crash book

The whole book is not on the web so I'm trying to get a link to it

go to the webpage

Hi, everyone. I've shifted my efforts to the webpage where I can separate out each topic properly. You should all now be revising your literary topics and practising essays.

http://mjansener.googlepages.com/englishandmedia

Don't hestiate to email me at

mjansener@gmail.com

if you have questions or essays to send.

New webpage

I have started a for external exam revision. Click on revision to go there. I have started to put up material for years 11, 13 and 12 Media. It is easier to see what is there than it is on the blog. I'll continue using the blog for regular commentary.

Exam essay: Crash

To what extent do you agree that films offer an insight into society (past or present)? Respond to this question with close reference to a film or films you have studied.

This essay requires you to discuss theme. However, a good film essay should include some reference to the features that make film different form a novel or other type of text. I have tried to include some references to film techniques here. I've indicated this in blue.

ESSAY

Good literature always offers insight into society and films are no exception. In fact, Paul Haggis’ 2004 film, Crash could almost be accused of trying too hard to preach to us about the dangers of racism. However, this does not prevent it from making us think about the way we interrelate with other cultures. He paints a powerful picture of stereotyping, ignorance and fear in the multiracial city of LA.

One of the film’s gentler characters, Daniel, a Mexican locksmith, is twice the victim of stereotyping. Jean Cabot the wealthy wife of a Los Angeles District Attorney lashes out at her husband about Daniel because of his obvious Mexican appearance, his tattoos and low slung jeans, referring to him and his associates as “homeys” and “gangbangers”. She has just been car jacked by two black youths and seems to be fearful of all non-whites. Later Daniel tries to repair the door lock of a Persian shop-owner who accuses him of ripping him off when Daniel says the whole door has to be replaced. This eventually leads to Farhad the shop owner almost killing Daniel after another break in which he thinks Daniel must have engineered. Haggis shows how wrong Farhad and Jean are in their stereotyping of Daniel by techniques such as the “invisible cloak” this loving father gives to his little daughter and the religious aura of the scene where Daniel and his wife clasp the little girl after she and he miraculously escape death at Farhad’s hand.

Related to stereotyping is cultural ignorance and misunderstanding. Los Angeles is one of the most racially mixed cities in the Western world but people show surprising lack of knowledge about other races. Anyone Hispanic is referred to as Mexican with all the connotations of illegal immigration and poverty that the word gives rise to. Even black LAPD officer Graham Waters calls his partner Mexican when in fact her parents are from Guatemala and El Salvador. Antony, a black car-jacker who is redeemed somewhat by freeing some Thai slaves, calls every Asian person a “Chinaman”. When he frees the slaves he gives them money for chop suey and when they look at him uncomprehendingly, he mutters, “fucking Chinanmen!” People who attacked the Persian shopkeeper’s gift shop accuse them of being Arabs and when Farhad and his daughter argue and hesitate over buying a gun, the red neck shopkeeper says, “Plan the jihad in your own time.” This motif of stereotyping is repeated in many of the ten or eleven storylines and is linked effectively by editing so that the tension-filled scenes segue seamlessly into each other. Haggis is trying very hard to make us see the results of racism in society.

While stereotyping and ignorance go hand in hand, they also give rise to worse manifestations of racism: fear and frustration. In Crash, this results in a near murder and an actual murder. The one kind and neutral police officer in the LAPD, Tommy Hanson, tries throughout the film to rein in his bigoted partner, Ryan, who harasses an innocent black couple, Christine and Cameron. When he informs his superior of Ryan’s behaviour, he receives no sympathy. However, he is able to assist Cameron in a later incident, assistance for which a now embittered Cameron is not grateful. Finally he picks up a black hitchhiker, Peter, and in spite of all his good intentions, he too falls victim to racial fear and shoots Peter when he reaches for a St Christopher statuette, thinking it is a gun. This might sound incredible but in the overall context of the film where one racial incident is piled on another, Tommy’s actions give us an insight into how stereotyping and fear inform attitudes to other races in virtually all of us. The wide camera shots of the barren roadside where Tommy throws Peter’s body, sum up the sense of desolation that such division in society can give rise to.

In the post 9/11 world, cultural tensions are high, not just in America but throughout the world. Detective Graham Waters’ words at the start of the film tell us that LA is a city where different races make contact only when they ‘crash’ into each other. The car crash of the title therefore becomes a metaphor for racial division and confrontation, a problem that is particularly bad in LA but also a problem in many communities, including those in New Zealand. Haggis therefore offers us vivid insights into society.

Editing in Crash

Editing is the way the film is cut and put together. It also refers to the transition from shot to shot. In a film like Crash with its multiple storylines, editing is even more essential in conveying the story of the film.

• Remember that there is much meaning at the point of the cut. This is where ideas can be linked between scenes etc.
• Process like fading to black or white as well as dissolves can create a sad mood and give the effect of time passing or of someone's thought processes. It is editing that helps a director to show that a character is remembering the past as in a flashback scene.

Crash won an Oscar for editing. Why?

• the short scenes with segue into each other involve 10 or 11 storylines. It takes real skill to edit these together without confusing the viewer and without a jarring effect
• scenes are matched by common features like the stop sign which is shared at the end of the scene where Cameron tells Antony "You embarrass me, you embarrass yourself" and drops him off at a stop sign. A stop sign is seen in the inpoint of the next scene where Fahrad looks in the rear vision mirror as he waits for Daniel to return home. The visual link is also a symbolic link because stop signs remind us of the central metaphor of the film: the collision of cars and cultures.
  
