Lights, Camera, Action
Lights, Camera, Action: A Student's Handbook to Film Production and DirectingLights, Camera, Action: A Student's Handbook to Film Production and Directing is a comprehensive guide for students interested in pursuing a career in film and media studies. This subchapter, titled "The Benefits of Studying Film Production and Directing," aims to highlight the advantages that come with choosing this field of study.One of the primary benefits of studying film production and directing is the opportunity to unleash your creativity. Through this course, students are introduced to the art of storytelling, allowing them to explore different narratives and express their ideas visually. They learn how to write scripts, create storyboards, and develop their own unique directing style. This creative freedom fosters a sense of self-expression and allows students to bring their visions to life on the big screen.Another advantage of studying film production and directing is the chance to work collaboratively. In the film industry, teamwork is crucial, and this course provides students with ample opportunities to collaborate with peers. They learn the importance of effective communication, problem-solving, and leadership skills. Working in a team not only enhances their interpersonal skills but also prepares them for the real-world challenges they may face in the industry.Additionally, studying film production and directing equips students with technical skills that are highly sought after in the job market. They gain hands-on experience with industry-standard equipment, such as cameras, lighting, and editing software. This practical training helps students develop a strong foundation in the technical aspects of filmmaking, making them competent and confident in their abilities.Moreover, studying film production and directing exposes students to a wide range of film genres, styles, and techniques. They learn about the history of cinema, exploring the works of renowned directors and understanding the evolution of filmmaking. This knowledge not only enhances their appreciation for the art form but also expands their horizons, allowing them to develop a diverse and well-rounded perspective.Lastly, studying film production and directing opens doors to various career opportunities. Whether students aspire to become directors, cinematographers, editors, or screenwriters, this course provides them with the necessary skills and knowledge to pursue their dreams. Furthermore, the film industry offers a plethora of job opportunities, both in traditional filmmaking and emerging digital platforms, ensuring a promising and fulfilling career path for students.
Joan Crawford in Film Noir
Joan Crawford's contribution to film noir during the 1940s and 1950s, though rarely discussed in its totality, is one of her most impressive and far-reaching career achievements. Several of her noir and noir-tinged efforts contain arguably her best acting work, and all bear her personal stamp. These aren't conventional film noirs, they are Joan Crawford noirs: highly distinctive films that extended the boundaries of noir content and brought added depth and dimension to the noir style. Unlike most actors who routinely adapted to the needs of particular film projects and directors, she approached each film, first and foremost, as a Joan Crawford vehicle, often exerting great control over multiple production functions and at times operating as a de facto producer. Examining these films as a collective and relatively cohesive body of work, this book highlights what Crawford aspired to achieve in her art, how--when the circumstances were right--she could deliver superb results, how she helped expand the possibilities for noir, and why the best of her efforts speak across the decades with such intensity and authority.
Through a Noir Lens
Shadows. Smoke. Dark alleys. Rain-slicked city streets. These are iconic elements of film noir visual style. Long after its 1940s heyday, noir hallmarks continue to appear in a variety of new media forms and styles. What has made the noir aesthetic at once enduring and adaptable? Sheri Chinen Biesen explores how the dark cinematic noir style has evolved across eras, from classic Hollywood to present-day streaming services. Examining both aesthetics and material production conditions, she demonstrates how technological and industrial changes have influenced the imagery of film noir. When it emerged in the early 1940s, the visual style's distinctive shadowy look was in part a product of wartime cinema conditions and technologies, such as blackouts and nitrate film stock. Since the 1950s, technical developments from acetate film stock and new cameras and lenses to lighting, color, and digitization have shaped the changing nature of noir style. Biesen considers the persistence of the noir legacy, discussing how neo-noirs reimagine iconic imagery and why noir style has become a touchstone in the streaming era. Drawing on a wealth of archival research, she provides insightful analyses of a wide range of works, from masterpieces directed by Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock to New Hollywood neo-noirs, the Coen brothers' revisionist films, and recent HBO and Netflix series. A groundbreaking technological and industrial history of an essential yet slippery visual style, Through a Noir Lens shines a light into the shadows of film noir.
Eleanor Roosevelt on Screen
Eleanor Roosevelt recognized the power of film and television, especially as educational tools to reach young people. She hosted three political talk shows in the 1950s and early 1960s, often appearing in guest spots to promote the United Nations, Democratic candidates, and progressive issues with Ed Sullivan, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Mike Wallace, and Edward R. Murrow. In the 1930s and '40s, fan magazines such as Photoplay and Modern Screen published her opinions on the movies, and she boldly appeared in an interventionist prologue to the 1940 anti-Nazi film Pastor Hall. During World War II, she contributed to civil defense films and became a staple joke in Hollywood comedies. She also negotiated postwar representations of FDR on the big screen, culminating in 1960's Sunrise at Campobello, which portrayed her as the perfect wife. This book is the first to address Eleanor Roosevelt's moving image record and her relationship to film and television in the three decades from the 1932 presidential campaign to her death in 1962.
Through a Noir Lens
Shadows. Smoke. Dark alleys. Rain-slicked city streets. These are iconic elements of film noir visual style. Long after its 1940s heyday, noir hallmarks continue to appear in a variety of new media forms and styles. What has made the noir aesthetic at once enduring and adaptable? Sheri Chinen Biesen explores how the dark cinematic noir style has evolved across eras, from classic Hollywood to present-day streaming services. Examining both aesthetics and material production conditions, she demonstrates how technological and industrial changes have influenced the imagery of film noir. When it emerged in the early 1940s, the visual style's distinctive shadowy look was in part a product of wartime cinema conditions and technologies, such as blackouts and nitrate film stock. Since the 1950s, technical developments from acetate film stock and new cameras and lenses to lighting, color, and digitization have shaped the changing nature of noir style. Biesen considers the persistence of the noir legacy, discussing how neo-noirs reimagine iconic imagery and why noir style has become a touchstone in the streaming era. Drawing on a wealth of archival research, she provides insightful analyses of a wide range of works, from masterpieces directed by Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock to New Hollywood neo-noirs, the Coen brothers' revisionist films, and recent HBO and Netflix series. A groundbreaking technological and industrial history of an essential yet slippery visual style, Through a Noir Lens shines a light into the shadows of film noir.
