The Shining (maze scene)

Among all the famous scenes in this film like room 237, the bathroom, and Jack axing down the door is a really great one thats not so well known. The maze scene. The scene opens with a tracking shot of Wendy and Danny running out to explore the maze. As they run into the maze

it continues tracking to a picture of a maze and the background music becomes more apparent continuing to the next scene.

Where it cuts to Jack inside traipsing around the living room,

walking towards the model of a maze and just as he bends over it it cuts to a really good shot of him leaning over watching the maze, this shot really signifies his domineering, threatening characteristic in the film

It then cuts to a close up of him with his eyes still on the maze.

And then cuts to an ariel shot of the model maze and as it slowly zooms in the audio changes to a mystical, transitioning music representing the transition of reality and deception. You can hear Wendy and Danny talking and laughing and can see them venturing through the maze (model maze)

And then cuts to Wendy and Danny in the real maze.
This is brilliant use of parallel editing, where cross cutting between two scenes shows action in two different location. The audience know that Wendy and Danny went into the maze and when Jack looks into the model maze it give a sense that he is watching over them. Which again conveys the dominance he has over the two of them

Watch the scene here

The Social Networking Moral Panic

As with all youth cultures, media pick particular events surrounding them and blow them out of proportion creating mass hysteria and fear, we are now living in what some scholars and journalist refer to as a culture of fear. As discussed in previous posts the term moral panic first came about in the 70’s with Stanley Cohens book ‘Folk devils and moral panics’ where he analyzed the moral panic surrounding the mods and rockers.

In this post i will discuss the moral panic surrounding social network and how the media have instilled fear in the public with regard to the likes of Facebook and Myspace etc. Since the first social network Myspace came about in 2002 the media have been spinning story after story creating fear among the public

You may remember the case in 2009 of Ashleigh Hall in the UK. The 17 year old met up with a man she met on Facebook and was murdered by him. Headlines such as these swarmed the country causing uproar with parents of teenagers using Facebook.

Terms such as Facebook perv, Facebook fiend, Fackbook killer were commonly used.

But awful crimes like this have been happening long before the like of Facebook and Myspace existed. It would be just a easy for a girl to meet a man like this in a pub or club. Although i realise that age is easier to disguise online but i think children just have to be thought and made aware of these dangers.

Talks of banning the sites from teenagers to protect them continue on. But i think that this is the wrong way to deal with the. Teenagers need to be monitored and educated like you would with the same issues ‘offline’ in the real world “dont talk to strangers” etc. Banning it would only drive social networks underground where it will be harder for parents to monitor.

Heres a video of stand up comedian Doug Stanhope on the subject

Communities

The term community has come a long way from the notion of it being a group of people who live in a particular area, with a common purpose, share the same norms and values and interact in a social setting creating a ‘sense of community’ within the group. There a so many different definitions one being:

‘a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.’ Dictionary.com

With the Internet a new form of community developed, community can exist among a group of people who reside in different sides of the globe but share a common interest a mutual understanding. With the Internet an online community can exist transcending geographical limitations. An online or a virtual community can be defined as:

‘social aggregations that emerge from the Internet when enough people carry on public discussions long enough and with sufficient human feeling to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.’ Howard Rheingold

There is an argument as to whether an online community is can be classed as a real community, if it is of equal quality as an ‘offline’ community. The stigmas attached to it that it is unsociable, isolated and can cause problem with identity development are all prevent in today society. But I think as long as people keep it in moderation and have face to face relationships as well then its just an extension to our social setting.

I believe in recent times people have more sense of belonging to people in their social networks sites than their neighbours.

‘bonds are formed through bonds of transient mutual interest instead of mutual obligation or proximity’ Caroline O’ Sullivan

It is human nature to connect and interact with people and whether its online or offline it enable them to adapt and mould into society.

Heres a nice video about online communities. Great track too!

Catfish Review

In this post I’ll be review the film Catfish. So if you haven’t watched it yet I suggest you stop reading, the less you know about this film the better. Not that I think anyone outside the class is reading this but I suppose you never really know the internet and its invisible audience.

For me this film was completed new, I had never heard people talking about it or seen any trailers or reviews, which was lucky. At first I thought it was a romcom then a horror and toward the end it spiraled into something completely different.

Filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman documenting Ariel’s brother Yaniv ‘Nev’. The film begins with a photographer Nev collaborating with an 8 year old girl Abby (a perfect example of online collaborations and its capabilities). She sends him paintings of his photographs and befriends him on Facebook along with her family, mother Angela and half sister Megan (his “Facebook family”) and a few of their friends.

With this a relationship him and Megan begins to blossom, chatting online via text, calling each other and she sends him some of her music, which he then discovers is not actually hers. Subsequently starting an exploration on the extent of her ingenuity.

The three set of on a trip to her house to meet them face-to-face. Arriving they first become aware that Angela looks totally different to her online persona. And spirals on to the truth of her being all the people on Facebook, painting ‘Abby’s’ pictures and pretending to be Megan all along. With this a deeply saddening story of her life unfolds and wipes out any feelings of anger that the viewer holds because of the extent of her deceit.

It is a compassionate story of technology and psychology. How people can use the Internet to portray any personality traits and create a completely different online persona. And how certain human circumstances can change people feelings.

Whether this film is a true story is irrelevant.

Fan Culture

Fandom is a term that’s been around for years ever since the 70s with comic fanatics. A fan is an enthusiastic follower of a culture be it sport, music, film, book, any entertainment really. With the internet fan culture has been brought to a new level. A way for people to connect and collaborate online. Now people with similar interests can share thoughts, ideas and their appreciation of a common interest. There are millions of forums dedicated to bands, films, characters etc where fans can keep up to date with the scene, premiers, sequels, conventions and anything to do with there specific interest.

One of the biggest most obscene fan cultures would be the Star Trek followers, ‘trekkies’. These fans become completely immersed in the subculture. Becoming apart of its online community, attending trekkie convention where they dress up in extravagant costume of there favorite characters in the show.



Heres a documentary about a Trekkie convention.



As you can see they all live their lives around this subculture, in this subculture. Meet similar minded people and I guess get a sense of belonging which is what culture is all about. “I found this club and I found I wasn’t the only one”. “My wife is here and she and I met in a Star trek club”.

Moral Panic: Head Shops

In this post I will discuss a recent moral panic that resulted in new legislations been introduced. Head shops. In February last year this issue arose. Headlines such as ‘Doctors' fears as head shops force coke prices down WARNING: New plea for urgent ban on legal highs’ and ‘Head shop legal high almost killed this 17-year-old’ caused public uproar to get these shops shut down. The stores sell legal substitutes to such drugs as cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and their paraphernalia. Product such as Spice, Blow and Whack sold at a fraction of the price of the illegal equivalent and give very similar effects.

Reports of cases where people suffered from hallucinations and anxiety after taking these legal highs from head shops drowned the media. Protests were held in towns all over the country.

But not only did this cause upheaval among concerned parents and the like but also notified drug dealers about these cheap substitutes. Head shops everywhere were targeted by these drug lords who were determined to get rid of their competitors. Various arson attacks were reported in stores on Capel street, Dundalk and Sligo but to name a few.




Eventually in May 2010 a new law was introduced to ban the sale of psychoactive drugs. Which fair enough removes them from their original shelves but realistically its simply pushing the whole issue underground. So now these users are just waiting for someone to find a loophole for other legal substitutes or of course buy illegally which I'm sure is happening. But as long as tits kept under wraps out of the media keep the public at bay until the next frenzy.

Moral Panic

Moral panic can be defined as a “condition, episode, person or persons emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests” Stanley Cohen. Cohen’s book, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) is where the term came about. The moral panic in which he is referring to the moral panic of the Mods and Rockers in the 60’s which I have discussed in previous posts. So we can see that moral panic has been occurring over time relating to various issues such as youth disorder in this case and common issues like drugs, violence and sexual freedom are also common. Each issue considered a threat to society at a particular time and blown out of proportion by the media, creating fear and hysteria among society. Some fade away after a short while but some result in more severe consequences such as legislation changes. This can be seen in such example as the Criminal Justice act 1992, the National Sex Offenders Register late 90’s and illegisation of various drugs.

Heres a diagram i came across..