Book Description
DESTINOS is an innovative beginning Spanish program based on a 26-week television series premiering on PBS in the fall of 1992. The 52 half-hour shows of the series use the powerful appeal of a uniquely Hispanic genre -- the
telenovela (soap opera) -- to make language and culture come alive. The situation and context of each episode introduce students to the basic structures, language functions and vocabulary groups of Spanish that are then presented in the print materials. (Most grammar explanations and exercises are in the workbook/study guides.) This complete one-year course is designed to help students develop communicative proficiency -- listening, speaking, reading, and writing -- as well as cultural awareness in Spanish. The plot of DESTINOS is designed to engage student viewers from the very beginning. A wealthy Mexican patriarch, nearing the end of his life, reveals a secret he has kept from his family for many years. His revelation leads to some important questions that must be answered before he dies. Raquel Rodríguez, a Mexican-American lawyer, embarks on a search for those answers, a search that takes her to Spain, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and back to Mexico. Students and viewers can join in the search -- learning Spanish and about the rich and diversified cultural context in which it is spoken throughout the world.
Customer Reviews:
Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish.......2007-03-29
The format and content of the course is the best I've found. A great way to supplement your learning and practice. We are using it in an informal conversation group to give us a basis for discussion as we view and do our workbook practice.
muy excelente para todos quien quieren aprender el idioma!.......2005-08-04
(translation of title: Very excellent for everyone who wants to learn the language!)
I cannot emphasize enough how beneficial the Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish series is for those who want to learn Spanish, or become more familiar with the language. This was used in a course I took at college, and it felt like we were all travelling along with the main character, Raquel, a lawyer who travels from her home in Los Angeles, to Mexico, Spain, Argentina and Puerto Rico, as part of her work with her clients, a family living in an estate in Mexico City.
The format of this program is styled after the Latin American "novelas" (soap operas). In other words, you will need to carefully watch each episode, to keep up with plot details. But, not to worry, because Raquel reviews what happened with you, at the end of every episode. Each episode is entirely in Spanish, and it gets you thinking in the language, comprehending what is going on very quickly, as well as picking up interesting information specific to the cultures she is immersed in, during her travels. We learn about art, music, dance, food and slang. (Slang is also a very valuable thing to know about, when travelling in Spanish-speaking countries. Words that are acceptable in one country could get you shot in another country---this isn't addressed in the episodes, but that is really important to be aware of)
I am pleased to say that the series is entertaining, educational and very beneficial to students. It makes you WANT to learn, and also, in spite of the melodrama, you will want to stick it out to the last episode to see how things turn out. Muy excelente!
¡Destinos es muy fantastico!.......2002-06-24
I'm using Destinos in a telecourse, and am having lots of fun with it, and even learning some Spanish. My listening skills have improved dramatically, since the video is the main learning tool, which forces one to sharpen up and really listen to what's going on. The workbook that accompanies Destinos is really detailed, making it possible to learn a considerable amount of Spanish grammar on one's own. Overall, the best Spanish textbook I've used yet! ¡Adiós!
Destinos rules!.......2000-03-16
okay, if you don't like Destinos, then you just aren't with the picture. Its the best, its the bomb, and if you don't like it, don't diss it! Go back and do your own little fancy thing! Forget the world around you and sit on your couch!
Encorages Bilingualism and Culture.......1999-07-23
Last May (1999) I finished my fifth year of Spanish. For two and a half years my class used Destinos. After the AP exam, of the 7 Students who took this years exam, 4 non-native "4's" and one non-native "5". I myself and a much stonger speaker now that I am in college. Destinos promoted speaking from day one and it gave real results. I am exceling in my cuture classes and also with different Spanishes (mex, castilano, argentinian) Destinos gives a well rounded look on the Hispanic Culture. I enjoyed following the charaters through their journeys (video series). I highly recommend this text/video series too all.
Book Description
Since its original publication in 1987, Channels of Discourse has provided the most comprehensive consideration of commercial television, drawing on insights provided by the major strands of contemporary criticism: semiotics, narrative theory, reception theory, genre theory, ideological analysis, psychoanalysis, feminist criticism, and British cultural studies.
The second edition features a new introduction by Robert Allen that includes a discussion of the political economy of commercial television. Two new essays have been added—one an assessment of postmodernism and television, the other an analysis of convergence and divergence among the essays—and the original essays have been substantially revised and updated with an international audience in mind. Sixty-one new television stills illustrate the text.
Each essay lays out the general tenets of its particular approach, discusses television as an object of analysis within that critical framework, and provides extended examples of the types of analysis produced by that critical approach. Case studies range from Rescue 911 and Twin Peaks to soap operas, music videos, game shows, talk shows, and commericals.
Channels of Discourse, Reassembled suggests new ways of understanding relationships among television programs, between viewing pleasure and narrative structure, and between the world in front of the television set and that represented on the screen. The collection also addresses the qualities of popular television that traditional aesthetics and quantitative media research have failed to treat satisfactorily, including its seriality, mass production, and extraordinary popularity.
