Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Masculinity In American Movie-Musical Films, Christopher Sparks

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

My presentation explores the relation between American masculinity and film musicals. I demonstrate how the dominance of the musical at the box office in the middle of the 20^th century reflects historical events and technological change. Drawing on both scholarly and popular criticism, I show how the images of masculinity that Americans once encountered on the silver screen have transformed as musicals became marginal to popular culture in the United States. My research considers both classic 20^th century musicals, such as Wizard of Oz (1939) and 42^nd Street (1933), and more recent experiments with the genre, including …

Jews In Film And Fiction, Amy W. Kratka

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

No Happy Endings: Anna May Wong’S American Film Roles From 1931-1942, Kayla G. O'Leary

CSB/SJU Distinguished Thesis

In the 1930s and ‘40s, shifting relations with China, Japan, and the United States drastically impacted American public sentiment towards these Asian countries. US films produced during these decades starring Anna May Wong illuminate how harmful stereotypes about Chinese culture and people were portrayed on screen. I analyze five of Wong’s films from this period to examine how the gendered and racial stereotypes within them provide a cultural lens of changing US-Chinese relations. The stereotypical archetypes of her characters, which include the formidable Dragon Lady, helpless American citizen, and Chinese war hero, demonstrate how American perceptions of China and Chinese …

Afroam: A Virtual Film Production Group, Bill Taylor Jr.

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Because of the gatekeeping practices of the Hollywood film industry, and the high cost of both filmmaking and distribution in general, Afro-American filmmakers have struggled to produce films with “global reach.” This study visits the possibility of Afro-American filmmakers using alternative technologies and infrastructures to produce high-quality films, thereby bypassing the high cost and exclusionary practices of Hollywood studios. Using new 21st-century digital technology, this study involved the creation of a small geographically dispersed virtual film production team. The study’s foundational framework was a constructivist qualitative research paradigm, using Action Research, and supported by 24 months of triangulated data from …

Mulan: An Exploration Of Culture And Representation In Hollywood, Annie Okuhara, Bernadine Cortina, Hung Le, Ryan Nakahara, Jerry Zou

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

'Mulan: An Exploration of Culture and Representation in Hollywood' is a presentation and detailed analysis of various representational, cultural, and minority-related issues in the context of Hollywood and western media. The presentation will focalize specifically around the recent live-action remake of the 1998 film "Mulan". The remake, premiered in March 2020, received critical backlash from various audiences (mostly from the BIPOC community), bashing the film for its misrepresentation of Ancient China and Ancient Chinese culture. Through this misrepresentation, the Hollywood film ultimately reflects views of cultural appropriation, misogyny, and overall minority underrepresentation in the United States. The research presents the …

“You’Ll Never Meet Someone Like Me Again”: Patty Jenkins’S Monster As Rogue Cinema, Michelle D. Wise

Languages, Literature & Philosophy Faculty Research

Film is a powerful medium that can influence audience’s perceptions, values and ideals. As filmmaking evolved into a serious art form, it became a powerful tool for telling stories that require us to re-examine our ideology. While it remains popular to adapt a literary novel or text for the screen, filmmakers have more freedom to pick and choose the stories they want to tell. This freedom allows filmmakers to explore narratives that might otherwise go unheard, which include stories that feature marginal figures, such as serial killers, as sympathetic protagonists, which is what director Patty Jenkins achieves in her 2003 …

Foreign Films In The Context Of Hollywood: A Look Into Adaptations And Remakes From Foreign Cinema, Christina Schrage

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Adaptations of novels are not an uncommon thing in the global cinema market, but what is it that Hollywood wishes to accomplish by adapting foreign films into their own language and context? This paper takes a look at the differences in Swedish, French, Argentine, and Korean cultural codes through the lenses of film narrative and how those codes are translated, or in some cases eradicated, from their Hollywood counterparts. This paper analyzes the films narrative, themes, and aesthetics, as well as the audience’s reception, to question whether Hollywood’s remake has added any new meaning to the film’s world, or if …

Globalization Tropes In Films: A Focus On Crazy Rich Asians, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Deniz Atik

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Learning from and encouraged by the impacts of film film-based windows into globalization phenomena, in this issue of MGDR, we have focused on the film Crazy Rich Asians. In the popular press, the movie has been hailed as a major cultural point of departure for Hollywood as well as panned as just an Asian Asian-themed romantic comedy that celebrates the super-rich of Asia. The buzz around this movie does, however, indicate a slight bend in the curve of the geopolitics of the globalization discourse – and hence our decision to feature a number of academically insightful reviews of this movie …

Mediated Merchandise, Merchandisable Media: An Introduction, Elizabeth Affuso, Avi Santo

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

There are many reasons why film and media scholars ought to take merchandise seriously. That filmrelated merchandise is a lucrative part of the film business is only a starting point, but still a good place to start. In 2018, character and entertainment licensing accounted for 44.7% of retail sales of licensed merchandise, generating $121.53 billion in sales. [1] [#N1] This earned entertainment companies approximately $6.2 billion in royalties. [2] [#N2] Not surprisingly, five of the top ten licensors are entertainment companies, with Disney positioned at the top with $53 billion in merchandise sales. Universal Studios is ranked 4th ($7.3 billion), …