Cue the Sun!
The rollicking saga of reality television, a "sweeping" (The Washington Post) cultural history of America's most influential, most divisive artistic phenomenon, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker writer--"a must-read for anyone interested in television or popular culture" (NPR) "Passionate, exquisitely told . . . With muscular prose and an exacting eye for detail . . . [Nussbaum] knits her talents for sharp analysis and telling reportage well."--The New York Times (Editors' Choice) In development as a docuseries from the studio behind Spencer and SpotlightONE OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND THE CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION Who invented reality television, the world's most dangerous pop-culture genre? And why can't we look away? In this revelatory, deeply reported account of the rise of "dirty documentary"--from its contentious roots in radio to the ascent of Donald Trump--Emily Nussbaum unearths the origin story of the genre that ate the world, as told through the lively voices of the people who built it. At once gimlet-eyed and empathetic, Cue the Sun! explores the morally charged, funny, and sometimes tragic consequences of the hunt for something real inside something fake. In sharp, absorbing prose, Nussbaum traces the jagged fuses of experimentation that exploded with Survivor at the turn of the millennium. She introduces the genre's trickster pioneers, from the icy Allen Funt to the shambolic Chuck Barris; Cops auteur John Langley; cynical Bachelor ringmaster Mike Fleiss; and Jon Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim, the visionaries behind The Real World--along with dozens of stars from An American Family, The Real World, Big Brother, Survivor, and The Bachelor. We learn about the tools of the trade--like the Frankenbite, a deceptive editor's best friend--and ugly tales of exploitation. But Cue the Sun! also celebrates reality's peculiar power: a jolt of emotion that could never have come from a script. What happened to the first reality stars, the Louds--and why won't they speak to the couple who filmed them? Which serial killer won on The Dating Game? Nussbaum explores reality TV as a strike-breaker, the queer roots of Bravo, the dark truth behind The Apprentice, and more. A shrewd observer who adores television, Nussbaum is the ideal voice for the first substantive history of the genre that, for better or worse, made America what it is today.
The Ghost in the Shell Book
THE GHOST IN THE SHELL BOOKVOLUME 2: ANIM?A Critical Study Color Editionby Jeremy Mark RobinsonThis is a study of the adaptations of Ghost In the Shell by Masamune Shirow (real name Masanori Ota, born in 1961, Kobe, Japan). Shirow is a Japanese artist best known for Ghost In the Shell, Appleseed and Dominion: Tank Police. Masamune Shirow is one of the great creators in the world of Japanese manga and anim矇 - his works have been the basis of several important franchises, with Ghost In the Shell the most famous. Shirow's art is marked by futuristic, cyber-punk settings, fabulous, often eccentric designs, elaborate mecha (such as tanks and mobile suits), attractive warrior women and detailed storytelling (accompanied by his famous, sometimes arcane notes). The impact of the work of Masamune Shirow has been immense in anim矇 and manga: Ghost In the Shell alone led to not one but two classic movies, two outstanding TV series (plus a third, the Arise series), and spin-off movies. Add to that the live-action Ghost of 2017, and more Ghosties on the way. Then there's the Appleseed digital animations and Appleseed cel animation, plus Black Magic, Real Drive, Ghost Hound (Unseen World) and Dominion: Tank Police. It all adds up to a remarkable presence in TV and movies. In cinema, Masamune Shirow's influence is easy to spot in the Star Wars prequels, in the Matrix movies, in Avatar, in Minority Report, in the Avengers series, and in many a superhero flick. The Ghost In the Shell Book: Volume 2: Anim矇 includes a biography; chapters on the two films of Shirow's signature work, Ghost In the Shell, of 1995 and 2004; a chapter on film director Mamoru Oshii; chapters on the TV series of 2002-2005 - Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (plus the spin-off movies); chapters studying every episode of the TV series; chapters on the Arise and the 2045 series (and spin-off movie); a chapter on the 2017 live-action movie; appendices; resources; and filmography. Fully illustrated in colour, including images from Masamune Shirow's Ghost In the Shell manga, all of the adaptations, from the 1995 movie to the live-action version of 2017 and the 2045 series of 2020. The Ghost In the Shell Book is published in two volumes: Volume 1: MangaVolume 2: Anim矇Hardcover - full colour jacketed laminate cover (bound in hardcover, with a color flyleaf). Bibliography, resources and notes. 580 pages.www.crmoon.com
Making Stereo Fit
Surround sound is often mistaken as a relatively new phenomenon in cinemas, one that emerged in the 1970s with the arrival of Dolby. Making Stereo Fit reveals that, in fact, filmmakers have been creating stereo and surround-sound effects for nearly a century, since the advent of talking pictures, and argues that their endurance owes primarily to the longstanding battles between stereo and mono technologies. Throughout the book, Eric Dienstfrey analyzes newly discovered archival materials and myriad stereo releases, from Hell's Angels (1930) to Get Out (2017), to show how Hollywood's financial dependence on mono prevented filmmakers from seeing surround sound's full aesthetic potential. Though studios initially explored stereo's unique capabilities, Dienstfrey details how filmmakers eventually codified a conservative set of surround-sound techniques that prevail today, despite the arrival of more immersive formats.