The contributors are Robert C. Allen, Jim Collins, Jane Feuer, John Fiske, Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, James Hay, E. Ann Kaplan, Sarah Kozloff, Ellen Seiter, and Mimi White.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Overview of Media Studies Methodologies.......2002-07-04
In a critical writing course I taught in Spring 2002, I used Channels of Discourse, Reassembled as the core text for the course readings. The many chapters within are written by the best of the best in the fields of media studies and cultural studies, and the methodologies are presented in an easy-to-read manner which is informative and full of examples and case studies. This is an excellent book for media studies students, as its chapters lay out the basic information they should know about many of the methodologies often used in media criticism.
Average customer rating:
- Making complex issues clear
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Making Media: Foundations of Sound and Image Production
Jan Roberts-Breslin
Manufacturer: Focal Press
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Similar Items:
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The People and Process of Film and Video Production: From Low Budget to High Budget
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Writing about the World (with InfoTrac )
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Copywriting for the Electronic Media: A Practical Guide (with InfoTrac®)
ASIN: 024080502X |
Book Description
Making Media takes the media production process and deconstructs it into its most basic components. Students will learn the basic concepts of media production: frame, sound, light, time, motion, sequencing, etc., and be able to apply them to any medium they choose. They will also become well grounded in the digital work environment and the tools required to produce media in the digital age. A CD-ROM, compatible with both Macs and PCs, will provide interactive exercises for each chapter, allowing students to explore the process of media production. The text is heavily illustrated and complete with sidebar discussions of pertinent issues.
Focusing on the building blocks that transcend the boundaries between film, television, multimedia, and the Internet, this highly illustrated and interactive text stresses the commonalities of various types of media and prepares the student to succeed within a wide range of disciplines.
*Prepares students to move with ease into any number of media disciplines - film, video, photography, audio, multimedia
*Includes companion CD-ROM with interactive exercises
*Highly illustrated throughout
Customer Reviews:
Making complex issues clear.......2004-12-24
This book has been a real life saver for me on my first semester at graduate school. The other media books I had to read were overwhelming with never ending details and jargon language. Roberts- Breslin's book explains everything plainly from start to finish. She has an uncanny ability to simplify extremely complex matters. Even with no prior knowledge of the technical aspects of media making I now have a solid foundation.
The main terms are bolded, and also listed in the end so you can read the book beginning to end or just look up specific topics. The attached CD is a great addition as it visually illustrates concepts that are difficult to explain verbally, such as the different camera movement (What is the difference between the pan and truck movement?) or the phi phenomenon.
Another great thing about the book is the practical tips it gives to a beginner. Logging all my footage, for example, would have never accrued to me, but it made editing so much more manageable and must have saved me hours upon hours.
Book Description
|
CCNA Video Mentor provides more than two hours of personal visual instruction covering these topics:
CCNA Basics
1. Navigating the Router/Switch Command Line Interface
2. Router Configuration and Managing Configuration Files
LAN Switching
3. Switch Basics: Learning, Forwarding/Filtering, and Interface settings
4. Configuring VLANs
Basic Routing
5. Static and Connected Routes
6. RIPv1 Configuration
7. RIPv1 with Split Horizon, Route Poisoning, and Poison Reverse
Advanced Routing
8. Single-Area OSPF Configuration
9. EIGRP Configuration and Operation
10. NAT Overload (PAT)
WAN
11. PPP and CHAP Configuration
Security
12. Access Lists
CCNA Video Mentor is a unique video product that provides you with more than two hours of personal visual instruction from best-selling author and instructor Wendell Odom. In the 12 videos presented on the CD-ROM, Wendell walks you through common Cisco router and switch configuration topics.
Designed to develop and enhance hands-on skills, each 10-15 minute video covers essential configuration tasks, including navigating router and switch CLI, router configuration, managing configuration files, configuring Virtual LANs, static and connected routes, RIPv1 configuration, RIPv1 with split horizon, route poisoning and poison reverse, single-area OSPF configuration, EIGRP configuration, Network Address Translation overload, Point-to-Point Protocol and Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol configuration, and configuring access lists.
The videos contained in this package consist of animation, lab diagrams, and video captures of router and switch command entry and output. Wendell provides audio instruction throughout on how to configure various features and offers unique tips and shortcuts that truly make learning easy.
|
Customer Reviews:
A great supplement to self study books .......2006-12-12
I have never been a big fan of the video instruction products out there, advertised to help us study for professional certifications. Most of the ones I've seen consisted of bad graphics, with someone reading - in a boring monotone - the same book that I could have read to myself much faster. So I wasn't expecting much when I recently received the CCNA Video Mentor from Cisco Press. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with this package.
