Thesis (M.A.)--University of Waikato, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-179) Filmography (leaves 180-182) Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

This thesis will analyse the ways in which fan participation and creation in online communities extends the film world beyond the film object, and the extent to which fandom influences identity within the fan group. The study will seek to determine the ways in which fans become part of the franchise through online engagement, as well as the manner in which they appropriate the franchise identity through their creations. The central hypothesis of the study is that online participation and creation amplifies fan connection with the film franchise, and increases the sense of identification with the world and characters of the films. By being or becoming fans, and engaging with other fans in online and real spaces, they are joining a larger community of people who seem to have blurred the lines between fiction and reality by engaging in a fictional, virtual space as a source of real personal entertainment, based on an anchor media product. This appropriation is enabled through digital communities which expand and extend the reach of fan interaction and further develop the identity of the individual as ‘fan’. Thus, the study will reflect on the implications of fan engagement with the film franchise in the digital space.

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The objective of this research was to examine the future of the cultural diversity of cinema through the GATS and the TRIPS Agreement.

This thesis examines the changing nature of Hollywood stardom and how this is informed by an emergent celebrity culture. Through several case studies this study augments older forms of analysis with Bourdieu’s concept of capital to create a new model of stardom that can accommodate recent cultural developments. In chapter one four key forms of capital are identified. After contextualising this new model within the history of classic Hollywood and older academic approaches to stardom in chapter two, the analysis of Nicole Kidman’s star text in chapter three shows how her image has evolved to combine all forms of cultural capital and as such exemplifies an entirely new formulation of the Hollywood film star. Chapter four applies this analysis to the small screen, with the case studies of Michael J. Fox and Sarah Jessica Parker showing how some performers are able to accrue cultural capital by simultaneously working in film and television, establishing television as a legitimate site for Hollywood stardom and its associated capital. In chapter five a case study of Brand Beckham shows how the capital of contemporary celebrity can be effectively deployed in order to generate a similar allure to that of the classic Hollywood star and with it a similar level of Hollywood power. The final chapter examines the simultaneous unravelling of one brand and the creation of another in light of the increasing power of the fan within celebrity culture. A detailed study of Britney Spears’s presence on perezhilton.com highlights the involvement of the audience as producers of her image and demonstrates how new technologies can be used to create an entirely new form of fame for the gossip columnist, which in turn has been appropriated by the Hollywood system as the next site for legitimate fame.

This project contains a literature review, a discussion, and an original feature length screenplay. The review of literature examines the various structuralist-inspired theories of narratology and the three-act structure method of screenplay construction.

This thesis is concerned with the New Zealand film industry and its historical and ongoing relationship with the Hollywood film industry. It will critically evaluate the notion that New Zealand now has more autonomy and independence in the international film industry and the analysis will examine the realities for both the New Zealand and Hollywood film industries by unravelling the hype and rhetoric at both core and periphery.There has been a huge amount of activity, discussion and 'hype' surrounding feature film production in New Zealand in the last few years, particularly in the wake of The Lord of the Rings production and its international success. There is also optimism that changes in the dominant US mode of production and the rise of a global entertainment industry is diminishing the centralised power of Hollywood and creating new opportunities for international filmmaking outside the US.The New Zealand industry (like many other 'national' cinemas) has always struggled between commercial and cultural imperatives for filmmaking. Using a political economy approach, this thesis examines these two imperatives as threads through the development of a national film culture in New Zealand and the constant struggle against the dominant power of Hollywood film. It works to uncover the false and often contradictory dichotomy between the two polarities, cultural and commercial.Recent policy initiatives and the activities of the New Zealand Government in terms of feature filmmaking are also examined. The initiatives of the New Zealand Government are embodied in the 'Brand NZ' slogan that has been employed in order to promote New Zealand as a location for global production capital. The central argument is that a third, hybrid model has become increasingly visible as a complex 'partnership' has developed between a Hollywood studio, New Line Cinema and a national government, New Zealand's.A slogan such as 'Brand NZ' indicates that this third model is primarily a commercial construct. What is not made clear in the New Zealand context and is in fact, obscured by the hype and rhetoric, is that this third model is also a core-periphery model. Therefore, the much vaunted independent and more autonomous national film industry in New Zealand is largely illusory.

published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

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