...I choose the movie Avatar because it demonstrates a universe where we can see the beautiful and enlightened nature with animations, spirits that interact with human beings. One expression of this movie was that those creatures were physically and emotionally connected with other creatures in order to control them. First of all, I will start talking about the world views portrayed in this movie. From my point of view i would say the movie portrays a pantheistic spirituality and I can see a little bit of naturalistic worldview. The Na'vi people in the movie are spiritually connected to their entire world, including their animals and their plants. Even though they are so primitive, the Na'vi people think that they are above the reality of the nature itself. In their everyday life, they are enlightened and are always in communion with Eywa, called the "All Mother". The "All Mother" Eywa is not regular being, like we view God as, but Eywa is their powerful force behind the existence of their nature. The Na'vi people are so connected to nature that they say prayers of gratitude; sometimes they would even cry when they kill an animal for their food. You can see spirituality in every detail of their lives including what they eat, how they pray, how they worship the planet, and also how they relate to each other. After watching that movie two or three times, I can how pantheistic spiritually literally being preached to the audience through the characters and how they interact with...
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...Per.1/2 Movies Analysis #1 due November 8, 2010 Avatar Written/Directed by James Cameron Director, screenwriter, and producer - James Cameron – has created another blockbuster movie, Avatar, to add to his incredible list of phenomenal top-grossing films. Avatar is in the company of movies such as Terminator, Titanic, Aliens, and Spider-Man: all crowd-pleasing, award-winning, top-selling films written, produced, or directed by James Cameron. Avatar is based on a script Cameron first wrote in 1994 and is the first big budget action film to be shot in 3D, using revolutionary camera technology Cameron developed. This film earned over $1 billion in its first three weekends. The story-line is simple and timely. In the year 2154, the fictional RDA Corporation (from earth) attempts to move the Na’vi, an alien race on the distant planet Pandora, off of their land to mine for a valuable mineral called unobtanium. RDA Corporation partners with earth mercenaries. These mercenaries are a back-up, in case the RDA Corporation science project - using avatars (Na’vi-human hybrids developed and managed by Grace Augustine/Sigourney Weaver) - fails to accomplish the task peacefully. Na’vi are colorful blue-skinned humanoids, who live in harmony with nature and worship their mother earth goddess Eywa, embodied in huge, luscious trees. This action/science fiction/thriller narrative features Jake sully/Sam Worthington and Neytiri/Zoe Saldana. Jake, in his avatar body and with help...
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...INT 201: NARRATIVE AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT ASSESSMENT 01 AVATAR (2009) is a science fiction epic directed by James Cameron centred around a growing conflict between a human corporation and an alien species Known as the Na’vi, on the latter’s native planet of Pandora. Like most blockbusters a third person shooter tie-in was also released by developer Ubisoft. The video game, James’ Cameron’s AVATAR: The Game, is set two years prior in the form of a prequel. Despite this it does little to expand on the films cannon and instead offers up a similarly tailored adventure that adheres to the basic parameters of the movie, utilising many of the same key moments across a clear and discernible 3 act structure. A cross comparative analysis of the two mediums, utilising Volger’s 12 steps Hero’s Journey demonstrates however how the games at first honours this time honoured journey, being plotted along Volger’s step before discarding them to its own detriment. The similarities in the narrative structure of both the film and the game differ little, particularly across their first act structures. Much like the films protagonist Jake Scully your character avatar, Able Ryder, will similarly find him/herself awakening from cryo after a prolonged journey from earth, leaving the ‘ordinay world’ and answering the ‘call to adventure’ within the exotic forests of Pandora. The hero archetype Jake is a fully realised character from the films introduction, who during the...
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...This paper is a brief analysis of James Cameron's Avatar, a massively successful film that has managed to gross, so far, a half billion in revenue. With its popularity and mass appeal, it has also incurred a considerable amount of criticism from a variety of sources, targeting a variety of topics of the film, from its presentation of alien natives and a colonial corporate military, to race issues and a depiction of cigarette use. This essay attempts to explore main threads of the film, analyzing criticism, and offering its own critique and deconstruction. It will employ diagnostic critique, as well, in order to analyze how Avatar is equally a reflection of and an active influence on contemporary culture. Avatar takes place in the virtual world of Pandora, created by Cameron with digital technology and colonized with fantastic creatures and an indigenous race of tall blue aliens called the Na'vi. The film is presented in three-dimensions, a technology that has been around for some time but this is the first time it seems to be used without reference to novelty. In this way Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox made a film, or rather an experience that cannot be pirated; a considerable amount of its revenue is from viewers paying extra to watch it in three dimensions, undoubtedly multiple times, on a monolithic IMAX screen. The virtual world within Avatar is closely reminiscent of virtual spaces like Second Life; in both environments, individuals use avatars to plug into the space...