The author - or should I call him the instructor, Wendell Odom, has a pleasant enough voice. Instead of the usual monotone, he actually uses emotion and inflection in his voice when making his points! I never once felt like reaching for a pillow. More importantly, he leaves out the redundant boilerplate and gets right to the subject.
I started, of course, with the introduction, where he explains what you will see on the screen. It's probably good for newbies to go through this, especially if you are not familiar with the look and feel of the Cisco IOS command line, and switching between different routers and switches in a lab environment. It also covers the screen setting and other useful information on using the video. Video Mentor comes with a thin but useful companion manual. It includes the network topology used in each lab, the IP addresses, and screenshots of the beginning and ending device configurations. If you've ever spent time putting Post-Its on the pages of a book so you could flip back and forth to view the lab, you'll appreciate this. It is also available on the CD as a PDF.
Next, I decided to skip ahead to two of the more complicated sections, NAT and ACLs, and see how well Odom handled the complicated stuff. I was very happy to see that the first thing Odom did was explain the terminology. I can't tell you how many times I've read a book where the author uses a new term in chapter 3, but doesn't explain it till chapter 7! Common sense does still exist! He explained the terms he was going to use before using them! Most important though, is the content and how well it is explained. Odom's use of graphics and tables along with his corresponding narrative, explained the concepts simply and accurately. He switches between graphics showing what he is going to do, and the router command line interface (CLI), where he shows the commands used and the results. In both of these chapters, pretty complicated subjects are explained and demonstrated with just enough theory so that you understand the concept, and real world configurations, so that you can actually learn something useful. I was satisfied enough that I went back to the beginning and went through the entire course.
I think Video Mentor is a very good compliment to other self study courses, especially if you don't have regular access to your own routers and switches. As Odom points out, this is not a stand alone course that will prepare you for the CCNA exam. It is more of a supplement to other books, and even refers to the corresponding chapters of other Cisco Press books for each lab. If you've ever read something in a CCNA course book and said, "I kind of get it, if I could just get one or two questions answered...," then get this course. Get the theory from the books, and then let Wendell Odom show you what the theory does in practice. Okay Wendell, let's see what you can do with a CCNP course...
CCNA Video Mentor - A valuable CCNA Prep Resource.......2006-11-05
As an instructor of the Cisco Networking Academy, teaching the CCNA curriculum, I'm always looking for supplemental materials to help my students pursue their CCNA certification. I've been waiting for a long time for somebody to author and release an "instructor in a box" type of product, complete with video, lecture, slideshow material, as well as professionally-demonstrated labs - with this product, I got two out of the three, so I guess that's pretty good. I demonstrated some of the content from the CCNA Video Mentor to a few of my students, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. They found that the lecture was done at an appropriate pace, with an appropriate level of detail. Many of them immediately went out and purchased the product for themselves. From my perspective, the lab demonstrations performed by the authors are by far the BEST I have ever seen. I'm tired of simulations of this or that, and seeing the authors perform the configuration in real equipment was a major PLUS. The ability to review the material over at your own pace is an invaluable resource to those seeking CCNA certification. I would definitely recommend this product to anybody seeking the CCNA track, but I still think the name "Video Mentor" is a little misleading --- but still a very good product nonetheless.
A great resource for the CCNA exam.......2006-10-16
The days of passing the CCNA exam using just a single exam preparation guide are over. The new improved CCNA exam requires a certain level of understanding and confidence running router/switch commands from the command line interface. Exam questions include multiple-choice single answer, multiple-choice multiple answers, drag and drop, fill in the blanks, testlets, simlets and simulations. The simulation exams are usually configuration tasks of some sort.
Wendell Odom's CCNA Video Mentor focuses primarily on the configuration tasks of the CCNA exam. These tasks are the major implementation and operation topics on the 640-801 exam. The Cisco Video Mentor package consists of a CD ROM and a lab manual. The CD has 12 labs ranging from basic router and swich configuration and configuration file management to more advanced topics such as RIP, single and multi-area OSPF, EIGRP, NAT and access lists. The lab manual also exists as pdf files on the CD in case the printed lab manual gets lost. The CD runs on both PC and Mac.
I have used many CBT (computer based training) packages from different vendors and CVM compares favorably with all of them. Wendell Odom gives an excellent running commentary as he goes through the objectives of each lab, explaining the lab scenario and topology and then going through the lab configurations, explaining the commands and the output from each command. I found the NAT overload lab especially helpful.
The CVM is a great CCNA exam preparation tool, but should be used in conjunction with a good exam guide(ICND and INTRO) as it addresses very specific topics.
This is another winner by Wendell Odom. I give this resource 5 stars.
An essential resource for your CCNA exam preparation!.......2006-10-10
An essential resource for your CCNA exam preparation! Published by Cisco Press, The CCNA Video Mentor, ISBN 1-58720-168-2, by Wendell Odom, provides trainees with over two hours of personal instruction on the following topics: CCNA Basics, LAN switching, Basic routing, Advanced routing, WAN and Security.
