Top Left to Right: Moments of subtle body horror throughout Grace.
One thing about creating empathy is that there will be a spectrum among audiences in, to what extent empathy is felt. Naturally, attempting to generate empathy will have its success and its failure. One of the obstacles to generating empathy is that it is like likely that those who understand the position of the protagonist, or feel anything for her, are those who have already experienced or felt the same or a similar feeling. It is difficult to create new empathy and easier to generate it from where it already exists. Hence, the body horror aspects in the film - empathy through disgust and uncomfort - unpleasantness one would like to avoid. Reasons and Reynolds suggest
…show more content…
We did an entire cut that was intended to promote the feeling I wanted to recreate through editing. This did not work. The editing should have imitated the psychological state of Grace throughout the film - beginning with continuity editing, following this style throughout, enough to show the audience the character arc clearly. Within each individual scene the editing could be more disturbed in particular character moments or after specific interactions. This idea was inspired by a scene from Scorsese’s ‘Taxi Driver’, one which feels almost out of place because of its sudden repetition of a character’s movement and line of dialogue (Scorsese, 1976). My editor and I tried to achieve this in certain parts of the film where we thought it was justified. I previewed the cut to a friend, and while he thought the cut was interesting, he concluded that it took him out of the world of the film when the relatively slow pacing had only just drawn him in. Instead of creating discomfort we created disconnect, so we used other aspects to try and generate empathy, such as body …show more content…
Because of this I thought about the specific styles that would influence my work very carefully. In dance and sport, films that exhibit athleticism on screen the audience experiences embodiment of some kind that occurs due to the lack of touch (between screen and viewer), the spectator must fill in the gaps (Rutherford, 235). I considered what genres or stylistic choices, could encourage embodiment in some form or another and therefore empathy in the audience. The decision to manifest feeling as a real being was key, but as part of this I thought it necessary to include elements of body horror - physical empathy for a characters position. Seeing a character move in a particular way, whether that be through dance, or sport, or injury creates empathy because of the familiriality it has to our own bodies. We imagine ourselves in the position of the performer to varying extents, mild body horror is a way to access uncomfort - an essential element of feeling anxiety so bad that forms of physical pain exist, whether that be a heavy chest, or picking at nails, or something more
One of the reasons that King gives us on the interview, Why We Crave Horror Movies is that we crave horror movies because they make us feel normal. Like in “Amelia”, not everyone can say they had to fight a knife wielding doll with the spirit of a hunter in it. We feel normal because that problem isn’t relevant to our lives. Our daily problems and situations seem normal and simple compared to having a doll trying to kill you in your house. In Misery, it’s the same case. Paul is fighting to survive being in the home of a psychopathic fan’s home. Most of us aren’t famous, so we don’t have to deal with fan’s who are too passionate about us. The movie leaves us with the sense of relief that we aren’t famous and that that situation isn’t a possibility for us. Another reason that King gives us is that we crave that roller coaster of a ride that the plot is. For example, Amelia catches the doll with a blanket and tries to drown it, but it escapes, she tries to trap it in a suitcase, but it cuts a hole in the suitcase, she also tries to take away the knife, but it fights her to get the knife back. In the end, after she tried to kill it in the oven, she ends up possessed by the doll, calling her mom and saying “This is Amelia, mom. I 'm sorry I acted the way I did. I think we should spend the evening together... just the way we planned. It 's kind of late though. Why don 't you come by my place and we 'll go from here? No, I 'm all right! Good. I 'll be waiting for you” to lure her mother to her house. In “Amelia”, when we feel like the main character is winning she ends up losing. Then, in Misery, there are points in which we think that Paul is going to escape, but Annie is, intentionally or unintentionally, one step ahead. For example, Paul cheeks his painkillers and puts the powder in a envelope, so that when he has dinner with her he puts the powder in her drink, but she ends up spilling the
Afghanistan was a war country where people got attacked by the talibans. In the kite runner a novel by Khaled Hosseini Afghanistan, was a dangerous country. It's the story about a relationship About 2 boys called Hassan and Amir that at this time in the book they were victims and innocents and don't deserve a punishment on the story. People gain empathy when others need the help, when they lose someone, when there's a bond between people and are demonstrating when others have help us we want to help them.
To add, as described throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, the lack of empathy can cause people to mentally damage others and form unpleasant relationships. For example, Walter Cunningham and Miss Caroline are somewhat afflicted by Scout when she ignores and has no concern about their emotions, and this forms an unfavorable impression about her. Despite that, the contrary happens when main character develops empathy and further matures. As she learns about the reality of Boo Radley, she starts to recognize that common beliefs and rumors can be completely contrastive, and can be the result of ignorance about the truths. Thus, a simple change of just having a little bit more empathy than what is acceptable can lead to a better world and a happier society, which in turn, you and everyone else will
Judith Lynne Hanna is a professor at the University of Maryland who focuses on anthropology, sociology and dance. She combines these topics to analyze how dance can help heal a person and help improve health. In a broader context, dance therapy is a recent form of movement that does not require any form of previous dance experience and focuses on “movement behavior as it emerges in the therapeutic relationship.” (ADTA) Judith Hanna focuses in on broader concept of dance therapy by concentrating on expressive behavior that relieves stress, disabling conditions, tension, and chronic fatigue.
