English World Series
Entertainment and Mass
Media
Lecturer:
Zhang Lei
Foreign Language College, Hunan University
2006. 11. Changsha
Contents
Chapter 1
Oscar and Other Film Festivals……………………………3
Chapter 2
Directors and Their Films…………………………………….19
Chapter 3
Grammy and the Hits……………………..………………………39
Chapter 4
Bands Conquer the World………………………………………47
Chapter 5
TV Series Walk into People’s Hearts ………………57
Chapter 6
Anecdotes and Pink News…….……………………………….65
Chapter 7
Interview of Great Stars…………………………………73
Chapter 8
Media Has Greatly Influenced the Society……81
Chapter 9
Show Business……………………………………………….89
Chapter10
Media and Entertainment…………………………….…….97
2
Chapter One
Oscar and Other Film Festivals
Introduction:
When we begin to choose what kind of western movies are worth of watching, the
first idea popping into our minds should be – those films won some awards. To most of
us audiences, the Academy Award winners are always good enough for us to pay
attention to, however, how much do we know all the history, or the customs, or the
importance, or even the names of those film awards or film festivals?
In this chapter, we are going to learn something about Oscar and some other film
festivals.
Warm-up Exercises:
1. What kind of film festivals you’ve ever heard? Can you name the host city or
country of the festivals?
2. What kind of impression you have on those film festivals? Why?
Section One
Part One
Oscar
History of OSCAR
Academy History
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary
organization comprised of over 6,000 motion picture artists and craftsmen. Though
most famous for its yearly awards, the Academy's general goal is the advancement of
the arts and sciences of motion pictures. Within that, the Academy fosters cultural,
educational and technological cooperation among its members; it provides a forum for
various branches of the industry; it represents the viewpoint of its members; and it
encourages educational activities between the professional community and the public.
What it does not do is promote economic, labor, or political matters. Organized in
May 1927 as a nonprofit corporation, its original 36 members included both
production executives and film luminaries. Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was the first
president. Others have included Frank Capra, Bette Davis, Jean Hersholt, George
Stevens, Robert E. Wise, Karl Malden, Arthur Hiller and Robert Rehme. Current
president Frank Pierson took office in August 2001.
Academy Membership
From its founding until 1946, when it moved into a building in Hollywood, the Academy
occupied a number of rented offices. In December of 1975, the Academy dedicated
its seven-story headquarters at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills and for the
first time in its history, the Players Directory, the Margaret Herrick Library, the
Samuel Goldwyn Theater and the administrative offices were all under one roof.
3
The rapid growth of the holdings of both the Margaret Herrick Library and the Film
Archive eventually made a separate facility necessary. In 1988, a 55-year lease was
arranged with the City of Beverly Hills for the conversion of its historic Waterworks
building in La Cienega Park into the new home of the Academy's film research
facilities, now known as the Center for Motion Picture Study.
Membership in the Academy is by invitation of the Board of Governors and is limited
to those who have achieved distinction in the arts and sciences of motion pictures.
Some of the criteria for admittance are: film credits that reflect the high standards
of the Academy, receipt of an Academy Award nomination, achievement of unique
distinction, earning of special merit, or making an outstanding contribution to film.
Members represent 14 branches — Actors, Art Directors, Cinematographers,
Directors, Documentary, Executives, Film Editors, Music, Producers, Public Relations,
Short Films and Feature Animation, Sound, Visual Effects, and Writers.
Candidates for membership in the Academy must first receive the endorsement of
the appropriate branch executive committee before their name is submitted to the
Board of Governors for approval. The Board of Governors also may invite to
membership members-at-large and associate members.
Members-at-large are those engaged in theatrical film production, but for whose
craft there is no separate branch. They have all the privileges of branch membership
except for representation on the Board. Associate members are those closely allied
to the industry but not actively engaged in motion picture production. They are not
represented on the Board and do not vote on Academy Awards. Life members are
designated by unanimous vote of the Board of Governors and have full privileges of
membership, but pay no dues.
The Board of Governors
Corporate management, control and general policies are administered by the Board of
Governors. This group consists of three representatives from each of the 14
Academy craft branches. Governors are elected for three-year terms, with one
representative from each branch being elected annually. This method assures a
certain continuity from year to year.
Officers are elected from the Board for one-year terms. They include a president,
first vice president, two vice presidents, treasurer and secretary. No member of the
Board of Governors may serve more than three consecutive three-year terms and no
officer may serve more than four consecutive one-year terms in the same office.
Administrative activities of the Academy are conducted under the supervision of an
executive director who is appointed by the Board of Governors. Bruce Davis,
Executive Director since 1989, and his staff of 153 conduct the day-to-day business
of the Academy.
The operating revenues of the Academy are obtained from membership dues, rental
of its theater to film companies for previews and other screenings, publication of the
Players Directory, the sale of rights to televise the annual Academy Awards
Presentation, and from other special programs.
Ceremony History
When the first Academy Awards were handed out on May 16, 1929, movies had just
4
begun to talk. That first ceremony took place during a banquet held in the Blossom
Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The attendance was 250 and tickets cost
$10.
Unlike today's ceremony, suspense was in short supply. Back then, the winners were
known prior to the banquet. Results were given in advance to the newspapers for
publication at 11 p.m. on the night of the Awards. In 1940, guests arriving for the
affair could actually buy the 8:45 p.m. edition of the Los Angeles Times and read the
winners. As a result, the sealed-envelope system was adopted the next year and
remains in use today.
Interest in the Academy Awards has always run high, though not at today's fever
pitch. While the first presentation escaped the media, an enthusiastic Los Angeles
radio station covered the second banquet during a live one-hour broadcast. Every
presentation since then has had broadcast coverage.
The first 15 Award presentations were banquet affairs held first in the Blossom
Room, then at the Ambassador and Biltmore hotels. After 1942, increased
attendance and World War II made banquets impractical, and the Awards moved to
theaters, where they've been held since.
The 16th Awards ceremony was held at Grauman's Chinese Theater and was covered
by network radio for the first time and broadcast overseas to American GI's. After
three years at Grauman's, the Awards moved to the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium.
In March 1949, the 21st Awards were held in the Academy's own Melrose Avenue
theater. For the next 11 years the Awards were held at the RKO Pantages Theater in
Hollywood. It was there, on March 19, 1953, that the presentation was first televised.
The NBC-TV and radio network carried the 25th Academy Awards ceremonies live
from Hollywood with Bob Hope emceeing and from the NBC International Theater in
New York with Fredric March making the presentations. In 1961, the Awards moved
to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and for the next 10 years the ABC-TV and radio
network handled the broadcasting duties.
The Oscars were first broadcast in color in 1966. From 1971 through 1975 NBC
carried the Awards. ABC has televised the show since 1976 and is under contract
through 2008.
On April 14, 1969, the 41st Academy Awards ceremonies moved to the brand new
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center of Los Angeles County. It was the first
major event for this world-renowned cultural center.
The Awards remained at the Music Center until 1987, when they returned to the
Shrine Auditorium for the 60th and 61st Awards. Subsequently the Awards moved
back and forth between the Shrine and the Music Center. The Shrine Auditorium,
with seating for 6,000, was used mainly to accommodate as many Academy members
as possible; the Music Center seats only about 2,500. The Awards returned to
Hollywood for the 2001 (74th) Awards Presentation at the state-of-the-art
3,300-seat Kodak Theatre.
In the first year, Janet Gaynor was the lone woman among 15 Award winners. In the
second year, only seven awards were given — two for acting and one each for Best
Picture, Directing, Writing, Cinematography and Art Direction. Since then, the
5
Awards have grown slowly and steadily in both the size of its audience and the fields
of achievement covered.
The need for special awards beyond standard categories was recognized from the
start. Two were awarded for the 1927/28 year: one went to Warner Bros. for
producing the pioneer talking picture, THE JAZZ SINGER, and the other went to
Charlie Chaplin for producing, directing, writing and starring in THE CIRCUS.
In 1934, three new categories were added: Film Editing, Music Scoring and Best Song.
That year also brought a write-in campaign to nominate Bette Davis for her
performance in OF HUMAN BONDAGE. The Academy now forbids write-ins on the
final ballot. Price Waterhouse (now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers) signed with
the Academy that year and has been employed ever since to tabulate and ensure the
secrecy of the results.
In 1936, the first Supporting Actor and Actress Oscars were given to Walter
Brennan for COME AND GET IT and Gale Sondergaard for ANTHONY ADVERSE,
respectively. The following year saw the first presentation of the Irving G. Thalberg
Memorial Award, which went to Darryl F. Zanuck. The Special Effects category was
added in 1939 and was first won by THE RAINS CAME.
In 1941, the documentary film category appeared on the ballot for the first time. The
Academy brought foreign countries into the field of Oscar recognition in 1947, with a
Special Award going to the Italian film, SHOE-SHINE. The following year the
Academy placed Costume Design on the ballot. The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian
Award was established in 1956 and presented to Y. Frank Freeman. In 1963, the
special effects award was split into two: Sound Effects and Special Visual Effects.
Makeup was added in 1981, along with the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for technological
contributions. In 2001, the first Animated Feature Oscar was awarded.
The scheduled Awards ceremony has been interrupted three times. The first was in
1938 when floods all but washed out Los Angeles and delayed the ceremonies one
week. The Awards ceremony was postponed two days in 1968 out of respect for Dr.
Martin Luther King, whose funeral was held on April 8, the day set for the Awards.
And the Awards were postponed for 24 hours in 1981 due to the assassination
attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
Attendance at the Annual Academy Awards is by invitation only. No tickets are put on
public sale.
Part Two
OSCAR Statuette
It's been called "the Academy statuette," "the golden trophy" and "the statue of
merit." The entertainment trade paper, Weekly Variety, even attempted to
popularize "the iron man." Thankfully, the term never stuck. Born in 1928, the
Academy Award of Merit — which we know as simply "the Oscar" — depicts a knight
holding a crusader's sword, standing on a reel of film with five spokes, signifying the
original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers and
Technicians.
Weighing 8.5 pounds and standing 13.5 inches tall, the statuette was designed by
MGM's chief art director Cedric Gibbons. Frederic Hope, Gibbons' assistant, created
6
the original Belgian black marble base; artist George Stanley sculpted the design; and
the California Bronze Foundry hand cast the first statuette in bronze plated with
24-karat gold.
The Origin of the Oscar Name
A popular but unsubstantiated story has been that the moniker caught on after
Academy librarian and eventual executive director Margaret Herrick said that the
statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar. Its first documented mention came after the
sixth Awards Presentation in 1934 when Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky used it
in reference to Katharine Hepburn's first Best Actress win. The Academy itself
didn't use the nickname officially until 1939.
Oscar has changed his look on occasion. In the 1930s, juvenile players received
miniature replicas of the statuette; ventriloquist Edgar Bergen was presented with a
wooden statuette with a moveable mouth; and Walt Disney was honored with one
full-size and seven miniature statuettes on behalf of his animated feature SNOW
WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. In support of the World War II effort between
1942 and 1944, Oscars were made of plaster, to be traded in for golden statuettes
after the war. Additionally, the base was raised and changed from marble to metal in
1945. And in 1949, Academy Award statuettes began to be numbered, starting with
No. 501.
Manufacturing, Shipping and Repairs
Approximately 50 Oscars are made each year in Chicago by the manufacturer, R.S.
Owens. If they don't meet strict quality control standards, the statuettes are
immediately cut in half and melted down.
Each award is individually packed into a Styrofoam container slightly larger than a
shoebox. Eight of these are then packed into a larger cardboard box, and the large
boxes are shipped to the Academy offices in Beverly Hills via air express, with no
identifiable markings.
On March 10, 2000, 55 Academy Awards mysteriously vanished en route from the
Windy City to the City of Angels. Nine days later, 52 of the stolen statuettes were
discovered next to a Dumpster in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles.
For eight decades, Oscar has survived war, weathered earthquakes, and even
managed to escape unscathed from common thieves. Since 1995, however, R.S. Owens
has repaired more than 160 statuettes. "Maybe somebody used chemicals on them to
polish them and the chemicals rubbed right through the lacquer and into the gold,"
says Owens president Scott Siegel, "or maybe people stored them someplace where
they corroded." Although he stresses that the statuette is made to endure, Siegel
offers this sage advice to all Oscar winners: "If it gets dusty, simply wipe it with a
soft dry cloth."
Oscar Facts:
Oscar's height: 13 1/2 inches
Oscar's weight: 8 1/2 pounds
Number of Oscars presented at Academy Awards shows or to winners absent from
show to date: 2,455
Number of competitive categories in 1927: 12
7
Number of competitive categories in 2002: 24
How many people it takes to make a statuette: 12
How long it takes to make a statuette: 20 hours
Number of Oscars manufactured each year: 50-60
How many Oscars have been refused: 3
Number of decorative prop Oscar statues: 65
Smallest decorative prop Oscar statue: 1-?feet
Tallest decorative prop Oscar statue: 24 feet
Part Three
Let’s get more about Oscar:
Q. Which person has more Oscar nominations than any one else in Academy history?
Walt Disney holds that record with 64 Academy Award nominations. John Williams'
42 nominations make him the most nominated living person.
Q. Who has the most acting nominations? Who has the most wins?
Meryl Streep has 13 nominations. Katharine Hepburn holds the distinction of the
most wins with four Leading Actress Oscars.
Q. Who has won the most Academy Awards in total?
Walt Disney is the all-time winner with 26 Academy Awards to his name, including
three Special Awards and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
Q. Is there anybody who has won an Oscar every time he or she has been nominated?
Dozens of people have that honor, but four-time Academy Award winner Mark Berger
holds the record for the most. Berger won his Oscar statuettes in the Sound
category for APOCALYPSE NOW (1979), THE RIGHT STUFF (1983), AMADEUS
(1984) and THE ENGLISH PATIENT (1996).
Q. Has a woman ever been nominated for a directing Oscar?
Two women have been nominated for achievement in Directing: Jane Campion in 1993
for THE PIANO and Lina Wertmüller in 1976 for SEVEN BEAUTIES.
Q. How many times did Alfred Hitchcock get nominated? Did he ever win?
Hitchcock was nominated in the Directing category five times: for REBECCA (1940),
LIFEBOAT (1944), SPELLBOUND (1945), REAR WINDOW (1954) and PSYCHO
(1960). He did not win a Directing Oscar but was presented with an Irving G. Thalberg
Award in 1967.
Q. Where have the Academy Awards presentations been held over the years?
The Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (1st presentation), the Cocoanut
Grove of the Ambassador Hotel (2nd, 12th, 15th), the Fiesta Room of the
Ambassador Hotel (3rd, 5th, 6th), the Sala D'Oro of the Biltmore Hotel (4th), the
Biltmore Bowl of the Biltmore Hotel (7th through 11th, 13th, 14th), Grauman's
Chinese Theatre (16th, 17th, 18th), the Shrine Civic Auditorium (19th, 20th, 60th,
61st, 63rd, 67th, 69th, 70th, 72nd, 73rd), the Academy Award Theater (at the
Academy's former Melrose Avenue headquarters) (21st), the RKO Pantages Theatre
(22nd through 32nd), the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (33rd through 40th) and the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (41st through 59th, 62nd, 64th through 66th, 68th, 71st).
Bicoastal presentations were staged for the 25th through 29th ceremonies, and the
East Coast components were held at the NBC International Theater, NYC (25th), the
8
NBC Center Theatre, NYC (26th) and the NBC Century Theatre, NYC (27th through
29th). The Kodak Theatre played host to the 74th Academy Awards, and will do so
again for the upcoming ceremony.
Q. Why are Academy Awards called Oscar?
How the statuette got the nickname Oscar isn't clear. A popular story has been that
Academy librarian and eventual executive director Margaret Herrick said that it
resembled her Uncle Oscar. A reporter allegedly overheard her and helped brand the
golden guy. In any case, by the sixth Awards Presentation in 1934, Hollywood
columnist Sidney Skolsky used the name in his column in reference to Katharine
Hepburn's first Best Actress win. The Academy itself didn't use the nickname
officially until 1939.
Q. What material was the Oscar statuette made of during World War II?
In support of the war effort, the Academy handed out plaster Oscar statuettes
during WWII. After the war, winners exchanged the plaster awards for golden
statuettes.
Q. Which country has the most Foreign Language Film nominations? Which has the
most wins?
France holds the record for nominations by having a film nominated in the Foreign
Language Film category 32 times. Italy holds the record with 10 wins in the category.
Q. For how many Academy Awards was CITIZEN KANE nominated?
A. CITIZEN KANE was nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories: Leading
Actor (Orson Welles), Art Direction (Black-and-White) (art direction Perry Ferguson,
Van Nest Polglase; interior decoration Al Fields, Darrell Silvera), Cinematography
(Black-and-White) (Gregg Toland), Directing (Orson Welles), Film Editing (Robert
Wise), Music (Music Score of a Dramatic Picture) (Bernard Herrmann), Best Picture
(Mercury) and Sound Recording (RKO Radio Studio Sound Department, John Aalberg,
Sound Director). It won the Oscar for Writing (Original Screenplay) (Herman J.
Mankiewicz, Orson Welles).
Q. Who makes up the Academy membership?
Membership in the Academy is limited to those who have achieved the highest level
of distinction in the arts and sciences of motion pictures. Members currently
represent 14 branches — Actors, Art Directors, Cinematographers, Directors,
Documentary, Executives, Film Editors, Music, Producers, Public Relations, Short
Films and Feature Animation, Sound, Visual Effects, and Writers. At this time, there
are over 5,700 voting members of the Academy.
Q. Has any actress ever been nominated in both the Leading Actress and Supporting
Actress categories in the same year?
Several actresses have this distinction. In 1938, Fay Bainter was nominated for
Leading Actress for WHITE BANNERS and won the Supporting Actress Oscar for
JEZEBEL. In 1942, Teresa Wright was nominated for her leading performance in
THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES and won the Supporting Actress Oscar for MRS.
MINIVER. In 1982, Jessica Lange was nominated in the Leading Actress category for
FRANCES and won the Supporting Actress award for TOOTSIE. In 1988, Sigourney
Weaver was nominated for a Leading Actress Oscar in GORILLAS IN THE MIST and
9
for her supporting role in WORKING GIRL. 1993 saw two sets of double nominees.
Holly Hunter won the Leading Actress Academy Award for THE PIANO and was
nominated in the Supporting category for THE FIRM, while Emma Thompson was
nominated in the Leading Actress category for THE REMAINS OF THE DAY and in
the Supporting category for IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER.
Q. How does a film or performance get nominated for an Academy Award?
Awards are presented for outstanding individual or collective efforts of the year in
up to 25 categories. Up to five nominations are made in most categories, with
balloting for these nominations restricted to members of the Academy branch
concerned. Directors, for instance, are the only nominators for Achievement in
Directing. Nominations for awards in the Foreign Language and Short Film categories
are made by large committees of members drawn from all branches. Documentary
nominees are selected by the Documentary Branch Screening Committee made up of
active and life members of the Documentary Branch who serve on a voluntary basis.
Best Picture nominations and final winners in most categories are determined by vote
of the entire voting membership of over 5,700 individual filmmakers.
Q. Who was the youngest person ever to receive an Oscar statuette? And who was
the youngest person ever to win in a competitive category?
Shirley Temple was the youngest recipient when she was presented a juvenile
Academy Award at age 6 years, 310 days. The youngest winner of a competitive
Academy Award was Tatum O'Neal, who at age 10 years, 148 days won a Supporting
Actress Oscar for her work in PAPER MOON.
Q. What movies have won Academy Awards in all of the following categories: Best
Picture, Directing, Actor, Actress and Writing?
In the Academy's 74-year history, only three films have swept those five awards: in
1934, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT; in 1975, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST;
and in 1991, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
Q. Has anyone ever won an Oscar on a write-in basis?
In 1934 and 1935 the Academy allowed write-in votes. Cinematographer Hal Mohr is
the only person to have won an Academy Award as a write-in candidate. His work on A
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM earned him the 1935 Academy Award for
Cinematography. Write-in votes were not allowed after 1935.
(All abstract from http://www.oscar.com/legacy/)
Exercises:
1. Please summarize Oscar.
2. Try to work in groups and role-play an interview about Oscar.
Section Two Other Film Festivals and Awards
Part One
Film Festivals and Awards
Film Festivals are a way for filmmakers and movie fans alike to gather together in one
place in celebration of great cinema. Almost all of the major cities have an annual or
10
year around film festival organization, and many of the lesser known cities have one
also.
The main purpose of the film festivals is to gain prestige for beginning filmmakers or
new films, and to give true movie fans a chance to see unusual films, or movies that
haven't been released yet. Filmmakers compete for publicity and sometimes awards.
Depending on who runs the festival, any sort of films may be shown including
independent films, short films, and mainstream films. There are specialty festivals
that are devoted to particular genres or styles such as science fiction and fantasy
festivals, animation festivals, and documentary festivals. Hawaii even has an event
allotted only to the large-screen IMAX and Omnimax films.
The Cannes Festival, held in France during the middle of May every year, is the
largest and most well known in the world, but it is also one of the more difficult to get
credentials for. The quality of the films screened at this festival have always been
high, but the fashion in which the competition has been organized has changed over
the years. The selection of the members of the international jury occasionally
generates as much controversy as the selection of the films themselves.
The Cannes Film Festival is basically a trade fair, and if you want to get involved in it,
it's best to have connections. Even though a few tickets are available to the public on
a daily basis, the other tickets, especially to the trade screenings, are to be found
only if you are resourceful enough. Most of the other festivals, however, actively
encourage people who aren't in the business.
One example is the Sundance Film Festival, which was started by Robert Redford a
few years back, and is a showcase for American independent films. However, as this
festival has gained popularity, it has been harder and harder for filmmakers to get
their work accepted here. In response to that, the Slamdance Film Festival was
organized to accept the films that didn't make the Sundance cut. And for the rejects
of the Slamdance Festival, the Slumdance Film Festival was created.
The Cannes Film Festival was created in 1939 in response to reports of rigged judging
at the 1934 Venice Film Festival, but the first festival at Cannes was delayed until
1946, when films in competition included Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast,
Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, and Billy Wilder's The Lostweekend. That first year,
the Grand Prize of the International Jury was awarded to RenŽ ClŽment's
semi-documentary The Battle of the Rails.
The judges have always voted on the festival's best film, but at various times they
have also given out other awards. At the first festival, eleven grand prizes and two
"Peace" prizes were awarded. The jury also recognized films for best direction,
performance (female and male), screenplay, music, cinematography, color,
documentary, and animation. By 1947, the prizes were given titles that exhibited
more creativity and were offered in specific genre categories, such as Films
Psychologiques et d'Amour (Psychological and Love Films) and Films d'Aventures and
Policier (Adventure and Detective Films).
In 1955, the festival created the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) which became the film
community's most sought after award besides the Academy Award for best picture.
The Palme d'Or was and is awarded to the best film of the festival, and in its
11
premiere year, it went to Delbert Mann's MARTY. Later Palme d'Or winners include:
Luis Bu–uel's Viridiana (1961), Luchino Visconti's The Leopard (1963), Michelangelo
Antonioni's Blowup (1966), Lindsay Anderson's If... (1968), Robert Altman's
M*A*S*H (1970), Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974), Martin
Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha (1980), and Wim
Wenders's Paris, Texas (1984). The Camera d'Or (Golden Camera) was created in
1979 to be presented to the filmmaker who made the best first feature.
The festival was canceled in 1948 and 1950 because of temporary problems in the
French film industry and again in 1968, due the turbulent political environment in
Paris. Directors whose careers were boosted at the Cannes Festival range from
Satyajit Ray and Francois Truffaut to more recent discoveries like Jim Jarmusch,
Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, and Jane Campion.
Awards
Box office receipts may be the main concern when a film is being conceived, but it's
not always the only one. If a movie is made with enough care and attention to quality,
it might just win any number of film awards that are given to exceptional works of
celluloid.
The most prestigious and influential film award to receive in recognition of great
work in film is the Academy Award, which is presented by the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences. The actual award given out for the various categories of
achievement in film, the Oscar, is a 13 and a half-inch-tall figurine of a man holding a
sword and standing on a reel of film. It is made of metal and is plated with gold.
The awards are given to film artists and technicians by the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences, a non-profit organization with a membership of about
5,000 (by invitation only). Each group of members from 13 areas of film
craftsmanship (writers, sound technicians, short subject filmmakers, public relations
people, producers, composers, film editors, executives, directors, cinematographers,
art directors, administrators, and actors) select up to five nominees for merit awards
in their particular area of expertise. The voting membership - about 4500 of the
5000 members - decides the winners in a secret ballot to decide the final winners in
all categories.
But a few weeks before the Academy Awards take place each year (usually in March),
a less prestigious, yet still important awards ceremony takes place - The Golden Globe
Awards. It's generally accepted that the Golden Globes are primarily a publicity tool
and a strong indicator for the winners at the Academy Awards. The Golden Globes
helps to promote the Academy Awards by honoring achievements in both film and
television. The awards are announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in
January or early February.
Honoring television isn't the only difference that the Golden Globes has to boast
about. Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes draw a distinction between drama and
musical or comedy in the categories of Best Actress, Best Film, and Best Actor.
However, no such distinction is made for supporting performers, directors, or
screenwriters. The more than 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association vote for both nominees and winners in categories that include:
12
Motion Picture - Drama
Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Actor - Drama
Actor - Musical or Comedy
Actress - Drama
Actress - Musical or Comedy
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Director Foreign Language Film
Screenplay
Original Score
Original Song
The Golden Globes have also included awards such as the Cecil B. De Mille award,
which recognizes distinguished careers.
A lesser known awards ceremony is devoted to lesser known films. Independent
Feature Project/West's annual Independent Spirit Awards have become the
Academy Awards of the American independent film scene. The ceremonies, held in
Los Angeles the Saturday before the Academy Awards, are popularly considered to
be an interesting alternative to the more traditional, conservative and mainstream
Oscars.
Other awards given out to filmmakers include the Patsy Awards, in which screen
animals win recognition for their performances, and the MTV Movie Awards, which
exists partially to spoof the Academy Awards and to nominate hipper, more
alternative movies.
In the long run, maybe winning a film achievement award is about the money for the
studio or financial backers, as winning a best picture award has been known to
increase revenue about $20 million, and an Oscar can do wonders for a performer or
filmmaker negotiating a salary, but if a movie can make some extra money because it
has been recognized as an excellent piece of work, that's the way things ought to be.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was established in 1927 to
"improve the artistic quality of the film medium, provide a common forum for the
various branches and crafts of the industry, foster cooperation in technical research
and cultural progress, and pursue a variety of other stated objectives." The figurines
handed out at the Academy Awards, which were designed by art director Cedric
Gibbons and executed by sculptor George Stanley, were nameless until 1931. That is
when a secretary, Margaret Herrick, supposedly looked at the statuette and
proclaimed, "Why, he reminds me of my uncle Oscar." A newspaper columnist
overheard the remark, printed it, and soon the name had stuck. Ms. Herrick later
became executive director of the Academy.
The Golden Globe Awards were started in 1944, and originally included a now defunct
category - "The Newcomer of the Year Award."
The Independent Spirit awards were organized in 1986 in response to the Academy's
seeming resistance to recognize independent films (which certainly wasn't the case
at this year's Academy Awards). The IFP/West began presenting its FINDIE
13
(Friends of Independents) Awards in 1984 to thank individuals and organizations who
supported independent filmmakers. The Independent Spirit Awards, were offered
not only as an alternative to the Oscars, but were scheduled to take advantage of the
many filmmakers and celebrities arriving in town for the Oscar ceremonies, since the
IFP/West couldn't afford to pay for guests' airfare and accommodations. The
Independent Spirit Awards were hosted by screenwriter/actor/director Buck Henry
from 1987 to 1993.
(Abstract from http://library.thinkquest.org/10015/data/info/reference/)
Part Two
Grin and Bear It
The Berlin International Film Festival is also known as The Berlinale which has become
one of the film industry’s most prestigious annual events. Established by the
Americans who occupied part of Berlin after the Second World War, it was started in
1951 as an attempt to bring back some of the culture and romance that had been
synonymous with the city during the Golden Twenties. Alfred Hitcock’s Rebecca is
opened the very first festival, with its star Joan Fontaine present as the event’s
most feted face.
Today, The Berlinale has grown to become Berlin’s largest cultural event, bringing an
unparalleled buzz to town for two weeks in February. A record 150,000 tickets were
sold this year - the biggest audience of any film festival in the world! With 16,000
film professional also rocking up and around 350 movies screened, the festival has
also become one of the most significant forum and discussion boards for the industry,
ranking alongside Cannes and Venice in terms of prestige.
Although the Berlinale is best known for its promotion of world cinema and fresh
talent, a number of Hollywood classics and big-name directors have won over the
juries and claimed the coveted Golden Bear’s award. (Nb. the bear is the symbol of
Berlin!).
Previous recipients of the Berlin International Film Festival’s top prize, include:
14
Year Film
Director
Country
2006 Grbavica
Jasmila Žbanić
Bosnia
Herzegovina
2005 U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha
Marc Dornford-May South Africa
2004 Head-On
Fatih Akın
Germany/Turkey
2003 In This World
Michael
Winterbottom
United Kingdom
2002 Spirited Away
Hayao Miyazaki
Japan
Bloody Sunday
Paul Greengrass
UK/Ireland
2001 Intimacy
Patrice Chéreau
France
2000 Magnolia
Paul
Anderson
United States
1999 The Thin Red Line
Terrence Malick
United States
1998 Central Station
Walter Salles
Brazil
1997 The People vs. Larry Flynt
Miloš Forman
United States
1996 Sense and Sensibility
Ang Lee
United States
1995 Fresh Bait
Bertrand Tavernier France
1994 In the Name of the Father
Jim Sheridan
Thomas
1993 The Women from the Lake of
Xie Fei
Scented Souls
The Wedding Banquet
UK/Ireland
China
Ang Lee
Taiwan
1992 Grand Canyon
Lawrence Kasdan
United States
1991 La Casa del sorriso
Marco Ferreri
Italy
1990 Music Box
Costa-Gavras
United States
Jiri Menzel
Czechoslovakia
Larks on a String
and
The films are screened in a host of superb cinemas across the city, including the
Arsenal, CinemaxX and CineStar.
(Abstract from http://www.berlin-life.com/berlin/film-festival)
After-class Exercise:
On the following website, you could find links to the following listing festivals. Please
choose one of the festivals and write a short introduction about it.
http://www2.uiuc.edu/unit/cinema/links/fests.html
 Arizona International Film Festival. The REEL FRONTIER Film & Video
Competition, presented by the Arizona Media Arts Center, celebrates the
excellence and innovation in independent media arts expression.
