Wednesday, October 30, 2019

How can product innovation help build competitive advantage for Essay

How can product innovation help build competitive advantage for cosmetic firms in London Case Unilever - Essay Example The researcher states that intense competition from globalisation, more sophisticated consumers from the fragmentation of markets, and constant changes in technology have forced the companies in the last two decades to focus on the process of product development. These three forces that lead to the process of product development also intensified competition between firms. According to Porter the process of product development is characterised by the continuing need to research new materials and introduction of innovations in their product lines. This fact can be considered an important factor to competitiveness in the sector. In this highly competitive and globalised world, according to Gerry and Whittington, companies have changed the way they conduct business. However, organisation must bring new ideas such as product innovation and management, which can be used as a tool to achieve higher productivity. The modern enterprise world is full of innovation that can help build competiti ve advantage. In virtually every field companies are faced with new products, new processes and new services which are available to the consumer market at a pace never seen before. The velocity of the transformations of the last decade is impressing even in the largest companies.To achieve a position of market leadership it is not the product quality that matters; product innovation is an essential ingredient to gain competitive advantage. Products, processes and services are the new aggregate values which generate advantages over competitors. Innovators have a considerable advantage over the other participants in various consumer markets. (Burgelman and Grove 2007). In the past decade, product innovation has been approached by many authors, scholars, businessmen and academics. Every business wants to be innovative, but they sometimes encounter obstacles and difficulties which block the path to product innovation. In trying to be innovative in the pursuit to gain competitive advanta ge, an organization can face several difficulties. For instance, there could be restriction of resources or they could have difficulties in implementing an environmental and an innovative organisational culture that emerge due to the resistance (Makari 2000). In addition, they may not reach a suitable level of innovation. The cosmetics industry includes the areas of personal care, perfumery and cosmetics. The cosmetics companies focus on product development to gain competitive advantage. The product development process, according to Gill and Johnson (2011), is characterised by the continuing need for research in new materials and introduction of innovations in its product lines. This fact can be considered an important factor to achieve competitiveness in the sector. There is heterogeneity in this industry, because of the presence of large international companies, diversified and specialised in the sector of cosmetics, is contrasted with a large number of small and medium-sized comp anies with operations focused in the production of cosmetics (Gill and Johnson 2011). According to Gerry and Whittington (2011) transnational corporations adopt strategies defined with respect to the development of new products by investing in specialised centres of research and development (R & D), in partnerships that are external and in management processes with structured knowledge. Small and medium sized businesses often lack the necessary capital to carry out research and development. They are apprehensive of investment or an economic-financial situation as they are aware of the risks inherent in new product development. Also, many of these companies do not have knowledge management essential for product development processes.. London predominantly has the presence of l

Monday, October 28, 2019

Discussing Roles And Responsibilities Of Newly Qualified Nurse Nursing Essay

Discussing Roles And Responsibilities Of Newly Qualified Nurse Nursing Essay The aim of this essay is to explore and discuss important aspects of the roles and responsibilities of the newly qualified nurse. It will discuss an overview of different type of roles and responsibilities including transition. The roles and responsibilities of a qualified nurse include essential professional skills such as leading in care management and care delivery situations as well as maintaining standards of care. The focus of the essay will be on two chosen roles of newly qualified nurses (delegation and patient group direction). It will discuss the meaning of these concepts and their importance for nurses, and provide some practical contextual examples. It will also discuss the rational of chosen roles A new qualified nurse expected to be competent to work in all environments and situations. This emerging health care system requires a registered Nurse workforce at all levels post initial registration capable of critical reflective thinking in order to create this system. With registration comes a shift in professional accountability together with wider clinical management and teaching responsibilities. On becoming a qualified nurse, the expectations and dynamics of relationships changes fundamentally. Suddenly the newly qualified nurse is the one who must know the answer whether it is a query from a patient, a career, a work colleague or a student. The newly qualified nurse will encounter many challenging situations where she or he must lead care delivery. This includes dealing with care management within the team, dealing with patients/service users, dealing with other professionals, and dealing with the required needs of the whole workplace environment. The NMC requires a student nurse to demonstrate professional and ethical practice, be competent in care delivery and care management and show personal and professional development in order to join the register NMC (2010). It is recognized that nurses should be provided with some form of preceptorship and supervision in their role for a period of four months time NMC (2006)) once qualified. Even in this period of preceptorship, there are new expectations and challenges faced by the newly qualified nurse. Mooney (2007) found that newly qualified nurses were faced with assumptions from others that they should know everything. This was also a high expectation they had of themselves. In meeting the NMC standards of proficiency the nurse should have demonstrated the relevant knowledge and skills in order to practise in their career. However, it is important to recognise that not every nurse knows everything about everything in their career especially if they are practising in highly specialized fields. What they need is to be able to develop and adapt to changing situations. Therefore, for the nurse it is impossible to know everything but they should have developed the skills to find out relevant information, reflect on it, and apply this to their practice. In essence they