Upon reading the title of Jenkins chapter, Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars, I knew I would enjoy reading it. Star Wars has become such an iconic brand that Jenkins would consider it a meta-narrative. Like most major media texts, spoofs, spin-offs, parodies, and copies are made. We have seen Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy references, but my favorite movie parody growing up was Spaceballs.
John Candy, Mel Brooks, and Rick Moranis play characters that mock those seen in Star Wars. Some of them include Pizza the Hut and Darth Helmet. Instead of a cool postmodern looking spaceship, they have a flying RV. Jenkins argues that digital cinema allows for reworks and culture jams of original texts. Jenkins also says that "Star Wars is, in many ways, the prime example of media convergence at work" (455). Jenkins example was that George Lucas deferred his salary for the first film in order to keep a share of ancillary profits. In his case, he was much more profitable by holding out early on in his career. Convergence in this regard is seen often in the tech world. The wealthiest tech giants were all offered millions of dollars for their ideas when they started, but they waited and now they are worth a lot more. The most recent example of this is Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook who continued to decline buyouts and other offers in order to continue growing his company.
More importantly, Jankins describes the importance of our participatory culture. Digital media encourages viewers to participate in it through many mediums. Whether one participates though satire, buying branded goods, or role-playing a text themselves, participation is always included in a successful work.
On YouTube we find that participation is present when videos go viral; but when we buy the cereal with a Star Wars character, we are participating as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment