At last...our fieldtrip

The Last Airbender's opening is just around the corner. It opens on July 1st. Trevor suggested I put up a poll with different times to go, so look for that on the right side of this page. Vote and we'll set up a definitive time. We can also grab something to eat either before or after the show.

Hope these times work.

Also, anyone interested in a trip to SF to see Grease Sing-a-Long in mid-July? If you don't know what that is, its the regular movie Grease movie but with the words posted up during songs. Audiences are encouraged to sing along. I've been to The Sound of Music one and it was really fun. People get all dressed up for these, so I'd expect a lot of Pink Ladies and T-Birds. Should be a blast. Let me know if you're interested.

Talk to you soon!

Week 17: The Final Cut

NORMA
And I promise you I'll never desert you
again because after "Salome" we'll make
another picture and another picture. You
see, this is my life! It always will be!
Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and
those wonderful people out there in the dark!
[beat]
All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my
close-up.

—Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in
Sunset Boulevard (Wilder, 1950 USA)

M 5.24/W 5.26: Closing
In-class: Course Review; Final exam
Due: ISRs 1-6, plus Journal 3

For your ISRs...

Here is a list of every film we've seen in class this semester. You will be responsible for one reflection per unit. On Wednesday, your six reflections, plus journal response 3, should be collected, in order, inside a thin folder.

Road Films:

It Happened One Night (Capra, 1934 USA)


Thelma & Louise (Scott, 1991 USA)

Sports Films:


Rocky (Avildsen, 1976 USA)


The Wrestler (Aronofsky, 2008 USA)

Musicals:

Moulin Rouge! (Luhrmann, 2001 USA/Australia)


Dancer in the Dark (von Trier, 2000 USA/Denmark/German/et al.)

Documentaries:

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Gordan, 2007 USA)


Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father (Kuenne, 2008 USA)


The Cove (Psihoyos, 2009 USA)

Gay Film:

The Talented Mr. Ripley (Minghella, 1999 USA)


Transamerica (Tucker, 2005 USA)

Science Fiction:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Jones, 2004 USA)


Cube (Natali, 1997 Canada)

Final Exam Film Terms

Here are the terms to know for your final this Wednesday:

1. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS): Based in Hollywood and sometimes called “The Academy,” they are the organization responsible for the annual Academy Awards (or Oscars).
2. Avant-Garde Cinema: Traditionally, Avant-Garde Cinema’s agenda has been to tear down traditional film conventions. Through a variety of techniques, Avant-Garde Cinema strives to push film to its limits. It is sometimes offensive, sometimes preposterous, but always challenges Hollywood’s status quo.
3. Black Comedy: Sometimes called a “dark comedy,” it is a comedy in which the laughs are derived from subjects for which humor is usually considered unsuitable, such as death, war, suffering, and murder (e.g. Dr. Strangelove, The War of the Roses, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Mr. and Mrs. Smith).
4. Blockbuster: A movie that has a box-office of more than $100 million upon release in North America.
5. B-Movies: A generic term given to low-budget, second-tier movies. Traditionally, B-movies have been made quick and cheap. They are also often sexually exploitive and/or gratuitously violent, catering to the lowest common denominator. The name comes from the tradition of these films often playing second in a double feature. Today, B-movies are often called STV’s (Straight-to-Video).
6. Bollywood: A nickname given to the film industry centered in and around Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India. This region, known for its over-the-top musical productions, produces more films per year than any other nation, including the United States.
7. Camp: A form of comedic parody where drama is deliberately exaggerated to the point of ridiculousness (e.g. Moulin Rouge).
8. Documentary: A non-fiction narrative without actors. Documentaries are a journalistic record of human issues, chronologies, events, real people, social concerns, political movements, and values. In its most general description, the documentary serves the purpose of conveying factual data.
9. Fanboy: Originating in the world of comic books, the term has come to describe a type of fervent film fan (typically male) that not only follows film, but is often vocal (typically via the Internet) in his approval or disapproval of upcoming sci-fi or fantasy projects.
10. Film Adaptation: A film adaptation is a screen translation of a novel or short story (e.g. Brokeback Mountain).
11. Film Noir: A French term literally meaning "black film," though no single convention encapsulates what is meant by this generic term. The primary motifs include the formidable dark side of human nature. These films can be characterized as cynical in their outlook regarding characters, social perspectives, and human nature. Themes within the films emphasize the brutal, unhealthy, shadowy and sadistic sides of humanity; the inhumane within the human; people's inhumanity toward one another. The film medium itself lends itself to this exploration as it can experiment with and control the amount of light and shadow cast on a particular scene. Gothic in texture, the golden age of Film Noir was from the early 1940s to early 1960s. Subsequent noirs (from the 1970s to present) are often called “Neo-Noirs.”
12. Gaze: The concept of “The Gaze” derives from a seminal 1975 article called “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey, a feminist film theorist. In essence, she posits that film is an “instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view.” Her theory further holds that part of the pleasure people gain from watching films is voyeuristic.
13. Independent Cinema: Sometimes called “indie” cinema, it is a term used to refer to films not produced by a mainstream Hollywood studio (e.g. Paramount, Twentieth Century-Fox). With indie films, audiences often see stories that mainstream movies avoid; it is for this reason that many filmmakers say independent cinema is more liberating and satisfying as an artist. Still, independents, often produced on dramatically reduced budgets, typically face an uphill battle as they are generally not as well financed nor distributed as a Hollywood-produced feature. Nonetheless, there have been some remarkable indie successes in the past few years including Pulp Fiction ($108 million gross), The Blair Witch Project ($140 million gross), and My Big Fat Greek Wedding ($241 million gross).
14. Mis-en-scène: from the French term for “staging,” the proponents of mise-en-scene understand, accentuate and celebrate the importance of the individual frame of film and what it contains. It is the sum total of all factors affecting the artistic "look" or "feel" of a shot or scene. These can include shot selection, composition, production design and set decoration, as well as technical camera properties.
15. Mockumentray: A “mock” documentary, these are fictional films utilizing the stylistic techniques of documentaries. They are often comedies (e.g. Best in Show, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan), but the technique is also seen in horror and sci-fi fairly often (e.g. Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity)
16. Narrative Charge: The film character or thing that drives a film’s narrative. In other words, it is that force within a film that drives the story’s direction (e.g. the “myth” of the Blair Witch in The Blair Witch Project).
17. Pastiche: A work of art produced by borrowing fragments, ingredients, or ideas from other sources. It is creating new art from pieces of other art (e.g. Dancer in the Dark).
18. Pitch: The initial presentation of a script or concept to prospective producers, such as studio executives or directors
19. Post-Modernism: Post-modernism is the aesthetic approach dominating contemporary art in the second-half of the 20th century. Often, post-modern films: 1) recycle earlier genres and styles into new contexts (e.g. the hard-boiled, 1940s detective style of the very futuristic Blade Runner), 2) represent history through nostalgic images from the past (e.g. the hyper-romantic 1900 Paris of Moulin Rouge), 3) celebrate of pop culture/mass media at the expense of high art (e.g. the overabundance of pop culture references in Pulp Fiction), and 4) are multicultural, drawing back from the West and embracing a diversity of cultures (e.g. Bride and Prejudice). Post-modern films sometimes show little regard for the expectations of genres, so the experience of watching one of these films can sometimes be jarring because time, cultures, and styles do not always add up (e.g. Dirty Dancing, Dancer in the Dark).
20. Queer Cinema: The term originally referred to the fringe cinema created by gay directors (e.g. Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith) and aimed at gay audiences. It was, in large part, a response to the negative portrayal gays and lesbians traditionally received on film. Today, Queer Cinema (or “New Queer Cinema” as it is often called today) has come out of the “celluloid closet” and crossed into the mainstream.
21. Subtext: “Subtext” refers to an unspoken, underlying, and or implied theme, in a narrative. In film, this is not explicitly stated (it is content underneath the spoken dialogue), but is nonetheless “understood” by viewers. Gay cinema has often utilized this technique to explore often-forbidden themes of homosexuality. Films, such as Hitchcock’s Rebecca, has used subtext to relay to audiences a secondary layer to a character or plot.
22. Spoiler: Information that, if revealed, will “spoil” key parts of a film. In the age of the Internet, spoilers are much more common. Some online film sites will post “spoiler alerts” if the information might ruin a film. Recent Internet spoilers have included revelations about films, including The Village and Million Dollar Baby.
23. Storyboard: A sequence of pictures created by a production illustrator to communicate the desired general visual appearance of a film. Resembling comic book panels, storyboards detail a film’s visual framework.
24. Studio System: Between the 1920’s and 1950’s, a handful of film studios ran the entire filmmaking industry in the United States. The major studios were: Twentieth Century-Fox, Warner Bros., MGM, Paramount, RKO, Universal, Disney, Columbia, and United Artists. The system included the owning of properties and the contracts to actors, actresses, directors and producers. The corporate leader of a studio would control all aspects of the production of a film which limited the control employees of the studio had. In essence, all performers were governed by the studio.
25. Three-Act Narrative Structure: Based on Aristotle's "Poetics," this is the foundation on which most films’ narrative structures are based upon: Act I: The Set-Up, Act II: Confrontation, Act III: Resolution.

Journal Response 3

Though the experience of seeing a film is changing, Americans still maintain their love of going to the movies. Despite high ticket and concessions prices, over-bloated films, and even commercials, there is something about people coming together in a large, darkened theater that keeps us coming back. Whether it's to laugh or cry, going to the movies remains a unique experience. For this journal, write about a specific movie memory you have, a time that you went to the movies that stands out. Was it a paticularly scary film? Maybe it was your first time going? Do you associate a specififc film with a certain person? Or maybe what most stands out was a terrible movie experience. Whatever the association, write about a movie-going experience that left a lasting impression.

Due: Wednesday, May 26 (include as the final journal in your ISR packet)

Week 16: Science Fiction

JOHN
All major theme parks have had delays. When they
opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked!

IAN
But, John, if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down,
the pirates don't eat the tourists.

