The Social Science of Cinema

The Social Science of Cinema

Author: James C. Kaufman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013-11-01

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0199797854

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Ever since motion pictures first landed on screen, there have been many key questions that the studios and movie watchers have tried to answer. What makes a movie an Oscar winner? How does one movie become a hit and another movie flop? Why do some films earn critical acclaim while other films become critical turkeys or bombs? How do audiences perceive film? What makes a movie resonate with a viewer? Are we unduly influenced by negative behaviors on screen? These questions have spurred debates, discussions, and many theories. Until the last two decades, however, it was quite rare to have the issues approached from a scientific viewpoint. The Social Science of Cinema compiles research from such varied disciplines as psychology, economics, sociology, business, and communications to find the best empirical research being done on the movies, based on perspectives that many filmgoers have never considered. Essays explore such topics as the specific factors that influence whether movies make money, win awards, or flop; how our personality impacts on our viewing preferences; issues of gender inequity on screen; the relationship between visual perception and the way movies are edited; and many more. This book attempts the ultimate act of figuring out the mystery behind the movies - what makes them so memorable to us, what makes them this century's leading works of art, and how this art intersects with the business of making money.


The Social Science of Cinema

The Social Science of Cinema

Author: James C. Kaufman

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0199797811

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This book compiles research from such varied disciplines as psychology, economics, sociology business, and communications to find the best empirical research being done on the movies, based on perspectives that many filmgoers have never considered.


Cinematic Social Studies

Cinematic Social Studies

Author: William B. Russell

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2017-01-01

Total Pages: 533

ISBN-13: 1681237350

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Action! Film is a common and powerful element in the social studies classroom and Cinematic Social Studies explores teaching and learning social studies with film. Teaching with film is a prominent teaching strategy utilized by many teachers on a regular basis. Cinematic Social Studies moves readers beyond the traditional perceptions of teaching film and explores the vast array of ideas and strategies related to teaching social studies with film. The contributing authors of this volume seek to explain, through an array of ideas and visions, what cinematic social studies can/should look like, while providing research and rationales for why teaching social studies with film is valuable and important. This volume includes twenty-four scholarly chapters discussing relevant topics of importance to cinematic social studies. The twenty four chapters are divided into three sections. This stellar collection of writings includes contributions from noteworthy scholars like Keith Barton, Wayne Journell, James Damico, Cynthia Tyson, and many more.


Cinema and the Urban Poor in South India

Cinema and the Urban Poor in South India

Author: Sara Dickey

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-09-17

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780521040075

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This study of the Indian cinema is concerned particularly with cinema-goers in Madurai, a city in Tamil Nadu, South India. Sara Dickey reviews the history of Tamil film, explains the structure of the industry, and presents the perspective of the filmmakers. However, the core of the book is an analysis of the films themselves and the place they have in the lives of poor people, who organize fan clubs, discuss the films and the actors, and in various ways relate these fantasy worlds to their own lives. Dickey argues that the effect of these films is ultimately conservative, for they glorify poverty while holding out the hope of a better future. Her rich ethnography makes an interesting contribution to the study of film in India and, more generally, to the understanding of popular culture in an Indian city.


Science Fiction Cinema

Science Fiction Cinema

Author: Christine Cornea

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2007-06-06

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0748628703

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This major new study offers a broad historical and theoretical reassessment of the science fiction film genre. The book explores the development of science fiction in cinema from its beginnings in early film through to recent examples of the genre. Each chapter sets analyses of chosen films within a wider historical/cultural context, while concentrating on a specific thematic issue. The book therefore presents vital and unique perspectives in its approach to the genre, which include discussion of the relevance of psychedelic imagery, the 'new woman of science', generic performance and the prevalence of 'techno-orientalism' in recent films. While American films will be one of the principle areas covered, the author also engages with a range of pertinent examples from other nations, as well as discussing the centrality of science fiction as a transnational film genre. Films discussed include The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Body Snatchers, Forbidden Planet, The Quatermass Experiment, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Demon Seed, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Wars, Altered States, Alien, Blade Runner, The Brother from Another Planet, Back to the Future, The Terminator, Predator, The One, Dark City, The Matrix, Fifth Element and eXistenZ. Key Features*Thematically organised for use as a course text.*Introduces current and past theories and practices, and provides an overview of the main themes, approaches and areas of study.*Covers new and burgeoning approaches such as generic performance and aspects of postmodern identity.*Includes new interviews with some of the main practitioners in the field: Roland Emmerich, Paul Verhoeven, Ken Russell, Stan Winston, William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Joe Morton, Dean Norris and Billy Gray.


