#And are therefore more comfortable for a modern viewer to identify with

[chicago-geniza]

Next I should go through all the Emily Dickinson movies. Loved Wild Nights with Emily, hated A Quiet Passion, expect everything else to fall on a spectrum between those two poles

[testimonialtv]

The Art of Crafting Impactful Testimonial Videos: Best Practices and Production Insights

Testimonial Video Best Practice has become a potent weapon for companies in a world when consumers depend more and more on peer recommendations. These videos highlight actual consumer experiences, therefore giving marketing initiatives legitimacy and authenticity. Developing interesting material that appeals to possible consumers and generates conversions depends on an awareness of the testimonial video production process. This article delves into the best practices and production techniques that ensure testimonial videos are effective and impactful.

Why Testimonial Videos Are Essential for Modern Marketing

Testimonial videos are more than just customer reviews; they are dynamic storytelling tools that build trust and connect with audiences on an emotional level. By highlighting genuine customer experiences, these videos provide social proof that they can influence potential buyers. Adopting Testimonial Videos Best Practice ensures that the content not only portrays positive feedback but also aligns with the brand’s messaging and values.

Identifying Key Elements of Effective Testimonial Videos

To create a successful testimonial video, several key elements must be in place. Testimonial Videos Best Practice starts with selecting the right customers to feature. These individuals should be relatable and reflective of the brand’s target audience. Their sincere testimonies should center on how the good or service has improved their life. Additionally, the video should be concise, engaging, and visually appealing to hold the viewer's attention.

The Importance of Authenticity and Relatability

Authenticity is at the core of any effective testimonial video. Viewers can easily discern whether a testimonial feels scripted or genuine. Testimonial Videos Best Practice emphasizes the importance of capturing real emotions and candid feedback. This authenticity helps potential customers see themselves in the testimonial, making the brand more relatable and trustworthy. It’s also important to ensure that the testimonial addresses common pain points or concerns, as this makes the content more relevant and persuasive.

Navigating the Testimonial Video Production Process

The Testimonial Video Production Process involves several stages, each critical to the outcome. From design and pre-production to shooting and post-production, every stage has to be meticulously carried out to create a high-quality video fulfilling the goals of the company.

Planning and Pre-Production

The first stage of the Testimonial Video Production Process is planning. This involves identifying the key messages that the video should convey and selecting the customers who will be featured. It’s essential to prepare interview questions that encourage detailed, honest responses. During pre-production, logistics such as location, lighting, and sound should also be planned to ensure a smooth filming process.

Production: Capturing Genuine Testimonials

The objective of the production phase is to establish a comfortable setting where participants may freely tell their stories. The Testimonial Video Production Process should prioritize capturing high-quality audio and video, as these elements are crucial for creating a professional final product. It’s also important to be flexible during the shoot, allowing the conversation to flow naturally while still guiding the discussion to cover key points.

Post-Production: Refining the Story

The final stage in the Testimonial Video Production Process is post-production, where the footage is edited and refined. This step involves selecting the best clips, trimming unnecessary content, and adding elements like background music or graphics to enhance the storytelling. The aim is to produce an interesting, coherent film stressing the most significant events of the testimonial.

Creating powerful testimonial videos requires a deep understanding of Testimonial Videos Best Practice and a meticulous approach to the Testimonial Video Production Process. When done correctly, these videos can significantly enhance a brand’s credibility and influence potential customers. For businesses seeking to produce high-quality testimonial videos that resonate with their audience, visiting testimonialtv.net provides access to professional production services that ensure your videos make a lasting impact.

Our website is the perfect resource for further details.

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[crazyenthusiastkryptonite]

The Television Police

Deciding to purchase TV Screen protector for your LCD, LED, or Plasma High Definition TV is a good plan. Modern flat panel TVs aren't built like their picture tube ancestors. Relating to the old style tube TVs you basically had to hit it with a sledge hammer getting it. Now hook tap with a toy or sippie cup can cost thousands of dollars. There are quite a few different brands available on the online market place. How can you make sure in order to buying the right one? https://www.youtube.com/embed/lnJ7a4yR_YY

Cable TV makers start reflect the latest technology offer TV for every reasonable price. This result is a big idea is always that the space occupied and television is replaced by television features a space-conscious far better plasma. The most striking feature of the tv associated your minimum length and width 3.25 inches and obtained with as much as 60 centimeter. The screen is completely flat with no distortion for the edge. Therefore, HDTV viewers can watch free movies in wide-screen format substantially was shown in the theater.

If this is true, Christakis' research validates the move the Academy of yankee Pediatrics gave in 1998. The Academy said children under two shouldn't watch any television, and children two and older in order to be restricted one to a couple of hours per 24 hours.

One belonging to the best features of this Samsung UN55D8000 is its 1080p full HD capability with HDMI smart tv inputs. This means this has the aptitude to display pictures with excellent quality and resolution. They are very clear and desired. Furthermore, you also can connect various sources spanning a single samsung 146 inch tv cable with the help of normal HDMI inputs. This is much better the items that have sacrificed display quality with taste.

To lead the competition, manufacturers provide TV goods which are 3D enabled and with HDTV browsing. This technology can make the product more substantial. Through the 3D television reviews, buyers can identify a TV offers the features and specifications which they want in their TV. The information and demo given via the sales man for the are inadequate. Reviews are something that help you beyond a sales certain person. They will your family information the flaws inside of product, if any. They will tell you of features that are missing your market product. Testamonials are vital, an individual also should take the most ones.

She was covergirl for Stuff magazine in April 2006. This is softlogic tv when she chose the moniker "Tila Tequila" as her official celebrity or stage name and she has been branding that name since. In August 2006, she was on off the cover of Maxim UK, which as number 100 on the 2008 Maxim Hot 100 list.

Energy consumption on Plasma televisions is compared to LCD, so if you are the type of person that likes to spend less in every way possible, this is definitely a point.

TV brackets are distinct suitable for homes, intensive testing . now largely used in offices, restaurants, hotels, stations and rungs. They give us an exceptional style and comfort to read more entertainment.

[blacksunscorpio]

Astro Musings No.1

Jupiter, as well as your Moon in your Natal chart, can show your addictions just as much as Neptune can. Jupiter is about excess and your Moon is your emotional state. Where one feels comfort or how they process these things/emotions.  Mercury placements or Mercury Dominant often make people great lyricists and communicators. Many famous rappers are actually Gemini’s (Notorious B.I.G, 2 Pac, Kanye, Kendrick, Andre 3000, etc). That's because Gemini is ruled by Mercury/the god of communication. He also rules the lungs. People with this dominance are very good with wordplay and are blessed with the gift of gab. 

Your Sun is still important

...despite modern astrologers attempting to throw it away. Your sun is your core. Your ego. Your basic identity. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a thousand more-- we are heliocentric as a galaxy. This means all our planets orbit around the Sun. The same goes for your natal chart. Say you have a Gemini Sun and Capricorn moon but seem to identify more with Capricorn-- Your moon is your emotional habits-- and you know what they say about habits: they’re hard to break. This simply means you will always be a Gemini at your core even if you have the emotional tendencies and habits of a Capricorn. The same goes for those who say Lunar Scorpios are more ‘Plutonic’ than Solar Scorpios Now, it may seem that way, but this myth is only prevalent because emotions are extremely primal and powerful things. When they rear their head in a Plutonic way, people mistake the intensity for dominant power when in reality more drama does not equate more scorpionic influence. In fact, Scorpio’s are rarely the types to put on a show. They leave that for their Cousins-- The Cancers, The Arians [also ruled by Mars] & the Pisceans. True Scorpios prefer to be the tacticians. The ones who quietly observe their surroundings and flex when it comes to spatial awareness. They will rarely draw unnecessary attention to themselves and emotional scenes will often be kept under lock and key/private.

Speaking of Scorpio’s cousins, believe it or not, Aries, Sag’s and Cancers are the true divas of the zodiac, not Leos. That’s because Leo’s are upfront about what they want and will not surprise you with their scenes.

You know what’s coming/always knew it was there.  As for the aforementioned three, these triplets demand attention and praise or notice from others. Aries demand to be noticed for their prowess and skills, Sag’s can be excessive and demanding-- they want what they want and they want it NOW. No questions asked. Fueled by fire and Jupiter’s penchant for drama--you will never forget it if you don’t cough up what they demand. I.E. Nicki Minaj and her Grammy stunt[s]. Cancers give ultimatums to expedite the process of getting what they want. They are hard-pressed to demonstrate patience for people or to wait for situations to play out. They are never about the long game. They can be very coercive and forceful. At their worst, they can even be bullies. Of course, this is not the rule, I often find that December Sag’s, are more intense than November Sag’s. April Arians are less high strung than March Arians and July Cancers tend to act out more of the ‘diva qualities’ mentioned above than June Cancers.

Pluto is your friend.

Yes, the shadow is your friend. Pluto often gets a bad rap for being this torturous unknown force that comes to destroy/transform but that is not the case. Pluto is all about transformations, yes but transformations for the better. He is the garbage man. He gets rid of the trash. Toxic relationship? Ok! Pluto will rip it from you. It will hurt. You will cry. But after you’ve used up all the kleenex, you will have spidey senses. You will see those red flags before they and their cheap cologne darken your doorstep. You will level up. And while you’re doing that, Pluto will let you watch as he terrorizes your abuser. Pluto is justice. Not like Libra where all is fair and balanced by the scales. Pluto is Karma. Karmic Justice at that. The equalizer. He will show you the ugly of all those who wore the mask of ‘friend’. See, Pluto gets nasty rep because he forces you to see what you’d love to ignore. He makes you feel what society tells you to be numb to. Euphoria, Obsession, jealousy, bliss, even paranoia. Pluto is the depths. You need to feel. Jealousy is not an ugly emotion, ENVY is. They are not synonymous but people use them interchangeably. Pluto can be jealous, but jealousy is simply the sensation that something important might be taken from you. Envy is seeing someone have something, and hating them for it/not wanting them to have it. Pluto is not envious. He rules the underworld and in his realm live all of Earth’s riches. Gems, diamonds, gold, jewels. He is the wealthiest-- what could he possibly be envious of? Paranoia is equated to him too, but this is simply an exacerbation of his skill at being prepared. Pluto is a GENERAL. He wants you to have a PLAN. And when you don’t he forces you to get one, whether you’re prepared or not. Pluto is Chess, not Checkers. Pluto is the bandaid ripper. Pluto's love is cold and hard but empowering. He exposes. Shows the ugly. Friend’s you weren’t sure were enemies? Pluto rips their masks off so you have no choice but to see their ugliness. You will be disenchanted. Maybe even heartbroken. But a moment of grief for a lifetime of healthy happiness is Pluto’s payoff. Pluto also represents in the chart the area where we can most empower ourselves and elevate our lives and our dignity. Pluto will disempower your just to elevate you and make your story of failure a story of victory. He’s the ULTIMATE glow up King. Pluto shows us where we can triumph if we find a way to revolutionize or otherwise radically transform/change ourselves internally, despite our external challenges. Plutonic cleansings are like working out or giving birth. Excruciatingly painful to the point where you feel like you want to die but the result is a whole new body/person you’re absolutely in love with. He is purging.  Again, Pluto is about evolution. He does not and will not allow you to stay stagnant/in one stage of your life. He forces you to grow and if you won’t he has no qualms with making you. Pluto is not soft. 

Speaking of which. This includes his influence in the bedroom. Often people will talk about plutonic influence in a dark way. As if his influence sexually is something dark/forbidden or something to be ashamed of. Quite the contrary. Pluto rules sex. Literally. It was his domain before it was anyone else's’. Therefore, everything about sex is simply an offshoot of his influence. The rougher, primal, knee-shaking, back-scratching, neck biting, squirting/screaming orgasm, ball-gag wearing stuff? Completely ‘OK’ in his book. He wants you to experience that. The reasoning is that Pluto loves to explore and honor edgier sentiments within. Pluto urges us all to normalize fetishes and fully embrace this side of ourselves. Why? Because Pluto wants us all to live our truth, not hide. Can’t say the same for his brother Neptune though.

See, Neptune is who you should be worried about.

Neptune is the ruler of what is hidden. The realm of the unknown. All that is fantastic, the stuff of fantasy, illusions, dreams, day-dreams, etc. He puts a veil on things. Adds confusion to the mix. makes things hard to see. While Pluto strips away the hidden, Neptune happily puts on the blindfold. Not only does he hand you the rose-colored-glasses, he hands you a ruffied pint to go with it. The essence of this planet is ILLUSION.  With Neptune, it can be difficult to ascertain where and how things are working against you, or you have a hard time figuring out who or what it is. Neptune is about confusion. Neptune clouds your judgment, so you're especially vulnerable to deception and trickery. [Those with hard Neptune aspects can testify] Enemies can be especially difficult to make out/avoid when he’s involved and bad judgment all around can be a theme when he rears his foggy head.  What also makes him so dangerous is because he walks around looking like everything you want. The dream of dreams, if-you-will. As a result, he makes you receptive to mind-altered states. Can even make one prone to hallucinations, the use of poisons such as drugs and alcohol. Even spending copious amounts fo time building castles-in-the-air and neglecting reality. You become addicted to whatever he lays in front of you. The fantasy is more alluring than reality. With Neptune adversely aspected or too many hard aspects to inner planets, this can cause chaos that can negatively impact a native or those closest to them. Neptune on Mercury can be particularly dangerous if ill-aspected because it can cause dishonesty to a pathological degree or simply mental instability. Think Joe Goldberg from ‘You’. 100% crazy 200% delusional. This guy definitely has a shot a gallon of Neptune in his natal cocktail. Manufacturing scenarios that aren’t really occurring. Obsessively daydreaming and idealizing strangers. Successfully conning others into thinking he’s a normal and stable guy when he’s anything but. His judgment is clouded as is the judgment of the poor souls who encounter him, while you, as a viewer, watch in horror. That’s what Neptune does. You won’t see reality until it’s wayyyy too late [RIP Beck].  Neptune rules over all chaotic feelings, and can easily un-focus the lens, making us inclined to obsess over impossible dreams and yearn for far-out things. OMG Neptune is all about yearning. Yearning for the unattainable. But as Dumbledore said: 

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

But that’s what Neptune will make you do. Forget to live. Dwell on the impossible. Make you prone to hypnotic mindstates that steal moments of your life away. Sex with Neptune can be almost spiritual but it can cause one to get addicted to the rush, and with Neptune clouding judgment, one can perhaps become addicted to sex or even participate in risky sexual behavior. Neptune at its worst also influences death by mysterious means, suicides, death by drowning, disappearance, or even poisoning if found in the eighth house or connected to it.

