This weekend I saw Jim Carrey’s A Christmas Carol in 3D at and IMAX theater. This movie was really interesting because it was all in 3D and it really made a lasting impression. The IMAX theater I was at had incredibly comfortable seats that where called butt kickers. They are named this because they are equipped with sound amplifying speakers that literally “kick your butt” when something intense in the movie is happening. The whole experience of Imax was excellent, and I plan to go Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland there when it comes out in March.
IMAX is all about production technique and capturing the audience. Using 3D animation is a great production technique that makes watching a movie a whole new experience. IMAX is an example of a technological shift because normal everyday people can go to this movie theater and experience a movie a whole new way. 3D animation has come such a long way, IMAX is a wonderful part of it that really is an incredible encounter. A Christmas Carol uses humor and repetition as a persuasive technique, making the audience laugh constantly at the ignorance of Scrooge and his funny motions, along with the repetition of the story of a Christmas Carol that everybody should know. Overall, the movie's production technique is it's gain to fame, with incredible special effects watching this movie is exactly what IMAX describes it as, and experience, and you will go home thinking about it for sure.
Media & Society says “…familiar narrative conventions of heroes, villains, conflicts, and resolutions may be made more unique with inventions like computer-generated imagery (CGI) or digital remastering for an IMAX 3D Experience release. This combination of convention and invention-standardized Hollywood stories and differentiated special effects-provides a powerful economic package that satisfies most audiences’ appetites for both the familiar and the distinctive. “ In a nut shell, viewing a movie in IMAX is simply a completely new way to watch a movie, and it really leaves a lasting impression, leaving the audience with visuals of special effects and “butt kicking” seats.
Years ago, missing an episode of Desperate Housewives was a terrible thing.Missing one episode would throw off the whole season, because there would be no way to view the episode to catch up. Today, missing an episode of Desperate Housewives isn’t a big deal, thanks to the streaming of a variety of episodes and movies on a handful of websites. This advancement is most likely my favorite, because I am rarely bored online and I never miss an episode of my favorite show.
Media & Culture, “In putting episodes online, broadcasters are tapping into the ‘long tail’ of niche content that the Internet has monetized. While executives are reticent about the costs involved, and while syndicated and DVD sales remain dominant sources of revenue,” another new revenue is streamed for distributors. Online streaming allows consumers to watch shows they enjoy and keep up to date with series they watch religiously. But why would broadcasters provide consumers this option, and for free? “Online streaming isn’t making anyone rich, at least not yet.” Mitchell Hurwitz, the co-creator of the popular show Arrested Development said that the online popularity of the show is “enormously rewarding in everyway except financially.” Allowing consumers to view these shows for free at any time is a great way to attract an audience. Larry W. Jones, the president of TV Land said, “the goal is to whet viewer’s appetite and drive people back to the linear channel." In the long run, streaming videos online may not make money for the broadcaster, but it makes the consumer happy and this is helpful in building a bridge between consumer and broadcaster.
Websites like Hulu offers commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from NBC, Fox, ABC, and many other studios.
Below are two examples of Hulu advertisements, that uses the persuasive techniques of humor and symbols to draw in an audience. The actors speaking in both ads are humorous and well known actors that people can recognize. Using this technique makes viewers remember what is being advertised because of the consistence of symbols and familiarity. Production technique is interesting in the videos because they are edited to make the actors appear as aliens, which is very odd but capturing. The second video of Seth Mcfarland shows him using various voices from the show Family Guy. This captures the audience because it is incredible that one person can change his voice so many times, and people recognize the voices from the show. These techniques are a big part of why Hulu is becoming more and more popular. The advertisements also end on a note where the audience wants to find out more. They explain what Hulu is in an abstract way that leaves the viewer questioning the advertisement, which causes them to physically go to the website and figure out what Hulu actually is. This is a great technique that isn't listed in the 4 Tool Sets but I believe is an important technique that really captures the audiences attention.
YouTube has a handful of people who became famous for their entertaining, and sometimes pointless, videos. In addition to fans, some YouTube celebs have corporate sponsors who pay for product placement in their clips or production of online ads. Some of the more famous ones have even quit their day jobs or changed careers to accommodate YouTube filming schedules. It's incredible that these simple videos earn so much stardom simply from internet browsing.
One notably famous YouTube celebrity is Bo Burnham. His videos are simply him playing on a keyboard rapping. He became so famous from these videos that he performed on MTV and is now famous and bigger then just the YouTube world. This shows that if you have talent, there is a great chance you can be discovered on youtube.
Four Tool Sets
Most YouTube celebs demonstrate a personal shift in media culture. Being able to record a video and then post it online is a new form of media with great advantages. People are able to achieve fame this way by making pointless videos that are entertaining, and it is as simple as that.
