Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Asper, Isaiah Nearor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Asper is a microbudget feature-length film written, directed, and funded by Isaiah D. Nearor for the requirements of earning a Master of Fine Arts in Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema from the University of Central Florida. Completing a film production can be challenging because not every day is the same. Production took place during Summer 2021 during COVID 19. With proper guidance and safety protocol, the film made it through production. The film is a narrative thriller. This thesis explains the process and decisions made from preproduction through post-production.

Rubicon: The Dialectic, Marcos Carrasco Yanez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Rubicon: The Dialectic is a virtual reality (VR), multi-channel, video-art installation, created after researching interactivity, virtual reality, 2D and 3D animation, filmmaking, philosophy, and music. I intend to manifest my feelings as a Venezuelan, a Latin-American, and a free thinker by sharing with the spectator a VR immersive piece representing my inner struggle in these times of political meltdown. Attempting to go beyond the two orders that structure reality according to French structuralist psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, The Imaginary and The Symbolic, I am searching to approach the third Lacanian order that structures human existence--the one that opposes and exists beyond …

Lifeglows Through The Anthropocene: Development Of The Radical Imagination And Response-Ability Within Superhero Comics, Reed G. Puc

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Scholars such as Amitav Ghosh, Timothy Clark, and Timothy Morton emphasize the importance of and challenge within the task of representing the power, scope, and scale of climate change in art and literature. These interrogations often emphasize the failures of extant works to animate their viewers towards action in a time of environmental crisis, but struggle to find any work that meets their expectations. This ‘game-over’ attitude, I argue, is the direct result of the cruel optimism present in the current scholarship’s attachment to ‘traditional’ forms of art and literature. By interrogating the conclusions Ghosh reaches about the novel’s function …

What Sound Reveals To Our Eyes: The Intersection Between Subconscious Thought And Real Imagery In Experimental Film And Sound Design, Mireille G. Heidbreder

Theses and Dissertations

The impetus for making films that conjure up atemporal, interconnected spaces suggestive of a unique reality has been influenced in large part by Michel Foucault’s idea of heterotopia, or the creation of a new world by joining together discursive spaces. As such, my practice begins with the collection and re-imagination of these discursive spaces through a combination of an in-depth exploration of little-known landscapes and the organic observation of the natural realm in relation to the human world. By combining various mixed media including digital, film print, as well as re-purposed archival footage, I alter the filmic quality of the …

Salt At Dawn, Salt In My Veins, Cecilia Hankyeol Kim

Theses and Dissertations

A contemplation on expanded time, over generations along my maternal lineage;

on being on the borders, embodying homeland;

on inheritance and shared labor;

occupying a void that is dense;

looking towards dawn.

Banal/Queer/Spectacular: Reframing Blue Is The Warmest Color, Sophie Frank

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

In this essay, I interrogate visual representations of a lesbian love story in Jul’ Maroh’s graphic novel Le bleu est une couleur chaude and its film adaptation by director Abdellatif Kechiche, La vie d’Adèle : Chapitres 1 et 2. By studying the diegesis of each work’s opening scene, I reveal that the graphic novel embodies Barthes’s concept of a writerly text, or one that requires its reader to produce its meaning, while the film, as a readerly work, constructs a passive viewing experience for its audience. I argue that each author’s narratological approach exemplifies the particular manner in which they …

“Beychella:” Beyoncé’S Homecoming To A Futuristic Queer Utopian, Jolie V. Brownell

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella performance and 2019 Homecoming film set the stage for a radical Black queer reimagining. Yet, how can Beyoncé—who is straight—be located within a queer critique? In this paper, I argue that through a radical and political expansion of queer, the creative deployment of dis/identification, and the unapologetic expression of the erotic, Beyoncé performs an embodiment of queer of color critique. These creative gestures within “Beychella” invite viewers into a queer futuristic utopian and provide new creative modes to politically inhabit, resist, and reimagine interlocking systems of oppression.

Keywords: Beyoncé, queer, dis/identification, erotic, QoCC, …

Going Forth: A Thesis Presented To The Faculty Of The Humanities And Teacher Education Division, Pepperdine University, William Dewitt

Theses and Dissertations

Essay: Going forth -- Script 1: Geronimo -- Script 2: Monster Moscow.

