Nightcrawler is a crime thriller film about a man named Louis, who takes an interest in capturing crime scene footage. His interest is first piqued when he stops on the side of the road to observe police rescuing a woman from an automobile wreckage. A man with a professional video camera runs by and captures up-close footage. Upon inquiry, Louis discovers that this man sells this graphic footage to news stations. After picking up a camcorder and police scanner, Louis decides to try this out for himself. He ends up becoming quite successful at this occupation known as nightcrawling. However, at a certain point in his path to success, Louis takes a dark and twisted turn; going from shooting crimes to committing them. A question of value is a concept brought up consistently throughout the movie, …show more content…
especially as Louis blurs the line between nightcrawling and illegal activity. It is described as a question that “asks whether something is worthwhile: Is it good or bad; right or wrong; moral or immoral; best, average or worst” (Engleberg and Wynn 199). It was painfully obvious that what Louis was doing was completely wrong and immoral. If he arrived at a crime scene before the police, he would move bodies around in order to get a better shot. At one house where a triple homicide just occurred, one man was still breathing but instead of attempting to help, Louis continued to get the footage he knew Nina, a news director and his main client, would want. It’s clear that he does not ask questions of value in the decision-making process but Rick, his sole employee and assistant, does. Rick is often shown stunned by how far Louis will go to capture graphic footage. As the textbook states, the answer to a question of value depends on a person’s “finances, professional goals … work and family situation, and beliefs” (Engleberg and Wynn 199). When Rick is hired by Louis, he is broke and living in a garage. When faced with a question of value, Rick chooses to ignore his moral compass because of his finances and life situation. Despite what I’d like to believe, the textbook is accurate in describing the answer to questions of value. It really depends on an individual’s situation. Personally, I have always stubbornly stood by my morals whether or not betraying them would have benefitted me. At my previous job in food service, there have been numerous times where taking a shortcut would have saved me and my coworker’s time. However, this saved time would’ve affected the quality and health safety of the product we were serving to our customers. It’s really disturbing how willing some people are to make their jobs easier, but luckily, not everyone is like that. I truly value people who will stand by the moral choice before personal circumstance. I’ve always seen my mother as a person like this and I believe I’ve grown to act in a similar way. Even in a situation where I would have stand against my own family, I believe I would do so if it meant supporting good over bad. Besides questions of value, another concept that consistently occurs throughout this film is procedural conflict, or “disagreement among group members about the method or process the group uses in its attempt to accomplish a goal” (Engleberg and Wynn 174). There are characters in Nightcrawler that disagree with Louis’s methods: Rick and Kevin. Kevin is the station producer under Nina. Kevin’s minor appearances in the film are of him questioning how Louis captured this footage and the legality of showing these crime scenes. Kevin never gets a say because Nina overrides his voice when there is quality footage at stake. This is the exact downfall; instead of sincerely questioning how footage was captured, Louis, Nina and Rick are set on earning more money and better ratings. In this particular context, morality (or lack of) is what resolves the group conflict. In procedural conflict, it seems that real issues are avoided and more insincere resolutions are reached through group votes and just plainly moving on to the next topic. Although I do not exactly know how I would resolve substantive or affective conflict, I know that I am not okay with how procedural conflict is resolved. From my experience living in a family with two young boys, group voting or glazing over certain topics is probably the worst way to go about resolution. Before my brothers were born and I was an only child, I was raised with the idea that core issues should not be ignored. If my mother noticed that something was wrong, she wouldn’t try to find ways to make me think of other things. She would try to understand what the issue was and come to an objective resolution. I believe I reflect a lot of the values with which I was raised. I don’t support a default resolution like the majority of the main characters in Nightcrawler. A third concept that is heavily used in this film is negotiation.
Negotiation is the “process of bargaining in order to settle differences or solve a problem” (Engleberg and Wynn 182). It is also a nightcrawler’s main method of conflict management. Louis and other nightcrawlers have to negotiate with news stations to get the most money for their work. Like everything else that Louis deals with, he also pushes the boundaries of negotiation with Nina. He is aware that her station is the lowest performing in Los Angeles and that her contract is nearing its end period. He uses this information to negotiate and basically blackmail her into providing him a base payout for each footage submission, verbal credit to his company on-air, and even an intimate relationship. He does the exact opposite of what principled negotiation calls for. Principled negotiation is a process for resolving conflict that focus on “people, interests, options, and criteria” (Engleberg and Wynn 182). He provides only one solution for mutual gain, establishes a standard that Nina must agree with at the risk of losing her job, and instead of separating her from the problem, he directly associates her with
it. Overall, I believe Louis is a terrible human being with only his interests in mind. His determination to fulfill his goals takes healthy group communication concepts we study and twists them into weapons against other people. I believe negotiation is a great way to manage conflict and can settle differences in most cases. In the workplace, I’ve always valued negotiation in moderation. There are many things I didn’t agree with when it came to work policy, but I knew that most of these things were unnegotiable. Fortunately, I’ve had supervisors that were willing to negotiate and hold an open forum for policies and issues. However, I think that allowing so much negotiation leaves people open to being taken advantage of. While I believe in the Harvard Negotiation Project’s principles for negotiation, I believe it should be done in moderation. Some policies and personal positions should be stood by at all costs. Even though it is an extreme case, not standing firmly by principles can leave you in a position similar to Nina.
