Blade Runner by Ridley Scott is the most famous of the films developed from Phillip K. Dick's novels. It is set in the future with the technology for androids being developed even further and memories being imprinted from which they develop emotions, we can see that Dick is not only expressing a deep concern for what may happen to humanity, should the same things occur, but it also plays to the audience, giving them a setting which is not too far off set from reality, for instance the opening scene in Tokyo. We can clearly recognize the language of the signs and unlike many SF movies there are not strange disfigured aliens, no super sophisticated technology in such a simple place, even the vehicle used, despite being able to fly, appears to be damaged and worn. These are the sort of details that make Dick's work so much more different from other SF writers.
And as with most of Dick's work there is always a subliminal message behind even the smallest detail. Sam pointed this out in his blog, but I think I need to reiterate it. The memories which have been implanted into the 'brains' of the Replicant are obviously artificial but as Dick has also implied in the article by Brown (2001) from last week; "the universe is only apparently real, an illusion behind which the truth might dwell". So is he trying to put in our minds that it's a possibility that our own memories are not real, that the universe is constructed for us, similar to themes from The Matrix trilogy.
These pseudo-realism that Dick creates in his SF is one that is not only entirely different from most other narratives in the genre, but they also attract audiences for the philosophical mental discussions that undoubtedly occur each time a novel or short story of his is written or one of the films based on his writings.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Gabriel Week 7
I believe The Man in the High Castle to be a work of speculative fiction, with the story based in an alternative reality, one which is not based, like science fiction, hundreds of years in the future. The way this story is constructed is also strikingly different to other forms of fiction in that, the way it is written is more like a historical account, written by someone who was there, someone with great knowledge of the goings on. This more than anything differentiates Dick's form of speculative fiction in tMitHC from other forms of science fiction.
The speculation and imagination of what may occur in the future is what makes science fiction such a special genre, even the name though suggests that it is fiction based on the world of science which I choose to believe means technological advances and the further development of the human race as far as robots and intelligent machines goes. The Man in the High Castle on the other hand is more speculative, a more 'what would have happened' story while continuing to have malignant undertones suggesting something abnormal or other than the apparent reality is occurring.
Brown (2001) I believes thinks that the underlying themes of tMitHC are ones of interconnectedness, the little people who have the greatest effect, even on things they do not fully understand, and although the story remains unresolved, the philosophical influences of leaving the future unclear reflects our own reality. We can imagine what is going to occur, we may even believe that we know what the future holds. Dick states "the universe is only apparently real, an illusion behind which the truth might dwell". This ideal is quite clearly reflected by the way this story is concluded, with such uncertainty and open ends, can we be sure that the supposed reality within the novel is even a reality?
The speculation and imagination of what may occur in the future is what makes science fiction such a special genre, even the name though suggests that it is fiction based on the world of science which I choose to believe means technological advances and the further development of the human race as far as robots and intelligent machines goes. The Man in the High Castle on the other hand is more speculative, a more 'what would have happened' story while continuing to have malignant undertones suggesting something abnormal or other than the apparent reality is occurring.
Brown (2001) I believes thinks that the underlying themes of tMitHC are ones of interconnectedness, the little people who have the greatest effect, even on things they do not fully understand, and although the story remains unresolved, the philosophical influences of leaving the future unclear reflects our own reality. We can imagine what is going to occur, we may even believe that we know what the future holds. Dick states "the universe is only apparently real, an illusion behind which the truth might dwell". This ideal is quite clearly reflected by the way this story is concluded, with such uncertainty and open ends, can we be sure that the supposed reality within the novel is even a reality?
Gabriel Week 11
Beginning with the obvious, the reality television is basically a variation of the documentary, with basically a camera, a narrator and the the people in the story come across as real as they should be. This intimacy meant that what was shown in a documentary often came across as being truthful, rather than staged, and this had an effect on the audience, they would much rather see actual people being interviewed or discussing what was going on than a narrative with no real human connection. Therefore the television industry began to combine it's television programming; as Hill (2005) states that "it is the hybridization of successful genres that gives reality television such strong market value"
Television which focuses on the real lives of people is always going to have a stronger influence on the people, than a fictional show, for instance, American Idol at its highest point was viewed by 38 million people worldwide while CSI, a fictional crime show which had the highest viewership previous to American Idol had only 20 million viewers by comparison.
