When you watch a movie like “Fight Club”, you cannot expect an expected shower of human morals and lessons. Blood and riveting action sequences displaying the vent of anguish are all that you usually expect from a film with such a strong title. Well, you say it and you have it. “Fight Club” may not be one of those archetypal Hollywood films, but it proves it mettle with unusual story and a sarcastic take upon a stressed out human mind. For people who do not want to get up in the morning with the horror of going back to the professional school of work, “Fight Club” may act like a shrewd emotional support which poses the ability to create ‘mayhem’ in the mind!

Directed by David Fincher, the film has Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in the lead along with Helena Bonham Carter. Edward Norton’s role in the film has built around his own alter ego (played by Brad Pitt) which he names as Tyler Durden. As the narrator of the movie, Edward Norton or Jack tells the story of a man who is in a gray collar job and is frustrated with his life. Though he has a settled life, but he is into a job which he despises. Work makes him an insomniac. Doctors bar him to take medicines and ask him to visit support groups where people with even more harsh sufferings congregate to vent out their emotions.

Jack visits a support group which comprises of testicular cancer victims. Thankfully, Jack succeeds in venting out his emotions and starts sleeping for quite a while. Slowly he becomes addicted to visit such support groups. While paying a visit to such a support group, he meets Marla Singer who he finds out to be an imposter and tries to ignore her as her presence seemed to disturb his concentration. Later on both of them decide to stay apart as both agree to visit different support groups. After this, he meets Tyler Durden, a soap salesman in the flight. Both have a constructive conversation and they end up being friends.

In the latter half of the movie, it was Tyler Durden all the way. After starting a fight with Jack, people start realizing the emotions which have long waited to get a vent. Slowly, Tyler Durden and Jack build an underground ‘Fight Club’ which acted as the perfect platform from venting out anger and anti-system sentiments. Meanwhile, Tyler slowly starts overshadowing Jack’s personal life. At one point, you really start feeling for Jack, especially when Tyler starts having regular sex with Marla Singer (played by Helena Bonham Carter). By now, you must be thinking that either I am drunk or I have no idea about what I am writing. I don’t blame you, because this is the same kind of emotional tease that you go through while you are watching “Fight Club”.

The underground ‘Fight Club’ slowly turns out to be a rage in the entire world.  After the success of ‘Fight Club’, Tyler Durden starts building an army of dissatisfied gray collar workers in order to create mayhem in major business venues all over the world. Tyler names this drive as ‘Project Mayhem’. However, soon Jack realizes that Tyler is another side of his own dissociated personality. The one who has been responsible in acting as the mirage guide who leads Jack’s frustrated side to extreme getaways from the real world. At the end of the film, when you realize that it was Tyler Durden who stole the show, you probably have a chance of asking yourself – are we really that wild and extreme? Well, the answer lies in you. Find it out by discovering your own Tyler Durden!

English is spoken by over a hundred million people in India. That’s more than the entire population of England! Unfortunately, there is a big difference between speaking a language and speaking it well. Indians are famous for having one of the funniest accents in the world. But it isn’t our fault, (as with everything wrong in India) the British are to be blamed for this mess. They may have packed up, but they left behind their legacy in the form of old fashioned English that is still being taught in schools. Thankfully, it’s extremely easy to fix these problems, just keep in mind a couple of things.

Stop the overuse of –ing

For some strange reason, we are infatuated with the –ing for of verbs.

Incorrect: I am not knowing how to drive a car.

Correct: I do not know how to drive a car.

Idioms

We have a very unique way of saying certain things.

Incorrect: What is your good name?

Correct: What is your name?

Word order variations

We also have a tendency to jumble the words in a sentence.

Incorrect: My all closet are empty.

Correct: My closets are all empty.

Overuse of words like actually/ seriously/ obviously etc

Incorrect: Actually, I have seriously no idea why we overuse these words.

Correct: I have no idea why we overuse these words.

While these sentences may not be wrong, they are not right either. The best way to improve your English is to watch as many English movies as possible. This will keep you updated on the style currently being employed in the world. If you are a foreigner and you meet someone speaking to you in such a way, don’t be alarmed. The man may be extremely intelligent; it’s just that he is a victim of a schooling system left behind by the British.

