Audience
Not just another dead soldier: Subjectivity in Saving Private Ryan
In Saving Private Ryan, ‘focalisation’ forms a major part of the narrative as it ‘shapes our perception of the fabula [story]’[1]. The way in which it does this is by omitting story information in the plot to create a focal point for the narrative. As we are introduced to Captain Miller, the main character of the film, we are immediately focused on his part of the overall story. This is only a minor part of the focalisation that the narrative creates, because through the suppression of gaps we are quickly told who is on the side of the ‘bad’, and who is on the side of the ‘good’. (Read full essay)
Favourite Films Or: How I stopped worrying and admitted I didn’t like Citizen Kane
What makes a favorite movie? Is a favorite film separate from that which you believe merits the accolade greatest work of cinema’? It’s always kind of troubled me why Citizen Kane hasn’t rushed to the top of my list of most watched films. Why it hasn’t engaged me beyond its technical and historical influence, largely passing me by like a landmark in a faraway world of which I took a photo and filed away with other long lost memories. Yet, we’re constantly told of its brilliance, topping the polls of every academic, middle-class hit-list of the world’s best cinema, from those that know better than everybody else. Who am I to disagree? The film itself has an influence on almost every single film I grew up watching, and therefore its importance in why I love cinema is undeniable. It’s a work of art; it’s a work of technical ingenuity, and it’s flawless in its execution but, dare I say it, I don’t particularly like it very much. So how do we come to our conclusions about our favorite movies? (Read Full article)
Self-Reflexivity in Spielberg’s Jurassic Park
Having not seen the film for many years what struck me most was the postmodernist and self-reflexive attitude of the film, almost parodying the event’ movie that Spielberg had helped create in the first place. (Read full article)
The Importance of Ethnography in Media, Film and the arts
It could be argued that some mass communication research methods constrain the audience to an entity that is empowered by the media, and not something that is actually enriching it. Taking art and taste as an example, ‘when trying to differentiate between high and low culture, good and bad taste, one must look at and evaluate such issues as social context, political outlook, and ideology. One must appreciate that the text can be interpreted differently based on an infinite set of social and cultural positioning. The issue becomes not whether an object is good or bad, but how it functions in society.’ (Bird, 2003, pg 119) Bird explains, as we are analyzing a work of art, we need to consider its context in a particular time, place, socio-political structure and so on’ (Bird, 2003, pg 119) The problem therefore is that some earlier mass communication theories localize meaning between the text and the receiver and not necessarily view culture as empowering the media by using it as raw material to symbolically fashion identity. Paul Willis, through his ethnographic research, would argue this is an important concern in understanding what culture is in regard to everything else. (Read full article)
Our interest or theirs: Celebrity and the Press
Simply accepting that celebrities are voluntarily public people’ dismisses an important point. Gordon believes it is a greater good’ when the public have as complete information about a person who works or offers to work in the public arena.’ (Gordon, 1999. pg. 149) However, this fails to define a line between what elements of private life need to be made public, and what deems that information a greater good’. If this translates, as Gordon says, to sensational material designed to increase audience size’ then the greater good’ feeds the curiously voyeuristic times where the value of privacy, discretion and the keeping of confidences are undermined by the exhibitionism exemplified by Big Brother and the Jerry Springer Show.’ (Sanders, 2004. pg. 79) (Read full article)
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