Comm Media

Film Critical Viewing Guide: A Persistant Vision

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1. Subject: The subject is difficult decide. I believe that the subject was the background to the animation; the blue tiles are the primary subject. It is the only thing/person that appears throughout the whole film. It is a bit confusing to spot the subject; some may think its the children, while others may think that it is the horse that starts the animation. Even so, the blue tile background created by the children appears on every scene, with different other props around it. It's importance is that it connects the animation to the people in the short film; the background connects everything as a convention.

2. Theme: The theme of the film is creativity. It shows the kids working hard and the steps it takes to create a film. It shows simple things that look so interesting when put in the film. It also shows the ending result of completing a creative work or moving art.

3. Acting: The acting was simple. It did not need to be anything special. It was simply the two boys working on the animation. It was believable and far from over the top. It was simple yet perfect.

4. Dialogue: There was no talking.

5. Settings: The setting changes throughout the film. First it is a room where the boys actually create the animation. It then switches to the blue tile background. It finally shows the animation being showed at a film festival. Each setting shows a different aspect/view on the animation. It helps the viewer distinguish what is going on and who is watching it.

6. Lighting: It was first practical lighting. However, during the animation it turned to a brighter light, a cheaper light. In the end, it was obviously dark outside with just the reel and the film being the only source of light. Just like the setting, the light distinguishes the different views of the animation.

7. Sound: The first sound is not during the actual film, but in the title page of the film. It is the sound of a reel as it rolls and the movie plays. This is to help serve as an intro to the short film. The only noticable sound, other than the music, was the water droplet sound as the clay-ish drops splattered around. It was useful because it told the audience what the blue blobs were, as opposed to just random blue clay pieces.

8. Music: The music is simple. It is very childlike, with higher notes and a frolicky feeling to it. This is to help with the whole theme of creativity, and it goes great with every scene. It fits well with the animation.

9. Cinematography: The camera, rather than cutting the film over and over again to show the passage of time, goes up. It is as if you cut off a wall of an apartment building, and film the bottom apartment and move the camera up until you film the top apartment. This happens slowly until the editing eventually cuts to inside the box/cage that the children were working on when you get to the last room. The editing is then obvious, as they cut from picture to picture. It In the end, the camera zooms out of the box, turns black, and eventually cuts to a scene where kids are watching what the audience was watching a second ago.

10. Special Effects: The toys moving in the animation was the only special effect. however, the viewer sort of gets to see how this is done during the beginning scenes. Even so, the effect is a simple animation created by two boys.

11. Editing: The cuts were seperated by a black rectangle, which gave the illusion that the camera was simply filming up a building, representing time passing. The editing also zooms in and out to switch scenes. It will zoom into something smaller in the picture, and then zoom out, having that picture become something from another scene. An example of this is when the camera zoomed in, and then zoomed out and shows the reel, zoomed in again, and zoomed out to the reel playing in the park.

12. Overall direction: Everything was well put together. It is a simple, yet wonderful film. The music went well with the actions, and nothing was overdone to keep the simplicity and childlikeness of it all.

posted by maggie @ 9:01 AM 0 comments

Film Reviews

1) Select two recent big budget films (one a success, the other a failure) and two recent small independent films (one a success, the other a failure).
Enchanted - big budget success
Hitman - big budget failure
I for India- low budget success
Slipstream- low budget failure


2) Isolate the major elements of each of the four filmes: Genre? Attractions (big name actors, directors, special effects, familiar story?) How marketed? Critical acclaim? Analyze information, and compare elements to find patterns in success and failure.

Enchanted:
Genre: fantasy, family, comedy, musical, romance
Attractions: original, disney
It was the first movie of its kind. It was a disney movie that brought the fantasy, cartoon world into the real world. It was also a movie for people of all ages, with instances in the movie that anyone could enjoy. There were fight scenes, love scenes, and comedic scenes. Not to mention, the movie had commercials play on a variety of channels, as well as special, longer commercials on the disney channel. Simply because the movie is a disney movie in theatres, its automaticlaly appealing to families with children. The movie was ahead of the game from the beginning.


Hitman:
Genre:action, crime, thriller
Attractions: based off of a video game
The plot was hard to follow, compared to the original story it lacked everything, and there are no surprises. According to critics, it was just a bunch of senseless violence, and not even the entertaining kind. It was already expected to be horrible before the critics even saw it. It was violent for no reason, and was "100 minutes of soul-crushing nothingness".


