Bob Rehak
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781479813155
- eISBN:
- 9781479897070
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479813155.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Today’s franchises of fantastic media depend on visual effects for their existence, not just in their local textual homes (a feature film, a TV episode, a videogame) but across multiple screens and ...
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Today’s franchises of fantastic media depend on visual effects for their existence, not just in their local textual homes (a feature film, a TV episode, a videogame) but across multiple screens and platforms, working transmedially to build ongoing storyworlds, imbue bodies with evidence of life, and ultimately to travel freely as spectacular subgenres in themselves. In this book’s four case studies, major fantastic franchises of the last half century—Star Trek, Star Wars, the Middle Earth films, and The Matrix—reveal themselves as busy sites of negotiation between the late analog era of the 1960s and 1970s and the digital blockbuster era that followed. Arguing that this colonization took place largely in and through the visual effects design and engineering of high-profile media properties, the chapters explore television series art direction and its relationship to an amateur “blueprint culture,” documenting the contents of media’s imaginary worlds; the previsualization practices through which visual effects rebrand complex webs of creative contributions under the sign of the techno-auteur; the animation traditions that bring special-effects-assisted performances to life; and the role of special effects in larger circuits of visual culture. Approaching special effects both as specific technological practices and discursive performances of behind-the-scenes labor, More Than Meets the Eye plumbs the analog roots of contemporary transmedia franchises to find the unexpected behaviors and impacts of special effects that hide in plain sight, constructing perceptions of narrative worlds and characters as on another level they construct our collective ways of imagining franchise cinema, digital media, and technological change.Less
Today’s franchises of fantastic media depend on visual effects for their existence, not just in their local textual homes (a feature film, a TV episode, a videogame) but across multiple screens and platforms, working transmedially to build ongoing storyworlds, imbue bodies with evidence of life, and ultimately to travel freely as spectacular subgenres in themselves. In this book’s four case studies, major fantastic franchises of the last half century—Star Trek, Star Wars, the Middle Earth films, and The Matrix—reveal themselves as busy sites of negotiation between the late analog era of the 1960s and 1970s and the digital blockbuster era that followed. Arguing that this colonization took place largely in and through the visual effects design and engineering of high-profile media properties, the chapters explore television series art direction and its relationship to an amateur “blueprint culture,” documenting the contents of media’s imaginary worlds; the previsualization practices through which visual effects rebrand complex webs of creative contributions under the sign of the techno-auteur; the animation traditions that bring special-effects-assisted performances to life; and the role of special effects in larger circuits of visual culture. Approaching special effects both as specific technological practices and discursive performances of behind-the-scenes labor, More Than Meets the Eye plumbs the analog roots of contemporary transmedia franchises to find the unexpected behaviors and impacts of special effects that hide in plain sight, constructing perceptions of narrative worlds and characters as on another level they construct our collective ways of imagining franchise cinema, digital media, and technological change.
Liam Burke
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462036
- eISBN:
- 9781626745193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462036.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Comic book fandom has long been a participatory culture. As comic book characters made the transition to film, the fans, eschewing media boundaries, began effectively applying their collaborative ...
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Comic book fandom has long been a participatory culture. As comic book characters made the transition to film, the fans, eschewing media boundaries, began effectively applying their collaborative traditions to cinema. This process became more intensive and far-reaching in the digital age. Consequently, filmmakers, many of whom initially adopted a protectionist stance, have chosen to (or been forced to) recognize the merits of comic book publishing practices. In recent years, this has led to a refocusing of marketing campaigns, the development of new production practices, greater fidelity between texts, as well as a number of other strategies that position fans at the center of comic book adaptation production.Less
Comic book fandom has long been a participatory culture. As comic book characters made the transition to film, the fans, eschewing media boundaries, began effectively applying their collaborative traditions to cinema. This process became more intensive and far-reaching in the digital age. Consequently, filmmakers, many of whom initially adopted a protectionist stance, have chosen to (or been forced to) recognize the merits of comic book publishing practices. In recent years, this has led to a refocusing of marketing campaigns, the development of new production practices, greater fidelity between texts, as well as a number of other strategies that position fans at the center of comic book adaptation production.
Kevin Patrick
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462340
- eISBN:
- 9781626746787
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462340.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
The Phantom (1996) was a feature-film adaptation of the American comic strip character today regarded as a forerunner of the superhero. However, The Phantom film was an American box-office failure ...
