Storytelling

What makes for a great movie?  Well the answer to that is having a good hook that captures the viewers.  What is a hook? “It is simply a question about what is going to happen?” (Weiland 338).  Typically for a successful movie, “The writer of a film has to be able to get people hooked by the end of the first scene” (Behrens 333).  Let’s take The Proposal movie as an example.  This movie is a romantic/comedy directed by Anne Fletcher and debuted on June 19^th 2009.  Writers want viewers to, “Put aside personal time to watch their movie” (Behrens 334).  A writers goal is also to, “Convince us that our time spent watching the movie will be put into good use” (Behrens 334).  The movie has to be interesting enough for people to keep watching rather than not be interested at all causing the movie to become unsuccessful.  Having the protagonist creates for the tone setting of the story making it more engaging.

  A hook for a story might be a little challenging since it has to grab people’ attention right off the bat.  “The beginning of any good story is its hook” (Weiland 338).  In The Proposal a woman named Margaret gets threatened by an immigration official that she would get deported back to Canada where she is from.  However, she comes up with a crazy plan and declares that she is engaged to her assistant who she has always been mean to.  The catch is if he doesn’t agree to her plan then she is going to fire him.  Therefore, they end up heading to Alaska to visit Andrew the assistance family for a weekend.  No matter the challenges Andrew and Margaret face they have to stick to the plan because they have an immigration official on their tails.  This movie is very entertaining because they have to act like a couple in front of the family and everyone but behind closed doors they don’t care for each other at all.

When watching a movie, “People want to wonder what is going to happen?” (Weiland 338).  With this question it keeps people interested enough to keep watching, “Having question after question and answering them as you move along in the story” (Weiland 338).  Good beginnings have to, “Set the tone which means the opening chapter sets the tone for the whole story, this gives the viewers accurate assumptions about what the story is going to be about without giving it away” (Wieland 339).  It is important for the viewer to have assumptions about what might happen which makes for a successful movie.  Another trait for having a good beginning is, “To open with characters, preferably the protagonist” (Weiland 339).  Within a story, “The personalities that restrain the story is the key to what will connect with the viewers causing for the successful drama throughout the movie” (Weiland 339).

  Within The Proposal movie Margaret is in a struggle to not get deployed back to Canada.  Throughout the whole story Andrew and her have to stick to her plan and if all else fails then the immigration officials will send her back themselves.  This causes for a great tone setter for the movie as well as a great way to present the protagonist into the story with her mission.  Whenever viewers ask questions throughout a movie it creates for a great movie.  The questions you ask to yourself are the hooks that keep viewers wanting more.  It is important to not give away too much information at the beginning of a movie this will create unsuccess.  Therefore, the writer has to keep peaking at peoples curiosity.  Having the protagonist set the tone for the whole movie is what will keep people engaged enough because it creates the story.  The Proposal movie creates all these things making the movie a great one to watch still to this day.  It is important how a movie is developed as well as the questions that are revealed throughout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzIxFuUu_kw

Happiness paper

What is happiness?  Is it a true feeling or is it like psychotherapist Adam Phillips stated, “Anyone who could maintain a state of happiness given the state of the world, is living a delusion.”  Going off of what Phillips has said would happinesss be delusional or is it a state of contentment?  Happiness is a hard word to define with just a simple definition.  However, it is, ”Thinking about happiness in general what it means to you personally” (Kenyon 526).  With this statement people have different personalities and likes or dislikes.  The former poet Keyon says, ”That engaging our emotions and memories can lead towards a happiness state (526).  Going back and thinking about fun times with either close friends or family can cause us in the end to be happy. 

In the quote that Phillips gave he is saying that this world is an evil place with all the killings that go on, the wars between countries, and so many other evils that we don’t even know about.  How could someone in that kind of world be happy?  A person living in that world would have to be delusional.  As the saying goes, “People create their own happiness” (Business Insider inc 2017).  A person being happy in a world such as this is creating their own reality so I believe Phillips statement to be false.  Happiness is not living in a delusion it is being rich, not by having tons of money, but being rich with things that create a positive life style personally.  It is about the people an individual surrounds himself or herself with.  A person ultimately becomes, “A product of their own environment” (The Success System That Never Fails 1962).  This quote means the people an individual hangs around the majority of the time will gradually start acting like the people that person is around most likely. 

Not only is happiness created by the people we choose to be around but, “Happiness also follows from living a virtuous life” (McFall 527).  Having a virtuous life means setting high goals that an individual wants to achieve for themselves to accomplish something that is challenging but also satisfying which can cause happiness.  Setting goals that are ideally achievable gives us a sense of meaning that we can do whatever we set our minds to…to become our best self.  There are three constituents of happiness such as, “Pleasure or positive emotion, engagement, and meaning” (Seligman et al. 540).  Pleasure causes happiness by, “Increasing the positive emotion of cultivating gratitude and forgiveness about the past, the positive emotion of savoring and mindfulness about the present, and building hope and optimism about the future” (Seligman et al. 540).  The second constituent of happiness is gratification could be helping someone or accomplishing a task that was either challenging or simple (Seligman et al. 540).  The last constituent of happiness is meaning.  Everyone wants to have a sense of meaning or purpose by, “Using our strengths towards something larger than ourselves” (Peterson et al. 2005).

Based on Seligmans examples of happiness we can gather that there are different levels to happiness.  People can become happy from either pleasures, engagements and having meaning in the world” (Seligman et al 540.).  People are so different in personalities that what someone might like and gather happiness from that moment another person might hate it.  Living in the world today yeah it is an evil place, but in the misted of evil there can be happiness.  However, it just depends on how a person wants to go about their life either in a more positive way or negative way.  Furthermore, happiness is not delusional it is what an individual makes of the things that happen in life.

http://www.businessinsider.com/