Reframing the European Other
During the last three decades, Europe has undergone numerous periods of economic and political instability. The process of European integration, once hailed as a beacon of a peaceful co-operation between many, if not all, European nations appears to be stagnating, giving rise to notoriously more frequent manifestations of xenophobic violence, nationalism and right-wing fundamentalism. This book evaluates the portrayal of the migrant Other in selected examples of contemporary French and German cinema from the period 1989-2020 in the context of the ongoing debate about European identity and its socio-political significance. It focuses on the films of some of Europe's most prolific contemporary filmmakers, such as Michael Haneke, Claire Denis and Fatih Akin. It examines cinema's importance not only in reference to various theoretical evaluations of the concept of European identity, but also many notable events that have taken place in Europe in the last thirty years, such as the collapse of the 'Iron Curtain' in 1989, the historical expansion of the European Union in 2004, the migration 'crisis' of 2015, 'Brexit' and the war in Ukraine.
Migration, Dislocation and Movement on Screen
Contemporary screen industries such as film and television have become primary sites for visualizing borders, migration, maps, and travel as processes of separation and dislocation, but also connection. Migration, Dislocation and Movement on Screen pulls case studies in film and television industries from throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia to interrogate the nature of movement via moving images. By combining theoretical, interdisciplinary engagements with empirical research, this volume offers a new way to look at screen media's representations of our contemporary world's transnational and cosmopolitan imaginaries.
Archaeological Ambassadors
This book investigates why nations with rich archaeological pasts like Egypt, Greece, and Jordan gave important antiquities--often unique, rare, and highly valued monuments--to New York City, New York Institutions, and the United States from 1879 to 1965. In addition to analyzing the givers' motivations, the author examines why New Yorkers and Americans coveted such objects. The book argues that these gifted antiquities function as archaeological ambassadors and that the objects given were instruments of cultural diplomacy. These gifts sought to advance the goals of Egypt, Greece, and Jordan--all states that had rich cultural and archaeological heritages--with the United States, once an ascendent nation and then a global superpower, to strengthen cultural, economic, and political relations.
The Lively Audience
The Lively Audience (1986) studies television from the children's own point of view. Contrary to most prevailing opinion, it contends that television has much to teach children, and that their relationship with the medium is not one of passive dependency after all. Research shows that what children gain from television depends very much on the child's age and social experience, and that children 'see' television differently from adults. This book examines this issue, and gives us a different understanding of the child audience and the impact of their television viewing.
A Director’s Method for Film and Television
A Director's Method for Film and Television (1992) presents the 'cinematic language' approach to directing for film and television directors. It shows how the viewer perceives the nuances of the various pictures used to tell the story, and how movement within the frame creates drama and development. It outlines the techniques necessary to maximize each and every shot and create professional results.
Art Maps and Cities
This book presents an original study on how contemporary artists are exploring urban spaces through mapping. Despite a long history of representations of cities in maps, and the relationships that can be envisaged between art maps and cities in the contemporary world, little research is dedicated to investigating how artists intervene in the realm of urban cartography. The research examines a century-old history of art maps and draws on academic debates challenging traditional notions of maps as scientific artefacts produced through accurate measurement and surveying. The potential of art maps to construct personal narratives, through contestation, embodiment and play, is analysed in the city context, where spaces are shaped by urban planning and design, political ideologies and socio-economic forces. Adopting an exploratory and interpretative research approach that investigates the confluence of theories originated in different domains, this book conducts the reader todiscover what artistic practices can bring into a more creative, while inquisitive, understanding of cities. A series of semi-structured interviews with visual artists, enquiring how they apprehend, process and re-create urban spaces in artworks, explores cartographic process and methods in visual art practices in the twenty first century, which incorporates digital technologies and critical thinking.
Film Festivals
Film festivals, once seen as only a matter for journalism, are increasingly a subject of attention within scholarly film studies. They are, as Mar Diestro-D籀pido argues, not only of cultural value in themselves but also sites of cinematic, artistic, social, political and economic exchange. Three fasci-nating case studies develop this argument beyond the habitual focus of critics and academics on Western film festivals: the Buenos Aires Festival de Cine Independiente, known as BAFICI, in Argentina; the BFI London Film Festival in the UK; and the San Sebasti獺n International Film Festival in Spain. Extensive interviews with the teams responsible for programming bring into the public domain the views and motivations of those who shape film festivals, creating a unique body of material for future scholars to draw on.Mar Diestro-D籀pido is a film academic, researcher and regular contributor to the BFI Sight & Sound magazine, and an experienced arts and media translator. Her publications include a BFI Modern Classic on Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. Her doctoral research, on which this book is built, won the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland's prize for the best new thesis of 2015.
From Blitz to Glitz
Jess Conrad is a name that will be instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with 1960s pop culture. Emerging from the decade as one of Britain's most versatile stars, Jess has sung on hit records, starred in cult movies, headlined stage shows... and hasn't stopped ever since!In this fascinating autobiography we are given unparalleled access to Jess's entire life story, from his childhood in London during the Blitz to his time as a Teddy Boy on the wrong side of the tracks, from being discovered by legendary music producer Jack Good to his work with peers such as Billy Fury and Cliff Richard, from starring in dozens of movies to wowing live theatre audiences all over the world... and so much more!Even in his eighties, Jess Conrad OBE remains one of the entertainment world's most sought-after figures, recently starring in ITV's hit reality series Last Laugh in Vegas, featuring on the BBC's much-loved quiz show Pointless and playing Batman actor Adam West in a critically-acclaimed biopic. As he has done throughout his life, Jess continues to raise funds for numerous good causes and was even voted 'King Rat' - the head of charitable showbiz institution The Grand Order of Water Rats, an organisation that has counted Laurel & Hardy, Bob Hope and Charlie Chaplin amongst its members. With anecdotes that will have you crying out with laughter and amazing revelations about some of the world's biggest stars that will surely leave you open-mouthed, From Blitz to Glitz is one of the year's must-read biographies. Co-written with TV producer and long-time friend Simon Withington, this is one book that you won't be able to put down.