Neptune is a beautiful planet. Methane causes it to have that brilliant blue hue. It rains diamonds. But again, there but the aura/odor around it is methane. In layman’s terms? The planet literally smells like shit. This classic example of not all that glitters is gold. Tread very carefully when Neptune is around and keep your eyes peeled. Something or someone may not really be what it/they seem. Astro Musings No. 2  Astro Musings No. 3 Astro Musings No. 4  Astro Musings No. 5 Astro Musings No. 6 Astro Musings No. 7 Astro Musings No. 8  Astro Musings No. 9  Astro Musings No. 10

[orlafilmblog]

Film Still Presentation

Sorry We Missed You (2019, dir. Ken Loach)

Identifying Social Realism

Introduction

I have chosen a still from the 2019 film ‘Sorry We Missed You’ directed by Ken Loach and written by Paul Laverty. The film follows Ricky - who is given the opportunity to become a ‘self-employed’ delivery driver - and his family who are struggling to make ends meet. It is a bleak portrayal of the modern day labour exploitation through the growing gig economy and it shows the highs and lows of family life.

The film falls under the genre category of drama, however more specifically it fits into the social realism category. Social realist films represent ‘true-to-life’ stories and people, often exploring social and political issues. Because of this, aspects such as lighting and production design are usually very subtle, aiming to look as natural as possible.

I chose this still for a few reasons, one being I really like this film, along with loving all of Ken Loach’s work. Before even deciding on a film to focus on, this scene came to mind as it is one that I remember the most. It is one of the happier scenes from the film and I think it highlights everything I am going to talk about.

Lighting

The first thing to notice about this still is how plain and normal it looks; all the colours are fairly bland and grey. The lighting is understated, however having the warmth from the overhead light makes the family appear happier and closer together/connected. As I mentioned earlier, this kind of natural lighting is frequently seen in social realism.

Frame + Blocking

The frame is quite busy here as the family fill up the small space. It is not overly pretty or symmetrical, however I find it quite comforting to look at as it depicts a very familiar setting. This sense of familiarity is important in social realism as films often aim to reflect what viewers have experience of in day-to-day life. Cinematography therefore tends to lean away from immense shots, focusing on the smaller aspects of life.

The blocking of the actors is (again) very natural. They are all tucked in close together to emphasise the bonding that is happening over dinner as they all reach across each other grabbing what they want. Both the frame and the blocking are creating that key sense of normality and conveying the family dynamic that is commonly portrayed in social realist cinema.

Production Design

My favourite aspect of this still is the production design. Much like everything else, it is subtle. Yet the details build up to create a fuller picture. The off-white walls have a brown stain climbing up round the corner of the room (granted it is quite hard to see clearly in this frame). Having an imperfection like this highlights the family’s financial status, a common discussion in social realism; characters and settings are often working class. However, the bottom of the painting and the floral ornament seen show that this is still a family home, giving the room a bit more depth and life. Another details (albeit tiny) that I like is the mismatch of water glasses on the table amongst the chaos of the takeaway. No one I know ever has a full matching set of glasses. It is the little things like this that help portray and realistic story. Therefore, we can tell that this still has been taken from a social realist film.

[galleryofunknowns]

Unknown Artist, 'Portrait of a Man', oil on canvas, late 1700s, American?, currently in the collection of the Museo Nacional Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain.

The portrait, formerly attributed to Gilbert Stuart (b.1755 - d.1828), was previously thought to be of Hercules Posey (b.1748 - d.1812), an enslaved cook in the employ of George Washington. Below the cut is an edited version of of a Philadelphia Inquirer article written March, 2019, on the life of Hercules and the research undertaken in the portrait.

“This is very different from how Stuart would have done it,” said Dorinda Evans, a Gilbert Stuart scholar and professor emerita at Emory University, who was certain that both the painter and subject had been misidentified.

The other scholars, curators, and conservators appeared unanimous. But there was one more blockbuster twist. The hat, perceived to be a chef’s toque for as long as the painting has been known to modern viewers, was in fact not a cook’s hat at all, Evans said, but a Caribbean headdress similar to one worn by free Dominicans in the West Indies depicted in paintings by the Italian artist Agostino Brunias.

The experts’ verdict: The painting is genuine to the late 1700s, and the unknown subject was a person of noble importance. But it wasn’t painted by Stuart. And the subject wasn’t even a chef — definitively ruling out Hercules and setting in motion a cascade of implications for historians at a moment when interest in him and others enslaved by the Washingtons remains high.

In fact, the conclusions of this meeting of experts, conducted in private two years ago but made public only now, helped spur a researcher last month to discover what might in fact be a record of the elusive chef’s burial place.

That chef just wasn’t the man in this painting.

“No American cook in the colonies dressed like that,” said Evans, noting that the now-familiar chef’s toque did not appear until the 1820s. “It’s a fantasized image of what people want, because people want to have an image of Hercules. And people see the things they want to see.”

The painting, long held as a potential key to the chef’s story, turned out to be a false clue, another myth in a Washington universe full of them, “like the cherry tree and the wooden teeth,” said Mount Vernon senior curator Susan P. Schoelwer, who coordinated the study day along with associate curator Jessie MacLeod.

“There is a real possibility of a sense of loss there. It’s such a powerful portrait,” she said. “There is a real hunger for a dignified portrait of an enslaved person we can identify with as an individual. But when I weigh that against something that … really isn’t what it was supposed to be, I’m always going to opt for being a seeker after truth.”

Hercules the man was very real. He was sold to George Washington as a teenage “ferryman” in 1767 by a neighbor, John Posey, as payment for a debt. And his labors for the Washingtons were well-documented at Mount Vernon and in Philadelphia, where he was renowned for the feasts he cooked at the President’s House between 1790 and 1796. He escaped from Mount Vernon in 1797 — on George Washington’s birthday — and was never captured.

These facts, drawn from house accounts, farm logs, letters, and reminiscences, have fashioned the chef as a hero whose culinary talents earned him special privileges from the Washingtons and an income from selling kitchen scraps that afforded him a notable sartorial style. He was recalled by Washington’s stepgrandson, George Washington Parke Custis, as a “great master-spirit” in the kitchen who, after the meal, would don fine black silks and a gold-headed cane for evening promenades down High Street.

Though he was dressed stylishly, walking the streets of an abolitionist-minded city known as a haven for free blacks, Hercules was still an enslaved man — and he was eventually left in Virginia and set to hard plantation labor.

What became of Hercules after his dash for freedom has long remained a mystery. This painting, now owned by the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, was long thought to be a clue.

But fundamental questions about the painting’s relationship to Hercules persisted. They were definitively dispelled in the ultraviolet light of the private study day two years ago when the painting was removed from the walls of Mount Vernon after an exhibition in preparation to be returned to Spain. Paloma Alarcó, the Thyssen-Bornemisza curator who attended, agreed to the examination (and my attendance) under the condition its results not be made public until the museum could conduct its own follow-up studies.

She said that time has now come; the museum has hit a dead end: “We are blind, we must confess. … Maybe we will never know who this guy is.”

This is hardly the first old painting to be misidentified in the often shadowy world of art collecting. Its identification as Washington’s cook was likely added in the mid-20th century to increase the value on a work already misidentified earlier in the century as by Stuart, who famously painted the president in 1796. It remained in private hands and largely unstudied by scholars until it was sold in 1983 to Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, whose massive collection became the museum, which simply cataloged its previously ascribed provenance as the painting arrived.

But Hercules, as one of the most visible individuals enslaved during that era, in part due to this image, carries extra cultural significance because of the growing dialogue about the founding fathers and their troubling involvement with slavery. And as I shared news of the painting’s removal from the record, it brought a mix of disappointment and resignation.

“Although we always questioned it, it’s kind of devastating to find out it’s not him,” said Erica Armstrong Dunbar, a professor of history at Rutgers University whose book, Never Caught (Atria, 2017), documents the escape of Ona Judge from the President’s House in Philadelphia, where she was enslaved alongside Hercules and seven others. “We don’t have any other such portraits of the enslaved who lived at Mount Vernon.”

On Dec. 15, 1801, Martha Washington wrote to Richard Varick, the mayor of New York City, to thank him for looking into the whereabouts of “my Old Cook Hercules. … I have been so fortunate as to engage a white cook who answers very well. I have thought about it therefore better to decline taking Hercules back.”

What Martha Washington did not mention was that she had already freed her husband’s slaves in January of that year, acting early upon a wish from George’s will with an emancipation that also applied to Hercules.

That New York correspondence has long been the last known clue to Hercules’ fate. And it’s a thread that Ganeshram and Sara Krasne, a colleague at the Westport Historical Society where the novelist is executive director, began to pursue in February with a startling new discovery — a New York City death notice that just might be him.

They looked back to John Posey, Hercules’ previous owner, for more clues. They found one. Krasne uncovered the burial record for Hercules Posey, a Virginia native born in 1748 who was listed in the 1812 city directory as a laborer who lived at 33 Orange St. and who died of consumption on May 15, 1812. He was buried at the Second African Burying Ground in Lower Manhattan — a grave that Ganeshram believes is still under the Christie Street sidewalk on the Lower East Side.

“What are the odds with all these factors — being named Hercules and Posey, being black from Virginia and more or less the same age — of it not being him?” Ganeshram said. “People chose to believe the painting was him [despite all the doubts]. I think this evidence is much stronger.”

A pair of historians agreed.

“She may really be onto something,” said Mary V. Thompson, the Mount Vernon research historian who is soon set to publish her own book on slavery at Mount Vernon. “The name, age, and birthplace information are really compelling.”

“[They] may have found the needle in the haystack,” Dunbar, the Rutgers professor and author, concurred. “I would feel totally comfortable speculating that it was him.”

And so, 222 years after Hercules’ daring escape, the great chef may have been found.

“The portrait was not Hercules, but look what popped up instead,” Dunbar said. “He’s totally not trying to go away — he wants you to know.”

“To think he was right there, and may still be, gives me chills,” Ganeshram said. “Hercules is bigger than the painting, and he always has been.”

LaBan, Craig (2019, March 1). 'George Washington's enslaved chef, who cooked in Philadelphia, disappears from painting, but may have reappeared in New York', Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved from https://www.inquirer.com/food/craig-laban/george-washington-slave-chef-cook-hercules-gilbert-stuart-painting-wrong-20190301.html.

[queermediastudies]

Feminist Vampires: Don’t Invite Mainstream Audiences Inside! (Madi Mackey)

Bit, written and directed by Brad Michael Elmore, is the story of a young trans woman named Laurel who moves to Los Angeles and finds herself mixed up in a friend group of female vampires. She is quickly turned into a vampire herself and thrust into their world. Duke, the leader of the girl gang, implements some very strict rules for the group. The most important rule is to never turn a man into a vampire, stating that they can’t handle the power. The film follows the five young women as they navigate their lives as both vampires and members of a bustling Los Angeles night life. The drama comes to a peak when Laurel accidentally bites her brother and has to decide between saving his life and following Duke’s rules.

The film is an excellent example of modern day intersectional feminism. The core group of women is very diverse, representing African American, latina, butch, and transgender identities. They are all women-loving women in some sense, though their specific sexualities are never detailed. They are unflinchingly focused on retaining their power and their sisterhood by refusing to let a man into their groups and forbidding any usage of their mind-influencing powers on each other. However, the film is not perfect, and does not hold up to much scrutiny from a queer perspective. Duke, the previously mentioned leader, is also the only white girl in the group. Their hatred toward men could push the idea that all feminists hate men, further isolating the movement. Finally, the film does not mention class or any struggles associated with the marginalized communities the characters belong to, reducing the film to a post-gender, post-sexuality world. For these shortcomings, I argue that Bit is a great stride in the queer movie industry, but it misses the mark in many categories, and could therefore cause more damage to the trans, lesbian, and feminist communities than the positive impacts of such representation could outweigh, if it were to leave the arthouse and break into the mainstream.

One major theme in Bit is intersectional feminism. As mentioned before, the group of vampires is quite diverse, but this inclusion is only skin-deep. Their dynamic still enforces white, middle-class homonormativity. The girl with the most power is white and cisgender, and all of the girls are able-bodied and middle- to upper-class. Joyrich explains that television industries must continually portray homonormativity to maintain profits, and the same can be said for the film industry (2013, p. 5). Although this is a low-budget film that premiered at an independent film festival, the director, Elmore, stated in an interview that one of his main goals was for the movie to reach a larger audience of at-home viewers (Dunagan, 2019). His yearning for mass reception might have caused him to reproduce homonormativity for the film to be more palatable and, therefore, more profitable.

This is not the only flaw within the production practices for this film. Similar to criticisms regarding Pose and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, Elmore is a cis white man who took it upon himself to tell a queer story. By doing so, he took production resources and material benefits from its popularity away from the trans, lesbian, and POC communities who live the stories that he is telling (Tourmaline, 2017). Elmore explains that he read multiple theoretical texts and memoirs regarding gender while writing the script, and then had a close, gender non-conforming friend of his approve it before he, “felt more comfortable to show it to people in and around that conversation and community that I wasn’t close to” (Dunagan, 2019). While he did a fair bit of research into the community before creating the film, this isn’t the same as being a member of the community. Cavalcante explains this difference as a split between identifying with and identifying as a character, with identifying as a character always hitting closer to home and being more personal (2017, p. 14). Although Cavalcante makes this distinction in regards to audience reception, I believe it can be applied to production as well, and how Elmore wrote characters he could identify with, whereas a trans or POC writer could have written more personal characters that they identify as. Because Elmore is not trans or a POC, he needed to enforce homonormativity in his film in order to create characters that he identified with, as he has never lived as someone on the margins.

