But they took on a heightened intensity in early 2014, after Russia's intervention in Ukraine and the U.S. sanctions that followed.
Seen through his eyes, events take on a heightened, supernatural aspect, just as Ridley's vision of the prairie takes to horrific extremes the southern gothic aesthetic found in Flannery O'Connor's stories and Edward Hopper's more ominous rural paintings.
But while the academy had been taking incremental steps to broaden its membership both domestically and internationally for years, Hudson says that effort took on a heightened urgency this year in the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.
He said some bases had been placed on a heightened alert.
The contrasts of stillness, slowness and speed take on a heightened intensity.
That threat caused the United States to go on a heightened alert.
Cameron, new to office, spent the last part of 2010 being briefed on a heightened terrorist threat to the UK.
At the start of the Iraq war, South Korea placed its armed forces on a heightened alert.
Here's what he told Mark Olsen, of the L.A. Times: "The movie, on a heightened, abstract level, is autobiographical," Bronstein said.
Gallagher lowered his price target to $22, down from $30, on a heightened risk profile due to uncertainty over the companys ratings, the amount of capital it may need "and the ultimate cost of a de-risking strategy especially for its credit default swap business".
Gray said accreditors put many of the company's campuses on a "heightened monitoring" status.
