‘The Eye’ of Crossover cinema

What? A film can be produced in one country, directed by another and have actors from another? According to Khorana, ‘crossover cinema’, is an emerging form of cinema that crosses cultural borders in terms of production, distribution and reception. There is an importance regarding cross-over cinema as the impact of post-world-war 2 and globalisation has changed film practices.

Crossover cinema has enabled people to think cross-culturally and think beyond traditional Western films to see the culturally conceptualized cinema. This can involve and integrated use of standards between different countries that together, have collaborated to form one film.

Through the idea of crossover cinema, the film I would like to discuss is the Hong Kong Horror film ‘the Eye’, 2002. The eye is a film about a young women who underwent an eye transplant of the cornea which then led her to see beyond the normal, a hell that she couldn’t get out of her head. The film is financed through Hong Kong’s Applause pictures and also Singapore MediaCorp Rraintree Pictures. The films main produce can also convey the idea of cross-over cinema as he was born in Hong Kong, raised in Thailand but was also educated in the US. The films production team and actors consists of Chinese, Thai, Malaysian people. The film was also influences by both Western and Asian values.

This is the Hong Kong version of the film which I must say looks a whole lot scarier and all round better, although this does have an English voice over.

This is the US version of the film

Already the film has variations of cultures but this film was also remade for English speaking audience. In 2008, the film was recreated and was seen to be one of the better Asian-horror remakes, but was not seen as good as the Ring or the Grudge. But this remake of the film can also show the crossover cinema through taking the original idea from Asian cinema, having French directors and an American cast of actors. Although this was seen as a pretty good remake, the film did not prove to be as popular as the Hong Kong version was as this film was more suited to that audience. The content created through culture can be slightly lost when it becomes westernised due to our values and our lack of understanding towards different cultures.

References

Choi, Jinhee, Wada-Marciano 2009, ‘Horror to the extreme: Changing boundaries in Asian cinema’, Hong Kong University Press, Aberdeen, Hong Hong.

Harris, Mark 2008, ”The Eye’ Movie review’, About Entertainment, Viewed 14/10/2014. http://horror.about.com/od/theatricalhorrorreviews/fr/eyereview.htm

Khorana, S 2013, ‘Crossover Cinema: Cross-Cultural Film from Production to Reception’.Crossover Cinema: A Genealogical and Conceptual Overview. Routledge, New York, Viewed 14/10/2014. http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2020&context=lhapapers&gt

False intepretations leads to false accusations

Global news contains many topics of debate, focusing on global issues. Climate change is a catalyst for discussion but our experience of climate change is highly mediated. This week we discussed the impact of global crisis in relation to global media and I’ll be focusing on the issue of climate change, Global issues such as climate change enable us to think global but to also act local and cooperate with one another to help through change. Through challenging views of scientific knowledge and the opinion of the puclic, this can cause misunderstandings between the causes and problems of global warming and climate change.

Ward states that reporting climate change can be seen to cause a ‘false balance’ with scientific credibility and widely accepted scientific judgement. False balance may be what is seen as an even portrayal of an event, but actually contains very biased views from one side.  With this, balanced opinions are needed about science and facts. Different perspectives are then viewed to see the challenging and opposing views of climate change and how to deal with this.

Journalism ethics takes into considering the different views of climate change that enables people without a ‘voice’ to be heard. “One element of the SPJ Code of Ethics urges reporters to ‘give voice to the voiceless; official and unofficial sources of information can be equally valid’. Another cautions reporters to ‘support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant’”.

There was an article about ‘false balance’ and the media bias towards towards fringe climate consensus that states that the media has been displaying a false balance of climate change coverage over the years. This is continuing to give the public false representations and a misleading picture of what climate change is. A survey was undergone with 1800 international science students and it It was noted that all though climated change is mostly caused by green house gasses. Media coverage of climate change has left the public with a misinterpretation of climate change as there is an apparent scientific agreement. According the public, they think that only 55% of scientists agree with global warming as this is the information that they have gathered from global news coverage. This is why media education is very important as it can provide people with false interpretations of reality.

