My Assignment 1

Introduction

Communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. It is a two-way activity between two or more people. So, we can say it is a giving or exchanging of information, signals, or messages as by talk, gestures, or writing. When this results to have an understanding to both of them, therefore there is already a communication. In other words, when a person is talking, the other person should listen so that he will understand to what the other person is talking about. This process requires skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal, including processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. We can use those processes in our daily lives, such as in home, school, work, and other places. It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur.

Intercultural communication often used to refer to the wide range of communication issues that inevitably arise within an organization composed of individuals from a variety of religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. It must also include strands of the field that contribute to it such as anthropology, cultural studies, psychology and communication. It helps us to understand how people from different countries and cultures behave, communicate and perceive the world around them. Each of these individuals brings a unique set of experiences and values to the workplace, many of which can be traced to the culture in which they grew up and now operate. The findings of such academic research are then applied to real life situations such as how to create cultural synergy between people from different cultures within a business or how psychologists understand their patients.

Development and Production of the Movie

The Smurfs was directed by Raja Gosnell and stars Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria, Jayma Mays, and Sofía Vergara. It is a 2011 American 3D family film based on The Smurfs comic book series created by Peyo and the 1980s animated TV series. It is the first CGI/live-action hybrid film to be produced by Sony Pictures Animation and in The Smurfs trilogy. The film was known as The Smurfs Movie during early production.

In 1997, Jordan Kerner, producer of them sent the first letter to The Smurfs' licensing agent Lafig Belgium for expressing his interest in making a feature film. It was not until 2002 after a draft of Kerner's film adaptation of Charlotte's Web was read by Peyo's heirs, that they accepted Kerner's offer. Peyo's daughter, Véronique Culliford and family had wanted to make a Smurfs film for years and said that Kerner was the first person to pitch a film that shared their "vision and enthusiasm". Kerner soon began developing the 3D CGI feature film with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. In 2006, Kerner said the film was planned to be a trilogy and would explain more of Gargamel's back-story. Early animation footage was leaked on the internet in early 2008.

In June 2008, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation obtained the film rights from Lafig Belgium. Kerner said the current project started with Sony during a conversation with the chairman, who grew up watching The Smurfs in the Netherlands. Kerner explained, "He relished them as I do and suggested that it should be a live-action. Amy Pascal felt equally that there was potentially a series of films in the making”. On a budget of $110 million, principal photography began in New York City on March 26, 2010. In May, scenes were filmed in the Soho of Manhattan. That month, scenes were shot all night for five nights in a row at F.A.O. Schwartz toy store. Production was temporarily halted after a worker fell 30 feet from a set at the toy store on Fifth Avenue and 58th Street. Other locations used for filming were Belvedere Castle, the Russian Tea Room, Rockefeller Center, and Brooklyn's Prospect Park. A Belvedere Castle set was built as an exact replica of the real castle. However, it is two-thirds the actual size and has wooden grates as floors to create additional contrast. Production eventually found the rare parts at garage sales, flea markets, on eBay and Craigslist.

 In order to help the Smurfs' animators during post-production, cinematographer Phil Meheux and his team would light up a scene where the Smurfs would be digitally added using 7 and one half-inch tall models to stand in during set-up and rehearsals. The actors know where the Smurf will be when it is animated later, so their eyelines will match. Besides, during the process the Imageworks visual effects team used a new camera system to precisely record the on-set lighting. So, it could be applied later in the computer. When time came to film a scene that would include actors and Smurfs, each Smurf was represented by a different colored dot and the actors had to remember which dot was which Smurf. The Smurf characters were created during post-production by 268 Sony Pictures Imageworks employees who spent around 358,000 hours animating. Character designer Allen Battino, a long time Kerner collaborator, was brought in to redesign the characters for CGI. The release date of The Smurfs is on July 29, 2011.

Movie Review

All the Smurfs get ready for the Blue Moon Festival. Papa Smurf sees a vision of the Smurfs in cages, Clumsy Smurf holding a dragon wand, and Gargamel being powerful. So, he decides to suspend Clumsy from picking Smurf Roots but Clumsy secretly does so anyway. However, Gargamel sees him and follows him into the village. He goes into the smurfs village and try to catch them for smurfs essences. He almost destroys the whole village by smacking his net to catch them. The Smurfs all flee, and Clumsy runs into a forbidden cave. Papa, Smurfette, Grouchy, Brainy and Gutsy notice this. Then, they follow him and find him at the edge of a cliff and all of them are trying to help him up. After that, they are sucked into a gigantic vortex, leading to New York Central Park. They meet Patrick and Grace, a married couple. They befriend with them and allow them to stay in their apartment. However, the evil magician, naming Gargamel and his cat, Azreal follow them to New York. Gargamel want to catch them for their Smurfs Essence.

Papa learns that he will be able to get them all home in a couple nights. But first, he must figure out the spell to do so. Patrick tells them that there is an old book store in the city, and they head there to get a spell book. After lots of searching, they find one of their own comic books, containing the spell.  Gargamel hears where they are, so he sneaks into the book store and finds a dragon wand, which he then steals. He uses the dragon wand to abduct Papa. The Smurfs promise Papa that they won't try to save him. However, Clumsy stayed behind, so he plans a rescue, along with Patrick. The other Smurfs agree to help. Meanwhile, Gargamel is going to take the Smurf essence from Papa and charge it into the dragon wand, which would make him more powerful than anything else in the world.

