Film and Media Studies Commons^™

The Virgin Mary On Screen: Mater Dei Or Just A Mother In Guido Chiesa’S Io Sono Con Te (I Am With You), Timothy J. Johnson, Barbara Ottaviani-Jones

Journal of Religion & Film

Guido Chiesa’s Io Sono con Te (I Am with You) offers a unique, albeit controversial take on Mary, the mother of Jesus. Filmed in Tunisia, and subject to criticism by Italian Catholic authorities and film critics alike, Io Sono con Te presents a rich anthropological-theological reflection on religion, culture, gender, and sacrifice. Not surprisingly, Chiesa draws on René Girard’s scapegoat theory throughout his film as he fashions Mary as the forceful protagonist in a familiar yet controversial story.

Exploring Time And Space In Frame By Frame Animation, Daniel L. Ketchum

Cinesthesia

No abstract provided.

The Hopeless Dream Of Being: An Exploration Of The Female Gaze In Bergman’S Persona, Benton Meadows

The Corinthian

In its extensive play with character and form, Bergman’s Persona becomes as difficult to analyze as an actual patient. Susan Sontag talks about how the viewer can only move toward but never achieve certainty about the action. Simply, it is about two women whose conflicting desires lead them to spend a cathartic summer at a seaside cottage. Critic John Simon describes the movie as a meditation on the numbers 1 and 2: it is about one splitting in two and two becoming one. The film is constantly attempting to balance, or at least justify, the existence of the disparities and …

The Casting Director At Work: A Contemporary Recasting Of Hitchcock Classics, Jamie Rose Hernandez

Whittier Scholars Program

This project focuses on the role of the casting director and what their experience in the workforce entails.

The Ohio Renaissance Festival: A Look Inside, Skye Mccullough

Honors Projects

Every year during the months of August-October, the Ohio Renaissance Festival takes place in Haverysburg Ohio. Here, happy fair goers eat, drink, and maker merry in some of the most unique and truly entertaining ways. My project is a short documentary about the Ohio Renaissance Festival and the people who are involved in putting it on year after year. This documentary consists of five interviews with individuals involved in the festival both on the administrative lever and the performance. We get to explore the festival through their eyes and learn what makes this fair a worthwhile experience for one and …

American Indians In Feature Films: Beyond The Big Screen, Daisy V. Domínguez

Publications and Research

This article examines whether library collections represent the breadth of portrayals of American Indians in feature film and provides collection development resources for developing and strengthening feature film collections by and about American Indians.

Interior: A Micro-Budget Horror Feature, Zachary Beckler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

INTERIOR is a feature-length film written, directed, and produced by Zachary Beckler as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema from the University of Central Florida. The project aims to challenge existing conventions of the horror film on multiple levels - aesthetic, narrative, technical, and industrial - while also examining growing importance of workflow throughout all aspects of production. These challenges were both facilitated and necessitated by the limited resources available to the production team and the academic context of the production. This thesis is a record of the film, from concept …

Examining The Narcissism Trend In Generation Y Through Digital Narrative Film, Joshua Ingle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an account of the making of 15 Minutes of Faye, a microbudget feature-length film created in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Film and Digital Media at the University of Central Florida. It chronicles the motivation behind the creation of the film, the entire creation process, plans for its distribution, and reflections on lessons learned during the creation process. The film itself was designed to challenge its viewers with the gross self-absorption of its fame-seeking protagonist, in order to promote public discourse about Generation Y's sense of entitlement, which …

Sexuality And Textuality (Fall 2014), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

"Sexuality and Textuality" serves as an introduction to gay and lesbian literary studies and queer theory. It looks at questions of sexuality and literature in ancient and early modern texts (from the Hebrew, Greek and English traditions), as well as in modern texts (from German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and English traditions). In addition to literary texts, students will work with a number of cinematic representations of queer sexuality. Besides these primary texts, students will work with important secondary literature about sexuality."

A photo of this Fall 2014 class was taken as part of Professor Bob Tobin's ongoing class photo tradition.

Troika Of Fortune Tellers, Sophia D. Kalin

Scripps Senior Theses

This film is an oral history about the intergenerational relationship between three women: my grandmother, my mother, and I. Through our connection I explore the Russian traditions that my grandmother has cultivated and shared among the three of us, in particular, the tradition of fortune telling. I also explore my grandmother's struggle with dementia. Although her memory is fading, she can still remember the practice of reading fortunes and that tradition has preserved our bond and her legacy.

