1.
Alfred Hitchcock
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Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE was an English film director and producer, at times referred to as The Master of Suspense. He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres and he had a successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as Englands best director. Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939, and became a US citizen in 1955 and he also fashioned for himself a recognisable directorial style. Hitchcocks stylistic trademarks include the use of movement that mimics a persons gaze. In addition, he framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy and his work often features fugitives on the run alongside icy blonde female characters. Prior to 1980, there had long been talk of Hitchcock being knighted for his contribution to film, Hitchcock later received his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980 New Year Honours. Hitchcock directed more than fifty films in a career spanning six decades and is often regarded as one of the most influential directors in cinematic history. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else, Hitchcocks first thriller, The Lodger, A Story of the London Fog, helped shape the thriller genre in film. His 1929 film, Blackmail, is cited as the first British sound feature film, while Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest. Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone and he was the second son and the youngest of three children of William Hitchcock, a greengrocer and poulterer, and Emma Jane Hitchcock. He was named after his fathers brother, Hitchcock was raised as a Roman Catholic, and sent to Salesian College, Battersea, and the Jesuit grammar school St Ignatius College in Stamford Hill, London. His parents were both of half-English and half-Irish ancestry and he often described a lonely and sheltered childhood that was worsened by his obesity. Around age five, Hitchcock recalled that to him for behaving badly. This incident implanted a lifelong fear of policemen in Hitchcock, and such harsh treatment, sources vary on Hitchcocks performance in school. Gene Adair reports that by most accounts, Alfred was only an average, or slightly above-average, however, McGilligan writes that Hitchcock certainly excelled academically. When Hitchcock was 15, his father died, in that same year, he left St. Ignatius to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, London. After leaving, he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a company called Henleys. Hitchcock joined a regiment of the Royal Engineers in 1917
2.
Strangers on a Train (film)
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Strangers on a Train is a 1951 American psychological thriller film noir produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. It was shot in the autumn of 1950 and released by Warner Bros. on June 30 the next year, the film stars Farley Granger, Ruth Roman and Robert Walker, and features Leo G. Carroll, the directors daughter Pat Hitchcock and Laura Elliott. The film is number 32 on AFIs 100 Years, the story concerns two strangers who meet on a train, a young tennis player and a charming psychopath. The psychopath suggests that because they want to get rid of someone, they should exchange murders. The psychopath commits the first murder, and then tries to force the player to complete the bargain. Amateur tennis star Guy Haines wants to divorce his vulgar and promiscuous wife Miriam, so he can marry the elegant Anne Morton, the daughter of a senator, and hopefully have a career in politics. On a train, Haines accidentally meets Bruno Anthony, who recognizes Guy from the sports pages, Bruno tells Guy about his idea for the perfect murder scheme, the two should swap murders. Bruno will kill Miriam, and, in exchange, Guy will kill Brunos hated father, each murderer will kill a perfect stranger, having no identifiable motive, so neither will be suspected. Guy does not take Brunos suggestion seriously, he humors Bruno by pretending to find it amusing, Guy lets Bruno light a cigarette with his monogrammed cigarette lighter, instead of returning it, Bruno puts it in his own pocket. Guy meets with Miriam, who is pregnant by someone else and she tells him that she is no longer willing to agree to a divorce. She threatens to follow Guy to Washington, D. C. Guy calls Anne with the bad news and, speaking figuratively, tells her he would like to break neck. that he could strangle her. Meanwhile, Bruno follows Miriam and her two beaux to an amusement park, stalks her through various rides, and strangles her to death on the Magic Isle. Later, Bruno tells Guy that Miriam is dead and that Guy must honor his part of the deal, Bruno sends Guy his house key, a map to his fathers room, and a pistol. Senator Morton, Annes father, informs Guy that his wife has been murdered, the police do not arrest Guy, but assign a police escort to ensure he does not flee while they continue to investigate. To pressure Guy into fulfilling his obligation, Bruno introduces himself to Anne, soon after, Bruno appears at a party at Senator Mortons house. To amuse another guest, Bruno demonstrates how to strangle someone by playfully putting his hands around her neck and his gaze falls upon Annes sister Barbara, who physically resembles Miriam. Her resemblance to Miriam triggers a flashback, staring at Barbara, he begins actually strangling the guest, and then blacks out. Barbara tells Anne, His hands were on her throat, and her suspicions aroused, Anne confronts Guy, who tells her the truth about Brunos crazy scheme
3.
