Agenda Quiz Tropic Thunder - PowerPoint Presentation

1. AgendaQuizTropic Thunder DiscussionFuture of FilmTechnologyFinancing/ProductionForm/ContentFinal Exam ReviewFinal Thoughts

2. Orienting QuestionsWhat’s the central conflict? What are the inciting events and the climactic moments in the film?What are each characters’ motivations?Who do we identify with?What did you think, generally? Did you have a different experience watching this in a film class?

3. Who are the targets of satire in this film?Is this film trying to have it both ways, by making you laugh at people with disabilities and laugh at Hollywood’s treatment of people with disabilities at the same time?Also, what aspects of Hollywood are not satirized? I.e., OrientalismDoes the film assert its own set of values, or is it just attacking other systems of belief? Does satire ever build up, or can it only tear down?Godard said that the New Wave directors had tried to storm the castle, but found themselves trapped inside. David Foster Wallace said that irony and satire were the language of prisoners who had come to love their cages.Jonathan Swift: “Satire is a kind of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.” (1704).

4. How does Tropic Thunder convey the idea that race, masculinity, soldierliness, etc. are, at some level, performances?Judith Butler: “Heterosexuality is always in the process of imitating and approximating its own phantasmatic idealization of itself—and failing. Precisely [because of this], the project of heterosexual identity is propelled into an endless repetition of itself.”How do the performances mesh with these (“real” and “fictional”) actors’ celebrity personas?Other aspects of performance:Improvisational acting?Is Ben Stiller miscast? Did Downey Jr. deserve an Oscar nomination?

5. Jay Baruchel As Kevin Sandusky As “Brooklyn”Jack BlackAs Jeff PortnoyAs “Fats”Robert Downey, Jr. As Kirk Lazarus As “Lincoln Osiris”Brandon T. Jackson As Alpa Chino As “Motown”Ben Stiller As Tugg Speedman As “Four Leaf”

6. Politics of RepresentationIs it ever okay for an actor to play a person of a different race?Recent Controversies:Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers ClubNon-Asian actors playing Asian characters in Last Airbender, Akira, etc.“Artie” in Glee

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8. Tropic Thunder by the NumbersProduction Budget: $92 millionSalaries? Unclear.Gross Revenue:$110,416,702 (USA) $77,557,336 (Non-USA)Domestic Video Sales: $51,282,713

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10. 1. Production: Hollywood ConglomerateAll the major film studios are owned by global corporations/conglomerates:Viacom/Paramount, Time Warner, Fox/News Corp, Sony, Disney, Comcast/NBCVertical integration returns: Studios buy megaplexesHorizontal integration across media markets: TV, DVD, Web.Diversification: Product Placement, Promotional Tie-ins, action figures, etc.

11. 2. Technology: Digital ConversionMost theaters project a digital copy of the movie, even if the movie was shot on filmMost movies are still shot with film, but more and more directors are switching to digital: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_shot_in_digital"The fact that most films now are not presented in 35mm means that the war is lost . . . Digital projections, that's just television in public. And apparently the whole world is okay with television in public, but what I knew as cinema is dead” – Quentin Tarantino at Cannes 2014Home Movie Market in 2013:Digital movie purchases rose 47% to $1.19 billionDVD and Blu-ray sales dropped 8% to $7.78 billion**http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304887104579306440621142958

12. 3. Formal and Thematic TrendsInfluence of foreign box office on Hollywood filmmakingi.e. Comic book movies succeed b/c they’re not nationalist, easy to sell abroad3-D: Still Declining39% of 2014 box office, down from 42% in 2013 and 53% in 2012.* Mavericks!“People who refuse to conform to the accepted way of making movies” (517)Who’s out there doing cool stuff these days? How is it different?* http://www.deadline.com/2014/02/2014-box-office-will-be-hurt-by-diminishing-popularity-of-3d-movies-analyst/

13. End of the Term Wrap-UpThoughts on the blog?Other assignments?Favorite Movie? Least favorite?Final Thoughts?Do the course evaluation!

14. Three More Movies about Movies (on Netflix):The Act of Killing (2013)All About Eve (1950)Barton Fink (1991)Also: The Stories We Tell (2013) And: Sullivan’s Travels (1941)Three Movies Not About Movies (On Netflix):Wake in Fright (1971)Melancholia (2011)The Sound of Noise (2010)Also: TV

15. The Movie ListSherlock, Jr. (1924)Man With A Movie Camera (1929)Singing in the Rain (1952)Peeping Tom (1960)8½ (1963)Perfumed Nightmare (1977)Through the Olive Trees (1994)The Watermelon Woman (1996)Millennium Actress (2001)Tropic Thunder (2008)

16. Formal CategoriesCinematographyMedium Shot/Long shot, Tracking, High Angle, Etc.EditingShot, Match Cut, Dissolve, Etc.Mise-en-sceneBlocking, Hard/Soft Lighting, Etc.SoundOnscreen/Offscreen, Diegetic/Nondiegetic, etc.ActingNaturalistic/Non-naturalistic, “Chameleon” actors, etc.NarrativePerspective, Characterization (Flat/Round Characters), etc.GenreCharacteristics and examples of genres, etc.

17. Major MovementsSoviet MontageClassical Hollywood Style (Continuity Editing, Three-Act Structure, Etc.)Italian Neo-realismThe (French) New WaveThird CinemaIranian New WaveU.S. “Indie” cinema

18. Rundown of the HistoryHow cinema began in the 1890s The impact of synchronized sound in the late 1920sHow animation became a major part of the film industryModernism and early alternatives to Hollywood storytellingThe decline of the Hollywood studio system in the 1950sThe rise of “New Waves” and auteur-driven cinema across the globeThe impact of decolonization on global filmmakingThe rise of the Hollywood Blockbuster The re-emergence of American independent cinemaHollywood today (ch. 11)): Current production system, transition to digital

19. Big QuestionsIf someone were to ask you to explain the history of the movies in just a few minutes, how would you do it?Our screenings in class spanned almost one hundred years (they also covered a large swath of the globe). How has film form changed over the years? Did you see patterns emerge about how different film styles come to prominence? How do different film movements respond to one another?

20. Big QuestionsThe history of cinema is also a history of exclusion and marginalization—of people of color, of women, of LGBT people—that continues to this day (in this year’s Cannes Film Festival, for example, only two of the 18 features were directed by women). How do these exclusions affect the kinds of films we see on screen? How can or should a film studies class take account of these exclusions?Why movies about movies? What are some of the different ways that writers and directors approach this theme? Why are there so many movies about making movies among the “best movies of all time” lists? What do movies about movies tell us about ourselves, as viewers?

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