Globalization

Globalization could be defined as the process of augmentative interconnectedness between all people around the globe which is obviously backed up by technology and its advancements.

         Nonetheless, this process has many side effects such as the cultural imperialism factor. This just means that there is a clear imbalance in the structure of world power which feeds the inequality among countries/people.

         An example of this could be the Apple product(s). For almost a decade now, everything that relates to an iMac or an iPod has gained a lot of popularity around the world. We see ¡t in the movies, at the mall or even in our close circle of friends. This almost puts the –Apple culture- in a pedestal leaving behind a considerable amount of countries who cannot compete with this “culture.” 

Just another ad's appeal!

     In this ad there's a fist coming out of a man's mouth and brutally hitting a woman in the face. I think this ad is very powerful because one can actually picture how sometimes words can hurt a woman so intensely. In my opinion, it is one of the best ads I've seen that tries to carry the message of verbal abuse being just another method of beating up a woman.

     One of the advertising appeals that is most commonly used is the hyperbole. This method consists of exaggerating a situation and/or creating a claim enlarged beyond reasonableness. The exaggeration itself is the one that makes the powerful impact on the consumer.
     Many men who verbally abuse women may feel deeply guilty after seeing this ad. In the moment, when they are verbally attacking them, they may not realize the impact that their words can have on women. Nonetheless, I think that generally speaking this ad can kick in some sense into all men.


 
 
 

Remember the Titans' 3-act Structure!

     Remember the Titans is a very famous movie that deals with the integration of a high-school football team during the early 1970's and perfectly fits Hollywood's 3-act structure.
     The first act, also called the "introduction," starts with both the white players and the black players getting together on busses and going to a camp where they will be training for the season but at the same time being integrated. Of course all of this is being organized by Boone, a black coach with a strong character who was given a job as an assistant coach of coach Yoast. Throughout this act, the integration process seems to be unsuccessful, the players are fighting all the time and it peaks when captains Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell (representing the white and black crowd respectively) have a serious argument and the viewer cannot get an idea of where all of this is going to end at. This act lasts about 30 minutes.

     In the second act, also called the "complication,"the team starts to slowly pull it together. The players are working as a team and the sleeping arrangements of a black player with a white player are starting to become positive factors. The players now enjoy their company and the viewer can start to see the brotherhood in the team. Nonetheless, they still have to deal with a bigger problem than before, society. When they return from the camp they go through some difficult times because they realize that society is not ready to accept their integration. This peaks when some of the guys go to an eating place to grab a bite and the owner tells them that only the white guys can go in. At this point the viewer might ask himself, won't society make the players feel discouraged? Isn't this going to hurt the players' performance during the season? This part of the 3-act structure lasts approximately 45 minutes.

     In the third act, also called the "resolution," the team plays the last couple of games before the big final and everything goes amazing. In the last game, they have some trouble but they end up winning. There's a moving scene where coach Boone realizes that coach Yoast missed his chance of going into the coaches Hall of Fame and he tells him: "You've always been a Hall of Fame in my book." The team defeated all the teams during the season, but more importantly they defeated themselves in terms of racial differences. This last portion lasts about 30 minutes and is the heroic ending of this movie (typical of a 3-act structure)

Episodic Sitcoms!

     Many shows now-a-days are based on an episodic structure. This type of format consists of mainly a 30-minute long sitcom which doesn't have much impact on the next one shown nor it is impacted by the previous one. Every episode has its own story and dilemma and will probably end smoothly right about where it started (no dilemmas nor conflicts unresolved). Also, this format, in contrast to series and serial programming, counts with the predictability factor. Since the episode consists of a dilemma and the way it is resolved during the episode, the viewer usually feels more familiarized with the way that the plot unfolds itself and can get an idea of where the story is headed to.

     A good example would be My Wife and Kids. This sitcom usually shows the father, Michael, as the moral leader in the family who, with the use of humor, imparts lessons or morals to his family. These lessons come from conflicts which usually arise at the beginning of the show and are satisfied by the end of it. Each episode comes with a different story and, with its small resolutions, is always lesson-centered. I cannot emphasize enough that the show puts him as a very humorist guy (which is also a characteristic of a sitcom) but he always ends up resolving the conflict.