—Richard Attenborough as John and Jeff Goldblum as Ian in
Jurassic Park (Spielberg, 1993 USA)

M 5.17/5.19: Science Fiction
In-class: “Sci-Fi on Film, Pt. II”
Screening: Cube (Natali, 1997 Canada)

Sci-Fi Films, 1980s-Present

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Lucas, 1980 USA)


E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Spielberg, 1982 USA)


Tron (Lisberger, 1982 USA)


Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Meyer, 1982 USA)


Jurassic Park (Spielberg, USA 1993)


The Fifth Element (Besson, 1997 France)


The Iron Giant (Bird, 1999 USA)


A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg, 2001 USA)


28 Days Later (Boyle, 2002 UK)


Children of Men (Cuarón, 2006 UK/USA/Japan)


Cloverfield (Abrams, 2007 USA)


Star Trek (Abrams, 2009 USA)

Sci-Fi Films, 1920s-1970s

Metropolis (Lang, 1927 Germany)


Frankenstein (Whale, 1931 USA)


The Bride of Frankenstein (Whale, 1935 USA)


Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Bebee/Taylor, 1940 USA)


The Day the Earth Stood Still (Wise, 1951 USA)


The War of the Worlds (Haskin, 1953 USA)



Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel, 1956 USA)


2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968 USA)


The Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968 USA)


Young Frankenstein (Brooks, USA 1974)


Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, 1977 USA)


Alien (Scott, 1979 USA)

"Hurt Locker" Producers Follow RIAA ootsteps

By Greg Sandoval, CNET
May 12, 2010

For years now, film industry executives have giggled at the mention of the music industry's legal campaign against individuals who illegally downloaded music.

The movie folks have long quietly mocked the music industry's attempt to protect their copyrights by suing fans. To them, the strategy--abandoned by the recording sector over a year ago--was a fantastic public relations flub that the film industry largely avoided. Apparently, the producers of the critically acclaimed film "The Hurt Locker" didn't get that memo.

The Hollywood Reporter, a trade publication for the film and TV sectors, reported Wednesday that Voltage Pictures, the producers of the Oscar-winning film, are on the verge of filing possibly tens of thousands of lawsuits against people who downloaded pirated copies of the movie.

Thomas Dunlap, of the U.S. Copyright Group, a law firm working on behalf of Voltage, told the Reporter that the complaints should be filed this week.

Representatives from Voltage and the Copyright Group were not immediately to comment for this story.

It's not difficult to guess why Voltage managers are so fired up. They won an Academy Award but only pocketed $16 million in the United States. According to the Reporter, the film leaked on to the Web more than five months before the U.S. release.

One thing must be made very clear, the Motion Picture Association of America is not part of this campaign. That may be another reason the producers may feel the need to file the suits. The indie movie wasn't made by any of the big studios and that means it doesn't have the MPAA helping to prevent leaks or lean on Internet service providers to help thwart file sharing. Producers must pursue their own antipiracy strategy.

It's probably frustrating for the producers to have earned so little from a movie that generated so much critical praise. How much piracy can be blamed for that isn't clear. One question that hasn't been answered is whether or not the producers of the film will recoup any losses after paying legal fees and other costs.

Official "Super 8" Trailer Released Online

Journal Response 2

In an April 2010 Newsweek web column, Ramin Setoodeh argued that, "While it's OK for straight actors to play gay (as Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger did in Brokeback Mountain), it's rare for someone to pull off the trick in reverse." He further argues that unlike straight actors who play gay, the sexuality of gay actors who play straight is an issue because "the fact is, an actor's background does affect how we see his or her performance." Not surprisingly, the column has resulted in a sharp rebuke from the gay arts community.

What do you think? Is an actor's sexuality really only an issue for audiences when he or she is gay, but playing straight? When you are watching a gay actor play straight, is his or her sexuality an factor in believability of the role? Next, why are there currently no major openly gay actors or actresses? Finally, if Setoodeh is indeed correct, what must change so that gay actors are allowed more freedom onscreen?

Due: Wednesday, May 12

Week 15: Science Fiction

MORPHEUS
Unfortunately, no one can be
told what the Matrix is.

—Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus in
The Matrix (Wachowski/Wachowski, 1999 USA)

M 5.10/W 5.12: Science Fiction
In-class: “Sci-Fi on Film, Pt. I”
Screening: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Jones, 2004 USA)
Due: Journal Response 2

UPCOMING:

M 5.17/5.19: Science Fiction
In-class: “Sci-Fi on Film, Pt. II”
Screening: Moon (Jones, 2009 UK)
Due: Journal Response 3

"The Cove"'s Dolphin Slaughter Town Logs Dangerous Mercury Levels in Residents

By Jay Alabaster, The Huffington Post

TAIJI, Japan — Residents of the dolphin-hunting village depicted in Oscar documentary "The Cove" have dangerously high mercury levels, likely because of their fondness for dolphin and whale meat, a government lab said Sunday.

The levels of mercury detected in Taiji residents were above the national average, but follow-up tests have found no ill effects, according to the National Institute for Minamata Disease. The tests were done on hair samples from 1,137 volunteers of the town's roughly 3,500 residents.

