Download or read book Directed by Allen Smithee written by Jeremy Braddock and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Allen Smithee specializes in the mediocre. He is versatile. He is prolific. And he doesn't exist. From 1969 until 1999, Allen Smithee was the pseudonym adopted by Hollywood directors when they wished not to be associated with films ostensibly of their making . Encompassing over fifty films of various stripes -- B movies, sequels, music videos, made-for-TV movies -- Smithee's three decades of work affords the authors of this volume a unique opportunity to reassess the claims of auteurism, both in its traditional guise and in the more commodified form it currently assumes. Sometimes treating Smithee as an auteur in much the same way critics and scholars have treated directors as diverse as Douglas Sirk, Abbas Kiarostami, and Quentin Tarantino, the contributors reclaim new possibilities for auteurist filmmaking and film studies, even as they show what an empty display it has recently become. In accounting for this change, the essays in this volume employ innovative theories of authorship to recapture the subversive effect that auteurism once enjoyed. Thus the Smithee name becomes part of a larger discussion of the economics and history of pseudonyms in filmmaking -- notably in the blacklist of the 1950s -- as well as an opportunity to employ Jacques Derrida's theory of the signature to recover obscured economic and historic contexts within Smithee's films. Unique in its focus, innovative in its approach, Directed by Allen Smithee argues that it is precisely through throwaway films such as Smithee's that recent Hollywood cinema can best be studied.
Download or read book Improper Names written by Marco Deseriis and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improper Names offers a genealogy and theory of the “improper name,” which author Marco Deseriis defines as the adoption of the same pseudonym by organized collectives, affinity groups, and individual authors. Although such names are often invented to pursue a specific social or political agenda, they are soon appropriated for different and sometimes diverging purposes. This book examines the tension arising from struggles for control of a pseudonym’s symbolic power. Deseriis provides five fascinating and widely varying case studies. Ned Ludd was the legendary and eponymous leader of the English Luddites, textile workers who threatened the destruction of industrial machinery and then advanced a variety of economic and political demands. Alan Smithee—an alias coined by Hollywood film directors in 1969 in order to disown films that were recut by producers—became a contested signature and was therefore no longer effective to signal prevarication to Hollywood insiders. Monty Cantsin was an “open pop star” created by U.S. and Canadian artists in the late 1970s to critique bourgeois notions of authorship, but its communal character was compromised by excessive identification with individual users of the name. The Italian media activists calling themselves Luther Blissett, aware of the Cantsin experience, implemented measures to prevent individuals from assuming the alias, which was used to author media pranks, sell apocryphal manuscripts to publishers, fabricate artists and artworks, and author best-selling novels. The longest chapter here is devoted to the contemporary “hacktivist” group known as Anonymous, which protests censorship and restricted access to information and information technologies. After delving into a rich philosophical debate on community among those who have nothing in common, the book concludes with a reflection on how the politics of improper names affects present-day anticapitalist social movements such as Occupy and 15-M.
Download or read book Hollywood s Artists written by Virginia Wright Wexman and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, the director is considered the leading artistic force behind a film. The production of a Hollywood movie requires the labor of many people, from screenwriters and editors to cinematographers and boom operators, but the director as author of the film overshadows them all. How did this concept of the director become so deeply ingrained in our understanding of cinema? In Hollywood’s Artists, Virginia Wright Wexman offers a groundbreaking history of how movie directors became cinematic auteurs that reveals and pinpoints the influence of the Directors Guild of America (DGA). Guided by Frank Capra’s mantra “one man, one film,” the Guild has portrayed its director-members as the creators responsible for turning Hollywood entertainment into cinematic art. Wexman details how the DGA differentiated itself from other industry unions, focusing on issues of status and creative control as opposed to bread-and-butter concerns like wages and working conditions. She also traces the Guild’s struggle for creative and legal power, exploring subjects from the language of on-screen credits to the House Un-American Activities Committee’s investigations of the movie industry. Wexman emphasizes the gendered nature of images of the great director, demonstrating how the DGA promoted the idea of the director as a masculine hero. Drawing on a broad array of archival sources, interviews, and theoretical and sociological insight, Hollywood’s Artists sheds new light on the ways in which the Directors Guild of America has shaped the role and image of directors both within the Hollywood system and in the culture at large.