During the Talladega 500, Cal Naughton Jr., Ricky Bobby's former best friend, pulled ahead of Ricky, allowing him to slingshot around his car and pass Jean Girard. Though Cal and Girard were teammates at Dennit Racing, Cal disregarded this and jeopardized his team's success to aid Ricky in the movie Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. This moment was crucial to Ricky, he having fallen from grace, going from NASCAR's top driver to being let go by Dennit Racing. The love Cal exhibited was a selfless form of love that was centered entirely around Ricky's happiness, not his own. Because of this selflessness, Cal compromised his own agenda, winning for Dennit, and disregarded personal consequence in hopes that Ricky would win the race. If you truly love someone as Cal loved Ricky, you must sometimes compromise your own interests for their benefit.
Lewicki, J. R., Barry, B., & Saunders, M. D. (2010). Negotiation: Readings, exercises and cases
“There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK!” (Sunset Boulevard). The film Sunset Boulevard directed by Billy Wilder focuses on a struggling screen writer who is hired to rewrite a silent film star’s script leading to a dysfunctional and fatal relationship. Sunset Boulevard is heavily influenced by the history of cinema starting from the 1930s to 1950 when the film was released.
The horror genre of film captives the frightfulness of individual fear, horror is the only genre that is meant captive the terror of the audience. The horror- the genre has been around well over one hundred- years there has been an extension of different types of horror and how the audience perceives horror. Many would even argue that horror films often reflect the fear of society in that certain time period. The evolution of horror reflects the evolution of society’s fear.
The film, Out in the Night documents a 2006 case in which a group of young African American lesbians were accused of gang assault and attempted murder. The film portrays how unconscious bias, institutional discrimination and racism contributed to the convictions of seven African American lesbian women. Three of the women pleaded guilty to avoid going to trial, but four did not. Renata Hill, Patreese Johnson, Venice Brown, and Terrain Dandridge maintained their innocence and each were charged with several years in prison. I cried through out the documentary because it dawned on me that it’s not safe for women, especially gay women of color. The four-minute incident occurred in Greenwich Village where Dwayne Buckle sexually and physically harassed
Sex, love, depression, guilt, trust, all are topics presented in this remarkably well written and performed drama. The Flick, a 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Annie Baker, serves to provide a social commentary which will leave the audience deep in thought well after the curtain closes. Emporia State Universities Production of this masterpiece was a masterpiece in itself, from the stunningly genuine portrayal of the characters of Avery and Rose, to the realism found within the set, every aspect of the production was superb.
Saw is a American horror film directed by James Wan. The film is about a killer who calls himself the Jigsaw. He kills and/or “teaches” his victims to respect life. He watches his victims and then abducts them when learning their problems in life.
Lewicki, R., Saunders, D.M., Barry B., (2010) Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases. 6th Ed. McGraw-Hill Irwin. New York, NY
Negotiations styles are scholastically recognized as being broken down into two general categories and those are distributive bargaining styles and integrative negotiation styles. Distributive bargaining styles of negotiation are understood to be a competitive type of negotiation. “Distributive bargaining, also known as positional bargaining, negotiating zero-sum, competitive negotiation, or win-lose negotiation, is a type or style of negotiation in which the parties compete for the distribution of a fixed amount of value” (Business Blog Reviews, 2011). This type of negotiation skill or style approach might be best represented in professional areas such as the stock market where there is a fixed goal in mind or even in a garage sale negotiation where the owner would have a specific value of which he/she would not go below. In contrast, an integrative negotiation approach/style is that of cooperative bargaining, or win-win types ...
Lewicki, R. J., Barry, B., & Saunders, D. M. (2007). Essentials of Negotiation. New York: McGraw-Hill/ Irwin.
In conclusion, the theory of principled negotiation is very impressive, although it at times seems to be simplistic and meant for an ideal world. Nevertheless, it allows all sides of the conflict to be examined through the broadening of options. It allows disputants to maintain any relationship that they had before the conflict and negotiation. Overall, principled negotiation is meant to lead to satisfactory results for both sides, creating a win-win situation for all.
Lewicki, R. J., Saunders, D. M., & Barry, B. (2010). Negotiation: Readings, exercises, and cases. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin
Negotiation approaches are generally described as either distributive or integrative. At the heart of each strategy is a measurement of conflict between each party’s desired outcomes. Consider the following situation. Chris, an entrepreneur, is starting a new business that will occupy most of his free time for the near future. Living in a fancy new development, Chris is concerned that his new business will prevent him from taking care of his lawn, which has strict requirements under neighborhood rules. Not wanted to upset his neighbors, Chris decides to hire Matt to cut his grass.
Almost everyone has a favorite genre of film, but how everyone defines their favorite genre can differ greatly. Horror is one of the genres where its definition can be perceived differently by many people. Like all other genres, horror does have rules and traditions that must be included in order for a film to be considered a horror film. These rules and traditions include a protagonist, an antagonist, an escape or escape attempt of some sort, and very influential audio and visual effects.
Negotiation has been used as a vital communication tool not only in business but also in social intercourse. It helps people make common agreement and avoid conflict. So we need to use the tactics which we learned from this course and books to do more practice, only in this way we can gain advantages in negotiation.