My Science School

Marley & Me is a 2008 American comedy-drama film directed by David Frankel from a screenplay by Scott Frank and Don Roos, based on the 2005 memoir of the same name by John Grogan. The film stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as the owners of Marley, a Labrador retriever. Marley & Me was released in the United States and Canada on December 25, 2008, and set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office ever with $14.75 million in ticket sales. The film was followed by a 2011 direct-to-video prequel, Marley & Me: The Puppy Years.

Because the film covers 14 years in the life of the dog, 22 different yellow labradors played the part of Marley (as revealed in the special feature Finding Marley on the DVD).

The film was shot on location in Florida's West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami, and Dolphin Stadium, in addition to Philadelphia and West Chester in Pennsylvania. The Irish honeymoon scenes were shot in and around Ballynahinch Castle, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland.

The film's score was composed by Theodore Shapiro, who previously had worked with director Frankel on The Devil Wears Prada. He recorded it with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox.

Dave Barry, Grogan's fellow South Florida humor columnist, makes an uncredited cameo as a guest at the surprise party celebrating Grogan's 40th birthday.

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East High Basketball Team, the Wildcats, is one of the many organizations at East High. The team's captain is Troy Bolton. Their saying is "Get'cha Head in the Game". The team is state champions over the West High Knights.

In the beginning of the movie it is shown that Jack and Troy have a really close father-son and coach-player relationship. Troy also inherited some of Jack's ways when he groans about going to the party. As the father of the star player he puts extra pressure on Troy to excel. Their relationship gets strained when Jack does not initially approve of Troy and Gabriella's relationship, worrying that Gabriella might distract Troy from the basketball game. Eventually, though, he accepts her and supports Troy doing the musical. He celebrates with his son after they win the championship.

When Troy begins working at the Lava Springs Country Club, Jack advises Troy to keep his eye on college. He also gives Troy his old truck. This advice backfires as Troy became arrogant and acts very entitled. Jack then again gives Troy advice when Troy tells nobody likes him anymore and he tells Troy that the son he raised will figure it out. Jack is last seen at Midsummer's Night Talent Show with his wife and they enjoy Troy sing on stage.  

The film opens with Jack's Wildcats basketball team trailing behind the West High Knights in the Championship and final game of the season. At the half, Jack tells his players no more x and o's and point out to his four seniors only one number matters sixteen as they only have that minutes left in a wildcat uniform. Later that night at the post-game party, held at Bolton's house, Troy tells Gabriella that Jack's dream is to have his son follow in his footsteps and attend his alma mater. Jack is once again angry with Troy when he learns Troy is considering other schools besides the University of Albuquerque; however, he comes to terms with Troy's decision to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Pandora is the fifth moon of the gas giant Polyphemus (both names reference figures in Greek mythology), which orbits Alpha Centauri A in the Alpha Centauri System, the closest star system to our own sun.

Discovered by space telescopes at some point between 2050 and 2077, Pandora has been the single most interesting thing to happen to the human race in hundreds of years. The news services love to run clips of the wild scenery on Pandora and its bizarre flora and fauna.

To the cultures of Earth, Pandora is mysterious, primal and terrifying. Even from orbit, the scope of florae present on the surface indicates a moon brimming with life. One of the creatures on Pandora is the direhorse, a gray-skinned, hexapodal horse-like animal with bioluminescent qualities that the Na'vi ride when hunting. The Na'vi also ride the mountain banshee to hunt from the air, but the hunter can become prey in the presence of the great leonopteryx. In the canopy below, other deadly yet exotic animals roam: vicious packs of viperwolves, thick skinned hammerhead titanotheres and the most fearsome creature of all, the thanator. Other than the richness of varying colors, the trees resemble those of Earth. They have the familiar trunks, branches and leaves, though due to the difference in gravity, many of the shapes appear strange to humans and the proportions are greater because of the lower gravity. The trees and plant life of Pandora have formed electrochemical connections between their roots and effectively act as neurons, creating a moon-wide "brain" that has achieved sentience, which is known to the Na'vi as Eywa.

