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Hollywood musicals
Hollywood musicals
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Top Hat by Mark Sandrich and Go into Your Dance by Archie mayo are some of the greatest Hollywood musicals produced in 1935. The attires worn by the characters in both movies as well as the classical music played reflect the period in which the movies were released. The Top Hat film contains some wonderful legendary dances at the peak of Astaire’s and Rogers’ teaming where their charm and sophistication mingles in a very nice way (Green & Schmidt, 1999). Top Hat which was produced during the Depression Era is also full of materialistic and elegance which are portrayed by sumptuous backgrounds and gleaming surroundings. Use of tuxedos with top hats and tails reveal a lot about the old clothing style in the film. During depression era, musicals were mostly addressing issues of escapism and fantasy and that is exactly what the film addresses.
Go into Your dance also involves some clothes that were only worn in the olden days as well as classical music that are not popular in the recent times. Both films are marred with popular fantastical and escapist characters such as the opening of a nightclub by Jolson. Sound film was also evident in these movies as well as some old structures that could be related with time of release. The producers and some of the characters such as Jolson are old producers whose appearance on a movie would definitely reflect the time of production. These films also contain some fabulous musical extravaganzas which dominated Hollywood films in the 130s (F.S. N., 1935).
Hollywood musicals
Hollywood musicals are linked with high budget as well as high class visual qualities as well as art that tends to alienate the audience because of its distant relationship with folk art or the traditional performance. This natural genre involves some mechanical reproduction as well as mass distribution as well as stage performance prior to film. The stage performance made the audience to take the films as realistic as well as with high degree of imminence since they (audience) are put at a reasonable distance with the screen through the acknowledgement of the gap between producers and the audience (Grant, 2012).
Generally, the producers ensure that they value spontaneity instead of engineered effects, mask the choreography and rehearsals, create offstage and backstage components to the musical production and finally create amateur entertainment to eliminate professionalism. Hollywood musicals are associated with very high production values that may make the musical performance be exploited due to possible financial incentives. Actually, Hollywood musicals have financial benefits, are popular and critical acclamation are what characterize it. Hollywood musicals also involve the sound film era, color film and some aspects of comedy which were really incredible (Green & Schmidt, 1999).
I was really moved by the Top Hat whose virtues were really impressive to me. The film has very interesting support cast, funny dialogue as well as very nice songs that are really lifting anyone’s spirit. The dancing has great pacing and the pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers is really amazing. Fred in his tuxedo suit makes dancing elegant and the movie lively. Dancing cheek to cheek and the general setting of the film which includes polished, powdered and elegant things represents some elegance and happiness that everyone seeks in life. The film is simply amazing and wonderful (Green & Schmidt, 1999).
The component that is very important in this genre is soundtrack which dominates this journey. The music background creates a convincing atmosphere that makes an audience want to watch more. Music impacts and arouses the audience in a film by allowing them to connect emotionally to characters and situation as well as helping the filmmaker to reinforce their message. The music in this genre also helped in creating a more convincing atmosphere regarding time of the music production which is essential in enhancing ambiance. Generally, music makes a film more attractive and successfully communicates the theme of the film (Grant, 2012).
The actors in these two films are really interesting especially in the Top Hat. The dancing cheek to cheek dance by Fred Astaire and ginger Rogers is really interesting and seems to be one of the greatest achievements in the film. The love triangle between Ginger and Fred is brings out the impossible misunderstanding in a very funny way. Also, it is comedic to see married couples (Madge and Horace) living in a separate but luxurious way. It is also amazing to see some contradictory opinions given to Jerry by Horace and Astaire (Green & Schmidt, 1999).
Astaire insists that there is a lot of joy when someone stays bachelor and is not attached to anyone while Horace advises him on the pleasures in marriage yet he (Horace) does not even live together with his wife. On the other hand, Jolson’s efforts of making a comeback in music with the help of dancer Keeler is full of comedy and elegance (F.S. N., 1935). Spending all the money in gambling as Jolson does is such an unusual act. Go into Your Dance which touches on real life married couple are well represented by crime drama.
