HP deskjet Essay Example for Free

HP deskjet Essay Case: Hewlett-Packard-Supplying the Deskjet Printer in Europe The DeskJet printer was introduced in 1988 and has become one of Hewlett-Packards (HPs) most successful products. Sales have grown steadily, reaching a level of over 600,000 units in 1990. Unfortunately, inventory growth has tracked sales growth closely. HPs distribution centers are filled with pallets of the DeskJet printer. Worse yet, the organization in Europe claims that inventory levels there need to be raised even further to maintain satisfactory product availability. THE DESKJET SUPPLY CHAIN The network of suppliers, manufacturing sites, distribution centers (DCs), dealers, and customers for the DeskJet product make up the DeskJet supply chain (see Exhibit 17. 14). HP in Vancouver does manufacturing. There are two key stages in the manufacturing process: (1) printed circuit assembly and test (PCAT) and (2) final assembly and test (FAT). PCAT involves the assembly and testing of electronic components (like integrated circuits, read-only memories, and raw printed circuit boards) to make logic boards used in the printer. FAT involves the assembly of other subassemblies (like motors, cables, keypads, plastic chassis, gears, and the printed circuit assemblies from PCAT) to produce a working printer, as well as the final testing of the printer. The components needed for PCAT and FAT are sourced from other HP divisions as well as from external suppliers worldwide. Exhibit 17.14 HP DeskJet Supply Chain Selling the DeskJet in Europe requires customizing the printer to meet the language and power supply requirements of the local countries, a process known as â€Å"localization.† Specifically, the localization of the DeskJet of different countries involves assembling the appropriate power supply module, which reflects the correct voltage requirements (110 or 220) and power cord plug, and packaging it with the working printer and a manual written in the appropriate language. Currently, the final test is done with the actual power supply module included with the printer. Hence, the finished products of the factory are â€Å"localized† versions of the printer destined for all the different countries. For the European Market six different versions are currently produced. These are designated A, AA, AB, AQ, AU, and AY as indicated in the Bills of Materials shown in Exhibit 17.15. Exhibit 17.15 HP DeskJet Bill of Materials The total factory throughput time through the PCAT and FAT stages is about one week. The transportation time from Vancouver to the European DC is five weeks. The long shipment time to Europe is due to ocean transit and the time to clear customs and duties at port of entry. The plant sends a weekly shipment of printers to the DC in Europe. The printer industry is highly competitive. Resellers want to carry as little inventory as possible. Consequently, there has been increasing pressure for HP as a manufacturer to provide high levels of availability at the DC. In response, management has decided to stock the DCs so that a high level of availability is maintained. THE INVENTORY SERVICE CRISIS To limit the amount of inventory throughout the DeskJet supply chain and at the same time provide the high level of service needed has been quite a challenge to Vancouvers management. The manufacturing group has been very successful in reducing the uncertainties caused by delivery to the European DC. Forecasting demand in Europe, though, is a significant problem. It has become common to have product shortages for model demands from some countries, while inventory of other models keeps piling up. In the past, the target inventory levels at the DCs were based on safety stocks that were a result of some judgmental rule of thumb. Specifically, target inventory levels, equal to one-month average sales, were set for each model carried in the DC. Now, however, it seems that the increasing difficulty of getting accurate forecasts means the safety stock rules should be revisited. HP has put together a team of employees to help implement a scientifically based safety stock system that will be responsive to forecast errors and replenishment lead times. They are to recommend a method for calculating appropriate safety stock levels for the various DeskJet models carried in  the European DC. The team has a good sample of demand data that can be used for developing the safety stock methodology (see Exhibit 17.16). HP hopes this new methodology will solve the inventory and service problem.

