Digital Commons Network^™

Hollywood And The Emergence Of Independent Cinema: A John Cusack Case Study, Emma Wellins

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Intolerable Masculinity: Screening Men's Shame And Embracing Curious Futures, Cole Clark

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

This thesis argues that to critique hegemonic masculinity and patriarchy in good faith, film and television must focus on the futures created through men’s ethical action in the present, rather than inert displays of men’s horrific behaviors that rely on audience shame as a tool for reclaiming men’s pride. Men’s freedom to change their situation is introduced through Manon Garcia’s (2022) notion of masculinity as an “impasse,” preventing men from authentic connection with others. This concept is furthered using David Buchbinder (2013), with the television examples Mad Men (Weiner 2007-2015) and Black Mirror (Brooker 2011-2023) each presenting a different masculine …

From Script To Screen, Samira Shirkhani

Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media Culminating Experience

For my capstone project, I made a short animated film. In this film, we follow the journey of a young writer facing the pressures of a project deadline. As she sits in her home office, the character struggles to concentrate on her work amid some distractions. From the outside noises filtering through the window to the persistent drip of water in the bathroom and a bug buzzing around her face, a series of obstacles disrupt her focus. The writer wants to eliminate each obstacle, actively working to create an ideal environment conducive to productivity. As she successfully tackles each issue, …

Humanity Amid Innovation: Exploring Our Relationship To Technology, Sarah Durkee

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis examines the impacts of technology on fundamental aspects of human nature and experience. Drawing on the works from Kant, Turing, Arendt, Benjamin, and Freud, it explores how rapid technological change is redefining human reason, intelligence, and creativity in the digital age. The first chapter analyzes whether modern online communication platforms realize or undermine Kant's vision of an enlightened public sphere fostering free discourse and critique. It argues that prioritizing engagement over substantive debate, these digital realms corrode the depth of interaction essential for cultivating human reason. The second chapter explores the pursuit of artificial intelligence as a reproduction …

How Design Depicted In Film Contributes To The Evolution Of Cultural Narratives, Catherine Vanhoose

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

Interior Design and its trends have had significant influence on pop culture and the general public through the course of human history. Acting as a universal language, design is a tool often used to help communicate ideas. The different interpretations of these ideas are what help to create cultural narratives. This capstone explores the relationships between film and design as creative arts, how they are affected by the current times and trends throughout the history of women, and as a result how women throughout history are influenced by these relationships. Findings provide insight on how interior design is used to …

Double Exposed Perspectives, Michael J. Leeson

Student Projects

Humans have always stumbled through time, whether each person lived or not is another question. Connecting, experiencing, and feeling dissolve existence into living. Inspired by artists Richard Mosse and Cara Romero who use alternative methods to present perspectives, Michael Leeson uses 35mm film in collaboration with friends from around the United States to do the same.

Leeson ships a variety of black and white film types and a film camera if they do not have one to his collaborators (some who have never shot film before) giving them a wide direction of “shoot your everyday life and vulnerability”. Leeson refuses …

Written In Blood: The Cultural Work Of Family, Sexuality, And Race In Adaptations Of Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire, Ariana Alvarado

Undergraduate Theses

Anne Rice’s gothic novel “Interview with the Vampire” (1976) has not only stood the test of time as a cult classic, but has continued to be told and retold through a film adaptation (1994) and recent AMC television production (2022). Looking through the lens of adaptation theory and the ideas of Nina Auerbach in Our Vampires, Ourselves, this presentation highlights how both the original novel and subsequent adaptations use the figure of the vampire to represent the social changes of the era of its creation, particularly in regards to queerness and sexuality.

Frenetic Journey Toward Muddledness: An Experimental Short Film, Fernando Vieira

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As an artist and Film Studies student, I saw the capstone option as an opportunity to consolidate academia with the art of filmmaking into one project. This became Frenetic Journey Toward Muddledness, an experimental short film written, directed, and edited by me. It is a film influenced by early avant-garde cinema, German expressionism, and film noir. Composed of pieces of unrelated footage and featuring an ambiguous, non-linear, and mostly silent narrative, the editing of the film prompted me to ask myself questions about its genre. Its hybridity made it possible to position the film within different categories, but there …

Determining The Viability Of A Novel Osl Film Dosimeter For In Vivo Dosimetry, Nicholas D. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose:

In this work we test the Optically Stimulated Luminescent (OSL) film dosimeter’s different characteristics such as Monitor Unit (MU) linearity, dose rate dependence, and determined its viability for In Vivo Dosimetry (IVD).

