Archive for the ‘Film’ Category
Wednesday was one of the more interesting days on Twitter I’ve ever seen, from the snarking about the new Pope (same as the old Pope), to the anger over Google mothballing Reader, to the more local disappointment of Wes Welker signing with the Broncos. But nothing generated more interest, excitement, and conversation amongst the TVitterati […]
Filed under: Fandom, Film, Film Industry, New Media, Television, TV Industry, TV Shows, Viewers | 7 Comments
Tags: Kickstarter, Veronica Mars
In my 18 years in academia, I’ve never been to the MLA convention – until now. For those who don’t know, the Modern Language Association is the largest humanities organization, and their annual convention is an iconic event, known as a massive academic job meat market and an object of mockery in the press for […]
Filed under: Academia, Conferences, Film, Narrative, Not Quite TV, Television | 2 Comments
Tags: David Lynch, MLA, MLA13, Mulholland Drive, seriality
Lately I’ve become more and more intrigued by Digital Humanities as a subfield/movement/trend/etc. within academia, in large part because the people who are actively driving much of DH are super engaging & welcoming via social networks like Twitter and various blogs. As I am committed to open access publishing, public-facing scholarship, and innovative modes of […]
Filed under: Academia, Fair Use, Film, Media Studies, New Media, Technology, Television, TV Shows | 4 Comments
Tags: captions, digital humanities, text mining, The Wire
Back to the Classroom
Summer is over (even though it remains in the 80s in Vermont this week), which means my sabbatical is completely over. It was a great one, with a wonderful fellowship in Germany, a lot of writing, travel for lectures & conferences, and lots of quality family time. But yesterday, I returned to the Middlebury classroom […]
Filed under: Academia, Books, Complex TV, Film, Media Studies, Middlebury, Narrative, Teaching, Television, TV Shows | Leave a Comment
Tags: Homeland, How to Watch TV, Mildred Pierce, Phineas & Ferb, syllabi
One of the reasons I most enjoy studying the fan culture side of media studies is that fans can come up with some fascinating stuff, a boggling array of creativity discovered through the contraints provided by the source texts. I document some of the most interesting examples I’ve found in my chapter on “Orienting Paratexts,” […]
Filed under: Fandom, Film, New Media, Not Quite TV | 1 Comment
Tags: fan fiction, Under Siege
Recently there has been a debate raging within the film world around The Artist‘s appropriation of Bernard Hermann’s score to Vertigo (which itself appropriates Wagner), and Kim Novak’s poorly-worded attack on this act of cultural borrowing. The best response is to borrow more, as exemplified by Kevin Lee and Matt Zoller Seitz’s video remix contest at […]
Filed under: Copyright, Fair Use, Film, New Media, Television, TV Shows | 4 Comments
Tags: mashup, remix, sound, The Wire, Vertigo
Toy Story 3 and Serial Pleasures
On the eve of the Oscars, one of many award ceremonies that I’ve grown tired of watching, Inside Higher Ed posted an interesting little feature asking film scholars to weigh in on Best Picture. While I varyingly agreed, disagreed, and laughed at their points, I was shocked that none of the seven academics mentioned the […]
Filed under: Animation, Film, Narrative, Not Quite TV | 3 Comments
Tags: toy story
Teaching Narrative Through Remix
I’m writing from the grading bunker, which seems like a fine place to contemplate the purpose of assignments we give our students. Usually, my assignments are fairly conventional in both form and goal, looking to synthesize specific ideas from the course in a way that allows students to apply them to an object or topic […]
Filed under: Academia, Fair Use, Film, Media Studies, Narrative, Teaching | 4 Comments
Tags: adaptation, away from her, Lost, pushing daisies, remix video, the prestige
Yesterday, David Bordwell blogged about television watching, and the reasons why he generally doesn’t do it (at least made-for-television fiction – he obviously watches many films on his television screen). Soon, my Twitter feed was all atwitter with anxiety about how Bordwell (one of the major figures in film studies, if you don’t know) was […]
Filed under: Academia, Film, Media Studies, Narrative, Television, Viewers | 8 Comments
Settle down about new Buffy film
The internets have been blazing over the last two days about the reported feature film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that would not involve Joss Whedon. While I try to not to place this blog in the maelstrom of rumor mongering and fan panic, I’m inspired to take a break from grading to share […]
Filed under: Film, Film Industry, Television, TV Shows | 1 Comment
Tags: buffy
Best of 2008
One of the great gifts of having a blog is the opportunity to spout off opinions as if they are truth. And the end of the year is the time for bold opinions that quantify the previous year, often in multiples of ten. I thought about offering a TV Top Ten for the year, but […]
Filed under: Film, New Media, Not Quite TV, Television, TV Shows | 6 Comments
Tags: 30 rock, Battlestar, breaking bad, bsg, celtics, chuck, colbert, daily show, dark knight, death cab, dj earworm, dr. horrible, friday night lights, gta4, Lost, middleman, portal, pushing daisies, rachel maddow, radiohead, red sox, the bad plus, the office, The Wire, true blood, tv on the radio
Heading to Madison
On Wednesday, I’m heading to Madison, WI – I lived there for 6 years, but haven’t been back since 2000. Beyond looking forward to some of the fineries of Madison, especially on the Union Terrace, I’ll be attending the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image conference. SCSMI is foreign terrain for me, both […]
Filed under: Academia, Film, Media Studies, Narrative, TV History | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1950s TV, cognitivism, conferences, Madison
The Texture of Remix
I’ve written some about vidding before – it’s an area of fan culture that I’m not too familiar with, but I’m interested when I find examples that speak to me. So I found this video, via Jason Sperb’s blog, quite interesting. It’s a vid of Punch Drunk Love set to Radiohead’s “No Surprises,” done by […]
Filed under: Fandom, Film, Viewers | 3 Comments
Tags: punch drunk love, radiohead, vidding