The author, Wendell Odom, is known for being a best-selling author and instructor. This material is another quality product from Mr. Odom. It includes 12 video labs that are easy to follow. The packaging includes the CD and a professional printed lab manual. There are no pre-installation requirements or setup procedures that need to be applied. The product and video instruction is solely conducted from the included CD-ROM.
The main menu is easy to navigate and very straight forward. The CCNA candidate can start right away with either basic router and switch commands or re-enforce more difficult VLAN and Access List methods. The introductory video explains the layout of the CCNA Video Mentor (CVM). The reader will gain useful information from reviewing this video from the beginning. The second option on the main menu is the Video Labs. Each video includes the lab scenario with explanations and diagrams, demonstration of the Client Interface Commands used to implement and verify a particular router or switch feature in the lab network and ongoing commentary from the author. The third choice on the main menu is the Printable PDF option. The PDF's contain the same content that is included in the pre-printed lab manual that accompanies the product. I found this option useful for following the labs, as well as, for making notes before, during and after conducting the lab scenarios.
The labs included in the product re-enforce the twelve most important objectives of the CCNA Exam. They are as follows:
Lab 1: Navigating a Router/Switch Command-Line Interface
Lab 2: Router Configuration and Managing Configuration Files
Lab 3: Switch Basics: Learning, Forwarding/Filtering, and Interface Settings
Lab 4: Configuring VLANS
Lab 5: Static and Connected Routes
Lab 6: RIP V1 Configuration
Lab 7: RIP V1 with Split Horizon, Route Poisoning, and Poison Reverse
Lab 8: Single-Area and Multiarea OSPF Configuration
Lab 9: EIGRP Configuration and Operation
Lab 10: NAT Overload (PAT)
Lab 11: PPP and CHAP Configuration
Lab 12: Access Lists
Although this is a great resource for studying for the CCNA exam(s), 640-821 (Intro), 640-811 (ICND) or 640-801 (CCNA), this should not be the only information utilized. There are several other materials that the CCNA candidate should start with, such as, CCNA Intro Exam Certification Guide (CCNA Self-Study, 640-821, and 640-801), ISBN: 1-58720-094-5. Thereafter, the CVM will be are valuable asset to ensure your CCNA exam success! It would be great if this product would be included in the aforementioned certification guide, based on this, I give this material 4 out of 5 stars.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book for POTC fans!!!.......2007-08-04
This book is very informative and so colorful! The pictures are incredible and it's very entertaining to read the actors' comments on their characters and the trilogy. I'm very glad that I invested the money! Any POTC fan who loves to read about the back stories behind the characters and the storyline will LOVE this!!! I highly recommend this one!
Behind the scenes mith Jerry Bruckheimer from Pirates of the Caribbean.......2007-07-15
For every Pirates movie fan a must have. The Characters talking about things that happened during filming. You get to know them better by reading this, things that you never have read before in any other interview in magazines or on sites. Also very nice phatography by Jerry Bruckheimer. Pictures only published in this book. Whene you are reading this you get great respect for all those people who are working behind the scenes. Then you realise how huge the work is to build a set. You find very much information about how the movie comes to that what we see on the whitescreen. Enormous what a work is done to deliver these three movies for us to see. You read who created the final line "bring me that horizon" of the first movie.
Bring Me That Horizon: the Making of Pirates of the Caribbean.......2007-07-13
This is a great book and well worth the cost. The history of the making of all three movies is very interesting and the pictures are great. I highly recommend this book for any fan of the Pirates trilogy.
The Making of POTC.......2007-07-04
What a great book! The inside scoop on everything POTC -- from interviews with the cast to special effects, costumes, makeup and film locations. A must for any POTC fan!
pirates of the caribbean's secrets!!!.......2007-06-07
With all the dvd's and this book,i know and understand everything on the trilogy.If you like the making of,the secrets,the make-up and all the characters of pirates of the caribbean.......you have to get this book now.
Average customer rating:
- Those who like this book really like it, those who don't really hate it
- Poor book, badly disjointed, rehashing scandals most people already know about
- I read this book before because it was WRITTEN before...
- The Hollywood Book of Scandals
- Debbie Davis could only like this book.
