another Betty Boop banned episode

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9Tb4TMibk0

My Generation

Being born in 1992 associates me with the Y generation. This span of time is known for it's fast growing workforce and advancements in technology. Growing up in a very tech-savy society, my age group is constantly being exposed to the digital world. My upbringing was drastically different from previous generations because of inventions such as the computers, cell phones, and ipods. Above all these inventions I believe the most influential product of my time is the internet. Having complete access to almost any question one can dream, is truly world changing. The people living within this era are becoming more intelligent because there are no restrictions or obstacles when searching for information. Also, having such an accessible social network allows college students to keep in touch better with their parents, and friends. Students even apply to colleges through the internet! It is also a great tool for employees to talk to one another for 24/7 immediate contact. Others believe the creation of the internet may have changed society socially for the worse, making it harder for people to engage in person rather then via facebook, skype, email, or instant messaging.

All of my friends use the internet everyday as a tool to research information, stay updated with current events, along with staying in touch with family and friends. I believe the internet is the biggest influence of my generation because it connects society in ways no other invention or event has done prior to my existence. If there is an important occurrence in the world, people are able to gain access to details almost immediately. Older generations may not be able to appreciate the internet, in fact they may think it has corrupted society, but I think it has opened opportunities for this era.

CENSORSHIP

another thing that is censored in the U.S. but are popular in China are mimi balls. thought everyone would enjoy them: file://localhost/Users/KStudZ/Desktop/Boobs.jpg

CENSORSHIP

For class I chose to use the war in Afghanistan. No one really knows what goes on over there. This war is one of the longest in American history and now one of the most forgotten. My best friend/roommate has her brother fighting over there right now, and my best friend is about to deploy. The movie Restrepo is about a dead soldier and it is a documentary filmed by the soldiers themselves that portrays the war through their eyes and what really goes on. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

http://restrepothemovie.com/

Relationship Between Movies and Society

D’Mone’ Clendinen
Nov. 2011
Visual Literacy
Relationship between Movies and Society

Movies and society are deeply intertwined in that they influence each other. When one views a movie, they place themselves in that predicament and try to feel what the characters are feeling. In turn, when directors observe society, they are influenced into making films about it as done with Film Noir. Film Noir came about in the 1940’s to the late 1950’s and it publicized what was going on in that time such as the Cold War, the aftermath of World War II. In this case, society influenced movies. In my opinion, people want to watch interesting documentaries of things that can possibly occur or what is occurring, like the movie “SuperSize Me” for example. The director, Morgan Spurlock noticed that fast food was such a popular thing in America, especially MacDonald’s. At the time, MacDonald’s had the option of getting a “super-sized” meal. Spurlock made an observation that many people ordered the “super-sized” meal, so he used himself to show the world how McDonalds’ could change our health and potentially, our life.

Spurlock came up with the experiment of eating meals and “supersized” meals if asked by cashier, from MacDonald’s three times a day for thirty days. Prior to the experiment, he was tested by a general practitioner, cardiologist, dietitian and a few other doctors who all concluded that Spurlock’s health was in great shape. Throughout his experiment, these doctors will be monitoring his health to make sure that he is not dangerously harming his health. He is to perform no exercise for those thirty days because normally, those that eat the most MacDonald’s do not exercise much, if at all. So to ensure that he got the full experience, he limited his steps to less than 5,000 a day.

When he started this experiment, he weighed 185.5 pounds. After five days, he was at 195. He noticed that he started to get stomach pains and he began to throw up in parking lots of MacDonald’s. Eventually, MacDonald’s became his comfort food which caused him to gain eight more pounds, putting him a 203.5. By day 21, he began having heart palpitations and his doctors told him to stop his experiment but he insisted on continuing.

At the end of the thirty day experiment, he consumed nine, “supersized” meals. The doctors said that his health was damaged. One even said that because of this experiment, he will suffer with heart problems, even if he loses the weight.

Shortly after this movie was released, MacDonald’s stopped offering to “supersize” a meal. It also caused MacDonald’s to put healthier items on their menu. In this case, this movie influenced society in that it showed us what we were doing with our health. With this, people became more aware of what they ordered from MacDonald’s, which in turn saved many people’s health.

Movies in Today's Society

Branden Negron

Visual Literacy

Professor Hammond

I’ve noticed a common theme in contemporary film today is some sort of world ending theme. Whether it be discussing the depletion of our earth’s natural resources as portrayed in James Cameron’s “Avatar” or literally showcasing our planet’s last days as seen in Roland Emmerich’s “2012”. As Film Noir came to be emblematic of the post World War Two era, I believe these world-ending genres have become a big part of our era, today.

I have noticed how more and more films have fed off of our society’s fear in addressing the world coming to an end. Movies have been made to satisfy each situation of when and how the world will end. This fear can be attributed to the whole theory that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 and since they successfully predicted their empire’s demise it is believed that they would successfully predict civilization’s demise as well.

The film industry was smart in tackling our current global environmental issues considering we are surely seeing a dramatic change in our environment compared to centuries and even decades ago. However, I do believe that the production of these types of films have brought along positive aspects as far as making our population more aware of the issue, which is not to be taken lightly. Movies like “2012” and “The Day The Earth Stood Still” were created to instill fear in the audience, in a dark, helpless way, but do leave room for hope and recovery in the end. The feeling does remind me of Edgar G. Ulmer’s “Detour”, in the sense that Film Noir gives you a dark feeling through out the movie but sometimes ends on a lighter note.