Factors That Affect The Pricing Decision

Factors That Affect The Pricing Decision In Finland, Lukka and Granlund (1996) observed that product cost information had its greatest importance in pricing, tendering and cost reduction decisions. In Italy, Cescon (1999) noted the most important uses of product costs were in cost reduction, pricing, make-or-buy and investment decisions, and its least important role related to decisions about distribution channels. Based on the above quotations, the costs of the product, its inputs including the amount spent on product development, testing, and packaging required to be taken into account when a pricing decision is made. Therefore, product costs are very important to make a pricing decision. In Australia, Joye and Blayney (1990) found that product costs were of major importance in the pricing decisions of the majority of companies. Therefore, cost is a  major factor that will affect pricing decisions. Variances between actual and  budgeted cost are inherent in business. Actual cost may not correspond  with budgeted cost, thus, it is important to have a thorough planning on  how can these cost affect company profit. Profit planning must take into account expected changes in cost. An   increase in cost with no corresponding change in selling price will   greatly affect company profits. Thus, the ability of the enterprise to limit suppliers bargaining power as to control the price of raw materials and production will be greatly influence the pricing decision. A products cost can be classified as fixed or variable costs, according to whether the volume changes. quoted by Dominiak Louderback, 1997. Fixed cost is the cost that  remains the same regardless of the level of production or the level of sales such as property taxes, rent, advertising, insurance, and utilities. Moreover, variable cost is the cost that changes in a directly proportion to changes in production volume such as sales commission, packaging, labeling and shipping costs. In many manufacturing companies, labor costs remain constant over wide ranges of output, so managers can consider labor as a fixed cost for many short-term output decisions. In addition, most overhead costs change only when managers decide to restructure the company, so these costs do not change as output fluctuates from day to day. The only cost that definitely does go up and down with production is the material cost. Hence, the cost of material will increase especially when economic downturn and the price of product will increase eventually. In spite of all, the product cost information was significantly more important when used directly in decision making. This may be because product cost information may be regarded as being more important when it is actually being used in a decision rather than as a guide for possible future decisions. Product cost information may be significantly more important in continuous production process manufacturing than in discrete-part and assembly manufacturing for product mix, output level and product discontinuation decisions because continuous production processes lead to the production of many different products for which a variety of product related decisions will need to be made. DISTRIBUTION(PLACEMENT) Placement under marketing mix involves all company activities that make the product available to the targeted customer, quoted by Kotler and Armstrong, 2004. With this, the easier the targeted customers can get the product, the more success of your company in distributing product. Distribution is getting your product to the consumer. Once you know your market area and have safely processed and packaged your product, you have to place it where your customer can buy it. On a general note, while planning placement strategy under marketing mix analysis, companies consider six different channel decisions including choosing between direct access to customers or involving middlemen, choosing single or multiple channels of distributions, the length of the distribution channel, the types of intermediaries, the numbers of distributors, and which intermediary to use based on the quality and reputation, quoted by Proctor, 2000. Therefore, distribution is important because it affects sales, profits and competitiveness. It can contribute up to fifty percent of the final selling price of some goods. Without distribution even the best product or service will fails. Author Jean-Jacques Lambin believes that a marketer has two roles which are organizing exchange through distribution and organizing communication. Moreover, distribution can be classified by channels, coverage, locations, transportation, logistics and others aspects. Physical distribution or Place must integrate with the other Ps in the marketing mix such as price, product and promotion. For example, the design of product packaging must fit onto a pallet, into a truck and onto a shelf, prices are often determined by distribution channels, and the image of the channel must fit in with the suppliers required positioning. You can see how Coca Cola further integrate the timing of distribution and promotion in the Hall Of Fame later. In fact, they see distribution as one of their core competencies. In addition, geographical pricing is setting different prices for a customer in different parts of the world which is includes shipping costs. Therefore, there will be difference price on the same product in differences country. Although within a country, the same product will be charged to different prices, which may be caused by the urban or metropolitan area, income distribution and others factors. Apart from that, distribution strategy is influenced by the market structure, the firms objectives, its resources and its overall marketing strategy. All these factors are addressed in the section on selecting Distribution Channels. The first strategic decision is distribution intensity which include of intensive, selective and exclusive distribution. Intensive distribution aims to provide saturation coverage of the market by using all available outlets. For many products, total sales are directly linked to the number of outlets used such as cigarettes and beer. Intensive distribution is usually required where customers have a range of acceptable brands to choose from. In other words, if one brand is not available, a customer will simply choose another. The second one is selective distribution which involves a producer using a limited number of outlets in a geographical area to sell products. The producer can choose the most appropriate or best-performing outlets and focus effort on them. Selective distribution works best when consumers are prepared to shop around or they have a preference for a particular brand or price and will search out the outlets that supply. The last one is exclusive distribution which is an extreme form of selective distribution in which only one wholesaler, retailer or distributor is used in a specific geographical area. The next strategic decision clarifies the number of levels within a channel such as agents, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, franchisees, direct marketing and others. In some Japanese markets there are many intermediaries involved. In the marketing channel of distribution in Japan, especially in the retail sector, the number of retailers had been increasing from 1950s to the beginning of 1980s consistently. However, it has begun to decrease in the beginning of 1980s, explained by Hisao Fujimoto. Companies such as Ford, Ferrari, Toyota, and Nissan use specific dealers to make their products available, whereas companies such as Nestle involve a whole chain of wholesaler retailers to reach its customers. In conclusion, distribution is playing a big role in the pricing decision. The business communities should place the product efficiently and effectively, and set a reasonable price for selling. There is some advice for the consumer, that is consumer should shop for the best price as they can find regardless of how long the levels of distribution and how far the place of selling the product from you. ECONOMIC CONDITION Economic environment of the country is an important factor affecting the pricing decisions. Inflationary and deflationary conditions will also affect the pricing decision of a company. Inflation is a rise in the average price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. Money loses purchasing power during inflationary periods since each unit of currency buys progressively fewer goods. Consequently, inflation also reflects erosion in the purchasing power of money which is a loss of real value in the internal medium of exchange and unit of account in the economy. Therefore, a company should decrease the price of product when there is an inflation so the consumer will be afford to buy it. On 20 July 1993, Alan Greespan, chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, testified before a congressional committee. He said: The role of expectations in the inflation process is crucial. Even expectations not validated by economic fundamentals can themselves add appreciably to wage and price pressures for a considerable period, potentially derailing the economy from its growth path. However, deflation is a decrease in average price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. While lower prices may seem ideal from a consumers point of view at first, but deflation leads to rising of unemployment and falling in production, a situation from which it is extremely difficult to recover. Therefore, a company should charge a higher price on product when selling it so that it can be able to pay for salary of employees and covered the production cost. On the other hand, the prices are increased in boom period to cover the increasing cost of production and distribution. To meet the changing economic conditions, several pricing decisions are available such as price can be boosted to protect profit against rising costs, price protection system can be linked with the price on delivery to current costs and emphasis can be shifted from sales volume to profit margin and cost reduction. On March 16 alone, five days after the earthquake and tsunami and as the nations nuclear crisis was worsening, United States investors put $700 million into Japanese Exchange Traded Funds, according to the data from Trim Tabs, an investment research organization. That was twice the previous largest daily inflow on record, in 2003. After the earthquake, investors waited for two trading days before acting. But on Wednesday, March 16, after stocks in Tokyo fell by about 10 percent, investors in the United States responded by moving heavily into E.T.F.s. One reason may be that Japanese stocks still have far to go in their recovery. Though the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo has bounced back from recent lows, it is still down 9.43 percent since before the earthquake.

Social Work :: Graduate College Admissions Essays

Social Work    It was the shrill ringing of my pager that jarred me out of the deep sleep I had been enjoying. The clock beside my bed read 3:30 as I fumbled around in the dark, reaching for the insistent pager. As I saw the code that flashed on its tiny screen, my heart sank. I thought of the sleet that had been falling as I had fallen asleep a few hours before, and of the warmth of my cozy bed. The very last thing I wanted to do at that moment was to get up and go out in the cold. Unfortunately, there was little choice; I was the only Crisis Companion available during the week between Christmas and New Year. Within a few minutes, I was dressed and en route to the hospital to pick up a woman and her small children, on the run from an abusive husband, and take them to our shelter several miles out of town. As both a hotline operator and Crisis Companion for a community organization called Avalon, I had been trained to be an active listener, crisis counselor, and advocate for survivors of domestic v iolence and sexual assault. I thought of all the training I had received, as well as the passion which had driven and encouraged my work with Avalon, as I neared the emergency room of the hospital and prepared to meet my newest clients.    Every 15 seconds a woman is battered. 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men will be sexually assaulted during their lifetimes. 4 women in the United States are killed every day by their husbands or male partners. When I first heard these statistics in a Women's Studies course my Freshman year, I was astounded and thoroughly incensed. The more I read, the more committed I became to doing something which would bring about a positive change for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. It was then that I learned about and began working with Avalon, which was active on campus and in the community. Through its outreach programs, Avalon is dedicated to educating the community about the issues of sexual assault and domestic violence. It also offers a shelter, as well as advocacy and education, to survivors and their families.    As a volunteer for Avalon I have answered a crisis hotline, acted as a court advocate, helped clients apply for food stamps, and been on call in the hospital to work with women and children.

