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An Animated Screenplay Adaptation Based on John R. Erickson's Novel: The Adventures of Hank the Cowdog
Screenplay for animated feature film. Story and characters are based on a short novel, The Adventures of Hank the Cowdog. first in a series. This adaptation aims to translate the humor and unique dog-centered perspective of the original source into the medium of film. Hank the Cowdog, head of security on an isolated ranch, works undercover inside a pack of coyotes to solve a series of chicken murders. To solve the case, Hank defends his ranch, sheep and chickens from a devious and powerful coyote leader, Scraunch. With help from a variety of friends and a change in attitude, Hank saves the ranch. Screenplay places detective film conventions in an action-adventure cartoon format. Thesis includes notes on adaptation process.
Bus Ride to Liberation: a Historical Video Documentary of the Acres Homes Transit Company in Houston, Texas
The Acres Homes Transit Company in Houston, Texas is Texas' first African American owned and operated bus company. Some say it is the first in the South. The company was developed during the height of the civil rights period. It serves as an establishment of economic empowerment during the oppressive civil rights era. The video is a historical visual documentation of the bus company from its beginning to its end. An accompanying written profile describes the research process, the pre-production, production and post-production stages, as well as future proposals for the documentary.
China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan: The Convergence and Interaction of Chinese Film
This study focuses on the evolution of the movie industries in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with an emphasis on the interaction and cooperation in movie production among these three areas. The study consists of three sections: a general description of the development of Chinese cinema before 1949; an overview of the movie industries in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China after the civil war; and an intensive study of the recent changes, interactions, and connections among these industries. In the third section, three models are proposed to explain the changing practices in movie production in these three areas. Obstacles preventing further cooperation and the significance of the reconstruction and integration of Chinese cinema are discussed.
Chinese Leftist Urban Films of the 1930s
This thesis explores the films produced by leftist filmmakers of the 1930s which reflect the contemporary urban life in Shanghai.
A Content Analysis of the Depiction of Women in Television Presidential Advertising from 1952 to 1976
From the television advertisements made by presidential candidates from 1952 to 1976, this study analyzed the 131 advertisements that contained women. The analysis used the following descriptors: Number of Women's Roles, Age, Occupation, Marital Status, Locale, Concerns, and Status Relative to the Candidate. The results indicate that women are most likely to be shown as physically present although not speaking, in the 18 to 30 age group, belonging to a non-business atmosphere yet outside the home, and of an unknown marital status, and will not be shown in the same frame as the candidate. Womens' images in these advertisements were most commonly associated with issues involving the cost of living, taxes, pro-Nixon, and social security.
A Critical Analysis of Newspaper Development in Taiwan Since the Lifting of Martial Law
This study reviews the changes in Taiwan's newspaper industry during its current period of transition. Contemporary newspaper development in Taiwan after the lifting of martial law in July 1987 is evaluated in relation to transformations in the newspaper marketplace, journalistic practices, labor relations, and freedom of expression. This study concludes that changes in Taiwan's newspaper business are closely related to changes in the country's political atmosphere. The lifting of the Ban of Newspaper brought freedoms for which journalists had fought for decades; however, journalistic quality has not improved at the same speed. Changes will continue in the journalism industry; whether it grows in a healthy way is a topic for future study.
A Descriptive Analysis of the Development and Decline of New Taiwan Cinema, 1982-1986
The emphasis of this research is on the social, economic, and cultural factors generating the New Taiwan Cinema between 1982 to 1986. The study consists of four chapters. Chapter I introduces the background and parameters of the topic. Chapter II discusses the factors which nurtured the rise of New Taiwan Cinema. It also provides historical background information on Taiwanese films. Chapter III discusses the definition and characteristics of New Taiwan Cinema and its major filmmakers and films. Chapter IV focuses on the issue of the end of New Taiwan Cinema. This chapter also covers the general situation of the Taiwanese film industry after 1986.
Differences in Marketing Mainstream and Independent Feature Films in the United States (1990-1995)
The purpose of this study is (1) to examine mainstream studio films and their marketing (2) to examine independent films and their marketing (3) to explore the marketing challenges of independent films (4) to explore new developments in independent film and the emergence of crossover films (5) to explore the benefits of alliances between the major studios and independent film distributors (6) to examine the diminishing differences between major studio films and independent films.
