A while back I was talking to a guy who works at Nickelodeon.  He said the difference between Nick employees and Cartoon Network employees is that people at Cartoon Network are jerks who think they are cutting-edge.  Here is an ad from a Cartoon Network show that came out last year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrxlJN-3pEU
I think this show is hilarious, but I can see his point.  I think any show on a network reflects that network's philosophy on entertainment.  If anybody has other good examples of networks that have their own particular brand of entertainment, post a comment.  Include a YouTube link too, if you can find one.

Documentary about 13-year-olds is rated R.

http://entertainment.salon.com/2012/02/29/the_mpaas_bully_outrage/singleton/

Here's an interesting article about Bully, a documentary coming out in March.  The movie documents the lives of five students who endure bullying in middle school and high school.  There is some controversy about the MPAA's decision to give the movie an R rating due to scenes of thirteen-year-old children using the F word.  Do you think the rating is appropriate, even if the movie is targeted toward PG-13 audiences who, as shown by the documentary, are likely to talk like people from an R-rated movie anyway?  I think a PG-13 might be more appropriate here, but I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/02/let_the_bullets_fly_will_americans_embrace_the_most_popular_chinese_movie_of_all_time_.single.html

Let the Bullets fly is a record-breaking western... AND IT'S FROM CHINA!  After Avatar, it is the highest grossing movie ever in China.  Let the Bullets Fly looks like an amazing movie.  The movie is about two criminals who each disguise themselves, one as an important businessman and the other as a public official, and fight for control of a town.  One of the bandits might end up being the good guy, as is tradition in western movies, but the article makes Let the Bullets Fly look like a movie that really shakes things up by railing against government corruption.  I strongly encourage you to read about it just because of how awesome the movie looks.

The Artist wins 5 Awards

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/the-artist-wins-big-at-the-oscars-20120227

I found it interesting that the Artist which is  black and white silent film won 5 awards at the Oscar's considering that the hollywood genre film began without sound and color. It seems to me that the Hollywood genre film has back to its roots in teh French American film.

Lucy Liu as Watson in CBS's Sherlock Holmes remake! Thoughts?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/lucy-liu-sherlock-holmes-watson-cbs-pilot-elementary-295560

I'm excited. Granted I would think it cooler if she was Sherlock.

LA Times "Hero Complex" Webpage

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/

I have been meaning to post this since we began to talk about the superhero genre in class a few weeks ago.  The LA Times dedicates an entire webpage to the latest news on superheroes in the movie industry, the television industry, the comic book industry, the gaming industry, and even the music industry.  The webpage claims that it is "For Your Inner Fanboy" - clearly catering to all of the superhero lovers out there.  This page exhibits the strong prevalence of the superhero genre in pop-culture today.

ACADEMY ARGH!

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/inside-the-academy-where-white-men-are-the-clear-majority/?ref=movies

I... don't even know where to begin. This NYTimes blogger writes of a LATimes investigation of the Academy demographics.

"...the Academy’s 5,765 voting members are more reflective of a Republican presidential roster than the moviegoing public: nearly 94 percent white and 77 percent male...Of the academy’s 43-member board of governors, six are women; public relations executive Cheryl Boone Isaacs is the sole person of color."

What's especially interesting is how the Academy responded to the critique. The president, Tom Sherak, stated that the Academy leadership wants to diversify, but needs people to come to them rather than waiting for the Academy to contact them. As he said, “If you are sitting waiting for us to find your name in our make-believe book and we are going to call you, we are not going to do that. Come to us, we’ll get you in.”

On the other hand, some point to the inequality of the entire industry. “If the industry as a whole is not doing a great job in opening up its ranks, it’s very hard for us to diversify our membership,” Phil Alden Robinson, a writer, director and veteran Academy governor, told the paper.

I was angered by Sherak's statement as he basically blamed the victims for their own underrepresentation. We really want to be more diverse, but it's their fault they don't contact us! This question of the chicken or the egg as the source of the problem also echoes in Alden's statement. It's the industry's fault that the Academy in turn is not diverse! Does it take the whole industry to change for the Academy to change also? Why can't the Academy change as an example of what the industry should be? As I read the article, I was more discouraged than anything. Is there any hope of changing the industry to better represent all of us? 

Our discussion from the censorship lecture popped up in my mind, specifically Justina's comments about content creators. If the content creators are all white males, everything they create is based upon their experience as the ones with privilege. Professor Johnson mentioned how Spike Lee often talks about his own career as one out of necessity to bring light to voices oft ignored. If the industry made films/shows reflecting diverse voices, he says he wouldn't need to make the kind of films he creates. 

