Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Tinder: True Love Or A Nightmare?, Anthony Kao

Pop Culture Intersections

The computer first played matchmaker in the late 1950s. Data would have been fed into the system, and after some data crunching, it would spit out a match based on common interests. Today’s dating sites, such as eHarmony.com, PlentyOfFish, and Match.com are reminiscent of the earliest days of online dating - they rely on algorithms to pair potential matches based on shared interests. With the advent of mobile dating apps such as Tinder, of which I will examine in-depth in my paper, the ability for geo-location, which allows users to “see” other users that are nearby their location, has opened …

Green Religion: Manipulation Transcending Ideology, Miranda Wittmond

Pop Culture Intersections

As more Americans become aware of the environmental consequences of their actions and decisions, corporations have moved to profit off of rising environmental consciousness. However, instead of changing their practices to actually become environmentally conscious, many corporations often instead present a false front to make our society perceive them as green when they are not, an action commonly referred to as greenwashing. This allows them to gain advantage over their competitors, some of which might actually be sustainable, by taking advantage of consumers’ environmental consciousness. Despite legal action taken to stop this and federal laws putting restrictions on green advertising, …

Digital Gaming And Tolkien, 1976-2015, Helen Young

Journal of Tolkien Research

‘Tolkien’ the cultural phenomenon is far bigger than J. R. R. Tolkien the author, or even J. R. R. Tolkien the author-and-oeuvre. When Christopher Tolkien asserted in 2012 that his father’s legacy has been rendered monstrous he blamed its fate on the gross depredations of commercialization generally and the Warner Bros’ franchise in particular. Explorations of – and encomiums on – the afterlives of Tolkien’s novels generally focus on the impact of Peter Jackson’s films. The forces which have shaped contemporary ‘Tolkien’ are not only commercial however; fans also ‘do things’ with Tolkien’s writings. The drive to make …

Playing With The History Of Middle Earth: Board Games, Transmedia Storytelling, And The Lord Of The Rings, Adam Brown, Deb Waterhouse-Watson

Journal of Tolkien Research

Contemporary cases of transmedia storytelling have thrown many conventional understandings of ‘adaptation’ into disarray. The resurgence of tabletop game culture has thus far played a significant role in this, though scholars have largely neglected the subject, particularly in terms of how transmedia relationships reconfigure the meaning(s) shaped by and through games by players. This paper addresses this phenomenon through a close analysis of two board games based on The Lord of the Rings, in which the (re)construction of the story-world of the source text(s) impacts strongly on ‘conventional’ modes of narrative and identification. Governed by the adoption of various …

"The Effort To Translate": Fan Film Culture And The Works Of J.R.R. Tolkien, Maria Alberto

Journal of Tolkien Research

In his 1940 preface “On Translating Beowulf,” J.R.R. Tolkien contends that “The effort to translate, or to improve a translation, is valuable, not so much for the version it produces, as for the understanding of the original which it awakes” (53). Though made with a specific literary tradition in mind, Tolkien’s assertion about the value of translation bears re-visitation in light of circumstances where the terminology has shifted. Specifically, Tolkien’s own work has since become the myth undergoing translation, and in popular parlance, translation itself has changed from simply describing the transference of a text between languages to now include …

Authorizing Tolkien: Control, Adaptation, And Dissemination Of J.R.R. Tolkien's Works, Robin A. Reid, Michael D. Elam

Journal of Tolkien Research

This article is the introduction to the special theme issue consisting of four essays on Authorizing Tolkien. Reid and Elam discuss medieval and postmodern theories of adaptation and interpretation and introduce the essays in the issue.

Mdocs Tri-Fold-2016-09-01, Mdocs Information Card, Jordana Dym, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

Learn more about the John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative at Skidmore College

Mdocs Postcard-2016-09-01, Storytellers' Institute Seeking Director, Jordana Dym, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

Seeking: MDOCS Storytellers' Institute Director for summer 2017.

Documentary makers, programmers, and leaders ready to help today's documentary creators bring their visions to fruition in a hybrid creative-academic context.

Mdocs Slide-09-01-2016, Spring Courses, Jordana Dym, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

Spring 2017 Courses:

DS 202A: Video Storytelling

DS 202A: Interview 101: Skidmore Stories

DS 302A: Video Projects

DS: 302B: Audio Projects

DS 251D: Introduction to Audio Documentary

DS 251C: Principles of Documentary Studies

DS 251B: Storytelling for the Screen I

DS 251B: Storytelling for the Screen II

AHDS 324: The Artistic Interview

EN 217: 'Film'

PH 230C: Film Truth

DS 302A: Storytellers' Institute Prep

Mdocs Banner-2016-09-01, Project Vis Events, Jordana Dym, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

List of all Fall 2016 Project VIS Events. Events include:

Ethics Bowl: The Ethics and Law in Media Production

Tue, September 27 @ 6-8pm, Emerson

Tackle the issues facing today's non-fiction storytellers and prepare yourself for the roadblocks to public use that media creators may come to realize only after wrapping production--often too late to resolve crucial rights and relationships. The session will combine brief presentations on law, ethics and methods with background and tips and group discussion by attendees who will grapple with a real-world case and come together to present solutions.

