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passiveagressiveukulele · 1 year

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Home-coming

CINEMATOGRAPHY CLASS EXERCISE 1

An American title to kick off my new blog season because I had to dumbify my English and go easy on the Scottish accent in order to still be able to communicate with the Erasmus kids during the exchange and make friends. Yes, chips became fries, shame on me.

I can't lie, the first day back was a bit rough - straight from the airport to class where a photography exercise on the subject of Home was set... Home is such an emotionally taxing subject for me because I feel like I am still searching for one. I thought I put it to rest even just for a little bit after finishing my film Let the sunshine in, but as it turns out after returning from Prague, I'm not so sure on where I stand with my relationship to Scotland.

So to heal it I first went to Glean: Early 20th century women filmmakers and photographers in Scotland exhibition at the City Art Centre. Obviously, I was beyond inspired and so thankful this exhibition has been put up to shine a light on the groundbreaking visual art these women have produced, but history tucked away in a dark, dusty corner.

Most of these photographers/filmmakers explored their relationship with the urban and rural environments and "utilised walking as a way to understand the Scottish landscape from its midst - a place to inhabit rather than to aesthetically frame." I would argue they succeeded in both as most of their compositions were truly breathtaking. So breathtaking I set out to recreate one of them for this exercise:

The description next to MEM Donaldson's photograph says: "Here it can be seen how far the woman has walked, and given the composition, how far she must go." This echoes my own path at the moment where I feel like my search for home has been fruitful and rewarding, but still there are so many more miles to walk. I always felt like an outsider - in my homeland and my adopted homeland (Scotland) and a part of me fears I will always feel not quite compatible with either, small and invisible, proud and humble, loved and lonely at the same time.

But before I started to walk I needed to pick an outfit. I traced my cultural lineage of migration, not back to Croatia but to Bosnia where my grandpa was originally from. Last year my grandma gave me her traditional Bosnian sheep wool vest which she was gifted on the day of her engagement to him. It's an incredibly gendered item of clothing so when my boyfriend put it on he was immediately ridiculed by my family. So naturally, I got him to wear it when posing for my photos. He is the closest thing I have to family in this new adopted home and him wearing the vest amongst the suitcases and boxes I started to unpack but failed to seemed like a logical extension of me. When I showed my third culture film to a Croatian filmmaker he said to me: "As much as your film is about you adapting to the new culture it's interesting you open it with your boyfriend trying to speak your language and adapt to you." I never really thought about this relationship as reciprocal; the culture adapting to me.

In every room I've inhabited so far I collected footage of the windows. I'm not really sure why. I saw a feature length documentary about a guy who recorded the view from his window for 20 years and it made sense - it was the same window, but the view constantly changed. My windows were always different. Different shape, size, heat isolation and of course, the view. For the first time in the past 5 years I simply can't call the window or the view my own, even temporarily. I'm staying in Peer's little sister's room. I'm surrounded by her scented candles, polaroids and clothes. This space is welcoming, but not my own. So I cranked up the exposure and created a portal out of it. Out into the Scottish forests and beaches, which I tried to claim back by wearing the vest myself.

So here they are, my 9 photos of Home:

ASC Article: Bringing Emotional Weight To The Journalism Thriller She Said

Surprise surprise, I found the one article about a female cinematographer. Watching the trailer made me so emotional and after reading the article I would love to go see this film in the cinema if it's still playing. It looks like a love child of Spotlight and Bombshell and I am a fan of both. Reading through the article, I looked up the DoP Natasha Braier's previous work and I can't say I am blown away by her imagery - it's quite straightforward and playing by the classic, mainstream Hollywood book. She addresses this herself in the interview saying: “Of all my movies, this is probably the one where people are not going to talk about the cinematography. But in this case, that is success for me as a cinematographer.” Her cinematography is not really drawing attention to itself which I applaud, but I also crave some adventure and out of the box thinking when it comes to the film's visual language. Personally I have no problem with style over substance, but I guess that comes with being an experimental film nerd.

I found it really insightful to read about how she worked around the NY Times office fluorescent lights which cast a yellow tone on the actors' skins.

Her solution was to rig Astera LED tubes over the hero location and slightly dial up the yellow to make them more in line with the location’s fluorescents, while still maintaining the more flattering illumination she sought.

However, this got me thinking the way in which different colours look unpleasant on different types of skin and it got me wondering if the same issue occurs on essentially non-white skin. And then I started thinking back on the trailer and realised I didn't really see any (female) Black or other poc characters in the film. And that got me thinking about how yes, of course we should be focusing on stories of women and cover the issues raised by the MeToo, but the reality of the situation is that the female voices being heard historically and right now are predominantly white. The ruthless chain of discrimination and abuse gets worse the darker your skin is. And the fact that this film (at least from the trailer) does not address that is highly problematic. 87 women accused Weinstein of sexual abuse - I do not believe for a split second all of them were white. The allegations were having a tough time to be taken seriously to begin with, but I think that they would have had an even harder time if women of colour were the first to go on the record and both those assumptions are terrifying, heartbreaking and sickening.