Pandora, despite being almost as large as Earth, is only a moon of the gas giant Polyphemus, which has thirteen other moons. However, due to the smaller size, its gravity is 20% less than Earth's. Due to Pandora's lower gravity, most creatures on Pandora are hexapods (six-legged), although the Na'vi resemble humans and have only two legs. Creatures roam the air and forest canopy below, similar to Earth's animals, but on a scale several times larger. Pandora's wildlife also have bioluminescent qualities. Depending on the position of the various moons, Pandora can have two or even three moons in its sky at once. Pandora and the other moons cast large black shadows on Polyphemus.

Pandora looks like a lush paradise by Earth standards during the day, but at night, virtually all life on the moon exhibits bioluminescent qualities in various shades of blue, purple and green. This possibly explains the Na'vi's blue skin color, which most likely provides them better camouflage at night on Pandora.

Credit : Fandom

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The catchphrase used by Buzz Lightyear in 'Toy Story' has been voted as the best movie quotes of all-time in a UK poll.

Buzz Lightyear's trademark catchphrase of "To infinity...and beyond!" from the animated movie was named as UK's favorite movie quote of all time, the Independent reported.

Michael Caine's line in 1969 British comedy, 'The Italian Job', "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" came close second in the poll conducted by Radio Times.

Third position in the list was secured by Al Pacino's "Say hello to my little friend" as Tony Montana in 'Scarface' whereas lines from Roy Schneider in 'Jaws' and Clark Gable in 'Gone With The Wind' grabbed the fourth and fifth spot respectively.

The poll got more than 2,500 film entries from fans where editors finalized the top ten.

Credit : Business Standard 

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Puss in Boots is a main character in the Shrek franchise, also being portrayed as the title character and protagonist of the film Puss in Boots (2011). He made his first appearance in the film Shrek 2 (2004), soon becoming Shrek's partner and helper (alongside Donkey). In the film Shrek the Third (2007), Puss helps Shrek find the heir to the throne of the Far Far Away Kingdom. The film Shrek Forever After (2010) is primarily set in an alternate universe, where Puss is Princess Fiona's pet and has gained weight after his retirement. In the spin-off and prequel Puss in Boots, his origins are described. Puss also appears in the Netflix television series centered on him, The Adventures of Puss in Boots (2015–2018).

Puss was inspired by the title character of the fairy tale "Puss in Boots". His design, created by Tom Hester, was based on real cats. Several characters were used as inspirations for Puss's characterization, such as Zorro and Indiana Jones. The idea of Puss as the protagonist of a film was explored after his debut appearance. Antonio Banderas voices Puss in the English, Spanish, and Italian dubs of the Shrek franchise. While he initially tried a high-pitched voice for the character, he and the Shrek 2 filmmakers decided on a tone that was deeper than his normal voice. Banderas said that voicing Puss was an important part of his career. Eric Bauza provides Puss's voice in The Adventures of Puss in Boots.

The character has received generally positive reviews, with critics praising his depiction and considering him a source of comic relief. Reviewers have regarded Puss as a popular Shrek character. Banderas's voice acting has also been praised. Merchandise inspired by the character has been produced.

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Films are stories told through the visual medium. And the camera is a filmmakers pen. To keep the viewers glued to the screen, filmmakers have to employ numerous visual ploys, including camera techniques and special effects. Today, let's look at one such creative technique called bridging shot.

What it does:

These shots are inserted in a film to indicate the passage of time between two scenes. Much like a literal bridge, they connect two scenes to allow time jumps in the narrative.

Such shots are necessary to maintain the film's pace. Some commonly used bridging shots are calendar pages flying, montages of newspaper headlines, and time-lapse shots of clouds passing, and lines drawn across a map to indicate travel.

Where was it used:

In "New Moon", the second film in the "Twilight" saga, the scene with Bella Swan sitting in front of a window watching the seasons change, is a classic example of bridging shot. So, the next time you watch a film, keep your eyes open for a bridging shot and try to identify its purpose.