Analysis Of Character Translations In Film Adaptations Of Popular Literature, Emmanuel Camarillo

CMC Senior Theses

A brief look at the history of film adaptation studies and its terminology. Character differences between a piece of literature and it's film version are compared in three separate case studies. The film adaptations of a graphic novel, a classic novel, and a play are analyzed on the basis of the changes made to specific characters within their respective stories and the effects of those changes on the overall outcome of the film.

The Rainbow Effect: Exploring The Implications Of Queer Representation In Film And Television On Social Change, Maya S. Reddy

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, I explore how specific films and television shows use the preexisting structure and mechanics of narrative film in order to create queer characters and stories that defy their otherness and stereotypes, thus creating a profound cinematic experience. Not only does the manipulation of these structures and mechanics heighten the realism and depth of the narrative at hand, it also enhances audience identification by allowing queer viewers to find themselves and straight viewers to understand the “other.” In this manner, the New New Queer Cinema and television have had lasting effects on the modern gay rights movement, changing …

The Divided Reception Of The Help, Suzanne W. Jones

English Faculty Publications

The reception of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help (2009) calls to mind the reception of two other novels about race relations by southern white writers: Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind (1936) and William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967). Like Gone With the Wind, The Help has been a pop culture phenomenon— prominent in bookstores and box offices, and the “darling of book clubs everywhere.” In January 2012 when I asked students in my Women in Modern Literature class what was the best book they had recently read by a woman, most named either The Help or The Hunger …

Blivits!, Charles Sutter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Blivits! is a feature-length documentary produced, written, and directed by Charles Sutter in pursuit of the Master of Fine Arts in Film & Digital Media from the University of Central Florida. This thesis examines the ethical questions of making a documentary in the digital era. In accordance with the restrictions of the program's guidelines, this film was completed a budget of less than $50,000. The film was shot over 18 days, in various locations up and down the east coast of the United States. This thesis is the record of Blivits!'s journey through development until completion of picture lock.

A Delicate Balance: Polish Portraits In U.S. Film During World War Ii, Joseph W. Zurawski

Jan Karski Conference

No abstract provided.

Am800, James Madison Roe

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I will detail the film making techniques that my crew and I employed while making AM800, my thesis film at the University of New Orleans. I will detail the creative and technical steps we took, from the earliest stages of idea conceptualization to the final phases of post-production and screening. During my recounting of this process, I will discuss our creative goals, the challenges that we faced while achieving these goals, and the resulting product's effectiveness as a narrative short film. The quality of the final product will be gauged through the results of test screenings …

A Brief Historical Account Of Trends In Contemporary Peruvian Cinema, Sebastián Pimentel

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This essay is an overview of the thematic and stylistic tendencies in Peruvian cinema starting with the work of Armando Robles Godoy. It also focuses on the effect of the Law 19327 of 1973 , which was responsible for the formation of a group of influential filmmakers led by Francisco Lombardi. At the beginning of the 21st century, female directors like Claudia Llosa and Rosario Garcia Montero achieved recognition for their cinematic visions of a traumatic Peruvian past. The Vega brothers and Gianfranco Quatrinni also contribute with their styles to an existential sntdy of the Peruvian identity. From the provinces …

House Of Cards, Matthew R. Lieber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to approach adapting a comic book into a film in a unique way. With so many comic-to-film adaptations following the trends of action movies, my goal was to adapt the popular comic book, Batman, into a screenplay that is not an action film. The screenplay, House of Cards, follows the original character of Miranda Greene as she attempts to understand insanity in Gotham’s most famous criminal, the Joker. The research for this project includes a detailed look at the comic book’s publication history, as well as previous film adaptations of Batman, …

Salvation From Illusion, Salvation By Illusion: The Gospel According To Christopher Nolan, George Faithful

Collected Faculty Scholarship

You are not really paying attention to reality. Nor should you, according to screenwriter and director Christopher Nolan. You do not need to know the truth. What you need is the perfect lie. Therein lies your hope of salvation. The perfect lie will save you from lesser lies but will also protect you from the destructive austerity of the truth. That has been a consistent theme in Nolan’s cinematic corpus.

