BA (Hons) Film and Media

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Transmedia marketing communications and the contemporary Hollywood film: A Hunger Games case study
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
Float
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
Kiriata Maori: Maori cinema as a newly emerging national cinema of New Zealand
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
Understanding the social constructions of authenticity within hip-hop music: Iggy Azalea a white, Australian artist.
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
By looking at the positioning of race within hip-hop music alongside its social construction of authenticity this study aims to analyse the extent to which white, Australian artist, Iggy Azalea can be argued to be authentic in terms of her alignment with hip-hop's notions of authenticity. Using Iggy Azalea as a case study, discourse analysis is used to closely analyse the language in thirteen online newspaper articles from both British and American papers. The study enters into preliminary discussion of the relevant existing literature surrounding the constructions of race throughout history and within popular music culture as well as theories of hip-hop's constructed authenticity. The recurring theories and ideas are applied to the findings from the articles and analysed leading to conclusions surrounding Azalea's position within hip-hop as an authentic artist. Key words: authenticity, Iggy Azalea, race, whiteness, African-American culture, hip-ho
The Flying Game
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
Structured Reality Television and the Reality of 'Structuredness'
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
Supersexuality! Examining the Hypersexualised 21st Century Superhero Within the Post-9/11 Cycle of Superhero Films
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
So where's the DM: An analysis of the Dungeons and Dragons journey, from table-top to digital online gaming, examining the gains and loses of social involvement via player experience.
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
A study of the work of John Hughes, and the issue of class represented in his 1980s teen films.
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
Social media and political interaction: politicians, citizens, and control of digital space
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
Always on call: Volunteering for the Coastguard
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
An investigation into the literature-to-screen-relationship with reference to a particular case study: the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
This will be an exploration of the challenges involved in translating classic literature to the screen. I intend to draw upon the theories that address the significant aspects of this complex relationship with particular focus on Jane Eyre, referencing past and present working practices with examples from a three adaptations to illustrate the diversity of potential outcomes. I have concentrated on the portrayal of the two main female protagonists and queried the notion of Jane herself as a feminist trailblazer.
From Families to Femme Fatales: an in depth analysis of women in selected films of David Lynch
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
Green with Orange
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
A study of postmodern dystopia and the female role in the young adult science fiction series' The Hunger Games (2012 - ) and Divergent (2014 - )
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
An investigation into audience perceptions of weight-related reality television.
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
This dissertation presents an investigation into audience perceptions of weight-related reality television, a sub-genre which has seen little attention within previous literature on reality television. A qualitative research method was selected in the form of a focus group to undertake this investigation. This method of data collection was chosen to allow for an in-depth understanding of how real audiences are seen to depict this specific genre of reality television.
Embodiment and Disembodiment in Contemporary Science Fiction: Postmodern body transcendence from a socialist feminist perspective.
(Queen Margaret University, 2015)
This dissertation seeks to understand the recent cycle of science fiction films that, through their depiction of posthuman characters, implicate female bodies inscribed with cultural and social rhetoric. This thesis shall analyse the female, posthuman bodies presented in Her (2013), Lucy (2014) and Ex Machina (2015) as texts coded with cultural and gendered anxieties. Looking at aspects of posthuman (gendered) sexuality, this thesis will demonstrate the extent to which these science fiction fantasies are indicative of a masculine response to technology in postmodern society. A response that, whilst provoked by post-God anxieties, makes misguided claims for a form of transcendence in which the mind is considered separable from the body.
Realism, mise-en-scene and politics: assessing the applicability of the term auteur to Steve McQueen and his work to-date.