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...University of Greenwich Strategic Financial Management (FINA1035) Programme: UOG (3+0) BAAF Student ID: 000721005 Submission Date: 10th February 2014 Content Page 1. Introduction 3 Internal Analysis 2. Financial Analysis 4 3. Human Resource Management(HRM) Analysis 7 4. Marketing Analysis 8 5. Operational Analysis 10 6. Strength and Weakness of the Company 11 External Analysis 7. P.E.S.T.E.L. Analysis 12 8. Porter’s 5 forces 14 9. Critical Success Factors 16 10. Marketing Analysis 16 11. Opportunities 17 12. Threats 17 Current Strategies 13. Strategic Position 18 14. Proposed Strategies 18 15. Selection of winning Strategy: Feasibility 19 16. Description and Risk Assessment 20 References 21 Appendices 23 1. Introduction. Note: “All work within this report is taken from the case study unless referenced otherwise”. McDonald’s started as BBQ restaurant by (“mac and dick”) which also known as Maurice and Richard. The concept of the McDonald’s at that time was a typical drive in restaurant that offers variety of BBQ menu to choose from. The brothers realised that it is important for them to highlight the menu that get the intention the most. Mac and Dick eliminated McDonald’s carhops’ concept to make McDonald’s as a self- service operation. They also narrowed down the menu...
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...Grade Received - "A-" Marketing plans are tools used by managers to guide the process of marketing. They contain strategies and consider many environmental aspects that work together to affect the success of the product or service being marketed. Marketers must learn to do solid research in support of upcoming projects. The Unit 1 Individual Project is a research paper and should address the following: Provide a quick definition of marketing plans using your text. Include the following: Using an article from the library’s full-text databases, discuss an example of how a marketing plan helped make a product or service successful. On the other hand (using an article from the library’s full-text databases), discuss an example of how decisions in a marketing plan led to failure. Analyze what was different in the 2 examples. Abstract With marketing management, the marketing plan is one of the key factors to the success or failure of any type of product. This paper will define what a market plan is and give examples of how marketing plans has helped make a product or service successful and how they market plan has become a failure. This paper will also provide a quick overview of why some movies are considered a failure and extrapolate what could have gone wrong in the studio's plan with regard to forecasting demand for the project. Marketing Plan Successes and Failures Introduction Planning to market a product and how the plan is written can make or break...
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...of the Hollywood Studio System 195 The Studio System’s Golden Age 205 The Transformation of the Studio System 209 The Economics of the Movie Business 215 Popular Movies and Democracy In every generation, a film is made that changes the movie industry. In 1941, that film was Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane. Welles produced, directed, wrote, and starred in the movie at age twenty-five, playing a newspaper magnate from a young man to old age. While the movie was not a commercial success initially (powerful newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, whose life was the inspiration for the movie, tried to suppress it), it was critically praised for its acting, story, and directing. Citizen Kane’s dramatic camera angles, striking film noir–style lighting, nonlinear storytelling, montages, and long deep-focus shots were considered technically innovative for the era. Over time, Citizen Kane became revered as a masterpiece, and in 1997 the American Film Institute named it the Greatest American Movie of All Time. “Citizen Kane is more than a great movie; it is a gathering of all the lessons of the emerging era of sound,” film critic Roger Ebert wrote.1 CHAPTER 6 ○ MOVIES 185 (c) Bedford/St. Martin's bedfordstmartins.com 1-457-62096-0 / 978-1-457-62096-6 MOVIES A generation later, the space epic Star Wars (1977) changed the culture of the movie industry. Star Wars, produced, written, and directed by George Lucas, departed from the personal filmmaking of the early 1970s and spawned...
