Extra Credit Blog Post

Prior to taking RTF 305, I had never before used a blog.

The positive aspects of using the blogs in the course was how it forced the writer to utilize knowledge gained through readings and lectures and apply it in a concise, functional blog post. This helped reinforce concepts so that when it came time to review for a test, most of the most important concepts were already ingrained in the mind of the student.

Technically, I had very little difficulty in using the blogs after the initial set up. When I first received the email saying that we would be doing a blog I was a bit confused about the process of creating one since I had never before, but after setting up my blogger account it was not technically difficult. Conceptually, I had no difficulty and in fact the blogs helped me immensely.

I had no real difficulties in the blog process and therefore had nothing to overcome in order to accomplish the blogs.

The most interesting blog prompts were the ones that allowed us to specify contemporary examples from our own personal knowledge because they required more creative thinking than simply rewording concepts from the book in our own words. A good example was the blog prompt asking us to specify an example of the hollywood’s three-act structure. The least interesting blog prompts were the ones that were only based on history and a good example of this was the prompt asking us to identify forces that acted on the development of radio, such as government intervention. None of the prompts were particularly difficult.

I would recommend using a blog in a future course, particularly a course that requires extensive reading for the reason that it keeps students accountable for the information in their reading and rewards those that do keep up by making the blogs far easier. In addition, the blog posts were an interesting and interactive way for students to express their varying opinions.

In regards to improving the blogging experience, I would highly recommend closer consideration of the blog prompts. It is essential that the prompts be intriguing and inspire creative application of class concepts. Other than that, I felt that the blog process was overall very helpful and effective in keeping students involved and in the know on class information.

Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report.

Just for grins, this is a video I had been wanting to share with the class for a while: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzRKEv6cHuk

Globalization and Hybridization

Globalization is the process by which nations, cultures, and people worldwide become more connected to each other, despite boundaries of physical space. Globalization is increased and enhanced by digital development and increased development of internet infrastructure. Increased communications between far displaced people leads to greater trade and commercial convergence and international flow of media technologies and content.

Globalization leads to increased hybridization in the international marketplace. This means that the interaction between two or more cultures leads to a new culture combining elements of both. Hybridization is influenced by globalization due to increased communication between cultures and leads to hybridized media products as commercial powers attempt to utilize successful formulas in new environments.

A good example of hybridization in media for use toward a global audience is the ad campaigns used by McDonalds. These ads are modified and shown in many nations using many languages and advertising various fast food products sold in different countries. They aim to bind people in differing cultures to a common brand through their designed hybridization of advertising.

10 International McDonald's ads: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/56240

Advertising Appeals

The old spice commercial “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” is a powerful and persuasive advertisement because it promotes the idea that its product will allow any man to achieve at least one aspect of the level of success and allure, which the commercial’s main character exhibits. The ad essentially follows a handsome, African-American man who opens the commercial by addressing all ladies and asserting that while their men cannot be him, they can at least smell like him by using old spice body wash. The commercial is outrageous in tone and follows the character as he travels from a bathroom to a boat to riding a horse, all seamlessly transitioned, but at the same time the ad is effective in getting across its central point. While the commercial is humorous, it is also memorable and makes men want to buy its product to emulate the stylish and sophisticated man of the ad.

The appeal used in this advertisement, though in a humorous and hyperbolic manner, is the appeal to achievement and prominence. Essentially, this type of appeal is connected in peoples' minds with being successful, respected, and seen as high-class. Any product that uses this appeal would basically be saying that it will either make or help someone move up in the world, become more prestigious and achieve greatness. Such appeals are not always accurate, but it is peoples’ desire to be above those around them that compels them to purchase the product, in an effort to gain a competitive edge in the world.

The “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” commercial is a clear example of an ad utilizing the achievement and prominence appeal because its message is that if a man uses old spice body wash, they will be more like the man in the commercial. This man is portrayed as handsome, successful, and suave, all of which are characteristics commonly sought out by men and thought of by men as irresistible to women. The style of commercial makes it memorable by being humorous, but the main appeal is in comparing the fictionalized “man” to the actual man watching the commercial and saying: do this and you can achieve the status of a prominent, awesome hunk like me, which is something you should all want.