Methods:

A prototype BaFBr OSL film was cut into 6 even pieces and the pieces were irradiated on a Trilogy 21EX Varian linac and tested for different characteristics. The standard setup was 6 MV photon beam, with gantry and collimator at 0,10 cm depth and 1.5 cm back scatter. The reader warmup time and fading were calculated, and a standard time was determined and used for the …

Always Judge A Book By Its Cover, Abby Miller

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal for this honors project is to build my illustration portfolio and to explore the world of children's book illustration. This project will facilitate my improvement in design layout, theming, and illustration. I would love to pursue a job involving children's book illustrations at some point in the future and completing this project would help me to understand the challenges that come with designing such covers, it would improve my ability to illustrate in a purposeful manner, and it would strengthen my portfolio overall.

The Pseudo-Liberation Of Women And Feminism In American Cinema Of The 1970s, Claudia Smallwood

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

This thesis provides an analysis of how women, feminism, and female liberation is depicted in American film of the 1970s, in context to genre revisionism and the second wave of feminism. The portrayal of women in film is reimagined due to the Hollywood Renaissance taking place in the mid-sixties and throughout the nineteen-seventies. As genre revisionists began re-working and undoing the tools of classical Hollywood cinema, the role of women began to shift as well, creating a form of counter-cinema. Films of this era, rather intentionally or unintentionally, start to address relevant issues of marital status, liberation, sexuality, and the …

Spider-Man: The Character With Many Faces, Ciara Corbett-Browne

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

As the way we intake media has increased to span multiple genres and media types, the call for an increase in representation has skyrocketed. Looking at one of the biggest media money makers, superhero films come from a predominantly white, male, heterosexual origin that feels inadequate as the times and general audience have changed. Though there has been some improvement over the past few years, I argue that the Spider-Man universe continues to raise the bar for representation in the superhero genre, as well as media overall, as it has become a highly marketed enterprise that is continuously consumed by …

Spaces Of Citizenship: Negotiating Belonging Through Cold War Literature And Culture, Daria Goncharova

Theses and Dissertations--English

At the height of Cold War containment culture, when fears of Communism and nuclear warfare overlapped with anxieties about homosexuality, gender inversion, miscegenation, and juvenile delinquency, formal citizenship—narrowly defined as one’s legal status—did not provide all American citizens with a sense of belonging, equal access to civil liberties, and a reasonable degree of safety. Instead, spatialized identity, rather than civic responsibilities and legal rights, came to define the boundaries of proper citizenship. In this context, highly exclusionary suburbs, which sprang up outside major metropolitan areas in the late 1940s-1950s, emerged as a cornerstone of the cultural narratives defining American citizenship. …

Cultivating Desire: Media Technologies In Fashion Branding, Jad Gorman

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the symbiotic relationship between media technologies and fashion branding, examining how the latter is increasingly mediated. In an age where digital platforms dominate, designers have adapted by utilizing a range of media technologies to cultivate desire and construct their perception and identities. The main argument is that media technologies are not just tools for communication but active agents in shaping their brand narratives and consumer perceptions. Whether that be a cult fanbase, reaching a wide consumer audience, or creating anticipation for a certain item, the use of media is often more important than the consumer object itself. …

How Hollywood Engages In The Renarration Of Political History, Eric Workman

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores the role of Hollywood films that reframe political history in affecting attitude change. Although pre-existing research establishes the ability for entertainment movies to influence political beliefs, this case study approach extracts some of the strategies directors use to convince audiences of their revisionist narratives. JFK (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Birth of a Nation (1915), Birth of a Nation (2016), and Snowden (2016) reframe a historical figure or organization with varying levels of success. The first five chapters explore the box office performance, film form, and political impact of the aforementioned films. Film form is divided into four …

