In the following post, the term product placement will be used a lot. Product placement is a form of advertisement where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, TV shows, or news programs.
I was looking through movie trailers when I noticed the sequel Fast and Furious 6. While watching, just the trailer, contained unbelievable amounts of product placement; the movie contains that multiplied by a hundred. If one were to watch the entire movie they probably wouldn’t notice any of the product placements in it. But after having learned about product placement and its role in the media, it’s hard not to notice it anymore.
An action movie like Fast and Furious probably costs the producers millions of dollars to make, $160 million dollars to be exact. And then I remembered a film I once watched. The greatest movie ever sold. That film showed us how a producer can fund their entire movie solely on the income they receive from companies requesting product placement. Product placement achieves success and profit for both sides. The producer will get the majority of the budget for their movie, and the “investor”, lets say, gets their product advertised, while making sure people can’t skip it like a regular Ad. Both side’s benefit, and both sides get millions or even billions back in profit.
If we consider just the cars used in Fast and Furious 6, and set aside all other brands being advertised to us in the movie, we still find a great deal of product placement. The owners of those companies are paying millions to have their cars used in a movie like Fast and Furious. Think of how much increase in sales they’d achieve. And the movie would just look good for having mind-blowing cars like these in it, and of course, having most of it’s budget already taken care of. So everyone comes out a winner.
The funny thing is, the person who owns the car company, might also belong to the same organization that owns the production studio. In that case neither of them have to spend any money whatsoever because they’d be working as a synergy. They’re benefiting each other, multiplying profits by thousands, and not spending a dime out of place. That’s how the culture industry works. You never know which companies or corporations are working under the same umbrella, and most of the time they shock you. But at the end of the day, they have profits pouring in, and we have no idea where the money we pay actually ends up. We probably don’t even care where it ends up, as long as the process of spending it brought us joy and entertainment.
As I’ve had my go at Feminism in The Hunger Games a few weeks ago, I was definitely interested to voice my
opinion on masculinity in movies. This week, Cinema and Society class got me
thinking beyond the gender gap but on the “expectations” we have going in on
powerful males, and male feminism through gender socialization. Gender socialization
starts at a very early age, where people learn the norms related to sex and
gender within a social construction.
Where the
70’s was an embrace of feminism, the 80’s was definitely the decade where films attempted
to “re-masculinize” men. Both movies in comparison are Herbert Ross directed films, one of which was “Play it again, Sam!” (1972, staring Woody Allen) was centered on a the male (feminine, looking for a partner) lead, “Steel Magnolias” (1989) on the other hand, was very feminine but also questioned masculinity. For example, the movie’s opening shot
is a women screaming because of male characters shooting at birds while they are getting
ready for a “pink and blush-y” wedding.
It was
listed as one of the 10 movies that make men cry: “"Steel Magnolias"… is another one of
those movies that will just tug at your soft spot. Dolly Parton, Julia Roberts,
and Sally Field bring on the tears, whether you're a man or a woman.”
The Funeral Scene
One of the
most poignant quotes is from Sally Field’s character M’Lynn Eaterton, who
addresses the divide directly: “I find it amusing. Men are supposed to
be made out of steel or something. I just sat there. I just held Shelby's hand.
There was no noise, no tremble, just peace. Oh god. I realize as a woman how
lucky I am. I was there when that wonderful creature drifted into my life and I
was there when she drifted out. It was the most precious moment of my life.”
The idea widely accepted idea for men
was that it was only acceptable to cry during a victory. In an article entitled
“When is it Okay for a Man to Cry?”
by the Art of Manliness (I kid you not, this is what the website is called).
The list names a few:
Shawshank Redemption (Prison, Victory)
The Pride of the Yankees (Victory)
Saving Private Ryan (…)
Braveheart (Victory)
Friday Night Lights (Victory)
We Were Soldiers (I mean…)
Gladiator (Victory)
The Champ (Victory)
Glory (Need I go on?)
And
also goes on to list the movies that men should never cry during:
Steel Magnolias (feminine)
Little Women (feminine)
Jerry Maguire (male
femininity)
The Notebook (TEARS to no
end)
The funny thing is, that it seems
second nature to dismiss Steel Magnolias as a movie purely for the enjoyment of
women. In an article on the American Politician Cory Booker, Jezbel’s headline
reads: “Watching Steel Magnolias Makes Him Cry: Cory Booker is Just like Us.” To which, I conclude that the line between masculinity and feminity is thick,
it’s definitely crossed in certain movies. (Or perhaps just a PR strategy to get people
to like Cory Booker.) Whichever it is, Steel Magnolias is still an exceptional film (as is everything else Sally Field has appeared in.)