Disturbing the Peace
Disturbing the Peace is a short, 16mm sync-sound fiction film. Alone one stormy night, a woman must contend with an intruder breaking into her home. The intruder turns out to be a teenage boy. He claims to have broken in only to retrieve a family heirloom he hid there when he and his parents lived in the same house years ago. When the boy finds the heirloom, the woman begins to believe his story, and soon realizes he doesn't have a good home life. The boy asks permission to stay until the storm breaks. She agrees. Should the boy be trusted, or is he telling one lie after another? The police arrive to witness the outcome of the story.
Exhibit Eh: Canadian Dependency, U.S. Hegemony, and the Amorphousness of English Canadian Culture
This thesis begins by examining the factors that have resulted in the dependent nature of Canada's political and economic structure, and proceeds to examine how this has contributed to the cultural amorphousness of English Canadian identity. The hegemonic authority of American and trans-national interests, established and maintained in the cultural sphere through the extensive monopoly of the distribution of cultural and media products, perpetuates the amorphousness of English Canadian culture through the appropriation of Canadian space by the international image industry. Such categorization of Canadian space reflects and perpetuates the imaginary representation of Canada within the dominant ideology as an indistinct and amorphous entity, and comes to usurp the materiality that constructs the lived identities of English Canadians.
First Encounter
The film is about a newly arrived Japanese student's initial period of adjustment at the University of North Texas. This observational documentary film follows the student and witnesses the student's first reactions to various social environments. The purpose of this creative thesis project was to depict the difficulties that international students encounter at the beginning of their stay in America. The initial goal of the video was to provide useful visual research material to people who are interested in the acculturation of foreign students. Because of its realistic character, the video can give its audiences a more immediate and vivid picture of foreign students than existing written literature. By giving an authentic portrait of the students' hardship and adjustments, the ultimate goal of this video was to increase the American people's appreciation of the difficulties encountered by foreign students who come to this country equipped with limited social assistance and resources. An accompanying production report describes the research process, the pre-production, production, and post-production stages.
Girl Power: Feminism, Girlculture and the Popular Media
This project is an interrogation of three examples from recent popular culture of girlculture, specifically texts that target young female consumers: the Spice Girls, Scream and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These examples are fundamentally different than texts from earlier female targeted generic models because they not only reflect the influence of the feminist movement, they work on feminism's behalf. The project's methodology grows out of feminist film theories and cultural studies theories. One chapter is dedicated to each text, and each reading works to reappropriate girlculture texts for a counter-hegemonic agenda by highlighting the moments when each text manages to subvert its mass mediated conservative biases.
A Historical/Critical Analysis of the TV Series The Fugitive
In many respects, the popular 1960's television series, The Fugitive perfectly captured the swelling disillusionment with authority, alienation, and discontent that soon encompassed American society. This historical/critical study provides a broad overview of the economic, social, and political climate that surrounded the creation of The Fugitive. The primary focus of this study is the analysis of five discursive topics (individualism, marriage, justice & authority, professionalism, science and technology) within selected episodes and to show how they relate to broader cultural debates which occurred at that time. Finally, this study argues that The Fugitive is a part of a television adventure subgenre which we may classify as the contemporary "wanderer-hero" narrative and traces its evolution through selected television series from the last three decades.
A History of Contemporary Independent Film Marketing in the United States (1989-1998)
This study explores the reasons for the rise in independent film's popularity, which have created a unique Hollywood phenomenon, the successful "mini-major" independent studio, dedicated to both art and commerce. Chapters cover the history of independent film, characteristics of both independent and mainstreamfilms with regards to financing, acquisition, distribution and marketing, trends within independent film in the late 1980s and 1990s, crucial distributors and landmark independent films, and key growth areas in the future for independent film.
Independent Feature Filmmaking: the Historical Development of Current Methods
The historical development of independent filmmaking has led to a situation in which an independent filmmaker must do two important things to achieve distribution and success. The filmmaker should continue study and mastery of the skills and methodologies needed in development, pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution. These skills and methods help the filmmaker to produce a quality film. The most important thing the filmmaker can do is to see that the film conforms to the Hollywood narrative standard. This standard is ingrained in a majority of the audience and deviation usually meets resistance. The standard not only includes story structure, but the use of name actors and some elements of physical action.
India Vaale in the United States
This documentary reveals the thoughts and feelings of seven Indian students at the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas. It portrays that better material comforts in the U.S. condition the decision of Indian students in not returning to India even after the completion of their studies. It also shows their feelings of nostalgia for the social and cultural milieu of their home country, India. For this project 18 Indian students at the University of North Texas were interviewed and seven of them became part of the final documentary.