Handbook of Research on Social and Cultural Dynamics in Indian Cinema

Handbook of Research on Social and Cultural Dynamics in Indian Cinema

Author: Biswal, Santosh Kumar

Publisher: IGI Global

Published: 2020-06-26

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1799835138

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Cinema in India is an entertainment medium that is interwoven into society and culture at large. It is clearly evident that continuous struggle and conflict at the personal as well as societal levels is depicted in cinema in India. It has become a reflection of society both in negative and positive ways. Hence, cinema has become an influential factor and one of the largest mass communication mediums in the nation. Social and Cultural Dynamics in Indian Cinema is an essential reference source that discusses cultural and societal issues including caste, gender, oppression, and social movements through cinema and particularly in specific language cinema and culture. Featuring research on topics such as Bollywood, film studies, and gender equality, this book is ideally designed for researchers, academicians, film studies students, and industry professionals seeking coverage on various aspects of regional cinema in India.


Religion and Film

Religion and Film

Author: S. Brent Plate

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2017-09-05

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 0231545797

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Religion and cinema share a capacity for world making, ritualizing, mythologizing, and creating sacred time and space. Through cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing, and other production activities, film takes the world “out there” and refashions it. Religion achieves similar ends by setting apart particular objects and periods of time, telling stories, and gathering people together for communal actions and concentrated focus. The result of both cinema and religious practice is a re-created world: a world of fantasy, a world of ideology, a world we long to live in, or a world we wish to avoid at all costs. Religion and Film introduces readers to both religious studies and film studies by focusing on the formal similarities between cinema and religious practices and on the ways they each re-create the world. Explorations of film show how the cinematic experience relies on similar aesthetic devices on which religious rituals have long relied: sight, sound, the taste of food, the body, and communal experience. Meanwhile, a deeper understanding of the aesthetic nature of religious rituals can alter our understanding of film production. Utilizing terminology and theoretical insights from the study of religion as well as the study of film, Religion and Film shows that by paying attention to the ways films are constructed, we can shed new light on the ways religious myths and rituals are constructed and vice versa. This thoroughly revised and expanded new edition is designed to appeal to the needs of courses in religion as well as film departments. In addition to two new chapters, this edition has been restructured into three distinct sections that offer students and instructors theories and methods for thinking about cinema in ways that more fully connect film studies with religious studies.


Cinema and Landscape

Cinema and Landscape

Author: Graeme Harper

Publisher: Intellect Books

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13:

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The notion of landscape is a complex one, but it has been central to the art and artistry of the cinema. After all, what is the French New Wave without Paris? What are the films of Sidney Lumet, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, and Spike Lee without New York? Cinema and Landscape frames contemporary film landscapes across the world, in an exploration of screen aesthetics and national ideology, film form and cultural geography, cinematic representation and the human environment. Written by well-known cinema scholars, this volume both extends the existing field of film studies and stakes claims to overlapping, contested territories in the humanities and social sciences.


Screening Nature

Screening Nature

Author: Anat Pick

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2013-11-01

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1782382275

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Environmentalism and ecology are areas of rapid growth in academia and society at large. Screening Nature is the first comprehensive work that groups together the wide range of concerns in the field of cinema and the environment, and what could be termed “posthuman cinema.” It comprises key readings that highlight the centrality of nature and nonhuman animals to the cinematic medium, and to the language and institution of film. The book offers a fresh and timely intervention into contemporary film theory through a focus on the nonhuman environment as principal register in many filmic texts. Screening Nature offers an extensive resource for teachers, undergraduate students, and more advanced scholars on the intersections between the natural world and the worlds of film. It emphasizes the cross-cultural and geographically diverse relevance of the topic of cinema ecology.


Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts

Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts

Author: Susan Hayward

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-01-04

Total Pages: 550

ISBN-13: 1134587902

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This is the essential guide for anyone interested in film. Now in its second edition, the text has been completely revised and expanded to meet the needs of today's students and film enthusiasts. Some 150 key genres, movements, theories and production terms are explained and analyzed with depth and clarity. Entries include:* auteur theory* Blaxploitation* British New Wave* feminist film theory* intertextuality* method acting* pornography* Third World Cinema* Vampire movies.