Title on accompanying disc: Zindzi / Television drama demands a strong sense of story to sustain a viewer’s engagement, and fictional characters are key dramatic vehicles in story construction, yet it remains an area that is severely neglected in terms of both theory and practice at this time in South Africa. I have discovered that the ‘death’ of the South African television character can be attributed (at least in part) to a unique set of challenges facing practitioners. My aim is to discover if the moribund television character can perhaps be resuscitated through the application of a concept called ‘the multiplicity of social self’, which finds its roots in the discipline of social psychology. This written explication and its accompanying experimental television film, Zindzi, are twin sites from which to consider the death and possible revival of contemporary South African television characters.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 27-30). / In reflecting on the process of making the short film "The First and Last Loves of Leonardo Lopes" the author argues against interpretation as a method for working with character and its development. It is contended that the formative unconscious imagers) at the heart of a character requires a director to be more sensory in her/his response and to develop an intimate process of animating the image. The descriptive personal vocabularies of feeling, intuition and sensation are accordingly juxtaposed against prescriptive impersonal intellectual modalities that diminish immediacy as a by-product of its "latent content". Active imagination, poetry and music are seen as more appropriate models for the filmmaker than theories and theses. The author goes on to consider the dialectical reinforcement of interpretive strategies as a result of the economic pressures of the film industry and argues for a more process friendly conception of production. After reflecting on the role and insecurities of the director in a collaborative art form, a motivation is provided for the "natural voice" of the accompanying director's commentary.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-44). / A 26-minute docu-comedy product of my studies in film and television production, The Traveling Jewish, captures improvised moments of social interaction through documentary filming style. Through filming, editing, animation and music, it becomes an entertaining half-hour of television and social commentary. It is with each cut, layer, added graphics, omitted sound or musical accompaniment, that the viewer is guided into the cultural understanding and comedic inclination of the creator of such a piece. In doing so, I believe we are opening up a new genre of Television, the Docu-Comedy, which aims to explore comedy in site-specific landscapes, through primarily improvised scenes, using the discretion of the director to do otherwise when narrative comprehension is at risk. In this way humor exists in a way not often exploited on television. As humor serves as a forum to bring to the attention of society activities, beliefs, morals, etc., at the same time challenging their validity or even ethical realities, its mere existence is often seen as a sign of the health of a society. This paper looks at all the technical and theoretical elements of such a proposal.

As my thesis, I have made an adaptation for film of Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams. The play tells the story of a young woman, Catharine Holly, who has been institutionalized shortly after her return to New Orleans from a vacation on the island of Cabeza de Lobo. Her cousin, Sebastian, a wealthy poet and gay sex-tourist died on this trip. He was killed and partially eaten by a group of impoverished young men (at least some of these men were his former sexual partners). Sebastian's mother, Violet Venable - in the hopes of suppressing the true circumstances surrounding the death of her son - attempts to persuade an ambitious young doctor to lobotomize Catharine as the play opens. It should be noted that the horror film genre has greatly affected my thinking about this project, and I will be discussing three sub-genres of horror at some length: body horror, the slasher film, and race horror. The horror films and trends to be discussed come, in the main, from the period ranging from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and will, I think, be of great help in explaining certain choices I have made in the course of making this film. My main interest is determining whether the themes present in Williams's original text can be explored and expanded upon via recourse to the horror genre. Additionally, my film moves the action of Suddenly Last Summer from the New Orleans of the early half of the twentieth century to modem-day Cape Town. However, the action takes place in a sort of netherworld or blank space that serves as metaphor for both cinema and the white cube of the gallery. This choice of staging is meant to refer to Catharine's mention of the "blazing white wall" against which her cousin's body was thrown after his death. In fact, all throughout Catharine's description of how and why Sebastian died-and it must be remembered that it is this description that serves as the denouement of the play-mentions of white light, white heat, Sebastian's whiteness (as opposed to simply saying he looked pale), and the whiteness of the day itself are employed as a sort of leitmotif That Catharine uses "whiteness" in describing an incredibly violent chapter in her past is crucial to my understanding of the text and has helped me craft a cinematic strategy for my adaptation of this play. The violence and savagery that has marked Catharine's past has followed her into the present, just as it has followed her from the impoverished island of Cabeza de Lobo to the wealthy Garden District of New Orleans, and-if Violet Venable has her way-it will follow Catharine into her future. Taking the key descriptive element of that violent day in Cabeza de Lobo and using it to paint the world of Catharine's present will, I hope, make this connection clear.