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The Phantom (1996) was a feature-film adaptation of the American comic strip character today regarded as a forerunner of the superhero. However, The Phantom film was an American box-office failure and is routinely overlooked in academic studies of the ‘comic-book movie’. By contrast, The Phantom was a commercial success in Australia, ranking amongst the Top-5 films upon its cinema release and, therefore, this chapter investigates The Phantom’s localized success. The Phantom film provides the basis of a broader inquiry into the global circulation of the superhero phenomenon beyond its American ‘homeland’ by examining the film’s industrial production and cultural reception in Australia, the where character has paradoxically become an ‘indigenous’ superhero. Moreover, it explores how The Phantom’s embodiment of ‘old-fashioned’ heroism – cited as a key reason for the film’s domestic US failure – resonated with Australian audiences, who embraced The Phantom precisely because it was the antithesis of the American superhero archetype.Less
The Phantom (1996) was a feature-film adaptation of the American comic strip character today regarded as a forerunner of the superhero. However, The Phantom film was an American box-office failure and is routinely overlooked in academic studies of the ‘comic-book movie’. By contrast, The Phantom was a commercial success in Australia, ranking amongst the Top-5 films upon its cinema release and, therefore, this chapter investigates The Phantom’s localized success. The Phantom film provides the basis of a broader inquiry into the global circulation of the superhero phenomenon beyond its American ‘homeland’ by examining the film’s industrial production and cultural reception in Australia, the where character has paradoxically become an ‘indigenous’ superhero. Moreover, it explores how The Phantom’s embodiment of ‘old-fashioned’ heroism – cited as a key reason for the film’s domestic US failure – resonated with Australian audiences, who embraced The Phantom precisely because it was the antithesis of the American superhero archetype.
Nancy K. Baym
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479896165
- eISBN:
- 9781479815357
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479896165.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
In Playing to the Crowd, Nancy K. Baym examines the shift toward more personal connections with audiences, offering an entirely new approach to media cultures and industries as she does. The book ...
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In Playing to the Crowd, Nancy K. Baym examines the shift toward more personal connections with audiences, offering an entirely new approach to media cultures and industries as she does. The book argues that workers in many fields are under increased pressure get online and connect with others to further their careers, a trend that musicians have long led. Using a dialectical framework, the book draws on in depth-interviews with a range of professional musicians and other qualitative methods to show how the rise of digital communication platforms transformed artist-fan relationships into something that can feel personal. Part I explores music as a means of communication and as a commodity, drawing out the tension between its social and commercial values. Part II looks at audiences, showing how they developed fandoms in the 20th century, how those fandoms came online, and the tension between participation and control musicians experience when they encounter online audiences. Part III looks at relationships, examining how, in contrast to the concert hall environment in which musicians and audiences may one have met, social media create a new potential and pressure for everyday, intimate relating and how musicians manage the tensions between closeness and distance this creates. Ultimately, the book argues that the relational labor musicians do is a significant mode of work, one which requires resources, skills, and strategies we must all understand.Less
In Playing to the Crowd, Nancy K. Baym examines the shift toward more personal connections with audiences, offering an entirely new approach to media cultures and industries as she does. The book argues that workers in many fields are under increased pressure get online and connect with others to further their careers, a trend that musicians have long led. Using a dialectical framework, the book draws on in depth-interviews with a range of professional musicians and other qualitative methods to show how the rise of digital communication platforms transformed artist-fan relationships into something that can feel personal. Part I explores music as a means of communication and as a commodity, drawing out the tension between its social and commercial values. Part II looks at audiences, showing how they developed fandoms in the 20th century, how those fandoms came online, and the tension between participation and control musicians experience when they encounter online audiences. Part III looks at relationships, examining how, in contrast to the concert hall environment in which musicians and audiences may one have met, social media create a new potential and pressure for everyday, intimate relating and how musicians manage the tensions between closeness and distance this creates. Ultimately, the book argues that the relational labor musicians do is a significant mode of work, one which requires resources, skills, and strategies we must all understand.
Geoff Pearson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780719087219
- eISBN:
- 9781781706145
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719087219.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This is an ethnographic account of English football fans who travel home and away with their team, based upon sixteen years’ participant observation. The author identifies a distinct sub-culture of ...
