Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Peat And Patty: Providing A Voice For Nature Through Animation, Clinnie Brinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Peat and Patty is a 3D animated short story of a young scientist, Patty, and her pet parrot Peat, whose goal is to save their world from a dying ecosystem. Ultimately, they inadvertently receive help from a nearby polar bear which leads to the success of Patty's experiment. The purpose of this story is to highlight the dangers of global warming to our own ecosystem thus building eco-consciousness in viewers. We currently have natural disasters increasing in frequency, a rising global temperature, and pollution in our bodies of water (Rossati). By personifying nature, animation can invoke empathy from viewers towards …

Crossed: Strength In Unity And Connection, Dillon Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

It is only through the strength of bonds that we can overcome evil. In Crossed, these bonds are tested as Calum and Dmitri are forced to duel for their lives. The film explores the themes of indoctrination, belief, the power of friendship, and never giving up on the people you care about. The accompanying paper explores how these themes are integral to who we are. I then explore the process of producing animation utilizing cutting-edge mediums and how these mediums can allow us to create animation in an entirely new way.

Hitting A Little Too Close To Home: Reflexivity, Liminality, And Identification In Horror Across Film, Theatre, And Games, Alyssa Barrack

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Reflexive art makes explicit the inherent connection between artistic process, intertextual context, and an audience to create an intentional dialogue with its audience by tapping into the duality inherent in spectatorship - awareness of both the creation process and the final product, and participation in one or both through viewership. In this study I analyze several pieces across three mediums––film (Funny Games (2007), The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)), theatre (Ubu Roi (1896)), and video games (The Stanley Parable (2013), Bioshock (2007))––and consider audience reviews to determine how audiences are affected by reflexivity in each. Through the lens of the horror genre …

If Found: Exploring Death Through Animated Media, Hannah Huffman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

If Found is a narrative 2D animated short film that explores our connection with death. The film makes use of the conventions of a Western fairy tale setting to make this difficult topic more digestible. This works in conjunction with the East Asian storytelling format of Kishotenketsu, a narrative convention focused on a conflict-less plot. Death is not something we can defeat; rather, it is a natural force with which we all must make peace. By following this traditional format, the film also explores and shows appreciation for the impacts of East Asian thought, storytelling, and animation on Western culture. …

Castle Of Unknowing: An Immersive Virtual Reality Experience, Damian Thorn-Hauswirth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Castle of Unknowing is a rendered virtual reality (VR) experience presented as visual poem. As VR is a nascent technology, content is still limited, and methods of storytelling are not yet formalized. My film seeks to expand the breadth of what types of narratives are being told with this medium. The project is an immersive, experiential narrative imbued with symbolism. The viewer moves through a fixed sequence as they are taken on a journey which mixes elements of sci-fi, fairy tale, and surrealism. It utilizes compelling visuals and sound instead of traditional narrative to evoke an emotional response within the …

Un-Portalable! An Animated Exploration In Boundaries And Relational Design, Ira Klages

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Un-Portalable! is an animated multimedia short film about two friends who become fused together after using a faulty teleporter. They attempt to conceal their deformity while simultaneously navigating a social situation with one of their friends. The main focus in the film is the concept that boundaries tend to become clearer as they begin to break. This conceptual focus merges into the visual theory of the film in which highly expressive character design and hybrid media utilization are driven by relational and narrative design choices. This film serves as a condensed pilot and proof of concept for a larger prospective …

Cinematic Practices: An Evaluation Of Production Theories In Service Of Micro-Budget Feature Film-Making, Andrew Myerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Bottom of a Glass Blues and its accompanying dissertation, Cinematic Practices are the basis of research into production practices used by independent and micro-budget filmmakers in the Central Florida community. The research presented in this dissertation is used to satisfy the academic requirements for the University of Central Florida's Master of Fine Arts in Feature Film Production. Cinematic Practices evaluates production theories used in studio and independent film-making in the present day in addition to practices popularly embraced by local filmmakers in Central Florida. The research found that there is no shared knowledge on how to organize film crews for …

2d Animation Of The 21st Century: The Digital Age, James Chambless

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

My thesis project, entitled The Curse Breaker, is a personal and career venture studying the medium of 2D animation while battling my struggle with cigarette addiction. I researched and applied symbolism and narrative strategies while building an impactful hero narrative. Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces provided insight into the monomyth and hero archetypes. Character and environment designs implemented symbolism as a driving focus of my thesis and fueled the semantic interpretation needed to successfully communicate my struggle with the audience in a non-verbal fashion. The language of cinematography aided in the effectiveness of my thesis film. The …

Idyllic History: The Role And Agency Of Women And Religion In Contemporary Bollywood, Kushma Singh

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to explore the directorial choices made by Ashutosh Gowariker, in his film Jodhaa Akbar (2008), and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, in his films Bajirao Mastani (2015) and Padmaavat (2018), in order to evaluate the representation of women and the Muslim religion. Through use of mise en scene, I discuss lighting choices, visual display and use of color and how these elements create and support the stories Bhansali and Gowariker have chosen. I also rely on the recorded history of the time periods as well as the literature to contextualize the films.

The Universal Story: Coming-Of-Age In Contemporary Animation, Christina Christie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Cycles is a 3D animated short film about a father who struggles to keep up with his daughter as she races through life. Whereas most coming-of-age films focus solely on the journey of the adolescent, Cycles subverts the expectations of the genre by exploring the impact growing up has on both the parent and child in tandem. As a film, Cycles relies on the careful and deliberate use of tropes, informed character and environment design, and established cinematic devices to support the story's theme of accepting change. Though my personal experience inspired this film, it evolved into a contemporary and …

Unmoored: Exploring Identity And Change, Michelle Bondzie

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Many of the shifts in our identity are as surprising as they are inevitable. As with our bodies and our minds, it’s easy to forget that our identities are in a constant state of change — that is, until a situation forces us to face ourselves and examine who we’ve become. For adolescents, college students included, reckonings with their sense of self come frequently; they feel seismic each time they occur.

My thesis will be a short screenplay in which the central character is recovering from severe executive dysfunction, the impairment of basic skills that include working memory, mental flexibility, …

Transcinematheque: Defining Cinematic Language In The Trans New Wave, Mel Turnage

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis aims to analyze the films of the Trans New Wave in order to define tropes and motifs of cinematic language and structure. The language of the filmmaking itself presents a different approach from mainstream transgender films, and this changes how certain imagery of transness is contextualized in a larger narrative. In particular, the films of the Trans New Wave operate in contrast to both historical trans films and modern prestige/studio films to deliver more realistic portrayals of trans peoples’ experiences and beliefs. This new language of the Trans New Wave serves to create a more accurate and profound …

Exploring Career Development Pathways In Postsecondary Film Studies Programs, Cesare Giovanni Fabietti

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study sought to determine what factors could impact career development pathways for postsecondary film studies through survey research. The selected determining factors that offered eventual success as a filmmaking professional were students' personality characteristics and unique, innate abilities. The survey questions polled film study educators whose primary contact with film students was at college-level classrooms and could offer significant opinions about the factors measured. Only those educators with demographic characteristics that dealt with actual filmmaking procedures of production and post-production gave a measurable statistical result related to a single dependent variable. The differentiator between filmmaking disciplines was distinguished by …