Movie Ratings is not a Science

I may be the only one but I thought there was a pretty clear way as to how movies are rated. But after going through both the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and the film ratings sites, I learned this is not the case. I understand that there are a lot of subjective ideas used to decide the films ratings. This includes a group of parents that are supposed to rate the movie in a way that they “believe” a majority of fellow parents would rate the film. Also, this group only consists of 8 to 13 parents! I don’t know if this is enough to establish a clear rating especially in the jumps from each rating. Below is the answer to Who Decides the ratings from the MPAA website…

Parents decide the ratings. An independent board of parents rates each film. Their job is not to determine if a movie is "good" or "bad," but to rate each film as they believe a majority of their fellow parents would rate the film — taking into account sexuality, violence, language and other factors. The purpose of the ratings system is to provide clear, concise advance information to parents about film content so parents can determine what movies are appropriate for their kids while preserving freedom of expression for filmmakers and the film industry.

The only part of this rating system I agree with is the fact that it is concise and a parent can quickly decide that a movie may not be good for their child or maybe even one that they may enjoy themselves. A rating system is in a place but with the subjective process of it I don’t really know if it is doing the job it needs to be doing.

Cell Phones for Kids?

Cell phone technology has greatly changed throughout the last couple decades. I remember when my mom had a cell phone the size of a loaf of bread and now they can easily fit in your pocket. Disney had his on this cell phone technology a couple of times throughout the years. One of its first services was geared toward the younger generation with kids probably under the age of 10. These phones could be set up to only have certain numbers attached to them such as Home, Mom’s cell, 911 etc. These phones and the service was discontinued in 2007. Recently, Disney just came out with a phone that has some of the same features of the original phone but looks like a real phone. The age group here Disney is trying to hit is between 11 and 15. For this new phone, Disney has partnered with LG and the phone has features in which parents can limit the time spent on the phone as well as only let it be used during certain times of the week. Also, with a feature called “Family Monitor”, an allowance of minutes, text, and picture messages can be set up. When that limit is reached both the child and the parent will be alerted and from there a decision can be made either to add more to the phone or let it just reset the next month. (source)

Overall, I think that this technology is good but what age is okay for children to have cell phones? I did not get my first phone until I was a freshman in high school and some of my friends did not get one until they could pay for it by themselves. This is a huge issue because why does a kid need a phone, it is just taking away from childhood and the one on one contact that these kids need. I see kids running around with iphones and I just don’t understand what parents are thinking giving kids them. I think Disney is doing a good thing here making it possible to supervise their kids’ cell phone use but I don’t know if it is a great idea for kids to get it at such a young age. This may sound a little cliché but these kids are growing up too fast!

3D Movies not so simple

Have you ever wondered how 3D movies work?  Well, I have been curious especially since I learned that the first 3D movie was "The Power of Love" which started playing on September 27, 1922. Yes, that does say 1922.  Now, obviously 3D movies have changed a lot since then, making them better for the tech savvy generation of today. 

Back in the 1920s, a simple technique was used to make the 3D movies.  The movies were made it two different colors and those corresponded to the two different colors of the 3D glasses tricking the eyes into thinking that the objects were popping out of the screen.

Today the 3D experience is a little different using a new technology of polarization.  There are two different methods of this polarization, linear and circular.  Both of these techniques are somewhat similar and they work by only allowing certain types of light through filters.  I am going to try and explain this is a way that makes sense to me.  When the film is made they use a camera that take two different images that are separated by the distance equal to the distance between an average eye.  This is so each eye can have a different filter in front of it(ie the lenses).  Each lense will allow for certain light waves to come through while the rest are reflected away.  In linear polarization one lense will be vertical and the other horizontal.  This allows for different lights to get through to each eye. 

Another way to look at it is thinking of it as the kids toy which only allows the blocks to go through each hole(see below).  Certain blocks or light can only go through each whole or lense.  Through this technique of polarization the 3D experience is made.