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This is an ethnographic account of English football fans who travel home and away with their team, based upon sixteen years’ participant observation. The author identifies a distinct sub-culture of supporter – the ‘carnival fan’ – who dominated the travelling support of the three clubs observed - Manchester United, Blackpool and the England national team. This accessible account follows these groups home and abroad, describing their interpretations, motivations and behaviour and challenging a number of the myths about ‘hooliganism’ and crowd control. An Ethnography of English Football Fans identifies the primary motivation of these fan groups to be the creation of a carnival – a period of transgression from the norms of everyday life based upon congregating in groups, alcohol consumption, humour and tomfoolery, and expressions of identity. In achieving these aims, the fan groups were frequently brought into conflict with the football authorities, police and ‘hooligan’ groups and this account includes explanations of some of the most serious instances of crowd disorder involving English fans in the last two decades. The book also looks at issues such as attitudes to gender, sexuality and race, and the impact of technology upon football fandom.Less
This is an ethnographic account of English football fans who travel home and away with their team, based upon sixteen years’ participant observation. The author identifies a distinct sub-culture of supporter – the ‘carnival fan’ – who dominated the travelling support of the three clubs observed - Manchester United, Blackpool and the England national team. This accessible account follows these groups home and abroad, describing their interpretations, motivations and behaviour and challenging a number of the myths about ‘hooliganism’ and crowd control. An Ethnography of English Football Fans identifies the primary motivation of these fan groups to be the creation of a carnival – a period of transgression from the norms of everyday life based upon congregating in groups, alcohol consumption, humour and tomfoolery, and expressions of identity. In achieving these aims, the fan groups were frequently brought into conflict with the football authorities, police and ‘hooligan’ groups and this account includes explanations of some of the most serious instances of crowd disorder involving English fans in the last two decades. The book also looks at issues such as attitudes to gender, sexuality and race, and the impact of technology upon football fandom.
J. P. Telotte
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- August 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190949655
- eISBN:
- 9780190949693
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190949655.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This book considers the impact that the new art of film had on the development of the emerging science fiction (SF) genre during the pre- and early post-World War II era, during the time that the ...
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This book considers the impact that the new art of film had on the development of the emerging science fiction (SF) genre during the pre- and early post-World War II era, during the time that the genre was trying to locate an identity, develop its key themes, and even settle on a name. Focusing on the primary venue for early SF literature, the popular pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories, Wonder Stories, and Astounding Stories, it traces this early film/literature relationship by examining four common features of the pulps: stories that involve film or the film industry; film-related advertising; editors’ commentaries and readers’ remarks on film; and cover and story illustrations. All these features demonstrate an interest and even a fascination with the movies, which, as many of SF’s readers, writers, and editors recognized, demonstrated a modernist agenda similar to that which characterized the literature. By surveying these haunting traces of another medium in early SF discourse, this book shows how that cinematic influence penetrated and, both consciously and unconsciously, helped shape the experience of SF, as well as the cultural idea of SF during this formative period.Less
This book considers the impact that the new art of film had on the development of the emerging science fiction (SF) genre during the pre- and early post-World War II era, during the time that the genre was trying to locate an identity, develop its key themes, and even settle on a name. Focusing on the primary venue for early SF literature, the popular pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories, Wonder Stories, and Astounding Stories, it traces this early film/literature relationship by examining four common features of the pulps: stories that involve film or the film industry; film-related advertising; editors’ commentaries and readers’ remarks on film; and cover and story illustrations. All these features demonstrate an interest and even a fascination with the movies, which, as many of SF’s readers, writers, and editors recognized, demonstrated a modernist agenda similar to that which characterized the literature. By surveying these haunting traces of another medium in early SF discourse, this book shows how that cinematic influence penetrated and, both consciously and unconsciously, helped shape the experience of SF, as well as the cultural idea of SF during this formative period.
Stacy Wolf
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195378238
- eISBN:
- 9780199897018
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195378238.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
This chapter uses an ethnographically-based method and introduces the voices of girl fans to the mix as a reminder that audiences of musicals matter above all. This chapter analyzes the girls’ ...
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This chapter uses an ethnographically-based method and introduces the voices of girl fans to the mix as a reminder that audiences of musicals matter above all. This chapter analyzes the girls’ participation on internet fansites in the first years of Wicked’s run on Broadway (2003–2005), including their interpretations and uses of the musical and their language and rhetoric. It focuses on the theme of divas. This chapter reveals the energy and acuity of girl fans of musicals, and how they carry the torch of the form’s continuation and its on-going reinvention as a vehicle for female empowerment.Less
This chapter uses an ethnographically-based method and introduces the voices of girl fans to the mix as a reminder that audiences of musicals matter above all. This chapter analyzes the girls’ participation on internet fansites in the first years of Wicked’s run on Broadway (2003–2005), including their interpretations and uses of the musical and their language and rhetoric. It focuses on the theme of divas. This chapter reveals the energy and acuity of girl fans of musicals, and how they carry the torch of the form’s continuation and its on-going reinvention as a vehicle for female empowerment.