• Other appropriate links are vehicles. The stolen black navigator is seen driving by when the scene changes from Antony and Peter to another set of characters.
• In the scene where Ryan rings Shaniqua from a cafe, we see in the same location the Thai slave deal being finalised between two Asian men. When Ryan walks outside a white van drives past and obscures him: the van in which we will later see the Thai slaves. Then the film cuts to Antony and Peter in the black SUV which drives fast, turns and skids after which we see a crash scene where Conklin has shot Lewis the black cop and Graham Waters and Ria have been called to investigate. The movement of the black SUV is to the right and the movement of the officer pulling the crash scene ribbon is to the left so the two scenes merge into each other seamlessly and are linked also by the motif of cars which continues through the film. In this short section of the film we see three different scenes but between them and within them are links because they all do with racism in many different forms: Asians against other Asians, resentful black youths stealing from rich whites and a white police officer abusing a black health official. This is an impressive feat of editing.
  

Summaries of main plots

These are some of the main plots. They are very simple when you read them in chronological order (in normal order of time) and this makes you appreciate how skillfully they are woven together and how they reinforce each other by providing parallels.

1. Detective Graham Waters and his partner Ria are called to a shooting: a narcotics detective Conklin has shot and killed another officer, a black detective Lewis. Internal Affairs investigates; $300,000 is found hidden in the spare tyre of the car Lewis was driving. Waters is asked by the DA's office to support their making an example of Conklin for the incident, from which they will gain political advantage. Graham resists a job offer but agrees to their request to save his brother Peter from a mandatory life sentence in prison. Later, Graham arrives at a crime scene to find that his brother has been shot.
2. Farhad, an Iranian shop owner, buys a gun after his wife was threatened. He does not realise that his daughter Dorri has taken blanks instead of bullets. Daniel is sent to fix the lock on the shop door, but advises that the door needs replacing. Farhad thinks he is being ripped off. When the shop is vandalised, the insurance company decides it is negligence. Farhad blames Daniel and demands recompense; Lara sees her father facing a gun without his 'protective cloak' and runs out to save him. The gun goes off but Lara is fine.
3. Peter and Anthony car-jack the Navigator of D.A. Rick Cabot and his wife Jean. They knock over Korean Choi and dump him at A&E; because of blood on the vehicle, Lucien rejects it. They try to steal another Navigator but Cameron resists ; Peter runs away , but Anthony is in the vehicle when the police stop it. Officer Hanson persuades the other officers to let Cameron go. Anthony finds Choi's abandoned white van and it is found to be full of illegal Asian immigrants. Anthony releases them.
4. D.A. Rick Cabot looks for a way of spinning the car-jacking and decides that hanging Conklin out to dry would be the best way.
5. Jean Cabot feels threatened by Daniel, a Mexican, who changes their locks; she falls down the stairs and discovers none of her 'friends' actually care about her, whereas her Mexican maid is kind.
6. Locksmith Daniel Ruiz is a loving father who has recently moved house because a bullet came through the window of his five-year-old daughter Lara's bedroom. He calms her fears with a fairy cloak that will protect her.
7. Choi is paid for his van-load of Asian (Cambodian?) immigrants but is knocked over before he can deliver them and is dumped at the hospital. His wife Kim Lee, who had previously rear-ended Ria's car , finds him; he tells her to cash the cheque. Anthony takes the abandoned van and releases the Cambodians.
8. Officer John Ryan cares for his father who is suffering from a urinary disorder; Ryan can get no help from his medical insurance company. Angry, Ryan takes off after a black Navigator even though his partner Tommy Hanson tells him it is not the stolen vehicle. Seeing what he thinks is a white woman with a black man, he stops and harasses the Thayers, sexually assaulting Christine. Later, he rescues her from certain death in a car crash.
10. Officer Hanson is appalled by Ryan's racism and harassment and asks for a different partner; he is assigned to his own car. He rescues Cameron, who is defying police out of anger and frustration. Later, he picks up Peter who is hitch-hiking. Hanson mistakes Peter's St Christopher for a gun and shoots him; he dumps the body and burns his car. Graham arrives at the crime scene where Peter's body lies and recognises his brother. He takes his mother to see the body. She blames Graham.
11. Humiliated by Ryan and by his wife's anger, Cameron goes to work and is further angered by another racist put down. When Anthony and Peter try to steal his Navigator, he responds with fury and fights them. He takes off in the vehicle with Anthony in the passenger seat; stopped by police, he defies them. Hanson, to make amends for Ryan the previous night, defuses the situation. Cameron agrees to go home, and eventually tells Christine he loves her.

Crash DVD chapter headings and plot summary

The list of chapter headings below gives you a rough idea of the structure of the plot. Note that there are actually 60 scenes. Also take note of how skillfully Haggis weaves all these different scenes together. Another important task is to trace the character arc of some of the lead characters like Cameron and Antony, Jean and Farhad. The next blog entry will look at editing and character arcs.