I for India:
Genre: documentary
I for India was a very good movie according to critics.
Almost every critic loved this movie. It was heartwarming and had good insight on the migration of a totally different culture into America. One of the main characters of the movie is a little Indian girl. She is still growing up, but started to grow up with a strong Indian culture. Therefore, her change when coming to America, and seeing all of the new, different things was quite an experiance. The audiance is able to relate to her and her emotions. Critics called the movie "perseptive and powerful", "intriguing, moving and relevant", and a "rewarding documentary".

Slipstream:
Genre: drama
Attractions: Anthony Hopkins
People thought that this was going to be a good movie because Anthony Hopkins has a good rep in the fiml industry. He not only directed the movie but he acted in it as well. However, the plot was too much. It was impossible to follow which took away from it all.Critics called it "miserable", "annoying", and "an extremely limited appeal". However, Roger Ebert said that it was the "year's most experimental film". It wasn't like any movie of its kind, but the overall consensious was that it was not good. Though some critics enjoyed it, the majority had a problem with its complexity and oddness.

3) Based on your findings, is box office success a reliable indicator of how good a movie really is?
Box offices are not a reliable indicator of how good a movie is. The Box office simply states which movies did the best in sales for the week. However, most movie-goers are consumer watchers. This means that most of the people that pay to go to watch movies in theaters watch the movie because it looks good, their favorite actor is in it, or it is simply enjoyable to their taste in movies. Most people do not watch movies for the great editing and the superb choice in props. Most simply watch movies for entertainment purposes. Even if the movie stinks, if the movie had a really good commercial or a really famous actor, people will see it the first week, causing it to look good in the box office.

HELPFUL SITES
current news on film industry
allmovie
hollywoodreporter
allmovie
rottentomatoes

posted by maggie @ 8:09 AM 0 comments

Reaction to Chapter Six

It was interesting to find out about how cable actually gets to the television sets. I sort of always wondered, though I never actually thought about it more than the satellites aspect of it. Finding out about the transponders being the part that actually submits the information. Also, the geosynchronous orbit that the satellite travels around. I never really thought about the satellite worked in relation to the earth's orbit and rotating. I have one of those cable networks which give you hundreds of channels. It was interesting to read about the different types of networks, as well as the different channels. I did not know that PPv could cost around forty dollars for a show! I also did not think about the different variety of channels that are available. I simply thought that there was basic television, and cable. i did not know that basic cable were the public channels. I thought that if you only had those channels, that you did not have cable at all. I also did not know about superstations, I simply knew about the channel superstation that I used to watch Saved by the Bell on. I liked being able to relate what I learned to my past cable experiance.

Vocabulary :
---from Chapter Six in Media & Culture: an introduction to mass communication (fifth edition) by Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos
1. CATV (community antenna television): an early cable system that originated where mountains or tall buildings blocked TV signals
2. geosynchronous orbit: the orbit in space, 22,300 miles above the earth, where communication satellites traveling about 6800 mi/hr can maintain the same position/footprint above the earth as the planet rotates its axis
3. transponders: the relay points on a communication satellite that receive and transmit telephone and television signals
4. must-carry rules: rules established by the FCC requiring all cable operators to assign channels to and carry all local TV broadcasts on their systems thereby assuring the local network affiliates, independent stations, and public television channels would benefit from cable's clearer reception
5. access channels: in cable television, a tier of nonbroadcast channels dedicated to local education, government, and the public
6. leased channels: in cable television, channels that allow citizens to buy time for producing programs or presenting their own viewpoints
7. electronic publishers: a communication business, such as a broadcaster or a cable TV company, that is entitled to choose what channels or content to carry
8. common carriers: a communication or transportation business, such as a phone company or taxi service, that is required by law to offer service on a first-come, first-served basis to whoever can pay the rate; such companies to not get involved in content
9. retransmission consent: consent periodically given by commercial broadcast stations permitting cable companies to retransmit their signal on cable, usually in exchange for monetary compensation from the cable companies
10. Telecommunication Act of 1996: the sweeping update of telecommunications law that led to a wave of media consolidation
11. narrowcasting: any specialized electronic programming or media channel aimed at a target audience
12. basic cable: in cable programming, a tier of channels composed of local broadcast signals, nonbroadcast access channels (for local gov't, education, and general public use), a few regional PBS stations, and a variety of popular channels downlinked from communication satellites
13. superstations: local independent TV stations, such as WTBS in Atlanta or WGN in Chicago, that have uplinked their signals onto a communication satellite to make themselves available nationwide
14. premium cable: in cable programming, a tier of channels that subscribers can order at an additional monthly fee over their basic cable service
15. pay-per-view (PPV): a cable-television service that allows customers to select a particular movie for a fee, or to pay $25-$40 for a special onetime event
16. video-on-demand (VOD): cable television technology that enables viewers to instantly order programming such as movies to be digitally delivered to their sets
17: interactive cable television: two-way cable channels that enable users to connect to their local services, such as banks and the fire department, and also offer two-way entertainment, such as play-along versions of game shows and the ability to guess the next play during a football game
18: cable music: the commercial-free, format-music services offered via cable or DBS
19. direct broadcast satellites (DBS): satellite-based services that for a monthly fee downlink hundreds of satellite channels and services; they began distributing video programing directly to households in 1994
20. multiple-system operators (MSOs): large corporations that own numerous cable television systems

