The group that I am in for the culture jamming assignment consists of myself and Alex Smith.
Our plan is basically to create a culture jam about the Nike ad 'Just do it' and making a statement about their use of child labor.
Basically we assume that as long as we can get the culture jam out to a mass audience then it would be picked up by the media due to the controversial aspect of it. We are planning on creating facebook groups and writing on I-report to bring the issue to light.
We are going to try to create one or two photo ads and a video add to parody the nike advertisments in a way that brings to light their use of illegal foreign sweatshops and child labour to create their products. We will also hopefully put together a news story to show the culture jam on. We think that with all these factors it is definetely possible that we would be noticed by the mainstream media. And if not...we will vandalise some billboards or something.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Week five: Consumption and Productiong and Culture Jamming.
Week fives content discussed the theory that we are at essence consumers of content which while definetely true was an interesting way to look at things I found.
We looked at all the different outlets that provided us this content (I.e small screen, big screen) as well as the different people/institutions that provided content to the consumers. Of note was the dramatic way digital media has effected how we consume our content and I agree that it has changed things drastically as we now can acess most any content we want at anytime. \
We were also asked to engage with the term culture jam
According to definition website http://dictionary.babylon.com/culture%20jamming/ (accessed 3rd September 2010) Is the "act of transforming mass media to produce a commentary on itself." This seemed fairly self explanitory to me so basically you would change a form of media to show it in a different angle here are some examples.
The first example of culture jamming according to the website http://www2.inow.com/~sam/cultjam2.html) (Accessed 3nd September 2010) was the work of the Billboard Liberation front a group who would alter and change the message given by billboards.
This is an example of their work which points out that McDonnells injects their cows with growth hormones.
Another example of culture jamming which forced the defense media to withdraw all advertsing campaigns from student locations was seen with this parody of a defense add basically labeling soldiers as tools of the government fighting pointless wars.
While I disagree with the message it certainly was effective.
The third example of culture jamming was also from http://www.cultcase.com/2008/01/two-edged-media-sword-10-examples-of.html (Accessed 3rd September 2010) and showed a parody of the advertisments for the hummer saying that is used oil that men were dying for.
so the term culture jamming should definetely be understood through these examples.
We looked at all the different outlets that provided us this content (I.e small screen, big screen) as well as the different people/institutions that provided content to the consumers. Of note was the dramatic way digital media has effected how we consume our content and I agree that it has changed things drastically as we now can acess most any content we want at anytime. \
We were also asked to engage with the term culture jam
According to definition website http://dictionary.babylon.com/culture%20jamming/ (accessed 3rd September 2010) Is the "act of transforming mass media to produce a commentary on itself." This seemed fairly self explanitory to me so basically you would change a form of media to show it in a different angle here are some examples.
The first example of culture jamming according to the website http://www2.inow.com/~sam/cultjam2.html) (Accessed 3nd September 2010) was the work of the Billboard Liberation front a group who would alter and change the message given by billboards.
Another example of culture jamming which forced the defense media to withdraw all advertsing campaigns from student locations was seen with this parody of a defense add basically labeling soldiers as tools of the government fighting pointless wars.
The third example of culture jamming was also from http://www.cultcase.com/2008/01/two-edged-media-sword-10-examples-of.html (Accessed 3rd September 2010) and showed a parody of the advertisments for the hummer saying that is used oil that men were dying for.
Week four : Short Films
Having to find three short films I immediatly decided to go to youtube and have a look at what was avaiblable.
The first I came across was a short online film called 'Black Button' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrKnhOJ-R80
It is about a man waking up after an accident and he is presented with the choice of pushing a black button to get $10,000,000 of course the downside is one person on earth will die if he presses it. It is a pretty cool premise naturally focusing on the choices we have to make and the idea of temptation and greed. I found the acting wasn't amazing on the waking man's part, but the man who is providing him with the choice plays the role of diving like being with no morals good or bad. Of course the movie has an ironic twist ending like many dramatic short films and I'd say te twist was pretty good if not a little predictable but it covers the theme of an afterlife quite well.
The second short film was titled Fallen Angel and was an animated film about the end of civilisation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbr-yajq1ao
It covers a girl walking through a bleak destroyed city with her inner monologue talking about 'everything taken from her'. We then see numerous scenes depicting how the world ends with battles and riots before eventually nuclear weapons are deployed. Eventually we see the girl before the war started and how the changes came suddenly and affected her. She travels around while her town is attacked trying to survive. The film definetely gives a survival theme and has a very thinly veiled anti-war message. The animation is very good and the music is incredibly simply but used to great effect.
