Saving Private Ryan: Scene Synthesis

Released to theaters on July 24, 1998, and the winner of five Academy Awards including a Best Director Oscar for Steven Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan quickly became the headliner for what a movie depicting war should aspire. Written by Robert Rodat, the story begins with an elderly James Francis Ryan (Harrison Young) recalling a time during World War II when a squad of United States Army Rangers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore), is ordered to locate him to ultimately send him home because he was now the only remaining son of four.  His three brothers were all killed in battle. His memory starts with the Rangers landing on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of World War II, and follows them as they seek to locate him, the soldier, Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon).  Finding one solider across a foreign country during the bloodiest world war ever in the history of man.  This is a good film for showing the pure triumph of the United States overcoming Germany, and showing focus on how horrific the effects of war are on those participating, not only physically but also mentally.

After D-Day, and Captain Miller assembles his small platoon, he gets the orders to go search and return James Ryan safely.  The troops depart from Omaha beach in France and head inland on their high priority mission.  The platoon comes upon a small French village.  It is raining.  The platoon move down the street and see a building crumbling, with a French family inside.  The family consists of a mother, father, daughter, son and a baby.  Private Adrian Caparza played by Vin Diesel disobeys Captain Miller’s orders of leaving the child alone, and tries to save her.  This is where my scene synthesis picks up.

 

 

 

 

Photography and Mise en scene

To start, the photography of this scene include elements of mise en scene.  When Pvt. Caparza is shot by the German sniper the platoon is in a state of shock.  The building that surround the soldiers are broken and crumbling.  This gives the audience a sense of hopelessness.  This scene also symbolizes the desperate situation of the characters and portrays their vulnerability and the horrors of war.  During one specific point during this scene, a shot is used to establish the surroundings. The mise en scene within this shot is shown to be destroyed and ruined which allows the audience to feel sympathy for the characters. This is because the characters are being subjected to the destruction and futility of war.

When the sniper shoots Pvt. Caparza, the audience does not see the blood right away.  However over the course of the scene, the red blood seems to stick out in contrast against the dull colors of the surrounding French village.  As the pool of blood grows in size, the natural rain begins to wash it away.  To the audience this is a good example of showing the life slowly flow away from Pvt. Caparza.

Movement

Camera moment during this scene took precision.  The movement of the cameras were steady and stable for those that were safe behind cover from the German sniper.  Once the shot went off, it was time for Pvt. Jackson played by Barry Pepper to show off his talent.  As Pvt. Jackson begins to crouch and slowly move into position to take out the sniper, the movement of the camera does the same thing.  The camera movement moves at the same pace in which Pvt. Jackson does give the audience the satisfaction of being sneaky and not getting shot.

I find it interesting that when the camera shows the American solider’s, safe behind cover the camera movement is steady.  However when the camera shifts to the French parents in the crumbled house, the camera movement begins to sway.  This camera movement is to show the audience that even in a terrible and crazy situation of having someone from the platoon shot, the remaining soldiers do not do anything radical.  However even though the French parents gave up their own daughter to the American’s, they were the ones who were yelling and shouting the whole time for their daughter.  We know this because of how the camera movement changes from steady, to swaying.

Editing

This scene includes many short and quick cuts displaying all the different angles.  The short quick cuts to this scene is just to show how chaotic war really is.  The moment in which one of the characters relaxes, and their is a longer cut, is when Caparza dies.  The scene also contains many close ups of each character, and also medium shots.  When the close up, and medium shots are combined with the short frantic cuts, it show the audience the suffering of the characters as the war begins to pay a mental toll on them.  Once the American platoon figures out where the sniper shot came from, the audience will notice that the cuts start to get longer.

Later in the scene, it cuts to the German sniper in the clock tower.  The German sniper is shown to be very bright and elevated, he dominates most of his close up shots and there is very little shown other than him, this shows that he is very dominant over the situation, based on his position from the previous scenes it also shows how he towers over the vulnerable American troops.

Sound

Without a doubt the first sounds that we hear in this scene other than raindrops and shouting, is the piano.  When Pvt. Caparzo is shot he falls onto a piano in the middle of the street.  The piano gives off a loud note.  This is important because it is to alert the audience.  The audience did not hear a gunshot, only the loud strike of piano notes.  The off strike of a piano is to represent death to a character.