posted by maggie @ 6:43 PM 0 comments

Reflections on Television and Cable

Are reality shows real?
Reality TV shows are based off of the real life of people. However, what the viewers see is not what would normally happen if the people were not being filmed for entertainment purposes. The people behind the scenes of the show most likely, in the very least, influence the characters of the reality show. The characters seem as if they were either told exactly what to do, or simply prompted to do something or to act a certain way. For example, if Tom got in a fight with Amber, but was about to forgive her, the director could convince him that he should not forgive her. Obviously some scenes are a bit more complicated than that. Even so, sometimes shows make it fairly obvious that they were at least partially scripted. Even if what was being shown was the truth, the editing could easily leave out certain parts. The editors could only show certain scenes that would make things appear one sided. Every reality show usually has a good guy, while every reality show always has a bad guy. Most people are not horrible people in reality. Everyone has both good and bad sides. Therefore, the people that viewers watch as always being nasty and making horrible decisions may only appear that way because those are the only type of scene chosen to be shown.
Reality shows are not fully script. However, I would not exactly call them real.

Have you ever liked a television show that was cancelled? Which one?
Hey, Arnold was a cartoon show that aired on old-school Nickelodeon for a couple of years. Even at the age of 17, I can honestly say that it is one of my favorite shows of all time. However, right when the orphaned Arnold found a map that could prove through an adventure that his parents were not dead but lost, the show ended. I love that show, and everyone that I spoke to that watched it loved that show as well. Though the cartoon started slow, it progressed and got better and better with every year that it aired. Even the drawings improved as technology improved throughout the years. I suppose that the show wanted to end strong; the writers and others did not want to "kill it". The people behind the scenes probably wanted to leave the show with a bang, rather than let the show overplay and grow old.

What problems do TV ratings systems hope to solve? Can you think of an alternative?
TV ratings seem to want to prevent the younger generation from being corrupt; the ratings hope to prevent a twelve year old from watching a movie with showy sex scenes, drug usage, and horribly profain language. The movie industry does not want to be responsible for teaching the upcoming generation about the vulgar things in life that they should not come in contact with for a while. However, I do not think that they are efficient. In fact, I think that they are unfair. Anyone can rent a movie from Blockbuster. They usually ID for R-rated movies. However, a PG-13 movie can easily be rented by a ten year old. PG-13 movies are rarely pushed to only viewers at least thirteen years of age. Every age seems to be watching PG-13 movies fairly easily. On the other hand, R-rated movies are a bit harder to come to watch if you are under age. Most chain theaters check for IDs. They won't even let you buy a ticket for someone else if you are not above the age of 21. Even so, there are always those theaters that let some underage people into such movies. Not to mention, the theaters that do check are sometimes a bit too strict. One time, an older woman who could not speak english was at the theater with her daughter. Her daughter was 17, but was the one speaking because she knew english. However, the cashier would not let her purchase an extra ticket for her mother, despite the fact that her obviously older-than-17 mother was present. This was because she was supposed to be at least 21 to buy a ticket for someone else. Luckily, someone else bought the ticket for her. Even so, the ratings can be a bit outrageous.
I think that ratings should exist to preview to the potential viewer what kind of content would be in the movie. However, I think that it should be the parent's decision to whether or not their child can watch it. Also, I think that 17 is a bit old to be the starting age for many movies. People as young as ten watch rated R movies with their parents. Many times, younger high schoolers want to, and are allowed to, watch rated R movies, but can not get inside. Nowadays, people know about the things in a rated-R movie a lot younger than they used to. Therefore, that rating should be altered.
The ratings should also be updated. For example, in Sixteen Candles, a woman's bare chest is shown. However, the movie is rated PG. Movies made in the present day that show nudity like that are usually rated R. Because it is an older movie, the rating is lower. I'm sure that there are many other instances as well. Therefore, the movie rating system for some movies is too primitive and should be rechecked.

