Long Takes - Unbroken, Unedited, Uninterrupted

In a movie, shots which are of greater duration than the average shots are called lengthy shots or long takes. In order to understand what a long take is, first we have to know the difference between a long take and a long shot. A long shot is the apparent distance between the camera and the object. It is a distanced framing. A long shot can also be known as a wide shot. On the other hand, a long take is an uninterrupted shot in a movie which lasts longer than the average shots. It is the boldest way of making a statement and also a very daring step that a filmmaker can take.

Long takes are actually dependent completely on the camera movements. A long take is a magic of how the camera works, it includes all the basic camera movements such as panning, tilting, zooming, tracking and craning. It is very important to show camera movement in long takes because this keeps the audience focused and attentive throughout the scene. A long take with no camera movement will make the audience jaded and it will make the scene worn out.

The earlier films didn’t have any editing techniques therefore the filmmakers had to use long takes in their films. Later, editing was introduced in films by D.W. Griffith and the use of long takes was limited to a comparatively less number of films. In Mexico, this technique of long takes is very popular among established filmmakers and is known as plano sequencia.

A long take can include a single shot in a scene, an entire scene or it can also be an entire movie. This can be seen in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope”, which he shot in a series of long shots of 8 to 10 minutes which were put together by flawless cutting and were made to look like a single shot. The film worked out well and it was not a difficulty to shoot it because it was shot in only one room with little camera movement. It was an 80 minutes film with little lighting changes. It had seven cuts which were hidden very efficiently. The camera movements were planned and this film was known to be Hitchcock’s most experimental work ever.

A long take with camera movements is very difficult to achieve because when the camera moves the focus and lighting changes. Everything in a long shot is planned – the actor’s movements, dialogues are well rehearsed, props and background is well managed. If a small mistake takes place, the entire scene has to be shot again and this takes a lot of money, patience and also courage. It is a very challenging and time consuming process. The reason why filmmakers take this risk of filming their films in long takes is to take advantage of realtime.

Human Genetic Engineering

Human genetic engineering raises several ethical and legal questions. This field is growing and changing at a tremendous pace. These changes are accompanied with a number of benefits and risks which must be weighed in the light of moral, spiritual, legal and ethical perspectives. The potential power of human genetic engineering comes with great responsibility. Scientists all over the world are assertively researching the many different aspects of human genetic engineering. These enduring breakthroughs have allowed science to understand DNA and its role in all fields of science more effectively and deeply. A Princeton biologist, Lee Silver acknowledges that the costs of these genetic engineering technologies will limit their full use to only a small elite class which will later on be known as GenRich, and the normal people will be called the Naturals.

Human genetic engineering might play a role in changing the shape of family structure by complicating the role of parenting within a family of complex kinship relations. For instance, a female DNA donor would be the clone’s genetic twin, rather than mother, complicating the genetic and social relationships between mother and child as well as the relationships between other family members and the clone. Human genetic engineering has presented a tool to end the suffering associated with genetic diseases and because of this technology, everyone will have the reproductive rights to choose the characteristics of their child.

The principal benefit of the human genetic engineering technology is gene therapy, the medical treatment of a disease by replacing or repairing defective genes. On the other hand, humans will have difficulty in accepting the genetically engineered creatures amongst themselves. This will also change their lifestyles to a great extent. Also while treating one defect, it may cause another. The potential power of human genetic engineering comes with great responsibility.  Ironically, man will just become another man made thing.

News Channels and over dramatization

News channels mostly take extra efforts to over dramatize whatever the news or current scenario is. It portrays so much of negativity that people living abroad get a very bad impression of Pakistan. All you can see on the news channels is how many people have been killed, how expensive gas, petrol or sugar has become, if schools and businesses are going to be open the next day or not. If not such stories, the content would be revolving around trivial human stories like a celebrity getting married or a celebrity who has done a nude photoshoot. And these stories will be dragged so much that the viewer gets fed up of hearing the same thing again and again, which does not even interests him.

Breaking news are the most irritating specially when they make no sense at all and also the tickers that keeping running with statements like ‘Shoaib aur Sania ki shaddi, ab honeymoon kahan hoga’ are so annoying that you just want to switch off the tv. Does anybody really care where a certain celebrity is going for his honeymoon? Do any of us actually have the time to think about someone’s life whom we don’t even know personally? Another breaking news that I came across was ‘Bili ne kese maara shair ko, dikhiye 9 baje ki bulletin mien’. Seriously, the content of news channels should be sensible.

