What is Their Mission?

The article I chose discusses just what exactly is the MPAA’s (Motion Picture Association of America) goal is with their rating system. Starting off this article is an occurrence involving Harvey Weinstein (a movie producer) and how he had director Quentin Tarantino pitch the movie to the board. Weinstein made this decision because he feels the board doesn’t like him, but they like Tarantino. The MPAA has been criticized for many years for the way they rate films. I can agree with some of these criticisms. One main one is that of sex being rated harsher than violence in films. This just doesn’t make sense to me. Of course in the article Joan Graves (chief of rating board) defends this claim by saying that graphic violence films are rated harshly and that type of violence is quite common. Where is the line drawn? Look at the Saw movies, people are getting mutilated on the screen, and the audience sees everything, still these films are rated R. Being worried about kids is what the board says their concerns is, but if kids have someone to buy them tickets to those types of movies, why even rate them at all? Another problem I have with the rating board, that’s mentioned in this article is the fact that the board members are kept secret from the public. Why are they kept a secret? Graves says it’s to protect them from angry filmmakers and audiences. Kirby Dick makes a great point in the article mentioning that many officials in the government and school systems are known why are these people so special? This article really made me think just what exactly is the purpose of the rating board.

Violence, Sex, and the MPAA

Over spring break, I watched this interesting documentary titled This Film Not Yet Rated. What caught my eye was the fact that I want to go in to the filmmaking business and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is an important part of the filmmaking process. These people pretty much decide the fate of a film. Getting an NC-17 rating is almost like a death sentence to a film. What I learned from the documentary was that the board of people who rate movies is kept secret from the public. This personally doesn’t make sense to me. Another aspect that bothers me is that sex in films is given a “worse” rating then violence. Why is this? Graphic violence can be very harmful to children who see it in a film. Take the Saw movies for example, these films receive an R rating, but the violence and the gore in these films are horrific and definitely terrifying to a young child. I’ve read that the movie Blue Valentine (starring Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling) was given an NC-17 rating because of the sexual content included in the films. Why is it that movies with sex get the death sentence rating, while those films with intense violence only get an R? Another area that interested me was the fact that moviegoers don’t know just who these people on the rating board are. What experiences to they have that will make them beneficial to the film rating process? This documentary has led me to want to find out more about these questions.

Making it "Big Time"

Everyone has a band that is their favorite. I know I do; my favorite band is Paramore. For my eighteenth birthday my dad bought me tickets to go see them in concert. Lucky for me my dad was kind enough to drive my best friend and me to Chicago to see Paramore at The House of Blues. This made for a great birthday weekend, but it made me think, why do bands play small venues until they get known? To me it would’ve been much easier to see them in Peoria at the Civic Center, but I traveled the 3 hours to Chicago. As anyone knows or could find out, most bands when they’re independent or just getting started will play small venues. Playing these smaller places allows them to get closer to their fans. But when they make it “big time” they’ll only stick to the larger places to play. Personally if I was in a band, I would play the big venues, but also play my music at smaller ones too, in order to get that feeling of being close to and relating to my fans. Don’t get me wrong, the concert at The House of Blues was amazing, and it wasn’t that huge a place, but the fact I had to travel to a big city to see Paramore made me think of this topic. Could there be a way to convince bands to play smaller venues from time to time? Only time will tell if this is possible.

What does this mean for the smaller players?

I want to be a director someday, and recently while I was at the movies I noticed that the film was produced by Warner Bros., but MGM was included as well. Something I noticed that was interesting was that under the MGM it said a Time Warner Company. This sparked my interests because I always knew of the MGM Company being one of the major players in the film industry. Being curious I decided to read up on the subject. The information proved to be very interesting. Turns out that MGM had to file bankruptcy and went up for sale. Warner Bros. studios decided to buy a piece of the pie. As I was reading about this information it made me think, someday is there only going to be a small number of studios around, and if so what does this mean for independent studios or ones that are just getting started? This incident isn’t going to stop me from pursuing my dreams of working in the industry. Even though it is somewhat scary thinking that one of the first major studios had to file bankruptcy and be bought out, but that shouldn’t stop people who want to try and start their own companies. Wanting to be a director I won’t have my own studio, but someday I could potentially want to have my own studio. Hopefully if studios go bankrupt, their names won’t be lost, so that generations after can know who were the major players and got the industry started.

