Do-It-Yourself Distribution in the Digital Age: Anyone Can Make a Movie

In Reinventing Cinema: Movies in the Age of Media by Chuck Tyron, the chapter Desktop Productions focuses on, "...do-it-yourself distribution in the digital age... [which] helps promote a larger narrative that identifies digital media as a potentially utopian system that allows anyone the opportunity to become a successful filmmaker..." (Tyron, 2009, p. 94).

Digital distribution allows for four important aspects for filmmakers outside of the studio production realm: 1) unlimited bandwidth online, which allows filmmakers to skirt the large studio production companies that often discount independent and do-it-yourself filmmakers; 2) the long tail concept, created by Chris Anderson, which argues, "with virtually unlimited storage space, digital distributors can make huge profits off of niche markets" (p. 96); 3) day-and-date releasing, which allows filmmakers alternative options for when to release their films, overriding the traditional studio production company method of film release; and 4) social networking like Facebook and Twitter, which allows filmmakers to network and market their films to niche fans.

A really good example of an independent documentary that followed all of the digital distribution aspects Tyron discusses is Winnebago Man, released in 2009 by The Bear Media, a small production company in Austin, Texas. Winnebago Man is the story of Jack Rebney, a.k.a "the angriest man in the world", whose videotaped outtakes as a Winnebago salesman in the 1980's went viral on YouTube and caught the eye of independent filmmaker Ben Steinbauer. In his directorial debut, Steinbauer was interested in finding Rebney, who had disappeared from the public eye, so he could tell Rebney's story about the outtakes and where his life had taken him ("About", WinnebagoMan, 2012).

Originally screened at South Texas Cinémathèque, an independent film screening series in South Texas, Winnebago Man went on to hold its world premiere at the 2009 South by Southwest Independent Film Festival, and was only then theatrically released nationwide. The film has been viewed by over 20 million people, and has become a viral documentary sensation. It has also won four film festival awards and has a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Prior to the film, Jack Rebney was already a social media viral hit on YouTube. The film was shot using original found footage and interviews, produced by a very small production company, was released solely based upon film festival screenings and word of mouth until its national release, had its own website, Facebook page, Twitter handle, and has since been released on DVD, Netflix, and iTunes. From this example, and many others, it seems Tyron is right: do-it-yourself distribution in the digital age means anyone can make a movie, even one about an angry guy who sold Winnebagos for a living.

Sex Lives in Second Life: Virtual Gender Constraints

In the article Sex Lives in Second Life by Robert Alan Brookey and Kristopher L. Cannon, they aim to, “offer an alternative to the liberatory perspective on gender and sexuality in cyberspace” (Brookey & Canon 2009, p. 149). Additionally, in using a “liberatory perspective”, they critique SL in cyberspace as a liberatory environment, where it would seem people have more freedom and power (agency) to express and explore non-heteronormative gender roles.  

However, their arguments focus on SL women as sexual objects and the marginalization of LGBTQ users. While this is a fascinating extension of gender theories posited by Judith Butler, John Sloop, and Michel Foucault, it is ultimately disappointing, as it reiterates heteronormativity and the notion of the existence of only two genders: male and female.

Butler’s notion of gender trouble asserts that the lack of fluidity in gender identities creates gender trouble for any gender identity or performative act that lies outside the boundaries of heteronormativity. Sloop's concept of disciplining gender focuses on how, "public discourse and media representations have served to reinforce dominant norms and constrain or 'discipline' any behavior that blurs or subverts conventional gender boundaries" (Sloop 2004). Foucault’s theory of the docile body asserts that, “individuals align their sexual practices with established norms, and actively assumed the responsibility for their own sexual health” (p. 148). 

In looking at support for Brookey's and Canon's arguments, I researched sexual objectification of women and marginalization of LGBTQ identities in SL. Here is what I found:

1) Women as sexual objects in SL is the norm. The clothing is revealing and tight-fitting and make-up and hair are overdone and exaggerated. As Brookey and Canon mention in their article, the SL "Post 6 Grrls" models are an excellent example of how this objectification pervades cyberspace (p. 151).