There is a technological shift with YouTube because people can record videos and then upload them via their mobile devices. This is a great advancement for technology, and everyone can do it, not just people with money.
YouTube celebs use humor to attract an audience. This technique works well for the few who are able to gain their fame with their videos, and those who lack good humor have a more difficult time. Many people have somewhat created careers just from their YouTube videos, which is pretty crazy.
In the more famous YouTube celebrity videos, you can even find product placement. Corporate sponsors spend millions buying spaces for particular goods to appear on a TV show or in a movie. This being said, it makes sense that corporate sponsors would place their products in popular YouTube videos because they get tons of hits daily. That’s a lot of people viewing their products. An average American comes into contact with two thousand forms of advertising each day. "Advertising is the economic glue that holds most media industries together." Putting products in YouTube videos in my opinion is ingenious because they are advertising products in a short clip that grabs people's attention without them realizing it.
PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project in which people mail their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. Created by Frank Warren, the concept of the project is for people to send in a secret anonymous that is completely true and has never been spoken before. The site is run on Blogspot, and it is updated every Sunday with 20 new pieces. Warren sees PostSecret as an art project, getting thousands of postcards a day. This blog has a very interesting concept, and I enjoy looking at it every Sunday to get my fill of secrets.
Since Warren controls what pieces are put online, the site cannot really be considered a blog where users contribute themselves. A comment option was installed, where people could comment on the secrets posted, but it was controversial. Some believed the secrets should not be commented on out of respect, but others like to contribute. I find this interesting because the majority or people like being able to contribute to things bigger then themselves, such as a recognized website like this. In order to fix the issue of users being unable to contribute a lot, PostSecret Community was launched in 2007. With options like PostSecret chat, it makes the website a tad more hands on.
Four Tool Sets
The limbic brain is stimulated when looking at PostSecret because of the vivid artwork on the postcards. People spend a lot of time making their postcards special, and it shows. Many of the secrets are also very dark, which affects the emotional limbic brain. There is a variety of funny and sad ones, but when reading sad PostSecret's, I often get chills up my spine.
PostSecret is a epistemological shift because they are being put on the web. The concept of PostSecret is the opposite of epistemological, because people are mailing postcards which seems like something of the past. This contradiction proves for an interesting mixture, and it is strangely enjoyable reading people dark secrets.
There is an emotional transfer when browsing PostSecret. There is a variety of funny and sad secrets, and Warren mixes it up enough so that it is not all just depression or too funny. This principle works well for the site, and I believe it is a key reason why people enjoy PostSecret so much.
There are many PostSecret's that contain inappropriate subject matter or images, so it is interesting how they are able to post these things. Media & Culture answered this question for me, explaining that the Internet is not regulated by the government, and therefore not subject to the Communications Act of 1934. "... many have looked to it [the Internet] as the one true venue for free, unlimited free speech under the First Amendment." This makes posting controversial secrets okay, and ensures they will not be taken down.
Texts From Last Night (TFLN) is a regularly updated blog that re-posts short text messages submitted by its users. The site gets about 4 million hits per day, and it tends to be posts that are scandalous. The texts are sent by people who wake up in the morning and find regrettable message either received or sent from there phone, and they then send them to the website. The messages have area codes attached to them, and they often resemble drunk dials.
Four Tool Sets
TFLN displays an aesthetic shift because there are applications for BlackBerry’s and the iPhone. People use these devices as a multimedia platform, browsing and submitting text messages from their hand held’s.
The site also exhibits a technological shift because this is a big advancement in technology. It was amazing when computers advanced and cell phones that could go online were put on the market, but the fact that people are now able to blog texts messages to a public website it’s pretty incredible.
“Reality” Construction/trade-offs are apply to TFLN because although the website is entertaining and fun to read, the text messages on it are degrading people and displaying inappropriate behaviors. People think things like this are funny, but in the long run it is making things like sleeping around more acceptable in society, which isn’t a good thing.
Noticeably TFLN uses humor as a persuasive technique. The texts on their website are so humors that users check daily to get a good laugh. This is a great technique because there is a constant flow of entertaining texts, and the website creators don’t do much since the website is a user updated blog.
Media & Culture has a section on blogs, calling them the “biggest phenomenon in user-created content on the Internet.” Blogs are a huge shift for technology, and they are certainly a shift in a positive direction. Like I said previously, TFLN’s daily updated humor keeps readers coming back. “Ideally, blogs are updated frequently, often with daily posts that keep readers coming back to them.” Media & Culture says that a 2006 study by Pew Internet & American Life Project found more than 12 million U.S. adults have created blogs, and 39 % read blogs. It is clear that our future will contain a lot of blogging.