Why one and not the other?

I recently discovered that cigarette ads are banned, but alcohol ads are still allowed. Why is this? What I discovered is that the cigarette ads are banned because cigarettes are bad for people. Well I’d have to agree that they are bad, but alcohol can be just as bad if not worse. I’ve never heard of a person getting in a car accident because they were smoking a cigarette, but drunk driving causes them all the time. People can get alcohol poisoning and die from that as well. Now I know that smoking is bad too and can cause cancer and other diseases in people, but in my opinion alcohol is almost worse in a sense. Advertisements for alcohol appeal to most of the needs that Rottenberg describes in the text. I found an ad that had a guy and a girl on it and they looked happy, this according to Rottenberg would fall under the category of appealing to the need of finding someone to love. I think that the alcohol advertising companies strive to make their ads appeal to people’s needs and wants. They work hard to make people think that they need alcohol to have fun. People in those ads always look happy and like anything could be possible. Before there use to be negative cigarette commercials and ads, like the Truth ads, but rarely is there a negative ad for alcohol. Sometimes they’ll put commercials on about drunk driving being bad, or MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), but most of the time it seems alcohol ads are shined with a positive light. Like alcohol can make anything possible.

"What's a Bieber?"

One of the main reasons I watch the Super Bowl is for the commercials. An ad that I really enjoyed was the one with Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber for Best Buy. I feel the target audience for this commercial was people aged anywhere from 12 and up. My reasons for that are that the younger generations relate to Justin Bieber, I mean everyone has heard of him. Ozzy appeals to the adults because they had grown up with Ozzy being the icon of their era. This commercial is for Best Buy and is trying to show how items are being upgraded.  By making this advertisement, I believe that best buy is trying to target a wide audience. This ad is family friendly and comedic, which everyone loves a good laugh. I know I found myself laughing at this commercial. Also, people in the age range will have electronics that could be used for Best Buy’s new buyback program. Best Buy was wise in choosing to run this commercial during the Super Bowl because many people watch it, and a wide variety at that. Families, sports lovers, and people who just watch it for the commercials all will see the ads displayed during the Super Bowl. Also, by Ozzy saying at the end “What’s a Bieber?” shows how some people don’t keep up with how fast technology is moving. In my opinion, some people out there can’t keep up with technology and this commercial could help them to feel better. All in all I found this commercial to be among my favorites.

Yay a sequel to my favorite movie...or is it?

Movies are a big part of my life. I hope to one day become a director. Having watched many movies and wanting to get into the business, it bothers me when filmmakers make a sequel to a really good movie, but they change all the main characters. Sometimes I know that one of the main actors or actresses in the film will pass away or something but if the majority of the main actors don’t want to be in the movie, that’s probably a sign that the film shouldn’t be made. An example of bad sequels would be the Bring It On movies. I mean come on the first one was really good, but then they come out with more and they have nothing to do with each other. Those films have the same basic concept, but most people form a liking for the original cast. One movie that sticks out in my mind where a main character was changed was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The guy who played Dumbledore passed away so they had to replace him with the guy from The Lord of the Rings. This change was alright because the actor looked like the Dumbledore from the first movie, and it wasn’t like the whole cast was being changed. In my opinion, the sequels and series of films that do the best with devoted fans are the ones where the cast is the same as the first movie with just maybe a few characters added.  This just goes to show that some people won't know if these poorly made sequels are actually sequels to their favorite films, or just a movie with a similar title.