Film and Media Studies Commons^™

The National Imagination (Spring 2010), Robert D. Tobin, Belen Atienza, Alice Valentine

Syllabi

What images make people think of the United States of America? Cowboys? The flag? And are there similar icons in other cultures that help define cultural identity? The National Imagination explores the concept of a national community as constructed and critiqued through literary and cinematic narratives, as well as other cultural texts.

Our underlying premise is that national languages and cultures promote the identity of particular communities. We are interested in examining those subjective expressions of culture—images, symbols, narratives—that lead people to feel that they are members of the communities we call nations. We are also interested in discovering points …

Profits, Prestige, And A Little Bit Of Sunshine: American Independent Cinema Enters The Mainstream, David A. Landay

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the recent developments that have occurred in the independent film market after the major Hollywood studios created their own specialty divisions to produce and distribute independent films. Due to the involvement of the major studios, independent films became more mainstream while their various costs were also driven up due to the increased amount of independent films that were released by the studios. The financial crisis of 2008 forced the major studios to contract their production of independent films and this contraction allowed the prices of independent films to return to more stable levels.

All's Right With The World = 歌舞昇平, Ka Kit Chu, Suet Yi Chung, Man Man Wong, Po Yi Yeung

Nine must-see Chinese documentaries: worksheets for secondary schools

Film Director: Cheung King Wai (張經緯)

Film Release Year: 2007

Queer China = 誌同志, Lin, Faye Chen, Chi Wing Ho, Hui Ma

Nine must-see Chinese documentaries: worksheets for secondary schools

Film Director: Cui Zi’en (崔子恩)

Film Release Year: 2008

In Search Of Lin Zhao's Soul = 尋找林昭的靈魂, Chiu Cheuk Cheng, Ching Man, Rachelle Chuen, Wai Lan Chung

Nine must-see Chinese documentaries: worksheets for secondary schools

Film Director: Hu Jie (胡杰)

Film Release Year: 2004

To Live Is Better Than To Die = 好死不如賴活著, Wai Man Chan, Wan Yu Chau

Nine must-see Chinese documentaries: worksheets for secondary schools

Film Director: Chen Weijun (陳為軍)

Film Release Year: 2003

Senior Year = 高三, King Yu Chan, Ka Man Choi, Sin Yi Wong

Nine must-see Chinese documentaries: worksheets for secondary schools

Film Director: Zhou Hao (周浩)

Film Release Year: 2005

Blowing The Whistle On Bullying In The Workplace:The Aftermath Of Insider Research, Tom Clonan

Conference Papers

From 1996 to 2000, the author of this paper – then a Captain serving in the Irish Army - conducted doctoral research into the status and roles assigned female personnel in the Irish Defence Forces – Army, Navy and Air Corps. An unanticipated outcome of this equality audit of the Irish Defence Forces was the revelation of the widespread bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape of female soldiers by male colleagues. As a result of conducting this feminist research, the author was ostracised by his military colleagues and suffered from a campaign of vilification in the private and …

Sounding The Future: Digital Radio And Cd-Quality Audio, Brian O'Neill

Books/Book chapters

Central to the early effort to win acceptance for DAB in the early 1990s was an extensive process of promotion of the many claimed advantages of the new broadcasting technology. Digital radio broadcasting under the Eureka 147 DAB project offered many technical enhancements – more efficient use of the spectrum, improved transmission methods, and lower running costs – features that were attractive to industry professionals, broadcasting organisations, regulators and spectrum planners. But digital radio was also designed as a consumer proposition offering audiences a new and improved listening experience with ease of tuning, reliable reception, text and data services, interactive …

Radio Broadcasting In Europe: The Search For A Common Digital Future, Brian O'Neill, Helen Shaw

Books/Book chapters

Europe’s radio is also characterised by a long history of being defined and driven by the state, in highly centralized fashion in the case of countries such as France (Meadel 1994), or indeed in former totalitarian regimes of Eastern Europe (Paulu 1974), and along more federal or devolved lines in countries such as Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands (Kuhn 1985). The development of state broadcasting monopolies in most European countries, established in the early years of the twentieth century following the invention of sound broadcasting, has ensured that there is an enduring shared common ideological approach to radio broadcasting, which …

Dreadful Sorry: Spots Of Passion And The Memory Of Being Human In Kaufman’S “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” And Pope’S ‘Eloisa To Abelard’, June-Ann Greeley

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Memory is a journey of infinite possibility, a continuous passage through time and sense that offers each person an opportunity not merely to recall and to reflect on former occasions and previous experiences, but to reconsider and to reexamine the past as a guide, as instruction, for healthy individuation. Memory, then, can be understood to be the aggregate of experiential and emotional recollection that frames the essential ground in forming and realizing individual identity. Both Alexander Pope in his poem “Eloisa to Abelard” and Michel Gondry/Charlie Kaufman in the film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” offer portraits of individuals …

"Mi País Era América Latina": Testimonio De Jorge Denti, Cineasta De La Revolución Sandinista, Claudia Ferman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

La discusión sobre las formas en que la práctica cinematográfica de compromiso político ha tomado en el contexto latinoamericano está presente en la entrevista al cineasta argentino Jorge Denti, donde se historizan y conceptualizan estas prácticas. El testimonio de Jorge Denti ilustra la sistemática preocupación dentro de las filas del sandinismo por la cultura y la educación, y el lugar preeminente que el cine ocupó en este proceso, aún antes de que el sandinismo fuera gobierno.

