Saturday, March 21, 2020

Animal Rights Essays (1140 words) - Animal Welfare, Animal Testing

Animal Rights It is possible to commit an immoral act against a non-human animals. In order to commit an immoral act against a non-human animal, one must define the word morality. According to the definition it means conformity to the rules of right conduct,. On the other hand immorality means wickedness or evil (random house dictionary). So in reflection a wicked or an evil act against an animal is an immoral act also. I believe that it is possible to commit an immoral act against an animal because they are creatures just like us. They feel pain and emotions just like us humans. When someone violates our rights, we get hurt which often results in some kind of action. But animals are helpless, they can't take any action because they are less intelligent then humans. However I do believe that humans are the supreme beings on this planet and that we are on the highest evolutionary scale, but still that does not give us the right to commit wrong acts to the animals. Some of the wrong or immoral acts that I strongly oppose to are animal experimentation, entertainment i nvolving animals, hunting and finally habitat destruction. Animal experimentation is unethical due to the suffering and death on animals in the laboratory and that they have a right to be free from such exploitation. Vivisection is the practice of experimenting on animals which started due to the religious prohibitions on human dissection. When religious leaders finally lifted these prohibitions, it was too late, vivisection was already entrenched in medical and educational institutions (internet). The author of the article on animal experimentation is unethical also opposes vivisection because he believes that is morally wrong, cruel & fruitless. He also believes that they are characterized by scientific limitations, the most important of all the difficulty of transferring results to human beings with any degree of reliability (Bender 55). There are many reasons to oppose vivisection for example the enormous physiological variations among rats, rabbits, dogs, pigs, and human beings. An experiment in 1989 was performed to determine the carcinogenicity of fluoride proved this fact (internet). Approximately 520 rats and 520 mice were given daily doses of the mineral for 2 years. Not one mouse was adversely affected by the fluoride, but the rats experienced health problems . As test data cannot be accurately transferred from a mouse to a rat, it cannot be argued that data transferred from either species to a human (internet). Some other reasons to oppose vivisection is the deliberate infliction of burns on animals, and research in psychology. In a study, guinea pigs were for 3 seconds in 100 degrees Celsius water (Bender 56). How would you feel if somebody immersed you for 1 second in hot boiling water? Would you feel any pain? In psychology research, countless animals have been surgically dismembered, drugged, starved, fatigued, frozen, electrically shocked, infected, cross-bred, maddened, and killed in the belief that their behavior would shed light on human behavior (Bender 57). These things mentioned are morally wrong because they are evil in nature. As evil in nature as animal experimentation sounds, so is the entertainment business involving animals. I believe that animal circus is perhaps the most cruelest entertainment of all because the way animals are treated. I don't understand what kind of charm or fun people get out of watching animals do humanly acts. Why do we want animals to be more like us when they are perfectly fine being themselves? When we watch the circus, we only see what goes on in front of us, but what goes behind the scenes is a completely different story. Some animals are beaten to perform better, they are chained to iron poles so they won't run away. These animals are wild, and they need their space, and if they don't get their space, these animals react in a negative way. We often see on T.V. elephants running on the streets if kept under confinement because animals like elephants do have emotional feelings. Elephants also mourn for the dead and are observed to be around the dead for several days which pr oves that elephants have emotion. Other entertainment involving animals are also immoral such as bull fighting, hound racing and cock

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Top 5 Script Editing Tips From a Screenwriters Perspective

