Remix and Meme Forum Questions

Synthesize the readings. What are some common themes?

All of the 4 readings have a common theme: social media, viral popularity and the ability of anyone to make an adaption through a picture images, video clips and/or text and sound to make an argument. Before the internet, if something was filmed or published, the authors had to go through a rigorous process for the most part to have their work receive any kind of attention. Now with social media, YouTube, Vemio, etc, anyone can be an author. There are no longer that many hoops to jump through. I believe memes, meme culture and video remixes are just ways the common public makes a statement involving the many things they may not have control over. However, they do have control over one thing: what they publish or create on social media in response.

What is Kuhn’s main idea? How does it relate to adaptation, authorship and/or editing?

Due to the abundance of video hosting sites including Youtube, Vimeo and others, along with remixing tools available to the general public, video remix has taken on a world of it’s own. Kuhn believes that remix videos have been limited in their categorization because the ethics of cinematic theory have been placed on video remix, she believes looking at video remix through a rhetorical theory lens is more beneficial.  According to Kuhn, “a remix is a digital utterance expressed across the registers of the verbal, the aural, and the visual” (Kuhn, 2012, p. 3).

Kuhn believes that the roots of video remix arises in the Soviet montage approach associated with Dziga Vertov, Sergei Eisenstein, and Lev Kuleshov with montage and collages, but they focus on visuals. Kuhn belives that we mix in sound, you make an interplay between sound and visuals, and those are the differences.

I believe when a person is looking at a video remix, they are looking at a particular message the author wanted to get across. The author uses other peoples’ work, from the video(s) to the music, etc. and basically rearranges/edits them to give another point of view or argument. I believe video remix can be great educational tools but some of them you have to really consider the source. Video remixes can be just as biased as the person who made it, so I believe when viewing a remix you really need to have a understand of what the video remix is originally about and what point the author is trying to cross. Kuhn believes that a video remix provides a strategic digital argument, and remix cites, synthesizes and juxtaposes it’s sources (Kuhn, 2012).

I believe the video remix titled “We Want Your Soul” by Mr. Mondialisation is a great example of a video remix showing how corporate America looks to take over your thoughts and ideas (a.k.a soul) through advertising. Clips from hundred of commercials trying to sell product and giving people a certain way of thinking is paired with the chanting song “We Want Your Soul” by DJ Adam Freeland. I believe in this remix, it makes it seem as if people can’t even think for themselves, everything is mediated and driven by the media and advertising. We are always being told what to buy, what’s in style, how to act on TV and so on. Also, are lives are consumed by numbers, such as our credit card numbers, social security numbers, how much money we make, etc. Everything is dehumanized. “Here you are America, you are free to do as we tell you.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDiIxPO_r6M

3) What is Rintel’s main argument? How does it relate to issues of adaptation, authorship, and/or editing?

Through the use of social media, memes, images, either superimposed or pictures with a text style and white font, have been created to poke fun or voice opinions of the masses. Many memes are created in response to natural disasters, political and crises issues, and some just for humor. Rintel says there is some drawback with memes in the fact that many of them use copyrighted content. I believe the main argument for Rintel is that Internet memes have become a staple for people voicing their concerns and their right to freedom of speech.

When it comes to adaptation, authorship and editing, I believe that is pretty much the main definition of a meme. A person takes one picture and adds text to it to get a point across. The text can be humorous, educational, offensive, or just for laughs. One thing I did not realize is that there are actually websites dedicated to creating your own meme, and that they are very template. Anyone can make a meme and it can go viral within days.

My issues with memes is that they are so many of them, when are they going to stop? Honestly, until last week I did not really know the images I see all over social media actually had a name, a meme, I just knew they were super annoying and they are everything. I thought to myself, can anyone make a meme with photoshop? If that’s the case, these are silly.  Anyone can put any text on a picture they want and all of a sudden it’s supposed to be important, and funny? I think they are annoying.  Several years ago I saw the humor in them but now I try to ignore them at all costs, because as soon as a storm comes, you’ll see tons of superimposed images, if any law changes, here comes a string of random memes by random people, if a celebrity makes a bad move, they have thousands if not millions of their own memes the next day. I may make a general assumption here, but I feel that people who have time to sit and make memes and share them need to find something with more structure to do with their time.

What questions/critiques do you have about the articles this week?

My issues with both the Kuhn and Rintel article is that anyone with access to a computer can create and publicize any type of meme or video remix they want. I believe video remixes for the most part can have some educational value, but I think to get the most from a video remix a person needs to know all sides of the story. Video remixes and memes are just the general public’s way of making a statement, but for some reason I feel a little uneasy just watching something anyone can put together. I think you have to look at them with a more critiquing eye.

Internet memes- will they every go away or will people lose interest in them? Since they are so overwhelmingly popular now, I feel like at some point people will lose interest. I remember E-cards were popular in 2007, and now I have seen them less and less online.

Kuhn, Virgina. (2012). “The Rhetoric of Remix.” In “Fan/Remix Video,” edited by Francesca Coppa and Julie Levin Russo, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 9. Doi:10.3983/twc.2012.0358

Rintel, S. (2011). Crises memes: The importance of templatability to internet culture and freedom of expression.

Documentary Forum

Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work

In this study Aufderheide et all takes a look at the ethical challenges filmmakers have when filming documentaries. In order to find these answers, they conduct interview sessions with several filmmakers, and I find it interesting that some choose to use their names in the interviews while others wished to remain anonymous. A few of the overriding ideas with human subjects where to not harm to the subjects, and to preemptively protect the subject.

