Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Wavzine: Independent, Localized Cultural Journalism In The Digital Age, Jake Edward Davis

Journalism

wavzine (also called .WAV or colloquially known as “The Zine”) is a music, arts, and culture multimedia website and print periodical founded by Cal Poly students in the summer of 2020. Two years on, it was comprised of roughly 45 regular staff members and even more occasional contributors, all of whom are volunteers. Along with independently publishing articles, videos, podcasts, and art online, wavzine also organizes and hosts concerts for local bands, collaborates with local cultural events such as Shabang Music Festival and the San Luis Obispo Film Festival, and sells its own branded merchandise. To its 2,700 Instagram followers, …

The Screen And Development: Creative Writing And Liminality In Children’S Literature, Rebecca E. Glenn

All Theses

This creative thesis strives to research and implement the overlap of liminality found within Children’s Literature, especially those works that exist through the screen. The critical component of this thesis explores the ways in which childhood development and maturity, a theme commonly found within Children’s Literature, embodies its own “right of passage” associated with the liminal. The journey of the Children’s Literature protagonist is often wrought with this movement from familiar boundaries to a sense of new development. The critical analysis emphasizes the methods Children’s Literature genre uses emotion, familial connections, symbology, space, and even elements of the monstrous to …

Ecologies Of (Domestic) Trauma, Ecologies Of (Domestic) Violence: A Rhetorical Procession Toward Mourning, Charlotte E. Lucke

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, I posit that intimate partner violence is entrenched in an often-overlooked historical and rhetorical legacy of patriarchal cultural, structural, and direct violences. Many scholars in and outside of rhetorical studies have analyzed and critiqued public representations of trauma and violence, including intimate partner violence. Joining this conversation, I focus on the limitations in the ways influential rhetorical domains both represent and respond to people who abuse their intimate partners. Often, mass media represents people who abuse their intimate partners as individuals void of contexts. Similarly, the criminal justice system holds individuals responsible through law enforcement and incarceration. …

At What Price: Insidious Hegemony And Character Archetypes Woven Into Until Dawn, Courtney Harvey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Supermassive Games’s Until Dawn tasks its players with helping eight teenagers survive a night of terror. All eight playable characters may live or die depending on the player’s choices and gameplay proficiency. Despite its intricacies, the game still relies heavily on horror movie tropes, which the characters embody, and they face different treatment based on their gender, race, and sanity. Particularly, the weapons available to them and the scenarios for their deaths and survival contribute to trapping the characters within their given characteristics and forcing them into a role that they cannot ever fully break free from. While the branching …

Operatic Mysticisms: Mountains, Deserts, Waterscapes, Andrew Demczuk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Operatic Mysticisms: Mountains, Deserts, Waterscapes examines the ways we encounter environments as readers/viewers of operas, literature, film, and sound recordings, and how each medium requires different detail-gathering techniques. Respective to the previously mentioned mediums, Sun & Sea (2017), Mount Analogue (1952), El Mar La Mar (2017), and Energy Field (2010) are analyzed by engaging with environmental media studies and invention. Reflecting the nature of each landscape—summits of mountains, aporias of deserts, and mysteries of waterscapes—an elemental approach is taken in investigating how these spaces may be noticed, internalized, recorded, and traversed by both the artist and viewer. …

Taking A Stab At Theory: How The New Halloween Movies Complicate The Horror Genre, Carson Haley Honeycutt

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Rain Over Hanoi: A Personal Project About Screenplay Structure, Story, Representation And Intergenerational Struggle, Joan Moua

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

A good screenplay is first and foremost a good story. Elements of a good story include compelling characters, a theoretical structure, and a well-executed premise. The Rain Over Hanoi is an extremely intimate and personal project about an Asian American expat living in Vietnam. Our protagonist’s journey and coming of age is explored via the interactions she has with her old and new family. Communication through food, symbolism, and cultural exchange are also present throughout the screenplay, utilizing a realistic point of view for the benefit of a full story submersion experience to the reader/viewer. Themes of self-exploration, growing up, …

