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The Visual Grammar of Anthropocentrism in Jaws
Mar 17, 2025 film analysisAn argument essay. Building on Brett Mills' article about Jaws, this essay analyzes how cinematographic techniques like edge framing, lens choices, and slow-motion reinforce the film's anthropocentric perspective. The analysis demonstrates how these formal elements center human experiences while reducing the shark to a narrative device, extending Mills' argument that cinema inherently privileges human perspectives and constructs animals as monsters rather than natural beings.
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Identity Division and Dissolution: Mind-Body Split in "Sleep"
Feb 12, 2025 analysisAn analysis on short story. This essay examines how Murakami's short story "Sleep" portrays a woman's insomnia as creating a split between mind and body that evolves into a deeper fracture between her social roles and autonomous self. Though this division initially seems liberating, allowing her to reclaim her pre-marriage identity as a passionate reader, the essay argues that her eventual psychological fragmentation serves as a warning that true authenticity requires integrating personal desires with social obligations.
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Designing the Smart City
Dec 10, 2024 projectProject website. This paper challenges the traditional technology-centric definition of smart cities and proposes a new model focusing on three key elements: promoting citizen well-being, maximizing human interaction, and minimizing land use. The author introduces an innovative hexagonal city design with cyclic road networks that reduces land usage by approximately 20% compared to circular designs. At each city's center, a "gradient of nature" provides tiered green spaces that balance preservation with accessibility. Active sidewalks following Jane Jacobs' principles ensure safety through natural surveillance rather than invasive technology. The design is completed with an advanced participatory budgeting system that leverages technology to enhance civic engagement while maintaining meaningful human connection. Together, these elements address the environmental and social challenges of rapid urbanization while putting human needs at the center of urban development.
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Match Cut Editing in Inception
Dec 6, 2024 film analysisA film multi-shot analysis essay. This essay explores how Nolan's Inception employs match cut editing to visually connect actions across different dream levels. By analyzing three key match cuts—water as a kick mechanism, the tilting van affecting gravity, and the van's impact causing Arthur's fall—the essay shows how this editing technique helps viewers comprehend the complex vertical relationships between simultaneous dream layers and understand the film's intricate plot structure.
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The Transfer of Green in Vertigo
Nov 13, 2024 film analysisA film multi-shot analysis essay. This analysis examines how Hitchcock's Vertigo uses the color green as a visual motif that shifts from Madeleine to Scottie, symbolizing how Scottie is consumed by his love for someone who doesn't exist. Through three key shots—Madeleine in a green dress, her green car, and Scottie wearing a green sweater—the essay demonstrates how this color transfer visually reinforces the film's central theme of destructive obsession with illusion.
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Cinematography in Citizen Kane
Oct 4, 2024 film analysisA film one-shot analysis essay. This analysis focuses on how Citizen Kane uses deep focus and long take cinematography in a pivotal scene where adults decide young Kane's future while he plays in the snow. The essay argues that by simultaneously presenting multiple planes of action through deep focus, the scene visually expresses the film's key themes: the loss of childhood innocence, the unreliability of memory, and the elusive nature of truth, mirroring how the reporter must piece together Kane's fragmented story.
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