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Harry Potter faced a Hungarian Horntail during the Triwizard Tournament in Goblet of Fire, armed with only his wand and the broom he beckoned with the Summoning Charm.

Hungarian Horntails can shoot fire at quite a range; as far as 50 feet. Horntails are especially dangerous, with yellow eyes, black scales, bronze horns and spikey tails.

It had black scales, and was lizard-like in appearance. It also had yellow eyes, with vertical pupils like a cat's, bronze horns and similarly coloured spikes that protruded from its long tail which it would gladly deploy in combat. The dragon's roar was a yowling, screeching scream, and its flame could reach to about fifty feet. While having a very far reaching flame, the Horntail's breath could reach extremely high temperatures, as it made a stone turn red hot in seconds. Its eggs were cement-coloured and particularly hard-shelled. The Horntail's foods of choice include cattle, sheep, goats, and whenever possible, humans.

During the First Task of the 1994 Triwizard Tournament, a Hungarian Horntail, alongside a Common Welsh Green, Chinese Fireball, and Swedish Short-Snout, was selected as obstacles of Golden egg retrieval for the Champions. Harry Potter ended up drawing the Hungarian Horntail to face. Later before Christmas, when faced with the agony of trying to ask someone to the Yule Ball, Harry said that he would have preferred facing the Horntail again.

Credit : Fandom

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If you are bookworm, you might be familiar with the term protagonist. It is used to describe the leading character in a story. But have you heard of deuteragonists, and tritagonists?

From the protagonist's perspective

A protagonist is usually easily recognisable as the main character of the story. Generally, the story is written from the protagonist's perspective. However, often a novel has multiple storylines and characters, each with their own storyline or role. For example, in "The Lord of the Rings" series, although Frodo is considered the main character as he has the Ring, Aragorn and Sam are equally significant. So are they protagonists too? No. That's where the concept of deuteragonists, and tritagonists comes in.

A dependable deuteragonist

Usually, deuteragonists are sidekicks, who support the protagonist. They are often (but not always) the second-most important character. So in "The Lord of the Rings" series, Sam can be called a deuteragonist Similarly, Rowley Jefferson is the deuteragonist in "The Diary of the Wimpy Kid" series. He is the well-meaning and helpful companion of Greg Heffley. However, Rowley also has his own spin-off series "Diary of an Awesomely Friendly Kid" in which he is the protagonist.

But not all sidekicks are deuteragonists. For example, Snowy from "Tintin" is not important enough to be a deuteragonist, but Captain Haddock is.

The tricky third

The third main character in a story can be called a tritagonist. It is generally a secondary side-kick character. The role of the tritagonist depends on the story. For example, Hermione is a tritagonist in the "Harry Potter" series. (However, fans are divided over this as they consider Hermione to be closer to Harry than Ron and hence, she is regarded more as a deuteragonist.) Other popular examples of tritagonists are Jessie from "Toy Story" with both Woody and Buzz, and both Princess Leia and Han Solo from "Star Wars".

On the dark side

Another important thing to remember is that not all deuteragonists and tritagonists are supportive of or helpful to the main character. They can also be evil and cause harm to the character. Yes, that's right, they can also be antagonists. For example, Prince Hans from the animated film "Frozen" reveals himself as an antagonist towards the end. Antagonists are the villains of the story, they are characters that bring harm upon the main character.

However, remember that these are only broad definitions, and depend on the story.

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In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, a Muggle, is a person who lacks any sort of magical ability and was not born in a magical family. Muggles can also be described as people who do not have any magical blood inside them. It differs from the term Squib, which refers to a person with one or more magical parents yet without any magical power or ability, and from the term Muggle-born (or the derogatory and offensive term mudblood, which is used to imply the supposed impurity of Muggle blood), which refers to a person with magical abilities but with non-magical parents.

