Academic literature on the topic 'Musical Motion pictures'

Background. The “melos” and “colourfulness” terms are used in various meanings both, in music and fine arts. The ambiguity of these concepts in our time of unlimited possibilities for creative experiment and bold search for new semantic levels, interest in establishing versatile inter-scientific relations allows us to apply innovative analytic methods to the works of art. Among these methods, intermedial inter-disciplinary researches seem to be extremely promising, especially when applied to such traditional, well-established forms of art as academic painting and music. The article uses the innovative method of intermedial research, which consists in attempts to trans-code the elements of the musical semiotic system into a pictorial one and vice versa. B. Asafyev (1987, р. 83) determined the “melos” in music as an abstract notion that unites all the forms of melody and the properties of melodiousness: the qualitative, expressive sides of all kinds of sound correlations as sequences in time. The consistent movement of sounds in a piece of music is called “a line” (for example, a “melodic line”) that gives the reason to see a certain parallel between music and painting. Accordingly, the concept of “melos” in music correlates with the concept of “linearity” (graphics) of a picture. The notion of “colourfulness” was first introduced in the fine arts. The colourfulness is a total of correlations of colour tones, hues, which create a certain unity and are an esthetic reflection of the colour diversity of reality (based on Bilodid, I., 1973, p. 232 and others). In musical science there is no well-established definition of this concept, however, we find such attempts: “Colourfulness [in original –’kolorit’ – translator’s note] (from the Latin ’color’) in music – is the predominant emotional colouring of one or another episode, which is achieved by using various registers, tones, harmonic and other expressive means” (FDSTAR. Electronic music. The site of composers, CJs and DJs). The adjoint concept “colouristics” is used, which is described as follows: “… colouristics – music of subtle and colorful sounds, in which all tones are distinguished (the beginning of the Etude in G sharp minor by Chopin, the scene of the transformation of fishes in the 4th Picture of “Sadko”, bell harmonies by M. P. Mussorgsky, S. V. Rachmaninoff)”(Maklygin, A., 1990, in Musical Encyclopedic Dictionary). The purpose of this article is an attempt to determine the correlation of melos and colourfulness in the musical and fine arts on the example of musical portraits and landscapes from the M. Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” cycle. Research results. The “Pictures at an Exhibition” piano cycle is created under impression of works by Viktor Hartmann, the artist, architect, and designer. The content of the cycle is a vivid example of music and painting interrelation, therefore it gives an occasion to detailed intermedial analysis to understand the melos and colourfulness correlation in the musical pictures. So, the peculiarities of the melos in “The Gnome” are the quick broken zigzag lines, contains brief chromatic motifs, separated by pauses, grace notes and trills. A special role is given to syncopation, which imitate the Gnome’s limping gait. The texture of M. Mussorgsky’s piece – the octave movement in the party of the right and the left hands without a clearly defined accompaniment can be seen as a musical analogy to colourfulness of V. Hartmann’s sketch with its transparent background. Thus, in Mussorgsky’s play “The Gnome”, melos prevails over colourfulness that coincides with the ratio of melos / color in V. Hartmann’s sketch, since the artist gave preference to drawing creating this picture as monochrome one. “The Old Castle” is extremely colourful, as the composer deals great importance to modal, harmonic and textural factors. In general, it can be argued that the composer inherits the ratio of drawing and colouring in the painting by V. Hartmann, embodying the overall emotional and colourful palette of the picture with the help of tonality (“mysterious” G sharp minor) and texture (basso ostinato as an expression of the statics of the massive old building). Melos prevails over colourfulness and expresses the individuality of images in the “Samuel” Goldenberg and “Schmuÿle”, the musical portrait based on two paintings by V. Hartmann (“Poor Jew”, “Rich Jew in the Fur Hat”). The melodic (linear) component of the work is represented by two musical themes. The first is a characterization of a rich man, in which ascending intonations are used as a symbol of his high social status, by analogy with the proudly raised head and upward glance in the painting by V. Hartmann. The melodic theme of a poor Jew with a downward motion corresponds with the image of the poor man’s stooped figure. “Colour” of the musical portrait, as in the V. Hartmann’s painting, serves only as a background. In the piece “Catacombs. Roman Tomb”, the colorfulness prevails over the melos, The “gloomy” tonality (B minor) and the figurative textural techniques used by the composer (the sound of the melody against the background of tremolo octaves in high register, which can be compared with flickering lantern light in the darkness of the tomb, also juxtaposition of the fragments of the theme in different registers, creating contrasts of light and darkness), clearly reflect the overall colouring of the painting by V. Hartmann. In the musical portrait “The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga)” melos prevails over colorfulness, because it is with the help of melodic means that the portrait of a fairy-tale character is depicted, while the coloristic component of the music in this composition corresponds to the sketch of V. Hartman (where the clock in the house’s form depicted) only partially and plays the role of a landscape background (tremolo and triplets in accompaniment performing a coloristic function). “The Bogatyr (Great) Gates (In the Capital in Kiev)” is based on V. Hartmann’s the architectural and painting project of the city gate. Melos of the composition is presented by three contrasting themes. The graphic drawing of some fragments of these themes associatively correlates with the individual elements of the graphics of V. Hartmann’s picture (the peaked line of the passage in the right hand’s party, the tremolo-like figures). The colourfulness of the piece expresses in part by its texture and tone (E Flat Major, according to N. Rimsky Korsakov, the tone of “walls and cities”). In V. Hartmann’s painting, the drawing prevails over colour; however, M. Mussorgsky rethought the melody / colourful ratio in the piece. Melos conveys only some of the features of the drawing, its most important lines, while textural and coloristic musical means reproduce both, the linear side of the image and colouristics as such, that is, the colouristic component dominates. Conclusions. 1. The melos/colourfulness correlation in M. Mussorgsky’s cycle is regulated as follows: melos prevails over colouring in the pieces “The Gnome”, “Samuel” Goldenberg and “Schmuÿle, “The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga)”; colourfulness prevails over melos in “The Old Castle”, “Catacombs. Roman Tomb”, “The Bogatyr Gate in Kyiv”. 2. The melos / colourfulness correlation in the analyzed pieces from M. Mussorgsky’s cycle corresponds with the melos / colourfulness correlation in the respective V. Hartmann’s paintings. The musical portrait of Baba Yaga in “The Hut on Hen”s legs” is an exception: V. Hartman painted the stylized clock as an example of decorative and applied art, but M. Mussorgsky emphasized the reflection of the fairy-tale image; as well as “The Bogatyr Gate”, where colouristics and volume prevail over grafics and planeness of the architectural sketch. 3. The main expressive means of creating a portrait, as a rule, is the melody (melos), and the landscape – tonality, texture, timbre (colourfulness). The intermedial analysis of the above portraits and landscapes from M. Mussorgsky’s piano cycle confirms this concept.