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...customers, meet financial targets and competes effectively. These strategic decisions drive the long-term direction of the organization, the scope of its activities, help gain advantage over competitors, and address changes in the business environment. The case of IMAX begins in 1994 when business partners Gelfond and Wechsler decided to purchase the organisation from its original owners and take the company public. IMAX operates in a people oriented business, operating within the entertainment industry. Through the years the owners have made strategic efforts in the direction of reaching new audiences. These efforts, in addition to IMAX’s external environment, will be analysed and explored in the sections that follow. The result of this analysis will be the comparison of the firm’s strategy with the identified industry survival and success factors, in a bid to ascertain the relevant factors that would drive future growth. 2. IMAX’s business environment A number of theorists, notably Michael Porter (1979) have developed several frameworks for understanding and analysing the effect that an organization’s external environment could have on its competitiveness and profitability. These frameworks identify the following as notable forces: Threat of new entrants; Threat of substitutes; Bargaining power of suppliers; Bargaining power of buyers; and Intensity of rivals. This model has updated by Haberber and Rieple (2008) to include Complementary forces, identifying industries that indirectly...
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...Abstract In theoretical and empirical literature as well as in practice both market pioneering and later entrant strategy are outlined to lead to superior product performance. This literature review analyzes which strategy leads to superior product performance under which circumstances. Therefore, a conceptual framework is developed which illustrates the complex relationships of the integrated parameters. A detailed literature review is conducted to analyze theoretical as well as empirical approaches of strategy superiority. A holistic framework is introduced which depicts the superiority of a market strategy under given circumstances. Results suggest that being a pioneer or later entrant is not only a strategic decision on the company’s side but depends on various factors. The superiority of a market entry strategy needs to be evaluated individually for a new product. Finally, recommendations for future research are given. 1. Introduction Nokia’s communicator phones were the first smartphones on the market, including all essential characteristics: online access, navigation as well as apps to facilitate usage. However, being first on the market does not lead to a long-term success of Nokia smartphones. In 2007 Nokia had a market share of 49.4 % of the worldwide smartphone market, in 2012 the market share only adds up to 4.9 %. In April 2014, Nokia’s devices and services business was acquired by Microsoft. However, there are also first mover on the market who are still very...
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...The Social Web: It is what you make it Instructor Debra Austin INF103 Computer Literacy Heather Miller August 6, 2012 The social web is a somewhat new and exciting place where people from all over the world can connect without leaving the comfort of their own homes. Like any type of newfangled technology there are upsides and downsides that need to be considered before deciding if this is a good or bad thing. Like many other activities that utilize time and provide an escape from the pressures of the day, the social web has many advantages and downfalls; however, it is up to each of us to decide whether to participate or not. According to oxforddictionaries.com, the Social Web, or the Social Network, is a “…dedicated website or other application which enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages, images, etc.”. The current top five social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and MySpace. All of these are places where you can connect with others to share opinions, play games, share interests, and overall, it is a place to be social. This is a place where someone who has more of an introverted personality or low self-esteem can be popular or outgoing; a place where a person can connect with people from different countries that they may never visit. Some people compare how many “friends”, or contacts, they have made on these sites; many may be people that you have not actually met face to...
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...Pixar Animations MBA 615 Mickey Langford/Kimberly Horne Spring 2013 Mickey Langford Pixar Animations is our company of choice for this case study analysis. In 2006, Walt Disney acquired Pixar, but before we get to all of that, let us start at the beginning. Before Pixar, there was Lucas Films. George Lucas, of Lucas Films, decided in 1979 to upgrade their computer division (Animations, 2012). Lucas had a desire to see how far they could take computer graphics within the film industry. Lucas Films succeeded by creating Andre & Wally B., in 1984 (Animations, 2012). Andre & Wally B. - First Ever Pixar Short Movie - The Adventures of André and Wally B. [1984 HD] - YouTube, was the first ever computer-generated imagery short movie (Movies, 2009). This was the foundational establishment in the film industry that Steve Jobs was seeking. In 1986, Jobs purchased the Computer Division from Lucas Films and named it Pixar Animations Studios. Walt Disney and Pixar Animation agreed to do a number of films together, the first being Toy Story which was a huge success. The movie debut on November 22, 1995 grossed $192 million domestically and $362 million worldwide (Animations, 2012). Listed below is a table of the gross amounts that Disney/Pixar movies have made: Released | Movie Name | 1st Weekend | US Gross | Worldwide Gross | Budget | 11/22/1995 | Toy Story | $29,140,617 | $191,796,233 | $361,948,825 | $30,000,000 | 11/20/1998 | A Bug's Life | $291,121...