Human nature means that we automatically feel more connected to something if we can somehow relate to it on an emotional, physical or mental level. Now I don't want to say that Survivor is a touching show about peoples will to survive because we all know that these people are looked after well and they are in no real danger, but because we all at some point have thought about what we would do if we were stranded on an uninhabited island somewhere we connect to in on a much more 'close to home' level than we do watching the CSI team chase down a serial killer who likes wearing a mask.
Hill (2005) does not give a clear definition of reality television because, especially with a genre with so many variations, there will always be shows that fit under reality television but don't fit under the definition. Reality TV does consist of a few things though that I think can help to define it. For instance a reality television show must focus, not only on a storyline but also on the personal lives of each participant (confession cameras, interviews etc) and with added focus on the challenges that the participants face. I use the term participant loosely, being used to mean anyone in front of the camera while the show is being filmed.
Hill (2005) also does say though that one of the characteristics that defines reality television is "the capacity to let viewers to see for themselves" that is to say that the audience is left to decide whether they believe the 'reality', whether they like a certain character, or make up their own minds about how the show made them feel, as opposed to fictional television shows which leave each viewer feeling the same way.
Television which focuses on the real lives of people is always going to have a stronger influence on the people, than a fictional show, for instance, American Idol at its highest point was viewed by 38 million people worldwide while CSI, a fictional crime show which had the highest viewership previous to American Idol had only 20 million viewers by comparison.
Human nature means that we automatically feel more connected to something if we can somehow relate to it on an emotional, physical or mental level. Now I don't want to say that Survivor is a touching show about peoples will to survive because we all know that these people are looked after well and they are in no real danger, but because we all at some point have thought about what we would do if we were stranded on an uninhabited island somewhere we connect to in on a much more 'close to home' level than we do watching the CSI team chase down a serial killer who likes wearing a mask.
Hill (2005) does not give a clear definition of reality television because, especially with a genre with so many variations, there will always be shows that fit under reality television but don't fit under the definition. Reality TV does consist of a few things though that I think can help to define it. For instance a reality television show must focus, not only on a storyline but also on the personal lives of each participant (confession cameras, interviews etc) and with added focus on the challenges that the participants face. I use the term participant loosely, being used to mean anyone in front of the camera while the show is being filmed.
Hill (2005) also does say though that one of the characteristics that defines reality television is "the capacity to let viewers to see for themselves" that is to say that the audience is left to decide whether they believe the 'reality', whether they like a certain character, or make up their own minds about how the show made them feel, as opposed to fictional television shows which leave each viewer feeling the same way.
Gabriel Week 10
I don't think we can ignore the influence that Buffy has had on the traditional constructs of good and evil, especially when it comes to constructing a fantasy storyline. Early stories with vampires and villains always focused on the generic structure of good vs evil, the evil is trying to destroy and the good to protect.
What Buffy did was not only blur the line between good and evil but hop across that line, with characters like Angel who repeatedly help Buffy and are useful to her when fighting the forces of evil, but at the end of the day Angel is a vampire, the very evil that Buffy is protecting the world from. Changing the generic structure, and allowing for flexibility with some of the characters moral conflicts means that the story line becomes less predictable and we begin to see the humanity, not only behind some of the evil characters, who, because the way they are presented appear to be more than just violent killers, but we also begin to see the evil or bad side come out of some of the protagonists.
With a more human representation of the characters, both good and evil, the cult television show draws in a larger audience than say a generic superhero show would, where the good guy is set with a challenge and then he beats the baddy and story ends happily ever after. What Buffy did was throw those generic constructs out the window and give each character a personality so that instead of a clear line between the good side and the bad we have characters that walk freely across that line.