Meeting a client can be a daunting task for some as professional relationships can be made or broken during these meetings. Clients are very impressionable people and these tips given below should ensure that you do not act like an idiot in front of your clients.

1. Be engaging

Talk to your clients in a relaxed yet formal tone. Listen to them at all times, especially the small talk as they can be used to connect with them.

2. Ask Questions

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Au contraire, ask as many questions as possible. This helps build confidence in the client.

3. Be humble

No matter what your qualifications are, a rudeness and arrogance can put off a client in a couple of minutes.

4. Have a Good Contract

A contract that is clear and easy to understand will give a client a sense of security as the client will get to know exactly what they can expect from you .

5. State Your Opinion

Do not be afraid to state your opinion. If you feel that the client is wrong then let them know. They will appreciate it even more if you can point out a problem and provide a solution as well.

6. Be yourself

People know when someone is faking something. Try and inject your own personality into the conversation.

From childhood I have always heard that laughter is the best medicine, but as I grew up I realised the disease that is actually cured by laughing is STRESS. Laughter is the number one killer of stress in this world. Stress causes a number of diseases like Depression, High Blood Pressure, Heart Attacks, Stomach Upset (so next time if you are stressed out be prepared to visit the loo frequently) Anxiety, Insomnia (if you are not addicted to social networking sites), headaches (they visit us almost every day, don’t they..?) and trust me if I continue to name other diseases the list will become endless.

To deal with all these life threatening diseases, the most economical measure is to stay happy and laugh out louder whenever possible. It is one of the easiest methods to practice even when you are in your office, take a laughing break. I don’t want to become a doctor or a health specialist to tell you about the biological changes and chemical formations that take place in your body when you laugh, but one thing is for sure after a bout of laughter you surely reduce so many negative vibes from affecting your mood and body. Do not just include words like lolz, Rofl and Roflmao in your chats, but enjoy actual laughing with your friends and family members.

It is interesting to know that a child laughs at an average of 150 times a day whereas adults laugh only six times a day (i am surely not one of them). As we grow up we never realise that we tend to lose hundreds of smiles and laughs a day and run after less important things in life.

You say ‘enough is enough’ after being too often bombarded with repetitive content in television. Sugar coated and spiced up to please those age-old hunger for entertainment; movies, soap operas and other television content queue up to grab your eyeballs. It is quite surprising to see that people still enjoy the screening of events which have the least possibility to occur in the real world. Mentioning Bollywood won’t be a surprise for all of you. Although, the Indian film industry is witnessing a major transformation in looking at filming of relevant issues from a different perspective. Talking about Hollywood, the usual entertainment quotient (which has always been a winning combination to draw maximum mint) has also undergone a major shift with rapid changes in the socio-political scenario of the world.

‘Lights, Camera, Roll and Action…..” and the story of a human mind’s framed vision starts taking shape. There are paid actors and other crew members of the venture who toil out hard to carve out a perfect entertainment package. But have you ever wondered about the hard work that is often associated while capturing the stunning sequences of wild chases between leopards and deer amidst the wilderness of Amazon in Africa? These depictions have real characters and real settings and are shot with extreme precision and character. Its reality, but it too has subjective aspects to it. The normal perception of believing things when they are real is often reinforced in making documentaries. It is often referred to as ‘representation of actuality’. The crucial aspect of representation varies from person to person and can be molded with varying requirements.

In its earlier days, documentaries were conceptualized as single-shot events, like a train entering a station or a ship docking etc. Most of these films were less than a minute long due to technological setbacks. Few years later, there were full length documentaries which were shown in theatres. In 1922, Robert J. Flaherty’s “Nanook of the North” sparked off the tradition of making full-fledged documentaries. Latter, there were city documentaries like “Berlin, Symphony of a City” by Walter Ruttman, Dziga Vertov’s “Man with the Movie Camera” and Alberto Cavalcanti’s “Rien que les Heures”. Dziga Vertov is often regarded as the pioneer of the “Kino-Pravda” or the “Soviet Kino-Pravda” movement which literally meant “cinematic truth”. By 1940s, documentaries with propagandist theme started coming up. Leni Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will (1935)” is still regarded as one of the most notorious propagandist documentaries of all time. This documentary was funded by the Adolf Hitler himself. Then came the documentaries focused on a special technique called ‘Cinema Verite’. Here, the subject’s movement was depicted by the movement of the camera itself.