Although it is a steady downpour during this entire scene, the sound of the rain takes up all of the sound.  That being said, I must note that when Pvt. Jackson sneaks around the car to take out the sniper he goes underneath a roof hanging off the side.  The attention to detail to quite the rain as Pvt. Jackson enters the overhang, and picks back up once he leaves is phenomenal, and a really good attention to detail.

Acting

Having this be a World War Two film this film would be a realistic film.  It is considered a formalistic film because of how much the film relied on the actors in it.  The actors are what made the film what it was.  The star studded cast was filled with stars for the time era, and also stars of the future.  As the audience we know that this is a formalistic film because in this particular scene there a multiple different camera angles.  This is important because it keeps the actors full body in the entire frame.  All of the actors during this scene do an excellent job because of the genre of the film.

For this particular scene, Pvt. Caparza, or Vin Diesel did an excellent job acting.  It is extremely hard to play a dying man while still alive.  To show the amount of pain and suffering takes a good actor.  However, we also know from the close up shots of Pvt. Caparza while he takes out the letter to his father, that he is not only suffering physical pain, but also emotional pain of dying and never seeing his father again.  This just adds to the damage in which what war can do to the soldiers.

Drama

The most obvious way this scene shows the drama would be the rain.  This scene would not be possible through a play.  It is only possible and well executed through the film industry.  The colors of the scene also add the to drama of the scene.  The lack of bright colors adds to this.  Throughout the whole scene all of the colors are dull and dark, just as we can imagine World War Two would be like.  The colors are dominated by gray, and dark green.  The only color that sticks out and pops is the blood of Pvt. Caparza.  The broken buildings and piles of rubble add to the drama of this scene as well.  This entire scene has a worn look to it.  This worn look makes the audience feel the daily struggle in which the soldiers went through.

Although the American platoon is taking cover in a cramp space, the scene is still in a wide open road.  Having this scene open it allows the audience to feel involved in the action of the scene.  The drama of this scene really is complimented by the camera movement.  The way the camera sneaks around with Pvt. Jackson adds to the drama of the scene.

Story

It is impossible for a spectator to understand a movie without being actively involved with each individual scenes.  Americans love a heroic war movie showing the Americans prevail in a creative way, or just through pure will power.  This is the case in this particular scene.  The way this scene unfolds shows the Americans being the underdog, and now being a man down.  However, being creative and using the environment around them, in this case rubble from a building they can now get the upper hand and take down the enemy sniper.  The way in which the German sniper was shot and killed through the scope of his sniper rifle gives the audience a sense of pride being Americans, along with the satisfaction of seeing a German get killed.  This satisfaction is exactly what drives American war films.  Without this satisfaction, and having the Americans come out on top and win, then the film would not have been as successful in the box office.  This is just one of many scenes in the entire film which gives the audience a sense of pride and satisfaction.

Writing

For this one scene, Robert Rodat did an excellent job writing it.  Even in this short scene, there are examples of figurative techniques seen.  The whole purpose of the mission to save Pvt. Ryan is so that his mother does not have to recieve another letter saying that she has another dead son.  This is a motif that the film is based upon.  In this scene the audience sees Pvt. Caparza pull out a letter that would go to his father if he ended up dying.  This emotional sequence makes the audience begin to understand the severity of the mission the soldiers are on.

Ideology

The main ideology which is seen during the course of this scene is simply how important family is.  Captain Millers small platoon is to go out and risk their own lives to rescue one soldier.  Eight men put their own lives on the line to save one stranger life.  Although it sounds crazy, the bigger picture of the mission is overlooked by making sure the mother of the Ryan boys gets one of her sons home safe.  Even though the American platoon was not related in any particular way, they were still brothers and functioned as a family.  The audience realizes how important family is when the other soldiers react to Pvt. Caparza getting sniped.  The remaining members of the platoon yell at him and him give advice, trying to help him during his last breathes on earth.  To the audience this show how close these band of brothers are, and shows that they will look after each other even if they know they are going to die.

Critique

When it comes to critiquing this scene it is difficult.  The movie shifts from realistic to formalistic throughout the duration of the film.  The D-Day invasion was realistic in the sense that there has been no other film to show the horrors of that push on the beach, however when critiquing the scene in which I have selected it has characteristics of formalism.  The way there are many different camera angles in this one scene provides evidence to this being true.  Also in this scene we see a letter in which is the whole film is based off of making it a motif for the film.  The way the colors are dark gives the aesthetics of the scene a proper feel to make the audience feel the horror of war.  From this movie we get a first hand view of what took place for those whom participated in World War II. We also get a aspect of war that has never been portrayed on film before. We know that lives are lost during war and we hear how some of these deaths occur but we rarely see such a vivid display of some of the horrifying ways of how casualties and human loss are taken.

