Food For Thought

When Becky met Chuck

Irene McGinn

School of Communications, Dublin City University.

Supervisor: Dr. Debbie Ging.

In part fulfilment of the requirement for the award of M.A. in Film and Television Studies, 2010.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the effects of the breakdown of the conventions and functions within traditional narrative that separate the audience from the text and the producers. I am particularly interested in the effects as they pertain to the fandom. Interaction through social networking websites and fan conventions has helped to create a sense of intimacy and collaboration between fans and producers. I will examine the possible repercussions of this, including ethical issues of privacy and power.

I primarily approach this through a case study of the television series Supernatural and its online fandom.  The story of Supernatural broadly centres on two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester who fight ghosts, werewolves, vampires and various other paranormal creatures together. In this dissertation I examine the close relationship that fans of the series have with the producers. I also look particularly at the representations of the fans and the producers within the Supernatural text and how this correlates with the close fan/producer relationship that exists outside of the text. This is achieved via a combination of a textual analysis of a number of Supernatural episodes and a document analysis of existing interviews, videos, DVD extras and fan comments. Through this research I have found a disparity in fan representations relating to gender. I have also identified a number of positive and negative potential effects of a close fan/producer relationship.

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Hollywood movies like Terminator, Mission:Impossible and James Bond tales have heralded biometrics technology for years. Hand scanners, iris recognition and voice recognition, in particular, have taken pride of place. (Robb 2002 p13)

Science fiction, in all of its forms, has a unique way of suggesting new technologies and critiquing or analysing those in existence. From the writings of Philip K. Dick to long-running television series’ like Star Trek, science fiction is serving a dual role within the world of science.  It is both glorifying and exploring the potential for technological and scientific innovation while at the same time examining the ethical and social ramifications that may arise from such scientific development. In this way it both inspires and challenges scientists in a very direct way. In this essay I will examine the evolution of Biometric Technology and the impact that science fiction has had on its development and reception.

Biometrics, defined by Ronald Hall as “the development of statistical and mathematical methods, which are applicable for the analysis of data problems in the biological sciences.  It also refers to the technologies for measuring and analyzing an individual’s characteristics in terms of physiological and behavioural characteristics.” (2008 p118) The origins of the term are from ancient Greek and literally translate to ‘life measure’[1].  The history of biometrics can be traced back as far as the fourteenth century when it was used by merchants in China where thumbprints and other anatomy measurements were used as a method for identifying and keeping track of customers. (Hall 2008) In more recent times Bertillionage emerged from Paris in the latter part of the 19^th Century. Developed by a police clerk called Alphonse Bertillion, Bertillionage was a new method of identifying people by taking measurements of their body. (Kaluszynski 2001) Although these techniques of measuring various dimensions of the body as identifying data were not the advanced technology we have come to think of as biometrics, it is easy to see that today’s biometric technologies have evolved from the principles of these early techniques.

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From the horizontal integration of multinational corporations, which guarantees extensive media crossovers, to the digitization of Hollywood, which has affected the business, production, and marketing of cinema, big-screen films are indebted to a similar intimate congress among media. (Klinger 2006 p236)

In recent years we have seen many changes in technology.  Processing power has increased, software is getting more and more integrated and complex and the hardware that is needed to run programs is getting smaller and more cost-effective.  For the film industry this means new editing software, more powerful digital imaging programs and new formats like digital projection, DVDs and Blueray. Digital cinema provides a clearer picture, a better cinematographic experience and faster and easier distribution and is now becoming an industry standard. (Taylor 2006) DVDs and Blueray have replaced the now-obsolete VCR as the new home entertainment standard and home cinemas with bigger screens and better sound have changed the home viewing experience. The media integration and convergence that new technologies are creating encourages increased franchising and intertextuality, a lucrative development that production companies are only too glad to encourage.  Now blockbuster films have all sorts of associate ancillary products, from video games to special edition DVDs to theme park rides and action figures.

A lucrative franchise is known in the commercially driven film industry (particularly in Hollywood) as one of the best ways to make money.  Hollywood blockbuster films may cost millions of dollars to make but studios are willing to put money into them if they expect them to provide a high financial return.  Successful blockbuster films are what fund Hollywood studios.  The studios can afford to take some financial risk in other areas, funding many smaller films that are not guaranteed to recoup money if they have a couple of blockbusters in hand. This is because the revenue from blockbusters is not simply dependant on income from seats sold in theatres. Lucrative sponsorship and product placement deals as well as the sale of merchandise, like games and special edition DVDs, supplement this income. These films are known as ‘tentpole pictures’ (Bordwell 2006 p12) because they are the productions that ‘hold up’ the rest of the studio in the same way as a central pole in a tent keeps the rest of the tent upright.
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