Today, a number of techniques have been adopted from all the above methods of making a documentary. Many more experiments are being performed in order to garner maximum popularity for this particular genre of filmmaking. Premiere Box Office analysts have observed that films like “Fahrenheit 9/11”, “Super Size Me”, “Food”, “Inc.”, “Earth”, “March of the Penguins”, “Religulous”, “An Inconvenient Truth” are some of the most successful and popular documentaries till date. The style and concept is now being amalgamated with fictional representation also in order to give a new meaning and shape to the art of filmmaking. Films like “Hurtlocker” and “District 9” have proved today, there is a thin line between fiction and non-fiction which has helped in raising the bar of intelligence viewership.

People like me, who have a weird taste of watching films, just can’t assure their fondness with every other classic masterpiece that they see. However, there are few films which make you talk. Watching such movies is not just an experience altogether, it is the uniqueness of the film in a lot of respects which makes us spellbound. When we talk of horror, bloodshed is an inevitable element which is often associated with this genre of filmmaking. However, the cinema lovers all over the world have been served with different approaches with respect to horror which have often defied the usual definition of a horror film. Even though the core element of fear remains the same, the ability to knit it to different levels and producing a horrifying experience is all that makes the difference.

Stanley Kubrick – the master

Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic “The Shining” is worth a name in the library of classic horror tales. Stanley Kubrick has been known for his slow, scrupulous and extremely detailed works. He was one of those filmmakers who wanted their films to talk rather than resorting to unnecessary promotional hiccups. Stanley Kubrick never liked to talk much about his films and yet his films clearly exhibited the level of artistic control that he had over his films. Though he had the usual time constraints, but as far as the studio advantages were concerned, Stanley Kubrick had one of the best studio facilities in Hollywood.

“The Shining” was a classic in many respects – be it style, background score, new wave of montage in horror films, technique or cinematography. You sit in the couch and hope that the film will slowly develop the element of ‘fear’ as the film progresses in the next few hours. However, for this Stanley Kubrick classic it was the other side of the story. From the beginning itself, it takes you to horrifying levels of imagination and pumps your adrenaline so fast that you start having second thoughts about watching the entire movie for the next couple of hours. If you think you have enough balls to experience one of the most intrigued horror stories, you still might go through second, third, fourth…..and many more thoughts!

No Run of the Mill Horror

Of course the movie is not replete with gore and unnecessary violence, but when you witness human abilities and the extent to which they can go, it becomes a little creepy! The movie is based on 1977 horror novel with the same name, written by American author Stephen King. After Stanley Kubrick immortalized the story through his classic film work, the novel was adapted in a television mini-series in the year 1997. With Jack Nicholson in the lead, you can definitely expect some excruciating moments of weirdness and powerhouse performances. The central characters in the film comprise of Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson), Wendy Torrence (Shelley Duvall), Danny Torrence (Danny Lloyd) and Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers).

Jack Torrence quits drinking after he hurts his son Danny accidentally, which he terms as an action of “few extra pounds of energy”. After quitting his job as a school teacher in Vermont, Jack lands up with the job of a caretaker in the Overlook Hotel in Colorado during the peak winter season. Jack Torrance and his family come down to Overlook Hotel soon after. Their son Danny Torrence is another important character in the entire story line of the film. While having a chat with the hotel’s cook, Dick Hallorann, Danny reveals his ability to gauge unexpected events in the hotel. Dick Hallorann explains Danny that he too has the ability to smell the unfortunate events, but not to the level of Danny. He also reveals that his grandmother called this unique ability of a human conscience to expect the unexpected as “Shining”.

Danny often has nightmares about weird events happening in the hotel premises. There are a few scenes in the film which have been used to the greatest optimum level to raise the horror quotient of the film. One of them is the ‘blood shot’ where a mammoth stream of blood flooding down the lavish hotel corridor accompanied by the images of two little girls standing right in front of the camera to signify merciless and unexpected death. Jack Nicholson’s slow and gradual transformation from a human to a psychologically tormented soul is remarkable. His ability to add to the complicacy and cruelty of Jack Torrance’s character will blow away your mind. Few scenes in the movie – his conversation with the Bartender in the Ball Room (Lloyd), waiter Dilbert Grady in the washroom, his encounter with the spirit of a naked woman lying in the bath tub of room no. 237, his deadly pursuit to kill his wife and son – are just examples of the actors ability to steal the show all the time.

