Video File #6: Outrage- 2009

Outrage is a documentary directed by Kirby Dick about closeted politicians who lobby for anti-gay legislation in the United States. With the tagline "Don't Ask. Don't Tell." Dick probes into the lives of different politicians who continue to lobby and pass anti-gay legislation while leading a double life in their personal life. The film was distributed by Magnolia Pictures on a very small limited release. I saw this film this summer and was shocked by the information that was presented in the doc. I really hope this film can eventually gain a bigger release because I think it has a subject that needs to be brought to the general public. The interviews in this film are incredible and Dick talks to both Republicans and Democrats showing a wide range of politicians. I would definitely recommended this film to everyone, especially people who are interested in politics.

View the Outrage trailer here

Media bias

Going back to Weinberg's article "The Video Outside the Box" I wanted to take a look at media bias. Weinberg says one of the myths is "Commercial media unquestionably provides the highest quality journalism possible..." It's very hard to find a news station that can be seen has unbiased and is even more difficult to find a news station that does not attempt to advertise to the viewer (impossible probably). Tying in with this myth was Weinberg's next myth stating "News media in the United States today has a left-wing bias." I find today that conservative news programs are most prevalent in on network and cable television than liberal news media. When talking about conservative media of course I have to start with Fox news. Let's start with their taglines: "Fair and Balanced", "We report. You decided." and "The most powerful name in the news". Now if any of these taglines were remotely true it would be a different story but Fox news has made a name for itself with false reporting. Just recently I had a friend post a video on his blog of a news report that Fox did about an elementary school teaching children to sing songs of praise for Obama. The news story ended up being untrue, but Fox never issued an apology statement for the false information. I suppose this argument could go both ways and someone could agree their are liberal media stations that do the same, but I find it interesting that many people still believe that media is most liberal based.

Video File #5: Rocket Science- 2007

Rocket Science is a film directed and written by Jeffrey Blitz about a high school boy with a heavy speech impediment who gets convinced to join the speech team. The film follows the main character Hal through the trials of High School while he searches for answers to life's "big questions". The movie is an endearing comedy/drama, which is held together by the lead actor Reece Thompson. The film had a rather large budget of $4,500,000 but a gross revenue of $755,774. Blitz shot the film over a short 30 days The film was distributed by Picture House and HBO films in 2007. In article Blitz said that he wanted the cinematography to "tell a story that was equal parts deadpan and suggestive of [the TV show] the Real World". I saw this film when it came out in 2007 and immediately fell in love with how real but yet endearing it was. It has since become one of my favorite films and I recommend to anyone who enjoys movies will smart and quick dialogue as well as a real life aspect.

Watch the Rocket Science trailer here

Media Matters

While reading Weinberg's article "Video Outside of the Box" a few things struck me. Already being very aware the five big companies and what the own didn't surprise me (especially the Walt Disney Company, because I am a Disney cast member :) ) I was taken back by some of the media myths later in the article. Starting with the first myth "media does not matter that much-- they merely reflect reality rather than shape it"being the most shocking. It's hard to realize that today people still do not realize how media shapes society and our culture. Just recently I was writing a a sociology paper on how media shapes and determines society's view on gender roles. For example, the website theKnot.com allows viewers to watch videos of “real weddings” to inspire future couples. In these videos there is no emphasize on the couple; what is solely important is what the bride will look on her big day (no mention of the groom, of course) and how having the perfect wedding will make their marriage perfect as well. It's often overlooked how even media such as websites can be used to shape our views on things such as gender. For example let's take a look at the cover of one the Knot's magazines. "10 Stunning Real Weddings", "the most glamorous cakes ever", and "stylish reception ideas" the cover reads. No mention of anything to do with the couple or the groom. Even in the picture we can see hegemony played out. The bride is standing front and center of the photography smiling, skinny, and beautiful as the [supposed] groom is in the foreground looking at her.

I think if more people were aware of media shaping us not just showing reality, we as a society would be better equip for change.

Video File #4: Once-2006

(Marekta Irglova and Glen Hansard)

Once is an Irish film written and directed by John Carney in 2006. The film is a modern day music about a Guy and a Girl (the two are never named during the entire film) who have a chance meeting and over a week write and record songs telling their love stories. The film stars real life musicians Glen Hansard (former of the Frames) and Marekta Irglova. Once was filmed over a short 16 days and was shot for only $160,000. The film eventually got picked up and distributed by Fox Searchlight in America. The song "Falling Slowly" from the film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2008. This is my favorite film of all time. I saw it for the first time at in 2006 at the Traverse City Film Festival and immediately fell in love. I enjoy the movie so much because it is such an unconventional and bittersweet love story, completely un-Hollywood. I think anyone who enjoys and appreciates music would like this film.

Visit the Once website

Buy and listen to the Once soundtrack

the medium is the message

I heard McLuhan's "medium is the message" in my communication and technology class last semester. However McLuhan for Beginners presents the idea in a whole new way that was much easier to understand. The idea of the medium being "any extension of our bodies, minds, or beings". Secondly redefining the message as "any change in scale, pace, or pattern that a medium causes in societies or cultures". By understanding this idea it opens the forms of media to be able to change society and cultures. McLuhan also has very specific and unique ideas about how to classify media. He classifies all media as high or low medium. High medium is defined as "well-defined, sharp, solid, detailed, in reference to anything visual". For examples words, numbers, maps, and photos. Low definition is when the eye needs to scan the image to make it complete. For example cartoons and sketches. More simply high definition is lots of information and leaves little to do for the brain and low definition gives little information and makes the brain work harder. I thought it was interesting that McLuhan defined movies as high but television as low definition. I would guess because movies or films are usually a more completely story where as television is stories in pieces.