 Athens International Film & Video Festival. A project of the College of Fine Arts,
15












at Ohio University, the Festival started in 1974, highlighting new international
cinema and independently produced short films and remains essentially the same:
a week-long celebration of independent, "outsider" cinema, video, and
digital/multi-media.
Austin Film Festival. Dedicated to the writer as the heart of the creative
process of filmmaking, the the Festival runs concurrently with a Writers
Conference and also supports a screenplay competition.
Big Muddy Film Festival. Affiliated with Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale and in its third decade, the Big Muddy is coordinated by Film
Alternatives and partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts council, an
Illinois state agency.
Cannes Film Festival. This site includes reports from previous festivals back to
1997 and lists of winners from all past festivals.
Carolina Film and Video Festival. This festival expanded its call for entries to
even high school students for 2001. The festival has a particular theme for each
year, as described on its site.
Chicago International Film & Video Festival. Founded in 1964, the Festival’s goals
are to discover and present new filmmakers from around the world to Chicago
and to acknowledge them for their artistry.
Chicago Underground Film Festival. An annual event showcasing independent,
experimental and documentary films from around the world.
The Columbus International Film Festival. Founded in 1952 in Columbus, Ohio, the
Festival is intended to encourage and promote the use of 16mm motion pictures
and video in all forms of education and communication, not only in the local
community but throughout the world.
Durango Film Festival. This relatively young festival in Durango, Colorado, is
dedicated to encouraging and empowering artists, through a competitive
showcase of diverse and provocative independent feature films, documentaries,
shorts, animations and new media works.
Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival. A Special Event of the College of
Communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, this festival
presents films deemed by critic Roger Ebert to be overlooked in some way
(including special formats and silent classics). Ebert introduces each film and
conducts post-screening discussions with the filmmakers or experts on the
particular film. The festival also includes anels on various overlooked aspects of
the film industry.
Eilat International Film Festival. This international competitive film festival
includes feature films, children's films, humor films, gay and lesbian films,
documentaries, made for TV movies and scuba diving and marine films.
Flicker Film Festival. Northwestern University's film and video festival is one of
the largest intercollegiate student film/video festivals in the country. Keynote
speakers are acclaimed independent filmmakers.
Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. This 28-day festival screens over
100 films and is the longest film festival in the world. The Festival is committed
16














to first-time filmmakers and innovative programming.
Heartland Film Festival. This Indianapolis festival. founded in 1991, seeks "to
recognize and honor filmmakers whose work explores the human journey by
artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life."
Humboldt International Film Festival. Humboldt is the oldest student-run film
festival in the world, featuring Super-8mm and 16mm films.
Indiefest. Chicago's independent film festival and market.
Kissimmee Film Festival. This relatively young Florida festival for student and
independent features and shorts presented its 2000 award for Best Actor in a
Feature to UIUC Cinema Studies grad Jeffrey Wolinski for his work in After
School Special.
Long Beach International Film Festival. The festival helps clebrate the role Long
Beach played in early twentieth century film with its Balboa Studio. The festival
itself is held on the Queen Mary ocean liner docked in the harbor.
Marco Island Film Festival. The annual Marco Island Film Festival showcases and
promotes film projects developed by independent film makers and creates
opportunities for students pursuing a career in the film industry.
Maui Film Festival. This annual festival at Wailea features major and mini-major
studio releases along with independently-produced and distributed films, all
presented in outdoor screening venues.
New Jersey International Film Festival. This festival, sponsored by the Rutgers
Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, showcases independent film and
video as well as presenting seminars, panel discussions, and guest appearances by
recognized film and video makers.
New York Animation Festival. The New York Animation Festival showcases
independently produced short film and video animation from around the world
and emphasizes new works by artists and independent filmmakers.
Newport Beach Film Festival. This California festival features films from around
the world and representatives from major studios looking for new talent.
Northampton Film Festival. This festival in Northampton, Massachusetts,
focuses on doumentaries, animation, abstract and experimental films. The site
includes last year's program and an entry form for this year.
Ottawa International Animation Festival. The oldest and largest animation
festival in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in the world, full of
retrospectives of the aniamted works of studios, countries, and individual artists
in addition to a treasure trove of films in competition from around the world.
Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films. This festival in Palm Springs,
California, now in its ninth year, is North America's largest showcase of short
films, typically screening over two hundred films from more than forty countries
in eight competition categories, with a Market component of nearly two thousand
films.
Renaissance City Film Festival. This Providence, Rhode Island, festival honors
films from both the Hollywood and the independent sectors and also includes
question and answer sessions, workshops, and panel discussions.
17







San Francisco Black Film Festival. The festival's stated goal is to heighten
awareness of black culture while promoting the visionary work of independent
filmmakers.
Sarah Lawrence College Experimental Film and Video Festival. The festival
searches for movies made from intense personal commitment, which express the
aesthetic, philosophical, or political view of the filmmaker without recourse to
traditional narrative conventions.
Slamdance Film Festival. Begun in 1995 to run in opposition to the Sundance
festival, Slamdance is a festival run by filmmakers for filmmakers, especially
those just starting out. A screenplay writing competition is also part of the
festival's activities.
Stuttgart Film Festivals. The Film- and Mediafestival Company organizes the
Filmfest Stuttgart/Ludwigsburg, the FMX - congress for digital
media-production, and the International Festival of Animated Films Stuttgart.
Links to these three events can be found on the main site.
Sundance Film Festival. The site also contains much information about the
Sundance Institute and about films which have screened at the festival.
Telluride
Independent
Film
and
Screenwriters
Festival.
 Information on the Festivals dating back to 1997,
including winners; entrance forms and information on the next Festival as
deadlines approach.
Vancouver Effects & Animation Festival - Digital Media Expo. Submissions must
contain one or more of the following: computer imagery, 2D/3D animation,
visual/special effects, stop motion, models, or hand drawn/painted images.
18
Chapter Two
Directors and Their Films
Introduction:
Among all the film directors from home and abroad, there must be some, in your
minds, who are wonderful to make wonderful movies, however, maybe some on the
other hand, are not good at all. How many famous directors can you count? And what
are they famous for? Why they are good or not good?
In this chapter, we are going to discuss them – directors!
Warm-up exercises:
1. What are the differences between foreign directors and Chinese directors in
your mind?
2. How do you think of Zhang Yimou and Steven Spielberg?
Section One
Zhang Yimou and Steven Spielberg
Zhang Yimou
by Mary Farquhar
(Abstract from http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/zhang.html)
Zhang Yimou is an internationally acclaimed
director working in the People’s Republic of China.
He graduated in the fifth class of the Beijing Film
Academy in 1982, along with classmates such as
Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang. This graduating
class formed a core of young filmmakers called the
Fifth Generation who produced a new Chinese
cinema that exploded on screens around the world
in the mid-1980s. Fifth Generation films continue
Chinese cinema’s long preoccupation with China as a nation. However, these directors
reject the politicized angst of national survival in films of the first half of the 20th
century and the class heroics of socialist realist cinema under Mao Zedong after
1949. Their films dare to be different and dare to deconstruct the China they know.
Two decades on, Zhang Yimou is one of the most prolific, versatile and significant of
these Fifth Generation directors. His signature as a filmmaker is a storytelling mode
dominated by visual display, especially of his female stars. This display is part of a
complex picture of generation and gender in Zhang’s work that reaches back to
debates on Chinese modernity in the early 20th century.
Zhang was born in Xi’an in 1951 to parents of "bad" class background and reportedly
sold his own blood to buy his first camera. He grew up in socialist China where class
19
struggle dominated life and literature. Like many young Chinese of the time, he was
sent to farms and factories during the Cultural Revolution and so gained grass-roots
knowledge of life in China. His portfolio of photographs helped win him admission to
the cinematography department of the Beijing Film Academy in 1978, after
successfully appealing a decision to bar him on the basis of age.
After graduation, he was sent as cinematographer to small inland studios that did not
have the entrenched apprenticeship system of the big coastal studios. At this time,
all local studios were gaining more control over film production as the state-owned
system was progressively dismantled. In Guangxi Film Studio, Zhang worked on One
and Eight (Zhang Junzhao, 1984) and Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige, 1984). He was then
invited to Xi’an Film Studio, where he found his "true vocation" as a director. His
directorial debut, Red Sorghum (1987), was also the first Fifth Generation film to
capture a domestic mass audience and it catapulted him and his star, Gong Li, to local
and international fame. Tony Rayns claims it is clearly "a photographer’s film", with
lush images and minimal plot. Its success brought international funding for his next
two films, Judou (1990) and Raise the Red Lantern (1991). These three films form a
trilogy that cemented his reputation abroad but both Judou and Raise the Red
Lantern were banned in China until he made a Communist Party-approved film on a
contemporary theme, The Story of Qiu Ju (1992). Many see this shift from mythic to
mass filmmaking as Zhang’s capitulation to Party authorities and some trace a decline
in his subsequent work. However, Zhang himself sees it differently. He constantly
seeks diversity. He believed that his first three films were too similar: "I went from
red to red. I don’t want audiences to say, ‘Ah, yes, another Zhang Yimou!’ whenever I
make a film". His filmmaking therefore moved from historical to mostly contemporary
themes in the second decade of his career. On the cusp of his third decade, he has
again changed style with Hero (forthcoming, 2002), a historical gongfu film that
marries the mythic with the most popular of all Chinese genres martial arts.
Zhang’s visual storytelling is evident in his early work as cinematographer. Tony Rayns,
one of the earliest and most astute Western commentators on Zhang’s work, credits
Zhang’s cinematography with creating the stunning look of One and Eight and Yellow
Earth, the two films that pioneered Fifth Generation cinema. In short, Rayns claims
that he was "co-creator" with the directors; Yellow Earth, for example, jointly
credits Zhang Yimou, the director and designer in a single frame. These two films
delight in film form. They deliberately break all the established (Chinese) rules, using
de-centered compositions, real locations, and stark but stunning imagery to tell
stories with minimal plot and ambiguous endings. The ending of One and Eight is
symptomatic of the Fifth Generation’s attitude to China’s (cinematic) past and
(cinematic) future. In this historical film, the only youth to survive a fierce battle
against the Japanese is an ex-convict who leaves the Communist Party hero to go his
own way across a deserted landscape. The youth says to the Party member, "I’m just
a bum who has run wild for half my life. I respect the revolutionary army and the
Communist Party but I just can’t stomach all your rules". According to the
cinematographer’s notes by Zhang in the script, this moment is visualised as the final
movement in a black and white symphony, reaching personal enlightenment after the
20
darkness of death, war and imprisonment. The film’s aesthetics are explicitly based
on wood block carving. The final shot of a vast and raw landscape acts as the empty,
reflective space of traditional art in which "words are finite but the heart is
infinite".
The long and empty shots in Yellow Earth serve a similar poetic purpose and also come
from a particular style of painting, called the Chang’an School. Zhang Yimou’s many
discussions of Yellow Earth tell how the filmmakers adapted the Chang’an School’s
high horizon and warm yellow tones of the mother-earth. Thus the earth fills the
frames just as it fills the lives of its peasants, often shown as black, white and red
dots against their ancestral land. This look is primarily Zhang’s contribution.
While these early films are collective works, the visuals show a working method that
informs Zhang Yimou’s later films as director. Zhang says that he always adapts films
from stories that he likes. He then decides the big stylistic framework: whether to
make a film in expressionist/symbolic mode (xieyi) as in the trilogy, or realist mode
(xieshi) as in The Story of Qiu Ju. It is clear that he often works out the look of a
film around this stage. In traditional painting terminology this is called liyi, the
image-idea that animates and gives coherence to a work. The image-ideas of his
best-known films include the vibrant red of yang (masculinity, marriage ceremonies,
blood, fire and red lanterns) in the trilogy, the grittiness of docudrama in The Story
of Qiu Ju, the shadow puppet motif in To Live (1994), film noir in Shanghai Triad
(1995) and calendar art in The Road Home (1999).
It is widely recognised that Zhang’s visual imagery redefines the politics of Chinese
self and identity. In the first decade, this imagery focused on the sexual power,
reproductive continuity and spectacle of the female body onscreen. Beautiful young
women, played by Gong Li, are wife-daughter-mother-lover-virgin-vamp in the trilogy.
Red Sorghum breaks cultural taboos against representing female ecstasy, orgasm,
and fecundity onscreen. Bold close-ups of Jiu’er’s face panting and wide-eyed in the
sedan-chair wedding sequence and again in the wild-sorghum abduction scene were
unprecedented in mainland Chinese cinema. In Red Sorghum, female desire is not only
a force of nature but also the foundation of a vibrant, productive community until
destroyed by Japanese invaders. Erotic close-ups continued in the next two films,
such as the bathing and seduction shots in Judou and the ritual foreplay around
foot-massage and lighting lanterns in Raise the Red Lantern. Rey Chow’s essay on the
trilogy emphasises the films’ visual display, a display that "fetishizes"
cinematography itself while zooming-in on the seductive, the forbidden and the
female as "bearers of his filmic ethnography". She argues that this interest in the
power of the cinematic apparatus continues in later films, such as To Live.
The Gong Li heroines in the trilogy are more than erotic images of beautiful brides
sold to old men. They are, of course, looked at with pleasure but these women also
look back and in actively looking they also choose their destinies. Jiu’er in Red
Sorghum chooses her lover, husband and future father of her son from within the
sedan chair, leading to the killing of the leprous, old husband. She is killed fighting
the Japanese. Judou secretively and incestuously chooses her son, nephew, lover and
future father of her son to escape her brutal but impotent husband. Her son kills
21
both his biological and social fathers. Judou kills herself, burning down the hated dye
factory that imprisons her. Both heroines die gloriously. Conversely, Songlian’s
narcissistic gaze in Raise the Red Lantern on her wedding night looks back at herself
in the mirror. She chooses to torture a servant girl who sleeps with her husband and
she chooses to feign pregnancy to manipulate her husband and the other three wives
through the possibility of an unborn son. There is no young lover to save her. The plan
is uncovered. Her red lanterns are dowsed with black forever. She goes ingloriously
mad.
Zhang encodes gender through color in these three stories. For Jiu’er, the red of
yang (masculinity) dominates the wedding sedan, the wild sorghum, the sorghum wine
that supports her family, and the fire that consumes her at the end. This red force
quite literally becomes the black-white power of yin (femininity) and death under
ancestral rules enforced from father to son in both Judou and Raise the Red Lantern.
Patriarchy is lethal in these films and many commentators have likened the trilogy’s
old men to China’s aging leaders, especially after the crushing of democracy
activitists on 4 June, 1989.
The trilogy is probably Zhang’s masterpiece. Its visual power rests on female
sexuality as onscreen spectacle. Its narrative power rests on reworking the early
20th century debate on Chinese patriarchy, liberation and modernity. Lu Xun, China’s
best-known writer in the early 20th century, was a trenchant critic of Confucianism,
especially filial piety. He called on fathers to liberate the young and so liberate
society. Without such systemic change, he wrote, children are socialised into a
cannibalistic society in which everyone is gobbled up. Within this framework, young
women who challenge the system in social realist Chinese cinema of the 1930s nearly
always die. The Chinese Communist Party subsequently claimed that they had
liberated the masses from Confucian and capitalist bondage: men, women and children.
Fifth Generation cinema, however, recast the Party as political patriarchy in a
devastating cultural critique. Zhang goes even further in the trilogy. Old men
personify a system that never relinquishes power. Freedom only comes from real or
symbolic patricide that is carried out by the son but instigated by female desire.
Women have agency. Their ability to choose a man is the catalyst for social change,
for better among peasants in Red Sorghum or for worse in the artisan and literati
households of, respectively, Judou and Raise the Red Lantern. Thus, many
commentators call the trilogy a Chinese exploration of oedipality, founded on
ancestral controls over female desire rather than on the son’s actual desire for his
blood mother. The argument is no longer that fathers must liberate their children
but that children must kill their fathers to liberate themselves.
The female spectacle continues in later films such as Gong Li’s portrayal of a
sing-song girl in Shanghai Triad or Zhang Ziyi’s lyrical portrait of love in The Road
Home. Even where the spectacle is muted, a common denominator across Zhang
Yimou’s work is strong female characters whose deepest individual desires whether
for love, sex, sons, justice or simply survival challenge the systems that threaten
them. This individualism is a long way from China’s socialist-realist cinema, which
legitimised only collective, class-bound desire as the beginning and end of all
22
storytelling. Hence, the liberation of desire in Zhang’s films personalises China’s
quest for collective liberation that was promised but never really arrived.
This feminine focus in all Zhang Yimou’s films conceals a highly differentiated
masculinity. The male roles distinguish generation and gender, commonly including the
moral gaze of the young: "the son’s gaze". The "son’s gaze" is the (de)legitimising
force within and across the cinematic narratives. The son may be a blood son,
grandson, nephew, surrogate or even just a wish. Different male characters offer
social choices to young females and the ramifications reverberate through the "son"
or the lack of sons in Raise the Red Lantern. When I put this proposition to Zhang, he
and grandsons are the heirs of their respective families in the trilogy. The grandson
records his grandmother’s heroic life and death in Red Sorghum; the evil heir of the
perverted family in Judou re-performs the hitting, beating and killing of his fathers;
the phantom son is both hope and death to Songlian’s future in Raise the Red Lantern.
Later films echo the "son’s gaze" in Red Sorghum, such as the surviving grandson in To
Live or the son’s reminiscences of "my father and mother", a literal translation of the
Chinese title of The Road Home. Despite a conscious change of style, the whole plot
of The Story of Qiu Ju also rests on having sons. The plot begins offscreen when the
village Chief assaults Qiu Ju’s husband who abused him, saying that he can only father
"hens" (daughters). This begins Qiu Ju’s onscreen search for an apology to her
husband through layers of the legal system until the Chief saves Qiu Ju during a
difficult birth. She has a son and the dispute is resolved. The Chief is then arrested,
again offscreen, for criminal assault. At one level, the film seems to affirm law’s
accessibility to poor and far-away villagers. Read through the grid of father and son,
however, The Story of Qiu Ju is subversive: it portrays the law as re-rupturing a local
community, criminalising a civil dispute, and imprisoning the Chief, the baby’s "social
father". The final and only close-up of Qiu Ju’s face, alone on the roadway, freezes in
isolation, disbelief and distress. Thus, the "son" begins and ends this film.
The clearest visualisation of the "son’s gaze" is in Shanghai Triad where Shanghai’s
underworld is seen through the eyes of Shuisheng, a 14-year-old country boy
belonging to the Tang family triad. The camera often tracks Shuisheng, seeing
betrayal, gang warfare and execution through his eyes. In the end, he literally sees
the cruel world upside-down as he hangs by his ankles from the beam of the
Godfather’s barge. Zhang again visually recuperates a powerful early 20th century
theme that arrived in translation, a reworking of Hans Christian Andersen’s childhood
gaze as the only gaze that sees the truth of the emperor’s new clothes. The boy is
co-opted into evil even as he sees its brutality.
Overall, the "son’s gaze" cites Confucian, reformist and Maoist emphases on cultural
continuity through conservative, perverse, yet-to-be-corrupted or rebellious new
generations that are defined here by their masculinity. This is a collective
subconscious. Zhang’s aversion to this reading is probably because China’s patrilocal,
patrilineal and patriarchal heritage is absolutely unacceptable to him.
Nevertheless, we could say that Zhang Yimou himself is a son of China whose
filmmaking gazes at past, present and future through the "son". In this sense,
23
generation and gender are equally important in his films although the visual and often
spectacular focus is on his female leads. Gong Li is his most famous star and his
pictures with her are his most famous films. His propensity for visual display has been
fiercely criticised in China for its exoticism and lack of historical authenticity.
However, Zhang does not claim that his films document China or its people; he creates
fictional worlds through moving images that often defamiliarise, shock, seduce, and
subvert. He documents desire instead, circulating themes that have long haunted the
national psyche and using seductive image-ideas that marry reality, dream and
nightmare.
Appendix: Films Directed by Zhang Yimou
Read Sorghum (Hong gaoliang) (1987)
Operation Cougar (Daihao meizhoubao) (1988)
Judou (Judou) (1990)
Raise the Red Lantern (Dahong denglong gaogao gua) (1991)
The Story of Qiu Ju (Qiu Ju da guansi ) (1992)
To Live (Huozhe) (1994)
Shanghai Triad (Yao a yao yaodao waipoqiao) (1995)
Lumiere et compagnie (1995) (Director of one short segment)
Keep Cool (Youhua haohao shuo) (1997)
Not One Less (Yige dou bu neng shao) (1999)
The Road Home (Wode fuqin muqin) (1999)
Happy Times (Xinfu shiguang) (2000)
Hero (Yingxiong) (2002)
House of Flying Daggers (Shimianmaifu) (2003)
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (Qianlizoudanqi) (2005)
Steven Allan Spielberg
By Dominic Wills
(Abstract from www.tiscali.co.uk)
In the fickle world of cinema, there are very few names
you can splash across a billboard to ensure a film's
financial success. Harrison Ford, perhaps, or Julia
Roberts. George Lucas, if it's a Star Wars movie. Tom
Cruise seemed a cert till Eyes Wide Shut. These names
will probably make you millions, but there's only one
sure-fire guarantee - Steven Spielberg. As a director, he's the most successful of all
time. His films have been so popular, so consistently entertaining, that people rush to
see anything tagged as A Steven Spielberg Production, even movies he merely
financed. No one else has muscle like that. No one else ever has.
As a film-maker, he started early. He was born Steven Allan Spielberg on the 18th of
December, 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father, Arnold, was an electrical engineer
involved in the development of computers, while mother Leah, a concert pianist,
looked after the four children - Steven was the oldest, the others being Annie, Sue
and Nancy. The family soon moved to Scottsdale, Arizona - Steven would attend
24
Arcadia High School in Phoenix - and it was here that his love for movies (and his
financial acumen) began to blossom. Perhaps unnaturally quickly, if reports that
Spielberg suffered from Asperger's Syndrome are to be believed. This is a mild form
of autism that leads to obsessional interests - often with very positive results.
Leah being as indulgent as Arnold was emotionally remote (many fathers in Spielberg
movies are either missing or distant), Steven's interest in film-making was
encouraged. By 12, he'd made his first amateur film, an 8-minute Western called The
Last Gun, which Steven financed with a tree-planting business. He'd charge admission
to his home movies, getting Annie to sell popcorn, and his projects rapidly became
more ambitious in scale and scope. By 14, he'd made a 40-minute war film, Escape To
Nowhere, on 8mm, and another short, Battle Squad, which mixed WW2 footage with
sequences he'd shot at Phoenix airport. Even that young, he'd learned how to make
stationary aircraft seem as if they were travelling at supersonic speed. Within two
years he was working on Firelight, a 140-minute sci-fi epic, based on a story his sister
Nancy had written about a UFO attack. He would, as all the world knows, return often
to the subjects of war and alien life-forms.
There would be an emotional side to his story-telling, too, and a vaguely
autobiographical one. Many of Spielberg's films feature kids in distress and that
aforementioned distant father. This mirrors Steven's own relationship with Arnold not a good one. On one occasion, Arnold brought a tiny transistor home, showed it to
Steven and told him is was the future. Steven took it, put it in his mouth and, washing
it down with milk, swallowed it. So much for Arnold's future (though, of course, he
was very right). Eventually, Arnold and Leah's marriage began to fall apart. Steven
would shove towels under his door to keep out the noise of the arguments. Divorce
followed, and Steven was estranged from Arnold for 15 years.
As an Eagle Scout (he'd later serve on the Advisory Board of the Boy Scouts of
America, only to quit over a perceived discrimination against homosexuals) with such
enthusiasm and practical experience, you'd have thought he'd walk into film school.
Yet Spielberg was twice turned down for the prestigious film course at the
University of Southern California, instead studying English at California State
University at Long Beach, then moving into film.
It was a minor hitch since, by the age of 22, Spielberg was signed up by Universal.
Legend has it that the canny Steven inveigled his way into the industry by sneaking
away from a tour of Universal studios, finding an abandoned janitor's backroom, doing
it up as an office and turning up for work every day until someone mistakenly gave him
some work to do. In reality, it was a 26-minute movie called Amblin' that scored him
his big chance. Concerning a boy and girl who meet while hitch-hiking and become
friends and lovers on their way to a paradisiacal beach, the film was a prize-winner at
the Atlanta Film Festival and won Steven his 7-year contract with Universal. In fond
memory of this, he would name his first production company Amblin Entertainment.
There is a further story here. Amblin' was financed to the tune of $15,000 by one
Denis C. Hoffman. In return for his money and support, Hoffman agreed that, instead
of taking a cut of the boy's future earnings (which Hoffman apparently thought to be
mean-spirited), Spielberg would direct a film of Hoffman's choosing within 10 years
25
of the contract's signing - on 28th of September, 1968. However, in 1975, when
Spielberg broke big with Jaws, the contract was said to be unenforceable. Being born
on December 18th, 1947, it was claimed, Spielberg was still a minor when he signed.
Come 1994, when it was revealed that Spielberg was actually born in 1946, Hoffman
would sue for fraud and breach of contract.
Contracted to make TV shows, Spielberg directed episodes of Marcus Welby MD,
The Name Of The Game, The Psychiatrist and Owen Marshall: Counsellor At Law. He
also made a full-length Columbo movie, and helmed one of the more famous episodes
of Rod Serling's Night Gallery. Here Joan Crawford played a rich blind woman who
purchases the eyes of Tom Bosley, who's badly in debt, in order to gain eight hours of
sight. She thinks the operation is a failure but, unbeknownst to her, New York is
suffering a power-cut. Spooky stuff, despite the nagging suspicion that New York
might have the odd emergency generator.
This episode was superb, with Spielberg drawing an excellent performance from the
ageing Crawford. But it was his first TV movie proper that made him. Starring Dennis
Weaver as a travelling salesman taunted, menaced and nearly killed by the faceless
driver of a monster truck, Duel was a classic, so good it actually opened in European
cinemas. Next came spook-flick Something Evil, with Sandy Dennis, and blackmail
thriller Savage with Martin Landau, but Spielberg now had his own cinema project in
mind. This was Sugarland Express, where Goldie Hawn (desperate to escape her dippy
comic image) played a mother who, fearing her child is to be put up for adoption,
persuades her hubbie to come on the run. The movie, while often hilarious (the couple
are eventually tailed by hundreds of police cars), was also taut and upsetting,
brilliantly handled. For his role as co-writer, Spielberg won for Best Screenplay at
Cannes.
Now came the big one. Peter Benchley had scored a massive hit with his book Jaws,
about a Great White Shark feasting on New England holidaymakers, and Spielberg
was handed the job of taking the bestseller to the screen. It proved a nightmare
big-budget debut. Not only were there all the extras to choreograph, but seabound
shoots are notoriously difficult. And of course there was the shark. State of the art
technology was employed to create a convincing 25-foot man-eater (affectionately
known as Bruce), yet malfunctions were continual. The production was bad-tempered,
the shoot over-ran by 100 days, Spielberg was almost replaced, and editing continued
right up until the eve of release.
Everyone expected disaster. Yet, thanks to Spielberg's mastery of suspense and
clever action techniques, the $8.5 million Jaws took off, making $260 million and, in
the process, beginning the trend for summer blockbusters. Beyond this, it made the
world afraid to go back in the water. Some of us haven't gone back in since. We don't
much like to inspect the underside of boats either. Spielberg was now Hollywood's It
Boy, and he immediately took the opportunity to make a "real" sci-fi movie. Close
Encounters Of The Third Kind, like Jaws starring Richard Dreyfuss (Spielberg calls
him his alter ego), was a monster. Combining sweeping action with intensely emotional
close-ups, it saw Spielberg attempting to match his hero, David Lean, director of
Lawrence Of Arabia and Bridge On The River Kwai (another of his influences,
26
Francois Truffaut actually starred in Close Encounters). The SFX were mind-boggling,
even out-shining those of the movie's sci-fi rival in 1977, Star Wars.
Spielberg could now do as he pleased, and he nearly blew it. 1941 was another epic,
this time concerning events surrounding Pearl Harbour. However, starring John
Belushi, it was also intended to be a comedy and, though stylish, it just wasn't funny.
It was Spielberg's first and last real failure, having the effect of launching him on an
unbelievable run of success. Next came the swashbuckling and enormously exciting
Raiders Of The Lost Ark, produced by fellow-wunderkind George Lucas, which
introduced renegade academic Indiana Jones and allowed Spielberg his first pop at
the Nazis (his father had had relatives in the death camps). Next came ET: The
Extra-Terrestrial, starring Spielberg's god-daughter Drew Barrymore and involving a
cute baby alien abandoned on Earth. The first production by Spielberg's Amblin
Entertainment, it was the biggest grosser in history, sending him on his way to a
personal fortune that would eventually top $2 billion. More success followed with the
movie version of The Twilight Zone and the Raiders sequel Indiana Jones And The
Temple Of Doom, if anything better than the original. In the meantime, there were
big production successes with Poltergeist, Gremlins and The Goonies, the first and
third based on stories written by Spielberg. He could do no wrong.
Well, not in the public's eyes. Critics, on the other hand, found his work spurious and
emotionally flimsy, claiming his films were all flash and no content. Oscar-nominated
as Best Director for Close Encounters, Raiders and ET, he was overlooked each time.
Spielberg reacted by getting serious, taking on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning
The Color Purple, another hit novel, this time concerning the journey of black women
to self-discovery and inner liberation. Again the critics went at him, complaining that
the film was too sugary (as if the book wasn't). The film was put up for eleven Oscars
but Spielberg the director was pointedly ignored.
Still, he persisted. Empire Of The Sun was a superb film, outlining the boyhood of
author JG Ballard in Japanese prison camps. There were brilliant performances by
John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson and a host of Brit favourites. Once more the
stunning action was combined with scenes of tremendously human interaction, making
sense of Spielberg's assertion that "Before I go off and direct a movie, I always look
at four films. They tend to be The Seven Samurai, Lawrence Of Arabia, It's A
Wonderful Life and The Searchers". It was superb, but not a big hit, unlike the
following third Indiana Jones instalment (Spielberg had been working on Rain Man for
five months, but had to helm The Last Crusade because he'd shaken on it). And, aside
from the moderately successful Always (a remake of his boyhood favourite A Guy
Named Joe, and featuring the final performance of Audrey Hepburn, who donated
her entire $1 million fee direct to UNICEF), and Hook, a retelling of Peter Pan that
was a little too whimsical for its own good, he now ONLY made big hits.
