Conflict Resolution

The conflict resolution I have chosen is the Battle of Foy, depicted in HBO's Band of Brothers series. As it is a battle taking place in World War II, the characters depicted are young to middle aged, and exclusively male. Everyone in this particular conflict is either an American or German soldier, and this is essentially the basis of the conflict. The town of Foy is being held by German forces, and the 101st Airborne is sent to root them out. At first, the Americans have to cross a large open space made extremely dangerous by German artillery and sniper fire. They take casualties, but cross the space, reaching the outer perimeter of the town.

Here they run into a conflict within a conflict; their leader, Lieutenant Dyke is essentially useless in combat, unable to adapt to a changing situation and locks up completely when under the extreme pressure of combat. Due to the command lockup, the advance into the town stops almost entirely and the 101st begins to sustain heavy casualties. The Executive Officer, Captain Winters, orders Lieutenant Spiers, an officer in a company not currently participating in the attack to assume command of Lieutenant Dyke's company. Spiers takes command and swiftly pushes into the village, and the 101st take the town in a decisive victory, capturing many German prisoners and neutralizing the town. As they believe the battle to be over, one undiscovered sniper begins to shoot again and Sergeant Carwood Lipton is forced to run out of cover to draw the sniper's fire while Private Shifty Powers, renowned in his company for his accuracy, picks off the sniper, bringing a final close to the battle.

Obviously, violence is the main method of resolving conflict for both an attacking or defending force. To systematically destroy as many enemy as possible as you advance is the surest way to a total victory. For a defending army, a similar concept is true. The best way to win defensively is to set up a situation where the enemy has no choice but to move into your gunsights and hopefully be killed. We see both cases very clearly here.

Characters In Television

The IT Crowd (click for video) is a comedy made in the UK which follows the exploits and daily tedium of a billion-dollar corporation's absurdly small and completely under-appreciated IT department composed of just three people: Roy, a computer expert from Ireland, and Moss, a socially dysfunctional genius who can operate any piece of technology, but is painfully unable to function in everyday society. Finally, these two close friends are kept in check by Jen Barber, who holds (to her dismay) the IT department's third (and arbitrary) position as Relationship Manager.

The three share very similar cultural values, which are much what one would expect from an English show. The differences come at a personal level. Roy plays the average slob with a heavy sense of enmity and disrespect for anyone who works at a level higher than the IT department's crowded basement. He views almost everyone at the company besides Moss and himself as utterly helpless when it comes to computers, even going so far as to answer the phone with the phrase "Hello IT, have you tried turning it off and on again?" in a bored and exasperated voice each time it rings. Roy shares the limelight of the show fairly evenly with Moss and Jen, and exists as a foil to Jen's technologically incompetent and hard-working ways, and vice-versa. He is also very close friends with Moss, and supports him whenever he can, as seen in the given clip.

Jen is in the IT department purely because she lied on her resume about having experience with computers and various other forms of technology in order to get hired at the company, expecting her personality and other qualifications to place her somewhere in middle management. Instead, she is now in the IT department where she worries consistently about her career advancement and the nigh-complete lack of work done by Roy and Moss on a day-to-day basis. She views her work as being one of the most important things in her life, whereas Moss and Roy hold a polar opposite view of their occupations. Because of these differences in personality, she holds a strange and complex relationship with the two, calling them "Friends... but in a special way that means... you can't come into my house"

Moss is made of contradictions. He is very socially awkward, although by nature he is very polite and courteous. He possesses a high level of natural skill when it comes to extremely complex electronics, but lacks a basic knowledge of self-reliant behavior (he still lives with his mother, depending on her to cook and clean for him). Moss loves order on an obsessive-compulsive level, needing to know at all times how many staples he has left. However, this really only extends so far, at which point it drops off completely. In the first episode, he has a nest of baby birds living in the open disk tray of his computer stating that "I don't know how they got there, but I don't have the heart to put them out, Jen" and letting the room which he and Roy occupy during work hours fall into an utter state of disrepair. He is in his mid-to-late twenties, as are Jen and Roy.

These three, as a team, play the role of heroes in almost all of the show's conflicts, commonly ignored and let down by a faceless company. They largely envy the lifestyle of the people who work on the floors above the basement because the company is comprised of, as the CEO puts it "Attractive people not doing much work... all having affairs." Their greatest triumphs typically go unnoticed by anyone outside the three, and their contributions to the company go completely unappreciated. They exist as the company's absolute bottom rung socially, with the exception of Jen, who is treated with a civility and respect not usually extended to Moss and Roy.

Bonus Clip: Roy and Moss tries to come up with an intentionally off-putting personal ad to prove the point to Jen that "women love ba****ds"

Commercials

The first commercial is a McDonalds advertisement that was made in Egypt. The ad opens with a young, attractive, obviously loving Egyptian couple that are most likely chosen to reflect what most young people would like their lives to be like; the two depict a very nice life. The affluence of the boat, coupled with the young man's retrieval of the rose suggests that the life they have together is desirable and to be coveted. We percieve them as an ideal of romance, and are led to believe that everything about them is valuable, with their love being the most valuable part of their lives. Then, as they enter the McDonalds, the woman attempts to take some of the man's french fries. Food sharing is often seen as a primal act of love, because on a primal level, we understand that food is one of the most important things to survival. Thus, to share a means of survival implies a very strong connection. Therefore, as we have seen the couple being very attached thus far, we assume that things will go as they appear. Instead the man grabs both her wrists and restrains her forcefully, she reacts violently, and he kicks the chair out from under her. The idea being communicated is that McDonalds is more important to this couple than their relationship.