La entrevista fue grabada en Buenos Aires, en junio de 2009, cuando Denti participaba del Festival de Cine de Derechos Humanos, festival en el …

Petition = 上訪, Camilla Solkaer Buskov, Sara Marie Hollingshead, Michelle Adobea Ntow, Yetunde Jacqueline Apeke Olagbaju, Yi Chun, Aston Law, Shota Okada

Nine must-see Chinese documentaries: worksheets for secondary schools

Film Director: Zhao Liang (趙亮)

Film Release Year: 2009

We Are The ... Of Communism = 我們是共產主義省略號, Mei Yee, June Lau, Hung Sheng, Tai Lun Suen, Ching In Yan

Nine must-see Chinese documentaries: worksheets for secondary schools

Film Director: Cui Zi’en (崔子恩)

Film Release Year: 2007

Please Vote For Me = 請投我一票, Haitian, Elisabeth Wang, Xiaotang, Music Yin

Nine must-see Chinese documentaries: worksheets for secondary schools

Film Director: Chen Weijun (陳為軍)

Film Release Year: 2007

Secondary School = 中學, Yuen Shan, Stephanie Choi, Sin Yu Wan, Yan Ping Wong

Nine must-see Chinese documentaries: worksheets for secondary schools

Film Director: Cheung Tammy (張虹)

Film Release Year: 2003

"Just A Girl": The Community-Centered Cult Television Heroine, 1995–2007, Tamy Burnett

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Found in the most recent group of cult heroines on television, community-centered cult heroines share two key characteristics. The first is their youth and the related coming-of-age narratives that result. The second is their emphasis on communal heroic action that challenges traditional understandings of the hero and previous constructions of the cult heroine on television. Through close readings of Xena: Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dark Angel, and Veronica Mars, this project engages feminist theories of community and heroism alongside critical approaches to genre and narrative technique, identity performance theory, and visual media …

Burn After Viewing, Or, Fire In The Vaults: Nitrate Decomposition And Combustibility, Heather M. Heckman

Faculty and Staff Publications

Although the fire risks associated with nitrate film stock are widely known, understanding of the relationship between nitrate decomposition and combustibility remains weak. This paper surveys the contradictory descriptions of decomposition and combustibility of motion picture film in current archival and safety literature, evaluates their sources, and compares them to descriptions by image stability researchers and chemists. Throughout, the author argues that the dialogue among the archival, safety, and scientific communities is inadequate and that no community has satisfactorily established the evolution of flammability as nitrate decomposes. The author concludes by outlining a plan for nitrate research and advocacy over …

Weaving Through Reality: Dance As An Active Emblem Of Fantasy In Performance Literature, Tara Maylyn Frankel

CMC Senior Theses

Literature uses dance to reveal underlying messages of fantasy through the themes of the central narrative of female characters. Examining the original texts with respect to their varying adaptations for film and stage, performance literature reveals how directors relate a three-dimensional story to an audience from a two-dimensional world. Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Red Shoes” shows an underlying semiotic code where transitioning from the black and white of reality to the red of fantasy is only accomplished through dancing. Oscar Wilde’s Salome displays an eroticization of the exotic solo-improvised dance that provides a semblance of control for the main character. …

La Vilaine, Cordelia Solomon

CMC Senior Theses

When her sister goes missing, Kattel Macé must fly to France to find her. While the police are cooperating, they have no leads to go off of forcing Kattel to start her own investigation. In her search, Kattel stumbles across evidence that implicates her own family members in her sisters mysterious disappearance.

From Disco To Electronic Music: Following The Evolution Of Dance Culture Through Music Genres, Venues, Laws, And Drugs., Ambrose Colombo

CMC Senior Theses

Electronic dance music is a genre that has been long in the making. Starting with disco in the 1970s, dance culture genres evolved into house, acid house, techno, garage, 2-step, hardcore, gabba, san frandisco, electro, and many others. This paper studies the transformation of electronic sound, and the contributing/impeding factors involved. Drug use is heavily related to the creation and enjoyment of music, and features prominently in the history of dance culture. Starting with the use of acid in the 1960s and progressing to the use of acid, Quaaludes, poppers, speed in the 1970s, with MDA featured in clubs toward …

Evaluation: Writing, Performing, And Producing A Comedy Show To Critically Examine Social Issues, Eva Elizabeth Andersen

Honors Program Theses

Upon completion of my experience in the UNI Honors Program, I wanted to create a thesis project that demonstrated my performance skills gained in communication coursework at UNI, as well as my capability as a writer, director, and producer. For me, a creative project was an obvious choice. I wanted nothing more than to have a tangible, professional piece of work to hand to entertainment industry producers and be able to say, "I created this during my undergraduate career at the University of Northern Iowa."