(Queen Margaret University, 2016)
Introduction: Steve McQueen is a director who first came to prominence in the 1990's through his critically acclaimed short films, winning the Turner Prize in 1999. McQueen moved on to feature length films with Hunger in 2008. Hunger detailed the 1981 Irish hunger strike, which was met with controversy over its political themes and graphic nature. Hunger went on to win the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as going on to win other awards, including a BAFTA. McQueen's second feature, Shame (2011), follows the turbulent life of a sex addict. The film was praised as a 'powerful' film by several critics and went on to win several awards at the Venice Film Festival. McQueen's 3rd and most recent film has also been his most acclaimed. 12 Years A Slave (2013) is based on the memoir by Solomon Northup, of the same name, and details his kidnapping in Washington DC in 1841 and subsequently being sold into slavery. The movie received widespread acclaim with McQueen winning Best Director at the Academy Awards, becoming the first black director to win the award. Each of McQueen's films follows similar themes and tropes, as well as distinctive camera techniques that could be applied to auteur theory. However, despite McQueen's critical success, he is still in the early stages of his feature film career. Therefore, this dissertation will look at McQueen's current feature length work to see whether a distinctive style of directing is emerging within his films. There are several key aspects we will look at in relation to McQueen's work- auteur theory; mise-en-scene; realism and violence; politics.
Contemporary Superwomen: Black Widow's Representation within her Cinematic and Graphic Worlds: Feminism-forged Heroines in a Post-feminist World
(Queen Margaret University, 2016)
Introduction (part): Over the past two decades, comic book film and television adaptations have gained traction within a mainstream media-dominated world, earning millions as blockbuster hits and forming new and influential identities to well-known and well-loved heroes and villains alike. Superwomen have been, as with superheroes, changing with the times, influenced by the social and political mythos of various time periods. What was paved by Wonder Woman in her first appearance in 1941; to the many superwomen and supergirls that inherited the feminist undertones these representations carry, both superwomen representation and feminism is ever-changing. Using the most recent and apparent 'superwoman', Natasha Romanov, better known as Black Widow within her cinematic depictions by Scarlett Johansson: 'Iron Man 2' (2010), The Avengers (2012), 'Captain American: Winter Soldier'(2014) and The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), as well as the comic book series written by Nathan Edmondson which was birthed from this cinematic world, 'Black Widow (2014); many of these shifting and varied feminist agendas can be brought into a contemporary focus. As Hopkins addresses; "A girl hero is literally a sign of the times" (HOPKINS, S. (2002) 'Girl Heroes: The New Force in Popular Culture' Pluto Press, Australia pp 5.) To deconstruct the modern superwoman is to unveil the feminism of the time, just as 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' ( 1997-2003) has come to encapsulate the agendas found in 3rd wave feminism of the 1990s and early 2000s; it is not unreasonable to suggest that the Black Widow has characteristics of a 'post-feminist' shift in mainstream media.
Genre and Ideology in Vietnam War Films 1978-1987
(Queen Margaret University, 2016)
Introduction: The Vietnam War was a major event in the 1960's and 70's that can be seen as the USA's first major defeat in a heavily escalated conflict with far-reaching consequences that are still being felt today. Unlike previous conflicts there wasn't an immediate bank of war films produced that documented and, to an extent, celebrated the war. The reason for the lack of films produced is theorised by Neale (2000) as the war divided public opinion, the audience that Hollywood wanted to appeal to was predominantly young and anti-war and the US military was against funding films that might criticise their actions in Vietnam. These factors delayed critical efforts to make sense of the war and so the films that did eventually emerge came later in the late 1970's and throughout the 80's. Existing evidence surrounding the ideology within Vietnam War films heavily debates the message portrayed by these films in response to the war. The traditional codes and conventions of war films had surrounded the representations of war America had won, World War Two for example, and so the codes and conventions of the Vietnam War were insufficient for describing a lost war. The annihilation of Americans and portrayal of the military is arguably highly critical and not heroic and disciplined like the portrayal is in World War Two combat films (Eberwein 2009). This lack of codes, conventions and support meant that the films made had to adapt the model of the war film to suit the wars and so the ideology and genre that structures the films isn't as straightforward. The films produced contained a lot of metaphors to try to find and make sense of the larger meanings of the war. This difference in generic conventions and changing, Calweti argues, can be traced to the cultural myths surrounding war changing within society and that directly influenced the way war films were made (Calweti, as cited in Eberwein 2010). Four of the most famous, commercially successful and critically acclaimed Vietnam films are The Deer Hunter (1978), Apocalypse Now (1979), Platoon (1986) and Full Metal Jacket (1987). The popularity and reach of this particular group of films leads us to the argument that by analysing the literature surrounding them, an attempt can be made to analyse the ideology and genre of Vietnam War films within the greater context of the war film genre.