First came Jurassic Park. Like Jaws with dinosaurs, this allowed Spielberg to once
again exhibit his awesome ability in the use of shock tactics. The computer-generated
monsters furthermore kept him on the cutting edge of popular cinema and, as
Jurassic Park was the biggest grosser ever (beating Spielberg's own ET) and,
combined with its sequel The Lost World, made $1.6 billion, he was furthermore very
27
rich indeed. But Spielberg really wanted respect and set to work on a movie he'd been
planning for a decade. Based on Thomas Keneally's Booker Prize-wining book,
Schindler's List told the tale of a Nazi who risked his life and fortune to save Jews
from the extermination camps. Spielberg had never dealt with ethnicity before but,
with Empire Of The Sun, he did have experience of portraying large scale wartime
misery. With the film shot in stark black and white, Liam Neeson excellent as the
dissolute altruist and Ralph Fiennes even better as the cruel, tortured Kommandant,
Schindler's List was magnificent. And, given Clint Eastwood's recent triumph with
Unforgiven, the Academy were in the mood to accept that fact, bestowing upon
Spielberg the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.
Of course, the movie made a fortune but Spielberg, considering it to be "blood
money", gave his share to various Jewish projects via the Righteous Persons
Foundation. He also established the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation
which, in 57 countries and 32 languages, taped over 50,000 statements from victims
and witnesses of the Holocaust.
It all just got bigger and better. Having made Amistad, the tale of a slave revolt
aboard ship and the subsequent trial ("Give us us FREE!"), Spielberg upped the ante
by forming the multi-media giant Dreamworks with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David
Geffen, dealing in live action and animated features, music, television programming
and interactive software - the company insuring Steven's life for $1.2 billion. He was
building a big family with actress Kate Capshaw (who'd starred in Temple Of Doom),
siring Sasha, Sawyer, Jessica and Destry and adopting Theo and Mikaela (both black,
if you ever doubted Spielberg's sincerity with The Color Purple or Amistad). And he
paid out a very big divorce settlement to his ex, Amy Irving, who bore him son Max
and, in 1989, took him for between 100 and 125 million dollars.
Having proved himself as a "serious" director, Spielberg took his newfound reputation
and returned to his roots (remember Escape To Nowhere and Battle Squad?) with
Saving Private Ryan, the first large-scale WW2 movie since Richard Attenborough's
A Bridge Too Far. Almost foolishly ambitious, it attempted to accurately portray the
full horror of the Normandy landings and, with the bullets hissing through the water,
the sound and vision rising and falling, and the bodyparts flying, it was indeed as
terrifying as it could be. Without Bruce suddenly gliding into sight, that is. The movie
was extraordinary, spawning Band Of Brothers (a collaboration between Spielberg
and Ryan star Tom Hanks and, at $120 million, the most expensive TV drama ever),
and winning Spielberg another Oscar. So bruised was Spielberg by his previous Oscar
experiences, he humbly asked in his acceptance speech "Am I allowed to say I really
wanted this?"
Spielberg was now THE major player in Hollywood. Aside from his own monstrously
successful projects, he'd been involved in the production of smashes like Deep
Impact, Men In Black, Twister and the Back To The Future trilogy. On TV, there was
ER and Sea Quest DSV. And there was the animation, a childhood love. Spielberg had
his own Amblination studio, and helped make An American Tail, Land Before Time and
Fievel Goes West, as well as the TV hits Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and Pinky
And The Brain.
28
Now came AI: Artificial Intelligence, Spielberg being one of the very few directors
with the class and the cajones to take over the project after the death of Stanley
Kubrick. Starring Haley Joel Osment as a 'borg seeking the meaning of humanity, it
saw Spielberg once again viewing the world through a child's eyes, as he had done with
ET, Empire Of The Sun and, in a roundabout way, with Duel and Raiders, the heroes of
which were most child-like in being confronted and confounded by a cruel (read Adult)
world. Arnold's distance had certainly left its mark. There would have been more, as
Spielberg had been down to direct Big, with Harrison Ford in the Tom Hanks role, but
he pulled out so as not to steal the thunder of sister Annie who co-wrote the script
(and received an Oscar nomination for her pains).
In 2000, Spielberg was made a Knight of the British Empire for his services to the
British film industry (though, not being a Commonwealth citizen, he cannot call
himself Sir Steven), having earlier received a Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern,
Germany's highest civil distinction. His face was now familiar to all, though he had
made several high profile onscreen appearances. He'd turned up in Michael Jackson's
video for Liberian Girl, and Cyndi Lauper's Goonies R Good Enough. He was Man In
Electric Wheelchair in Gremlins, a tourist at the airport in Temple Of Doom, the Cook
County clerk in The Blues Brothers, and a voice on the radio in Jaws.
It wasn't all good. In 1998, one Jonathan Norman was jailed for life for stalking
Spielberg, and even threatening to rape him. But Spielberg deals in decency where he
can. His deep love of film causes him to spend large sums on historical artifacts and
donate them to the Academy for posterity - items including Clark Gable's Oscar for
It Happened One Night ($607,500), Betty Davis's for Jezebel ($578,000) and an
original Rosebud sledge from Citizen Kane. He ensured a US release for Dreams, by
Kurosawa, another big influence. And he's strict but fair and kind with those around
him. Hiring Tom Sizemore for Ryan, he was aware of the actor's addiction to heroin
and cocaine and told him he'd have him tested every day of the shoot. If a trace of
drugs was found, even on the last day, he'd re-cast and re-shoot, no matter what the
expense. Sizemore stayed clean.
2001 saw Spielberg deliver the film version of another publishing phenomenon, Harry
Potter And The Sorceror's Stone. At least, that's how the movie was presented even
though Spielberg did not direct it. "For me," he said "that was shooting ducks in a
barrel. It's just a slam-dunk. It's like withdrawing a billion dollars and putting it into
your personal bank accounts". The movie was actually directed by Chris Columbus, but
this is seldom mentioned. Though he helmed such mega-hits as Home Alone, Mrs
Doubtfire and Stepmom, Columbus's achievements pale beside those of his producer.
Spielberg is now a kind of cinematic brand-name.
After the mega-success of Harry Potter, one of the biggest hits in history, came the
collaboration everyone was waiting for - Spielberg and Cruise, the biggest name and
the biggest face. In Minority Report (like Blade Runner based on the work of Philip K.
Dick) Cruise played John Anderton, head of a pre-crime unit who, thanks to the work
of psychics, bust criminals before they actually commit their crimes. Then he himself
is accused and disappears into a world of crazy intrigue, in the first real detective
story Spielberg's directed since Columbo. It was yet another US Number One.
29
After this came another thriller, Catch Me If You Can, this time with old buddy Tom
Hanks playing an FBI agent tracking down young con artist Leonardo DiCaprio. Then
there would be Indiana Jones 4, written by Frank "Shawshank Redemption" Darabont,
and once again starring Harrison Ford and Spielberg's wife, Kate Capshaw.
More hits, more money to add to the billions already made. Spielberg had reached a
peak undreamed of by most directors. George Lucas has had hits, too, but - remember
- almost exclusively with Star Wars. All the different things Spielberg touches turn
to gold. And now comes a new challenge. Spielberg has always wanted the respect of
his peers, and always loved the history of cinema and its pioneers. He would love to be
counted amongst them. We can now, after Indiana Jones 4, expect a deeper
Spielberg, a Spielberg with something to say. And, of course, he's sure to also deliver
us a massive injection of entertainment. That's Spielberg - always the selling point,
the ONLY guaranteed good time.
Exercises:
1. Have you seen the films directed by Zhang Yimou or Spielberg? Which one is your
favorite? Describe the story and state the reasons why you like it.
2. Zhang Yimou has won many foreign awards for his films. Some people say that he
attracts foreign audience by disclosing darkness of China. What’s your opinion
about that?
3. Why couldn’t Zhang Yimou get Oscar until now? Can you find the weaknesses in
Chinese directors?
Section Two
The Visionaries
Oscar Round Table 2004: On Jan. 24, we gathered five great directors to talk about
inspirational movies, exasperating studios, childhood dreams and piracy nightmares
By David Ansen and Jeff Giles
Newsweek http://msnbc.msn.com/id
Feb. 9 issue - Early on in the conversation that follows between five of this year's
most formidable filmmakers, "Cold Mountain's" writer-director Anthony Minghella
points out the absurdity of talking about "Return of the King" and "Lost in
Translation" in the same sentence. One, of course, is vast, the other minimalist. But
both films are indisputably the products of the singular vision of their directors. One
is taken from a classic book and the other is based on Sofia Coppola's original idea,
but the triumph of Peter Jackson's epic is that it is no less personal a project than
Coppola's autobiographically inspired, jet-lagged encounter. These movies are their
directors
It wasn't all that long ago that people scoffed at the notion of directors as visionary
artists or "auteurs." Sure, filmmaking is a collaborative art form, but these days
nobody seriously doubts that when great movies happen, it's because of the eyes and
soul of the man or woman behind the camera.
It's revealing and highly unusual that three of the movies nominated last week for a
best-picture Oscar—Gary Ross's "Seabiscuit," Jackson's "Return of the King" and
Peter Weir's "Master and Commander"—didn't receive a single acting nomination. All
30
three movies had sterling casts, but the message was clear. Directors have become
the ultimate stars. Eastwood was the only one at NEWSWEEK's round table who
wasn't also his own screenwriter, but that doesn't make the mournful, lacerating
"Mystic River" any less his own. His stamp is on every frame.
At the round table, both Minghella and Eastwood had a certain gentle courtliness. But
there the similarities end. Eastwood's movies, like him, observe a certain classical
propriety, and are never in a rush. Minghella's fuse pain and yearning, lyricism and
doom. Coppola, small and lovely, was the shyest of the group. She's a watcher, and
that's what makes the intimate, meticulously observed "Lost in Translation" unique.
Ross, outgoing, intense and movie-star handsome, paints with the brightest, most
hopeful palette of the group: his uplifting "Seabiscuit" invites the audience in with a
big populist handshake. Jackson, scruffy, amiable but acutely focused, was asked to
take his shoes off for the photo shoot—shoelessness is his natural state—and he
kept them off. The soles of his feet were earthy and calloused. The man who spent
years making the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy would have to be some combination of ox
and sprite. Excerpts from a true meeting of minds:
NEWSWEEK: The timing this year is a little unusual because we're doing this round
table before the nominations are announced.
Clint Eastwood: It will be really embarrassing if none of us is nominated. [Laughter]
The Oscars were moved a month earlier this year, partly to shorten the awards
season and make your lives a little less insane.
Eastwood: I don't notice a difference. The last time I was involved was 1993. It
seemed hectic then, but each year it seems like there's more and more events--more
24-hour days.
Sofia Coppola: Pretty soon it'll just combust. It'll explode.
Anthony Minghella: It's a strange part of the process. Just looking at this table, and
looking at the types of films that we made this year between us, how would you, why
would you compare or contrast them? How can you talk about "Lord of the Rings" and
"Lost in Translation" in the same sentence? They're both beautiful achievements. But
they bear almost no relationship to each other, other than the fact that they are
collected on film.
Peter Jackson: It's like the appropriation of films by a sporting culture. If you want
to be an Olympic sprinter when you're a kid, you have it drummed into you that you've
got to beat the other guy. With filmmakers, it's almost the opposite, because it's
about collaboration. And yet people like twisting it and manipulating it into a sporting
event.
The media love turning the Oscars into a horse race, but the studios do, too. Gary,
Universal's campaign for "Seabiscuit" has been pretty intensive. It must be
flattering to have the support.
Gary Ross: Well, yeah. That was that their decision. But it's actually not that
different from other campaigns. All these movies have taken out a lot of ads.
"Seabiscuit" came out a long time ago. So I guess some person made the decision to
remind people of the movie, because all these other movies have huge ad campaigns in
current release. I'm certainly glad people remembered the movie.
31
Let's talk about why you all became directors.
Jackson: I used to make movies on Super 8 when I was about 7, which was a result of
seeing "Thunderbirds," a British TV series. [To Minghella] You'll be the only person at
the table who knows the magic of "Thunderbirds."
Minghella: At this very moment the movie version of "Thunderbirds" is previewing
somewhere in London.
Jackson: Is it? Wow. So I was making these little Super 8 movies. Then, when I was
about 9, I saw "King Kong," and it got me just so excited that I started doing my own
remake the following day. I built a cardboard model of the Empire State Building. And
I built a little rubber King Kong out of wire and my mother's fur coat—which I've still
got, actually.
Eastwood: You're halfway there. [Laughter]
Jackson: That's right! But hardly any of it got made. I realized that, at the age of 9,
a remake of "King Kong" was a bit ambitious.
Sofia, your father's a director, obviously, so you grew up in a creative atmosphere.
Coppola: I was always hanging out on my dad's sets, and it always looked like fun. And
he's so enthusiastic about film. It's hard to be on a film set and see everyone making
stuff and not want to do that.
You've said that some of your happiest memories are of being a kid on the set of
"Apocalypse Now." That sounds a little weird.
Coppola: I had a great time. I had no idea there were problems. I was riding in the
helicopters, and I had the costume department making stuff for my dolls.
Has he been to the sets of yours?
Coppola: He didn't come to Japan for "Lost in Translation," but he came on "The
Virgin Suicides." He sat around, and talked to the extras, you know? He just came for
a couple of days, and that was OK. It was a little distracting.
Gary, you did a variety of things before becoming a director.
Ross: Yeah, I was always sort of dancing around it. I mean, I studied acting with
Stella Adler when I got out of college. She was obviously an amazing woman. And then
I wrote two novels, but I was starving and I started getting way more money to write
movies. I kind of apprenticed on all the movies I wrote. On "Big" and on "Dave" I was
on the set every day. By the time I directed "Pleasantville," I had been around movie
sets for a long time.
How hard was it to get all your movies off the ground?
Eastwood: You want to know about the studios' enthusiasm, or lack thereof?
Right. Warners would make "Mystic River" only if you kept the budget small.
Eastwood: I've had a long relationship with Warner Bros. over the years, and I took
the project to them. They were very cooperative about buying the project, but then
when it came time to make it they said, "You know, we can make it—but if you want to
take it elsewhere, you can."
Which can't feel very good.
Eastwood: So I did take it elsewhere. We took it around and showed it to a couple of
people. One studio had had a tremendous success with a comic-book character and
said, "Well, we're looking for something more in that line." So finally I went back to
32
Warners and I said, "I'll make it for what you say your maximum budget is, and I'll
defer my salary to get it made. But I don't want to cheat the actors because they've
worked hard to get where they are." So that's how it came about. Finally, Warners
did it. While we were making it, they were gearing up for the release of the "Matrix"
films. That was our ally in a way, because they were so interested in that, we just kind
of went off to Boston and nobody knew we were there. After I came back, I just put
it together and said, "Here it is." I don't know whether they liked it until somebody
told them to. [Laughter] Warners had felt it was dark subject matter. They might
have been right. This film could have easily tanked. Today's market is such an
infantile market. Everything is geared toward 14-, 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds.
Anthony, your last three movies have all been quite dark.
Minghella: I remember doing a very early interview for "The English Patient."
Somebody from the studio was offstage, and afterwards they came and said, "You
must never use the word tragedy again."
Eastwood: Do you think the studios were interpreting tragedy as a comedy that
doesn't work? [Laughter]
Anthony, you've said, "If I ran a studio, I'd never make one of my films." Please
explain.
Minghella: [Laughs] Well, it's just that I've made three films that nobody wanted to
make, particularly. Even when I was trying to sell "The English Patient," I went from
studio to studio with my little shopping bag of photographs and location pictures, and
then I would try and describe the film, you know? "A man on a bed telling stories to a
French nurse." And everybody's eyes would glaze over. Or [for "The Talented Mr.
Ripley"] "a man starts committing murders, and he's never caught and it's all about
purgatory." It's not a particularly appetizing series of stories, if you're judging only
its apparent entertainment values. The films that interest me are for grown-ups.
It always seems as if Hollywood is willing to release serious movies only in December.
Universal took a risk releasing "Seabiscuit" in the summer—in terms of awards, at
least.
Ross: Yeah, that's true, but I mean, it would have been a little hypocritical to have a
populist movie and then hold it back for December for an awards strategy.
Eastwood: "Unforgiven" came out on Aug. 12. Nobody ever expected it to win
anything—until the L.A. Film Critics jumped on it in October. All of a sudden
everybody was saying, "What do we do?" and taking out ads.
Ross: Yeah, in fact, [executive] Bob Daly reassured me about my release date by
saying, "We released 'Unforgiven' on Aug. 12. Don't worry, you'll be fine."
Sofia, you financed "Lost in Translation" independently so you didn't have a studio
to answer to, is that right?
Coppola: Yeah. I wrote the script, and I wanted to keep the budget really low so I
didn't have a boss—and I wouldn't have gotten final cut if I brought it to a studio. So
the ideal thing was to go off to Japan with Bill Murray and our crew and not have
anyone looking at the dailies. So we did foreign sales and raised the money.
Eastwood: Did you ever show it to a major studio?
Coppola: No.
33
Eastwood: I can imagine the glaze-over. [Laughter]
Bill Murray is famously hard to get an answer out of. Would you really have
abandoned "Lost in Translation" altogether if he hadn't said yes to the part?
Coppola: Yeah. When I was writing it I was picturing him. Finally, I got the script to
him, and he agreed to do it, but we never had a contract. It was a week before
shooting in Japan. I thought, I hope Bill Murray shows up, because we don't have a
backup plan.
Eastwood: Some Japanese actors'd be playing the part.
Coppola: Right. With eye makeup.
Peter, Miramax was originally going to make "Lord of the Rings," but their parent
company, Disney, wouldn't OK the budget. Miramax gave you the chance to sell the
movie elsewhere and reimburse them for the money they'd spent, but the prospects
weren't good.
Jackson: Nobody thought it would happen. Harvey [Weinstein] had put, you know, $10
[million] or $12 million into it. He and Bob [Weinstein] had to have 5 percent of the
gross. They had to have executive-producer credit, and they wanted all of their
money to be paid within four weeks. Because we had been working with Miramax for
18 months, we had a lot of visual materials. So we decided to make a little movie,
which in hindsight is probably the most important 30 minutes that I've ever shot in
my whole life. I got some of my crew, and we put a sort of documentary together,
almost like a making of the film before it had even gotten made. We spoke to the
camera. We were saying how excited we were about this film, and how great it was
going to be—except we were basically trying to save its life, you know? We were dying
inside.
Was New Line really your very last chance?
Jackson: Yeah, we were terribly worried. We didn't want New Line to know that they
were the only studio that was interested. So even though they were the only company
that was interested, we canceled a couple of appointments, and we said, "Listen, we
can't come because the meeting that we're in is going a bit longer than we thought.
Can we reschedule it for tomorrow?" [Laughter]
We won't pester you with a lot of geeky "Lord of the Rings" questions, but could
you just explain one thing? Sauron is the bad guy. He's a disembodied evil eye, and
he wants the ring. What's he going to do with a ring? He's an eye!
Eastwood: One of those eyebrow rings, maybe?
Jackson: [Laughs] Well, in the book there is a vague reference made to him slowly
gaining some sort of physical form. So eventually he'll probably get a finger to put the
ring on. He'll be an eye and a finger.
Gary, you'd been interested in making "Seabiscuit" into a movie for a long time.
Ross: I actually bought the rights before the book was ever written. It was a
magazine article, and I called Laura Hillenbrand and said, "I hear you're doing a book.
I'd like to see if I can buy these rights." Because the story was just as compelling in
the magazine article. We had a long talk, like four hours, on the telephone, and she
decided to sell us the rights. Subsequently it became this massive best seller, and I
wrote the script. But even so, it's not like the studio jumped up and down and went,
34
"Get me a period horse-racing drama!" It was not met with a lot of elation. It was set
in the Depression. It doesn't really have a single lead. It has three leads. All that
presents tremendous obstacles, and it had to be financed by three different
companies to get us up to $85 million, because nobody saw this as intrinsically
commercial.
Anthony, MGM and Miramax were going to finance "Cold Mountain" together.
Minghella: Yes. Three weeks before we started shooting, MGM called Harvey
Weinstein and said they weren't interested anymore. I was in Romania. I had been
there for months and we'd built sets.
What did Harvey say?
Minghella: It was extraordinary, actually. He didn't really miss a beat. He called and
said, "MGM decided not to support the film. They left." And he said, "We'll find a way
of doing it. Keep going." And you remember those things. As Brecht said, "You only
find out what people are like when they have to make decisions."
Sofia, your brother, Roman, went to Tokyo at one point to help out on "Lost in
Translation." How did that come about?
Coppola: My brother is also a director, and we only had 27 days for the shoot and we
were falling behind schedule. The producer said, "You have to start cutting out
scenes." And I thought, No, I can't cut out any of the scenes! So my brother was a
hero and came over. He got off the plane with a second camera, and we caught up.
Roman knows me so well that he knows exactly how I want everything. It's so useful
to have a brother who's a director.
Were you floored by all the praise that "Lost in Translation" got?
Coppola: Yeah. Writing an original screenplay made me wonder if I was being
completely indulgent. You think, Does anybody care about these things that I'm
writing about? You've been thinking about this one little area of life. You never know
who it will connect with.
At the end of the movie, Bill Murray whispers something to Scarlett Johanssen that
the audience can't hear. Everybody has an opinion about what it is. Heard any good
theories?
Coppola: [Laughs] Yeah, my niece who is 16 said, "Oh, I hope he gave her his e-mail
address."
Last year we had actors here and they talked about the fact that they were always
asked to shoot their biggest, or most emotional, scene on the first day. The
consensus was that it had to be a conspiracy on the part of directors.
Ross: I definitely tested the crew. The first day we shot I threw two people off
horses in the middle of a racetrack. It was the hardest stunt we did. We had a very
tight schedule, which we couldn't go over, and I wanted a little baptism by fire.
Clint, your actors went to real emotional depths for "Mystic River." How did you
help them?
Eastwood: I had some very emotional scenes with Sean, and I didn't want him to do
them too many times. At the end of the three takes, his voice was completely gone.
So I just made sure I got all those three takes on film. Sean's just brilliant about
getting himself into the mood. And a lot of times I don't use "action" and I don't use
35
"cut." I learned years ago on the "Rawhide" set, when you yell "action" the horses all
go in nine different directions.
Do you have an editor making a rough assembly of the movie as you're shooting?
Eastwood: Yeah, my editor assembles and we talk at night.
Ross: How long did you cut before you felt like you had a cut you were happy with?
Eastwood: It was about a week. A week and a half. [Stunned laughter]
Ross: I was just waking up after a week and a half!
Eastwood: I would bring the [computer] up to the ranch at Carmel and I'd go in in the
morning, and then I'd go play golf, and then come back in the evening. We'd work till
10 or 11 some nights.
Minghella: [Laughs] This is a terrible, terrible bit of the conversation! "I edit for a
week and play golf during the afternoon"?!
Eastwood: Well, you've got to get your mind off of it and then come back to it.
Minghella: But, seriously, you actually worked only for a week in the cutting room?
Eastwood: I'd say so.
Anthony, you'd still be cutting "Cold Mountain" now if you could, wouldn't you?
Minghella: I would be. I'm just so humiliated by this. Obviously I'm doing something
very wrong. [Laughter]
Clint, you're famous for doing very few takes. That must help in the editing room
because there's not as much to choose from.
Eastwood: I did a film with Vittorio De Sica years ago, and he never shot an inch more
film than he was going to use. You would be right in the middle of a sentence, and he'd
say, "Stop!" You'd say, "Can I just finish my sentence? I've got the momentum!" "No,
no. I'm not going to use that!"
How do you all feel about test-screening movies?
Minghella: Oh, it's repulsive. When you get into a preview room, you become a
prostitute to the audience. However, if I made movies without any studio involvement,
I would still preview them. What I wouldn't do is assume there was any science in the
preview process. I think screening the film without friends is a very useful way of
understanding it.
Eastwood: It is like having your fingernails pulled out, though.
Minghella: I have a memory of being on the Paramount lot with "Ripley" for a preview,
and the [response] was so hostile because Ripley wasn't caught at the end of the film.
I actually had to run out of the preview room, because I couldn't sit there any longer.
I was walking around on Melrose. I don't know Los Angeles very well, and I didn't have
any money. I was wandering around and this police car slowed down to see what I was
doing. I was standing outside the Paramount lot thinking, They're destroying my film
in there.
Peter, did you ever preview the "Lord of the Rings" movies?
Jackson: No. The main thing we had to do was to pass the Bob Shaye test. [Shaye is
the co-chairman and CEO of New Line.] Because "Lord of the Rings" is
complicated—there's lots of characters, and you can't always remember their
names—we'd think, If we can get it to a level where Bob Shaye can understand the
plot, that's all that we need to do.
36
There was an early critics' screening of "Return of the King" in Washington, D.C.,
and right before the first big battle sequence the movie started playing upside down.
Did you hear about that? And did it cause your blood pressure to fluctuate?
Jackson: [Laughs] Well, yeah. I just thought the projectionist was a complete moron.
There's no other explanation, because it happened twice in the screening, as I
understand. The first time it happened, they rethreaded it all, which takes about 20
minutes. They started it up again, it played—and then a couple of reels later it was
upside down again.
Eastwood: That's a real nightmare.
Jackson: Oh, yeah.
Let's talk about piracy for a minute. Anthony, we saw "Cold Mountain" DVDs for
sale in the New York City subway for $10.
Minghella: You did? Before the release, or after the release?
After the release.
Minghella: We were released on Christmas Day, and a friend of mine was in Southeast
Asia over the holidays, and he said it was selling for a dollar on the street.
Jackson: We were released just before Christmas, and a friend of mine was in
Thailand, and the beach resort where he was staying was playing it in the bar on a TV.
Warner Bros. suggested the ban on Oscar screeners as a way to stop piracy, but
in the end they actually sent copies of "Mystic River" out to voters.
Eastwood: Yeah, they finally did. I figured you can't just have some people sending
tapes and not others. I have mixed feelings about it all. I thought that the studios
should start policing themselves. There's so many leaks in these studios. There's so
many departments calling and saying, "I need 139 cassettes right now!"
Jackson: Everybody hates piracy because it has a potential to really damage the film
industry, and it's only going to get worse before it gets better—if it ever gets better.
But to me the whole screener thing was just badly mishandled. There was no
consultation with anybody.
Coppola: It was sneaky.
Eastwood: Last year, I think Warner Bros. sent out probably 400,000 tapes. They
wanted to go from that to zero. So they started insulting various branches [of the
industry], saying you guys aren't reliable and you guys aren't reliable. Everybody kind
of rebelled, and justifiably so.
Security measures have obviously been stepped up quite a bit all around.
Jackson: We send our movies away for foreign dubbing. And that has to go out weeks
ahead of time, so what they end up doing now, which quite surprised me, is that they
send a videotape to Japan or Spain and they black out the entire screen apart from a
little window, which is the mouth of the actor, and if the actor moves around, a little
window follows his mouth around. The actor is trying to dub the voice, and he can't
see a thing! [Laughter]
Four of you adapted books this year. Do readers understand that you have no
intention of harming their favorite books somehow?
Minghella: I think one of the things that's inaccurate is this notion that in some way,
a filmed version of the book annihilates the novel.
37
Jackson: That is exactly right. I used to talk to the fans who were somehow annoyed
that we were threatening Tolkien's book. And I just said, "The book is the
masterpiece, not the film. We're not asking you to bring your book along to your
screening so we can burn it."
Peter, at the expense of generating hate mail from fans, you're not really going
to consider making "The Hobbit," are you? Even if you can get the rights, why take
the chance of somehow ruining this whole thing retroactively?
Jackson: [Laughs] I don't know. I haven't really thought about it, and I will think
about it if they ever call me.
Sofia, why do you think it's so hard for women to get nominated for Oscars as
directors? If you get nominated, you will be the first American woman ever.
Eastwood: Is that true?
Jackson: That's unbelievable.
The only women who've been nominated for best director are Jane Campion and Lina
Wertmuller.
Coppola: That's hard to believe ... I don't know. Well, hopefully, you know, it won't
always be such a rarity.
OK, we're ready to release you all from custody. Thanks for being so generous with
your time.
Eastwood: It was a pleasure. A pleasure being with you guys.
Minghella: [Laughing, to Eastwood] You spent almost as long on this as you do cutting
a movie!
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.
Exercise:
According to those directors above, can you find the most important way to win
all-over-the-world reputation? What is it?
38
Chapter Three
Grammy and the Hits
Introduction:
Music is a part of our lives. We could not imagine a world without music. In the
entertainment world, music is always the main course. Since films have their festivals,
so does music. Grammy, Billboard Magazine, the Brit Awards and so on will always
attract the attention of everyone.
Therefore, in this chapter, we are going to get close to those hits and recording
academies.
Warm-up exercises:
Please listen to the song and try to put down the words of it. Then translate the topic
sentence with your own words.
Section One
Recording Academy and the Latin Recording
Academy
Part One About Recording Academy
As the GRAMMY Awards celebrate the 45th annual ceremony, the Recording
Academy continues its rich legacy and ongoing growth as the premier outlet for
honoring achievements in the recording arts and supporting the music community.
In 1957, a visionary group of music professionals and label executives in Los Angeles
recognized the need to create an organization that would represent the creative
people in the recording arts and sciences.
The founding members of the Recording Academy wanted to recognize and celebrate
the artistic achievement of not only talented musicians and singers but also important,
behind-the-scenes contributors such as producers and engineers.
Conceived as a way to create a real recording industry community and address some
of these concerns, the Recording Academy was born and the GRAMMY Awards
process began.
The GRAMMYs are the only peer-presented award to honor artistic achievement,
technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard
to album sales or chart position. On February 23, 2003, almost 2 billion people around
the world will celebrate the best the worldwide music community has to offer.
As we continue our journey into the bold future of the 21st century, the Recording
Academy looks forward to the new opportunities of a growing organization. Over the
last decade particularly, the Academy has expanded its goals from the important
work of recognizing the best in music through the GRAMMY Awards to establishing
39
itself as the preeminent arts advocacy and outreach organization in the country. The
Academy's mission statement is simple, but represents the heart and soul of the
organization's efforts: to positively impact the lives of musicians, industry members
and our society at large. Looking forward, the Academy has launched such towering
new initiatives as the Latin Recording Academy and the Latin GRAMMY Awards.
In order to accomplish this mission, the Recording Academy has developed a unique
network of field offices across the country to provide industry service and program
development, maintaining 12 fully staffed Academy regional offices to serve the more
than 18,000 members and ensure a truly national scope to Academy endeavors. New
York (1958), Chicago (1961), Nashville (1964), Atlanta (1969), Memphis (1972), San
Francisco (1974), Austin (1998), Philadelphia (1999), Florida (2000) and Washington,
D.C. (2000) followed the first chapter, established in Los Angeles in 1957. An active
branch in Seattle, which represents the Pacific Northwest, joins the chapters to
provide services and programs to the growing membership. The Academy has also
launched the Producers & Engineers Wing (the first of several planned wings) and an
ambitious program of regional outreach, both aimed at serving members along
professional and geographic lines.