Performing arts
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Performing arts are a form of art in which artists use their voices and/or their bodies, often in relation to other objects, to convey artistic expression. It is different from visual arts, which is when artists use paint/canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects, performing arts include several disciplines, each performed in front of a live audience. Artists who participate in performing arts in front of an audience are called performers, examples of these include actors, comedians, dancers, magicians, circus artists, musicians, and singers. Performing arts are supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting, choreography. A performer who excels in acting, singing, and dancing is commonly referred to as a triple threat, well-known examples of historical triple threat artists include Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Judy Garland. Performers often adapt their appearance, such as costumes and stage makeup, stage lighting. Performing arts may include dance, music, opera, theatre and musical theatre, magic, illusion, mime, spoken word, puppetry, circus arts, performance art, recitation and public speaking. There is also a form of fine art, in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. Most performance art also involves some form of art, perhaps in the creation of props. Dance was often referred to as an art during the Modern dance era. Theatre is the branch of performing arts, concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience, using a combination of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound, any one or more of these elements is performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative style of plays. In the context of performing arts, dance generally refers to movement, typically rhythmic and to music. Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social, cultural, aesthetic artistic and moral constraints and range from functional movement to codified, in dance, the connection between the two concepts is stronger than in some other arts, and neither can exist without the other. Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who practices this art is called a choreographer, music is an art form which combines pitch, rhythm, and dynamic in order to create sound. It can be performed using a variety of instruments and styles and is divided into genres, as an art form, music can occur in live or recorded formats, and can be planned or improvised. Starting in the 6th century BC, the Classical period of performing art began in Greece and these poets wrote plays which, in some cases, incorporated dance. The Hellenistic period began the use of comedy
4.
Celebrity
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Celebrity status is often associated with wealth, while fame often provides opportunities to make money. Successful careers in sports and entertainment are commonly associated with celebrity status, People may also become celebrities due to media attention on their lifestyle, wealth, or controversial actions, or for their connection to a famous person. Throughout recorded history there are accounts of people who attracted the trappings of celebrity which would be recognized today, athletes in Ancient Greece were welcomed home as heroes, had songs and poems written in their honor, and received free food and gifts from those seeking celebrity endorsement. Ancient Rome similarly lauded actors and notorious gladiators, and Julius Caesar appeared on a coin in his own lifetime, in the 12th century, Thomas Becket became famous following his murder. He was promoted by the Christian Church as a martyr and images of him, the cult of personality can be traced back to the Romantics in the 18th Century, whose livelihood as artists and poets depended on the currency of their reputation. The establishment of cultural hot-spots became an important factor in the process of generating fame, for example, London, newspapers started including gossip columns and certain clubs and events became places to be seen in order to receive publicity. The movie industry spread around the globe in the first half of the 20th Century, yet, celebrity wasnt always tied to actors in films, especially when cinema was starting out as a medium. The second half of the century saw television and popular music bring new forms of celebrity, such as the rock star, unlike movies, television created celebrities who were not primarily actors, for example, presenters, talk show hosts and news readers. In the sixties and early seventies the book publishing industry began to persuade major celebrities to put their names on autobiographies and other titles in a genre called celebrity publishing. In most cases the book was not written by the celebrity but by a ghost-writer, cultures and regions with a significant population may have their own independent celebrity systems, with distinct hierarchies. For example, the Canadian province of Quebec, which is French-speaking, has its own system of French-speaking television, movie, a person who garners a degree of fame in one culture may be considered less famous or obscure in another. S. Whereas the francophone Canadian singer Celine Dion is well known in both the French-speaking world and in the United States, regions within a country, or cultural communities can also have their own celebrity systems, especially in linguistically or culturally distinct regions such as Quebec or Wales. Regional radio personalities, newscasters, politicians or community leaders may be local or regional celebrities and these informal rankings indicate a placing within a hierarchy. However, due to differing levels of celebrity in different regions, a Brazilian actor might be a B-list action film actor in the U. S. but an A-list star in Portugal. Some elements are associated with fame, such as appearing on the cover of Time, being spoofed in Mad, having a wax statue in Madame Tussauds, certain people are known even to people unfamiliar with the area in which they excelled. If one has to name a famous boxer, they are likely to name Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson. The same phenomenon is true for fictional characters, superman, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Wonder Woman and Batman represent super heroes to a far wider audience than that of the comics and graphic novels in which they appear. Disney have themeparks around the world rely on the fame of its creations headed by Mickey Mouse
5.