Alexis Lothian
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479811748
- eISBN:
- 9781479854585
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479811748.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
The second wormhole connects part 2’s chapters on black queer science fiction with the media cultures that part 3 analyzes through an exploration of sexual fantasy as a speculative world-making ...
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The second wormhole connects part 2’s chapters on black queer science fiction with the media cultures that part 3 analyzes through an exploration of sexual fantasy as a speculative world-making practice. This short and somewhat personal chapter reads a particularly queer and sexy scene from the science fiction TV show Sense8 (Netflix, 2015-2018), in which telepathically linked characters join sexually from disparate global locations. Sensate sex is a potent metaphor, the hybrid progeny of two sometimes-utopian fantasies: the queer world of public sex (where bodies come together, which anyone can join) and the science fiction of intimate technological connectivity (where physical and spatial boundaries lose their meaning). It functions here to map correspondences between the depictions of gendered spectatorship in Delany’s writings about male public sex cultures and the mostly female fan communities whose erotic fiction-writing practices form a speculative kind of sexual public.Less
The second wormhole connects part 2’s chapters on black queer science fiction with the media cultures that part 3 analyzes through an exploration of sexual fantasy as a speculative world-making practice. This short and somewhat personal chapter reads a particularly queer and sexy scene from the science fiction TV show Sense8 (Netflix, 2015-2018), in which telepathically linked characters join sexually from disparate global locations. Sensate sex is a potent metaphor, the hybrid progeny of two sometimes-utopian fantasies: the queer world of public sex (where bodies come together, which anyone can join) and the science fiction of intimate technological connectivity (where physical and spatial boundaries lose their meaning). It functions here to map correspondences between the depictions of gendered spectatorship in Delany’s writings about male public sex cultures and the mostly female fan communities whose erotic fiction-writing practices form a speculative kind of sexual public.
Alexis Lothian
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479811748
- eISBN:
- 9781479854585
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479811748.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Chapter 6 moves from futures depicted on screen to the audiences who take them up and respond to them by highlighting grassroots cultures of video remix that have flourished since the early years of ...
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Chapter 6 moves from futures depicted on screen to the audiences who take them up and respond to them by highlighting grassroots cultures of video remix that have flourished since the early years of the digital age. The speculative modes of cultural production and reception among science fiction media’s feminist fans showcase queer possibilities that emerge from efforts to push back against the pressures of dominant media temporalities. Their creative methods are the focus of this chapter, which highlights a practice that has emerged from obscurity to some influence in the last ten years: the subcultural art form of fans making music video, or vidding. The chapter uses the term “critical fandom” to center the affective and political temporalities of creative fan works that reimagine the racialized and gendered economies of digital media production and consumption. It analyzes several fan videos in depth to develop a theory of the form, then turns to queer, feminist, decolonial engagements with the television series Battlestar Galactica (2003–2009). Finally, the author’s own video remix practice is discussed as a way to incorporate the insights of this form into scholarly production.Less
Chapter 6 moves from futures depicted on screen to the audiences who take them up and respond to them by highlighting grassroots cultures of video remix that have flourished since the early years of the digital age. The speculative modes of cultural production and reception among science fiction media’s feminist fans showcase queer possibilities that emerge from efforts to push back against the pressures of dominant media temporalities. Their creative methods are the focus of this chapter, which highlights a practice that has emerged from obscurity to some influence in the last ten years: the subcultural art form of fans making music video, or vidding. The chapter uses the term “critical fandom” to center the affective and political temporalities of creative fan works that reimagine the racialized and gendered economies of digital media production and consumption. It analyzes several fan videos in depth to develop a theory of the form, then turns to queer, feminist, decolonial engagements with the television series Battlestar Galactica (2003–2009). Finally, the author’s own video remix practice is discussed as a way to incorporate the insights of this form into scholarly production.
Jennifer Robertson
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520211506
- eISBN:
- 9780520920125
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520211506.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter traces the transformations in and discourses of fandom in modern Japan. Audiences and especially female fans of all-female revue theaters figured prominently in social critiques of ...