This hands-on training session is a …

Mdocs Poster-2016-09-01, Li 113 Fall Workshops, Jordana Dym, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

Fall 2016 Li 113 Workshops:

Final Cut Prox

Monday, October 3, 2016- 8pm-9:30pm/Monday, November 7, 2016- 8pm-9:30

A detailed introduction to video editing using advanced software

Intro To GoPro

Thursday, November 10, 2016- 8pm-9:30

An introduction to using GoPro video cameras

Poster Design 101

Thursday, November 3, 2016-8pm-9:30

An introduction to basic poster design using Adobe InDesign

Photoshop 101

Sunday, October 9, 2016-3pm-4:30/Sunday, November 6, 2016-3pm-4:30

An introduction to photo editing from start to finish

Interviewing 101

Monday, October 17, 2016-8pm-9:30

A crash course in interviewing skills that can be applied to both audio and video

Audacity

Sunday, October 20, …

Mdocs Poster-2016-09-01, Fall Doc Dates, Jordana Dym, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

When documentarians focus on a single subject-- a person, a research project, a community, an event-- they develop an individual or collective story from up close. These cases may illuminate a moment or a lifetime, the personal or professional, defeat or success, the interior or exterior journey taken by the subject. How do documentarians make such cases compelling, resonant and relevant? What are the building blocks that take the subject to story? How does the singular become the universal?

In Fall 2016, MDOCS presents a mini-series in which area practitioners engage with portraiture and biography in documentary work. One Monday …

Mdocs Flyer-2016-09-01, Storytellers' Institute Application, Jordana Dym, Jesse Wakeman

MDOCS Publications

Do you have a documentary story to tell?

Join us this summer.

Invitation to students and faculty working on an evidence-based, research-driven, creative project in any medium (audio, video, photo, writing, etc.)- to apply to the Storytellers' Institute for summer 2017, May 30-June 30.

Fall 2016

In The Loop

Dean David Miller and CDM Through the Years; The New ABCs of Digital Literacy; The Younger Generation: Computer Scientists of the Future; The Final Hurdle: Thesis Talk; Telling Stories in Cuba with Abbas Kiarostami with James Choi; Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition; TEDxDePaulUniversity Conference; Tim Nedow, Olympian; Omnibus Crowdfunded Game; News Briefs; The Social Technocrat: Andrew Ruginis; When Computing and Biology Collide; Tori Meschino: Campus Leader and All-Around Superstar; Degrees Offered at CDM

Nietzsche’S Digital Alexandrians: Greek As Musical Code For Nietzsche And Kittler, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

No abstract provided.

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Film, Fall 2016, Richard Harrison

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Circus As Idée Fixe And Hunger, Anna-Sophie Jürgens

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Circus as idée fixe and Hunger" Anna-Sophie Jürgens discusses circus fiction in which characters often display extreme, intense psychological traits. They are for example irascible, pyromaniac, sadistic, or megalomaniac. Particularly striking are protagonists with alternative psychological attitudes in fictional circus texts of the twentieth century such as Franz Kafka's hunger artist, Michael Raleigh's ringmaster Lewis Tully or Richard Schmitt's aerialist Garry, who can be seen as incubators of circus-related idées fixes. These literary circus characters develop fixations on circus that manifest themselves as a physical sensation of desiring circus like food, in other words: in circus …

The Ecological Posthuman In Lee's Tarboy And Tan And Ruhemann's The Lost Thing, Başak Ağın

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "The Ecological Posthuman in Lee's [BA1] Tarboy and Tan and Ruhemann's The Lost Thing" Başak Ağın analyzes the posthumanist and ecological elements in two animated short films, James Lee's Tarboy (2009) and Shaun Tan's and Andrew Ruhemann's The Lost Thing (2010). Ağın posits that the two animated short films display a disanthropocentric worldview through the enmeshed relations between humans, techno-sentient beings, and naturalcultural hybrid bodies. The intermingled fusions of these biotic and abiotic forms are inherently characterized by a sense of posthuman ecocriticism. Basing her arguments on the notions of agential realism and new materialisms, Ağın …

Capitalism And Control: An Examination Of Capitalist Trends Against Consumers, Sravan Ramaswamy

Pop Culture Intersections

This article will be covering a number of debates over years. A number of studies have been done on the nature of privacy and its place in the modern world as we move forward in the digital age. One study called "The Privacy-Innovation Conundrum" by Ted Zarsky argues for the existence of a tradeoff that policy makers have to make between favoring innovation and hurting privacy or favoring privacy, but reducing the incentive to create new ideas[1]. This argument makes a great deal of sense if we view information as not dissimilar to money. However, it leaves open interpretation for …

Influence Of Mass Media On Medical Screening, Specifically Breast Cancer Screening, Yashvi Siddhapura

Pop Culture Intersections

Mass Media has influenced various aspects of our culture, from how we wake up to how we sleep. Over the years, popular media has expanded in our society due to the technological advancements; we are now able to access these various mass media mediums through one tap. One of the most influential topics in our culture is health and mass media has played a huge role in impacting a healthy lifestyle. Through this medium, people are also informed about medical advancements which can be very helpful in maintaining a healthy lifestyle if they are at a risk for a disease. …