A large number of females all around the world are really new to the idea of Technology and Entrepreneurship, due to the stereotype: ‘Girls who cook, Boys who code’.
For decades, women are seen as uneducated, incapable of running businesses and belong to the kitchen, when men are out in the business world, programming applications and have most of the right to pursue a career they want.
Is it reasonable, fair, and beneficial to continue this stereotype?
Or Must we debunk this stereotype and start encouraging women?
What is Technovation and How it fights the stereotype of girls towards innovation?
Technovation is an international program that offers girls all around the globe (in the age of 12 to 18) the opportunity of learning the skills to become tech entrepreneurs. This 12-weeks program invites girls to work in teams to identify any major or small problems in their community and create a mobile application to help solve the problems. At the end of the program, the teams are required to pitch their ideas to regional pitching events and determine the regional winners. In addition to that, we also submitted our work to the global judges for international competition.
The program focuses on four mains skills including:
Ideation (Identify a problem in the community)
Technology (Develop a mobile app solution)
Entrepreneurship (Build a business plan to launch the app)
Pitch (Bring the business to the market). – Technovation Challenge
From: Incarabia
The immense impact Technovation has made is hopeful for the future of Girls. According to Technovation Survey from participants, more girls are interested in Computer Science, Entrepreneurship and Business Leadership.
I’m presenting the features of Amara to the Judges during National Pitch Event.
Due to my interest in Business and Entrepreneurship, I have been joining Technovation for 3 years in a row. During these years, I have grown a lot in terms of understanding Entrepreneurial Concepts, Business Management, Leadership Skills and Embracing a team, Professional Pitching, and Public Speaking. After joining this program, I have developed a passion for Tech Entrepreneurship, because I see the need in my community and the great change that Tech Entrepreneurship can bring to my country, and the world.
What do you think when you hear about the filming and acting industry? Do you think about those famous actors/actresses in high-quality companies or do you think about plays in a theatre, TV Shows, or youtube videos?
Well, all of the things listed above have a lot of things in common, but one feature I want to highlight is the Art of Visual Storytelling.
What is Visual Storytelling?
Neo in a scene from ‘The Matrix’ movie. From: rgtxkent.com
When you watch your favorite movie and get so consumed, do you feel like you are in a completely different world? Like you are really going with the characters and their missions?
That is what Visual Storytelling does to the audience, is to get their attention, engagement and to deliver the audiences the best experience they can have from visual effects. It is a way of telling the story through elements that we can see in the film, not by words or texts.
Factors that Affect Story-Tellings & How You Can Learn to Make it Better
Story-telling can be impacted by many different effects that can be used to create a story and attract the senses of the audience, without relying on texts but by doing in Visually instead.
a. Lighting
Designed by Angely in Adobe Sparks
Lighting plays a really important role in story-telling because it has the power to create moods or tone that can provide a context of an emotion or situation of the story that we want to tell. In addition, lighting can communicate the traits of characters to the audience, sometimes even without the audience’s consciousness!
For example, when you see a silhouetted man that comes out of a dark shadow and his face is so dark, you can assume he is a bad guy from a dark family or background. Dark lights often used to depict emotions related to horror, thrilling, negative, sad or lonely. Sometimes, filmmakers use lighting to attract the viewer’s attention to the main subject that they want to highlight.
b. Editing/Visual Effects
Designed by Angely in Adobe Sparks
Since the editing technology has developed greatly throughout these several decades, filmmakers can use editing as a major tool to enhance their story-telling in movies and films. It can allow the quality of the film to go beyond what only Cameras can do. Editing can add abstract elements that the camera can’t take, making films with abstract ideas look more realistic.
c. Sound
Designed by Angely in Adobe Sparks
Out of the five of human’s senses, our brain can process sound faster than any other senses (-from Blog.Medel.com), which means the sound is an important feature to evoke the audience’s senses and bring their full attention and interest to the movie. A good movie has realistic sound effects that are made in either the studio by different props (famous companies like Disney has a studio full of the props to create sound effects) or in the real set. Filmmakers need to make sure that the sound is high-quality as always to ensure the quality of the whole film.
There are two types of sound in film, Diegetic and Non-Diegetic. Diagetic is the type of sound that is in the world of the stories including communication between characters, sounds from actions and more. Non-Diegetic is the sounds that aren’t in the world of the stories but are edited to communicate to the audiences.
d. Context/Background
Designed by Angely in Adobe Sparks
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Indeed, pictures we see in films tells us the story without using texts or speeches. The pictures communicate the stories to us in an interesting way that can bring our interest to the movies. That is why context and background in films are important, it shows the world of the story without using a lot of texts or speeches that usually bore the audience.
The Smith Family from ”Meet Me in St.Louise’. Notice how the context and background here tell you the status and type of the Smith Family and the situation that is going on with their lives in the scene. Photo from: Heights Theater
e. Color
Designed by Angely in Adobe Sparks
Do you feel the difference when you watch an old black and white movie and when you watch a vividly colored movie? Does it make you more engaged and understand the story better? According to Kendra Cherry, an educational consultant and psychology professor, Color is a powerful communication tool and can be used to signal action, influence mood, and even influence physiological reactions. Therefore, the right use of color to paint a story in films is crucial.