The GRAMMY Awards themselves have grown right along with the organization that
presents them. Initially a series of taped network TV specials entitled "The Best On
Record," the GRAMMYs are now a state-of-the-art live extravaganza and the premier
music awards show on television. Nearly every major recording artist has made an
appearance on the telecast.
In addition to the GRAMMY Award, the Recording Academy presents several other
awards to honor important music and music professionals. The Lifetime Achievement
Award, established in 1965, celebrates performers and others music professionals
who have made outstanding contributions to recording in their lifetimes. The
Trustees Award followed in 1967, recognizing primarily non-performing contributors
whose scope did not fall within the GRAMMY Awards categories. And the Recording
Academy's GRAMMY Hall of Fame was established in 1973 to commemorate
recordings, at least 25 years old, of lasting qualitative or historical significance.
For many years now, the Recording Academy has gone well beyond the joyful
celebration of music, however. The Academy has been at the forefront of critical
issues affecting both the musical community and the general population, such as
labeling legislation, protection of intellectual property rights, home taping, record
piracy, archive and preservation issues, artistic exchange programs and censorship
concerns. The Academy has taken a leading role in advocating for artists on such
issues as work for hire legislation, digital music downloading litigation and the ongoing
debate over California Labor Code Section 2855 (the so-called seven-year statue), all
of which impact every working recording artist, songwriter, producer and engineer.
The Recording Academy is also a co-founder of the National Coalition for Music
Education, an advocacy group of music educators and professionals who promote the
value of music education, as well as the influence of music and the other arts on child
development on a national, state and local level, and the Academy is a champion for
the powerful healing influence of music therapy and its importance as a medical
40
treatment.
The Recording Academy's nonprofit charitable organizations, the MusiCares
Foundation and the GRAMMY Foundation, help protect and support music people in
crisis, and provide young people with music and arts-based education, as well as real
world exposure to music and the music industry.
The Academy can be proud of its accomplishments on behalf of its constituency.
Through the efforts of the volunteer leadership and the capable professional staff,
the music community, music lovers and inheritors of America's great cultural legacy
are reaping the benefit.
The Producers & Engineers Wing is currently composed of 6,000 producers,
engineers, re-mixers, manufacturers, pro audio professionals and technologists. The
P&E Wing is a national division of the Recording Academy's membership. It provides
an organized voice for the creative and technical recording community to address
critical issues that affect the craft of recorded music.
The broad scope and knowledge of this large nation wide network of experts makes
the Wing an ideal and unique vehicle to proactively address creative, scientific,
economic, social and technical issues that affect almost all professionals in the
recording industry.
Despite the difficult climate that has adversely affected our recording communities,
many of the P&E Wing's largest advocacy objectives were still successfully achieved
by early 2003. These initiatives will significantly impact the well-being and future for
producers, engineers and re-mixers.
The P&E Advocacy Initiatives include:
Assistance to Sound Exchange in the creation of a structure to pay producers,
engineers and re-mixers on web casting and certain satellite distributions resulting in
a new stream of income in the U.S. for these professionals.
Identified and proactively joined many notable managers, producers and engineers in
the request for Congress to focus on their significant roles in the creative process
and to be recognized in future legislation related to web casting royalties and other
matters involving intellectual properties. This marked the first time producers,
engineers and re-mixers were formally recognized on the public record on Capitol Hill.
Please see P&E Advocacy (http://www.grammy.com/pe_wing/guidelines/index.aspx)
for more information.
The P&E Initiatives include:
The P&E Wing Delivery Recommendations document addressing the recording
industries' previously unanswered questions of what methodology and technology
constitutes the most reliable current and future recovery of our recorded musical
assets.
Convened task forces to advance issues of importance including the development of
the Pro Tools File Interchange Guidelines, Surround Music Alliance, and online music
compression and streaming quality evaluations.
Produced professional education events, seminars and receptions at key industry
conferences including NAMM, AES and the Winter Music Conference. Please see
National Events (http://www.grammy.com/pe_wing/events/index.aspx) for more
41
information.
Expanded the education and national press coverage of the historic and
groundbreaking HD/5.1 Surround Sound 45th GRAMMY Awards Telecast. The Wing's
outreach resulted in expanded coverage with over 18 profiles in mainstream consumer
and pro audio media publications, including the New York Times and Rolling Stone.
Please see Resources (http://www.grammy.com/pe_wing/resources/index.aspx) for
more information.
The P&E Wing is always working on new initiatives and events and will post updates
when information becomes available.
Part Two
The Latin Recording Academy
The Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. is a
unique,
multinational
membership-based
association
composed of music industry professionals, musicians,
producers, engineers and other creative and technical
recording professionals who are dedicated to improving the
quality of life and the cultural condition for Latin music and
its makers both inside and outside the United States.
Established in 1997, The Latin Recording Academy is the
first international venture launched by the National Academy of Recording Arts &
Sciences, Inc., representing a vibrant and passionate creative community.
Headquartered in Miami, The Latin Recording Academy's members include music
professionals in Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking communities from around the world.
The Latin Academy operates as a virtual meeting place for its membership and the
organization is dedicated year-round to strengthening this cultural community via
networking opportunities and educational outreach.
In mid-2002 The Latin Recording Academy elected its first independent Board of
Trustees, a group of highly motivated and well-regarded professionals from the Latin
music world who are shepherding the organization through its next stages of growth.
The new Board has driven the organization’s efforts in staging the 4th and 5th Annual
Latin GRAMMY events. The Latin GRAMMY Awards aim to recognize artistic and
technical achievement, not sales figures or chart positions, with the winners
determined by the votes of their peers — the qualified voting members of The Latin
Recording Academy.
A main purpose of the Latin GRAMMY Awards is to recognize excellence and create a
greater public awareness of the cultural diversity of Latin recording artists and
creators, both domestically and internationally. The Latin GRAMMY nominees and
winners are chosen via the same exacting process as the GRAMMY Awards, with two
subtle but important differences: The membership is international, and the releases
eligible for awards are issued both inside and outside the United States.
The Latin GRAMMY Awards, which is the first prime-time English-, Spanish- and
Portuguese-language telecast on U.S. television, is arguably the most high-profile
celebration of Latin culture ever on the domestic airwaves. The show also has an
42
impact in more than 100 international markets, focusing millions of eyes and ears on
Latin music.
In August 2004, another signature Latin Academy event made history when the
internationally renowned recording artist Carlos Santana was honored as the 2004
Latin Recording Academy Person Of The Year. The honor recognized Santana's
professional, cultural and social accomplishments. The star-studded tribute dinner
and concert took place at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Organized in
partnership with the MusiCares Foundation, Carlos Santana became the fifth Latin
Recording Academy Person Of The Year honoree. Previous honorees have been Emilio
Estefan Jr., Vicente Fernández, Gilberto Gil, and Julio Iglesias.
Creating yet another signature event series, The Latin Recording Academy expanded
its nation-wide Latin GRAMMY Street Parties into an extremely successful second
year, bringing the music and brand to the top U.S. Hispanic markets during the month
of August. Latin GRAMMY Street Parties came to Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston,
New York and Miami, taking the Latin GRAMMY experience to the streets prior to
the telecast of the 5th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards on Sept. 1 in Los Angeles.
The Latin Recording Academy's educational outreach programs have grown to include
the e-Latin GRAMMY Carreras Y Música events, which have reached more than
10,000 high school age participants in at least 11 countries. Using interactive satellite
technology, this Latin Recording Academy program educates students about the Latin
recording industry, allowing them to discuss with musicians and members of the music
industry what it's like to work in the business and what it takes to be successful in
the field. This is in addition to the well-established domestic and international Latin
GRAMMY education-related events that took place in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles and
Miami in 2004. The active and selfless participation of the numerous Latin Recording
Academy members in countries around the world ensures that our programs and
activities are current and relevant to the industry, while it also guarantees the
integrity of the awards process as a peer honor that celebrates the achievements of
all styles and genres of Latin music. The Latin Recording Academy and its members
have accomplished much during the organization's short life, but this is a work in
progress. Through the efforts of its staff and volunteer leadership this organization
will continue to grow by strengthening its position as the premiere international Latin
music awards and by becoming the industry’s most important resource for those
interested in showing their support for Latin music and its makers. This is already
happening as journalists, corporate sponsors, government and private organizations
all reach out to the organization for direction, support and leadership.
(Abstract from www.grammy.com)
Section Two
Part One
The Brit Awards and Billboard Magazine
The Brit Awards
(Abstract from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Brit_Awards)
The Brit Awards are the annual United Kingdom pop music awards founded by the
43
British Phonographic Industry. The awards began in 1977 as the BPI Awards and were
renamed The Britannia Awards, or Brit Awards, in 1989. MasterCard is the long-time
sponsor of this annual event.
Brit is also a backronym for British Record Industry Trust which supports youngsters
in the arts and education mainly at The BRIT School in London.
Strong music industry sponsorship and involvement mean that awards are given
without much democratic process and, many suspect, for strongly commercial reasons.
These are awards given by the music industry to the music industry. Robbie Williams
pointed this out accepting an award a few years back. More recently, the awards have
more reflected the tastes of the record-buying public, with an artist needing to
prove popular and chart-topping before they are rewarded.
The Brit Awards used to be broadcast live until 1989, when Samantha Fox and Mick
Fleetwood hosted a shambolic show in which just about everything went wrong - lines
were fluffed, bands mis-cued, and airtime filled with embarrassing silence. After this
the show was recorded, and broadcast the following night, part of a revamp by
Jonathan King for 1990 whose actions also included releasing a megamix of British
dance acts including S'Express and A Guy Called Gerald called Brits 1990. King
subsequently went on to revamp A Song for Europe.
Pre-recording proved to be a good idea when, during a Michael Jackson performance
in 1996, Jarvis Cocker from the band Pulp invaded the stage in an impromtu protest
at Jackson's 'messianic' performance. There have been many such notable instances,
including several UK politicians presenting awards and being heckled (and, in the case
of John Prescott, having water thrown over him, at the 1998 awards, by
Chumbawamba vocalist Danbert Nobacon) and a remarkable performance by The KLF
in 1992.
As of the 2007 Brit Awards, the show will once again be broadcast live on British
television, airing on 14 February 2007 live on ITV1. Three awards have been dropped
from the 2007 ceremony - Best British Rock Act, Best British Urban Act and Best
Pop Act.
In addition, an equivalent awards ceremony for classical music, called the Classical
Brit Awards, is held each May.
Main winners for each year
1977: The Beatles win 3 awards
1982: no clear winner
1983: Paul McCartney wins 2 awards
1984: Culture Club wins 2 awards
1985: Prince wins 2 awards
1986: Eurythmics wins 2 awards
1987: Peter Gabriel wins 2 awards
1988: no clear winner
1989: Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Fairground Attraction and Tracy Chapman win 2
awards
1990: Neneh Cherry,Phil Collins and Fine Young Cannibals win 2 awards
1991: no clear winner
44
1992: Seal wins 3 awards
1993: Annie Lennox and Simply Red win 2 awards
1994: Björk,Take That and Stereo MC's win 2 awards
1995: Blur wins 4 awards
1996: Oasis wins 3 awards
1997: Manic Street Preachers and Spice Girls win 2 awards
1998: The Verve wins 3 awards
1999: Robbie Williams wins 3 awards
2000: Travis, Robbie Williams and Macy Gray win 2 awards
2001: Robbie Williams wins 3 awards
2002: Dido and Kylie Minogue win 2 awards
2003: Coldplay and Ms Dynamite win 2 awards
2004: The Darkness wins 3 awards
2005: Scissor Sisters win 3 awards
2006: Kaiser Chiefs win 3 awards
Part Two Billboard
(Abstract from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. It maintains
several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and
albums in various categories on a weekly basis. Its most famous chart, the "Billboard
Hot 100", ranks the top 100 songs regardless of genre and is frequently used as the
standard measure for ranking songs in the United States. The "Billboard 200" survey
is the corresponding chart for album sales.
History
When founded in 1894, Billboard magazine was a trade paper for the bill posting
industry, hence the magazine's name. Within a few years of its founding, it began to
carry news of outdoor amusements, a major consumer of billboard space. Eventually
the cart went before the horse and Billboard became the paper of record for
circuses, carnivals, amusement parks, fairs, vaudeville, minstrels, whale shows and
other live entertainment. The magazine made a huge strategic mistake in the early
1900s when it ceded motion picture news to Variety, founded in 1905. Beginning with
the first issue of 1961, Billboard spun off all its departments except music, devoting
the entire book to that industry. The outdoor departments were transferred to a
start-up magazine called Amusement Business which continues to this day, mainly as a
carnival trade publication.
Billboard charts
On January 4, 1936 Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade and on
July 20, 1940 the first Music Popularity Chart was calculated. Since 1958 the Hot
100 has been published, combining single sales and radio airplay.
To this day, the most successful acts on Billboard's charts are The Beatles, Mariah
Carey, Elvis Presley, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bing Crosby, Diana Ross and The
Supremes, Janet Jackson, and Elton John.
45
Radio countdown programs
For many years, the weekly syndicated radio program "American Top 40," hosted by
Casey Kasem (July 4, 1970 to August 6, 1988 and then March 28, 1998 to January 3,
2004) and Shadoe Stevens (August 13, 1988 to January 28, 1995), played the top 40
songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in reverse order; in 1991, it switched to using
the Billboard Radio Monitor top 40 chart. Later, in 1993, it began using the Billboard
Top 40 Mainstream chart, which it used until it temporarily went off the air in 1995.
When the show returned in 1998, it no longer used Billboard charts as its source.
A country music version of "American Top 40", called "American Country Countdown",
has been on the air since October 1973. The show is hosted each week by Kix Brooks
of the country superstar duo Brooks & Dunn, who replaced radio legend Bob Kingsley
in January 2006. American Country Countdown uses the top 40 songs of the Billboard
Hot Country Songs chart.
Billboard today
Billboard magazine covers every aspect of the entertainment business, from DVDs to
video cassette sales to internet music downloads. It features news stories and
opinion articles. For the most part, Billboard is intended for music professionals, such
as record label executives and DJs. It is generally not intended for the general public,
although it can occasionally be found at bookstores. However, despite their extensive
coverage of the entertainment business, they remain best known for their charts.
Exercises:
1. Who do you think is a good musician and why? You could choose both from home
and abroad.
2. What’s your opinion of setting so many different awards? Do you think it’s
necessary or it’s only for some purposes?
3. What’s your standard to choose music if you want to buy an album?
46
Chapter Four
Bands Conquer the World
Introduction:
Hey Jude, Yesterday and so on made us know a lot about a great band in the world –
The Beatles. Those lovely faces made us remember the group Backstreet Boys and
Spicy Girls. Bands, to some certain degree, become a very wonderful musician style
across the boundaries.
In this chapter, let’s go deeper to some bands to find the reason why they want to be
crazy about music.
Warm-up exercises:
1. What could be called as a band?
2. How much do you know about The Beatles, or other bands? Are you interested in
grouping a band of yourself?
3. Why do you think a band would be divided at last?
Section One
The Beatles
The Beatles, a English musical group from Liverpool, are the most critically acclaimed,
commercially successful popular music artists in history.[1][2] They continue to be held
in the highest esteem for their artistic achievements, their huge commercial success,
their groundbreaking role in the history of popular music, and their contributions to
popular culture. Although their initial musical style was rooted in the sounds of 1950s
Rock & Roll, the group explored a great variety of genres, ranging from Tin Pan Alley
to psychedelic rock. The innovative music and style of John Lennon (1940–1980), Paul
McCartney (1942—), George Harrison (1943–2001), and Ringo Starr (1940—) helped
to define the 1960s.
The Beatles were the best-selling popular musical act of the 20th century. In the
47
United Kingdom alone, they released more than 40 different singles, albums and EPs
that reached number one. This commercial success was repeated in many other
countries: EMI estimated that by 1985, the band had sold over one billion discs or
tapes worldwide.[3] The RIAA has certified The Beatles as the top selling artists of
all time in America based on US sales of singles and albums.[4]
The Beatles were a major force behind the so-called "British Invasion" of UK-based
popular bands in the United States in the mid-1960s and they helped to pioneer more
advanced, multi-layered arrangements in pop music. The Beatles' impact extended
well beyond their music. Their clothes, hairstyles, and statements made them
trend-setters from the 1960s to this day, while their growing social awareness –
reflected in the development of their music – saw their influence extend into the
social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.
John Lennon, vocals and rhythm guitar
Formation and early years
In March of 1957, John Lennon formed a skiffle group
called The Quarrymen (fleetingly known as The
Blackjacks[5]). On 6 July of that year, Lennon met Paul
McCartney while playing at the Woolton Parish Church Fete.
On 6 February 1958, the young guitarist George Harrison
was invited to watch the group (then playing under a variety
of names) perform at Wilson Hall, Garston, Liverpool[6] and he was soon a regular
player. Paul had become acquainted with George (a year younger) at school, the
Liverpool Institute and on the morning school bus-ride; they had also grown up in a
common neighbourhood (Speke). A few primitive recordings of Lennon, McCartney and
Harrison from that era have survived. During this period, members continually joined
and left the lineup; Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison emerged as the only constant
members.
The Quarrymen went through a progression of names — Johnny and The Moondogs,
Long John and The Beatles, The Silver Beetles (derived from Larry Williams's
suggestion "Long John and the Silver Beetles"), The Beat Brothers — and eventually
decided on "The Beatles". There are many theories as to the origin of the name and
its unusual spelling; it is usually credited to John Lennon, who said that the name was
a combination word-play on the insects "beetles" (as a nod/compliment to Buddy
Holly's band The Crickets) and the word "beat."[7] He also later said that it was a joke,
meaning a pun on "Beat-less". In her book John, Cynthia Lennon suggests that John
came up with the name Beatles at a "...brainstorming session over a beer soaked table
in the Renshaw Hall bar...". In addition to being a fan of the Crickets, Lennon is
paraphrased as having said: "If you turn it round it was 'les beat', which sounded
French and cool."[8] Lennon, who became famous for giving multiple versions of the
same story, also joked in a tongue-in-cheek 1961 article in Mersey Beat magazine that
"It came in a vision — a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, 'From this
day on you are Beatles with an A'."[9] (This story was later the inspiration for the title
of one of McCartney's solo albums, Flaming Pie.)
48
In May of 1960, The Beatles were hired to tour the north-east of Scotland as a
back-up band with singer Johnny Gentle[10], who was signed to the Larry Parnes
agency. They met Gentle an hour before their first gig, and McCartney referred to
that short tour as a great experience for the band. For this tour the chronically
drummerless group secured the services of Tommy Moore, who was considerably
older than the others.[11] The band's van (driven by Gentle) had a head-on crash with
another vehicle on their way back from Scotland; Moore lost some teeth and had
stitches after being hit in the mouth by a guitar. Nobody else was seriously injured.
(Shortly afterward, feeling the age gap was too great and following a girlfriend's
advice, Moore left the band and went back to work in a bottling factory as a fork-lift
truck driver.)[12]
Paul McCartney, vocals and bass guitar
Hamburg
Norman Chapman was their next drummer, but only for a few
weeks, as he was called up for National Service. This was a
real problem as their unofficial manager, Allan Williams, had
arranged for them to perform in clubs on the Reeperbahn in
Hamburg, Germany. (Paul McCartney has often said that if
any of The Beatles had been individually called-up for
National Service — had it been extended for just a few
more weeks — the band would never have come into existence, because of the
different ages of the key members.[13])
In August of 1960, McCartney invited Pete Best to become the group's drummer
after watching Best playing with The Blackjacks [14] in the Casbah Club. This was a
cellar club operated by Best's mother Mona, in Hayman's Green, Liverpool, where The
Beatles had played and often used to visit[15].
They started in Hamburg by playing in the Indra and Kaiserkeller bars. They were
told to play six or seven hours a night, seven nights a week. They went back a second
time and played the Top Ten club for three months (April until June, 1961.) While
they were playing at the Top Ten they were recruited by singer Tony Sheridan to act
as his backing band on a series of recordings for the German Polydor Records label,
produced by famed bandleader Bert Kaempfert. Kaempfert signed the group to its
own Polydor contract at the first session in June 1961. On 23 October Polydor
released the recording "My Bonnie (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur)", which made it into the
German charts under the name "Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers".(Roy Young
was considered one of the beatles at one point too, but I'm surprized to see that
wikipedia has not added him to this page anywhere...I know this probably isn't the
right way to mention it but I'm sure someone will look into it eventually.)
Their third trip to Hamburg was when they opened The Star Club (April, 1962) and
were there for two months.
Upon their return from Hamburg, the group was enthusiastically promoted by Sam
Leach, who presented them for the next year and a half on various stages in Liverpool
forty-nine times[16]. Brian Epstein, manager of the record department at NEMS, his
49
family's furniture store, took over as the group's manager in 1962 and led The
Beatles' quest for a British recording contract. In one now-famous exchange, an
executive at Decca Records turned Epstein down flat and informed him that "Guitar
groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein."[17]
George Harrison, lead guitar and vocals
Record contract
Epstein eventually met with producer George Martin of
EMI's Parlophone label. Martin expressed an interest in
hearing the band in the studio; he invited the quartet to
London's Abbey Road studios for an audition on 6 June.
Martin had not been particularly impressed by the band's
demo recordings, but he instantly liked them as people when
he met them. He concluded that they had raw musical talent, but said (in later
interviews) that what made the difference for him that day was their wit and humour
in the studio. They were very likeable, and slightly cheeky, young men. When he asked
them if there was anything they did not like, Harrison replied, "I don't like your tie".
The remark typified the slightly surreal blend of wry humour and irreverence
towards authority that eventually became the band's in-joke with a global audience.
That day, however, their audience was a single person: a detail orientated, slightly
stuffy looking Parlophone executive who had never worked with a rock 'n' roll band
before. Fortunately for the band, Martin, whose background was in comedy and
novelty records, appreciated the joke. He offered the band a contract.[12]
Martin did have a problem with Pete Best, whom he criticised for not being able to
keep time. He privately suggested to Brian Epstein that the band use another
drummer in the studio. Best had some popularity and was considered good-looking by
many fans, but the three founding members had become increasingly unhappy with his
popularity and his personality, and Epstein had become exasperated with his refusal
to adopt the distinctive hairstyle as part of their unified look. Epstein sacked Best on
16 August 1962. They immediately asked Ringo Starr (real name: Richard Starkey),
the drummer for one of the top Merseybeat groups Rory Storm and the Hurricanes,
to join the band. The Beatles had met and performed with Starr previously in
Hamburg. (In fact the first recordings of John, Paul, George and Ringo together were
as early as 15 October 1960, in a series of demonstration records privately recorded
in Hamburg as backing group for singer Lu Walters.) Starr played on The Beatles'
second EMI recording session on 4 September 1962, but Martin hired session
drummer Andy White for their next session on 11 September.
Their recording contract — in common with how shabbily new artists were treated in
that era — paid them only one penny for every single sold, which was split among the
four Beatles. This amounted to one farthing per group member. This royalty rate was
further reduced for overseas sales, on which they received half of one penny (split
between the whole band) for singles sales outside of the UK. George Martin said later
that it was a "pretty awful" contract.[18] Their publishing contract with Dick James
Music (DJM) was also standard for the time; each writer received the statutory
50
minimum of 50% of the gross monies received, with the publisher retaining the other
50%.
The Beatles' first EMI session on 6 June did not yield any releasable recordings but
the September sessions produced a minor UK hit, "Love Me Do", which peaked on the
charts at number 17. ("Love Me Do" reached the top of the U.S. singles chart over 18
months later in May 1964.) This was swiftly followed by their second single "Please
Please Me". Three months later they recorded their first album (also titled Please
Please Me). The band's first televised performance was on a program called People
and Places transmitted live from Manchester by Granada Television on 17 October
1962.
Ringo Starr, drums and vocals
America
Although the band experienced huge popularity in the
record charts in the UK from early 1963, Parlophone's
American counterpart, Capitol Records (owned by EMI),
refused to issue the singles "Love Me Do", "Please Please
Me" and "From Me to You"[19] in the United States, partly
because no British act had ever yet had a sustained
commercial impact on American audiences.
Vee-Jay Records, a small Chicago label, is said by some to have been pressured into
issuing these singles as part of a deal for the rights to another performer's masters.
Art Roberts, music director of Chicago powerhouse radio station WLS, placed "Please
Please Me" into radio rotation in late February 1963, making it possibly the first time
a Beatles record was heard on American radio. Vee-Jay's rights to The Beatles were
cancelled for non-payment of royalties.[20]
After The Beatles' huge success in 1964, Vee-Jay Records and Swan Records took
advantage of their previously secured rights to The Beatles' early recordings and
reissued the songs that they had rights to, which all reached the top ten of the
charts the second time around. (Atco and Decca also secured rights to The Beatles'
early Tony Sheridan-era recordings and had minor hits with "My Bonnie" and "Ain't
She Sweet".) Vee-Jay ended up issuing some odd LP repackagings of the limited
Beatles' material they had: as well as Introducing... The Beatles, which was essentally
The Beatles' debut British album with some minor alterations, Vee-Jay also issued an
unusual LP called The Beatles Vs The Four Seasons which put together songs from
The Beatles and The Four Seasons (another successful act that Vee-Jay had under
contract) in a 'contest': the back cover featured a 'score card'. Another unusual
release was the Hear The Beatles Tell All album, which mixed interviews with the
same early Beatles' material. It has been claimed that both Vee-Jay and Swan
attempted legal fights with Capitol/EMI to secure full American contractual rights
to The Beatles, which may have contributed to the eventual demise of both labels. It
has also been said this fight to secure The Beatles took attention away from each
label's most successful artists, The Four Seasons (Vee-Jay) and Freddy Cannon
(Swan), who decided to move to more-established labels. The Vee-Jay/Swan-issued
51
recordings eventually ended up with Capitol, who promptly issued them on the
American-only Capitol release The Early Beatles. Many of the early Vee-Jay and Swan
Beatles' records command a high price on the record collectors' market.)
In August 1963, the Philadelphia-based Swan label tried again with The Beatles' "She
Loves You", which also failed to receive airplay. A testing of the song on Dick Clark's
TV show American Bandstand resulted only in laughter and scorn from American
teenagers when they saw the group's Beatle haircuts. The famous radio DJ, Murray
the K (Kaufman) featured "She Loves You" on his 1010 WINS record revue in
October, to an underwhelming response.
The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show
Beatlemania
In November 1963, The Beatles appeared on the
Royal Variety Performance and were photographed
with Marlene Dietrich who also appeared on the
show. In early November 1963, Brian Epstein
persuaded Ed Sullivan to commit to presenting The
Beatles on three editions of his show in February,
and parlayed this guaranteed exposure into a record deal with Capitol Records.
Capitol committed to a mid-January release for "I Want to Hold Your Hand",[21] but a
series of unplanned circumstances triggered premature airplay of an imported copy
of the single on a Washington DC radio station in mid-December. Capitol brought
forward release of the record to December 26, 1963.
Several New York radio stations — first WMCA, then WINS and WABC — began
playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on its release day, and the Beatlemania that had
started in Washington was duplicated in New York and quickly spread to other
markets. The record sold one million copies in just ten days, and by January 16,
Cashbox Magazine had certified The Beatles record number one (in the edition
published with the cover-date January 23).
JFK Airport on February 7, 1964. A record-breaking seventy-three million viewers —
approximately 40% of the U.S. population at the time — tuned in to the first Sullivan
appearance on February 9. During the week of April 4, The Beatles held the top five
places on the Billboard Hot 100 (see The Beatles record sales, worldwide charts) — a
feat that has never been repeated. They had an additional 7 songs at lower positions:
12% of the chart consisted of Beatles songs.[citation needed]
In the summer of 1964 the band undertook their first appearances outside of Europe
and North America, touring Australia and New Zealand (notably without Ringo Starr
who was ill and was temporarily replaced by session drummer Jimmy Nicol). When
they arrived in Adelaide, The Beatles were greeted by what is reputed to be the
largest crowd of their touring career, when over 300,000 people — about one-third
of the population of the city — turned out to see them. In September that year
baseball owner Charles O. Finley paid the band the then unheard of sum of $150,000
to play in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 1965 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon them the MBE, a civil honour
52
nominated by Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The award, at that time primarily given
to military veterans and civic leaders, sparked some conservative MBE recipients to
return their awards in protest, which was widely reported in the British press and
was even the lead item on the BBC television news. The first two were returned on
June 14, before The Beatles received theirs on October 26 1965.[22]
On August 15 that year, The Beatles performed the first stadium concert in the
history of rock, playing at Shea Stadium in New York to a crowd of 55,600.[23] The
band later admitted that they had been largely unable to hear themselves play or sing,
due to the screaming and cheering. This concert is generally considered the point at
which began their disenchantment with performing live.
John Lennon, 1966
Backlash and controversy
In July 1966, when The Beatles toured the Philippines, they
unintentionally mentioned St. Paul Pork Products on the
national radio, causing massive hsyteria. Compounding the
error, they snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos, who had expected the
group to attend a breakfast reception at the Presidential Palace[citation needed]. When
presented with the invitation, Brian Epstein politely declined on behalf of the group,
as it had never been the group's policy to accept such "official" invitations. The group
soon found that the Marcos regime was unaccustomed to accepting "no" for an answer.
After the snubbing was widely broadcast on Philippine television and radio, all The
Beatles' police protection disappeared. The group and their entourage had to make
their way to Manila airport on their own, with the authorities throwing up every road
block they could to harass them as much as possible. At the airport, roadie Mal Evans
was beaten and kicked, and The Beatles themselves were pushed and jostled about by
a hostile crowd. Once the group boarded the plane, Epstein and Evans were ordered
off, and Evans said, "Tell my wife that I love her..." (showing how seriously he thought
the danger was of them both being shot). Epstein was forced to give back all the
money that the band had earned while they were there before being allowed back on
the plane (Anthology).
Almost as soon as they returned from the Philippines, an earlier comment by John
back in March of that year launched a backlash against The Beatles from religious
and social conservatives in the Bible Belt of the US. In an interview with British
reporter Maureen Cleave Lennon had offered his opinion that Christianity was dying
and that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus now."[24] In many cities and
towns across the United States (primarily in the South) and in South Africa, people
banned and burned Beatles records. However, The Beatles observed wryly, "Hey,
they've gotta buy 'em before they can burn 'em."[citation needed] Under tremendous
pressure from American media, Lennon apologised for his remarks at a press
conference in Chicago on August 11, the eve of the first performance of what turned
out to be their final tour.
