"The sunlight screams over the mountain top."
Her quandary with this description is over the word screams. It seems too aggressive in comparison to the rest of the script. Did the writer mean it like that? What is going to be the design of his film? Does it compliment the choice of that word? These are not persnickety questions. In fact, they are so important that the professor opens it up to a group discussion. What do the rest of the writers think an appropriate choice would be? Other words are thrown out after the writer expresses his vision. One word is deemed too round; another too sharp. A series of words are worked through until it is decided that the writer has chosen the appropriate word.
To some, the time and thought behind this choice of a single word would seem banal and anal, but to others the feelings a single word can evoke are of the utmost importance. Frank Luntz is a master of this and his career is based off of framing. He took the term "Estate Tax" and changed it to "Death Tax". This tax had been around for ages, and no one had noticed, but with the striking image of a "Death Tax" people rallied against it for the first time. So too do we as writers feel this triumphant, vehement sunset, that is screaming over the mountain top, as opposed to (slowly) crawling or (gently) peeking. We read that it is screaming, and we see and feel it in a different way.
Also in screenwriting we learn about demographics. Our teacher told us a story of when he used to work in LA. If a story was pitched to one boss he had, he'd get all of the executives in the room and see who liked it. If everyone liked it he would trash it had no demographic. We are pitched to in the same way by advertisers. We love to think that we are different but we all fit into a category. We are pitched to in the framing of our demographic, and though the pitches are different, we are manipulated in the same exact ways.
BUT To frame concepts is human. To create tools to make our life easier is human. So is embracing/playing into the palms of consumerism just evolving humanity, or killing it? Are we mutating into a species of addicted zombie label whores. Are zombie films actually a framed metaphor for what we have become? I know these are questions that take it, quite far. I know that whoever is reading this might be nodding in agreement by saying, "Oh sure, I know some people like that, but not me." I thought that too. I don't own a TV. I only go to the mall because it has the Post Office closest to my house. But take a look at this and see if you don't understand a little bit more just what ALL of us have become, simply by living in this time and place. Mark Crispin Miller from NYU said that "Once a culture becomes entirely advertising friendly, it cease to be a culture at all." Watch this and if you can relate to this world for one moment, ask if this is your culture. Then ask if you see any shred of culture in the world you've just recognized as your own.
To some, the time and thought behind this choice of a single word would seem banal and anal, but to others the feelings a single word can evoke are of the utmost importance. Frank Luntz is a master of this and his career is based off of framing. He took the term "Estate Tax" and changed it to "Death Tax". This tax had been around for ages, and no one had noticed, but with the striking image of a "Death Tax" people rallied against it for the first time. So too do we as writers feel this triumphant, vehement sunset, that is screaming over the mountain top, as opposed to (slowly) crawling or (gently) peeking. We read that it is screaming, and we see and feel it in a different way.
Also in screenwriting we learn about demographics. Our teacher told us a story of when he used to work in LA. If a story was pitched to one boss he had, he'd get all of the executives in the room and see who liked it. If everyone liked it he would trash it had no demographic. We are pitched to in the same way by advertisers. We love to think that we are different but we all fit into a category. We are pitched to in the framing of our demographic, and though the pitches are different, we are manipulated in the same exact ways.
I remember smoking Camel Number 9 Cigarettes when I was 18 because I liked the casing. Though they are basically Camel Lights, they come in a black and hot pink box, with a zipper on the 
front, and pink foil on the side. The camels on the cigarettes were actually pink too. The zipper framed me up for, bad, wild, mystery, while the pink was feminine and sexy... and we bought them. That packaging framed me up for perfect consumer mindset, all I needed to do was look at that pack and I had convinced myself that I wanted them. As it turns out, the special edition with the zipper was designed by an edgy clothing designer who had just won Project Runway.
So it seems that this is what consumerism has come to. No human needs cigarettes, but a need has been created by non human construct. From this example and countless others we could deduce that 99.9% of the people around me, and I are Donna Haraway's definition of a Cyborg.front, and pink foil on the side. The camels on the cigarettes were actually pink too. The zipper framed me up for, bad, wild, mystery, while the pink was feminine and sexy... and we bought them. That packaging framed me up for perfect consumer mindset, all I needed to do was look at that pack and I had convinced myself that I wanted them. As it turns out, the special edition with the zipper was designed by an edgy clothing designer who had just won Project Runway."A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction... creatures… who populate worlds ambiguously natural and crafted...”
BUT To frame concepts is human. To create tools to make our life easier is human. So is embracing/playing into the palms of consumerism just evolving humanity, or killing it? Are we mutating into a species of addicted zombie label whores. Are zombie films actually a framed metaphor for what we have become? I know these are questions that take it, quite far. I know that whoever is reading this might be nodding in agreement by saying, "Oh sure, I know some people like that, but not me." I thought that too. I don't own a TV. I only go to the mall because it has the Post Office closest to my house. But take a look at this and see if you don't understand a little bit more just what ALL of us have become, simply by living in this time and place. Mark Crispin Miller from NYU said that "Once a culture becomes entirely advertising friendly, it cease to be a culture at all." Watch this and if you can relate to this world for one moment, ask if this is your culture. Then ask if you see any shred of culture in the world you've just recognized as your own.
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