Do you feel a difference looking at this picture and the previous one? It is from the same movie, but notice how the colors can change your feelings. Photo from: Highlight Hollywood
f. Camera Angles/Different types of shots
Designed by Angely in Adobe Sparks
Although most of us don’t notice the way movies are shot, the angles that the actions are captured can have a powerful change to the way we view the stories.
For example, high angle shots make the character below the camera looks weak, sad, down or being beaten. It represents vulnerability, emphasizes the danger or adds tension to the story.
This is Dobby, a house-elf from the Harry Potter series. The director uses high angle shots to showcase the weakness and the tragedy in Doby’s life. Photo from: Studio Binder.
On the other hand, low angle shots make the character above looks powerful, confident and strong. Mostly, it is used to portray courageous heroes or characters who have more power and control than others.
This low angle shot from The Matrix is used to emphasize the control that these men have over Neon. Photo from: Studio Binder
These are just a few simple examples, but there are more to angles than we notice.
To conclude, filmmaking is a challenging process that requires creativity, understanding, and knowledge of the field. However, it can be a great tool to change people’s mindsets and convey important messages to the audience, therefore, creating the possibility of a better future.
Photo from: BBC Nordic
For more information or further learning: check out these great articles that I have cited in the post:
Losing someone you love is one of the most painful tragedies a person can encounter, whether that someone is your dearest teacher, friend, family member, life partner or colleagues. All individuals on Earth must have gone through this problem at least once in their life. When experiencing loss, it doesn’t always mean death, but also personal departures and other circumstances that take away our loved ones. This problem is one of the major problems that most people encounter because it can cause many mental health problems including depression, stress, and many more. It makes studying, working or just living hard and painful. So, how can we cope with those emotions after losing our loved one? How do we learn to take steps towards a new life? It might seem hard at first, but consider these following steps to help you and do not forget to stay COMMITTED throughout this whole journey to a new beautiful life.
All of the Steps to Help you to be Happy Again:
Self Awareness
First of all, we need to learn how to be self-aware. In this step, you can take a deep breath and learn to accept all of the truths about yourself and the situation. It’s totally normal to feel sad, just allow your emotions to come out because it is also an important part of being aware of your emotions and how to control it. During this step, it is important to keep out all of the accusations (either it is self-accusations or accusations for other people). Thinking about our or someone else’s fault is not going to help you to get that person back, so learn to keep out regrets and accusations out of your beautiful mind! Life is a maze with many different possibilities, the ones that we chose and the one we have never entered. This leaves us with the ‘What-ifs’ or the “If onlys”. But those thoughts only bring us pain and regrets which brings us nowhere. Life is full of everybody coming and leaving, so just let it be and learn to accept it (even though I know it is hard).
Expressing and Controlling Your Emotion
Grief is a hard process, so expressing your feelings is an extremely helpful way to help you cope with it. You can express your feelings through many different ways. The way that I suggest the most is writing your feelings down, in a diary or your personal journal. Writing is one of the best ways to express your emotions because you can release all of the details out on the paper which can be a good way for you to reflect back on the situation later. Sometimes, when you read that later, your perspective towards the situation might change a lot and it helps you to see how you were, how much you have improved, and how far you have come.
Another way of expressing ourselves is through verbal communication. You can find people whom you can trust or can relate to the topic the most to talk to and to let them help you. After you release all of your emotions, you are going to feel much better. Whew! On the other hand, if you just let the feelings and emotions eat you up inside and just hide it, I can assure you the situation can be worse because those negative feelings are really powerful. Don’t ever let them have control over you!
After that, you need to learn how to have control over your thoughts and emotions. I know that there might be a lot of negative feelings and thoughts after you lost someone. It is totally fine if you have them a lot at first, but you need to learn how to control it step by step. You need to learn not to let that pessimism overwhelms your mind. Try to take a step out of the darkness and another step into the light. One way of doing this is to try.
Start to Work Towards Goals
Losing someone you love is extremely hard to cope and is time-consuming. It is a huge obstacle that holds you back from completing your goals in life. So, you need to restart working towards your goals or you can create a new list of goals. Grab a sheet of paper, write down a list of things you think you can do to help you start again. You can try putting things like being social active again, join more social events, find new hobbies or you can spend more time with your hobbies. Focus more on yourself, you can try setting more goals that can allow you to take care of yourselves. Create some me-time and allow yourselves to do the things that you like. Hobbies or interests can help you a lot better.
Look Back to the Positive Sunshine
After allowing enough time for you to be sad and to grieve, you can start to look back into the positive sides. Please remind yourself of how the person that left you would want you to be. They would want you to be happy and strong to continue the journey without them. They trust you to continue the journey with a smile, so please make that come true. Think about how far you have come and listen to the words that the person who left has told you. I can assure you that you will definitely meet other new people that mean so much to you in the same way. Just allow some time for yourself to come back.
Allow yourself to find a new light, new journey, new hopes, and new possibilities. Although you have lost someone important, you can still be strong and happy to continue your own life. Start planning what are you going to do next. What is your next step for your life? Make some changes, take some risks, try new things, find light to your world. Usually, new things can lead you to unexpected and amazing destinations.
Lastly, let the past be and START A NEW JOURNEY!
Here is a website you can visit for more information on the five main stages of grief.
