My Final Project

Because it was skipping in class.

Oil, or Gold how do you want to die?

Film directors have a unique way of presenting the signs and issues they want to portray to the public. Semiotics is just one of the ways of communication they use to get their message or signal to the audience. Semiotics used is used in all forms of film today both knowingly, and unknowingly. I see it in every film I watch. But most of these signs aren’t just sitting on the surface for everyone to see, sometimes they are hidden in a character or an important scene, and you don’t pick up on the sign until the third of fourth time you see the movie. I’ve chosen to analyze two film scenes I feel are iconic and fit in well with Semiotics. They come from The James Bond 007 film series the films are Goldfinger, and Quantum of Solace. The directors of the James Bond films got to deal with the biggest issues in the world going on at the time: Gas shortage, mostly the Cold War, Economy, and World War Three. All of these scenarios are important to the people of the world at any given time. The directors try to use what is happening or important in the world at the time to make a point or put an idea in the audiences head. Females in the James Bond movies are known for dying, anyone of the opposite sex Bond gets close to usually bites the dust in every movie. There is usually more than one Bond girl two is the preferred number one usually dies while the other survives and goes for a ride with James sexually that is. This is another semiotics use being

James Bond himself is an iconic figure in film, and literature he has been played by many different actors and has tackled some of the greatest threats facing western society since the early 1960’s. He was created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr. No. He was created using a semiotics approach he was used as a symbol during the cold war to show that the Western world had their fictional hero who could battle any foe Soviet, mad scientist, or other corrupt organizations hell bent on destroying the Democratic world. Anyone who dare challenge the might of Democracy would fall victim to the suave secret agent from England with his high tech devices, and dazzling charm with the ladies. Bond was used as a symbol of what every man wants to be like Hip, smooth with the ladies, dresses nice and knows how to win at gambling I can say that’s what I like in a movie hero. Growing up as a kid I always knew him James Bond was we had the same name, I remember one time when I asked my dad if he just named me after him, or was their another reason. He said to me and for James Bond of course my dad is a huge James Bond fan having grown up in the 50’s and 60’s during the height of the cold war James Bond was a symbol he grew up with and he carried that with him and he still does.
Their have been 22 James Bond films and from those 22 films I have chosen 2 scenes not an easy thing to do but I picked the two scenes I thought were the most iconic for the times we are living in now. One of the scenes I have chosen comes from Goldfinger Bond is back and his next mission takes him to Fort Knox, where Auric Goldfinger and his henchman are planning to raid Fort Knox and obliterate the world economy. To save the world once again, Bond will need to become friends with Goldfinger, dodge killer hats and avoid Goldfinger's personal pilot, the sexy Pussy Galore. She might not have feelings for Bond, but will 007 help her change her mind? This is the third film in the Bond Series. The scene I focused on is a death scene of Jill Masterson played by Shirley Eaton. In this scene she is murdered by one of the main antagonist of the Film Oddjob A tiny Asian hitman. But they way he kills her is the most iconic part he covers her skin in gold and she dies of suffocation. This I think is a sign from the director saying back in 1964 gold was are most important resource and we were to dependant on it and if we weren’t careful it could bring down our entire way of life. The United States economy was backed by gold for a long time only recently has it changed from gold. It can also be read as if we don’t defend ourselves from developing countries like China or Japan they could sink our country with our most valued resource.
Gold is a calm color something soothing about in the scene where Jill is killed she looks so peaceful covered in gold. It really is something you need to see to have an effect on you as a person. Using a woman as a victim is always a signal because they are seen as the second sex but women are more innocent and seeing a woman killed might enrage the audience or gets them to have more or emotional connection to the movie and its villains and heroes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRqOelUrgbk&feature=related

The second scene is from the recently realized movie Quantum of Solace directed by Mark Foster in 2008. This is the 22nd James Bond film starring Daniel Craig in his second outing as the Younger James bond focusing on his start as 007. The Film is starts out with Bond and "M" sniffing a shadowy international network of power and corruption reaping billions. As Bond pursues the agents of an assassination attempt on "M," all roads lead to Dominic Greene, a world-renowned developer of green technology. Greene, a nasty piece of work, is intent on securing a barren area of Bolivia in exchange for assisting a strongman stage a coup there. The CIA looks the other way, and only Bond, with help from a retired spy and from a mysterious beauty, stands in Greene's way. "M" wonders if she can trust Bond, or if vengeance possesses him. James still wants revenge for the death of his lover Vesper in the previous film Casino Royale. The scene I’m focusing on in this film is the death of another one of Bond’s female friends who goes by the name of agent Fields. He has an intimate relationship with her, and after a chase in the dessert he comes back to find her covered and apparently drowned in oil. The main theme of this movie is that Dominick Green has found an oil supply in the Bolivian Dessert and The CIA and the MI-6 are willing to let a Coup happen just to get at the oil, because oil has become the most precious resource over the last 30 years. But you find out later the Dominick Green hasn’t found oil, but what he is doing is draining all the water out of the country and creating a drought to make every South American country turn to his ecological country.
Oil is a distraction in this movie it is supposed to be the most important resource and what keeps the world running not gold anymore. But the director Mark Foster throws a curveball at you and says wait hold on a second, oil isn’t the most important resource anymore it is just a smokescreen to distract everyone from water, which without water there would be no living thing on this planet. Water keeps us alive oil just keeps us moving in cars, boats, planes.

