| Often times the viewer of the film decides to partake in the films experience. These individuals often form clubs, societies that most of the community call cult followings. One of the prime examples is held with the film Rocky Horror Picture Show. Every Friday, and Saturday night at midnight there are parties where hundreds of people dress in drag and will crowd into theaters where the movie is shown on the big screen and actors will play the roles of the characters on a small stage before the audience. The audience is then encouraged to throw rice, toast and dance along with the movie. Whenever a Star Teak film is released people dress into costume as there favorite character or just as some random alien and attend viewings on the opening day. The popularity of the Star Wars movies alone has spawned the movies, but toys, posters, soundtracks, books, comic books, Television specials, the magazine Star Wars insider, Industrial Lights and Magic, and even it�s own wing in the Smithsonian institute of air and space exploration. In shorter words the film becomes a living being. We are sat down and told a story through the eyes of the film. In the world of the film there is another character added to the story, and that is the viewer. We take part in the story as though we are ghosts, looking into the corrupt or wonderful world of that story. Ferngully, Medicine Man The Film Artifact. Ferngully, directed by Bill Kroyer, is a hand-animated film that was released in 1992. When the film was released, many campaigns where up and running in hopes of bringing the depletion of the ozone layer and the destruction of the planet to the attention of the public. The film�s theme shared in the theme of saving the rainforests in hopes of helping to save the environment by bringing to our attention that certain pollutants mixed with the cutting down of trees increases air pollution, but almost to the point where the theme was laughable. Ferngully was not the only political film released that year with the idea of bringing the destruction of the environment to the public eye. Medicine Man was also released in 1992. Medicine Man starring Sean Connery dealt purely on the issue of saving the rainforests for the sake of the life in the forests, by producing the possibility that the cure to cancer lies in the life of the forest. These films directly correspond with the social movements of its time. The Means of Production. Here are two small examples of production community in film. When the a film ends the viewer can actually see the members of a small film community laid out in front of them. It is important to realize that it takes workers to make every product, but often times the worker never gets more credit for there work than a simple pay check. Ferngully Medicine Man Bill Kroyer: Director John McTiernan: Director Robert W. Cort: Executive Producer Sean Connery: Executive Producer Ted Field: Executive Producer D. Dubrow: Producer Brian Cox: Producer Donna Dubrow: Producer Jeff Dowd: Producer Beau Marks: Producer Peter Faiman: Producer Andrew G. Vajna: Producer William F. Willett: Producer Sally Robinson: Screenwriter Jim Cox: Screenwriter / Co-producer Tom Schulman: Screenwriter Tom Stoppard: Screenwriter The Film Audience. The range of audience that is reached by these films when they are combined is very wide. Ferngully is designed specifically for the young audiences, while Medicine Man is designed for adults with it�s themes cancer, death, and destruction. The themes of scientific methods and medicine are simply too complicated for most children. It is interesting that both of these films are released so close to each other and share the same common theme, especially when Ferngully is a Fox film, and Medicine Man is a Disney production. The execution of these political themes is interesting in themselves. Ferngully is filled with songs that stress the dangers of destroying the environment. With song titles like Life Is a Magic Thing or Toxic Love, how can the viewers not be moved into taking action? |
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| In Medicine Man the reoccurring themes that stress the salvation of the rainforests are presented in the main characters interaction with the local tribes, mixed with highflying stunts in the canopies of the massive trees and in the technical talk of the scientists. By presenting all of these ideas and aspects of the forest to the audience, it will make us realize that the forests are more than just a few trees. Many shots in the film are designed to show the grandeur and beauty of the forests in there natural epic scale. Up to this point I have discussed how film often times reflect social movements of that time. I would like to point out that many times film is the result of social movements, and made by the communities to help their cause. Many times the way social communities try to show people the double standard that they are living by is by having the viewer see a film that gives them the sight of a different point of view. Documentary film is often the most effective tool in showing a viewpoint through a new set of eyes. �These practices allow traditional narratives to invoke what Colin McCabe terms a �dominant discourse� of reality, wherein �the relationship between the reading [of viewing] subject and the real is placed as one of pure secularity.� (Telotte) By watching a documentary film we are introduced to the actual reality. When the viewer is exposed to an alternate reality that they have not seen before they experience emotions that might move them into action. �The words truthful and documentary are nearly synonymous.� (Dunne) The purpose of a documentary is to tell the truth and can help to remove the vial of double consciousness. �its reality not so much an extension of our world as of a conventional cinematic world which might or might not speak to our situation�. (Telotte) The social community that produces the documentary does so to make their point. Because of the fact that documentaries are so designed to tell a story and fact through the eyes of the camera, documentaries if they are not educational can be used as propaganda. These documentaries are useful tools in in the documentation of events and movements for the fact that they can be viewed and analyzed repeatedly. One of the wonderful aspects of documentary unlike narrative film is that a true story is told and will not fade with the passing of one generation to the next. Unfortunately for the most part the documentary film is shown only in independent film festivals, television, and schools. The documentary film is often times the film community and a social community best and finest way to reach out to a massive group of people at one time. The documentary like the written word can be a powerful weapon when shown to the right group of people. |
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| Like documentary films, many other films have trouble being produced due to certain Fascists in the film community. As Robin Wood discusses in her book Sexual Politics & Narrative Film, many of the ideals that we hold close to our hearts and believe to be true are the result of what we are told to believe. Filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock have created films, which have formed opinions hidden within. Spielberg has by far the most obvious sense of moral duty in the films he makes. Jurassic Park was a story with a moral that resembles that of Frankenstein or the Color Purple, a story about the tolerance of another race. Spielberg has taken a special interest in the third time period of World War II. All of his movies dealing with this time period represent the Nazis as the most evil beings that ever walked the earth. I personally do believe that these morals are good one�s and I do believe that the Nazis where evil. It is however frightening that a moviemaker can have an impact on how a community can think by what they are shown on the screen. | |||||||||
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