Emotional Expressionism
Exploring emotions as social relations through the lens of dramatic television serials, this book investigates the profound role emotions play in popular mediated narratives. E. Deidre Pribram argues that collective emotions, activated through aesthetic attributes, play a crucial role in cultural storytelling.
Tsui Hark
TSUI HARK: THE DRAGON MASTER OF CHINESE CINEMA: A Critical Study----- By Jeremy Mark Robinson ----- Tsui Hark is the dragon master of Chinese cinema (Stephen Teo calls Tsui a 'lion dancer among film directors'). Yes - a master, a lion dancer, a sifu, a wizard, a dragon. ----- Tsui Hark is a one-man film industry - as a glance as his list of credits will show, along with setting up his own film company in 1983, Film Workshop. Tsui Hark directs movies like a force of nature. The energy coming off the screen is stupendous. He is a fearless filmmaker, willing to try anything to get a good shot. That feeling of fearlessness, and wildness, coupled with imagination and technical brilliance makes Tsui an incredibly formidable filmmaker. There are very few filmmakers on the scene today with those qualities in such abundance. When you come back to a Tsui Hark picture after looking at other movies for a while, you realize that this guy is so passionate about cinema, so willing to try anything, to experiment, to push the boundaries of what cinema can do, of what cinema can be. This man is on fire. Tsui Hark was born on January 2, 1951 (or February 15; some sources say 1950), in French Cochin China (Saigon, Vietnam). His name was originally Tsui Man-kong (he also been known as Mark Yu). In Cantonese, his name is Chui Hak; in Mandarin, it's Xu Ke. He had sixteen siblings (from three marriages). His father was a pharmacist. Tsui changed his name from 'Tsui Man-kong' to 'Tsui Hark' because he thought it was too soft, and for his 'King Kong' nickname. Tsui grew up in Saigon until the family moved to Hong Kong in 1966 (Tsui said he migrated around the age of 13, which make it 1964; others say he was 14).As a producer, Tsui Hark has been responsible for masterpieces including: the Better Tomorrow series, the Chinese Ghost Story series, the Swordsman series, New Dragon Gate Inn and The Killer, plus a host of hugely enjoyable films, such as: Once Upon a Time in China 4, Once Upon a Time In China 6, Vampire Hunters and Black Mask. Directors often work in contrasts - if they've just done a comedy, they might fancy a drama next. Tsui wanted to do something silly after his first three movies, which were 'very serious and very depressing'. Hence All the Wrong Clues, which was his first commercial hit (in 1981). And since then, Tsui had rarely let a year pass without releasing a movie as a director or producer (sometimes two! Sometimes three!). By 2014, Tsui had directed around 43 feature films. They include the Once Upon a Time In China series, the Detective Dee series, Blade, We're Going To Eat You, The Master, Zu: Warriors From the Magic Mountain, A Better Tomorrow 3, Green Snake, The Lovers, Seven Swords, Journey To the West, Shanghai Blues and Peking Opera Blues. ----- Fully illustrated in colour, with over 240 images from the films of Tsui Hark and other Chinese and Hong Kong productions. With filmography, bibliography and notes. 712 pages. Hardcover, with a full colour laminate cover, and a color jacket (flyleaf). www.crmoon.com
March of the Wooden Soldiers
March of the Wooden Soldiers, the 1934 Laurel and Hardy film originally titled Babes in Toyland, has been a holiday classic on TV since the early 1950s. The annual showing on WPIX in New York has kept this film alive in American popular culture, when for many years that film was all but unavailable anywhere else.The film exudes warmth, charm, happiness and a wish for love to conquer evil. The hundreds of people who contributed to making the movie certainly shared those emotions. But, as with any creative collaboration, there were conflicts.Behind the scenes, there were injuries, a divorce, a not-quite-legal marriage, a secret romance, a barroom fistfight, illnesses and a rift that nearly spelled the end of the Laurel and Hardy team. The film was made at great cost - and not just financial. The Laurel and Hardy film is an enduring classic, but it's only part of the fascinating story of Babes in Toyland.Featuring nearly 400 rare photographs, March of the Wooden Soldiers: The Amazing Story of Laurel & Hardy's Babes in Toyland brings to life Barnaby, Tom-Tom, Bo-Peep, the Bogeymen, and of course Ollie Dee and Stannie Dum, as it shares the full story of the making of the beloved holiday classic.
Black TV
With iconic imagery and engrossing text, Black TV is the first book of its kind to celebrate the groundbreaking, influential, and often under-appreciated shows centered on Black people and their experiences from the last fifty years. Over the past decade, television has seen an explosion of acclaimed and influential debut storytellers including Issa Rae (Insecure), Donald Glover (Atlanta), and Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You). This golden age of Black television would not be possible without the actors, showrunners, and writers that worked for decades to give voice to the Black experience in America. Written by veteran TV reporter Bethonie Butler, Black TV tells the stories behind the pioneering series that led to this moment, celebrating the laughs, the drama, and the performances we've loved over the last fifty years. Beginning with Julia, the groundbreaking sitcom that made Diahann Carroll the first Black woman to lead a prime-time network series as something other than a servant, she explores the 1960s and 1970s as an era of unprecedented representation, with shows like Soul Train, Roots, and The Jeffersons. She unpacks the increasingly nuanced comedies of the 1980s from 227 to A Different World, and how they paved the way for the '90s Black-sitcom boom that gave us The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Living Single. Butler also looks at the visionary comedians--from Flip Wilson to the Wayans siblings to Dave Chappelle--and connects all these achievements to the latest breakthroughs in television with showrunners like Shonda Rhimes, Ava DuVernay, and Quinta Brunson leading the charge. With dozens of photographs reminding readers of memorable moments and scenes, Butler revisits breakout performances and important guest appearances, delivering some overdue accolades along the way. So, put on your Hillman sweatshirt, make some popcorn, and get ready for a dyn-o-mite retrospective of the most groundbreaking and entertaining shows in television history.
