Pleasantville Analysis of Film Techniques against the Theme of Change

Pleasantville Analysis of Film Techniques against the Theme of Change How are we made aware of the filmmaker's attitude towards change? Refer to three specific episodes from the film. (excl. concl. stages)In Pleasantville, the filmmaker, Gary Ross, conveys his attitude towards change through the characters of David and Jennifer who are transported into the 1950s sitcom "Pleasantville". He doesn't necessarily demonstrate change to bear a positive result; rather, he addresses that change is essential to the development of society and self and that it is important to understand and accept change. Ross contrasts the ignorance and mindlessness of the unchanged people of Pleasantville with the hunger for knowledge that the changed (or coloured) people possess, communicating to the viewer that change and knowledge go hand in hand.Ross also portrays and somewhat satirises an unchanged society's people to be ruled by their own mindlessness, and in their epiphany, translates to the viewer that change can come from within or from outside one's self but is differe nt for everyone.Map of Westchester highlighting PleasantvilleDark overtones are used to parallel the Pleasantville to a society under fascist rule. However, in the end, change will always affect everyone and this new understanding will help to overcome the changes encountered in the future that may seek to detriment the society. The three scenes which will be discussed in relation to the filmmaker's attitude towards change are the breakfast scene, the classroom scene, and the rain scene.The breakfast scene is the scene where Betty is piling food on other food and topping it off with maple syrup for Mary-Sue's breakfast. The audience is overwhelmed at the ridiculous amount of food that is being placed on her plate, which is shown by extreme close-up and cuts of the shots of every time another food item is slapped onto the plate, and is accompanied by an upbeat...

Tropical Rainforests - Harbors of Diversity

Tropical Rainforests - Harbors of Diversity Biodiversity is a term biologists and ecologists use to describe natural biotic variety. The numbers of animal and plant species plus the richness of gene pools and living ecosystems all make for sustained, healthy, and diverse ecosystems. Plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, bacteria, and fungi all live together with non-living elements like soil, water, and air to make a functioning ecosystem. A healthy tropical rainforest is the worlds most spectacular example of a living, functioning ecosystem and the ultimate example of biodiversity. Just How Diverse are Tropical Rainforests? Rainforests have been around a long time, even on a geological scale. Some existing rainforests have evolved over 65 million years. This time-enhanced stability has in the past allowed these forests greater opportunities for biological perfection. Future tropical rainforest stability is now not so certain as human populations have exploded, rainforest products are in demand, and countries struggle to balance the environmental issues with the needs of citizens living off these products. Rainforests by their very nature harbor the greatest biological gene pool in the world. The gene is a basic building block of living things and every species is evolved by various combinations of these blocks. The tropical rainforest has nurtured this pool for millions of years to become the exclusive home for 170,000 of the worlds 250,000 known plant species. What Is Tropical Rainforest Biodiversity? Tropical rainforests support higher land area units (acres or hectares) of biodiversity when compared to temperate or arid forest ecosystems. There are some educated guesses by experts that tropical rainforests on our planet contain about 50% of the world’s terrestrial plant and animal species. The most common estimate of the size of total rainforests amount to approximately 6% of the world’s land area.   While tropical rainforests around the world have many similarities in their climates and soil composition, each regional rainforest is unique. You will not find precisely the same species living in all the tropical rainforests around the world. For example, the species in African tropical rainforests are not the same as the species living in the tropical rainforests of Central America. However, the different species play similar roles within their specific regional rainforest. Biodiversity can be measured on three levels. The National Wildlife Federation lists these levers as:1) Species diversity - being  the sheer variety of living things, from microscopic bacteria and fungi to towering redwoods and enormous blue whales.  2)  Ecosystem diversity  - being tropical rainforests, deserts, swamps, tundra, and everything in between.  3)  Genetic diversity  - being the variety of genes within a single species, which give rise to the variations that cause species to evolve and adapt over time. Two Fantastic Rainforest/Temperate Forest Comparisons To comprehend just how marvelous this biodiversity is, you have to make a comparison or two: One study in a Brazilian rainforest found 487 tree species growing on a single hectare (2.5 acres), while the US and Canada combined only have 700 species on millions of acres.There are approximately 320 butterfly species in all of Europe. Just one park in a Peruvian rainforest, The Manu National Park, has 1300 species. Top Biodiverse Rainforest Countries: According to Rhett Butler at Mongabay.com, the following ten countries are home to the most biodiverse tropical rainforests on Earth. The United States is included only because of Hawaiis protected forests. The countries in order of diversity are: BrazilColombiaIndonesiaChinaMexicoSouth AfricaVenezuelaEcuadorPeruUnited States