution in the movie industry. The digital revolution is slowly changing how we look at movies and how movies look like. In the past, production companies used modest budgets to produce movies, but as technology advances, massive budgets have been injected into producing blockbuster movies which are filled with computer generated illusions.
A. O. Scott, a NY Times movie critic claims that the easiest thing in movie production nowadays is the fact that they no longer carry heavy reels and bulky canisters around as they shoot movies, along with projectors and sprockets. All these advancements are aimed at one thing, to appeal to the growing viewer’s day in day out. The producers are busy phasing out mode innovative ways to make people relieve that movie world, hence the adaptation of three dimensional movies which allow people to watch in the first person point of view. 3D movies are aimed at engaging ones five senses, with the technology fairly taking its share in computer video games or training simulations (military, driving and flight) (Manohla). Digital special effects have their input in movies that are emphasizing naturalism, for instance in the Romantic-drama film ‘Rust and Bone’ which achieved its critical acclaim in 2013 for applying gritty digital magic when one character’s legs, ‘Marion Cortillard’ are removed (Lemercier, cineuropa.org).
Therefore, movies portray human ambitions in so a simpler and easier way that motivates them towards acting upon their dream. It won’t come as a surprise if in the future man cracks the code to time travel, however unrealistic the dream looks. Also a movie like the ‘Star Wars Trilogy’ portrayed very advanced technology that a few years down the line, enhanced innovativeness and technological ingenuity especially the development of computer and space engineering. However fantastical the images in the movie look, or the kind of technology applied looked, humans already have broken through some of the fictitious advancements. Thanks to computers and space exploration agencies.
Movies Change Peoples Life Habits
The existence of movies can change people's life habits. Stress has become a common problem in our society now. We all live under a high pressure environment every day and are forced to face some issues which are unsolvable. Mental stress, the problem bothers most of us in our life can be easily released by a good movie, which also released us from a depressive circumstance. Sometimes the solutions and inspiration of life come from movies, which let us understand the crux of the pressure and find the way to solve the problems. Even not, movie can give us a brief escape, or a short period of time adjustment. It gives us a chance to live other’s lives for a few hours, or looking at other’s lives from our perspectives. That’s exactly what we need after a long day in those chaotic crowds. Movies have gradually become the guiding light of our lives.
Forrest Gump, a 1994 Oscar award winning movie by Tom Hanks is a good example of a motivational movie whereby ‘Run, Forrest, Run!’ has been used as a cliché to motivate people all the time. The movie teaches the value of treating everyone well without discrimination on either the basis of intelligence or social status since anyone can make a difference in the world. Forrest Gump, the leading act, is portrayed as a pure individual, non-judgmental and passionate despite being mentally challenged. The message from the movie is clear, no man is an island hence everyone should let go of their past if they need going forward. Positivity in life only comes after individuals embrace who they are and accepting themselves without regretting their past misgivings. People become more confident, ambitious and courageous after watching the movie (Lemercier, cineuropa.org).
Television documentaries about the effects of drugs and smoking on people’s health, or programs on people fighting smoking or alcohol related ailments motivate people to quit drug abuse. Many teenagers engage in tete a tete more often about latest Hollywood movies while most adults talk about social life or politics which basically come from television.
Since movies transmit their ideas based on emotion instead of intellect, they trigger certain psychological responses and suppress specific feelings. The watching of movies actually open doors which could otherwise stay closed by evoking emotions. In particular, comedy flicks provoke laughter to a rather emotionally stressed individual reducing the stress by suppressing hormonal activity which could cause anxiety. Comedies help in creating a creative perspective through providing a fresh and less emotional solution to problems which require lesser emotional approach (Thakkar, quora.com).
Horror movies also provide fascination over extreme activities by appealing to people’s fears. Some people even think horror movies can offer immunity to fear or being scared if processed psychologically but most people believe all these is razzmatazz. This genre allows an opportunity for people to experience things they would never experience in their lives. The reality is, these movies provoke more anxiety-related emotions more than they impact positively on individuals. Re-modelling of macabre-ish images like the grim reaper, scary and horrific monsters or exaggeration of characters such as giant arachnids, huge snakes or weirdly acting animals provide the platform for fantasy. Some could also affect the body in a negative manner since they increase the heart rate, which cannot go well with hypertension victims. These movies are also said to elevate adrenaline and cortisol levels which could trigger a memory of certain events that traumatized an individual in the past (Braff, chicagotribune.com).
Movies are A Great Source of Entertainment
The pursuit of happiness never stop in our life, at least it should not. We do think being happy is a way of comfort or encouragement of ourselves, and no doubt that film had entertained us while adding a piece of silence and peacefulness in our mind. No matter movies express an idea of happiness or depression; films have gradually become the indispensable parts of our life. Human progress cannot be separated from people's creative thinking and cannot deviate from life. Most all of the film's material comes from the little bits and pieces of our life, or a phenomenon part of life, or a habit, or a rich novel, or a story that has a education meaning. These archetypes of life have had a great influence on the creation of films. Human life is a step up of a good movie.
Movies are a way of creating wholesome entertainment, especially the comedy genre. Comedy movies can be watch in a family setting where everyone can enjoy. Also, movies contribute positively to the society economical...