Extra Credit

Before taking this class I had never seriously used a blog. I have a Tumblr but rarely find time to add to it and I don’t take it very seriously. In terms of positive aspects of using the blog for this class; I found it as a good way of judging what professor Straubhaar deemed as important material. If something was given as a blog assignment, I took special note to study it carefully as I found they it would more than likely be on the test. I had no serious technical difficulties with the blog, but I became frustrated with the actual assignments. I found that they were more often than not, asking me to repeat information that was given in class. Rarely did I have to critically think about the information I was writing. All the answers needed were more or less given in class. For future classes, I would recommend keeping the blog but changing the format of the questions, focusing more on asking students to go beyond class lectures to find answers. I did, however, like the grading system. By assigning points by paragraph, it allowed me to easily keep track of what I had done and what I needed to do in order to obtain full credit.

Cultural Imperialism and the Spread of American Consumer Culture

Globalization refers to the idea that people are relying less on their local and national networks, and are becoming more connected on an international scale. This connection can include aspects of cultural, political, economic, and technological life.

In terms of cultural imperialism, globalization allows for American cultural ideologies to be broadcasted across the world. This is because the US has most of the globe’s media power. American companies like Disney, Newscorp, Viacom, and Time Warner project their images of the US to countries all around the world. These countries therefore adjust their ideologies and habits to accommodate the incoming American media.

An example of cultural imperialism is the spread of the American consumer class ideology. It has long been known that Americans buy more things than any other country. This notion is spreading by way of the media, particularly films. Every year the US comes out with countless movies that depict Americans buying cars (for example.) It shows families that have more than one car, and even teenagers that are given new cars for their birthdays. This is an ideology that was once unique to the US, but is spreading rapidly. Whereas 20 years ago most of China’s population didn’t have or drive a car, the continuous flow of media projecting images of the American consumer class driving them has greatly contributed to the massive increase of car sales in China. Globalization allows for these images of US consumers to be broadcasted internationally, and is responsible for the spread of American consumer culture. This has negative effects. For example, if every country in the world bought things at the same pace as the US, we would run out of natural resources sometime this century.

An article on China's car boom: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0628_040628_chinacars.html

Allen Hammond's book "Which World" discusses some other scenarios and consequences of the spreal of consumer culture:
http://books.google.com/books?id=ApRC9OmkWc8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=allen+hammond+which+world&source=bl&ots=V7oAS1n6wb&sig=NGDeKEaFOdD3TlnwBzfChgam63k&hl=en&ei=kMHpTKC8LoK8lQeoxrCjDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

Bentley: The Appeal of Achievement

Since discovering it a few months ago, I have always found this Bentely print advertisement to be particularly powerful. First of all, it is a beautifully edited and developed photograph that commands the attention of the viewer. It would be particularly hard to ignore when coming across in a magazine or an internet blog. Second of all, it is advertising a car company without mentioning or showing any automobiles. Confusing at first to the viewer, this is because it isn’t advertising a particular car or model, it’s advertising a mentality—associating the brand with an idea—and I find this to be particularly influential in successful advertising.

This ad is obviously using the appeal of achievement or prominence. This appeal associates buying the product with being a high, contributing member of society. It is usually reserved for more expensive products that make their money, not buy making their products more affordable, but by severely over-pricing them. Armani, Coach, and Mercedez are all products that use this appeal in their ads. They try and promote the idea that by buying this object you will show achievement because few others have the means to make purchases of such high stature.

In this specific ad, Bentley has analyzed its market and realized that rich, white men are really the only people that buy their cars. Instead of appealing to other markets they are trying to gain a bigger foothold in the one they already dominate by saying, “You’ve worked hard to achieve what you have. Spoil yourself with a Bentley, because nobody else matters.” It shows prominence because it associates the act of buying and owning a Bentley with being an elite member of society, and it would be unrealistic for any other kind of person to buy one—all without a word of print.

The Heineken ad is another example of the appeal of Achievement/prominence. (Emphasis on the prominence.)

Three Act Structure: The Silence of The Lambs

Spoiler Alert!

Today, most Hollywood films follow the traditional three-act structure. By looking closely at one of my favorite films, “ The Silence of the Lambs,” we can see how the structure works in terms of plot and character development.

The first act begins, as almost all do, with the introduction of the main character, Clarice Starling—an up and coming female FBI student. In the first scene, her boss tells her about a new serial killer, Buffalo Bill, who has been targeting young women. Unknowingly to her, her boss sends her on a trial mission to see if she can gather any information about Bill from the jailed, notorious forensic psychiatrist/cannibal—Hannibal Lector. The peak of the first act comes when, using a deciphered code form Lector, Starling arrives at a storage facility and uncovers the severed head of a Buffalo Bill victim, proving that she is therefore capable of handling the case. The fist act is a means of character introduction. It tells us that Starling is intelligent, driven, but inexperienced. It makes us question whether or not she will succeed in this psychologically based challenge, or will the manipulative, deranged genius of Lector get the best of her. Will he help her take down Buffalo Bill, or just use his smarts to take advantage of her naïveté.