Top 5 Script Editing Tips From a Screenwriters Perspective THE END. Those two words, full of the promise of a nearly completed project, can be some of the most attractive words on the page for a screenwriter. You take a breath and close your laptop (or turn off your typewriter) and inhale a sigh of relief. The work youve been laboring over is finally finished. Now what?Lets look at what needs to happen after the first draft is completed in the screenplay editing process.Photo by Pereanu Sebastian on Unsplash1. Take a break between writing and editingWriting and editing are two different processes. Writing is an act of creation, imagination, and artistic endeavor, using predominantly right-brain activity. Editing is an act of sequencing, culling, logic, and grammar correction, using predominantly left-brain activity. In that sense, it is nearly impossible to do both at once.This is why you should take a break between writing your screenplay and editing it. Once written, allow your screenplay to sit for awhile while you take a break. Allow you r mind to reset itself from the right-brain activity that was required during the script writing phase before you endeavor to edit the screenplay in primarily left-brain mode.Another thing that happens over the course of a break like this is you are able to revisit your screenplay with a fresh perspective. After taking a short break, youll likely see things that you missed while writing the screenplay, or holes in the story that need to be filled with an additional scene or more dialog. And its not just screenwriters who are encouraged to take a break like this between the writing and editing processes- all writers should do it. The time in between will give your mind the mental break needed for the extreme focus needed during the editing phase.2. Replace unnecessary dialog with visual storytellingAnton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short-story writer, said it best when he wrote, Dont tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. American journalist, nov elist, and short-story writer Ernest Hemingway corroborated Chekovs advice when he wrote, Show the readers everything, tell them nothing.One common mistake that new screenwriters (and writers, in general) make is to tell rather than show. In doing so, they might use dialogue to explain moments in the plot that would be more powerful when seen rather than when heard (or described by one of the characters).If your screenplay is dialogue heavy as a stylistic choice, thats one thing. However, allowing this indulgence in conversation can drag a script down into a talkative, boring mess if you arent careful.The natural inclination among many new and aspiring screenwriters is to let their characters talk and talk as much as they want. This stems from the fact that when you watch a movie it can seem like this is all it is: characters talking. Moving a plot forward through dialogue is simply unrealistic- thats not how life happens.This is especially true in film, which is a visual medium. Un derstanding this, as you edit your screenplay, look for instances in which dialogue is used to advance the narrative when something visual would do a better job.Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash3. Know the universal format and use it faithfullyIf you use screenplay writing software such as Final Draft, Movie Magic Screenwriter, Movie Outline or Montage, you wont need to worry about the formatting required for your screenplay. In fact, it is highly recommended that you use one of these programs instead of attempting to format your script on Microsoft Word.However, if you dont have access to any of these programs, youll need to ensure that your screenplay is formatted correctly before submitting it to production companies, contests, or other agencies.Here are the basic requirements, as discussed on Screenwriting.io. Your screenplay should have:12-point Courier font1.5-inch left margin1-inch right margin (between .5 inches and 1.25 inches), ragged1-inch top and bottom marginsApproximate ly 55 lines per page, regardless of paper size (top and bottom margins adjusted accordingly). This does not include the page number, or spaces after it.Dialogue speaker names (in all caps) 3.7 inches from left side of page (2.2 inches from margin)Actor parentheticals 3.1 inches from left side of page (1.6 inches from margin)Dialogue 2.5 inches from left side of page (1.5 inches from margin)Pages should be numbered in the top right corner, flush to the right margin, a half-inch from the top of the page. Numbers should be followed by a period. The first page is not numbered. The title page is neither numbered nor does it count as page one, so the first page to have a number is the second page of the screenplay (third sheet of paper, including the title page), which is numbered 2.Examples of properly formatted screenplays can be found in the johnaugust.com library.4. Make sure it follows the Blake Snyder beat sheetWhile this is something that should be done in your initial screenplay o utline before you begin writing, you can use it to rearrange scenes in the editing process once your first draft has been completed. Rearranging is not only useful in the script editing phase- it can be highly effective in turning your screenplay into the success you want it to be.Blake Snyder, the bestselling author of the Save The Cat! series, was an American screenwriter, consultant, author and educator who became one of the most popular writing mentors in the film industry. He led international seminars and workshops for writers across various genres and was hired as a consultant for many of Hollywoods biggest studios.In his screenplay writing and consulting career, and after viewing thousands of screenplays that were made into blockbuster movies, he came up with a beat sheet comprised of 15 beats that should be in every screenplay. From his book Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies, heres the list:Opening Image – The scene in the screenplay that sets up the tone, type, and i nitial salvo of a film. It is the opposite of the Final Image.Theme Stated – Usually spoken to the min character, often without knowing what is said will be vital to his surviving the tale. Basically, what your screenplay is about.Set-up – The first 10 pages of the script that not only grab the audiences interest, but introduce or hint at introducing the characters of the A story.Catalyst – Something that is done to the hero to shake him. Consider it the movies first whammy (the letter with important news, the knock at the door, etc.)Debate – The section of the script, be it a scene or a series of scenes, when the hero doubts the journey he must take.Break into Two – This is the beginning of Act Two, at which point we leave the Thesis world behind and enter the upside-down Anti-thesis world of Act Two. The hero makes a choice and his journey begins.B Story – This is traditionally the love story (if the screenplay isnt already a romance), and is where the discussion about the theme of a good movie is found.Fun and Games – Here, we forget plot and enjoy set pieces and trailer moments, reveling in the promise of the premise.Midpoint – The dividing line between the two halves of a movie. Stakes are raised and we start putting the squeeze on our hero(es).Bad Guys Close In – Both internally (problems inside the heros team) and externally (as actual bad guys tighten their grip), real pressure is applied.All is Lost – The false defeat and the place where we find the whiff of death, because something must die here.Dark Night of the Soul – The part of the script where the hero has lost all hope.Break Into Three (but not for long!) – Thanks to new inspiration or a last-minute action from the love interest in the B story, the hero chooses to fight.Finale – The Synthesis of two worlds: From what was and that which has been learned, the hero forges a third way.Final Image – The opposite of the Opening Image, proving that a change has occurred. Since all stories are about transformation, the change should be dramatic.Save The Cat! Goes To The Movies by Blake Snyder5. Look carefully for any grammar, spelling, or capitalization, punctuation or syntax mistakesFinally, once youve followed the other steps mentioned in this article and have completed the second draft, look carefully through the entire screenplay for any grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or syntax mistakes. While you hope your script stands on its own when sent to production companies or agents, small editorial mistakes can be a big red flag for people in the industry reading your script. Not only do such mistakes make your screenplay seem amateur, it also makes you come across as less than professional- a quality that you want to avoid at all costs when trying to sell your script.If you feel that you lack the English skills to conduct such a thorough edit for your screenplay, its b est to hire a professional to do it for you. The money you spend on doing so would be returned and multiplied in getting your script chosen by a production company or agent.