1. Credits/Frame of reference

• Accident scene - Graham and Ria's car rear-ended by Korean woman, Kim Lee. Ria argues with Kim Lee and mocks her English while Graham crosses to other side and speaks to officer. A "dead kid" has been found in the scrub. Graham looks at shoe and then into the distance. The shot is held, the screen fades to white and then to a wide shot of LA with Yesterday superimposed

2. Fear

• Gunshop.Farhad - angry - with help of Dorri is buying a gun. Speaking in Parsi, accused of being a terrorist by the shop owner, sent out of shop. Dorri takes gun and buys some ammo in red box - shopkeeper wonders if she know what sort of ammo it is. He makes suggestive marks to her.
• Street, coming out of coffee bar Antony and Peter in reverse tracking shot walking towards us. Articulate, humorous, conversation about whites' 'unreasonable' fear of blacks. Jean and Rick Cabot are walking towards them, Jean complaining about the time Rick spends on the phone. Antony and Peter carjack the Cabot's Lincoln Navigator.

3. A nice gun

• Antony and Peter converse in side the navigator, mainly about the St Peter's statuette
• Crime scene where a shot man is a dead cop, black, shot by a white cop
• Cabot home. David is changing the locks and Jean complains about his tattoos and ethnicity. Rick complains about what the carjacking will do to his image - he needs a positive spin on his relationship with blacks

4. Sobriety test

• Cafe: Park hands Choi a cheque (we later find out it is for illegal immigrants). As he leaves he passes the phone to Ryan who is trying to get help for his father
• HMO office - Shaniqua at end of phone
• Cafe: Ryan walks to car. Choi's van passes
• Inside car. Ryan joins Hanson. Get message about stolen Navigator. A different one passes; Ryan pulls it over in spite of protests from Hanson.
• Offensive strip search of Christine.

5. A little anger

• Fahrad's shop. Door will not close. Must have been a forced entry earlier. Dorri loads gun for Farhad.
• Christine and Cameron's house. they argue because Cam did not stand up to the police.

6. Invisible and impenetrable

• Daniel's home. They have moved becaus eof a previous drive by shooting. He gives Lara an invisible cloak

7. A personal problem

• Inside Navigator. Antony and Peter discuss hip hop. Knock over Mr Choi.
  
• Precinct office. tommy Hanson asks for a new partner to escape Ryan's racism. Lieutenant Dixon tries to dissuade him because Dixon is black and does not want to rock the boat.
• A & E: Antony and Peter dump Mr Choi
  

8. Locked and loaded

• Fahrad's shop
• Daniel changes lock but tells Farhad he needs a new door. Farhad thinks he is being ripped off - insults Daniel who screws up the job sheet and throws it away.
• Stolen car yard. Navigator is rejected by Lucien because it has blood on it.
  
• Grahams bedroom
• Mother rings while he is in bed with Ria. He and Ria argue and he calls her a Mexican

9. Taking the bus

• Ryan's place: father having trouble urinating
  
• Farhad's shop: door has been vandalised
• DA's office in City Hall: Rick and Karen come through. Ask about the Conklin shooting
• Antony and Peter come out of A's place: poor: contrast to City hall. Car won't start. Antony says he doesn't like stealing from black people.
• Cabot house: Jean snaps at Maria about dishwasher
• Street: Antony and Peter forced to walk. Buses are designed to humiliate people of colour

10. Ringing false

• TV studio: producer tells Cameron that black actor does not sound black enough
• HMO office: Ryan talks to Shaniqua to get help for father but then talks angrily about how positive discrimination destroyed his father's life

11. Brother's Keeper

• Locksmiths office: receptionist refuses to give Farhad Daniel's address
• Farhad's shop: Shereen is washing walls and wondering how people can call them Arabs when they are Persian or Iranian
• Mrs Waters place: she asks Graham if he found her brother. Drugs. He puts her to bed and checks her fridge for food. As he returns to car Ria tells him Internal Affairs has called to investigate Conklin killing.

12. Uninsured

• TV Studio: Christine comes to meet Cameron. She ends up arguing with him about police sexual harassment.
• Farhad's shop: Insurance will not pay because door should have been replaced

13. Trust

• Police precinct: Ryan tells Tommy Hanson who has asked to work alone that he has no idea who he is
• Internal Affairs garage with Ria and Graham. They find $300 in a tyre in the Mercedes. Suggests Lewis (cop who was shot) was on the take or dealing.
• TV studio: Cameron broods
• Farhad's shop: he sits outside and broods. Rubbish bin: see Daniels cast-off job sheet
• Street: Ryan and new partner Gomez arrive at a car crash. Christine trapped inside - petrol dripping. Christine is scared of Ryan but he saves her.

14. On a gut level

• DA's office Flanagan persuades Graham to support a prosecution against Conklin
• Graham is determined not to accept a bribe but then grimly accepts a deal to make his brother's arrest warrant go away.
• Fahrad's car: he drives through Daniels suburb and sees kids come home from school

15. Breaking Point

• Cameron is held up by Antony and Peter. His pent up fury and frustration give him the strength to fight them off. Peter runs off and Antony gets in car with him. They argue - chased by police car - stop at Santa figure with hand up

16. Threatening gesture

• Cameron angrily confronts armed police. Tommy defuses the situation. Drives away with a concealed Antony. Lets him out: "You embarrass me."

17. A really good cloak

• Farhad confronts a puzzled Daniel and then shoots at him, not knowing that Dorri has loaded gun with blanks. Meanwhile Lara has run out of house to protect her father with the invisible cloak.

18. Happenstance

• Mrs Water's home. Graham stocks her fridge while she sleeps
• Cabot house: Jeans talks to friend but seems to be cut off. Falls down stairs
  

19. Miscommunication

• Car: Peter is hitching and is picked up by Ryan. Misunderstanding and fear. Hanson shoots Peter
  

20. Human cargo

• Side of road. Aerial shot of wasteland where Graham looks at body of his brother. this is what he was looking at at start.
  
