Thursday, September 13, 2012

Slumdog Millionaire.


Slumdog Millionaire 

In today’s society we have various issues that sometimes have to shown to the public in order to get notice. One of the ways to achieve this is by coming up with a movie that will talk about this particular issues. Slumdog Millionaire focuses on some issues that affect society but are not necessary talk about often. This movie focuses on the issues of violence that comes with having a different religion. It also focuses on how an orphan child had to come up with ways to survive in this world. We also learn about the economic advances that the country is doing as the same time that our character grows up. The movie takes us thru a story that is full of hope and inspirational power. A view of a child’s life who did everything he could to survive and still believe in love.
Slumdog Millionaire touches that point of religion. It shows us that in some part of the world religion is a cause for death in some people’s eye’s. There is a part of the movie where Jamal and Salim’s mom is kill in by people who do not share the same religion. The movie shows us a bit of the violence between Muslims and Hindus. In fact this group of people attack their slumdog and kill and set people of fire. All of this is because they don’t share the same religion. Most of us like to think that religion is not a cause of violence any longer but the matter of fact is that it is. Religion should not what causes the violence but rather the people that can’t see that not everyone shares their believes.It doesn’t not happen necessary around the conner from our house but it does happens around the world. Jamal and Salim become orphans of this event of violence. 
Jamal and Salim set out with a girl from their slum. Jamal, Salim, and Latika takes us thru the hardship an orphan child has to go thru in order to survive. The three of them dig thru piles of trash to find what they need. They encounter a guy who seems to be nice but in the end is using children to beg for money. The three try to scape this guy after realizing that he purposely was blinding kids in order for them to make more money. This event alone show how kids who end up as orphans and on the streets a prone to encounter danger every step they take. This film forces us to see what happens to kids who are less fortunate. They are exploited and some times this monsters that they work for end up just hurting them. During this whole process affects the brothers differently. Salim starts to liking the bad life with guns and robbing, he start to become a gangster. Salim likes feeling like he has power and respect even if that respect is earn thru a gun. Jamal in the other hand he is quite opposite from his brother. Jamal doesn’t care about becoming a gangster like his brother. The boys grow up and can clearly see who society has affected them in different ways. Society has turn one of the brothers to violence and becoming self center not caring about no one else. While the other is not about violence at all and all he wants to focus on is on the love he feels for Latika. 
In Mumbai over 2,000 women and over 4,000 children are reported missing every year. For traffickers, dealing with children's "re-usable" bodies is a high profit venture.This is another issue that most of us want to just turn away from because if we don’t see it then is not happening. The way society defines what a child is worth only because where they come from is just sad. For instance India if a child is a Muslim and come’s from one of the slums then that child is not worth much. It happens more often then we like to think and this movie clearly show us that we can’t keep pretending that it doesn’t happen any longer. We also have the fact that their are people who clearly take advantage of children for their own benefit. For instance Jamal would have had his eye take out in order to enhance his earnings as a beggar. While Latika was use for prostitution. This two are just examples from a movie but in reality it happens every single day. Overall this kids gain life experiences thru the most harsh situation a kid can possibly have. This does not happen only in India but in the whole world some places more than others but is something that society can’t ignore anymore.
Another point of view of this movie is the economic growth of the country. While we see Jamal grow up and go thru harsh youth we also see the country develop. As the story develops we can see India as a post-modern country. Post-modern India we can see the poverty levels in which people live. They live in primitive squalor which means that they didn’t  have basic pluming systems and much more. As the story develops we can see how the country becomes more interdependent with the western world. From tourism to the rise of India as a tech-support and customer service outlet for the wester world. At a point in the movie when Jamal reunites with Salim we can see that high rise buildings are going up. This high rise are being place where slum’s used to be. 
Even after all of this social issues we still have what Jamal has giving us thru this film which is hope. By him winning is kind of way of saying there is hope to help fix all of those issues that go on in the world. He goes thru all that he does because he believes in one thing that is the hope that he has in finding his love. The love that was taking away in order to prostitute her. This give us a bit of light among all of these dark shadows that are our social problems. It also teaches us that we can learn from our bad experiences and still come out on top. He believe in the love that he had for Latika and that push him thru to not become like his brother to to be him and the good person that he is. That also show us that even in the worst life cases we still have a choice to make and Jamal choose to be a good person not like his brother who become a gangster.
Slumdog takes a tragic experience from Mumbai youth to account for all of the issues that this movie focuses on. It give us a bit of insight on what else goes on in the world particularly in India. Jamal playing the Indian version of “Who wants to be a millionaire” is a story telling kind of way for us to understand what this is all about. The flashbacks that happen between each question is just that a story that is showing us the bigger picture as far as the social issues goes. The angle that is being use to tell the story is well from a young boys eyes. The main way for us to understand about India’s social problems is by us seeing thru Jamal eyes. This particular way of telling this story allowed the audience to feel what the main characters where feeling. The film mange to tap on a human emotion that is very real. The audience also felt a sense of injustice for this little boys especially Jamal. Injustice because no one ever wants to see a kid grow up in those kinds of situation. No one wants to see a child in that level of poverty. I believe that this film had a great impact on society because of the amount of information the audience was able to get about the social problems that we still have and that go on in other parts of the world. 
Society needs to learn to stop ignoring issues that come with poverty and violence. Issues that a country have because of how far behind their economic system may be. Issues with kids and women disappearing because of human  traffickers. All of those issues have to start getting the attention that they need in order for then to stop. This film brought to light issues that most of us choose to ignore only because of the mind set of “if is not happening in our backyards than there is nothing to worry about”. Its does it by keeping the audience captivated thru the love story that unfolds, as well as the dangerous adventures of little children who are in danger all the time. It does it by keeping us wanting to know the end of this spectacular story which brings us much more need it information about society’s around the world.
Have a good day.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