It is particularly interesting to see how filmmakers would continue to film certain scenes, and then later decide to “edit” them a certain way or omit scenes in which might cast a bad light on the subject or even place them in legal trouble. One such filmmaker describes shooting a documentary of a company that employs illegal immigrants. The filmmaker still shot the documentary but left that fact out. They also did no call the police, they just left it alone.

Another issue documentary filmmakers come across is deciding whether or not to resell their images. Most agreed that it is a case-by-case basis depending on how the subject will be presented in the next project, another said that it is a way of bringing in revenue. Throughout the text, the filmmakers stressed to the subjects that they are not journalist, and they spend more time with the subjects in order to create a stronger relationship.

Also, when it comes to showing the subjects the films before it was finished, most of the filmmakers agreed they would never do that. The could only see the final product. One filmmaker said she never showed her subjects the current work, but in order to keep the trust she would show them her past work.

In the conclusion, Aufderheide et all say that documentarians in a large part feel a larger ethical obligation to tell a story that fiction filmmakers do not face because they have to tell a story that often was not meant to be told.

Documentary As Adaptation: An Intertextual Analysis of An Injury to One

Author Walker Metz takes one documentary, An Injury to One from 2002 and compares it other text, including a historical film, a play and a novel. Mets says the film is compared in profit to The Salt of the Earth in 1953, as it was both difficult to find funding for both films due to the nature of films. The style of the film, an Injury to One is compared to the play The Threepenny Opera from 1928 due to the photographs used and the narration. The novel “Red Harvest” (1929) also depicts the same story as an Injury to One, as it is inspired by the murder of Frank Little.

 An Injury to One depicts the story or Frank Little with very different film aesthetics, something that Metz says is hard to watch. It is meant to give more of a distinct political message, instead of drawing people in on a popular movie with fancy shots and colors. Comparisons of the songs used in An Injury to One are made to the songs in The Threepenny Opera.

The differences in Metz's work from Aufderheide et all is that Metz takes one particular film and compares it to three other texts. He analyzes the message and shows that while it is a documentary, it uses pieces from three other fictional works to tell the story. Aufderheide et all talk of the ethical nature of documentaries, and do not focus on one particular work.

Documentary-for-the-Other: Relationships, Ethics, and (Observational) Documentary

 Author Kate Nash takes the work of Emmanual Levinas as uses it as a guide for documentary scholars. She believes Levinas provides a framework that other filmmakers can base their documentary ethics from. According to Winston, documentaries and journalism seem to clash when the idea that a documentary should present unmediated access to the truth (Nash, 2011).

I believe the argument Nichols makes is very similar to Auderheide et all work, “Filmmakers have an obligation to minimize the harms associated [of the people} with documentary representation” (Nash, 2011, p. 226). I can see truth in all of the opinions Nash brings up, but I most closely agree to Maccarone who says a documentary is a film that attempts to tell a story as it happen from a particular perspective (Nash, 2011).

Another idea that Nash discusses is Pryluck’s belief that observational documentary overrides the rights of the participants and subjects them to humiliation, shame and indignity in the private good. However, in this type of documentary the subjects are being opened up to any kind of ridicule that even the filmmaker may not be aware.

Crumb The Documentary

Before the readings, I would of viewed Crumb as very strange and vulgar (even after the readings, I still do) maybe even to the point of a mental disorder. I think I would have a negative viewpoint of Robert Crumb just from his drawings, and how in depth the film goes into his sexual desires. After the readings, I was viewing the film through a more relationship perspective, including the relationship between Crumb and the director, and the various relationships with Crumb and the people in the documentary.

From the Nash and Auderheide et all readings, I don’t think Robert Crumb particularly cares how he is portrayed. He is a quirky guy, and that worked for him. I don’t believe he is hiding anything, and if people are fans of him that’s what they like about him. I do not believe many people could pull this off.

 I do wonder the ethical implications that are placed on his family, including his sisters and his children and wife. I think his children, particularly his daughter in the documentary may be too young to realize what exactly is going on. It is no doubt that Crumb’s work and beliefs are questionable to many people, but I can’t help but wonder what that will mean for his daughter as she grows older. Also, his obsession with sex in his drawings, what does that say about his family growing up as a child? What does this say about the women who shaped him, including his mother, first wife, current wife, etc? As I said before, obviously this does not matter to Crumb, but I believe it could adverse effects on those in his immediate family. I think with all documentaries you should take a look at all who are affected.

A few months ago I rented a documentary on a family, titled Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley. The youngest daughter (Sarah) presented a documentary on her family after her beloved mother passed away. There were several children in the family, however, Sarah, the youngest daughter was a surprise and throughout her childhood the other siblings joked that she was only their half sibling- that their mother had had an affair. As the daughter grew older, after the mother had passed away to terminal illness, she investigated the truth and found out who her biological father was. In doing so, she exposed the secrets of her family and confirmed that her mother had an affair. At the time of watching the documentary, I thought it was interesting and I was happy the daughter found out the truth, however in doing so she exposed the secrets of her family and even her deceased mother. I believe in documentaries, it’s almost as if some people gain for it while it causes pain for others.

I believe the same can be said for reality TV. Its all a matter of opinion and if the people involved care to be exposed. Some people will do anything for a shot at “fame” while others prefer to keep to themselves and not be judged.

Aufderheide, P., Jaszi, P., & Chandra, M. (2009). Honest truths: Documentary Filmmakers on ethical challenges in their work. Center for Social Media.

Metz, W. C. (n.d.). Documentary as adaptation. In Montana State University.

Nash, K. (2011). Documntary-for-the-other: Relationships, ethics and (observational) documentary. In Journal of Mass Media EthicsTaylor and Francis Group.

Zwigoff, T. (Director) (1994). Crumb [Web]. Retrieved from http://viooz.co/movies/4185-crumb-1994.html