Includes bibliographical references. / The way in which indigenous people are represented in documentaries has radically changed within the last century. But "If there (still) is one overriding ethical/political / ideological! question to documentary filmmaking it may be, What to do with the people" (Nichols qtd. in Barbash and Taylor, 1997: p. 12). How can people and issues be represented appropriately? How can one make a documentary about somebody or something with a totally different cultural background to one's own without being unethical? The so-called expository documentary was the first prevailing documentary mode and tries to answer these questions with an authoritative voice-over commentary combined with a series of images that aim to be descriptive and informative. The voice-over approaches the spectator directly and offers facts or arguments that are illustrated by the images. It provides abstract information that the image cannot carry or comments on those actions and events that are unfamiliar to the target audience. This is exactly what some filmmakers reacted against - "to explain what the images mean, as if they don't explain themselves, or as if viewers can't be trusted to work the meaning out on their own. Indeed, the voice-over often seems to attribute a reduced meaning to the visuals; that is it denies them a density they might have by themselves" (Barbash and Taylor, 1997: p. 19). It is typical for the expository documentary style that the narrator speaks about or for other people. Some filmmakers see these voice-overs as "colonial, an enemy of the film, the voice of God" or even as "the (non-existent) view from somewhere" (Barbash and Taylor, 1997: p. 47).

Tiny is a film about a young woman who loses her imagination. Her creative energy is doused. She becomes what most artists are terrified of: uninspired. She is depressed, apathetic and stagnant. She does not move from her bed. Her toes sprout weeds. In order to regain control of herself and reignite her creativity she needs to plunge deeply into her multilayered psyche - an adventure that not only provides material for new creative insights but also guides Tiny to understanding herself better. She accepts the gods and demons that dwell within, recognising these complexes as the spirits of her bloodline.

Includes DVD titled: The ballad of Rosalind Ballingall : a documentary. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 28-29). / The Ballad ofRosalind Ballingall is a recollection of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the twenty-year-old University of Cape Town drama student into the Knysna forests in 1969. In search of answers to this unsolved case, the film follows Rosalind's footsteps, from the bohemian city streets of Cape Town in the sixties to the Knysna forests, drawing on the collective memory of the Knysna community and students who were at university with Rosalind at the time. In search of Rosalind, the film journeys into the ruins of old South Africa, tracing the emerging consciousness of the hippie era that evolved during that period, partially in response to the oppressive socio-political climate of the country at the time.

DVD entitled: Water feels / directed by Moratiwa Molema. / Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 35-37). / As a culminating thesis project my Master of Fine Arts degree in Film and Television, chose to create a theatrical production that incorporated multiple video projections as well as performance forms such as dance, drama, music and ritual. This explication then begins answering the question, 'how does a student of film and television production engage with live performance and create a theatrical event as opposed to a DVD as a final outcome?' The 'why' lies in the hypothesis contained in the title of the explication "Layering Time: The Representation of Tradition in Contemporary Multi Media Performance." I was exposed to multimedia techniques at the University of Hartford in America while pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Through the Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television programme at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, J wished to expand and deepen what I had learnt as an undergraduate student. The result of this effort was my thesis production. The theme of the production and the concept of layering time dealt with the importance of continuity and representations of traditional culture in a contemporary world, which is a layering of past and present. As a multi-media production,WaterFeels, was also an exploration of conceptual relationships between different art forms and the potential in this use of mixed media for notions of past and present time to exist simultaneously.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 29-31). / It is my intention to use video in a theatre setting to make visible what is not, to provide alternate views of reality and live action, and to create a heightened awareness of the medium through its use in an unconventional setting and in ways different to those that we are familiar with. It is my hope that through careful negotiation with the theatre-maker/choreographer, its use with live action will have an enhancing effect, perhaps leading to a more visceral theatre. The theory best serving to assist my attempts in terms of placing them into the academic continuum of other such endeavours and practitioners, is postmodern. Although the use of film and video in performance settings has become more general in the past three decades due to the accessibility of equipment, its use dates back to the beginning of film. This use has always been contentious, where it was often felt that the combining of a 'low' art, such as film was seen to be, with theatre, would have a diminishing effect on the latter.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This study examined the process of television production as a cognitive tool. Specifically, the study focused on two major areas of investigation: what students learn about program content from planning, preparing, and producing television productions and the factors that influence such learning. The participants were students in a television production class offered by a large university in the northeastern United States of America. Qualitative, supplemented by quantitative methodologies were used to collect data. Data sources included program proposals and scripts, journal entries, class discussion, evaluations, interviews, and concept maps. The findings indicated that the process of producing a television program can act as a cognitive tool. Several factors were found to support learning: interest and motivation, collaboration, engrossment, and pride of authorship. / 2999-01-01