Alexander the great Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Alexander the great - Research Paper Example Alexander built himself a name and features as one of the greatest conquerors of his time. His ascent to the throne simply happened because of his father’s tragic assassination in the old capital of Macedon. Seeing this as an opportunity to expand his territory so that he could stop any rebellion from taking place since his father’s death, he swiftly re-strategized so that he could crush any revolting group within from causing havoc to his throne. He ensured, for instance, that he got rid of his internal enemies by assuring that they never moved anywhere further from prison. This was quite important for him in his conquest since it would give him ample time to wage war against the external enemies like Persia. Although he is believed to be one of the organizers of his father’s death, the truth is not quite known since no evidence proves so. If it may be true that Alexander the Great might have had a hand on the death of King Philip, then it would have been so und er mischief and sheer quest for power. Alexander can be said to be a military genius as judged by the kind of calculating move made before hitting at his opponent. It can be said to be one of the reasons why probably he succeeded in commanding a large army that helped him conquer and invade other states at a young age. His 13 years as an emperor were marked by the successive defeats of battles against his opponents. He toured places with an aim of expanding his territory. The first tactic he used was trying as much as possible to learn the weaknesses of his opponent. This is actually what he did to Persia. He first toured Persia, trying to know and understand its military strengths and weaknesses before finally making an attained (Abbott 67). Other than the fact that he was generally gifted in matters of politics, a number of factors made Alexander the Great very successful in his career as a ruler of the great nation, while at the same time he encountered several challenges, for ex ample, the persistent attacks from sections which had been captured initially earlier (like Greece); he was fighting for self rule just immediately after the death of his father, his spontaneous counter attacks made him victorious, driving the enemies away in a bid to scatter them so that they could become weak. This is what made him survive the many terrors of war that was awash in Macedon. His military domination did not just come by chance as most historians would argue; Alexander himself was a planner who had well trained army, equipped with all manner of ammunitions. It therefore was easy for him to fight without retreating. He ensured that he invested well in his army to avoid any form of dissatisfaction. They, therefore, went to war with a spirited motive of winning the battle, disregarding the size and the nature of their enemy and the challenges at hand. He strongly believed that he could capture Europe and the whole of Asia. Another factor that made him successful in battl e was the kind of high standards of discipline he set for himself and the entire army. For the entire period of his rule of the whole of Macedon, only once did he face the

Question 1&2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Question 1 - Assignment Example In this case, privacy is not viewed as being alone or away from others but is based on matters such as trespass to a person’s personal property. The contravention of the law of slander and libel demands that remedy be attained through treatment of a person’s feelings which tends to interfere with the right of privacy. Absolute protection of the right to privacy may limit the ability of an individual to access other rights which are closely tied. The right to property may not be fully achieved if an individual wants to maintain their right to privacy as the property may be located in a place near other people. c) Protection against libel and slander is not sufficient in the protection of privacy because its remedy only involves the treatment of mere wounded feelings instead of addressing the actual issues that the led to the breach of privacy. Breach of implied contract is insufficient in the protection of privacy in the sense that it does not allow for free interaction between the offender and the person being offended. Hence it limits the exercise of right of privacy. Loss of property leads to loss of privacy in the search for a lost property or remedy to the loss. a) Soft surveillance uses non harmful means of carrying out investigations in crime scene investigations such as DNA tests from samples taken from body fluids such as the saliva. It involves the application f modern forensic laboratory equipment in the investigation. On the other hand panopticon applies the use of technical forms of investigation that may include deep examination of the body parts of the victims at a crime scene. It may include physical torture of suspects so that they can reveal some information. The collection of information for search is unseen due to the automated systems. The process does not infringe on the privacy of individuals as one is not