Women in East Asian Cinema
Women in East Asian Cinema brings together new and emerging work to highlight and explore the understudied contributions of women to the films and creative industries of East Asia. It is a book which foregrounds the importance of re-historicising women's creative labour in film, not just as actors on screen, but as voices who have steered the production, circulation and consumption of these films across global contexts.Over three sections, the book provides perspectives on gender representation in East and South-East Asian cinema; new explorations of women's labour contributions as directors, screenwriters, and editors; and considerations of the contemporary circulation processes through which such work reaches global audiences.By recentring women's film histories within the broader history of cinema and interrogating the geo-political boundaries of what might constitute 'East Asia' in the process, this volume makes a robust intervention into studies of East Asian cinema and women in film.
Reimagining Israel and Palestine in Contemporary British and German Culture
Isabelle Hesse identifies an important relational turn in British and German literature, TV drama, and film published and produced since the First Palestinian Intifada (1987-1993). This turn manifests itself on two levels: one, in representing Israeli and Palestinian histories and narratives as connected rather than separate, and two, by emphasising the links between the current situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the roles that the United Kingdom and Germany have played historically, and continue to play, in the region. This relational turn constitutes a significant shift in representations of Israel and Palestine in British and German culture as these depictions move beyond an engagement with the Holocaust and Jewish suffering at the expense of Palestinian suffering and indicate a willingness to represent and acknowledge British and German involvement in Israeli and Palestinian politics. This book offers new ways of thinking about how Israel and Palestine are imagined and reimagined as topics of cultural and political interest in two countries that have had complicated histories with both Israel and Palestine, histories which are marked by each country's memories of the Holocaust and colonialism.
Armchair Cinema
Since broadcast television first emerged as a serious alternative to the cinema, more people have seen films on TV than by any other means. Feature films originally made for the big screen were initially withheld from TV by the film industry in the competition for audiences. Struggles between film and television interests settled into a truce in the mid-1960s, since when thousands of films have been shown on British terrestrial television each year. They assumed particular importance in the 1970s and 1980s, when cinema blockbusters became major TV events and themed seasons gave viewers access to many older movies. This book provides a comprehensive history and analysis of the ways in which cinema films have figured in TV programming in the UK and the role that British television has played in changing the consumption of film entertainment.
Cinecepts, Deleuze, and Godard-Mi矇ville
As the spread of knowledge and even theory becomes an increasingly audiovisual affair, how can philosophy adapt in ways that develop - rather than dilute - philosophical rigor and specificity? How can philosophy harness the potential of audiovisual media - being more formally multidimensional than text-only - to conceptualize with greater precision and depth? This book presents a theory of formal development of philosophy in this regard: a theory of cinecepts. While spanning film, media, art, and critical theories as well as philosophy, this study proceeds mainly through a close reimagination of the work of Gilles Deleuze, which allows for a merging of what he kept separated: filmic thinking and philosophical conceptualization. Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Mi矇ville's underexplored 1970s Sonimage works are also the subject of extensive examination, along with critical considerations of a contemporary era of academic video essays and phenomena like philosophy channels on YouTube.
The Late and Post-Dictatorship Cinephilia Boom and Art Houses in South Korea
This monograph examines an unexplored area of South Korean cinema history- the 1985-1997 growth of art film exhibition, consumption, and cinephilia. This moment of heightened interest in art film altered how many Koreans conceptualised cinema and helped pave the way for the critical success of South Korean film. This historical study analyses the cultural, political, social, and economic developments of the post-1985 period that increased interest in European art film. It looks at the interactions of art house exhibitors with cinephile audiences, the media and the state-level administrators responsible for governing the industry. The aim of young cinephiles was nothing less than a bottom-up cultural transformation of a society emerging from three decades of dictatorship. The analysis is based on the previously unheard voices of audiences who participated in the cinephilia. This study is both a history of an era in Korean cinema and an argument about the impact of this period of cultural renewal on the industry.
Enchanted by Cinema
William Thiele is remembered today as the father of the sound film operetta with seminal classics such as Drei von der Tankstelle (1930). While often considered among the most accomplished directors of Late Weimar cinema, as an Austrian Jew he was vilified during the onset of the Nazi regime in 1933 and fled to the United States where he continued making films until the end of his career in 1960. Enchanted by Cinema closely examines the European musical film pioneer's work and his cross-cultural perspective across forty years of filmography in Berlin and Hollywood to account for his popularity while discussing issues of ethnicity, exile, comedy, music, gender, and race.
Dorothy Arzner
Through dozens of interviews, a detailed chronology and filmography, and a selection of Dorothy Arzner's own writings--including her unfinished autobiography--Dorothy Arzner: Interviews offers major insights into and an in-depth examination of the life and career of one of the few women to direct films during Hollywood's Golden Age. A key figure in Hollywood for decades, she directed more studio films than any other woman in history. Her movies often focused on courageous women who must make difficult decisions to remain true to themselves--women not unlike Arzner herself, who once said that "all we can ever do in our work is write our own biography." Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979) began her film career in 1919 as a script typist for the Famous Players-Lasky company, which later became Paramount Pictures. She quickly rose through the ranks to become a script supervisor, screenwriter, and editor before directing her first film, Fashions for Women, in 1927. After the release of her final Hollywood film, First Comes Courage, in 1943, Arzner changed directions in her professional life. She made several training films for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II and directed many television commercials for Pepsi-Cola in the 1950s. She concluded her career by serving as a filmmaking instructor at the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts and UCLA, where she helped launch the first wave of college-trained moviemakers.