I don't want to end my first blog post on such a pessimistic note so just wanna say, well done Natasha for having a whole team of butch men carrying and setting up your equipment. It's something I aspire to.

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marclefrancois1 · 6 years

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Bedtime Stories: Favorite Books to Benefit Your Growing Child

The following blog post Bedtime Stories: Favorite Books to Benefit Your Growing Child is republished from MLF

Bedtime stories are a part of almost every family nighttime routine. Reading is a screen-free, quiet activity that allows babies and children to calm down before it’s time to go to sleep. Reading stories to young children has benefits beyond a bedtime routine, though.

The American Academy of Pediatrics studied the brain function of children, age three to five, to see the effects of reading aloud. They found that the areas of the brain that promote mental imagery and comprehension were activated by reading stories. When you read to your child, it helps develop their brain in a way that will help when they begin to read and comprehend on their own.

Talk To Your Baby

Your baby really loves to hear your voice. It doesn’t matter if they understand your words early on. They are picking up speech patterns and tonal differences which help them learn and process language. Additionally, babies can sense your love and affection for them in your voice. Talk and sing to your child as much as you can and they will be learning how much you love them. They’ll also become better prepared to speak for themselves.

Read To Your Baby, Too

Reading books to your child is also important. We may just assume this is a good idea because everyone tells us to do it. But there is more to reading a bedtime story to a baby or toddler than having a calm activity before bed. Pediatricians are now including a discussion on reading and providing books with parents of newborns because it is vitally connected to a baby’s intellectual development. In fact, the AAP has even urged their practitioners to include literacy in their practice.

Scientists think that children are exposed to a broader range and more diverse set of words through picture books. As a result, they are challenged to practice imagining the images suggested through the words. Later on, children who have more practice at this will be better able to make images and stories out of words themselves.

Reading bedtime stories will help foster a close, emotionally rich relationship with your child

Bedtime Stories Bring You Closer To Your Child

There are huge benefits to your child’s development when you read books from an early age. This benefit goes well beyond an educational advantage. Regular bedtime reading will also help foster a close, emotionally rich relationship with your child. In time, it will help build a bridge toward discussion of deep ideas and important subjects that you will help him understand.

Growing a strong parent-child bond over years of snuggles and good books at bedtime is one of the best things about parenting. You may be dog-tired at times, but in 20 years, you won’t regret those 10 to 20 minutes a night you spent reading with your child.

Need a Good Book?

We live in an age where there is an abundance of wonderful children’s literature. There are always going to be more books available than we can possibly read to our child while they are interested, but it sure is fun trying to read them all!

You don’t need to buy them all. Start making regular visits to your local library and you will be amazed at the resources available to you for free. Many libraries allow you to reserve titles online in the comfort of your own home and then pick up your selections already collected for you at the main desk. This is a dream for the mom of young ones!

We’ve compiled a list of books to check out. Some are timeless classics, while others are modern. Most of these qualify as picture books. Picture books contain very few words in relation to the pictures — only about 500 on average — which means that each word is intentional, and the story is concise. This helps your child develop their language skills and encourages engagement through the pictures. A few have a larger vocabulary for older readers. The ages are approximate — these books are as ageless as they are timeless!

Favorite Bedtime Stories

Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt (age 1+)

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd (age 1+)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (age 1+)

Time for Bed by Mem Fox and Jane Dyer (age 1+)

Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada by Jimmy Fallon and Miguel Ordóñez (age 1+)

The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton (age 2+)

Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace (age 2+)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle (age 2+)

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (age 2+)

The Pigeon finds a Hotdog by Mo Willems (age 2+)

Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle and Jill McElmurry (age 2+)

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers (age 3+)

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson (age 3+)

Corduroy by Ron Freeman (age 3+)

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri (age 3+)

The Hat by Jan Brett (age 4+)

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson (age 4+)

Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz (age 4+)

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff and Felicia Bond (age 4+)

The Paper Princess by Elisa Kleven (age 4+)

The Lion and the Little Red Bird by Elisa Kleven (age 4+)

Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser (age 4+)

Where Oh Where is Huggle Buggle Bear by Katherine Sully and Janet Samuel (age 5+)

Thidwick, the Big-Hearted Moose by Dr. Seuss (age 5+)

For children who have trouble falling asleep, picture books can also be a good jumping off point for working on visualization. The Sleep Lady Dream Cards are also a great tool for visualization.

So, go ahead and curl up with your little one and a good book. It doesn’t even have to be at bedtime to offer huge benefits to your child.

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Kim West

Kim is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has been a practicing child and family therapist for more than 24 years, and the creator of the original gentle, proven method to get a good night’s sleep for you and your child.

She is the author of The Sleep Lady's Good Night Sleep Tight, its companion Workbook and 52 Sleep Secrets for Babies.

Click here to read more about her.

Did you find this article helpful? Please share it with your friends by clicking below, or ask a question on The Sleep Lady Facebook page.

