MACS 100 Exam 1- UIUC Study guide Questions and Answers

Media "text" - 1. a construction- representation of reality based on values and assumptions 2. can be "read"- analysis and interpretation Aesthetic Value VS Social-ideological - 1. Aesthetic value: film as "art" 2. Social-ideological value: cultural studies approach Auteur Theory - Film is "work of a highly individual artist" -director as all important artist, more so the "author" of a movie than the writer of the screen play celebrates the technological innovation and artistry at the origins of film Nostalgia - a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past Modernity - the rapid change in the early-mid 20th century -Industrialization, Urbanization, Mass production and Mass media Hugo - Pattern: Man and Machine encountering each other -train station -train guard's legs -hugo's dream about train crash Pattern: Early film artistry and technology Pattern: The effect of special effect on film -scene where moviegoers freak out when train appears to be coming out of the screen George Melies - historical figure and character in Hugo -Hugo is a celebration of this man -magician/illusionist -early filmmaker and innovator of special effects Editing - the "unique" language of cinema -linking of two different shots with cuts Power and Difference - who has influence over the production of culture and what culture says about or to groups of people Hollywood Studio System: dream factories - 1. Mass production 2. vertical integration: owned all elements of production integration 3. "stable of stars" on contract-actors owned by studios 4. classical narrative feature films 5. dominant globally Hugo's Showing of Melies A Trip to the Moon - -celebrates film innovation and artistry -demonstrates Melies trick photography -hand painting each frame to colorize it -(contemporary innovation) by adding the actress playing Melies's wife to A Trip to the Moon Schorsessee - director of Hugo Media criticism - 1. Analysis: Identify themes, patterns, elements of content and form to see how meaning is being produced 2. Interpretation: Argue the meanings of those themes, patterns and elements 3. Evaluation: Value, is it good, aesthetically as a text and ideologically for the world? Classical Narrative - 1. plot with logical relation between events 2. a sense of closure at the end 3. character focused stories 4. narrative style that attempts to be objective/realistic seeming Mise-en-scene - everything that is put before the camera -setting/sets -costumes -actors and acting -lighting -props -coloring Truman Show: mistakes in mise-en-scene make Truman suspicious -light falling -walking in on break room Setting/Set: 1. Town: Seahaven 2. Lunar Room 3. The real world - 1. Visual embodiment of the ideal american community -pristine, orderly, controlled -imagined realism 2. control room of the reality tv set -demonstrates the powerful role of the director 3. a contrast to Seahaven -dark, disorderly, messy and chaotic Lighting/Coloring - -Bright pastels in Seahaven, always sunny -so bright, things are washed out--dull normality -the perfectness is boring/stifling Costumes - -ideal mid 1950's style -Truman dresses in what for everyone else is a costume Acting style - exaggerating acting style of women (Hannah Gill) playing his wife--overly loving Truman Surveillance - we are aware of his surveillance when camera shots become apparent in the shot we see--vignettes, fish eyes Theme: spectatorship