Health Program Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Health Program Evaluation - Essay Example The questions will be as follows: For collection of data and information regarding the HIV/AIDS control, quantitative methodology will be employed by making use of questionnaire, in which there will be questions concerning HIV/AIDS and the control strategies that are considered much acceptable and resulting by people. Along with employing quantitative methodology, qualitative methodology will also be effective in getting information and answers to the asked questions, in which the research work and other written content by authorized writers will be assessed in order to get answers for the asked questions. Many research questions are the result of issues that are highlighted by the hypothesis. They also reveal experientially resulting constructs from initial experience (Hair, 1998). These questions support in recognizing the data, which is required and are able to serve as a foundation for the thorough analysis required establishing a model (Dillman, 1978). Altogether, the research questionnaire resolves different aspects of both propositions and is planned to assist the de-construction of system into its specific elements for establishing the normal nature of multi-cultural system (Dillman, 1978). The order of different questions can support to define the approach of evaluation and structure. It is suggested by the social theory that actions of individuals are in fact inspired by the response of actions expected to bring (Hair, 1998). Respondents are inspired to complete and thereafter, return questionnaire if benefits, cost and confidence are appropriate (Dillman, 1978). It should be ensured that respondents are properly rewarded for completion and thereafter returning the questionnaire. These rewards can depict positive regard such as offering thanks, seeking advice, providing tangible benefits, making the format of questionnaire interesting and offering social validation (Dillman, 1978). It is further suggested that the

Is Article 5 of the OECD's Model Tax Convention still fit for purpose Coursework

Is Article 5 of the OECD's Model Tax Convention still fit for purpose given the changes in world trade since the Article was fir - Coursework Example Raising personal income taxes or the goods and services tax any further would be extremely unpopular with the people. There is widespread anger in the UK and in other OECD countries about the tax avoidance practices of large multinational corporations. In the UK, the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament questioned senior executives of Starbucks, Amazon and Google on their tax avoidance practices which were held to be against the spirit if not the letter of the law 2. Multinational Corporations (MNC) accounted for over $33 trillion in global sales in 2010 with a value addition of over $16 trillion, representing one-quarter of the world GDP. Many of the MNC from the Fortune 100 list have bigger revenues than several of the emerging economy countries around the world and most of these MNC are headquartered in the OECD countries 3. 1 Browne, J. and Roantree, B., â€Å"A Survey of the UK Tax System†, IFS Briefing Note BN09, October 2012. accessed 20 March 2013. 2 Knight, L., â⠂¬Å"Corporate tax avoidance: How do companies do it?† BBC News, 4 Dec 2012. accessed on 20 March 2013. 3 UNCTAD Report, â€Å"World Investment Report 2011†, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development accessed on 20 March 2013. ... ve definition, a sovereign state is made up of three core elements â€Å"people, territory and a government† and the government of a territory has the sovereign right to tax people living in that territory 4. A Multinational Corporation, by definition, operates in multiple countries and there is the perennial challenge of determining which government has taxation rights over the MNC and for what part of its income. 2. The Evolution of the OECD Model Tax Convention The Organization for European Economic Cooperation which later became the OECD first published a draft double taxation avoidance agreement in 1958 with the objective of preventing individuals or companies being taxed in both the country of residence (Country R) and the country of source for the income (Country S) and for the prevention of tax evasion. This document has served as the basis for over 3000 bilateral tax treaties in force around the world 5. The Model Convention has been periodically updated by the OECD a nd a draft 2012 revision is currently in circulation. Many developing countries around the world felt that the OECD model convention was unduly favourable to the advanced economies and lobbied the United Nations to evolve an alternative Model Double Taxation convention which was first issued in 1977. 4 Ring, D.M., â€Å"Democracy, Sovereignty and Tax Competition: The Role of Tax Sovereignty in shaping Tax Cooperation†, Boston College Law School, 28 Jan 2009. accessed on 20 March 2013. 5 Bennett, M., â€Å"The 50th Anniversary of the OECD Model Tax Convention†, 2008. accessed on 20 March 2013. This model has also been periodically updated. The UN model gives the source country greater rights to tax income than the

Elasticity on Demand, Breakeven Analysis and Pricing Decisions Essay Example for Free