should have learned how to learn. There is a great deal to be learned once qualified, especially related to a nurses new area of work and a good deal of the development needs to take place on the job. The study by Jackson. K (2005) suggested that a successful transition requires the nurse to develop a self-image relevant to the change in status to be able to do the job and that they meet the expectations with others with appropriate support. Mooney (2007) also points out that the duties faced by most newly qualified nurses were not patient contact centred. There were a lot of duties related to contacting and dealing with other professionals and services. These brought anxieties related to the responsibilities that might be faced as the nurses would become increasingly senior in their roles with others expecting them to provide the actions and the answers in complex situations. This highlights how the experience of nursing of transition from student to newly qualified nurse can be daunting. In the current environment there is an expectation that nurses have a preceptor one qualifying for aid in these transitions but the literature still suggests there is a difficulty in the transit ion process for such professionals. Hole. J, (2009) found that individual accountability, delegating duties without appearing bossy and some challenging clinical situations such as death and dying and specialised technological roles were found to be stressful by qualifying nurses. Issues of the preceptorship of newly qualified nurses become apparent and important in dealing with the transition from supervised student to autonomous practitioner. The approach taken throughout the rest of this essay will be to provide a discussion of the main theories, concepts, and issues related to the roles and responsibilities of delegation and PGD for newly qualified nurses. It will discuss the meaning of these concepts and their importance for nurses, and provide some practical contextual examples. The rational of choosing these two roles are because: Firstly delegation is a huge newly qualified nurses concern. According Hole. J, (2005) newly qualified nurses are not capable to delegate tasks to someone else and they end up overloading themselves. This is because an accountability issue or not knowing the staffs well as they is new to the ward. Secondly, it is a legal requirement that newly qualified nurses need to have knowledge of PGDs in order to work within legal and ethical frameworks that underpin safe and effective medicines management NMC (2010). For this reason, I personally was interested and picked them to discuss in order to develop my understanding and prepare me to successfully make the transition from student nurse to a registered professional. Delegation is the process by which responsibility and authority for performing a task is transferred to another individual who accepts that authority and responsibility. Although the delegator remains accountable for the task, the delegate is also accountable to the delegator for the responsibilities assumed. Delegation can help others to develop or enhance their skills, promotes teamwork and improves productivity Sollivan.E.J et al (2009). Therefore, delegation is the area where newly qualified staff experience huge difficulties. Often they do not feel confident enough to ask someone else to do something for them. Consequently, they try to do all of the work themselves and end up leaving late or providing less than adequate standards of care. Other members of staff will not mind if they delegate tasks to them, as long as they apply the basic rules such as ensuring that it is something they are competent to do. When delegating, the delegator remain responsible for that care if he/she do not delegate appropriately as stated by NMC (2008). It is also important that the delegator explained clearly what it is he/she want them to do and why because he/she might genuinely busy or is it just something that he/she does not want to do. Hole.J, (2005) explained that As long as he/she asks the other member of staff in a courteous manner and stick to the rules, there will be few problems. However, there may always be someone who has the potential to react in a negative way to his/her request. These people are often known for this type of behaviour and it should be dealt with swiftly by their manager. This type of reaction experience should be discussed with the member of staff or if he/she not feels confident enough to do this, he/she should talk to the manager. As mention above this will be a difficult skill for a newly qualified nurse especially at first. They will need to get to know the other staff before they will feel truly comfortable delegating to others in the team. They may feel guilty about asking others to do tasks which they feel that they should be doing themselves. What they need to realise is that they cannot possibly do everything themselves and that they will need to work as a team in order to deliver good patient care. The new qualified nurses may well feel that they cannot ask others especially HCAs who have worked on the ward for years to do things for them. The nurse will probably feel self-conscious and embarrassed. The answer is that it is not what the nurse asks them to do that are important. It is how he/she asks them. Good communication is the key to successful delegation. The nurse should take a few minutes to discuss with the HCA/student with whom he/she is working who will be doing what during that shift. Share the workload and be realistic. Therefore the newly qualified nurses must not overload themselves with care they do not really think they can give. The member of staff would rather know what their workload is at the beginning of the shift so that they can organise their time effectively. If the delegator has to ask them to take on extra work during the shift, they will find this difficult. So the delegator should keep communicating with them during the shift, and if he/she is held up with relatives or an acutely ill patient, he/she should tell them and explain that he/she will try to help them as soon as possible. When the new qualified nurses are delegating, it is important to ensure that this is appropriate as it is their responsibility to ensure that the member of staff to whom they delegate is competent to perform the task. This means that if they delegate a task to a member of staff who is not competent and they perform the task wrongly, they are accountable for the harm caused to the patient. Although the member of staff responsible, they remain accountable. For example, they cannot assume that the HCA/student with whom they are working is competent in the skill of measuring and recording a patients blood pressure. Just because the member of staff has worked on that ward for a period of time, this does not mean that they have been taught correctly. They must assess their competence to perform the task before they allow them to do this independently. They can then justify their delegation of that skill if necessary. Patient Group Direction (PGD) is a written instruction for the supply