Saturday, 7 June 2008

Newww Toooopiccccc

So year 12 is over. Well technically any way in that we've finished all out year 12 courses and exams. Everyone returned to school gayly anticipating a month and a half of coasting their way to the summer holidays to the upbeat sound of The Beach Boys like some typical American high school film. But our teachers have other ideas.

First lesson back off media and the gauntlet has already been thrown down. We are know knee deep in a new topic of study that involves critical research and an abundance of independent learning. We were given a list of options from our teacher with things regarding the media such as 'crime in the media', 'women in film' and 'sport in the media' and other such items. Immediately i noticed the 'crime in the media' section and the nerdy neurones in my brain connected that with my previous knowledge of video games and how video games are portrayed in the media for being a catalyst of violent related violence. Bingo i thought. 15 minutes into year 13 and i already know what im doing in the exam. I mean, hell, i had already done a entry into this matter here.


But all was not to run as smoothly as something really smooth...

I told madam my idea and received a resounding, 'hmmmmm, mehhhh'. I had told her that i would implement many different things into my hypothesis that "Violent games are said to cause violent crimes". Things such as the controversy surrounding the recent release of uber game GTA4, the recent published Byron report on video games and the story of a teen on teen murder that was apparently inspired by 'Manhunt'. But i was informed that this would be hard to do as most of the games are American developed and the Byron report was more to the psychological side of things opposed to the media side of things.

So there i sat, in dismay. My idea shot down in an instant. So i was thinking of more and more ideas Becky had nabbed the one on how youth culture is portrayed in the media, so i spoke to Josh and how he was doing world cinema. Then all of a sudden like a 9 iron to the head i was struck with an idea. I had noted how a plethora of films being released over the next few years are comic book films so i pieced lots of different things in my head and came upon a new hypothesis of "To what extent are comic book films affecting world cinema". I had decided that the area of media in which i was studying would be 'world cinema'. I have chosen this area of study as i felt like i wanted to detach my self from the video game side of the media to try to broaden my horizons, also i felt that it goes hand in hand with my film studies course. I chose comic books because i have a keen interest in them and how they are converted to film especially. I want to investigate the effects that all types of comic books from all over the world have on the world cinema, in particular the block buster.


In terms of primary research i would watch certain comic book films of late and early origin and read comic books and graphic novels. For secondary research i would take into account other peoples views on this such as film reviews and box office taking etc etc. 

I felt that this had a wide scope as i could write about comics from all over the world such as Japan, America and the UK and the different types of comic book styles and where they originate from such as Manga, Anime, Graphic Novels and comics. Then how they are being constantly converted to film.

So there you go.

Comic Book Movies

Super hero films, only 'popcorn movies'?


I feel i already have a pretty sound knowledge on a lot of comic book films already out and as this summer is set to be riddled with them it will allow me to be constantly updating with reviews and trivia on them.

Also, i may try to continue to add in NMT video game related stuff as well from time to time.

So far things have been going well in that i have seen an abundance of comic book films and have my own views on them and know many other peoples views on them already. And as more comic books/films come out it will allow me to further my research.

Lets hope it carries on going well hay =]

-Alex x

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