Next, we have an ad for the new line of Honda Civics. In this commercial, it's vitally important that the characters are who they are. We have five distinctly different people, a luchador, a monster, a zombie, a lumberjack and a ninja. Obviously, each of these five are meant to be completely different from any of the others. The ad purposely focuses on the fact that these characters are very different, and the ad relies entirely on the differences between the personas. The tagline of To Each Their Own is meant to showcase the versatility of the new line. Without the varied identities, this is pointless.

The final ad is another foreign one, an Indian advertisement for Camlin permanent markers. This advertisement features an Indian couple in their 30's, and the man is close to death. This ad relies heavily on the Indian cultural practice of a married woman's necklace, bangles and vermilion spot on the forehead being a sign of her marital status (this is explained before the ad begins). When the husband breathes his last, the professional mourners rush in, stripping the woman of the symbols of her marriage to the now-deceased man. First, they remove her necklace and bangles, but when they attempt to remove the vermilion spot, the greatest personal aspect of the married woman's appearance in respect to her husband, it will not come off. The vermilion spot is said to be connected to the man's lifeline, meaning that when it is erased for a final time, they are truly separated by death. The advertisement shows the man making the spot on his wife's forehead with a permanent marker, which means that when he dies, the mark cannot be erased. Because of this, he springs back to life at the end of the ad. The fact that the actors/actresses in the ad are Indian is very important, given that without the allusions to Indian culture, the entire point of the ad would be lost to the audience.

My Favourite Personalities

One of my favorite personalities in any form of entertainment is Conan O'Brien. Conan worked on several different comedy/late-night shows after his graduation from Harvard University including The Simpsons, The Tonight Show, and most recently his self-titled show Conan. His quick witted style of humour and his distinctive appearance have made him one of the most recognizable figures on television, and his show has been rated as one of the most popular talk shows. His show Conan opens with a monologue, frequently studded with his reaction to the audience's reaction to his jokes and short discussions with co-host Andy Richter. The show then hosts two special guests, with whom Conan trades anecdotes, experiences and witty banter. The show then closes with a live performance by either a band/artist or a guest stand-up comic. All things considered, the way his show is structured is very much like any other talk show, but it is Conan's unique treatment of this formula that has boosted his show into the limelight.



You can catch the most recent episodes of Conan on the CTV website, updating daily.

As for female personalities, I really enjoy Jodie Foster, who I've only seen in two movies, but enjoyed very much in both. In Taxi Driver she played a 12-year child prostitute who the protagonist was obsessed with saving. In Silence of the Lambs she put out an amazing performance as Clarice Starling, a junior agent with the FBI who is assigned to catch a serial killer and must collaborate with another captured serial killer (Dr. Hannibal Lecter) in order to catch the killer. Her performance in Silence of the Lambs impressed me greatly because she played a very complex character, and had to feign an accent that resulted from her character's desire to hide her country-style West Virginian accent. Her psychological interactions with Hannibal Lecter were intense and disturbing, and without her, the movie would have suffered very much. I respect Foster's talents as an actor very much.

A trailer from Silence of the Lambs

Hugh Dillon: decent Canadian, fine actor, extremely bald

Hugh Dillon, born in Kingston, Ontario has proved something of a jack of all trades throughout his entertainment career. Starting off in 1987 with his hard rock band Headstone, he and the band successfully toured and produced albums until their break up in 2003. After the band broke up, he formed another band in 2004 called Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir, which has released one album, and Dillon released another solo album called Works Well With Others.

Although Dillon may be fairly well known to Canadians over 25, with teens he's recognized by his acting career, especially from two shows in the last 5 years, Durham County and Flashpoint. In both shows, Dillon plays the role of a Canadian police officer. In Durham County, a serial thriller that lasted for three seasons, he plays a Toronto detective who returns back to his home town of Durham after his partner is killed and his wife is diagnosed with breast cancer, eventually discovering that the town may be harboring secrets he never would have suspected in his youth. In Flashpoint Dillon portrays a sniper for the SRU (Strategic Response Unit, a fictional Canadian branch of SWAT) who faces deadly situations day to day while dealing with the guilt of being forced to shoot a crazed man in front of his son to save a hostage. He also had a role in the first Trailer Park Boys movie. While Dillon has played many non-Canadian characters in his film career, his last two major roles have indicated a return to his Canadian roots.

Flashpoint

Yes, of course it does.