These practices are also what has influenced the likes of the Twilight stories and the True Blood series. These narratives are strongly connected to Buffy, because Buffy combined different themes of television; horror, drama, teenage love and with a strong female lead role, it would appear that this influence is not exactly well concealed when it comes to Twilight (Bella) and True Blood (Sookie), both strong female lead characters who despite the danger they know is present still develop love-relationships with vampires, who are traditionally supposed to be cold blooded killers, (in the case of Twilight) but yet appear to be soft hearted and 'lost' in a human world.
What Buffy did was not only blur the line between good and evil but hop across that line, with characters like Angel who repeatedly help Buffy and are useful to her when fighting the forces of evil, but at the end of the day Angel is a vampire, the very evil that Buffy is protecting the world from. Changing the generic structure, and allowing for flexibility with some of the characters moral conflicts means that the story line becomes less predictable and we begin to see the humanity, not only behind some of the evil characters, who, because the way they are presented appear to be more than just violent killers, but we also begin to see the evil or bad side come out of some of the protagonists.
With a more human representation of the characters, both good and evil, the cult television show draws in a larger audience than say a generic superhero show would, where the good guy is set with a challenge and then he beats the baddy and story ends happily ever after. What Buffy did was throw those generic constructs out the window and give each character a personality so that instead of a clear line between the good side and the bad we have characters that walk freely across that line.
These practices are also what has influenced the likes of the Twilight stories and the True Blood series. These narratives are strongly connected to Buffy, because Buffy combined different themes of television; horror, drama, teenage love and with a strong female lead role, it would appear that this influence is not exactly well concealed when it comes to Twilight (Bella) and True Blood (Sookie), both strong female lead characters who despite the danger they know is present still develop love-relationships with vampires, who are traditionally supposed to be cold blooded killers, (in the case of Twilight) but yet appear to be soft hearted and 'lost' in a human world.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Week Twelve - Filip
I thought the texts for this week were particularly informative :)
How have game shows influenced reality TV?
As a product of major hybridization, reality TV and game shows alike ‘include interaction between non-professional actors and celebrities, although increasingly non-professional actors are often treated as celebrities in their own right in such programmes.’ (Hill, 2005, p. 21)
This gave rise to the hugely popular ‘reality gameshow’ genre, including shows like Survivor and Big Brother, filled with challenges and prizes supplemented with interaction between celebrities, contestants and home audiences.
Following further hybridization into ‘life experiment programmes’ like Wife Swap,Take My Mother-in-law and Holiday Showdown, Reality programming is now generally broken down to:
-Infotainment (Tabloid TV) [Mythbusters, Animal Planet]
-Docu-Soap (Observational personal adventure drama) [Deadlist Catch, Storm Chasers]
-Lifestyle (Life experiment programmes/Professional help journal series) [Supernanny, Wife Swap]
-Reality Gameshow (Weekly elimination challenge series) [Survivor, Big Brother]
Why is reality TV so popular for both programme makers and TV viewers?
Drawing on its influence from gameshows; ‘two reasons: it is ‘cheap and easy to produce’ and is ‘extremely exportable’. (Hill, 2005, p. 22)
Because of the nature of reality TV (mostly observational, with a formula put in place for challenges), there wasn’t much need to spend money on hiring a writing staff as a Soap Opera would need.
These shows ‘were successful in the 1990’s and early 2000’s because they drew on existing popular genres, such as soap opera or game shows, to create hybrid programmes.’ (Hill, 2005, p. 39)
References:
Hill, A. (2005) The Rise of reality TV. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 15 – 40). Oxon: Routledge
How have game shows influenced reality TV?
As a product of major hybridization, reality TV and game shows alike ‘include interaction between non-professional actors and celebrities, although increasingly non-professional actors are often treated as celebrities in their own right in such programmes.’ (Hill, 2005, p. 21)
This gave rise to the hugely popular ‘reality gameshow’ genre, including shows like Survivor and Big Brother, filled with challenges and prizes supplemented with interaction between celebrities, contestants and home audiences.