(Brad Michael Elmore, writer and producer of Bit)

Still, the production methods and content of the movie themselves could absolutely be described as queer. Benshoff & Griffin describe new queer cinema as films that have low-budgets, usually remain in the arthouse, and show the inadequacy of labels, instead focusing on the social discourses surrounding gender, race, and class (2004, pp. 11-12). Bit checks all of these boxes, even offering some helpful insights into social discourses. When Laurel, the transgender protagonist, is turned into a vampire, Duke tells her that their number one rule is to absolutely never turn a man. Laurel looks worried and asks, “What about me?” to which Duke responds, “Never even crossed my mind” (Elmore, 2019). Her immediate acceptance of Laurel’s identity expresses a consistent mood throughout the entire movie. Laurel’s transition and identity are never remarked in more explicit terms, and the sexuality and ethnicity of the other women are all treated with the same unspoken acceptance. The only identities that are ever mentioned are class and sex; Laurel asks one of the girls how they afford to live in L.A., and anyone who identifies as a man is immediately treated with contempt.

(watch video until 42:50)

While these approaches to intersectional identity may function well within the underground audience of new queer cinema, they could cause problems if Bit were to hit the mainstream. As Tongson explains, media representations help to produce our material realities; we rely on media to understand identities that we don’t know in the real world (2017, p. 158)). By ignoring the struggles of marginalized communities in the film, Bit raises more questions than it answers for viewers who are unfamiliar with these communities. Their confusion could cause these people on the margins to become cultural interpreters and explain their communities to those who don’t understand. Some see this as an opportunity to share their life experiences and cross cultural bridges; for others, it can become a burden of representation and they may lose a feeling of privacy (Cavalcante, 2017, p. 11). Bit could be seen as a welcome break from tragic representations for people within the trans community. Conversely,  Elmore’s silence on these issues could also lead mainstream audiences to believing that marginalized communities do not face any struggles in modern America, and therefore lose some empathy. 

This mediated understanding of reality could also be greatly detrimental to the feminist movement if it were to hit the mainstream. While I loved the explicitly feminist tone of the film, other audiences could find it off-putting and apply Bit’s ideology to all real-life feminists. The group of women in this film are quite outspoken around their distrust and distaste toward men. This could be applied to feminists, who are already called “man haters” in the real world as an attempt to invalidate their arguments. Elmore could be adding fuel to this fire by depicting feminists as exactly what the mainstream fears them to be.

Simultaneously, this bold approach to intersectional feminism is exactly why I, and many other queer viewers, love this film. My own subject positionality influences my understanding of Bit, just as those of mainstream audiences would make them feel differently about the film. I am a college-educated, middle-class, white, bisexual woman. I am also an outspoken feminist and socialist. All of my converging identities influence my view on this film and the opinions I have on its themes. As a young person who spends a lot of time in feminist spaces online, I felt such a rush while watching this film and hearing them directly saying things like, “Men can’t handle power. They have it already, and look at what they have done with it” (Elmore, 2019). A lot of people online say things about hating men, and I know from my own personal experience that the argument is so nuanced that it is simply easier to say “kill all men” than it is to explain what feminism really stands for and how it is, in fact, not simply man-hating. I love that this film expects the viewer to have this same knowledge, and can therefore say things like this without needing to defend itself and explain all of the nuance behind such a statement.

My status as middle-class and a socialist also have a great impact on my subject positionality and interpretation of Bit. Coming from a middle-class family and city, everything in the movie seemed normal to me. I was able to identify with the characters’ struggles, as they didn’t have anything to do with money or family issues. However, I could see this posing an issue for people who are struggling financially or with their family dynamic. To make up for this, the film has a lot of discourse regarding the redistribution of power and resources. Downward redistribution is a key tenant of leftism, so this movie displays clear leftist ideologies from a socio-political perspective (Duggan, 2002, p.XVI). We can see this in lines like, “How would you like to hold the keys to the kingdom for a change?” when Duke is talking to Laurel about turning, and at the very end of the movie, when Laurel’s brother asks her what they should do next and she responds, “Maybe what everyone with power should do and never does: share it” (Elmore, 2019).

(watch video until 1:30:00)

Finally, watching this film from the subject positionality of a woman greatly influenced my interpretation and reaction. At first, I was appalled by the group of girls and how nonchalantly they killed people, especially men. Laurel was written to have the same feelings of shock and disgust. So, when Duke said, “Our role is secondary. Our bodies are suspect, alien, other. We’re made to be monstrous, so let’s be monsters,” (Elmore, 2019) that was enough of an explanation for Laurel, and for myself, to become sympathetic to their cause. I have been personally affected by the feelings of otherness and being secondary that Duke lists, so this was a perfect line to change my opinion on their actions. However, if a man were to watch this film, especially if he were not to be a feminist, he might not be so sympathetic because he does not have the same experiences and understanding of what it is like to live in this world.

(watch until 41:12)

Bit is a film that crosses many boundaries, while still upholding some homonormativity for the sake of profit and consumption. It was written with the expectation of an audience that is knowledgeable of marginalized communities and social issues, making it thoroughly enjoyable to watch from a queer perspective. However, if the film were to break into the mainstream spotlight, its lack of nuance could cause harmful backlash toward trans communities, people of color, woman-loving women, and feminist movements. 

References

Benshoff, H. M. & Griffin, S. (2004). Queer cinema: The film reader. Psychology Press.

Cavalcante, A. (2017). Breaking into transgender life: Transgender audiences’ experiences with ‘first of its kind’ visibility in popular media. Communication, Culture & Critique, 10(3), 538-555. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12165

Duggan, L. (2002). Introduction. In The twilight of equality? Neoliberalism, cultural politics, and the attack on democracy (pp. X-XXII). Beacon Press. 

Dunagan, R. (2019, August 2). Interview: A talk with Brad Michael Elmore, Director of OUTFEST’s ‘Bit’. Flipscreen. https://flipscreened.com/2019/08/02/interview-a-talk-with-brad-michael-elmore-director-of-outfests-bit/

Elmore, B. M. (Director). (2019). Bit [Film]. Vertical Entertainment.

Joyrich, L. (2013). Queer television studies: Currents, flows, and (main)streams. Cinema Journal, 53(2), 133-139. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2014.0015 

Tongson, K. (2017). Queer. In L. Ouellette & J. Gray (Eds.), Keywords for media studies (pp. 157-160). NYU Press. 

Tourmaline. (2017, October 11). Tourmaline on transgender storytelling, David France, and the Netflix Marsha P. Johnson Documentary. Teen Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/reina-gossett-marsha-p-johnson-op-ed 

[sophiejoedwards]

Reflections

February-March 2020 

After being given our module brief I wasn’t quite sure where to begin, my first instinct is to make, create, explore and experiment with materials to discover my 3D outcomes and context often corresponds to the work retrospectively, however I had to change this way of thinking, and bring myself out of this comfort zone. I started asking myself questions about artwork in general. What am I interested in? What do I want to know more about? 

One of the best galleries we visited in Lisbon has stuck in my mind. For days of looking in galleries I was repeatedly thinking how within a gallery space it’s sometimes difficult for me to connect to intangible art in this sort of setting, there is a separation between you and the artwork. Installations are different, due to the sensory nature of some installations, I feel like it’s sometimes easier to connect to this sort of art.  I often find interactive and playful art more engaging as it removes this distance between the viewer and the artwork and is easier to connect with due to it often having a multi sensory appeal. One of the best galleries we visited in Lisbon (in my opinion) was Modo De Uso. You are handed a playful ‘handbook’ guide to each artwork where Claire de Santa Coloma has written a suggestion guide to how to approach and respond to the artwork with her drawings used as reference “If you made it this far, thank you. The artist is now responsible for your level of satisfaction”. Rather than being a passive onlooker the artist encourages you to connect to the artwork discovering it’s sensory appeal. As humans we like to look at art because it simultaneously affects our senses, our thoughts, and our emotions and ___’s encouragement to embrace the sensory-tactile element of his artwork certainly heightened the overall experience for me and my friends. I’m also intrigued by the ability of this installation to be able to transmit the same message to diverse groups of people through the tangibility of the work. 

To better understand my personal position my research has begun by asking general straightforward questions like  :  

Why do we appreciate art? Where does this appreciation come from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/beastly-behavior/201709/why-do-humans-make-art

Is art about beauty? - Connection to the natural world/ connection of a visual stimulus with an inner emotional state - argued that this comes from evolution- and the attraction . 

Appreciation also comes from knowledge and experience that is common between the artist and the audience. Art capitalizes on specific stored memories and associations in the brain of the observer. Further still, the ability to make and use tools, a skill that began in apes and exploded in hominids, requires a great deal of visual and tactile memory. 

Art induces visual recall of past events or emotions - Art capitalizes on specific stored memories and associations in the brain of the observer. Visual memory was important to survival 

Visual representations and expression - memories, life, culture

Art aids in communication and education - evolutionary visual aids - a language of their own 

Some scientists have suggested that art helps us to bond as groups; and that the brain is programmed to notice and enjoy simple patterns PATTERN RECOGNITION. The human brain is constantly looking for familiar patterns, to impose meaning on a complex world. 

Where does this leave contemporary or abstract art? Ability to use visual representations to induce memory recall or visual understanding.

Art invites us to contemplate outside the box, and explore and better understand ideas we weren’t conscious of before? (Salvador Dali) to i.e through depicting bizarre worlds, subconscious states/ unreal and illusory depictions.

: In developing his general theory about how humans decide what they like or dislike, he lines up evidence to show that what people believe about a work of art is crucial to the way they feel about it.  

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jun/20/modern-art-all-in-mind 

The value of art !?  "Traditional art is about what is in the world; more modern works are about the very process of representation," he writes. "An appreciation of much of modern art therefore requires specific expertise. Any dope can marvel at a Rembrandt, but only an elite few can make any sense of a work such as Sherrie Levine's Fountain (After Marcel Duchamp), and so only an elite few are going to enjoy it."

According to Bloom, someone who invests heavily in abstract art and explains that they simply love the shapes and colours is only telling half the story. He believes that the psychological patterns described in "signalling theory" apply to the purchase of modern art. In other words, a rich man or woman tries to distinguish themselves from the pack by spending money on the right thing. "Any schmoe can buy, and appreciate, a pretty painting, while spending millions of dollars on abstract art might display a combination of wealth and discernment," writes Bloom.

I also fully expect that artistic talent would have eventually been transferred from our culture to our genes. After all, during a million or two years of natural selection, artistic ability was likely to confer some advantage on those that had it. This advantage could have come in the form of increased social standing as a leader in the hunt, a prolific teacher of skills, and so on. 

Does appreciation of art- or an artistic eye run in genes ? 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/sep/19/born-creative-study-brain-hemingway

In highly creative individuals this connectivity is thought to be especially widespread in the brain, which may be down to genes that play a role in the development of pathways between different areas. These genes reduce inhibition of emotions and memory, meaning that more information reaches the level of consciousness.

So, are we born creative or not? While factors such as upbringing play a crucial role in your brain's development, the work done by scientists in Scandinavia, Germany and the US has shown that having the right genetic makeup can make your brain more inclined towards creative thinking. The rest of us have to "learn" to be creative.

Context is key - One study showed that people liked paintings less if they thought they were made by a computer rather than a human artist, even when the pictures were actually identical. 

How our brains process visual information is not the only factor to consider.

Scientific studies indicate that we derive more or less pleasure depending on what we know about the subject. This applies to our enjoyment of, for example, food and drink as well as art. - So when we identify and understand a piece of art we connect to it better 

STIMULATING SENSES

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/how-do-we-understand-abstract-art/zhkvxyc

think of a project and an idea for the theory and context as opposed to a 3D outcome, my initial urges are to create, make and explore materials and see what comes of this, instead I began by asking myself some questions about the artworks that interest me, specifically the type of artwork. Firstly I wanted to create a series of videos using this little plastic toy children’s pottery wheel to throw functional pots in unusual places, like the underground or on the top of a mountain. I liked the idea of a playful performance piece then began thinking about participatory artwork and how members of the public could take part in this piece.  I also liked the idea of filming in the wilderness, responding to ‘site and place’ by throwing vessels using clay collected from a specific place, filming this vessel being created in this specific place, drawing attention to this direct connectivity between the land and the artwork and the maker.  (in a dream land I also imagined it being wood fired at this location and eating food from this  vessel that was gathered/found/ foraged. To go full cycle.                                                                 

Playful nature of Bruce Mclean 

“Art has become very serious, I think it should be something more enjoyable” 

https://olafureliasson.net/archive/artwork/WEK108821/moon

https://library.bathspa.ac.uk/items/eds/edsglr/edsgcl.499406627?query=participatory+art&resultsUri=items%3Fquery%3Dparticipatory%2Bart%26checkbox%3Deverything%26facet%255B0%255D%3DEdsRecordOptions%253A%2522IsFullText%2522%26target%3Deds&facet%5B0%5D=EdsRecordOptions%3A%22IsFullText%22&target=eds

http://www.moonmoonmoonmoon.com/#sphere

https://www.dawsonera.com/readonline/9781137033642

A group of people to be directly engaged in a creative process 

Inspiration | exchange |unknown outcome

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/participatory-art

https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=STND&u=bsuc&id=GALE%7CA544635325&v=2.1&it=r&sid=ebsco JEREMY DELLER 

http://innovacion-soci.webs.upv.es/index.php/social-cartography

[kirankowda]

In today’s world, running a business is no piece of cake. There is massive competition knocking at your doorstep, with different companies trying their best to be the king on the hill. This competition in the market is one of the major reasons that businesses suffer thus making it difficult to get the message of your products or services out to your potential customers.

Nevertheless, today with modern technology like text advertisements, you can now easily increase your customer penetration and stay ahead of your competitors. How do you do it you say? Well, just think “text ads in Google ads” and you can enhance your sales and be assured of a profitable business. It is one excellent process which is as simple as 1 2 3. It is basically an advertisement that is text-based and uses hyperlinks.

Text ads have flourished in affiliate marketing, but mainstream advertisers are only just discovering their power. Google themselves claim that their clients have seen click-through rates that are more than 4 times higher than the current industry standard, judging by banner ads.