• Bus: Antony is riding in it! Sees a white van with keys in door and gets out.
• Hospital: Kim Lee finds her husband. Mr Choi tells her to cash a cheque immediately
• Stolen car yard: Antony takes van to Lucien but they find illegal immigrants within it. Lucien offers to buy them

21. Things to Do

• Morgue: Ria watches as Graham brings mother to see Peter's body. Dorri takes phone call. Graham's mother blames him for brother's death. Graham walks out
  

22. Connections

• City Hall and Cabot house: Rick talks to Jean in bed with sprained ankle. None of her friends available to help her. Is Rick having an affair with Karen? Maria brings Jean a drink. Jean: "You're the best friend I've got."
• Waste ground: Tommy burns car
• Ryan residence: Ryan hold his suffering father
• Cabot house: Rick locks door and looks out - at his reflection?
• Daniel's house: Lara and Elizabeth asleep in bed. Daniel looks out window.
  

23. LA Snowfall

• Cameron's car at waste ground. thinks snow is falling. Gets out - it is ash. Cathartic effect. Christine rings from their bedroom. Cameron: "I love you."
• Roadside: Graham looks over city from site of Peter's body. Find St Christoper's statuette
  
• Street: Antony pulls up in van and lets Cambodians out.
  
• Street: Shaniqua's car is rear ended. Camera pulls out to aerial shot. Snow falls.
  

24. End credits

crash set design

Designing a Film - with acknowledgment to Artemis Film Guides

The Production Designer and the Art Director work very closely with the director to create the look and feel of the film.

The Set Decorator (or dresser) is responsible for providing the detail of a set, whether it has been built specifically for the film or rented: the pictures on the wall, the books or ornaments on a shelf, the wallpaper and style of curtains. Clothes and the décor of rooms can be a quick and useful way of giving information about characters, about their style of life and their personalities, just as the objects that you value - your favourite clothes, treasures, photos, souvenirs - tell an outsider something about you. Objects can be as important as people in a film, and can develop an overwhelming sense of presence. The way they are lit and photographed can contribute to this.

Crash had an Art Department of nine. It was filmed entirely on location in L.A., making use of existing places, as cheaply as possible. The police station was set in a Red Cross rooms; the hospital entrance was a school. The house the Cabots live in is director Paul Haggis's own home. The two bedrooms of Cameron and Christine and Ryan are the same space with a false wall in place.

When designers and set decorators decide what a room will look like, they are actually creating a backstory for the characters that live there.

Jean and Rick Cabot: large house, beautifully kept; wood panelling; art work on walls – everything suggests money; housekeeper to keep it clean. Many framed photographs. Expensive kitchen – with child's paintings cf. Daniel's

Daniel and Elizabeth: small, modest home in suburbs; welcoming inside – Christmas tree with home-made decorations; Lara's room has drawings and posters on walls.

Cameron, Christine – bedroom only: beautifully colour-co-ordinated with deep red and cream – superb taste; modern lamp; African art on walls – they have both the money to indulge and clearly the interest

Ryan – bedroom, bathroom: plain, simple, bare – a very masculine environment; no women, not much money, which probably feeds his anger

Graham – his bedroom: mostly white; wooden furniture, armchair; books on shelf; fairly plain décor, no frills; no real sense of his personality from it – he just sleeps there

Mrs Waters' place – where Graham grew up: piano, family photos suggest better times in the past; state of her fridge + drug gear suggests she does not take care of herself.
the exterior of Anthony's place: poorer part of the city – rickety wooden gate etc. He isn't getting rich stealing cars. Lots of trees and other greenery. Old furniture and other rubbish on the street. Contrast with the steel and glass of the centre of the city (referred to by Graham in his opening speech).

It is clear to see how the set design defines and reinforces the characters. Notice particularly the warmth and humility of Daniel's place in contrast to the cold expensive luxury of Jean's. Daniel is one of the good guys in the film. He has not become cynical but gives his daughter a protective covering of love and faith. The set design reinforces this ordinary goodness.

Setting of Crash

Setting

In any work of literature, setting is more than just a background. A well depicted setting helps create the world of the film, a world we enter into to become involved in the characters and their struggles. In a good text the setting works with character and other aspects to convey the themes or ideas. In a film because it is a visual text, setting is particularly important and has a symbolic function. It can also create mood, atmosphere and emotion, heightening our emotional connection to plot and character.


Crash is set in the real world, in modern LA. It is a realistic yet also symbolic setting, as the city is imbued with meaning and many shots draw back to the birds eye view to give us an eye of God perspective on the isolation of individuals and the collision between them in an impersonal city.

Haggis refused to shoot the film in a cheaper location. This is a strength of the film because it is grounded in the real LA, using various identifiable parts of the city, notably Ventura Boulevard, which is mentioned by name, as are Westwood and Studio City. By grounding his film about racism and division in a real place, he has made the social problems more concrete and recognisable. We can then absorb his message better and transfer it to our own world or universalise the message.

You could also say that the city is a character. Graham's opening words inform us that this is so.

Moreover, LA, home of Hollywood is not unknown to us. We see it as a an extreme example of Western materialism and will certainly be aware of racial tensions there since the Rodney King fiasco of 1992, especially.