(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles - 174k)
53
Section Two
The Eagles
Inductees: Don Felder (guitar; born 9/21/47), Glenn Frey (born 11/6/48; guitar,
vocals), Don Henley (drums, vocals; born 7/22/47), Bernie Leadon (guitar, mandolin,
banjo; born 7/19/47), Randy Meisner (bass, vocals; born 3/8/46), Timothy B. Schmit
(bass, vocals; born 10/30/47), Joe Walsh (guitar, vocals; born 11/20/47)
Joe Walsh's (The Eagles) Football Jersey
Photo by Andrew Moore
Gift of Adam Spero
The Eagles chronicled America in the high-flying Seventies, a time
of rapidly changing social mores leading up to what they called "life
in the fast lane." Between the lines, their favorite subject matter
was the pursuit and unraveling of the American dream. They began as wide-eyed
country-rockers on the fertile Los Angeles music scene and evolved into purveyors of
grandiose, dark-themed albums about excess and seduction. The Eagles were defined
and bounded by the Seventies, forming in 1971 and parting ways in 1980. They were
born again in 1994 as public demand for their music and messages persuaded them to
reunite.
The statistics on the Eagles reveal their influence as a rock and roll band. The group's
first best-of collection, Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, is the best-selling album of
all time, having sold 26 million copies. It was the first album to be certified platinum
(1 million sold) by the Recording Industry Association of America, which introduced
that classification in 1976. They released four consecutive #1 albums between 1975
and 1979-One of These Nights, Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, Hotel California and
The Long Run-which collectively topped Billboard's album chart for 27 weeks. Proving
they hadn't lost their touch, the 1994 reunion album Hell Freezes Over occupied the
#1 spot for two weeks. The Eagles charted five #1 hits, and five more singles made
the Top Ten. They sold more albums in the Seventies than any other American band.
Moreover, though the band was inactive in the Eighties, their back catalog steadily
sold 1.5 million copies a year.
The Eagles formed in Los Angeles as four musicians from varied backgrounds and
54
locales. Drummer Don Henley had migrated west from Texas with his band, Shiloh.
Guitarist Glenn Frey was a rocker from Detroit who headed to Los Angeles, where he
befriended fellow musicians Jackson Browne and John David Souther. Bernie Leadon,
who plays a variety of stringed instruments, boasted a bluegrass background and
belonged to the Flying Burrito Brothers. Bassist and high-harmony singer Randy
Meisner played with such country- and folk-rock mainstays as Rick Nelson, James
Taylor and Poco. After touring together in 1971 as members of Linda Ronstadt's band,
they went off on their own and were honing the repertoire of songs that would appear
on their debut album, Eagles.
At this point, their country-flavored rock evoked vistas as boundless as those of the
Old West, whose frontier mythology they adopted. The album kicked off with the
rousing country-rocker "Take It Easy" (cowritten by Frey and Browne). It also
contained the Eagles standards "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Witchy Woman." The
social milieu of Southern California inspired the central metaphor of Desperado, a
concept album in which the Eagles explored the notion of rocker-as-outlaw. Released
in 1973, it yielded such Eagles favorites as "Tequila Sunrise" and the title track. The
group's third album, On the Border, found the Eagles changing producers (Glyn Johns
to Bill Szymczyk) and locales (London to Los Angeles). Harder-rocking than its
predecessors, On the Border was beefed up by the addition of guitarist Don Felder
late in the sessions. Ironically, it was an acoustic ballad, "The Best of My Love," that
carried them to the top of the charts in March 1975.
One of These Nights, the Eagles' next album, reflected the disillusionment that had
infiltrated the political outlooks and personal lives of young Americans at mid-decade.
With the nation poised between Watergate and the Bicentennial, the
Eagles unerringly captured the mood of uncertainty and mistrust. The group was
rewarded with their first #1 album and a trio of hit singles: "One of These Nights,"
"Lyin' Eyes" and "Take It to the Limit." One of These Nights took six months to make,
and the increasingly grueling recording process, along with the creative control
exerted by chief songwriters Henley and Frey, caused Bernie Leadon to quit at the
end of 1975. He was replaced by Joe Walsh, an old friend who added even more of a
hard-rock edge to the Eagles' sound.
By now, the Eagles could justifiably be called superstars. The Eagles raised the stakes
with their masterful fifth album, Hotel California, and its haunting, metaphorical title
track. Largely composed in the studio, Hotel California was released in December
1976. The album instantly struck a responsive chord and stands as their best-selling
release (excluding compilations). The Eagles added a popular catch phrase to the
lexicon-"Life in the fast lane"-and set a new standard for song composition and
recording with the exquisitely layered "Hotel California." However, the year spent
making Hotel California claimed another member. Citing exhaustion, Randy Meisner
left in September and was replaced by Timothy Schmit, formerly of Poco.
Sessions for their sixth album, The Long Run, dragged on for two years and drove the
Eagles to the breaking point. Though it was by all outward standards a success,
yielding yet another trio of hits ("Heartache Tonight," "The Long Run" and "I Can't
Tell You Why"), its making had been a draining experience that ultimately spelled the
55
Eagles' demise. Tellingly, the album cover was black. "I knew the Eagles were over
about halfway through The Long Run," said Frey. Their swan song was Eagles Live, a
double album released in 1980. By that time the group had essentially disbanded,
though no formal announcement was made. "We probably peaked on Hotel California,"
Henley noted in a 1982 interview. "After that, we started growing apart as
collaborators and as friends."
Various members-particularly Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh-thereupon
launched or resumed successful solo careers. Meanwhile, the Eagles' ongoing
influence inspired the renegade "new country" movement. When 13 of country's
hottest acts recorded the tribute album Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles in
1993, its triple-platinum success helped trigger an Eagles reunion a year later. Glenn
Frey announced at the start of a 1994 concert for MTV's cameras that the Eagles'
14-year-old "vacation" had ended. "We see this not as a reunion but a resumption,"
Frey explained. The Eagles recorded four new studio songs, and these joined live
run-throughs of 11 old favorites for Hell Freezes Over. The subsequent Eagles
tours-whose high-priced tickets engendered some controversy-were bonafide events
for fans who'd despaired of ever seeing them share a stage again. The Eagles closed
out the century as headliners at a Millennium Eve concert in Los Angeles.
(From http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=96)
Exercises:
1. Some rock-and-roll players or singers are always linked to some darkness like
addicting drugs or committing suicide which exampled very badly towards the
teenagers. What do you think of the phenomenon?
2. What do you think is the key to be a famous band in the world?
3. Try to compare your favorite Chinese band with a western band. What do you
think is the main differences? Why Chinese bands wouldn’t be at least as the
other bands of another country?
56
Chapter Five
TV Series Walk into People’s Hearts
Introduction:
“I will be there for you…”
If you ever watched the great TV series FRIENDS, you must be touched by the
purity of the friendship among those 6 different individuals although it’s a little bit
exaggerated. If you ever knew something about the darkness of the political field,
you must not miss the exciting and charming 24 Hours and Prison Break. And if you’re
imaginative, you would be familiar with Lost. Desperate Housewives, Big Love, The
Office, all these TV series gradually walk into People’s hearts.
In this chapter, we are going to discuss how the TV series change our outlooks of the
world and that of the actors or actresses.
Warm-up exercises:
1. Try to find your favorite TV series in China, and tell each other the story of it.
2. Why Chinese TV series couldn’t be as long as those of the other countries? Or
what are the differences between Chinese TV series and western TV series?
Section One
What makes a TV show a lasting hit?
By Barbara Keenlyside
CNN Wednesday, October 15, 2003 Posted: 2:59 PM EDT (1859 GMT)
(CNN) -- Americans curl up on couches and Barcaloungers to watch TV on Sunday.
The big stopwatch starts its soft, urgent tick-tick-tick-tick.
NBC's "Friends" will leave the primetime lineup in
May after 10 years, but will live on in
syndication.
It stops. Exactly like clockwork comes: "I'm Mike
Wallace." The blunt reporter who once made his
interviewees squirm now makes viewers settle
back.
Incredibly, the "60 Minutes" stopwatch has kept
ticking for 35 years. This is the Methuselah of
TV shows, but others like "Friends", "Saturday Night Live," "The Late Show,"
"Frasier" and "The Simpsons" have lived long lives. Still others, like "Golden Girls,"
"All in the Family" and "Cheers" have lived long lives, died and gone to syndication
heaven.
Culture watchers say a constellation of factors make a TV program last: great writers,
producers and actors; a good concept; room to grow with a strong ensemble cast
offering multiple story lines; a desirable time slot; audience comfort; loyal network
57
support; and the public's fickle taste -- the wild card.
Shows as seemingly different as "The Simpsons" and "60 Minutes" share some of
those traits -- a reliable cast of characters, good writing, the comfort factor and
concepts that allow fresh material. Also, they each stay contemporary by providing
comment on current events.
"60 Minutes" has been de-fanged by age. It doesn't surprise anymore, but its
celebrity cast of correspondents and the comfort it offers of always being there -same time, same station -- comes as a shelter in today's TV blitzkrieg.
"It's inspired extreme loyalty," says Bradley Freeman, a professor at Marist College
who specializes in pop culture. "It's Americana; it's part of our culture."
"In popular culture, familiarity or cuddliness is important," says Gary R. Edgerton,
chairman of the communication and theatre arts department at Old Dominion
University.
Edgerton says TV shows are either star-driven or concept-driven, or morph one into
the other.
"When 'Friends' began 10 years ago ... the actors and actresses on that show were
relatively unknown," Edgerton says. "Now it's star-driven. The concept has run its
course. ... People go to them 'cause it's like tuning in to an old friend."
Fox's "The Simpsons," broadcast since 1989,
originally aired as shorts on "The Tracy Ullman
Show."
A hit almost always takes an established genre -drama, sitcom, quiz show, ensemble comedy,
late-night talk show, detective show, soap opera -and adds a twist.
Edgerton says the formula for success mixes
"comfort, convention and invention.
"Don't deviate from formula too far; you don't want to alienate the audience," he
says. "But you use an old concept with a new spin."
Experts say that sometimes, a hot show expresses something percolating at the
surface of the culture's subconscious -- and hits the air at the golden moment the
mainstream is poised to accept an element of the encroaching fringe.
The seminal '70s show "All in the Family," for example, took the well-worn family
sitcom genre and placed it right in the combative generation gap between parents and
the counterculture -- when it really was counter.
Wildly successful "M*A*S*H" also upped the ante on a familiar theme, according to
Kevin Howley, who teaches communications studies at DePauw University.
"'M*A*S*H' has its roots in 'F-Troop' ... and 'Hogan's Heroes' and 'Sergeant Bilko'
with Phil Silvers," Howley says. "It took the generic conventions of cutups in the
service" and added black humor and a bleak view of war.
The best example of a genre-bender today is the nutty cult hit "Queer Eye for the
Straight Guy."
"'Queer Eye' is not much different from a lot of reality programming -- the premise
of the first date, marriage, rehabilitating somebody and then the tips for audience -58
the spin is mainstreaming gay characters," Edgerton says. Whether it will last is up in
the air, experts say.
Before cable, VCRs and quick-trigger remotes, networks gave shows time to develop,
Freeman says.
Now, shows usually need to burst right out of the gate.
"The Cosby Show," on the air from 1984-1992,
served as a "tent pole" on Thursday nights.
"It used to be a series of shows like 'St.
Elsewhere,' 'L.A. Law' and 'Twin Peaks'" had the
time to develop an audience. "Networks said ... we
can grow it," Freeman says. "That philosophy went
out in the early '90s, where it's got to hit big and
quick."
A hit or miss also can be all in the timing.
"Scheduling is an important factor," Edgerton says. "Take a show like ['The Cosby
Show'] -- a smash hit propelled by the sheer talent and persona of Bill Cosby.
"It became a tent pole that holds up the whole evening. ... The importance of a hit
show is not just the show, it's that it brings viewers to the shows before and after,"
Edgerton says.
Terrific ensemble acting and story lines that weave in and out give writers lots of
hooks to hold viewers' interest and build upon.
"An ensemble cast allows you to do a couple different things: one is multiple story
lines ... and a couple of story lines that can run across different seasons," Howley
says.
Still, for that wild-card reason, some shows make it and some very good shows don't.
For those who fell in love with a show only to have it yanked, the new cable channel
TRIO offers its "Brilliant but Cancelled" series every night in prime time. Interested
viewers can tune in to its Web site. If it's still there.
Questions for discussion:
1. What do you think the differences between film and TV series?
2. Do you think the role played by those actors or actresses would really influence
them in their real life? Why or why not? What are the reasons?
Section Two
About Friends
Passage One Brief of the TV Series Friends
Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox Arquette, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew
Perry and David Schwimmer star in this Emmy-winning comedy about six close-knit
young friends living in New York City.
Beginning its tenth season as the leadoff series on NBC’s enormously popular “Must
See TV” Thursday-night lineup, “Friends” continues to garner critical acclaim and
ratings success. The show reigns as the number-one comedy on television among
adults 18-49 for five years in a row.
Since its debut season (1994-95), “Friends” has received 55 Emmy Award nominations,
59
including six for Outstanding Comedy Series, which the show won this year. The cast
won a Screen Actors Guild Award in 1996 for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in a
Comedy Series and has been nominated four times (1996, 1997, 1998, 2002) for a
Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy. “Friends” won the
People’s Choice Award for Favorite New Comedy Series in its first season, and has
since won three more times as Favorite Comedy Series including 2002.
The series focuses on the friendship of three men and three women who frequently
gather at each other’s apartments and share sofa space at Greenwich Village “Central
Perk” coffeehouse. Monica (Cox Arquette) is a chef with an obsession for neatness
and order in her life. She is also married to Chandler (Perry), a dry wit who is never at
a loss for words.
Across the hall are Chandler’s longtime roommate Joey (LeBlanc), a womanizing actor
currently on the soap opera “Days of Our Lives”, and Rachel (Aniston), Monica’s best
friend from high school.
Across the alley from Monica and Chandler is Monica’s hapless brother Ross
(Schwimmer), a paleontology professor who has been divorced three times, including
once from Rachel. Although Rachel is no longer romantically involved with Ross, they
share the responsibility of raising their newborn daughter, Emma. Rounding out the
circle of friends is Monica’s ex-roommate, Phoebe Buffay (Kudrow), an offbeat,
eternally optimistic folk singer and massage therapist.
The series was created by the Emmy Award-winning writing team of Marta Kauffman
& David Crane. Emmy and CableACE Award-winning producer Kevin S. Bright is
executive producer with Kauffman and Crane. Scott Silveri, Shana Goldberg-Meehan,
Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen also serve as executive producers.
Passage Two Fans Bid a Reluctant Farewell to TV 'Friends'
Monday, March 08, 2004
By Amy C. Sims
NEW YORK — Week after week, year after year, you hang out with a funny group of
pals, laughing at their jokes, crying at their setbacks and sharing time together —
then one day they abandon you.
But don't take it personally: Every television series has to end.
This year, loyal audiences are saying farewell to the characters of "Friends,"
"Frasier" and "Sex and the City." It's an emotional break for some fans who
feel abandoned because they blur the line between "Friends" and friends.
"In TV, you are seeing somebody 22 hours a year, so you have a continuous
relationship," said Stuart Fischoff, professor of psychology at California State
University. "The mere fact that people have someone that's reliable in their lives,
shows up every week and says things that they like [creates a bond]."
Tracee Larson of Dallas, Texas, said Carrie Bradshaw, the Sarah Jessica Parker
character on "Sex and the City," was like a role model and mentor for her.
"There were so many similarities between the characters and my life as a single
30-something woman, I felt I bonded with Carrie Bradshaw," said Larson, 35.
This bond is particularly strong with television characters who are beamed right into
60
a person's home. But with so many familiar faces signing off the air, some viewers
may mourn the loss like an actual friend, said Fischoff.
"We structure ourselves around it. 'I'll be with Frasier on Tuesday.' When they are
gone, you have to restructure."
But some fans turn fanatics, he cautioned.
"The average response is they like characters, bring them into their lives, then when
the show is over they miss it but then move on," Fischoff said. "When they actually
get clinically depressed, can't get it out of their minds and won't stop talking about it,
they've gone over to the dark side."
The feeling of loss after a series ends is not new. More than 105 million people
watched the finale of "M.A.S.H." in 1983, according to Nielsen, which remains a
record number. Some 76 million watched Jerry and company sign off in the
final "Seinfeld" in 1998, and 10.6 million tuned in for the last episode of "Sex and the
City."
However, audience attachment to television characters seems to be getting stronger
as the culture becomes more saturated with media, said Matthew Felling, media
director for the Center for Media and Public Affairs
"Our parents were a little sad and nostalgic at the end of 'M.A.S.H.,' but didn't
consider it a void in their lives like we have seen after 'Sex and the City,'" said Felling.
"Older generations saw TV as a component of their lives. Younger people consider it a
fixture. More than ever, characters have become substitutes for our social circles."
Larson admitted that the cosmo-sipping ladies did feel like friends. "I found them as
being wonderful characters you don't find very often in TV today. If I could design
my own life it would be very close to Carrie's."
Characters on long-running shows can feel particularly close because they are there
even when viewers go through a personal crisis.
"Whether you are getting divorced or going through cancer treatments, they are
there every week and bring you up when you are down," said Fischoff.
Still, some fans take it to the extreme. Deborah Wilker, a writer for the Hollywood
Reporter, said viewers can feel betrayed when their fictitious friends are taken away,
and often campaign to bring them back.
"You see it when they announce shows are going to be canceled. The switchboards
light up. Save 'Dr. Quinn,' Save 'Ed,'" she said. "There are always people who are
going to beg, 'Don't let my people die.'"
But Kate Bilger, of Los Angeles, said she finds ways to spend time with old friends
even after they stop appearing on primetime.
"You never get over them; you watch re-runs," she said in an e-mail interview. "All the
great shows are still in syndication.... HBO still shows 'Sex' during the week, TBS has
'The Cosby Show' among others, and let's not forget Nick at Night. Pretty much if
you want to see your favorite TV 'friend,' you can."
But not everyone is enamored with these extended television social circles. Felling
said he finds it depressing that people are so attached to the tube, adding that the
networks help create the situation with their slogans.
"Must See TV … TGIF … Oh yeah, thank God it's Friday. You can stay home and watch
61
TV," he said. "Don't go out. Your friends are here inside this box."
Passage Three
6 Big Questions
...Jennifer Aniston faces as she aims for movie mega-stardom By JAMI BERNARD
From http: //www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/160384p-140348c.html
With "Friends" coming to an end on May 6, Jennifer Aniston, the show's most popular
and glamorous star, is expected to make a simple leap to major movie stardom.
It may not be simple at all.
On the face of it, Aniston is well-poised to join actresses like Nicole Kidman, Cameron
Diaz and Renee Zellweger on Hollywood's A-list.
She could even make a charge on Julia Roberts' turf as America's highest-earning
female star.
Aniston boosted her standing last month with the box-office hit "Along Came Polly."
Her fee of around $5 million per movie now seems set to double.
But there are pressing questions that Aniston faces as she tries to make a permanent
transition from TV to movies - a hill that's proved too steep for some. And some of
those questions will pose personal dilemmas for her:
1. Is it more important to her to have children?
2. Is she likely to be weighed down by the continuing rift with her mother?
3. Will marital tensions emerge if her career outflanks that of husband Brad Pitt?
4. Can she "open" a movie?
5. Can she make it on her own without the "Friends" support system?
6. Is she too nice or too neurotic a screen presence?
Aniston has said often enough that she wants to start a family with Pitt as soon as
"Friends" ends. It seems unlikely, however, that she will disappear from view like
Annette Bening, who put her career on hold the moment she married Warren Beatty.
Although high on family values, Aniston has, if anything, stepped up her workload
since marriage (and she certainly doesn't need the money). The fact that babies have
been penciled in to accommodate Aniston's schedule means that professional
ambition remains a high priority.
If Aniston's life were as smooth as her complexion, as untangled as her trend-setting
hair, she might cut a boring figure. But her famous rift with her mother is intriguing
because it adds a dark spot to Aniston's otherwise perfect public persona.
She has been estranged for eight years from her mother, Nancy, a former model,
ever since the latter mined their relationship for personal gain on tabloid TV and in a
1999 book, "From Mother to Daughter to Friends."
In a recent interview with Diane Sawyer, Aniston seemed nearly ready to dismantle
her personal Berlin Wall. "Now we're sort of all standing in our corners, just waiting
for the other to approach," she told Sawyer.
Pitt, apparently the easygoing half of the couple, has gotten Aniston to the point
where she can imagine forgiving Mom. Yet that thought agitated her during the
Sawyer interview.
"I should have a shock thing around my neck like those dogs, when they start to bark.
When I start to cry, I just get electrocuted," Aniston said.
62
Aniston and Pitt are a rare couple in Hollywood in that they not only seem happy,
stable and mutually supportive, but seldom prompt anyone to say anything negative
about them.
No one has ever claimed it's a sham marriage to shield one party from gossip or to
enhance the lesser light's fame. There is no lesser light - Aniston and Pitt had each
succeeded individually before they met. Their fame and creativity are not
interdependent, which is a healthy state of affairs.
When one half of a showbiz couple starts to become a bigger star than the other, it
often breeds insecurity. Pitt hasn't had a hit in a while and could start to feel sorry
for himself if Aniston becomes a Hollywood darling. Then again, he might welcome it.
UNIQUE QUALITIES
If all it took to be a contender for Roberts' box-office throne were beauty and
talent, then hundreds of winsome waitresses would be throwing off their aprons and
hiring agents. Aniston has unique qualities - not least her empathic nature - that
position her to become one of those few actresses who can "open" movies on the
strength of their name alone.
Her early attempts to "carry" movies like "Picture Perfect" and "The Object of My
Affection" failed. But Aniston holds her own opposite Ben Stiller in "Along Came
Polly." She has also judiciously sprinkled her movie career with the splashy ("Bruce
Almighty"), the serious ("The Good Girl"), and the offbeat ("Office Space"), as if
anticipating that one day she'd need to cover many bases as a Hollywood leading lady.
All her "Friends" co-stars have made movies, too, but they've mostly been hampered
by their TV personas: Monica (Courteney Cox Arquette) is fastidious. Ross (David
Schwimmer) is neurotic. Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) is a ditz. Chandler (Matthew Perry) is a
loser. Joey (Matt LeBlanc) is dumb. The movie parts they get tend to play on those
qualities - though Kudrow has managed to break type in films like "Wonderland" and
Cox Arquette has a dramatic role in the upcoming film "November."
Aniston's Rachel, who went from rich, spoiled brat to self-sufficient buyer for Ralph
Lauren, is the only "friend" not saddled with a defining personality trait that would
limit future roles.
Aniston also has what it takes in ways that no resumé can convey. She has the
girl-next-door freshness of Sandra Bullock and the sophisticated comedy instincts of
Carole Lombard.
Without the "Friends" structure to bind her, Aniston's own quirky personality will
create a niche for her that combines Rachel's innate sweetness with those neuroses
Aniston claims are at her core. A little strangeness adds depth.
Playing against Rachel's vivacity, Aniston was good as the depressed married store
clerk who has an affair with a stock boy in "The Good Girl." Director, Miguel Arteta,
got Aniston to tone down her physical comedy (by carrying weights so she wouldn't
gesticulate) and deflate her hair (by not washing it).
Aniston could find it a greater stretch to play a cynic, a bitch or a femme fatale. Even
in the name of versatility, she may not want to squander the 10 years of goodwill
Rachel has accrued. It is also hard to imagine Aniston stealing literary heroine roles
from Nicole Kidman.
63
That doesn't preclude her trying a dramatically dark role. It is easier for comic
actors to try drama than vice versa, not least because people often use humor to
mask pain.
Aniston first became a class clown after her dad (soap star John Aniston) left the
family when she was 9. Now, with her 35th birthday approaching on Feb. 11, she can
begin to let the pain show through the wisecracks.
Whatever she decides to do with her "Friends" momentum, at least she'll never have
to go back to waitressing or selling Poconos timeshares, as she did before she became
famous.
She can, of course, decide to sit back and do nothing. More likely, she'll decide to try
and have it all.
Exercises:
1. Why do you think Friends could make such a big success?
2. Do you think the movie actors or actresses can be suitable in playing a role in TV
series? Why or why not?
64
Chapter Six
Anecdotes and Pink News
Introduction:
Anecdotes and pink news seem to be closely related to entertainment. When we are
talking about some great films, you must be interested in the pink news of the leading
actor or actress. All over the world, so many entertainment journalists are trying so
hard to find or make up those anecdotes and pink new to amuse the audiences.
Paparazzi, who made the stars so comfortable, are always the one who made the
entertainment circle unstable. However, should we blame them on that?
In this chapter, we are going to know some anecdotes and then learn how to write
such a piece of news. Meanwhile, we are also trying to find why the pink news will be
the focus always.
Warm-up questions:
Do you like to read the pink news or are you an anecdote maker? Why do you think
people are always interested in that?
Passage One
Christopher Walken Anecdotes
One of Leonardo DiCaprio's most memorable experiences making films.
"I actually had a scene with him [Walken] where it was one of my most memorable
experiences making films ?I remember, and I don't know if you remember the scene,
but ?the scene where I come back to see my dad and he's talking about my mom and
all of the sudden he (DiCaprio wincing in pain; he falters)... he like kind of
hyperventilates. (Again he mimics Walken clearing his throat). And I was sitting there
across the table from him while he was doing that, and it was completely unexpected.
It wasn't in the script. It was his own... completely his own doing.
I thought the man was having a heart attack in front of me. I honestly was about two
seconds away from saying, 'Cut! There's something wrong with Chris!'
It's a testament how he is as an actor. I was blown away. It is [one of those times]
where you have a cinematic experience like that, where you are so forced into the
world where you think that it's actual reality." -- Leonardo DiCaprio, IGN FilmForce,
Dec 2002.
"Christopher Walken called me and said, 'It's a good script and I like the dialogue,
but the ending is f***ing stupid.' He scared the hell out of me. He didn't arrive
until the twelfth day of filming, and I did not sleep until then. He had a zillion notes
about what he wanted to change. I could see everybody watching me sweat. But he
was actually really great and very funny." -- Billy Morrissette, Movieline, Feb / Mar
2002.
"Walken is incredible; he's mesmerizing. He's just such a unique talent. I just tried
65
to absorb as much as I could from him...He approaches his films as if they're his first
one. It's as if everything relies on this one film. He has not become comfortable or
lazy or overconfident in any way. There was certainly a paternal feeling with Walken
both onscreen and off which we were only too happy to be a part of...
"[Walken] likes to kind of think aloud and lets you know where his thoughts are and
where he's at in a scene either mentally or emotionally and lets you know where he's
going with it. A lot of those thoughts that he spoke aloud became lines and were left
in the movie and gave us the freedom to do the same. In every scene there is some
ad-libbing at the very least." -- Johnny Galecki, The Diamonback, 1997.
"The first day we were shooting, we did that scene with the Italians around the
table. And Chris says to me, 'I don't like pointing a gun at another actor.' And I was
like, 'Oh, man, we've got to shoot a whole movie with guns and you're telling me you
don't like pointing a gun at another actor?!' And then we did the scene and Chris
shot that guy five times after he was dead; that wasn't in the script! He says he's
afraid of guns, and then you say 'Action' and he became -- how do you say it? - very
efficient." -- Abel Ferrara, Entertainment Weekly, 03-17-2001.
"[Sean Penn] Really scared me. You can see it on the screen, because he did it very
quickly. In the middle of the take, he ran off the set and I heard him say to the
propman, 'Give me the other gun.' When he came back I was concerned that this
wasn't the gun he had left with. Who knows? He's acting like some crazy actor and
pointing it at my face, and it really scared me. It was near my eye. It was an empty
gun - he knew exactly what he was doing. He just wanted to scare me, which is what
he did. I got mad afterward and yelled at him, then I said thank you. It's great
when actors do that for each other. It's very generous." -- Christopher Walken,
Playboy magazine, 1997.
"But I understood that it was a good thing to do. All good actors do that. I did
exactly the same thing to Matthew Broderick when I pointed the gun at him in Biloxi
Blues, on his take. I set it up with the prop man beforehand. He was this guy from
New York who was sort of like a gangster and he had another gun in his back
pocket. I said to him, "When I say 'Give me the other gun,' say to me, 'No, Chris,'
and then I'm going to say to you, 'Don't argue with me, just give me the other gun' huh?- and then he reluctantly gave me the other gun. He enjoyed doing it. Matthew
didn't know what was going on. I think I actually threw the other gun down and took
it from him. It was exactly what happened to me a couple of years earlier." -Christopher Walken, Film Comment, August 1992.
"Mickey Rourke and I were in Heavens Gate together; he had this tiny part and I was
playing whatsis name. We were sitting up there in the mountains talking
about...dinosaurs. And I told him about this thing I had read in some science
magazine, that there's a theory that dinosaurs really never disappeared at all. That
in fact all they did was get smaller and smaller, their scales turned into feathers and
they flew away-and that in fact dinosaurs are still with us, there just birds. And
Mickey said, what's interesting,? and he started telling me about this movie that he
was going to do someday about a boxer and it was called Homeboy. You know, I
remember also he told me at the time, where's this guy, the fighters manager, and
66
your gonna play this part.? I said, okay Mickey, lets go.? So almost ten years went by
and there we were making it. And I said to him, why don’t I tell that story about the
birds and dinosaurs? He said, right? And there is that scene at the beach with all
the seagulls, talking about dinosaurs. It's completely disconnected from anything
going on in the movie, but I think it's one of the things in the movie...It's real. Here
are these two guys who are really kind of victims, talking about the origin and destiny
of dinosaurs." -- Christopher Walken, Film Comment, August 1992.
"It's an example of what a really good director [Tim Burton] is. At the beginning of
the shoot I was standing with him, waiting for them to light the set, and I said that in
The Great Gatsby, Gatsby and Nick Carraway are having lunch with the gangster
Meyer Wolfsheim, and Nick notices that Wolfsheim is wearing cuff links made out of
human molars. Burton calls over his assistant and says, 'Get him cuff links made out
of human molars.' Within half an hour the guy comes back with them, and I wore
them throughout the movie. It's something the audience wouldn't know, but Burton
knew it would be good for me to have them." -- Christopher Walken, Playboy magazine,
1997.
"It was really hammy, but I did try to knock their socks off. That was the last thing
we shot. They had an auditorium full of local people, in the small town out side of
Chicago. They were invited, given sandwiches or something, and we just had the
curtain go up, I made my entrance as Cyrano, and I think we shot it in one take. They
were like kids in a high school audience, thrilled to be there. It was perfect. I don't
know if they would have continued to be that way, but...it was sort of like the real
thing, like an amateur production of Cyrano." -- Christopher Walken, Film Comment,
August 1992.