Patrick and the Smurfs battle Gargamel while Smurfette saves Papa. Besides, Brainy reads the spell and opens up the portal that allows him to go home and round up his friends. All smurfs gathers and try to attack Gargamel. Then, Gargamel captures Papa again and throws him into the air, but Patrick catches him. Right before Gargamel can destroy them both, Gutsy knocks the dragon wand out of his hand. Clumsy tries to catch it and Papa believes that he will fail. However, he manages to catch it. Without his dragon wand, Gargamel is powerless, and Papa destroys the wand once and for all and the Smurfs return home. Patrick and Grace have a baby boy, whom they name Blue, and the Smurfs rebuild their houses to look like what humans have.

Cultures in the Movie

 The Smurfs are mostly male and very short, about 3 medieval apples’ height/ They are blue skin, white trousers with a hole for their short tails, white hat in the style of a Phrygian cap. Sometimes, some additional accessories identify personalities of Smurfs. For example, Handy Smurf wears overalls instead of the standard trousers, a brimmed hat and a pencil above his ear. Besides, the leader of the village, Papa Smurf, can be identifiable by his red clothes and white beard. He is also the only Smurf to wear a red hat. Next, they love to eat sarsaparillam, which is a species of Smilax leaves and they eat berries too. Those berries in the Smurfs Village are naturally call "smurfberries".

In the Smurfs movie, the Smurf village is made up of mushroom-like houses of different shapes and sizes in a desolate and rocky land. Papa Smurf is the leader of the community. Other Smurfs are generally named after their personality disposition. For example, Brainy, Greedy, Vanity, Lazy, Clumsy and Grouchy. Another way to name them is according their profession. For example, Poet, Actor, Handy, Harmony, Farmer, Clockwork, Painter, Tailor, Miner, Architect, Reporter, Timber, Barber and Doctor Smurf. Other Smurf character includes  Smurfette. Smurfette was created by Gargamel to lure the other Smurfs. Papa Smurf then changed her into what a female Smurf. The Smurfs' community generally takes the form of a cooperative, sharing, and kind environment based on the principle that each Smurf has something he is good at and thus contributes it to Smurf society as he can. In return, each Smurf appears to be given their necessities of life, from housing and clothes to food without using any money in exchange. Besides, they like to sing their song when doing things. For example, they sing “Lalalalalala…Sing a happy song.. Lalalalalala.. Smurfs the all day long..” when they are working and they believes that sing when working will help them to make to job better and more efficient. Humans such as Gargamel are shown to live nearby, though it is almost impossible for an outsider to find the Smurf village except when led by a Smurf.

The Smurfs speak a very strange language. Some words are replaced by “Smurf”, as well as some of the verbs. A characteristic of the Smurf language is the frequent use of the word "Smurf" and its derivatives in a variety of meanings. The Smurfs replace enough nouns and verbs in everyday speech with "Smurf" as to make their conversations barely understandable. For example, "We're going smurfing on the River Smurf today." When used as a verb, the word "Smurf" typically means "to make," "to be," or "to do." Humans have found that replacing ordinary words with the term "Smurf" at random is not enough. Context offers a reliable understanding of this speech pattern, but common vocabulary includes remarking that something is "just smurfy" or "smurftastic". For instance, some Smurfs called a certain object a "bottle smurfer” while another Smurfs called it a "smurf opener". This story is considered a parody on the still ongoing language war.

We can see culture of magic too. Both Smurfs and Gargamel believe in spells and magic. When Papa Smurf is not being a leader, he loves to indulge in magical chemistry, alchemy and other field of knowledge too. Besides, Papa Smurf makes life-prolonging potions to save other smurfs who get themselves into trouble. Other than that, he also can view some visions in his room in order to predict what are going to happen and what should he do to avoid this. When those Smurfs are staying in New York City, they hope to go back their village and Papa say they need to use spells to make the blue moons rises and this will lead them to go back Smurfs Village. So, they need to find the Great Book of Spell in the bookstore. The Great Book of Spells can only be activated on the night of a full moon and from that point on will remain active for until the sun goes down the next day. On the other hand, Gargamel uses magic to create machine, get Smurfs Essences and do other things. The Smurfs Essences which in blue colour can help him to get what he want and become the most powerful magician in the world. 

On the other hand, when Smurfs go to New York City from their Smurfs Village, they find out another culture which is different from theirs. In New York City, people are busy with their work. For example, Patrick has enthusiasm towards his job and tries very hard to figure out new marketing strategy and poster for Anjelou, the cosmetics company he work to. He needs to sketch and design the poster himself. In Smurfs Village, they do things together and they are so corporative.  For example, they prepare for Blue Moon Festival together. Besides, the people in New York City do not believe in magic. People living in there believe in science and facts. They do not same with those Smurfs, believing in spells and magic. For example, they read spells and make the “tunnel” in order to go back to their village. Then, New York people wear formal when working and change different clothes after that. They do not same with Smurfs who wear the same thing every day. This is also a difference between both human and Smurfs. In the movie, when Smurfette knows that Grace has different dresses, she feels incredible and hope herself can have varies types of clothes too. Furthermore, they stay in their houses such as villa and apartments whereas Smurfs stay in their mushrooms. In language, New York people speak English without the usage of “Smurf” word. They will express their feeling by using the proper English and this will not confuse their listener and avoid misunderstanding.