http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS4YAhSKfSU
In the “Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars” chapter of Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins states, “Amateur filmmakers are producing commercial- or near commercial-quality content in minuscule budgets.” This is very apparent in the fan made video Gnar Wars. When watching this video, it is very easy to spot what makes is appear legitimate. The costumes, the light sabers, the guns, and even the sounds all appear straight off of the big screen. The only issue with this film is Jenkins would consider it “fan fiction” which is exactly the type of thing George Lucas likes to avoid. These filmmakers go even farther off the wall by creating their own character names. According to Lucas, “Films must parody the existing Star Wars universe, or be a documentary of the Star Wars fan experience.” So is lay-man’s terms, a video called Gnar Wars that has its own story just wouldn’t be appropriate.
http://www.brockmills.com/.a/6a00e5527bc5c38833010536fc0284970b-500wi
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/photos/stylus/45295-ObamaAd.jpg
In one the chapters following, Jenkins writes, “The 2004 campaign was a period of innovation and experimentation in the use of new media technologies and popular-culture-based strategies.” One of the very important “strategies” being discussed here is the use of Photoshop for campaign attack ads. Though this was a very big issue during the election, it was also used in the years after to make fun of the current administration. One very large point of attack came when the Vice President shot someone in the face during a hunt. As seen in the image provided, Dick Cheney is photoshopped to be holding a smoking shotgun on the cover of a magazine. Obviously he didn’t really pose for this picture, but it made for a funny image. These opportunities to learn how this technology could better be used during the Bush administrations final years also led right into the 2008 election. However this time around, Obama’s camp decided to depict him as the bringer of hope in a picture with him only in Red, White, and Blue. This helped show the American people that he was willing to stand for all things American.
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Chad,
ReplyDeleteI liked your choices for the blog. I thought the Gnar Star Wars video was great. You had a good point about the fact that they changed the character’s names and that this may violate George Lucas’s intellectual rights. In my opinion I think Lucas would consider the video a parody, so I do not think he would have a problem with it. I also liked that for the political category you picked two different pictures. You did a good job showing how one was used for the positive image and one meant to put the candidate into bad light.