The third short film was called Vrienden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86ZmJel27I And was a comedic short film about two neighbours trying to make each others lives hell.
Straight away we see one of the men walk outside to his car which has been messed with in many different ways and the way he just casually fixes thinsg shows that clearly these to have been doing this for some time. The two men try to anooy each other in various ways throughput the piece including bricking one of their doorways up and one accidentally drills the other in the eye. The humor of this piece is mostly quite subtle and the oure unexplained hate between the two is a source of hilarity. I liked this piece it wasn't that funny but it was still very enjoyable.
As for the week four lecture content we discussed the in depth history of film and how it has evolved from the silent era when black and white talkies were the height of film technology to the eventaul first broad band movie release of 2007. We talked about many of the way the web could become a tool in filmmaking and how short films really flourish due to the intrnet. I agree that one of the problems with film on the internet as there is nothing to stop the poor films being made and distributed as there isn't any kind of quality threshold.
It also interested me that there were numerous examples of filmakers who had actually made their name with online films such as '405' and 'George Lucas in Love.'
I also agree that as of now the internet is not a good medium for feature films though it is definetely a great place for the creation of short films.
The first I came across was a short online film called 'Black Button' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrKnhOJ-R80
It is about a man waking up after an accident and he is presented with the choice of pushing a black button to get $10,000,000 of course the downside is one person on earth will die if he presses it. It is a pretty cool premise naturally focusing on the choices we have to make and the idea of temptation and greed. I found the acting wasn't amazing on the waking man's part, but the man who is providing him with the choice plays the role of diving like being with no morals good or bad. Of course the movie has an ironic twist ending like many dramatic short films and I'd say te twist was pretty good if not a little predictable but it covers the theme of an afterlife quite well.
The second short film was titled Fallen Angel and was an animated film about the end of civilisation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbr-yajq1ao
It covers a girl walking through a bleak destroyed city with her inner monologue talking about 'everything taken from her'. We then see numerous scenes depicting how the world ends with battles and riots before eventually nuclear weapons are deployed. Eventually we see the girl before the war started and how the changes came suddenly and affected her. She travels around while her town is attacked trying to survive. The film definetely gives a survival theme and has a very thinly veiled anti-war message. The animation is very good and the music is incredibly simply but used to great effect.
The third short film was called Vrienden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86ZmJel27I And was a comedic short film about two neighbours trying to make each others lives hell.
Straight away we see one of the men walk outside to his car which has been messed with in many different ways and the way he just casually fixes thinsg shows that clearly these to have been doing this for some time. The two men try to anooy each other in various ways throughput the piece including bricking one of their doorways up and one accidentally drills the other in the eye. The humor of this piece is mostly quite subtle and the oure unexplained hate between the two is a source of hilarity. I liked this piece it wasn't that funny but it was still very enjoyable.
As for the week four lecture content we discussed the in depth history of film and how it has evolved from the silent era when black and white talkies were the height of film technology to the eventaul first broad band movie release of 2007. We talked about many of the way the web could become a tool in filmmaking and how short films really flourish due to the intrnet. I agree that one of the problems with film on the internet as there is nothing to stop the poor films being made and distributed as there isn't any kind of quality threshold.
It also interested me that there were numerous examples of filmakers who had actually made their name with online films such as '405' and 'George Lucas in Love.'
I also agree that as of now the internet is not a good medium for feature films though it is definetely a great place for the creation of short films.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Week four
Week four discussed the beginning of the sensation which is online film or video.
We were given a number of questions to answer with regards to short films online
1. Where and when did useable online video start?
According to the website http://dembot.com/post/310798115/a-decade-in-history-of-online-video (accessed 2 September 2010) online video was around but lacked any real viewers until about 2004 when a number of online video's such as Howard Dean's political campaign took the online world by storm. It seems to make the point that online video's were not popular at all untill 2004 when groups starting gathering together and creating large scale online video websites.
As internet connections increased and networks became stronger online videos became more common and in April of 2005 youtube posted it's first video and so began what is probably the most popular online video site on the internet.
2.
What recent innovations are being used to lure us in the movies?
What are they luring us from?
Innovations to lure us to movies come in all shapes and forms such as online campaigns and advertisements to build up excitment for a movie via little games or trailers.
Movie makers are attempting to lure us outside and to the cinema's as this day and age there is the possibility of downloading and watching films online and due to all the piracy ect this can really cost the movie companies alot of their wealth.
Question 3. Are short films still being made? Why? Who pays for them to be made?