If you really are a Jack Nicholson fan, “The Shining” shouldn’t be out of your list. Grab your meal, sit tight and be ready to get freaked out every time you see Jack Torrence in the screen!

The trends in Social Media Marketing have brought magical devices in the real world. These devices or rather trends have definitely plated a major role in effective social media marketing in present marketing scenario.

Trend No. 1

A social mobile is definitely not the outdated phone that was once used to make calls and send and receive messages. It has become more of a computer in your hand that is well connected to the high speed broadband internet giving a new definition to communication and society. People take their social networks along with them no matter where they land up. Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites play a major role in effective social media marketing.

Trend No. 2

The social signals like “+1” button by Google has been a great way for socialization of searches. Now not just the machines, but even humans have the access to vote for particular valuable content on web. This has really helped in visibility and prioritisation of the content in search results.

Trend No. 3

Now you do not have to leave your Facebook page to buy products of your favourite brands, it’s all there. E-commerce has made it possible to have shops on social networking site so that it becomes easy for the viewers to shop via apps on social networking sites. Top brands will have their homepages for the customers to visit and get updates.

Trend No. 4

No one thought social gaming would become a multi-billion dollar business in just two years. Earlier it was parks and grounds were games were played, but today social gaming has brought new evolution that is rich in multi-media and user friendly.

Trend No. 5

Blogs are attracting million of readers every day. Printing has definitely transformed its platform from offline printing to online blogs that are written on different topics.

Blog has become a buzz word that can be seen everywhere on the internet. Like a ubiquitous identity, it has become a part of our lives and our internet friendly work environment. It is highly improbable that you open a page and do not notice the word- ‘blog’ written anywhere.

Rather than discussing how a blog can promote and affect a business let us find out what exactly it is and what has been its journey so far (but briefly).

Meaning or definition: According to Wikipedia a blog is a “Website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.”

The above definition might work in the exam paper but I would rather call a Blog as a means to communicate and share personal perceptions about the world and to the world. It is a collective voice of opinions and ideologies that does not restrict or hinder anyone. Generally web users find the highlight of a Blog with ‘Knowledge’ but another important facet that make it a rage is its aspect of ‘Interactive-ness’. Blogs empower people to leave comments and send each other messages via widgets on the blogs which distinguishes it from other stagnant websites.

Origin:

The first term was ‘Weblog’, coined by Jorn Barger in 1997 which was further shortened as ‘Blog’ by Peter Merholz. Before becoming what a modern Blog is today, it passed through various versions of digital communities and Internet forum software. Initially, blogs were updated manually but as time passed various tools allowed posting of Web articles in a reverse chronological order.

Popularity:

Blogging gained momentum in the year 1999 and onwards as five major blog tools were launched.

• Open Diary in October 1998 which started the ‘Comment’ feature in the blog entries.
• LiveJournal in March 1999
• Diaryland in September 1999 that allowed the users to write more on a personal diary format.
• Pitas.com in July 1999 that facilitated maintaining a news page on a Website.

• Blogger.com in August 1999 that included a variety of options to the Bloggers to write.

What followed was a fusion reaction as every industry whether political, religious or commercial started using Blogs to outreach the masses. As per the latest records there were over 156 million public blogs operational in February 2011.

Many of my friends often ask me to be in love as soon as possible. It sounds like some last ritual that has to be performed before doomsday. Although I have all respect for all those who are in love, right now! What I have learnt from my experience (till now) is that everything in this human life is transitory. Nothing seems to be a permanent epitaph on the human tenure in the blue planet. However, when it comes to be in love with someone, for me it does not adhere to the boundaries of human relationships. It is about the respect and admiration that has developed itself over the last few years and has become a hardcore necessity for my survival. Please stop having any other train of thoughts, pull the chain, sit back and relax. What I am talking about here is my first and last love of my life – films. I won’t deny that I enjoyed films from my childhood, but the level of maturity is what makes all the difference.