What's the takeaway then? Is it possible for us as the audience to influence industry change? Perhaps awareness is what we need and what the original LATimes article aims to spread. Maybe as we work to become part of this industry and become content creators, we can work to enact change as well. 

Goodbye Dr. House

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2012/02/13/house-hugh-laurie/

My reaction to reading that House is coming to an end was.."Whew finally!"

They've really stretched it as far as it can go, and beyond, with eight seasons of the (almost) same thing happening every episode. For me, the repeated narrative got old pretty fast. Some seeming unsolvable medical case, wrong diagnosis, near death for the patient, then in a random moment of brilliance, House the grouch saves the patient.

It really reminds me of what we learned with Eco about Superman - that the narratives have to be cyclical in nature because any progression in life is a step toward Superman's death. In the same way, if House progresses in the sense pf personal improvement, then he also moves toward death because as soon as House becomes nice, the show's over. As this writer aptly stated, "After all, a happy House was always the least appealing House." That also creates a cyclical problem because the same thing happens almost every episode and at the end of the day, House is still a grouch with little personal improvement. So as they avoid death by keeping him unhappy, they also achieve death by being repetitive. 


I also think it's possible that the repetitive nature of episodes, which is a huge factor in the show's decline, is caused by the constraints of the TV format. As Altman said, "American TV programmers are interested first in length, and only secondarily in content." In other words, time is more important in TV than content. The effect of this on House is that viewers come to expect this medical genre to resolve a medical case within the 45 minutes of program time, every time. 

I'm not familiar with any other tv shows in the medical genre, but I wonder if they face the same issues.

Genre, Emotion, and Oscar Campaigning

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/movies/awardsseason/for-the-descendants-a-new-angle-in-the-oscar-race.html?_r=2&ref=movies

As The Artist seems more and more likely to win the Oscar for Best Picture, The Descendants make final promotion pushes for the coveted prize. The film has the underdog status going for it, but will it be enough to catch up to The Artist craze? To further promote the film without violating Oscar campaigning rules, The Descendants has had a special screening celebrating the classic Hollywood family dramas. The full film played after a montage reel showed clips of The Descendants interspersed with such classics as To Kill A Mockingbird. On the other hand, TV ads depict the comedic and sad moments of the movie without any family film mention. At a panel the director seemed to distant the film from other family dramas by calling it more of a classic Hollywood tearjerker.

Genre is playing a huge role in how The Descendants is being promoted, although the entire campaign may seem a little disjointed. In relating the film to classic family dramas, executives are trying to stress the longevity and durability of The Descendants. To regular TV audiences, the ads emphasize either the comedic the dramatic side of the film. It seems the director sees his film in a different category - the tearjerker. In my opinion, tearjerker is not a genre as much as a "sad movie" is a genre. At the same time,  there is an audience for tearjerkers as many a Nicholas Sparks film or Titanic can attest. The executives are marketing the film from many angles, painting the movie as fitting multiple categories as Altman argues. Which of these strategies is the most compelling? In the end, will all these promotions even be successful?

The Genre of Houston

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/how-whitney-houston-changed-music_n_1272877.html

Whitney Houston definitely contributed a great deal to the world of music. Her death has revived a lot of conversation about it, too. It seems that remembering her is also remembering a landmark in music's industry, performance, art, and more. Could it be argued that Whitney actually created a genre?

Cool Event!!

I found out today at Nickelodeon...

That there's an awesome FREE event tomorrow Feb 15! Here's what the poster said:

"Talk to the creator of Hey Arnold!

Woodbury University
Ahmanson Building

Feb 15 7:30pm

7500 N Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91504

Free admission for all
Raffling of an original cell from the show"

I'm totally going! I love Hey Arnold...and I've been hearing rumors of it coming back haha (probably lies though).

New Wave of Horror Movies

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-ca-indie-focus-20120129,0,3240110.story

This story caught my eye because not only do I LOVE horror films, but it is also relevant to our class since it discusses a new wave of "art-house" horror films.  Two films that were released this past Friday, "The Innkeepers" and "Kill List," are used to describe this new type of movie.  They are said to be idiosyncratic - a combination of suspense and irreverence.  This new type of movie, originating in the festival circuit, is meant to attract both horror movie lovers and art-house fans.  When I read this article I immediately thought of our readings from a couple weeks ago that were about the formation of a genre.  I feel as though this article talks of the early steps of the formation of a potential new genre.

Superhero's Patrolling Seattle

Superheros's Patrolling Seattle.

Speaking of Zeitgeists...

http://www.laweekly.com/2012-02-02/film-tv/sundance-film-festival-2012/

With so many films at Sundance speaking on the same topic in different ways, I can't help but think back on our political discussion of The Dark Knight. I think for some films it's intentional, for others it's a reflection of where the artists (and presumably we as people) are at this point in time. Either way, when films speak to so many people in this way, it's fascinating. It's a special thing when almost everyone seems to be able to relate.