posted by maggie @ 8:20 AM 0 comments

VAL survey

ME
Experiencer/MakerYour primary VALS type is Experiencer, and your secondary type is Maker.The primary VALS type represents your dominant approach to life. The secondary classification represents a particular emphasis you give to your dominant approach.Want to learn more about VALS™?Get our Understanding U.S. Consumers handbook.




TV CHARACTER

posted by maggie @ 9:17 AM 0 comments

Quiz Show Reaction

I'm not surprised that there has been a major Quiz show scandal in the past. Game shows are interesting at first; however, after a while the show gets repetative. Viewers lose interest after watching a certain number of episodes. However, when people tend to have a winning streak, it rekindles the interest of many viewers, as well as ignites the interest of others. For example, the semi-recent day Ken Jennings won for weeks on Jeopardy. He set the record for the most money earned, and has had the longest appearance on the show. He was just an ordinary man, and it amazed people to watch how he got so many questions correct and beat so many people. I'm not saying that it was fixed; I'm simply stating that more people watched the show while he was a contestant. 27 new what they were doing. A quiz show does not exist simply so that people can earn money and compete. The main reason for the show is so that the people behind the scenes can earn money from the ratings. It is obvious to why the people in charge of 27 planned for certain people to win in order to get higher ratings. People agree to be those contestants that get the answers; they could easily say no. It is as much their fault as it is of the 27 people. America could not have been that shocked; it is all very believable and understandable why the people did it. Though it was not very ethical, people are people. It's just not very surprising to what happened. I agree with the counsel members that gave props toVan Doren telling the truth. It was a very difficult thing. He already proved that he was not the most ethical person, as many people are. It is sad, but it is the truth. He therefore could have easily kept the lie going on that he wa not part of the scandal. Most people believed that he was innocent, he knew many of the answers without the extra aid, and he eventually stopped the dishonesty in his competing. Also, it would ruin both of his jobs, his reputations, as well as his family's reputation. Despite the odds, he proved that he was an ethical, honest person in the end. He risked everything for the truth.
Present day game shows do not have a person winning for a long period of time. Many shows are not made in that format. A lot of game shows today, like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, have the contestant competing with themself or with time. However, there are plenty of shows, like Jeopardy, that have others competing with other people. Both types of shows can be easily rigged. However, I believe that the industry has evolved. There aren't many game shows nowadays as there was in the past. Today consists mostly of reality TV shows. Similarly, reality TV shows are supposed to be real. However, they could be scripted for better ratings, or only show half the truth for the ratings. Is this wrong? Any type of television show is in it for the ratings. It just depends what they do to get those good ratings.

posted by maggie @ 8:19 AM 0 comments

Reaction to Chapter Five

Though it make sound odd, but I've never thought of what the abbreviated sitcom stood for. Now that I know, it seems blatantly obvious that it stands for situation comedy; however, I had no clue before this chapter. I learned how I Love Lucy was one of the first shows to be produced in California (where almost all network shows are now shot), as well as the first show to appear on film. I love the fact that I Love Lucy still plays today, and is a sitcom that is adored by countless people of ALL ages.
I also love how recent this book is. I did not know why the WB seemed to randomly change into the CW network; this only happened maybe a year ago I found out that both Viacom (UPN) and Time Warner (the WB) lost one billion each, and therefore decided to merge the most popular shows from the two networks in fall 2006.
The statistic that about 90 percent of new shows are canceled each season because of low ratings or failure to reach the "right" demographic was very surprising to me. The new shows that I hear about usually survive for a while. I sort of feel bad for the people in charge of making and producing the show. It costs a lot of money to make a show and for the air time. Not only are the makers of the show losing out, but the network is losing as well. I was surprised at what a high number it was. I had no idea.
I felt very bad for PBS. PBS was created for people who can't afford costly channels; PBS tried to provide the type of educational programming. However, this was not attractive to advertisers. Thus meaning that the government did not give a lot of money to public television. PBS has had to seek more funding from corporate sponsors. This led more to programs promoting corporate concerns, and to the rejection of controversial programming criticizing business and industry. I love watching Arthur on PBS!

