entertainment

Women in Film Spotlight: Kathryn Bigelow /  by Roxanne Teti

Kathryn Bigelow (Academy Awards, 2010)

Kathryn Bigelow is the first and only female director to win an Academy Award for Best Director in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. The film is an action-thriller about the Iraq War and the grueling psychological impact war has on individuals and the collective conscience of a country. Bigelow was able to intensify the visceral setting of war by collaborating with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd and utilizing multiple perspectives and camera angles to construct sophisticated battle sequences and rich montages. The Hurt Locker is considered one of the best American films about the war in Iraq and primarily draws from the real life experiences of journalist and screenwriter, Mark Boal. 

The Hurt Locker earned six Academy Awards and is also the only film by a female director to win both Best Picture and Best Director in the history of cinema. The reality of that statistic is depressing but unfortunately true. While Bigelow is an incredible filmmaker, it’s also critical to recognize the importance of having a strong sense of courage and conviction when defying gender stereotypes while also addressing controversial political topics such as the Iraq War or the arduous journey of capturing al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty. By the way, Zero Dark Thirty (2012) was also nominated for five Academy Awards but received a great deal criticism from both republicans and democrats alike concerning the movie’s portrayal of torture and the Obama administration. I believe this partisan reaction robbed Bigelow from winning another Oscar but that's the reality of politics both inside and outside the Academy.  

Aside from the art of cinema and directing, a crucial lesson one should learn from Bigelow's career is that in order to create change you need to be 100% committed to your passion, no apologies. Bigelow’s films would have never captured a large audience or have been recognized by the Academy if she didn’t have the confidence to execute her vision to the fullest extent. Not only is she the first and only female director to win an Academy Award, she also earned this accolade by directing a film that's typically a “man’s genre”—the action/thriller war drama. 

A little background on Bigelow… she was born in San Carlos, California in 1951. Before pursuing filmmaking, she began her artistic career studying painting at the San Francisco Art Institute after graduating from high school. Today, Bigelow has changed history and is known for her captivating action sequences, always believing “the action cinema is pure cinema”. 

Social Media And The Entertaining Allure of Voyeurism /  by Roxanne Teti

You are in the midst of your mundane morning commute and suddenly you find yourself engulfed in the bright lit screen of your smart phone. No, you’re not reading the news, or even checking work emails, but instead you find yourself “lurking” on Facebook, perhaps glazing over the “Timeline” of some random girl you “used to know” from high school. You’re not truly friends with this person nor have you engaged in direct communication with her in six years but yet you’re intrigued to “stalk” her for a moment or two. Perhaps it’s her recent engagement photos that piqued your interest or maybe you're curious if her fiancé is hot or just an "average Joe”. Regardless, we often gravitate towards this voyeuristic activity because it’s easily accessible entertainment.

In the 1970’s a wave of feminist film theorists like Laura Mulvey drew from Freud and Lacan’s psychoanalytic concepts concerning the erotic pleasure experienced by the act of “looking” and related this "visual pleasure" to the dominance of the “male gaze” in the cinematic art form. Personally, I believe regardless of whether the act of “looking” achieves sexual excitement, the voyeuristic intrigue of “watching” is a crucial cornerstone in which the various mediums of art, entertainment, and media have been built upon from the beginning of civilization. 

From the roar of audiences cheering on gladiators as they fight to their death at the Roman colosseum to Hollywood's “Golden Age”, human beings are inherently drawn to spectatorship. Today with various social media channels and digital content readily available within seconds, we're constantly participating in an active state of spectatorship as well as exhibitionism, as we provide a window into our personal lives through various social media platforms. In a way individuals can achieve a particular status distinction within the social stratification of their own network depending on the popularity of one's account. 

When reality television gained momentum in the late-90’s/early 2000’s, the line between reality and performance became irreversibly blurred. As platforms such as Facebook gained as many users and thus viewers as traditional mass media, a similar ambiguity between reality and the façade of reality began to permeate into the seemingly more “personal” channels of social media. 

And yes, perhaps we enjoy being spectators but I encourage you to truly ask yourself—do you also enjoy being the “performer”, the subject of one’s private gaze, an exhibitionist merely used for cheap reality TV entertainment by Facebook “friends” or even strangers?  

Broad City and Slapstick Feminism /  by Roxanne Teti

Broad City, Season 3 (Comedy Central)

From The Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton to flicks by the Farrelly Brothers and Judd Apatow, slapstick and physical comedy has traditionally been dubbed a man’s game. Even though we are familiar with the success of hits like I Love Lucy and the Laverne and Shirley show, both TV networks and film studios have never truly taken a step outside their comfort zones and fully committed to endorsing a “left of center” female driven physical comedy series. Sociologically, women are not expected to joke around about sex or potty humor—as this behavior is contradictory to the gender norms of what defines a “lady”.  We definitely saw this antiquated way of thinking defied by the widespread popularity of Bridesmaids and it’s memorable food poisoning scene at the bridal shop. However, more recently Broad City, the American sitcom, created by and starring Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, has begun to penetrate the mainstream as their TV show is not only broadcasting on network television, but is also becoming popular culture’s “go to” references as the show’s humor transcends a particular common ground amongst members of the millennial generation.  

