IDC 4O - Media Studies

     Unsurprisingly, Batman has a lot going for him when it comes to versatility. A lot of the elements of Batman's character make him incredibly effective in most environments, from the goofy 60s TV show to the original comics to the grittier world of the Arkham video games and the Christopher Nolan trilogy. I think this is because at his core, Batman is a very simple character; it only takes a few characteristics to make Batman recognizably Batman. If his name is Bruce Wayne, his parents died when he was young, he's rich and he dresses up like a bat to fight crime, then yup, he's Batman! Everything else is up for debate. Trust me, Batman's parents die. They won't let you forget that.      Although there are many other elements that make Batman an icon, different interpretations of his character will use them more or less depending on their target audience. One of the best examples of this is The Boy Wonder, Robin. Much like his original ...

     The suspension of disbelief is something that I find incredibly important when it comes to storytelling. Any fictional universe, realistic or not, needs to have it's own idea of what can and cannot happen within its world. With this recent trend of superhero movies taking place in more and more realistic settings, I actually find the stories themselves becoming less engaging and increasingly un realistic in their own contexts.      Superheroes, by definition, are a thing of fantasy. After all, if Superman couldn't fly, if the Flash couldn't run, and if Spider-Man couldn't sling webs, then they wouldn't be superheroes at all. Superheroes always have the exaggerated, extraordinary powers that intentionally subvert what is real...that's kind of the point. So to put these characters in situations where they have to deal with the trauma of every incident, explain away the unrealistic aspects of their worlds with pseudoscientific justifications or d...

     Roald Dahl's 1964 novel  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory seems to be a story that demands to be put to film. Two completely separate adaptions of this book were put to the big screen 34 years apart, before and during the age of the blockbuster. 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and 2005's Charlie & the Chocolate Factory both try to cater to the audiences of their times, and as a result end up being two remarkably different films. NOTE: For the purposes of this blog I will be treating Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a remake/reboot to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory even though they are both technically reiterations of the same book. This just makes it easier to compare them. Willy Wonka... (1971, left) and Charlie ... (2005, right)      Both of these films take a very different approach to the original source material;   while Charlie...  sticks closer to the events of the novel and as a result...

by Cameron Mady "Unedited Footage of a Bear" Released December 16 2014 The entire video. **NOTE*** I don't know why the beginning is in tiny text. I've changed it back but it keeps switching to the small text again.       "Unedited Footage of a Bear" is a short video from Adult Swim that comments on the manipulative and intrusive nature of advertisements in modern culture. Consumers fall victim to the empty promises of large corporations and are left to deal with the consequences. People are far too willing to trust the media, and forget that there is almost always an ulterior motive to media production; this could be profit, power, or persuasion. The video claims that advertisements are not for the benefit of the consumer, but rather for the benefit of the company that releases its corrupted messages to the public. "Claridryl targets where yo u're most vulnerable, acts immediately, and lasts indefinitely"     The first ...