Vocabulary :
---from Chapter Five in Media & Culture: an introduction to mass communication (fifth edition) by Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos
1. prime time: in television programming, the hours between 8 and 11 P.M (or 7 and 10 P.M. in the Midwest), when networks have traditionally drawn their largest audiences and charged their highest advertising rates
2. VHF: very high frequency; channels 2-13
3. UHF: ultrahigh frequency; channels 14-69
4. analog: see Chapter 4
5. digital: see Chapter 4
6. affiliate stations: radio or TV staions that, though independently owned, sign a contract to be part of a network and receive money to carry the network's programs; in exchange, the networ reserves time slots, which it sells to national advertisers
7. TV newsmagazines: a TV news program format that features multiple segments in an hour long episode
8. kinescope: before the days of videotape, a 1950s technique for preserving television broadcasts by using a film camera to record a live TV show off a studio monitor
9. sketch comedy: short television comedy skuts that are usually segments of TV variety shows
10. situation comedy (sitcom): a type of comedy series that features a recurring cast and set as well as several narrative scenes; each episode establishes a situation, complicates it, develops increasing confusion among its characters, and then resolves the complications
11. domestic comedy: a TV hybrid of the sitcom in which characters and settings are usually more important than complicated situationsl it generally features a domestic problem or work issue that characters have to solve
12. anthology drama: a popular form of early TV programming that brought live dramatic theater to television
13. episodic series: a narrative form well suited to television because main characters appear every week, sets and locales remain the same, and technical crew stay with the program; they feautyre new adventures every week, but a handful of characters emerge with whom viewers can regularly identify
14. chapter shows: in television production, any situation comedy or dramatic program whose nattative structure includes self-contained stories that feature a problem, a series of conflicts, and a resolution from week to week
15. serial programs: TV programs, such as soap operas, that feature continuing story lines from day to day or week to week
16. stripped (syndicated reruns): the showing of programs five days a week
17: network era: the period in television history, roughly from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, that refers to the dominance of the Big Three networks - ABC, CBS, and NBC - over programming and prime-time viewing habits
18: independent station: a TV stations that finds its own original and syndicated programming and is not affilicated with any of the major networks
19. videocassette recorders (VCRs): recorders that use a half-inch video formay known as VHS (video home system), which enables viewers to record and play back programs from television or to watch movies rented from video stores
20. time shifting: the process whereby television viewers tape shows and watch them later, when it is convenient for them
21. "black box" technologies: any of the newly emerging TV technologies - such as TiVo - that premits viewers to record and save TV programs by digital storage means rather than onto tape via older VCR formats
22. infotainment: a type of television program that packages human-interest and celebrity stories in TV news style
23. fin-syn: the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules created in 1970 by the FCC; it constituted the most damaging attack against the network TV monopoly in FCC history
24. deficit financing: in television, the process whereby a TV production company leases its programs to a network for a license fee that is actually less than the cost of production; the company hopes to recoup this loss later in rerun syndication
25. rerun syndication: in television, the process whereby programs that stay in a network's lineup long enough to build up a certain number of episodes are sold, or syndicated, to hundreds of TV markets in the US and abroad
26. O & Os: TV stations "owned and operated" by networks
27. evergreens: in TV syndication, popular and lucrative enduring network reruns such as the I Love Lucy
28. fringe time: in television, the time slot either immedialte before the evening's prime-time schedule or immediately following the local evening news or the network's late-night talk shows
29. off-network syndication: in television, the process whereby older programs that no longer run during prime time are made available for reruns to local stations, cable operators, online services, and foreign markets
30. first-run syndication: in television, the process whereby new programs are specifically produced for sale in syndication markets rather than for television
31. rating: in TV audience measurement, a statistical estimate expressed as a percentage of households tuned to a program in the local or national market being sampled
32. share: in TV audience measurement, a statistical estimate of the percentage of homes tuned to a certain program, compared with those sumply using their sets at teh time of a sample

posted by maggie @ 5:17 PM 0 comments