Elasticity on Demand, Breakeven Analysis and Pricing Decisions Essay When a firm changes prices, the effect on profits is more important than the effect on revenue. There is a simple formula to calculate the critical Price Elasticity of demand which is just sufficient to maintain the contribution to overheads and profits. This will be greater than that required to maintain revenue. A common issue in business and in business studies is whether a firm should change the prices at which products are offered. The calculations begin with estimates of the reaction of customers to the new prices. This reaction is represented as Price Elasticity of Demand (PED), the ratio of the proportionate changes in volume and price. Students are always told and some students even remember that Elastic Demand (PED gt;1) means more revenue from a lower price and less from a higher one; and Inelastic Demand (PED But who wants the same revenue with lower profits? Any change in price will have a much bigger impact, proportionately, on the contribution per item for the firm than on the asking price to the customer. It follows that an increase in price may succeed in raising profits, even though revenue falls; and that a lower price may reduce profits even though revenue increases. So the critical question is not whether the PED is greater or less than one, but whether it is sufficiently high (for a lower price) or sufficiently low (for a price increase) to improve profits. The critical level of PED can be found by an application of breakeven analysis. We can take the current level of contribution to overheads and profit; and ask what the volume (units sold) must be to give the same level of contribution at the alternative price. Having found this critical volume, we can then compute what the PED would be to give us this volume at the new price, compared with the existing price and quantity. This then will be the Critical Price Elasticity of Demand (CPED). If we are raising prices, any PED less than CPED will increase profits; if we are lowering price, we want PED to be more than CPED. And while there is no way, short of trying the price change, to know what the PED actually is, a firm may well have sensible ideas about the likelihood of its being significantly greater or less than a specified value. It may seem that calculating the CPED is rather a waste of time, since we should have to calculate the required change in quantity first; and might just as well reckon our chances of getting this volume after our price change, without entering into Elasticity computations at all. However it turns out that there is a very simple formula for calculating the CPED.

Hazardous And Industrial Waste Disposal Issues Environmental Sciences Essay

Hazardous And Industrial Waste Disposal Issues Environmental Sciences Essay The handling of the hazardous materials is complicated by the increasing magnitude of waste generated each year, the variety of materials that become refuse, the vast array of chemicals that may eventually leak from containers and burial sites; the difficulty of monitoring landfill sites for leachates, the difficulty of adequately sequestering waste to inhibit leaching, the variability of soils and their sorption capacities for leachates, the variability of soil permeability, and the cost of safe disposal versus that of assessing real or imaginary risk (Chian, E.S.K., and DeWalle, F. B., 2001). Due to these complexities, the removal of the hazard from hazardous wastes requires a systems approach (Brunner, D. R., and Carnes, R. A., 2004). For example, the least cost of an activated sludge and carbon adsorption system is a function of both processes operating simultaneously. The optimal design range for the least-cost system could not be ascertained by assessing the performance of the two processes independently. Background of the Study An important consideration over the next several years will be the impact of the toxic effluent limitations which should be discussed in the Philippine Government. A rational approach to defining toxic and hazardous wastes is to view a biological entity in equilibrium with its environment and attempt to quantify those insults on the biological entity that causes a disequilibrium or negative response. In the study of hazardous substances, two parameters of importance are dose and time (Atkins, P. R., 1998). An important point to note about the tests for acute and chronic toxicity is that, although the tests might isolate the relative toxicity of a substance, they are virtually useless for predicting levels at which no toxic effects will occur. The decision to incinerate depends on the type of hazardous solid waste, moisture content, organic fraction, heat content, economics, and the availability of land (Fennelly, P. F., et al., 1999). Whenever feasible, incineration should be considered. This process significantly reduces the volume, generally will also detoxify the waste, and gives a product amenable to compaction and containerization resulting in enhanced ease of handling. Incineration processes include the stationary hearth incinerator, the multiple hearth furnaces, the rotary kiln, the fluidized bed reactor, and the open pit incinerator. Each type of incinerator operates properly only within a limited range of temperatures. Generally speaking, for efficient operation, the materials burned must have a fairly uniform BTU value. This may require the blending and mixing of wastes to be burned and the addition of auxiliary fuel. Capital costs for incinerators are high, particularly for the smaller units. In some cases, com plete elimination of the hazardous agent may be obtained through incineration. The result is that potentially toxic and hazardous substances can be identified, but criteria for safe exposure are lacking; therefore, these wastes have a special stigma imposed on them because of the possibility of unknown effects (Farb, D., 2007). This psychological stigma can often impede rational implementation of treatment and ultimate disposal schemes for these toxic and hazardous wastes. No matter what treatment or ultimate disposal scheme is selected, man-made residuals will eventually reside in the atmosphere, lithosphere, or hydrosphere. Objective of the study An understanding of the reactions and forces controlling the movement of a pollutant in the environment is essential if effective