Monday, October 31, 2011

Week 10

How does Buffy deconstruct traditional literary notions of good and evil?

I chose to answer this question as it is an interesting one to look into. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has got the traditional ‘good vs evil’ theme going on, but it warps and changes the boundaries of this immensely. For example “Evil is often less fixed... with many characters demonstrating both decent and demonic traits and behaviours across episodes or seasons. ‘Good’ characters may develop in frighteningly sinister ways; while villainous ones may surprisingly reveal complex and even selfless motivations” (Braum, 2000). This happens all throughout Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons, with some characters (such as Spike) starting off as an ‘evil’ character, then becoming friends with Buffy and seeming to become ‘good’ character, and eventually to commit more bad acts to once again blur the line.
Another example of this happening in Buffy the Vampire slayer is her interactions with the character Angel. He was a somewhat morally ambiguous character, with a dark past, but he swiftly became a romantic interest for Buffy. They would often fight vampires together and he would be there when she needed help. Eventually they made love, and this awakened Angels ‘curse’ (triggered by perfect human happiness) which made him revert back to his vampire form to become one of Buffys greatest enemies. This is a clear example of how Buffy the Vampire Slayer lines to deconstruct the literary notions of good and evil. The relationship between Buffy and Angel clearly demonstrates the tension between love and aggression that can often occur in intimate relationships (Braum, 2000.)
The show clearly bases everything it’s about on this sort of blurring between good and evil. With Buffy the teenage girl who has to fight all sorts of villainous creatures, and her array of friends/foes who are often changing sides or doing acts that the traditional ‘good’ character wouldn’t do.

Braum, B. (2000) The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The ambiguity of evil in supernatural representations. Retrieved 18 October, 2005 from: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0412/is_2_28/ai_64688900

Week 11

How has the documentary genre influenced reality TV and how it presents the ‘real’?

It can be a difficult proposition explaining the differences between documentaries and reality TV, but once both are viewed it becomes clear which genre displays fact, and which displays an illusion of the truth. Documentaries have helped the Reality TV genre grow because they share many similar properties. Biressi and Nunn (2005) explained with their work how John Grierson who first “coined the term ‘documentary’, happily acknowledged the role of aesthetics in the genre, describing the documentary process as the ‘creative treatment of actuality.’” This clearly shows us which themes a documentary will often have. The viewpoint of a documentary is often seen by just one perspective, which unintentionally means the documentary will have a somewhat bias view on whatever issue is being presented, intentional or otherwise. However, the documentary will try to portray the information it is delivering in a factual way, in an attempt to deliver unbiased information, but unless they cover a wide range of conflicting viewpoints then this very rarely happens. So the documentary genre is almost the pre-reality TV genre simply because reality TV couldn’t exist if documentaries were never created. Reality TV however is full of biased viewpoints put in by the media to help portray any given situation in a certain glorified light. It is a genre that is guilty of having one sided views for nearly any situation. An example of this is when the cast is arguing over food and water in survivor, when the participants are making gourmet dishes on Masterchef, or when the bad boy criminal is being taken down by the righteous cop on Cops. The handheld cameras, subtitled dialogue and the character voiceover narratives are but the tip of the iceberg of the techniques used to add the stench of reality and the dirt of  actual characters facing off against eachother that only reality TV can provide.

Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. Reality TV: Realism and Revelation. (page 35-58). London: Wallflower.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Week 11- Anita Ibell

What signifiers of reality have emerged from the documentary genre? How have they constructed out conceptualisation of reality? (or at least what we recognize as being real on a visual level...)

The intorduction of realism began with Grierson who coined the term 'documentary' and defined it as the 'creative treatment of reality' (Biressi & Nunn, 2005) which, essentially gives realism structure and conventions. However, on a visual level, I would say that reality tv has many stylistic features owing to the pioneers of cinema vérité and its subsets (Direct cinema, Free Cinema and Candid Eye.) According to Leacock, cinema verite was all about wanting what you've got, rater than looking for what you want.' D.A Pennebaker made another interesting point in the documentary we viewed in class. He said that 'Life is a kind of drama when you find the right story..' which I think is extremely relevant when comparing cinema verite with reality tv. Both genres are concerned with the spontaneous and inclusive depiction of real life- but not in a way that it should necessarily be viewed as the whole truth. The filmmakers behind cinema verite were not disillusioned with their aim. Their films were the product of naturalistic filming techniques combined with careful editing in a way that would raise human consciousness and present the subject matter as provocative. Reality TV places an emphasis on the representation of ordinary people and allegedly spontaneous moments of unmediated reality, often the shows are filmed using the fly on the wall technique and shaky, hand held camera work that was first brought about in cinema verite. This technique helps the viewer to feel as though they are sharing an intimate space with the subject and promote realism.In the 60s, a significant development in technology came about with the invention of smaller hand held cameras, which in turn allowed for filming to move from the studio into the great outdoors, scenes that depict landscapes help to 'authenticate the fiction' Andrew Higson is quoted as saying in Biressi and Nunn (2005) these techniques are often employed in shows like 'Keeping up with the Khardashians' and 'Jersey Shore' where the viewer is subjected to all the activities that the subjects take part in over their day, we get to follow them around- I think by feeling like we are with these people in various locales, we can put ourselves in the frame and realistically feel empathy for the characters and see through an eye at their level.... it's important to the objectivity of the program