The following picture is an example of the SL Post 6 Grrls, which is tame compared to many:

2) Dating sites in SL promote heteronormativity and sexual objectification as well, as seen in this IMVU video:

3) Lastly, I was able to locate only one video offering tutorials and advice on “Transgender in Second Life”. While it’s not expertly produced (poor audio/editing), it does allow an invitation for transgendered people to join SL as a way to “fit in” to a world outside of RL. It even promotes the SL Transgender Outreach Center, the SL Hate Crime & Suicide Memorial, and the SL Annual “New Orleans Style” Transgender Celebration. It's really unfortunate there aren't more SL resources promoting sexual liberation and gender fluidity; after all, gender is not finite in the real world. Why should it be in SL?

 

Intertextuality: Parodic Allusion, Creative Appropriation, and Self-Reflexive Reference

Simply defined, intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. In Brian Ott's and Cameron Walter’s article Intertextuality: Interpretive Practice and Textual Strategy, they discuss intertextuality as, “an interpretive practice of audiences and a stylistic device consciously employed by producers of media” (Ott & Walter, p. 429). The authors focus on “intertextuality as textual strategy”, and posit three different types: parodic allusion, creative appropriation, and self-reflexive reference (p. 431).

Intertextuality in interpretive practice can have limited (Fiske) or limitless/infinite (Barthes, Kristova) audience interpretations of texts (pp. 431-433). Intertextuality as a textual strategy use stylistic devices such as imitation and parody in the media through allusion (p. 434). Allusions are based on the assumption that there is a body of knowledge that is shared by the author and the reader and that therefore the reader will understand the author’s referent. 

In terms of imitation, a parody imitates the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect. Parodic allusion then, is, “a stylistic device in which one text incorporates a caricature of another, most often, popular cultural text... that seeks to amuse through juxtaposition” (pp. 435-436). Here, the audience knows enough information about the original text to find humor in the parody. A good example of parodic allusion is Jimmy Fallon’s and Stephen Colbert’s “Friday” musical skit, a spoof on Rebecca Black’s viral YouTube music video:
 
Stephen Colbert Sings "Friday" with The Roots

Creative appropriation, or inclusion, “actually reproduces a portion of the original text”, and is often a commentary on how that text plays a role in a broader view of culture (p. 437). While inclusion can be used as a critical device, it can also be used to celebrate the text from which it is taken (p. 438). For example, Sean Comb’s & Faith Evan’s tribute to The Notorious B.I.G., I’ll Be Missing You, samples Every Breath You Take by The Police, which was the most popular song of 1983.


Lastly, self-reflexive references are, “subtle gestures that to be appreciated require specific knowledge of the text..." (p. 439). The article references a specific scene in Ally McBeal, at a time when the show’s star Calista Flockhart was very thin and rumors of anorexia ran rampant in the news. In the scene, she literally runs into Lara Flynn Boyle (who starred in The Practice at the time and who was also very thin). Boyle said, “Maybe you should eat a cookie,” to which Flockhart replied, “Maybe we should share it” (p. 440). The EW article below discusses the scene, calling it “self-referential fun”.

This week's 'Ally McBeal' episode offers inside jokes for fans of 'The Practice'

Procedural Rhetoric: Ideology & The Political Video Game

As Ian Bogost points out in the chapter entitled “Political Processes” in his book Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, ideology in politics has evolved over time. According to Bogost, “hidden procedural systems that drive social, political, or cultural behavior are often called ideology” (p. 115). From from Antoine Destutt de Tracy’s concept of how we as humans amass the ideal from the real, to Napoleon’s ideologues, in which people utilize abstractions for what is real in politics, to Karl Marx’s belief that ideologies themselves are the material (Bogost, p. 116), we see many different interpretations of ideology. 

Other concepts of ideology, such as Antonio Gramsci’s notion of hegemony and Louis Althusser’s process of interpellation, wherein the material subject is created through ideology, led to Michel Foucault’s theory that the real world actually structures ideology through discourse (p. 117).  More recent theorists such as Slavoj Žižek, see this material reality as “distorted”, leading us to become victims of Max Weber’s concept of the iron cage (p. 118). From this, Alain Badiou’s concept of the state of a situation, which can only be changed through an event, is also founded upon subjectivity (p. 118).
 
From these ideological concepts, Bogost posits, “Videogames are particularly useful tools for visualizing the logics that make up a worldview (following Gramsci), the ideological distortions in political situations (following Žižek), or the state of such situations (following Badiou)” (p. 119). Thus, “Political videogames use procedural rhetorics to expose how political structures operate, or how they fail to operate, or how they could or should operate” (p. 119).