treatment and ultimate disposal of toxic and hazardous wastes is to be attained. For example, decisions involving chemical waste disposal will be based on knowledge of chemical form, persistence, acute or chronic toxicity, genetic effect, flammability and reactivity. Hypothesis (Null Hypothesis) There is no environmental effect from hazardous and industrial wastes. Significance of the study A study of the natural environmental forces and reactions which maintain equilibrium of systems illustrates quite well the basic principles of handling toxic and hazardous substances by transforming them into less harmful substances or isolating them in a repository such that release into the dynamic parts of the environment occurs at such a low rate that toxic effects are not realized. Literature Review The greatest fallacy with the environmental crisis and residuals disposal is that acceptable environment can be obtained by reducing or even abolishing our dependence on technology or by neglecting cost considerations. The fact is that residual wastes and their ultimate disposal will require technological solutions-and many of them. Finally the cost to support waste treatment, recycle, reuse, collection and disposal must be borne by the consumer in the form of higher prices and by the taxpayer in the form of higher taxes. The handling and disposal of toxic and hazardous wastes is a multipronged problem that involves: (a) separation and waste partitioning, including process control through technological improvement, waste stream separation, and recycling; (b) inplant waste treatment, including chemical, physical, and biological treatment; (c) in-plant waste disposal, involving recycling, containerization, and incineration; (d) volume reduction through drying, incineration, and compaction of end-of-pipe residuals; (e) translocation involving storage, containment, and transportation; and (f) ultimate disposal considering isolation through minimization of water movement, and maximization of passive barriers through which migration of hazardous materials might take place. Separation and waste partitioning have the distinct advantage of reducing the volume of solid wastes to be handled. Process control entails separating the hazardous agents at the source. The initiation of control on the toxic wastes at this point is the most cost effective with respect to minimizing the volume and segregating the hazardous wastes. Chemical treatment schemes involving techniques based on chemical precipitation, oxidation, photochemical degradation, and pH adjustment can be employed to isolate or detoxify certain hazardous agents. Toxic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium can be isolated by hydroxide precipitation (Rouse, J. V., 2004). In liquid waste streams, numerous physical treatment schemes are possible for separation and partitioning of the hazardous agents. The bulk form of the solid wastes limits the implementation of most physical treatment techniques. Biodegradation of hazardous substances such as certain hydrocarbons, pesticides, and heavy metals (cyanide, for example), has been the subject of a number of studies. Soils, particularly the surface horizon to a depth of 1-3 ft (0.3-0.9 m), contain large numbers and varieties of aerobic, facultative, and obligate anaerobic organisms which singly or together can provide an effective biological detoxification of certain hazardous agents. Two techniques are usually employed to achieve this component of the multiple barrier concepts. These are containment and encasement. Encasement is usually combined with one or more storage methods. The burial site itself, with proper use of clays or other liner materials, can become a container. This aspect of the multiple barrier concepts is more effective in reducing water movement than maintenance of physical integrity. A method of improving the passive barrier is encasement. The use of concrete as an encasement material is widespread. More recently, an interest in developing technology for encasement in plastics and vitreous materials has been expressed. Various encasement materials include: polyethylene, asphalt, lime/fly ash, portland cement, plaster of Paris, metal silicate, bentonite, and vermiculite. Data Treatment and statistical Tools The study is a quantitative study that will focus on data that presents environmental effects of hazardous and industrial waste. They will get the data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources from year 1988-2008, to uphold consistency and prevent bias. The researcher will be using T-test to be able to test the significance of the variables. Summary and Conclusion Ultimately, residuals must be returned to air, land, or the oceans. The cost of disposal will be borne by the consumer, because residual wastes are generated when natural resources are processed for mans benefit. There is a large and growing body of technical literature on waste management. Hazardous agents can be removed from wastes, although under some circumstances it is more economical to modify the manufacturing process rather than modify sections of the treatment train. Recommendations The removal of hazardous agents is not simply a process that occurs at any one step in a well engineered system. The materials and design of the disposal site itself afford mechanisms for detoxifying and rendering innocuous the hazardous agents in the waste. Through the use of properly engineered treatment systems and passive but multiple barriers between residuals and the biosphere, it is possible to reduce the transport of potential pollutants to environmentally acceptable levels.

