Firstly, look out because I will be blogging again next week if you just can't get enough. On to the show: (and I will try and keep it shorter than last one, because I don't think anyone had interest in reading 6 paragraphs even if it had a nifty youtube vid....)
Jenkins makes an argument for the democratization of the film industry. In a time where a few companies control and own almost everything, youtube comes about and flips the whole model of production and consumption on its head. But what does this mean and what does it do? Fan films are hopefully a catalyst for a sort of home made genius, free of the rules and restrictions of a big studio and the ever looming idea of the Numbers.
Jenkins goes into the idea of franchises, but the main point of interest the permeation of a piece of entertainment into our lives and culture so completely. He uses the example of Star Wars, which every person in the United States has some relation or other to. The audience is promoted to active participant in this dialogue between art, ads, and mass culture. From parodies by professionals on TV to tributes by fans at home, the ideas becomes a cultural landmark rather than just a film. Metephorically speaking, it (for example, Star Wars) is a trunk all other ideas (for example, Troops) grow and branch out of. These apendages gain cultural credibility and interest through their source material, but become something all their own.
Jenkins makes the case that things like youtube are just going back to the idea communal art, like folk lore and the oral tradition. However, he points out that the Few (the owners of everything) have claimed "intellectual property," thwarting many creative conversations. Fans contest this idea, feeling as though the characters, places, and ideas are as much theirs as anybody else's. Here's something I'm sure everyone has seen, but I feel really fits. (Try telling anyone who was raised on Mary Poppins that they don't have the right to re-imagine it once their youth-colored glasses are removed. She's as much yours as that Elmo with the missing eye that your dad bought you in the 5 hours your mom was giving birth.)
2 comments:
First of all I just have to say that I never saw the movie Star Wars and I probably never will. I respect the movie and agree that it has cultural credibility and as Jenkins pointed out, it created branches of ideas and many new ideas in our culture. Although I will never find Star Wars 'my cup of tea' or entertaining in any way, Jenkins convinced me otherwise.
I have mixed feelings about the youtube argument but I do agree that it is similar to folklore/oral tradition and the reproduction and passing on of popular videos online.
-- wanted you to know that I've been sending your brilliant Scary Mary find to colleagues and other students...
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