Book categories

Basics of Stage Combat

Single Sword

by Andrew Ashenden

2012

The single sword is the most-used weapon on both stage and screen. The techniques used in single sword stage combat are derived from real combative methods used historically, and modified for acting. Basics of Stage Combat: Single Sword, the second in a series, instructs the reader about the foundations of safe, skillful single sword use in theater, film, and television. Actors both wishing to refresh their old skills and those new to stage combat will learn how to parry with a sword, move with a sword, and perfect the various movements required of them to perform a safe and realistic stage combat scene. Basics of Stage Combat: Single Sword will also help drama students who are taking stage combat classes or stage combat exams gain the confidence to embrace the complexities of working wit...

The Legacy of the Wisecrack

Stand-up Comedy as the Great American Literary Form

by Eddie Tafoya

2009

Despite the claim of many a Borscht Belt comic that he is a practitioner of "the world's second-oldest professsion," stand-up comedy is a young and distinctly American literary form. It was not until the last decades of the nineteenth century when, enabled by unprecedented prosperity and the right to free expression, that monologists began appearing in American vaudeville halls. Yet even though it has since become an entertainment industry mainstay, stand-up comedy has received precious little scholarly attention. The Legacy of the Wisecrack: Stand-up Comedy as the Great American Literary Form looks at the theory of stand-up comedy, its literary dimensions, and its distinctly American qualities as it provides a detailed history of the forces that shaped it. The study concludes with a...

A Gaffer's Perspective on Independent Filmmaking

Practices, Techniques, and Tricks of the Trade Revealed

by Rick M. Lord

2011

In today's digital age, thousands and thousands of independent filmmakers are challenging Hollywood's elite, best-of-the-best film producers. A Gaffer's Perspective on Independent Filmmaking examines why so many first-time independent film productions are doomed to failure before the first day of principal photography ever begins. Learning what dooms a production is only half of the process; teaching successful practices and techniques, while revealing many of the tricks of the trade used by the big productions, is the other half. With examples of actual productions gone awry, combined with "should haves," this book is a "must have" for a successful filmmaking experience.

Life, Myth, and the American Family Unreeling

The Spiritual Significance of Movies for the 20th Century

by Jeffry John Stein

2005

This book is about what movies do for us. It is about how movies exhibit the contradictions, truths, and fantasies surrounding our bedrock American beliefs in things held sacred, including, in this case, our creed of family. It is about why we again and again attend the dark universal tabernacles in which these sermons are offered. The depth of analysis offered here will also bring new insights to those concerned with parenting issues, self understanding, and media consciousness — all increasingly relevant areas of concern in contemporary life. And, for those interested in telling stories that will truly “move” the rest of us, this book will serve as a secret doorway to the inner sanctum of human characters responding to the places and times of their lives. Finally, this book will bring ...

Basics of Stage Combat

Unarmed

by Andrew Ashenden

2012

This book, the first in a series, is an introduction to the basics of stage combat in the area of unarmed combat. It holds enough information to give students an understanding of the subject, as well as how to perform some of the more simple "tricks of the trade." The importance of the safety involved in performing stage combat is also discussed. Book two, Basics of Stage Combat: Single Sword, instructs the reader about the foundations of safe, skillful single sword use in theater, film, and television. Actors both wishing to refresh their old skills and those new to stage combat will learn how to parry with a sword, move with a sword, and perfect the various movements required of them to perform a safe and realistic stage combat scene. Basics of Stage Combat: Single Sword will also he...

Working the Affect Shift

Latina Service Workers in U.S. Film

by Steve Nava

2011

Working the Affect Shift explores the changing U.S. racial and political economic context of Latina working-class film and media images, and how Ethnic, Cultural, Film, and Feminist Studies have contributed to sociologically understanding them. We can rethink our orientation to so-called “stereotypes” by focusing on our forward-looking, positive neoliberal ideology as related to our "national forgetting of collective racial injury." Each film and media image analyzed herein offers an example of how the fraught relational matrices of race, class, gender, and sexual identities continue to shape national politics despite our national commitment (on the political Right and Left) to "multiculturalism." Using Latina service workers as examples, this volume offers ways to think productively t...

The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai

Chinese and Western Culture Differences in Narrative Cinemas

by Mengyang Cui

2007

Wong Kar wai is one of the most famous Chinese directors in modern filmdom. The cinema of Wong Kar wai is important 20th century cinema in 90’s Hong Kong society, which was in a post-industrial and post-colonial situation. In this paper, I have chosen four of Wong’s films: As Tears Go By (1988), Happy Together (1997), In The Mood For Love (2000) and compared them respectively with American and British films Mean Streets (1973), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and Brief Encounter (1945) with similar themes. These comparisons will be used in order to explore the spiritual tendency of Wong’s cinema, and to discover its meanings within the context of Chinese culture. In addition, the aim will be to demonstrate the methods of imitation, reproduction and the mixing up of genres that are Wong Kar wai’...

Hong Kong Cinema and the 1997 Return of the Colony to Mainland China

The Tensions and the Consequences

by Mengyang Cui

2007

In this paper, I aimed to explore deeply the Hong Kong ‘1997 handover’ theme films by comparison and summary in order to discover the history and cultural meaning of this incident from a human perspective. 1997 is a turning point for Hong Kong people, society and the film industry. The city confronted a historical turning point under an experimental ‘one country, two systems’ convention without precedent in history. This led many Hong Kong people to lose confidence about their future. In addition, this historical incident brought a series of social issues to Hong Kong people, such as confusion about their identity and uncertainty about the future. Therefore I chose four films from two directors with different viewpoints reveal Hong Kong society and people’s life and spirit. Those films ar...

The String Compositions of Louise Lincoln Kerr

Analysis and Editing of Five Solo Viola Pieces

by Carolyn Waters Broe

2010

This research examines the string literature of American composer and violist Louise Lincoln Kerr. A biography of Mrs. Kerr is given, emphasizing compositional training and skill, her style of composition, contributions to musical organizations in the Phoenix area, and her donation of the Kerr Cultural Center and her manuscripts to the Arizona State University College of Fine Arts. Selected string compositions are examined for their historical significance, compositional style, performer accessibility, and significance to the repertoire. Kerr made use of Native American and Spanish folk melodies in some of her compositions in a Southwest Impressionist genre. It is the findings of this study that Louise Kerr made significant contributions to the string repertoire and that these works s...