This video provides a great view on ‘False balance’. It is stating that the ‘false balance’ around climate change is a disaster and the BBC is now training journalists to avoid false balance and give scientific issue proportional balance. The perception from 97% of scientists believe that climate change is connected to human activity on Earth and that should be a figure that people understand and act to. But what people are really seen to follow is what is in the media.

References

Gavin, N 2009, ‘Addressing climate change: a media perspective’,Environmental Politics, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 765-780.

Romm, Joe 2014, ‘False Balance Lives: Media Biased Towards Fringe Climate Scientists Who Reject Global Consensus’, Climate Progress, August 11, viewed 12/10/2014. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/11/3469735/false-balance-media-biased-climate/

Ward, Bud 2009, ‘Journalism ethics and climate change reporting in a period of intense media uncertainty’, Ethics of science journalism, vol. 9, pp. 13-15.

GLOBAL WORLD BREAKING NEWS! PEOPLE WIN A TV SHOW!

What is news? News can be interpreted in many different ways and can be characterised by framing, visualisation, personalisation, cultural and social affiliations along with images and information to create an appealing story for the viewers. But with this, there are many theories on what news actually is and what news should be? Are we covering stories that really need to be covered? Or are we just getting the news that we want to hear?

This video just shows how the news can be exaggerated to appeal to the audience.

Global media can be public spaces that are created due to global influences and an area for people to communicate and share their opinions on global events and stories. This can be due to the fact that some news stories that are covered may not greatly improve someone’s life. If you look at the ‘Daily Mail’ at the time of this blogpost, the top story was ‘Blockbusters! Brothers Simon and Shannon win The Block after their apartment sells for $335,000 above the reserve… but their fellow renovators aren’t happy’. The top news story, the most important thing that was happening in the world was that some people had won a lot of money on a TV show… This is the reason why people are trying to find the news in others ways such as social media platforms as it can provide important global news.

There internet has allowed for people to move past traditional forms of news coverage to create an interconnected ‘network society’ that is central for people voicing their views and opinions. Social media driven news coverage can be seen to challenge traditional forms of media coverage as more and more people are gathering sources from social media. An example of this can include the Boston bombings as the initial news of this didn’t break traditional forms of media, but rather it broke on twitter. I know personally I gather my news from twitter and facebook and when there is an important event even Tumblr provides me with more important global news than the television wouldn’t.

Although global news can still provide global stories, the points of views or ‘frames’ of events can be portrayed in different ways than what is actually happening. Harlow states that there has been a social media led Egyptian -revolution as what is portrayed the current mainstream media coverage may contain different information found in social media and blogs. The information found in mainstream media tends to have a negative frame of the Arab world, whilst social media tends to see these peoples injustices. Lee-Wright states that along with social media challenging the media coverage of Western Media, so is Arab Media. People felt that the Arab-Spring wasn’t being properly covered as is wasn’t reporting worthy, so it was skimmed over by Western Media.

Just by watching this video you can see just how huge and historically important the Arab-Spring was.

Media. 

This video explains the effect of social media and how it has impacted of people gathering news and also how it compares to mainstream media. This is evident as people are contributing to knowing more about global events and gathering their own news from social media platforms because what portrayed in the media may not contain as important information.

References

Harlow, S., Thomas J. Johnson 2011 ‘The Arab Spring| Overthrowing the Protest Paradigm? How The New York Times, Global Voices and Twitter Covered the Egyptian Revolution’, International Journal of Communication, vol. 5 pp. 1379-40.

Lee-Wright, Peter 2012, News Values: An Assessment of News Priorities Through a Comparative Analysis of Arab Spring Anniversary Coverage, JOMEC Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-4.

Lost in translation? Or just not suitable for that audience?

This post is similar to my previous blog post but this contains the focus of drama. Like comedy, drama has central themes that are representative and distinct to their region. The standards of one country or cultures idea of drama can contain a different connotation to another. This can either successfully or unsuccessfully engage an audience if it lies within their standards and values of culture, nation or location.

In the lecture, the television shows discussed were Sherlock and Elementary, as this is a drama program that has been translated to suit different audiences. Asher-Perrin states that “At the end of the day, both shows are attempting to depict a very similar man by highlighting how he might fit into a social circle of very different people. It is awesome to observe Elementary’s Holmes get called out for his personal failings”. This is then compared to Sherlock’s rendition of the show, “His difficulty in social settings, his uncanny ability to always put his foot in it, to be insensitive or just plain mean when cornered. I don’t think the majority of people watching Sherlock merely forgive his flaws in favor of his brain; I think they connect with him and his difficulties, and that is essential in the arena of fan experience.” The differences in standards between nations allows for different characters to be portrayed.

