Extra Credit Blog

I had never used a blog before this course, nor had I followed any.  I’m not an extremely technologically savvy gal, so it was nice to see how easy it is to set up and write a blog.  Another benefit of using blogs was that we got to see our classmates’ blogs and their ideas in addition to our own.  The only difficulties I encountered were technical as I sometimes had trouble inserting pictures or links.  I overcame these difficulties by taking time figuring out what went wrong or how to do something a different way.  The blogs that were more interesting to me were the ones that gave us more freedom to choose what to write about.  For instance, I liked the recent prompt that allowed us to choose one of our favorite advertisements and write about it.  Overall, I feel neutral about using blogs.  I think you might as well keep using blogs in the future since it is keeping up with the new age.  One way the blogs are superior to other types of writing assignment is with the visual and multimedia components of them.  Especially for an Introduction to Media course, the blogs were an appropriate outlet with which to reflect on our studies.  Nonetheless, the blog for this class has not inspired me to start a blog on my own anytime soon.   Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report.

Cultural Imperialism in American Films

Globalization is a process of increasing interconnectedness among nations, cultures, and peoples; it is accelerated by technological developments.  Globalization relates to cultural imperialism, which is when the cultural flow illustrates an imbalance in the global power structure.  This occurs when the global media flow is neither equal in direction nor volume of material; the interconnectedness is controlled more by one group.  The United States is a shining example of cultural imperialism with our ever expanding strife to “Americanize” the rest of the world.  Aspects of the western world, therefore, are apparent in many other parts of the world now.  Cultural imperialism is a threat to local and indigenous cultures because it has the potential to overpower and possibly exterminate them.

America’s Hollywood film industry exemplifies cultural imperialism because it is a source that has dominated not only in the United States, but all around the world.  The number of American films that are exported to other countries vastly outweighs the foreign films that we bring here for viewing.  One classic example of an American movie that blossomed into a worldwide phenomenon is the original Star Wars trilogy.  The film’s extreme American success erupted into a worldwide success and is still widely known and referenced worldwide.  This is just one of many instances in which American films have traversed our borders into overseas successes.  The American film industry has maintained its dominance for many decades, and has yet to show any indication of relinquishing it.

image from: zazzle.com

An Advertisement to Make You Snicker

One of my favorite advertisements is a recent television commercial for Snickers.  Aretha Franklin is in a car with three other young guys, and she starts out by saying, “Can we turn the A.C. up, I’m dying in here!”  One of the guys in the back with her offers her a Snickers, and when she asks why, he says, “because every time you get hungry you turn into a diva.”  After Aretha eats the Snickers she turns back into Jeff, one of their friends, and is all better.  This advertisement is persuasive because it uses humor to sell its product.  The commercial isn’t making any outlandish claims that Snickers will transform your entire life for the better, but instead it plays on the simple truth that people are cranky when they are hungry.  The advertisement is persuasive because its claim is believable; I’m sure that Snickers does subside hunger.  I doubt it’s good for you or nutritious, but I’m sure if you eat one you won’t be as hungry!

picture from estergoldberg.typepad.com

The physiological needs appeal applies to this advertisement.  Characteristics of this kind of appeal are related to human needs.  Physiological literally means characteristic of the normal functioning of a living organism, so this type of appeal could relate to a number of needs from hunger to sleep.  This type of appeal is usually persuasive because physiological needs are ones that everyone shares as human beings.  When an advertisement addresses hunger, thirst, or sleep, more people are likely to pay attention because it applies to us all; we will be more interested in products that will supposedly defy these things.

This Snickers advertisement best coincides with the physiological needs appeal because hunger is a physiological need.  The commercial uses humor to convey this appeal, also including celebrities to more strongly make its point.  The humor stems from a simple, longstanding truism that people get grumpy when they are hungry.  The clever use of a real diva (Aretha Franklin) more acutely conveys this idea, and her transformation back into Jeff, another young guy, proves Snickers’ point that the candy bar will subdue your hunger and thus improve your mood. 

video can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLrsCnBvQFo 

Steel Magnolias 3 Act Structure

Steel Magnolias (1989) is a movie that uses the three act structure.  The movie begins with a wedding preparation, and we are introduced to the characters this way. Shelby (Julia Roberts) is about to get married while her family, and especially her mom, M’Lynn (Sally Field), is trying to get everything together for the big day.  The first act ends about twenty six minutes in when Shelby has an episode at the salon and we learn she is diabetic.  Here, we also find out that she won’t be able to have children with her condition.  This first mini-climax sets up a clear issue for the rest of the movie, because Shelby wants to have a baby.