Rodney Glen King is an African-American taxi driver who was violently arrested by officers of the LAPD The event was videotaped by a bystander. The incident raised a public outcry among those who believed it was a racially motivated and gratuitous attack. In an environment of growing tensions between the black community and the LAPD (as well as increasing anger over police brutality and more general civic issues such as unemployment, racial tensions, and poverty in the black community of South Central Los Angeles) the acquittal in a state court of the four defendants, charged with using excessive force, provided the spark that led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. (Wikipedia)

One motif of the setting (repeated image) is the barren land by the motorway outside the city where the Graham and Ria have an accident and Peter's body is found. Several times at beginning and end we go there. Wide shots of the lonely area with the lights of the city in view establish a bleak and foreboding atmosphere for the consequences of all the crashes or racial collisions that have occurred in the film. This is teamed with close ups of Graham's face as he looks at his brother shoe and helicopter shots giving us a wide perspective of the area.

Other shots which establish the setting as recognisably LA and establish atmosphere are those of suburban streets with their ubiquitous palm trees and Spanish style houses such as when Cameron gets into conflict with the police and Farhad confronts the Mexican locksmith. That it is a rather cheesy American society is established by the American flag flying in the street and all the ostentatious Christmas decorations like the inflated Santas and reindeer and so on which decorate the streets for the Xmas season.

Haggis used LA locations wisely. Shots of 'City Hall' are taken in a spectacular old building whose elegant corridors seem to symbolise the gap between the life of the poor in LA and the world of the rich and powerful. It also acts as an ironic counterpoint to the corruption that occurs there where people will cover up crimes with bribes and blackmail.

The time of the setting is also important. It is close to Christmas. This gives Haggis a chance to use the irony of the happy Xmas decorations and ti use snow as a possible symbol of blessing. As the director says, "If it can snow in LA, then there's hope for all of us."

It is contemporary as can be seen by the references to 9/11. "Yo Osama. Plan the jihad on your own time."

The social setting is of a racial melting pot which boils over frequently into violent confrontations. A setting where fear and ignorance poisons people's perceptions of others.


All in all, the setting in this film is one of its best features. It has a firmly local LA identity that gives it a good foundation in reality and an excellent springboard from which to look at multicultural matters in the wider world today, especially the world post 9/11.

Crash booklet

I have just completed a rough copy of a Crash study guide: just themes and character. You can link to it here. More to come!

Good Essay on Crash

CRASH: FILM NOIR IN POST-MODERN LA

Authors: Wallace Katz ^a; Paul Haggis ^a

Published in: New Labor Forum, Volume 15, Issue 1 May 2006 , pages 121 - 125

Subjects: Political Philosophy; Theory & Political Sociology;

Formats available: HTML (English) : PDF (English)

If you would like to pay in any other currency please see the purchasing help pages for more information.

Abstract Crash is a movie about racial divisions and conflict in Los Angeles, a metropolis that now has a larger and more diverse minority-majority population than any city in the country, including New York. Asians, native and immigrant blacks from Africa and the Caribbean, Latinos from the Caribbean, Latin and Central America and especially Mexico, as well as newly arrived white immigrants, particularly Russians and Iranians, now comprise LA's demographic majority. Crash's ostensible or initial message is that these minority groups cohabit but do not cooperate; indeed, they dislike and fear one another as much or more as they dislike and fear white Angelenos. Everybody in the film, one way or another, is or turns out to be a racist, which makes for a disturbing movie. Don Cheadle plays a conscientious and decent black police detective who nonetheless describes and thereby offends his Latina lover (and police partner) as Mexican, when she is in fact El Salvadoran and Puerto Rican. Matt Dillon plays a white cop who stops an upper-middle-class black couple, knowing full well that the van they are driving is not the one reported stolen. Dillon's character then creates a situation in which he can humiliate the man - a TV director in Hollywood - and grope the woman. The cop justifies his racist behavior in this instance by the fact that he caught husband and wife having sex in public in their big black van. Two young black men are amateur car thieves who work for a chop shop run by a Russian immigrant. One of them is constantly mouthing prejudice against whites, even as he fears them, and it is probably out of racial hatred and fear alike that, on the spur of the moment, he and his pal highjack the SUV of a white couple in a white neighborhood, Westwood, a venue usually off-limits to angry lower-class black youths. The white couple is not harmed, but the woman (Sandra Bullock) and her spouse, coincidentally the District Attorney of Los Angeles (Brendan Fraser), are stunned. The woman is portrayed as nasty, imperious, self-pitying (it is obvious that her husband, the DA, is cheating on her with his gorgeous young black aide) and a racist to boot. When, after the car theft, a Latino locksmith shows up to replace her house locks, she tells her DA spouse - the locksmith is within hearing distance - that it is another immigrant and olive-skinned gangster who will now have duplicates of her keys to distribute to his "homies." The DA is also a racist, but in a very special way that shows him as a political player, a man of power who will do or say anything to get ahead, but with little regard for the public good or for trivialities like justice or truth. What bothers him about his car being hijacked by two black youths with guns is that he needs black votes and black support for his political career and he fears that if he makes a big deal of the robbery he will seem like a law-and-order and anti-black politician. What is more, in the face of considerable contrary evidence, he wants to make an example of a white cop who has killed a black cop in the line of duty, just so he can make points with blacks. Lastly, there is an Irani shopkeeper who is both the object of racism and a murderous racist himself. When he goes to buy a gun to protect his shop against theft, the gun store proprietor insults him by calling him Osama. Later in the film, this same Irani shopkeeper is robbed because he fails to fix his back door. When his insurance company refuses reimbursement for the robbery because of the broken door, the Irani blames everything on a Latino locksmith who installed a new lock but also advised that the door be replaced. The Irani goes after the Latino locksmith (the same one who came to fix the locks on the DA's house) with gun in hand and intent to kill. Paul Haggis, the director, has clearly laid out a complicated story involving many characters of diverse and divided races. This is a good start, but, happily, Crash gets better. It is a great film because it is about many things equally as important as race - for example, socioeconomic class and status. The DA's wife is not so much a racist as a classist; she despises herself and uses her high position in society to project her anger and self-hatred on immigrant servants - maids, locksmiths, etc. In Crash, class distinctions can be subtle and intra-racial as well as interracial: after a scene in which the upscale TV director saves the life of one of the car thieves, he tells the young hood: "You embarrass me"; and, more important for the kid's self-understanding and later transformation - "you embarrass yourself." Crash is also about the city of Los Angeles itself, especially the spatial geography of this sprawling polycentric metropolis. Contrary to what many people who have never been there think, Los Angeles is not a suburban or exurban city or an aggregation of so-called "edge cities." It is about the extension of the urban in all directions on an apparently never-ending basis.