Use of shots in William Friedkin's "The Exorcist"

     In the first version of The Exorcist (1973), directed by William Friedkin, we can appreciate how the different uses of camera shots can contribute significantly to the scenes. In the movie there is a scene where the priest goes into the room where Regan is (the girl who is possessed) and he begins trying to get accustomed to the situation.

     As soon as the priest, Father Merrin, walks in, the viewer sees Regan from afar completely possessed and tied to the bed. The denotative meaning of this long shot lets the viewer know the basics, there is a girl who is possessed and she's tied to the bed. Now, the connotative meaning of this shot makes Regan look completely isolated (since there's a significant distance from the bed to where the door is).
     Next, the Father walks closer to the bed and stands in front of her. This medium shot's denotative meaning lets the viewer know a little more about what's happening. Regan exchanges a few words with him (this is where connotatively we could say that the shot tells us about the relationship Priest-Regan) and it becomes pretty clear that she's possessed.

     Finally, there is a close-up shot to Regan's face showing her detailed. Regan's inhumanity becomes almost tangible to the viewer. The connotative meaning of this shot even lets one know how she feels. The viewer now understands completely her anger and her defiance. This is how the use of camera shots can help the scene develop.

The Studio's progress process!

     After this week’s lectures I concluded that the way that the Big-Eight producer-distributors complemented each other was one of the most important aspects of how production and market control used to work in the studios. All of them (these producer-distributors) were vertically-integrated so they owned all the stages of production, distribution, and exhibition of their movies and they shared with each other their biggest movies so they could be shown in all major theatres while also loaning out their biggest movie stars to each other. This way, they would create a considerable, almost crucial gap between their productions and the rest (big movie stars and major theatres vs. the rest).

     Like I just mentioned, having the most famous movie stars and having their movies in all major theatres of the country kept their movies among the most popular. This probably was unfair to the small studio firms but I’m guessing they could see it coming after realizing that eight vertically-integrated firms were going to be working together.

     Casablanca could help me illustrate this statement. Casablanca was produced by Warner Bros. and if they gave it to Paramount and to MGM so they could show it in their major theatres and Warner Bros. also loaned them out Humphrey Bogart so he could be in one of their movies, Warner Bros.’ Casablanca would gain a lot of popularity (which, obviously, it did). On the other hand, if there’s a small firm that just released a movie and it is only being shown in a small town, it is not very likely that, that movie will gain a lot of popularity. That is why, I think, this was very important in the Studio's progress process.

Archie Bunker vs. Ray Barone

After having watched an episode of “All in the Family”  I could not help but contrast it with some of the shows that are airing today which also deal with the same type of family situations. In fact, one of the shows that I enjoyed comparing it with the most was “Everybody Loves Raymond.” I think that after taking a close look at these two shows we can get an idea of just how much our society and media have changed over the years.

            The viewer can get one of the main and most impacting differences of these two shows after analyzing the two main couples. In “All in the Family,” the housewife could perhaps be considered somewhat naive. She does not show much independency and is most definitely shown as inferior to her husband. While he (the husband) is shown as a very narrow-minded macho type of guy who has control over his wife. Distinctively, in “Everybody Loves Raymond” the housewife is the one showing independency and control of the house while the husband is very mellow and the viewer could even consider he (the husband) is, colloquially speaking, being whipped by his wife. 

             One of the main similarities I found was the attitude of Archie, the husband in “All in the Family,” and the one of Frank Barone (the husband’s father-in-law) in “Everybody Loves Raymond.” In the episode screened in class, Archie shows himself as a very narrow-minded person (as I stated before) when it comes to homosexuality. One of his daughter’s friends is homosexual and Archie can’t even stand it. He makes remarks such as “we should open a window and let him fly away.” These type of comments reminded me a lot of Frank Barone (“Everybody Loves Raymond”), the most blunt father-in-law someone can have. Frank cares little about what people think of him so he is very open about his points of view which, in most cases, are very narrow-minded as well.

            Years ago it was perhaps normal to see shows on TV talking so openly about subjects that are pretty delicate to society such as homosexuality. Nonetheless, I think that today we see less and less of those types of episodes because we live in a more accepting and discrete nation than it was during “All in the Family”. Also, people in the TV business maybe realize that gaining or losing viewers is just an episode away, so it’s best if directors play their cards right and not deal with any controversial subjects in an unbalanced manner. This is how, in my opinion, one could contrast “All in the Family” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” and find some very interesting insights.