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...Cyworld: User Segmentation and Targeting TMBA BBUS 506 A Michael Cavelero, Joel Engstrom, Nesreen Zadah, David Tobey 4/19/2010 Introduction Smoke signals, telegraphs and telephones: communication in the modern world evolves quickly. The 21st century has been no exception. The rise of the internet heralded the growth of so called “online social networks” or simply “social networks” – websites where individual users carved out their own niche. Many of these networks have become household names to Americans: MySpace, Facebook, Linkedin and more. For many Koreans between the ages of ten and thirty, social networking has meant one thing: Cyworld. Cyworld, a small social networking company, was founded in 1999 by a group of MBA students in South Korea. The network was revolutionary, pioneering user experiences, such as community gifting and public threads, that other networks would adapt years later. Cyworld underwent rapid growth, and in 2003, was acquired by SK Telecom, a billion dollar Korean mobile communications enterprise. Cyworld employed a relatively unique revenue model of selling virtual items (“microtransactions”) to over twenty million users. However, by 2006, the social networking market was changing rapidly. Surveys and forecasts reflected declining activity and loyalty among current users. Additionally, an increasing percentage of users simply took advantage of the free services that were offered. Hyung-Chul Joo, as newly appointed CEO of SK Comms (the online...
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...Global Economic Situation The old expression “When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold”, doesn’t always hold true. Since the U.S. has been in a recession, the rest of the world has suffered to a certain degree; however, the film industry in some parts of the world seems to be an exception. The global financial crisis resulted in the most severe worldwide recession and has since been faced with challenges for the last several years. The decline of the U.S. stock market has been the major challenge that viciously spread to various parts of the globe. For the most part, the global market has seen mixed results from film studios worldwide. Despite an increase in box office earnings, U.S. studios have been suffering, by having no choice but to downsize, and cut back on production and development. Although U.S. motion pictures are seen some adversity, interestingly the industry is a major private sector employer. According to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) the industry employs 2.1 million workers and 95,000 companies, which spans from make-up artists to costume designers, stuntmen to set builders, accountants to caterers (MPAA, 2011). Domestically, this powerhouse of an industry has collectively contributed to more than $175B to U.S. GDP. Directly, the industry produces $42.1B in wages, which is approximately 32% higher than the national average. The median salary for film and television that includes high quality jobs as producing, marketing...
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...CASE ANALYSIS: Can Bollywood Go Global? Submitted By: Divyanshu Rastogi 0134/52 Abstract The case talks about the opportunities and problems that the Indian film makers face in reaching out to the international film business and market. It provides a historical view by detailing the journey of the cinema and how Hollywood emerged as the global leader in the film industry worldwide by the 1920’s. Although some movie industries were sustained in other regions including the United Kingdom and France, their films and offerings had restricted international appeal and audience. It also focuses on the rise and development of the Indian film industry and the entire industry as well. Bollywood films, which are made in Mumbai usually are the most famous and acknowledged amongst the Indian film industry which also includes other genres like Tollywood, which constitutes of the movies made in the state of Andhra Pradesh (and now Telangana as well) and caters to Telugu films. The Bollywood movies are generally melodramatic and musical. There are other local language films made in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal as well. Bollywood films in specific have done well in Southeast Asia and are fairly popular amongst the Indian populace. It also brings to light the challenge of whether Indian content films can rival with Hollywood in international markets and to how extensively a modification in content is required for this approach to be successful. History of the World cinema The Cinema...
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...Case Analysis: Marvel Enterprises, Inc.__________________________________________ Marvel Enterprises, Inc is an industry leader of character-based entertainment, building its foundation on publishing comic books and licensing character rights over the past seventy years. After encountering some hardships in the late nineties, Marvel repositioned itself as a powerful global firm under the leadership of new CEO, Peter Cuneo. He developed a strategic recovery plan, allowing Marvel to overcome bankruptcy through the monetization of its extensive content library, long term development of characters, and the assurance of high-quality for all Marvel-related products. However, by 2004 concerns arouse regarding the sustainability and continued growth potential of this business model. Marvel needed to determine whether continuing their focus on popular characters was a sustainable strategy or if it was necessary to expand into lesser known characters to reach a larger audience. Cuneo also wondered if Marvel should venture past is current business operations to invest in content creation, rather than licensing the rights to others to do so. Marvel is currently competing in a red ocean, attempting to exploit existing demand and outperform its rival competitor, DC Comics, vying to obtain a greater market share. In order to do this Marvel should consider creating two divisions of character development. The first will focus solely on maintaining popularity and profitability of well-known...
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