Directors are an interesting breed of people they know just the right buttons to push for their audience that is why they are so good at what they do. There good at misdirection distractions. I didn’t notice this scene in the film the first time I watched the movie, it took me till the third time to pick up on it, and then I read more into and became intrigued with the genius of this idea. Semiotics plays a big part in film making and being able to get the type of message you get across to the audience. The James Bond directors get to play with many ideas and world events that why they can send a variety of different messages. I think that the directors of these two particular films Goldfinger, and Quantum of Solace did an excellent job using a semiotics approach to these two films and the two scenes I have analyzed.

Remix Devon Farrell

Just in case a can't print it out.

Definition of Me

 

1. The purpose of my remix was to define who I am as an individual; my identity, what makes me, me. 

My audience include those who read this post and also those who want to learn about me.

In a short slideshow of images of those that define me, I made this remix intending to show who I am, which are the priorities of my life. 

2. I used a program called PhotoScape to edit my photos and made the slide show with slide.com

3. The photos used are photos taken by cameras except for the one of the church that I saved from the church website. With no purpose to sell any product, this remix is a fair use and adds value to it in terms of defining my identity. 

Recut, Reframe, Recycle - Devon Farrell

The Article Recut, Reframe, Recycle is about the kinds of uses of copyrighted works that are legal online. This article applies to me on many levels due to the fact I am a film major and have to deal with legal issues pertaining to copyrighted material all the time. The article describes many ways to quote copyrighted material in user generated videos. For example, satire and parody are spoofs of popular mass media in ways that demonstrate makers’ power over the material. I was taught that usually parodying popular figures or shows is one of the safest ways to remix the original material without copy write issues.
Another feature in the article describes incidental use of copyrighted materiel in videos. The example the article describes is Let’s Go Crazy #1, a video of an 18-month-old child dancing to Prince’s song “Let’s Go Crazy. It was later taken down from YouTube and other user-generated video websites for copyright infringement and because Prince is a douche bag. Incidental use applies to me because when I was a sophomore, I made a skim compilation video for a sponsored skimmer. Similar to the Prince example, I used music that I had permission to use but in one funny scene of guys telling jokes, I think, Jay-Z was playing on the stereo in the background. I later had to cut the scene due to copyright issues because they were planning to put the video online.
The clip below is a redub of the GI JOE cartoon PSAs. How is this legal? Does it fall under satire and parody?

Copyright Paordy and Satire

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work.
Technology has been evolving for thousands of years now, and it will never stop. We will continue to come up with break through, and new ways to do things better. With the creation of youtube.com, and websites like it people were able to make their own videos and post things that may be copyrighted by other companies on these websites. They can even post videos they made themselves that may also hold copyrighted material on them. The types of copy righted works include Parody and satire, Illustration or example, Personal reportage or diaries, Negative or critical commentary and, Archiving of vulnerable or revealing materials.
Satire and Parody I think are the most popular and my favorite by far. It’s just funny to see everyday day people put their own spin on pop culture, entertainment, and famous people. To get a wide range of what other people think. Parody is among the most common and uncontroversial examples of fair use. It shows people’s opinions turned into humors, and it allows its creators to express what they really think in a comedic way.
Fair use in parody is really homage to what America is really about. When someone who creates a parody video quotes existing text, image, or music to comment upon it, this practice is really nothing more than that particular person criticizing and expressing his views. The law allows people to be creative with copyrighted material, and it has been paying off for them I would say.
The video’s I posted are two of my favorite parodies on YouTube. One is a parody trailer for the Dark Knight created by the Evil Iguana production company. These guys are hilarious their kids are age that I knew when I was in Chicago. The second one is just a parody of Star Wars that uses a lot lines, and major plots from the first 3 films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sYBqhOEdRQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKWVCv8uWDI

Feminist Communication/Genderlect

Feminist communication and Genderlect communication theories are based upon very different premises, however they overlap and are comparable in a number of ways. To begin, Genderlect. This is greatly based upon how men and women communicate differently and why they do so. It states that the differences in the different gender communications are a cultural result as opposed to biological or something along those lines. This concept in some ways plays into the well known stereotypes about both sexes.

Feminist communication theory is centered around different things, yet still focuses on communication styles as a result of gender. Needless to say it is based around gender, communication and social change. It is a very broad topic based upon how women communicate and why. It is for the most part a result of things like personal life experiences, women’s history, various philosophies and things of that nature.

Both theories play into how things are communicated and whey people communicate this way. One of the greatest similarities I’ve noticed is that botch suggest communication styles are a strong result of cultural happenings. The feminist communication theory goes a little more in depth but neither point as strongly to biological differences as I would have expected.