The post Bedtime Stories: Favorite Books to Benefit Your Growing Child appeared first on Baby Sleep Coaching by the Sleep Lady.

from Blog – Baby Sleep Coaching by the Sleep Lady https://sleeplady.com/parenting/bedtime-stories-benefit/

from https://www.marclefrancois.net/2018/04/18/bedtime-stories-favorite-books-to-benefit-your-growing-child/

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foamingkitty · 7 years

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Team Favourites: Twenty Four of the Best Baby & Toddler Books

What is your absolute, number one, favourite book to read to a baby or toddler? A few years ago Courtney wrote a post about Marlow’s favourite books from 0-3, which I found super helpful as a first time mama. Now, we have compiled the entire Babyccino team’s most read and loved books for babies and toddlers. We had so many favourites in fact that we have two dozen books to share!

The very best baby and toddler books are the ones that are read over and over and never lose their captive audience. I sometimes think I can hear the pages of ‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear’ in my head as I fall asleep these days! And I recently wrote about Jospeh’s obsession of Guess What? books, which he must read about a dozen times a day.

Hopefully our favourites inspire you to update your own child’s library, or perhaps these ideas can become future newborn baby gifts, (see our other Team Favourite Newborn Baby Gift Ideas too). Whether you gift them, or keep them for your own family collection, you simply can’t go wrong with any of these fabulous titles!

Best 24 Baby & Toddler Books :

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown — This was a favourite for all of my children. I’m pretty sure they could each recite the entire book by heart if I asked them. – Courtney

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell — My kids all loved this one as well. The lift-the-flap element makes it extra fun for kids. – Courtney

Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino — A charming book that seems to grow with your child. We enjoy it as much now at nearly three years old as we did when my daughter was an infant. – Shannon

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox — Such a sweet book by one of Australia’s most loved authors (see other favourite Mem Fox titles here). – Courtney

Peepo! by Allan and Janet Ahlberg — Also known as Peek-a-Boo! in the US, this book is super sweet, ‘Here’s a little baby, one, two, three, … what does he see?’ And the cut out window allows a game of Peepo on each page. So super sweet. — Lara in London

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle — This is the first book that really seemed to captivate my daughter and hold her attention. The bright illustrations and cadence are lovely. — Shannon

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell — With beautiful illustrations in a nighttime forest, it is an unusual setting, but a lovely one. The story always pulls at my heartstrings. — Lara in London

Time for Bed by Mem Fox — The perfect book to make a part of your bedtime ritual. — Shannon

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle — This was a favourite for both of my girls. We also have this book in Dutch. Such a classic and fun read. — Vanessa

The Noisy Book by Soledad Bravi — Our favourite baby book ever! Each page features the description of a noise, next to a bright, colourful illustration. I’ve read it millions of time to each of my girls, they would never get tired of it (the kiss page! the sneezing! mimicking the snail!) It’s super engaging from the youngest age and it gets even more fun when toddlers try to do these noises! Also available in French. – Caroline

Where’s Spot by Eric Hill — Both of my children have loved the classic Spot lift-the-flap books, which are simple and easy to read together. Any book filled with lots of animal friends is always a hit with the little ones. — Vicky

The Soft Book by Wee Gallery — I put this book up to the sides of the playpen and they loved staring at it in their earliest months – Esther

Animals by Ingela P. Arrhenius — It’s a colorful, big, beautifully illustrated book about animals. Oscar loves the bright colors and simple design. – Lara in Paris

Taro Gomi Boxed Set — This boxed set contains three Taro Gomi classics is a great introduction to his work. We read all three books countless times. – Shannon

Counting by Aina-Maija Metsola — Orla’s current favourite, a stunning lift the flap book that she hasn’t managed to destroy! Great from very early and interesting enough for years to come. — Helen

Pat The Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt — A touch and feel book that is sweet, nostalgic, and slightly vintage in it’s style. – Lara in London

The Baby’s Catalogue by Allan Ahlberg — Florence loves anything to do with babies and this was a delight for her to look through. – Vanessa

Peek -a-Who? boxed set by Nina Laden — Simple and small each one is good to keep a baby entertained, and we often took on car journeys and to restaurants with us for entertainment! – Lara in London

Baby’s Very First Faces by Jo Lodge — Both girls loved the black and white series in books. This fabric book was great attached to the side of their bugaboo. – Vanessa

How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers — Such a sweet story and beautiful illustrations. – Kate

Egon the Elephant Book by Haba — Oscar loves playing with it, especially with the detachable super soft and cute baby elephant. – Lara in Paris

Fox’s Socks by Julia Donaldson — A great book with a sense of humour. – Helen

Animals Mini Wooden Book — This is the sweetest little book, with lovely illustrations, and without words. Great for telling stories, practicing animal noises, and sparking imaginations. — Lara in London

Possum Magic by Mem Fox — I love this beautiful and captivating classic Australian children’s book by Mem Fox. It was my daughter’s first favourite book that she would be able to recite from beginning to end! And the illustrations are simply gorgeous. — Vicky

We hope you enjoy these books as much as we do, and if you want to know more about who’s behind these recommendations from our team, find out more here.

Please share your favourite baby and toddler books with us too, because we would love to hear.

Lara x

The post Team Favourites: Twenty Four of the Best Baby & Toddler Books appeared first on Babyccino Kids: Daily tips, Children's products, Craft ideas, Recipes & More.

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misterjudemartin · 7 years