Work Cited

Saving Private Ryan. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 02 May 2016. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/&gt;.

Sound, Acting, and Drama: Titanic

The 1997 film of Titanic was not only a classic, but it was also Leonardo Dicaprio’s first oscar nomination.  However in this blog I will attempt to sink the unsinkable ship and discuss sound, acting, and drama in which is seen in this film.

Titanic has arguably one of the most iconic featured songs in this time era.  The song My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion is such featured song.  This song, and other sound to in the film have importance for the structure of the characters, and also the plot of the film.  An example would be the the start of the song.  The sound of slow and passive violin just depicts Jack’s character.  As the violin picks up and a flute joins in, it gives a sound that would be identified by the Liverpool.  Just the beginning of the song we already know what one of our character will be like.  Later, in the scene when Jack finally makes it onto the ship, and goes to the front of it.  The sound picks up and has a dreamy feel to it.  We want to think that Jack has overcome the conflict of getting out of Liverpool, and finally can make it to America.  Finally the sound drastically changes to fast pace and dark.  I like the fast pace music because it shows how fast the water is rushing onto the ship.

For drama, I want to focus on the aesthetics of the film.  First off, just by looking at the costumes in which our two main characters are wearing can show off their class in the film.  Jack is wearing rags, or whatever he could find, while Rose is wearing an elegant dress with an umbrella.  Also to add to class, Jack is in a shady bar playing a card game to win an opportunity to get to America, while Rose is being chauffeured to the gigantic ship.  The drama of these two characters are so drastically polar opposites.  However this makes for a perfect love story, which is exactly why this film is loved.  I also find it interesting that because of what they’re wearing, and the situation they’re in shows off their gender.  Rose has this look of being a princess, while Jack has almost a feel of being a low life rat.  This just adds to the gender role of the time period.

Based on the drama which was explained above, the acting had to be on point.  It takes a special actor to have so many faces like Leonardo Dicaprio has.  I personally believe that this performance in Titanic was one of his best.  One reason I think this is because although he is poor, and just barley getting on the ship yet to because of one scene we are to think that he really is the king.  The famous scene of Jack being on front of the ship yelling “I’m the king of the world” is just to show that he is still going to be himself although supporting the lower class.  It takes some special acting to be able to do this.

Jurassic Park: Movement and Editing

Everyone’s dream of being to close to dinosaurs came to life in 1993.  Steven Spielberg’s production of Jurassic Park was a work of art.  This film would not of been as amazing or special if it was not for the camera movement and editing.  Throughout the film, there are a few scene’s that stick out that really compliment the camera movement and editing of the film.

In the first scene that I selected to use, is the oh so famous and always recognized kitchen scene.  As we all know the two children are hiding from the velociraptor.  The camera movement in this scene is in comparison with the fear that the children are feeling.  The raptors seem to move in a slow shifty way.  The camera moves from showing the kids hiding behind the table, to a show shift up to the raptors as they communicate with each other.  This slow camera move shifting back and forth between the raptor and the children just imply that fear that we see as the audience.  As the children begin to crawl on the floor of the kitchen trying to stay out of sight of the raptors, the movement of the camera starts to switch from top to bottom.  The flashing of the camera does not only show the panic of the children, but it shows the two kids avoiding the ferocious predator.

The next scene that a picked from this film is the oh so famous toilet death.  This particular scene has a special place in my heart.  I can remember talking about this way back in early elementary school.  This alone was the funniest scene to an eight year old boy.  However now looking at it I see excellent camera movement and editing.  First when Dr. Grant yells at Ian to freeze.  The camera zooms in fast to show how serious he is.  You would think that it would be obvious reckoning there was a giant T-Rex right there.  When Ian starts to run away from the T-Rex the camera movement sways back and forth in a frantic way.  This camera movement is to represent the frantic movement to show that he is running.  I think that this camera movement because it shows the chaos of the scene.  Moving to the toilet death part.  The editing of this particular moment in the film show the little cabana shaking due to the giant T-Rex running toward it.  Spielberg’s film did an excellent job showing how massive the T-Rex really was.  When the T-Rex finally arrives and knocks down the little toilet shed the camera movement slowly zooms in as if the light was slowly falling through his fingers.  When the camera finally reaches him so doest he T-Rex, and yes he has the look on his face like he just pooped himself.