Download or read book The Elusive Auteur written by Barrett Hodsdon and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-05-21 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The director's authorial role in filmmaking--the extent to which a film reflects his or her individual style and creative vision--has been much debated among film critics and scholars for decades. Drawing on generations of criticism, this study describes how the designation "auteur" has gone from stylistic criterion to product label--in what has always been an essentially collaborative industry. Examining the controversy in regard to Hollywood directors, the author compares directors and would-be auteurs of the classic studio system with those of contemporary Hollywood and its new climate of cultural entrepreneurship.
Download or read book Horror Film and Psychoanalysis written by Steven Jay Schneider and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-06-28 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Psychoanalytic theory has been the subject of attacks from philosophers, cultural critics and scientists who have questioned the cogency of its reasoning as well as the soundness of its premises. Nevertheless, when used to shed light on horror cinema, psychoanalysis in its various forms has proven to be a fruitful and provocative interpretative tool. This volume seeks to find the proper place of psychoanalytic thought in critical discussion of cinema in a series of essays that debate its legitimacy, utility and validity as applied to the horror genre. It distinguishes itself from previous work in this area through the self-consciousness with which psychoanalytic concepts are employed and the theorization that coexists with interpretations of particular horror films and subgenres.
Download or read book Film and Television In Jokes written by Bill van Heerden and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-09-02 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Only the Lonely (1991), Ally Sheedy appeases prospective mother-in-law Maureen O’Hara by going along to see the 1939 film How Green Was My Valley—starring Maureen O’Hara. Richard LaGravenese, slighted by critic Gene Siskel over his screenplay for The Fisher King (1991) wrote an unsavory character named Siskel into The Ref (1994). Movies and television shows often feature inside jokes. Sometimes there are characters named after crew members. Directors are often featured in cameo appearances—Alfred Hitchcock’s silhouette can be seen in Family Plot (1976), for example. This work catalogs such occurrences. Each entry includes the title of the film or show, year of release, and a full description of the in-joke.
Download or read book A V A to Z written by Richard W. Kroon and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2010-03-30 with total page 773 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Defining more than 10,000 words and phrases from everyday slang to technical terms and concepts, this dictionary of the audiovisual language embraces more than 50 subject areas within film, television, and home entertainment. It includes terms from the complete lifecycle of an audiovisual work from initial concept through commercial presentation in all the major distribution channels including theatrical exhibition, television broadcast, home entertainment, and mobile media. The dictionary definitions are augmented by more than 700 illustrations, 1,600 etymologies, and nearly 2,000 encyclopedic entries that provide illuminating anecdotes, historical perspective, and clarifying details.
Download or read book Hollywood s Copyright Wars written by Peter Decherney and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with Thomas Edison's aggressive copyright disputes and concluding with recent lawsuits against YouTube, Hollywood's Copyright Wars follows the struggle of the film, television, and digital media industries to influence and adapt to copyright law. Though much of Hollywood's engagement with the law occurs offstage, in the larger theater of copyright, many of Hollywood's most valued treasures, from Modern Times (1936) to Star Wars (1977), cannot be fully understood without appreciating their legal controversies. Peter Decherney shows that the history of intellectual property in Hollywood has not always mirrored the evolution of the law and recounts these extralegal solutions and their impact on American media and culture.
Download or read book Now I Know The Soviets Invaded Wisconsin written by Dan Lewis and published by Adams Media. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brand-new collection of fascinating facts spanning history and sports to science and pop culture that will have you proudly stating, “Now I know!” Did you know that a measles outbreak led to the assigning of phone numbers? How about the fact that pirates are the reason we don’t use the metric system in the United States? Or that there’s actually a reason why stepping on a LEGO hurts so damn much? Now I Know: Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?! is the ultimate challenge for even the biggest trivia buff. From the time a tomato plant stood up to a volcano to Portland’s great garbage battle of 2002, this book will put your general knowledge to the test and explain the most fascinating stories behind the world’s greatest facts. Based on the very popular newsletter, you are guaranteed to learn something new despite how much you already think you know. Covering 100 topics, Now I Know: Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?! will surprise any know-it-all who thinks they have nothing new to learn.
