Last Luagh Essays - Films, The Last Laugh, Weimar Culture

Last Luagh About The Director: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau is one of the most important filmmakers of the cinema during Weimar Republic period. He is often grouped with Fritz Lang and G.W. Pabst as the big three directors of Weimar Germany. He finished his career in Hollywood and was killed at a young age in a car crash. Three of his films appear on the greatest films lists of critics and film groups. Even though there seems to be little written about him. Early in his career he created one of horror film, Nosferatu (1922); his last film was Tabu (1931), a documentary film in the South Seas. He was one of the pioneers in the technical side of the film industry, experimenting special effects in Nosferatu and Faust and the use of the moving camera in The Last Laugh. But at the same time he was a master storyteller, a director who could describe simple stories with a vast range of emotion and meaning. Plot Summary: The old doorman at the Hotel Atlantis is proud of his job and he does it well (sort of). One day he carries a large suitcase into the lobby. He needs to sit down for a moment what is seen and written down by a young hotel manager. The old man looses his job and is made the toilet man of the hotel. He tries not to show it, but he is broken. Now only some kind of wonder can help!! The film begins a trip down an open elevator and through the busy lobby of the Hotel Atlantic. The movement continues straight through the hotel's revolving doors to rainy outside. The main character is the hotel doorman, a striking but he is old. He is an important person, a respected person. But he is getting older and has trouble lifting a large luggage from a car to the hotel and needs a few minutes to rest. The young hotel manager witnesses this situation and the next day the doorman finds out that he has been replaced by a younger man and demoted to toilet attendant. This demotion leads him to isolation. It comes to the situation where his neighbors and even his own family reject him. Just when things seem as bad as they could get for the doorman, the film presents us with the only upside. The film says that ordinarily the story should end here, for an old man like this, but instead, the director has taken mercy on the doorman and presented us with a happy ending. In the end, the man inherits a vast sum of money from an American millionaire. And he lives happily ever after! Analysis Of The Film: The Last Laugh is the last but one expressionistic street film, full of sets that look both realistic and unlikely at the same time, unsettling multiple exposures, fantastic performances particularly Emil Jennings whose weight you can feel on your chest, in a performance through the entire range of emotions. Many writers give Carl Mayer, the co-writer on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and one of the chief minds behind the excellence of German film in the 1920s, the big share of credit for The Last Laugh. Sadly Murnau is sometimes shrugged off with Karl Freund, the film's cameraman, as part of the team that executed Mayer's idea. Although the film is often criticized for its happy ending, it is done with irony that the film would not be the same without it, in which all wrongs have been righted. In The Last Laugh the man derives his power from his uniform, alcohol and wealth; without at least one of the three he is only a hunched man. He has habits of stroking his mustache and waving hid hand in the air, the habits that disappear when he loses his uniform. After he steals it and quickly pulls it over his shoulders, the first thing he does is stroke that mustache. Or after he becomes rich he starts waving his hand in the air again. This movie is almost purely visual; the few pieces of expository writing are worked into the film cleverly via papers and letters rather than bluntly cleaving the action. Murnau takes a situation that should

Cause and Effect of Cell Phone Usage Among High School Students from U.S. and Middle East

