Tuesday 1 May 2012

Fanfiction

Fanfictions are fictions written or by fans taken from the original work. These fanfictions are never really published or recognised as they are not authorised to be published. These reproduced fictions are commonly made within a certain group of people, that is, a fannish community and have the right to be shared online in the form of archives or in print. It an area only for fans. Their fictions are read only by other fans. It is said to be a widespread activity where stories are written daily. Fancfictions take a lot of forms and does a lot of different things.

What is Vidding?

For some people it is love, for some it is connections while for others it is life. But Some may even find vidding a stupid hobby. What is actually that thing called "Vidding"? To my understanding, it is somewhere we can create music videos or more visual media sources. We can take our favourite TV show and our favourite music and merge them together. It can act like a mashup in  a way as it is combining things together to produce something else. Vidding started in 1975 using many technologies. It comprises of slide projectors, VCRs, and computers. When home video-cassettes recorders became available in the mid-1970s, vidders began to produce live-action vids that were recorded onto media that could be shown at fan conventions and further distributions to fans. We should be able to differentiate good vids and bad vids. Bad vids are vids which have no sense. It is like they want to make something but could not really figure out what they want to do. Bad vids suffer from bad planning. The most important component of a good video is good choice of music or song; a song that mean something and also that is easy to understand the lyrics too. The song has to be related to the source material. A good vid should have a strong story to tell. It should also contain movement and good beats. Moreover. it should contain a message and it has to have something to say.

Marco Cucco's "The Promise Is Great"

After reading this article, I came to know that "The Promise Is Great" is Hollywood's blockbuster. Entertainment is a cut throat business that is out to make the maximum amount of money from the masses.  After the 1950's blockbusters, it was the "Jaws" which took a big bite at the process of marketing such big films and influence the way they are released today. The use of TV, home video, broadcasting as secondary markets afforded film companies more expensive projects. Blockbusters are usually said to be expensive to make. The two biggest reasons are the special effects used and the fact that there are highly actors and directors. Special effects are meant to be experienced in cinemas to ensure the longevity of the film. We can say that blockbusters today, have a bad reputation for not being particularly creative. they tend to remake a lot of sequences and concepts. Cucco explains that blockbusters are internationally commercial products used to cover other studio films that do not do well. So having blockbusters as base, they support an entire studio. With regards to Jenkin's theory of loyals, it makes sense that a fan will go see the movie and buy the merchandise despite the reviews. I also noted that according to Cucco, for a film to be a blockbuster, there are different aspects to take into consideration. It has to be simple, easy and immediate. A blockbuster film will be heavily advertised on TV and on the net and then released worldwide just to get the maximun audiences and next to no competition. They should also see to it which audience is being targeted and wheher they are willing to spend their money and time for it and if they are loyal to the concept. With such wealth of evidence to support that blockbusters are made to take money even if they are all special effects and no substance.