Track 5: Spoiler Alert

Spoiler Alert


The two most intriguing and tempting words in movies, TV shows, and video games today.  How many times have you been reading a review or a preview of a movie or TV show and seen this?  Everytime I see this I take a pause and think do I really want to know what I'm about to read?  Usually that depends on if I plan on watching what I'm about to read in the near future.  Right now mine and a lot of peoples anticipation could not be any higher for the new Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.  This movie can not come out soon enough in my opinion.  I have watched the teaser trailer for this film maybe 20 times, and theres only about 20 seconds of new footage in the whole two minute trailer.  The new movie even has its own website dedicated to spoilers for the movie.  In todays world of constant documentation of everyday events and camera phones the ability to report spoilers have exploded especially in the movie business.  The Dark Knight Rises is being shot around Pittsburgh and Los Angeles and almost every time the movie cameras have been rolling so have the cell phone cameras.

What makes people so interested in spoilers? Why do people want to post them? Why do people want to ruin movies or shows for themselves?  I think when you have a movie like the Dark Knight Rises and the amount of anticipation and expectations surrounding it that it is hard not to want to know whats going on or whats going to happen.  I can only compare it to an almost type of hunger or addiction to the movie and as it gets closer to the release date the amount of information you want grows.  Its similar to finding out you are going out to eat a big steak house the next day so you tell yourself that you're not going to eat until then so you can just eat as much as possible.  Sometimes this happens and you are able to make yourself not snack and are able to wait till you get to that steakhouse to finally eat (you don't Spoil your dinner).  The next approach is that you say that you aren't going to eat till the next night, but then you go to the fridge and you see some leftovers from dinner and have a little snack.  Then you see a bag of chips sitting on the counter and you have a few of those, you don't really spoil your upcoming big dinner but you may just not be able to eat as much for it.  The last way is to say whatever I don't care if I spoil my dinner I can just take leftovers home and you end up not enjoying the meal as much.

I personally try to not look at spoilers as much as possible but sometimes I just can't help it I just want to know that theres going to be a Batwing in the next one...woops Spoiler Alert.  As long as they don't ruin the movie for me like when I found out SPOILER ALERT Bruce Willis was dead in the Sixth Sense before I saw it, that was weak.

Dark Knight Rises Teaser

Track 3 Revisited: "Drive" Drives A Fan To Epic Actions

A few weeks ago I talked about the movie drive and the feeling that I was the main character when I left the theater.  More recently in my first paper I talked about how the people on the screen have the power in the viewer/subject relationship.  Here is a interesting and kinda of funny story that supports my opinion that the subject has the power.  Recently Tiger Woods was playing in a tournament in California.  He was lining up a birdie putt on the 16th hole and as he was about to putt out a hot dog comes flying out of the gallery and lands on the green.  The man who threw the hot dog immediately laid down and waited to be arrested.  The only thing more bizarre than throwing hot dog onto the green was the throwers reasoning.  When he was asked the thrower said his reason for throwing it was that he had just seen the movie Drive and wanted to do something "Courageous and Epic." Now I don't know how epic throwing a hot dog at a golfer that is far from the top of his game at a tournament that wasn't even being televised is but I'm sure it will be something always remembered by Woods.
Here's an article from fox news describing the reasoning, and a video from deadspin of the actual incident.
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2011/10/12/california-man-explains-why-threw-hot-dog-at-tiger-woods/
http://deadspin.com/5848262/the-tiger-woods-hot-dog-assault-was-caught-on-tape

Track 4. Listen While You Watch The Throne

Another topic that was brought to mind this week while discussing viewer and spectatorship was the persona that todays rappers and hip-hop artists create for themselves, and more specifically Jay-Z and Kanye West.  In August the two of them released their long awaited collaboration album "Watch The Throne."  The album itself is incredible, with production from Kanye as well as a literal who's who of todays best producers.  Also unlike many of todays hip hop albums that are littered with guest appearances from other rappers who usually deliver mediocre verses at best, all rapping on this album is provided from Jay and Ye.  After the release of the album I read an interesting review/critique of the album on Grantland.com by Hua Hsu titled Watch the Throne: Let them Eat Cake.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6844020/let-eat-cake
The article brings up the point of the subject matter of the album.  Much of the album is about how wealthy and cultured Jay and Kanye are with lines like "whole lotta watches I need eight arms/ one neck but got eight charms" and the boasting of "Sorry I'm in pajamas but I just got of the PJ" (PJ=Private Jet) However at the same time while they want to flaunt their wealth and how cultured and famous they are they also want to be culturally conscious "398 soldiers died in Iraq/ 509 died in Chicago" Sometimes these two things contradict themselves in their lyrics, they want to be seen as rich and hard and from the streets but also someone that cares about the streets.  The song "Cant Stop Me Now" ends with "Black cards/ black cars/ whole lotta money in the black bag/ black strap you know what thats for"(black strap= a belt for holding a gun) but then follow that up with a song called "Murder to Excellence" where the first half of the song is about how many people have been killed because of violence in their home towns of Chicago and New York.  But then no more than 2 minutes later the song switches and Jay drops the line "They say my black card bears the mark of the beast" and "Sheep skin coat/ I silence the lambs" This theme of rappers wanting to show there from the streets while still wanting to distance themselves by showing how the money they have made has taken them away from the streets is nothing new. (see: Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, and The Game) Me personally I don't really care that much since it is nothing new and have become so accustomed to hearing it but I definitely get the point that Hua Hsu is trying to make.