The television program I would like to discuss is the original UK version of ‘skins’ as it is a show I have watched personally and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As this show was very popular with many audiences across the globe, the US decided to create a version of their own but it did not prove to be as successful.

There are many noticeable differences between the shows including the different versions of the characters. ‘Tony’ in the British version is manipulating, emotionless, very intelligent and the clique leader. ‘Tony’ in the US version is a lot more ‘cheeky’ and also a lot shorter as Newman stated that it is a lot more difficult to completely mimic the character. ‘Michelle’, Tony’s girlfriend in the UK version is seen to portray quite an emotional persona through her suffering of heartache, whilst in the American version, she is cattier, cool and almost a little off-putting at first.

Also in the clip you can see the characters are saying almost the exact lines but, through a personal opinion I don’t think the US version is as good or portrays the characters effectively as it is meant to appeal to an American Audience. The vulgar langue and actions that the characters engage in such as drug use isn’t as apparent and is actually a lot more tame. This is due to the cultural differences between the US and the UK. But even then, the show, though it was meant to appeal to an American audience as it was slightly altered, just didn’t make the cut as this isn’t seen as a typical show to be aired in the US.

References

Asher-Perrin, E 2014, ‘Battling Super Sleuths: The Awkward Case of Elementary, Sherlock, and Building the Better Adaptation’ Tor.com, 24 February, viewed 13/10/2014. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/02/battling-super-sleuths-the-awkward-case-of-elementary-sherlock-and-building-the-better-adaptation

Barshad, A 2011, ‘Lost in translation?’, New York TV, January 6, viewed 13/10/2014. http://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/70442/

Sorry, was that meant to be funny?

Television has central themes in relation to the country of origin. It is most definitely a part of culture that is distinct to a region. Through the idea of comedy in television, these cultural contexts may not be suited to other countries as the characteristics of the production shows the standards of a country. In Australia, comedy is central to our cultural identity. Many forms of popular entertainment revolve around comedy through Television shows, Sketch shows and Comedians.

Now, Australian has a very distinct humour that reflects the national identity of Australians. This involves ‘taking the piss’ attitude and even considering the likes of Australia’s physical climate characteristics as the extremes of this can also establish a ground for comedy. So what we as Australians may typically consider ‘funny’, would have different connotations for people of a different culture.

This idea ‘cultural translation’ in the form of popular comedy TV shows can be seen through the classic and infamous ‘Kath and Kim’. Kath and Kim is an iconic Australian program that portrays the values of Australians that both make us unique and show an expression of our national identity. This show proved to be very successful in Australia, so America decided to translate this to suit the needs of their viewers. This went horribly wrong… When popular TV is translated internationally, ideas of the values of that culture need to be adapted to that audience. There was even an article with a US critic claiming that the US version of Kath and Kim was Dreadful, “One of the great things about the original Kath & Kim, a mother-daughter comedy about cluelessness, tackiness, blind hope and failed expectations, is that it found humour in all of its well-drawn characters and situations. “In the American version, there’s no humour at all.” (Hellard, 2008)

Comedy after all is a social and cultural practice that is both shaped by and contributed to historical conjunctures: it pivots on contested and ambivalent relationships to power; it constitutes a repository of symbols that can be drawn on to indicate how, where and why people place themselves; it is a prime testing ground for ideas about belonging and exclusion. (Medhurst, 2007).

Australian Kath and Kim Trailer (This isn’t the offical trailer but you gain a sense of the ideas that the show portrays).

Turnbull states that, For the Australian Kath and Kim, most of the actors are around the same age as they are well known in the media industry, we are aware of this and it adds to the joke as they go above and beyond to make a point and emphasise their flaws. This aspect was probably the main down point in the American version as the concept of these unlikeable, anti-heroes, was not translated well. The actors were suitable for the age and physically appealing to the audience so their intended flaws did not show through. The idea of how the character sees themselves, with Kim for example thinking she is a princess and how the audience perceives them was lost in translation. Another Turnbull reading explains that the production history, along with the themes, relationships and characters is what makes up with infamous hybrid-comedy which is why it is unique to Australia.