"At one point Bob [DeNiro] wanted to put a live round in the gun...just to crank the
intensity. And we had a whole conference about 'Okay, we're gonna do it, but we're
gonna check this thing 5,000 times. We went to a lot of extremes on that film.
"I don't even like holding them. Whenever I hold a gun, I want to get it out of my
hand as quick as possible." --Christopher Walken, Entertainment Weekly,
03-17-2001.
"We got in the helicopter, the camera was hand held, and John Savage was behind me
and the door was wide open and there was no safety belts or anything. The
helicopter took off and went right up, I think a thousand feet-up as high as the
Empire State Building. I was looking out this door and I said, 'John, grab my belt,
hang on to me, do not let go whatever happens' - I couldn't believe I was sitting there,
next to this open door without even a rope around me or anything. And the camera
was rolling...I thought if the helicopter tilted sideways, I'd be gone."
-- Christopher Walken, Film Comment, August 1992
(From http://www.ojai.net/swanson/anecdotes.htm)
Johnny Galecki, co-star in Suicide Kings, talks about working with
Walken.
67
Abel Ferrara, on directing King of New York.
Chris talks about being frightened by Sean Penn on the set of At
Close Range.
It was destiny to make Homeboy with Mickey
Rourke.
How Max Schreck got his molars - Batman Returns.
Chris describes playing Cyrano in Who Am I This Time.
Walken, discussing the Russian roulette scene in The Deer Hunter.
Fears while filming the helicopter scene for The Deer
Hunter.
http://www.ojai.net/swanson/anecdotes.htm
http://www.ew.com/ew/news/
Passage Two
Daniel Baldwin arrested in car theft
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Daniel Baldwin, who co-starred on the television cop
show "Homicide: Life on the Street," has been arrested on suspicion of car theft and
possession of illegal drugs, officials said on Thursday.
The 46-year-old Baldwin, whose brothers Alec, William and Stephen also are actors,
was accused of stealing a sports utility vehicle owned by a friend on Tuesday in
Orange County, just south of Los Angeles.
He was freed on $20,000 bail on Thursday.
Baldwin and the vehicle were discovered at a motel in Santa Monica, northwest of Los
Angeles, and police said drugs and drug paraphernalia were found in the room the
actor had used.
68
Baldwin was arrested at another Santa Monica motel in April after a woman called
police, saying he had threatened her. Police said at the time they found cocaine on him.
That case is pending.
Baldwin also made headlines in July when he drove a sports car through a red light
before smashing into two parked cars.
A spokesman for Baldwin declined comment on the latest arrest.
Passage Three
Britney Spears files for divorce in L.A.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pop star Britney Spears has filed for divorce from her
husband of two years, dancer Kevin Federline, according to court papers made public
on Tuesday.
Spears, 24, who gave birth to the couple's second baby in September, filed legal
papers in Los Angeles Superior Court citing irreconcilable differences. The papers
were published by the celebrity Web site TMZ.com, which broke the story. The date
of separation was listed as Monday.
The former teen phenomenon has sold more than 60 million albums since she shot to
worldwide fame in 1999.
Passage Four
Beckhams Stumped over Tom & Katie's Gift
http://people.aol.com/people
Victoria and David Beckham Photo by: Nicolas Khayat /
ABACA
What do you get for two glamorous movie stars like Tom
Cruise and Katie Holmes for their wedding? That's the
question that David and Victoria Beckham are still
trying to answer, a source close to the couple tells
PEOPLE.
"David and Victoria are still scratching their heads as
to what is the perfect present to give them," says the
source. "It's pretty damn hard finding the ideal gift for
Tom and Katie."
After all, the star couple are having a fairytale wedding – which will reportedly take
place at the Castle Odescalchi outside Rome amid friends and family, including their
daughter, Suri, and Cruise's two children from his marriage to Nicole Kidman, Connor,
11, and Isabella, 13.
Another item still up for consideration for Victoria Beckham – what to wear to the
black-tie ceremony. The fashionable former Spice Girl is still choosing between six or
seven outfits for the nuptials, the source tells PEOPLE.
The Beckhams aren't the only ones stumped about what to get the couple who has
everything: Oprah Winfrey, who was not invited to the couple's wedding, doesn't
know what to get for Cruise and Holmes either.
69
"I'm easier (to shop for) – you can get me a bubble bath I'm okay – but I don't know
what to give them," she said.
Passage Five
George Clooney Named PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive
Brad Pitt, you've got company.
George Clooney has been named PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive for 2006 – joining his
pal Pitt as a two-time honoree.
"Brad's going to be upset," the 45-year-old Oscar
winner tells PEOPLE in its special issue.
Then again, after the year Clooney's had, his
buddy will understand. Hollywood's consummate
gentleman kicked things off with an Academy
Award (winning Best Supporting Actor for
Syriana,) and Clooney further cemented his
reputation for social activism, working on behalf
of causes to help the troubled Darfur region of
Sudan.
And through it all, he's kept his sense of humor
intact. "There's a lot of pressure," he says of the
Sexiest Man Alive honor. "There are all the
events you have to show up for. The sash you have
to wear … is embarrassing."
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Clooney sounds off on romance rumors, his
thoughts on marriage and kids – and what it's like to date a woman while
photographers are tailing you.
On whether he'll ever have children:
"I think it's the most responsible thing you can do, to have kids. It's not something to
be taken lightly. I don't have that gene that people have to replicate. But everything
in my life has changed over time."
On his vow to "never marry again" – and whether he's changed his mind:
"The truth is, I haven't softened my position on anything, but it's not something I
deal with on a regular basis. Who knows? I've been married (in the early '90s, to
actress Talia Balsam). It's not something I'm looking out for. The truth is, I'm really
happy."
On what he finds attractive:
"Everybody says this, but sense of humor is No. 1 for me. It's certainly what's most
attractive. It's not the first thing you notice at 21, but it's the first thing you notice
now. You also have to have a sense of humor about my life. It certainly has had an
effect on relationships, but I would bet less of an effect than my own issues or
insecurities. You can't really blame outside forces for things not working out. You
have to take some responsibility."
On being in the tabloids:
"I usually don't notice anymore. The funniest thing is that recently a story came out
70
that I was with some girl from Deal or No Deal whom I had never even met."
On his favorite on-set pranks:
"There were so many. It's a constant battle of evil, rotten things."
On being named Sexiest Man Alive for a second time:
"This one's going to be hard for Brad (Pitt) since he's been Sexiest Man Alive twice.
He's enjoyed that mantle. I'd say 'Sexiest Man Alive' to him and he'd go, 'Two-time.'
So that's been taken away. We used to call him Two Time. So Brad's going to be
upset."
For more from PEOPLE's exclusive interview with Sexiest Man Alive George Clooney,
pick up the latest issue, on newsstands Friday.
Passage Six
Boiled eggs and over-boiled anecdotes
Lynn Barber reviews On Royalty by Jeremy Paxman
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/10/29/bopax14.xml&
sSheet=/arts/2006/10/29/bomain.html)
We don't reach the boiled eggs until page 275, and it feels like a long slog to get
there. But finally it comes – the story from "one of the prince's friends" that after a
day's hunting, Prince Charles likes to have a boiled egg but is so fussy about its
hardness that his staff habitually provide seven eggs, numbered according to cooking
time, so that if number five is too runny he can move on to number six.
The story has been angrily denied by Clarence House – one of the few occasions they
have bothered to respond to this sort of stuff. The question of whether Prince
Charles's valet squeezes the toothpaste onto his toothbrush remains moot, though
Jeremy Paxman is inclined to think it is apocryphal.
It is not by chance that the boiled-egg story has been so much touted in
pre-publication publicity for On Royalty: it is almost the only exciting moment in an
otherwise dull tome. Paxo has read hundreds of books on royalty, but to little
discernible effect. Having started out as a republican, he now believes we might as
well keep the royal family for fear of finding something worse. This is what most
people who ponder the question conclude, generally after 10 minutes.
The maddening thing is that Paxman has been given an almost unprecedented degree
of access to the court, so one would expect him to have come back with more. He
spent a weekend staying with the Prince of Wales at Sandringham and marvelling at
the fact that valets unpacked his case and pressed his suit. I have never stayed under
a royal roof, but I think I could have predicted that.
What I couldn't have predicted is that the valet would ask where he planned to sleep.
Apparently he meant in the dressing-room or in the bedroom, but the temptation to
answer "I thought I'd bunk off down the corridor and give that little actress one"
must have been strong.
The only probing question Paxman seems to have asked the Prince is what he thought
was the function of monarchy, to which the Prince replied wearily: "I think we're a
soap opera." Quite right too, though Paxo disagrees. He could at least have asked
whether he squeezed his own toothpaste.
71
He does better with Prince Philip who (again, very surprisingly) gave him an interview
and, judging from the amount of direct quotation, allowed him to tape it. Paxo found
the Prince "a disconcerting mixture of bluff affability and utter disdain" and
concludes that "there is something unimpressive about the peevishness of Prince
Philip (as there is to the moans of his son, Prince Charles)".
Prince Philip's pet peeve turns out to be the press. He reads only one newspaper,
because, he says, "I can't cope with them. But the Queen reads every bloody paper
she can lay her hands on." He thinks the rot set in with the permissive society in the
1960s but then explodes: "It's Murdoch. It's Murdoch's anti-Establishment attitude
that has really pulled the plug on an awful lot of things that we considered to be quite
reasonable – and sensible – institutions… He's succeeded in undermining them all."
Prince Charles, on the other hand, thinks that the Mail on Sunday is the worst of all
newspapers.
In between these glimpses of the current royal family, we find an awful lot of
historical padding. "The story of Charles's final days [he means Charles I] has been
the subject of a thousand royalist tear-jerkers," sneers Paxo, before adding his own
tear-jerker to the pile.
Occasionally he skitters abroad to discuss foreign royalty; in fact, the book's best
chapter is an interview with the (throne-less) King Leka of Albania, son of King Zog,
who got the job by being the Times correspondent in Tirana in 1928 just when Albania
was looking for a king. (He sent his editor the famous telegram: "All is quiet in Albania.
I am King. Zog.")
King Leka is 6ft 7in and surrounded by boxer dogs who snarl menacingly at Paxo while
Leka tells him that they have already killed two men. Their conversation is
periodically interrupted when the boxers chew the electricity cable and the lights go
out.
They are just discussing the Albanian constitution when "one of the dogs seemed to
discover the cable again, shot out from under the coffee table, rose three feet
vertically in the air and landed on the King. Queen Susan got up from her seat, walked
to a cupboard and reappeared with a four-foot leather whip." Paxo made his excuses
and left.
Right at the end, in the Acknowledgements, he has the nerve to revert to his
Sandringham weekend and say: "Other aspects of the visit – the swimming expedition
which involved a group of us processing with the Duchess of Cornwall through a nudist
colony, the expression on David Hockney's face when the Prince of Wales asked him
to look at his watercolours, Charles's recitation of a monologue taught him by, if I
recall correctly, Barry Humphries… will have to wait."
Wait for what, pray? Volume two? Does he plan to eke his Sandringham weekend into
a series? Or is he dangling a carrot for his autobiography? Either way, I defy any
reader not to feel cheated.
Exercises:
What could be called as anecdotes? Please try to write a piece of your favorite story
in an anecdote way, or try to translate a piece of Chinese anecdote news into English.
72
Chapter Seven
Interviews of Great Stars
Introduction:
How to answer the interviewer’s questions, to some celebrities, is very formative and
easy. If the interviewers are good enough, maybe some great talk or pink news would
appear, while if the star is great enough, she or he will definitely not let the cat out
of the bag. This is a skillful technic and it’s very amusing.
In this chapter, we are going to read three interviews between the star and the
interviewers, let’s find the most striking parts together!
Warm-up exercises:
1. If you were an interviewer, what kind of questions would you like to ask the stars?
Present your reasons.
2. If you were a big star, what kind of questions would you like to refuse to answer?
Present your reasons.
Interview One
CHAN TAKES A CHANCE ON A WESTERN
From http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/interviews/jackie_chan/2
He may be treated like a God in his home country and is
arguably one of the biggest movie stars in the world, but
just a couple of years ago Jackie Chan couldn't even pitch an
idea in Hollywood, let alone get a film made.
However, all that changed for the Hong Kong star after the
success of his 1998 movie Rush Hour. It took more than 100
million dollars at the box office and suddenly made him a
force to be reckoned with in Tinseltown.
It's a dream come true for the martial arts maestro, not only can he finally high kick
his way around Hollywood after years in the mainstream movie wilderness, but more
importantly it means he's at last achieved his life-long ambition - to play a cowboy.
His new movie Shanghai Noon, an East-meets-West cowboy flick would never have
been made if Rush Hour hadn't been such a success.
"I've been sitting on the script for 15 years," explains the versatile star, "but I could
never get the funding. Before I did Rush Hour my character was always a policeman
but now American companies are interested and they stumped up 60 million pounds to
make Shanghai Noon," he adds.
Even so the acrobatic actor is an unlikely choice to star in a Hollywood western, yet
despite his Oriental background Chan has always felt a great affinity towards the
cowboy.
73
"I loved cowboy movies when I was a kid," he beams. "When I was five-years-old I was
already wearing a cowboy hat and suit. When I grew up I knew John Wayne, Clint
Eastwood, Kirk Douglas and so on," he continues. "I like the way the cowboy lives with
his horses in the desert with all the cooking of the coffee beans."
Shanghai Noon tells the story of a kidnapped Chinese princess - Ally McBeal star Lucy
Liu - who is held to ransom in America's Wild West. Chan plays Chon Wang a fierce
Imperial Guard who sets out to rescue her.
The big budget affair was a million miles removed from Chan's usual experience of
film-making in Asia where money is tighter and he admits it was a big culture shock.
"It is totally different making films in the East than in the West," he says, "In the
East I make my own Jackie Chan films and it's like my family. Sometimes I pick up the
camera because I choreograph all the fighting scenes, even when I'm not fighting. I
don't have my own chair. I just sit on the set with everybody. We talk and eat lunch.
It's a Jackie Chan family.
"In the West they treat me too good," he adds with a smile. "I'm just not used to it. I
want it like a family thing, but you can't do that. I finish the movie and I still don't
know some people's names. 'What's your job? Who are you? Too many. They too rich,
we're so poor'."
Despite a few reservations about Hollywood, however, Chan looks like being there to
stay and has no intention of slowing down.
No stunt is too dangerous for the 46-year-old star, who has shattered every bone in
his body and who is now considered such a risk that insurance companies won't
provide cover for his movies.
His death defying acts have included running across a motorway into the path of a
speeding truck, leaping head first into rocks, jumping on to a moving hovercraft and
crashing through a glass roof.
In one horrific fall from a castle wall during the making of
his 1986 movie Armour Of God, he had to undergo
emergency surgery for severe head injuries.
But the resilient star takes it all in his stride.
"I have a hole in my head with a plastic plug to keep my
brains in," he laughs. "It vibrates when I hum.
"The doctors are always telling me to slow down, and I
asked myself, 'How can I continue to do my own stupid
things, killing myself, almost'.
"Perhaps it's time I retired, but I've been making films more than 36 years, doing my
action films more than 20 years almost non stop. When Shanghai Noon finished,
before I started on Rush Hour 2, I had a six-month holiday. But I had nothing to do
so I started my next Asian film straight away. I just cannot stop. I just continue," he
says.
And although he's fulfilled his boyhood dream by appearing in a Western it seems
there are plenty more irons in the fire for the all-action hero.
"I want to play a fireman and a spy," he enthuses. "I want to learn special effects. I
want to try something different in Hollywood, to tell the audience I am not just an
74
actor star I am an actor too."
Interview Two
NICOLE KIDMAN, ACTRESS
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/interviews/article_display.jsp?vnu_content
_id=2031156
The winner of a best actress Oscar in March, Nicole Kidman
is riding high with the October release "The Human Stain"
and upcoming titles including "Cold Mountain," "Dogville" and
"The Stepford Wives." On the eve of receiving the 18th
annual American Cinematheque Award, she spoke with
Stephen Galloway for The Hollywood Reporter about her
career.
The Hollywood Reporter: What's your first memory of
wanting to act?
Nicole Kidman: It was more, I think, that there's almost not a choice to be an actor;
it is something you are inevitably drawn to. It's something that I don't -- at this
stage -- have any control over, and I don't know if I did. I have always been
fascinated by characters, by different worlds and other people's lives, and that
probably started because my mother read to me since I was tiny. She would read
from Dr. Seuss to (C.S. Lewis') Narnia tales. Roald Dahl -- I used to just die for! I
remember reading "James and the Giant Peach" when I was 6, and I have never
wanted a peach more. And even "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," where you
become so desirous to be in this world, to taste this infamous chocolate! I can conjure
it up in my mind. The power of those books -- and anything that encourages a child to
exist for their inner life -- encourages the creativity.
THR: Your parents aren't in the theater, though?
Kidman: My father and mother both are academics: My father is a biochemist and
psychologist; my mother is a nurse educator, but she has a degree in English
literature and philosophy.
THR: After they'd encouraged you, how did you get started?
Kidman: It was more that I fell into it. I was at drama school and would catch the bus
at weekends and would go to this little theater in the middle of Sydney, a slightly
avant-garde theater. I would spend my Saturdays and Sundays there -- reading plays
and working as a stagehand sometimes. They wouldn't pay me, but they would pay me
with plays! I remember I was given a George Bernard Shaw (play) -- I was about 11. I
would just do anything to be in the theater. I felt safer there, in a way. I was an odd
child, and (my parents) were looking to find things for me to do. I was very shy, and so
part of it was to build my confidence -- and the other part of it was my desire to be
around other people with similar minds, interested in other things than going to the
beach or sports. Then I started acting, and when I was 14, I was given a job in "Bush
Christmas"; I got six weeks off school and went to live in Queensland. I got paid
$1,500 for the whole thing, and I got to go and live away from home. I was pretty
naughty!
THR: When you say you were "odd," what does that mean?
75
Kidman: Quiet. And I kept a journal, so I would always be writing; that is how I
expressed myself. I always had so many thoughts -- dark thoughts, crazy thoughts -that I would then have to write them down. I still have them all, the journals, today,
from 8 years old. And I would sit in my room and spend time on my own. (My parents)
were worried -- my mother has admitted she read my journals. I was sort of aghast,
but now as a mother, I understand the motives behind it. I was a very interior child. I
can still head that way -- I will choose to be alone rather than be around a lot of
people. I actually love to go to restaurants alone and take a book. I lived in Europe in
my late teens and used to do it all the time. I lived in Paris and Amsterdam and London.
That's what you do if you're Australian: You get on a plane and go overseas and
explore Europe.
THR: What are you reading now?
Kidman: "Life of Pi." And I also just bought a book called "The Venetian Affair." I love
the title because it is all about Venice.
THR: What was your first significant success?
Kidman: I did a miniseries called "Vietnam" (1986), about the Vietnam War and its
effects on an Australian family over 10 years. I played a girl that aged from 14 to 24.
Then I did (1989's) "Dead Calm."
THR: That's what put you on the map internationally. How did "Dead Calm" change
your life?
Kidman: They flew me over (to America), and suddenly, agents were calling me.
Generally, I was dragged over because I was being given so much work in Australia,
and I had a boyfriend and didn't really want to leave. (At first,) I came over to do
auditions, and then I met my husband-to-be (Tom Cruise) when I was 21.
THR: How did Tom Cruise impact you professionally?
Kidman: In a huge way. The person you love, that you almost exist for ... at the same
time, a huge amount of my desire to work was taken away because you're happy, and
it's far more fun to be in love and not have to get up at 5 a.m. or transform yourself
into somebody else when you just want to be around one particular person. He
exposed me to a whole world that was so much bigger than I ever understood -- the
extent of the industry -- and he was the biggest actor in the world when I met him,
and continues to be. He was a huge, huge force.
THR: Did he change anything about the way you approach acting?
Kidman: I think we have very different ways of working, but we are both passionate
about it. I was passionate about it -- whether I was watching him or just being on set
or reading a play. And he was doing extraordinary films with wonderful directors. I
didn't really get any great role till (1995's) "To Die For," but I got to see these
extraordinary directors -- Sydney Pollack and Rob Reiner and Steven Spielberg and
Martin Scorsese -- he had worked with all of them, and they were all still present in
his life. I was always so excited to watch him do his work. I loved his talent.
THR: Beyond his influence, have your own ideas on acting changed?
Kidman: When I came out of my marriage, my ideas changed. I suddenly was able to go,
"OK, now you put your experiences (into the work) because now you have them to such
a deep degree." There were so many things that had amassed that I had never
76
expressed. It was almost like this pressure cooker being allowed to go, "OK, now it's
all right to go and put all of these things into your work, and you are not going to be
betraying any privacy. You are going to expose yourself, but that's OK." So much is
about having the capacity and the desire and the willingness to leave yourself exposed
on a very, very broad public level. But to do it in your work gives it a truth and a
weight. I look at people like (songwriter) Joni Mitchell and the way she left her soul
so bare through her lyrics and songs; I so admired that and am so willing to go there.
THR: Do you think that is why the public's perception of you has changed? You had
a certain image of coolness, which nobody who knows you connects with the real
Nicole Kidman.
Kidman: It was about fear, whether it was a coolness or shyness, and also not feeling
I had a place really other than as a wife. I always felt like, "Oh, don't attract
attention to yourself, stand back, out of the way." I felt slightly embarrassed, which
is so hard to explain to people. I didn't feel comfortable a lot of the time, however
that gets interpreted. I felt comfortable in my relationship and in the privacy of my
home, but I didn't feel comfortable on that broader level at all. So that was part of it.
I felt safe with him (Cruise). I didn't feel safe anywhere else.
THR: Do you feel safe now?
Kidman: I think as you get older, you feel you can survive things -- that safe or unsafe
isn't the important thing. It's about being able to connect with people, being willing
to be exposed and vulnerable and raw and, at the same time, knowing you have to get
through life. Life can be cruel, and then it can be incredibly joyous, and you grapple
with things at certain times of your life. There's a struggle, and I went through a lot
of things. It's now going away, and I am finding the strength to be alone.("Cold
Mountain" writer-director) Anthony Minghella said the most beautiful thing: "You
have to be skinless" as an actor. And I am "skinless."
THR: You're very close to your directors.
Kidman: I love directors, but I also honor writers -- David Hare, Buck Henry,
Minghella. You have to honor the work, and doing that means that you say, "All right,
this is a gift to be able to say these words, but now I have to be able to make them
live." I have to not just get trapped by the words but actually bring life to them. The
best combination for me is the writer-director -- I have that with Minghella, whom I
just adore -- because then you are part of their head: They are writing you, directing
you, watching you in a way that is all-encompassing; I love that.
THR: Was that also true with "Dogville" director Lars von Trier?
Kidman: It was one of those experiences that I will never move away from. He is still
a part of my life; we have been through many ups and downs, but I hope to work with
him again. It was the most unusual relationship I have had with a director because
Lars is so profound and provocative. At times, he can be extremely tough, and then at
other times, he can be loving -- he can be cruel, and then he can be loving. I think he is
brilliant.
THR: What about Stanley Kubrick and "Eyes Wide Shut"?
Kidman: I am still not able to be objective about that film (released in 1999). There
are moments that are so caught up in my memory of Stanley and the making of the
77
film and the world in which we existed, Tom and myself. It was so incestuous, and so I
don't have objectivity on the movie. It was too much a part of my life. I became too
consumed with him (Kubrick), and now, everything is imprinted on me when I watch
the images on the film -- the imprint of Stanley and the day we were shooting a
particular scene, or what led to us making that choice. I just have no way of judging it.
All I know is, that was an epoch of my life; it was almost cathartic to work with him, a
philosopher and one of the great thinkers of our time. I would have done more films
with him. Part of me wants to give over everything that I have to it (the director and
the work), and that's dangerous. And it doesn't necessarily mean longevity. Another
friend of mine said, "You dance too close to the flame."
THR: Where were you when you learned of Kubrick's death?
Kidman: I was in New York, and I actually thought that was him on the phone because
we were meant to talk the night before, and I'd thought, Oh, I am too tired. I was
making croissants for my children -- I had just learned to make chocolate croissants
-- and I dropped the tray and did everything you are not meant to do before small
children. It was so frightening -- the first person in my life who was so important,
who one day was there and one day was gone. That night, I went to St. Patrick's
(Cathedral) and sat there for hours, and it was so cold in New York -- one of those
very surreal experiences, and I just lit candles and prayed.
Interview Three
NICOLAS CAGE - THE WICKER MAN
(From http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/interviews/nicolas-cage/3)
Nicolas Cage knows all about remakes. Following crime
thriller Kiss of Death and heist movie Gone in Sixty Seconds,
he has even dared to touch the untouchable, turning Wim
Wenders' Wings of Desire into 1998's City of Angels. So
it's no surprise that he should take on 1973 British cult
classic The Wicker Man. With this new version adapted and
directed by Neil LaBute (Nurse Betty, Possession), Cage
plays a sheriff named Edward Malus, who is sent to a remote
island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. Discovering an enclosed
community (led by Ellen Burstyn) where the interference of strangers is not
welcomed, Malus' journey is not for the feint-hearted.
For the 42 year-old Cage, who won an Oscar for his searing portrayal of an alcoholic in
Leaving Las Vegas, approaching dark material is nothing new. He may be best known
for his action heroes, in films like The Rock and Con Air, but it's in films like Lord of
War (where he played an arms dealer) and Bringing out the Dead (a paranoid
ambulance driver) where he made his mark. Nominated for an Oscar for playing a
neurotic, masturbation-obsessed screenwriter and his brother in Adaptation, Cage is
evidently unafraid by any role - which may be why he accepted the lead in his other
new film this autumn, Oliver Stone's hymn to 9/11, World Trade Center. Like The
Wicker Man, it stands the chance of being criticised - but it seems that Cage
wouldn't have it any other way.
78
How did this new version of The Wicker Man start?
The whole thing generated because my friend, Johnny Ramone, who was a fan of
horror films, had shown it to me. He had a list of movies he wanted me to see that I
wasn't aware of. I mean, I knew about The Wicker Man because I recalled images of
the poster as a boy, but for some reason the movie never got a proper release in the
States. And then he mentioned the title, and I said, 'That sounds interesting.' I came
over to his house and we watched it together and the movie left me with the most
profound feeling, unlike any other film, really, in the way it ended - which I don't
really want to give away. It made me think a lot about it. I was disturbed for about
two weeks.
How did you get to know Johnny Ramone?
We both had an interest in posters. I met him though that way. He liked monster
posters and I did as well. He came over to my house one day at a party and we got
talking. He had a big collection. He had all that stuff. I didn't. I had one or two. So we
got talking about that and then I found out how passionate he was about movies, and
then we became friends on that basis.
What made you think the original film was ripe for remaking?
I thought a lot about the movie, and whether there would be any way to recreate
another contemporary version of the story that might reintroduce the title to people,
people who don't even really know about the original. Most people here in the States
don't even know anything about The Wicker Man. So I thought it was an interesting
way to bring something that was excellent back to people's attention. And the new
version is a different track altogether. There's no way you really want to do
something completely the same - you can't. There's no point in that.
How did director Neil LaBute get involved?
He came into the office and talked about it, and came up with a great idea. He made it
a matriarchal society and he found different ways of introducing the themes of the
original into a more contemporary concept, and how it could happen today. I like Neil's
directing a lot. I like Nurse Betty. I thought Greg Kinnear was excellent in that. I like
In The Company of Men. He's got an extraordinary touch for showing people who are
suffering.
So you suffer in the film then?
Oh, yeah! There's no question. I'm on the receiving end! But I have to say that the
MPAA cut a lot out. That was a problem. I was forced to deliver a PG-13 in order to
get the movie made, and the stuff that I came up with that was really wonderful
Edgar Allen Poe and grotesque, the MPAA cut. You will be able to see that on the
Director's Cut DVD.
Can you explain more about the Poe influence on the film?
I wanted to bring in an Edgar Allen Poe feeling to the film. I remember when I first
met with Neil on the set, I brought The Raven with me, and a book of Poe stories. I
wanted to create that feeling of Gothic horror, if there was any way we could do that.
The movie is not gratuitously violent. You're not going to have pop-ups or cheap shots.
It's more about ambience and the eerie quality of the place and the people.
Is The Wicker Man, in your mind, very different from Neil's other films?
79
It is quite a bit different. It's dealing with a society of women who have been
persecuted - most recently with the Salem Witch trials. So they have found
sanctuary in an island that they have to themselves, and their Celtic ancestors are
still informing them, in terms of their beliefs. Now I don't believe that
people...nobody that I know would say that people today are doing these kinds of
things. There's a whole culture out there that has Pagan ideals but they don't kill
animals and things like that. Those things have progressed with the times - but maybe
there are sacrificial aspects in existence. Who knows?
How aware were you of the cult fan worship of the original movie?
That I didn't know. I'm sure that whenever you tackle something like this - and I
wasn't aware of that - I'm going to be under attack. But that's OK! Whatever
inspires people. This is a very different movie. I'm not going to say we've made a
better film or the same film. We haven't. We've just made a different film. Ellen
Burstyn is excellent. She reprises the Christopher Lee role, and Christopher Lee was
amazing in the original. In a way, I would say this was a tip of the hat, a homage, a
thank-you for inspiring us, we liked it so much, let's see what else we can do with the
concept.
Exercises:
Please work in groups and try to do an investigation of the answers of what the public
would like to know about the stars. Then search the internet information to get the
real situation. Try to write an article about it.
80
Chapter Eight
Media Has Greatly Influenced the Society
Introduction:
Ever since media have come to the society from the most original one up to the
sophisticated methods, people’s life changed a great lot. We can’t say it’s good or bad,
but the fact is that our views really changed and the society really had been
influenced. However, in what way? And will that last?
In this chapter, we are going to find the popular entertainment activities both from
China and USA, and try to catch some potential of the changes in the future.
Warm-up exercises:
1. Do you think our society has influenced by media? If yes, in what way? If no,
why?
2. What do you think of the beauty pageant or star-producing competitions?
Section One
Passage one
American Idol
An Illicit Affair on American Idol
(From http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Entertainment/story?id=701186&page=1)
May 3, 2005 -- A former "American Idol" contestant told ABC News' "Primetime
Live" that Paula Abdul, one of the judges for the hit reality television show, provided
him with off-camera tips and assistance while he was a contestant, even helping him
select some of the songs he would sing.
"She was opening my eyes to like, 'Look, you sing this stuff. This is how you're going
to get through,'" said Corey Clark, one of the 12 finalists during the Fox show's
second season.