Stories That Matter: Developing Media With Purpose, Chirag Patel

Theses and Dissertations

The following thesis project represents the culmination of studies in the M.F.A. in Cinematic Media Production graduate program by the student, Chirag Patel. It serves as a representation of knowledge gained during the program, in addition to a showcase of materials produced by the student to serve as a portfolio for future employment opportunities in the media industry. The thesis aims to provide a thorough understanding of the media production process by the student, who will present multiple projects designed to highlight the various steps in the production process, from story development through pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution. Furthermore, each …

Uniting Cultures With Stories, Matthew S. Frey

Theses and Dissertations

Uniting cultures with stories -- Crystal City -- Love, integrity, and the military.

Giving Voice To Everyday Characters In Extraordinary Circumstances, Andrew D. Hasselbring

Theses and Dissertations

Giving voice to everyday characters in extraordinary circumstances -- Undesirable donor -- Blowfish -- Behind the lavender door

Theorizing #Girlboss Culture: Mediated Neoliberal Feminisms From Influencers To Multi-Level Marketing Schemes, Frankie Mastrangelo

Theses and Dissertations

I define girlboss feminism as emergent, mediated formations of neoliberal feminism that equate feminist empowerment with financial success, market competition, individualized work-life balance, and curated digital and physical presences driven by self-monetization. I look toward how the mediation of girlboss feminism utilizes branded and affective engagements with representational politics, discourses of authenticity and rebellion, as well as meritocratic aspiration to promote cultural interest in conceptualizing feminism in ways that are divorced from collective, intersectional struggle. I question the stakes involved in reducing feminist interrogations and commitments to discourses of representation, visibility, and meritocracy. I argue that while girlboss feminism may …

Playing At The Crossroads Of Religion And Law: Historical Milieu, Context And Curriculum Hooks In Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This chapter presents the use of Lost & Found – a purpose-built tabletop to mobile game series – to teach medieval religious legal systems. The series aims to broaden the discourse around religious legal systems and to counter popular depiction of these systems which often promote prejudice and misnomers. A central element is the importance of contextualizing religion in period and locale. The Lost & Found series uses period accurate depictions of material culture to set the stage for play around relevant topics – specifically how the law promoted collaboration and sustainable governance practices in Fustat (Old Cairo) in twelfth-century …

Herlands: Imperial Feminisms From Charlotte Perkins Gilman To Wonder Woman, Anna Jankovsky

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The society of women is a trope of feminist utopian fiction in which a group of women live together in harmony without the influence of men to disrupt their society. This trope functions on five criteria: 1) The society must be able to defend itself and replenish itself without the assistance of men. 2) It must be fully isolated and nearly impenetrable from the outside world 3) It must have a utopic order of society untroubled by ambition. 4) It must be infiltrated and challenged by a man during the course of the story. 5) It must grapple with the …

Margins Of The City: Urban Masculinity And Identity Politics In British Social-Realist Queer Cinema, Yi Li

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation identifies and analyzes a history of queer politics and identities in British realist cinema from the early 1960s to the 2010s. Focusing primarily on filmmakers Sidney J. Furie, Stephen Frears, Hettie MacDonald, and Andrew Haigh, it traces British queer maleness of the working class by tracking its changing representations and demonstrates how urban cinematic realism proves central to British definitions of masculinity. The first chapter investigates how foundational films of the British New Wave address social inequalities as consequences of class and sexuality to consider how they embraced a sexual frankness and realism with coded and decoded homoeroticism. …

Annual Report 2020-2021, Depaul University College Of Computing And Digital Media

CDM Annual Reports

LETTER FROM THE DEAN

As I write this letter during the beginning of the 2021–22 academic year, we have started to welcome the majority of our students to campus— many for the very first time, and some for the first time in a year and a half. It has been wonderful to be together, in-person, again. Four quarters of learning and working remotely was challenging, to be sure, but I have been consistently amazed by the resilience, innovation, and hard work of our students, faculty, and staff, even in the most difficult of circumstances. This annual report, covering the 2020–21 …

Distribution, Bars, And Arcade Stars: Joe Anthony’S Entrepreneurial Expansion In Houston’S Gay Media Industries, Finley Freibert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This article develops the concept of "gay useful media" to explore a case study of gay entrepreneurship in Houston, Texas, of the 1970s. A father and son developed a gay media empire in the city, which spanned bars, bookstores, distribution, and vending. One of the pair's key establishments was Houston's legendary gay bar Mary's at 1022 Westheimer (also known as Mary's Lounge, Mary's, Naturally, and Mary's…Naturally).