|
The Hollywood Book of Scandals : The Shocking, Often Disgraceful Deeds and Affairs of Over 100 American Movie and TV Idols
James Robert Parish , and
James Parish
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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The Hollywood Book of Death : The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More than 125 American Movie and TV Idols
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Hollywood Babylon: The Legendary Underground Classic of Hollywood's Darkest and Best Kept Secrets
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The Hollywood Book of Love : From True Romance and Blushing Brides to Tawdry Trysts and Femme Fatales
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Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? Fitting Ends and Final Resting Places of the Famous, Infamous, and Noteworthy
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Cut!: Hollywood Murders, Accidents, and Other Tragedies
ASIN: 0071421890 |
Book Description
Popular cult author and show business insider James Parish exposes the scandals that rocked Tinseltown
Nothing intrigues the public more than a good, juicy scandal. Add a famous Hollywood star or two to the mix and the nation is hooked. The Hollywood Book of Scandals provides the full account of 32 big, provocative scandals—complete with all the sexy, scintillating, and often shocking details. Written by veteran show business chronicler James Robert Parish, this book dishes the full dirt on:
- Bob Crane’s mysterious death
- Elizabeth Taylor’s seduction of Eddie Fisher
- Robert Mitchum’s arrest for drug possession
- Judy Garland’s public meltdown
- Errol Flynn’s trial for statutory rape
- Winona Ryder’s shoplifting trial
More than 100 black-and-white celebrity photos offer readers a close-up look at the leading players in these sordid dramas.
Customer Reviews:
Those who like this book really like it, those who don't really hate it.......2007-07-12
There's not much space, it seems, for in-betweens, but place me firmly in the "like" camp, especially since I've talked up this book favorably in reviews of several other Hollywood-gossip books here on Amazon. I will say I'm also in Parish's corner. I haven't read a _bad_ book from him yet, IMO. His "Hollywood Book Of..." series specializes in relatively short, punchy articles that are well-researched (certainly in comparison to some other books in this genre), evenhanded and crisply written. While the photos are not always anything special (his series on actresses features much better selections of pictures), they're also usually well-chosen and a lot less sensationalistic than, say, _Hollywood Babylon's_ selections.
Another reviewer questioned why Cary Grant's rooming with Randolph Scott should even be considered a scandal in 2007, which misses the point. It's not that it's not scandalous now, in 2007; the point is how it was regarded _back then_. If Parish doesn't make it clear in that particular instance, he generally does elsewhere in the book (for instance, in his analysis of the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, where it was clear both at the time and now that Arbuckle was a railroaded, innocent man; in fact, Parish explodes the myth of Virginia Rappe's innocence and demonstrates that key (false) testimony was given by a friend of Rappe's who had an axe of her own to grind).
No book is perfect, though, and my own quibble is that Parish covers some material that's already been gone over in other books in the present series, while leaving out other material that clearly deserves inclusion. Specifically, I'm thinking of his section on the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow breakup, which was already discussed at length in "The Hollywood Book of Breakups". The space devoted to that rehash could have been used, instead, to talk about - for instance - the David Begelman check-forgery scandal (where actor Robert Stack discovered his name signed to a check he didn't draw or cash, which was ultimately traced to then-studio head Begelman).
All in all, though, I have no hesitation in recommending this book.
Poor book, badly disjointed, rehashing scandals most people already know about.......2007-03-24
I found this book to be very disjointed, badly organized, and even poorly written. The list of "scandals" is the same old list of tired stories, innuendo, and might-have-beens that every movie fan and scandal fan likely knows about already. Worse, some of the occurrences Parish lists aren't really even scandals - the fact that Robert Blake was tried for his wife's murder may be a scandal, but in 2007 is the fact that Cary Grant shared a house with a fellow male star even slightly scandalous? The only scandal is in those who judged him, one way or the other.
In addition, this book could have benefited from thorough copy editing and fact-checking. There are many minor and major factual errors and, in addition, many typos and grammatical errors.
I don't recommend this book.
I read this book before because it was WRITTEN before..........2006-09-04
If you have read the Hollywood Babylon books, then there is really no need to read this one. It is a rehash of what was in those books.
The only reason you might want to read this one is to save yourself reading the other two or maybe you have no clue at all about these scandals and want to catch up.
I found the book hard to follow in general. Overall I can't tell if this was a repeat by intention or what. I like John Robert Parish too, so this is no slam on him. I just don't get the point, but he isn't the first guy to so something over.
The Hollywood Book of Scandals.......2006-07-29
The scandals themselves were interesting however I found the book hard to read. Some of the information was repetitive from chapter to chapter and it was not well written. I was looking for something that I could just pick up an read a story at a time and this was not the book for that.
Debbie Davis could only like this book........2006-06-24
Only a short bus rider like Debbie davis could love this book.This book is the second book in a row this parish character wrote and its boring an old news from the old tabloids.Unless you have lived under the dirt there is nothing new here. Just an obvious attempt to make money. This has been done much better by better writers like Bob Thomas and James bacon and Earl Wilson!!!!- Note- one reviwer wrote Don Johnston of Beach Boys wrote I write the songs. His name is Bruce dear.
Book Description
Since the early 1990s, while mainland China’s state-owned movie studios have struggled with financial and ideological constraints, an exciting alternative cinema has developed. Dubbed the âUrban Generation,â this new cinema is driven by young filmmakers who emerged in the shadow of the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989. What unites diverse directors under the âUrban Generationâ rubric is their creative engagement with the wrenching economic and social transformations underway in China. Urban Generation filmmakers are vanguard interpreters of the confusion and anxiety triggered by the massive urbanization of contemporary China. This collection brings together some of the most recent original research on this emerging cinema and its relationship to Chinese society.