Dorothy Arzner
Through dozens of interviews, a detailed chronology and filmography, and a selection of Dorothy Arzner's own writings--including her unfinished autobiography--Dorothy Arzner: Interviews offers major insights into and an in-depth examination of the life and career of one of the few women to direct films during Hollywood's Golden Age. A key figure in Hollywood for decades, she directed more studio films than any other woman in history. Her movies often focused on courageous women who must make difficult decisions to remain true to themselves--women not unlike Arzner herself, who once said that "all we can ever do in our work is write our own biography." Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979) began her film career in 1919 as a script typist for the Famous Players-Lasky company, which later became Paramount Pictures. She quickly rose through the ranks to become a script supervisor, screenwriter, and editor before directing her first film, Fashions for Women, in 1927. After the release of her final Hollywood film, First Comes Courage, in 1943, Arzner changed directions in her professional life. She made several training films for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II and directed many television commercials for Pepsi-Cola in the 1950s. She concluded her career by serving as a filmmaking instructor at the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts and UCLA, where she helped launch the first wave of college-trained moviemakers.
Producing Feminism
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In this deeply archival work, Jennifer S. Clark explores the multiple ways in which women's labor in the American television industry of the 1970s furthered feminist ends. Carefully crafted around an impressive assemblage of interviews and primary sources (from television network memos to programming schedules, production notes to executive meeting agendas), Clark tells the story of how women organized in the workplace to form collectives, affect production labor, and develop reform-oriented policies and philosophies that reshaped television behind the screen. She urges us to consider how interventions, often at localized levels, can collectively shift the dynamics of a workplace and the cultural products created there.
Performance of Absence in Theatre, Performance and Visual Art
This research project investigates the concepts of absence across the disciplines of theatre, visual art, and performance.Absence in the centre of an ideology frees the reader from the dominant meaning. The book encourages active engagement with theatre theory and performances. Reconsideration of theories and experiences changes the way we engage with performances, as well as social relations and traditions outside of theatre. Sylwia Dobkowska examines and theorises absence and presence through theatre, performance, and visual arts practices.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre, visual art, and philosophy.
Uncanny Cinema
Murray Pomerance's latest book explores an encyclopedic range of films and television shows to demonstrate the difficulty of conveying the experience of viewing cinema through words and the medium of text. From On the Waterfront to Marriage Story, Uncanny Cinema illuminates that words and writing are in perilous waters when applied to cinema, similar to ungestured talk. The book begins with this problem using Julian Jaynes's thoughts on vocality and imagination before delving into three exploratory 'movements' arranged to alternately challenge, inspire, and confound the reader to question if we know what we think we know or even see what we think we see. The viewer is faced with disturbances, ruptures, and surprises that occur during the viewing experience, which Pomerance analyzes to stretch the sense of what we do and do not (or, possibly, cannot) know, particularly as we think, talk, and write about cinema
American Disaster Movies of the 1970s
American Disaster Movies of the 1970s is the first scholarly book dedicated to the disaster cycle that dominated American cinema and television in the 1970s. Through examining films such as Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Two-Minute Warning (1976) and The Swarm (1978), alongside their historical contexts and American contemporaneous trends, the disaster cycle is treated as a time-bound phenomenon. This book further contextualises the cycle by drawing on the longer cultural history of modernist reactions to modern anxieties, including the widespread dependence on technology and corporate power. Each chapter considers cinematic precursors, such as the 'ark movie', and contemporaneous trends, such as New Hollywood, vigilante and blaxploitation films, as well as the immediate American context: the end of the civil rights and countercultural era, the Watergate crisis, and the defeat in Vietnam.As Scott Freer argues, the disaster movie is a modern, demotic form of tragedy that satisfies a taste for the macabre. It is also an aesthetic means for processing painful truths, and many of the dramatized themes anticipate present-day monstrosities of modernity.
Accidental Genius: An Oral History of the Room
Accidental Genius features intimate and laugh-out-loud commentary from The Room cast and crew, including interviews from its star Greg Sestero. What a story indeed! A rollicking recollection of experiences from the legendary "so bad it's good" film. This comprehensively chronicled book offers a fascinating glimpse into the cultural phenomenon that brings together die-hard fans and newcomers alike.Everything you could have possibly wondered about The Room all in one book! Take a look at Tommy Wiseau's infamous 2003 release through the eyes of the people who made it. Get the low-down on bizarre audition calls, film set antics, and accounts from the very first fans who experienced The Room at its earliest screenings. Also including interviews focusing on the aftermath of the movie: Sestero's The Disaster Artist, where are they now, and its lasting legacy.Here you will get a glimpse of how it all began, why it remains popular, and just what audiences still get out of this unusual film that people love to hate.
Romy Schneider
The beautiful Austrian-born Romy Schneider was one of Europe's most popular film stars and a cult figure from the moment she played 'Sissi' (Empress Elisabeth of Austria) in the hugely popular Sissi trilogy in the mid-1950s. Although Schneider died in 1982, she continues to be one of the most popular stars in European cinema history. This book analyses her impressive career to place her within a range of European female stars, particularly Germanic and French, who defined cultural and ideological images of femininity on European screens. Schneider, who worked and was celebrated in Austria, Germany, Hollywood, and France, represents a fascinating case study to explore key questions of trans-European and transnational stardom, and Marion Hallet makes a valuable intervention in this growing field within star studies. Romy Schneider: A Star Across Europe shows how the representations of women stemming from Schneider's star image supported specific and shifting cultural and social agendas regarding femininity, from the 1950s to the 1980s. This book explores the significance of Schneider's image both when she was working and since, within Western European film culture and celebrity culture.