Technique Of Montage In Cinema Media Essay

Technique Of Montage In Cinema Media Essay I have selected two films to help me to illustrate the significance of the technique of montage in cinema. They are David Wark Griffiths Birth of a Nation and Sergei Eisensteins Battleship Potemkin. I will be using the points of view of an ordinary audience as well as a cultural military historian to examine the impact of montage on our reading of the film cited. What is Montage? Montage in general parlance is a method of organising and editing the visuals ‘scenes whose emotional impact and visual design are achieved through the editing together of many brief shots†¦..montage may expand or contract time and space. In other words, it is an editing technique that combines or separates frames to construct narrative, sense of continuity and discontinuity and juxtapositions. Classic Examples Bollywood cinema showing a montage sequence where two brothers jump off a train and suddenly they are seven years older Montage of the mall-dwellers relaxing and having a fun time in the mall. Threshold of change In 1920s, montage was ahead of its time. Eisensteins prescience strikes us from the vantage point of the present, when we are at the cusp of a changeover from analogue modes of perception and representation to the the dispersed sensibility of the dital technology. The modern television screen typifies this shift as a site where montage and collage conflate all at once. The viewer is expected to, and does, multi-task, taking in several elements and actions simultaneously the talking heads, the intervening visuals, the text scrolls, the flash news, the sensex bar in a corner, the advertisement pop-ups and so on. Unilinear attentiveness and experience of the media are being replaced by a non-linear grasp of the clutter. True, the average mainstream star-strapped cinema, with its iconising impulse, yet uses this digital possibility very superficially. But already with digital surround sound in cinema theatres, the sound track is an experience of severalness. What montage might do to de construct the conventional rectangular screen we are riveted to and similarly unbundled and disperse our viewing experience is a fascinating thought. ‘Battleship Potemkin- An Analysis How sound image juxtapositions express meaning Eisenstein (1898-1948), a graduate of Russia State Film School, has been renowned as an advocate of Soviet theories of film montage. His montage theory is also ideological in some ways like Griffiths but his is more revolutionary in terms of aesthetics and political circumstances (dialectical montage punctuated by Marxism), and his theory aims chiefly at the audience psyche. He argues that film has its greatest impact not by the smooth unrolling of images, but by their juxtaposition ‘montage is an idea that arises from the collision of independent shots shots even opposing to one another. His central concept is the collision of elements, in other words, shots should not be seen as linked, but rather as conflicting with one another. Eisenstein considers montage as a creative film element that is significant in creating: Dramatic Form Metric Montage Rhythm in the Narrative Rhythmic Montage Metaphor and Analogy- Overtonal Montage Dynamic in building up the films meaning Intellectual Montage The fourth point is the most important because no matter they are ideological or anti-ideological tools, films are made to help the audience to produce new perceptions, emotions and cognitions in the mind and to visualise the invisible conflict between the film elements. Battleship Potemkin is a class-conscious revolutionary propaganda, ordered up by the Russian revolutionary leadership for the 20th anniversary of the Potemkin uprising in 1905. The reason was because Lenin believed this film could encourage his people to support and join the proletariat in overthrowing old order. Despite of its multifarious responsibilities, the film has created an impact as montage being the forms most important film grammar. I will now move on to dialectical montage. Eisenstein suggests that we should achieve conflicts in film by using point, counterpoint and fusion. The following are examples of dialectical montage in Battleship Potemkin: How montage stimulates meaning for the viewer Cutting between the Battleships surgeon and the maggot-infested meat that the sailors are meant to eat to suggest a contradiction and absurdity of the order (to eat the rotten meat). Cutting between ghostly figures hanging and clenched fists, furthered by an inter-title ‘Down with the tyrants! to legitimise peoples anger. Cutting between the fearful faces of the unarmed citizens and the faceless militia in uniform to give a reason for the people against the ruthless czarist state. The numerous cuts in the Odessa steps sequence build the individual moments of terror into an unbearable emotional climax. This is a perfect example to demonstrate Eisensteins montage theory in relation to the forming of intellectual concepts and associations. How Sound Image juxtapositions produce meaning Firstly, he uses images of still objects to line up with images of the massacre to create a metaphorical juxtaposition: through the dynamic editing of three lion statues, he implies the awakening of anger and rebellion. The juxtaposition of these two different subjects of images (one of human, the