Using A Smart Phone To Learn Spanish: Does It Work And Will Students Use It?, Andrew J. Demil, Alysha Assaf, Ryan Cragun

The Coastal Review

Over time, mobile devices have penetrated the classroom, requiring new and beneficial ways to implement classroom instruction. Research suggests that Short Message Service (SMS) based instruction is an effective tool for acquiring second language (L2) vocabulary and idiom knowledge (Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu,). Additionally, studies have found that students believe that mobile learning (m-learning) is beneficial to acquiring a second language (Cavus & Ibrahim; Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu, 2008). This study examined whether m-learning can lead to Spanish vocabulary familiarity and if sentence comprehension outperforms reading definitions. Participants were 29 native English speakers studying Spanish as a second …

Whitewashing V. Blackwashing: Structural Racism And Anti-Racist Praxis In Hollywood Cinema, Alyssa M. Smith

Senior Independent Study Theses

When a discussion about whitewashing arises, there are often claims that “blackwashing,” the practice of replacing a traditionally White character or role with a Black actor, is the same issue. Much is known about whitewashing and how damaging it is to represent People of Color in film with White actors, however, blackwashing is a recent term to describe what is more often called “colorblind casting.” This study aims to dissect how whitewashing and blackwashing differ, as well as discuss how blackwashing succumbs to the racist history of the Hollywood film industry despite its attempt at leading a brighter future for …

The Ghosts Of Grief: An Exploration Of Gothic Influence In 2010s Horror Cinema, Halen Gifford

Senior Independent Study Theses

The purpose of this project is to examine gothic influences in contemporary horror cinema of the 2010s. To fulfill this purpose, the study employs comparative film analysis methods to analyze The Babadook (2014), The Invitation (2015), and Crimson Peak (2015) in order to identify intertextual gothic references in the cinematography, mise en scène, and narratives of the films. Specifically, this project examines the haunted house trope in the horror genre as characterized by the presence of ghosts and the personification of the setting. Through this analysis, four common themes emerged: “Houses with Personality,” “Tragic Losses,” “Memories and Ghosts,” and “Isolation.” …

การศึกษากลวิธีเพื่อเข้าถึง คงอยู่ และออกจากสภาวะทางอารมณ์โศกเศร้า จากการสูญเสียบุคคลอันเป็นที่รัก โดยใช้หลักมหาสติปัฏฐานสูตร : กรณีศึกษา ตัวละคร “คณิตา” ผู้แต่งเดวิด ออร์เบิร์นในบทละครเรื่องบทพิสูจน์ (2543), ชีวารัตน์ กสิบาล

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

หลักมหาสติปัฏฐานสูตร คือการเจริญสติโดยมีสติเป็นประธานตามรู้ตามดูสภาวะที่เกิดขึ้นกับตนเองตามความเป็นจริงในปัจจุบันขณะ แบ่งออกเป็น 4 หลักได้แก่ กายานุปัสสนาสติปัฏฐาน เวทนา-นุปัสสนาสติปัฏฐาน จิตตานุปัสสนาสติปัฏฐาน และ ธัมมานุปัสสนาสติปัฏฐาน ผู้วิจัยได้นำหลักธรรมนี้มาปฏิบัติเพื่อหากลวิธีการเข้าถึงสภาวะ คงอยู่ และออกจากสภาวะภายในของตัวละครที่มีลักษณะอารมณ์โศกเศร้าจากการสูญเสียบุคคลอันเป็นที่รัก (Grief and Bereavement) ซึ่งมีสภาวะอารมณ์ที่อ่อนไหวง่าย และมีลักษณะอาการใกล้เคียงโรคทางจิตเวชชนิดไม่รุนแรงมากนัก โดยมีจุดมุ่งหมายในศึกษาการเข้าถึง คงอยู่ และออกจากสภาวะภายในของตัวละครโดยไม่ส่งผลกระทบต่อสภาพจิตใจของนักแสดง งานวิจัยฉบับนี้เป็นงานวิจัยเชิงปฏิบัติ ผู้วิจัยได้ใช้วิธีการเก็บข้อมูลจากผลการฝึกปฏิบัติตามหลักมหาสติปัฏฐานสูตร, บันทึกการทำงานของผู้วิจัย, ผลการวิเคราะห์จากการรวบรวมข้อมูล และแบบสอบถามจากผู้ชม ผลการศึกษาพบว่า การฝึกปฏิบัติตามหลักมหาสติปัฏฐานสูตรมีความละเอียดและลึกซึ้ง มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อบรรลุมรรคผลนิพพานเป็นสำคัญ จึงไม่สามารถปฏิบัติให้เกิดผลสำเร็จอย่างสูงสุดในหลักการได้ แต่ยังคงประโยชน์หลายส่วนที่นักแสดงสามารถทำความเข้าใจ นำมาเริ่มต้นปฏิบัติเพื่อพัฒนาตนเอง และนำมาปรับใช้เพื่อพัฒนาศักยภาพด้านการแสดงของตนได้