Following further hybridization into ‘life experiment programmes’ like Wife Swap,Take My Mother-in-law and Holiday Showdown, Reality programming is now generally broken down to:
-Infotainment (Tabloid TV) [Mythbusters, Animal Planet]
-Docu-Soap (Observational personal adventure drama) [Deadlist Catch, Storm Chasers]
-Lifestyle (Life experiment programmes/Professional help journal series) [Supernanny, Wife Swap]
-Reality Gameshow (Weekly elimination challenge series) [Survivor, Big Brother]
Why is reality TV so popular for both programme makers and TV viewers?
Drawing on its influence from gameshows; ‘two reasons: it is ‘cheap and easy to produce’ and is ‘extremely exportable’. (Hill, 2005, p. 22)
Because of the nature of reality TV (mostly observational, with a formula put in place for challenges), there wasn’t much need to spend money on hiring a writing staff as a Soap Opera would need.
These shows ‘were successful in the 1990’s and early 2000’s because they drew on existing popular genres, such as soap opera or game shows, to create hybrid programmes.’ (Hill, 2005, p. 39)
References:
Hill, A. (2005) The Rise of reality TV. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 15 – 40). Oxon: Routledge
Week Eleven - Filip
What signifiers of reality have emerged from the documentary genre?
How have they constructed our conceptualisation of reality (or at least what we recognize was being real at the visual level)?
Biressi & Nunn (2005) highlight the different narrative format used in reality TV.
‘Rather than construct a ‘temporal framework’ in the form of organized storytelling or rhythmic patterning through a shooting script, observational films chose to rely on editing to generate a sense of lived experience and time passing.’ (Biressi & Nunn, 2005, p. 118)
Editing techniques and cinematography tricks borrowed from the documentary genre have brought with them a sense of believability. There’s a familiarity with ‘cameras following people around’ that leaves audiences more ready to accept the factual entertainment (real life setting and characters alone) as ‘infotainment’ or ‘docu-soaps’. (Hills, 2005, pp 113 – 115)
How does Hill define reality TV?
Hill (2005) states ‘Reality TV’ has undergone changes over years and first explains it is a ‘genre in transition’. From legal and emergency report programs, Hill looks to analyse the threshold between factual and fictional TV. ‘perhaps the most traditional industry term for reality TV is factual entertainment. The term usefully merges factual programming with entertainment-based television, and highlights hybridization, a common generic feature of most reality programmes.’
Hill (2005, p. 108) clarifies; ‘Another traditional industry term is that of popular factual, a term that links popular audiences with a variety of factual television genres and formats.’
Hill uses the name of ‘popular factual’ as a basis for his analysis.
Public television audiences interviewed gave a loose consensus that ‘viewers equated reality TV with ‘cameras following people around.’’
Hill (2005, p. 114) concludes ‘There is no one definition of reality programming, but many, competing definitions of what has come to be called the reality genre.’
References:
Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television.
(pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.
How have they constructed our conceptualisation of reality (or at least what we recognize was being real at the visual level)?
Biressi & Nunn (2005) highlight the different narrative format used in reality TV.
‘Rather than construct a ‘temporal framework’ in the form of organized storytelling or rhythmic patterning through a shooting script, observational films chose to rely on editing to generate a sense of lived experience and time passing.’ (Biressi & Nunn, 2005, p. 118)
Editing techniques and cinematography tricks borrowed from the documentary genre have brought with them a sense of believability. There’s a familiarity with ‘cameras following people around’ that leaves audiences more ready to accept the factual entertainment (real life setting and characters alone) as ‘infotainment’ or ‘docu-soaps’. (Hills, 2005, pp 113 – 115)
How does Hill define reality TV?
Hill (2005) states ‘Reality TV’ has undergone changes over years and first explains it is a ‘genre in transition’. From legal and emergency report programs, Hill looks to analyse the threshold between factual and fictional TV. ‘perhaps the most traditional industry term for reality TV is factual entertainment. The term usefully merges factual programming with entertainment-based television, and highlights hybridization, a common generic feature of most reality programmes.’