Pictures credit: TriStar pictures(Steel Magnolias) and Paramount Pictures (Play it Again, Sam!)
Movies have been dramatically evolving, starting from the silent movies ending up with the astonishing special effects. Many genres were established by creative writers who had the courage to write these movies, and then hand them to directors and producers to make them. Yet, Bollywood movies still have the same routine in every movie no matter what was its genre. What one find not shocking is that Bollywood movies use the song-dance routine in all their movies. Also the actors are mostly white with colored eyes, and they use this song-dance routine to break down the way they feel towards the other person or the society. The song-dance routine is a way for actors to express their feelings. Bollywood movies usually last for a long period of time and that is because of the climate. Because of the low wages and the hot weather, people tend to go to a 3 hour movie just to prevent being outside in the hot weather, and enjoy a nice movie from their culture. Are Bollywood movies the same as Indian movies? The answer would be no. India a country that has many different cultures and Bollywood is one of them.
In sociology, Bollywood movies are a way to convey a message to others using the song-dance routine, and as mentioned above it is a way to express the actor’s feelings without having a dialog. We can say it is a musical movie. Last Thursday, I grabbed my camera and went to the Student Center at Education City to interview some people and see what they know about Bollywood movies.
I was shocked that only few people thought that Indian movies are different than Indian movies, but one of them mentioned that Bollywood movies are what define India as a unique country with a unique culture. I think the people of Qatar are not really interested in Bollywood movies because the songs take a long time. People here tend to admire dialog and action scenes. Based on my previous experience, there was a cinema theater in Qatar – Gulf Cinema - that shows Bollywood and Indian movies or if I may call them Desi movies. One would go and see the theater jammed with workers who are fighting over to have an admission ticket. It might seem weird, but unfortunately the cinema theater was shut down for no specific reason. Every single one of us has a different taste of what movie they want to watch, and that what creates diversity among us.
Music is an international language that everybody understands; using the right notes, time, and rhythm you can even make an alien feel what you express through music. Music in the past had meanings and expressions behind them. The authors of “The Bollywood Reader” Rajinder Dudrah and Jigna also agree to this, and say that music today is only categorized under ‘Entertainment.’
After reading the Bollywood Reader and knowing about the importance of the song-and-dance-sequences in Bollywood movies, I remembered Abdulhaleem Hafiz, one of the most amazing singers in the 20th century that touched the worlds’ emotions through his songs and movies.
Abdulhaleem came from a very poor family in Egypt, and was rejected when he came up with his songs “Ya Helo Ya Asmar” (The Olive Skin Beauty), because the people did not accept this new genre of music that was very emotional and deep in 1951-1952, and plus they did not respect him because of his social class. He then succeeded in 1953 when he re-sang the song and “Safeeni Marra” (Confront Me Once) in 1953 on the day of declaring the Republication of Egypt, and gained some recognition. The song was a great success in 1953. He then became an actor in 1955, to make drama movies, with lots of music, and embedded music video clips that expressed his deeper emotions.
During the 1950s, Arabic movies had lots of songs embedded through them, just like Indian movies. However, they were more realistic, and not as funny, but more emotional. I personally believe that these were somehow more important than the movie drama itself because of the feeling that was added to the movie. Songs were used to express deep, emotional, happy and sad feelings that couldn’t have been described through the camera and the script. The ideal way to express those feelings was through these songs which would typically last 4-5 minutes each. These songs later become very popular love songs, for example, some of the most popular Abdulhaleem songs: “Betlomoony Leeh?” (Why do you blame me?) and “Awwel Marra” (First Time), which were happy love, yet deep, love songs who are the top hits, and first introduced in his movies. Some songs extracted from the movies were stretched longer and were deeper than ones in the movie; this is because 1) people went to concerts to listen to some songs, and expected songs to be long with more music than words (and a full orchestra) in the 1950s, and 2) because songs used to be longer than 10 minutes, and it was the expected genre. Lets compare a song called “Ahwak” (I Admire You), from the movie “Banat AlYoum” (Today’s Girls):
You can read the lyrics in English here. Reading them might not be so emotional, but try reading along.