Heres the first video from the album, and yes if you are wondering that is a Maybach that they are chopping up, selling price $350,000.

Track 3. Drive the Driver

This week we are looking at the concept of the viewer and spectatorship.  Our reading by Laura Mulvey "The Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" brought up the idea of what makes narratives in cinema so fulfilling to watch.  She brings up the idea of projection, and how when it is just you in a dark theater that you as a viewer project yourself onto the character on the screen.  This idea of projection is one that I very much agree with, because everyone wants to be the hero, everyone wants to save the day.  Just recently I went and saw the movie "Drive."  The movie centers around a driver (he never says or is called by his name) who is a stunt driver in hollywood that moonlights as a getaway driver for crooks and criminals.  He starts out as a quiet, calm, and cool driver that never shows much personality or emotion. But after he volunteers to help with a robbery that goes completely wrong, the badass him comes out, how badass you ask, just listen for the crunching in the elevator scene.  After watching this movie I walked out of the theater and because I had become so interested and invested in this character for the entire drive home I felt like the driver...as I swerved through traffic at 70 mph.  Two things I think attributed to this, one was that he was never given a name, you never thought oh that Johnny or Maverick, this character was just driver, or "The Kid" as his boss called him.  Because he had no name you're more able to project yourself onto this nameless character.  The second thing that makes it easy to project yourself onto this character was that he was so emotionless that you never really knew who he was and for the first half of the movie you're trying to figure him out and you try to project your own back story onto him, doing this only makes you become more involved with this character.  I highly recommend seeing the movie, however it can be very polarizing with its minimal dialogue and slow moving at first plot. It also has a great soundtrack, check the song that plays during the climax of the movie while he looks in the diner.

"Drive" Trailer

Track 2. Fanatics

This week in class we're talking about fan fiction and our screening this week is the movie Trekkies.  When I was first told that we were reading about Trekkies and fan fiction my first thought was the movie "Galaxy Quest." "Galaxy Quest" is a movie that follows the cast of a fictional show called "Galaxy Quest" (a poor mans Star Trek).  The movie opens with the cast of the show at the annual Galaxy Quest Convention where they are approached by some strange fans.  It turns out that these fans are actual Aliens who have seen the show and the heroic things that the crew has done and thinks that it is real.  The Aliens then kidnap them in hopes that they will help them save their planet from destruction.  The reason though that it makes me think of Star Trek fans is because there is a scene in the beginning where is Galaxy Quest Super fan asks the captain of the ship (played by Tim Allen) a technical question about something on the show that only super fan like him would know.  The captains response is something along the lines of "get a life kid!"  Ironically later in the movie the Captain has contact this fan again to request help with navigating a maze of giant steel pistons, that only a super fan of the show would know the pattern for.
If you haven't seen Galaxy quest I do recommend it and it has an all-star cast. Tim Allen (Home Improvement, Toy Story) Sigourney Weaver (Alien, Aliens, Avatar) Allen Rickman (Harry Potter) Tony Shalhoub (Monk).

Heres the trailer for Galaxy Quest.

One other funny thing I thought of when I heard we were talking about fanatics of Star Trek was an old bit from late night with Conan O'Brien from several years ago.  He sent out one of his legendary characters Triumph: The Insult Comic Dog to do some "reporting" at the premiere of Star Wars Episode 2 attack of the clones. Make sure you wait for the Star Trek fans appearance near the end.
In order to watch the actual video you have to copy and paste the link in a new window (a lot of work I know)

http://youtu.be/7zWNJHS9PBE

Track 1. Brostache

Although most of todays commercials are annoying (Flow from the progressive commercials) some can be quite entertaining, especially this one from Geico.

This is easily one of my favorite commercials on TV right now.  Geico, the insurance company that is being promoted in this add, has created some of the of most creative, original, and funny add campaigns out there today.  It started for them with the Geico Cavemen and the Geico Gekko and has now expanded into several other campaigns such as this one.  Geico saw the world of insurance marketing expanding and instead of trying to be serious like State Farm, who uses the guy who played Pedro Cerano in Major league and the president in "24".  Or trying to be annoying like Progressive i.e. Flow and their new adds of people being annoying to other people in an office building.  Geico wanted to stand out with their own weird, quirky, and funny adds.  I can't say that what they're saying in this commercial is not true either because there are some people that act just like this.  My friend as a matter of fact love to play with his fart sounds app.  Also after watching this add you can't not check the iPhone app store and see if these apps are available, I did.

My First Post (Introduction)

Hello Everyone,

This is my media blog for my Studies in Cinema and Media Culture course at the University of Minnesota.  On this blog I'll be posting about various forms of media I experience everyday whether its music, movies, television, billboards, magazine adds, or even an add on the side of a bus.  Ill try to look at them for any type of meaning they might be trying to display and sometimes I may just post a random though or question about a type about some type of media I saw, and sometimes I may just post something I think is cool.  So stay tuned, and if you can't get enough of this already exciting blog follow me on Twitter at @Free_Mason7.

Mason Sellers