Hill (2005, p. 108) clarifies; ‘Another traditional industry term is that of popular factual, a term that links popular audiences with a variety of factual television genres and formats.’
Hill uses the name of ‘popular factual’ as a basis for his analysis.
Public television audiences interviewed gave a loose consensus that ‘viewers equated reality TV with ‘cameras following people around.’’
Hill (2005, p. 114) concludes ‘There is no one definition of reality programming, but many, competing definitions of what has come to be called the reality genre.’
References:
Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television.
(pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.
Week Nine - Filip
Hills (2004) lists a number of defining characteristics of cult TV that contain similarities to the defining characteristics of pop genres (e.g. fantasy, science fiction) discussed earlier in the Pop Genres paper. Can you identify these and discuss why you think that these characteristics are repeatedly viewed as underpinning popular genres.
Hills (2004, pp. 509 – 510) briefs three common characteristics attributed to Cult TV:
-Cult-as-Text – Often sci-fi, fantasy and horror.
-Cult-as-Inter-Text – Fan magazines with critical and journalistic analysis of the show.
-Cult-as-Audience – Show achieves ‘cult status’ as a result of fan support. ‘This type of argument positions cult TV as a ‘grassroots’ phenomenon, assuming that it is created by fans rather than by media producers.’
The narrative style is then described as having a ‘hyperdiegesis’ component ‘(adapting the term ‘diegesis’, which means the represented narrative world), suggesting that cult texts can be distinguished by their extended, expansive narrative worlds’ (Hills 2002, p. 137)
This infers a distinctive mark of a cult show is the typical narrative ‘world’ being expanded to a narrative universe, wherein fanciful fantasy elements are treated as commonplace, exemplified by Hill (2004, p 511) via the ‘Buffyverse’ of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Hill goes on to describe how while the continuity with this universe is generally preserved, the show maintains interest through subversion and reestablishment of the status quo. All the while episodes utilize fan investment to build story, in-jokes and character relations. Hills identifies this as an aspect of Cult TV which distinguishes it from soap operas and dramas. (Hills 2004, p. 512)
I believe the characteristics recurring throughout popular genres appeal to an audience’s sense of wonder. Leading questions are scarcely resolved, serving more to ascertain a context for an ‘endlessly deferred narrative’ with a focus a few protagonists. (Hills 2002 pp. 134 – 135)
What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in the construction of cult TV? How is new media central to this?
Hills (2004, pp. 518 – 519) suggests fans operate through various methods:
-Fans organize TV programmes into an ‘intertextual network’ sharing enthusiasm across multiple -media platforms. (Books, films, comics)
-Fans actively prescribing the title of ‘cult’ to a series
-Fans assemble ‘Appreciation Societies’; ‘Fans also produce commentaries, fan fiction, episode guides and production histories that all work to sustain the distinctiveness of fandom as a community that reads the ‘intertextual network’ of cult TV shows in a characteristic way.’
-Fans create a market for memorabilia, merchandise and props related to their favourite shows.
‘Most of these fan activities are carried out both online and in real life: fans can gather together in virtual spaces as well as in hotel function rooms... by making it easier for fans to contct other like-minded devotees, the web increases the possibility of small-scale organized fandoms emerging around a wider variety of TV shows.’ (Hills, 2004, p. 519)
New media enables advanced communicative capabilities between fans, which of course helps the fandom to grow, and also gives more exposure, as Hills cites Kristen Pullen ‘the Internet may have begun to mainstream fandom’. (2000, p. 60)
References:
Hills, Matt. (2002) Fan Cultures, Routledge: London and New York.
Hills, Matt. (2004), Defining Cult TV; Texts, Inter-texts and Fan Audiences, The Television Studies Reader, R. C. Allen & A. Hill. London and New York: Routledge.
Pullen, Kirsten. (2000) ‘I-love-Xena.com: Creating Online Fan Communities’ in David Gauntlett (ed.) web studies, Arnold, London, pp. 52-61.
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