Martin Ferrero (Donald Gennaro) is hiding in the portable bathroom.

This film is a great example for camera movement and editing.

Schindler’s List

World War Two was a dark time in the history of the world.  During this brutal war, the Holocaust took place.   Although Schindler’s List has this historic aspect, it also holds many other film characteristics that I will be discussing in this blog post.

Schindler’s List takes place in the Holocaust and surrounds itself around one human being who saved many. There are many aspects of Schindler’s List that contributed and made it such a strong and influential movie. However, Mise en scène plays a crucial role in the film that causes it to be so powerful. The setting of the film mostly takes place in the concentration camps where countless people were tortured and murdered, creating both a sense of location and a mood that reflects a character’s emotional state of mind.  This creates a connection that between the characters and the audience.  The audience begins to really pull for the characters.  

There were many ideologies that were shown in the this film.  The ideology that seemed the most interesting to me was the ideology of which party belonged.  The film opens with the Nazi occupation of Poland and their decree forcing all Jews to relocate to the cities.  This is when we see the character, Oskar Schindler.  He was credited with saving a great number of Jews during the holocaust.  This is important for the ideology of the film for the sense of fighting back against the more powerful Nazi party.  Schindler knew that what he was doing was the right thing, and what the Nazi’s were doing was pure evil.

This film is incredibly interesting in the fact that the lighting for this film was done extraordinarily well for a black and white film.  Usually films in color can be more creative with its lighting.  This is not the case for Schindler’s List.  The lighting goes along with photography in this film.  The lighting during this film represents and instills uncertain and unwanted feelings in viewers.  It almost gives it a creepy feeling that it gives the audience.  Also, during Schindler’s List the color red played an important role in the film.  The red color filter was used in the film to highlight the little girl in the red dress. The lighting in this scene also highlights the girl’s innocence and how the Nazi’s irrepressibly steal it from her.  The color filter exhibits the contrast between Oskar Schindler and the girl as the defiant red represents the blood of war.

 

Pulp Fiction: Mise en scene

Quetin Tarantino’s film Pulp Fiction is considered by audiences, and critics to be one of the most influential and iconic films of all time.  The film contains great acting from Samuel L Jackson, Bruce Willis, and John Travolta, in depth dialogue, and stomach churning violence.  In the film there are many different examples, and scene of Mise en scene.  For this blog I will be discussing two different screenshots from scene from the film that show off examples of Mise en scene.

I chose this scene for an example of Mise en scene because of colors seen at first hand.  By this time in the film we already know that Vincent does dirty work for Marsellus Wallace.  We know that Vincent and Jules are some bad dudes after the first scene of shooting up those men who owed money.  Jules and Vincent always wear black suits.  The black suits are to represent evil and bad.  I liked this screenshot, because it shows Vincent in the black suit looking into Mia’s house which is decorated in all white.  At the time the audience is to think that Vincent is just a really bad guy and Mia is innocent just by the color scheme.  However we later find out that it is the opposite in some way.  The audience realizes that Mia and Vincent are addicted to cocaine.  This screenshot’s mise en scene colors show the good and evil or both characters.

I picked this scene because of the humor Tarantino hid for the mise en scene.  Usually in films the drug dealers are backed out and goofy.  This is the same for Pulp Fiction.  Lance the drug dealer is wearing a Speed Racer shirt.  The mise en scene of this screen shot is how crazy of a driver Vincent is being at this moment.  It was done of purpose for the audience to try and find the connection.  I find it funny that Tarantino included it in the film.

Although these two scenes are completely different, they do hold some similarities.  The screenshot with the contrasting colors shows how it can be different, and differences can lead to chaos.  This Speed Racer shirt is representing chaos in the form of Vincent driving like a mad man to save Mia.  Although the two screenshots do not directly connect to each other, there are some common grounds that can be seen with them.

Ghost

The 1990 film Ghost is a great example of screenwriting for films.  This film holds many characteristics of classic screenwriting for the story and plot.  For this blog, I will only be cover three, symbolism, plot points, and motifs.