The original commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE

Toy Story and the three-act structure

Hollywood’s three-act film structure was designed as a modified version of the five-act tragic structure used in Shakespeare’s time. It shifts the climax from the midway into the film to its end and organizes the movie into acts based on a beginning, containing an introduction, middle, comprised of a complication, and an end, resolving the events of the beginning and the middle. This structure situates two plot points to close out the first two acts and the climax at the conclusion of the third act, with minimal falling action. The organization of this structure works with best with goal-oriented stories containing a single protagonist and told in chronological order so as to leave little to no ambiguity.           

            A prime example of the three-act structure is the film Toy Story. The first act introduces a group of toys owned by a boy named Andy who come alive when he is not around and eagerly await the arrival of new toys given to Andy as presents for his birthday. The exposition establishes Woody, a cowboy toy, as the leader of the toys and the favorite of Andy. It also explains that Andy’s family is moving soon and presents that as a future complication. The act closes with the first plot point, the arrival of a new, awesome toy in the form of a Buzz Lightyear action figure, setting up the conflict between him and Woody for the favorite toy of Andy. This is the shortest act of the film.

            The second act further develops the complication of the film, as Buzz garners more and more attention from Andy and Woody’s jealousy festers. It is also revealed that Buzz does not realize he is an action figure and believes himself to truly be a space ranger. The act peaks when Woody accidentally knocks Buzz out Andy’s bedroom window and the other toys accuse him of intentionally doing so, seeking to brutally punish Woody for his crime. By a stroke of luck, Woody and Buzz both end up in the car with Andy as he is taken out for dinner to a restaurant called Pizza Planet. Act two is slightly longer than act one, though it requires little time to present its message.

            Act three opens with Buzz confronting Woody when the car stops at a gas station. The two engage in a brawl and eventually get separated from the car, effectively becoming “lost toys”. Buzz, however, still does not understand that he is a toy. After hitching a ride with a Pizza Planet delivery truck, Woody and Buzz arrive at the restaurant but are taken by Andy’s sadistic neighbor, Sid. As the two toys seek to escape the confines of Sid’s house, Buzz realizes that he is but a toy and slumps into a depression. Woody is able to convince Buzz of his rightful place in the world, but before they can escape to Andy’s moving van, Buzz is taken by Sid and strapped to a rocket set to explode. The climax of Toy Story is a lengthy series of scenes in which Woody enlists the help of Sid’s other tortured toys and together they scare Sid by revealing themselves to be alive. Woody and Buzz then finally catch the moving van by using the rocket on Buzz’s back to propel them, landing safely in Andy’s car. The movie then closes with the whole gang of toys preparing for the arrival of toys at Christmas, all issues resolved. This film is a perfect example of the three-act structure’s potential for portraying quest stories with triumphant endings, presented in chronological order with a clear resolution.

Everybody Loves Raymond: An Episodic Sitcom

TV programs are normally grouped into two categories: episodic and serial. In serial programs, the plot continues from one episode to the next with more complex characters and a more intricate storyline. Sitcoms, which are usually episodic, are less intricate, with problems and resolutions within each episode but little transferred from one episode to the next. Because of this, sitcoms are written with short story arcs and a viewer can watch any single episode without requiring much if any background from previous episodes.

The episodic nature of sitcoms functions within the genre by influencing the structure and the nature of each program’s episodes. Because people are believed to have a limited attention span for comedy, TV producers make sitcoms a half hour long instead of a full hour as dramas are. In addition, as sitcoms contain a complete story in each program, every episode is organized into a modified three-act structure. These qualities and structures limit the possibility for character development and growth within the program since all must be explained within the half-hour episode.

A prime example of the effects of the episodic structure on sitcoms is the show “Everybody Loves Raymond”. This program includes a host of caricatured characters common in middle class America, such as the intrusive mother, nagging wife, lazy husband, and jealous brother. These characters are immediately evident even to someone new to the program based solely on the context in which they are placed. Most of the humor in the show is easily understood and built upon simple situations requiring little explanation. While the characters may change in small ways over long periods of time, for the most part they do not grow and tend to fulfill the same roles in every episode.  As a result, “Everybody Loves Raymond” is a perfect example of the episodic sitcom structure, providing simple, light humor in a complete story within a half hour. 