I also enjoy seeing how it is that they even incorporate this theme of environmental destruction in children’s animation movies such as “Rango”, which was directed by Gore Verbinski. Rango proves similar to Avatar in the sense that it preaches the importance of natural resources and their level of necessity, which we had begun to start forgetting. Rango, to me, is one of the best allegories for our current economic and environmental state. This leads to the next big genre being depicted in films today. Our failing economy.

Movies such as “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”, directed by Oliver Stone have done a great job to take fictitious events and relate them to the exact events we are witnessing in today’s America. Many movies have sort of assimilated the crashing markets to the end of the world, almost bringing them hand in hand. Once again, they are feeding off of the fear of the American people. They use characters that seem like ordinary people to put the audience right in the middle of the chaos. Peter Rainer of the Christian Science Monitor and top critic on RottenTomatoes.com said, “Money Never Sleeps doesn't get inside the sociopathology of the money culture. In a sense, it is a product, an expression, of that culture. Maybe that's why it's so disagreeably agreeable.” This is true and goes to show that the film industry will portray something that can be universally understood to make sure the audience still gets the underlying message.

I believe that it doesn’t matter what era you’re in. Films will always mirror the trends and conditions of the time they are produced in. Right now the end of the world and end of our economy may be the dominant themes, but who knows what could be next, that is if we survive 2012.

Movies and Society

Each movie shares the idea that although they are all entirely unrealistic in plot, they inspire feelings of hope in our humanity.

Julia Roe

10/18/11

COM 232

“Blow Up” Review

The film “Blow Up” (1966) directed by Michelangelo Antonioni is a story of successful photographer in London named Thomas. He is discontent with his life, extremely lost and cannot seem to pinpoint what is real or what are just exaggerations of his own imagination. He constantly is bombarded with new situations that make him spiral out of control. This film is slightly difficult to appeal to for a general audience because of its strange perplexity, and lack of coherence. However, it is those at times abnormal and mysterious qualities of the film that make it noteworthy and draws the attention of the audience.

Although this innovative film may be hard to follow due to Antonioni’s many awkward scenes and choice of de-emphasis of verbal communication the film is still “beautifully built up with glowing images and color compositions that get us into the feelings of our man and into the characteristics of the mod world in which he dwells” (Crowther 1). This inability to follow and almost constant confusion adds a sense of shock and can snap the audience back into to paying attention to the film. For example, before the mime scene at the end of the film one could have found themselves drifting off a bit, but immediately brought back by the overbearingly interesting and weird aspects of that particular scene. Another example of Antonioni’s smart screenplay was when “upon developing the film [Thomas] notices something strange in the background. He gradually blows-up a part of the photo, which involves creating new prints in ever increasing close-ups. This lengthy sequence is done without music or dialogue. And yet it is endlessly fascinating to watch” (Haflidason 1). Antonioni’s way to demonstrate his story without going the more traditional route is innovative and forever interesting. In addition, “Blow-Up communicates on an almost completely visual level; nothing more than implied significance is verbalized. For such an obviously searching film, it is indeed unusual that there are no metaphysical discussions, no intimate exchanges, no analytical speculations” (Bowles 80) However, Antonioni still amazingly manages to bring the main character’s struggles to the screen, and his unique approach of doing so benefitted the audience by keeping their attention. Without some of the odd and interesting ways of sequencing certain scenes, the attention of the audience may have been lost.

If a viewer is seeking a film with a deeper not so obvious display of its meaning, one can find that in Blow Up. This film carries attributes of ‘double coded’ artwork. This “enable (s) representation of new art who interprets the artwork in the fictional world (the artwork made by the fictional world-making voice) as an example of a new art form potentially capable of independent existence in our world (Kafalenos 12). This is demonstrated in Blow Up through its theme of disconnect and abundance of offbeat scenes. It can lead the audience to ponder what the overall message Antonioni was trying to convey. After viewing this film, I thought he was possibly trying to say something about reality, illusion, and appearance and how they are all connected, but they do not necessarily always fall into neat categories. This message was found through the art of his cinematography and led to a greater meaning, which was demonstrated through double coding, which can be very difficult to do.

Film critics often refer to this type of film as “puzzle films or twist movies—[when] there are crucial differences between films that mislead an audience by encouraging it to draw false conclusions, and films that offer false data and thus demand misinterpretations” (Anderson 84). This component of Blow Up makes the film unique, and an aspect to what makes it so enticing. Even if one does not exactly appeal to this type of film, its innovative way of sequencing and story telling makes it important to see.

In conclusion although Blow Up wasn’t entirely an enjoyable film to watch, it definitely had aspects that make it a great one to analyze and learn from. From the films quirky-ness to its constant battle between real life and fiction, it made it possible to relay some meanings, stories, and film styles that are very unique, and difficult to come by. Making this film better for one to gain knowledge from, and good to interpret, but not necessarily a great film one would be excited to watch on a movie night due to its lengthy redundancy. However, nonetheless still a very important film to be exposed to.

Questions for Videodrome

Such an unusual and awkward topic to make a movie about but is interesting because it's something you would never think of. In other words, you can now experience life from the characters' unique perspectives.

What does "cut me on the shoulder" mean?

Why is he piercing her ear while hooking up?

Why does she inflict pain on herself?