Securing the Crime Scene Essay -- Crime

When the call comes in that a crime has been committed, the police are dispatched to the crime scene. When the police arrive on scene, they need to take control by apprehending any suspects and looking for witnesses/victims. If the scene is not safe, the first responders must secure the area. If anyone is hurt, they should call for medical personnel as soon as possible. The first police officer on scene is usually in charge until a criminal investigator arrives on scene. Depending on the crime committed, the crime scene could be as small as the interior room of a building or as large as the whole neighborhood. The whole crime scene area needs to be secure so that evidence is not tampered with by anyone. The police officer in charge can start a search for more evidence so that it can be secured by the time investigators arrive on scene. There are five different search methods; the point-to-point movement, ever-widening circle, ever-narrowing circle, zone or sector search, and the strip or grid search (Lushbaugh, and Weston, 2011). Each search is used under different circumstances that all depend on how large the crime scene is and if it has occurred indoors, outdoors, inside of a building, etc. Once a criminal investigator arrives, the police should have the area secured so the investigators can do their jobs. Investigators will enter the crime scene and will have some equipment to preserve evidence on hand. Evidence won’t be removed until proper procedures are followed so that it is not jeopardized. They will number each piece of evidence and take pictures of it. For example, if there was a drop of blood on the ground, a number would be put next to it and a picture would be taken. The pictures will be up close, ... ...y quickly and can document accurately. Investigators can go over the crime scene and look for any evidence that may have been missed. Overall, crime scenes that are committed inside of a building are a little easier to deal with than an outside crime scene. References Department of Justice. (n.d.). All about forensic science. Retrieved from http://www.all-about- forensic-science.com/types-of-crime-scene.html Katz, M., Scheck, O., & Bode, N. (2011). Man stabbed to death outside chelsea nightclub where lebron james partied. Dna info, Retrieved from http://www.dnainfo.com/20110926/chelsea-hells-kitchen/man-found-stabbed-death- Chelsea Layton, J. (2005). How crime scene investigation works. Retrieved from http://science.howstuffworks.com/csi2.htm Lushbaugh, C. A., & Weston, P. B. (2011). Criminal investigation basic perspectives. (12 ed.). Pearson.

The Farewell Sermon of Muhammad :: Islam Religion Essays

The "Farewell Sermon" of Muhammad The apostle continued his pilgrimage and showed the men the rites and taught them the customs of their hajj. He made a speech in which he made things clear. He praised and glorified God, then he said: "O men, listen to my words. I do not know whether I shall ever meet you in this place again after this year. Your blood and your property are sacrosanct until you meet your Lord, as this day and this month are holy. You will surely meet your Lord and He will ask you of your works. I have told you. He who has a pledge let him return it to him who entrusted him with it; all usury is abolished, but you have your capital. Wrong not and you shall not be wronged. God has decreed that there is to be no usury and the usury of `Abbà ¢s b. `Abd al Muttalib is abolished, all of it. All blood shed in the pagan period is to be left unavenged. The first claim on blood I abolish is that of Ibn Rabà ®`a b. al Hà ¢rith b. `Abd al Muttalib (who was fostered among the Banà » Layth and whom Hudhayl killed.) It is the first blood shed in the pagan period which I deal with. Satan despairs of ever being worshiped in your land, but if he can be obeyed in anything short of worship he will be pleased in m atters you may be disposed to think of little account, so beware of him in your religion. "Postponement of a sacred month is only an excess of disbelief whereby those who disbelieve are misled; they allow it one year and forbid it another year that they may make up the number of the months which God has hallowed, so that they permit what God has forbidden, and forbid what God has allowed." [Koran 9:37] Time has completed its cycle and is as it was on the day that God created the heavens and the earth. The number of months with God is twelve; four of them are sacred, three consecutive and the Rajab of Mudar, which is between Jumà ¢dà ¢ and Sha`bà ¢n. You have rights over your wives and they have rights over you. You have the right that they should not defile your bed and that the should not behave with open unseemliness. If they do, God allows you to put them in separate rooms and to beat them but not with severity.