My Advice RANT

For those of you who are interested in careers in animation:
Last night was important. It is not enough to be able to draw, or to operate computer programs, or whatever.
You need to know what is currently done in the field. You need to know changes in technology. You need to know the current players and the history. If someone was treated with great respect last night, or had something named after them, you need to figure out who they were.
Therefore if you do not know who Windsor McCay and June Foray are, you should find out. If you don't know what Foray was talking about when she said Termite Terrace, then you need to borrow my Loony Tune DVDs and watch the documentaries.
Hollywood feature films may not require a knowledge of film history, (execs can be idiots) but that is not true with animation. You must know the history and the icons in order to be taken seriously.
The other part is that if a small studio is mentioned in any nomination, you should look them up on their website and see what they are doing and how they are marketing their product. Look up Base 14,
psyop, ornano films on vimeo and all the rest.

This is an amazing field but these people are passionate about what they do. You have to treat it with respect, and that means if you don't already know that June Foray was the voice of Rocky the Squirrel, or that McCay animated Gertie the Dinosaur (as well as drawing one of the greatest comic strips of all time -- Little Nemo) then you better know it next time.

You guys looked great last night by the way, and were impressive in how you handled yourselves. Makes me want to keep taking you to things.

Best Animated Short Subjects from the Annies

Bill asked me how we could see the shorts nominated last night for the Annies.

Here's what I could figure out. If anyone can do better, please post.

If we went to see the Oscar shorts at the Nuart, that would take care of Pixar's Luna (or just wait for Cars 2), Wildlife, and Sunday. (Those two may possibly be seen on line by going through the National Film Board of Canada site).
The Ballad of Nessy is on the Winnie the Pooh DVD.
I Twat i Taw a Puddy Cat is partly on the Warner site here. It'll be released as part of the Happy Feet Too DVD (but maybe only the Blu-Ray). Frustrating, as I could not care less about happy feet.
I couldn't find a full version of Paths of Hate. Here's the best I could find. It looks awesome.
The Girl and the Fox -- looks like they tour the film, and it's not coming our way. There is a trailer on you tube and the website is Base14, which has some interesting stuff on it.
Adam and Dog is not on line, but the trailer can be seen here. 
(Notes on) Biology is posted below: It's lots of fun.

Oscar Short Films

Starting February 10 for two weeks at the Nuart. Seems like something we should see, especially since I missed the Academy screening tickets for this. Also See here for nice preview.

Jerry Beck

It occurred to me last night after the Annie's that some of you might not know who Jerry Beck is. Here's his bio: Jerry Beck is an animation historian and cartoon producer. His fifteen books on the subject include The Animated Movie Guide, Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide and The 50 Greatest Cartoons. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney, and is currently a consulting producer to Warner Bros., Universal and Disney for their classic animation dvd compilations. Beck has programmed animation retrospectives and animator tributes for the Annecy and Ottawa Animation Festivals, The Museum of Modern Art and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He has taught animation history at NYU, SVA, the AFI and UCLA. He is currently teaching Animation History at Woodbury University in Burbank, California.


Jerry has a fantastic blog called  Cartoon Brew which you can read here. 
For all of you interested in animation, this is a daily must-read.  It includes everything that is happening in LA in terms of animation. 

Seems like a Must-Do for J&J

The Los Angeles chapter of Women in Animation will hold its General Meeting on Thursday, February 9, at the Animation Guild in Burbank, CA:

The Animation Guild
11O5 N. Hollywood Way
Burbank, CA  91505
(818) 845-7500

Schmoozing and networking begins at 6:30 PM and the meeting starts at 7:00. Food and soft drinks will be available.

Seating is limited, so please RSVP early by sending an email tolachapterrsvps@aol.com. The cut-off for RSVPs is Tuesday, February 7.

Admission is free for members; non-members will be asked for a $10.00 donation.

While this article is a little old, I felt it may be interesting in regards to our discussions of genre, genre structure, and genre identification in class.
Why Fictions Freest Genres Need More Rules

In an article about this year's Sundance Festival, the writer mentions some of his favorite indie films from the festival.  The line below caught my attention:

"In keeping with past years, I’m awarding my own much-coveted grand prizes, just one each in the narrative and documentary categories, along with a list of five more especially hot titles to watch for in each division."

From reading the article I got the feeling that roughly half of the movies at Sundance were documentaries.  It seems like documentaries are a very popular choice of movies for independent filmmakers.  It makes sense; documentaries don't require actors or special effects.  Documentaries only need a camera, some sound equipment, and a computer.