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This chapter traces the transformations in and discourses of fandom in modern Japan. Audiences and especially female fans of all-female revue theaters figured prominently in social critiques of modernity, and fandom was interpreted as a pathology of modernity. Male fans were not exempt from scrutiny. The chapter examines profiles of fans, fan etiquette, translations from fan magazines, and observations of Takarazuka fan clubs.Less
This chapter traces the transformations in and discourses of fandom in modern Japan. Audiences and especially female fans of all-female revue theaters figured prominently in social critiques of modernity, and fandom was interpreted as a pathology of modernity. Male fans were not exempt from scrutiny. The chapter examines profiles of fans, fan etiquette, translations from fan magazines, and observations of Takarazuka fan clubs.
Sun Jung
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888028672
- eISBN:
- 9789882207127
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888028672.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter addresses Western cult fandom of the Korean genre film, Oldboy, and describes how postmodern South Korean masculinity is reconstructed through the ambivalent desires of Western ...
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This chapter addresses Western cult fandom of the Korean genre film, Oldboy, and describes how postmodern South Korean masculinity is reconstructed through the ambivalent desires of Western spectators based on the mixed practice of mugukjeok and neo-Orientalism. It also investigates how the Western desire for the Other is expressed, transformed, and redefined by consuming hybrid South Korean masculinity, as exemplified by the “savage but cool” Oh Dae-Soo, and how this transformed desire, “with a distinctly postmodern slant,” is different from earlier Orientalist desires towards the primitive Other. In addition, the chapter evaluates the West's ambivalent reception of Oldboy, which fluctuated between Western male identification with South Korean cool masculinity and Western desire for the primitiveness of South Korean masculinity. The most popular film review websites are presented as well. It can be concluded that due to the ever-fluctuating postmodern popular cultural flows, Western audiences experience the hybrid “time between dog and wolf” when they view Oldboy: the time when contemporary postmodern South Korean masculinity, as epitomized by the “savage but cool” Dae-Soo, is reconstructed within ambivalent neo-Orientalist Western spectatorship.Less
This chapter addresses Western cult fandom of the Korean genre film, Oldboy, and describes how postmodern South Korean masculinity is reconstructed through the ambivalent desires of Western spectators based on the mixed practice of mugukjeok and neo-Orientalism. It also investigates how the Western desire for the Other is expressed, transformed, and redefined by consuming hybrid South Korean masculinity, as exemplified by the “savage but cool” Oh Dae-Soo, and how this transformed desire, “with a distinctly postmodern slant,” is different from earlier Orientalist desires towards the primitive Other. In addition, the chapter evaluates the West's ambivalent reception of Oldboy, which fluctuated between Western male identification with South Korean cool masculinity and Western desire for the primitiveness of South Korean masculinity. The most popular film review websites are presented as well. It can be concluded that due to the ever-fluctuating postmodern popular cultural flows, Western audiences experience the hybrid “time between dog and wolf” when they view Oldboy: the time when contemporary postmodern South Korean masculinity, as epitomized by the “savage but cool” Dae-Soo, is reconstructed within ambivalent neo-Orientalist Western spectatorship.
Michele Hilmes, Matt Hills, and Roberta Pearson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- July 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190663124
- eISBN:
- 9780190663162
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190663124.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, World Literature
A tide of high-quality television drama is sweeping the world. The new transnational television series has developed not only global appeal but innovative new modes of production, distribution, and ...