The Impact Of Emma: Destroying Stereotypes Through Nuanced Characters In Text And Film, Julia Mccool

English MA Theses

This paper explores Jane Austen’s Emma as a response to stereotypes in 18th century novels and moral tales, and Autumn De Wildes’s Emma. from a feminist lens. Examining both of these works reveals that Emma was originally, and still is over 200 years later, transforming stereotypes in literature and film adaptations. The novel seems to be responding to a common stereotypical female villain found in many 18th century novels. In viewing Emma as a subversion of this stereotype, it is clear that Austen was responding to the sexist notions behind the character type, and writing a heroine more in line …

Captain America: The Delicate Masculinity Of An American Icon, Lauren Rezac

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

What makes a good man? For this research, I examine the ways that Captain America, also known as Steve Rogers, portrays masculinity in the highest grossing movie franchise of all time — The Marvel Cinematic Universe. I propose that the ways in which an American icon who represents the ideal man behaves reflects larger cultural expectations of masculinity, specifically the expectations for white men. In addition to holding up a mirror to society’s expectations for a ‘good man’, the social messaging about masculinity in these films should be examined to understand what American men of every generation are idolizing. I …

From Creator To Curator To Author As Content: Nicolas Winding Refn, Transdiscursive Authorship, And Self-Branding In Twenty-First Century Media, Christopher J. Olson

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation traces Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s development from creator and curator to author as content within an evolving media ecology driven by capitalist ideology. A close critical study of Refn’s career from 1996 to 2019 offers insight into contemporary techniques of creating, collecting, and curating media texts, as well as the phenomenon of presenting oneself as content via discursive branding. Given that Refn’s career coincided with the emergence of the World Wide Web and the rise of digital platforms, he thus emblematizes what it means to be a creator working within an increasingly interconnected media ecology. Refn initially …

Disney Princess Films: Feminist Movements And The Changing Of Gender Roles, Mckinley M. Frees

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Big Screen Heroes With Paper Voices: A Superhero Adaptation Research Essay, Zachary Green

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Superheroes may have taken over your phone, tablet, and television screens through the endless adaptations that pelt us from upon high mouse-shaped ears, but their rich history goes back much further than that; they have gripped the public imagination since their creation in comic strips published in newspapers almost one-hundred years ago. But, why exactly has their effect on popular culture, and their subsequent adaptations in various forms of media been so pervasive in the last twenty-five years? What makes these stories and comic book characters, and particularly Marvel comic book characters, so interesting to modern audiences? This essay demonstrates …

“Go, Go, Godzilla!” Defining And Creating Meaning In The Godzilla Franchise, Jc Dyer

Honors Theses

Godzilla is one of the longest running film franchises in history. Its core anti-nuclear message has stood the test of time, giving it continued relevance in the modern world, especially in its home country of Japan. However, after 69 years and 36 movies, it is safe to say that Godzilla, both as a movie franchise and as a character, has changed drastically since 1954. These changes, coupled with the globalization of the franchise and the creation of a new, US based Godzilla series, have created a complex and at times contradictory web of differing themes and adaptations. This project examines …

Nothing To See Hear, Adam Kuykendall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nothing to See/Hear is a research experiment into minimalist visual narrative via the short film Not the Boss of Me, in which the criteria for production mandated only the bare essential elements required to construct and convey a plot and its characters be used while filming within a nondescript space - in this case, a mostly empty soundstage. How does one tell a story and define its characters without direct expository dialogue? What is needed to establish and define locations and/or environments when limited to only one or two items? Can an audience engage their imagination to fill in the …

Segmenting The Thin Blue Line: An Ethnographic Content Analysis Of Myth And Ritual In Contemporary U.S. Police Film, Alexandra Szmutko

Doctoral Dissertations

The continued ills of mass incarceration, combined with the more recent rash of police-caused killings of people of color, make it clear that the U.S. criminal justice system is experiencing a period of profound crisis related to policing. This dissertation aims to interrogate the cultural ideologies supporting the existing policing enterprise in the U.S. To do this, the study first examines the foundational myths that shape prevailing cultural perceptions of the police and their social role. Ethnographic content analysis methodology is then utilized to identify both the presence and the subversion of these myths and their attendant rituals in a …