(443): i just turned the eviction notice into a beer pong list
(314): So I went out on a date with this girl...and whos our waitress? My girlfriend got a second job she didn't tell me about so she could afford my bday present.
(312): I remember going home with 2 girls. Woke up with 4.
TheiPodis a portable media player designed and marketed by Apple and launched in 2001. There are five types of iPod’s and then twenty versions of each type in all. That is a lot of iPod’s in 8 years. iPod’s are almost a necessity these days, and with Apple being the leading seller, why not invest in this $300 device? I, for one have had many issues with Apple and iPod’s over the years. They have a series of problems, which may contribute to why there seems to be a new one advertised every few months. Some of these problems include battery problems, short life-span, and fragile hard drives.
Apple uses distinct advertising campaigns to promote the iPod. These campaigns use dark silhouettes of people dancing against colorful backgrounds with a white ipod in their hands. The commercials include hit songs at the time, and they feature certain artists on the packaging. These commercials stimulate the limbic brain because of the bright colors, music, and dancing people. They are pleasing to the eye and people respond to them well, seeing how over 100 million iPod's were purchased just between 2001 and 2007. Apple's marketing techniques seem to be the reason so many are sold, using persuasive techniques such as symbols (the classic iPod), beautiful people (beautiful people's voices at least, in the form of a song on a commercial), and band wagon (because everyone has an iPod). The repetition of these ad's have made the iPod an icon, and when people see the symbol they instantly think iPod and Apple.
Media & Culture says, "Most recently, the Internet and multimedia devices, such as computers, mobile phones, and portable media players, have had a significant impact on visual design and advertising... visual design has evolved in other ways, becoming more three-dimensional, as full-motion, 3-D animation becomes a high-bandwidth multimedia standard. At the same time, design is also more simple, as ads and logos need to appear clearly on the small screens of mobile phone and media players, and more international, as agencies need to appeal to the global audiences of many companies and therefore need to reflect styles from anywhere in the world." In a nutshell, theiPod commercials people see are designed specifically for them to buy a certain product. Even if the product may prove to be inefficient, people will do anything to get what is "in".
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is one of those movies that you just need to see. It is difficult to explain, but the movie has great examples of the four tool sets, so I figured it was a good idea to watch it and see what I thought. Just in case you have never heard or seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, here is a quick plot summery.
The movie was released in 1998 and directed by Terry Gilliam. It is based on a novel by the well-known writer, Hunter S. Thompson. The movie is about two men traveling to Las Vegas. One man is a reporter and the other is his attorney. The men are equipped with a suitcase full of drugs, which explains the movies psychedelic production technique. They descend to Las Vegas chasing the so-called “American dream” in a drug-induced haze, wrecking havoc wherever they go. The movie revolves mostly around the writer, which is somewhat autobiographical, based on Hunter S. Thompson’s encounters. The main character also looks and dresses exactly like him
Four Tool Sets
First off, Fear and Loathing begins the movie with music and a title that is meant to resemble blood. This triggers the limbic part of the brain, because the music and the bloody image stimulate the brain. The reptilian brain is stimulated because seeing the blood triggers “fight or flight.” This movie affects the reptilian brain the whole time, because it is shot with weird angles, and it makes me feel anxious and stressed out.
The movie’s production techniques are truly wacky. The strange angles and colors make the audience feel as if they are on the same drugs as the main characters. Once heavily induced, things in the movie begin morphing and changing shape, which I found very interesting. This is a rare production technique that you don’t see often, so it’s really appealing to watch.
The value messages in the movie are a little tricky. I think that Hunter S. Thompson is either illustrating drugs in a appealing way, or a way that drives people away from doing them.This is a value message because the movie is all about two men doing drugs and the affects of them, and it’s hard to see the distinction in the value message.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas uses humor as a production technique. Watching the two men strung out on drugs is humorous and entertaining, and it draws the audience in. The movie also uses bandwagon, suggesting that everyone does drugs. Although the only people in the movie on drugs are the main characters, they make it seem like doing drugs is okay.
Hunter S. Thompson was an American journalist and author, most famous for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He is credited as a creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written subjectively, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first person narrative. The style tends to blend factual and fictional elements to emphasize an underlying message and engage the reader.
Media & Culture talks about journalism as an art form. Throughout the first part of the twentieth century journalism followed an inverted pyramid style and the separation of fact from opinion. Dissatisfied with these limitations, reporters began exploring a new model of reporting called literary journalism. "Mixing the content of reporting with the form of fiction to create 'both the kind of objective reality of journalism' and 'the subjective reality' of the novel.'" This journalism adapted fictional techniques, such as descriptive details and settings and extensive character dialogue, to nonfiction material and in-depth reporting.