The Underrepresentation Of Women In Filmmaking, Paola Sandoval

Honors Theses

My thesis project seeks to bring awareness to the ongoing problem of the underrepresentation of women in filmmaking. During the initial stages of filmmaking, many women contributed to the developing Hollywood industry. As film-watching grew in popularity in the 1920s, filmmaking turned into a lucrative business. Consequently, this boost of film production pushed women to the outskirts, making the field male-dominated. This has continued into the present-day leaving women having to overcome the challenges of garnering positions on a film crew.

Existing research on this topic mostly focuses on Hollywood. However, the underrepresentation of women in film is not only …

Methods In Costume And Projection Design For Theatre, Jessica Wallace

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

A report detailing multiple practices for theatre design in costumes and projection. It is focused on playscript analysis, the design process, and the final build of the design for production.

Walking Back The System Trope: Reimagining Incarceration And The State Through A Spatial Theory Approach, Cody Hunter

All Dissertations

This dissertation critiques the systems theory approach to incarceration policy, practice, and research and proposes a rhetorically informed spatial theory approach as an alternative. Offering a non-hierarchical complexity theory as a bridge between systems and space, I then integrate rhetorical listening as a strategy for navigating and operationalizing our proposed spatial theory approach. I then apply our proposed methodology to archival research, focusing on the South Carolina Penitentiary as a case study, and offer two heuretic experiments to explore the range of this methodology for archival research. I also explore potential applications of this rhetorically informed spatial theory approach in …

Narrating Madness: Building Narratives Against Privileged Identity, Kristin Santa Maria

All Dissertations

This dissertation examines how competing narratives related to madness and mental health can provide insight into the inconsistencies of preconceived biases that tie into privilege and power. These biases relate to identities associated with race, gender, class, and embodiment. By exploring madness narratives, we can see how madness often becomes a quality used to isolate and “other” people that act against typical societal and cultural norms. Works of fiction and nonfiction that pertain to madness narratives can either be used to perpetuate stereotypes of normalcy or as a vehicle to allow for a more open and frank discussion of madness …

Neo's Cleaning Service, Yuka Saito, Mcfloyd Nguyen

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

As the modern working society of any global economy experiences exponential growth in work-centric culture, the integrity of communal and family values degrades as a result. Factors such as lack of leisure and human interaction directly correlate to the declining number of marriages, hence exposing an aging population with no reinforcement. Collectively, as a result, the number of elderly people who live alone continues to expand, and in places such as modern-day Japan, the phenomenon of "lonely death" or kodokushi - 孤独死, an occurrence of people dying alone and remaining undiscovered for a long time, has been a remarkable issue. …

Puppy, Cesar Henrique Gelli Ramos

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Throughout this submission, I will discuss the overall process of creating my short thesis film, Puppy. An overall summary of my production approach and a detailed account of the specifics of how each production element occurred will also be provided along with visuals from the set. I will also discuss my education and experiences from my time at the University of New Orleans.

An Analysis Of Charging Practices And Their Impact On Battery Degradation In North American Electric Vehicles Built Between 2010-2020, Douglas William Edward Ferrier

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electric vehicles (EVs) are emerging as a component of the global solution to combat climate change. However, in North America, particularly in the United States and Canada, the transition away from internal combustion engines (ICE) has been slow. North America faces unique challenges due to its geographical size and population in comparison to other continents. The good news is that EV adoption is increasing within North America. Along with increased EV adoption, governments and public companies are constructing charging infrastructure to support increased consumer EV purchases. Despite increased adoption, many future and current owners throughout North American society have concerns …

Reading About A Lost Film: A Review Of Ang Daigdig Ng Mga Api: Remembering A Lost Film By Clodualdo Del Mundo, Jr., Shirley O. Lua

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

No abstract provided.