The One Scene That Sealed Titanic’s Fate Essay

Titanic is thought to be one of the most iconic films to ever hit theaters. According to the film industry, the film by James Cameron falls into the realm of an epic romance/disaster genre. Released in 1997, Titanic was an international box office sensation, due to the director providing equal importance to history, fiction, and romance. The film is set in April of 1912, where Jack Dawson played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Rose DeWitt Bukater played by Gloria Stuart and Kate Winslet share a love story that cannot be broken. The movie also gives a historical overview of what happened that dreadful night. This critical analysis of the film Titanic provides an overview that the innovative mode of storytelling (flash back and other techniques) can portray both a love story and the historical background while using a dissolve editing method, in which â€Å"the end of one shot gradually merges into the beginning of the next. The effect is produced by superimposing a fade-out onto a fade-in o f equal length of imposing one scene over another† (Petrie and Boggs 160). This editing effect was used at the beginning of the movie, in which at 21:03, the wreckage of the Titanic is seamlessly and effortlessly transformed into the beautiful masterpiece of a ship that it once was. This effect is also used when Jack and Rose are standing together â€Å"flying† on the edge of the Titanic, later to be transformed back into the ship wreck. This scene brings the audience back into the present and shocks them back into the harsh reality that the scene was merely a memory from Rose, and no longer the reality (Titanic1997). The editing in Titanic is truly remarkable, bringing the audience from the future into the past, shocking the audience by showing both first-class and lower-class struggles, and showing not only the love story between Rose and Jack, but the life and death of the Titanic and the two thousand people aboard. Through the use of other film techniques such as editing and camera work, set design, imagery and color, James Cameron created one of the most influential and moving works of art the film world has seen. The editing style and technique brings new life to the cinematography world, and â€Å"rejects the norms of modern Hollywood style† (Butka). In all film elements, visual effects, cinematography, color palette, editing, sound design, and music, contributes to the film as a whole. Cameron, â€Å"who has been pushing the boundaries of the Hollywood classical cinema since The Terminator, finally reached a career high point with Titanic’s synthesis of compelling storytelli ng and dexterous style and technique† (Butka) Visual effects, color, imagery, and set design play an important role in all forms of movie and television. These elements are the core foundation of the overall feeling that the audience experiences when watching a particular film. One particular element of film that impacts the story line is the setting of the scenery. Setting may â€Å"often seem unobtrusive or be taken for granted, it is an essential ingredient in any story and makes an important contribution to the theme of total effect of the film† (Petrie and Boggs 82). The setting of a film should be carefully analyzed because of the effects it has on the interrelationships of the characters, plot, and overall general feeling that the movie brings out in its audience. In Titanic, the setting plays a major role in the fact that the first class citizens were held to a higher standard that the lower class citizens. This set the mood for the rest of the film and sets up the segregation that separates Jack and Rose. The col ors also provide a strict divide between the upper and lower classes aboard the Titanic. The royalty wore brighter, more vibrant colors, as well as more flashy materials, whereas the lower class wore much more torn clothing, all of which were dark and dirty colors. These elements ultimately set the tone for the rest of the movie, and would be a constant struggle for Rose and Jack to keep their bond strong. James Cameron put an emphasis on the difference between these classes in order to give the audience the sense of segregation. James Cameron is a critically acclaimed film director known for some of the biggest box-office hits of all time. A science-fiction fan as a child, Cameron â€Å"went on to produce and direct films including The Terminator, Aliens and Avatar. He has received numerous Academy Awards and nominations for his often large-scale, expensive productions† (Biography Editors). His most noted work, 1997’s Titanic, became the first film â€Å"to earn more than $1 billion and landed 14 Academy Award nominations. Cameron took home three Oscars himself for the project: Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Picture† (Biography Editors). To re-create one of the greatest disasters at sea in history, â€Å"James Cameron had a special studio built in Mexico, which featured a 17-million-gallon water tank and the 775-foot replica of the Titanic,† this proved to help the film be a successful blockbuster hit (Biography Editors). James Cameron’s techniques used in Titani c became immensely popular as the film became popular. Cameron’s own â€Å"documentary urge was so intense, that he created new diving and photographic equipment – at an extraordinary expense for his studio – to achieve textural authenticity by recording and presenting the eighty-five-year-old wreck of his subject. The film, then, like so many other fictional films, says the ultimate compliment to the documentary form: Cameron uses the real thing to inform his reel thing† (Petrie and Boggs 468). The main purpose behind editing a film is