Download or read book J J Abrams vs Joss Whedon written by Wendy Sterba and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-12-08 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon are two of the most imaginative and accomplished men in Hollywood. As writers, directors, producers, and series creators, their credits have straddled the mediums of television and film and range across several genres, from science fiction and horror to action and drama. In addition to spearheading original projects like Lost and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, each has also made his mark on some of the most successful franchises in popular culture—from Mission Impossible, Star Trek, and Star Wars (Abrams) to Alien and the Avengers (Whedon). Their output—both oddly similar and yet also wildly different—stand at the heart of twenty-first century film and television. In J.J. Abrams vs. Joss Whedon, Wendy Sterba compares the parallel careers in film and television of these creative masterminds—pitting one against the other in a light-hearted competition. With in-depth discussions of their works, the author seeks to determine who is the Spielberg (or perhaps the Lucas) of the twenty-first century. The author looks back upon the beginnings of both men’s careers—to Whedon’s stint as a writer on Roseanne to Abrams’ early scripts for films like Regarding Henry—and forward to their most recent blockbusters, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This books also looks at non-fantasy successes (Abrams series Felicity; Whedon’s adaptation of Much Ado about Nothing), as well as commercial failures. At the heart of this study, however, is a tour of their genre-defining hits: Alias and Buffy, Lost and Angel, Super 8 and Serenity along with Whedon’s Avengers films, and Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek adventures. Filled with sharp-eyed analysis, illuminating anecdotes, and unexpected connections, J.J. Abrams vs.Joss Whedon will appeal to fans of either (or both!) of its subjects, and to any fan of well-told tales of the fantastic, on screens large or small.
Download or read book J J Abrams Vs Joss Whedon written by Wendy Sterba and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In J.J. Abrams vs. Joss Whedon, Wendy Sterba compares the parallel careers in film and television of two creative masterminds--pitting one against the other in a light-hearted competition. The author looks back upon the beginnings of both men's careers--Whedon's stint as a writer on Roseanne and Abrams' early scripts for films like Regarding Henry-
Download or read book The Philosophy of J J Abrams written by Patricia Brace and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-05-27 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American auteur Jeffrey Jacob "J. J." Abrams's genius for creating densely plotted scripts has won him broad commercial and critical success in TV shows such as Felicity (1998--2002), Emmy-nominated Alias (2001--2006), Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Lost (2004--2010), and the critically acclaimed Fringe (2008--2013). In addition, his direction in films such as Cloverfield (2008), Super 8 (2011), and the new Mission Impossible and Star Trek films has left fans eagerly awaiting his revival of the Star Wars franchise. As a writer, director, producer, and composer, Abrams seamlessly combines geek appeal with blockbuster intuition, leaving a distinctive stamp on all of his work and establishing him as one of Tinsel Town's most influential visionaries. In The Philosophy of J.J. Abrams, editors Patricia L. Brace and Robert Arp assemble the first collection of essays to highlight the philosophical insights of the Hollywood giant's successful career. The filmmaker addresses a diverse range of themes in his onscreen pursuits, including such issues as personal identity in an increasingly impersonal digitized world, the morality of terrorism, bioethics, friendship, family obligation, and free will. Utilizing Abrams's scope of work as a touchstone, this comprehensive volume is a guide for fans as well as students of film, media, and culture. The Philosophy of J.J. Abrams is a significant contribution to popular culture scholarship, drawing attention to the mind behind some of the most provocative television and movie plots of our day.
Download or read book The Whedonverse Catalog written by Don Macnaughtan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-06-04 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Director, producer and screenwriter Joss Whedon is a creative force in film, television, comic books and a host of other media. This book provides an authoritative survey of all of Whedon's work, ranging from his earliest scriptwriting on Roseanne, through his many movie and TV undertakings--Toy Story, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly/Serenity, Dr. Horrible, The Cabin in the Woods, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.--to his forays into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The book covers both the original texts of the Whedonverse and the many secondary works focusing on Whedon's projects, including about 2000 books, essays, articles, documentaries and dissertations.
Download or read book Joss Whedon FAQ written by John Kenneth Muir and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-11-22 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing a career-spanning view of everyone’s favorite geek writer and director, Joss Whedon FAQ offers answers to fans’ questions about one of the most significant pop culture auteurs of the past twenty-five years. The book gazes at Whedon’s early work in Hollywood as a script doctor on films such The Quick and the Dead (1995) and Waterworld (1995), and follows his career as he became the cult-favorite creator of such sensations as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. In addition to looking at Whedon’s ascent to blockbuster superhero filmmaking with titles such as The Avengers, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Justice League, this eminently readable compendium explores Whedon’s lesser known but no less fascinating forays into the world of Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing) and even big-screen romantic fantasy (In Your Eyes). The book closes with discussions of Whedon’s politics and feminism, as well as a catalog of his (unofficial) repertory company and a list of the most memorable on-screen character deaths in his canon.