First I will cover symbolism.  Symbolism in films are extremely popular, and sometimes very noticeable for the casual movie fan.  However screenwriting’s and directors can also make them hidden and hard to find for the hardcore movie fan.  In Ghost one of the most notable forms of symbolism was the pottery wheel.  I found it interesting that this symbol actually meant two things .  The most obvious example, because of the music, and the way Sam was directing her hands up and down the clay would be a symbol for sex.  That was the obvious example.  However after watching the film, I soon realized that the way Sam guided her hands on the clay was a symbol for guiding Molly through life, even though Sam was a ghost.  I really enjoyed this example, and thought that it was incredibly creative.

Plot points were also a key components to Ghost.  The plot points could be the most important parts of screenwriting in films.  Plot points are the backbone of the film, because without a plot the film will suffer.  I identified three key plot points during the film.  The first would be Sam getting shot, and seeing himself die as a ghost.  This was the start of his adventure being a ghost.  At first he was scared, and shocked, but as the film progressed Sam discovered how he could use being a ghost to his advantage.  Second would be communicating with Oda Mae Brown.  This could arguably be the most important plot being in because without her he could not communicate with any other living human being.  Communicating with Oda made sure that Molly stayed safe, and also made sure Carl did not get the four million dollars.  Finally, I identified being able to interact with objects as a major plot point.  Up until this point, Sam could not interact with anything.  He would just pass right through it.  Once Sam learned this it gave him the advantage against all bad guys.

Finally, motifs in films are similar to symbols, however they’re different.  They do not have to be physical objects.  However for Ghost I found two motifs that really stood out to me.  The first motif that seemed to pop up multiple times during the film was the penny that was found at the beginning of the film.  It just so happened that where the penny was found, was also the apartment for Molly.  Also, near the end of the film, when Molly was in doubt that Sam was with her, he picked up the penny and put it in her hand.  This penny shows that from the beginning to the end Sam was with her, and never going to leave her.  Another motif would be glass.  Glass in Ghost represented in danger or fear.  We first see glass break when Sam is on the subway, and the other ghost breaks it down on the window.  Sam was in fear, because he did not think a ghost could break objects.  Next, when Sam locks Willie in the bathroom and turns on the sink and fogs up the mirror.  Sam then writes “boo” scaring Willie to the point where he just runs right out of the apartment.  Lastly, glass represented danger when the window came crashing down on Carl.  This motif is self explanatory.

Overall, I thought that Ghost was a pretty decent film.  However once I was looking for these screenwriting tools, I thought the film was a lot better.

 

Work Cited

Braveheart, and Saving Private Ryan

War is ugly.  There is not one way to get around that fact.  Fighting and war has been around since the beginning of time.  Through films, we can recreate famous battles, wars, and famous historical events.  This was the case in the films of “Braveheart”, and also “Saving Private Ryan”.  Although the time period of these two films are far from similar, there are ideological connections that can be seen between the two films.

“Braveheart”, the 1995 film takes place around the year of 1300.  The film’s protagonist, a Scottish knight named William Wallace fights for his right, and for his homeland during the Wars of Scottish independence.  The ideology that the film depicts is fighting for his homeland, and independence.  However, freedom comes at a cost of blood shed.  During the film the audience is shown brutal death by the Scottish.  All of this goes back to the ideology of pride and love the their home country.  The people would do anything for freedom.  Through triumph and motivation Wallace, would die for the love of his country.  Eventually the Scottish would push the English back and regain their independence, and ultimately regain their country.

“Saving Private Ryan” has a plot that as American’s we can relate to more.  Taking place during World War II, the audience knows that is toward the end of the war in 1945, because the film starts with the invasion of Omaha beach, or the D-Day invasion.  Within the first five minutes of the film, you see American soldiers get absolutely ripped apart by German machine guns.  As the viewer you see limbs blown off, human internals exposed, explosions, and most importantly, the will to never give up and keep pushing forward.  This powerful scene shows off will and the fight of the American soldiers to keep pushing toward up the beach, because they knew if they did not accomplish this mission, the Axis would win the war.  The amount of bloodshed the soldiers poured on that day was enough to turn the ocean a dark red.