During the middle act, Shelby does get pregnant, against her doctor’s and mother’s wishes, and it affects her health.  This implies complication, because she also has to go through dialysis and get a kidney transplant from M’Lynn.  It is apparent that Shelby’s health is not stable, and the middle act focuses on this uncertainty.  We know that something will go wrong because she riskilly chose to get pregnant and have a baby.  The climax is at the very end of the middle act, about an hour and thirty-three minutes in, when Shelby dies from her health problems. 

The third act shows how the characters are coping with Shelby’s death and what happens after.  The movie ends with one of the characters, Anelle (Daryl Hannah), having a baby.  The third act is geared toward resolution, and the baby is a reminder that death is a part of life.  It’s a happy ending because all the characters are gathered at an Easter celebration and it’s a jovial scene.  Shelby’s son, Jack Junior, is surrounded by people who love him and loved his mother.  Anelle having her baby is a sign of life, growth, and new excitement for the future.

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Enthusiastic About Sitcoms

Sitcoms are situational comedies which cover a wide range of subject matter across the spectrum of shows, but have some defining characteristics as well.  Sitcoms tend to be episodic, which means that characters never age, and plot circumstances from one episode do not carry on to the next.  This is a vital aspect of the sitcom, because it doesn’t allow for much character development; the characters remain relatively static from show to show while the plot is dynamic each episode.  Sitcoms tend to exude a certain type of humor, from slapstick to satire, which is consistent for the duration of the show. 

One of my favorite sitcoms is Curb Your Enthusiasm which stars Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld, as himself.  This particular show truly is a situational comedy, its premise relying on the array of painfully awkward and yet, hilarious situations that Larry finds himself in.  Larry's character lacks the sensitivity and manners that is expected of him, and this facilitates the scenarios that the show portrays.  Curb Your Enthusiasm is episodic in nature because the characters remain the same while the plot events and circumstances change from one episode to the next.  The show is largely improvised, and the humor nearly always is a result of the actual situation.  The humor is unique, I think largely due to the improvisation, and is refreshing amidst a sea of shows with humor that’s been overused.  You'll find yourself laughing hysterically over a situation that you never want to be in yourself.

photo from: fanpop.com

Camera Shots

Throughout the course of a film, three types of shots are typically used.  The first is the long shot, which is the orientation shot.  This provides the setting for where the scene will take place.  The second type of shot is the medium shot, which is the information shot.  This should provide more clues than the long shot, perhaps by showing what a character is engaged in or how many characters there are.  The close up shot is the third type, and it depicts important detail.  The director uses the close up shot to focus on specific details that he or she wants the audience to pay careful attention to. 

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) is a terrific movie which has all three types of shots in it, though it most frequently uses the middle shot and close up.  The first long shot is shown when the two main characters are walking up to a house.  This shows us that the couple is walking into a house, presumably their own, and we see that this is where the following action will take place.  An example of a middle shot is after the guests, Nick and Honey, come over to George and Martha's house.  The middle shot is of the four characters in George and Martha's living room.  It is informative because it shows the dynamics of the situation.  Here, we see that the four characters are all engaged, but the energy is tense as Martha is pointing and George is standing.  All characters have a drink, which is consistent throughout the movie. 

There are many intense close up shots within this film; here is one instance when Martha is yelling viciously at George.  This shot portrays the detail of Martha’s emotion and her raw, biting fury.  Through this shot, we can better grasp the complexity of her and George’s relationship through the high level of emotional battery. 

Photos from: altfg.com and chicagonow.com



Contract Talent

The classic Hollywood system had many well-known aspects to it, one of the most important of which is contract talent which the big studios employed.  This method of contractually binding certain stars to a studio was known as the “star system.”  Unlike today, one actor would sign a contract to work for a film studio for a given number of years.  This strategy was immensely important for the studios because during the Golden Era, stars were vital to drawing audiences to a film; they were often more of a magnet than the film itself was and their names were placed above the film title.

Once signed, these contracts required actors to take leading roles in movies that the studio wanted them to, regardless of whether or not the star necessarily wanted to.  Today most actors don’t belong to such intense contracts of this kind, however contracts certainly still do exist.  The practice of contract talent affected the types of films that were made because the studios would pump out as many films with their “star” as they could.  Back then, a studio could produce four or five movies per year with their star talent in a mass-produced, factory-based system.  Since most everything was in-house, this strategy proved to be profitable and effective.

One classic example of contract talent is Humphrey Bogart, who signed on with Warner Brothers.  From 1936 to 1940 Bogart was in 28 films, which shows how much a studio took advantage of its signed talent.  That large a number of films being released in that amount of time is unheard of now, but there is also a greater variety of talent working for different studios.  Bogart was one of the biggest stars then, and he drew audiences to Warner Brothers’ films.  In 1941 he played a role in The Maltese Falcon and in 1942 he took a lead role in Casablanca; both these films are now iconic.  Bogart ultimately was a hugely successful actor and provided the fame and talent for many of Warner Brothers’ films that are now considered classics.    

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