Download or read book New Media New Methods written by Jeff Rice and published by Parlor Press LLC. This book was released on 2008-07-22 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in New Media/New Methods: The Academic Turn from Literacy to Electracy pose an invention-based approach to new media studies. They represent a specific school of theory that has emerged from the work of graduates of the University of Florida. Working from the concept of electracy, as opposed to literacy, contributors pose various heuristics for new media rhetoric and theory.
Download or read book Sight and Sound written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry written by Anthony Slide and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New Historical Dictionary of the American Film Industry is a completely revised and updated edition of Anthony Slide's The American Film Industry, originally published in 1986 and recipient of the American Library Association's Outstanding Reference Book award for that year. More than 200 new entries have been added, and all original entries have been updated; each entry is followed by a short bibliography. As its predecessor, the new dictionary is unique in that it is not a who's who of the industry, but rather a what's what: a dictionary of producing and releasing companies, technical innovations, industry terms, studios, genres, color systems, institutions and organizations, etc. More than 800 entries include everything from Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to Zoom Lens, from Astoria Studios to Zoetrope. Outstanding Reference Source - American Library Association
Download or read book The Film Director written by Richard L. Bare and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2000-05-15 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this book you'll find: a solid nuts-and-bolts handbook for the beginning director; a candid look at the technical aspects of how directors work on a set; valuable guidance on moviemaking for the low-budget director; discussions of the careers and working methods of such leading directors as George Lucas, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee and Mimi Leder; practical knowledge on shooting, staging, camera style, rehearsing, and editing; examples and advice on how to get a job directing with a studio or production company." - Back cover.
Download or read book The Rough Guide to Film written by Rough Guides and published by Rough Guides UK. This book was released on 2008-05-01 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get the lowdown on the best fiction ever written. Over 230 of the world’s greatest novels are covered, from Quixote (1614) to Orhan Pamuk’s Snow (2002), with fascinating information about their plots and their authors – and suggestions for what to read next. The guide comes complete with recommendations of the best editions and translations for every genre from the most enticing crime and punishment to love, sex, heroes and anti-heroes, not to mention all the classics of comedy and satire, horror and mystery and many other literary genres. With feature boxes on experimental novels, female novelists, short reviews of interesting film and TV adaptations, and information on how the novel began, this guide will point you to all the classic literature you’ll ever need.
Download or read book British Music Videos 1966 2016 written by Caston Emily Caston and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on new archival evidence and interviews, and setting out a new theoretical framework for music video analysis, Emily Caston presents a major new analysis of music videos from 1966-2016, identifying not only their distinctive British traits, but their parallels with British film genres and styles. By analysing the genre, craft and authorial voice of music video within the context of film and popular music, the book sheds new light on existing theoretical and historical questions about audiences, authorship, art and the creative industries. Far from being an American cultural form, the book reveals music video's roots in British and European film traditions, and suggests significant ways in which British video has impacted popular film and music culture.
Download or read book The Reader s Digest written by DeWitt Wallace and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 1568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors written by Jerry Roberts and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2009-06-05 with total page 863 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From live productions of the 1950s like Requiem for a Heavyweight to big budget mini-series like Band of Brothers, long-form television programs have been helmed by some of the most creative and accomplished names in directing. Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors brings attention to the directors of these productions, citing every director of stand alone long-form television programs: made for TV movies, movie-length pilots, mini-series, and feature-length anthology programs, as well as drama, comedy, and musical specials of more than 60 minutes. Each of the nearly 2,000 entries provides a brief career sketch of the director, his or her notable works, awards, and a filmography. Many entries also provide brief discussions of key shows, movies, and other productions. Appendixes include Emmy Awards, DGA Awards, and other accolades, as well as a list of anthology programs. A much-needed reference that celebrates these often-neglected artists, Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the history of the medium.