If documentaries have an allure to indie film makers, do documentaries by indie film makers have an allure to audiences?  Is the "indiness" of these documentaries part of the reason we watch them?  And what would people think of a documentary about a social issue, like the ones that played at Sundance this year, that was made by a big Hollywood studio?

http://entertainment.salon.com/2012/01/28/the_best_and_worst_of_sundance_2012/

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/01/27/from_the_grey_to_the_birds_slate_s_taxonomy_of_ecological_horror.html

Above is a diagram of "Animal Attack" movies.  I have never thought too much about calling animal attacks a separate category of horror movies, but they do seem to be pretty popular.  It can be really creepy to think that the monster in a horror movie is just an ordinary animal, especially in The Birds.  Salon magazine says they excluded King Kong because he is not a real animal, so is it fair to include Jurassic Park on the chart?

Try to count how many of these movies you have seen or if any movies are missing; I think there is one movie about killer bees and another one about bull ants that the author forgot about.  Also, see if the diagram helps you come up with any ideas for animal attack movies that nobody has thought of yet!

Event updates

We got our Annie Awards tickets for February 4th.  It is not reserved seating so I suggest everyone arrive early to get good seats. Remember this is a dress up event. It is listed a black tie, but I'd think a jacket and tie or dress is perfectly fine. The show starts at 7 but I would recommend getting there by 5.

Read about the Annie Awards here.

Bad news: The Justice League: Doom screening/event at the Paley Center sold out.

oscar events

Oscar Week events are posted here.  Let me know if you are interested and I will try to get tickets. Tickets go on sale February 4th at 9:01 a.m.

The 39th Annual Annie Awards - Field Trip?

So I was just given a VIP ticket for the Annie Awards, to be held at Royce Hall, UCLA on February 4th. They are like the academy awards for Animation. Since I'm going to be there anyway, it seems like a good field trip for those interested. Patton Oswalt is hosting. For the animation fans, all of your idols will be there. Details are here.

Please post today and let me know if you would like to attend and I will get tickets.

Studio Ghibli Retrospective

A very complete retrospective of Ghibli studio films begins this week. It gets a nice write up in the LA Times Hero Complex blog here. 
For the full list of films, and ticket info, see here. 
I am sort of assuming that all of the animation fans have seem most of these films, but if you haven't then you should start planning your calendar now. These are some of the best animated features ever made.

Top Movie Nominations

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/the-artist-leads-in-84th-annual-academy-award-nominations-20120124
Hugo and The Artist lead the nominations for best field. It is interesting that Altman talks about how each generation must use the films of the past to meet its own needs and the film The Artist went back in time to 1927. The use of black and white in a film in our day and age where technology and special effects are thriving in the industry shows how the romantic comedy genre is still successful to the producers. On the contrary the nomination of Hugo also shows how the advancement in technology and special effects for animations is improving the popularity of the animated film genre.

some LA stuff

I learned from a friend today that we, as USC students, can get cheaper movie tickets! Just go to the ticket office in the student union and you can major discounts (normal theater prices are over $12, but if you buy a ticket from the usc office, it could be $6.50 or $8).

Also, on Jan 31 @7pm in TCC 450 (hosted by SCBFF), there's an event called "Breaking into the Industry: Pick Their Brains" which is basically a huge panel/networking event with people from Paramount, NBC, etcetc. It's apparently a really popular event every year with more than 200 students showing up so he said to get there early.

Also on Feb 16, some people from the Onion are coming to USC for a panel.

A good way to stay up-to-date on free screenings (for example, they screened Flower of War for free) and such is to get onto the Cinema school listserv via their website.

Patton Oswalt's twitter yesterday

Funniest thing I read yesterday. Oscars are a strange business. Pixar and Disney both shut out of the animation category. Tintin too?

Spike Lee: Studios "know nothing about black people"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2012/01/sundance-film-festival-spike-lee-red-hook-summer.html

This article reminded me of the discussion we had in Dr. Johnson's class on Friday.  When Spike Lee was on stage at the Sundance Film Festival answering questions about his newest film, "Red Hook Summer," Chris Rock asked him how the movie would have looked if it had been produced in a studio.  Spike Lee proceeded to go on a "tirade" about the studio world... at one point saying that they "know nothing about black people."  I was wondering what other people think of this comment... do you agree or disagree?  I feel as though it is true in a lot of ways, but too much of a sweeping generalization to fully agree with.

Also, in terms of genre, how do you think Spike Lee would differentiate between African-American based films made in major studios vs. those made independently like his own?  Is there potential for two separate genres to emerge based on how race is handled differently in the varying forms of production?

Here's the clips we Saw in Class

Scenes from Last Class:
Subversive Side of Musicals --
1). "Too Darn Hot" from Kiss Me Kate (1953)
2). "Bang Bang" from Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)
3). "White Boys/Black Boys" from Hair (1979)
4). scene from Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) -- I didn't see a you tube link for this one. Sorry.