Coming Soon To A Chinese Theater Near You: Why China Matters Even To Hollywood, James N. Udden

Friday Forum

In recent years, China has engaged in infrastructure projects on a scale and scope without historical precedent. Cinema in China is no exception. For roughly a century Hollywood has managed to dominate the world largely through the control of the largest exhibition market in the developed world, meaning the USA and Canada. Just a couple years ago, however, the Chinese exhibition sector surpassed North America as the world’s largest linguistically unified and developed film exhibition market. Find out why screenwriting classes in the USA now include courses on how to write for the Chinese market. Find out why even you …

“After Hollywood And Its Ever-Blue Skies, How Beautiful Paris Looks!”: Jacques Feyder Between France And America, 1928-1934, Barry Nevin

Articles

Although generally relegated by present-day historians to the footnotes of film history, Belgian director Jacques Feyder (1885–1948) strove to elevate the artistic standards of French film production throughout the 1920s and 1930s. His departure for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios on the cusp of the transition to sound in France was viewed as a crisis, and his return was hailed as an event. Drawing on contemporary periodicals, this article answers two fundamental questions: Why did France's leading am bassador leave his adoptive homeland? And what factors motivated his return to France despite the country's notoriously anarchic mode of production? Core concerns include Feyder's …

The Underrepresentation Of African Americans And The Role Of Casting Directors, Chantal Suhling

Undergraduate Research

Films are cultural products, which reflect the existing ideologies in a culture. In the American culture the two dominant ideologies are white normativity and patriarchy. With the Oscars right around the corner, the world is anticipating this year's nominees and winners. Hopes are high that this year the Academy Award for best actor will go to someone who is diverse. If films are reconstructions of culture, then can we really expect to see change at the Oscars? Through thorough qualitative research and interviews with industry professionals, a detailed picture of the role of casting directors in the casting process for …

Female Moments / Male Structures: The Representation Of Women In Romantic Comedies, Jordan A. Scharaga

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl again. With this formula it seems that romantic comedies are actually meant for men instead of women. If this is the case, then why do women watch these films? The repetition of female stars like Katharine Hepburn, Doris Day and Meg Ryan in romantic comedies allows audiences to find elements of truth in their characters as they grapple with the input of others in their life choices, combat the anxiety of being single, and prove they are less sexually naïve than society would like to admit. In 1999, a character struggles …

Viral Hollywood: How Social Media & Other Emerging Technologies Have Molded The Modern Moviegoing Landscape, Benjamin P. Conniff

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

There’s no denying that the rise of the internet has brought about change in the Hollywood landscape. Fans now use social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to share word-of-mouth about movies both good and bad. In a sense, anyone can use these new “spreadable media” to be a critic. I myself took it one step further and started my own film review blog. I was even published in the College Heights Herald student newspaper for over a year! In gauging my audience’s tastes in social media usage and in film, I have uncovered the fact that the hot-button marketing issues …

Leading Ladies?: Feminism And The Hollywood New Wave, Allison A. Smith

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

In the late 1960s, a new film movement emerged in Hollywood cinema known as the Hollywood New Wave. The women’s movement began roughly the same time as the Hollywood New Wave, but feminism was rarely a topic discussed in Hollywood cinema. The Hollywood New Wave is often considered a “boy’s club,” in the sense that most of the filmmakers, actors and other crewmembers were male and writing stories about male experiences. Women did have a part in these films in a limited way, yet there are some examples of strong female characters in select films.

Review: Karen Ward Mahar (2008): Women Filmmakers In Early Hollywood, Sara Ross

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Book review

Mahar, Karen Ward. Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

This book will be a useful reference for feminist and film historians looking to expand their understanding of how film and business history can help to explain the gendering of filmmaking.

Making A Story Move: The Art Of Film Editing, Daniel Gross

Honors Scholar Theses

An in-depth treatise on the process of film editing, featuring 16 original interviews from renowned editors. These editors share insight and anecdotes about the daily joys and difficulties of their careers (and the professional principles they subscribe to), as well as the creative, interpersonal, and technical challenges they constantly face. Discussion of the “MTV influence” behind modern film editing is offered, and this influence is explored in filmmaking history. Advice and inspiration is also shared for the benefit of future film editors; Hollywood editors tell their own stories about how they thrived in a notoriously-difficult field, and what it would …

Chapel Transcript:September 19, 1975 - Jerry Lewis, Holy Spirit Research Center, Oral Roberts University

Chapel AV & Transcripts

This is a transcript of a chapel service held on September 19, 1975 on the campus of Oral Roberts University. The guest speaker is Hollywood actor and comedian, Jerry Lewis. Lewis was a personal friend of Oral Roberts and joined him on his television specials. Lewis shared various funny anecdotes on his life and his faith, as well as comments about Oral Roberts.