On "Enews!" it has been revealed that Lamar Odom (Khloe Kardashian ex husband and basket ball star) has been in a coma since Wednesday due to a drug overdose. Sources say that he had an ischemic stroke after "virtually every drug imaginable" was found in his system. Khloe being his ex wife (not yet divorced) was given the responsibility of deciding on his medical treatment he received. "Enews!" reported that Khloe has stayed every night by his bedside since he went into the coma.
Until yesterday (Friday), things were not looking good for Lamar as some of his major organs started to fail (he is on dialysis due to a failed kidney), but "Enews" has announced that Lamar has woken up from the 3 day coma and is able to speak to Khloe saying "hi". Although he has woken from the coma he is still not out of the clear until he is fully awake when they can assess the full extent of his injuries.
In my opinion this type of news is important to report as it shows the side effects of taking drugs and what harm they can cause. This shows to people who are taking to drugs that it can have serious consequences. It also shows that even celebrities can fall victim to drugs and hopefully it will send a message to his fans and to people who admire him that drugs are dangerous and could be deadly. Without reporting news like this people wouldn't be aware of the issues drugs cause.
Short Term 12 is a social-realism drama following the life of Grace (Brie Larson) who works at a care home for at risk children. The film shows how Grace herself has experienced what the children at the care home have gone through as she starts to relate to one of the girls (Jayden) at the care home. It follows the ups and downs within her life as she faces new obstacles such as pregnancy, marriage and her dad being released form prison.
One of the most prominent themes within Short Term 12 is romance. This is important as it explains why she does certain actions within the film as she wants to make everything right for the people she loves. For example, her relationship with her future husband has been distant so in order to change it she tries facing her problems so she can over come her fears.
The two micro-features that are important in Short Term 12 are: Performance and cinematography.These are important as it shows to the audience how Grace is feeling throughout the film.
Performance is important in the film as it creates the atmosphere within the film and also shows the emotions of Grace. In the scene when Grace breaks into a house planning on hurting the father of Jayden, she is looking down on the man (who is sleeping) in disgust. Her body language appears to be quite calm as she is standing still but she is gripping on to the baseball bat and her face looks angry and upset. This connotes to the audience that she has built up anger over time due to the past with her father but has managed to keep it a secret from everyone by pushing the feelings away. She is in the house because she wants to help Jayden by doing something to the man that she couldn't do to her father when she was younger, which was to stop him. She wasn't brave enough to stop her father but she wants to stand up to someone else so she can make up for everything she wasn't able to do. The performance is important in that scene as it shows the downfall of Grace and her life. It shows to the audience that everything was good at the beginning of the film until she starts to find out more about Jayden who reminds Grace of herself when she was younger.
Cinematography is also important as it is also used to show the emotions of the character Grace. Through out the film it constantly shows a close up of her thumb. When the audience knows that Grace is nervous or uncomfortable it shows her scratching her thumb and making it bleed. This is used to connect negative feelings and scenarios with Grace hurting herself. By the director using a close up shot of her thumb when it is bleeding shows that it is important to Grace as it tells the audience about her past and how she used to self harm. It is also important as it also shows one of the girls in the care home (Jayden)to also do the same thing. This is to show that Grace and Jayden have quite similar personalities and stories. This is important as the film is based around Grace trying to fix the problems she faces, she does this by helping Jayden. The use of close ups through out the film is a key micro feature as Short Term 12 explores the different emotions that children and adults face when they have been brought up in an unstable environment. The close ups allow the audience to see how they feel rather than being told how they feel. The audience gets to make their own interpretation on how the characters feel and why they feel like that.
“One customer said: "U don't need to buy a bag for 5p,
you can get a whole trolley for a quid" as they proudly post evidence of
the tactic on Facebook”.
This quote is from the mirror where it explains that the big
supermarkets are now charging 5p for a plastic bag. To get around this people
have decided to steal trolleys to avoid the plastic bag charge. There are
pictures all over Facebook of people stealing the trolleys.
Why is
there a 5p charge?
This is to
try and reduce the amount of plastic bags used as shops think that people will
reuse the plastic bags if they have paid for them rather than them using new
ones. It is estimated that 500 billion to 1 trillion bags are used each year.
By adding a charge to them they hope to reduce the amount of bags thrown away.
By reducing the amount of bags thrown away means that it helps the environment as
it affects the wildlife.