Besides the content, another issue that news channels have is authenticity. If there’s a bomb blast and many people have lost their lives, one news channel will be reporting the death rate to be 20 whereas some other news channel, at the same time will be reporting 30 people dead. Which channel do we rely on?

There should be a set standard for all news channels. The information they share should be authentic and well researched instead of just trying to be the first channel to give out that particular news. The sole purpose of the channels should not be the ratings but the relevant content. There should be an authorized company like PEMRA whose responsibilities would include making sure all the content on news channels in authentic and there is relevant news instead of sensationalism and over dramatization.

They should have open forums where people can lodge their complaints about news channels and actions should be taken about them. Unlike PEMRA, where hundreds of complaints are lodged but no particular actions are taken to fix those issues. This authorized company should be a well-functioning body which helps to maintain a standard among the various news channels.  

Islamic Fundamentalism

Islamic fundamentalism is a movement that has gained momentum in recent decades in many Muslim nations and it is a reactionary, non scientific movement aimed at returning society to a centuries-old set up. In the past few years, it has acquired a militant and Jihadi form. The setting up of an Islamic state and Jihad are the two objectives of a fundamentalist movement. Pakistan is one such nation where fundamentalism has been posed as one of the most intimidating questions. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism began in Pakistan in 1980’s when General Zia started using the name of religion in order to justify his rule. In his foremost address to the people of Pakistan, he stated that Islamic laws would be imposed and serious consideration would be dedicated towards setting up the Islamic society for which Pakistan had been formed.

General Zia’s most malignant legacy is the Islamic extremism which has taken firm roots in our society. Islamization was used to increase the gap between rich and poor. General Zia implemented a number of steps to wipe out non-Islamic practices from Pakistan. Zia discriminated the non-muslims by introducing a system that non-Muslims could only vote for a candidate of their own religion.

Also, in Zia’s regime, a non-Muslim could be convicted on the evidence of a Muslim but a Muslim could not be convicted on the evidence of a non-Muslim. Non-Muslims were not given an equal right as the Muslims and as the Quaid had promised. In Zia’s rule, the converted Muslims were also downgraded and given no importance. General Zia wanted the nation to understand that there is only one true religion and one correct way of life. Women had to bear most of the burden of Zia’s Islamization. Zia put forward the theory of “Chadar Aur Chaar Deewari” which oppressed the rights of women to a great extent. Islam gave equal rights to women but Zia degraded the women and made separate laws for them.

Pakistan was created in the name of Islam, but it wasn’t created for Muslims only. The non-Muslims were to be given equal rights in Pakistan as stated by Quaid-e-Azam that,

“Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fairplay to everybody. We are the inheritors of these glorious traditions and are fully alive to our responsibilities and obligations as framers of the future constitution of Pakistan. In any case Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State to be ruled by priests with a divine mission. We have many non-Muslims — Hindus, Christians, and Parsis — but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other citizens and will play their rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan.”

Silent Water

The rise of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan had a great influence on every individual living in this country. This impact has been shown by Sabiha Sumar in her film Khamosh Pani (Silent Water). Khamosh Pani is a film about the life of a middle aged woman, Ayesha, who lives with her son and gives Quran lessons to children. Ayesha was born in a Sikh family but has lived all her life in Pakistan, hiding her identity from everyone including her son. Throughout the film, she gets flashbacks of partition when she was asked by her father to commit suicide by jumping into the well in order to protect his family’s honor. But instead she ran away and was abducted and later on married her abductor and converted to Islam.

Ayesha’s son, Saleem gets misguided by two men who come to the village and recruit young boys for Jihadi activities by radical influential Islamic talks. General Zia’s Islamization transforms Saleem completely and he thinks he has got a new direction in his life and he now knows what he has to acieve from his life. This change in Saleems attitude affects his mother to a great extent and she repeatedly warns him to stay away from these extremists men. A Sikh group comes to that village for pilgrimage and within that group is Ayesha’s long lost brother who sets out to the village in search of his sister. When Saleem finds out that his mother is actually a Sikh, anger rushes through his blood and he along with his fundamentalist friends run a violent campaign to throw the Sikh pilgrims out of the village.

Ayesha commits suicide by jumping into the same well where her father asked her to jump years back. Saleem puts his mothers’ box into the river and it is carried away by the river currents. Three decades later, Saleem has now turned into a powerful, Jihadi leader. The rare glimpses of the atrocities of partition shown in this film are true incidents that happened with the Sikh and Muslim families. The film also shows the changes in the lives of Muslims living in all parts of Pakistan brought about by General Zia’s Islamization.