medium cool/the graduate

(Nichlos cuts from the scene with Ben and Mrs. Robinson straight to Ben in the pool)

While I was watching Medium Cool, I did not really think about the context of when this movie was made. After reading the Ebert review I realized that in 1969 when the film was made it was a new concept for to organize a plot of a film. Medium Cool does not follow tradition Hollywood plot segmentation by any means. As Ebert says Hollywood movies would go from A to B and not even make it to point C. I have seen The Graduate probably at least 20 times and never thought of how it was one of the first major films to experiment with not going through all the traditional steps and using editing to skip point B and go straight to C. Medium Cool definitely did the same. by mixing documentary footage in with the plot of the film there was no clear line between what was real and what wasn't. I think during any film your watching to remember the context in which it was made.

Video File #3: Harmony and Me-2009

(Justin Rice stars as Harmony in the film)

Harmony and Me is a hilarious physical comedy about a guy named Harmony is who is struggled to get over his recent breakup. This film was written and directed by Austin, TX based filmmaker Bob Byington. I saw the film this summer at the Traverse City Film Festival (as usual, ha). The tagline of the film sums up the film in one sentence "a physical comedy about yearning". Mr. Byington as well as the film's title star Justin Rice attended the festival. The film was funded by a small independent film company called "Film Science". I enjoyed this comedy because it was extremely different than any traditional Hollywood comedy because its very dark and physical humor. View the Harmony and Me trailer!

Harmony and Me website

Video File #2: Winnebago Man- 2009

(Winnebago Man- Jack Rebney)

Winnebago Man was produced and directed by Ben Steinbauer. I saw this documentary this summer at the Traverse City Film Festival, and Michael Moore called it the funniest documentary he had seen all year. The film is a follow up to a viral video sensation about out-takes to a Winnebago promotional video filmed in the 80's. (View the original video here) Ben Steinbauer had been fascinated with the Winnebago Man, Jack Rebney, who was impossible to locate after the video became famous. The documentary follows Ben's obsession to find Mr. Rebney and what happens when he does. The film is humorous, as well as gives touching light into what happens to what we now call "youtube" stars after their 15 minutes of fame. Technically, the footage of Jack Rebney was all outtakes that the camera men on the shoot decided to put together and leak. Since it was the 1980's people used to pass the video around on a VHS, pre sending each other youtube links of viral videos. I think this movie is a must see for anyone who enjoys documentaries, especially if you are interested in internet phenomenon's. Currently the film doesn't have a distributor, but hopefully the filmmakers will make DVDs available on their website.

Winnebago Man Website

Video file #1: Entre Nos- 2009

(Co-director, co-writer, and star of the film Paolo Mendoza is seen in this still from "Entre Nos")

This summer I interned at the Traverse City Film Festival where I was lucky enough to get to see a lot of amazing independent films. One of my favorite films was a Spanish film titled "Entre Nos" (translated in english to "between us"). Watch the trailer here. In short, the film is about a woman, Mariana, who has immigrates to New York from Colombia with her husband and her two children. Her husband decides to leave her and the children and move to Miami. Now on her own with no job, Mariana fights to keep her family alive in New York. Two woman directed this film, Gloria La Morte (co-director, co-writer, editor) and Paola Mendoza (co-director, co-writer) who also starred in the film. I was extremely fortunate in being able to meet and talk with these amazing women filmmakers about how their film came to production. One of the most amazing facts about this film is that the story is based heavily around Mendoza's mothers experience immigrating to America. Once La Morte and Mendoza decided that was the story they wanted to write, they took two years to write the screenplay before entering it in Independent Film Week's Emerging Narrative section and won the Grand Prize, which granted them a full panasonic camera package, which their crew used to for the film. They also took out a loan to cover product costs. In talking with both of these amazing women, they stressed one thing if you believe in yourself you can definitely make a film. It was remarkable that La Morte and Mendoza were able to create this stunning film with such a small budget and just a small indie film distributor. After viewing this incredible film, I was definitely inspired to keep working towards my career goals towards the entertainment business.

annie hall

I read a lot of reviews online for Annie Hall, and on most they talked about how Woody Allen's role of Alvy set up the template for a lot of Allen's future roles/characters in his movies. I thought this was interesting because I'm currently reading "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto" by Chuck Klosterman. In his first chapter "This is Emo", Klosterman is writing about his past relationships with women. He discusses how Woody Allen made it possible for him and other nerdy men like him to sleep with women who he sees as out of his league. He goes on to say how probably most of these women have never seen a Woody Allen film, and if asked they would never classify Allen as sexy, or desired, or say that they wanted to sleep with him. "But this is how media devolution works: It creates an archetype that eventually dwarfs its origin. By now, the "Woody Allen Personality Type" has far greater cultural importance than the man himself" writes Klosterman. I think thats an interesting idea, that media has created archetypes for different kinds of relationships, which the public therefore tries to conform to. For example, how often do you here people describe their relationship as a "Ross and Rachel" type relationship? Fairly often, and when you think about it Ross and Rachel are the perfect example of how Allen has manifested his character archetypes into the media today. Ross is much like Alvy, nerdy, goofy and full of neuroses. Rachel on the other hand is the beautiful woman who seems out of his league. Throughout 10 seasons the couple goes through an on again off again relationship, much as Annie and Alvy did. I think it's safe to say that Allen created a new prototype of character that is still prevalent in media culture today.

Klosterman, Chuck. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto. New York City: Scribner, 2003. Print.