Phases of the Musical:
1. Prototype
A Roy Rogers clip and then Hallelujah I'm a Bum (1933)
2. Classical
"The Deadwood Stage" from Calamity Jane (1953)
"The Barn Dance Number" from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
3. Refinement
"A Dime and a Dollar" from Red Garters (1954)
"Best Things in Life Are Dirty" from Paint Your Wagon (1969) -- Apparently too embarrassing to put on You Tube.
4. Self-Reflexive
"Air-otica" from All That Jazz (1979)

The two missing clips from the self-reflexive section were:

1. "The Trapper Song" from Canibal! The Musical (1993)

2. "Montage" from Team America: World Police (2004)

Warner Bros. and Central Perk!

I must say, we all look mighty fine!

Breakfast before the field trip

We'll meet at Moore's Deli -- 271 East Orange Grove Avenue, Burbank, CA -- at 10:00 a.m.

The menu is here. 

We need to be a Warner's Studio by Noon. The address and parking instructions for that are below:

3400 W. Riverside Dr. Burbank, CA 91505

Enter Through Avon Street Parking on Gate 6 ($7.00 parking fee)

Learning Punk

http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/2012/01/punk_rock_museum_tequila.php#more

The Punk Rock Museum opened this past Saturday. It features art work and events that exemplify and pay tribute to punk rock culture. This I find interesting, as it will exhibit a style of music, dress, behavior, etc. that many would argue is still alive. I suppose not all museums are houses of retrospect, but there is a typical assumption that they are. I can't help but make that assumption on some level. "Punk" is being put on display. The pieces of a movement have been identified and marked so clearly that they can be named. They can be separated and exhibited! According to Altman's suggestion that genre often emerges through failure or the passing of a trend, does this mean that punk is irrefutably dead? Because it can be categorized? Is it now a relic of the past, only to be imitated and revived? Not sure what my thoughts are yet, but either way, it's ironic that the museum was founded in order to fulfill a promise to "keep punk alive"...

POLANSKI

As I said in class, Roman Polanski, the director of Chinatown, has lived a life worth its own movie. In fact, HBO did an excellent documentary on his legal troubles which I including above. It's called Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. Clearly Polanski is the most divisive director working today -- a criminal on the lam, a convicted child rapist, but also a Holocaust survivor and a victim of Charles Manson, one of America's most famous mad killers.

His best films, besides Chinatown, include:
Knife in the Water
Repulsion
Rosemary's Baby
Tess
The Pianist

But there are many other very interesting films as well. He played in many different genres -- even a pirate movie -- but his best work is in Hitchcockian style suspense thrillers and horror, obviously informed by his own dark and tragic history.

If you are interested in any of his films, I would gladly loan ones to you.

What was NOIR again?

We touched briefly on film noir in class and I gave a fairly quick history. For a further relatively brief review, read more here. 

Forget it, Jake. It's Zombie Town.

This picture is from the new blu-ray of our film from last week - Chinatown. It was noted on the Hollywood Elsewhere site that J.G. looked like a zombie detective in the illustration. More importantly, I learned that the new DVD will have a commentary track with the writer, Robert Towne, and David Fincher. I can't wait to hear Fincher's comments on the film.

Until then, the thought of Zombies in Chinatown will have to hold us over.

GW: LA Street Art.

Article: Three pioneers of L.A. graffiti art scene

Hey peeps, here is a nice little article about "street art." As the article briefly explains, street art is a genre (my words) of art that was predominantly created by three guys: Chaz Bojórquez, Craig Stecyk and RISK. Bojórquez, when he was younger, did a lot of gang graffiti art. Stecyk, on the other hand, had a big stake in the surf/skate/punk graffiti (as opposed to gang, in case you're not paying attention). Finally, RISK was in charge of bringing New York subway graffiti to the freeways of Los Angeles.

The article serves more as an ad to the venues that will be featuring the work of these artists in the LA area, but the information it includes about the influences of street art is interesting. The article includes links to pages where you can see the artist's info and work.

Also, you should check out the dates for the events that will be featuring the artist's work. The dates are all towards the end of our school semester and a bit after the program ends, so you might have time to go check it out. So do it. Gracias.

Great sign of Hollywood!!!!

http://www.360cities.net/image/hollywood-sign#0.83,5.48,70.0

CHECK OUT THIS MAP OF LA

http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/neighborhoods/

AMC Theaters will unspool genre label - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

If this is not the most perfect news related to GENREEEEE, I dont know what is. This is actually a very cool concept--where have all our horror films gone?! Resurrect the genre (hopefully these films will be actually scary....not scary in the way the Devil Wears Prada was scary...more like how SCREAM haunted my dreams (night and day dreams) until i was 13 :)

The article is brief, from Variety, but it basically details a joint venture involving mega-player, AMC Theaters, that will bring horror films to 32 major stateside markets; these films will also be sold on DVD, blue-ray, projection reel, HD, scan disk, whatever the heck else is out there....

