Sunday, November 21, 2010

RTF Blog 10

Globalization can be defined as the way that people and communities of different nations can feel that they all share some of the same things and can some how relate.Through globalization people and communities are able to communicate and exchange ideas.This blog will give a concept that comes from globalization to show how it further affects people and communities in the world
  A concept that connects with globalization is cultural imperialism in which it seems that one nation or a big culture's, culture has a big influence on the world's culture/ people as a whole. Through cultural imperialism people and communities all over the world experience one of the same thing, whether it be movies, clothes, news, or music all have some type of stake hold in the culture that is being introduced and exposed to them. A good example from a media source that shows this well is that of the BBC, the BBC has it's news and shows shown throughout Europe as well as the United States (with it's BBC America) as well as some it's shows played on national geographic, KLRN, and the Discovery Channel. The reason that this media source illustrates the concept of cultural imperialism which connections with globalization is because all of what is being done in Europe/ Britain is being exposed to Americans, Japanese, Australians, Scotland, and Wales (few examples of where the BBC broadcasts).Therefore giving people who do not live in Europe or in Britain a sense of what life is like over there and a feeling of connection with people that they might meet who are from Britain

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Advertising Appeal

apple_ipad_2.jpgAdvertisements can be seen on all media now a days and are targeted at getting you, the consumer to "fall in love" with the companies product. A few ways the that advertising works is through repetition, grabbing your attention, and  through style (claims they make). The advertisement that I will be looking at and that I feel is persuasive is the Apple iPad advertisement on TV. This ad shows how the iPad has many different uses in a persons everyday life, showing a person watching a movie, a little girl learning her letters, a student watching a lecture, a person checking stocks, buying a camera, selling a house, playing a video game, and using the iPad as an amp for a guitar. I find this advertisement to be persuasive because it shows how easy and convenient it is to do things such as playing an electric guitar with out have to carry around an amp, or watching a movie on a good size screen while being able to care the iPad around.
  An advertising appeal that is seen in this ad is that of satisfying curiosity. The general characteristics of this advertising appeal are showing the functions of the iPad, in this ad you can see some of thetasks that are capable on the iPad answering some questions one may have about how it may work. Appearance is another characteristic of this certain appeal  showing what the front of the iPad looks like and giving you close up on the details of what is going on on the screen.  Content is also a character of the appeal of satisfying curiosity, getting just enough information to keep the person alright with what they now know about what is being advertising.
  This ad exemplifies the appeal of satisfying curiosity because it answers a persons question of what tasks can be done on the iPad and how it seems to function. It also gives just enough information about the iPad for the view to understand what this object is and what it does so that it they are content with what they have seen. Finally I feel that this ad exemplifies this appeal because it shows people what the iPad looks and what exactly it is, diminishing  any curiosity the viewer may have had prior to have seen the ad.
  

Sunday, October 31, 2010

RTF Blog 8

Hollywood's 3 Act Structure consists of an introduction complication and a resolution also known as the  beginning, middle, and end. Each act also has a plot point in each act, plot point 1, plot point 2, and the climax; each plot point has it's own mini climax and leads into the next act leaving a question of what is going to happen now. The  movie that I will be using to show how the 3-act structure works is "The Punisher" (2004).
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    In act 1(which is 31min. and 59 sec. long), the introduction, we are introduced to Frank Castle who is the protagonist in this story, his family, and Howard Saint and his family who happen to be the antagonist.We are first introduced to Frank when he is playing the part of a drug dealer trying to make a deal with one of the people that works for Howard Saint. There is a big shoot out andHoward Saint's son how happened to be there ends up dying in this shoot out and we find out Frank works for the FBI. Howard Saint finds this out about Frank Castle and his wife orders that he send his men to take revenge and kill  Frank and his family at a family reunion in Puerto Rico. This is where the the plot point occurs (mini climax) all of Frank's family is murdered,when they attempt to kill Frank, they blow up the pier after beating him up thinking that they killed him. This where act 1 ends and leaves the question of what is going to happen Frank now.
2004_the_punisher_006.jpg     In the second act the question of what will happen to Frank is answered, we see Frank washing up on the shore of the beach and taken care of by a man. In this act we see Frank figuring out a plan to get back at the Saint's for what happened and we see him go through a type of depression  drinking problem. This act shows him spying on Howard's wife and best friend (Quentin), it doesn't explicitly show what Franks intentions are but show him setting things up. This is what the main focus of act 2 is, the plot point of this act occurs when Howard Saint sends a man by the name of "The Russian" to go to Frank's apartment and kill him. The Russian beats up Frank, though Frank is able to finally kill the Russian he is extremely exhausted. As his neighbors (Joan, Dave, and Bumpo)  try to stitch up his wounds some of Howard's thugs show up to the apartment. His neighbors then hide him in a bunker that he has in his apartment, when the thugs get to the room the begin to ask dave and Bumpo questions about Frank when Dave refuses to answer the questions they rip off all of this facial piercings and leave. Once Frank recovers and tells them to take dave to the hospital he begins to pack his guns and and leaves his apartment, leaving us asking what exactly his he going to do to the Saint's now. the act was 60 min. long.
punisher-2004-22-g.jpg   In the third act, the question of what is Frank going to do now is answered when we see his whole plan unfold. Howard ends up killing his wife and Quentin because he thinks that they were having an affair when indeed they weren't, because Quentin is gay. But Frank set it up so that he would do this. Frank then is seen going to Howard Saint's club and plants bombs under cars and in the building, he then kills everyone in the building including Howard's other son. Once Frank finds Howard he shots him and ties him to a car, he thens tells him how he made him kill his best friend and his wife. Frank turns the car on and puts it in drive which drags Howard into a car dealership that has other cars with explosives on them and the are all blowing up and the rolls in to the dealership. Frank then goes back to the apartment and drinks and attempts to kill himself but all the good memories of his family flood his mind and he does not kill himself.This is theclimax of the film where the problems where resolved (the saints and Franks depression.) The movie like most 3-act structure films has a happy ending, where Frank took care of his problems and leaves his neighbors a large amount money, this act lasted 32 min. leaving the movie  to be a total of 124min.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