Another visual construct of realism employed by the documentary genre and reality tv is the depiction of time passing as an observational technique in order to 'foster a sense of unmediated connectedness between the pro-filmic event and the film shoot' (Biressi & Nunn, 2005). They show a flow that is removed from the fast paced dramatization of theatre and in doing so are another signifier of reality. I am not a big consumer of reality tv, or tv in general actually, but I have watched a few episodes of Survivor and Keeping up with the Khardashians- maybe a couple of Jersey Shore as well. I think a way in which these shows keep people entertained lies in the creative treatment of reality- the verisimilitude of dramatic scenes and exciting adventures, coupled with the mundane activities of everyday existance that we can relate to and in turn think of as 'real'. I think much of this is thanks to the developments in the documentary genre that happened with the Cinema verite movement.

References:

Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.

Week 5- Anita Ibell

Is anime a high or low culture/genre according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres?

Napier (2005) points out that Anime is increasingly being seen as an intellectually challenging art form by a number of scholars and their published writing on the subject (Napier, 2005). To these scholars and other connoisseurs of the genre; anime deserves to be studied due to it being a 'rich contemporary japanese art form with a distincitve narrative and aesthetic that harks back to traditional Japanses culture as well as moves forward into cutting edge media and art.' supposedly it als should be commended for the breadth of its subject matter that serves as a mirror to Japanese society and offers an array of views on everything from issues to dreams of the present day and is all quite adult in content, despite being simple in form. (Napier, 2005) To many other people, Anime is often lumped into the catagory of mass (or commercial) culture in Japan, and sub-culture in America- whereas the high culture of Japan is aligned with products such as haiku, Zen and the martial arts. The popularity of anime has been growing at a huge rate since the 1990s and is finding a comfortable niche on western tv, possibly due to the exoticism of it when compared to western cartoons. By looking at anime from these viewpoints it is hard to group it into what could traditionally be called 'high' or 'low'culture, so it sits somewhere in the middle ground where it remains as an important vehicle for contemporary philisophical debate and social commentary in a changing global world while still being globally poular and mass produced which I think stops it from being grouped with the products seen as 'high culture'. (Napier, 2005).

Sub-genres within anime are aligned with other genres of popular fiction such as cyber-punk and mecha which are within sci-fi's conventions, alternatative histories are sometimes presented and comedy is another sub-genre. often, anime deals with the role of technology in society. Anime can at once depict beauty, fairytale stories and philisophical ideals. Despite uniquely japanese themes and icons, I think that princess Mononoke and other films in the anime genre have achieved cross-cultural popularity because of being both familiar and exotic to international audiences. I guess what I'm talking about as the familiar is the idea that fairytale storylines are what help to make anime accessible to kids and adults but they also seem to run along a collective consciousness that helps them to be grouped together while being culturally specific- for example, Princess Mononoke is representative of japanese history (despite subversions that displace it..) but it has also been compared to the animated version of Tarzan that was created by Disney but is a much older story that deals with the place of humans within nature- like Princess Mononoke does (Napier, 2005). I guess this deviates from the question a bit, but I think it's something to think about when contemplating the status of anime and other popular genres of fiction.

The ancient high culture of Japan still lives, it's just been transformed by modern influences and shown through anime as re-thought tales of folklore. The hyperactive pop culture of japan might look like something from the future but really, it has its roots in traditions that create themes much deeper.


A question I've had in my mind while thinking about high vs low culture is; what place does high culture play in contemporary society anyway? In my mind, high culture belongs in the past- hung on gallery walls and inside glass cases at the museum or alternatively, as the domain of poets and art students. When I think of the future in regards to anime and other relics of pop culture I can't imagine them occupying the same space; for a start- how on earth would you choose what to include in such exhibits when they have been mass produced and churned out in such high volumes?.. Despite this pondering, however, I do think that what we're studying as pop culture has relevance and is really important in defining the times and the age we live in- especially because they're so fast moving and reflective of ever-changing and advancing technology. I just think it's harder to put in a box the way that cultural products once were.

References:
Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan.


Week 6- Anita Ibell

What are the underlying thematics of Princess Mononoke? How does it 'defamiliarise' its historical setting, according to Napier (2005)?

Narrator: In ancient times, the land lay covered in forests, where, from ages long past, dwelt the spirits of the gods. Back then, man and beast lived in harmony, but as time went by, most of the great forests were destroyed. Those that remained were guarded by gigantic beasts who owed their allegiances to the Great Forest Spirit, for those were the days of gods and of demons...