Successful Crash essay by a student

Question. To what extent are production techniques in a single scene effective in conveying a film’s central idea(s)?

In a single scene a film’s themes can be brought to the fore through the use of production techniques. In Paul Haggis’ Crash such a scene is when a Mexican locksmith’s daughter is nearly killed by an angry, frustrated Persian shopkeeper, laying bare to us the theme of racism.

One technique that Haggis uses is filming into the light such as the tracking shot of Farhad , the shopkeeper, as he approaches the locksmith Daniel’s house. This breaks up the frame of the shot, giving a jarring effect, and also ties in with the collision theme. This means not only physical collisions like the car crashes that open and close the film, but also the clash of many different races and cultures in modern Los Angeles. This particular tracking shot is also a close up of the gun in Farhad’s hand. This shows the extent to which racism can twist a person: at the start of the film Farhad is a victim of the gun store man’s abuse, and while he isn’t presented to us as lovable, he is certainly not contemptible and we do feel sorry for him. However, Farhad had become bitter from all the prejudice facing him and is now prepared to shoot a completely innocent person over one misunderstanding

Sound and music are also used in this scene to increase drama and tension which in turn helps present the theme of racism better. The music as Farhad approaches Daniel is soft, gentle and dreamy, rather out of place against the harsh images of a gun that we see. When Farhad starts shouting at and threatening Daniel, the music acquires a more urgent pulsating chordal background, the volume rising to a crescendo which reaches its peak when Farhad fires his gun. At this point the sound of the actors is muted, and the noise of the gunshot dominates. The silent screams of Daniel and his wife somehow have more power than an ordinary scream and the anguish caused by this racially inspired event is very clear. The almost angelic tone of the music after Farhad has shot his blank gives the scene a sense of redemption: Daniel’s daughter’s life has been saved and so has Farhad’s conscience by the intervention of people who can transcend racism, people like Dori who loaded her father’s gun with the fake bullets.

Even Haggis careful attention to mise-en-scene helps contribute to the film’s ideas. Various Christmas objects such as a Christmas tree and the wreath of Daniel’s door give the scene a certain grim irony. Christmas is meant to be a time of peace and love, yet here there is an attempted murder in revenge for loss of material wealth – hardly the spirit of Christmas. Again, this shows the twisting, warping effect of racism, that a time like this can be turned into a near death experience. Another example is the American flag flying behind Farhad, creating black humour. It comments on today’s American society – the flag symbolises America but the America shown in this scene is one of violence and misunderstanding. As Paul Haggis mentions in his commentary on the film, the flag was placed there deliberately to say “this is what our country is really all about”.

Paul Haggis’ use of cinematography, sound and music, and mise-en-scene in Crash is effective in conveying the effects of racism but as this theme is conveyed so bluntly in almost every scene, it loses a bit of its impact.

595 words

Exams!!!

The year 13 English exam will consist of the following

An essay question each on The Lovely Bones, The Merchant of Venice and Crash.

An unfamiliar text question which will require you to read a poem and a prose passage on the same theme, answer questions on their meaning and style and then compare/contrast them.

There is a booklet on The Lovely Bones which will provide you with all you need to know for the exam. You probably won't have time to reread the book: read through the notes which contain material on all the possible essay questions (well ...). In term 4 you might want to reread the book for the external exams.

You have a booklet on The Merchant which will likewise help you a lot. It will also pay to read the court scene again and some of the key speeches, especially those of Shylock.

As for Crash - it would pay to get hold of the DVD and look at key scenes, thinking and making notes about the ideas, characterisation and techniques.

Oral Presentation

Achievement Standard: 90725 v2

Construct and deliver an oral presentation

Credits: 4

In this activity you will:

· construct and deliver a presentation on a literature topic

· integrate a range of oral and visual language techniques

Here are some requirements

Careful structure

Carefully planned delivery techniques such as:

v Oral and visual language techniques including those below

v Stance

v Gesture

Voice: tone, volume, pace and stress

v Overhead projector

v PowerPoint presentation

v Whiteboard

v Posters

v Video or DVD,

v Dramatisations

v Group or whole class activities. (They shouldn’t dominate and must be efficiently facilitated.)

v You may use audio / visual resources as required.

v Photocopied resources

v Props or other items

As you construct your presentation check with me that the techniques and resources you plan to use in various parts of your presentation are suitable and appropriate for your purpose.