The Sustainable Legacy of Agn癡s Varda
Drawing especially on the encounters and relationships that defined her exceptional career, The Sustainable Legacy of Agn癡s Varda outlines a sustainable legacy for the celebrated director and visual artist. Over nine chapters, it unpacks how creation, connection, and environment form the core of Varda's artistry, which centers foremost on relationships with her family, with other artists, even with passersby she would meet in her travels around the world. Also celebrating her feminist legacy, the chapters cover a wide range, from the classic Cl矇o from 5 to 7(1962) to documentaries The Beaches of Agn癡s(2008) and Faces Places(2017) as well as selected art installations. The book's final section is dedicated to teaching Varda's work; here, ten scholars from around the world consider how Varda's art and feminist pedagogies offer unique ways to bring crucial concepts into the classroom. By seeking a sustainable praxis to discuss and teach Varda's work, and by making pedagogical concerns an explicit part of this approach, this book argues that Varda's insights about the nature of creative work will inspire new generations of viewers and audiences.
March of the Wooden Soldiers
March of the Wooden Soldiers, the 1934 Laurel and Hardy film originally titled Babes in Toyland, has been a holiday classic on TV since the early 1950s. The annual showing on WPIX in New York has kept this film alive in American popular culture, when for many years that film was all but unavailable anywhere else.The film exudes warmth, charm, happiness and a wish for love to conquer evil. The hundreds of people who contributed to making the movie certainly shared those emotions. But, as with any creative collaboration, there were conflicts.Behind the scenes, there were injuries, a divorce, a not-quite-legal marriage, a secret romance, a barroom fistfight, illnesses and a rift that nearly spelled the end of the Laurel and Hardy team. The film was made at great cost - and not just financial. The Laurel and Hardy film is an enduring classic, but it's only part of the fascinating story of Babes in Toyland.Featuring nearly 400 rare photographs, March of the Wooden Soldiers: The Amazing Story of Laurel & Hardy's Babes in Toyland brings the whole story to life.
Cip & Margot
CIP & MARGOT offers a wild and humorous ride into the chaotic lives of its eponymous characters. Margot's unpredictable antics and Cip's exasperated reactions lead to hilarious misadventures, unexpected twists, and a peculiar cast of characters. This animated series script is a rollercoaster of absurdity and laughter that will keep audiences entertained from start to finish.
The Ghost in the Shell Book
THE GHOST IN THE SHELL BOOKVOLUME 2: ANIM?A Critical Study by Jeremy Mark RobinsonThis is a study of the adaptations of Ghost In the Shell by Masamune Shirow (real name Masanori Ota, born in 1961, Kobe, Japan). Shirow is a Japanese artist best known for Ghost In the Shell, Appleseed and Dominion: Tank Police. Masamune Shirow is one of the great creators in the world of Japanese manga and anim矇 - his works have been the basis of several important franchises, with Ghost In the Shell the most famous. Shirow's art is marked by futuristic, cyber-punk settings, fabulous, often eccentric designs, elaborate mecha (such as tanks and mobile suits), attractive warrior women and detailed storytelling (accompanied by his famous, sometimes arcane notes). The impact of the work of Masamune Shirow has been immense in anim矇 and manga: Ghost In the Shell alone led to not one but two classic movies, two outstanding TV series (plus a third, the Arise series), and spin-off movies. Add to that the live-action Ghost of 2017, and more Ghosties on the way. Then there's the Appleseed digital animations and Appleseed cel animation, plus Black Magic, Real Drive, Ghost Hound (Unseen World) and Dominion: Tank Police. It all adds up to a remarkable presence in TV and movies. In cinema, Masamune Shirow's influence is easy to spot in the Star Wars prequels, in the Matrix movies, in Avatar, in Minority Report, in the Avengers series, and in many a superhero flick. The Ghost In the Shell Book: Volume 2: Anim矇 includes a biography; chapters on the two films of Shirow's signature work, Ghost In the Shell, of 1995 and 2004; a chapter on film director Mamoru Oshii; chapters on the TV series of 2002-2005 - Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (plus the spin-off movies); chapters studying every episode of the TV series; chapters on the Arise and the 2045 series (and spin-off movie); a chapter on the 2017 live-action movie; appendices; resources; and filmography. Fully illustrated in colour, including images from Masamune Shirow's Ghost In the Shell manga, all of the adaptations, from the 1995 movie to the live-action version of 2017 and the 2045 series of 2020. The Ghost In the Shell Book is published in two volumes: Volume 1: MangaVolume 2: Anim矇Hardcover - full color laminate cover. Bibliography, resources and notes. 580 pages.www.crmoon.com
The Lost Decade
Provides an analysis of Hollywood from a fresh viewpoint that shows the careers of Robert Altman, Francis Coppola, William Friedkin, and others in the 1980s as far from conforming to a monolithic pattern of decline, but rather as diverse and complex responses to political and industrial changes. The 1980s are routinely seen as the era of the blockbuster and of 'Reaganite entertainment, ' whereas the dominant view of late 1960s and early 1970s American film history is that of a 'Hollywood Renaissance', a relatively brief window of artistry based around a select group of directors. Yet key directors associated with the Renaissance period remained active throughout the 1980s and their work has been obscured or dismissed by a narrow, singular model of American film history. This book deals with industrial contexts that conditioned these directors' ability to work creatively, but it is also very much about the analysis of individual films, bringing to light a range of unheralded work, from the visual experimentation of One from the Heart (Coppola, 1981) to the experimental production contexts of Secret Honor (Altman, 1984) and the stylistic 矇lan of To Live and Die in L.A. (Friedkin, 1985). Behind the homogenous picture of the decline of the auteur in 1980s American cinema are films and careers that merit greater attention, and this book offers a new way to perceive individual films, American film history, and the viability of sustained authorial creativity within post-studio era Hollywood.