While graphic ads have their benefits, text-based ads have their own set of powerful advantages, not least of which because they download faster and usually filter through the sharp scanners of ad-blocking applications.

Basic text ads on Google Ads are made up of three elements:

Headline

Description

Display URL

Google doesn’t need much introduction. It’s a multinational technology firm specializing in Internet-related services and products, including online advertising systems, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware, as you may already understand. With Google’s text ads feature, marketers can utilize text as a marketing communication that advertises your products or services in the Google network.

Why you need text ads in Google ads for your eCommerce business

With competition being either good or bad, it is advisable to successfully create a vigorous presentation of your business in an appropriate manner. As the saying goes “Advertising makes your company money”, and the bottom line is that advertising really works and it is the right way to attract customers. It is a common fact that when consumers set eyes on robust and optimistic shopping ads they are more enthusiastic to buy and prepared to choose your business, products, and services. For this reason, one of the best ways to advertise your business is to utilize text ads in Google Ads.

Below are some benefits of promoting your business through text ads in Google ads, although these just scratch the surface:

In order to enhance your business by effectively reaching customers

Providing immense information about the business, by providing vital statistics like contact details, location, website info and other necessary data to attract potential customers.

To undoubtedly grasp the attention of prospective clientele.

Make your business easily understandable and clear to customers or the public.

Puts your products across as relevant, attractive, empowering and most specific.

In addition, you can customize your ad to specific clients.

Text ads lend a hand to companies to hunt down likely consumers, enhance their marketing reach and generate scores of invaluable sales leads.

How to create text ads in Google ads for your search campaign

The new Google Ads experience is now the exclusive way for most users to manage their accounts. Shown below is the basic and simple way of creating text ads in Google Ads.

Method #1: The Manual way

Sign in to your Google Ads account and click on ‘campaigns’.

Navigate to the ‘Ads’ tab, click the plus button and then choose ‘Text Ad’.

Select the ad group that your new ad needs to fall under.

Once you are satisfied with your new text ad, hit ‘Save ad’.

Do note that before your advertisements are sent out to potential customers, Google Ads will review the formatting and content to ensure it meets their policies and standards.

Method #2: The AdNabu (Automatic) Way

If you cannot commit time, efforts or resources to create and monitoring text ads for your shopping campaigns, considering hiring the services of an expert digital marketing firm. At AdNabu, a quick sign up can make your life easier and increase conversions by up to 30%.

During your trial period, you can easily test out the tool, get feedback and help from AdNabu experts and view conversions from shopping and search ads for your e-commerce business increased by more than 30%.

Best Practices for text ads in Google ads for eCommerce

We all know that platforms like Google Ads permits you to grab hold of a searcher’s eye, get them interested in your offer, enticing them to make a purchase. To be more efficient in attracting potential customers, here are a few best practices that one can pursue in making their text ad powerful and strong.

Best Practice #1: Know what your target market wants.

It’s common to see where most businesses come within reach of ad-writing by talking about themselves to impress their clients or customers. This is a natural thing to do but can be counterproductive. Instead, tailoring ads from product categories to what your target market wants by using their search term and keywords will increase leads, conversions and generally drive more relevant traffic to your website.

It is a known fact that customers search for their needs and not because they are inquisitive about your company or website. Therefore, the best way to draw their interest is to show them that you are customer-friendly considering and understanding their tribulations and are able to put it right. Placing yourself in their shoes would be an ideal practice, to begin with before you start writing your ads.

Best Practice #2: Address your audience.

Use the words “you” and “your” in your ads. These words indicate that you’re addressing your audience directly and are making them feel like they matter. It also creates the much-required impression that your ads are targeted at them because your company or a specific product is right for them- either because of what you sell or how you maintain customer relationships. Making the customer feel comfortable and interested will increase footfall on your site generating sales and eventually profits through revenue.

In order to drive more clicks, it is important to tell customers what they can do on your site once they click your ad. Mention special offers and prices that will keep them looking for more. Never complicate the site with complicated data or matter. Make it simple, short and sweet so that the customers will never feel bored while surfing your site. Create a customer-friendly feeling which will prompt the visitor to return and further promote your business through word of mouth inviting more hits.

Best Practice #3: Use emotional triggers to your advantage.

Boring could be the worst thing in an ad, so be careful to make the ad interesting, well put together and not offensive. The ad should be intriguing enough for the viewers to be encouraged and wanting to click on it. It needs to be easy, understandable and the wordings need to be chosen carefully to make the audience feel something. This should not be a hurdle or difficult if you are aware of the needs of your target market.

Best Practice #4: Use ad extensions.

This is a feature that essentially makes an ad box larger than it currently is, allowing a business to add specific information. This could be an address, a phone number or an email ID- an ad extension gives a user more information to perform the required call to action.

Best Practice #5: Monitor your quality score.

This is an estimate Google provides of the quality of ads, keywords and click-throughs your campaign is generating. The higher a quality score, the higher your search ad’s chances of appearing in search engine results.

Things to look at while creating text ads in Google ads for an eCommerce store

Writing for Google Ads can be both frustrating and time-consuming because you need to create compelling copy that fits into a small square on top of a search results page. You need to pay close attention to your context to make good decisions and ensure that your ads will not only pop up against relevant search queries, they’ll also entice a user to become a customer.

In addition, there will be other ads that you have to compete with through bids. Google’s stringent policies don’t make things easier, either. The best way to create attractive ads is by considering the actual needs of your customer. You must imagine how your products or services will benefit customers and please their desires.

Here below are a few things to look for when creating text ads in Google ads:

Consideration #1: Designate your geographic area.

By doing this, you can further tailor your ads to show up in front of a specific market. An added hidden advantage of identifying a geographic target area is using their demographics to craft a text ad that’s relevant, using words that they use and the language they’re familiar with.

Consideration #2: Add your keywords.

Keywords are crucial to text ads. Insert high-ranking relevant keywords in an organic manner into your title, description, even destination URL if possible. This not only drives more relevant traffic but it also subconsciously convinces the user that this is the ad they need to click on to find what they’re on the lookout for.

Consideration #3: Craft compelling ad copy and landing page.

Your ad copy and title are what help to create the first impression, so make sure it’s the best impression possible. A compelling text ad with a specific call to action helps you generate a better click-through rate, and this will ultimately result in higher conversion rates. So, the more attractive your text ad is, the more leads are likely to convert to customers.

Conclusion:

It is a known fact that placing text ads through Google Shopping and Google Ads is efficient. Although time-consuming and a tad on the costlier side, it is money and time that is well spent as Google Ads tend to deliver. So, in order to broaden your business and get you soaring high reaching your goals and sales, it is wise to create text ads in Google ads.

Businesses must invest time in Google Ads because if you do not, your competitors will, and your delay becomes their advantage. There is much less risk financially when compared to various other advertising options where larger costs are needed upfront. The bottom line is that today text ads are key for e-commerce players big and small to advertise and promote their business. Advertising does pay and to be ahead in the game is the name of the game.

[amyleighkeane]

ESSAY on the ‘’sexually queer female gaze’’ for referance

BY AMY KEANE

‘’Taking a range of photographic images or a single photographer’s work, discuss how the gaze is addressed through issues of Gender. From your research define your understanding of the gaze’’

The gendered Gaze, brought to the forefront of the medias attention by Laura Mulvey in her essay published in 1975 ‘’ Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’’. The ‘’male gaze’’ represents the portrayal of women in media, to be objectified and sexualised, as heterosexual men are prominently in control of the camera. Referencing to both voyeurism and Freud’s theory of scopophilia, Mulvey coined the term to produce the ‘’female gaze’’ to then represent the gaze from and for the heterosexual female viewer. Gender is dominantly used in the male gaze, assuming that the males in control of producing the media based content, are heterosexual and are therefore sexually and/or romantically attracted to the female subjects. From this their judgement and ability to produce un-biased content is non existent. In this essay I will further explore the gaze’s and their relation to gender but also question the theory of what gaze the sexually queer female would have,sharing their natural sexual and/or romantic attraction to women and the female body. Wether this makes them exempt to the male gaze as identifying as female. Further questioning if the obvious exploitation of women in media, and the common knowledge of this oppression to all women, overpowers the fact that sexually queer females could also only posses the power to sexualise and objectify the female body?

Freud in ‘’ Three essays on sexuality’’ looks at scopophilia. The theory that ‘’ looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as , in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at’’. In Freud’s research he linked this widely to’’taking other people as objects,subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze’’ This information seems critical to Mulvey’s work regarding the gaze as a basis of where the nature of objectification comes from. To take this theory and understand that it can be somewhat pleasurable to condemn a subject to objectification is a flaw to Mulvey’s work that of focusing clearly on the heterosexual view of this. Looking at the apparent bigger picture should it not be classed as a contribution to the gaze but with the inclination of not being specifically gendered. As being a form of fetish that can be used by any gender as well as being able to be projected onto anyone of any gender.

A generic male gaze has been papable with the historically obvious patriarchy system in which still dominates the art world. The male gaze can been seen in works as early as 1538. Titian’s ‘’Venus of Urbino’’ is a painting of a woman in nude, lounging on a bed of expensive fabrics. One of her hands placed on her upper thigh covering herself and the other dropping a handful of flowers. The models head is tilted to the side with a controlled expression. The image posses a visual showcase of the male gaze, being a calculation of everything in which would be sexually appealing to a heterosexual male in context to the time produced. The female being nude, in which was considered to be a lot more promiscuous at the time, not having the prominent exposure to nudity that is classed as neutral in the twenty first century, is an obvious compliment to the ‘’peeping toms’’ and ‘’ obsessive voyeurs’’ ‘’ whose only sexual satisfaction can come from watching an objectified other’’. From the passive expression and pose to the models surroundings the woman is in the image simple to be looked at. Comprehending the surroundings of fabric and flowers you could say that the woman is placed and organised into position just as a still life of fruit would be composed. To be looked at, objectifying her for nothing more than her body. Submitting to a quote found in Mulvey’s writings by Budd Boelticher ‘’What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one , or rather the love of fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her. Who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance’’. Referencing that to the role of the heroine is the everyday woman and the ‘’Hero’’ is the everyday man. As an example in Titian’s image the role of the woman is to get a reaction from the male viewer. It is the idea in which the woman inspires with her appearance and pose rather than her intelligence or through a visual role of actual significance. This is easily communicated into modern day photographic advertising with women unnecessarily over-sexualised in order to capture the attention of the forever dominant heterosexual male audience for purposes of sales.

Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer, with her work being projected world wide. Photographing for publications such as the Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, Leibovitz portrayal of her subjects and models have a monumental affect globally for representation of said person. Overall holding a responsibility as a photographer to capture a positively un-bias viewing platform for the audience. Leibovitz is an openly sexually queer woman who often produced work with her late partner Susan Sontag for example a book called ‘’Women’’ photographs by herself and writings by Sontag. One of Leibovitz’s more famous shots is one of Demi Moore on a cover for Vanity Fair. The model was shot nude, the image itself has the subjects body profile cradling her pregnant stomach and covering her breasts with the other hand. Moore is looking away from the camera with a calm and strong expression. The image exudes with a comfortable confidence. It posses the power for the viewer to see and acknowledge the actress, the soon to be mother, the person present in the photograph. Creating the exact opposite to the male created ‘’Venus of Urbino’’ where all is acknowledged is the female form in a sexualised setting. Both images contain women as well as both images being nude pieces yet the process of expression differs being composed by different genders. Mulvey would point this to be a representation of the male and female gazes. The male gaze prominent in the ‘’ Venus of Urbino’’ as it was composed by a man with ideologies of being seen by men. Whereas Leibovitz’s shot this as a female, with the female gaze for the female audience. The argument now starts wether or not Leibovitz can truly shoot such images without the presence of the male gaze being included with her work considering her non-heterosexual sexuality and attraction to women. The question is as poses how could someone whose is sexually and romantically interested in women, especially in a nude based shoot, not over sexualise or objectify said model?. In the book ‘’Women on women’’ accurately coinciding with the title of being women photographers shooting women models, Sacha comments ‘’ Man always sees a showcase, a shop window, the way a woman shows herself to the outside world. A man can look at it, but not be in it- thats the difference’’. In this comment she is referring to the differences between the two gender gazes. Promoting the theory that as a woman, Leibovitz can find the distinction between women being sexual beings:when posing in erotic or non-erotic ways, with or without clothing as well as including sexual inclinations or not and alternatively women being showed as sexual objects. Mario Sorrenti, a heterosexual male, photographs what in the present day is not a shock or abnormality; the world of media bending to suit the heterosexual male and his desires. Sorrenti’s work is popular in the genre of advertising, in particular his work with model Kate Moss for the Calvin Klein men’s perfume Obsession. The sole purpose for the advertisement is to sell the product being perfume, yet the only content in Sorrenti’s image is a naked Kate Moss. An advertisement main goal is to attract its prime target audience with aesthetically grasping imagery to associate the product or brand to, furthermore increasing sales. The male gaze is at its most pronounced in this situation of literally using the woman and her body as an object of sexualisation for sales. Contrasting to Leibovitz’s image of Demi Moore, of which was used as a cover for the sale of a magazine. It puts into perspective if the same model was shot by a heterosexual male, like Sorrenti, and following the theory that sex is a large contributor for sales; would the new image of Demi Moore contribute to the sales of the specific magazine? This is only questioned with the idea that the male gaze is overbearing and not only affects the women oppressed by the gaze but the women that are influenced by this ‘’norm’’ that is in modern day culture. Because women have been so heavily exposed to such imagery subject to the male’s desires, could this also demonstrate a brainwashing of women to think that this representation of women is normal, positive or even influential? As to be the subject of the male gaze is what a male would describe to be desirable. The short answer would be Yes. Shown with the growing market of diets, beauty products and cosmetic surgery advertised to gain the ‘ perfect’ look/image. With this many examples of the ‘perfect’ image would also be a direct representation of what the heterosexual male conceives as attractive in a woman. The male gaze directs this idea in the twenty first century being a great deal more obvious than the critic of male appearance. Photography is a direct catalogue of this information especially within in the advertisement industry. Cases of this can be found in the clothing company American Apparel in which has had many advertisements banned in the UK due to their explicit nature involving women and their bodies. Particularly I am drawn to this series of photographs and text that purpose is to sell pairs of socks. Everything about the image screams that it has been raped by the male gaze. The main image consists of a woman in a submissive pose gripping her knees up to her chest, being the only thing apart from her hair loosely covering her breasts. The camera angle depicts the viewer to be looking down and aggressively onto the model. The expression of the subject being blank staring back up to the viewer with a somewhat fetishised ‘’ innocent ‘’ appearance. The set of three images to the left of the composition see the model mid chest to forehead laying down on sheets pulling prominent facial expressions widely associated with pleasure from performed sexual acts. The main text on the image states ‘’ Safe to say, she loves her socks’’. The comment is to that of a sarcastic remark referring to the viewer stereotypically looking at everything but the socks in the image due to the extreme sexualisation of the model. Finally with more text at the bottom right of the composition stating ‘’ Meet Lauren Pheonix. 150lbs of magic. Actress. Director. Look her up on Google’’. Firstly the mention of her weight is also completely irrelevant to the purpose of selling socks and only to a means of objectifying the woman to her physical stats. A small amount of ‘’Google’’ research puts forward the information that the model has a career in the pornography industry. Observing the image and the model disregarding this irrelevant information pointing to exploit the career she chooses to earn money only brings to mind one thought. Why is it necessary for a porn star to assist in the sales of socks? Even in perspective that the model, for her appearance alone suited the casting for what is suitable for American Apparels sock model, it has been made a statement with the text included that the brand wants to associate itself with what is a taboo subject, with sex. ‘’ Look her up on Google’’. This image is a prime example of photography that is used for the male gaze. It is the representation of the unnecessary objectification of women in advertising to please the most common viewer, being the heterosexual male. For an audience this promotes sexism and a divide between genders the male gaze in this instance is a promotion for this sexism that women and their bodies are to be used for any means like advertisement or sales. Looking at the works of Zanele Muholi, specifically indulging in her ongoing project ‘’Faces and Phases’’ showing photography of the community in which she is a part of being LGBTQI. Zanele Muholi has known not to be shy with her subjects of which have been photographed. Some of her work for example ‘’Being scene’’ depicting blurry video footage of bodies, lesbian couples including herself and her long term girlfriend being intimate. The representation in the photographs is important here being some of a small world wide collection of a sexually queer woman photographing sexually queer women. With my evaluation of Muholi’s images I have come to the conclusion that the images must posses both gender gazes or neither. Potentially collecting the alternative term as the Queer gaze? Defining as the depiction of women through the gaze of a queer photographer. Because of the photographers sexual preference in conjunction with the subject it could be advanced that the photographer has the potential gaze in which that would have be neutral? In comparison to David Hamilton’s representation of queer women in the book ‘’sisters’’ Muholi’s work can be analysed to be a honest depiction of the subject whereas Hamilton’s to be a exhibition of what he thinks queer women should be portrayed as. It could be argued with the obvious exploitation of queer women in media, especially in pornography, that Hamilton’s gaze is a explicit statement of the male gaze. Hamilton being male and queer women being sexualised more so than the stereotypically average heterosexual woman wether that be because of the fetish of the straight male only being able to use his gaze to look on the queer woman and not being able to posses her. Or due to the fact that there is a stereotype that makes queer women, especially their sex lives, to be that of a performance to please the straight man. This can be evident again ,as a second interpretation, of the quote by Sasha stating ‘’Man always sees a showcase, a shop window, the way a woman shows herself to the outside world. A man can look at it, but not be in it- thats the difference’’. The sexually queer female from my research does hold the ability to sexualise and objectify women. With the sexually queer photographers I have looked into it has been evident in their work that their knowledge and perhaps the personal accounts of sexism and oppression of gender sported from men and their gaze educates the queer woman not to do onto others what is done on to herself. Acknowledging that women can be sexual beings without being sexual objects. Identifying with their female gender first before their sexuality. With the knowledge of there being more than two genders and a spectrum of sexualities, including but not exclusive to heterosexuality, my research on the gaze has been refined to that the term needs to reassessed. An idea for this would be to look at the gaze not referred directly to gender or sexuality. But as a view that being a person whom does not identify with the same as your subject your ‘’ gaze’’ will still be evident on them, wether recored in a media form or not. IT will not be a true representation of that person. Although gender is relevant to the heterosexual male gaze for its history in photography dividing prominently females and males in a battle of equality between the sexes. Feminism, Equality for all, is a constant battle in the twentieth first century specifically in media pushing for representation of camera operators, editors, directors, producers etc of a multitude of genders and sexualities to find a balance of the gaze’s and a fair and equal representation of all current minorities. To achieve this would effectively almost execute the idea of objectification.

[commercialelectriciankaam20-blog]

Commercial Electrician Kansas City: A Simple Definition

What Electricians Perform

Electrical contractors put in, keep, and also repair work electric power, interactions, lighting fixtures, and also command bodies in houses, organisations, and manufacturing plants.

Roles of Electricians

Electrical experts commonly perform the following:

Read through plans or even technical layouts

Install and also sustain electrical wiring, command, and also lights bodies

Evaluate electric components, such as transformers and breaker

Recognize electrical problems utilizing a wide array of testing tools

Repair work or even switch out electrical wiring, devices, or even fixtures using palm resources and power tools

Follow condition as well as regional structure policies based upon the National Electrical Regulation

Direct and learn laborers to put in, preserve, or repair service power wires or equipment

Virtually every property has an electric energy, interactions, lights, and management device that is put up during development and also sustained afterwards. These systems energy the illuminations, home appliances, and also devices that produce individuals's lifestyles and projects easier and extra comfortable.

Setting up electrical bodies in freshly built structures is actually frequently less intricate than maintaining devices in existing buildings given that electric wires is actually much more simply obtainable during building and construction. Keeping tools as well as units involves identifying concerns and also repairing busted equipment that is actually occasionally difficult to get to. Servicing work may consist of taking care of or changing components, fixtures, command devices, motors, as well as other forms of electrical equipment.

Electricians go through plans, which include technological representations of power systems that show the place of circuits, outlets, and also other devices. They use different kinds of hand and also electrical power devices, such as pipe benders, to run and secure circuitry. Other frequently made use of hand as well as power tools feature screwdrivers, cord pole dancers, rotary tools, and saws. While troubleshooting, electrical contractors also may use ammeters, voltmeters, thermic scanning devices, and cable testers to discover problems and make sure that parts are actually operating properly.

Numerous electrical contractors work alone, yet occasionally they work together with others. As an example, experienced electrical experts might deal with structure engineers as well as designers to help style electric bodies for brand new building and construction. Some electrical experts might also speak with other construction professionals, like elevator installers as well as home heating and air conditioner laborers, to assist put up or sustain electric or even power systems. At larger providers, electrical experts are actually more likely to function as portion of a crew; they may route helpers as well as students to accomplish projects.

Discovering a residence electrical expert

A lot of house owners get in touch with electricians in an urgent or even if they're constructing or renovating. It is crucial to look into a service provider and also discover a competent electrical expert before you need to have one. By creating a connection along with a domestic electrician, you can be sure that they are going to be there to help when you require their services. Thus, you'll want to tap the services of an electrical contractor for normal evaluations just before an emergency takes place. A great electric contractor will definitely become aware of your residence's bodies and also potentially discover surfacing complications prior to they come to be major conditions.

Tapping the services of an electrician is actually a vital decision considering that they collaborate with crucial home units that have an effect on almost every component of the property as well as can result in substantial trouble, damage or even residence fires if the work fails.

As consistently, house owners must obtain several bids to guarantee they got the very best rate for the solution. To veterinarian the companies, house owners ought to ask them about the adhering to items:

Up-to-date education: A trustworthy provider will call for team to go to frequent instruction courses and also keep present on the National Power Code, which is modified every 3 years.

Pulling permits: An authorization is actually usually https://sjarth8j2i.doodlekit.com/blog/entry/6749548/a-productive-rant-about-swiftcei called for in most Commercial Electrician Kansas City areas and coming from the electrical power business any time you are actually switching out a property's primary electrical devices or even doing a significant volume of rewiring. The price of the permit is actually often consisted of in your electrician's bill, yet ensure to inquire. Along with the authorization happens an evaluation to ensure the work meets code.

Legit licensing: If your state requires domestic electricians to be certified, examine that the permit is current. Poor wire relationships, overloaded circuits, poor background and also defective safety and security factors on an electric door are actually simply a few of the troubles that may come up from negative workmanship. To check out an electrical expert's licensing, pertain to the Angie's List Permit Check resource. You ought to likewise protect your own self through confirming the grip the necessary building and insurance, including general liability as well as laborers' remuneration coverage.

Specialization: Considering that providers concentrate on various locations and scopes of work, it is vital for individuals to tap the services of the best business. If a resident merely intends to switch out electrical outlets and buttons, after that he or she most likely shouldn't delay naming office electrical experts that wire large buildings.

Figure out that is actually doing the job: You'll want to know if the electrical expert gets the job done on their own, if they hire assistants or apprentices, or if they utilize subcontractors. When it comes to assistants as well as pupils, confirm that a licensed electrical contractor is going to monitor all of them, as well as in the case of subcontractors, ensure their insurance covers you too.

Inquire about their guarantee: Highly ranked electricians point out a great contractor will supply a components and also work force guarantee to present that they stand behind their job.

Many electrical experts know on the job through an apprenticeship system of a number of years, which has a tendency to differ by state. Most condition licenses require a specific number of hours of on-the-job training. The path of exactly how to come to be an electrical expert depends upon numerous aspects, featuring whether the firm is union or even non-union, condition laws and also the need for additional domestic electricians in that area.

The path on how to end up being electrician commonly starts either along with an instruction or even a condition as an electrical expert's helper. Electrical experts in training monitor their mentors at the office, handle some of the job, discover the parts of electrical contractor's resources and tackle higher and also better task as they proceed. Their income likewise raises through year till they are actually viewers to take the exam to obtain their electric certificate. They may additionally undertake customized learning at a technological school or even a union training center, which commonly includes matching the trainee along with a necessary electric service provider.

Numerous various other public utilities quickly sprang up all over the UNITED STATE and also in Europe as the race was on to produce power and also circulate it to services and also houses. Gas light and also kerosene lamps were terminated as the electricity systems grew.

This quick development likewise generated a need for a brand-new profession-- the domestic electrician. Also today, the work of domestic electrician could be risky as well as even lethal. In the early years there were actually not but many security functions, therefore electrocution and also fires were actually certainly not rare. Nonetheless, today's electrical experts, electric designers and linemen are actually thoroughly trained to give the best achievable solution.

Electrical experts are educated to identify a range of vital aspects, consisting of remaining familiar with the best current variation of the National Electric Code and also knowing what the electrical wire color codes suggest. Modern electrical experts need carrying on training and education and learning. They come under various distinctions:

Residential electrical contractors mount, preserve as well as improve electric equipment in houses and also homes. They may also install outdoor garden lights. Their extent of job covers whatever from outlet renovations to buster carton upgrades and also overall house rewirings. They also deal with development projects to mount circuitry and trap brand-new homes. Lots of states also have a special part of power specialist permit to cover setting up residence safety and security units as well as alarm system job.

Industrial domestic electricians focus on building and construction web sites, in commercial properties and on technical electric systems. A lot of business electricians perform some installation job, which may entail water heaters, commercial surveillance units and also electronic secret systems.

Master electrical experts are actually highly experienced electricians that commonly do work in a ministerial duty or own having businesses. Several states call for seven years of adventure as an electrician or an undergraduate's level in electric design for certification as a professional electrical contractor. Licensing specifics vary by state, however in several instances, a service along with many journeyman domestic electricians need to possess a master electrical expert who supervises the whole entire procedure.

7 Primary Differences between Residential as well as Commercial HVAC Systems

While each domestic and also office HEATING AND COOLING units perform the very same purpose of home heating, aerating as well as cooling down, they vary considerably in regards to procedure and components. This is actually due to the fact that addressing the necessity for convenience in a home varies dramatically when contrasted to a work area. Complying with are actually 7 major distinctions in between home and also business HEATING AND COOLING devices:

1. Dimension

A home A/C device is much smaller sized as reviewed to an office A/C unit as it needs to cool down or heat up a much bigger area. Industrial devices are additionally various in regards to elements like thermostats, condenser supporter, compressor, evaporator, blower as well as, dampers. As both the systems are actually demanded to provide the necessities of various areas, the volume of energy they eat to work also differs greatly.

2. Positioning

While a home HVAC unit is actually normally positioned in the lawn or the sides of our home, an office AIR CONDITIONING unit is placed in overload colders or even on the building's roofing system for the following main reasons:

A COOLING AND HEATING system that is put on the rooftop makes an excellent space sparing remedy.

It avoids sound pollution in the property.

It is an excellent solution for upkeep as none of the tasks are interrupted in the course of repairs and also substitutes.

3. Intricacy

Besides the dimension, residential and also commercial A/C units also vary in establishment. Office bodies require to become extra versatile depending on the type of building where they are actually being mounted, the lot of tenants as well as using the building whether it is actually routine or consistent. Other aspects that find out the intricacy of office A/C bodies are actually the end-use of the building as well as the things that are actually being actually created or even sold in the building. These are actually the primary factors commercial units include a complicated mechanism as matched up to domestic units that call for less electrical power to ease exhaust.

4. Drainage

Every component of a COOLING AND HEATING unit is bigger than that of a non commercial unit featuring the drainage device. As household HVAC devices provide a considerably smaller sized location, the entire system empties in a singular frying pan that is actually positioned outside your house. An industrial AIR CONDITIONING body consists of multiple pipes as well as frying pans for the draining pipes reason to ensure complete dissipation and also to do away with the option of overruning.

5. Operation

The operation of a commercial AIR CONDITIONING unit relies on the structure where it is actually going to be put in. The production as well as installment of a commercial COOLING AND HEATING unit are actually mobile whereas a home device is created as a standalone device. Given that industrial AIR CONDITIONING units are actually mobile, all the components are housed all together and it permits effortless servicing and also upgrade. In a domestic HVAC unit, all the components are actually split in between the inside your home and the outdoors and it can certainly not be actually tweaked or grown.