Length: at least six minutes long and probably longer if group work is included. (Please keep it short – no longer than 20 minutes!)

Developing your topic

In consultation with your teacher select a literature topic which interests you. The most sensible topic for your presentation is your literary theme research topic but you can talk on any other aspect of literature or even on one of our three texts, Crash, The Merchant of Venice and The Lovely Bones.

You have looked at those presentations from last year which gained Merit/Excellence and have been moderated and approved. These presentations were well constructed and interesting because they involved the audience and were well structured and thought out. All of them used dramatisations, or bold Powerpoints or props … in other words a variety of oral and visual techniques to convey ideas to the audience in an engaging manner!

PRESENTATION PLANNING BASED ON YOUR RESEARCH

Look at the answers to your three or four key questions which will of course include some interesting conclusions. These three or four points will be the points you make in your presentation. You can even present them as questions on PowerPoint and then deliver your answers and analysis in your ‘speech’.

POSSIBLE PRESENTATION TOPICS DEVELOPED FROM ONE LITERARY TEXT COULD INCLUDE

Crash

· The role of a key production technique

· The issue of race

· The impact of setting and society

The Merchant of Venice

· Anti-Semitism in Shakespeare’s time

· The speeches of Shylock

· Comedy or tragedy?

The Lovely Bones

· The use of symbols

· The psychology of the book

· The first person narrator

Remember that your research is due at the end of term. It would pay you to present your research because preparing the presentation will help you complete the research.

If you do one of the single text topics you will have to finish your research on top of that. However, you also need to choose a topic that helps you achieve your personal best.

A full copy of the assessment activity from TKI is one the teacher’s desk for you to read.

	Criteria	What they mean
Achievement	Construct and deliver a presentation which communicates with an audience. Develop and support idea(s). Use a range of appropriate presentation techniques for a specific audience and purpose.	This means that you have to include the audience in some way or at least show them what you mean through oral and visual techniques You must have ideas that you explain and support with examples/quotations Your purpose is really to teach your class so make them interested by using more than one technique
Merit	Construct and deliver a presentation which communicates effectively with an audience. Develop and support detailed idea(s). Combine a range of appropriate presentation techniques for a specific audience and purpose.	This means that you are careful to include the audience and make your message clear to them as above. You achieve this well. You include plenty of examples and apt quotations to expand on your ideas and give evidence for them. Your techniques are combined well and are not too random and messy
Excellence	Construct and deliver an effective presentation which convinces and / or challenges an audience. Develop and support detailed idea(s), showing insight and / or originality. Integrate a range of appropriate presentation techniques for a specific audience and purpose.	Your presentation really makes the class think. It has depth and is persuasive. You show a lot of perception or original thought in your conclusions. Your techniques slot into each other nicely and work seamlessly together to get youR point across.

To sum up

· To gain at least Achieved you need to have some solid ideas and use a range of techniques (say 3 as a minimum) to convey them. Reading from a sheet of paper or cue cards is not adequate at this level but you can have paper or cards as support. Remember that you are teaching the class.

· If you are nervous about speeches, you will find this task less nerve-wracking because you can use props like the data projector or the whiteboard to break up the speaking.

· You may enlist the help of other students to run the DVD player for you or for dramatisations etc

New Assessment in English

Now that we have written the film essay, it's onwards and upwards to the next unit in our year planner, oral presentations. These are to be based on your research which you really should have finished by now. If you have not, you can work on the two simultaneously in class. Write up your research and then turn it into an interesting 15 to 30 minute presentation.

You have 8 periods in class to prepare this, plus of course your study time.

I will simplify and clarify the requirements for "Say it on Texts" from TKI and give you a printout on Monday as well as publishing it on this blog.

Crash Scene Essay

1. Crash scene essay

[Photo]
Writing about the "It's a really good cloak" scene has been a good exercise in looking at production techniques.

The use of a tracking shot which follows a detail like the gun in Farhad's hand is clear in its effect and purpose here.

I think you can also see what the director means by "shooting into the light to break the frame" here too. The effect is to destroy the usual arbitrary frame which surrounds normal shots and give a more chaotic and life-like feel. It also ties in with the ideas of people and cultures and emotions colliding. To me it also has a visual link to the out of focus lights seen at the beginning and throughout the film. When we crash we see things like this - as if we are squinting. Our perception changes and as someone said in an essay, there is a surreal effect - it's like a dream or nightmare.

Crash Characters

Sandra Bullock as Jean Cabot
Brendan Fraser as Rick Cabot
Nona Gay as Karen

Lorette Devine as Shaniqua Johnson
Matt Dillon as Officer John Ryan
Bruce Kirby as Pop Ryan

Terence Howard as Cameron Thayer
Thandie Newton as Christine Thayer

Don Cheadle as Detective Graham Waters
Jennifer Espositio as Ria
Larenz Tate as Peter Waters
Ludacris as Anthony
Beverly Todd as Graham's Mother

Shaun Toub as Farhad
Marina Sirtis as

Michael Pena as Daniel

Jack McGee as gun store owner

Ryan Phillipe as Officer Tom Hansen

Crash - film essay

2005: To what extent do you agree that the techniques of film are ideally suited to the treatment of
themes?
Discuss your views with close reference to the treatment of a key theme in a film (or films) you
have studied, referring in detail to at least TWO techniques.