The contributors analyze the historical and social conditions that gave rise to the Urban Generation, its aesthetic innovation, and its ambivalent relationship to China’s mainstream film industry and the international film market. Focusing attention on the Urban Generation’s sense of social urgency, its documentary impulses, and its representations of gender and sexuality, the contributors highlight the characters who populate this new urban cinemaâordinary and marginalized city dwellers including aimless bohemians, petty thieves, prostitutes, postal workers, taxi drivers, migrant workersâand the fact that these âfloating urban subjectsâ are often portrayed by non-professional actors. Some essays concentrate on specific films (such as Shower and Suzhou River) or filmmakers (including Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yuan), while others survey broader concerns. Together the thirteen essays in this collection give a multifaceted account of a significant, ongoing cinematic and cultural phenomenon.
Contributors. Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Shuqin Cui, Linda Chiu-han Lai, Charles Leary, Sheldon H. Lu, Jason McGrath, Augusta Palmer, Bérénice Reynaud, Yaohua Shi, Yingjin Zhang, Zhang Zhen, Xueping Zhong
Book Description
"Get a life," William Shatner told Star Trek fans. Yet, as
Textual Poachers argues, fans already have a "life," a complex subculture which draws its resources from commercial culture while also reworking them to serve alternative interests. Rejecting stereotypes of fans as cultural dupes, social misfits, and mindless consumers, Jenkins represents media fans as active producers and skilled manipulators of program meanings, as nomadic poachers constructing their own culture from borrowed materials, as an alternative social community defined through its cultural preferences and consumption practices.
Written from an insider's perspective and providing vivid examples from fan artifacts,
Textual Poachers offers an ethnographic account of the media fan community, its interpretive strategies, its social institutions and cultural practices, and its troubled relationship to the mass media and consumer capitalism. Drawing on the work of Michel de Ceteau, Jenkins shows how fans of Star Trek, Blake's 7, The Professionals, Beauty and the Beast, Starsky and Hutch, Alien Nation, Twin Peaks, and other popular programs exploit these cultural materials as the basis for their stories, songs, videos, and social interactions.
Addressing both academics and fans, Jenkins builds a powerful case for the richness of fan culture as a popular response to the mass media and as a challenge to the producers' attempts to regulate textual meanings.
Textual Poachers guides readers through difficult questions about popular consumption, genre, gender, sexuality, and interpretation, documenting practices and processes which test and challenge basic assumptions of contemporary media theory.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding Analysis of the Culture of Television Fandom.......2004-10-12
Culture studies has been one of the most provocative and controversial areas of investigation in the social sciences during the last score years or so. Using the tools of postmodern analysis of texts, and the deconstruction of ideas, institutions, and forms scholars have reshaped our understanding of everything from the mundane to subjects acknowledged by all as critical to our modern society. In this important book Henry Jenkins turns his considerable analytic skills on the role of television fans in adopting and making their own several important series and movies. Jenkins, on the faculty of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, writes both as a scholar and a fan fully immersed in the culture that produces conventions and a wide range of artistic products associated with television.
"Textual Poachers" emphasizes how fans of various television shows and movies have embraced the characters and "universe" of the shows and made them their own. In most cases they participate in the continuing saga of the characters of the story by fashioning their own narratives based on the series. Be far the most famous of these participatory series is "Star Trek," which was the first series to attract this type of fan following, and still the largest of all of them. It has spawned not only multi and varied clubs for those interested in the ideals of the series, but also inspired a range of creative responses in art, literature, costume, engineering, erotica, music, and drama. In so doing, those that are a part of the fan culture of the series emphasize the interplay of the crew "family" aboard the Star Ship Enterprise, the ideals of the United Federation of Planets, and the challenges of moving beyond the humdrum of existence on Earth to a more exciting and rewarding life within the broader cosmos. The ranges of responses are almost as broad as the number of people involved, and Henry Jackson makes clear that all of those responses are legitimate in the "universe" of fandom.
Jenkins writes at length about the responses of fans to several television programs beyond the famous "Star Trek" phenomenon. These include "Alien Nation" (1989-1990), "Dr. Who," (1963- ), "Magnum, P.I." (1980-1988); "The Man from Uncle" (1964-1968), "Remington Steele" (1982-1987), "Simon and Simon" (1981-1988), "Twin Peaks" (1990-1991), and others. But the series fans that Jenkins spends the most time analyzing are those attracted to "Beauty and the Beast" (1987-1990). The romance between Catherine (Linda Hamilton) and Vincent (Ron Perlman) captured the imagination of a larger number of viewers and they used that on-screen relationship as the cultural materials from which they created a vast array of "stories, songs, videos, and social interactions." It proved a powerful inspiration for enormously romantic depictions.