AMC Theaters will unspool genre label - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

Tim Burton Exhibit at LACMA May 29- Oct 31, 2011

anyone getting their money's worth and staying at Gateway until the end of May?

this will definitely interest you, as we have all grown up (probably) admiring Tim Burton's work.

Category:

Visual Arts

When:

Sunday, May 29, 2011 10:00 am
Add to Calendar

Where:

Los Angeles County Museum of Art - LACMA

based on 369 reviews

5905 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 857-6000

How:

Official Website

Cost:

$12.00 - $20.00

What/Why:

From Beetlejuice to Batman, from Ed Wood to Willy Wonka, the characters that Tim Burton has brought to movie screens are notable for their dark idiosyncrasies and macabre weirdness.

Burton's goth universe -- at once disturbing and oddly inviting -- will land at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in a major retrospective exhibition featuring artwork tied to his movies as well as original drawings, sculptures and other works created throughout his career.

The show is scheduled to run from May 29 to Oct. 31, 2011.

The show will feature more than 700 individual pieces of art from Burton's own archive, as well as from studio archives and private collections of Burton's collaborators.

punk rock retrospective

ugh you guys is this topical or what--i don't even remember if maybe someone brought this up in our presentation on friday or if this is new info, but this dudie who photographed a bunch of LA's punk rock scene is having an exhibit at the Subliminal Projects gallery.

check out the article in the LA times: http://www.latimes.com/theguide/art/la-et-guidefeature-20110225,0,5471733.story?tumblr

Genre Watch: Rom Coms- It's all about the stars, we can even use the same plot back to back now!

Hollywood Romantic Comedies has always been about the stars. They are date night movies, the public wants to see a fairy tale with their favorite actors, no need for complicated plots or characters.

I get it. But the movies just keep getting dumber to the point that we have Just Go with It released earlier this year. I saw the 2:30 trailer and had absolutely no clue what the movie was about. Watched it again and realized it was about Jennifer Aniston & kids co. pretending to be a fam with Adam Sandler, so he could impress another girl. First who would actually do that, where does that logic even come from? I get it's a genre follow up to the actually funny Sandra Bullock rom com, The Break Up. At least, there was a excusable reason why Ryan Reynolds had to pretend to be married to Sandra Bullock. However, Just Go with It made 140 million on a budget of 80 million, so to everyone in Hollywood, it was a success.

So here's an even better way to make money- Let's not wait a year or two to make a movie with somewhat the same plot. Let's just wait two months and make the exact same movie twice. The public will still go see it if we do enough advertising! First let's get A-listers Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher to smile and be cutesy in a romcom about friends with benefits who fall in love at the end. Yay, awesome idea because we just made $125 million on $25 million budget for No Strings Attached.

Now, give it a couple of weeks. Since there's basically no plot or thinking necessary for the public in No Strings Attached, they will probably not remember the movie! So let's get A-listers Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake to smile and be cutesy in a romcom about friends with benefits who fall in love at the end. Let's not even waste the time to think of a clever title, let's just call it Friends with Benefits.

What's creepy is that Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman played the same person in Black Swan. And honestly, you can't look at Mila Kunis without thinking of The 70s Show, which brings up memories of Ashton Kutcher and No Strings Attached.

Watch both trailers here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubfcfs98MBw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34xfcoRceeU

You can click on either one link and understand both movies. Here's the best part:

"Screen Gems was given clearance to move forward with the title Friends with Benefits; Paramount Pictures dropped its original protest against the film after their director, Ivan Reitman, re-titled his film No Strings Attached. Friends With Benefits began production in July, 2010 in New York and Los Angeles. Complicating matters is the fact that NBC is planning a Friends With Benefits sitcom. Screen Gems stated that due to its production schedule, they don’t expect an issue to arise."

What's alarming is that the studios weren't fighting about the similarity of the plot of the movies. Sounds like they were fine with that, they were just annoyed at each other because they had the same title in mind. and then NBC is also doing a new pilot called Friends with Benefits, with Emma Stone starring. FOX has the script so I will be sure to read it on Tuesday and see how it compares.

Sorry if I sound bitter. I just wish the public would stop watching these movies so the Hollywood execs would have more motivation to actually take time to think of smarter and more original movies. But.....there's nothing I can do about it. Friends with Benefits is expected to gross its original budget back from opening weekend, according to last week's Variety.