Clark, then 22, said that during the competition he had an off-camera relationship
with Abdul, then 40, which was at first platonic but later became sexual. He said
Abdul, who was herself a chart-topping singer in the late 1980s, initially told him, "I
want to look out after you like I'm your mom."
He said Abdul then quickly changed her mind and said, "Well, maybe more like your
special friend."
In April 2003, Clark lost his spot among the amateur singers auditioning for the grand
prize of a recording contract when producers abruptly removed him for failing to
inform the show that he had been arrested after a domestic dispute with his sister in
October 2002.
Abdul has issued a statement in which she says she "will not dignify the false
statements made by Corey Clark with a response."
81
"Primetime" received the following statement from "American Idol":
"Disqualified 'American Idol' contestant Corey Clark was removed from the show for
failing to disclose his criminal arrest history.
"Despite documented procedures and multiple opportunities for contestants to raise
any concerns they may have, the producers of 'American Idol,' Freemantle Media, 19
Entertainment and FOX were never notified or contacted by Mr. Clark, nor presented
any evidence concerning his claims.
"We will, of course, look into any evidence of improper conduct that we receive. In
the meantime, we recommend that the public carefully examine Mr. Clark's motives,
given his apparent desire to exploit his prior involvement with 'American Idol' for
profit and publicity."
Clark said Abdul helped him with his look — even choosing a hair stylist — and gave
him prescription cough syrup, with a prescription made out in her name, to soothe his
throat.
Clark said he thought Abdul was "polishing that dust off the dirty diamond and
helping me shine a little bit."
He said he and Abdul were friends for a month and then it became a romantic
relationship.
Clark's parents told "Primetime Live" that their son told them at the time that he was
involved with Abdul and that they expressed concern about his becoming involved
with a judge while the competition was ongoing.
They also told "Primetime" that they sometimes spoke to Abdul themselves when she
called their home looking for Clark.
Two of Clark's friends say he also told them about the relationship at the time and
even brought Abdul to meet them.
"Primetime Live" interviewed other losing contestants from the 2003 "American
Idol" competition and told them about Clark's claims.
They said that if Clark's allegations about receiving secret advice and coaching from
Abdul are true, then they feel that the competition was unfair.
Clark is recording his first album and writing a book. News of the book proposal was
leaked to the media last month.
Clark said in recent phone conversations and in a recorded voice mail message that he
played for "Primetime Live," Abdul implored him not to talk about her or publish his
memoirs.
In her statement to "Primetime Live," Abdul's representative said: "He is
communicating lies about Paula Abdul in order to generate interest in a book deal.''
But Clark says he is making these allegations now because "I need to set the record
straight for myself.
"Unfortunately, I need to set the record straight for her too, because she was a part
of it," he said. "This is me telling the truth. It just so happens to be a very explosive
truth."
Passage Two
Shocking night on ‘American Idol’
82
Come on, FOX, release the weekly vote totals, already
COMMENTARY By Craig Berman MSNBC contributor
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12175940/
A few weeks ago, Simon Cowell said Mandisa was the best singer in the “American
Idol” competition. On Wednesday night, she became the fourth of the 12 finalists
eliminated.
That might say something about Simon’s sense of talent, except that he tends to say
that three or four different people are the best singers, or the clear choice to win
the competition, or something else that he can use to look like a genius should that
person actually make it to the final week. It might say something about Mandisa,
except that she didn’t sing poorly Tuesday night and bid farewell with the same class
she’s shown throughout the competition.
Mostly, what it says is that “American Idol” is a tough show to predict, because it
depends on the audience’s willingness to pick up the phone.
As Ryan Seacrest reminds everyone every week, viewers have to vote. What he
doesn’t say is that it’s up to the contestants to give the audience some incentive to do
so. When that doesn’t happen, and fewer people pick up their phones than normal,
chance plays a much greater part in the results.
For the second week in a row, none of the singers did anything to stand out. One night
after the performances, it was tough to remember which songs were even sung.
Anyone who hadn’t voted before wasn’t going to start this week, and even those who
had their favorites picked out didn’t get much to inspire devotion.
That proved fatal to Mandisa, which is a shame. She’s 29 years old, and has fewer
chances of hitting it big in the music world than some rivals. She’s been one of the
favorites since her audition, and the judges love her, but a questionable song choice
last week and a fair performance on Tuesday was enough to knock her out of the
competition.
Spotlight of shame is spread around
That’s typical of the "Idol" season so far. While Mandisa’s the first to go who once
seemed to have a legitimate shot at winning it all (Melissa McGhee, Kevin Covais and
Lisa Tucker were long shots at best), the bottom three have been tough to predict all
season. No week, however, had as surprising a trio as this one.
Usually, once a singer finds themselves among the bottom trio of vote-getters once,
it’s a sign that they need to be phoning the local bars to beg for stage time by the end
of the month. Sometimes, a contender winds up in the bottom three for some random
reason and doesn’t go back until the end of the competition, but that’s relatively
uncommon.
But this season's finals are just four weeks old, and only three singers haven’t had
to stand in the spotlight of shame: Chris Daughtry, Taylor Hicks and Kellie Pickler.
This week, Seacrest divided the nine remaining finalists into three groups of three,
and that trio was the first to get sent to safety. No big shock there; they’re the
three Simon Cowell named as his picks to be the final three singers in the competition.
He’s also talked up Katharine McPhee, meaning that a full 50% of the remaining
contestants can be considered his picks to win.
83
The second trio included Paris Bennett and Elliott Yamin, who joined Mandisa in the
bottom group for the first time. That left Ace Young, McPhee and Bucky Covington
safe this time around, despite the fact that Young and McPhee were in that group
last week and Covington clearly is only avoiding disaster by secretly devising a
computer program that votes thousands of times a minute. He might look and sound
like a run-of-the-mill singer who can be found in every bar in North Carolina, but he
must be doing something right to stay in it as long as he has.
Yamin sang well and the judges love him to pieces, but he hasn’t found it easy to
connect with the audience and always looks uncomfortable on stage. His spot in the
bottom three was a surprise, but not a shock. Bennett’s demotion came out of
nowhere, since she’s one of the favorites and came through with a strong
performance.
Bennett’s only 17, and the cameras usually catch her crying every Wednesday night as
though she’s genuinely surprised that once again somebody is leaving the show for
good. But upon receiving the bad news she was as calm as a veteran performer,
chirped out her answers to Ryan Seacrest’s questions, and was rewarded with the
news that she was safe.
That left Yamin and Mandisa onstage. Both looked like they were prepared to face
the firing squad, but Yamin gets at least another week to hunt for an on-stage
personality that matches his voice.
Ironically, while McPhee’s appearance in the bottom three last week was more likely a
blip than a sign of her imminent demise, she benefited along with Young and Covington
from the fact that "American Idol" continually refuses to release the weekly vote
totals. The secrecy can create a disincentive to vote.
That’s not the intent, of course — the show’s producers likely feel that if a Chris
Daughtry fan knows that he’s been in the top two every single week, that fan won’t
have much incentive to burn up the phone lines to keep him safe.
The actual result, however, is that the only people who know they have to make every
effort to vote early and often are those fans of singers known to be in trouble.
McPhee was in the bottom three last week, Young’s been there a couple of times, and
Covington is always one bad note away from disaster. Particularly with the two men,
fans know that they need to vote as often as possible to keep them on the show.
Mandisa’s fans might not have felt that sense of urgency, since she hadn’t even
sniffed danger for the first three months of the season. Not all surprises are
pleasant ones.
Craig Berman is a writer in Washington, D.C.
Section Two
Passage One
Super Voice Girls
'Super Voice Girls' challenges China's TV culture
By Miao Qing (Shanghai Star)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-08/12/content_468543.htm
With the rather strange title "Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl Contest", a
84
televised singing show has recently sparked a nationwide mania.
The "Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl Contest", a televised singing show has
recently sparked a nationwide mania.
"Super Girls makes a grand
party for all the participants,
who are ordinary people, to
sing and experience the
charms of TV," said Li Li,
representing the organizer,
the
state-owned
Hunan
province satellite television
station.
In 1997, it become famous
for creating a game show
involving pop stars, which
soon
spread
across
televisions throughout the country.
In 2004, it came up with the new "Super Girls" show, which is said to be inspired by
the US show "American Idol." The programme attained giant success and influence
this year.
Entertaining business
Covering five provinces in China, including Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Henan and
Zhejiang, Super Girls has attracted more than 120,000 young women participants to
the capital cities of these five provinces for preliminary selections.
Many of them wait in long lines for a whole day before registration and some
even skipped school to enter the contest, which promises TV success for the lucky
few.
An elimination contest procedure has been adopted for Super Girls and five rounds of
regional competitions have been broadcast every week, drawing the sustained
attention and exceeding expectations of viewers, since the series started in March.
What makes Super Girls particularly popular is that nearly half of the applicants have
the chance to present a 30-second TV spot individually — the TV debut for most of
them.
A show of this kind is called a "Hai Xuan" by the organizer, meaning an especially wide
selection of applicants and now a fashionable expression.
"It is extremely interesting," said a 26 year-old viewer named He Xiaoyue. "You never
know who will be the next player or what he or she will do. It is just like a varied box
of chocolates."
"It has turned into a reflection of reality and the situation of ordinary people, which
proves emotionally satisfying for viewers," said Yu Hai, a sociologist working in
Shanghai.
By last weekend, eight "super girls" had emerged, out of the 10 candidates in the
national contest.
"According to CVSC-Sofres Media, the audience rating for Super Girls has reached 8
85
per cent in the country, ranking second or third at its broadcast time," said Li. This
viewing rate is regarded as an unprecedented success for a provincial television
station. This record may be reached again when the national final approaches in late
August, involving the top three contestants.
In addition, the combination of television and mobile phones has proven to be a
winning element of Super Girls.
The producer says the final ranking of the singers depends on the text messages sent
in by viewers. This has become a common way for audiences to participate in Chinese
TV shows.
In the Chengdu competition alone, the best three singers received a total of 307,071
message votes, each costing from 0.5 yuan to 3 yuan. According to the 21st Business
Herald, income from message charges may account for 30 to 50 per cent of the total
profits of the TV programme, even after a 15 per cent cut for the telecom suppliers
is removed.
This guess was later denied by Wang Peng, board chairman of Tianyu Media, which
handles the "Super Girls" brand under Hunan province satellite television. He said the
show's income mainly comes from sponsors and advertisements.
"What we are paying more attention to is how to develop the brand. Someone told me
the 'Super Girls' brand is now worth several hundred million yuan," he said.
Almost famous
The show proves the emerging new media age makes instant fame possible, just as
Andy Warhol predicted: “In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15
minutes.”
“I will strive to get on TV, even to death,” said one girl named Zhou Ting from Sichuan
Province when she joined in the Super Girls’ group. Like Zhou, a large number of
Chinese girls dream of becoming pop stars through TV shows, with their first step
being the Super Girls.
Zhang Hanyun, a 16-year-old student who finished third in last year’s national series
has recently released her first album. Appearing frequently in print media and TV
commercials as an endearing girl, she said she had wanted to become a star since
childhood, although now she complained about the difficulty involved in losing weight.
More “Super Girls” have emerged since, with their excellent singing skills receiving
wide recognition from the show’s young audience. “The long series of contests feels
like a TV play that you can’t bear to miss, especially when your favourite singer is on,”
said He, a fan of the show. “Some of them are really cool and brilliant in the show. It
is unbelievable that previously they were as ordinary as me.”
Liu Zhiyi, a Chinese student now living in Germany said he downloads Super Girls
shows every week from the Internet. “The Chinese people used to put more emphasis
on collectivism in the past, but this contest offers young people an opportunity to
reveal their personalities and realize their own values,” he said.
So far, nearly all the finalists in the national contest have been interviewed by the
press, or invited to engage in online chat with their fans. Television has rapidly
equipped them with the manner of true stars and driven hundred of thousands of
people crazy for them.
86
“What’s more, the judges in the contest talk more freely and bluntly, quite different
from those in formal competitions,” said Fan Ning, another viewer. It seems that the
“Super Girls” themselves are not the only stars — they are accompanied by a team of
judges comprised of pop singers, critics and programme designers who have also won
fame for their styles of commentary.
“I scold those girls who want to become celebrities but have no chance of doing so, in
the hope of driving them back to school,” said Xia Qing, one of the judges and show
producers. Ke Yimin, a pop singer from Taiwan, has even been opposed by many
viewers after criticizing their favourite singer.
“Actually, judges are also performers, to some extent,” said Wang Peng, “The shows
are more attractive because of the conflicts they involve.”
Passage Two
Li Yuchun Loved for Being Herself
By Susan Jakes
Chinese showbiz rarely produces icons. Sure, there are
the dozen or so movie actors who can carry a film, and
the odd rocker who fills a stadium. But seldom does a
face on China's small screen really stand out. Even
singing, the national pastime and TV staple, seems
reserved for an interchangeable lineup of warbling
coquettes, husky crooners and jolly fellows in brass
stars and epaulets belting out odes to red flags.
Which helps explain how a 21-year-old Sichuanese
music student named Li Yuchun has become one of the
most popular figures in China. In August, Li won a
televised American Idol-like singing contest produced
by Hunan province's Entertainment Channel and bearing
its own inimitable name: "Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl's Voice." (Its sponsor
makes yogurt.) The show drew the largest audiences in the history of Chinese
television. As the competition narrowed, the media covered it like a war or the O.J.
Simpson trial. By the time the finale aired, some 400 million people were tuning in.
The Li Yuchun phenomenon, however, goes far beyond her voice, which even the most
ardent fans admit is pretty weak: her vocal range drifts between Cher territory and
that place your little brother's voice went the summer before seventh grade. As a
dancer, she's not much better. Hei Nan, one of the event's judges, told the
Guangzhou Daily that Li was "the worst of the top six in terms of singing skills," but
noted that she garnered the most audience votes.
What Li did possess was attitude, originality and a proud androgyny that defied
Chinese norms. During the tryouts—in which 150,000 contestants were winnowed to
15—Li wore loose jeans and a black button-down shirt, with no make-up and the
haircut (and body) of David Bowie during his Space Oddity phase. She auditioned with
In My Heart There's Only You, Never Her, an oldie made famous by Taiwan's Liu
Wenzheng—a man. In the main competition she sang other songs written for male
performers and called herself "a tomboy." For an audience reared on the bubble-gum,
87
lip-gloss standards of Chinese girl pop, Li's disregard for the rule book produced an
unfamiliar knee-weakening. Her fans wept openly and frantically shrieked when Li
took the stage. The show ruffled feathers among Beijing's commissars. By the final
episode, Li and her two remaining rivals had switched their repertoire to patriotic
folk songs.
Li's victory was unusual in other ways: like American Idol, but unlike China itself,
"Super Girl's Voice" is run democratically. Eight million SMS votes flooded in on the
night of the finale. For a few weeks after, the mainland press debated the relevance
of this format. "Only something that smashes social norms could elicit such a
response," Yu Guoming, a media expert at People's University, told the Beijing News.
"After all, in China the opportunities to use votes to choose are relatively few." An
editorial in the China Daily wondered: "How come an imitation of a democratic system
ends up selecting the singer who has the least ability to carry a tune?" As Li prepares
for a nationwide tour with the other finalists, her handlers are loath to discuss the
political dimensions of the program or of Li's triumph. Hunan Entertainment Channel
refused TIME's requests to interview or photograph Li. According to one of her many
agents, they were worried the story would portray Li as more than just an
entertainer. But she is more: Li represents unabashed individuality, and that's why
she's a national icon.
—With reporting by Nicole Qu/Beijing
Exercises:
1. Why could Li Yuchun be on the cover of TIME magazine?
2. Should the words, like “ 粉 丝 fensi” or “ 超 女 chaonv” be presented in the
dictionary?
3. What the reason on earth why media could influence the society?
88
Chapter Nine
Show Business
Introduction:
Show business, showbiz for short, is a kind of byproduct of the development of the
society, especially the society influenced by media. Film stars, TV stars, film makers,
or pink news makers, are all the contributors to make this world colorful and
complicated as well. But could show business be called as a kind of business? How does
it run or make money?
In this chapter, we are going to discuss something about showbiz, or show business.
A Warm-up question:
What is show business in your mind?
Passage One
Publicity and Advertising of Films
http://library.thinkquest.org/10015/data/info/reference/
To some individuals, movies are art, and to others they are simply entertainment and
reflections of social and cultural trends. But to the advertising agencies hired to get
people to pay to see the movies, films are products.
The publicist is the individual responsible for the promotion and publicity aspects of a
motion picture studio. One of the duties of the publicist is the preparing of press
releases, or the information about a particular movie, which are written by the unit
publicist and distributed to important people such as film critics to explain
everything anyone needs to know about the movie itself or the making of the movie.
The publicist also secures publicity stills (A photograph taken by the unit
photographer before, during, or after the shooting of a film for the purpose of
advertising, publicity, and display in movie theaters), arranges press conferences and
special premiers, and gives advanced details to prominent columnists - anything to
seek the greatest amount of exposure for the company's films and stars. The head
publicist of a studio is called the publicity director.
The public relations executive is the individual who is given the job of promoting a
film to the print or media. This person will saturate the newspaper or magazine
advertisements with good reviews and snappy quotes from pleased movie critics,
whether the critic be reliable, or a no name "blurbster" - a reviewer who gives his
good review directly to the publicist, without necessarily really enjoying or even
seeing the movie, but eager to read his name in print.
The making of a television commercial or a theater preview for a film usually involves
picking one or more clips from the film and then writing some advertising copy to go
with it. This kind of ad may last as long as a full minute, making the agency sure that it
will have approximately 60 seconds to try to sell the film to the public.
89
One of the many concerns a studio has while organizing the marketing campaign is
billing. All of the major stars have clauses in their contracts which specify how and
when their name should appear in any sort of advertisement, be it a preview at the
theater, a television commercial, a poster, a print ad , a billboard, or an internet web
page.
The celebrities also help directly in the marketing, as their next career move may
center on a successful film in the present. The stars will promote the movie by going
on talk shows, answering questions for interviews, and any other means of getting
attention without having to get too close to the fans
In the early days of Hollywood, before television and radio advertisements were
possible, a popular way of promoting a movie was to send the stars around for
occasional personal appearances and put the talent on the covers of the fan
magazines; the print media has always been a popular means of advertising, even
before movie critics became important to the marketing of the movies. In fact, many
of the old movie posters came with quotes exclaiming the virtues of a motion picture,
but it was the studios who made the movie that were recommending the film!
One of the differences between movie posters of the past and more current movie
posters is that today movie posters are content to simply have quote from a critic and
a snappy catch phrase for the movie such as "Murder. Blackmail. Deceit... There's No
Place Like Home" for Keys to Tulsa. However, in Hollywood's "Golden Age," movie
posters would often consist of entire plot synopsises and the only opinions about the
movie printed on the posters came directly from the studio.
The poster for 1956's Moby Dick proclaimed, "In a year of so many wonderful screen
advances, the mightiest leap forward of all is Warner Bros.' presentation of the John
Huston production of Herman Melville's Moby Dick. This is the motion picture so
crowded with exciting achievements that it is impossible to list them all! Gregory
Peck's mighty portrayal is certainly one of them."
In 1950, the advertising campaign of Born Yesterday was successful in its attempt to
get a wider audience by banking on the power of its star to attract viewers. Born
Yesterday's poster read "Broadway's Biggest Hit...Now A Perfectly Swell Motion
Picture! Prediction: After you've seen Born Yesterday, your favorite new star will be
Judy Holliday."
The graphics used in the print ads have become more sophisticated over the decades.
Most ads of the 1930's and 1940's were cluttered, but ad agencies realized that less
was more, and reduced most of the ads to only a few striking images. Starting in the
1960's and 1970's, "logo" ads - ads in which the graphic element is nearly a symbol came into popular use, introducing the idea of more clever and gimmicky ads to draw
audiences.
By 1989, the marketing campaign for an average movie made up roughly a third of the
budget.
Passage Two
About Hollywood
History of Hollywood
Frenchman Louis Lumiere invented the motion picture camera in 1895. His portable,
90
suitcase-sized cinematograph served as a camera, film processing unit, and projector
all in one, and the processing of the film takes just a day. His first film was the
arrival of the express train at Lyons. His cinematographes soon took the world by
storm due to its convenience, and ousted Thomas Edison's bulkier version of the
camera. The motion picture industry hence is born.
For the first twenty odd years the industry was made up of short silent films,
most of them only a few minutes in length. Filming was regarded as an expensive
hobby, and later was regarded as an art form. In the 1910s, plots of silent films soon
developed into very complex ones, and its length gradually increased. Charlie Chaplin's
silent films are produced in this era.
From 1929, films were able to record sounds simultaneously with motion. The
silent era died, although Chaplin decided to go against the trend and continue to make
great films without sound.
Great scientist Albert Eeinstein, beside making the nuclear bomb, contributed to
the motion picture industry by coming up with the theory of editing and montage. In
'Birth of a Nation' (1915), D. W. Griffith became the first to use parallel editing in a
film. The 'Odessa Steps' sequence in film 'Potemkin' (1925) was the ancestor of all
great effects we see in movies these days.
In the 1920s, star-powered American Studios started, like 20th-Century Fox
(1935), Paramount Pictures (1912), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1924), Columbia Pictures
(1920), and Warner Brothers (1923). These studios make use of big-shots under their
contracts to churn out films after films. Stars were not free to seek their own
contracts during these years and very often stars would be "loaned" by one studio to
another. Films produced were of mediocre standard, but the fame that came with
being an actor was the driving force that kept the stars working. Soon Americans had
heard of the 'Hollywood mythology' - 'You can move to Hollywood and change your
life.' Many people believed this and moved from their hometown to Hollywood, hoping
that they would be picked by directors on Hollywood Boulevard and earn big bucks. Of
course, many went home disappointed and broke.
The introduction of television in the 1950s and the ability of stars to have their
own agents soon disintegrated the big studios monopoly. They dissolved in the face of
new directors, new approaches to acting, and new ideas about the depiction of the
real world in films.
Movies made from 1950s - 1960s had better plots, which centered around the
subtleties of character, the psychological
tensions that evolved hrough complex
relationships, the ambiguities of human behavior and interpersonal relationships.
Many focused on the effort of Americans trying to win the World War II. They were
original, and did not depend upon "star" power to make them successful. Italian
Neo-Realism flourished in the post World War II years. This movement depended
upon filming characters in actual locations (rather than studio sets) and often
focused on the lives of common men and women in the difficult years after the end of
the war.
In the 1960s, the themes of films were mostly of melodramatic, sentimental,
celebrated inspirational religious and spiritual. Walt Disney films came into the
91
limelight - 'My Fair Lady' (1964), 'Mary Poppins' (1964) and 'The Sound of Music'
(1965). It was also the bloom of science fiction movies, the pioneer being '2001 - A
Space Odyssey' by Stanley Kubrik in 1967.
Hollywood's Most Powerful Women
By Hollywood.com Staff (http://www.hollywood.com)
These days in Hollywood, sisters--both gay and straight--really are doin' it for
themselves, as the new Showtime series The L Word, about a group of young women in
Los Angeles, their lives, careers, and romantic relationships, proves. Before the show
debuts on Sunday, Jan. 18, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, we thought we'd celebrate some of
Hollywood's real-life power players--women who've made their mark on the city and
its main industry in significant ways.
Drew Barrymore
Why Her? Because she came out of the hellish world of child acting a bit bruised and
battered but stronger than ever. Because she isn't afraid to bare her soul--or her
bod (especially to her friend David Letterman). Because she decided to take control
of her career, forming the successful production company Flower Films with partner
Nancy Juvonen and producing (and usually co-starring in) hits like Never Been Kissed;
Charlie's Angels and its sequel Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and Duplex, as well as
an upcoming remake of Barbarella. Because she's here to stay.
Best Quote: "You can stand around and complain at Hollywood, with all of its hurt and
bulls***, or you can do something about it. I want to produce films, not to make more
money or to become powerful, but just to have some control over my working life and
future. I also want to work with people I like. I know my limitations. I am not a
method actor; I am not brilliantly trained or highly technical. I have to bring a good
deal of myself to a part or it doesn't work."--London Times, 1998.
Ellen DeGeneres
Why Her? Because she was once voted "Funniest Person in America" and then became
the first openly gay lead in a successful television sitcom. Because she didn't back
down when doors were shut in her face in the backlash. Because in 2003 she proved
that she is indeed an extremely talented comedienne, producing the hysterical HBO
standup special Ellen DeGeneres: Here and Now, bringing to life one of the funniest
animated characters ever in Finding Nemo and filling the talk show void left by Rosie
O'Donnell with her daytime chat fest The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Best Quote: "Right now, the jury is still out on my career. Let's see if I can
accomplish what I want to accomplish, which is getting over stereotypes. I still think
in 30 years we'll be dealing with homophobia, and it would be nice to have Ellen on
Nick at Nite along with Mary Tyler Moore, someone that [gay] kids could identify
with. I have a tendency to diminish what I do for a living, but I also know I'm going to
leave here, and I won't be somebody who just had a sitcom but someone who helped
change people's minds."-- TV Guide,1997.
Madonna
Why Her? Because with a long standing career in the music industry, she still
influences generations. Because she kissed Britney Spears on national television at
92
the 2003 MTV Music Video Awards. Because, now a mother of two (Lourdes, 7, and
Rocco, 3), she has tuned in to her maternal side (and created yet another lucrative
business) by writing a successful children's story, The English Roses. Because, even
at the age of 45, we count on her to continually reinvent herself.
Best Quote: "I came to the realization that a strong female is frightening to
everybody, because all societies are male-dominated--black societies, poor people,
rich people, any racial group, they're all dominated by men. A strong female is going to
threaten everybody across the board." --Spin magazine, 1996.
Julia Roberts
Why Her? Because this winsome beauty with the big, radiant smile and a mane of
auburn hair has become one of the few bankable female stars, commanding $25
million a picture. Because she's made a few flops (Mary Reilly, for one) and still
bounces back. Because she can get married with no shoes on. Because she has entered
the producing world with production company Red Om Films, producing and starring in
her latest film Mona Lisa Smile. Because, while accepting her 2001 Best Actress
Academy Award for Erin Brockovich, she told the guy who monitored the length of
acceptance speeches, "Sir, you're so quick with that stick--you may as well sit down,
'cause I may never be here again." We doubt that.
Best Quote: "I work when I want to work, and I work with people that I want to work
with. I travel hither and yon to fabulous places. I'm surrounded by wonderful,
interesting people. I live a privileged life--hugely privileged. It's an excellent life.
I'm rich. I'm happy. I have a great job. It would be absurd to pretend that it's
anything different. I'm like a pig in s**t."--Vanity Fair, 1999.
Oprah Winfrey
Why Her? Because this down-to-earth chick is one of the most influential powers on
television with her long-running talk show. Because she's one of the richest women in
America but helps millions of people all over the world any way she can. Because even
though she's one of the more powerful women in the world, her millions of fans still
think she's an icon they can get down with. Because any book she says to read
becomes an instant bestseller. Because diets like all the rest of us, but still looks
great at any size.
Best Quote: "I'm glad I was raised in Mississippi at a time when being colored and
female meant [low] expectations. Now I'm grateful for my days of emptying slop jars,
hauling water from the well and going to the outhouse and thinking I was going to fall
in. It makes walking through the house with the many bathrooms and marble floors
and great view that much better."--USA Today,1997.
Passage Three
Film Rating
(http://library.thinkquest.org/10015/data/info/reference/)
The MPAA, or Motion-Picture Association of America, has been rating movies for
almost three decades now. The Ratings, "G", "PG", "PG-13", "R", and "NC-17" are used
to recommend or legislate which age groups should or may see a particular film.
For the most part, movie ratings are used strictly for their practical purpose of
93
presenting a general idea of the potency of its content. Parents shouldn't worry
about their child watching a "G" to a "PG" rated movie, as films with those two ratings
are usually geared towards children. In fact, if a movie with adult themes is
threatened with a "PG", it will often attempt to throw in a few expletives to get a
more adult sounding "PG-13" rating. A "PG-13" rating is usually placed upon a movie
which contains some obscene language, some violence, or possibly some brief nudity. A
movie can contain violence, language and brief nudity and still be rated "PG-13" as long
as it's in reasonably small amounts. To be rated "R", a movie only has to contain large
quantities of any one of those three traits, and to be rated "NC-17", the movie will
usually contain a lot of graphic nudity, a lot of graphic violence, or both. It's doubtful
that excessive obscene language would ever cause a movie to be rated anything higher
than "R".
Besides alerting potential moviegoers as to type of content, ratings can serve other
purposes, including publicity stunts, as was the case with Showgirls. That film's
"NC-17" rating was used as a draw; the promotion, "Leave your prohibitions at the
door," flaunted that this was the first time a mainstream film welcomed the taboo
rating. Unfortunately for the studio, the rating was not enough to sustain
profitability, as viewers and critics alike panned the film. The movie made another
attempt on video, but Blockbuster, the nation's most popular video chain refused to
carry it, because it would contradict its policy of not renting or selling movies rated
"NC-17". Therefore, some cuts were made, and an "R" rated and an "NC-17" rated
version of Showgirls were released. This, along with other recent films, has proven
that the "NC-17" rating has a long way to go before it's embraced by the mainstream
movie attending populace.
Ratings are often important to the scope of a film's appeal, which explains why
filmmakers usually attempt to get the lowest rating possible for their film, opening up
the doors to a wider audience. In some cases, the attempts are unsuccessful. Danny
Cannon, the director of Judge Dredd, cut and cut in attempt to get the film a "PG-13"
rating, but when the ratings board refused to lower the rating, he put most of the
offending footage back in. The movie, which would have profited from the
pre-adolescents who would have seen it with a lower rating, bombed after being
released with the "R" rating. Studios have often made the mistake of funding a film
not suitable enough for the young crowd that it's intended for.
Before 1968, the MPAA didn't rate movies at all. Instead, the films were tested
against a "Production Code," and if they didn't pass, the necessary cuts were made to
make the movie appropriate for the viewing public. The MPAA wasn't just a casual
observer - it actually got to influence how the movie would turn out. Based upon the
production code, it approved or disapproved of a film's content and made direct
suggestions on how to change it. The Production Code consisted of three general
principals:
1. No film could be produced which would lower the moral standards of those who see
it. In other words, the sympathy of the audience could never be thrown to the side of
crime, wrongdoing, evil, or sin.
2. Correct standards of life had to be presented. However, the needs of
94
dramatization or entertainment were allowed to come first if they did not distort the
correct standards of life considerably.
3. Law, natural or human, could not be ridiculed, nor could sympathy be created for its
violation.