Iranian Access Television of Dallas: Cultural Issues, Preservation, and Community Formation
This study focused on the televisual and cultural practices of Iranians via public access television in Dallas, Texas. It includes analysis of format and content. It combines demographic, structural, and statistical information with a culturalist and interpretive viewpoint in examining the efforts of Iranians, via access television programs, in preserving their culture and the formation of a coherent and active community in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
Job Rating and Satisfaction of Radio Station General Managers in the Institutional Climate of Deregulation
This study tested the job satisfaction of major market radio station general managers in the aftermath of deregulation. The study consisted of two phases, a quantitative, anonymous, mail survey utilizing the nationally recognized Job Descriptive Index (JDI); and a qualitative follow-up telephone interview. Of 246 general managers solicited, 144 returned usable JDI surveys. The JDI consisted of six separate scales, each measuring satisfaction on a different aspect of the job. The followup telephone interview comprised seven questions designed specifically to explore the effects of broadcast deregulation on the respondents. Two hypotheses were tested. The hypotheses tested for differences in job satisfaction scores between radio station general managers and the normative scores of individuals of similar education and job tenure in other industries. In most of the subscales tested there was no significant difference between the two groups. The qualitative telephone survey found widespread dissatisfaction with the effects of deregulation on the broadcast medium.
Local or Transnational Television Programming: Media Globalization in East Asia, with an Emphasis on Development in the People's Republic of China
This study focuses on the relationship between Western transnational broadcasters and East Asian media. It analyzes 1) the processes through which Western media players are localized and 2) the impact of media globalization on local broadcasters in East Asia. Recent developments in the People's Republic of China are the primary focus in the discussion of local media.
Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and the Crime Films of the Nineteen Nineties
Martin Scorsese's films, GOODFELLAS and CASINO, and Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION are examined to determine if the crime film of the 1990s has become increasingly more in the style of film noir. The differences and similarities between the two crime films each director has either written or co-written in the 1990s are delineated to demonstrate this trend. Other crime films of the latter 1990s (SEVEN, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and MULHOLLAND FALLS) are also examined to aid in defining the latest incarnation of the crime film as "Noir Modernist," a term that is demonstrated to be a more accurate description for the current crime films than B. Ruby Rich's, "Neo-Noir of the 1990s."
Mr. Hassell: The TV Engineer
This thesis project is about a television engineer in the Department of Radio, Television and Film at the University of North Texas. This project records the engineer's activities in the Department and interviews him about his career path. An accompanying written production report describes the pre-production, production and post-production processes of this project.
Myths and Movies: a Mythographical Methodology of Motion Picture Analysis
Over the past decade, cinema studies scholars have begun to recognize the value of mythographical methodologies for motion picture analysis; however, most of the scholarly research in this field has focused either on mythic archetypal images or on monomythic narrative structure, rather than combining the two approaches into a unified theory. This essay addresses the problem by proposing a mythographical methodology of motion picture analysis based on Carl Jung's theory of archetypal images and Joseph Campbell's theories concerning the monomythic structure of heroic narratives. Combining the two approaches of myth interpretation results in a more comprehensive methodology for interpreting the mythic elements of motion pictures. This essay illustrates the application of this methodology through a detailed analysis of Terry Gilliam's film, The Fisher King.
Post Time
Post Time is a non-fiction video program depicting some of the careers found at North American horse race tracks. Through the use of videotaped footage taken at eight race tracks and three training farms, the horse racing industry's trainers, jockeys, owners and grooms are profiled in the world they call the backstretch. The video begins with a brief history of horse racing and the origins of thoroughbred horses followed by closer examinations of the economic and social experiences faced by the owners, trainers, jockeys, and grooms as they attempt to prepare horses for racing every week.
Primarily Thai
This thesis is a production report that describes the research process, pre-production and post-production stages of making a documentary about the Thai language school in the Thai temple in Dallas County. The film documents the teachers from Chulalongkorn University who volunteered to teach Thai-American students in the United States, and explores Thai-American students' attitudes toward the school and their heritage.
The Soul of it: A Video Documentary on Texas Sculptor John Thomas Campbell
This thesis includes a video and a production report . The video documents a Denton artist, John Thomas Campbell who was working on a project for the Texas State Fair during the filming period. This documentary follows Campbell through his production on sculptures, using a biographical style to explore his life and his art work. The accompanying paper reports on the production background, pre-production process, and includes discussion of the problems encountered from production through post production stages.