Film:
Concert:
Abdulhaleem was diagnosed with Schistosomiasis and he knew his farewell was very close. As the symptoms increased people observed that his songs became sadder, and mainly about farewell. The emotion he put in his songs were so real to the point they touched whoever heard it. I believe that this is what made him famous: his disease, and motivation to keep singing, and the wonderful music he has left us today.
Product placement in movies is an embedded way of advertising a product. Bands use it to create the image they want about their products. When product placements are used in movies viewers are getting affected without even knowing it. Because brands choice a character or a scene that will get their product associated with the image and characteristic they want to create about their products.
Ads are boring!
Most people don’t like to watch TV commercials! They’re waste of time and they are not effective. People know that this is just an ad and it is not real! So most people skips ads when they appear on the screen. But if the advertisement was placed on one of the movie scenes it’s hard to skip it! So, brands use product placement to advertise their products in an interesting way and in a way where people can’t skip it.
Starbucks in Devil wears Prada
The Devil wears Prada, is a movie that was directed by David Frankel and released on 2006. It talks about Andrea as a Northwestern graduate that goes to New York and work for the most powerful fashion magazine. She worked as a co-assistant for Miranda Priestly, the icy editor-in-chief. In the movie Andrea had to run to Starbucks everyday to get Miranda a cup of coffee. And if you are wondering why does Starbucks choice The Devil wears Prada, simply because it is associated with many other big brands and this is the image that
Starbucks wants to create about itself! Another thing is that, Vogue editor Anna Wintour inspired Miranda’s character, and by getting her a Cup of coffee from Starbucks everyday is a very influential way of advertising.
You’ve got mail
In the movie you’ve got mail Starbucks attempt to popularize the verity of choices they have there! In addition to that they are trying to highlight the fact that both high-ranking businessmen and little shop owners they both are alike and this is when Kathleen and Joe will meet at Starbucks. This movie has done a great job of advertising the image Starbucks wants to create about itself. Because the time Kathleen and Joe have spent together have led them to fall in love.
In the history of movies
black people have always been portrayed as poor, stupid, and uneducated. All of
those are unfair discrimination that have been attached to the dark skinned people.
An example of that is the large collection of movies in the 80's about being a
gangster, where the qualities that come with being a gangster are violence,
murder and rape. Also, black women are over sexualized in almost all of the
movies.
Arabs, also, have always been discriminated at. You have a long
beard, you wear a headscarf or if you wear the traditional abaya and thobe. You
are immediately discriminated at. It is truly upsetting how much the media have
the prejudice against my own country Qatar by portraying it as the country of the
poor, bad and uneducated. Two examples to prove that are:
1.InTransformerswhich was a blockbuster released in 2007. There was a scene
where the aliens are in Qatar. In this scene the movie changes the country from
the “modern” America to the “poor” Qatar. The Americans come with their big
fancy weapons and modern suits. They start fighting the aliens in what is
supposedly called “Qatar.” And the Qatari citizens run for their lives with
their sheep while they’re wearing old dirty thobes! This was very problematic due to the massive number of people who watched this movie and formed this FALSE idea about Qatar.
2.The Second example comes from another U.S.
blockbuster called Taken. It was
released in 2008. This movie is about a retired CIA agent traveled to France after
his daughter got kidnapped. He discovered she was going to be sold to become
sex slave. In one of the final scenes in the film, his daughter was in an
auction to be sold. The father purses her buyer in a car chase. Here they
showed the shocking part; the car that the father was chasing to get his
daughter had the licence plate of Qatar!!! As a citizen of that country I find it very
upsetting that my country is being portrayed like that. As a place with low
morals where they would buy a human being for sexual pleasure.
Those previous examples can only prove one thing. The media
is feeding the public and the audience these prejudices. A personal example to
show how this is working is a situation that happened to me back in 2009. I was
volunteering for the WSDC schools championship. A British guy approached me saying
he was very surprised of how modern Qatar was. He thought that he would debate
in a tent! He also thought that he would move from tent to tent on a camel.
Personally, I thought that was hilarious because it is far away from the truth.
Qatar is a very modern state. If you haven’t lived or seen Qatar before, this
picture should give you an idea about the modernity of Qatar.
I hope one day those stereotypes would disappear, but deep
down I know this is not going to happen anytime soon. After all it’s only human
nature to put people and judge them into boxes.