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A tide of high-quality television drama is sweeping the world. The new transnational television series has developed not only global appeal but innovative new modes of production, distribution, and reception. Nowhere is the transnational exchange of television drama more vital than between Britain and the United States, where it builds on more than sixty years of import, adaptation, coproduction, and fandom. This edited volume explores the transatlantic flow of television drama, focusing on key programs, industry strategies, critical debates, and audience reception, from an international roster of scholars and researchers. The chapters explore some of the most widely discussed programs on the transatlantic circuit. The book's first part focuses on media industries, tracing the history of transatlantic exchange and investigating contemporary practices such as coproduction, digital distribution, global partnerships, promotion, and branding. The second part concentrates on specific television texts and their negotiation of meaning across cultural contexts, exploring critical issues in the creation of transnational drama, such as heritage, proximity, performance, and self-reflexivity. Part III turns to the lively sphere of transatlantic fandom and commentary, including fan conventions, fan fiction, the role of both traditional and social media, and fan strategies for negotiating cultural differences. Transatlantic Television Drama provides a wide-ranging analysis of a phenomenon at the forefront of today’s television universe. It is focused on the serial dramatic programs that have gained the bulk of critical and popular attention and is particularly concerned with the impact of digital technologies on the production, distribution, and reception of television drama.Less
A tide of high-quality television drama is sweeping the world. The new transnational television series has developed not only global appeal but innovative new modes of production, distribution, and reception. Nowhere is the transnational exchange of television drama more vital than between Britain and the United States, where it builds on more than sixty years of import, adaptation, coproduction, and fandom. This edited volume explores the transatlantic flow of television drama, focusing on key programs, industry strategies, critical debates, and audience reception, from an international roster of scholars and researchers. The chapters explore some of the most widely discussed programs on the transatlantic circuit. The book's first part focuses on media industries, tracing the history of transatlantic exchange and investigating contemporary practices such as coproduction, digital distribution, global partnerships, promotion, and branding. The second part concentrates on specific television texts and their negotiation of meaning across cultural contexts, exploring critical issues in the creation of transnational drama, such as heritage, proximity, performance, and self-reflexivity. Part III turns to the lively sphere of transatlantic fandom and commentary, including fan conventions, fan fiction, the role of both traditional and social media, and fan strategies for negotiating cultural differences. Transatlantic Television Drama provides a wide-ranging analysis of a phenomenon at the forefront of today’s television universe. It is focused on the serial dramatic programs that have gained the bulk of critical and popular attention and is particularly concerned with the impact of digital technologies on the production, distribution, and reception of television drama.
Robin Anne Reid
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Robin Anne Reid, in “Bending Culture: Racebending.com’s Protests Against Media Whitewashing,” ruminates on the extent to which the gap between the categories of cultural, or fan activism, and ...
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Robin Anne Reid, in “Bending Culture: Racebending.com’s Protests Against Media Whitewashing,” ruminates on the extent to which the gap between the categories of cultural, or fan activism, and political activism may be changing, especially with regard to younger people participating in online activist sites. Reid concentrates her inquiry on one internet community, Racebending.com, which originated in a protest against the casting of white actors in M. Night Shyamalan live-action adaptation The Last Airbender (2010). She argues that the group’s online activities since the release of the film shows the overlap between fan and political activism, thereby demonstrating connections between critical race and intersectional studies.Less
Robin Anne Reid, in “Bending Culture: Racebending.com’s Protests Against Media Whitewashing,” ruminates on the extent to which the gap between the categories of cultural, or fan activism, and political activism may be changing, especially with regard to younger people participating in online activist sites. Reid concentrates her inquiry on one internet community, Racebending.com, which originated in a protest against the casting of white actors in M. Night Shyamalan live-action adaptation The Last Airbender (2010). She argues that the group’s online activities since the release of the film shows the overlap between fan and political activism, thereby demonstrating connections between critical race and intersectional studies.
Cait Coker
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811523
- eISBN:
- 9781496811561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811523.003.0015
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Through her essay “The Mako Mori Fan Club,” Cait Coker examines the subversive nature of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) by utilizing fan works as sources of viable criticism to decenter the ...
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Through her essay “The Mako Mori Fan Club,” Cait Coker examines the subversive nature of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) by utilizing fan works as sources of viable criticism to decenter the white American male action hero with a Japanese heroine. To this end, Coker delves into the major motifs of Pacific Rim fandom online and considers its relationship with a film that seemingly “failed” in the American market but exploded internationally, even prompting a sequel slated for 2017. She also reflects on how the depictions of close, but not necessarily romantic, relationships are celebrated in both the film and in fandom as illustrating a cooperative ideal generally not seen in popular, mainstream media.Less
Through her essay “The Mako Mori Fan Club,” Cait Coker examines the subversive nature of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) by utilizing fan works as sources of viable criticism to decenter the white American male action hero with a Japanese heroine. To this end, Coker delves into the major motifs of Pacific Rim fandom online and considers its relationship with a film that seemingly “failed” in the American market but exploded internationally, even prompting a sequel slated for 2017. She also reflects on how the depictions of close, but not necessarily romantic, relationships are celebrated in both the film and in fandom as illustrating a cooperative ideal generally not seen in popular, mainstream media.
Kristen J. Warner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039577
- eISBN:
- 9780252097669
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039577.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter analyzes the ways Black women fans have reacted to not being visible in the dominant spaces of fandom. It offers the fandom of ABC's Scandal—a program with Black women in central ...