Henry Jenkins also draws attention to the fact that the vast majority of those a part of this fandom, are white, middle-class women seeking something more than they experience in their everyday lives. They seem drawn to television series with compelling characters interacting in a sophisticated manner. They emphasize relationships and tend to soft-pedal action and adventure in their formulations. At sum they seem to be creating through their efforts a place of refuge, acceptance, and intimacy for themselves and their co-participants. This is captured well in a song, "In My Weekend-Only World," written by T.J. Burnside Clapp to express her love of the fan conventions that she attends:
"In an hour of make-believe
In these warm convention halls
My mind is free to think
And feels so deeply
An intimacy never found
Inside their silent walls
In a year or more
Of what they call reality.
In my weekend-only world,
That they call make-believe,
Are those who share
The visions that I see.
In their real-time life
That they tell me is real,
The things they care about
Aren't real to me." (p. 277)
Henry Jenkins' study is a superb analysis that will change the perspective all who read it about the fan culture and its place in modern society. It is difficult not to emerge from reading this book without a sense of wonder about the talented individuals who are a part of this fan culture and how they seek to live their lives on their own terms, in the process creating for themselves idealized "universes" more like those they glimpsed in the television fictions that they embrace.
Still the best account of fan culture and fan use of texts.......2001-07-07
This is a gem of a book. Jenkins combines an "insider's" understanding of media fandom with serious, well-grounded scholarship to provide one of the few scholarly works on this subject which is not riddled with unacknowledged biases or factual errors (you know, the sort of misrepresentations of series content which suggest that the scholar didn't think enough of the subject matter or their fan informants to bother to get it right). As someone who was practically raised by classic "Star Trek" re-runs and who continues to find inspiration and healing in many science fiction TV programs -- and who hopes to continue to do scholarly research in this field -- I would hold Jenkins up as a model to other scholars. The major drawback of this volume is that it is now almost ten years old. There have been many wonderful series with growing fan cultures of their own (including the rise of such female heroes as "Xena" and "Buffy") since TEXTUAL POACHERS was written, but Jenkins provides a methodology and a model which can still help to interpret these more recent phenomena. Read this, and enjoy.
Dining at the Television Buffet.......1999-12-05
Jenkins starts by dispelling the stereotype of the media fan as teenaged geek in Spock ears, and explores the very real and dynamic interactions between fans and their media. He has a clear understanding of the subject and a good relationship with the people whose culture he describes, as well as a readable and intelligent style of writing. The book is not only interesting but also fun to read.
Excellent resource for fan fiction authors and fans.......1999-10-28
While dated, and slightly insular, this text is an excellent introduction to the sub-culture of fanzines and fan fiction. While many of the current generation of fans seem to believe fan fiction was born online around 1994, they should be surprised and hopefully pleased to discover the rich (off-line) history of the phenomenon, dating all the way back to the pulp magazines of the 1930s.
Book Description
Digital video cameras have become more affordable and reliable than ever, and with the help of former television producer, editor, and cameraman Colin Barret, new owners of this hot technology can produce a memorable video right at home. Barret offers the fruits of his expertise in a thorough, practical introduction that covers it all. In addition to advice on choosing a camcorder and tips on getting the most out of its features, illustrated tutorials explain how to shoot creatively and master techniques such as point-of-view, close-ups, cutaway shots, and effective lighting. Spice up the sound by incorporating audio tracks, and find out how to create special effects. There's even a detailed description of how to set up a fully functional home editing suite.
Customer Reviews:
For anyone who wants to start using a video camera.......2007-09-13
I would recommend this book as a start here before anything else. Even though you'de have had a camera for months and years but just shoot movies where the ones you share it with are happy to get away from it. Buy it, it teaches you in very in an easy non jargon way how to do things looking good and impress the audence. It is good when people ask for a copy after they've seen the movie. And you hear they wantch it over and over. I love this book it is brilliant.
So-so and a little dated.......2007-08-05
I was assigned this book as the text for an intro to digital video grad class. The book was okay, but not especially impressive. It was redundant in some places and some of the information seemed dated. It's a very general book, so it's appropriate for a class where the instructor doesn't know what kinds of cameras or editing programs students will use.
However, if you're looking for a book to help you with the program and camera you have, you can probably find something more specific to your situation.
The title is a bit of a misnomer as well. There are no step-by-step guides or lessons in the book.
It's not a bad book, but it's not great either.
Nice Book..........2007-06-30
I liked the presentation, organization and the the printing of the book wich I consider is of the highest quality, It also has good color ilustrations and photos, I didn't find errors of any kind. But even when I'm a beginner videographer, I consider the information contained in the book is very general and the book is oriented to explain that "there are easy ways of making things..., that you can use several good applications available in the market for you..." But I would have liked the book explained: "ways of making... and the steps for finishing your projects.." I mean the book lacks of "How to...or the step by step for beginners". But in general is a good book. Please be aware of that...So you won't be disapointed.