References
F.S. N. (1935, May 4). Go Into Your Dance (1935), At the Capitol. The New York Times, pp. 1A, 2A.
Grant, B. K. (2012). The Hollywood Film Musical. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Green, S., & Schmidt, E. (1999). Hollywood musicals: Year by year. Milwaukee, Wis: Hal Leonard.
Holly Farm
Holly Farm
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Holly farm belongs to Charles and Gillian Giles who are farmers who refused to give up when their sales from milk and cereals from their farm diminished. They decided to make better use of their farm and see if it would increase their profits. In the year 2003 the couple renovated the farm and built a car park that could fit 40 cars and also space for buses to cater for the groups that would be visiting them. They also ensured that there was a good view that the public would use to view the milking parlour and got trailers that the public would use to go round the farm. They also catered for children by making them a playground and also building a factory for making ice cream. Family outings were made possible in the farm with the fact that there was a picnic area. The couple then went out looking for customers by giving lectures to the local schools and organizations to get them to come visit the farm. This worked out well as in the year 2006 the number of visitors was about 15,000 per year and these were visitors who paid to visit and also bought some farm products.
The farm tried to increase their sales as years went by and they actually cut cost by not providing services to visitors in the slow months and also in the other months they did not have visitors during slow days. Charles also looked for better ways to attract people to come view milking of cows by using the new technology. The visitors get an explanation before they start watching which really motivates people to wait for their turn. The farms products are sold to the local retail shops, visitors also buy when they come to visit the farm and the couple has also made it possible for the public who are not visiting the farm to access the products directly from the farm. The farm product that is mostly purchased is ice cream and as Gillian has stated they make more profits from sales from the farm shop compared to those made when selling to shops.
The couple is still struggling to increase their sales, the positive thing is that they have analysed the market and seen where their income is high. The product that gives them more profit they have analysed and all they have to do is implement new policies. The farm has minimised costs by ensuring that the staff that guides the visitors is also the staff that works in the farm for commercial reasons. This is because they have seen the slow days of the week which should be fully utilized in the farm working on other fields.
Advertising is one key factor that most business owners ought to realize works. People do not want to go out looking for products they want the products to come to them hence the need for advertising. It also helps to include all the services and products that the farm offers and how much they are selling so as to prepare the customers’ minds. Advertising really works in influencing the minds of customers and as long as it is attractive they will follow. It is also prudent to include the benefits and also features of the farm products. Advertising does not have to include the use of billboards but also generating referrals. The existing customers of the farm can be used to get to others by kindly asking them to tell others about the farm.
Holly farm also needs to know its main target in the market, those who will lead to increase in sales of their products. When it comes to visiting the farm they should target families over the weekend by giving discounts to those going to the picnic areas and also having more to offer for the children since most families go out to please their children. Gillian and Charles should also contact organizations that could be interested in their products and offer to be speakers whenever they have seminars. This way they will get a platform to talk about their products.
The farm can also offer discounts on those visiting the farm as a group to encourage schools and other organizations to come as a group to learn in the farm. This will increase the fees for entry and also other products in the farms. The slow days when the staffs are not doing any other farm work can also be used to guide visitors, how to get visitors to come on these days is simple. There should be offers that are irresistible for visitors who come on these slow days. This can include giving free samples when one buys something in the farm or rather when one pays fees to visit the farm.
It would also be helpful to work hand in hand with the employees who happen to know their job very well. They also know how to solve problems in the farm in the best effective way. The farm’s equipment for freezing ice cream limits the amount of litres that can be made in a day and maybe talking to the employees would help because they may have a solution that would not lead to increasing the cost. The farm can also try to minimize costs for making the ice cream by providing themselves with some of the ingredients that they actually buy out. This would increase their profits after sale.
It is easier and better to keep the existing customers rather than going out to the market to get new ones. Gillian says that they make more profits from sales from the farm shop that when they go out to sell to the shops. They should therefore come with incentives to encourage people to buy from their farm shops and do all they can to retain these customers by offering the best services to them. These are the customers who will make positive remarks about the farm’s products and they can use those testimonials in their marketing materials.