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This chapter analyzes the ways Black women fans have reacted to not being visible in the dominant spaces of fandom. It offers the fandom of ABC's Scandal—a program with Black women in central positions both behind and in front of the camera—as a primary example of the ways Black women fan communities work toward reinscription. Premiering on ABC in April 2012, the prime-time dramatic series produced by Grey's Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes and starring African American actress Kerry Washington became a literal embodiment of the type of labor Black women practice in fan spaces. In this case, Black female fans have transformed the central Black lead, canonically drawn as normative and racially neutral, into a culturally specific Black character. This is commonplace labor for non-White fans—particularly in the early-twenty-first-century's so-called postrace moment.Less
This chapter analyzes the ways Black women fans have reacted to not being visible in the dominant spaces of fandom. It offers the fandom of ABC's Scandal—a program with Black women in central positions both behind and in front of the camera—as a primary example of the ways Black women fan communities work toward reinscription. Premiering on ABC in April 2012, the prime-time dramatic series produced by Grey's Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes and starring African American actress Kerry Washington became a literal embodiment of the type of labor Black women practice in fan spaces. In this case, Black female fans have transformed the central Black lead, canonically drawn as normative and racially neutral, into a culturally specific Black character. This is commonplace labor for non-White fans—particularly in the early-twenty-first-century's so-called postrace moment.
Kyra Hunting
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039577
- eISBN:
- 9780252097669
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039577.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter considers how the platform provided by fan-fashion blogs and the affordances of the technology allow fan-fashion bloggers to play with media and fashion in a way that is less constrained ...
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This chapter considers how the platform provided by fan-fashion blogs and the affordances of the technology allow fan-fashion bloggers to play with media and fashion in a way that is less constrained by a blogger's financial or physical limitations than previous engagements with fandom and fashion—like cosplay or collecting. Fan-fashion blogs can also destabilize some of the assumptions about scarcity, competition, and authenticity that accompanied these preceding fan practices. Furthermore, the chapter argues that the focus on fandom and its distinct set of values and priorities in these blogs shifts their orientation in relationship to several issues associated with fashion and fashion blogging more broadly, including displacing traditional approaches to issues like consumption, body policing, and “normative femininity.”Less
This chapter considers how the platform provided by fan-fashion blogs and the affordances of the technology allow fan-fashion bloggers to play with media and fashion in a way that is less constrained by a blogger's financial or physical limitations than previous engagements with fandom and fashion—like cosplay or collecting. Fan-fashion blogs can also destabilize some of the assumptions about scarcity, competition, and authenticity that accompanied these preceding fan practices. Furthermore, the chapter argues that the focus on fandom and its distinct set of values and priorities in these blogs shifts their orientation in relationship to several issues associated with fashion and fashion blogging more broadly, including displacing traditional approaches to issues like consumption, body policing, and “normative femininity.”
Su Holmes
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748627523
- eISBN:
- 9780748671212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748627523.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
Although quiz shows often encourage us to ‘play’ along, and they encode the participation of the audience into their textual form, there have been virtually no audience studies in this sphere. This ...
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Although quiz shows often encourage us to ‘play’ along, and they encode the participation of the audience into their textual form, there have been virtually no audience studies in this sphere. This chapter seeks to address this neglect. Moving from the early broadcast origins of the quiz show up until the advent of ‘interactive’ television, it considers the ways in which the viewer at home has been encouraged to participate. It then moves on to explore how fan cultures on the internet offer insights into audience interaction with the quiz show (and its cultural politics). But as such fans are also often contestants, the chapter returns to the questions of ‘performance’ and ‘authenticity’ examined in Chapter 5.Less
Although quiz shows often encourage us to ‘play’ along, and they encode the participation of the audience into their textual form, there have been virtually no audience studies in this sphere. This chapter seeks to address this neglect. Moving from the early broadcast origins of the quiz show up until the advent of ‘interactive’ television, it considers the ways in which the viewer at home has been encouraged to participate. It then moves on to explore how fan cultures on the internet offer insights into audience interaction with the quiz show (and its cultural politics). But as such fans are also often contestants, the chapter returns to the questions of ‘performance’ and ‘authenticity’ examined in Chapter 5.
Evan Hayles Gledhill
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474419659
- eISBN:
- 9781474445061
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474419659.003.0020
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
Romantic women’s magazines were part of a broad cultural moment that saw a rapid expansion in the presence and accessibility of genre fiction, which easily attached feminine associations to the ...