The term Muggle is sometimes used in a pejorative manner in the novels. Since Muggle refers to a person who is a member of the non-magical community, Muggles are simply ordinary human beings without any magical abilities and almost always with no awareness of the existence of magic. Witches and wizards with non-magical parents are called Muggle-borns. There have also been some children known to have been born to one magical and one non-magical parent. People of this mixed parentage are called half-bloods; magical people with any Muggle ancestry on the one side or the other are half-bloods as well. The most prominent Muggle-born in the Harry Potter series is Hermione Granger, who was born to Muggles of undisclosed names. Witches and wizards with all-magical heritage are called pure bloods.

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Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo have been named the joint winners of the 2019 Booker Prize after the judges broke their rules by declaring a tie.

The Booker Prize has been jointly awarded twice before, to Nadine Gordimer and Stanley Middleton in 1974 and to Michael Ondaatje and Barry Unsworth in 1992. In 1993, the rules were changed so that only one author could win the prize. This is the first time since then that two authors have been announced as joint-winners. The 2019 winners will share the £50,000 prize money.

It is the second time that Atwood has won the Booker Prize, having won in 2000 with The Blind Assassin. She has been shortlisted for four further books: The Handmaid’s Tale (1986), Cat’s Eye (1989), Alias Grace (1996) and Oryx and Crake (2003). 

At 79, Atwood is now the oldest-ever writer to take home the Booker. She first claimed the coveted prize in 2000 for The Blind Assassin, and several of her works have made the shortlist in the past. Already a giant of contemporary literature, Atwood has enjoyed a commercial hit with The Testaments, which sold 125,000 copies in the United States during the first week after its release and boasted the best opening-day sales of any book in 2019, according to the Washington Post’s Ron Charles.

Evaristo, a 60-year-old Anglo-Nigerian author based in London, has been writing for nearly 40 years, but she is better-known in Britain than on the international stage. Speaking with the Times following her win, Evaristo said she wrote Girl, Woman, Other in response to a lack of representation in British literature: “When I started the book six years ago, I was so fed up with black British women being absent from British literature,” she explained. “So I wanted to see how many characters I could put into a novel and pull it off.”

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Pixar's "Soul" is about a jazz pianist who has a near-death experience and gets stuck in the afterlife, contemplating his choices and regretting the existence that he mostly took for granted. Pixar veteran Pete Docter is the credited co-director, alongside playwright and screenwriter Kemp Powers, who wrote Regina King's outstanding "One Night in Miami." Despite its weighty themes, the project has a light touch. A musician might liken "Soul" to an extended riff, or a five-finger exercise, which is very much in the spirit of jazz, an improvisation-centered art that's honorably and accurately depicted onscreen whenever Joe or another musician character starts to perform. 

“Soul” won the Academy Award for animated feature at the 2021 Oscars on Sunday night, making it the 11th film from the storied animation studio to take the prize since the category was created in 2002.

Directed by Pete Docter, “Soul” tells the story of Joe Gardner, a middle school music teacher with aspirations to be a professional jazz musician. After his excitement at landing a gig leads to an accident, Joe’s soul is determined to figure out a way to get back to his body on Earth instead of accepting his death and heading to the great beyond.

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While television and web series run for weeks together (divided into 30 to 40 minute-long episodes), films are usually no longer than two hours. However, Swedish filmmakers Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson challenged this practice in their film by making it 857 hours long. Imagine sitting through such a long film!

What's it about

An experimental film, "Logistics" lacks any conventional structure. It follows the life cycle of a pedometer, a tiny plastic electronic device used by people to count their steps and monitor their pulse rate. The film follows the pedometer's journey in reverse chronological order. It begins at a store in Stockholm, where the pedometer is sold and then traces it back to a factory in China's Bao'an distict, where it was manufactured.

What makes it special?

The film is shot in real time over 37 days and 37 nights, nonstop. This helps the viewers understand the actual time and distance taken by the product to reach from China to Sweden.

To get a first-hand experience, the filmmakers travelled with the product as it made its way aboard a large container ship going from Sweden to China, a freight train to the port of Gothenburg, then a truck to the port of Shenzhen and a factory in Bao'an.