I remember reading Life of Pi in
grade 9 and being absolutely mesmerized by Yann Martel’s novel. The story starts of with the main character, Pi, saying that his story will "make you believe in God." I shared the
vastly agreed on opinion that the book was “unfilm-able” when I heard it was being adapted to the screen. seeing the movie
this past week—possibly making me the last person to do so taking into regard
my hesitation of another “the movie didn’t do the book justice review” (i.e. Lemony
Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate events—sigh)—I was pleasantly surprised and utterly blown away.
Apart from the movie being a
cinematic masterpiece and Ang Lee’s greatest work yet, and the main
star of the movie only having gone to the audition in trade for a subway sandwich, the stunning story in the book is adapted so well that it carries the whole movie. Usually, IMAX movies have
something lacking, and more often than not are terribly overdone so the
audience doesn’t notice all the loopholes in the dialogue, storyline or
casting (i.e. Snow White and the Huntsman). (The following is
spoiler-ish.)
Even after watching the amazing story of Pi’s survival at sea with
Richard
Parker (the tiger), the zebra, the orangutan and the most annoying hyena
ever—who had
me yelling at the screen. Of course, the main twist comes at the very
end,
where you reevaluate everything you've come to learn about the story and
sympathize with Pi even more.
The main idea stemming from human
sympathy, survival, grief, Pi’s sudden adolescence
and that the choices we make and the inevitable realization that we have
to live with them and grow. Here comes the kick. When Pi asks the man
he's been telling the story to chose between the story of the humans
(which includes human cannibalism) or the one with the animals, the man
says he liked the one with the animals. The reality of the story is
called into question, bringing in the idea of an agent of socialization.
In which Pi's world is changed dramatically through an event or group,
as well as includes audience (in both book and movie) in being included and choosing to believe which story they liked more. I, of course, along
with the two Japanese
officials, preferred the one with the Richard Parker (the tiger).
Movies,
Make-up,
Music,
Manicures,
Facials,
Food
and
Karaoke.
Put all the above together and you’ve got the perfect ingredients to an impressive “Girls’ Night In”. So, last weekend my sister and I had our cousins over to put this event together, but not in the way you’d expect. It’s common to see girls get together to stay in for the night and basically make fools of themselves in the privacy of their own homes.
The interesting part about the night in I had with my cousins is the fact that it was a localized version of a globalized “Girls’ Night In”. Let’s try to make that sentence a little clearer. The actual social get-together of young girls is popular around in the world. The way we see girls get together in movies seems fun and so we try it out. Not only do you see girls’ nights in acted out in movies you can also find it in commercials for facial products, or even food. It’s used in advertising that encourages the use of the product during the event.
This brings me to the first point of globalization. Multi-national corporations. There are several corporations that are involved in the different aspects of the event. Take for example the movies that we watched, these movies were made by the big western production companies. Chick flicks in particular are always a favorite. It’s not only the MNCs of movie companies that benefit from this particular event so does the music industry, food chains, and the make-up industry. Events like this are what help these corporations to gain a profit from them.
The ideology of capitalism works in here as well. Now that the corporations have got us “girls” to buy these chick flicks, and indulged themselves with the profit they have made they try to come up with new ideas to make more profit off us next year! For example there are actual box sets that you can buy especially for this sort of evening. This ties into the next point, which is the government. In this case the government are actually benefiting from the corporations selling in the country. The more the companies make, the more they do.
As with everything in life there is resistance and consequences. The resistance to a Girls’ Night In would be that it could cause people to think that it isn’t necessarily healthy to stay in and lay around doing nothing every weekend. Others might resist stating that they don’t want these “foreign” events to be part of society. The consequences of having things as such aren’t severe, but there are a few. Girls’ might become enticed by these things and deviate from the social norm here in Qatar.
As mentioned earlier this event was actually localized. Localizing this social event to this region meant adapting the actual layout, or format, and making it our own. Instead of music in the English language it was in Arabic, and so was the karaoke. The food was where East met West. All of the things that a group of girls would do in say France were done at this particular event, just with a Qatari twist. All the little details of the night are what localized it, everything from the language, the dress code, and the actual relationship between the guests.
The one thing that was definitely global is that everyone had a good time.
This Hindi word for “land tax” became a household name in 2001 with the release of a namesake Bollywood movie. Lagaan, Once Upon a Time in India takes the viewer on a very believable time-travel to the Indian subcontinent of the Victorian Era. The movie revolves around poor villagers coerced to pay backbreaking taxes to the British and their struggles to rise above the oppression.