other of symbolic image or prop) is a valuable propaganda device because it encourages viewers to deduce for themselves that the symbol describes the character. Secondly, in a fragmentary way, he shows the attacking militia by a line of marching boots advancing down the steps, this is to emphasise the militias impersonal and oppressive nature. He further contrasts it with the powerlessness of the revolutionary citizens-victims by showing a legless man who escapes with difficulty from the cold bullets. And as the troops march ahead, a military boot crushes a childs hand. There is also an old woman who is seen with eyeglasses in her first appearance then in the second shot of her, one of the glasses has been pierced by a bullet which signifies her death. Thirdly, there are shots of a mother with a baby carriage. As the mother is shot by the militia and begins to fall, there are cuts to her carriage perched dangerously close to the edge of a step. Interspersed with these individual scenes of cruelty are shots of the fleeing crowd and the approaching line of militia occasionally firing into the crowd. The fear generated by this montage is reinforced as the mother collapses and sends the carriage hurtling out of control down the steps. Eisenstein uses a lot of close-ups of the citizens like the old woman whose glasses are pierced through by bullet, the legless man, the small boy whose hand is trampled, and his terrified mother to increase the emotional impact of the sequence. The average length of each shot in this sequence is about two seconds, giving the audience barely a chance to breathe amongst the chaos. In the above examples we see that montage involves a dialectical process that creates a new third meaning from combining the mea nings of two sets of adjacent shots. Although the real 1905 revolution was repressed by the Czarist regime, Eisenstein does not depict the sailors final downfall, opting instead for an ambiguous, deliberately mythologised ending. The Story of the Montage In the film, the story goes like this: news of the uprising on Potemkin reaches the Russian squadron, which speeds towards Odessa to put it down. The Potemkin and a destroyer, also commanded by revolutionaries, steam out to meet them. Again Eisenstein uses montage to cut between the approaching squadron, the brave Potemkin, and details of the onboard preparation, he creates a tension for the precarious situation. At the very last moment, the men of the Potemkin signal their comrades in the squadron to join them, after a few good minutes of suspension, the Potemkin eventually steams among the oncoming ships without a shot being fired at it the sailors of the rival Russian fleets do not open fire on the Potemkin, responding humanely to her pleas to join them instead. Amid much cheering from sailors on all ships, the inter-title ‘Brothers! appears. The very specific dialectic approach to film form, which Eisenstein is engaged with, surrounds the idea of art always being conflict; its social mission is to make manifest the contradictions of being. Eisenstein acknowledges that montage is the most suitable for the expression of ideological statements; the films last sequence I have just gone through in the previous paragraph has demonstrated the brotherhood of man and the solidarity of the working-class. As a reinforcement of the ideology of revolution, Eisensteins ending for the film is directed towards the unwritten future, rather than the recreation of the past. ‘Birth of a Nation An Analysis Birth of a Nation is one of the complex subjects in American film history. Apart from the controversial representation of the black race and the ambitious depiction of American history during the period of Civil War and Reconstruction, the cinematic language developed by Griffith is influential within the film-making sphere. This language is comprehensive and allows effective communication with the audience. One of the essential skills in the language system is the technique of montage. In addition to exploring the potential of flashbacks, eyeline matches and camera distances, his earliest pictures also showed that individual shots were cinematic phrases that could be edited together into meaningful sequence without a concrete dramatic logic to link them. For instance, by using rapid cutting, the scene in which Lynch attempts to forced marriage to Elsie intersects with three other sequences: first, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) speeding to rescue the victim (Elsie); second, the KKK clearin g the rest of the unruly blacks out of town; third, the KKK approaching to rescue the trapped Cameron family. 