I look to other artists for inspiration and affirmation in regards to my work. I am certainly not the first artist to portray ideas of the body and its fragility. Hannah Wilke, whose work dealt with ideas of beauty and vulnerability, is perhaps one of more influential artists for me. While her work greatly differs from mine, I believe that fundamentally she was asking similar questions of society through her work as I am. When I first saw her work, I felt f...
Burton defines empathy as the ability to not only recognize but also to share another person’s or a fictional character’s or a sentient beings’ emotions. It involves seeing a person’s situation from his or her own perspective and then sharing his or her emotions and distress (1). Chismar posits that to empathize is basically to respond to another person’ perceived state of emotion by experiencing similar feelings. Empathy, therefore, implies sharing another person’s feeling without necessary showing any affection or desire to help. For one to empathize, he or she must at least care for, be interested in or concerned about
Empathy is used to create change in the world by reaching out to the emotions of people and attending to them. It is used to help others learn and decide on matters that would not be reasonable without feelings attached to them. Empathy helps bring together communities that would have long ago drifted apart, but instead welcomed all who were different. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This attribute of human-beings really allows us to not only attend to situations as if they were our own, but it allows us to feel most of what others feel because humans are very much alike in some ways. In many of the articles and novels that we have read this quarter, characters from different pieces of context have portrayed empathy whether it was toward
Empathy is imperative to teach kids from a young age in order to help them recognize mental states, such as thoughts and emotions, in themselves and others. Vital lessons, such as walking in another’s shoes or looking at a situation in their perspective, apprehends the significance of the feelings of another. Our point of view must continuously be altered, recognizing the emotions and background of the individual. We must not focus all of our attention on our self-interest. In the excerpt, Empathy, written by Stephen Dunn, we analyze the process of determining the sentiment of someone.
Spadoni, Robert. Uncanny Bodies-The Coming of Sound Film and the Origins of the Horror Film. Berkeley University of California Press, 2007.
Waskul, D., & Vannini, P. (2006). Introduction: The body in symbolic interaction. In D. Waskul & P. Vannini (Eds.), Body/ Embodiment: Symbolic Interaction and the Sociology of the BodyRetrieved from http://ia600800.us.archive.org/19/items/BodyembodimentSymbolicInteractionAndTheSociologyOfBody/BodyEmbodiment-WaskulVannini.pdf
The text King has written states, many reasons as to why we crave horror. I plan to correlate his idea to, “show that we can, that we are not afraid, that we can ride the roller coaster”, to the emotional roller coaster of the two main characters (King1). In The Doll, Amelia starts the movie as a very happy ...
“Just as musicians have their instruments, dancers have their bodies” (Price and Pettijohn 991). The body is the only tool in which a dancer has to create art and express themselves. For this reason, there is a constant focus on the body. This constant focus, and constant pressure, can cause the dancers to develop concerns and a negative body image. The term body image can be defined as “the way in which people see themselves in the mirror everyday: the values, judgments, and ideas that they attach to their appearance” (Kelso 1). From childhood people perceive themselves in a certain way. They learn of how to feel about their ...
In Tennessee Williams’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire he creates a very complex psychoanalytic plot. Freud's most enduring and important idea was that the human psyche (personality) has more than one aspect. Freud saw the psyche structured into three parts the id, ego and superego, all developing at different stages in our lives. These are systems, not parts of the brain, or in any way physical. The three main characters in the play can each be compared with one of the three parts of the human mind. Stanley’s character corresponds with the id, Stella’s character can be compared to the ego, and Blanche’s character would represent the superego. Looking at the play through this lens one can see Williams’s reflection of himself throughout his work with an alcoholic, abusive father of his own, a strict demanding mother, and a schizophrenic sister. Knowing this A Streetcar Named Desire brings on new bigger
After I began to learn to dance ballet, I found out that these elegant movements actually require a lot of strength, flexibility of the bodies and brain’s participation to make it looked elegant. The dancers’ movements in the performance were so fluent and elegant and it is not hard to imagine how hard they had practiced, stretched and use the strengths to do all the ballet poses with their bodies look longer and longer. Their expressions also impressed me a lot. By looking at their expressions, the audience can easily understand the scenes and blend into the story. The performers actually not only are required to have good dancing skills but also are required to have some talents to be actors. Moreover, they also have to be good at expressing their feelings on the
A ballet dancer’s general intention when performing any piece is to convey a message to the audience. A message is relayed through the dancer’s strategic facial expressions and body movements. Each movement has a purpose in articulating the dancer’s energy, and confidence within themselves to express the emotions and inspire the audience (Lucas). A dancer’s energy and