Film director
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A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a films artistic and dramatic aspects, the director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking. Under European Union law, the director is viewed as the author of the film, the film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized, or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions, there are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, film editors or actors, other film directors have attended a film school. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors dialogue, while others control every aspect. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners, some directors edit or appear in their films, or compose the music score for their films. Film directors create a vision through which a film eventually becomes realized/noticed. Realizing this vision includes overseeing the artistic and technical elements of production, as well as directing the shooting timetable. This entails organizing the crew in such a way as to achieve their vision of the film. This requires skills of leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus even in the stressful. Moreover, it is necessary to have an eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, thus. Thus the director ensures that all involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. The set of varying challenges he or she has to tackle has been described as a jigsaw puzzle with egos. It adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when, omnipresent are the boundaries of the films budget. Additionally, the director may also have to ensure an intended age rating, thus, the position of film director is widely considered to be a highly stressful and demanding one. It has been said that 20-hour days are not unusual, under European Union law, the film director is considered the author or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory. Auteur theory is a film criticism concept that holds that a directors film reflects the directors personal creative vision
6.
Athlete
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An athlete or sportsman is a person who is good at a sport and competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed or endurance. The terms application to those who participate in activities, such as horse riding or driving, is somewhat controversial. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs, most professional athletes have particularly well-developed physiques obtained by extensive physical training and strict exercise accompanied by a strict dietary regimen. The word athlete is a romanization of the Greek, άθλητὴς, athlētēs, one who participates in a contest, from ἄθλος, áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, athletes involved in isotonic exercises have an increased mean left ventricular end-diastolic volume and are less likely to be depressed. Due to their strenuous physical activities, athletes are far more likely than the population to visit massage salons and pay for services from massage therapists. An all-around athlete is a person who competes in sports at a high level. Examples of people who played numerous sports professionally include Jim Thorpe, Lionel Conacher, Deion Sanders, Danny Ainge and Babe Zaharias. Others include Ricky Williams, Bo Jackson, and Damon Allen, japanese athletes such as Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita, Masakatsu Funaki and Naoya Ogawa have successfully competed in both professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. The title of Worlds Greatest Athlete traditionally belongs to the worlds top competitor in the decathlon and heptathlon in track and field. The decathlon consists of 10 events,100 meters, long jump, shot put, high jump,400 meters,110 m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, and 1500 m. The heptathlon consists of seven events, the 100 m hurdles, high jump, shot put,200 meters, long jump, javelin, and 800 meters. These competitions require an athlete to possess the whole spectrum of ability in order to be successful including speed, strength, coordination, jumping ability. Although the title Worlds Greatest Athlete seems a natural fit for these two events, its association with the decathlon/heptathlon officially began with Jim Thorpe. During the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, Thorpe won the medal in the Decathlon. Thorpe notably also competed professionally in soccer, baseball, American Football, and basketball, and competed collegiately in track and field, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, and did ballroom dancing. King Gustav V of Sweden, while awarding Thorpe the decathlon gold said, You and that title has become associated with the decathlon event ever since. Outdoor enthusiast Jock Athlete of the Year Suresh Joachim Multiple Guinness World Record holder
7.
Musician
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A musician is a person who plays a musical instrument or is musically talented. Anyone who composes, conducts, or performs music may also be referred to as a musician, Musicians can specialize in any musical style, and some musicians play in a variety of different styles. Examples of a musicians possible skills include performing, conducting, singing, composing, arranging, in the Middle Ages, instrumental musicians performed with soft ensembles inside and loud instruments outdoors. Many European musicians of this time catered to the Roman Catholic Church, providing arrangements structured around Gregorian chant structure, vocal pieces were in Latin—the language of church texts of the time—and typically were Church-polyphonic or made up of several simultaneous melodies. Giovanni Palestrina Giovanni Gabrieli Thomas Tallis Claudio Monteverdi Leonardo da Vinci The Baroque period introduced heavy use of counterpoint, vocal and instrumental “color” became more important compared to the Renaissance style of music, and emphasized much of the volume, texture and pace of each piece. George Frideric Handel Johann Sebastian Bach Antonio Vivaldi Classical music was created by musicians who lived during a time of a middle class. Many middle-class inhabitants of France at the time lived under long-time absolute monarchies, because of this, much of the music was performed in environments that were more constrained compared to the flourishing times of the Renaissance and Baroque eras. This age included the initial transformations of the Industrial Revolution, a revolutionary energy was also at the core of Romanticism, which quite consciously set out to transform not only the theory and practice of poetry and art, but the common perception of the world. Some major Romantic Period precepts survive, and still affect modern culture, in 20th-century music, composers and musicians rejected the emotion-dominated Romantic period, and strove to represent the world the way they perceived it. Musicians wrote to be. objective, while objects existed on their own terms, while past eras concentrated on spirituality, this new period placed emphasis on physicality and things that were concrete. The advent of recording and mass media in the 20th century caused a boom of all kinds of music—popular music, rock music, electronic music, folk music. Singer Composer Music artist Tour Manager Media related to Musicians at Wikimedia Commons
8.