Shots in The Matrix

For this week’s blog discussing types of shots and shot progression in film, my movie of choice is one of my absolute favorites, The Matrix. The film has a complex plot in which the human population has been enslaved by machines capable of intelligent thought, and the mind of every person has been connected to a computer generated simulator called the matrix in which everyone lives out their lives while the machines use their bodies as energy sources. In the reality outside of the simulated world, a small resistance fights to free the rest of mankind from the machines and searches for “The One”, a prophesized man with the ability to change the matrix itself and break its rules.

A very iconic scene takes place when the protagonist, named Neo and played by Keanu Reeves, awakens from the matrix for the first time and finds himself within a fluid filled pod. He pulls a lengthy tube out of his throat and discovers tubes connected to every limb of his body. This scene is both essential to the film’s narrative and makes use of three types of shot, giving it a foreboding emotional aura.

As he first awakens, breaks through the outer covering of the pod, and notices the plugs attached to him, the director uses a close up shot and focuses directly on him, at just about eye level. This gives the viewer a keen perspective of his emotions of confusion and fear upon reaching consciousness in such a frightening environment. It is imperative that this shot comes first so that Neo’s initial feelings can be most accurately conveyed before the scene can continue, and only a close up will allow such focus.

Neo next turns to his left and a medium shot is used. The camera is positioned behind his head at eye level so the viewer is given the perspective of seeing what he sees. Peering to the left, there are several other pods identical to his in a row, each containing a person unconscious and encased in an organic fluid just as he was moments earlier. This shot is important not only to give the viewer greater information about the situation in which the protagonist finds himself but also amplifies his emotions and confusion. Up until the point Neo is in a strange situation but it is not known whether he is alone or not. The medium shot answers this question.

The last and most important shot used in the scene is the long shot. After looking over to his left, Neo looks down over the front end of his pod. The director positions this shot far above Neo’s head, making him appear smaller in relation to his surrounding environment. As he sees what is over the edge, the viewer too is alerted to the fact that his pod is in a tower of thousands upon thousands of other pods, and the ground is so far away it cannot be seen. All within view are his and other towers composed of pods like his. It is the ultimate shot in terms of loneliness for in this moment Neo realizes that he is completely alone and isolated from all he knows, the only awakened person in a sea of comatose individuals.

Studios and the Star System

The studio system of movie production in the Classical Hollywood era was a method of producing films in a factory-based, assembly line method creating hundreds of films a year in predictable formulas. One particular aspect of this method utilized by the few most powerful studios of the time was called the star system. With this approach, popular actors deemed “stars” were contracted by the studios and used in many of their films, often becoming associated with a certain genre and role which the star often if not always played.

Because the studios knew people would not flock to see a movie simply because it was a crime or romance film, they were forced to come up with some other method to attract their audience to the theater. Their solution came in the form of the star system. Instead of simply marketing a film based on its content, the studios found that it was much more profitable to base their promotions around the stars themselves because the people were not drawn to the movies necessarily because of the subject matter but because of the stars. Because of this, many stars became associated with certain types of roles, such as Judy Garland as a lovable girl who sang to musical numbers, and these stars were the faces of the studios that contracted them. Since this system brought in huge profits for the major studios, they continued to recycle the same ideas and storylines as their movies grew repetitive, establishing genres such as western, horror, musical, and crime.

A good example of the effects of the star system in action is the career of Humphrey Bogart. After starring in the film “The Maltese Falcon”, Bogart became the symbol of a hardboiled and cynical character, someone courageous, sly, and possessing his own ideas on morality. In such later films as “Casablanca”, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, and “The Big Sleep”, Bogart reprised the same sort of role, donning the fedora and clever demeanor. Bogart was the face of Warner Bros. and specifically the detective/crime genre, himself the main attraction for many films in the classical era of Hollywood. 

The Big Sleep Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGp26VI2270&feature=channel