Excellent for today's high quality digital video .......2007-06-25
I'm a semi-pro photographer of stills, based in film, now dSLR's and so I understand fairly well photographic considerations in acquiring good images! This book will easily help beginners and existing still photographers bridge the gap into Digital Video capture. Going beyond just understanding the latest advances in digital camcorders, the book guides you through actual processes of capturing good story-telling footage, things that we see in broadcast everyday, but probably don't give much of a thought as to how video was captures, sequenced and edited. I was really looking for such a guide as a starting place as i just purchased a Sony HDR-HC7 mini-DV camcorder ... and needed to know basic camera operation, as well as shooting techniques and video editing techniques. The book is VERY well laid out, simple to read and find headings and TIPS as needed - I think I'll pull from this volume a great deal of useful information and wish to thank the author!
Excellent book to learn Video Photography without the jargon.......2006-05-20
After an extensive research I tried my luck and bought this book (as I could not preview the content), and I am really impressed with it. This is the perfect book for someone who really wants to learn video photography, as opposed to just learning to buy the greatest gadget and press the right buttons, thereby capturing worthless video.
I am an advanced amateur photographer for the last 15 years, and I know that taking good photo is 90% work of the mind - finding out the perfect frame and the perfect moment to shoot a great photograph, and 10% work of the hand to use the camera. Most of the other Digital Video books focus mostly on the later 10% aspect. Not this book - It teaches you extensively what to look for in a good video and how to get them.
The book is divided into 5 sections:-
- What you need to know about your camcorder
- Step-by-step shooting techniques
- How to shoot great home movies
- Step-by-step digital video-editing techniques
- Showing and sharing your movies
The sections about "shooting techniques" and "great home movies" are the largest in this book, and that's what I liked. The author is a professional in this field (former television producer, editor and cameraman), unlike authors of other books who are either wannabe movie producers or small movie makers. The other books instruct you to write down a storyboard on paper which is not feasible in a vacation movie or capturing unpredictable activities of your newborn. Here you will learn how to think so that you can create a great story on the fly.
This book is filled with lots of tips used by professionals, one good example is: not to use the zoom during shooting. Most professional productions do not contain zooming sequence. They take a wide angle shot to show the background, then next shot they show a close up of the subject, the zooming being done off-camera. Lots of zooming sequence is the typical sign of a poor home video.
On the whole, this is a perfect book to study before diving into the world of serious video photography.
Book Description
American television embodies a paradox: it is a privately owned and operated public communications network that most citizens are unable to participate in except as passive specators. Television creates an image of community while preventing the formation of actual social ties because behind its simulated exchange of opinions lies a highly centralized corporate structure that is profoundly antidemocratic. In Feedback, David Joselit describes the privatized public sphere of television and recounts the tactics developed by artists and media activists in the 1960s and 1970s to break open its closed circuit.
The figures whose work Joselit examines--among them Nam June Paik, Dan Graham, Joan Jonas, Abbie Hoffman, Andy Warhol, and Melvin Van Peebles--staged political interventions within the space of television. Joselit identifies three kinds of such image-events: feedback, which can be both disabling noise and rational response--as when Abbie Hoffman hijacked television time for the Yippies with flamboyant stunts directed to the media; the image-virus, which proliferates parasitically, invading, transforming, and even blocking systems--as in Nam June Paik's synthesized videotapes and installations; and the avatar, a quasi-fictional form of identity available to anyone, which can function as a political actor--as in Melvin Van Peebles's invention of Sweet Sweetback, an African-American hero who appealed to a broad audience and influenced styles of Black Power activism. These strategies, writes Joselit, remain valuable today in a world where the overlapping information circuits of television and the Internet offer different opportunities for democratic participation.
In Feedback, Joselit analyzes such midcentury image-events using the procedures and categories of art history. The trope of figure/ground reversal, for instance, is used to assess acts of representation in a variety of media--including the medium of politics. In a televisual world, Joselit argues, where democracy is conducted through images, art history has the capacity to become a political science.
Books:
- Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish (Student Edition)
- Digital Moviemaking (with InfoTrac) (Wadsworth Series in Broadcast and Production)
- Digital Rights Management: Protecting and Monetizing Content (NAB Executive Technology Briefings)
- Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
- Einstein: His Life and Universe
- Elle Decor: The Grand Book of French Style
- Essential Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) (Microsoft .NET Development Series)
- Feedback: Television against Democracy (October Books)
- Feedback: Television against Democracy (October Books)
- Film Directing: Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen (Michael Wiese Productions)
Books Index
Books Home
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Workbook/Study Guide I (Lessons 1-26) to accompany Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish
Workbook/Study Guide II (Lessons 27-52) to accompany Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish
Workbook/Studyguide Vol. 1 fuw Destinos
Destinos: Workbook/Study Guide 1
Destinos, Part A: Lessons 1-26, Student Audio CD Program