characteristics of the TV sitcom

the-simpsons-tracey-ullman-show.jpgThe aspects of  TV sitcoms that give you a deeper understanding of how sitcoms work are the parts of narrative fiction programming. Narrative fiction programming has three parts series, serial,and episodic these are some of the features that are in sitcoms. Series shows what happens over many years or a long period of time in a show and has an ending inwhich the show is actually over. An example of this would be watching a character in a sitcom grow up and change, eventually leaving the house hold in which he grew up in such as the characters of "Boy Meets World" where Cory in shown going through high school and college and leaving his home to move to New York. Serial (occasionally happen) happens in a sitcoms as situations become more complicated for its characters such as falling in love or moving on to college. Things in the sitcom start to carry over from episodic to serial, many shows have both elements and often develop a questions as to what exactly is going on between the cast or two characters. In episodic the show ends usually where it began and if a character dies he or she will more than likely never be  mention in later episodes again and they are likely to teach you lessons. Things in episodic seem to be predictable and the characters never seem to age.
the_simpsons_2.jpgA sitcom that I enjoy very much is "The Simpsons" which uses the characteristics of episodic part of narrative fiction programing. The reason that it is mainly an episodic show is because the characters never seem to age or grow up or really learn from one episode to the next. Though there is a lesson in each episode the characters never move on from what it is that they learned. Examples of this would be those of Bart and Lisa who are still in elementary and never seem to past the fourth and fifth grades, the other example is the father Homer who always finds himself getting into sometime of trouble but yet time and time again in other episodes he doesn't seem to learn much from the mistakes that he had made before. another reason as to why the show is episodic is because the plot is very familiar to people and is very predictable because they seem to get stuck in similar situations time after time. In some ways it may also be considered serial as well because some of the characters in the show get married and it seems to change what is going on in the show, such as when Milhouse's dad gets a girlfriend and it seems to change the drift how the character is living. This may go on for a few episodes but eventually the character will break up and it will not ever be mentioned in the show again. 




simpsons pictures found on google.
 http://images.dvdsetshop.com/Upload/uploadfiles/the_simpsons_2.jpg