Download or read book Power and Control in the Television Worlds of Joss Whedon written by Sherry Ginn and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2012-01-23 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since the premiere of the small-screen incarnation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997, the television worlds of Joss Whedon--which have grown to include Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse--have acquired a cult following of dedicated fans and inspired curious scholars. The quest for power and control over humans and other animals is a constant theme running throughout all four series. This study explores the myriad natural and supernatural methods Whedon's characters use to achieve power and control over unsuspecting friends and foes, including witchcraft and other paranormal means, love, aggression, and scientific devices such as psychosurgery and psychopharmacology. A catalog of characters and a complete list of episodes for each series completes this valuable addition to the growing body of scholarship on television's "Whedonverse."
Download or read book Birth of the Binge written by Dennis Broe and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-04 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deep-dive into the practice and execution of contemporary television viewing. Birth of the Binge: Serial TV and the End of Leisure describes and details serial television and "binge watching," the exceedingly popular form of contemporary television viewing that has come to dominance over the past decade. Author Dennis Broe looks at this practice of media consumption by suggesting that the history of seriality itself is a continual battleground between a more unified version of truth-telling and a more fractured form of diversion and addiction. Serial television is examined for the ways its elements (multiple characters, defined social location, and season and series arcs) are used alternately to illustrate a totality or to fragment social meaning. Broe follows his theoretical points with detailed illustrations and readings of several TV series in a variety of genres, including the systemization of work in Big Bang Theoryand Silicon Valley;the social imbrications of Justified; and the contesting of masculinity in Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly,and Dollhouse. In this monograph, Broe uses the work of Bernard Stiegler to relate the growth of digital media to a new phase of capitalism called "hyperindustrialism," analyzing the show Lostas suggestive of the potential as well as the poverty and limitations of digital life. The author questions whether, in terms of mode of delivery, commercial studio structure, and narrative patterns, viewers are experiencing an entirely new moment or a (hyper)extension of the earlier network era. The Office, The Larry Sanders Show, and Orange Is the New Blackare examined as examples of, respectively, network, cable, and online series with structure that is more consistent than disruptive. Finally, Broe examines three series by J. J. Abrams—Revolution, Believe, and 11.22.63—which employ the techniques and devices of serial television to criticize a rightward, neo-conservative drift in the American empire, noting that none of the series were able to endure in an increasingly conservative climate. The book also functions as a reference work, featuring an appendix of "100 Seminal Serial Series" and a supplementary index that television fans and media students and scholars will utilize in and out of the classroom.
Download or read book Homer Simpson Ponders Politics written by Joseph J. Foy and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is often said that the poet Homer "educated" ancient Greece. Joseph J. Foy and Timothy M. Dale have assembled a team of notable scholars who argue, quite persuasively, that Homer Simpson and his ilk are educating America and offering insights into the social order and the human condition. Following Homer Simpson Goes to Washington (winner of the John G. Cawelti Award for Best Textbook or Primer on American and Popular Culture) and Homer Simpson Marches on Washington, this exceptional volume reveals how books like J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, movies like Avatar and Star Wars, and television shows like The Office and Firefly define Americans' perceptions of society. The authors expand the discussion to explore the ways in which political theories play out in popular culture. Homer Simpson Ponders Politics includes a foreword by fantasy author Margaret Weis (coauthor/creator of the Dragonlance novels and game world) and is divided according to eras and themes in political thought: The first section explores civic virtue, applying the work of Plato and Aristotle to modern media. Part 2 draws on the philosophy of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Smith as a framework for understanding the role of the state. Part 3 explores the work of theorists such as Kant and Marx, and the final section investigates the ways in which movies and newer forms of electronic media either support or challenge the underlying assumptions of the democratic order. The result is an engaging read for undergraduate students as well as anyone interested in popular culture.
Download or read book Limitless written by Ajaz Ahmed and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There isn’t a magic formula for better leadership. But there is an enduring philosophy behind the most inspiring leaders in business, past and present. It’s one that has outlasted markets, currencies, meltdowns, revolutions and regime changes. Limitless is a celebration of the transformative power of thinking beyond conventional boundaries. Its fascinating true stories of the most audacious and accomplished business leaders remind us how the entrepreneurial spirit really does change the world for the better. The greatest leaders not only make a difference in their own times, but also leave behind the lessons they’ve learned for the world that goes on after them. Finding opportunities where others see obstacles, they show that the greatest investment any entrepreneur can make is to keep an open mind.
Download or read book The Last Midnight written by Leisa A. Clark and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-10-13 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you find yourself contemplating the imminent end of the world? Do you wonder how society might reorganize itself to cope with global cataclysm? (Have you begun hoarding canned goods and ammunition...?) Visions of an apocalypse began to dominate mass media well before the year 2000. Yet narratives since then present decidedly different spins on cultural anxieties about terrorism, disease, environmental collapse, worldwide conflict and millennial technologies. Many of these concerns have been made metaphorical: zombie hordes embody fear of out-of-control appetites and encroaching disorder. Other fears, like the prospect of human technology's turning on its creators, seem more reality based. This collection of new essays explores apocalyptic themes in a variety of post-millennial media, including film, television, video games, webisodes and smartphone apps.