6. Devices

The HVAC equipment used in much smaller residential constructs contrasts significantly as reviewed to the enormous AIR CONDITIONING equipment that is set up in office business. Office devices are actually customised for efficient heating & cooling and also are extremely intense. The moisture as well as temp necessities of a household property perform certainly not differ much which is actually why the A/C equipment utilized in the 2 units is actually quite various.

7. Servicing Price

The servicing expense of office AIR CONDITIONING devices is greater than a standalone property unit for numerous causes such as complexity of parts, the size of the system as well as the variation in system. For a commercial device, you need very knowledgeable as well as experienced experts to ensure an ideal setup, efficient maintenance as well as power productivity. Distinct HVAC technicians specialize in unique A/C devices as both the systems feature a special mechanism and also feature in a different way.

While both the systems are made to perform the exact same goal, making sure a comfortable and also healthy and balanced area demands regular HVAC servicing checkups by specialists that are experts in the particular system you own.

Just how to Shield a Fire place

Hearths are actually frequently the focal point of the property; that's just one explanation to know exactly how to preserve your fireplace to keep it practical and risk-free. And, if you are actually wishing to decrease your energy costs this year, you can easily ensure your hearth is working at peak effectiveness by putting in hearth insulation. Read on to learn how to make best use of the result of your fire place as well as minimize cool winds with the setup of protection.

Fireplace Insulation: Where, Why as well as How to Shield

A hearth will definitely heat a room when in use but may cause warmth reduction or even effectively insulated. A fireplace that is not adequately shielded will enable breezes of cool, exterior air right into the house. Even more, a badly insulated fire place will definitely be actually much less effective at including supplementary heat to your residence. There are 3 key aspect of a hearth where heat energy is actually missed:

the hearth door

the fireplace

the exterior wall

How to Shield a Fire place

Insulating along with a Chimney Liner

A fireplace lining or even flue cellular lining is a channel that flies a hearth firebox to the best of a smokeshaft. Protecting your smokeshaft liner aids to:

Protect against problematic heat energy transactions coming from scorching masonry to dry out house frameworks, in turn decreasing the risk of ignition.

Increase hearth effectiveness by directing sky basics of a property.

Lower creosote accumulation in the fire place, lowering the threat of fire.

Fireplace liner protection is available in many various types, including pour-in combines, stiff wraps, and also blanket.

Protecting a Fireplace Insert

A fireplace insert is actually a kind of present day fireplace that can be put in without brickwork. Manufactured with a fire resistant container, fireplace inserts may be timber or even pellet burning or may be actually powered by gasoline or even electrical energy. A fireplace insert is actually normally even more power efficient than a conventional fire place, but still calls for protection. Insulation ought to be actually tucked around all edges of the firebox and the flue.

Protecting a Fireplace Door

If you are concerned that the fire place door might be leaking cold winter season sky or even making it possible for smoke cigarettes right into your property, you may switch out the seal on it. To switch out the tape, get rid of the outdated covering, vacuum the gasket network to get rid of any type of particles, and follow the item directions to mount the new gasket. This project is much easier if you can easily take the door off the fireplace and also placed it standard on a surface area.

Exactly how Performs the Restraint Affect Drafts?

Desire more methods to reduce draughts? When the fire is actually out, keep in mind to finalize the restraint. This will certainly keep cold air from drifting in to your property. Even further, if you have a fireplace insert as well as a basic smokeshaft masonry that vents outside the residence, think about putting up a damper block-off layer. A damper block-off plate fits into a smokeshaft and lowers the amount of heat energy reduction around the fireplace insert. Constructed from piece metal, a restraint enclose plate should go with comfortably within the smokeshaft and also enable the chimney lining to pass through.

Our Services

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[douxreviews]

American Gods - ‘A Murder of Gods’ Review

"That’s some profound knowledge for you right there. Wrapped up in a quaint sexual metaphor."

American Gods takes a quick side trip to alt-right paradise, and makes some new friends along the way.

One of the things most widely known about this episode among people who care in any way about such things is that everything we see this week is a brand new creation on the part of the series and has nothing at all to do with the novel. Which is good, really. That's the main virtue of doing a multi-season adaptation of a novel like this; it gives them the opportunity to really explore the corners of the universe that they're showing us in a way that a novel really can't.

Fortunately, they really take the opportunity and run with it, giving us a highly enjoyable episode while really digging into the ramifications of a couple things that were thrown out there previously. Most notably, last week we saw Mr. Wednesday being offered the opportunity to stop fighting and allow Mr. World to assimilate him into the new order of things. Specifically, as a weapons satellite over the middle east, which is a fair enough example of the sort of thing that is worshiped by a certain striation of humanity.

Wednesday turned down the offer in favor of remaining himself and fighting the new gods, which is for the best since that's sort of the plot of the whole series. But this week we get to see what happens to an old god who does agree to the offer. And so we stop off in Vulcan, Virginia, where every store welcomes open carry sidearms and fascist style armbands are all the rage.

Vulcan, for those of you who were popular as children and therefore might not have spent every second obsessively studying these things, was the Roman god of fire. In the episode they identify him as the god of the Volcano, which is close enough, if not strictly accurate enough for the more pedantic of us. He was the rough equivalent of Hephaestus in the Greek pantheon, but I feel obligated to point out that the whole metalwork thing was more Hephaestus' gig than Vulcan's. Which kind of makes me wish they'd gone with the Greek version of this particular god rather than the Roman, but I suppose they wanted to use the less difficult name. Plus the 'V' made a nice logo for his company.

When your whole show premise is based around addressing the idea of new gods based on things that modern American's actually worship, guns and ammunition has to be pretty close to the top of the list. Even so, it's quite brave for the show to be as up front about it as they are here. This is a town, and by proxy a country, that openly worships their guns. They all carry them, a volcano on every hip, as Vulcan says. The 'firearms as a way to make yourself feel powerful' theme is in no way subtext. It's the text. The good people of Vulcan only have to turn a blind eye to the occasional factory manager 'falling' into the smelting pots and they get to keep their nice, shiny guns.

I have to say, Vulcan transitioning from the volcano to the bullet factory works really well. The show spells it out, in a nice turn of phrase; he's gone from fire to firepower. They're showing us what happens to Gods who accept the offer Wednesday turned down last week, and what we see having happened here is a bloated, smug, king of his own little hill, openly rubbing Wednesday's nose in his own comfort. His taunting of Shadow with the front yard lynching tree, is just one detail in the sub-textually hostile dynamic between Wednesday and Vulcan.

But the idea of what happens to a god who assimilates isn't the only thing we're being shown here. We're also being shown what happens to an old god who turns down Mr. Wednesday's offer. That's going to come up again the next time he reaches out to an old friend, because now we know what the implicit threat is. That's a nice structural note for the season to build on later. Vulcan turned Wednesday down, so Wednesday decapitated him and vowed to tell everyone that Vulcan had decided to betray his new friends and so the new gods killed him. To say nothing of his urinating into the foundry. Seriously, let's not say anything about that.

Meanwhile, in the other plotline, Mad Sweeney, Laura, and Salim have ended up together on a road trip to Kentucky, by way of Indiana. Honestly, I could watch these three all day long. The combination of Laura and Sweeney trying to out-cynic one another contrasted with Salim's endearing sweet positivity is just a winning formula. One thing that this show doesn't get enough credit for is the way the characters interact with one another. Pleasingly, it makes perfect logistic sense why they're together despite not liking one another particularly. Sweeney very kindly even spells it out for us:  He wants his coin. The only way Laura will give it to him is by getting her resurrected properly, and it so happens he 'knows a guy who knows a guy.' They need a car to get there, and Salim has one, but Salim is searching for the Jinn. Well, it so happens that Sweeney knows how to find him and will do so in exchange for a lift. Perfectly set up, they're all doing what they're doing out of self interest, and that's a solid way to establish your mismatched buddy road trip.

Lastly, it's worth mentioning the opening sequence. We've seen several 'Coming to America' vignettes in the past, but they've all been in a comfortable past setting where we can view them as history. By setting this weeks segment as immigrants crossing from Mexico illegally, only to be greeted with gunfire from sinister shadowed 'border patrollers', the show is forcing the viewers to confront some very uncomfortable thoughts about what coming to America means. The sequence is made even bolder in the way it unabashedly frames the immigrants as the heroes and the border patrol as the villains, right down to Mexican Jesus assisting the immigrants and getting shot by the patrol for his efforts.

Seriously. A TV show just showed American border agents, unofficial or otherwise - it's not really clear, shoot and kill Jesus. That's... well, brave doesn't seem to even cover it.

Quotes:

Shadow: "Who are you?" Wednesday: "If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me."

Laura: "Do you have a car?" Sweeney: "Yes. I do." Laura: "Well Chop-chop, ginger minge. Let’s go."

Laura: "Did you just name drop Jesus Christ like you know a guy who knows a guy?"

Wednesday: "There’s always been a god shaped hole in Man’s head. Trees were the first to fill it."

Wednesday: "Religion inspires in those who fear nothing fear of the gods. And using that fear requires a certain element of f**ked up."

Salim: "You are not a leprechaun?" Sweeney: "Oh, she’s a lepre-c**t" Laura: "(after smashing his face in the glass) If I hear that word pass your lips one more time I’m gonna peel them off your gums."

Salim: "I never met Ibrahim bin Irem. I imagine he was given a new life, just as I was. My name is Salim. Or, it was Salim. I do not know what my name is now."

Bits and Pieces:

-- So, rapture and fear. Wednesday seems to be telling us that Gods get their energy from fear and that sacrifice is essentially food to them. That's an interesting differentiation, because it makes a distinction between thought and action. I'll be interested to see if they expand on that.

-- Vulcan says that people like to be watched and that they don't do evil while being observed. That's very Jeremy Bentham of him. There's an interesting Doctor Who connection there, if you feel like doing the research. Key word to look up being 'panopticon'.

-- Sweeney uses the phrase 'murder of Gods' as the group singular noun, like a pack of wolves, a murder of crows, or a romp of otters.

-- Yes, the group singular for otters is a 'romp'. I've been waiting to work that into conversation for years.

-- Wednesday is desperately trying to convince Shadow to let go of Laura, including implying that she only came to see him to let him go and lying to him about knowing about her presence there in the first place. I wonder why he's so desperate to get rid of her.

-- There was a really nice shot transition from Mexican Jesus forming a golden halo to confirm who he was, and then that halo turning out to be the headlights of the border patrol trucks. Really nicely framed.

-- Shadow's being infected by the bit of 'tree-thing' was kind of a waste of episode space, to the extent that I forgot to even mention it last episode. It did, however, allow Wednesday to tell us about Mr. Wood, one of the first Gods, which introduced the concept of gods evolving and changing to adapt to changes in the world, which thematically set up Vulcan's situation. SO it wasn't a total waste.

-- The shot of the 'World's Greatest Boss' mug dissolving in the molten metal made me laugh out load.

-- That is, in actual fact, what happens when you fire bullets into the air like that. Don't fire bullets into the air like that. It's a dumb-ass thing to do.

-- As I mentioned in a previous Punisher review, Corbin Bernsen really does a great 'villain'. It's a shame he lost his head.

-- It's a little inexplicable however why Vulcan actually made that sword for Wednesday. It seemed pretty clear that they were both already planning to betray one another, so why actually give him a powerful weapon like that?

A really great character piece, as well as an exciting advancement toward the season one finale. Can't wait to get to Kentucky.

Three and a half out of four shell casings.

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water

[italianartsociety]

By Jean Marie Carey

The combined rites practiced by the cult of the Hirpi Sorani ("wolves of Soranus") in the pagan peninsular countryside and those to honor Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome who were nursed by a wolf, partly explain the name of the Lupercalia, a festival celebrated each February. Though “high Lupercal” is on 15 February, the festival originally began on the Ides, which, in February, is on the 13th. In contemporary times Lupercalia begins today, on 12 February.

Remnants of a Lupercal temple discovered in 2007 15 metres below the Augustan palace were dated to 44 BCE, attesting to the continuity of the festival. But Lupercalia’s best-known attribute is the wolf herself, embodied by the famous Lupa Capitolina. 

“Rugged and uncouth though it is, this statue moved my spirit more than all the images that surround it,” wrote German historian Theodor Mommsen when he saw the monument during his first visit to Rome in 1844. In his 1925 treatise on the bronze sculpture French historian Jérôme Carcopino calls the wolf “the most venerable work of Roman archaeology.” Today at her home at the Capitoline Museum in Rome the wolf has many more admirers, visitors whose fingers itch to twirl the regular, S-shaped curls of her mane and to caress her sinewy legs, her elegant tufted paws, and her smooth, distended udders.

The infinitely abundant images of the wolf on Rome-affiliated merchandise seem to increase rather than dilute the potent aura of the statue herself. So what is it about the she-wolf that continues to make her so compelling to those who see her and such an inspiration for writers and artists through the centuries, even to this day? The Lupa Capitolina wields an undeniable appeal through her form alone; yet her formal qualities cannot be disentangled from the defining attributes that have been attached to the statue in the course of history.

Until the past decade (and no matter her actual date of creation, still), Lupa, first of all, reminded us of the rarity of her kind. Few ancient bronzes from Etruria have lasted to the present day because unlike stone, bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) could be fused and reused, and it often was. From statue to cannonball: This was the sad fate of numerous ancient works of art. Therefore we hold ancient bronze statues especially dear because there are so few of them, and these few tell a story of survival against greed and strife.

One of the values associated with the wolf sculpture is her ostensibly Etruscan pedigree; her startling archaic appearance does not need the lost language of her makers to convey the well-known narrative of her role in Rome’s founding. But has Lupa Capitolina been exaggerating her claims of antiquarianism by nearly a millennium? In 2006, archaeological conservator Anna Maria Carruba, who had been a member of the team of researchers restoring the statue in the late 1990s, announced that the symbol of Rome was created in the 7th or 8th Century or even later.