I find it interesting that even though these two films take place in two completely different time periods, that they both share the same ideological messages.  Although, the films revolve around two completely different countries (Braveheart being Scotland, and Saving Private Ryan being the United States), from the ideology standpoint the films share the same meaning.  Each film shows the pride for their country.  Countless times the audience see’s brutal deaths and fight to never give up.  In “Braveheart” the Scottish fought for freedom, and the regain their country as their own, while in “Saving Private Ryan” the fight was the freedom of the world.  If the United States were unsuccessful during World War II, who knows what the world would look like today.  The same goes for “Braveheart”.  If William Wallace was not successful in leading a rebellion, Scotland might not be a country today.  The ideology in these films carry a powerful message of loving your homeland so much that you would die for it.

Stadiums: Appearances in Sports Films

Sports and films are some of the best forms of entertainment.  Combining the two together, satisfies audiences of both sports fans, but also movie lovers.  There are a massive amount of sports films, making them come in a large variety.  Sports films can be about professional,college, high school, club or even pee-wee sports teams.  Sports film can also be inspirational, funny, or just flat out entertaining.  One of the best parts, not only for me personally, but also for the avid sports film fan is being able to see the stadiums from a whole different prospective.  Also, sports films can be documented for history, and educational purposes.

Some of the most popular sports films take place in the past, making it an old vintage look.  This requires attention to detail, but the outcome has fans ooze with excitement over it.  One of the most famous basektball films ever made was the 1986 film Hoosiers.  Hoosiers is about a small town Indiana basektball team fighting its way to the state championship game.  It is a true underdog story.  The state championship game, at the time was played at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse.  Arguably one of the most famous scenes in sports films history, is when the team arrives to Hinkle for the first time.  The coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) notices that his players are in absolute awe playing in such a big stadium.  So, what Norman does is take a tape measure out and measures the width of the court, along with the height of the basektball.  This scene is remember because even though Hinkle looked so big, that it is the same as the court from back home in their small town of Milan Indiana.

Another film that shows off multiple vintage stadiums in the 2004 Disney production of Miracle.  This films covers the true story of the 1980 United States men’s hockey team.  The film covers the story of possibly the greatest sports upset ever.  In 1980 the United States men’s hockey team defeated the Union of Socialist Soviet Republic (U.S.S.R.).  The USSR was told to be “unbeatable”.  However over the course of the film, it shows of two stadiums that are extremely memorable now.  In the film, the United States plays an international friendly match against the USSR in Madison Square Garden in New York City.  At the time, in the late 70’s and into the early 80’s Madison Square Garden was the mecca for sporting events such as this one.  Later in the movie, as the 1980 winter olympics rolled around the United States played the all powerful USSR at the Lake Placid Olymic Center.  This arena normally holds 7,000 as a max capacity, however for this epic matchup it was recorded that 11,000 people were crammed into the stadium (USAToday.com).  This stadium is always remember because this is where the “miracle on ice” happened.  If the United States did not defeat the USSR that day, and win the gold metal then the Lake Placid Olympic Center would never be remember how it is today.

The film industry has been around for a very long time.  The NFL has been around for a very long time as well.  The NFL is the most popular sport in the United States, leading to the most revenue and success.  In the article “NFL Films and the Art of Selling Football”, Travis Vogan explains how the film industry and the NFL joined forces and became extremely successful.  Vogan explains that the NFL has been recording every game since 1964.  Vogan goes onto explain that the reason was that the NFL was to make a documentary for television shows.  The goal, Vogan explains is to make the NFL look; heroic, dramatic, and beautiful.  The reasoning behind this was because many of the fans looked at the NFL as barbaric and heartless.  Vogan continues by saying that beyond creating, maintaining, and circulating a celebratory image for the league, NFL Films employs various marketing strategies to cast its productions as artworks that are more refined than typical sports television, engage consecrated aesthetic traditions, reflect their producers inspired creative visions, and are unmotivated by commercial interests qualities that critical and audience discourses surrounding the company often reinforce.

Overall, in the film industry, and even the television, sports have had an impact.  Whether it comes from a small town in the great state of Indiana, or a inspiration for an entire country.  Sports movies can be more than just entertainment.  Sports movies can give you as the viewer a whole new perspective of the stadium in which the the film is being taken place at.  It is one thing to be at a stadium rather than on your couch watching it through the television, but it is a completely different thing to actually be on the court, or field.  It is cool as the spectator to be able to see this point of the film, and because of stadiums in sports movies we are capable of going that now.