Short films are still being made evidence is shown with all of the dedicated festivals and groups who continue to create and distribute the short films http://www.aussieshortfilms.com/ (Accessed 2nd September 2010) (www.tropfest.com/) Short films still gather interest because of their more artistic and refined focus on specific themes rather than genres like mainstream movies. A large part of the reason short films will probably always be available is websites like youtube allow people to demonstrate their filmaking and present the finished products to a large audience.
Short films seem to be funded privately by different companies such as Metro screen who fund short films to find breakout directors. http://www.metroscreen.org.au/breakout.htm
Question 4. Define the term viral with relation to movies.
Viral video's are defined as video's which gain popularity by being spread over the internet. So naturally a viral movie is one which has been shared online and quickly become popular.
Question 5. Online video distribution isn't limited to the short film format. We are now starting to see television styled shows made solely for internet release (webisodes). Find an example of this style of content and discuss how viewing television content in this way can positively and negatively affect the viewer's experience.
A good example of the idea of webisodes is the office comdedy series 'Back on Topps' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWlL9R6Q_OU Back on Topps began as a completely online webseries and like many others is humerous rather than dramatic or serious.
The advantage of such webseries is that they can usually be viewed for free and are by far more easily accessable than say going to the movies. It has an advantage over most t.v shows as you can choose when to watch these webseries and they are usually not inerupted by more than one advertisement (Usually placed at the begining)
Of course it is disadvantagous as there is very little if any atmpsphere when watching an online webseries and unless you have a very large computer monitor you won't get to experience the same quality and picture size and you would say at a movie or on a good tv. Also watching shows/movies online is far less social than doing so with friends out at a movie or on tv.
As for three short films that are being distributed online I looked on http://www.youtube.com/ (2nd September 2010) and found that
We were given a number of questions to answer with regards to short films online
1. Where and when did useable online video start?
According to the website http://dembot.com/post/310798115/a-decade-in-history-of-online-video (accessed 2 September 2010) online video was around but lacked any real viewers until about 2004 when a number of online video's such as Howard Dean's political campaign took the online world by storm. It seems to make the point that online video's were not popular at all untill 2004 when groups starting gathering together and creating large scale online video websites.
As internet connections increased and networks became stronger online videos became more common and in April of 2005 youtube posted it's first video and so began what is probably the most popular online video site on the internet.
2.
What recent innovations are being used to lure us in the movies?
What are they luring us from?
Innovations to lure us to movies come in all shapes and forms such as online campaigns and advertisements to build up excitment for a movie via little games or trailers.
Movie makers are attempting to lure us outside and to the cinema's as this day and age there is the possibility of downloading and watching films online and due to all the piracy ect this can really cost the movie companies alot of their wealth.
Question 3. Are short films still being made? Why? Who pays for them to be made?
Short films are still being made evidence is shown with all of the dedicated festivals and groups who continue to create and distribute the short films http://www.aussieshortfilms.com/ (Accessed 2nd September 2010) (www.tropfest.com/) Short films still gather interest because of their more artistic and refined focus on specific themes rather than genres like mainstream movies. A large part of the reason short films will probably always be available is websites like youtube allow people to demonstrate their filmaking and present the finished products to a large audience.
Short films seem to be funded privately by different companies such as Metro screen who fund short films to find breakout directors. http://www.metroscreen.org.au/breakout.htm
Question 4. Define the term viral with relation to movies.
Viral video's are defined as video's which gain popularity by being spread over the internet. So naturally a viral movie is one which has been shared online and quickly become popular.
Question 5. Online video distribution isn't limited to the short film format. We are now starting to see television styled shows made solely for internet release (webisodes). Find an example of this style of content and discuss how viewing television content in this way can positively and negatively affect the viewer's experience.
A good example of the idea of webisodes is the office comdedy series 'Back on Topps' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWlL9R6Q_OU Back on Topps began as a completely online webseries and like many others is humerous rather than dramatic or serious.
The advantage of such webseries is that they can usually be viewed for free and are by far more easily accessable than say going to the movies. It has an advantage over most t.v shows as you can choose when to watch these webseries and they are usually not inerupted by more than one advertisement (Usually placed at the begining)
Of course it is disadvantagous as there is very little if any atmpsphere when watching an online webseries and unless you have a very large computer monitor you won't get to experience the same quality and picture size and you would say at a movie or on a good tv. Also watching shows/movies online is far less social than doing so with friends out at a movie or on tv.
As for three short films that are being distributed online I looked on http://www.youtube.com/ (2nd September 2010) and found that
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