to keep the film in continuous motion, regardless if the time periods switch rapidly, much like in Titanic, where Rose goes from being a seventeen year old girl, to a one-hundred year old woman explaining the history of the Titanic as she remembers it. The editing techniques that were used were ultimately used to shock the audience through â€Å"sudden, jarring cuts between the third- and first-class, [which] build the antithesis between the classes and accentuate the conflicts. Some of the examples include: the cut between the steer get berthing space when Jack and Fabrizio (Danny Nucci) first arrive on the ship and Cal’s private promenade deck; the cut between Rose and Jack dancing in the steerage party scene and the first-class smoking lounge (which is such an abrupt change of atmosphere and energy that it comes as quite a cinematic shock to the viewers); the cut between the flooding in the steerage with rats on the run and the pro priety of a first-class corridor that does not even hint at the impending tragedy† (Butka). Throughout the movie, the film consists of scenes mainly from the Jack and Rose era, however in the beginning of the film, the director made use of flashback technique to unearth the romantic story of the lovers in the film. To be specific, the plot moves from present condition (say, 1996) to past (say, 1912) and to present (1996). In the opening scene, the director portrays the effort of Brock Lovett (say, a treasure hunter) to unearth the secret behind a necklace sunk with RMS Titanic in 1912. Gradually, the director portrays the love affair between Rose and Jack. In the end, Rose drops the necklace into the Ocean and returns. The film ends with a fictional reunion between the lovers. Dissolves are very important to the film, â€Å"particularly those between different time periods, and even fades are used occasionally to mark important points in the film (e.g., when Rose finishes her story)’ (Butka) Cameron also uses â€Å"establishing shots regularly, thus preserving a locale orientation for the viewers: not only do we always know exactly where we are, but these establishing shots also help us grasp the ship’s enormous dimensions† (Butka). Even in the period section of the film, â€Å"there is a separation between two distinct photographic styles: â€Å"In the first part, the camerawork is rather polite, graceful and even eloquent. [Carpenter] was trying to reinforce the opulence and beauty of the time with lighting,† (Butka). This eloquent style gives a feeling of tranquility and perfection to the first class shipmates, providing deep segregation to the boat, thus bringing about the conflict of Jack and Rose’s love. This camera and editing style let the audience feel the same way that the characters were feeling, eloquent and fashionable. When looking at the color of the first class section of the boat, â€Å"there is also use of amber, a color Ca meron has not used before; in addition, the first-class sections of the ship are even more colorful, which is undeniably helped by the exquisite costuming† (Butka). In the second part of the film, the camera work and editing becomes much more violent and choppy, showing the struggle the passengers endured as the ship hit the iceberg and ultimately began to sink. The camerawork â€Å"quickly loses that polite edge and segues into this very kinetic, sometimes violent movement. It’s jarring and bumpy, which suggests the panic of the situation. This is a point that Cameron, Carpenter, and Muro worked on together; later in the film, initial smooth and refined camera movements transform into â€Å"less elegant and more nervous. There’s a lot more handheld work and Steadicam, and its rough† (Butka). The overall production of the Titanic came at quite a cost but was a tremendous success, to say the least. Titanic’s production was a â€Å"famously difficult and complex one, a shoot on an almost unprecedented scale which featured tough technical challenges and which was overseen by a director who knew exactly what he wanted and who demanded the utmost from everyone until he got it, but it was a tough journey to get there† (Braund). Production of the film began in 1995, when â€Å"Cameron shot footage of the real wreck of the RMS Titanic. He envisioned the love story as a means to engage the audience with the real-life tragedy. A shooting took place on board the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh — which aided Cameron in filming the real wreck — for the modern scenes, and a reconstruction of the ship was built at Playas de Rosarito, Baja California. Cameron also used scale models and computer-generated imagery to recreate the sinking. At the time†, the pict ure became the most expensive film ever made, costing approximately US$200 million with funding from Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox (Butka). â€Å"Principal photography for Titanic began in July 1996 at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. In September 1996, the production moved to the newly built Fox Baja Studios in Rosarito, Mexico, where a full-scale RMS Titanic had been constructed (Marsh). Special effects played an important role in how the movie filmed. Many critics were skeptical about how Cameron would portray such a disastrous scene, including the deaths of all of the people aboard the ship. Cameron then went on to say that †the people were all computer graphics. The way we did it was, we had people act out all of those individual behaviors in what we call a ’motion capture environment.’ So, a steward pouring tea for a lady seated on a deck chair – that was all acted out and then that motion file was used to drive and animate those figures. The end result is like you said: We pull back down the full length of Titanic, and you see 350 people all over the decks, doing all those different things. The same technique was used for the sinking when you see hundreds of people on the ship jumping off or rolling down the decks† (Ebert). Cameron also did not want to cut corners in regards to the props and sets used. In addition to the life-size model of the Titanic, Cameron also had â€Å"construction crews build two huge water tanks. One was 90 foot deep and over 800 foot wide in which the model could slowly sink into 17 million gallons of water fed directly from the Pacific Ocean. The second tank was 30 foot deep. It contained 5 million gallons of water and housed the elegant first class dining saloon and the three story Grand Staircase† (Titanic and Co). One of the most impressive interior sets was the recreation of the famed Grand Staircase— the most famous room Titanic contained. Additionally, the Staircase, â€Å"as mentioned by one of the film crew personnel, ended up acting almost as a character in the film, due to it being the location of several pivotal scenes, including the ending scene. Interestingly, the staircase presented in the film is slightly larger than the one on the real ship. The reason for this was because people in 1912 were shorter than they are today. As a result, the staircase was scaled up to make the actors look smaller† (IMDB). For the exterior shots of the ship sinking, the almost â€Å"full-scale ship was placed in a 3 foot deep, 17 million gallon tank and tilted using a crane. For the interior shots of the sinking ship, the sets were enclosed in a 5 million gallon tank and again tilted in the water using a crane. This was the method used for the Grand Staircase. However, to make the destru ction of the Grand Staircase more dramatic, Cameron and his team dropped 90,000 gallons of water onto it. Because the Staircase would be destroyed, there would be only one attempt to get it right. Unexpectedly, the massive volume of water ripped the Staircase from its steel-reinforced foundations, collapsing certain sections of it† (IMDB). This destruction of the stair case was relatively dramatic and saddening to the characters and audience because it had become such a vital work of art in the movie. These stairs were much more than just stairs; they were the place in which Jack fell in love with Rose, the place Rose and Jack embraced in their final kiss in the final scene; a true masterpiece that had become one of the characters, gone in an instant. Roger Ebert became â€Å"film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967. He is the only film critic with a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named honorary life member of the Directors’ Guild of America. He won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Screenwriters’ Guild, and honorary degrees from the American Film Institute and the University of Colorado at Boulder† (Ebert). He then went on to interview James Cameron on his success and struggles with the making of the Titanic. The footage of the sunken ship was mainly real footage of the actual sunken Titanic. James Cameron believed that in order for the movie to have a more authentic feel, that he should take actual film himself with his own camera. Cameron wasn’t content to buy footage from documentaries about the search for the Titanic; he shot the film’s undersea footage himself, new for this film: †It’s all our own. I made the dives and operated the camera and we lit it and every thing† (Ebert) Cameron then went on to explain the struggles that appeared when creating the interior of the Titanic. â€Å"It’s consistent with what Titanic looks like† Cameron mentioned. â€Å"We couldn’t explore the whole interior of the ship. We could only get a glimpse into some areas. We went down some corridors to the D-deck level and saw a lot of the remaining hand-carved woodwork, the wall-paneling, and the beautiful ornate carved doors. A lot of it is still there. It’s very, very cold, which helps preserve things. There are marine organisms that will eat wood, but in certain areas the wood was covered with white-leaded paint that protected Titanic† (Ebert). As morbid as it sounds, it was important to display the fear and anguish on the faces of the people trapped on and inside the sinking vessel. Even though this was a Romeo and Juliet type of love story, the overwhelming message was to portray the absolute disaster the Titanic was and to show the terror on the faces of those involved. Cameron goes on to say that many died in terror, you know, when you look at the numbers, if you were a third class male on Titanic you stood a 1-in-10 chance of survival. If you were a first class female, it was virtually a 100 percent survival rate. It broke down along lines of gender and class. If you were a first-class male, you stood about a 50-50 chance of survival. And the crew took it hardest.