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

CSB and 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 …

She Speaks Her Truth: Black Female Self-Empowerment In African-American Centric Texts, Britt N. Seese

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

A Master's Portfolio that looks into African-American Women in African-American literature and theatrical works.

Freeing The Black Final Girl In Postmillennial Zombie Horror: Race, Gender, And The Strong Black Woman Stereotype In 28 Days Later, The Walking Dead, & Z Nation, Makhalath Fahiym

English MA Theses

Freeing the Black Final Girl in Postmillennial Zombie Horror: Race, Gender, and the Strong Black Woman Stereotype in 28 Days Later, The Walking Dead, & Z Nation discusses the cultural image and issues of representation of the black femme within the horror genre. As the horror genre shifts in the 21st century to an era of increasingly diverse representation, examining the black Final Girl is particularly relevant. Race complicates the Final Girl concept and the black Final Girl must be analyzed within the context of the controlling images, like the Strong Black Woman stereotype, and racialized horror tropes …

A Wellbeing@Ksu Journey: Mapw Portfolio, Meghan Cooper

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

A process narrative and samples and complete works from my time in MAPW and as a GRA within the health and well-being departments at KSU. The portfolio showcases my journey as a communicator and professional writer and how it has impacted my current career.

The Imagined Histories And Futures Of The Past: Wwi And The Cultural Imagination, Kelly Aliano

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

In this paper, I look at various modes of imagining the futures incarnated by the First World War, beginning with artists and writers, like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Maria Remarque, who experienced and depicted the war from a firsthand point of view. From here, I expand that framework to include J.R.R. Tolkien, whose masterpiece Lord of the Rings may owe no small debt to his wartime experiences. I consider the Doctor Who episodes, “Human Nature” and “Family of Blood,” as contemporary attempts to reinsert WWI into the cultural consciousness. Finally, I look at the two versions of War Horse …

Peripheral Storytelling: Cinematic Structures And Audience Agency, Carlos Tkacz

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

A cultural phenomenon we are all unfortunately familiar with is terrible movies. By terrible movies I mean the kind that lack any semblance of structure, movies in which the characters are flatly drawn, the storylines are predictable, and the writing is especially bad. More specifically, I am interested in why these movies seem to be breeding without end and are no longer relegated to (maybe they never were) the low budget genre films some of us love to hate. I am talking here about the relatively new phenomena of the high-budget, popular-yet-terrible film.

Specifically, I am interested in applying Structuralism, …

How To Make A Monster: The Homosexual Experience In Horror And Thriller Cinema, Mia Lindenburg

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

Horror and thriller’s subtextual stories within cinema have been prominent across many subgenres, creating a wide-spread correlation between the homosexual and the monstruous that grew even noticeable after the start of the AIDS epidemic. Much of horror critique and analysis has been focused on the objectification of the feminine, but the unique role that the male plays in horror and thriller (both as a villain and victim) deserves equal inspection. The research done in this paper demonstrates how horror cinema skews the suggested gender roles and how fear makes us more easily let go of the societal norms held so …

Portrayals Of Characters Of Color In Teen Media, Janelle Ferraris, Lindsay Denecker, Kristin Vierra

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Some teen television shows are actively addressing race and racism.

Teen television shows are highlighting the development of ethnic-racial identity. This is promising considering scholars label the development of ethnic-racial identity to be an essential product of the development of older children and adolescents (Syed & Azmitia, 2008, Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014).

Teen television shows are emphasizing factors in a person of colors' community or interactions with peers that may influence their overall well-being. This is encouraging considering research suggests that hearing stories from individuals of various backgrounds can help individuals better recognize systems of oppression and discrimination (Freire, 1995). …

Streaming's Effect On American Media Exports, Aviel Geronimo, Jonathan Swanberg

Undergraduate Research Symposium Lightning Talks

The Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry is largest in the United States with a total value of $660 Billion in 2020. The global M&E industry is valued at approximately $2 Trillion. New technologies have allowed for the advent of streaming services for music, television, film, books, video games, and more. Streaming services allow media exports to be easily accessed by consumers domestically and abroad.