Carruba’s findings, initially published through the Capitoline Museum itself, have since been questioned by her associates at the same institution. The question about the provenance of the statue is interesting in and of itself, and it does not seem like science will soon provide a definitive answer to them. Statiography and radiography cannot at present be used to exactly date bronze, and Carruba’s finding are based on carbon dating of organic elements associated with the statue (human handling and tiny specks of protein and flora in other words) and on conjecture about the statue’s means of fabrication.

Looking at Lupa

Whenever she was made, Lupa would have been fashioned with the technique called the lost wax (cire-perdu) method. The sculpture began as a detailed, full-size model made out of clay that was then covered with a half-inch thick layer of wax. Some of the details were worked on the wax rather than on the clay; this is true of Lupa’s ears and the crown of curls framing the border between the head and the mane. The model was covered with a thicker layer of clay. The entire piece was then heated so that the wax melted and drained through the holes pierced through the bottom (the holes were later covered with more clay once all the wax was gone). At this point there was a thin hollow space between the clay model and the rough layer of clay that once covered the now “lost” wax. Molten bronze was poured through the small holes into the hollow space. After the bronze hardened the top layer of clay was chiseled away, revealing the bronze statue. Much of the inner clay model was then removed by scraping it out through the bottom openings. With the removal of this inner clay, the bronze statue became hollow and relatively light, rendering it much easier to transport than a marble statue of the same size. Finally finishing touches were applied by working with the hardened metal, and the resulting artwork was an ostensibly unique and unrepeatable product – theoretically, no other replicas could be made from the original model.

The expressiveness of Lupa’s body is extraordinary. The wolf looks ferocious: Her eyebrows raised in bronze imitation of the lighter coloring visible in live wolves, are contracted and expressive; her ears are pricked; her gaze intent, penetrating – individualized, even, through the precision of its expression. Her facial muscles are tense, and the vein running from her nose to just under her right eye is visibly swollen. On her surface, the Lupa Capitolina blends a precise attention to the reality of live wolves with a certain respect for representational convention regarding sculpted animals. This wolf is rigid and expressive, at once static and poised to pounce. The flexed muscles of the wolf, her attentive gaze, her wrinkled brow, all elicit a connection between human and animal, between artwork and viewer. The wolf’s gaze makes the statue’s visible emotions something with which viewers can immediately identify: She looks attentive and ready, protective and fierce. The “unusually complex expression in the face of the wolf,” as artist Stanley Horner described his own aesthetic reaction to the Lupa Capitolina “is more devastating than the Mona Lisa; it can smile and snarl in the same countenance, whichever I wish to project upon it.”

The Renaissance Addition of the Twins

The manufacture of the free-standing bronze twins set a higher technical challenge than the production of low relief scenes like those of the reliquary doors designed by the Pollaiuolo brothers Antonio and Giuliano, and there is good reason to think that whoever was directly responsible for the commission – whether Giuliano or another member of the Sistine court – looked to Florence (where the Pollaiuolos were from) for someone with the commensurate skills in bronze casting. Stylistically the treatment of the children’s bodies is generically Donatelloesque; the rounding out of male musculature in the torso, the soft peaks of the nipples and the comically pendant buttocks are like those of Donatello’s bronze David. Vassari related the plump forms of the bronzes to the infants Cain and Abel in Antonio Pollaiuolo’s drawing of Eve in the Uffizi while Charity’s child on the reverse of the Uffizi panel offers a precedent for a slightly stockier, suckling baby, with chubby bent legs. The rather awkward (in terms of the comfort of posture for the babies) setting of the heads on the necks also brings to mind the foreshortening of the left-hand angels of the Staggia Elevation. But the problem remains that the unusual nature of the Roman task – to produce free-standing sculptures that would complement a revered ancient bronze – limits the usefulness of such comparisons.

The addition of the twins helped if not to fix, then to control, the ancient work’s meaning. From a fearful symbol of judicial authority, the wolf was reinvented as an appropriately beneficent source of miraculous succor to Rome ancient and modern.

Jérôme Carpocino, who was so moved by the statue of the wolf, insisted that the myth of the Capitoline Wolf did not yet exist when the bronze wolf was produced: The story of Romulus and Remus dates back to the second half of the fourth century BCE whereas the bronze was cast in the course of the fifth. In any case the Lupa is not a comfortable object for those in search of authenticity. It is physically available to us today as a material bridge to a lost world, a bygone era. A large part of Lupa’s impact on her viewer is due precisely to her vivid aura of authenticity, undiminished and perhaps even increased by her frequent reproduction. The legendary she wolf may be historically distant but she is physically even immediately present. The symbolic values of the Capitoline Wolf remain untouched by the progress of knowledge. They live on and in fact are nourished by ideals belonging to a metahistorical perspective.

Reference: Anna Maria Carruba and Lorenzo De Masi. La Lupa capitolina: un bronzo medievale. Rome: De Luca editori d'arte, 2006.

Capitoline Wolf: c.500-480 BCE or c. 1300 CE? Etruscan or Medieval?

Gothic She-Wolf with the Symbols of the Allied Cities inlaid floor work from the Duomo of Siena. The twins-facing posture of the wolf also mirrors the encircling concentric frames.

A side view of the sculpture at the Capitoline Museum in Rome shows how the wolf is best experienced by moving around the bronze.

Capitoline Wolf with figures of Romulus and Remus (possibly created by Antonio del Pollaiuolo) added c. 1472.

She-Wolf, Romulus and Remus. Silver didrachm, 269-266 BCE, shows an active trio of figures.

Detail of hair on the head of Lupa.

Further Reading: Jérôme Carcopino. La louve du Capitole. Paris: Société d'ed. “Les belles lettres,” 1925.

Francis D.Klingender,  Animals In Art And Thought To The End Of The Middle Ages. Cambridge, Mass., M.I.T.: Press, 1971.

Carol C. Mattusch  “In Search of the Greek Bronze Original.” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 1, The Ancient Art of Emulation: Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition from the Present to Classical Antiquity (2002), pp. 99-115.

Dietmar Popp. “Lupa Senese. Zur Inszenierung Einer Mythischen Vergangenheit in Siena (1260-1560).” Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft, Kunst als Ästhetisches Ereignis (1997): pp. 41-58.

Emeline Hill Richardson, “The Etruscan Origins of Early Roman Sculpture.” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 21, The Ancient Art of Emulation: Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition from the Present to Classical Antiquity (2002), pp. 75-124.

[pea-green]

Power, Control and Institutions in Call the Midwife

I combined two of my fave things (ctm and sociological theory) and wrote an essay. 

“Foucault’s theories addressed the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions"; this essay discusses how the themes within Foucault’s writing have been drawn upon within recent episodes of Call the Midwife, specifically with Sister Mary Cynthia’s storyline, and more generally about the role of medicine within society.

The first medical framework, identified by Jewson in his work on the development and production of medical knowledge, is what he terms `person-orientated’. He argues that, prior to industrialisation and ‘age of enlightenment’, the physician was required to view the patient as a holistic entity. Medical judgements were made by physicians in terms of the personal attributes of the sick individual rather than a list of symptoms. Foucault argues that, with the industrialisation of both society and medicine, people are attended to by professionals who view them with a ‘clinical gaze’; rational, emotionally detached individuals who hold both knowledge and power over patients, who attend to diagnosed symptoms rather than more general (eg. social) ills. Call the Midwife posits Nonnatus House, centred within the society to which it dispenses medical assistance, as a person-oriented alternative to the more institutionalised hospitals, with strict visitation hours, rigid shift patterns, and little room for personal connections between medical staff and patients.

Foucault himself makes no distinction between the power and knowledge of institutions, and in the most recent episode Sister Mary Cynthia sits at the intersection of the medical authority of the institution and the moral authority of the church (she has been sent to the hospital on the orders of Sister Ursula); she is entirely at the mercy of both. In contrast to the coercive power of a prison, the medical institution asserts authority by identifying and explaining individual problems (illness such as depression) and then providing a solution (treatment in the form of ECT) for them. Call the Midwife has graphically depicted ECT as treatment before, a last-ditch solution unapproved by the nurses of Nonnatus, and more recently underscored the dangers of blind acceptance of the medical industry’s authority by showing the real-world impact over several episodes of the ‘wonder drug’ thalidomide.

As Sister Mary Cynthia herself argues, within this medicalised framework she is not seen as an individual and the promotion of ECT as treatment is more for the benefit of the institution than herself. Drawing upon Foucault’s work, Illich termed this phenomenon ‘iatrogenesis’, which “refers to any effect on a person, resulting from any activity of one or more persons acting as healthcare professionals or promoting products or services as beneficial to health, that does not support a goal of the person affected”; in a societal context it also refers to the way in which medicine is seen to have undermined people’s ability to manage their own health. Within an industrial society, the medical machine ‘contains’ aspects of society such as childbirth, illness, pain, death and dying, shielding them, to a greater or lesser extent, from the rest of society and vice-versa.

Call the Midwife repeatedly questions the need to remove such individuals from society; while men are still not allowed to be present for childbirth, the midwives encourage home births except in exceptional circumstances, and this is often seen as social event, with women from several generations able to immediately celebrate the newest addition to the family, or grieve together in case of tragedy. Sister Monica Joan is shown to have occasionally debilitating health problems, most obviously her failing memory, but the question of sending her to an institution is always immediately shot down, and emphasis put on the responsibility of the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus to care for her in her old age. It is not coincidence that Sister Monica Joan accompanies Fred to visit the institution; SMJ argues that “I find that two opinions are better than one, particularly if one is mine”; she is aware of her own frailty (although the show takes pains to remind viewers of her usefulness and occasional sound memory when she tells Valerie she was there at her birth) and fears institutionalisation more than anyone else at Nonnatus, and it is she who discovers with horror the conditions in which Sister Mary Cynthia has been kept. Like Sister Monica Joan remaining with her sisters, the Reggie’s storyline ends with his joining a collective with others like him where, rather than being cared for by relatives who are well-meaning but hold power/knowledge over him, he has more freedom to control his own existence.

The function of Nonnatus House as an Institution in its own right has been alluded to throughout the series from its beginning; the three vows taken by the Sisters of Nonnatus, as discussed by Sister Evangelia in a previous series are poverty, abstinence and obedience. This parallels the four characteristics of ‘the individuality that discipline constructs’ (controlling the space, activities, reproduction and combination that individual bodies may undertake), which Foucault argues are implemented by institutions for the means of control. The main difference is that for the most part, individuals are imprisoned within the institutions Foucault discusses (prison, the asylum, etc.) against their will, whereas the nuns actively choose to take on the vows to bring themselves closer to God.

The obedience part of the vow for all the nuns at Nonnatus have become bent this series; Sisters Monica Joan and Winifred have each, in their own ways, exhibited disobedience prior to Sister Ursula’s appointment, but where their actions were previously self-serving (breaking Lenten fasts, going to the cinema), the resistance to the new absolute rule are for the direct benefit of patients. Sister Julienne, previously the moral authority at Nonnatus has acted against orders but still in accordance with her own moral code, a freedom not allowed under traditional institutional frameworks.

In his writing about ‘the modern disciplinary institution’, Foucault draws heavily upon Bentham’s ideas of the ultimate realisation of such an institution: the panopticon. This all-seeing tower creates an ‘unequal gaze’; those within the institution could never be sure when they were being watched or not. The nuns at Nonnatus are under constant observation of the eyes of God and this is evidenced as both comfort and burden. Sister Mary Cynthia, in great distress, talks about not knowing what is being asked of her; firstly in Nonnatus, while being comforted by her sisters, unsure of God’s plan, and later in the Institution, when she doesn’t know what behaviours she needs to exhibit in order to be released back to Nonnatus’ care. Sister Julienne mentions that Sister Mary Cynthia “lives to serve others”; she alone has never struggled with the vow of obedience, does not fear the eye of God or the tower seeing immoral actions, instead fearing her observed inaction will lead to judgement and ruin.

During her time at Nonnatus Sister Ursula was committed to efficiency above all else, which fits in with Foucault’s model of the power/knowledge dynamic by the medical institution. The nurses of Nonnatus do not have time to regard the patients and their bodies as individuals, merely as symptoms in need of a cure. The Maternity Home, which provides medical assistance but also social connections for mothers-to-be and enough individual assistance to be old-fashioned, even by the standards of 1962, does not fit in with this model. For the last two series, various characters have made reference to the number of women choosing not to give birth attended by the local midwives at home, preferring instead the facilities of the hospital.

Within this narrative, the midwives of Nonnatus represent the 'person-oriented’ framework of medicine; for example, Trixie volunteers to 'hold the hand’ of a pregnant patient who needs emergency dental work. Dentistry, Trixie points out, is not remotely within her medical training, but she will find time to assist the patient on the basis that it is “best for her and baby”. An episode previously, a mother who gives birth in hospital to a stillborn has the child whisked away before she can see it. Delia expresses distress at denying the mother her wishes to see the baby, but the ward matron insists that this course of action is “best for the patient”. The viewers later see the mother asking Shelagh extremely basic questions about what her baby might have looked like; this emphasises the knowledge/power dynamic discussed by Foucault (the mother had no knowledge of childbirth and therefore no power during it) and the importance of the Nonnatus model of a more person-oriented approach to caring with women during and after pregnancy.

With Sister Ursula gone, Sister Julienne is free to run Nonnatus as the person-oriented health provider she wishes it to be, and appoints a new nurse based partly on those shared values. The challenge for Nonnatus going forward is most immediately the safe return of Sister Mary Cynthia and ensuring her full recovery using the understanding and love that only her sisters can provide, and, more long-term, justifying itself in the face of efficiency drives and patients actively choosing a more detached, economical model of medicine over the more traditional services offered by Nonnatus.

Drawing from Foucault and his contemporaries, the most recent series of Call the Midwife has explicitly condemned the control and unequal power dynamics offered by medical institutions; most obviously the Institution in the most recent episode, but hospitals more generally. It advocates instead for a more holistic, compassionate method of treating illness, mental health, pregnancy and childbirth. This continues the show’s campaign for more community-based politics, and an idealistic liberal ideology which is impractical and unlikely to enact any real change, but still important in a time where the NHS is demonised in the press and in financial turmoil; a show consistently drawing in millions of viewers discussing these issues raises awareness (of these issues and many others) if nothing else.