Through this film, Sabiha connected the contemporary violence of the 70’s with that of the 40’s. She wanted to show that the violence didn’t end during partition but it is still a continuing process. Sabiha showed that Saleem played flute in the first few scenes of the film but instead of making him a music artist, she made him an extremist because she wanted to show that under Zia’s dictatorship Pakistan was completely wiped out of the possibility of arts and culture.

The story of partition is told in bits and pieces throughout the film but in such a way that it brings out the pain and sufferings that the women faced during the partition days. Ayesha goes into a flashback again and again and makes us all feel the trauma that she, and many other women like her, went through. There is a dialogue in the film by Ayesha that, “Two countries were born, Men abducted women, Fathers killed daughters, Everyone said it was to save their honor, Some young girls died, Others survived, People moved like the sea leaving everything behind, Broken memories, half dreamt dreams, places of worship.” This dialogue brings back the painful memories of partition and the atrocities that many Muslims and non-Muslims went through. 

9/11 & its Impact on Pakistan

An Islamist militant group hijacked four commercial airlines, crashed them on the World Trade Centre and changed the scenario of the world. The terrorist attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,996 people who were mostly civilians. 9/11 had instant and overwhelming effect on the US. Pakistan was given a clear warning that whether it is with the US or against it in the fight against terrorism. President Musharraf agreed to work with the US and offered Pakistan’s air space for American bombers to reach Afghanistan. As a result of this, Pakistan’s relation with the US was raised to a very high level.

After 9/11, Pakistan became the second largest recipient of the US aid, after Israel. The roller coaster relationship between Pakistan and the US reached new heights. But the impact of 9/11 on Pakistan was indeed very dreadful. Before 9/11, Pakistan had suffered only one suicide attack but today, ten years after 9/11, the suicide bombers have attacked Pakistan more than 300 times and more than 35,000 people have been killed. The 9/11 attacks sent shockwaves around the world from which Pakistan has not yet recovered. The attacks also raised concerns about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. After the attacks, Pakistan’s military began relocating nuclear weapons components to six new secret locations.

Despite Pakistan’s immense support for the US, the 9/11 Commission Report provided proof that the 9/11 terrorists attacks were rehearsed and financed in Pakistan. Pakistan’s importance in the international community increased greatly after 9/11 but its infrastructure shattered to a great extent and it lost many innocent lives and also faced financial crisis. The law and order situation in Pakistan has gotten so worse that no one feels save after stepping out of the house.

Billboards - promoting vulgarity?

Outdoor advertising is an integral part of our media industry. We see hundreds of billboards daily that leave a huge influence on our society. A billboard is one of the best and effective way of promoting a product or service. In Karachi, the ads on these billboards range from being highly creative and innovative to highly vulgar and seductive. Even before summers started, the entire city was bombarded with lawn billboards. You could see a lawn billboard literally on every single mile.

Most of these billboards showed only pretty faces, cleavages and indecent advertising. What I saw in these billboards was models lying on sofas or beds or sitting in an immoral posture. The main thing that was to be advertised i.e. lawn, was not even visible in majority of the billboards.  After looking at these billboards, I wonder whether they are selling lawn or women. Recently, I saw a billboard of Veet at Do Talwar, in which Katrina Kaif is sitting with a purple dress revealing her naked legs and arms. This vulgarity is ruining the minds of young children who pass by these billboards daily in the morning and afternoon when they are on their way and back from school.

There are a large number of such types of billboards that I find offensive and immoral such as the slice or lux billboard or the sanitary napkins billboards. Even the unknown and infamous model in Maaza Mango’s billboard has made a seductive pose which I find disgusting! What does seductiveness or obscenity has to do with a brand of juice? These billboards with obscene pictures of models not only distract the driver and pedestrians but are also a cause of majority of accidents happening in the city.  

Outdoor advertising should have some cultural, social and religious boundaries. Vulgar and obscene ads are only helping in polluting the minds and thought process of our children. There should be more creativity and less vulgarity in our billboards. An ad for a juice brand can be made without using a seductive or lustful pose. There should be a censor board for outdoor advertising, like there is for movies and all, so that only those ads are put up that are ethical and do not harm anybodys moral values. Billboards should be made keeping in mind the fact that we live in a society where cultural norms and values are given a high importance.