Oxford English Dictionary
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The Oxford English Dictionary is a descriptive dictionary of the English language, published by the Oxford University Press. The second edition came to 21,728 pages in 20 volumes, in 1895, the title The Oxford English Dictionary was first used unofficially on the covers of the series, and in 1928 the full dictionary was republished in ten bound volumes. In 1933, the title The Oxford English Dictionary fully replaced the name in all occurrences in its reprinting as twelve volumes with a one-volume supplement. More supplements came over the years until 1989, when the edition was published. Since 2000, an edition of the dictionary has been underway. The first electronic version of the dictionary was available in 1988. The online version has been available since 2000, and as of April 2014 was receiving two million hits per month. The third edition of the dictionary will probably appear in electronic form, Nigel Portwood, chief executive of Oxford University Press. As a historical dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary explains words by showing their development rather than merely their present-day usages, therefore, it shows definitions in the order that the sense of the word began being used, including word meanings which are no longer used. The format of the OEDs entries has influenced numerous other historical lexicography projects and this influenced later volumes of this and other lexicographical works. As of 30 November 2005, the Oxford English Dictionary contained approximately 301,100 main entries, the dictionarys latest, complete print edition was printed in 20 volumes, comprising 291,500 entries in 21,730 pages. The longest entry in the OED2 was for the verb set, as entries began to be revised for the OED3 in sequence starting from M, the longest entry became make in 2000, then put in 2007, then run in 2011. Despite its impressive size, the OED is neither the worlds largest nor the earliest exhaustive dictionary of a language, the Dutch dictionary Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal is the worlds largest dictionary, has similar aims to the OED and took twice as long to complete. Another earlier large dictionary is the Grimm brothers dictionary of the German language, begun in 1838, the official dictionary of Spanish is the Diccionario de la lengua española, and its first edition was published in 1780. The Kangxi dictionary of Chinese was published in 1716, trench suggested that a new, truly comprehensive dictionary was needed. On 7 January 1858, the Society formally adopted the idea of a new dictionary. Volunteer readers would be assigned particular books, copying passages illustrating word usage onto quotation slips, later the same year, the Society agreed to the project in principle, with the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. He withdrew and Herbert Coleridge became the first editor, on 12 May 1860, Coleridges dictionary plan was published and research was started
9.
Cameo (carving)
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Cameo is a method of carving an object such as an engraved gem, item of jewellery or vessel made in this manner. It nearly always features a relief image, contrast with intaglio. Today the term may be used loosely for objects with no colour contrast. This derives from another generalized meaning that has developed, the cameo as an image of a head in a frame in any medium. In cheaper modern work, shell and glass are more common, glass cameo vessels, such as the famous Portland Vase, were also developed by the Romans. Modern cameos can be produced by setting a carved relief, such as a portrait and this is called an assembled cameo. Sometimes dyes are used to enhance these colours, sir Wallis Budge alleged that the noun Cameo apparently comes from Kameo, a word used in kabbalistic slang to signify a magical square, i. e. A kind of talisman whereupon magical spells was carved, stone cameos of great artistry were made in Greece dating back as far as the 3rd century BC. The Farnese Tazza is the oldest major Hellenistic piece surviving and they were very popular in Ancient Rome, especially in the family circle of Augustus. Roman Cameos became less common around in the leading up to 300AD although production continued at a much reduced rate right through the Middle Ages. The technique has since enjoyed periodic revivals, notably in the early Renaissance, the Neoclassical revival began in France with Napoleons support of the glyptic arts, and even his coronation crown was decorated with cameos. In 1852 Théophile Gautier titled a collection of his highly polished, during the Roman period the cameo technique was used on glass blanks, in imitation of objects being produced in agate or sardonyx. Cameo glass objects were produced in two periods, between around 25 BC and 50/60 AD, and in the later Empire around the mid-third and mid-fourth century. Roman glass cameos are rare objects, with only two hundred fragments and sixteen complete pieces known, only one of which dates from the later period. Blanks could be produced by fusing two separately cast sheets of glass, or by dipping the base glass into a crucible of molten overlay glass during blowing, the most famous example of a cameo from the early period is the Portland Vase. Although occasionally used in Roman cameos, the earliest prevalent use of shell for carving was during the Renaissance. Before that time, cameos were carved from hardstone, the Renaissance cameos are typically white on a grayish background and were carved from the shell of a mussel or cowry, the latter a tropical mollusk. In the mid 18th century, explorations revealed new shell varieties, helmet shells from the West Indies, and queen conch shells from the Bahamas and West Indies, arrived in Europe