Connective Movements, Ian Keliher

Masters Theses

Connective Movements describes the winding, associative thoughts gathered from long conversations with colleagues and internal dialogue with writers, philosophers, and filmmakers. Using the visual essay, I follow points of interest through labyrinthine and idiosyncratic logics. Collage and montage results in an assemblage of visual ideas both analytic and personal. Although the outputs vary, my body of work has been informed by a sustained inquiry into moving image with a focus on small moments and subjectivity: cloudwatching can spin into thoughts on communication, or simple, everyday words burrow into experience and memory. With this aim, I use the constituent parts of …

Urban Space, Genre And Subjectivity In African And Latin American Cinema, Matthew Marcus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project studies twelve African and Latin American films from a range of eras and countries, with an emphasis on their treatment of urban space, their manipulation of genre elements, and their approaches to character subjectivity. The analysis draws on major works of urban theory by Henri Lefebvre, Manuel Castells, David Harvey, Jane Jacobs, and others in order to investigate the relationship between cinema and the urban experience. As the films in the study are mostly set in cities that are not discussed by the theorists, the analysis entails testing their theories against the realities of these other settings, as …

An Analysis On The Florida Project, Capucine Rosier

University Honors Theses

The Florida Project is a contemporary movie filmed by independent director Sean Baker. This movie tackles different social and institutional issues across America, specifically the outdated welfare system and the rise of homelessness among young children. This paper is determined to analyze the different social and ethical concerns filmed throughout the movie and offer my interpretation of the film. Digging deeper into artistic pieces is essential as hidden messages are portrayed in every way. Censorship and display through art have been a form of individual expression since the beginning. This thesis will discuss how the filmmaker filmed and showcased the …

Bi Erasure And Bi Invisibility In Media And Medicine: Moving Beyond, Lacy M. Telles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the bisexual erasure and invisibility that is found in film, television, literature, and in the field of reproduction. Even though bisexual people make up a large portion of the LGBTQ community, because of bi invisibility, they tend to get lost in the cause. This website offers information about bi invisibility, highlights obstacles faced by bisexuals, provides resources for bisexuals, and includes some fun topics for bisexual people. It also has a page of bisexual testimonies: real bi people with real bi stories. There is evidence of erasure and invisibility, especially in children’s books and the field of …

Cinematic Camouflage, Jared Valdez

English Language and Literature ETDs

There is a war for recognition happening on the Hollywood battlefield. Traditionally, in every war there is an enemy and an alley; in this study, the enemy is systemic racism, and the alley is Black culture. That is, this dissertation seeks to detail the past, present, and future implications of this battle for truth, inclusion, and recognition in American pop culture. This discussion examines how various multi-media forms like literature, film, television, and comic books work as tools to combat racism in American society. More importantly, the theories presented in this text are all linked to actual tactics of military …

How Changes In Women’S Film Representations Reflect Changes In Society And Feminism: The Case Of Modern Wwii Spy Film And Modern Feminism, Anna Scanlan

Honors Capstones

Film and reality often play off of each other and shape the way in which we view the world. That being said, it’s important to understand how film and genres shift with changes in society. Especially since younger generations often use the internet and film as a way to view the world: it is important to understand the portrayals they experience through the screen. World War II espionage thrillers have been around since the war itself and films continue to be made depicting this historical era. Although WWII spy and intelligence films can be considered their own genre, they arguably …

Development Of Food Packaging Films Based On Cellulose Nanocrystals (Cncs), Cong Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Food packaging provides means to mitigate food spoilage caused by microbes and environmental exposure, as well as prolonging the shelf life of food products in a cost-effective manner that industry and consumers desire while minimizing environmental impact. However, conventional plastics are unsustainable, nonrenewable, as well as nondegradable, and coupled with single-use culture can cause serious environmental pollution and the loss of resources. Taking the above issues into consideration, bio-based materials with the required properties are desirable to address the end-of-life issues for packaging.

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), as a major type of cellulose nanomaterials are directly extracted from renewable biomass resources …