The Artist's Artist, Katherine Cacopardo

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

My senior project is the creation of a brand identity that explores how sounds, words, and imagery work together to create a complete experience by illustrating the recorded music and lyrics of fellow honors student McCall Chapin. My project includes album/single artwork, one music video, one lyric video and lyric video concepts for each of the other songs, streaming strategy, social strategy, and supplementary photos and graphics for promoting the work on social media. The idea is to create a complete brand that not only fits who McCall Chapin is as an artist but also visually tells the story of …

Press Any Button To Get Started: Approaching Japanese Culture And Society Through Video Games, Amanda Weber

East Asian Studies Honors Papers

This project argues for inclusion of video games into the liberal arts curriculum alongside more traditional texts. Three Japanese-developed video games are analyzed in terms of their appropriateness for the Ursinus Quest curriculum while also exploring their appropriation of characters, themes, and values from Japanese mytho-history. My approach incorporates the methodology introduced by the scholar James Paul Gee who studies video games through the lens of semiotics and gaming theory. Gee defines key elements presented in video games as ‘lifeworld domains,’ which incorporate cultures, societies, and individual and group experiences. The value of video games resides in the players’ development …

Miracles Happen: An Exploration Of Girlhood And Celebrity, Sarah Thompson

Media and Communication Studies Honors Papers

Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, many children’s programs were about fame and featured female protagonists while being written and produced by men. Despite being written by men, these shows clearly interpellate a young female audience. “Miracles Happen” explores this media and considers what girlhood is and what this media is teaching its audience. The first chapter looks at Disney’s studio and its history on how it inserts itself into the private lives of children. This chapter also analyzes this history and makes connections to how these traditions are carried into shows meant for girls on the Disney Channel. It …

Interwar Weimar Film And Masculinity: Challenging The Presumed Crisis Of Interwar German Gender Discourse From Selected Films From 1925-1931, Brandon Metcalf

Dissertations and Theses

The First World War altered the view of masculinity held by many in Germany and shredded what many regarded as unchangeable fixtures of German life. For German men, much of the interwar period meant dealing with the losses from the war, reconfiguring what it meant to be a man. This reconfiguration of gender took place in a context of change in Germany. Many women entered the workforce to replace the lost men. The economic downturn and reliance on funding from the United States motivated many within Germany to examine gender roles and to reassemble masculinity to meet changing circumstances.

This …

Celebrity Memes, Audioshop, And Participatory Fan Culture: A Case Study On Keanu Reeves Memes, Danielle Nielsen, Diane Sabenacio Nititham

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Contemporary meme culture keeps Keanu Reeves’ image at the forefront of our imagination. Numerous Keanu-related memes circulate on the internet, featuring images of him from on and off screen. In this article, we argue that the rise of user-generated content, such as memes and social media, requires us to reconsider how audiences and fans consume, adapt, and circulate Keanu’s stardom. Specifically, we contend that memes and their attending participatory culture make Keanu familiar by placing him in knowable spaces and perpetuating his extraordinary ordinariness. To do so, we examine the 2019 ‘Keanu Reeves Walking in Slow Motion’ video clip from …

Female Rage, Revenge, And Catharsis: The "Good For Her" Genre Defined In Promising Young Woman (2020), Tara Heimberger

English MA Theses

By analyzing relevant cultural contexts to the popularity of the “Good for Her” genre, such as the “#MeToo” movement, the Trump presidency, and the resurgence of conservatism in the United States, the development of the “Good for Her” genre and its impact can be made clear. Given the genre’s development through social discourse on social media, it has become a universal and collaborative representation of liberation from oppressive experiences under a patriarchal society. The lead women in these films give those who experience patriarchal oppression a reprieve and an opportunity for catharsis they would not typically get in a male-led, …