In order to fulfill these goals, I chose to create a show that was intelligent …

The Corporeal Idea, Brian A. Shaw

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The act of transforming the ever elusive idea to the glorified art that appears on the “silver screen” is neither glamorous nor easy. I find the process often misrepresented in the eyes of the common viewer, and until the last four years of my undergraduate career, I saw through those same skewed eyes. The art of filmmaking is in its very essence a battle of wills and a test of endurance. It takes more than a great idea to breathe life into a project. It takes perseverance, preparation, cooperation, and most of all, a lot of luck! My experiences as …

Prospero’S Muccs: The Meaning Of Martin Scorsese’S Italian American Dialect, George Guida

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

‘Evil Against Evil’: The Parabolic Structure And Thematics Of William Friedkin's The Exorcist, Larrie Dudenhoeffer

Faculty Articles

This essay examines and deconstructs three sets of antagonisms in William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973). It argues that the film describes its own narrative conflicts as a thematics of ‘evil against evil,’ so as to de-ethicize the moral violence of those metaphysical dogmatisms that compete over the ‘souls’ of others. It then re-couches the one-sidedness of scientific and religious orthodoxies, which damage in similar ways Regan MacNeil, one of the film's main characters, as another variation of this thematics. Finally, this essay suggests that The Exorcist surveys certain sociopolitical tensions, thus commenting, in its video and theatrical re-releases, ‘timelessly’ on …

Literary Devices And Vocabulary Frequency Use In Malaysian Radio Advertisements., Jeyanthi Evelyn J. L. Christy

Student Works (2010-2019)

Radio advertisements are very much part and parcel of our daily lives. Radio is ubiquitous and free. Technology has come a long way as radio is also available to its listeners via the Internet and even on television. Owing to the flexibility and availability of radio, radio advertisements increase the selling power of products, services and so on. Literary devices are not restricted to literary materials. They can be found in non literary materials such as advertisements. For the purpose of this research, two radio stations, hitz.fm and mix fm were identified as they share similar target audiences. Advertisements from …

"Life Is Beautiful, Or Is It?" Asked Jakob The Liar, Ilona Klein

Faculty Publications

In 1999 the 71st Academy Awards ceremony awarded to the film The Last Days the prize for Best Documentary Feature. Underwritten by Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, this documentary depicts in a compelling, historically objective fashion what the Nazi regime called the "Endlösung" ["Final Solution"]: the effort to annihilate all of European Jewry. In the film, five Hungarian survivors are interviews with honesty and compassion. Their answers record history as it unwound. Clearly, the intent of the interviews is to assure that historical facts are not falsified, nor taken for granted. Documentaries of this kind can …

Poem (Film Review), Kathrin M. Bower

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

POEM is the feature-length debut for Ralf Schmerberg, a self-taught photographer and filmmaker known for his music videos of German bands Die Toten Hosen and Die Fantastischen Vier and his imaginative television commercials. Schmerberg and his collaborator, the writer Antonia Keinz, spent two years reading poetry to determine the final selection of 19 poems for the film project. The concept of creating a film devoted to visual interpretations of poetry was intriguing enough to attract big name actors, including Klaus Maria Brandauer, Meret Becker, Hannelore Elsner, Jürgen Vogel, and Hermann van Veen, as well as camera men who previously had …

A Study Of The Effect Of Economic Policies On The Domestic Film Market, Gyeoreh Lee

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

These days, the U.S. films’ market share in the world is almost 70 percent and many countries have devised various means, including import quota, screen quota, subsidy, and tax concessions to protect the domestic film industry by preserving local film’s market share against U.S. film domination. Retaining these policies has important symbolic reasons because market share of the domestic film is related to preserving each country’s cultural sovereignty. However, the effectiveness of the economic policies is murky. If the policies do not bring any advantageous effect to the domestic film industry, there is no rational justification for sticking with them. …

Beyond Netflix And Tivo: Rethinking Hbo Through The Archive, Shayne Pepper

Communication, Media and Theatre Faculty Publications

As you read this, someone out there is writing an essay about HBO. We hear them every year at SCMS and NCA, and our inboxes continually receive the CFPs for edited collections on the series of the moment. Though this work is often important and insightful, it is true that as HBO approaches its forty-year anniversary much of this work has focused on the last ten years of programming – all but ignoring the first thirty. As we continually try to keep up with new content, we must not ignore the crucial history of HBO’s early years and all that …