and/or administration of a licensed medicine (medicines) in an identified clinical situation signed by a doctor or a dentist and pharmacist. It applies to a group of patients who may not be individually identified before presenting for treatment NPC (2009), page 11. In simple terms, a PGD is the supply and/or administration of a specified medicine or medicines by named authorised health professionals for a group of patients requiring treatment for the condition described in the PGD. The health professional must be registered. Implementing PGDs may be appropriate both in circumstances where groups of patients may not have been previously identified for example, minor injuries and first contact services and in services where assessment and treatment follows a clearly predictable pattern such as immunisation, family planning and so on. Professionals using a PGD must be registered or equivalent members of their profession and act within their appropriate code of professional conduct. This differs from supplementary prescribers and independent prescribers who must also successfully complete specific prescribing training and be appropriately registered before they may prescribe. However, organisations using PGDs must designate an appropriate person within the organisation. For example, a clinical supervisor, line manager or General Practitioner to ensure that only fully competent, qualified and trained healthcare professionals use PGDs. Individual practitioners using a PGD must be named A Patient Group Direction allows specified registered healthcare professionals to supply or administer a medicine directly to a patient with an identified clinical condition without him/her necessarily seeing a prescriber. So, patients may present directly to health care professionals using PGDs in their services without seeing a doctor. Alternatively, the patient may have been referred by a doctor to another service. Whichever way the patient presents, the healthcare professional working within the PGD is responsible for assessing that the patient fits the criteria set out in the PGD. In general, a PGD is not meant to be a long-term means of managing a patients clinical condition. This is best achieved by a health care professional prescribing for an individual patient on a one-to-one basis. Before a healthcare professional can use a PGD, he/she must be named and have signed the PGD documentation. This generally takes the form of signatures and names on a list or individual forms that are attached to the PGD itself or held by the service or organisation. Employees of NHS organisations authorising a PGD generally have indemnity attached to their status as an employee. This may also apply to non-NHS organisations. However, the organisations and employees involved should always check that this is the case. If the professional is not directly employed by the organisation, he/she still needs to be assessed as competent to use the PGD and must have his/her own relevant professional indemnity or insurance. These issues have implications for service delivery when new staff begins, or agency staff are covering services. They may not be able to work under a PGD immediately or may be excluded because of their employment status. Service managers need to be aware of these issues and plan service delivery to accommodate them. The use of PGDs is widespread throughout the NHS and since April 2003, some non-NHS organisations have been able to use them suggested by NPC (2009). Organisations must ensure that staff responsible for the development / implementation of PGDs and those authorised to work under PGDs have the experience, knowledge and skills necessary to do so. Unlike supplementary prescribers, nurse independent prescribers and healthcare professionals using PGDs do not have to become specifically qualified to do so. But they must be assessed by their organisations as fully competent, qualified and trained to operate within a PGD. A suitably competent and experienced healthcare professional who will be working under the PGD should be involved in the writing of the PGD, to ensure that the PGD meets the needs of the service. The role by RCN (2004) proposes that the registered nurse must be assessed as competent in medicines administration, Must be trained to operate within a PGDMust follow the 6 Rs of medicines administration Usually need to be qualified for at least 6 months Must assess the patient to ensure they fit the criteria as detailed in the PGD Must ensure the PGD meets the necessary legal requirements Cannot delegate the supplying/dispensing or administration stage to another registered nurse or student nurse. There is no specific national training for healthcare professionals producing PGDs The newly qualified nurses are not expected to be able to operate under a PGD until competent in medicines administration. However, they need to have knowledge of PGDs for their patient safety. For example, if patient under PGD admitted to the ward, the nurse must ensure that the medicines not stopped. The NMC (2010) code of conduct outline that newly qualified nurses to be fully understood all methods of supplying medicines. This includes Medicines Act exemptions, patient group directions (PGDs), clinical management plans and other forms of prescribing. They are expected to demonstrate knowledge and application of the principles required for safe and effective supply and administration via a patient group direction including an understanding of role and accountability. And also demonstrate how to supply and administer via a patient group direction. The newly qualified nurses may be involved with PGDs such as assisting and identifying areas where a PGD would offer more benefits than a PSD, understand the principles and processes of PGDs and be fully conversant with all the principles associated with dispensing and administering medicines they may also be working in a variety of settings where PGDs are used for example prison health care setting, nurse led service, walk in centres In my conclusion, I have learnt the roles and responsibilities of newly qualified nurses and I have developed skills and professional knowledge to work effectively with others. The NMC (2010) code of conduct helped me how the laws and policies are set up to ensure safe and effective delivery of care given to service users under a patient group direction. I am now prepared for the challenges I will face on being a newly qualified nurse by providing the knowledge and skills required to become effective and accountable practitioners. Clinical decisions will still have to be made in relation to meeting the needs of the people within my care. However, becoming a qualified nurse brings with its wider responsibilities in making and taking decisions related to the nursing team, other staff, and the work environment as a whole. These changes require a large shift from the experience of being a student and a mentored supervised learner, so it is essential that I am equipped with all the skills required to successfully make the transition.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Capital Punishment :: essays research papers