American Kath and Kim Trailer

You can Tell just by the trailer the differences in humor and the overall take on the show.

References

Australian Comedy 2007, Australian Government, viewed 2/10/2014.  http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-comedy

The Daily Telegraph 2008, ‘US Kath and Kim ‘Worse than Vegemite”,11 October, Viewed 2/10/2014. http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/us-kath-and-kim-worse-than-vegemite/story-e6frfmyi-1111117718888

Turnbull, S 2004 ‘Look at Moiye, Kimmie, look at moiye’: Kath and Kim and the Australian comedy of taste’. Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, no. 113, pp. 98 – 109

Turnbull, S 2008, Television Comedy in Translation, Metro Magazine, December, pp. 111-115.

Are ‘Media Capitals’ the centre of everything?

Television is not just produced from one media centre. The emergence of television is due to various marginal centres of production. As there are different preferences for cinema and entertainment across the globe, new Media Capitals have emerged to compete with these industries and allow for the distribution of their content across the globe. Predominantly, most the shows and films I watch are Hollywood based as it seems that America is the leading media capital and dominates the market. Some of the big networks include Disney, NBC, ESPN and CBS. In more recent years, through globalisation, this has allowed for flows of different media content across the globe, changing traditional patterns of television.

But what are media capitals? “Media capitals are sites of mediation, location where complex flows and forces interact. They are neither bounded nor self-contained entities” (Curtin 2003, p. 205). Media capitals are also the subject of international relations that can be due to past events. For Kong Kong many of these past events can include the effect of WW2. Hong Kong can be referred to as a media capital as it represents the center of the media activity in China

When television first came to Hong Kong in 1967, simultaneously, so did consumer culture. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, immigrants flooded the city, altering the patterns of everyday life. In a Straubhaar reading, it was noted that Hong Kong used to be a transportation point, not a place for people to migrate and make the area their home, but it still wasn’t the central point for economic or cultural activity.  These immigrants were starting to permanently stay in Hong Kong and as they had more experience with Western Culture, this is why Hollywood Movies became more popular. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, Hong Kiong fostered a vast array of the economic flows, transitional business activities due to a growing wealth of this area. This then led onto the emergence of media capitals in Hong Kong. Moran states that the integration of television and industries has created an exchange between cultures aswell. This is includes a trading system of cultural finance and business which is what Hong Kong did.

The Television in Hong Kong is geographically and cultural different than other nations and through this, other viewers may not get a sense of these differences resulting in a clash of civilasitions. In the book World Television: From Global to Local, Straubhaar discusses the cultural differences through linguistic identity in their own production centers. They are seen to produce content relative to their own market.

The Western influences in Chinese culture let to a new way of entertainment know as Cantopop. Cantopop is Cantonese pop which was a hybrid of Western pop and numerous influences but still remained unique to their culture. These songs are usually clean cut so they don’t usually mention sex, drugs, rock and roll but rather involve love ballads. In the 1970’s Hong Kong helped shape this genre and in the media capitals, there was a plethora of record deals to Hong Kong bands singing Cantonese versions of Western songs. In the 1980’s and 1990’s Cantopop really emerged and in these decased, great stars were created such as Sam hui, Eason Chan Yik-Shun and Jaycee Chan.

This is one of Sam hui’s well known songs.

References

Bolland, Rory, ‘Cantopop- What is Cantopop?’, About Travel, viewed 1/10/2014. http://gohongkong.about.com/od/historyandcultureofhk/a/Cantopop.htm

Curtin, M  2003, “Media Capital: Towards the study of spatial flows”, International journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 6, no.2, pp. 202-217.

Moran, Albert 2009, ‘New Flows in Global TV’, Bristol and Chicago: Intellect.

Straubhaar, Joseph 2007, ‘World Television: From Global to Local’, SAGE Publications, Inc., Thousands Oak, California.

The Glitz and Glam of Nollywood..?