The Extreme Cinema of Eastern Europe
The Extreme Cinema of Eastern Europe examines extreme, transgressive cinema which developed following a post-2000 wave in filmmaking that aestheticised violence on audio-visual, narrative and thematic levels.Batori investigates the ways in which contemporary national trends from within Eastern Europe correspond to the global stream of transgressive filmmaking and shock aesthetics that have become the dominant markers of world cinema. Do these art productions intend to reveal and criticise aggressions in domestic landscapes or are they part of a contemporary global visual discourse? With a specific focus on gender, this book highlights both nation-specific features of these films and their relationship to global extreme art films.
Exotic Cinema
Exotic Cinema is the first systematic analysis of decentred exoticism in contemporary transnational and world cinema. By critically examining regimes of visuality such as the imperial, the ethnographic and the exotic gaze, which have colonised our minds and ways of looking, Daniela Berghahn makes an important contribution to the urgent agenda of decolonising film studies. Berghahn demonstrates that decentred exoticism's aesthetic versatility and alluring alterity are uniquely relevant for understanding the transnational appeal of world cinema. She addresses prevalent controversies surrounding exoticism and illustrates that, in contemporary world cinema, it is utilised to draw attention to new ethical and socio-political goals. Global in scope and transnational in perspective, Exotic Cinema invites students and researchers to reassess this prominent mode of cultural representation.
Stardust Memories
"Stardust Memories: Chronicles of Hollywood's Finest Era" is a deep dive into the shimmering world of Hollywood during its Golden Age. Robert Opnig weaves a captivating tapestry, threading together iconic stars, legendary directors, groundbreaking films, and the events that made Hollywood the world's film capital. As readers navigate through the highs and lows, triumphs and tragedies, they'll be transported back to a time when the silver screen glowed with unparalleled brilliance. A must-read for every film lover and history buff, this book is a nostalgic journey through the moments that defined cinematic history.
How Coppola Became Cage
An in-depth look at one of the film industry's most audacious working actors In 1982, a gangly teenager named Nicolas Coppola made his film debut and changed his name to Nicolas Cage, determined to distance himself from his famous family. Once he achieved stardom as the rebel hunk of 1983's Valley Girl, Cage began a career defined by unorthodox risks and left turns that put him at odds with the stars of the Brat Pack era. How Coppola Became Cage takes readers behind the scenes of the beloved cult movies that transformed this unknown actor into an eccentric and uncompromising screen icon with a wild-eyed gift for portraying weirdos, outsiders, criminals-and even a romantic capable of seducing Cher. Author Zach Schonfeld traces Cage's rise through the world of independent cinema and chronicles the stories behind his career-making early performances, from the method masochism of Birdy to the operatic torment of Moonstruck and abrasive expressionism of Vampire's Kiss, culminating with the astonishing pathos of Leaving Las Vegas. Drawing on more than 100 new interviews with Cage's key collaborators--including David Lynch, Martha Coolidge, John Patrick Shanley, and Mike Figgis--How Coppola Became Cage offers a revealing portrait of Cage's wildly intense devotion to his performances behind the scenes and his creative self-discovery as he drew on influences as far-flung as silent cinema and German Expressionism. These were all crucial ingredients in the creation of a singular acting style that rejects the limits of realism. Brimming with previously untold stories and insights, How Coppola Became Cage both revels in and demystifies Cage's onscreen eccentricities. No other modern actor has explored such profound creative extremes while bending the boundaries of good taste. Here is the origin story of an actor who truly is wild at heart and weird on top.
NCIS Season 1 - 20
The always thrilling and entertaining cases of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (cover shot), played by Mark Harmon, and his NCIS-crew have been keeping a vast amount of followers all around the world glued to their seats and have made this series to one of the most successful in our times. Most likely being the absolute number one series on TV in the USA and in many other countries. This fan book, covering season 1-20, includes all the vital and necessary information on the series, short summaries of all episodes, coverage of the role vitas and the famous actors and - it goes without saying - Gibbs, Tony, Kate, Ziva, McGee, Abby, Bishop, Palmer and Ducky's best lines.
Through a Nuclear Lens
The Franco-Japanese coproduction Hiroshima mon amour (1959) is one of the most important films for global art cinema and for the French New Wave. In Through a Nuclear Lens, Hannah Holtzman examines this film and the transnational cycle it has inspired, as well as its legacy after the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi. In a study that includes formal and theoretical analysis, archival research, and interviews, Holtzman shows the emergence of a new kind of nuclear film, one that attends to the everyday effects of nuclear disaster and its impact on our experience of space and time. The focus on Franco-Japanese exchange in cinema since the postwar period reveals a reorientation of the primarily aesthetic preoccupations in the tradition of Japonisme to center around technological and environmental concerns. The book demonstrates how French filmmakers, ever since Hiroshima mon amour, have looked to Japan in part to better understand nuclear uncertainty in France.
The Crisis
A thrilling silent film from 1916 based on the Civil War novel of the same name by Winston Churchill. The movie follows a wealthy plantation owner and his son as they fight for the Confederacy, all the while grappling with questions of morality and patriotism. The film was praised for its sweeping cinematography and groundbreaking special effects.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Breaking Into the Movies
This classic guide to Hollywood screenwriting, written by two of the industry's most influential figures, is a must-read for aspiring writers and film historians alike. Loos and Emerson provide valuable insights into the technical, creative, and business aspects of writing for the movies, drawing on their own experiences as successful screenwriters and producers. This is an essential book for anyone interested in the history of American cinema.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Screen Acting
This instructional guide offers practical advice and insights for aspiring screen actors. Written by two experienced professionals and endorsed by the New York Institute of Photography, the book covers topics such as auditioning, performing on camera, and developing a successful acting career. Packed with useful tips and real-world examples, this is an essential resource for anyone interested in pursuing a career in screen acting.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
