Think About the Themes

Watch the following film trailer of Hollywood films . How do you think the constant creation of war films such as these will impact the way American society (socially) will think and act (politically) with regards to their military?

Value and Ideological Control

Choose a film that you enjoy. Provide a brief description of the plot. Provide a trailer or movie poster. Look up the rating using the OFRB website. Do you agree or disagree with the rating? Justify your answer. 

How we negotiate the meaning of music in film

Imagine that you have been hired to help score an upcoming film. Choose a song that you feel provides the clearest example of a particular emotion or state of mind. Try to choose a song that has not been used in a film. 

Include a link to the song and try to explain what about the song develops the emotion.

Film Constructs Reality

What film have you seen that you feel did a particularly good job of constructing a believable reality? Explain what about the film made it seem so real. Provide clips or screen shots if possible. 

Choose a film that did not do a good job in constructing reality. Explain why not.

Midterm Summative Blog

Choose a film that depicts the reality of a certain subgroup of people. You may wish to consider different ethnicities or particular job roles (police, politicians, etc).  Using details from the film, explain how the film depicts this group of people? Through research, or personal experience, explain how this depiction fits or does not fit with your perception of reality.

Be sure to add multimedia elements to this blog post, as it will marked using the rubric provided at the beginning of the semester. Your blog post is due by Sunday morning.

All Film is a Construction

The steps and expense in making a feature film can be quite elaborate. While reading this article, create a point form list of the steps and expenses in the creation of a Hollywood film.

Main Theme in Sound City

One of the overwhelming themes in the documentary Sound City is the idea that due to the increased use of technology, “music just isn’t as good anymore.”

Choose a song from before 1995 and explain why it either proves or disproves this idea. 

OR

Choose a song from after 1995 and explain why this proves or disproves the idea that “music is not as good as it used to be.”

March 5- Class Work

The work to be done in class today can be found at http://mrconnolly.pbworks.com/w/page/64204130/Media%20Concept%207

If you are missing the assignment sheet, it can be found at http://mrconnolly.pbworks.com/w/file/64205751/Concept%20%237-%20work%20sheet.pdf

Exploring Media Ownership

Follow the link below to a visualization of media ownership in Canada. On your blog, include a link to this visualization. Also, create a list of the parent companies (the companies at the beginning of the ownership chains) who own most of the media in Canada. Identify any ownership connections between these large companies.

http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/visualizations/8aff56ca4c9b11deae82000255111976/comments/e0b0b1b4513611de84c7000255111976

Concept #6- The Source

Where do you go for your information about the world? Are there particular news shows, newspapers, websites or social media outlets that form the basis of your knowledge of world events?

1. Choose a source of information that you use regularly.  If this is a source that you use and trust, you must be having a preferred reading to either its content or the company itself. What about this source is appealing to you?

2. Research your source. Try to answer as many of the following questions as possible (this may take some time and effort);

a. Who owns your source? Is it owned by a larger company? Is it privately owned or traded on the stock market? Who owns the most stock? Try to find the overall parent company.

b. Who is the head of your source? This could be a CEO or head editor. Ultimately, who is the boss? Provide some detail about this person.

c. What are the commercial implications of your source? How do they make money?

d. Looking at the content of your source, how does the need to make money impact the content of your source? Explain with detail?