LA Marathon

Hi I am volunteering with FOX this Sunday morning for the LA Marathon. We will be at the Brentwood/Westwood station, and mainly our job is to cheer the runners on and provide refreshment. Great networking opportunity as there will be many other network/studio employees there helping out as Well. Email me if you want to go.

Thanks,
Kelsey

The Fair.

When: March 18-20
Where: Harbor City: Corner of PCH and Avalon
What:
LAPD Habor Division Fair
Rides - Games - Food - Fun - Enterntainment
(Helm and Son Amusement)
Fri: 5-11
Sat/Sun: 1 - 11

50% off pre-sale ride tickets sold at police station.

I know a lot of you guys have beef with the cops, but this will be fun. Also, my internship people, IDEPSCA Day Labor Program, will have a table and the workers will be volunteering in order to keep relationships with the community and authorities at a good level. You now how the media likes to mess with these guys.

Anyway, keep it in mind for those here during spring break.

Metro Contest

for those of you who take the bus/metro to work and would like a free ride for a week, enter to win.

http://www.metro.net/itineraries/

GW: Punk Cowboys.

So I was reading the LA Times and I came across this article, laughed really loud, then decided to turn it in for credit:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2011/03/the-majestic-silver-strings-a-fresh-spin-on-old-country.html

The article is about this group's, "The Majestic Silver String," new album, "The Majestic Silver Strings." The group is made up of these 4 acclaimed guitarists: Buddy Miller, Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, and Greg Loisz. Of these, Miller is the main one being interviewed.

Miller talks a bit about his previous work. He never really knew much about western/cowboy music, but then he got into it and he made a band. One of his old bands in NYC was called Crackers. They played "harmelodic versions of country favorites and original compositions."

Later Buddy moved on and did some work that is not mentioned.

And now he's back with his three new buddies in The Majestic Silver Strings. They take a new turn on the western genre in that their songs sound different and don't follow the general "let's go out into the fields and sing around the campfire" feeling. In fact, Miller talks about how a buddy had let him borrow music sheets called "Cowboy Songs" from the 1930. He misread the signatures in the song, and understood the music to sound "punk." He liked it, so he incorporated it into his new album with his new buddies and, in essence, their work pushed "lighthearted music into darker territory." Miller says it's appropriate because of current events like the wars in the Middle East. Meaning that the Army are the new Cowboys, and the desert is the new prairie.

I'll include this little detail I found on Facebook because I was so confused when I first read the article: The Majestic Silver Strings Album "pushes each song into the new cosmos."

If anyone is interested in checking these homies out, think fast because they'll be at the Grammy Museum (at LA Live, I think) on March 10th.

A very interesting scholarly article

I was working on my paper today and as I was searching for some articles, I came across "The Intertextual Discourse of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Beavis and Butt-Head Do America". It is pretty funny, and it demonstrates how pretty much anything can be put in an academic framework when a proper language used and a structural analysis is performed. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!

click here!

-- Ece

Genre Watch- THR

I was reading The Hollywood Reporter website this morning and this: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/ginnifer-goodwin-star-abcs-once-163869 caught my attention. I realized that the "fairy tale" genre is making a come-back on both the big-screen and on television. This is the second show that I have seen ordered to pilot about fairy tales, the other, Grimm, is a sort of detective show taking place in the world of fairy tales (it's written by some former Buffy people, so I'm really excited about it). In addition, Beastly and Little Red Riding Hood are both arriving to theaters soon, the first is a take on "Beauty and the Beast." From what I can tell, these are all interpretations or subversions of the fairy tale genre, but still undeniably fairy tales.

Free Stuff. Read all.

wuts good hoodrats.

here's some stuff im working on at my internship. put down ur party hats for 2 secs and read it through bc unless ur loaded, this affects you.

http://revolutionstreamed.tumblr.com/

HR1, a bill in the House, is going up for votes to cut funds where it hurts most. da underprivileged neighborhoods.

My internship is with an organization called IDEPSCA (http://idepsca.org/). I work in their Day Labor Program. If this HR1 bill goes through, about 50% of the funding that comes from the gov and city to keep the Day Labor Centers (IDEPSCA has 6) running will be gone. We estimate that the money will be enough to pay the rent for the center's but will have no staff or any of the services the centers offer (food, computer classes, esl classes etc).

this doesn't just affect the DLC however; the cuts will happen with family source centers, one source centers and work source centers nationwide.

IDEPSCA is not allowed to lobby so we currently looking at other ways to get our point across (well probs do something with our web VozMob: http://vozmob.net/).

im not sure what you guys can do or if you even care about doing something. but im letting u kno just in case. peace kids. o yea, no free stuff. my bad.