Holly farm can be said to have certain features that has made it outperform its competitors. One of its competitive advantages is quality of the products they offer their customers. This includes the durability of the product, its value, whether it’s appealing to the customers and also its functionality. There is an international standard of business quality that is used to assure customers that the products sold to them are of good quality hence a requirement for all businesses. Gaining this is not a competitive advantage as all business has it but then not having it would lead to no sales as it increases customer’s confidence in your products. Holly farm are not only profit minded as they find it better to offer less but quality ice cream. They do not overload their machines to increase sales as this would actually lead to low quality ice cream. The product is also durable as the packaging is quite convenient. The farms packs the ice cream in well-insulated containers so that when one buys at the farm they can eat at home since the container ensure the ice cream does not melt for about two hours. The farm also sells at fair prices and also gives discounts to the outlets that sell to other customers hence increasing the quality of their products.
It is important to minimize costs for all businesses. It’s therefore advisable for businesses to ensure that whenever they discover a defect they should deal with it then to make it less expensive.
Speed is another competitive advantage for the firm. The farm is working hard to increase their production processes. It can be seen that they use a machine in their ice cream factory to fast freeze it to ensure their products are ready on time. Charles is also seen to have gone out of his way and bought a carousel parlour that enabled the cows to be milked on a slow moving turntable making it attractive for visitors to view milking of cows. Therefore the use of all these machines increases the speed of their production.
The fact that the farm makes the products on their farm using their equipment’s and other farm products it makes it easier for customers to depend on them. They are assured that there will be no shortages of ice cream at any period. Holly farm’s ice cream factory works for eight hours per day hence ensuring there is no shortage of their product whether it’s a slow day for or any other ordinary day. Gillian also transports products to the shop outlets making it easier for the retail shops to depend on the farm.
Holly farm knows that it has low seasons and hence looks for other ways to get income during those seasons. The fact that they are flexible makes it easy for them to adjust to changes in the market. The farm has also enabled them to adopt technology to increase their sales.
Cost is another attribute that has made the farm to have a competitive advantage. The farm tries to minimize their production costs so that they can sell to the retail shops at an affordable price. The farm also reduces cost during the low season to ensure they suffer no losses by making their staff work while there are only few visitors coming to the farm.
Balanced score card is performance management tool that most businesses use to ensure that all activities are done as they should by the staff and that consequences of those activities are visible. There are certain perspectives that are used and one is financial which is used to answer the question of how a business appears to its shareholders. This perspective argues that there is need to include certain data that is related to finance like risk assessment and cost benefit in the finance data. The other perspective is the customer perspective which emphasis is that customers should be analysed in that the business should ensure that all customers are satisfied with their products so as not to go looking for other suppliers. This all goes down to better performance when producing the products something that Holly farm is keen at that they ensure that ice cream is fully frozen so as to retain a good texture. The other perspective is the business process perspective which is more of the internal side of the business. The owner of the business is able to access how the business is going on and how the products are received by the customers. Holly farm therefore make it their business to know the characteristics of their customers. They observe if those watching the cows are impressed and which part is more amusing to them. There is also the learning and growth perspective that mainly targets the employees training them so as to increase their productivity.
When a business implements a balanced scorecard then it can get software that can be used to manage performance. It is important to measure the operations performance since it gives a view of whether the business is working towards gaining profits or making losses.
Arming Teachers
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Arming Teachers
The debate on whether teachers should carry guns began when President Trump hosted guests to the white house for a listening session after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 people dead (Sanchez). The act was conducted by a teenager and a former student at the school, Nikolas Cruz (ITV News). During this meeting, President Trump proposed the issuance of firearms to teachers as a response mechanism to future mass shootings in school environments. He followed up these sentiments with a tweet a day after the listening session. Trumped saw giving teachers/coaches guns as a way of deterring a potential hate crime.
