http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2015/03/31/Film-TV-tax-breaks-a-huge-waste-of-money-some-believe/5191427823404/

In class we often discuss the money behind big Hollywood films. Professor Sikand made a comment a week or so ago that a majority of films are no longer produced in Hollywood but in other countries outside of the United States. This article discusses that idea the continuous migration of the film industry across seas.

My father is a visual effects supervisor and used to work for a company called Rhythm and Hues. He accepted an Oscar on the same night his company went bankrupt. This was a result of the company outsourcing to India and leaving no jobs for people in the  visual effects industry that lived in America. They outsourced to India because of tax breaks and subsidies. This is also discussed in the article I posted. 

In Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s Miss Representation, a man was interviewed discussing “family hour.” A chunk of time set aside for national television where profanity and inappropriate  material was banned so a family could sit down together and watch  a show appropriate for all ages. 

This concept seems very interesting to me. On one hand why should the media regulate violence and pornography when someone can just watch the news and get similar images that are accounted from real events.  Why should media be limited and regulated when other art forms are not. No on tells a painter his pieces are too provocative to be showcased. I can’t form a formal idea but I can see the other side of the argument that it would be appropriate to have a designated time for “PG” media only. Any thoughts?

Okay, so I was honestly a bit offended when someone said that the plaque that said it’s not hard to work twice as hard as a man was said to be man hating. That’s not the meaning of that, or the feminist movement at all. What was being said is that men can accomplish much progress by doing the bare minimum. For women to accomplish the same recognition they have to do twice as much work. For instance, relate this to grades: both a man and a woman wrote a paper that was graded an A but the man wrote a B worthy paper. He didn’t try as hard but accomplished the same feat. It’s like playing a video game on easy. It’s the same game but not as much effort is required to succeed. Becoming so hyper-offended at a humorous saying is also really disturbing. Of all the misogyny present in the world, are men really so insecure that they can’t take a well-mannered joke? There were at least 20 times more offensive things said towards women and this was the comment that we chose to get offended about. Because that would totally throw off the whole world order if a woman was somehow legitimately acknowledged for her accomplishments and was gratified in being smarter, or at least more hard working, than a man.

While watching Miss Representation, both the statistics and the stories of some women in which Newsom decided to include in her documentary definitely shocked me.  Not to mention, it seemed that every field of media, whether it be politics, music, film, etc. seemed to have its own way of somehow being slightly sexist or extremely sexist (depending on the situation.) I also thought how it was very interesting how Newsom was able to interview so many powerful and respected women in the world today, such as Condoleezza Rice, which I found to be very interesting.

However, there were some things about the film which I believed could have made it even more effective.  I believe the documentary could’ve been more effective if she showed more clips of music videos or from films.  In the documentary she did show a lot of clips from politics, however whenever there were clips from movies or music videos they would last for maybe half a second and then cut to another music video or film clip, not allowing the audience to fully see how certain movies could misrepresent women.  I also believed that while her own story was very sad, I feel as if she did not really explain how the media is affecting her daughter, she just said it has the possibility of affecting her daughter.  Newsom also explained her own story in a very monotone voice, which made her seem as if she was not very passionate about the material, which I found surprising for she made this entire, powerful documentary on the issue yet when she was telling her own story she seemed as if she was not passionate about it or was upset by the issue.

In Miss Representation, there is an emphasis on the medias ability to diminish the accomplishments of many political figures including Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. I was personally infuriated by the clips they put together showing how men would portray women as “bitches” or “ditzy” to make them seem like they weren’t capable of taking part in the decision making that goes into running a country. Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are two very intelligent women with a better education than most politicians can say (Hillary Clinton attended Yale Law school). The fact that the media attempts to shut down these politicians because they are female and make it seem like they aren’t strong enough to run the country is just absurd.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom made the artistic choice to add personal narrative to her documentary Miss Representation. 

Newsom uses her personal narrative to introduce the sexist struggle women in America face. This narrative creates relatability and makes the documentary more credible. By expressing her personal connect to the topic at hand, hooks the viewer and enables Newsom to convey her message more effectively.

An example of a hybrid documentary is The Cove. The documentary is expository when it addresses the issue of Japanese dolphin slaughter. However, it is also a participatory documentary when the filmmaker engages with subjects in Japan to provide their own opinions about the issue.

I feel like the entire point of Marjane telling the audience her story, was just to lead up to the ending. There really was no context of why she started the story besides letting us know how she got to America and all the events leading up to it. I felt like that very last scene in which the taxi driver asks her where she is from and she just responds “Iran” that even though she will try to explain where she is from with all her chaotic background, people will just here Iran and feel like that’s something interesting. No one will ever no all the wars and heart breaking trouble that she had to go through just to stay alive and make it to America. The only thing that they will hear is “Iran” and perhaps think about some recent events but would never actually link it to the person that you were talking to. Many people would think how could this person possibly have any involvement with what actually happened in Iran, she was probably away from all the mess. This could prove to be true in some circumstances, but not this one, and a person like Marjane would just be too exhausted to even explain her story. After all, it did take a total of two hours.

I have never seen any type of animated film like Satrapi and Paronnaud’s 2007 film Persepolis. In general, most animated films are created for children, such as many of the Disney classics. Meanwhile, Persepolis is animated film more geared to adults. In a traditional animated film there is always a happy ending that deals with being true to yourself and finding your true love. Usually, these films involve prince and princesses, magic, evil witches, and so on. In contrast, Persepolis deals with a personal story blended with historical events. Although it wasn’t exactly based on a specific person’s true story it could very might have happened to someone. Thus, due to the realism of the plot, viewers can develop a personal connection to the story. With such a complex story being told in animation, I found it very interesting how the animation was created with simple shapes and basic colors. This helped to focus more on the importance of the story at hand instead of being distracted by textures and colors.

In Polanski’s 1974 film Chinatown, there were many interesting symbols to be identified.One example is the title name, Chinatown. Chinatown is not just a place that Jack Nicholson’s character fears. It is a place that stands for corruption where authority means nothing and there is no room for good intentions. This can be seen from both Nicholson and Faye Dunaway’s characters. J.J. Gittes has the good intentions of solving the crime about the death of Evelyn Mulwray’s husband and the corruption going on in the authority of the city and how Mulwray wants to keep her daughter safe and attempts to leave but is killed. The conclusion is that nothing good can come from Chinatown.