Capital Punishment: Against More money is spent executing humans than keeping them in a penitentiary for life. Compared to capital punishment, life in prison is far worse. Mistakes may be made and no one can bring another human back to life. Juries are often white and this may lead to racial decisions. Of the 144 executions since the 1976 reinstatement of the death penalty in the U.S., not one white person has been executed for killing a black. Of the 16,000 executions in U.S. history, only 30 cases involved a white sentenced for killing a black. Therefore, no one, including the government, should have the power to tell another human that they must be put to death, no matter what they commit. Today's government and justice system is not as efficient as it should be. If a mistake is made in an execution sentence and an innocent person dies, no one can bring their life back. Now, if the death penalty did not exist, the person would still have their life. Juries also have to think about the families, both of the victim and the suspect. What if the suspect did not commit the murder and was executed? How would the suspect's family feel? A close relative had just died due to the fact that another mistake was made in our justice system. This in fact would send a rush of anger through my body. The justice system killed somebody's family member. The death penalty should not even exist, due to the fact that many mistakes can be made, and a life can never be brought back. Juries have been and still are mostly consisted of the white majority. Racism and money is a big part of our everyday lives. With the majority of people in the jury consisted of whites, racism might in fact be involved. Now, if a black family is poor and does not have much money, the suspect may then be issued a racist attorney. Many cases have been recorded of this happening, both of innocent and guilty men. Innocent men again were put to death, this time due to their skin color. This is just another reason leading to how poor our justice system is, and why it should not be in effect. There are few oppositions to not having the death penalty in effect. The main concern with not having the death penalty in effect is that people would not care as much when they committed a crime. Now, if the death penalty was in effect, people would think twice about their mistake before committing it.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Dr. Seuss “The Cat in the Hat”, Order vs. Chaos

Order and Chaos If you wanted to understand order vs. chaos better, one might look into the world renowned books of Dr. Seuss. His literature is not only clever and fun to read, but it also holds a lot of messages if you look deep enough. Reading one of his famous books, The Cat in the Hat, you can depict the Order vs. Chaos by looking at the Cat (Chaos) and the Goldfish (Order). The Cat at one point balances a teacup, some milk, a cake, three books, the Fish, a rake, a toy boat, and even his umbrella while he’s on top of a ball just to upset the Goldfish. The cat can be referred to as overwhelming Chaos who is despised by Order. The fish, though, is too paranoid and uptight while not paying attention to the fun in life. The fish is referred to as overwhelming Order. Now what’s the balance? Well, the kids are the balance. While overwhelming Chaos is trying to entertain them and persuade them to take part in his activities and overwhelming Order is trying to straighten them up as strict as possible, the kids do neither.The kids listen to both ideas, though, but do not take part in either. I feel Dr. Seuss showed his true creativity by symbolizing how too much Chaos or too much Order can become overwhelming and dominate someone’s life in a bad way and showing that a balance between both can be a healthy way to live. Works Cited The Cat in the Hat. Dir. Bo Welch, 8 November 2003. Perf. Michael Myers, Dakota Fanning, Spencer Breslin, and Alec Baldwin. DVD.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

A Film Analysis of Inception

A Film Analysis of Inception If â€Å"true inspiration is impossible to fake,† explains a character in Christopher Nolan’s existentialist heist film Inception and If that’s the case, then Inception is one of the realest films ever made. In July of 2012 Nolan crafted a movie that’s beyond brilliant and layered both narratively and thematically. It requires the audience to take in a collection of rules, exceptions, locations, jobs, and abilities in order to understand the text, let alone the fascinating of the subtext.Nolan’s magnum opus is his first major blockbuster in over a decade that demanded an intense viewer concentration. It raised thoughtful and complex ideas, wrapping everything in a breathlessly exciting action film. Inception may be complicated, but simply put it’s one of the best movies of 2010. Inception requires so much exposition that a lesser director would have forced theaters to distribute pamphlets to audience members in or der to explain the complicated world he’s developed.The movie centers on a team of individuals led by an â€Å"extractor† named Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is a thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious mind of his target. When he is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible. He constructs a dream of a high value target and used this dreams to implant an idea so the target will make a decision beneficial to the individual who hired Dom Cobb. To give a full description of this movie would almost take as long as watching the movie it self but that is why I choose to do a review on Inception.This creation of Director Nolan and Wally Pfister is both gripping and complex in the way that they apply the uses of lighting and angles, CGI, music, and mise en scene to create a master piece that has yet to be imitated or duplicated. To know the movie, one needs to know who wrote it, produced it, and directed it. He was born in London, England in 1970, where Christopher Nolan began making films at the young age of seven using his father's super 8mm camera and an assortment of malefaction figures. He graduated to making films involving real people and his super 8mm surreal short film Tarantella was shown on PBS Image Union in 1989.Chris studied English Literature at University College London while starting to make 16mm films at the College Film Society. His short film Larceny was shown at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996, and his other 16mm shorts include a three- minute surreal film called The Doodlebug. Major films that he has directed are The Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and he is currently producing the Man of Steel, a remake of Superman, set to be released in 2013.Most of his movies are based in action and adventure but still have a little bit of science fiction, which gives the film a surreal feeling to them. Nolan usually begins his movies with a personal touch by introducing the main character/s with a Close-up shot of their hands. He is also known for making use of flashbacks or scenes from