 

Works Cited

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091217/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349825/

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/winter/2005-02-24-brooks-rink_x.htm

Vogan, Travis. “NFL Films And The Art Of Selling Football.” Popular Communication 11.4 (2013): 274-288. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

Stadiums: Playing Surface

Throughout history, sports have always been one of the most popular forms of entertainment.  Stadiums have always been around to house these events.  Dating back to 70 AD is when one of the most popular and well know stadiums in history was built, the Roman Coliseum.  However with lack of knowledge, and funds the surface in which the Romans would watch people fight to the death was dirt.  Advancements in technology in present day has now made it so sports stadiums now hold different playing surfaces.

Normally, if a NFL team, or an NCAA football team has an open air arena, then they playing surface would be typical grass.  But, his grass would be some of the most well kept grass.  Grounds teams for the NFL, NCAA, and MLB have taking care of their grass down to a science, and an art.  This is especially true for the MLB season.  The MLB plays 162 regular season games meaning that each team plays 81 home games.  Baseball is different than other sports because during the regular season the MLB plays series, meaning that a team will play a three or four games series during the week or on the weekend.  This puts pressure on the grounds crews to get the field prepared for the next day, which means a lot of late nights, and early mornings.

Within the last ten years artificial turf has become the more popular playing surface.  Artificial turf is extremely expensive to install, but it cuts out all the maintenance, and labor costs for at least ten more years.  The lifespan for artificial turf is about ten years before it completely needs to be redone.  Also artificial turf can be beneficial to not only football, but for all sports.  My high school installed brand new artificial turf during the summer of 2011, and all the sports teams took advantage of it.  Football, and men’s & woman’s soccer had priority during the fall, but when the season were over the mens & woman’s basketball teams would find their way out onto the turf for agility, and conditioning workouts.  As spring rolled around, if the snow was melted in time the baseball and softball teams would be able to go out and throw and long toss.  It was beneficial to all sports, and a great investment.

The debate of which playing surface, grass or artificial turf, is never ending.  The top priority of sports is safty.  It is so important to keep the athletes as safe as possible.  A study was conducted to see which playing surface had more injuries.  In the article, “An Analysis of Specific Lower Extremity Injury Rates on Grass and FieldTurf Playing Surfaces in National Football League Games: 2000-2009 Seasons”, Elliot Hershman goes into detail about NFL games during the 2000-2009 seasons, to discuss which playing surface causes more injuries.  Hershman picked the NFL to conduct this study because the NFL is the most violent, and most popular game that is played in the United States.  Hershman explains the the majority of the injuries comes from the knees.  Hershman’s data went as such, on grass there were 1082 total injuries that occur in the knee.  Hershman went into more detail by explaining that 615 of those injuries were from the medial collateral ligament (MCL),while only 166 of the knee injuries were anterior cruciate ligament’s (ACL).  Hershman moves on to explain the data from the artificial turf.  Hershman explains that 446 total injuries occurred on the artificial playing surface.  Hershman explains that 215 of those knee injuries were MCL, while only 94 were ACL injuries.  Hershman goes into detail that the he believers the reason that there are so many more injuries that occur on grass rather than artificial turf is because the grass gives out for the athlete.  Grass gets torn up and can move.  For example if it rains the day of a game, the grass will be a sloppy, muddy mess.  The grass will be all over the place, while the artificial playing surface will not move.

Being an athlete myself, I have come accustomed to the artificial playing surface.  As I have said earlier in this blog, my high school has got turf, and it is used for all purposes.  The reasoning behind getting the turf was because the football team,and  men & woman’s  soccer teams would all share one field.  By the time mid October rolled around the field was an absolute mess.  The divots and holes on the field was so deep that injuries were a higher possibility.  Every since 2011, I have been blessed to be able to play on the artificial turf, and I do not want to go back to grass.  Now that I am in college, every team in our conference is playing on artificial turf, except for one team.  I find this nice, not only because it is my personal preference, but is makes for an even playing field.  Literally.