When someone thinks of film generally the images conjured include the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood dominated industry stretching across the globe. Despite the long reach of Hollywood it is not all encompassing. As discussed by Schaefer and Karan (2010) there is an increasing likely hood that Asian film industries, will overcome the western grasp on global film flows. Not only does the international film market provide a plethora of alternate film industries (Bollywood being India’s and Nollywood Africa/Nigeria), it has resulted in the intentional cultural hybridity of films in broadening potential markets.

Hollywood, home of the entertainment industry, a glamorized and dramatized place for young hopefuls with aspirations in television and movies… Hollywood may have produced the worlds most appreciated and highest grossing films, but in more recent years, Nollywood has rapidly produced a mass number of films, making it one of the largest film industries in the world. ‘Nollywood’, a cinematic phenomenon is Nigeria’s film industry which emerged in the early 1990’s. In 2007 alone, the Nigerian film industry produced 1,687 films. As of 2013, there were on average 50 Nollywood films created a week with an average costs of $25,000- $70,000, with an estimated revenue of $590 million for the industry. If you compare this to a typical ‘Hollywood’ film, the average costs to make the movie is $250 million (Moudio 2013).

Nollywood provides many points of difference to a typical Hollywood Film. Nollywood encapsulates a sense of African culture. As the production value of the film is relatively low, this shows the cultural differences in the industries which in turn, provide and identity for Nigeria. A typical Nigerian film in produced within a month and start gaining profit within 3 weeks of being released. Typically a film with go straight to DVD due to the lack of cinemas in Africa.

Here is an example of a Nigerian film. As you can see, the production value is relatively low but this is from the perspective of a consumer that is used to the high quality production of a Hollywood film. But the cultural context of the film shows the Nigerian values and ecncapsulated the audience in a way that Wester civilasition wouldn’t understand.

(Will reference properly later)

http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/may-2013/nigeria%E2%80%99s-film-industry-potential-gold-mine

G’day mate, how’s it going?

G’day mate, how’s it going? Shortened, words, colloquialism and slang are just a part of Aussie culture that comes naturally to Australians, “Fast speech and Australian colloquialisms are going to reduce their ability to speak and understand English in Australia (Scheyvens et al., 2003). Even from personal experience, I know I use a lot of slang in my ever day life such as adding ay’ at the end of a sentence and shortening some words to the point where sentences could seem incomplete, “It is said of Australian English that it has a wide range of inventive and colourful slang and colloquialism. It is perhaps truer to say that a range of colloquialism is much the same as in any other language but Australians make 2more of it.”(Angelo, et al., 1994).

This is developed over time, making Australians very accustomed to this language and can become quite confusing to international students. The English that they had learnt is quite different to Australian English affecting both their social and academic life in Australia.

There was a survey of over 60,000 international students at 48 universities in Australia, Britain and the US. In the study it was revealed that most students are satisfied but this can vary between countries and Universities. ‘First-generation international students’ which can make up to 50% of international students at a place are seen to be more academically, culturally and financially disadvantaged , leading to a dissatisfaction in their educational experiences.

Australians can misjudge the struggles that the international students can go through. A sense of alienation in a place with completely new surroundings can have a cultural effect on the international student, making it difficult to interact with their fellow peers. When a student isn’t familiarized with their surroundings, this can really impact their identity and a sense of connection to a new culture and go through the process of acculturation which is adopting the beliefs and behaviours of another group. But international students however, can adopt the process of hybridity, which is taking characteristics and elements from both cultures and blending them together to form a new self. The student can also adopt multiplicity, meaning they will have multiple connections in different settings, and move freely between each setting. Adopting these strategies helps the international student embrace their own culture along with their new international one.

Having a good interaction from both countries would benefit the outcomes from both cultures both academically and socially, “While academic success may heighten a student’s confidence, social and cultural adjustment can be important factors that lead to this academic success (Novera 2004: 475)”.

Initiatives have been taken to improve the cultural boundaries and differences between Australian students and international students such as universities creating programs to help gain a sense of what it is to be Australian. This video from the University of South Australia shows typical activities that are essentially seen as Australian such as Beach cricket and showing the international students how to participate in them.

References

(Will reference later)
Reddon, E 2014, Are International Students Satisfied?, The Australian, 22 August, viewed 26 August 2014,

http://www.rice.edu/projects/HispanicHealth/Acculturation.html