From 2009 to 2011, the sitcom initially began as an independently produced webseries but was taken over by Comedy Central in 2014. Numerous critics are recognizing Abbi and Ilana’s comedic style as “slapstick feminism”. Even though Broad City’s humor is generally predicated on millennial tropes, their visual gags are reminiscent of everything from Charlie Chaplan tricks, all the way to the gestures found in a Carol Burnette sketch. I believe this term; “slapstick feminism” marks the emergence of a genre of comedy that can play a large role contributing to the progress of women in relation to the outdated stereotypes that have dominated popular culture as well as mainstream media for decades. 

Contrary to HBO’s Girls, Broad City possesses a diverse cast with characters of different races and spectrums of sexual orientation. In particular, the show utilizes visual gags, bathroom humor, and sex talk to deconstruct and redefine what we consider to be the “norm”. I believe women and men alike organically subscribe to this outlandish humor because it humanizes the modern day conception of how women should act or who they should be. At large, Broad City is reestablishing the “absurd” within the context of “normal”—thus allowing audiences to identify with yet laugh at the daily struggles and triumphs of Abbi and Ilana’s characters. Broad City has already been renewed for a fourth and fifth season on Comedy Central.

Nevertheless, I don’t believe we would have a space for Broad City in our society today if the Internet did not exist and threaten to disrupt the narrow confines of broadcast media. And for that reason, I encourage all female artists to use the “web” as a chief medium to get their voices heard as well as a device to breakdown traditional stereotypes and redefine genres of film. Audiences are clearly craving content that appeals more directly to the taste buds of today's society.

Entering the Era of VR? /  by Roxanne Teti

Samsung Gear VR

For those who don't know, VR stands for “Virtual Reality”. This weekend's Men’s NCAA Final Four and National Championship basketball games will be streaming live in VR. Using the Samsung Gear VR headset you can download the NCAA March Madness Live app from the Oculus Store and watch the event “court side” from the couch of your living room. The 360-degree panoramic footage will seek to emulate the jaw dropping adrenaline rush as you watch professional and or/college athletes compete from the vantage point of a sideline seat.

The interactive medium was initially introduced in the side spaces of arcades and movie theaters during the early 90’s and never became popular. The VR pods were clunky, the 3D imagery was choppy, and the “adventure” was ultimately boring—thus becoming a phased out option for experiential media. Now almost 22 years later, VR is back in the public’s eye but this "go around" the current technology possesses a product lifespan with a potential longevity. Consumers can check out high resolution, mind-blowing 360 views using sleeker glasses through VR devices like Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, Gear VR, and HTC Vive. In the space of tech-media, it's common knowledge that VR has been revolutionizing the gaming world for the past year or so, however the medium is now beginning to penetrate the mainstream through the entertainment industry. 

In addition, to the NCAA Final Four and Championship games, this year’s Coachella is already setting the bar for VR innovation as it’s working with Vantage.tv on filming a virtual reality version of the various musical acts—thus making the VR material available to those who cannot attend the annual music festival in person. This conversation can't help but raise the question of whether VR will enhance the "audience experience" by increasing accessibility to popular live events (via VR) or eventually threaten to disrupt the marketplace all together in the future years to come. 

With that being said, it’s important to also recognize the negative impact VR could have on the communal and social aspect of viewership as well as the repercussions it could cause to physical activity and the rising obesity issue in America. Will society become so consumed in virtual content that our actual, tangible realities become a faded figment of the past? I hope we don’t become the alienated, overweight, immobile humans from Wall-E. 

In addition, VR is already beginning to dominate the porn industry. The gratuitous nature of the porn genre, has always been contingent on the fantastical heights of voyeuristic intrigue, essentially the act of "watching". However, VR introduces deeper psychological elements of simulation and mental interaction as the user assumes the full POV (point of view) of the "actor". With that being said, as the line between fantasy and reality becomes blended and skewed, will we also experience a negative impact concerning sexual relations between real human partners? Will rates of addiction rise?

Putting these cautionary thoughts aside, VR is the 2016 medium to watch and many tech media industry leaders are seeing viable application and market potential for “virtual reality” in various sectors of entertainment, education, gaming, and even military use. 

Where You At Nielsen? /  by Roxanne Teti

With Super Bowl 50 on the horizon this Sunday, I was reminded of live broadcasts and the powerful role they play in the media industry. Last year’s Super Bowl scored over 114.5 million viewers—delivering record ratings for the event. 114.5 million viewers is an impressive turnout but this all comes down to money. Ratings are synonymous to currency in the TV programming industry—as billions of advertising dollars are traded every year in relation to primetime broadcast. Since the 1950’s Nielsen has been collecting statistics on TV audience demographics and viewing habits. Today, in 2016, executives of large networks still turn to Nielsen when making decisions about a TV show’s livelihood. 

But what has been going on with Nielsen lately? In 2014, the TV ratings company partnered with Adobe to create an alternative measurement platform for digital content. However this partnership and the analytics it provides doesn't appear to be having a strong impact on Wall Street. All in all, Nielsen has not evolved. They still cannot accurately represent cross-platform ratings or capture the fragmented viewing habits of modern day audiences-thus potentially under evaluating the industry's market potential. 

Nevertheless now that the anticipated merger between comScore (the Internet, mobile measurement mogul) and Rentrak (the movie audience tracking firm) is finalized, the advertising industry is more excited than ever—anxiously hoping for a game changer in our cross-platform society. Nielsen ratings still proves to be decent indicators for live events like the Super Bowl or the Grammy's but we all know viewership of programming is continuing to move in a new direction. With the rising numbers of "cord cutters", how long will it take until media buyers don't primarily rely on Nielsen to make money? I am eager to see if comScore can help revitalize the relationship between the worlds of TV and advertising.