GW Feb Article on the Oscars [What else is there to report about anyway?]

http://theenvelope.latimes.com/la-et-oscar-polish-20110225,0,7324788.story

Here is my article for this month's genre watch in the LA Times. Within a couple hours of the Oscars, the whole "movie" subsection of the "Entertainment" section of the LA Times was flooded with 'news' about the event, from red carpets, to behind the scenes, to winners to losers. One of the articles that caught my attention was this one about how Natalie Portman was a dork when she accepted her award for her work in Black Swan.

In an article about the LA Times that I read for my USC course, an old lady being interviewed by the NY Times said that in her opinion, she used to like the paper [LA Times] back in the day because she could open it up and see what her favorite stars were up to. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/business/media/24latimes.html). This may or may not be true of the modern print version as a result of cutbacks dictated by the Chicago Tribune company that now owns the paper. However, this old lady clearly does not read the internet version of the paper, because if she had logged on to the page, she would have known everything and more about what Hollywood was up to tonight.

In this specific article on Portman, the reported argued that the actress ridiculed herself in a way that might later cost her a lot in her career. And what was her crime? She said her fiancee was totally going to want to sleep with her now that she won the Oscar and then she snorted. The approximately 1000-word article, however, kept some level of professionalism by interviewing important people on the incident complete with intro, body and analytical conclusion. This goes to show that the LA Times can be professional when it needs to [Business section, Local Section, Nation Section etc], but it can also be cool, up to date and trustworthy for those professionals that crave the gossip...that is if your not too old to not know how to use the internet. [hint hint, I'm talking abut the 'genre' of the paper.]

Autry Museum field trip

I will meet everyone there at 11. The link for directions and parking is here.http://theautry.org/plan-your-visit/maps-and-directions

Comic Book and Musical Mash-Up an Epic fail?

Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark is a new play that has been getting a lot of buzz. Probably because its a Broadway musical about a superhero. But maybe it could be the ridiculously large budget of ...drum roll please...... 65 million dollars. Take some time to lift up your jaw, I was shocked too. With so much bread and publicity backing the project, one would assume this must a sensational show. Well Jason Zinoman of Slate seems to think its some kind of epic... an epic fail.

This article describes Turn off the Dark as a mess. More importantly, it describes how this genre mash-up ends up "a comic book musical that seems to have no affection for comic books or musicals". I originally thought this was a harsh assessment considering the play adheres to the basic form of the original Spider Man story. But there's a twist that doesn't come until the second act - Arachne, the spider woman, a seductress. She selfishly vies for Spider Man's and Peter Parker's affection. And from what I've read, he wants her too. But of course as expected, Peter ends up with his wholesome Mary Jane rather than the sexpot spider lady. Surprised?

It's clear that creator Julie Taymor has no issue with toying with the norms surrounding genre. She allows the Spider Man we know to be seen while throwing in an artistic agenda that was unexpected. The show seems quirky and fun with Spider Man flying over the audience in some Cirque Du Soleil moves. I would be down to see it, but not because it is an eloquent blend of two genres I love. The combination sounds more to me like lamb and tuna fish than peanut butter and Jelly.

Check out the article for a full review. Its not all bad.

http://www.slate.com/id/2284320/

Great article in Entertainment Weekly about genre pilots for upcoming season

Titled: The coolest, craziest, pilot season ever?

Talks about how the Big Four networks have never developed so many genre pilots, mainly serialized and sci-fi, as this season. ABC is rebooting Charlie's Angels, NBC is doing Wonder Woman and Grimm (retelling of fairy tales in a modern way), FOX is doing Alcatraz (similar to Lost)

The major question is why. Reason is pointing to that broadcasts need big hits and genre shows have a dedicated audience base and can become people's favorites easily (as quoted by FOX president, Kevin Reilly).

Truth.

Not Quite a Musical

Who would have thought that the Justin Beiber movie would be such a hit amongst preteens and critics alike? With its recent success, you can bet that Hollywood will follow-up with numerous theatrical releases of behind the scenes clips, concert footage and of course where it all began - the background - of the next hot commodity with the middle schoolers. Perfect marketing in my eyes. Adults are too stingy with money, college students have no money but preteens and teenagers are bringing in the big bucks with after school jobs or an insistent "daddy can I have 20 dollars?" every week. The music industry is always looking for new ways of promotion and to get their music out there now that streaming and illegal downloading has significantly hurt their market. So maybe they'll say no to the special edition CDs with extra footage DVDs attached and go straight to the theatre (how classy of them). We shall see.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/02/16/justin-bieber-never-say-never-directors-cut/

Fun Facts About LA

Guys here are some fun and interesting facts about Los Angeles. Hope you Guys enjoy!!!

The Website is http://discoverlosangeles.com