While this article will limit itself to his science fiction works – The Prestige, Inception, and his Batman trilogy – the theme of salvation from and by illusion is significant …

Capitalist Childhood In Film: Modes Of Critique, Susan Ferguson

Journalism

This paper explores the latent political meanings of cinematic representations of capitalist childhood. The films it examines—three adaptations of the Oliver Twist story, Slumdog Millionnaire and a lesser-known Korean film, Treeless Mountain—have much in common: they feature abandoned or orphaned child characters who negotiate precarious existences in a rapacious crisis-ridden capitalist world. But the filmmakers’ evolving imaginings of childhood—from the Victorian vulnerable child to more postmodern understandings of children as agents in their own right—invite distinct political responses. While the Dickensian mode of critique rests problematically on an abstract idealized notion of childhood, attempts to update the image of childhood …

On The Origins Of The Robert Beck Memorial Cinema, Brian L. Frye

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In this article, the Author explains the origins of The Robert Beck Memorial Cinema (RBMC), a microcinema located in New York City. The idea was to show movies that no one else could or would.

The Draftsman, Hannah Bowman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Draftsman is a 50 minute narrative film which explores the themes of forgiveness and commitment in relationships with those who have mental illnesses. The plot for the narrative was inspired by the dedication I have witnessed between my grandpa and grandma throughout their married life.

This level of dedication began early in their relationship. My grandparents, Bill and Eleanore, had a difficult marriage. My grandmother most likely suffered from undiagnosed depression for most of her adult life. This illness probably stemmed from traumatic events in her childhood including her mother's death and her father's choice to abandon her, as …

The Gems Of Jazz, Virgile C. Beddok

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Gems of Jazz is a prospective TV series that features local New Orleans Jazz musicians. The purpose of the show, created and hosted by Virgile Beddok, is to look into the lives of the people who make the New Orleans Jazz scene all that it is, and has been. This paper delves into each stage of the creative and production processes that enabled the completion of this pilot episode which features master drummer Herlin Riley as a guest.

In Memoriam: The Reverend Andrew Greeley (1928-2013), William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

Founding Editor of the Journal of Religion and Film William Blizek reflects on the influence and legacy of the Reverend Andrew Greeley.

Reimagining The Silver Screen: Contemporary Film Stills, Kyle Demartino

Senior Honors Projects

During the late 19^th century longer rolls of celluloid photographic film, and motion picture cameras were first introduced, which allowed for the capture of rapid sequences of still images at a relatively high speeds. The first films shown to audiences on a larger screen, although rudimentary, caused people to gasp or run from the cinema, as they believed the images on screen were real. As technology increased feature films progressed from only showing a simple static event to creating full stories spanning over various sets and containing multiple characters. With the advent of sound, filmmakers were given another tool …

Genre As Bait: Using Pop Soundtrack As Narrative Counterpoint Or Complement, Margaret Dudasik

Honors College Theses

There is much argument against using pre-existing music in film, Ian Garwood noting three potential problems with the pop song: obtrusiveness, cultural relevance, and distance from the narrative (103-106). It is believed that lyrics and cultural connotations can distract from the action, but it is my belief that these elements only aid narrative. By examining the cinematic functions of the soundtracks of O Brother Where Are Thou? (2000) and Marie Antoinette (2006), I will argue that using pre-existing music in film is actually more effective than a score composed specifically for a film.

Film theorist Claudia Gorbman notes that film …

Satanic But Not Satan: Signs Of The Devilish In Contemporary Cinema, Adam L. Porter

Journal of Religion & Film

Scholars have paid much attention to identifying and analyzing Jesus and Christ-type characters in film. The parallel cases for Satan and satanic characters have been less studied. Some attention has been paid to examining Satan/Lucifer/the Devil as a character (akin to movies about Jesus), but I could find no systematic typology of satanic traits, that would parallel the well-developed Christ-typologies. This article examines six films to begin the process of describing what makes a character "satanic" without being Satan.

The Myth Of "Moonrise Kingdom": A Children's Tale, Laura Ragsdale

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Uncovering Fallacies In Documentary Film, Nicole Trackman

Rhetoric Unit

This is an introductory activity that will familiarize students with eight essential fallacies. Students will be given a specific fallacy and its definition along with examples. Student will search for their fallacy in a twenty minute screening of a documentary film. Through small group and whole class discussion, students will leave class with an expert understanding of their own fallacy as well as a solid foundation of understanding for the other seven fallacies presented.

“Tere Bin Laden”: ‘Islamic Terror’ Revised, Jitender Gill

SPECS journal of art and culture

No abstract provided.