The first example of violence being used (and sensationalized) in media I'd like to look at is the 2006 release "300", which was unrelentingly violent for violence's sake. This clip shows what I'm saying pretty well: (embedding disabled, watch here) I'd actually like to tie into three points instead of two because I feel that the movie connects with all three quite strongly. First, and most primal, is that we love movement, and one of our favorite types of movement is combat. It's exhilarating, and we're biologically built to think so. The frenetic and vicious pace of combat appeals to us on a very basic level right down to our Sympathetic Nervous System, which creates our fight-or-flight responses (note: both of these options contain copious amounts of movement). So, when we see 300 Spartans absolutely shredding this giant Persian army, flowing around in their crimson cloaks, slowing down then speeding up and cutting into a foe with pinpoint precision all while preparing to slay another, it excites us because movement is exciting.

The second point that this ties into is that movies can portray violence to an amazing degree with special effects. We see this in incredible detail in various parts of 300, especially in scenes of combat, where a favorite technique of the director's is to slow down the action about a 3rd of a second before the kill and then just as the blade strikes, it actually speeds up past normal speed for a brief second as we see the enemy being viciously torn apart by the strike, then returns to normal until the next kill. Also, the movie contains decapitations, an unusual amount of maiming, and many especially brutal kills where you can see a spear plunging into one side of an enemy and then coming out the other, which are all done with that same movie magic we all know and love.

Third and final is the point that says in so many words, heroes and villains don't just talk, they fight. This is absolutely true in 300, with the Spartan side being painted as the heroes that defend their homeland against impossible odds against a foreign invader come to destroy everything they've ever known (and I'm not saying that the portrayal is unfair, look at history) whereas the Persians are portrayed as heartless animals that go into another country and plunder and murder and destroy. In one scene, we see an in-depth view of what goes on in the Persian king's tent, and it is portrayed as rife with hedonism and corruption. At a different point in the film, the Spartans come across a village that the Persian "Immortals" have completely destroyed, and have even gone so far as to spike the villagers to a tree. With this, we have a pretty clear setup of hero and villain, and then they fight. By God, do they ever fight.

There's another point that I feel is pretty important in our culture that 300 really couldn't address, and that's the concept that certain types of violence are engineered purely for comedy, and in the cases of animated movies, mostly for children. To show this, we'll look at the most classic of all classics, Looney Tunes. Ever since it's debut in the early 1930's, Looney Tunes has been the icon of animated violence. Most of the episodes seem solely based around the violence that occurs between two characters, (in this case Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny):

As we can see, Elmer takes most of the beating here and in the eyes of children, that's great because they want to see the bad guy lose (this is also a type of hero versus villain). This particular episode is violent, but we don't get into the trademark Viet Cong-like killing devices that many episodes feature (like grabbing a dummy filled with straw that looks like Bugs Bunny, which then pulls a rope that drops a giant anvil), and for some reason, that's insanely funny, usually with the greater attempted murder getting the bigger laugh. In Looney Tunes, hero always trumps villain and villain always takes a darn good thrashing before the end. Children love it, and always have. I know I still do.

Reporting on Nielsen

There were many things that surprised me in the 2009 Nielsen Report, but chief among them were the two interconnecting facts that adults watch more online videos than per day than teens, and the fact that teens watch "less than half as much as the typical user". Culturally, we assume that teens spend their time on youtube, phones and facebook and nothing else. Obviously, this is wrong, and while teens do favor all three of these things, it seems that youtube (and other video sharing sites) are dominated by the adult world. Now, converse to our cultural assumption about teens, we tend to view adults as hardworking and absolutely devoted to their job, and assume that they never get the desire to stare out the window for 20 minutes or neglect their work for something with a little less tedium and a little more lolcats. But, now more than ever, that's wrong too. The study states that while the average day for a teen is tightly scheduled and organized (at least until 3 PM) and with less access to computers in general, whereas adults who work with computers are left alone from 9 to 5 with their PC, tasked with finishing a task by a deadline instead of going from task to task at an appointed time. This opens up a window of opportunity for adults to watch a good deal more videos, and to browse more in general than their teen children.

One thing that I definitely connected with from the comment sheet was "I don't recall life without the internet". That's not to say I was born with a high-speed wireless card clutched in my hand, I do remember running a cord directly from the back of the phone to the computer and hearing the dial-up signal, but I don't have many memories from before my family was enduring that particular screech (It's probably one of my clearest memories because of the sound).
Another comment from the sheet that I thought was pretty descriptive of how my life has changed since the internet is "Because of the internet I never buy or rent movies", although never is a bit exaggerated. With the advent of torrenting (file-sharing) I haven't paid more than 15 dollars for a movie for quite a while. On the whole, although it may take 5 hours to download a movie, it takes a lot less fuss than going to the store. This, combined with the potential of theoretically infinite digital replication (if a friend wants this movie, I can copy it to a thumb drive, give it to him and still be able to watch it on my computer) makes it a much more preferable alternative to buying/renting. It's a simple matter of convenience and long-term effeciency.
If we were to create a boiled-down version of the Nielsen Report for Blackville School, two subjects I would like to compare Blackville's results to the report are their TV v.s. online video habits, and how much they text, to see if they approach, match, or exceed the North American average.