In my opinion I think that
y making the plastic bags 5p is not that big of a deal. I think it is a bit
extreme to steal trolleys in order to avoid the charge as if you buy the bags
you can reuse them again so they are not really paying that much. I also think
that they should stop selling all plastic bags and start selling the reusable
bags (made out of thicker material) . You can already buy these bags at big
supermarkets and it means that there will be a massive decrease in the amounts
of bags that are thrown away.
Crash is a drama directed and
written by Paul Haggis. The film is about people of different religions and
races living in Los-Angeles and how their life collides with one another. The
film explores discrimination within their society in order to create awareness
about these problems. The film also shows general stereotypes and how some
people do live up to them.
One scene that I think is important
is around 9 minutes into the film where two black men walk down the street and
they see a white couple further down the street. In that scene one of the men
(Anthony) says “if anyone should be scared around her is us”. This is important
as he is saying that because they are in a predominantly white area, that they
should be scared of what white people would do to them. This shows to the
audience that black people are stereotyped to be intimidating and dangerous by
white people but in this case the character is saying that they are the ones
who should be scared of what they might do. A bit further on in this scene the
men say “why aren't we scared? Because we got guns”. The men proceed to take
guns out of their pockets and take the car from the white couple. This is
important as it shows to the audience that some people do live up to the
stereotypes that other people have of them. Although the two men have just
expressed their feelings about racism and discrimination they still decide to
rob the car which backs up people’s ideas towards black males.
In the film it shows both the negative and positive representations of
the people within the film. One example being when Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is
getting her locks changed she is frightened of the locksmith as he is Hispanic and
is covered in tattoos which she thinks are prison tattoos. She demands that
they change the locks again as she thinks she is going to get robbed again by
the locksmith’s friends. This is a negative representation towards white people
as it shows that white people judge people on their appearance. She has seen a Hispanic
man with tattoos so she automatically thinks he is dangerous due to general
stereotypes. This shows to the audience that people judge others on their appearance
rather than what they are actually like. Later on in the film we see Jean
(Sandra Bullock) hug her also Hispanic maid. This tells the audience that her
character has come to realise that not all people of the same race or religion
are the same. Jean has redeemed herself for her actions earlier by now being
nice to her maid. This is a positive representation towards white people as it
suggests that white people don’t judge people based on the actions of others.
A positive representation in the film is when the character Anthony
(Ludacris) finds a van full of Chinese immigrants. He is presented with the
opportunity to sell the Chinese people but he turns down the offer and sets
them free. This goes against the general stereotype that black people are
intimidating and violent as he decided to do the right thing and help other
people. This shows to the audience that they underestimated Anthony due to his
actions at the begging of the film. It shows that although he did some bad
things he made up for them by doing the right thing at the end.
Overall, I really like this film as it showed both sides of people. It
shows how people make mistakes but also try and do the same thing. It had a
good balance of positive and negative representations throughout the whole
film. I also liked that it showed how the individual’s lives and choices
impacted the other people within the film. It shows to the audience how people
decisions don’t only affect them but other people as well.
"The gunman who killed nine people in a shooting rampage at a college in the US state Oregon then killed himself as police arrived, officials have said."
This story was reported on BBC news on October 3rd. This event occurred on October 1st, where a student of Umpqua Community College in Oregon killed 9 people then committed suicide. The report from BBC news suggests that he targeted people based on their religion. He targeted Christians as before killing them, he asked what religion they were. As the police arrived he then killed himself so the motive behind the shooting is still unknown.
After the day of the shooting, Barack Obama gave an announcement saying how he wants to change the rules on gun laws and make them more strict. He expressed his "anger at gun violence" and asked the public to help change things in America.
The cart shows how more crime is caused due to guns in America than terrorism since 2004. This further backs up Barack Obama's points as the gun laws need to be changed in order to decrease the fatalities caused by gun crime. In my opinion I think that people are able to get guns to easily in America as anyone can purchase one with minimal training. I think that it should be harder for people to get guns and that only certain people should have them (e.g police force). Allot of people from America would disagree with me as they feel as if having a gun means they are protected but if they have a gun that means the person they are defending them self from also has a gun. Having a gun does not mean you are safe. In the article it also goes on to explain how the shooter bragged online at how many guns he had. This shows that it was easy for him to get a gun and commit a crime. The article explains how that this shooting was the 45th one this year.
