week 2: cities in the movies

This week in class we talked about how cities are portrayed and shown in movies and how cities are organized. It was interesting to see how many different ways cities play a role in the movies. It is cool to see how just a landmark can tell you exactly what city the movie is talking place in. It helps to build an understanding in the movie and make things easier to follow.

I noticed the presence of landmarks a lot in the movie nation treasure. The movie is about a man who is searching for a treasure using a map from the back of the declaration of independence. A few major land marks in this movie were the Liberty Bell and the Washington Monument. These details help the audience  keep up with the constant movement of the movie and let them know what city the main character is in. The built environment of this shows many well know landmarks that lets you know where the movie is taking place. The environment in movies and tv shows help to give the audience a better idea of what is going on.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368891/

WEEK 1: How cities were formed

During week one in the class, we discussed how and why cities were formed in terms of the rise of civilizations. The subject that caught my eye in class was the diagrams of the different types of primitive cities that were formed based on the natural geography of the land.

The website I found is about the Jamestown settlement of 1607 in Virginia. The website discusses why the explorers picked the location of Jamestown island instead of other areas in the Hampton Roads area like, what is today Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Hampton, and Newport News. (Seeing as how I am from Hampton Roads, it was interesting to learn that during colonial eras, Roads were waterways that ships travelled, so it is according that the area is called "Hampton Roads" due to the high amounts of waterways.) But, the website basically explains that the colonists settled farther up the James River because the Jamestown island could be easily defended and sheltered from many elements including Spanish/Dutch/French attack, Native American attack, and from natural elements when docking supply ships.


http://www.virginiaplaces.org/vacities/7jamestown.html