week11~

How have they constructed our conceptualisation of reality (or at least what we recognise as being real at the visual level)?

I am sorry; I really can't understand what the meaning of this question is. So I decide to answer it in my first understanding. In Hill (2005), there are three ways to classify reality TV: the television industry, scholars and audience.

The television industry’s real may be the real thing which can make the programme. The television industry is flexible in its categorisation of reality TV. The television scholars can show its “real” in a variety of different ways. This one comes from the real life and real person. At last, the television audience is the real people who appreciate this kind of programme.

How does Hill define reality TV?

There are most definition of reality TV in Hill (2005), I will list it and then summarize one which has the main point of this paper.

1. The category of reality TV is commonly used to describe a range of popular factual programming.

2. In the early stage of the genre, reality TV was associated with on-scene footage of law and order, or emergency services. More recently, reality TV is associated with anything and everything, from people to pets, from birth to death.

3. The reality genre is made of a number of distinctive and historically based television genres, such as lifestyle, or documentary, these television genres have merged with each other to create a number of hybrid genres that we now call reality TV.

So the reality TV is a range of popular factual programme which combine several television genres, which include everything from every area.

week8~

Research thefilms that have been adapted from Philip K. Dick novels or short
stories. Which have generally been acclaimed as the most successful? Why?

Some films from Philip K. Dick’s novels or short stories.

Next

A Scanner Darkly
A Scanner Darkly

Paycheck

I think a Scanner darkly can generally acclaim the main point of Philip. This one is one of the most successful movies from his novels. This movie has the science part, and also has the speculative part. Some of the plot just involved in the polity. So this movie is a good movie.

How does Dick’s essay (1999; 1964) illuminate his use of Nazism as a motif in High Castle?

In Dick’s essay, he said using “Nazism is right and proper, because it is a true topic, far more so than any novel or any review……”

For some countries, Nazism is the bad dream. So in High Castle, using Nazism is not only a memory of history, but also a hope for the future. In this essay, Dick gave us a description of Nazism and Jewish, this is the real goal of the writer of High Castle. In the end, he said:” let’s live in the present and for the future, not dwelling neurotically in the outrages of the past.” That is just the writer’s hope.

Reference

Dick, P.K. (1995). Nazism and the High Castle. In Sutin, L. (Ed.), The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (pp.112-117). New York: Vintage.

week7~

what is the difference in emphasis between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction? Which is The Man in the High Castle?
The science fiction put the emphasis on the word “science”, and in the fiction, all the thing can be the thing not in the world. Like in twenty kilometres under the sea, all the thing the writer writes are not the thing in that time, some of the new weapon even is made in the 21st century.

The speculative fiction of course put all the points on the word “speculative”. So this kind of fiction can happened in any time and any person. The thing described in the fiction must connect with the polity or social, and change a little thing which is very sensitive in that time.

The most different thing between science fiction and speculative fiction is the thing in the fiction is also in the real life or not. In the science fiction, the thing which is used by people can not find in real life, but in speculative fiction, it can be found.

The Man in the High Castle is just a good speculative fiction. In this fiction, something happened like the history, and something changed the main idea. The thing in this fiction is also the real thing in that time.

week 11

How does Hill define reality TV?

Hill(2005) has defined that “there are a variety of styles and techniques associated with reality TV, such as non-professional actors, unscripted dialogue, surveillance footage, hand-held cameras, seeing events unfold as they are happening in front of the camera.” Reality TV is based on reality and fact in people’s life to film or tell something to the audience. The examples of reality TV in New Zealand could be Big Brother and The Real World (Wikipedia).

How has the documentary genre influenced reality TV and how it presents the “real”?

Grierson has defined documentary as “the creative treatment of actuality”. Documentary is based on the fact, it is real. Directors make documentaries in order to tell audience what happened to one thing. Documentary has a very strong facticity. As a result, people can believe documentary more than TV shows or programs. Reality is also not a very drama genre, so it can follow some ways of documentary. Because of the facticity of documentary, you can say it is mostly real. Directors use real situation, real things and ordinary people not actors and actresses to film, it makes the documentary easier to believe.

Reality Television in Wikipedia, Retrieved 21th, October, 2010, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television

Week 10

How does Buffy deconstruct traditional literary notions of good and evil?
Good and evil are very popular in novels and movies of vampire themes. In the past, people always think that good is good, bad is bad. They do not think there is also good side in the bad people and good people can not do anything terrible. But recently, people are changing their minds. Good and bad people can have both good and bad sides within them, because they are human beings and human beings have every different feeling. In Buffy, Buffy and her friends are the good ones. On the other hand, the Vampires are the bad ones. But the director and the screenwriter have changed the traditional literary notion of good and bad. Although Buffy is a good girl, she also does something not perfect. She has weaknesses, she may make mistakes. On the contrary, even the vampires are evil to be thought of by human, they kill people and drink their blood to feed and fulfill themselves, and they have good vampires and good sides within them. Spike is a good example in Buffy. He is a vampire, he has to drink blood and he can not stay outside in broad day light, though he can not control his own fate, he knows that he should not bite people any more. As a consequence, he is not a total bad person. Buffy and he are good friends.

How do you think Buffy has influenced the contemporary vampire drama “True Blood” and the “Twilight” serious of novels and films?