the end of the movie as an opening. Most of the movies that he directs are usually about characters who have some kind of psychological disorders or who develop a physical or psychological handicap throughout the film.In the case of Inception, the main character Dom Cobb wakes up on the shore with his hands trying to reach or point out to his children who were playing with the sand. This scene reappears again in the end and plays an important role to explain the essence of the movie. The psychological handicap that is portrayed within the main character, can also be considered the main protagonist in this movie but that is not revealed until the closing scene of the movie. The Cinematographer Walter C. Wally† Pfister is known for his work with Christopher Nolan’s films, includin g Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. He has worked on the Italian Job and Moneyball. Pfister is known for using the hard cuts and cross cutting method, to build up the suspense in the audience. Along with this editing style he places ending scenes at the start of sequences to make the viewers ask what is going on. This is common in a great deal of suspenseful and mystery films, as is the cross cutting method which is seen every day on daytime television.This kind of cinematography gets you into the storyline and has you sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the resolve, while at the same time being other part of the world. Without this method of editing you would see one story after another and I really think that boredom would set in and your mind would not be challenged with what could be and we would be left wanting more. The way he builds the suspense and holds back on some of the facts in this film, place it snuggl y as a mystery film but with all the car chases, explosions, and gun fights it gets a stronger action film label but is not lacking on the depth in the story.Add in the CGI that Pfister uses to create the dreams and challenge reality, and you have a movie that cannot be place into any one genre. The use of CGI and camera angles in this movie was just breathtaking. To watch the city being folded without disrupting the gravity was a wonderful undertaking and If you are an avid film watcher then you could easily compare that scene with the scene from Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire, (Donen, 1951) where he is dancing on the ceiling and walls.It’s a classic use of time honored techniques, where the shaking of the camera gives you the illusion that the dream world is crumbling when the architect is removed. This technique was also used in Star Trek to make the viewer think the ship was really under attack and the hits they were taking were hard and devastating. These simple effects that were used in this dream world, gives one the illusion that in this dream world the architect can play god. The time structure was also altered to stress the altered and lengthened time lines in each dream, capitalizing on the elapsed time that is gain when traveling from dream into a dream.This time ration was actually matched within each film sequence and speed, as all the dreams where not moving at the same speed, which is explained in the movie. So Pfister uses this multiplication of time to slow down reality and allowed the characters in a layered dream sequences to more time to accomplish their mission. This technique was also done with the sound as well, as the composer Hans Zimmer used the same song though out the movie but in each level of the dream, the music was slowed down. Nolan, 2010) This kind of scene matching is something Hans Zimmer is known for with his work in music. Zimmer also worked on Lion King as well. Using the same elements from the scenes and incorpo rating them into the sound. One of the other elements to his composing that is not seen in many other composers is that he tries not to match what will happen to the score. Meaning that he would lead the audience with the music, as a horror/suspense film would. A classic example would be Jaws and the known and anticipated â€Å" ba†¦ da†¦ ba†¦da†¦ba da ba da aaaa!! † He wants you to be truly surprised at how the scene plays out. So Zimmer plays a score that would enhance the scene but not give away the ending before it happens. In this way, the score and sound effects maintain the same non-linear form as the story line does. When dealing with dreams you cannot maintain a linear story line. This film had to utilize a non-linear storyline, keeping the audience wondering what is going to happen next. It creates in your own mind, more questions to add to the one you began with.This constant â€Å"make you think† aspect of the film allows the audience to use their own imagination to fill in any blanks they might have, in collaboration with the psychological puzzle that is placed before you, you cannot help but be mesmerized by some of the breath taking visuals and non linear scenes. The main characters protagonist changes as your understanding of the film evolves. This adds a sense of confusion and leave room for debate, as you discuss this film with others. As the story unfolds you learn more and more about the psychological stress this man must be under.The understanding of his psychological distress will later add to a greater understanding of what is and has transpired. This stress was something Leonardo DeCaprio adapted to very well, as did all of the actors in playing their parts rather well, considering some of them have a stigma about their abilities that has left them in comedies and dramas, being unable to broaden their horizons as an actor. The supporting actors in this movie provided more than simple time filling lines. They add as much to the story and plot as the main character, if not more at times.The director, Christopher Nolan, is known for choosing talent that may not fall into the part but makes them have to work to enhance it. He chose actors that would fill the part, but they did so with a progression of their own style. For example one of the co-stars, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is best known for his role on Third Rock from the Sun. (Turner, 1996) He is not known for playing an action star but within this film he is just that, an action, shooting the â€Å"bad guys,† saving the day, and even fighting in yet another â€Å"Fred Astaire† sequence with the rotating hallway.The combinations that Nolan uses in this movie is a masterpiece in itself without the characters but it is the characters that define this movie. The main character of this movie is Dom Cobb. His character is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Cobb is the Extractor in the dream field. He enters into other people’ s dreams, plants an idea in the targets’ mind and then steals their secrets. Due to his previous experience in the dream field, he is hired to steal secrets from Saito; a business man that turns the tables on Cobb. Cobb finds out they want him to do â€Å"inception,† which is the planting of an idea in the target’s mind.Cobb takes the job offer so hopefully one day he can go back to his family. DiCaprio heads