Hurren Blogs

This is from the 18 January 2010 edition of The Guardian newspaper:

So how many times can The Sun find pretexts for mentioning James Cameron’s movie Avatar in its news pages? Answer: quite a few. “Rugby in a 3D first… 3D fever, begun by the film Avatar“, “3D set to go seedy… adult film makers have jumped on the Avatar bandwagon”, “District 9 review: James Cameron’s £300m breathtaking Avatar is currently taking cinemas by storm…”, “Ava-Ta Very Much… The huge success of 3D blockbuster is helping Cineworld to battle the recession” and so on. The Sun is owned by News International, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which also owns Twentieth Century Fox, which made… Avatar.

generating-ideas

Here are also some links which might help:

 http://www.moviepitch.com/good_idea.htm

 http://levilarringtonlives.blogspot.com/…

 http://yacomink.com/reblog/2006/10/the_1…

Teaser trailers are usually short in length, typically 30 to 60 seconds long. They often come out long before the film itself. For example the first teaser trailer for the 2009 movie Star Trek came out in cinemas 2 years before the film itself was released.

Students have just started studying Bollywood. We will have presentations from Ben, Bonnie, Shefik next Tuesday. Here is what they need to be researching:

BEN: the Indian caste system

BONNIE: Religions in India, particularly Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism

SHEFIK: Arranged marriages (possibly mentioning forced marriages too).

REGULATION OF VIDEO GAMES

For the exam you are to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the regulation of TWO forms of media. We have done a lot of work so far on the regulation of film.

As the BBFC also regulate video games it is worth using video games as the second form of media we are going to study.

To begin, using the internet, research the regulation of video games. The information you need to find it listed below. Post your findings on your blog.

Wikipedia has lots of information about regulation of video games, on these three pages:

BBFC

Video Game Controversy

Video Game Content Rating System

You can use other sources too.

WHAT YOU NEED TO FIND OUT:

The BBFC also rate video games - what is the difference in the law between rating film and video, and rating video games?

In what circumstances MUST the publisher submit the game to the BBFC for rating?

In addition to the certificate, what else does the BBFC ‘award’ to a video game that it rates?

What was the first computer/video game to receive a 15 certificate? An 18 certificate?

Why were the cases in which these computer games sold covered with certificates emphasising that they were not suitable for children?

Which was the first game to be refused a certificate? What was the reason for this?

What are the issues surrounding video games?

Are video games classified in other parts of the world? How? What are the differences to UK classifications?

Oliver Stone is a highly respected filmmaker. This is what he says about the film Taxi Driver:

“At the time it was so extreme, it was considered too violent. But not to New Yorkers, or people who’d gone to Vietnam, so Scorsese hit a nerve, which was the increasing violence in urban American life, and violence was just getting to ve acceptable to the mainstream.”

This quote is from the featurette “Influence And Appreciation: Martin Scorsese Tribute” on the Taxi Driver Special Edition DVD.

This is an interesting quote about auteurs from Roger Corman, who is an independent filmmaker who has produced over 300 movies and directed over 50. He has also been a huge influence on manny filmmakers from the 1950s onwards.

This quote was taken from the featurette “Influence And Appreciation: Martin Scorsese Tribute” on the Taxi Driver Special Edition DVD.

This is what he said:

“What the personal filmmaker, the auteur, must do is to hold on to his or her personal vision, going through the jungle. You’re fighting, you’re hacking… but you know what your goal is and you’re staying with that.”

You have watched American History X. Now answer the following questions on your blog:

• With which characters is the audience invited to identify?
• What types of audience would visit the cinema to see this film? What would be their reason for going? What would be their emotional responses?
• Why might censors, or a government, consider cutting or banning this film? Would their concerns be to do with potential emotional responses to the film?
• Are there any sections you believe could, or should, have been cut?
• What certificate is the film given in Britain, and would you agree with this? Justify your response. Find out if the film has been given different classifications in different countries.

Please complete an 800 word essay answering one of the following 2 essay titles. Deadline for this is next Thursday’s lesson (1st October) - it can be put on your blog, or printed and handed in. If you are a media studies student and are having problems doing both essays by the deadline then please let me know BEFORE NEXT THURSDAY and I’ll see about extending the deadline.

Here’s the questions:

• Many films depict violence and insanity on screen. Does this make violence and insanity attractive?
• Jodie Foster was 13 when she played Iris. Is it inherently distasteful to cast young performers in controversial roles? [another more recent film which caused similar controversy was Hounddog (2007), starring Dakota Fanning - you may wish to research and use this film as another film text as part of your answer].

Here are some web links for students who are researching Taxi Driver (1976):

Internet Movie Database page about the film

Wikipedia page about the film

Fan Site about the film

Lots of reviews and articles about the film

The film’s screenplay

Filmsite page about the film

Roger Ebert’s contemporary review of the film

Variety’s contemporary review of the film