This question asks you to consider the suitability of Paul Haggis' techniques for the delivery of the theme of racism in his film. You can praise his techniques and - if you feel confident enough - can add an element of criticism. This film won three Oscars in 2006, including Best Picture (also best editing and best original screenplay). However, it has also attracted criticism for being over-the-top: stereotypes on steroids, one critic said.

One plan is to discuss the film's dialogue, cinematography and symbolism.

Here is an example of one paragraph and a possible conclusion as shown in class today, Friday 17 August.

Another technique which is ideally suited to conveying themes is the use of symbols and motifs. Symbolic images have layers of meaning and appeal to the imagination and emotions. Haggis sets his film at Christmas time in Los Angeles during one of the coldest winters the city has ever experienced. In the director's commentary he says that "if it can snow in LA then there's hope for all of us". The last shot of the film is a bird's eye view of a crash scene with reverse tracking back to show a larger view of the city with the snow falling gently with the lyrics of the soundtrack saying "some day I'm going to find a way". Snow symbolism had been foreshadowed earlier in a shot of Cameron after his cathartic anger at the police. He felt a sense of release and redemption, getting out of his car to see softly falling flakes of what turned out to be ash. The shot of the falling snow on the usually warm and racially divided city is a nice touch which wraps the film's conflicts well and tells us that there is hope. It works in conjunction with the box of blanks and the invisible cloak to cleanse the city of its violence and hate.

(Conclusion) Crash is very successful in conveying its race theme, however much we might feel that the techniques are excessive - "stereotypes on steroids" one critic called them. Haggis' use of Tarantino-like dialogue and strong cinematography and symbolism all force us to confront the racism that we probably all share but dare not express.

Merchant Essay

In lieu of a wiki (collaborative essay) here is a too vague and grossly informal essay that you can cut and paste into word and write properly. You'll see the topic earlier in the blog.

True and False Values

The main idea in the play is true values versus false values. This is the central idea to a big, big extent. If you look at the three plots, pound of flesh, casket and ring they're all about this, aren't they?

The flesh plot is about Shylock - stubborn old beggar - forgetting everything except his revenge. He thinks money and the letter of the law is more important than being nice to people and the spirit the law was intended in. After all, the law is meant to stop murder, not make it OK. He keeps running around saying "I will have my bond" about a million times. When he's asked if a surgeon should stand by while he cuts out the flesh, he keeps saying, "Is it so nominated in the bond?" I mean, he's just completely lost touch, eh? He thinks he's sworn an "oath to heaven" whatever the hell that means, to keep to that bloody bond but can't he see that Portia's testing him? His last chance to show some goddamm mercy? It's kind of poetic justice that Portia gets him on a legal technicality, eh? She played him at his own game. She says that he can take the flesh but if he "spills one drop of Christian blood", they'll have his guts for garters. I reckon that Shylock had every reason to get back those Christians - good on him I say. I mean, what's so damn special about their blood? BUT, I also reckon that Shylock's got it all wrong. He's got his values all mixed up. Underneath his anger I reckon he loved his daughter more than money even though the Sallies said he cried "O my daughter, oh my ducats!" But he was so bitter about his identity as a Jew being denied and his daughter letting him down that he focussed on surface things like the legal bond and forgot his humanity which, let's face it, is the true value.

Now we come to the second plot which is all about these caskets - Portia's dad's test of her boyfriends' true values. They're gold, silver and lead. The man who chooses the right casket will find Portia's picture in there and will be allowed to marry her. Morocco - he chooses gold cos it is sure to be the only one worthy of Portia and Aragon, he doesn't want gold cos "many men desire" it and he doesn't want to be like the "common multitudes" - he's arrogant - geddit? Anyway, when Morocco opens the gold chest he learns that "all that glister is not gold" - it isn't good to assume that good things come in flash packages - that's a false value. Of course, Bassanio, after a long flowery speech, chooses the leaden casket because he reckons gold is misleading - he actually says "Thou gaudy gold, hard food for Midas, I'll none of thee" (or something like that - why doesn't he speak proper English?) It's quite funny that Bassanio says "the world is still deceived by ornament" because he wooed Portia partly to get out of debt. I also like the way Shylock referred to "his borrowed purse" - he borrowed money to boy flash stuff to woo Portia and now he's saying that money's bad. What the ..? On the other hand, I guess Shakespeare was showing the upper classes and Bassanio is a spokesperson for noble Christian values. Phew! At least he does a good job of showing us true and false values:)

But wait there's more! There's this little funny ring plot at the end where Portia and Nerissa test their guys' love for them. When they are dressed up as a lawyer and her clerk (long story) they save Antonio from that flesh thing and when Bass and Grat offer to reward them they beg for their brand new wedding rings (lol) - just like the flesh plot they take it right up to the wire pretending to be upset about their lost rings and saying "that doctor will be my bedfellow". I reckon this is testing their values. Now they are married they owe their wives a bit more loyalty than their boyfriend Antonio - I mean, come on! But old Portia, you have to hand it to her. She doesn't really go for broke like Shylock, she is teasing her hubby lovingly and forgives him gently. The true value is mercy and love: the false value is hate and revenge.

I don't know how you can argue that true and false values are not the central idea. The opposition of these two things is so basic that a heck of a lot of the other themes cluster around them. I think I'll let the clever rich chick have the last say. "The squalid tea of Mercer is not strained."