It offers a peek into the realities of online shopping and global logistics. The film was exhibited in Stockholm in 2012.

Since it would be difficult to sit through such a long film, "Logistics" has been broken down into short, two-minute clips - one for each day of the journey on its website. You can watch it on logisticsartproject.com.

Did you know?

Longest films in the world

• "Ambiance": Another Swedish film "Ambiance", which was scheduled to release in 2020, is 720 hours long, which is equivalent to a whopping 30 days. The film's trailer, which came out in April 2016, was seven hours and twenty minutes long!
• "Hamlet": Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet" released in 1996 lasts 242 minutes.
• "Cleopatra": Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1963 film "Cleopatra" is 248 minutes long.

Longest films in India

• "Doon School Quintet" is a documentary series created by American visual anthropologist. It has a runtime of more than eight hours (494 minutes)
• "Czechmate", a documentary by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur runs for 448 minutes (roughly seven and a half hours.)
• "LOC Kargil": The 2003 film "LOC Kargil", based on the Kargil War and directed by J.P. Dutta is four hours and fifteen minutes long.

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Move over, Metallica and Coldplay, it's time for The Mudbloods and The Parselmouths!

A new genre of music with its roots in the "Harry Potter' series is gaining popularity across the world.

Wizard rock, also known as Wrock, is devoted to the magical universe of Harry Potter. What's more, the band members even dress up (Cosplay) as their favourite characters from the series. Just like fan fiction, wizard rock provides an outlet for fans to express their love for the books.

How it began

Nearly 20 years ago, author J.K. Rowling introduced young readers around the world to the bespectacled boy with a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. And in the years that followed, the "Harry Potter series met with resounding success, spawning multiple films, video games, and even a theme park. But it also conjured up a new form of music - wizard rock!

It began in 2000 in the U.S. with just a handful of bands expressing their love for the boy wizard through their original musical compositions. Soon, Harry and the Potters, the first band in the wizard rock genre, was joined by the likes of The Whomping Willow, Draco and the Malfoys. The Mudbloods and The Parselmouths. Some of the bands even started dressing up like the characters from the franchise, as they belted out number such as "Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock", "Saving Ginny", and "Dumbledore's Army".

By 2006, there were over 30 wizard rock bands, with some of them even going on tours. In 2008, the BBC did a documentary "We Are Wizards" exploring the realm of wizard rock, bringing international recognition to the genre. Today, there are wizard rock bands in different parts of the world.

You can listen to bands like Moaning Myrtles, Gryffindor Common Room Rejects Squared, The Owl Post, Mostly Muggles and We-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named on YouTube or music streaming apps.

Fandom

The appeal of the songs of wizard rock lies in their creativity and ability to connect with the readers, capturing the emotions of its characters. For instance, Draco and the Malfoys and The Parselmouths explore the nastiness of the Slytherins through punk and indie rock. Some songs even take the story forward by imagining alternate endings and futures for their characters.

Tune in to Tolkien

"Harry Potter' is not the only series to serenade its fans. J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" series, which was later adapted to the silver screen by Peter Jackson, was perhaps one of the earliest to catch the imagination of the music world. Bands have been writing songs drawing upon Tolkien's books since the 1970s. One of the most famous among them was Led Zeppelin ("Stairway to Heaven"). Even today Tolkien's works continue to inspire many heavy metal bands. Blind Guardian and Summoning have written songs about hobbits and dwarves.

 

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Do you love stories of talking animals, singing portraits and chatty kettles? If yes, then you are a fan of anthropomorphism.

A literary device, anthropomorphism (pronounced anthro-polt-more-fizz um) is used by authors to attribute human traits to animals or inanimate objects. This is done to make non-human characters more relatable and entertaining to readers and viewers. You may have seen this in stories and films that depict animals who can talk behave and feel emotions just like us. Children's classics such as "Dr. Dolittle", "Charlotte's Web", "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", and "Chronicles of Namia: The Lion. The Witch, and the Wardrobe all feature anthropomorphic characters.