out to find similar experienced people to form a team together. Once he finds the people he needs, they start coming up with ideas to plant in the targets’ mind. His team helpers include: Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Ellen Page as Ariadne, Tom Hardy as Eames, and Dileep Rao as Yusuf. As they start planting their ideas, Cobb’s dead wife Mallorie â€Å"Mal† Cob, played by Marion Cotillard, keeps interfering in the dreams. With her interfering, it is hard for Cobb to keep focus on what he is trying to do for his job.All the characters p lay an extremely different roll from one another in the movie. They all have individual, special talents and different jobs to contribute to the planting of ideas. Page, who plays Ariadne, is the Architect. She is a graduate student who Cobb recruits to build the dream- scapes, which they call mazes. Her job is extremely important because she has to make sure every maze is precise. If not, everything could go wrong in the process of planting the idea in the targets’ mind. Levitt plays Arthur as Cobb’s Point Man.His job is to be responsible for researching their targets. Rao is Yusuf, the Chemist. They need him to make the drugs needed to sustain the dream states. Without him, the rest of the team and their targets, could not go into the dream state. The last character to talk about is Hardy. He plays Eames, the Forger, Cobb’s associate. Hardy uses his ability to manipulate dreams. The connections that the characters have with each other are typical for a superio r action movie, but Cobb and Mal’s relationship is why Inception stands apart from other action movieThe impact that Inceptions had on society was not as dramatic or frightening as some movies are, but it does show a darker side of the immense greed in this world and can make you wonder about the lengths that some people might go to, to obtain wealth or power, the boundaries the government will push to make them better then the enemy, or even the lengths one man might go for his family. These features of this film make it a very cerebral film. These make you think about how far you are willing to go to get what you want.How much are you willing to put others lives in danger to acquire what you think it is you need? Do the ends justify the means when you are dealing with human lives? While others that have watched this film argue that the film itself is a metaphor for film-making and that the filmgoing experience itself, images flashing before one's eyes in a darkened room, is akin to a dream. Jonah Lehrer also wrote in Wired that he supported this interpretation and presented neurological evidence that brain activity is strikingly similar during film-watching and sleeping.In both, the visual cortex is highly active and the prefrontal cortex, which deals with logic, deliberate analysis, and self-awareness, is quiet. (Lehrer, 2010) Whereas Paul argued that the experience of going to a theater is itself an exercise in shared dreaming, particularly when viewing Inception: the film's sharp cutting between scenes forces the viewer to create larger narrative arcs to stitch the pieces together. This demand of production parallel to consumption of the images, on the part of the audience is analogous to dreaming itself.As in the film's story, in a cinema one enters into the space of another's dream, in this case Nolan's, as with any work of art, one's reading of it is ultimately influenced by one's own subjective desires and subconscious. (Paul, 2010) I personall y liked this film and was happy when I decided to review it. My take on this film was that the whole thing was but a dream within a dream, where the main character â€Å"Cobb† (played by Leonardo DeCaprio) (Nolan, 2010) is able to manipulate everyone in his entourage, except his wife.He knew that Ariaden (played by Ellen Page) would return the next day even though you are led to believe that his wife killed herself, because she felt she was still in the dream. I feel she was still in a dream and was able to escape, while he is still trapped inside a dream thinking it is reality. Which he lost his grip on when she â€Å"killed herself† but his subconscious is using her to help him but at the same time, his logic and emotion is preventing him from seeing the truth and in the end he is blinded by it. It really is a lot to wrap your brain around when you just want to watch a ovie for entertainment value but it does have something for everyone, even if it is a little drawn out between climaxes but the overall premise behind the idea of Inception was wonderful and the fact that it made you think about the movie was quite refreshing. References Allers, R. &Hahn, D. (1994). The Lion King. United States: Walt Disney. Breznican, A. (2010). â€Å"With Inception, Chris Nolan’s head games continue. † USA Today. Retrieved August 28, 2012. Donen, S. &Freed, A. (1951). Royal Wedding. United States: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Goodykoontz, B & Jacobs, C. (2011).Film: From Watching to Seeing. Retrieved from http://content. ashford. edu Lehrer, J. (2010). The Neuroscience of Inception. Wired, July 26, 2010. Retrieved August 28, 2012. Nolan, C. & Thomas, E. (2010). Inception. United States: Legendary Pictures. Paul, I. (2010). Desiring-Machines in American Cinema: What Inception tells us about our experience of reality and film. Senses of Cinema, Issue 56. Retrieved August 28, 2012. Spielberg, S. &Zanuck, R. (1975). Jaws. United States: Universal Pictures. Tu rner, B. & Turner, T. (1996). 3rd Rock from the Sun. United States: Carsey Werner Company. A Film Analysis of Inception A Film Analysis of Inception If â€Å"true inspiration is impossible to fake,† explains a character in Christopher Nolan’s existentialist heist film Inception and If that’s the case, then Inception is one of the realest films ever made. In July of 2012 Nolan crafted a movie that’s beyond brilliant and layered both narratively and thematically. It requires the audience to take in a collection of rules, exceptions, locations, jobs, and abilities in order to understand the text, let alone the fascinating of the subtext.Nolan’s magnum opus is his first major blockbuster in over a decade that demanded an intense viewer concentration. It raised thoughtful and complex ideas, wrapping everything in a breathlessly exciting action film. Inception may be complicated, but simply put it’s one of the best movies of 2010. Inception requires so much exposition that a lesser director would have forced theaters to distribute pamphlets to audience members in or der to explain the complicated world he’s developed.The movie centers on a team of individuals led by an â€Å"extractor† named Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is a thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious mind of his target. When he is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible. He constructs a dream of a high value target and used this dreams to implant an idea so the target will make a decision beneficial to the individual who hired Dom Cobb. To give a full description of this movie would almost take as long as