As Ramirez Berg said in the lecture, the second act is the hardest because it contains most of the plot. It is the bridge between the introduction of the characters and the eventual climax. In this specific example, the second act follows Buffalo Bill. It introduces him and his mdness as well as Starling’s FBI crew and their attempts to learn about him. We learn that Bill is just as smart as he is disturbed, and that if previous incidents act as examples, time is of the essence if Starling is going to catch him before he kills his current victim. The major plot point of the second act occurs when Lector, after being moved to a courthouse in Tennessee, escapes in a gory act of killing two security guards. Clarice felt uneasy dealing with Lector when he was behind bars, but now that he has escaped, she has two psychopaths to worry about. As Ramirez-Berg said, this escalates the stakes and propels the film into the next act where we find out whether or not Starling has the ability to solve the case.

As one would expect, the third and final act comes down to an extremely tense confrontation between Starling and Bill. After using a few tips from Lector, and her own smarts, Starling finds the house of Bill and his abducted victim. An extremely famous scene occurs in which Starling ends up killing Bill in a pitch-black house even though he has night vision goggles at his disposal. This scene is the climax of the act and of the movie as a whole. Clarice proves herself victorious, and Lector escapes to an island and decides not to bother Starling after all. This happy ending format is, as Ramirez-Berg suggested, very stereotypical of the three-act structure.

If you haven't seen SOTL I'd highly recommend it. Here's one of the more famous scenes, just to give you a taste. Pun intended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwlh9uJrQl4

Television within Sitcoms; The Simpsons

Television is not just the medium by which sitcoms are brought to us. In many cases, it provides the storylines that define the nature of the show. This should not come as a surprise considering the fact that most sitcoms are about families—and much of the action takes place within the families’ homes. As described in the lecture, television is always implied in sitcoms. Characters sit on their couch facing the camera and discuss what they are ‘watching’. Countless storylines have been based around this. Colin Tate described the television as a domestic medium in that it acts as a home appliance. He also described TV as a campfire because it is the place where people typically tell stories to each other. This would mean that within the home, television acts as ‘modern fireplace.’ Families gather around it and converse. It is therefore a perfect instrument in sitcoms, because they are generally about families conversing.

I generally don’t watch sitcoms, so like I did in a previous blog post, I’ll talk about The Simpsons. This show is probably the best example of television acting as a source of plot, because the show is almost entirely based around TV. And not in a good way. The Simpsons is a critique on the modern American family. Even in the opening credits, when everyone else is playing outside on a beautiful day, all the members of the family rush home to watch the television. Bart and Lisa’s favorite show, ‘Itchy and scratchy’ pokes fun at the violence children are subjected to on TV. Fictional news anchor, Kent Brockman has poked fun at countless broadcast journalists for everything from swearing on TV to simply being drab. The absence of television within the Simpsons would be simply be fatal to the show.

Here's a great clip of Homer poking fun at late night TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJPyk4QFyJ8

Shot Progression in 'Children of Men'

Though the first scene in the film, “Children of Men,” doesn’t follow the standard order of shot progressions, it still conveys all of the necessary information. Generally in films, the order of shots is long shot, medium shot, close-up. However, in the opening scene of Children of Men, the order of shots is medium shot, long shot, close-up.

The medium shot occurs in a café. Normally this shot would provide relationship information, but considering the fact that all the people in the café are strangers to the main character, there isn’t much information to convey. What the shot does show however, is that everyone sans the main character is upset. The news of Baby Diegos’s death has put everybody to tears, but Theo seems rather unmoved by the incident. If this were a close-up for example, one would not be able to tell that his mood contrasts the others.

As Theo exits the café, the camera moves to long shot. This is the orientation shot, and even without the text on the bottom of the screen, one would easily be able to tell this is London in the future. A red double-decker bus drives by, and futuristic advertisements are shown in the background. The long shot conveys loneliness by having Theo walk against the general current of everyone else on the sidewalk. This was seen in the first shot, too (the medium shot,) when we noticed that he is emotionless compared to everyone in the crowded café.

The third shot, the close-up shows the important details. In this shot, Theo puts his coffee on a mailbox, opens it, and pours in some whiskey. The details shown here tell us that due to his lack of emotion in the café and the fact that he puts liquor in his coffee in the morning, Theo is more than likely depressed. Alcohol seems to be his escape from a world that he doesn’t seem to care about anymore.

Children of Men is probably my favorite movie of the past decade. Here is great clip on the making of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A55xTYXMpI

Joan Crawford and the Classical Hollywood Star System

The star system of the classical Hollywood era was an important catalyst in making many films still regarded as masterpieces today. Under the star system of the 50s, studios had a certain set of actors under contract, which meant they could only act in films for that studio, unless a deal was made with another studio. Having reputable stars under contract was mandatory because they were, virtual products, and represented the studios more than the films did.

Having certain stars under contract led to genre films. This means that certain actors, at certain studios, only made one or two kind of films. For example, the Marx Brothers from Paramount would just about always act in comedies. Audiences would hear about the new Marx Brothers film and immediately come to the conclusion that it was a comedic movie put out by Paramount studios.

A great example of an actress that went through the stat system would be Joan Crawford. Discovered by MGM when she was only 20, Joan had everything the studio wanted; she could dance, sing, and act. She was known to be in films about young, fervent young girls trying to beat the odds of and make it in the real world. These ‘rags to riches’ stories were popular among women. Throughout her career she made 94 films, all 70 of which with MGM. At her peak she was one of the most well paid women in the world, but eventually her films started to loses their spark. She was put in fewer and fewer films, and there was little she could do about it-one of the major flaws of the star system.


Here's an MGM owned video of Joan singing and dancing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNZCJn9uIBk

Here's an interview from 1957:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIc2zcy1TvQ&feature=related