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Romantic women’s magazines were part of a broad cultural moment that saw a rapid expansion in the presence and accessibility of genre fiction, which easily attached feminine associations to the critical imaginary. Evan Hayles Gledhill’s essay analyses women readers’ investment in reading and authoring Gothic and romantic fictions for late eighteenth-century periodicals, such as the Lady’s Monthly Museum (1798–1828) and the Lady’s Magazine (1770–1832), to reveal how this fiction disrupted the traditional and gendered value systems that dominated Romantic publishing. In the process, Gledhill uncovers striking similarities between the textual communities that produced, or emerged in response to, this fiction and modern textual fan communities.Less
Romantic women’s magazines were part of a broad cultural moment that saw a rapid expansion in the presence and accessibility of genre fiction, which easily attached feminine associations to the critical imaginary. Evan Hayles Gledhill’s essay analyses women readers’ investment in reading and authoring Gothic and romantic fictions for late eighteenth-century periodicals, such as the Lady’s Monthly Museum (1798–1828) and the Lady’s Magazine (1770–1832), to reveal how this fiction disrupted the traditional and gendered value systems that dominated Romantic publishing. In the process, Gledhill uncovers striking similarities between the textual communities that produced, or emerged in response to, this fiction and modern textual fan communities.
Kristyn Gorton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624171
- eISBN:
- 9780748670956
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624171.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter focuses on the meaning fans, readers and critics give to particular television texts, the affective dimensions of this 'meaning making,' and considers a way to rethink the 'dangers' of ...
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This chapter focuses on the meaning fans, readers and critics give to particular television texts, the affective dimensions of this 'meaning making,' and considers a way to rethink the 'dangers' of 'sitting too close to the tele'. It draws on work by David Bordwell, Michel de Certeau and Henry Jenkins in particular. It also considers new theories on fandom and the relationship between consumerism and television viewing practices.Less
This chapter focuses on the meaning fans, readers and critics give to particular television texts, the affective dimensions of this 'meaning making,' and considers a way to rethink the 'dangers' of 'sitting too close to the tele'. It draws on work by David Bordwell, Michel de Certeau and Henry Jenkins in particular. It also considers new theories on fandom and the relationship between consumerism and television viewing practices.
Sean Dinces
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226583211
- eISBN:
- 9780226583358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226583358.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Chapter 2 begins by acknowledging that the Bulls championship rallies held in Grant Park brought people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds together. However, most of those in attendance ...
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Chapter 2 begins by acknowledging that the Bulls championship rallies held in Grant Park brought people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds together. However, most of those in attendance were unified not only by their love of Jordan and company, but also by their inability to afford access, at least on any sort of consistent basis, to attend actual Bulls games. Increasing economic inequality in the United States as a whole drove team owners like Jerry Reinsdorf to focus their marketing efforts on appealing to the luxury tastes of those benefiting from the upward redistribution of wealth, namely professionals and corporate executives. Nothing embodied these efforts in Chicago more than the construction of the United Center, which Reinsdorf and his partners packed with "premium" club and luxury suite sections to the exclusion of ordinary seats that working- and middle-class fans could afford. While Reinsdorf and his apologists insisted that increasing player salaries drove increases in ticket prices, this explanation confused cause with effect. Empirical evidence indicates a very weak correlation between player salaries and ticket prices; Reinsdorf and other team owners charged whatever affluent fans were willing to pay, regardless of labor costs.Less
Chapter 2 begins by acknowledging that the Bulls championship rallies held in Grant Park brought people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds together. However, most of those in attendance were unified not only by their love of Jordan and company, but also by their inability to afford access, at least on any sort of consistent basis, to attend actual Bulls games. Increasing economic inequality in the United States as a whole drove team owners like Jerry Reinsdorf to focus their marketing efforts on appealing to the luxury tastes of those benefiting from the upward redistribution of wealth, namely professionals and corporate executives. Nothing embodied these efforts in Chicago more than the construction of the United Center, which Reinsdorf and his partners packed with "premium" club and luxury suite sections to the exclusion of ordinary seats that working- and middle-class fans could afford. While Reinsdorf and his apologists insisted that increasing player salaries drove increases in ticket prices, this explanation confused cause with effect. Empirical evidence indicates a very weak correlation between player salaries and ticket prices; Reinsdorf and other team owners charged whatever affluent fans were willing to pay, regardless of labor costs.