Those in support of Trump’s ideas were mostly gun supporters or the so-called pro-gun group mostly made up of Republicans, although not all Republicans were of this idea. Those enthusiastically against gun legislation suggest that a number of teachers should be armed with concealed weapons. The idea of having armed teachers goes like if a shooter knows that teachers in a targeted school carry weapons and will retaliate, then they may decide against executing their plan. In case they decide to go forward with it, a teacher wielding weapons will be able to hold them before security forces arrive at the scene. This paper presents counter-arguments to this view supported by possible dire consequences of the move.
Arming teachers across the nation will mean a huge budget allocation, while most districts are not able to offer educators with enough resources to support their students. In some places, schools have no resources to keep the heat on during winter. It would be so unrealistic to imagine the government being able to arms teachers all across the nation, and even if it happens, the expense is unimaginable.
It is also obvious that American teachers have more than enough on their plates already since the amount of work they handle goes beyond giving lectures and assigning homework, which does not remotely match their pay. Teachers handle all the paperwork, do the grading, and are still expected to attend any number of meetings (staff, IEP meetings, as well as parent-teacher conferences). Besides teaching, they are managing their classes, after which they have phone calls after hours with parents and torturing students. Teachers never catch a break, which makes it entirely insensible to require them to add such a demanding task to this unending list.
What about black teachers? Following the history of the country on their insecurity against black people, it would mean black teachers would face a unique outcome. Many Twitter users responded to Trump’s tweet by recalling an incident that involved one Philando Castile, a school worker who had the license to carry a firearm. It happened that the police pulled him over, and Castile made it clear that he legally owned the firearm in his car. Although he adhered to every possible rule and going by every conceivable measure to guarantee this was clear to the officer, he was fatally shot. This meant that the idea of a black person yielding a gun could prove fatal, especially when law enforcement arrives at a school shooting and identifies a black person with a gun, it is most likely for them to assume they pose a threat.
There is also no guarantee that an armed educator would succeed in stopping an active shooter. There is sufficient evidence indicating that people bearing weapons cannot always prevent gun violence. A shooting at a concert in Los Angeles that left 58 people dead had a significant number of revelers who had guns, but they were not able to stop the shooter from gunning down this massive number in a matter of minutes (Chuck & Siemaszko). Teachers who are ordinary people and have never found themselves in active combat may freeze or go into shock in case of a shooting.
There is also no logic in training teachers to carrying weapons. According to Adam Best, the CEO of States of Blue, the math behind training, and arming 20% of the teachers like Trump suggested is bonkers (Lahittou). Out of a population of 3.6 million teachers in public schools across America, Trump proposes to train at least 720,000. Besides the budget being hefty training, such a huge number would be a challenge. Again, police officers who receive more thorough training to handle weapons regularly fire at the wrong person or even miss.
Unless it’s okay to sacrifice teachers, arming them means they are the obvious first target. The possibility of knowing if a school shooter will be deterred with the knowledge of armed teachers is improbable. However, if the shooter still proceeds to attack, they would logically target the teachers first.
Without gun control, the security of schools has become a much more difficult task. Although there is an existing plausibility in arming teachers to some people. The logistical reality and the lack of evidence to predict the viability of the move have made many to oppose the move strongly.
Works Cited
Chuck, E., and C. Siemaszko. “‘Colossally Stupid Idea’: Trump’s Plan to Arm Teachers Widely Panned by Experts.” NBC News, 23 Feb. 2018, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-s-proposal-arm-teachers-panned-experts-colossally-stupid-idea-n850286. Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.
Lahittou, J. “6 Reasons We Shouldn’t Arm Teachers, According To These Thoughtful (And Scathing) Tweets.” Bustle, 22 Feb. 2018, www.bustle.com/p/6-reasons-we-shouldnt-arm-teachers-according-to-these-thoughtful-scathing-tweets-8296141.
Sanchez, R. “Inside the Florida School Massacre, Moment by Moment.” CNN, 18 Feb. 2018, edition.cnn.com/2018/02/18/us/parkland-florida-school-shooting-accounts/index.html. Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.
ITV News. “Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz ‘confesses’ as lawyer says he is broken by attack | ITV News.” YouTube, 15 Feb. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIVF65-HTlc.