New updates!

Hey guys,

It's been a while since my last post I think about 2 months now. WOW that's a while but I'm back and I now and there is so much that is going on that I don't know where to start. Ok I guess for starters I'm on my last semester of my photography school. It's been two long years but I'm just a few weeks away of finishing this journey. Well now during this few weeks my classmates and I have to each produce a portfolio, create 25 images to go in the portfolio, plan a portfolio show, create a website, business cards, upload images, etc... the list goes on and on but its all is an amazing journey and I would not change it for nothing in the world. It's better to stay busy than not busy at all besides all of this gives me a look at what the real world will be all about. Ok during this time I will keep you guys posted on whats happening next and what I'm working on so until have a wonderful day.


Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Last but not least

Hey guys,

My classmates and I had a field trip day which was different but good. Different because it was not a typical field trip were everyone stays together and stuff. This field trip we were pretty much by our selfs. We went to a little town name Madison.We shot the building/ houses on this tiny town. Which is another form of a low rise. The camera used was 4x5 and the lens used was a 135mm lens. The film was Fuji chrome provia 100 iso. The settings on the camera were f-stop of 16, shutter speed for normal was 60th of a second. Then I bracket to get a over and under the bracket was about 1/2 stop difference from the normal. Then the film was developed and the scanned and here is the final image. Enjoy!


Have a good day!

EmeraldLight Architectural Photography

Hey guys,

Ok so here is another photographer that I found and I truly enjoy his work. Oregon based photographer William E. Enos is an award winning photographer. His architectural work has just the perfect amount of magic to grab anyones attention.  His work is very dynamic and clean.  Here is his web site make sure to check him out. http://www.emeraldlight.com/


Have a good day!

Business/Commercial Interior

Hello,

The next assignment is a business/ commercial interior. That means that we can shoot anything from a restaurant to a doctors office. This a very unique experience we all faced challenges when it come to this assignment. Challenges from nailing down a venue to technical challenges. I had a good time shooting this assignment, being on location was just fun. This assignment was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II, used a 17mm tilt-shift, a tripod, and a light meter. The settings were iso of 100 f-stop of 16, shutter speed of 3.2 seconds, 4 seconds, and 6 seconds. I started using strobe lights but the lights were over powering the ambient light and it just not looked right. When the image was taken into photoshop a high pass filter was use, the lens correction filter was used, the clone stamp and similar tools were used to get rid of two poles that were in the middle of the room. Getting rid of those two poles was a challenge but I did it :). Ok guys here is the final image. Enjoy!


Have a great day!

James Ransom

Hello,

Interiors can make a very interesting image. Interior can have a certain magic that kind of gives you that feeling of wanting to be in that particular space at that moment. Well James Ransom is able to capture the beauty of an interior. He is a New York based photographer and his work is just truly a work of art. I just love getting the feeling of peace when I see an interior. Here is his web site go ahead and check him out. http://www.jamesransom.com/


Have a good day!

Residential Interior

Hello guys,

Well our next assignment has to do with residential homes. We are suppose to shoot an interior from a home. Well to say the least I had a really hard time finding a home interior but I found what I could. I really wish that I had a better one but at the end I'm happy with my residential interior. I have to say that is just simple not much to look at but simple. The residential was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II, using a tilt-shift lens, and a tripod. I didn't use any strobe lights for this I just use ambient light. The settings were f-stop of 11, shutter speed of 25 seconds, iso of 100. Then it was time to work up the image, I used photoshop. Use a high pass filter, lens correction filter, and curves. This led to this final image Enjoy!



Have a wonderful day!