Download or read book Hysterical written by Elissa Bassist and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SEMI-FINALIST FOR THE 2023 THURBER PRIZE FOR AMERICAN HUMOR • “A fiery cultural critique.” —Kirkus Reviews • “…a powerful, beautifully written, and utterly important book.”—New York Journal of Books “Hysterical is staggeringly good. … This is one of the most intelligent, painful, ridiculous, awesome, relevant things I've ever read.” –Roxane Gay “…an impressive debut. Elissa Bassist wrote it like a motherfucker."–Cheryl Strayed Acclaimed humor writer Elissa Bassist shares her journey to reclaim her authentic voice in a culture that doesn't listen to women in this medical mystery, cultural criticism, and rallying cry. Between 2016 and 2018, Elissa Bassist saw over twenty medical professionals for a variety of mysterious ailments. She had what millions of American women had: pain that didn’t make sense to doctors, a body that didn’t make sense to science, and a psyche that didn’t make sense to mankind. Then an acupuncturist suggested that some of her physical pain could be caged fury finding expression, and that treating her voice would treat the problem. It did. Growing up, Bassist's family, boyfriends, school, work, and television shows had the same expectation for a woman’s voice: less is more. She was called dramatic and insane for speaking her mind. She was accused of overreacting and playing victim for having unexplained physical pain. She was ignored or rebuked (like so many women throughout history) for using her voice “inappropriately” by expressing sadness or suffering or anger or joy. Because of this, she said “yes” when she meant “no”; she didn’t tweet #MeToo; and she never spoke without fear of being "too emotional." She felt rage, but like a good woman, she repressed it. In her witty and incisive debut, Bassist explains how girls and women internalize and perpetuate directives about their voices, making it hard to “just speak up” and “burn down the patriarchy.” But then their silence hurts them more than anything they could ever say. Hysterical is a memoir of a voice lost and found, a primer on new ways to think about a woman’s voice—about where it’s being squashed and where it needs amplification—and a clarion call for readers to unmute their voice, listen to it above all others, and use it again without regret.
Download or read book Television and New Media written by Jennifer Gillan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-10-18 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Television and New Media introduces students to the ways that new media technologies have transformed contemporary television production, distribution, and reception practices. Drawing upon recent examples including Lost, 24, and Heroes, this book closely examines the ways that television programming has changed with the influx of new media—transforming nearly every TV series into a franchise, whose on-air, online, and on-mobile elements are created simultaneously and held together through transmedia storytelling. This book is essential for understanding how creative and industrial forces have worked together in the new media age to transform the way we watch TV.
Download or read book Popular Media Cultures written by L. Geraghty and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-14 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular Media Cultures explores the relationship between audiences and media texts, their paratexts and interconnected ephemera. Authors focus on the cultural work done by media audiences, how they engage with social media and how convergence culture impacts on the strategies and activities of popular media fans.
Download or read book Tarnished Heroes Charming Villains and Modern Monsters written by Lynnette Porter and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The heroes, villains, and monsters portrayed in such popular science fiction television series as Heroes, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Doctor Who, and Torchwood, as well as Joss Whedon's many series, illustrate a shift from traditional, clearly defined characterizations toward much murkier definitions. Traditional heroes give way to "gray" heroes who must become more like the villains or monsters they face if they are going to successfully save society. This book examines the ambiguous heroes and villains, focusing on these characters' different perspectives on morality and their roles within society. Appendices include production details for each series, descriptions and summaries of pivotal episodes, and a list of selected texts for classroom use. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television written by Michael Hauskeller and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-13 with total page 743 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does popular culture's relationship with cyborgs, robots, vampires and zombies tell us about being human? Insightful scholarly perspectives shine a light on how film and television evince and portray the philosophical roots, the social ramifications and the future visions of a posthumanist world.
Download or read book The Multiple Worlds of Fringe written by Tanya R. Cochran and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-08-12 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With diverse contributions from scholars in English literature, psychology, and film and television studies, this collection of essays contextualizes Fringe as a postmodern investigation into what makes us human and as an examination of how technology transforms our humanity. In compiling this collection, the editors sought material as multifaceted as the series itself, devoting sections to specific areas of interest explored by both the writers of Fringe and the writers of the essays: humanity, duality, genre and viewership.
Download or read book Violent Femmes written by Rosie White and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-11-13 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The female spy has long exerted a strong grip on the popular imagination. With reference to popular fiction, film and television Violent Femmes examines the figure of the female spy as a nexus of contradictory ideas about femininity, power, sexuality and national identity. Fictional representations of women as spies have recurrently traced the dynamic of women’s changing roles in British and American culture. Employing the central trope of women who work as spies, Rosie White examines cultural shifts during the twentieth century regarding the role of women in the professional workplace. Violent Femmes examines the female spy as a figure in popular discourse which simultaneously conforms to cultural stereotypes and raises questions about women's roles in British and American culture, in terms of gender, sexuality and national identity. Immensely useful for a wide range of courses such as film and television studies, English, cultural studies, women’s studies, gender studies, media studies, communications and history, this book will appeal to students from undergraduate level upwards.