"The results suggest there is a connection between hair mercury levels and eating cetaceans," Director Koji Okamoto told reporters at town hall.

Mercury accumulates up the food chain, so large predators such as dolphins, tuna and swordfish tend to have the highest levels. The latest studies published by the Japanese government show that meat from bottlenose dolphins had about 1,000 times the mercury content of that from sardines.

Fetuses and small children are particularly vulnerable to mercury, which affects the development of the nervous system. The Health Ministry recommends that pregnant women eat at most 2.8 ounces (80 grams) of bottlenose dolphin per two months.

Environmentalists have long protested Taiji's dolphin slaughter and Japan's whaling activities, and have adopted the mercury issue as part of their cause.

"If you're eating dolphin meat, you're eating poison, and if you're eating a lot of dolphin meat, you're eating a lot of poison," said Louis Psihoyos, director of "The Cove," which won an Academy Award earlier this year. He spoke to the AP by phone from Los Angeles.

Taiji had been considering adding a mercury test to its standard set of health checks for several years. The town government last year contacted the institute, which agreed to perform and pay for mercury tests as part of its research, according to Yoshio Kaino, a Taiji official who oversaw the program.

Various tests were done from June of last year through February. On Sunday, a town hall meeting was held to explain the results, and about 100 Taiji residents who attended were told that there was no need for most of them to change their diet, although future tests are necessary.

Individuals with the highest levels were advised to cut back on large fish and sea mammals. Although it can damage the nervous system permanently, mercury naturally fades from the body over time, halving about every 70 days. A person could flush most of it from their system by completely cutting it out for a year.

At lunch after the town hall meeting, council chief Katsutoshi Mihara rejoiced as he carefully dipped raw slices of a striped dolphin into soy sauce.

"This may seem nonchalant, but I have absolutely no concerns, and I want to be able keep my lifestyle," he said.

As served at "Moby Dick," a hotel run by the local government, the red and pink dolphin sashimi was chewy and faintly fishy, its mammalian consistency more like meat than fish.

Despite the high mercury levels found in the Taiji tests, institute officials said neurological tests on the 182 citizens who wanted them found no problems. Follow-up tests are planned by March of next year, with outside experts possibly invited, and a separte study is under way to track mercury levels in the local catch.

At a presentation for the press on Sunday afternoon, many reporters questioned how there could be no health effects despite such high mercury levels, with some challenging the competency of the lab.

Joanna Tempowski, a scientist who works on chemical safety at the World Health Organization in Switzerland, said the Minamata institute was a respected institution that was trusted to provide technical assistance. Without seeing the Taiji results, she said that some damage from mercury might not appear immediately.

"At some point in the future they might start to show health effects," she said.

Mercury poisoning is a sensitive topic in Japan, where a disorder now called Minamata Disease was linked to a chemical company that dumped tons of mercury compounds on the southern island of Kyushu.

The disease causes spasms, sensory loss and birth defects and can be fatal. The pollution continued for years after it was discovered, and Minamata disease became an international symbol of environmental damage and corporate corruption.

First-Run Movies Go Home

Studios get a waiver granting limited use of technology to control piracy. Some films could be viewed in the living room at the same time they're showing in theaters.

By Richard Verrier, The Los Angeles Times
May 07, 2010|

The way has been cleared for movie lovers to enjoy watching a blockbuster film on opening weekend without budging from the couch.

Federal regulators have granted a controversial waiver to the Hollywood studios that will allow them to show first-run movies in the home shortly after — or even at the same time as — their release in theaters.

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday granted a petition from the Motion Picture Assn. of America, the chief lobbying group for the major studios, that would permit for a limited-period use of "selectable output control" technology for watching movies in the home. The technology disables video and audio outputs on set-top boxes that prevent illicit recording.

Hollywood studios are preparing for the day when they can debut "event" movies directly into the home, charging a hefty premium for a special showing. Studios are eager to experiment with shorter release "windows" to keep up with the changing habits of consumers, who want to see movies on big-screen TVs or portable devices without waiting months for the DVD or video-on-demand release.

Currently, movies are available for people to watch in the home via video-on-demand three to four months after they appear in theaters and when, or soon after, they are released on DVD. However, fear of piracy has been an impediment to delivering first-run movies directly to consumers in the home: A pirated copy of a newly released movie could wreak instant financial havoc on the picture.

Calling the FCC's ruling an "important victory," MPAA interim Chief Executive Bob Pisano said "it is a major step forward in the development of new business models by the motion picture industry to respond to growing consumer demand."

But movie theater operators view warily any move by the studios to push up the showing of major Hollywood movies before they come out on DVD, fearing that it would undercut ticket sales.

Walt Disney Pictures confronted a revolt among theater owners in Europe earlier this year over its decision to accelerate the release of its upcoming 3-D film "Alice in Wonderland" on DVD, with major chains threatening to boycott the movie until they received assurances from Disney executives that such decisions would not become standard.

"The FCC's decision is not surprising," the National Assn. of Theater Owners said in a statement. "Movie theft is a serious problem. The issue of the theatrical release window, however, will be decided in the marketplace."

