SA 's first black film scorer, Zethu Mashika (29) talk us through his journey to a unique profession

"The nature of being 'A wake'" documents the inglorious genesis and evolution of the feature film, "A wake," as it exposes the personal defects and character flaws of its writer, Jeb Sherrill Kendrick. / text

This report summarizes the pre-production, production, and post-production stages for the making of my short film, Orbit. This short was produced as my Graduate Thesis film in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas in partial fulfillment of my MFA degree in Film Production. / text

This report chronicles the development and production of the short film, Just Us Chickens, written, directed, and produced by Erin Randall. The film is based on several true stories told by a Diane Hill James, who grew up in Smithville, Texas during the 1950s. The script weaves together Ms. James’s experiences growing up near the famous Texas brothel, The Chicken Ranch, located in the neighboring town of La Grange. Diane and her friends would frequently spy on the brothel and once a stranger, new to town, mistook her family home as the brothel and her as a prostitute. The film, Just us Chickens, considers how these experiences could inform and influence the sexual identity of a young woman, and aims to clarify the contradictory expectations put upon female sexual development both then and now. / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Strax efter milleniumskiftet har ett flertal svenska filmer gjorts som är influerade av populärgenrer som förhållandevis skiljer sig från vad filmpubliken i Sverige är van vid, däribland science fiction och skräck. Tre svenska filmer gjorda under 00-talet: Storm, Frostbiten och Kenny Begins, har valts ut för att se hur de förhåller sig till äldre och mer välbekanta konventioner i svensk film men också konventioner hos de mer internationellt spridda genrer som analysexemplen tillhör.

This thesis developed thin film extraction technique, which is a solid phase microextraction (SPME) technique with enhanced sensitivity, without sacrificing analysis time due to the large surface area-to-volume ratio of thin film. Thin film extraction was applied for both spot sampling and time weighted average (TWA) sampling in laboratory and on site. First, an electric drill coupled with a SPME polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) fiber or a PDMS thin film was used for active spot sampling of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in aqueous samples. Laboratory experiments demonstrated that the sampling rates of fiber and thin film can be predicted theoretically. The performance of a PDMS-coated stir bar at a constant stirring speed was also investigated. Compared with the fiber or the stir bar, the thin film sampler exhibited a higher sampling rate and much better sensitivity due to its higher surface-to-volume ratio and its larger extraction-phase volume. A new thin film active sampler was developed; field tests illustrated that it was excellent for rapid on-site water sampling due to its short sampling period, high sampling efficiency and durability. Second, modeling was applied to study the kinetics of fiber SPME and thin film extraction by COMSOL Multiphysics. The symmetry of absorption of analyte onto the fiber (or thin film) and desorption of calibrant from the fiber in static aqueous solution and a flow through system, was demonstrated by modeling. Furthermore, kinetic calibration method was illustrated to be feasible for fiber SPME in complex aqueous matrix and then was used to calculate the total concentration of analyte in the system. Third, thin film extraction was used in on-site sampling in Hamilton Harbour and for the determination of TWA concentrations of PAHs based on the kinetic calibration. When the thin film sampler, a fiber-retracted SPME field water sampler, and a SPME rod were used simultaneously, the thin film sampler exhibited the highest sampling rate compared to the other water samplers, due to its large surface-to-volume ratio. Fourth, partition equilibriums and extraction rates of PAHs were examined for live biomonitoring with black worms and for the PDMS thin-film in passive sampling mode. In the initial extraction stage, the extracted amounts per surface area by two samplers were similar indicating that thin-film samplers could mimic the behavior of black worms for passive monitoring. A good linear relationship between bioconcentration factors and film-water partition coefficients of PAHs demonstrated the feasibility of thin-film sampler for determining the bioavailability of PAHs in water. Finally, thin film extraction was used for the analysis of human skin and breath under different experimental conditions. Thin film technique could study several skin areas of one person, characterize the skins of different persons, and measure volatile fractions of cosmetic products that were released from the skin. The sampling time in the breath analysis could be further reduced to only 20 seconds when the thin film was rotated with a portable drill.

La finitude de l'être humain n'est-elle pas la réalité la plus commune, tabou et difficile à accepter chez tous les êtres vivants? La mort, c'est celle qui nous rejoint tous et qui nous fuit tous finalement lorsqu'on veut la comprendre, l'approcher... Jamais nous ne pourrons la connaître réellement et complètement. La mort, elle est mystérieuse, angoissante, mais universelle. Dans notre société, la mort effraie. Elle n'est plus « un événement à la fois naturel et tragique, elle est le signe de l'échec de la médecine » (Ricot, 2003, p. 17). J'ai voulu l'approcher le temps d'un documentaire. Pour ce faire, j'ai dû réfléchir, lire, apprendre sur la fin de vie et sur la manière éthique de la capter, pour ensuite me proposer de faire un court documentaire sur la fin de vie d'un être humain. J'ai finalement rencontré un homme qui m'a ouvert les portes de sa vie et qui m'a montré à quel point il peut être difficile d'accepter sa propre finitude. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : cinéma, essai documentaire, éthique, mort.

Direct study of the film adaptations of the works of William Faulkner’s is relatively rare, and many of the few examples are still based entirely on the notion of textual fidelity as opposed to the more modern approach of intertextuality. With the aim of providing such an approach, this project purposes that adaptations of Faulkner novels can actually be seen as reflections of his developing popular persona at certain times in his career, and that the ways in which this persona is perceived by the filmmakers plays a large role in each film’s adaptive and thematic expression. This adaptive process occurs under the heavy influence of both popular genre narratives and a variety of surrounding social and cultural contexts, all of which must be investigated if one is to fully explore the intertextual relationship between film and source.