Lagaan instantly turned into a box office hit, grossing a considerable $9009043. It was hailed by Britain’s Empire magazine as one of the “100 Best Films of World Cinema” (Top Earners 2000-2009, retrieved from BoxOffice India.com).
This 3 hour 40 minute historical fantasy was described by the New York Times as “a carnivalesque genre packed with romance, swordplay and improbable song-and-dance routines” (Somni Sengupta, New York Times, retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagaan)
Using Lagaan as an archetype for all Bollywood movies, this blog is about the “improbable” and how it has become an integral part and parcel of Hindi cinema.
The “musical drama” Lagaan owes much of its length to a varied assortment of songs and dances, as do most Bollywood movies-- a concept that a western audience is not very comfortable with.
Consider, for example, the following love song between the leads Bhuvan (Amir Khan) and Gauri (Gracy Singh), with particular focus on Elizabeth (Rachel Shelly), the easily discernible British actress.
When Amir Khan was asked about the reaction of Londoners to this particular song, he flashed an amused smile at the camera and said, “I heard that audiences in the theatres began to laugh. They just didn’t expect to hear Elizabeth sing.”
One important characteristic that sets Bollywood movies apart are certainly the tedious and elaborate song and dance sequences. It is particularly peculiar seeing a bunch of well-choreographed dancers twirling around the leads. “I don’t get it,” says American student and avid-movie watcher Kathy Rivera, “The songs merely attach an unrealistic quality to the movies. What’s the point?”
The answer is rooted in a number of influencing factors, from varied levels of production and musical style to commercial life and audience reception.
That previous sentence was not intended merely to to add to my word count. Though it may sound complicated, the whole idea boils down to the way society is reflected in these movies. Indian culture is profuse with color and movement, hype and activity, as is evident in most festivals, like Diwali (festival of lights) and Holi (festival of colors), to name a few.
Holi:
Diwali:
These aspects of society are mirrored in Bollywood movies through the highly ”improbable” dance and music. Such vibes and moves are best illustrated in the following song clip that shows Bhuvan and Gauri in a traditional Dandiya Ras dance.
The colorful songs are “firmly embedded in an Indian popular culture and are an integral feature of the genre, akin to plot, dialogue and other parameters” (retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Bollywood). Hindi cimema, in other words, not only shows you singing and dancing, it is about singing and dancing (Sociology Goes to Movies, Rajendra Kumar Dudrah, p48).
The many “disparate modes of story telling are bound in a coherent whole by songs” (Sociology Goes to Movies, Rajendra Kumar Dudrah, p48). Thus, they serve the dual purpose of stringing various movie elements together. It would not be wrong to say that songs are to Bollywood what a soliloquy is to a Shakespearean play-- they confer a certain metaphorical voice to the character’s actual emotions and sentiments.
Consider for example, the song Mitwa (Friend), from Lagaan:
When translated it means: Mitwa, O Mitwa Friend, O friend
Tujhko kya dar hai re Why do you fear?
Yeh dharti apni hai This earth is ours
Apna ambar hai re Ours is the sky. Tu aa jaa re You come on…
The lip-synced song brings Bhuvan's sentiments to limelight as he calls upon fellow farmers to stand up against the subjugations of the British. Through the song as a medium, he reminds them that the country is theirs and they needn’t be intimidated by any outside forces. It coherently pieces the movie together, as the next scene shows the villagers responding to his call and following his lead.
Furthering the storyline, the next song “Chale Chalo” (Keep Going) shows Bhuvan and his friends perspiring away as they ready themselves to face the British in an upcoming match of cricket, a challenge that will decide their fate.
But these filmi songs continue to be "derided" in Western movie circles, often being blamed for “unrealisticity.”
I chanced upon an interesting comeback on a Sociology blog site (http://thesocietypages.org):
"I still hear Western film buffs argue that lip-synced songs somehow make a film unrealistic. Let’s get one thing straight — the use of music in Western films is no more realistic than in Bollywood films. We don't walk around hearing music matched to our mood in real life, but Westerners accept the fantasy because it is familiar."
Although Bollywood takes it one step further, often heavily peppering movies with songs, the dance and music are “essential aesthetic elements of the film… that draw on a stock of Indian cultural and social references and elaborate them through aural and visual spectacles” (Sociology Goes to Movies, Rajendra Kumar Dudrah, p63).