Also unhappy with the FCC's decision are consumer groups, which say that disabling the video and audio outputs on the set-top box will limit the ability of people to record programming and require consumers to buy new equipment to watch movies on TV.

"We are disappointed that the [FCC] has succumbed to the special-interest pleadings of the big media companies and ignored the thousands of letters from consumers," said Public Knowledge, a Washington-based public interest group. "The order allowing the use of 'selectable output control' will allow the big firms for the first time to take control of a consumer's TV set or set-top box, blocking viewing of a TV program or motion picture."

The Consumer Electronics Assn., which represents device and TV manufacturers, also was unhappy with the ruling. "The fact that the motion picture studios want to create a new business model does not mean that functioning products should be disabled by them,'' the group said. "The decision is not in the public interest and harms the very consumers that the commission is in place to protect."

Under the ruling, studios could use the technology for a window of 90 days, or until the movie is released on DVD, whichever comes first. After the 90-day window, the studio would no longer have the security protocol. The limited granting of the waiver was a concession to consumer groups that opposed it.

You Have the Day Off...

Not feeling too hot, so class for Wednesday the 5th is canceled. Have a nice afternoon. See you next week.

Watching R-Rated Movies May Lead to Early Alcohol Use

By Robert Preidt, Bloomberg Businessweek
April 26, 2010

MONDAY -- Children who aren't allowed to watch R-rated movies are much less likely to start drinking alcohol at an early age, a new study suggests.

Researchers questioned nearly 3,600 middle-school children in New England and followed-up about two years later. In that time, 3 percent of the kids who said their parents never allowed them to watch R-rated movies said they had started drinking alcohol, compared with 19 percent of those who were sometimes allowed to watch R-rated movies and 25 percent of those who said they were allowed to watch such movies "all the time."

The findings are reported in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

The results highlight how important it is for parents to monitor their children's media exposure, said Dr. James D. Sargent, a pediatrics professor at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H., and an author of the study.

"We think this is a very important aspect of parenting, and one that is often overlooked," Sargent said in a news release from the journal.

He added that the new findings supplement the work of previous studies that have linked exposure to R-rated movies and shows with adult content to early drinking, early smoking, sex at a young age and violent behavior.

"The research to date suggests that keeping kids from R-rated movies can help keep them from drinking, smoking and doing a lot of other things that parents don't want them to do," Sargent said.

Depictions of alcohol consumption appear in about 90 percent of R-rated movies, Sargent said, which may be one reason why children who see such movies are more likely to start drinking at a young age. But he noted that previous studies have suggested that children who watch R-rated movies become more prone to "sensation seeking" and "risk taking."

"We think seeing the adult content actually changes their personality," he added.

(Un)Original Ideas

By Ben Magid, Script Journal Blog
April 28, 2010

I recently went on a general meeting at a studio, which I won't name, and asked if they were looking for original ideas. The answer was, "We are always looking for original ideas. As long as they are based on underlying material like a comic book or video game or novel." I sat there a bit confused, then finally responded, "So you're answer is no then? If it's based on someone else's IP, then it really isn't an original, is it?" Then he sat there a bit confused. He didn't understand what I was talking about.

And he's not alone. In today's marketplace, original ideas carry little weight. Studios are risk averse and are only looking for sure things. Sure things equate to pre-awareness. Comic books, novels, video games, remakes, sequels. They are counting on making their money back opening weekend. The odd thing is, many of these materials have zero pre-awareness to them, and are fairly derivative concepts as well. I'm a comic book fan, and I've never heard of some of these titles getting set up at studios or sent to me for an assignment. And if I haven't heard of them, 99.9% of the world hasn't either.

The main aspect to be considered is quality. Everyone knows Superman, yet the recent film lacked in my opinion. Or you can take Iron Man, a well known comic inside of the comic world, but not really that well known outside of it; yet, it was a great movie. Recent hits like Avatar, District 9 and The Hangover all performed exceeding well with relatively smaller actors, yet all had compelling stories.

A lot of producers and writers now try to convert their scripts to comic books to help sell them to the studios. It's an odd business model. A comic costs about 5 to 10 thousand dollars to make. The studio will then have to option the rights to the comic book, add another producer's (the comic book publisher) salary, and then pay a writer, or writers, to write the script, when all they had to do from the beginning was read the original script, pay the writer, and save a lot of money. Some say that a comic helps the studio exec "see" the movie. I say, if your imagination is that limited, you are in the wrong business.

In the end, it should come down to the story and how it is told, not what it is or isn't based on. But that's just my opinion.