While animals are commonly shown as anthropomorphised creatures, this technique is also used to bring inanimate objects to life by assigning them human-like qualities. Disney-Pixar films often use anthropomorphism - bringing clownfish and toy space-rangers to life as the beloved Nemo in Finding Nemo" and Buzz Lightyear in "Toy Story".

The term ‘anthropomorphism’ was coined by the Greek Philosopher Xenophanes after observing the physical similarities between people and their Gods.

Anthropomorphism vs. Personification

It is easy to confuse anthropomorphism with another similar literary device called personification. But the two are starkly different. Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an animal or an abstract notion is ascribed human qualities. For instance, the sentence, "Nature unleashed its fury through thunderstorms," is an example of personification, because nature can't be "furious" as it cannot feel human emotions. However, saying that nature can feel anger and fury emphasises the harshness of the storm. On the other hand in anthropomorphism, the non-human objects literally behave like human beings.

POPULAR EXAMPLES

• "The Beauty and the Beast": The fairytale as well as its Disney adaptation is packed with anthropomorphic furniture such as clocks and wardrobes that sing, dance and talk.


• Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland": Humans and anthropomorphic characters such as walking rabbits, smiling cats and even talking playing cards exist together in this fantastical story.


• J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter series: The magical world of Harry Potter is full of anthropomorphic characters. For instance, the talking and sometimes singing portraits hung inside the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The centaurs of the Forbidden Forest, who are half human, half-horse and skilled at Divination, are other examples of anthropomorphism.


•  "The Secret Life of Pets" film franchise: Wonder what your pets – cats, dogs, or even rabbits - are up to when you leave the house? 'The Secret Life of Pets" films show pets as socialising, watching telenovelas, raiding the fridge and even rocking out to heavy metal music when humans are not around.


• Richard Adams' Watership Down: In his debut novel. "Watership Down" (1972), Adams featured rabbits that could talk in their own distinctive language (Lapine).


• "Doctor Dolittle": Hugh Lofting's series of children's books portray a doctor who can talk to animals in their own languages. The books were adapted into highly successful films, starring Eddie Murphy as the main character.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Giving hurricanes human names is also a form of anthropomorphism. It is done because a human name is simpler and easier to comprehend than a scientific name, and makes us more receptive to information.


• In religion and mythology, anthropomorphism is the perception of a divine being in human form, or the recognition of human qualities in these beings. Greek deities such as Zeus and Apollo are often depicted in human form exhibiting human qualities such as beauty, greed, hatred, jealousy, and uncontrollable anger.


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World War II. They are typically pessimistic in nature. Films in this genre veer towards themes of corruption and murder and mostly tackle the subject of post-war disillusionment. These films take a sardonic approach to the world around and contain really strong dialogues.

Characters and characteristics

Some distinct characteristics of the genre are cynical protagonists, femme fatales, low-key lighting, flashbacks and diagonal camera angles.

The genre was inspired by pulp fiction, which was quite popular in the 1930s. These novels mostly revolved around the Great Depression and dealt with themes such as corruption, danger, and mystery.

In the wake of World War II, some Hollywood studios - in an effort to draw the audience to crime dramas - explored the dark film genre, which eventually gave rise to the noir concept. In the 1940s and the 1950s, these films were highly influenced by the German expressionism, French poetic realism, and art deco style.

Examples

"The Big Sleep", directed by Howard Hawks, is one of the iconic examples of the genre. Adapted from Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name, this film features Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe, a private eye, and Lauren Bacall as the heroine Vivian Rutledge. The noir film explores the themes of murder, blackmail, and deception.

Some of the other examples are 'The Maltese Falcon", "Double Indemnity", 'The Woman in the Window", "Laura", and "Touch of Evil". Despite enjoying tremendous success in the 1940s and 1950s, the lost its glory over time. However, even now, film noir remains an important discourse for critics and students of cinema.

 

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