The Third Man

In The Third Man, the character Baron is supposedly a person of high power based on his royalty.  The word “baron” literally means someone with power or influence.  Although he is supposedly powerful, the Baron shows that he is not as powerful as his name says because of some of the feminine traits that he shows.  In one scene of the film, Baron is holding a little dog.  In this particular scene, Baron is being shot head-on using a medium close-up, which shows that he is powerful, but its also being contradicted by him holding a little dog.  Holding a dog like Baron was in this particular scene, it shows that he has a feminine trait.  Having a little dog is more of a feminine thing, such as when a woman is seen walking down the street holding her small dog in her arms.  While having a little dog is more feminine, having a large dog is more of a masculine thing.  Typically men will be seen walking and owning large dogs instead of carrying little dogs in their arms.  Since Baron was carrying a small dog in his arms, it shows that he is more of a feminine character in this scene since he is going against the male stereotype of having a larger dog rather than having a small dog.  Baron showing that he has some feminine traits through this scene shows that he is not as powerful as he should be, based on his name.  He is not as powerful because he is acting as a feminine character in this scene, which demonstrates the stereotype that feminine characters are less powerful than masculine characters.  Through this scene, Baron shows that he has feminine traits, which then illustrates that he does not necessarily live up to his name that is supposed to symbolize his great amount of power.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I noticed that Snow White was portrayed as a fairly lower class woman.  One cinematic element that showed her as being in the lower class was the use of camera positions.  When Snow White was in the shots, the camera position that I noticed was the angle that was used to shoot her.  Snow White tended to be filmed using high angle shots.  These shots occur when the camera is positioned to film the character or object from above.  Using a high angle shot creates the sense that the character or object is weak.  By using high angles shots to shoot Snow White, the director is showing that she is a weak and holds little or no power compared to her evil stepmother, for example.  These high angle shots make me feel like I am literally looking down upon Snow White as a character.  Looking down on a character tends to make it seem like that character has no power and is very weak.  High angle shots also make the character seem to appear smaller than normal.  This tends to create the idea that the character is not very important because of how small the character appears to be.  Looking down on a character, like Snow White, who is shown to have little or no power tends to make me believe that the character is part of the lower class.  Looking down on her also makes me feel like she is less important in the world of the film because of how small the high angle shot makes her out to be.  Since the director makes me feel like I am literally looking down upon Snow White, I get the idea that she is a very weak character who isn't significant in the world of the film, which shows that she is part of the lower class.

Anna's TED Talk

I thought that Anna's TED Talk topic was very interesting. I like that she was trying to explain to us that creativity is a very important thing and schools shouldn't take creativity out of the school day. I like how she then went on to explain alternatives to showing creativity since schools are taking it out. I like that she used 4H as an example of how people can use their creativity outside of school since some of the creativity areas in 4H are not offered during the school day. Since many of us don't know much about 4H because we haven't been a part of it like Anna has, I think that it would've been interesting if she would've based her point of using creativity outside of school all on the example of 4H. She could've went more in depth with the many different areas that allow for creativity in 4H such as photography, arts and crafts, and fashion design. I also think that at times, she maybe felt that her points weren't strong enough and she wasn't as confident in herself, which made her voice quieter. Therefore, if she stayed confident in the points that she was making, it would've improved her speech.