watching the movie it self but that is why I choose to do a review on Inception.This creation of Director Nolan and Wally Pfister is both gripping and complex in the way that they apply the uses of lighting and angles, CGI, music, and mise en scene to create a master piece that has yet to be imitated or duplicated. To know the movie, one needs to know who wrote it, produced it, and directed it. He was born in London, England in 1970, where Christopher Nolan began making films at the young age of seven using his father's super 8mm camera and an assortment of malefaction figures. He graduated to making films involving real people and his super 8mm surreal short film Tarantella was shown on PBS Image Union in 1989.Chris studied English Literature at University College London while starting to make 16mm films at the College Film Society. His short film Larceny was shown at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996, and his other 16mm shorts include a three- minute surreal film called The Doodlebug. Major films that he has directed are The Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and he is currently producing the Man of Steel, a remake of Superman, set to be released in 2013.Most of his movies are based in action and adventure but still have a little bit of science fiction, which gives the film a surreal feeling to them. Nolan usually begins his movies with a personal touch by introducing the main character/s with a Close-up shot of their hands. He is also known for making use of flashbacks or scenes from the end of the movie as an opening. Most of the movies that he directs are usually about characters who have some kind of psychological disorders or who develop a physical or psychological handicap throughout the film.In the case of Inception, the main character Dom Cobb wakes up on the shore with his hands trying to reach or point out to his children who were playing with the sand. This scene reappears again in the end and plays an important role to explain the essence of the movie. The psychological handicap that is portrayed within the main character, can also be considered the main protagonist in this movie but that is not revealed until the closing scene of the movie. The Cinematographer Walter C. Wally† Pfister is known for his work with Christopher Nolan’s films, includin g Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. He has worked on the Italian Job and Moneyball. Pfister is known for using the hard cuts and cross cutting method, to build up the suspense in the audience. Along with this editing style he places ending scenes at the start of sequences to make the viewers ask what is going on. This is common in a great deal of suspenseful and mystery films, as is the cross cutting method which is seen every day on daytime television.This kind of cinematography gets you into the storyline and has you sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the resolve, while at the same time being other part of the world. Without this method of editing you would see one story after another and I really think that boredom would set in and your mind would not be challenged with what could be and we would be left wanting more. The way he builds the suspense and holds back on some of the facts in this film, place it snuggl y as a mystery film but with all the car chases, explosions, and gun fights it gets a stronger action film label but is not lacking on the depth in the story.Add in the CGI that Pfister uses to create the dreams and challenge reality, and you have a movie that cannot be place into any one genre. The use of CGI and camera angles in this movie was just breathtaking. To watch the city being folded without disrupting the gravity was a wonderful undertaking and If you are an avid film watcher then you could easily compare that scene with the scene from Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire, (Donen, 1951) where he is dancing on the ceiling and walls.It’s a classic use of time honored techniques, where the shaking of the camera gives you the illusion that the dream world is crumbling when the architect is removed. This technique was also used in Star Trek to make the viewer think the ship was really under attack and the hits they were taking were hard and devastating. These simple effects that were used in this dream world, gives one the illusion that in this dream world the architect can play god. The time structure was also altered to stress the altered and lengthened time lines in each dream, capitalizing on the elapsed time that is gain when traveling from dream into a dream.This time ration was actually matched within each film sequence and speed, as all the dreams where not moving at the same speed, which is explained in the movie. So Pfister uses this multiplication of time to slow down reality and allowed the characters in a layered dream sequences to more time to accomplish their mission. This technique was also done with the sound as well, as the composer Hans Zimmer used the same song though out the movie but in each level of the dream, the music was slowed down. Nolan, 2010) This kind of scene matching is something Hans Zimmer is known for with his work in music. Zimmer also worked on Lion King as well. Using the same elements from the scenes and incorpo rating them into the sound. One of the other elements to his composing that is not seen in many other composers is that he tries not to match what will happen to the score. Meaning that he would lead the audience with the music, as a horror/suspense film would. A classic example would be Jaws and the known and anticipated â€Å" ba†¦ da†¦ ba†¦da†¦ba da ba da aaaa!! † He wants you to be truly surprised at how the scene plays out. So Zimmer plays a score that would enhance the scene but not give away the ending before it happens. In this way, the score and sound effects maintain the same non-linear form as the story line does. When dealing with dreams you cannot maintain a linear story line. This film had to utilize a non-linear storyline, keeping the audience wondering what is going to happen next. It creates in your own mind, more questions to add to the one you began with.This constant â€Å"make you think† aspect of the film allows the audience to use their own imagination to fill in any blanks they might have, in collaboration with the psychological puzzle that is placed before you, you cannot help but be mesmerized by some of the breath taking visuals and non linear scenes. The main characters protagonist changes as your understanding of the film evolves. This adds a sense of confusion and leave room for debate, as you discuss this film with others. As the story unfolds you learn more and more about the psychological stress this man must be under.The understanding of his psychological distress will later add to a greater understanding of what is and has transpired. This stress was something Leonardo DeCaprio adapted to very well, as did all of the actors in playing their parts rather well, considering some of them have a stigma about their abilities that has left them in comedies and dramas, being unable to