But because of pressure from directors and studios demanding more artistic freedom,
on November 1, 1968, the rating system of the motion-picture industry was born. In
the beginning, the MPAA created four categories, only one of which remains
completely intact today. "G" stood and stands for "General Audience. All ages
admitted." "M" stood for "Mature Audiences," but in 1970 was changed to "GP" and
even later was changed to "PG" or "Parental Guidance." "R," which still stands for
"Restricted," originally was meant for those under age 16 to be accompanied by a
parent, but was later revised to those under 17. "X" stood for "No one under 16 (later
raised to 17) admitted."
Surprising as it seems, ratings were much more lenient when they first started. Take
a look at movies like Planet of the Apes where humans are shot and killed, caged and
tortured, and consider whether it would get a "G" rating if released today. In fact,
it's very unusual for any live action movie made now to get a "G" rating.
On July 1, 1984, after controversy involving some motion pictures that didn't fall
between the "R" or "PG" category (including Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,
Gremlins, and Poltergeist) the "PG-13" rating ("Parents strongly cautioned. Some
material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers") was created. When the ratings
system was first started, getting an "X" rating was especially devastating, because it
meant that the distributor would be banned from advertising the film in most
newspapers, television, or on the radio. In 1990, the "X" rating was changed to
"NC-17" after a petition from high profile directors complaining of censorship caused
by the stigma attached to the "X." Yet, even with the name change, the definition has
remained exactly the same.
Some directors, mostly independent, decide to work completely out of the system and
not have their movie rated at all. This gives their film an "NR" or "Not Rated" rating.
They do this either because they can't afford to pay the film board to view and rate
the movie, or they want to avoid being saddled with an "NC-17" rating. However, this
isn't always a great idea, as some theaters refuse to play movies that aren't rated,
and many people consider "NR" and "NC-17" basically the same thing.
Ever since the film rating system was started, filmmakers are no longer required to
worry about morality, as long as their story has the potential to make money.
Passage Four
Giant Studios Paramount Pictures
(http://www.viacom.com/prodbyunit1.tin?ixBusUnit=15)
One of the original major motion picture studios, Paramount Pictures traces its roots
as a leading producer and distributor of feature films to 1912. Its 2,500-title library
boasts classics such as The Ten Commandments and Terms of Endearment, as well as
modern blockbusters Forrest Gump, Ghost, and Mission: Impossible. In addition,
several of the most successful franchises in film history, including Star Trek, The
95
Godfather, and Indiana Jones, are part of the Paramount Pictures library.
Recent hit films from Paramount include Mission: Impossible 2, starring Tom Cruise;
Rules of Engagement, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones; Shaft,
starring Samuel L. Jackson; Runaway Bride, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere;
Double Jeopardy, starring Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones; and The Talented Mr.
Ripley, starring Matt Damon. Paramount Pictures has also released hits such as
Titanic (the all-time box-office leader), The Truman Show, Braveheart, and Sleepy
Hollow.
Paramount continues to capitalize on the creative resources of other Viacom units. In
early 2000 Paramount and Nick Movies released Snow Day, the hit family comedy
starring Chris Elliott and Chevy Chase, and the eagerly anticipated Rugrats in Paris:
The Movie is slated for a Thanksgiving release. The first motion picture featuring
Nick's phenomenally successful Rugrats franchise, The Rugrats Movie, was released
in 1998, after successful runs of Nick's Harriet the Spy and Good Burger. Paramount
has also collaborated with MTV on MTV Films such as the Oscar-nominated Election,
starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick, and the hits The Wood, Varsity
Blues, Beavis & Butt-head Do America, and A Night at the Roxbury.
In choosing properties to produce, Paramount aims to create a carefully balanced film
slate that represents a variety of genres, styles, and levels of investment with the
goal of creating entertainment with worldwide appeal. In addition, Paramount has
reduced its financial risks by forming strategic production partnerships with other
companies, such as Buena Vista, 20th Century Fox, and DreamWorks (Saving Private
Ryan and Deep Impact both under the direction of Steven Spielberg).
Paramount Pictures has an extensive network for the domestic theatrical distribution
of its motion pictures. International distribution of Paramount's feature films is
generally handled by United International Pictures (UIP), in which Viacom has a 33%
interest.
Paramount Pictures distributes its motion pictures on video and DVD in the U.S. and
Canada through Paramount Home Entertainment.
Exercises:
96
Chapter Ten
Media and Entertainment
Introduction:
We talked the whole semester about media and entertainment, but what does it
exactly include? To most of us, we could learn more about entertainment issues from
films, directors, music, or even pink news, and know more about how media changes
people’s life. To use a word “industry” maybe would be a good way to summarize.
In this chapter, we are trying to know the brief information about the entertainment
and media industry through an investigation and some problems appearing with the
industry.
A Warm-up question:
What are media and entertainment in your eyes?
Section One
Introduction to the Entertainment & Media
Industry
The burning issue affecting all sectors of the entertainment and media industry is
maintaining control of content and audiences while taking advantage of myriad new
electronic delivery venues. Competition in the entertainment sector is fierce.
Gone are the days when television and radio programmers enjoyed captive audiences
who happily sat through ad after ad, or planned their schedules around a favorite
show. Consumers, especially consumers in younger demographics, now demand more
and more control over what they watch, read and listen to. Issues related to control
include: pricing for content (including free, illegal downloads versus authorized, paid
downloads or pay-per-view); portability (including the ability for a consumer to
download once, and then use a file on multiple platforms and devices including iPods
and cell phones); and delayed viewing or listening (such as viewing TV programming at
the consumer’s convenience via TiVo and similar personal video recorders).
The competition among entertainment delivery platforms has intensified. Satellite
radio delivery of subscription-based music and talk programming has hit its stride
with very rapid gains in subscriber counts for Sirius and its competitor XM.
Telecommunications companies such as AT&T (formerly known as SBC
Communications) are now delivering television programming to the home via telephone
wires, battling cable and satellite TV firms for market share.
Today, electronic offerings such as DVDs, personal video recorders (PVRs),
video-on-demand (VOD) and MP3 players have vastly altered the way consumers enjoy
entertainment. People watch and listen according to their own desires and whims.
Miss the finale to a favorite television show? Rent or buy it on DVD or record it to
97
watch later. Interested in only one track from a recording artist's new CD? Buy
and download just the one song via the Internet. Love a prime-time drama on a
major network but hate commercials? Record the show while skipping over the
commercials with a PVR.
The implications of these changes are staggering. The business models upon which
most entertainment companies have traditionally run are becoming obsolete.
Revenue from advertisers is in jeopardy while revenue from subscription-based
business models is soaring. Television programming schedules are losing relevance
while electronic program guides are becoming more and more vital. Traditional
media are losing share while new digital media are becoming the norm.
Entertainment companies are being forced to radically change to deal with new
technologies and new demands from consumers.
Rapid changes in viewing habits are already occurring. Network TV news, radio news
and newspapers all find that they have to compete fiercely against Internet-based
news content. A large portion of sports programming has migrated away from “free”
broadcasts on TV and onto paid cable channels and pay-per-view systems.
Meanwhile, platforms and delivery are evolving quickly. Multipurpose cell phones are
now used for more and more entertainment purposes, including video and TV-like
programming. Game machines are going multipurpose with the ability to connect to
the Internet and play DVDs. Broadband to the home has reached the mass-market
tipping point, while wireless broadband systems such as 802.11g are enhancing the
mobility of entertainment and media access. A serious evolution of access and
delivery methods will continue at a rapid-fire pace, and media companies will be
forced to be more nimble than ever.
Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 is selling briskly. Meanwhile, mid-2006 will see the launch
of the Sony PlayStation 3 which utilizes a supercomputer-like chip called “Cell” that
has the potential to revolutionize the electronic games industry due to its ability to
run highly-realistic, advanced software at amazing speed.
Recommendation software that learns the habits and tastes of consumers will evolve
and will do a better job of pushing appropriate entertainment choices toward
audiences. Amazon.com has long been a leader in the use of such software. Netflix
has created an admirable package of its own. Likewise, Apple’s iTunes software is
strong on recommending content to customers. Some interesting mergers might be
driven by the potential to use extremely powerful recommendation software to
attract and better serve consumers across multiple types of entertainment media.
The gambling sector remains strong, with massive new projects in Las Vegas, and
experienced operators rushing to rebuild the Gulf Coast casinos that were wiped out
by 2005’s hurricanes.
Magazine publishing has rebounded, with both mainstream and niche publications
enjoying high advertising page counts.
Meanwhile, revenues are stagnant in many traditional entertainment and media
segments. Book sales are flat in the U.S. at about $24 billion yearly. Movie theater
attendance is down. The traditional, store-front video rental sector is suffering
due to alternatives including Netflix, TiVo and video-on-demand services.
98
Newspapers are finding it increasingly difficult to compete against Internet news and
advertising delivery rivals. Recorded music sales on CD-ROM continue to suffer due
to alternative electronic platforms. Traditional radio broadcasting is suffering,
finding it increasingly difficult to gather listeners for advertising-based radio
programming due to such alternatives as satellite radio and MP3 players.
Advertising, long the main revenue source for much of the media industry, is rapidly
moving to the Internet, as shown by the incredible financial success of Yahoo! and
Google, among other sites.
You should count on continued, rapid changes: The revolution in new media continues,
platforms will evolve quickly, consumers will obtain even greater control and
competition will become even hotter.
The following table shows us an overview of the entertainment and media industry.
Let’s find what would be included:
(http://www.plunkettresearch.com/Industries/EntertainmentMedia/Entertainment
MediaStatistics/tabid/227/Default.aspx)
Entertainment & Media Industry Overview
Amount
Date
Source
2005
Veronis Suhler
Stevenson
8,841
Sept.
2005
FCC
4,758
Sept.
2005
FCC
2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
2005*
Publishers Information
Bureau
2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
109.6
mil.
2005
Nielsen Media Research
Number of Broadcast TV Stations, U.S.
1,749
Sept.
2005
FCC
Cable TV Subscribers, U.S.
69 mil.
2005
In-Stat
Worldwide Digital Cable Subscribers
44 mil.
2005
In-Stat
Worldwide Cable Modem Subscribers
50 mil.
2005
In-Stat
2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
Total Consumer Spending on Media*, U.S.
$199
bil.*
RADIO
FM Radio Stations (Including Educational
FM stations), U.S.
AM Radio Stations, U.S.
Number of Radio Stations Broadcasting
Digitally, U.S.
600
PRINT MEDIA
$22.4
bil.
U.S. Magazine Revenues
Total Number of Daily and Sunday
Newspapers, U.S.
2,250
Total Book Publishing Net Sales, U.S.
$24.0
bil.
TELEVISION
U.S. Households with Televisions
Number of Mobile Phone TV Subscribers
1 mil.
99
$50
mil.
Mobile Phone TV Revenues
Number of TiVo Subscribers, U.S.
4.3 mil.
Total Digital Televisions (DTVs) Sold
2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
10.8 mil 2005
CEA
MUSIC
600
mil.**
Album Sales, U.S.
Global Downloaded Music Sales, incl.
Internet and Cell Phone
units
2005
$1.1 bil. 2005
Nielsen Media Research
IFPI
Satellite Radio Subscribers
8.2 mil.
2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
Number of iPods Sold
22.4
2005
Apple Computer, Inc.
OTHER
Cell Phone Subscribers, U.S.
Gambling Revenues, U.S.
Internet Users, Worldwide
190 mil. 2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
$50 bil. 2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
1.1 bil.
2006
Int'l Telecom. Union
2005
Exhibitor
Relations/Adams Media
FILM
U.S. Box Office Revenues
Number of Movie Tickets Sold, U.S.
DVD Rentals and Sales at Retail, U.S.
Number of Movie Screens, U.S.
$8.95
bil.
1.43 bil. 2005
$23.4
bil.
37,000
Plunkett Research
Estimate
2005
Exhibitor
Relations/Adams Media
2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
ELECTRONIC GAMES
Total Video Game Industry Revenues,
Worldwide
$27.0
bil.
2005
Plunkett Research
Estimate
IFPI = International Federation of the Phonographic Industry
*Estimate. Includes consumer spending on cable and satellite tv access and services;
consumer books; consumer internet access and content; consumer magazine
subscriptions; entertainment (box office, home video, interactive television, recorded
music and video games); newspaper subscriptions, satellite radio subscriptions.
**Estimate. Includes downloaded music with 10 downloaded song tracks counted as one
album
Source: Plunkett Research, Ltd., Plunkett's Entertainment & Media Industry Almanac
2006
Section Two
Entertainment and Media Industry
100
Passage One
Difficult Decisions: Ethical Issues for the American Media in Times
of National Emergency
By Rob Elder
(http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/elder.html)
The president's national security advisor recently asked television networks to
refrain from broadcasting, verbatim, entire tapes containing lengthy statements by
Osama bin Laden. The presidential press secretary, responding to contrarian
comments by a television comedian, has said that all Americans should "watch what
they say.''
Writing separately in this series of commentaries, Miriam Schulman has examined
what the latter implies for individual freedom of speech. My intention here is to
examine ethical issues the Bush administration is raising for reporters, editors and
publishers—about how they cover the statements of bin Laden and other terrorists,
how they deal with loyal Americans who criticize the government's response to the
events of September 11, and how much the media themselves question the
administration's actions.
The question is not whether the media have a legal right to report whatever they find
newsworthy. The First Amendment guarantees that they do. The issue is how media
managers should employ that freedom in their own decisions about what is ethical and
professionally responsible.
When National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice asked, rather than demanded, that
bin Laden's statements be more carefully and tightly edited by American networks,
she made both the appropriate and the politically savvy choice. A demand would have
sparked a backlash by journalists. A request, however, implicitly recognized that the
media would make their own choices, while calling on them to use more restraint.
Some already have responded in dramatic ways. Air time allocated for bin Laden's
taped comments has greatly diminished. At this writing, CNN has accepted an
apparently genuine invitation to submit questions to bin Laden; what the network will
do with his answers remains to be seen.
At the same time, American writers who have criticized George W. Bush have found
themselves under fire from their employers and their readers. One newspaper in
Oregon and another in Texas have fired staffers who wrote unflattering reviews of
the President's performance since September 11. Washington columnist Mary
McGrory, another of the few critical journalists, reports more angry mail than she
has ever received about anything written in her long career.
Writing in the New York Times, columnist Frank Rich has noted that this
administration, like any other facing a crisis, has sought strenuously to sell its own
version of events while vigorously contesting any criticism. For example, Rich pointed
out that Dr. Rice's stated reason for more editing of bin Laden—that he might be
sending coded messages to trigger new terrorist incidents—is hardly bulletproof, in
logical terms, given the terrorist leader's access to other media exposure worldwide.
Residents of New York City, for example, have a choice of six Arabic television
channels via satellite, all immune from American editing.
Rich cited other examples: "Recent days,'' he wrote in his October 13 column, "have
101
also brought an unorthodox cancellation of a daily Pentagon press briefing, a move to
replace honest journalism with propaganda at the Voice of America, a short-lived
effort to cut congressmen out of the military and intelligence loop, and the revelation
that Karl Rove, the president's political guru, went so far as to call a historian he'd
never met, Robert Dallek, to lean on him after Mr. Dallek criticized the president in
USA Today for delaying his return to Washington on September 11. Mr. Rove tried to
sell Mr. Dallek the false story, later retailed by too many gullible journalists, that Mr.
Bush had been scarce because Air Force One had been under threat.''
Still, the public is in no mood to quibble with the Bush administration over such details.
As Rich observed, "The country is as united as ever it could be, and willing to follow
the president wherever he leads.'' In time, the War Against Terrorism like the War
Against Drugs will be perceived as fair game for reasonable criticism. But not yet.
All of this sets the stage for uncomfortable decisions the media must make now, in a
climate of unabashed patriotism. Journalistic ethics always are most severely tested
in times like these, when disagreement is seen as disloyal and destructive of the
nation's ability to gird itself for survival.
To be sure, editors and publishers and the conglomerates that own newspapers and
broadcast networks make their decisions on the basis of many factors, with ethics
being only one of many, and not necessarily the largest. The publisher who wants to
stay in business must ask not only what is right, but what is good for circulation and
ad revenue. Yet the media manager who sees only the bottom line has sold out his or
her journalistic integrity, and ultimately that is sensed by readers.
In fact, most publishers and broadcasters operate somewhere between the two
extremes of absolute candor and utter hypocrisy. Conventions of reporters, editors
and owners annually devote their programs to discussions of what is professionally
honorable and right; at such meetings, mavericks who on some previous occasion
displayed the courage to stand against the crowd are loudly applauded.
But that's after the fact. The ethical decisions that require commitment, courage
and wisdom are made not by program committees planning conventions, but by
individuals, often under intense pressure and with only hours or even minutes for
reflection, and with none of the comfort of knowing what herd instinct eventually will
say was the right thing to do.
The crucial consideration for media making ethical decisions in times of crisis is to
remember that our founding fathers saw the press as essential to democracy
precisely because it was separate from government, able to stand apart and comment
independently. This hardly means that the columnist writing about the president's
performance in a time of crisis necessarily must be critical in order to be ethical. It
does mean that even in extreme situations like the present one, the media best serve
their country by reporting and reflecting on the truth as they see it, as independent
observers.
At their best, the press challenge not only the facts of the case, but the ways in
which the questions are framed. A superb example is Mark Danner's op-ed column in
the October 16 New York Times, an essay that looks through a different prism: "The
19 men who changed the world on September 11 used as their primary weapon not box
102
cutters or jet airliners but something more American and much more powerful: the
television set. The box cutters and the planes were tools in constructing the great
master image, the Spectacular; the television set was their delivery vehicle....
However ardently we stare at the blurry night-vision photographs from Kabul, the
battlefield is here, in the American mind. The anthrax incidents, in bringing to the
surface a latent hysteria, are more important skirmishes in this new war than
anything that happens in the Afghan mountains.''
This is not to say that the media's only role is to disagree with the government. Was
it time to stop giving bin Laden carte blanche use of American TV to preach hatred
for America? I think so. Does a fair editorial writer cut a new president some slack
during an extreme test of the chief executive's ability to deal with situations no one
ever foresaw? There again, I think the answer is yes. But it is an answer the media
must arrive at by its own judgments, not because cheering the home team is the
popular or even the patriotic thing to do.
Passage Two
Digital Nation
by Gary Dretzka, Columnist of http://www.moviecitynews.com
God knows, the Internet doesn’t need another column about an awards show. Between
now and the MTV Movie Awards in June, there are 200 or 300 more trophy
ceremonies than anyone not affiliated with Dick Clark Productions should have to
endure in a lifetime, and reading about them is infinitely worse than actually being
forced to sit through one.
Saturday night in Las Vegas, however, I attended my first AVN Awards show, and I
now beg your indulgence as I attempt to describe the scene.
Having been assigned to cover several Oscar and Emmy ceremonies, I got a huge kick
out of witnessing a major awards bash that didn’t appear to be stage-managed by
veterans of the Khmer Rouge, specifically for the benefit of studio executives, dress
designers, society jewelers and advertisers. Say what you will about the makers of
XXX movies, but the people at AVN (Adult Video News) deserve props for staging a
ceremony that’s a lot of fun and doesn’t expect its audience to genuflect before the
altar of fame after every commercial break.
This was the 21st annual edition of the AVN Awards, which honor all manner of sexual
performances in DVD and VHS. The categories run the gamut from Best Film, Best
Video Feature and Best Actor and Actress, to Best Gonzo Series, Best Anal-Themed
Feature and Most Outrageous Sex Scene. The roster of nominees was longer than the
listings in most Nevada phone books.
For my money, the most impressive thing about the whole evening was the turnout of
fans and curious tourists not holding tickets. In addition to the 3,000-plus people who
paid $225 per ticket, there were enough freelance lookie-loos inside the Venetian to
create a human gauntlet extending from the craps tables in the casino, to the
cavernous ballroom theater, a distance of nearly 100 yards.
The venue was located between the hotel and the Sands convention center, where the
Adult Entertainment Expo was being staged for the benefit of industry insiders and
20,000 non-industry fans. The throng of on-lookers created this virtual red carpet,
103
both before and after the ceremony – if anything, it grew in length -- and, aside from
a very few yahoos, the crowd was polite and clearly in awe of the gowns, corsets, slip
dresses, exotic footwear, tattoos, jewelry and mountainous chests of the starlets.
The male performers got their fair share of attention, as well.
The Adult Entertainment Expo isn’t affiliated with the concurrent Consumer
Electronics Show, but it might as well be. Much of the same technology that drives
that multibillion-dollar industry was given its baptism by fire in the adult media. This
includes VHS, DVD, camcorders, digital cameras and editing tools, streaming video,
cyber-finance and, lately, HD filmmaking. Adult videos continue to amass an
incalculable fortune in sales and rentals, but, unlike Hollywood, the industry has also
learned how to harness the Internet, and, in doing so, propel revenues into the
stratosphere. It also helps raise profits for such porn-dependent businesses as the
phone companies, cable providers, hotels that offer pay-per-view movies, Internet
services and credit-card interests.
The AVN Awards and AEE are a perfect fit for sin-is-back-in Las Vegas. Truth be
told, though, nothing the starlets wore Saturday night would have looked out of place
at the MTV Movie Awards or a dozen other such events. A surprisingly small number
of starlets exposed their breasts for the cameras, and, that too, would hardly be
considered scandalous in most zipcodes in L.A.
If any further proof is needed of the mainstreaming of pornography in our culture,
remember that Showtime is about to launch its second season of Family Business,
starring gonzo filmmaker Seymour Butts; holiday visitors to Times Square were
treated to a 4-story-tall poster of Jenna Jameson, urging, “This Year Be Naughty
and Nice”; Vanity Fair recently included Vivid Girls Jameson, Taylor Hayes and
Savanna Samson in a photo essay about Hollywood "legends, big guns and
scene-stealers”; and the estimable Mary Carey got far more free publicity in the
mainstream press, as a California gubernatorial candidate, than she’s ever been able
to afford in AVN or skin magazines (her performance fees have doubled since the
campaign, and she’s also spinning off a movie, Run Mary Run, with Ron Jeremy as a
faux Cruz Bustamonte).
The post-awards party was held in Venetian’s vacant Guggenheim space (not the
“jewelbox” museum), and a couple of post-post-parties were staged around town.
None of these open-to-the-public gatherings, though, came close to matching the
annual orgies of egomania and showboating that complete Oscar, Grammy and Emmy
nights.
What follows is a highly subjective list of things that, for me, made covering the AVN
Awards more fun than doing the Oscar, Grammy and Emmy ceremonies:
1) Reporters and photographers weren’t required to wear tuxedos and cocktail
dresses no one in the TV audience would see, anyway.
2) No goody baskets for presenters and hosts; thus, no stories about companies
bestowing gifts on swag-starved celebrities.
3) Red carpet was only about 40 feet long, and every Tom, Dick and Harry with a
ticket wasn’t allowed to traipse over it and pretend they were VIPs.
4) No watchdog publicists to tell their star clients which reporters were
104
pre-approved for interviews.
5) Stars didn’t take offense if you asked them how they spell their names and those
of their escorts (some Hollywood publicists will blackball anyone who asks this
question of them).
6) Fans and press weren’t treated like terrorists.
7) Pole dancers gyrated throughout show, not just during commercials.
8) Actors weren’t reluctant to admit they slept with their co-stars.
9) No goofy stories about the how the careers of Best Supporting Actress winners
have been cursed.
10) Army Archerd and Joan Rivers stayed home.
11) AVN Hall of Fame inductees included Johnnie Keyes, star of Behind the Green
Door, and Rhonda Jo Petty (“I was the first porn star to shave my pussy”).
12) No speeches by Jack Valenti or AVN accountants.
13) Unlike the Golden Globes, no one had to force the nominees to attend, or defend
coverage by trying to convince readers that the awards often indicate which actors
and movies will win Oscar nominations.
14) No cute name for the Lucite statuette handed to winners, and, unlike Oscar,
“Lucite Statuette” isn’t a registered trademark. It's also more difficult to use as a
sex toy.
15) No one under 18 can appear in a XXX film; thus, no awards to cute and annoying kid
actors.
16) No one cared if show ran long, because the bar stayed open throughout ceremony
and food was plentiful.
17) No winner mentioned God, their spouse and their agent in the same sentence.
18) Jenna Jameson served as co-host, in Marilyn Monroe drag.
19) The film clips actually were interesting.
20) Hearing the presenters say, “The winner is … Gag Factor… Crack Her Jack …
Weapons of Ass Destruction 2… Spanked Toilet Whores.”
Section Three
About BBC (Britain Broadcasting Company)
BBC purpose
The BBC exists to enrich people’s lives with great programmes and services that
inform, educate and entertain. Its vision is to be the most creative, trusted
organisation in the world.
It provides a wide range of distinctive programmes and services for everyone, free
of commercial interests and political bias. They include television, radio, national,
local, childrens’, educational, language and other services for key interest groups.
BBC services are hugely popular and used by over 90% of the UK population every
week. The BBC also runs orchestras, actively develops new talent and supports
training and production skills for the British broadcasting, music, drama and film
industries.
The BBC is financed by a TV licence paid by households. It does not have to serve the
interests of advertisers, or produce a return for shareholders. This means it can
105
concentrate on providing high quality programmes and services for everyone, many of
which would not otherwise be supported by subscription or advertising.
BBC values
The BBC has signed up to these values:
-Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest
-Audiences are at the heart of everything we do
-We take pride in delivering quality and value for money
-Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation
-We respect each other and celebrate our diversity so that everyone can give their
best
-We are one BBC: great things happen when we work together
Twelve Governors regulate the BBC, upholding standards and defending it from
political and commercial pressures. They set its objectives and report on its
performance in their Annual Report to licence payers and Parliament.
How BBC does Run
The BBC is run in the interests of its viewers and listeners. Twelve governors act as
trustees of the public interest and regulate the BBC. They are appointed by the
Queen on advice from ministers.
Day-to-day BBC operations are run by 16 divisions. Their directors report to the
director-general, forming the Executive Committee. It answers to the Board of
Governors.
BBC governors differ from directors of public companies, whose primary
responsibilities are to shareholders and not consumers. BBC governors represent the
public interest, notably the interests of viewers and listeners.
The governors safeguard the BBC's independence, set objectives and monitor
performance. They are accountable to BBC licence payers and Parliament, and publish
an Annual Report assessing its performance against objectives.
Executive Committee Runs the BBC in the public interest by:
-Proposing key objectives
-Developing strategy and policy in light of the set objectives
-Operating all services within the strategic and policy framework
Board of Governors Ensures the BBC serves the public interest by:
-Setting key objectives
-Approving strategy and policy
-Monitoring performance and compliance, and reporting on both in the Annual Report
-Ensuring public accountability
-Appointing the Director-General and other Executive Committee members and
determining their remuneration
The BBC is established under Royal Charter. The current Charter runs until 2006. A
separate Agreement, accompanying the Charter, recognises the BBC's editorial
independence and sets out its public obligations.
Advertising Policies
The BBC is not permitted to carry advertising or sponsorship on its public services.
This keeps them independent of commercial interests and ensures they can be run
106
instead to serve the general public interest.
If the BBC sold airtime either wholly or partially, advertisers and other commercial
pressures would dictate its programme and schedule priorities. There would also be
far less revenue for other broadcasters.
The BBC is financed instead by a TV licence paid by households. This guarantees that
a wide range of high quality programmes can be made available unrestricted to
everyone.
The licence fee also helps support production skills, training, local or minority
programmes and other services which might not otherwise be financed by the
economics of pay-TV or advertising.
The BBC runs additional commercial services around the world. These are not
financed by the licence fee but are kept quite separate from its public services.
Profits are used to help keep the licence fee low so that UK licence fee payers can
benefit commercially from their investment in programmes.
Diversity and the BBC
The BBC is committed to reflecting the diversity of the UK and to making its services
accessible to all. This applies both to the output - TV, radio and online - and the
workforce, aiming to be inclusive of those groups who are often under-represented older people, women, disabled people, people from ethnic minorities, those of all
faiths and social classes, lesbians and gay men.
To this end the BBC has a number of initiatives in place aimed at finding and
developing new creative talent, from BBC Talent through to The Writers' Room, that
are prioritising diversity. Off air, the BBC has met its recent target of 10% of staff
coming from ethnic minorities by the end of 2003.
The BBC is a member of the Broadcaster and Creative Industries Disability Network
(BCIDN) and the Cultural Diversity Network (CDN). These commit major British
broadcasters to improved diversity in recruitment and on-air representation
Decency
Producers have strict guidelines for dealing with issues of taste, sexual matters,
violence and strong language. Every audience includes people of different ages,
cultures, religions and sensibilities. A warning is transmitted if we judge some people
may find a particular broadcast distressing.
We never intentionally try to cause offence. Audience sensibilities and standards
vary widely, yet factual and fictional programmes must reflect fairly and accurately
people's different experiences, ways of using language and realities of life.
Watershed policy
From 9pm the TV watershed helps parents protect children from unsuitable material.
In all but exceptional circumstances, programmes transmitted before 9pm are
suitable for general audiences including children. From 9pm they are progressively
suitable only for adults.
Because children's sensibilities vary as widely as those of adults, parents are
expected to share responsibility in judging whether children should watch after 9pm.
The BBC can be received in every household, but two-thirds of them have no children.
Our public obligation is to provide services for all licence-payers as well as those with
107
children.
Radio
Radio is a different medium with different audiences, so we cannot operate a similar
watershed policy. We provide programmes for a general audience without imposing
unnecessary restrictions on writers and artists. This is a difficult area of judgement.
We are guided by public reactions and our understanding of the different audience
for each station or at different times of the day.
To help monitor public attitudes BBC Governors and managers draw on your comments,
audience research (see below), public meetings and BBC Advisory Councils.
Appeals by charities
The BBC broadcasts charitable appeals as a public service in order to:
-provide authoritative information and guidance about charities
-raise money for good causes and encourage giving
-raise awareness about charities’ work
Broadcasts
“The Radio 4 Appeal” has been broadcast weekly since 1926 and was formerly known
as “The Week’s Good Cause”. The annual “BBC Children in Need” appeal dates from
1927 (formerly the Christmas Fund for Children). BBC One broadcasts the monthly
"Lifeline" appeal, and "Blue Peter" inspires young people to support charitable work
with its Annual Appeal.
BBC Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England regularly transmit appeals. The
BBC also broadcasts “Red Nose Day” for International Comic Relief and transmits
appeals for the Disasters Emergency Committee.
Policy
Requests for appeals are considered by the BBC’s Appeals Advisory Committee. It can
only consider applications in writing from registered United Kingdom charities whose
work is UK-wide in scope or of national or international significance.
Advisory Committee members come from outside the BBC. They are chosen for their
range of expertise in charity work and appointed for a fixed term by the BBC
Governors.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/
Exercises:
Please write an essay about the general outline of media and entertainment with 500
words to summarize this semester.
108