Screenwriter Ben Magid is best known for thinking outside the box, creating high concept worlds and big ideas. Magid entered the entertainment industry in 2006 with the sale of PAN to New Line Cinema, a revisionist take on Peter Pan that garnered mention on the Black List. He went on to write HACK/SLASH for Rogue Pictures, scheduled to shoot early 2010. He has worked with Legendary Pictures on BIGFOOT, Level One Entertainment on THE MAZE and sold his spec script INVASION in 2009 to Participant and Summit produced by Strike Entertainment and Eli Roth. His script ATLAS has been optioned by the producers of Paranormal Activity. Currently developing a TV show with Warner Horizon / Warner Bros, Magid is also active in the comic book world, with the upcoming debute of graphic novel TROUT published by Arcana Comics due out in 2010. He is repped in film by Mike Esola and Rob Carlson at WME and Brooklyn Weaver at Energy Entertainment, and in television by David Stone and Richard Weitz at WME.

Week 14: Gay Film

MIKE
If I had a normal family, and a good upbringing,
then I would have been a well-adjusted person.

SCOTT
[Laughs]
Depends on what you call normal.


MIKE
Yeah, it does. Well, you know, normal, like, like
a mom and a dad and a dog and shit like that.
Normal. Normal.

SCOTT
So you didn't have a normal dog?

MIKE
No, I didn't have a dog.

SCOTT
Didn't have a ... a normal dad?

MIKE
Didn't have a dog or, or, or a normal dad anyway.
That's alright. I don't feel sorry for myself, I
mean, I feel like I'm, I feel like I'm, you know,
well-adjusted.

SCOTT
[Laughs]
What's a normal dad?

MIKE
I don't know.

—River Phoenix as Mike and Keanu Reeves as Scott in
My Own Private Idaho (Van Sant, 1991 USA)

M 5.3/W 5.5: Gay Cinema
In-class: “History of Gay Cinema, Pt. II”
Screening: Transamerica (Tucker, 2005 USA)
Due: Journal Response 1

UPCOMING:

M 5.10/W 5.12: Science Fiction
In-class: “Sci-Fi on Film, Pt. I”
Screening: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Jones, 2004 US)
Due: Journal Response 2

First "Hobbit" film on track for 2012 release

"The Hobbit" is coming to theaters sooner than you think, but later than you initially thought.

The Hollywood Reporter
April 28th, 2010

Warner Bros. is scheduling Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro's two-part adaptation of "The Hobbit" for December 2012 and December 2013.

Confusion over release dates surfaced Wednesday when Imax announced an overall, 20-film, three-year deal with Warners. In outlining which films would be included, Imax incorrectly indicated 2013 as the release date for the first "Hobbit" movie.

But 2013 is two years later than the 2011 release date that New Line and MGM targeted for the first installment when the two companies originally announced the movies in December 2007.

However, 2011 proved not to be a realistic date and instead served more as a guideline, according to insiders, because when it was first announced, no scripts were written, nor schedules or budgets drawn up.

While the project is taking a bit longer than the filmmakers anticipated, it is now on track for 2012 -- rather than the 2013 date mentioned in the Imax release.

The second movie's script was turned in to the studio a couple of weeks ago.

Warners moved quickly to set the calendar straight in the wake of the Imax release, and by midday, the giant-screen-format company said it was going to send out a correction, officially making 2012 the new date for the first "Hobbit" movie.

Journal Response 1

We now live in an era in which its possible to view a major Hollywood film at home on or before the day it opens. This is, of course, illegal. Yet, high-quality copies of every major film currently playing in theatres exist and are easily available via bootlegged DVDs or filesharing programs.

As a consequence, these practices have radically altered, not only the American box office, but audiences' viewing habits. Untold millions of dollars have been lost at a time when more and more people are beginning to prefer watching first-run movies on their computers. All the way, they are aided by technology that makes it ever easier to illegally obtain films.

Pirating has nearly brought down the recording industry, is Hollywood next? What should studios do about it? Is the genie out of the bottle, so to speak? Is there any going back? And as an audience member, what is gained and what is lost by viewing first-run films outside of a theatre? Have these practices changes how you view films? What are your thoughts on illegally downloading films?

Due: Monday, May 3rd.

Week 13: Gay Film

ALBERT
Don't give me that tone!

ARMAND
What tone?

ALBERT
That sarcastic contemptuous tone that means
you know everything because you're a man,
and I know nothing because I'm a woman.

ARMAND
You're not a woman.

ALBERT
Oh, you bastard!

—Natahn Lane as Albert and Robin Williams as Armand in
The Birdcage (Nichols, 1996 USA)

M 4.26/W 4.28: Gay Cinema
In-class: “History of Gay Cinema, Pt. I”
Screening: The Talented Mr. Ripley (Minghella, 1999 USA)

UPCOMING:

M 5.3/W 5.5: Gay Cinema
In-class: “History of Gay Cinema, Pt. II”
Screening: Transamerica (Tucker, 2005 USA)
Due: Journal Response 1

What We've Watched So Far...

Here are the films we've watched so far. You are responsible for writing about them for your ISRs due at the end of the semester:



City Lights (Chaplin, 1931 USA)


It Happened One Night (Capra, 1934 USA)


Thelma & Louise (Scott, 1991 USA)


Rocky (Avildsen, 1976 USA)


The Wrestler (Aronofsky, 2008 USA)


Moulin Rouge! (Luhrmann, 2001 USA/Australia)


Dancer in the Dark (von Trier, 2000 USA/Denmark/German/et al.)