If you are having the typical image of a fat guy sitting on a couch, munching popcorn while he gets himself glued on the television – time for some reality check!!! I do not love eating while watching movies…till something good comes up. Watching movies altogether is a different experience; no other pleasure can match its magic. What I wanted to talk about here today is about a movie which is considered to be the pioneer in few cinematic techniques often used by the modern filmmakers of the film fraternity of the world. This particular movie inspired major cinematic sequences which are still used to add various colors of pathos, suspense, torture and other war-like situations. Well, if you watch the sequence even today, you won’t just stop praising the filmmaker in being able to craft such wonderful sequences with such precision during those times.

What is Montage Filmmaking?

The theory of ‘Montage filmmaking’ acquired a new meaning in Soviet filmmaking culture. For most of the Soviet filmmakers, ‘Soviet montage theory’ was used as a crucial tool to render a final design to a film. Most of the Soviet filmmakers used ‘montage’ as a tool to symbolize a completely new idea by colliding two different concepts. This was what Sergei Eisenstein, a veteran Russian filmmaker, vouched as the ideal montage technique to be used in films. Previously, montage was considered to be another name of editing. However, it was Sergei Eisenstein who changed the entire concept of ‘montage’ and is still being used by the filmmakers of the present era.

Sergei Eisenstein’s Contribution

Sergei Eisenstein’s classic work “Battleship Potemkin” earned him accolades for unique filmmaking techniques which he used in the film. The film was based on the 1905 Russian mutiny which took place in the Russian battleship Potemkin. The Russian sailors in the ship rebelled against the Czarist officers in the ship. With respect to the strike that was taking place in Russia, the entire Battleship Potemkin crew was unified with the rebellion attitude. After the crew is served with meat infested with maggots, the rebellion is sparked off. Gregory Vakulinchuk, one of the crew members stands in front of the Czar marines ready to shoot the crew members. However, Vakulinchuk’s request is not being paid heed to and is killed by the marines. Thereafter the rebellion starts taking its actual shape. This rebellion had its repercussions in the country also which led to the famous ‘Odessa sequence’ in the film. The ‘Odessa Sequence’ has been used by a number of filmmakers in order to give their films an extra edge of thrill, suspense and pathos.

The Well Known ‘Odessa Sequence’

The ‘Odessa Sequence’ in the film is the much talked about sequence which reflects the mastery of Sergei Eisenstein. Here, a group of Czar Soldiers open fire on the people who had gathered to protest against the murder of their beloved Vakulinchuk in Battleship Potemkin. Few shots used in the sequence are considered to be classic themselves as they paved the way of experimenting with various camera techniques. Shots of a baby falling down through the staircase, mayhem all over, a kid getting shot and then being overrun by people, bloodshed all over – all these were used with such mastery that even today, the film seems to be a new experience for all of us. Sergei Eisenstein made the film as a propagandist film, as he himself was a communist. A number of sequences in the film have been used where communism has been portrayed as the savior of the entire human civilization.

Though World Cinema has come a long way from its clichéd concepts of revolutionary and war films, but people like Sergei Eisenstein and their works will continue to inspire newer experiments in the field of filmmaking. For all those who want to get infected with the bug of filmmaking, watching “Battleship Potemkin” is no less than ‘baptizing’ yourself.

Generally, few individuals are aware of the healthy food that should be consumed during the winter season. Almost all of us tend to eat unhealthy foods when winters are round the corners. It is true, even if we try our level best we tend to get tempted to the warm and fattening winter food. People who love winter season are also crazy for the seasonal foods and why not, it is proved that winter season improves our digestive system. It also keeps us healthy and save us from falling sick too often. The body temperature in winters is low due to which we require more energy that is provided by the food we eat, therefore it is important to take care of what we consume during winters.

Start your winter morning with a cup of herbal tea with Tulsi and ginger in it. Try and avoid caffeine, though it provides instant kick to start your morning, but makes you lazy as the day proceeds. Rather than fruit juices go for vegetables soups, mushroom or chicken soup. Soups are good to increase immunity during winters, especially to fight against cough and cold. Brown rice, chapatti, lentils, vegetables along with coriander, onion and ginger is a good idea to satiate your cravings during winter season. Ginger should be added to all vegetables and pulses you cook, because it helps in maintaining the body temperature. To end your day a glass of warm milk with honey and little turmeric powder is the best that you can give your body to maintain the metabolism all night long. This will also help you avoid gaining weight, which many of us tend complain during winter season.