กระบวนการกำกับการแสดงเรื่อง เช่า เขา อยู่ ของนฤทธิ์ ปาเฉย ในรูปแบบละครอิมเมอร์ซีฟเฉพาะที่บนพื้นที่ออนไลน์, ภาณุวัฒน์ อินทวัฒน์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยสร้างสรรค์ชิ้นนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษากระบวนการสร้างสรรค์การแสดงรูปแบบอิมเมอร์ซีฟเฉพาะที่ และทดลองกำกับการแสดง เรื่อง “เช่า เขา อยู่” ของ นฤทธิ์ ปาเฉย ในรูปแบบละครอิมเมอร์ซีฟเฉพาะที่บนพื้นที่ออนไลน์ ผ่านแอพลิเคชั่น ซูม คลาวด์มีตติ้ง ซึ่งนอกจากจะเป็นการปรับตัวในสถานการณ์การแพร่ระบาดของโรคโควิด 19 แล้ว ยังเป็นการมุ่งหน้าสู่จักรวาลนฤมิตซึ่งเข้ามามีบทบาทกับวิถีชีวิตมนุษย์มากขึ้น จึงอาจเป็นแนวทางของการสร้างสรรค์ละครเวทีรูปแบบใหม่ในอนาคต ผู้วิจัยได้วิเคราะห์ข้อมูลต่าง ๆ และสังเคราะห์เป็นกระบวนการกำกับการแสดงเรื่อง “เช่า เขา อยู่” ซึ่งมุ่งสร้างองค์ประกอบของละครอิมเมอร์ซีฟตามทัศนะของ โรส บิกกิ้น ให้เหมาะสมกับพื้นที่ออนไลน์ดังนี้คือ 1) ปรับพื้นที่และสภาพแวดล้อมที่ตั้งใจจะจัดในอาคารพาณิชย์ร้างแห่งหนึ่งในเยาวราช มาเป็นพื้นที่เสมือนบนแอพลิเคชั่น ซูม คลาวด์ มีตติ้ง 2) สร้างเรื่องเล่าแบบหลากลำดับเรื่องให้ผู้ชมแต่ละคนเลือกลำดับการรับชมได้ด้วยตนเอง และ 3) ออกแบบให้ผู้ชมมีปฏิสัมพันธ์ต่อเรื่องเล่า ต่อผู้ชมด้วยกันเอง และต่อผู้แสดงผ่านกิจกรรมต่าง ๆ จากนั้นจึงนำเสนอต่อผู้ชมทั่วไป ผลการวิจัยบ่งชี้ว่าการสร้างองค์ประกอบทั้ง 3 ของละครอิมเมอร์ซีฟให้สัมพันธ์กันอย่างมีเอกภาพช่วยให้ผู้ชมเชื่อว่าตนเป็นส่วนสำคัญในใจกลางของการแสดง และมีปฏิสัมพันธ์กับเรื่องได้ไม่ต่างจากการจัดแสดงบนพื้นทางกายภาพ ผู้วิจัยมีข้อเสนอแนะว่าควรให้มีการสร้างสรรค์ละครอิมเมอร์ซีฟเฉพาะที่บนพื้นที่ออนไลน์ในสื่ออื่นอีก เพื่อค้นหารูปแบบการแสดงออนไลน์ใหม่ ๆ ซึ่งจะช่วยพัฒนาศิลปะการละครให้ก้าวไปในจักรวาลนฤมิตอย่างสร้างสรรค์

Filmcasters, Antonio Coffee

Capstone Projects

In this project I cohost a podcast with Nicolas McKay and Christopher de La Rosa about movies and history. We are exploring what we can learn from movies and providing another way for the public to engage with history. Throughout our first eight episodes we have analyzed seven different movies and had one interview with a historian doing working with similar themes. Through these first seven episodes we have been able to talk about the Texas Borderlands, the history of Broadway, the Cold War, P. T. Barnum, Japanese response to nuclear testing, Hollywood censorship laws, and Rudyard Kipling. While exploring …

In/Visible, Raymond Thompson Jr

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

My MFA thesis and supporting exhibition focus on challenging the United States’ photographic archive that often left out African-American people. The work, through the use of appropriation and alternative photographic processes, disrupts America’s historical visual archive and notions that surround the white gaze. Through the unsettling of this visual space, new speculative narratives can be created to help imagine new futures. This work is the beginning of a process of mourning histories I have never known and reclaiming a place for myself and my family in the American landscape that is free of racial trauma.