The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Gordan, 2007 USA)


Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father (Kuenne, 2008 USA)

"Cove" Director Defiant of Base Ban, Harassment

By Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press

April 22, 2010

TOKYO — The director of "The Cove" said Thursday that a decision by a U.S. military base in Japan to ban the Oscar-winning film on dolphin killings and protests at the local distributor's office won't silence the film's message on saving dolphins.

"The Cove" documents the bloody bludgeoning of dolphins by fishermen in the western seaside Japanese town of Taiji, where some dolphins are captured and sold to aquariums while others are killed for their meat. The film has set off a flurry of debate, especially after it won best documentary at this year's Academy Awards.

The Japanese government is adamant that whaling and dolphin hunts must continue for research and cultural purposes. But most Japanese have never eaten whale or dolphin, and are shocked to see the slaughter.

The U.S. Air Force Yokota Air Base, west of Tokyo, decided last week to cancel the screening at its on-base theater to be "sensitive to local political and cultural concerns," base spokesperson Mitsuru Takahashi said.

"The Cove" director Louie Psihoyos said he will give away 100 DVDs of the movie to people at the base so they can see it.

"The military is facing a lot of pressure by our government to make nice of the Japanese," he told The Associated Press by telephone from Boulder, Colorado. "We are going to win this battle, with or without the U.S. military."

The film has not yet opened in Japan, except at a festival and small screenings, and is set to be shown at theaters in June. The faces of the fishermen and many other people in the film are blurred out to protect their privacy.

In recent weeks, dozens of nationalist protesters with loudspeakers have shown up at the distributor's downtown Tokyo office demanding the film not be shown. Some theaters may choose not to show the film simply to avoid trouble.

Psihoyos, executive director of the Oceanic Preservation Society, a nonprofit for protecting the environment, said he was hopeful Japanese will be interested in what he said was a warning in his movie about the health risks of eating dolphin meat, which has mercury contamination levels higher than fish.

"It's not just about saving dolphins. It's about saving humans," he said. "This kind of information needs to be freed. We're going to get it out there, one way or another."

He has begun working on his next film, tentatively titled "The Singing Planet," an overview about the destruction of nature, such as the disappearance of coral reefs and the rise of toxins in tuna and other ocean life.

Psihoyos is set to testify at a U.S. congressional hearing with the Committee on Natural Resources on Tuesday that will raise questions about the educational value of keeping marine animals in captivity — an issue drawing growing interest after a SeaWorld Orlando trainer was killed by an orca, or killer whale, in February.

"Fish are talking. Whales are talking," he said. "Everything has been singing. We just haven't been listening, and we are destroying these voices."

Watch the Producers of "The Cove" on Oprah's Earth Day Special

Week 12: Documentaries

LITTLE EDIE

I can't stand being in this house. In the first place,
it makes me terribly nervous. I'm scared to death
of doors, locks, people roaming around in the
background, under the trees, in the bushes, I'm
absolutely terrified.

—Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale in
Grey Gardens (Mayles/Maysles, 1975 USA)

Week 12
M 4.19/W 4.21: Documentaries
In-class: “A Survey of Documentary Film, Pt. II”
Screening: Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father (Kuenne, 2008 USA)
Due: OSR 6 (Documentary Film)

UPCOMING:

M 4.26/W 4.28: Gay Cinema
In-class: “History of Gay Cinema, Pt. I”
Screening: The Talented Mr. Ripley (Minghella, 1999 USA)

DVD Rental Revenue Falls, Delivering Another Blow to Home Entertainment Business

By Ben Fritz, The Los Angeles Times
April 15, 2010 | 12:51 pm D

VD rentals have gone from silver lining for Hollywood's struggling home entertainment business to yet another rain cloud.

The Digital Entertainment Group, a trade organization for the major movie studios, released its first-quarter data Thursday with the surprising news that U.S. DVD rental revenue fell 14% from a year ago. DVD sales account for about half the profits for a movie, so any decline portends financial worries.

During a very tough 2009 for home entertainment, consumers preferred to rent DVDs than purchase them. DVD rental revenue rose 4% in 2009, while sales dropped 13%. Both figures include high-definition Blu-ray discs.

The DEG did not provide the total amount of rental revenue for the first three months of 2009.

The group attributed the fall in rental revenue to the closure of physical stores as Blockbuster Inc. and Movie Gallery Inc. shut down locations rapidly. Both companies were struggling in 2009, however, when DVD mail subscription service Netflix and kiosk company Redbox accounted for nearly all of the rise in rentals.

The drop in rental revenue last quarter indicates that the two companies' rapid growth in 2009 may be slowing.

DVD and Blu-ray sales revenue, meanwhile, declined 11%, to a little more than $2.5 billion, dashing the hopes of many studios that comparisons with last year, when the recession was in full force, would cause the trend of falling sales to lessen or reverse.

The one major hit that launched on DVD in the first three months of the year was "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," which sold 4 million units the weekend it debuted.

In its release, the DEG noted that the comparison with the first quarter of 2010 was difficult because Circuit City was selling a large number of discs at a low price as part of its liquidation. Overall DVD and Blu-ray sales revenue was off 9% in the first quarter of last year despite that factor, however.

