Category Archives: Chapter 8

When news catches up with my long-term pop culture diet

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Ralph Hanson

I’ve been planning for several days to write a blog entry today about three movies from 1968 that I’ve watched over the last couple of weeks  – 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ice Station Zebra, and The Shoes of the Fisherman. Why … Continue reading →

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Free Kindle download on book about Disney’s John Carter of Mars misfire

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Ralph Hanson

“John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood” about what went wrong with the Disney/Andrew Stanton adaptation of John Carter of Mars is free on Kindle through Thursday, February 7th. Thanks to BoingBoing for the story on this.  

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Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Ralph Hanson

How did LucasFilm (Disney) exec Kathleen Kennedy get JJ Abrams to agree to direct Star Wars VII? That question is answered, along with a great look at how Kennedy went from being a PA to one of the most powerful … Continue reading →

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George Carlin and Movie Trailers

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Ralph Hanson

In my Global Media Literacy class I’ve been showing and talking about several videos I’ve had around for some time. Thought I would share them with you this morning. We’ve been talking about how movie trailers can set an emotional … Continue reading →

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Redbox starts online service.

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

The kiosk DVD rental vendor will now offer a streaming service as well.  Though it won’t be as extensive as that of Netflix.

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Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

What if a student pretended to have a Mexican accent for an entire semester of a speech class, and then revealed his real San Diego accent on the last day of class? What kind of stories spread the fastest on … Continue reading →

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Questions Worth Asking – James Bond Edition

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

Is Skyfall the best James Bond movie so far? Rotten Tomatoes gives it 91 percent fresh critic rating, but some people think it veres a little too close to some recent action thrillers. Which leads to the next question: Is … Continue reading →

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Link Ch. 3 – Disney buys LucasFilm, now owns Star Wars – Is that really such a bad thing?

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

So, Disney has bought out LucasFilm from George Lucas for $4.05 billion in cash and Disney stock and now owns the rights to Star Wars, a partial interest in the Indiana Jones series, Industrial Light and Magic special effects house, Skywalker Sound, … Continue reading →

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Chapter 8 – Movie links

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

Here are the links to the silent films we looked at in class this week. Great very early examples. A great scene from Singing in the Rain that illustrates the difficulty in moving from silent to talking films. Another great … Continue reading →

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Science in the Movies – Right and Wrong

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

Science fiction movies are science fiction, right? But that doesn’t mean movie makers are free to completely ignore reality.  The Smithsonian’s Collage of Arts and Sciences recently ran a pair of entries looking at SciFi and fantasy movies that did a … Continue reading →

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