Princess Mononoke is set in 14th Century Japan and, despite not being based on any particular historical event, is a meditation on Japanese History of the Muromarchi period; though this is done through a counter-narrative to some 'pivotal myths' of japanese culture and society. The film defamiliarizes it's historical setting by putting the marginals of society in focus and by taking place In a mythical place, located somewhere other than reality. The landscape of the forest is away from zen inspired landscape gardens, tea ceremonies, samurais, Lords and peasants and other icons of high culture that would normally characterize films set in that time period. It is inhabited by the forest gods- Kami and the doll like spirits called kodama (Napier, 2005). Illustrative of the defamiliariazation of history is the fact that three of the key characters of the film are female and have powerful, gender neutral roles that are unlike traditional female characters.Placing females in these roles creates interest in what might be a fairly straightforward and stereotyped story. That their overtly traditional female characteristics have been suppressed in favour of stronger, more masculine and mythical traits such as Lady Eboshi's military prowess, Moro's fierce protection of San without soft maternal affection and San's unstoppable rage, destruction and inability to connect to the human race all serve to offer an alternative and thought provoking discourse on difference, especially because 'cuteness' and the shojo are often aligned with the female and considered important in contemporary japanese culture- yet none of the female protagonists really embody these ideals at all.

A key theme that is underlying Princess Mononoke is that of what Napier (2005) dubs 'environmental apocolypse'. Depicted in the film is a nature/technology divide, which begins with the wild boar that rushes into Prince Ashitaka's village with a bullet in him and places a curse on the prince as he dies bitterly. The iron factory that the formidable Lady Eboshi runs is responsible for the bullet that caused the boar to die- as well as diminshing forests and the subsequent suffering and uprising of the forest spirit due to this. The lines of good and evil are complicated in the story as Eboshi has created the industry to help the outcast men and women under her care, but in doing so has disregarded nature. The film shows that there will always be a price to pay for technological progress. The destruction of the forest scars both Prince Ashitaka and San as well as the land. The message of this perhaps is that that the separation of civilisation from nature can cause harm. There is also evidence of a power struggle and dominance taking a leading role in the film's thematics too- San doesn't just want the forest and weapons factory to exist in harmony- she wants it to be destroyed in the same way that Lady Eboshi wants dominance over the forest. In the end, neither are completely successful and neither have directly failed.

References:

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan

Friday, October 21, 2011

Week6

According to Napier,how does this anime problematise traditional (or conservative) constructions of gender, class and race? 

Princess Monaoke seems to be set in 1500's in Japan, the fantasy that delves, despite the literal nature "god" and magic. This film is complex mixture of tradition Japanese spiritualism, class concern and the prospect of change is on offer in Japan. Princess Monoake appears brilliant on social concerns and progressive at that time (still the most concern today) of men domination of nature, technology and the increasing loss of spiritualism to the touch.  In contrast to the mythical ideal of harmony, progress and the non homogeneous problem, the government elite patriarchal, this vision of culture dissonance, loss of spiritual and environmental apocalypse offers.(Cavallaro, 2006). For example some films such as Samurai and Aristocratic classes focus on more common people who ignores in Japanese history. Although it is strange that the director chose to portray the Japanese society is divided head strong female character in way that almost seemed to be responsible for the cooapse of society, this is open to interpretation. Furthermore the character of lady "Eboshi" (militaristic strong material) definitely seems to be responsible for some of the major atrocities carried out in this film, to achieve a form of demonisation regardless on intention.

References:

Cavallaro, D. (2006). The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. London: Macfarland and Company

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: From Akira to Howl's Moving Castle. Hampshire: Plgrave Macmillan

Thursday, October 20, 2011

week11

How does Hill define reality TV?

According to Hill (2005), there is no definition of reality TV. People has describe this genre of several ways. A number of competing definitions of reality has been called style. This is because the reality television's based on genre and other genres or documentary style. After reading these definitions, is the Hill (2005) sources. Furthermore, Hill (2005, p.42) defines "Reality TV" that "perhaps the most traditional entertainment industry for reality TV is real." However, I note that there are over six different categories reality TV is that can fall under. One of the examples of Hill (2005) is "The ship" (documentary of Captain Cokkk sailing around the cast of Northern East coast of Australia), respectively. The use of documentary style filming and the use of "ordinary people as part of the experiment." (Hill, 2005, p. 42).
As well BBC launch its history and education, "made is difficult to classify as a documentary as a documentation specialist." (Hill, 2005, p.108)

Meanwhile, the early 1990s scientists have also dined TV is reality TV. For example Steve Neale points out the reality TV inculdes all aspects of general culture. Hill (2005, p.47) states "for Nichols, the reality TV shows, which include all those who already have serius accidents, usual situations or the real police, they often re-enact aspects of the assistance we win and sometimes arrest criminals still at large. "I tend to define Bazalgette as the reality TV, actual television programming which deals with human life and human situations that are familiar with our lives.

Reference:

Hill, A. (2005). The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and popular Factual Television. (pp.14-4o). Oxon: Routledge.