Blu-ray and digital remain bright spots. Sales of the high-definition discs were up 74%, and rentals were up 36%. Digital distribution revenue, which included download-to-own and video-on-demand rentals, grew by 27%, to $617 million.

Neither were nearly enough to make up for the drops in sales and rental, however. Overall consumer home entertainment spending dropped by 8%, to $4.8 billion. If that number doesn't improve over the next nine months, Hollywood could be looking at an even tougher year for home entertainment than 2009, when total revenue fell 5%.

"We are still facing a challenging environment but are very pleased to see positive indicators of stabilization in our overall business," Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders, who heads the DEG, said in a statement.

Raabe, 'Wizard of Oz' Munchkin Actor, Dies at 94

By Polly Anderson, The Associated Press
Saturday, April 10, 2010

Meinhardt Raabe, who played the Munchkin coroner in "The Wizard of Oz" and proclaimed in the movie that the Wicked Witch of the East was "really most sincerely dead," has died. He was 94.

His caregiver, Cindy Bosnyak, said Raabe — pronounced RAH'-bee — died Friday morning at a hospital in Orange Park, Fla. He was one of the few surviving Munchkins from the 1939 film.

Bosnyak said he complained of a sore throat at his retirement community before collapsing and going into cardiac arrest. He was taken to Orange Park Medical Center, where he later died, she said.

"He had a headful of hair at 94 and he ... remembered everything everyday," she said. "To me he was a walking history book, very alert."

Raabe was one of the 124 Munchkins in the film classic and one of only nine who had speaking parts. He was 22 years old and a show business veteran, earning money for college as a "midget" performer, as they were called then, when the movie was shot in 1938.

Raabe portrayed the diminutive Munchkin official who solemnly pronounces the witch dead after Dorothy's farmhouse lands on her: "As coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her, And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead."

His costume included a huge hat with a rolled brim, and dyed yak hair was used for his handlebar mustache and long beard.

In a 1988 Associated Press interview, he said he had no idea the movie would become a classic, because at the time of its release, it was overshadowed by "Gone With the Wind."

"It was only after CBS got the film in 1956 and used it for their promotions that it became as well known," he said.

"There is nothing in the picture that dates it," he said. "There are no old vintage cars or old vintage streetcars. ... It's a fantasy picture that will be fantasy for generations to come."

Raabe was about 3 1/2 feet tall when the movie was made. He eventually grew to about 4 1/2 feet. He toured the country for 30 years in the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, promoting hot dogs as "Little Oscar, the World's Smallest Chef."

He also enjoyed going to Oz nostalgia events and getting fan mail.

"It's an ego trip," he said. "This is our reward, the nostalgia."

In 2005, his book "Memories of a Munchkin: An Illustrated Walk Down the Yellow Brick Road," co-written by Daniel Kinske, was published. In later years, he lived in a retirement community in Penney Farms, Fla.

In 2007, Raabe was one of seven surviving Munchkins on hand when the Munchkins were honored in Los Angeles with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Raabe said he couldn't remember what he was paid for his role in the movie, but that it was very low.

"By today's standards, people would say you were crazy to work for that," he said.

Raabe, born in Watertown, Wis., in 1915, was a member of the Midget City cast at the Chicago World's Fair in 1934. He also performed at other fairs, including the San Diego Exposition in 1935.

"By working at these world's fairs as a midget, I was able to work my way through the university," Raabe said. He earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin and, years later, a master's degree in business administration from Drexel University.

Raabe married Marie Hartline, who worked for a vaudeville show called Rose's Royal Midget Troupe, in 1946. She died in a car crash in 1997.

Raabe said some little people resented the word "midget," but that was the description widely used when he was in show business.

"My wife and I were both in show business, were both midgets. My wife worked from 1929 to 1932 as a member of Rose's Royal Midgets, the largest midget troupe in vaudeville," he said.

Raabe became a regular visitor to the annual OzFest in Chittenango, N.Y., the birthplace of "Oz" author L. Frank Baum, after reading about it in a magazine in the late 1980s.

"Meinhardt wrote us a letter and said, `You know I'm a Munchkin. I was in this movie. Would you ever be interested in having me come.' Of course, after we stopped screaming ...," organizer Barbara Evans said in 1998.

"Things didn't start to get really big until Meinhardt first came and we started getting the Munchkins to come," said Evans.

Week 11: Documentaries

MICHAEL MOORE
If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine
and the people in that community, what would you
say to them if they were here right now?

MARILYN MANSON
I wouldn’t say a single word to them,
I would listen to what they have to say.
And that’s what no one did.

Michael Moore and Marilyn Manson in
Bowling for Columbine (Moore, 2002 USA)

M 4.12/W 4.14
NO CLASS: WGHS Spring Break

UPCOMING:
M 4.19/W 4.21: Documentaries
In-class: “A Survey of Documentary Film, Pt. II”
Screening: Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father (Kuenne, 2008 USA)
Due: OSR 6 (Documentary Film)