Seb
Cat People
Posts: 6
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Post by Seb on Feb 24, 2013 19:51:07 GMT -5
Hey all,
There's an oddly new-fangled nostalgia about coming on a forum again in the age of twitter and the like, but I definitely think they add an element of community that you can't get within newer social media, so thank you for making this, Cat people.
I finished my BA in Film Studies last year, which is where I met Will, and I always found his modules to be the most fascinating. I had an unusual amount of fun writing a 6000 word essay about simulations in his post-modernism class last year. I'm currently doing an MA in Film making and have an interest in editing.
Films like Scott Pilgrim, Pulp Fiction, A Scanner Darkly, and The Matrix are my favourites, and I have a great passion for videogames - e.g. Portal, Fallout 3, Minecraft, etc etc.
MSCSI really interests me in its attempts to bridge a gap that comics have seemingly tried to burn with feminists on a lot of occasions, along with having a protagonist that is actually conceivable as a human being and not just a construct of a group to sell something. I can't wait to read more.
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Post by Beth on Feb 25, 2013 6:33:21 GMT -5
Hi Seb! I admit to having a soft spot for forums - they definitely foster a sense of communit that sometimes you don't get on Facebook and Twitter so I'm hoping MSCSI boards will become a great hang out for cat people.
Is your MA focussed on production, and if so what are you producing?
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Post by thewordiebirdie on Feb 25, 2013 13:03:18 GMT -5
Hi Seb!
I would have LOVED to have had Will teach me Film - what were your modules?
Just finished English and Film BA, trying to save up to do an MA in the same, I miss academia something fierce, and MSCSI is my outlet
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Seb
Cat People
Posts: 6
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Post by Seb on Feb 26, 2013 15:00:50 GMT -5
Beth - I'm sure the boards will definitely make a nice cat house.
My MA is mainly dealing with production (a bit odd after three years of essay dominance), but I made two short films in the first semester: the first was attempting to be Pan's Labyrinth-esque and turned out okay, the other was trying to be closer to Tyrannosaur, but with me only getting given the footage to edit a week before it was due and a mad director, that was less successful.
This semester I'm making a documentary about a street food vendor (which I was filming some footage for in Camden and Borough market earlier today), an experimental film playing with split screen and fragmentation, and potentially a film about illegal taxis in Bahrain.
thewordiebirdie - I think the first lecture I ever had at Kingston was taught by Will and to my knowledge mostly consisted of him talking about Blade Runner lol.
I think there were a few other modules where he would teach as a guest for a week or so, but I think the postmodernism module was the only one I had that was entirely Will. The proper name for that one was "Cinema and the Postmodern City" which consisted of examining a lot of my favourite films, philosophy, media, architecture, and videogames. We went on a few outings too. Definitely my favourite learning experience.
I was a bit torn between film and english, but ended up doing better at film. How did you find doing both?
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Post by Will on Feb 26, 2013 18:43:45 GMT -5
We had some good times in that class! It was the final time I taught it (after five years) so I took the group to Westfield, the V&A postmodernism exhibition and the O2, on field trips to look and talk about popular culture and architecture. That class went out with a bang but every year of it was a great experience.
Fans of postmodernism will find some clues, theory and stuff along those lines embedded in the story - see if YOU can work out the conspiracy before Cat does.
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Rhi
Cat People
every story tells a picture, don't it
Posts: 68 
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Post by Rhi on Feb 26, 2013 18:51:08 GMT -5
Hey, to be fair, there's a LOT to say about Blade Runner, Seb!
...I might have written an essay on it in my misspent youth. It's probably here on my computer somewhere. And probably not as good as I'm remembering it.
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Post by Beth on Feb 27, 2013 2:16:03 GMT -5
Fans of postmodernism will find some clues, theory and stuff along those lines embedded in the story - see if YOU can work out the conspiracy before Cat does. Is it really sad that I'm looking forward to digging out my stuff on postmodernism and trying to work this out? (The answer is no, it's awesome.) Those films sound really intereating, Seb. I tried to make a film as part of my BA but it all went a bit wrong! |
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Seb
Cat People
Posts: 6
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Post by Seb on Feb 27, 2013 9:49:29 GMT -5
It was a nice change to have a teacher be quite so actively engaged with the material and with all of us. I feel rather lucky that I got to be part of the last class.
Rhi - That is rather true. It definitely provided me with some useful references in different essays. (P.S. I'm liking the Daria avatar)
Beth - Yeah, the conspiracy puzzling does sound rather cool.
Thanks. There were definitely very varied success rates with mine. The first film we made for the BA seemed terrible at the time, so I'm not likely to return to it any time soon.
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Post by thewordiebirdie on Feb 27, 2013 15:34:07 GMT -5
Seb - in my family, you can gauge how highly we view a film by how many copies there are between the 3 of us [because we don't trust each other to loan it and give it back, is the thinking behind it]. Between us, we have 12 different copies of Blade Runner...
I remember being proud of the essay I wrote on Blade Runner, but none of its content besides discussing my favourite shot: there's a brief moment where Rachael is stood behind a battered old Cadillac, and you get a perfect summation of Blade Runner as a whole - the 40's aesthetic, the way culture prizes/views/desires technology, the impact of urbanization...
My film modules on Gender and Queer culture I hated because the choice of texts to analyze was limited by the tutor, my Beat poetry module was painful because it was Religious Studies in disguise and my Modernism and Postmodernism modules were the most fun because we were looking at the cultural context first and working our way in. So to answer your question, I got on better with the modules in which I had freer rein to pick my texts; I hate being told what text to throw a theory at. I loved Surrealism, and Post-Structuralism, and I've come out of the degree so giddy with theorists to bone up on that I'm not ready to pick one to specialize in.
I will always love Film Studies more, but I think that's simply because I have always loved films - my post over in Kino-Eye might sound glib, but I genuinely did spend the majority of my formative years in a video shop. I got my first bunch of flowers from the video clerk.
Rhi, I never watched Daria because around the time it was on, loads of people decided I was just like her and it put me right off - have I missed out? Is it goodly?
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Rhi
Cat People
every story tells a picture, don't it
Posts: 68
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Post by Rhi on Feb 27, 2013 17:28:45 GMT -5
Thanks, Seb!
Riven, I've actually only started watching it recently as it's on Netflix UK--we didn't have cable at the time, though I was of the target audience--and it holds up astonishingly well. I really enjoy it. Though I'm a bit more like a combination of a less blasé Jane and Daria than either, I think.
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Post by thewordiebirdie on Feb 27, 2013 17:32:20 GMT -5
right, on the strength of that I will seek it out  |
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Seb
Cat People
Posts: 6
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Post by Seb on Mar 2, 2013 6:55:02 GMT -5
Riven - That's definitely a great method of family film appreciation consensus. I think Spirited Away, The Matrix, Alien and Sunshine would win within my family going by that method.
Your summation of that shot in your essay does sound really interesting. I am feeling the need to re-watch Blade Runner again soon.
I know what you mean about set texts. I definitely felt much more engaged when I was encouraged to seek out other material than having chunks of textbooks read out to us in class. Thankfully by its very nature postmodernism requires a huge spectrum of material to provide proper meaning.
That video shop raising sounds rather great and Tarantino-esque. Although I've always loved films too, I think I can see more of a cut off point in my development where I started having better taste, but there are always things to be learned even from the worst films - Hercules in New York is a personal favourite in this category and I'm amazed I found a pre-owned copy in a bargain bin at Blockbuster years ago.
I think Daria would probably appeal to a lot of people on here. I do think it informed some of my teenage attitudes.
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