The Struggle of the Oppressed: Lino Brocka and the New Cinema of the Philippines
This study is an examination of Lino Brocka's development as a filmmaker of the New Cinema of the Philippines. It provides a close textual analysis of two recent Brocka films, Macho Dancer (1988) and Fight for Us (1989) using a sociocultural approach to the study of the representation of aspects of social reality and their relationship to contemporary Philippine society. The study is divided into six chapters: Chapter I contains the introduction to the study, Chapter II traces the development of Philippine cinema in relation to Philippine socio-political history, Chapter III describes the New Cinema film movement in the Philippines, Chapter IV provides a biographical sketch of Lino Brocka in which the development of his critical attitude, notions of social reality, and significant works are discussed, Chapter V contains the film analyses, and Chapter VI contains the conclusions to the study.
A Study in Cultural Conflict: the Controversy Surrounding Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ
When the filmed version of The Last Temptation of Christ was released in the United States, it met with significant protests from conservative Christians who felt it was blasphemous. Using the controversy surrounding the film and its reception in Austin, Texas, this is a case study in censorship as a social process and in the cultural conflict it signifies. Certain societal factors must converge to create an art controversy. Through an examination of the film, the groups involved in the protest, and the social and political climate at the time, some of these factors are described. Imbedded in this controversy are the underlying tensions that permeate many modern cultural debates: shifting ideas of the sacred and the profane and definitions of moral authority.
A Survey on Student Uses of and Attitudes Toward Broadcast Television News and "Tabloid" Television
A survey testing student uses of and attitudes towards traditional broadcast television news and eleven "tabloid" programs was conducted using 300 students enrolled at the University of North Texas. The 10:00 p.m. newscast was most watched by the students. The most watched weekly news magazine was "60 Minutes." The Oprah Winfrey Show" was the daily "tabloid" leader. "America's Most Wanted" led the weekly "tabloid" shows. Students perceived daily newscasts as important sources of information. "USA Today," the weekly news magazines "60 Minutes" and "20/20,1" and "America's Most Wanted" were also cited by students as being "important" information programming. However, the survey showed "tabloid television" was not a major source of informational programming for college students.
Television as an Instrument for Bridging Cultures: A Study of Television's Effects on Taiwanese Students in the United States
This study tested American television effects on Taiwanese Students in uncertainty reduction and stereotype forming. The study consisted of a questionnaire analysis and a focus group discussion. Fifty-five subjects responded to the questionnaires and twenty of them joined two group discussions.
Tinkering with Taste: NBC's Prime Time Television Programming 1978-1986
The thesis explores how Grant Tinker's philosophy of quality programming grew into a working ideology which would serve as the basis for its rise from last place to first place in ratings and profits from 1978 to 1986. This thesis paper explores the prime time history of NBC from 1978 to 1986. The network is examined in terms of its programming history, its economic situation, and the men who presided over the entity, all within the time frame listed above. The thesis focuses on the strategies and philosophies of the three men crucial to the direction the network took during the above time frame: Fred Silverman, President of the network from 1978 to 1981, Grant Tinker, Chairman from 1981 to 1986, and Brandon Tartikoff, Programming Chief from 1980 to 1991.
The Town Where Mickey Mouse has Lived
The Town Where Mickey Mouse Has Lived is a documentary video program in which people talk about themselves and the life of a small town. The town is known as the boyhood home of Walt Disney, which he recalled as the most charming place in his life. The interviews explore the personal perspectives of the people and why they stay in Marceline despite the fact that Disneyland, full of Disney's memories of Marceline, attracts people while the town has been obsolescent for a long time.
Turnabout : A Screenplay
Turnabout, a feature-length screenplay with an accompanying critical essay, is the story of Michael Houston, a successful stockbroker in his late twenties whose unlikely romantic rendezvous with a bohemian art dealer leads him to realize that finding love often begins with a soul-searching journey into oneself.
Two for One, One for Two
The film is about three young Korean-American adults who have adapted to American society while retaining certain aspects of Korean culture in their lives. To expose their intermingled behaviors and concepts, the film combines the observational format of a documentary with an information style employing family photos, home movie recordings, and interviews with the three subjects and their families. An accompanying production report describes the research process, pre-production, production, and post-production.
The Vivarium Program: An Ethnographic Video Documentary Exploring the Role of the Visual Anthropologist and the Subject at the Open School in Los Angeles
This is a reflexive documentary on the Open School in Los Angeles, an elementary school which is a field research site for Apple Computer, Inc. This videotape explores filmmaker/subject relationships, media perception by children, and issues of representation. An accompanying production book describes the grantwriting process, the pre-production, production, and post-production stages, as well as theoretical implications of the documentary.
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