The Political Machine, which is an election simulator game, focuses on winning through electioneering and political strategy rather than politics and public policy. The premise is that you create your own candidate, assemble your campaign, choose your policies [not the ideology surrounding the policies, just the policies themselves (e.g. pro-universal health care or anti-immigration, etc.)], gather your staffers and lobby your supporters, attack your opponents, and run your race. The following video, The Political Machine 2008 - Official Trailer, demonstrates how the game is played:

Here, the ideology is that the best electioneering strategy will win the race. Bogost himself said it best: “If election games make any political statement, it is one about the utter divestiture of politics from elections, such that electioneering’s replacement of policy has become ideology” (p. 143).

 

The Visual Enthymeme: Power, Premise, and Proposition

In The Rhetoric of Visual Arguments by J. Anthony Blair, he theorizes a connection between visual persuasion and arguments; specifically to see how visual arguments can exist within rhetoric (p. 42). His explanation and examples of the visual enthymeme really piqued my interest with regard to this theory. An enthymeme, according to Blair, is, “an argument in which the arguer deliberately leaves unstated a premise that is essential to it’s reasoning” (p. 41). Additionally, “the connecting of the audience to the argument is what makes the enthymeme a rhetorical form of argument” (p. 41).

In traditional written or speech rhetoric, arguments function by supplying reasons for a point of view (p. 45). The reasons are propositions which are standardly expressed by language. Therefore, propositions have a truth value. By asserting a truth, the propositions must be backed up by evidence (p. 45). According to Blair, the visual concept of argument then, should not stretch too far from the traditional concept of “argument” (p. 45).

Since the visual can be ambiguous and not always contain propositional content, visual arguments can exist, but the images must be true or false. To have truth value, it must also be propositional (p. 47). In addition, premise & conclusion propositions in visual argument are also needed (p. 48). The most powerful visual arguments are both visual and verbal, and must, “constitute some factor that can be considered a reason: 1) for accepting or believing some proposition, 2) for taking some other attitude, or, 3) for performing some action” (p. 49).

Take this visual/verbal enthymeme for example:

This visual argument provides what Blair calls, “evocative power - bringing strong images, memories, or feelings to mind” (p. 51). Here, the narrative capacity is very powerful. It provides a sense of realism as the symbolism registers immediately (attack dogs induce fear), it resonates with and relates to the beliefs of the appropriate/intended audience (here, perhaps a solicitor or criminal -- the solicitor doesn’t want to get hurt and the criminal doesn’t want to get caught), and it predicts the nature of the audience’s participation (most likely leaving the premises immediately to avoid bodily harm) (p. 53). The unstated premise here? If you can’t run faster than a vicious guard dog, you’re going to get hurt. Run!

PONG: One Little Girl’s Memoir

Growing up in the seventies, the arrival of the Sears Catalog brought eager excitement to my brother and me every holiday season. We would circle toys we wanted for Christmas and beg our parents to no end for the things we wanted. We didn’t always get what we wanted, but one year we did... and it changed everything. PONG had arrived in our home. Oddly, I never played video games beyond the age of 16 however, being a kid in the era of the invention of the home video game was pretty amazing. And the story of how PONG came to be is even more fascinating. 

Mark P. Wolf’s book The Medium of the Video Game introduced me to Nolan Bushnell, my new childhood hero. Utilizing his engineering expertise, spare parts from work, a used black and white television, and his daughter’s bedroom as a workshop, Bushnell created his first video game, Computer Space. This was in 1971, when imaging technologies were minimalist. Using vector graphics to create a two-dimensional game using only iconography (dots, squares, and rectangles), it still met all the requirements of a video game: conflict, rules, player ability, values outcomes, and the identity of the computer as a player.

Bushnell then partnered with an investor and they created their own company, Atari, which in Japanese means “check” in chess (p. 25). In 1972, Bushnell created PONG, “a tennis-like game featuring two paddles swatting a ball back and forth.” (p. 25). The prototype’s mode of exhibition was a coin-operated game placed in a bar. It was a huge hit (pun intended). Atari entered the home market in 1975 with the console television version of PONG, striking a deal with Sears to sell the product. With Atari’s invention of the Video Computer System (VCS) cartridge console system, the microprocessor chip technology allowed for greater consumer affordability and cheaper production, resulting in record sales during the Christmas of 1978. One of those sales that year? Our purchase. 

To my brother and I, PONG was unbelievable, like men landing on the moon. And while video game technology has immeasurably surpassed the likes of PONG, it still seems cooler to have been a part of the very first video game boom. Intrigued? You can play PONG too. Just click here: FREE PONG!