Keri's Media Studies Blog

After 1977's Close Encounters (see no 11), director Steven Spielberg reversed the alien encounter formula to wonder not what we would make of them but what they would make of us. The result was this 1982 blockbuster, which eclipsed even the original Star Wars and received nine Oscar nominations (winning four) – a feat unheard of for a film with such overt sci-fi content. Despite its genre trappings, ET balanced its fantasy content with an academy-pleasing dose of sentiment, played out in the home life of Elliott (Henry Thomas), a lonely 10- year-old whose parents are separating. Little time is spent revealing where the film's ET has come from, or how he came to be left behind. Instead, Spielberg focuses on the film's unlikely-buddy story; the middle child of three (Drew Barrymore is the sweet but clingy younger sister, Robert MacNaughton the cynical teenage big brother), Elliott takes in the ET as the friend and confidant he doesn't have. Largely filmed from an a

The current Blockbuster Age of Hollywood is an era where marketing and spectacle have dominated in contrast to the creative freedom and excesses that marked the New Hollywood era of the 1970s. It has also created a new "studio-system", built upon the ashes of the old. This time however, there are only six major studios: Sony (releasing films under the Columbia Pictures , TriStar Pictures and Screen Gems imprints), 20th Century Fox , Universal Pictures , Warner Bros. , Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (formerly known as Buena Vista Pictures)— MGM still exists, but as a shadow of its former self owned by its creditors, and a major studio only by virtue of its history . But fundamentally, this is a studio-system In-Name-Only . The studios have become part of larger conglomerates instead of being independent companies like in the Golden Age. In addition, actors still operate on a "free agent" basis instead of being contractually tied t

Task 3- Singin' in the Rain Take 3 scenes from 'Singin' in the Rain (1952) and analyse the micro elements of film form, identifying how these elements construct meaning. Costume In this scene, Don Lockwood is wearing a grey suit and tie with grey trousers and a grey hat. The theme of grey adds a dull affect to his character. All of these subdued colours amplify the bright colours that everyone is so used to seeing throughout the film. This may have been done to show how his clothes contrast to his mood as the whole song is all about how he has suddenly become happier( brighter) than he ever has been before. The shoes in which he is wearing allow him to tap dance in the rain, he is wearing the appropriate footwear in order to dance properly. As well as this, the scene begins with him and Kathy, Kathy is wearing a raincoat and rain hat, this is showing the weather conditions as well as adding a hint of colour to the scene as her raincoat is bright yellow, this a