In these two years, I have given more and more interests to Twilight as it has getting more and more hot and popular. The hot spot that attracts me is how things will go on between Bella and Edward. In addition, ever since Edward had gone for a while and left Bella alone, the relationship between Jacob and Bella has been getting better and better, stronger and stronger, and maybe I should also say more and more mysterious. Everyone has noticed that Jacob likes Bella a lot, and Bella do care about Jacob, but will Bella choose Jacob instead of Edward? This is a conflict in this novel. In the meantime, True Blood is kind of same as Twilight. True Blood is about a girl Sookie who has fallen in love with a vampire guy Bill and all the difficulties they must face in order to be together. In the end of the first season, a new vampire who is called Eric has attended in this story. Bill is a good no doubt vampire because he never killed a human being because of his hunger, he always drinks the true blood (a kind of fake blood that Japanese has created for vampires. In this TV serious, vampires do exist in people’s life has be known by human, so vampires can act freely) instead of drinking actual human blood. On the other hand, Eric drinks human’s blood and kills people. You may say he is evil, but he is still my favorite character. He is definitely loyal to his master and he is willing to die for him. From this aspect, how he treats his master is really moving. As far as I am concerned, the traditional literary good and evil concept has been deconstructed since Buffy, so it has been continued in Twilight and True Blood. Vampires are not all bad, there are good vampires and good sides do exist in other vampires.

Week 12

Week 12

Hi Guys. This is my final post.
My blog contributions: week 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,12 Please comment on. Thank you.
Hope you guys final assignment going well. (*^__^*)

1. How ‘real’ are game shows? / How ‘real’ is reality TV?

Game shows are a category of reality TV. Nowadays, Game shows become a popular. As Hill (2005) identified “the reality gameshow has become an international bestseller since its arrival in 2000” (pp. 31). Watching the game shows is one entertainment of ordinary people. There are many popular gameshows, such as Big Brother, Survivor.
A lots of people like watching game shows because it is ‘real’. This means you can join the show if you want.
For example, Hill (2005) cited Costera Meijier and Reesink (2000) described Big Broth “the voluntary locking up of nine people during a hundred days in a house, watched continuously by 24 television cameras, to which the viewers, at the intercession of the inmates, once in two weeks vote against one of the inmates who has to leave the house, until the last person to stay in can be called a winner” (pp. 31). Therefore, when audience watching the show, they will think it same to real life, no dress rehearsal and no script. Maybe they will want to join the show after watching. It is possible. Therefore, these game shows are ‘real’.

2. How does new-media (the internet, cell-phone technology, etc) play a significant role in the success of reality TV, as well as cult TV series such as Buffy?

New-media is an important tool of spread reality TV. It play a significant role in the success of reality TV.
For example, game shows, a point of that is most of game shows have prize. The prize not just for winner, sometimes they will set some prize for lucky audience. It is a method of increasing the view market share. Hill (2005) mentioned the format of Big Brother worked with converging media, such as websites and telephones, only added to its strong economic performance in the television marketplace (pp. 31).
With the successful of these game shows, new-media played a great role. The audience use website to communicate with others and put their views online. Hill (2005) states with the popular of Big Brother, for the website, it received 3 million pages impressions each day.

References

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV:Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Week 10

Week 10

1. How does Buffy deconstruct traditional literary notions of good and evil?

Good and evil is a permanent topic in TV programs. People pay more attention on this topic; it because of the conflict between good and evil is interesting. Furthermore, the changes from good to evil (or evil to good) are a point that people interested. Recent years, fantasy became a popular genre. People are more and more familiar with inhuman characters, such as witches, vampires. The conflicts between good and evil will show more clearly on these characters.
The main notion of good and evil is moral ambiguity. As Braun (2000) considered “what is interesting about some of these newer representations of supernatural, however, is the moral ambiguity that permeates many of the characters, including both the inhuman beings and ordinary characters” (pp. 67). Furthermore, he thought moral ambiguity often seems to intersect with themes related to gender and sexuality (Braun, 2000).
We can find these all elements in Buffy, use sexual tension between various characters to drive the narrative, play with gender roles, hidden depths and characters with otherworldly powers (Braun, 2000).
As Braun described, “Evil with many characters demonstrating both decent and demonic traits and behavior across episodes or seasons. Good characters may develop in frighteningly sinister ways; villainous ones may surprisingly reveal complex and even selfless motivations” (pp. 67). It proves generally there is not a character is good or evil for ever in these shows. They need to change between good and evil. Because even a bad guy will has some good behavior. A good example is Buffy’s powerful ally in her quest—Angel. He is a moral ambiguous character in this drama.

2. How do you think Buffy has influenced the contemporary vampire drama “True Blood” and the “Twilight” series of novels and films?

Twilight is my favorite vampire film, because its romantic plot between Edward and Bella and tense conflict between vampire and wolf man.
Actually, the main conflict in Buffy is different with Twilight. In Buffy the conflict is between Buffy and vampire, but in Twilight, the conflict is between vampire and wolf man. But the same thing is they all have moral ambiguous character in the story, Angle and Edward. A successful story should be having some character like that to make the story more wonderful. Buffy series are focus on the conflict in young people’s heart and Twilight takes more romantic scene to us. In Twilight, the vampires have two kinds, some evil vampire eat human beings and Edward’s family who don’t eat human being, by contrary protect human (Bella ).
True blood has some same aspects with Twilight, the love between human being and vampire. Buffy series provide basis for the development of later films about vampire.

References

Braun, B. (2000) The X-files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The ambiguity of evil in supernatural representations. Retrieved 18 October, 2005 from:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0412/is_2_28/ai_64688900