4. In the above series of shots, audience are watching Elsie under increasingly dangerous moral and sexual threat, ‘at the same location in time, audience sees the glorious KKK troops riding to rescue, the tension grows until it gets to a point ‘when the two (sequences of shots) are finally brought together which is the victory of the KKK over Lynch and the other blacks. The symbolic arrangement of shots does not only create a rhythm for the narrative, it also generates a tense juxtaposition that carries the audiences emotion to ‘the next higher power. By using montage, Griffith has established the KKK as the heroes of the drama in all these different scenarios, the KKK make every effort to fight for the interest of the whites. It may not be very impressive for audience in todays cultural and intellectual environment, however for the American audience in 1915, the experience was different; this scene literally involved them with its convincing images and ideological message. As a matter of fact, many of those who had watched Birth of a Nation were so motivated that they gathered to join the rejuvenated KKK. This film is a facsimile, but it is a powerful one that is perceived by many people as true, Carter puts it this way: ‘The picture projects one of the most persistent cultural illusions; it presents vividly and dramatically the ways in which a whole people have reacted to their history With the awareness of a cultural historian, we should take a step back from these scenes and appreciate the careful direction and choreography of the mass and individual movements. We can also look into Griffiths proficient use of montage which like what I have pointed out, functions ideologically in Birth of a Nation. Conclusion As I have said, in silent cinema where visual images are the major elements, montage is particularly important. In both Birth of a Nation and Battleship Potemkin, images cutting back and forth, amid the repetitive and rhythmic score composed by keyboard, percussion, half-heard cries, speech and choral, create a rapid rhythm, aggressive and dangerous atmosphere. On a higher level, montage is used to provoke the audiences emotional recognition and go further to stimulate their intellectual reflexivity and perception. Montage is creative and abstract, a cinematic abstraction of reality that is able to explicitly shape events for maximum effect of agitation. Montage can open up new non-narrative avenues in film-making. It still has considerable impact on the cinema, both in an aesthetic or cult manner, like the Wong Kar-wais and Quentin Tarantinos films, and in a political or ideological sense, like Oliver Stones JFK and R Zemeckiss Forrest Gump. Nevertheless, montage is no longer the only channel through which images can be played around, when film-making nowadays is often partially or largely aided by digital technology, the space for the potential of visuals to expand is indeed unlimited. NOTES ON EDITING Editing is one of the most important parts of modern television lest modern television would cease to exist. Creation of Topic/Story The story is the skeleton of the edit and helps organise the edit into chapters and topics much as in writing. Rhythm and Pacing Rhythm and pacing are very important within edits because if we are editing a news story then it must be very fast with shots not lasting more than around 3 seconds. If we take the feature film and look at its basic structure then we may be able to edit the project down to around 25 minutes to fit within television schedules. The pacing will be much faster and more information will be given. If it is edited properly then the viewer should have the same feeling seeing a half hour version as for a 1hr 36 minutes version. When watching an action film such as Die Another Day we expect the cutting to be very fast, many shots to show various angles and to extend the action as far as possible to amaze the audience and in parts to contribute a little humour. In contrast if we were to watch Pride and Prejudice we would see far longer shots with a lower variety of shot sizes and elements. Although the definition of montage is editing, the term montage refers to many aspects of cinema. It is often used to suggest artistic editing, or to suggest rapid, stimulating editing. However, montage theory influences a range of filmmaking including imagery, pace and timing of editing and spectator response. The film which demonstrates preeminently the various uses of montage is The Battleship Potemkin . Conversely, montage is often a diverse and personal form of expression and there are many good examples, such as Un Chein Andalou (1929; Luis Bunuel Salvador Dali) and Citizen Kane (Orson Welles; 1941). The theory of montage arises from the work of Lev Kuleshov, who established the a + b = c definition of montage. He discovered that a picture followed by another picture produces a thought; this phenomenon is often called the Kuleshov effect. Kuleshov conducted a series of experiments, which included showing a picture of a silent, open mouth followed by a bird flying through the sky, which made people think that the mouth was singing. When he showed people the open mouth followed by a picture of food, people thought the mouth was hungry. It was from those experiments that our concept of montage developed. The imagery of the Kuleshov effect is shown below in the montage triangle. The a + b = c definition is useful because the letters can be substituted for other things. For instance, during the Kuleshov effect the spectator is effectively shown two noun-pictures, a picture of an open mouth followed by a flying bird. The spectator thought the mouth was singing, which is a verb. When Kuleshov showed the open mouth followed by a plate of bread, people thought the mouth was hungry, which is an adjective. The Kuleshov effect allows us to show pictures of nouns in such a way that people can think of words from different parts of speech, such as a verb or an adjective. It is this type of communication, achieved by montage, which gives cinema so much artistic and intellectual value.