 

Work Cited

Hershman, Elliott B., et al. “An Analysis Of Specific Lower Extremity Injury Rates On Grass And Fieldturf Playing Surfaces In National Football League Games: 2000-2009 Seasons.” The American Journal Of Sports Medicine 10 (2012): 2200. Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

Stadiums: Economy

Money.  Money makes the world go around.  Money plays a huge role in the world of sports.  No matter the sport, nothing would be possibly without a functioning economy.  Very rarely are professional sports teams not in a big metropolitan city.  One example of a popular professional sports team that is not in a big city would be the Green Bay Packers.  Green Bay sits in Wisconsin.  The Packers are one of the oldest NFL teams, and are also a special exception.  The Packers could never leave Green Bay, because the franchise is owned by the city of Green Bay.  This is only one simple example on how the economy can affect sports.

Los Angeles(LA) California is arguably one of the most opportunistic cities on the entire earth.  The city is home to two National Basketball Association(NBA) teams, the Lakers and the Clippers.  It is also the home of the historic Major League Baseball teams (MLB) the Dodgers, and the Angles.  Los Angeles is where the National Hockey League team the Anaheim Ducks play their home games.  As you can see Los Angeles is has almost a professional sport going on year around.  However, the city is missing out of possibly the biggest sport, economic wise.  That sport is professional football from the National Football League (NFL).  However this was not always the case for the city of Los Angeles.  Current NFL teams, the St. Louis Rams, and Oakland Raiders both spent time in Los Angeles.  Also present time of this blog going up, the talk of Los Angles getting another NFL team is very possible.  The talk of either the San Diego Chargers, or even the St. Louis Rams returning is all in the discussion.

Regarding the economic side of Los Angeles getting a NFL team, the article “In The Continued Pursuit of Stadiums Initiatives Following Past Failures: An Analysis of The Los Angles Farmers Field Proposal”, Timothy Kellison, and Micheal Mondello discuss the logistics of Los Angeles building an NFL stadium in the downtown area.  Kellison and Mondello begins by explains how Los Angeles is the second largest media market in the United States.  Kellison and Mondello continue by explaining how the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) is in the process new, state-of-the-art, 68,000 seat outdoor football stadium in downtown Los Angeles, along with a significant renovation of the neighboring convention center, in order to return the NFL to the city.  Kellison and Mondello further explain that this project would cost $1.2 billion, and it is coming from a private investment.  However the two explain how there is a risk, if this project takes place.  Kellison and Mondello explains how because this is such a big project, they do not know how everything around the new stadium with thrive or not.  Kellison and Mondello explains how the rise in taxes in the city, and surrounding areas will impact the city.  Also Kellison and Mondello explain how a minor, yet serious factor to consider is the fact that the state of California lies on the San Andreas fault.  In the past, earthquakes have affected the not only sporting events but also the everyday life of the native of California.  Kellison and Mondello explain how the the fear of putting so much money in this project is high.  One of the biggest factors Kellison and Mondello touched on was fan interest.  The two explain how there is so much going on at one time in Los Angeles that they fear that if Los Angeles did end up getting an NFL team they would have a weak fan base, and ultimately lose money off of simple game day essentials like concessions, parking, and seats.  Kellison and Mondello also explain how a perk of having an NFL team in Los Angeles is that Los Angeles always has movie, music, and, athletic celebrities in the city at all times.  Having celebrities at the game would create more revenue for the team.

(These are what the stadium is going to look like not real images)

The biggest economic factor for Los Angeles is the fact that fan interest is in jeopardy.  If you think about it, with the beautiful weather Los Angeles has all year, who would want to go to an NFL game on the weekends?  With so much going on in the city, like going to the beach or other outdoor activities, who would want to give that up to sit in a stadium and watch football for three hours on a Sunday?  I believe that if a NFL team does go to Los Angeles is would be one of the worst financial decision for not only the franchise, but also for the city.  I think this because simple of the lack in fan interest not going to support the NFL team.  As mentioned earlier, the Green Bay Packers are owned by the city of Green Bay Wisconsin, and arguably have the most devoted fan in all of sports.  The Packers do not have the biggest stadium making the seats in the legendary stadium rare.  Also because the Packers are the only professional team in Green Bay, it makes for a special occasion for fans to go to their games.  No matter the cost, fans will spend the money for the Green Bay Packers, because they are not just “another” team like it would be in Los Angeles, even if that mean watching a game in negative degree in January.

 

Work Cited

Kellison, Timothy B., and Michael J. Mondello. “In The Continued Pursuit Of Stadium Initiatives Following Past Failures: An Analysis Of The Los Angeles Farmers Field Proposal.” Journal Of Venue & Event Management 4.2 (2013): 36-46. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.