Beyond The Screen: Transnational Networks In Early Southeast Asian Cinema, Espena Darlene Machell

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

National cinemas in Southeast Asia did not appear in isolation. The emergence and development of national cinemas across the region were facilitated by key transnational connections and influences. This article explores three transnational factors that helped pave the way for the emergence of the national cinemas in postcolonial Southeast Asia. Travelling across borders to collaborate with one another, Southeast Asian filmmakers shared their ideas, filmmaking techniques, and political ideals. Hollywood productions also influenced their craft. All these ideas and influences would find their way into the films they created. Facilitating the transnational exchange and productions were the ethnic Chinese who …

Pride, Shame And Tv Dinners, Edward Brennan

Conference papers

This paper critiques a dominant narrative in the history of Irish television, which typically equate television’s arrival with the launch of RTÉ in 1961 and interpret its development through a state-centred, modernisation framework. Drawing on life-story interviews with people who experienced television in Ireland during the 1950s and 1960s, the research challenges methodological nationalism by foregrounding memory as a source. It reveals how television was an uncertain status object that carried meanings of pride, shame, discipline, and cultural value. Theoretically informed by Bourdieu, Halbwachs, and Inglis, the paper analyses recollection as practical social action. Early television consumption was mediated by …

The Apprentice Africa Tv Format: Local Culture, Global Model, And Informalized Production Practices In The Nigerian Media Industry, Kosidichimma Anyanwu

Doctoral

In 2008, the hugely popular American global television format programme, The Apprentice, debuted its Africa wide version, The Apprentice Africa, in the African market. This became the first entrepreneurship format programme to be produced in Nigeria and Africa. First, the show was broadcast on three Nigerian channels, then moved to broadcasters in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. The Apprentice Africa reality TV show is a strategic research site for investigating the conditions of television format production in Nigeria, considering the programme’s interaction with multiple economic sectors of the country.

This study is set against the backdrop of the …

Mental Health Consequences Of Covid-19 Media Coverage: The Need For Effective Crisis Communication Practices, Zhaohui Su, Dean Mcdonnell, Jun Wen, Metin Kozak, Jaffar Abbas, Sabina Šegalo, Xiaoshan Li, Junaid Ahmad, Ali Cheshmehzangi, Yuyang Cai, Ling Yang, Yu Tao Xiang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021, The Author(s). During global pandemics, such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), crisis communication is indispensable in dispelling fears, uncertainty, and unifying individuals worldwide in a collective fight against health threats. Inadequate crisis communication can bring dire personal and economic consequences. Mounting research shows that seemingly endless newsfeeds related to COVID-19 infection and death rates could considerably increase the risk of mental health problems. Unfortunately, media reports that include infodemics regarding the influence of COVID-19 on mental health may be a source of the adverse psychological effects on individuals. Owing partially to insufficient crisis communication practices, media and news …

‘Mingren Are The Respectable Ones’: An Analysis Of Everyday Engagements With Contemporary Celebrity Culture In China, Min Xu, Stijn Reijnders, Sangkyun (Sean) Kim

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

To investigate the values and social norms underpinning celebrity culture, it is crucial to study everyday uses of celebrity culture. Yet, studies in this area have been limited thus far, especially in non-Western contexts. This exploratory study focuses on the ways how young and middle-aged adults in everyday life in urban China discuss and value media celebrities. The results show that respondents have a rather similar way of valuing celebrity: celebrities need to have strong work ethics and showcase social responsibility; only then do they ‘earn’ their right to be considered ‘famous’. We conclude that these values are closely related …

Anti-Communist Politics Of The Second Red Scare And How It Affected Hollywood And The Types Of Movies Being Made, Maddy Everson

Honors Program Theses

During the Second Red Scare from 1947 to 1957, anti-communist sentiment was rampant and affected Hollywood and the types of movies being made. This was due to governmental agencies—as well as non-governmental institutions and people—being suspicious of and investigating anyone who was suspected of having communist ties. This caused a level of fear that affected what was shown in the content of the movies and who could make them. It is important to examine how the movies and film industry was influenced by the Second Red Scare. This is because Hollywood was strongly affected not only at this time but …