http://cmm61.webs.com/the-simpsons-tracey-ullman-show.jpg















Sunday, October 17, 2010

RTF Blog 6

     There are three types of shots within a scene, the long shot, the medium shot, and the close up. The general meaning are as follows. Long shot, this shot is the orientation shot which introduces you to where you are and what is going on. The medium shot, is the informational shot which lets you get a closer look at what is going on. Last is the close up this the important detail shot which  shows the viewer what they need to know in order to make sense of the story.
  In the opening scene of Star Wars: Episode Three Revenge of the Sith you are brought to a flag ship floating in space it is quite and as the camera is slowly moving in, two star ships appear and as they pass on top of the  flag ship you see a massive battle going on. This section of the scene is a long shot, slowly taking the viewer from being isolated with a ship in space to watching a massive battle with lots of star ships.  The function of this shot within the film is to show you what the flag ship at the beginning was doing there.
  The medium shot in this scene is when the camera begins when the focus becomes put on the two star ships as the camera follows them weaving and dodging shots from other star ships. This shots helps you understand who might possible the main characters in the story. The function of this shot is to show a more specific look and detailed perspective if what exactly is going on in this fight scene. The close up in  this scene introduces the two main characters and establishes where they are planning on going and why there are flying through the battle at all. The function of this shot is to show the brother hood that the two characters seem to share with each other.
  These three shots help the viewer understand what exactly the characters are doing out in space and helps the viewer focus on what it is that they are doing. It starts at a general setting and moves on to a specific setting through the sequence of shots.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Blog Post 5- Studio System

During the Classical Hollywood period, which occurred during the 1920's through the 1940's, studio systems were vertically  integrated which means that the "big five" (MGM, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros.,and RKO) controlled every aspect of the film business from production to distribution, and exhibition. I think that the most important aspect of the studio system was the star system. Stars were contracted (basically meaning that the Studio owned them), they also paid to sell products or promote other stars that worked for the studio. The stars of each studio were what made the studio's so popular and well known, they were the best way the studio's were able to represent what it was they did. Audiences became so enthralled and obsessed with stars that they would go and see their every film, in return making the studio's very rich. 

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Stars affected the way films were made in that each star had their own distinct and unique talent, whether it was singing dancing, or playing a instrument. Studio's would make certain movies for actors talents so actors always ended up played the same role in movies. Especially after a Star made their first screen appearance and an audience feel in love with them. The audience seemed to associated the actor playing only a certain type of role.  Such as Shirley Temple (contract with 20th Century Fox) who played the sweet little girl who always found some time of trouble and who danced an sang in most of her films. I feel that the actors great extra talent (besides acting) is what made the studio's feel that they should only be making certain types of movies for actors because the studios knew that it was going to bring in lots of people which equals lots of money and popularity.

Judy Garland is an example of this. she was discovered as a child and contracted with MGM in 1935. She was used to promote other MGM stars in her movies such as in the 1937 film  Broadway Melody of 1938 when she is sing to the picture of MGM actor Clark Gable.  The use of her sing ability was used a lot I the films she came out in because studio's casted her in mainly music films. She also played the role of the innocent girl many times in the films she appeared in. The star system which is a specific part of the studio system of production is a very important one to me because without these stars I feel them playing these specific roles the classical hollywood era would not have made such a bug impact on the film industry. 
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Photo of Shirley Temple :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Curly_Top_2.jpg
Photo of Judy Garland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thoroughbredstrailer.jpg
info of Judy Garland's Broadway Melody of 1938:  http://www.jgdb.com/melody.htm


Sunday, October 3, 2010

RTF Blog 4

The sitcoms "All in the Family" and "Sanford and Son" both are shows from the 1970's . "All in the Family" is made up of an all white middle class family (the Bunkers) who's  protagonist Archie Bunker seems to be very conservative in his views and is not shy on his bigot views what so ever. Whereas in "Sanford and Son" is about an African American father and son (the Sanford's) who are in the antique and junk business (lower middle class), the protagonist Fred Sanford is a elderly man who constantly has money making schemes that seem to always back fire on him. "All in the Family" seem to be a bit more ethnically and culturally non-sensitive than "Sanford and Son" who as in the season 6 episode 21: "Fred The Activist" shows Fred Sanford fighting for equality on the age limit for purchasing  a payment plan for people over the age of 65. Where as in the "Al in the Family" season 1 episode 5: "Judging Books by Covers" Archie Bunker is judging Mike's friend about being gay and openly uses the words "fag" and "queer".
These two sitcoms are similar in that they both give examples of what these to ethnic groups may go through everyday and are not really ethnically or culturally sensitive. Both bring up issues that were affecting the country and society at the time such as racism, elder rights, being biased, and divorce. The characters Archie and Fred are the same in that they both are very stubborn in their views and that until something major happens in their lives, their mind set is stuck on what the believe to be true.
"All in the Family" deals with with the fact that Archie does not really like black people and "Sanford and Son" do not do this. "All in the family" is more out on showing how people actually feel and being risky than "Sanford and Son" is. "All in the Family" touches on the issues of homosexuality, sexism, racism, and war; it also featured language or slag for races and sexual preferences that was not present on T.V. before then.
But the issues that "All in the Family" do not confront that "Sanford and Son" do are those of being black men in society, lower middle class, and equality for the elderly.


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