† Of the 1,500 who died, 600 or 700 of them were crew members. The people who stayed in the dynamo room and the engine room, to keep the lights on so that the evacuation would not become panicked – who stayed till the end and missed their opportun ity to leave the ship – that’s something you’d see less of today† (Ebert). This just goes to show that Cameron felt very passionate about the way he needed to portray this type of despair in his movie, and in order to do that he needed have the film crew work extremely hard in order to portray that same anguish. †That was our most dangerous work,† Cameron said. †The stunt team worked for weeks in advance, videotaping each one of those stunts and rehearsing it and showing me the tapes. It was all intensely pre-planned and the set was made about 50 percent out of rubber at that point, all padded up. But there’s always an X-factor. We had 6,000 stunt person days on this film – the equivalent of one man doing stunts seven days a week for 16 years. But it was all happening at once. We did have a guy break his leg, which I hated. I don’t think anybody should get hurt for a film. So I decided to do more of it with computer graphics† (Ebert). This made it more apparent that special effects had to be made more in order to keep the cast and crew safe. Therefore, the scene in which the Titanic is actually sinking was almost entirely CGI when the camera was sweeping over the boat in a birds eye view. Cameron goes on to talk about the importance of human nature and how the story of Titanic is iconic not because of the class struggles, but once tragedy strikes, we are all on the same level fighting for survival. Cameron goes on to state that the â€Å"great lesson of Titanic for us, going into the 21st century,† he said, † is that the inconceivable can happen. Those people lived in a time of certainty; they felt they had mastered everything – mastered nature and mastered themselves. But they had mastered neither. A thousand years from now Titanic will still be one of the great stories. Certainly, there have been greater human tragedies during this century, but there’s something poetically perfect about Titanic, because of the laying low of the wealthy and the beautiful people who thought life would be infinite and perfect for them.† What would you have done? Anyone seeing this movie, I said, will have to ask them this question: Would I have fought t o get on a lifeboat? Would I have pushed a woman or a child out of the way? Or would I have sat down in the lounge and called for a brandy, like Guggenheim, and faced the inevitable with grace† (Ebert)? In conclusion, Titanic taught the general public that the human race is not invincible and that nature does not care whether you are rich or poor, perfect or imperfect, or nothing at all. Through the masterful works of camera angles, visual imagery, editing, and specific scenery, director and writer James Cameron was able to recreate the tragedy of the unsinkable Titanic through the camera lens. Cameron was able to display the struggles of love, life, death, and historical understanding through the eyes of Jack and Rose, and through the magic of filmmaking, teach an incredible lesson that will live on through eternity.

Gender Role

Darla Anne Nocom Prof. CortezEng 1AApril 7, 2018Why gender equality ruining everyone's happiness?The â€Å"Is equality ruining your marriage?† by Suzanne Venker is a news article how the traditional gender roles still exist in our society today and how it ruins the freedom of everyone to do each other's roles. Venker used the new research of University of Illinois to back up her article. Reading this article can open our mind to see what is the effect to everyone or marriage couple to be exact if they oppose the traditional gender roles. It's interesting to see how gender equality can ruin a happy marriage couple life and how mental health can take over this. I am here to take closer of the rhetorical devices the author used and how the devices took a certain effect on the audience. Also, to explain how each device links to what the author is trying to achieve. The author's effect is to change the traditional gender roles and the rhetorical devices that were used to support it were Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. The first device that supports the article is ethos. The researchers in University of Illinois examined men and women to do this research and support their argument on how marriage couples are less blissful if they struggle on traditional gender roles. The research they did suggested, â€Å"When females were the main breadwinner in the family, they reported more symptoms of depression; but men's psychological well-being was highest when they were the primary wage earners† (Venker). This is to say that our human nature hasn't change much about gender equality issue. We still have the belief that men can only support the family and should have a higher wage than women. Gender roles should not have a damaging impact to everyone because this is a start for gender equality. Earning a higher salary for men is very important and there is no surprise there but giving women a chance to help is a good way for family to have a content life. Men working while women stay at home has been part of our â€Å"culture† and it can't change just because society changed. It will take time but giving it a change can't harm anyone because our generation is way different than before and many people are more open now than before. Even now, guys' weakness is when girls are a lot more up in the game when it comes to any field and to anything men do. The author's influenced for this effect is that it is time for us to experiment in gender roles because many single parent can be a mom and dad at the same time while for marriage couple, it is still unusual for their role to change. Seeing everyone in this nature for generation has been stuck to us and hard to adjust if we want gender equality in and out of our homes. What important is for everyone to open up and try to change this nature and gain self-confident in each other. Doing what you want to do in life can gain as a self-worth and can make us feel worthy in life. Putting our emotion to something occasionally can be bad and good sometimes because emotion is a feel that we can't control from time to time. The pathos for this is, â€Å"Americans are forever being told that â€Å"gender equality†- which is no longer defined as equal opportunity but as male and female interchangeability- is the only road to a happy life† (Venker).