broaden their horizons as an actor. The supporting actors in this movie provided more than simple time filling lines. They add as much to the story and plot as the main character, if not more at times.The director, Christopher Nolan, is known for choosing talent that may not fall into the part but makes them have to work to enhance it. He chose actors that would fill the part, but they did so with a progression of their own style. For example one of the co-stars, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is best known for his role on Third Rock from the Sun. (Turner, 1996) He is not known for playing an action star but within this film he is just that, an action, shooting the â€Å"bad guys,† saving the day, and even fighting in yet another â€Å"Fred Astaire† sequence with the rotating hallway.The combinations that Nolan uses in this movie is a masterpiece in itself without the characters but it is the characters that define this movie. The main character of this movie is Dom Cobb. His character is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Cobb is the Extractor in the dream field. He enters into other people’ s dreams, plants an idea in the targets’ mind and then steals their secrets. Due to his previous experience in the dream field, he is hired to steal secrets from Saito; a business man that turns the tables on Cobb. Cobb finds out they want him to do â€Å"inception,† which is the planting of an idea in the target’s mind.Cobb takes the job offer so hopefully one day he can go back to his family. DiCaprio heads out to find similar experienced people to form a team together. Once he finds the people he needs, they start coming up with ideas to plant in the targets’ mind. His team helpers include: Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, Ellen Page as Ariadne, Tom Hardy as Eames, and Dileep Rao as Yusuf. As they start planting their ideas, Cobb’s dead wife Mallorie â€Å"Mal† Cob, played by Marion Cotillard, keeps interfering in the dreams. With her interfering, it is hard for Cobb to keep focus on what he is trying to do for his job.All the characters p lay an extremely different roll from one another in the movie. They all have individual, special talents and different jobs to contribute to the planting of ideas. Page, who plays Ariadne, is the Architect. She is a graduate student who Cobb recruits to build the dream- scapes, which they call mazes. Her job is extremely important because she has to make sure every maze is precise. If not, everything could go wrong in the process of planting the idea in the targets’ mind. Levitt plays Arthur as Cobb’s Point Man.His job is to be responsible for researching their targets. Rao is Yusuf, the Chemist. They need him to make the drugs needed to sustain the dream states. Without him, the rest of the team and their targets, could not go into the dream state. The last character to talk about is Hardy. He plays Eames, the Forger, Cobb’s associate. Hardy uses his ability to manipulate dreams. The connections that the characters have with each other are typical for a superio r action movie, but Cobb and Mal’s relationship is why Inception stands apart from other action movieThe impact that Inceptions had on society was not as dramatic or frightening as some movies are, but it does show a darker side of the immense greed in this world and can make you wonder about the lengths that some people might go to, to obtain wealth or power, the boundaries the government will push to make them better then the enemy, or even the lengths one man might go for his family. These features of this film make it a very cerebral film. These make you think about how far you are willing to go to get what you want.How much are you willing to put others lives in danger to acquire what you think it is you need? Do the ends justify the means when you are dealing with human lives? While others that have watched this film argue that the film itself is a metaphor for film-making and that the filmgoing experience itself, images flashing before one's eyes in a darkened room, is akin to a dream. Jonah Lehrer also wrote in Wired that he supported this interpretation and presented neurological evidence that brain activity is strikingly similar during film-watching and sleeping.In both, the visual cortex is highly active and the prefrontal cortex, which deals with logic, deliberate analysis, and self-awareness, is quiet. (Lehrer, 2010) Whereas Paul argued that the experience of going to a theater is itself an exercise in shared dreaming, particularly when viewing Inception: the film's sharp cutting between scenes forces the viewer to create larger narrative arcs to stitch the pieces together. This demand of production parallel to consumption of the images, on the part of the audience is analogous to dreaming itself.As in the film's story, in a cinema one enters into the space of another's dream, in this case Nolan's, as with any work of art, one's reading of it is ultimately influenced by one's own subjective desires and subconscious. (Paul, 2010) I personall y liked this film and was happy when I decided to review it. My take on this film was that the whole thing was but a dream within a dream, where the main character â€Å"Cobb† (played by Leonardo DeCaprio) (Nolan, 2010) is able to manipulate everyone in his entourage, except his wife.He knew that Ariaden (played by Ellen Page) would return the next day even though you are led to believe that his wife killed herself, because she felt she was still in the dream. I feel she was still in a dream and was able to escape, while he is still trapped inside a dream thinking it is reality. Which he lost his grip on when she â€Å"killed herself† but his subconscious is using her to help him but at the same time, his logic and emotion is preventing him from seeing the truth and in the end he is blinded by it. It really is a lot to wrap your brain around when you just want to watch a ovie for entertainment value but it does have something for everyone, even if it is a little drawn out between climaxes but the overall premise behind the idea of Inception was wonderful and the fact that it made you think about the movie was quite refreshing. References Allers, R. &Hahn, D. (1994). The Lion King. United States: Walt Disney. Breznican, A. (2010). â€Å"With Inception, Chris Nolan’s head games continue. † USA Today. Retrieved August 28, 2012. Donen, S. &Freed, A. (1951). Royal Wedding. United States: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Goodykoontz, B & Jacobs, C. (2011).Film: From Watching to Seeing. Retrieved from http://content. ashford. edu Lehrer, J. (2010). The Neuroscience of Inception. Wired, July 26, 2010. Retrieved August 28, 2012. Nolan, C. & Thomas, E. (2010). Inception. United States: Legendary Pictures. Paul, I. (2010). Desiring-Machines in American Cinema: What Inception tells us about our experience of reality and film. Senses of Cinema, Issue 56. Retrieved August 28, 2012. Spielberg, S. &Zanuck, R. (1975). Jaws. United States: Universal Pictures. Tu rner, B. & Turner, T. (1996). 3rd Rock from the Sun. United States: Carsey Werner Company.