References: here, here, here

[wikimakemoney]

CTV is where the viewers go and advertisers should follow

30-second summary:

Massive popularity translated into the explosive surge in CTV media buying. At the end of the 2010s, globally programmatic advertising on CTV grew by a whopping 330 percent. 

In a nutshell, both content consumption on CTV and ad spend are climbing while the ad budgets on traditional television are decreasing. Since CTV has been the least affected ad placement in the lockdown, the ad spend on this channel is expected to reach $16 million per advertiser.

Impressive as it may be, the future looks even brighter. In 2021, connected TV ad spend is estimated to hit the significant sum of of $10.81 billion. Most of the cash will end up in the pockets of such ad-supported giants as YouTube, Roku, and Hulu.

When it comes to efficiency, video ads on connected TV should be the should be the choice you make. Compared to any other communication channel, CTV drives the highest level of both cost-efficient responses and sales. 52 percent of the responses caused by the media come from connected TV. 

Furthermore, the powerful built-in algorithms will spare marketers headaches as they identify the best-performing creative and display it first while running campaigns to maximize efficiency. 

Imagine the amusement of our grandparents’ generation when they first got a TV set. What a delight it must have been to watch pictures not in the movies sitting next to strangers surrounded by cigarette smoke, but in the comfort of their living room.

Linear television that millennials and Gen Z’ers take for granted (and oftentimes smirk at) was revolutionary at the time. That was then.

Today, it seems like TV has always been here. Spoiled by seemingly unlimited choices, younger viewers no longer wish to play by the rules of “boomers”.

For them, it is unthinkable to check TV guides looking for favorite shows and then adjusting plans according to the whims of broadcasters. They want to watch whatever they want, whenever they want.

Connected TV offers such freedom. This is one of the reasons why CTV threatens its predecessor. But is it the only one? Let’s take a look at the CTV’s rapid uptake, where it leaves linear TV, and what it all means for advertisers. 

Fertile grounds for CTV

The previous decade was definitely great for connected TV. For example Roku, the largest CTV platform, had managed to gather an astronomical number of users: nearly 85 million. And yet, this number accounts for only 46.9 percent of CTV users in the United States.

Such massive popularity translated into the explosive surge in CTV media buying. At the end of the 2010s, globally programmatic advertising on CTV grew by a whopping 330 percent. 

What prompted such interest in connected TV?

First, younger generations stepped onto the scene. As mentioned previously, millennials and Gen-Z’ers ruthlessly cut the cords of linear TV in favor of streaming. As a result, most evasive audiences gather in one place ready to consume their favorite shows and whatever is displayed alongside.

Second, CTV is omnipresent. Three out five tech giants (Amazon, Apple, and Google) spotted the huge interest in connected TV and now sell not only hardware that makes your TV set connected, but also offer their own environments where viewers get to enjoy the content.

Moreover, many companies that deliver content on CTV make it available further over the top by enabling users to stream videos in mobile apps.

And third, even though it is principally different from linear TV, the experience does not diverge. Since viewers were trained to watch commercial breaks for years, they don’t feel opposed to seeing ads on connected TV.

They realize that this is a small price to pay for free content, especially in the age of SVOT. 

Modern-day TV consumption and its future

In a nutshell, both content consumption on CTV and ad spend are climbing while the ad budgets on traditional television are decreasing. Since CTV has been the least affected ad placement in the lockdown, the ad spend on this channel is expected to reach $16 million per advertiser.

Also, 52 percent of respondents admit that they redirect their cable TV ad budgets. Moreover, in the US during lockdown the time spent watching videos on CTV grew by 81 percent.

Ad platforms support the optimistic forecast with their own data. BidMind by Fiksu, a globally recognized cross-channel advertising platform focused on CTV, has surveyed the ad spend by categories only to confirm the enormous growth.

The findings of the analysis of the same periods from January to May in 2019 and 2020 reveal the largest surges in telecommunications (550%), ecommerce (500%), money transfer (300%), and entertainment (350%).

Impressive as it may be, the future looks even brighter. In 2021, CTV ad spend is estimated to hit the significant sum of of $10.81 billion. Most of the cash will end up in the pockets of such ad-supported giants as YouTube, Roku, and Hulu.

Furthermore, provided the CTV ad-buying keeps growing at its current pace, in 2023 the total amount of money invested in CTV ads will comprise 14 billion. 

Marketers crippling fears

Now, having beheld the exponential growth of CTV as a medium and its popularity as a destination for ads, the question that hangs in the air is: what stops marketers from stepping up their game and following the lead of the innovative (and dare we say, successful) marketers?

Here are some of the most important concerns that hold marketers back:

1) How do I scale? 

The lack of scalable solutions remains due to the popular belief that the audience size and the amount of inventory are rather narrow. What worries marketers is that even though the growth has been outrageous, the total number of users is no larger than 200 million.

Moreover, not all content is available to sell to advertisers. One of the largest platforms Netflix is still ad-free (and there’s no sign of this changing in the nearest future), whereas Amazon Prime Video runs ads to promote its own platform. 

2) Where should the spending come from?

Allocating budgets is quite simple when it comes to traditional TV or social media. The former comes from “television ad budget”, the latter comes from “digital”.

CTV, however, is something in between, and many advertisers find themselves in a pickle trying to determine the type of expenditure for connected TV. 

3) Where do I get a comprehensive report?

If you have already tested the waters of CTV ad placement, then you must have faced a hard truth: the CTV environment is fragmented, really fragmented.

Therefore, the data available in reports varies greatly from platform to platform. This creates a challenge for marketers to see how well their dollars are spent. And unfortunately, this concern is a major deal-breaker for many advertisers thinking of hopping on the CTV ads gravy train. 

No Time to Fear

Fear causes limitations. And the danger of limitations could be what makes you drop out of the game.  Marketers shouldn’t be afraid to tip their toes into the CTV waters.

A wiser response would be to embrace the might of the new ad placement landscape and ride the wave for your brand’s good. The time is right and here’s why: 

1) CTV is the destination

Viewers’ mass migration has started. And as trends indicate it is irreversible. The recent lockdown has demonstrated that no matter what happens, the CTV industry will probably withstand it.

This is good news for marketers since CTV ads allow marketers to offer a TV-like experience to viewers at a much lower price and with much more powerful targeting capabilities. 

2) CTV is about results

When it comes to efficiency, video ads on connected TV should be the should be the choice you make. Compared to any other communication channel, CTV drives the highest level of both cost-efficient responses and sales. 52 percent of the responses caused by the media come from connected TV. 

Moreover, ad retention here is significantly higher compared to linear TV, as ads are not only personalized but also much shorter than traditional commercial breaks.

3) CTV is freedom

Especially if marketers run CTV ads on a self-serve platform. In this case, advertisers get to fine-tune their accounts on such a platform according to their objectives, KPIs, budgets, and business types.

Furthermore, the powerful built-in algorithms will spare marketers headaches as they identify the best-performing creative and display it first while running campaigns to maximize efficiency. 

It has been a glorious reign that of linear TV, but its successor is already here winning the audience’s attention. It’s time for us in the advertising business to acknowledge the new rules of content consumption and adjust our marketing strategies accordingly.

Even though there may be some challenges and pitfalls at the beginning, if addressed smartly, the rich CTV capabilities will turn into treasured gold. 

Anna Kuzmenko is the COO at BidMind by Fiksu. Anna is a business leader and project manager with experience in strategy development, crisis management, and staff coaching. Being passionate for ad technology and video content ad monetization, Anna applies innovative approaches in the digital marketing ecosystem further advancement.

The post CTV is where the viewers go and advertisers should follow appeared first on ClickZ.

source http://wikimakemoney.com/2020/08/06/ctv-is-where-the-viewers-go-and-advertisers-should-follow/

[kingsoftheweb-blog]

The Top 6 Rules Of Modern Web Design

New Post has been published on https://kingsoftheweb.ca/the-top-6-rules-of-modern-web-design/

The Top 6 Rules Of Modern Web Design

THE 6 BEST RULES OF MODERN WEB DESIGN 

Even the most innovative and expensive ads will get a visitor to your website only once.

Only ONCE, you ask? Yup.

Well, your ultimate goal is turning visitors into leads, and lasting customers. You want the people to keep ‘coming back for more’. So how can you achieve this? Quite simply, you’re looking for a modern web design, and valuable content.  

Now more than ever, websites can make or break your business. An updated and modern web design is an absolute MUST! Your website is the primary place for people to find you online, research you, and to decide if they trust you. Smart businesses know their website is the cheapest and often most important shop front they have.

As a savvy entrepreneur, you want leverage when it comes to your online presence. No worries – we’re here to help! Here are the 6 Best Rules of Modern Web Design, to help you quickly convert leads into loyal customers!

  RULE #1 – SIMPLE WEBSITES ARE BEST 

No matter how sophisticated internet technology becomes, simplicity will never go out of style. Our favourite sites (and probably yours, too!) have always been ones which feature an updated, modern web design, plus easy navigation. You will notice these sites are extremely successful. They not only contain valuable information, but are easy to use, and fast-loading. 

Unless you’re in the entertainment or tech industry, people are not expecting the newest web applications, or advance audio and video. Besides, these extras usually just slow things down and get in the way of the real content.

This is not to say that your website should be boring. You want to capture the user’s attention with a modern web design. This includes components such as: a simple layout, easy navigation, appealing images/photos, and good content. Most importantly, you want your visitors to know right away the answer to the question “what’s in it for me?“

The bottom line here is – you want to get to the point. New visitors should be able to find out exactly what your company or product can do for them in less than 15 seconds. 

In other words, apply the KISS concept. Keep It Simple – Silly 

  RULE #2 – KEEP THE USER IN MIND

You want to get an honest (and objective!) opinion of how effective and easy your website is to use.We suggest having a friend or family member click through it. In the meantime, take notes on where they click and how long they remain in each area.

Next step, it to interview them about your site. Did they understand each link? What kind of feeling did they get when they first saw your home page? How would they define your product and your company values based on your website? Do they see a reason to go back and visit again?

Furthermore, always provide a link back home. No matter where a visitor ends up on a site, they should easily be able to return to the home page. If your site provides links to other URLS, don’t lose visitors by not giving them a quick path back to your site. Creating an extra browser window or mini frame are both good ways to keep visitors from straying too far.

Outside feedback can be extremely valuable, so take advantage of it. You may have to set your ego aside, but it’s definitely a small price to pay for success.  

RULE #3 – DETERMINE WHAT TYPE OF WEBSITE YOU ACTUALLY NEED

Maybe you’re reading this, and you’ve never owned a website before. Or maybe you already have a website, and are looking to update it or build a totally new one. Whatever the case may be, you will need to determine what type of website will be the best fit for your personal or business needs. Start by asking these questions:

Am I selling goods or services? Then you will need an Ecommerce/Online Store. This will provide you and your customers with a fully functional, secure, payment gateway, which is easy to connect and use. You also want to be able to add an unlimited number of items/products, with different attributes and variables.

  Am I wanting to promote a blog, event, cause, or business, without selling any type of service online? Then you will need a basic Informational Website. This type of website provides resources for potential and active customers, subscribers, and investors. These websites are usually content heavy, with an emphasis on design.

How many years should my website’s current design last?

The shelf life of your average website design is about three years. In five years, a site shows its’ age. However, what doesn’t change is the site architecture and the core pages, if they were built strategically.

It’s good practice is to touch up the design every year or so, after looking at what the rest of the market is doing. Even popular social networks change in that time. Therefore, if you have a blog with social-media share buttons, you may need to swap one network for a newer, more popular choice.

You know that term “keeping up with joneses”? You can apply that here.

RULE #4 – MASTER THE ART OF CONTENT CREATION

Writing good content is actually an ancient practice

No doubt about it, every year the content-quality bar rises. Content that would be shared like crazy in 2016, looks average at best in 2019. Big brands are noticing that content is a great way to get attention, and sell stuff! Furthermore, video is proving to be an important competitive element. I wouldn’t say content is getting exponentially better, but I feel comfortable saying it doubles in awesomeness every five years or so. 

The big brands of the world are shifting their marketing budget from traditional channels to online channels. They’re spending unreal sums of money to create amazing content. And it’s now getting harder for small brands and start-ups to have any slice of the “attention-pie”. 

The first time you start to measure how your content is performing, you might end up disappointed. Maybe some tears will be shed. But do not despair! If you want to know how well your content is doing, have a look at the amount of:

Social shares: this gives you an idea of which content is being shared.

Backlink count: this gives you an idea if any other websites are linking back to your content, which shows authority

Check your analytics reports and see which pages are most popular and how much time is being spent on them.

Also, take time to proof all your updates and content with the care. Broken links, typos, and grammatical errors make your site lose credibility. 

There’s no escaping the fact that it sucks to find out that the content you’ve spent time on just isn’t helping your business. Or isn’t helping it enough to justify the time spent.The hard truth is that without measurement, almost everyone can overestimate their content. And once the data is there, egos are ruffled. But there is something thrilling about measuring your content. It means you can improve, learn from your missteps, and celebrate when content actually works.

  RULE #5 – PEOPLE LIKE CONSISTENCY

It’s important to be consistent throughout your website’s branding. Using the same font color schemes will give a familiar and comforting impression to your visitors. You will want to apply the same concept for the logo. The logo is most commonly placed on the top left corner of a web page. The logo helps viewers identify your website when they first land on your page. 

Also, you want to refrain from underlying text unless it’s a link. Doing this will often be confusing to the user. If you want to put emphasis on a word or phrase, consider bold or italics instead.

It’s also a good idea to create a designated spot on your home page to showcase new or updated content. In other words, keep new content in the same designated area. That way, repeat visitors looking for the same information they found before won’t be confused by the change. In addition, you will want to ensure new content is dated. This will encourage new visitors to return to your site again to see something new.

RULE #6 – GET VISITORS TO LEAVE THEIR EMAIL ADDRESS

You want to encourage users to give you their email address. Creating a database of names and gathering information about your customer base is one of the reasons you have a website! Give users an option to be included on your mailing list. Then email coupons, links, and news updates, to spark some interest and keep them coming back for more!

Remember to include “email a friend’ links or other content that gets people talking about your product.

  You CAN do it!