Cause and Effect of Cell Phone Usage Among High School Students from U.S. and Middle East Research design The research design for this research study will be the mixed-method research approach (qualitative and quantitative research). According to Mertler Charles, 2011, qualitative research relies on narrative data while quantitative research relies on numerical data.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Cause and Effect of Cell Phone Usage Among High School Students from U.S. and Middle East specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The survey research design will generate case-specific data that is necessary to investigate the research objective of this research as outlined above. Survey research designs involve data collection from a specified sample size in order to arrive at an accurate assessment of the whole population regarding specific variables that the study intends to find out. As such survey research study are most suitable in studies that involve investigation of opinions, behaviors, attitudes, perception s, culture orientation and so on which is similar to what we shall be investigating in this research study. Survey research study is especially suited to this type of study since it is possible to customize the research study to focus on key areas of interest. In this case I will use a questionnaire that would be used to collect data of key variables for the research study such as how often students engage with their phone, percentage of students with cell phones and amount of units used on cell phones per student and so on. The idea is to capture all relevant data needed for investigating the research questions for this research study. This information will be analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively and a final report written. Study participants The study will be conducted in Al Ittihad Model School targeting all the male students in the school. A stratified random sampling will be used to divide the classes into strata from which a simple random sample of 20 students will t hen be selected from each class following the respective classes’ register which contains all the population of the study. Thus, because this research study is based on males using cell phones at Al Ittihad Model School the study participants/population are therefore male students at this school. The sample size which is the actual group that will be investigated will be obtained from this study population mentioned above.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Data collected Both primary and secondary data will be used in the study whereby primary data will be obtained through questionnaires administered to the students and observations where applicable. The questionnaires will have both open ended and closed questions. On the other hand, secondary information will be obtained from reports, the internet, journals and magazines. From the data collected, qualitative and quant itative data will be extracted, analyzed and interpreted to answer the research questions of the study as outlined previously. Questionnaires will be used to collect the primary data since the study concerns some variables that cannot be directly observed such as opinions, perceptions and feelings of respondents. Such implicit feelings will only be collected through writing, and questionnaire will be the best tool to collect detailed information. The questionnaire will contain both structured and semi-structured questions. This will allow the respondents to give their own views. The questionnaire will be in two parts. The first part will seek information on the background of the respondents and the next part will obtain specific information on use of cell phones by the respondents under study. The quantitative data will finally be analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data will be done using frequencies and inferential statistics at 5% (0.05) level of significance an d presented using tables, pie charts and graphs. Sampling procedures The study will be conducted at Al Ittihad Model School targeting all the male students in the school. A stratified random sampling will be used to divide the classes into strata from which a simple random sample of 20 students will then be selected from each class following the respective classes’ register. Since we have already determined our population of interest to be male students enrolled in Al Ittihad Model School all that we now need to do is come up with a method that objectively selects required cases from this population.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Cause and Effect of Cell Phone Usage Among High School Students from U.S. and Middle East specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The type of sampling method that is used must be based on a scientific theory backed with a rationale of choosing that particular method which should be releva nt to the type of research study. Therefore for this research study I will use simple random sampling because it is a technique that ensures there is no bias in selecting cases from the population. At the end of this process I intend to have finished selecting the students that I will base this research on who will have been randomly selected from a population of all the students being studied. Simple random sampling is a sampling technique that relies on a simple probability method of choosing desired sample size by random selection (Salant and Dillman, 1994). Ideally, simple random sampling involves assigning all cases of the population with numbers; once this is done the required study cases are then determined. The study population will be the sample size which is randomly picked by selecting cases from a list of numbers that were assigned to the population and then matching these selected numbers to specific cases that would make up the sample population (Newman, 1994). For ins tance, in order to select 100 cases from a population of let’s say 2000 male students enrolled at school Y will require assigning numerical numbers to all the cases as the first step. The second step is randomly selecting 100 numbers from the total list of 2000 numbers which represent the whole population, probably by blindly picking tags with numbers from a basket. The last step is matching the chosen 200 numbers with the population cases which will now be our sample size. Validity and reliability of the data collection tools Content validity will be based on the adequacy with which the items in an instrument will measure the attributes of the study whereas reliability is the extent to which any measuring procedure yields the same results on experiments done several times (Nye and Null, 2001). Questionnaires were administered for pilot study to assess the reliability of the data collecting instrument, however data collected was not part of the study but only to assess the va lidity of the instrument. Apart from pre-test, questionnaires will be submitted to the supervisor for approval before being administered. To ensure there is no misinterpretation, unclear concepts and expressions used will be avoided and structure and sequencing of the questions in the questionnaires will be addressed. Since some of the study respondents are students using cell phone which is against rules of school, the researcher will therefore assure the respondents of confidentiality through anonymity in answering the questionnaires.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Because this research study involves use of questionnaires I intend to guarantee the privacy of respondent and their feedback in accordance with the international standards of research studies. The researcher will also acknowledge the fact that participation in research will be voluntary to those who will be willing to participate in the study. Conclusion This research study will conform with relevant laws that governs all form of research studies in UAE at both local and international levels. I intend to apply for permits and inform relevant authorities on my plan to undertake this research beforehand so as to obtain their consent well on time. References Mertler, C.A. Charles, C.M. (2011). Introduction to Educational Research 7th Ed.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Newman, L. (1994). Social Research Methods. Boston; Allys Bacons. Nye, H. Null, H. (2001). SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Boston; Brown Company. Salant, P. Dillman, A. (1994). How to conduct your own Survey. California; John Wiley Sons.