Previous studies have shown that pairing a film excerpt with different musical soundtracks can change the audience’s interpretation of the scene. This study examined the effects of mixing the same piece of music at different levels of loudness in a film soundtrack to suggest diegeticmusic (“source music,” presented as if arising from within the fictional world of the film characters) or to suggest nondiegetic music (a “dramatic score” accompanying the scene but not originating from within the fictional world). Adjusting the level of loudness significantly altered viewers’ perceptions of many elements that are fundamental to the storyline, including inferences about the relationship, intentions, and emotions of the film characters, their romantic interest toward each other, and the overall perceived tension of the scene. Surprisingly, varying the loudness (and resulting timbre) of the same piece of music produced greater differences in viewers’ interpretations of the film scene and characters than switching to a different music track. This finding is of theoretical and practical interest as changes in loudness and timbre are among the primary post-production modifications sound editors make to differentiate “source music” from “dramatic score” in motion pictures, and the effects on viewers have rarely been empirically investigated.

Copyright industries represent an important part of the developed economies. The effective protection of copyright fulfills an important role in the advancement of innovation and economic development. However, in the digital economy, the protection of copyrighted works poses numerous and very difficult challenges. The protected works usually targeted by criminals are computer programs, motion pictures, video games, and musical compositions. The estimated or actual harm to copyright owners can amount to billions of dollars. Moreover, these offenses are sometimes perpetrated in connection with other crimes, such as conspiracy to commit racketeering or money laundering. This paper argues that criminal enforcement of copyright can be an important safeguard of economic and information security interests. The paper discusses essential aspects regarding the criminal protection of copyright in the United States. Based on a theoretically-informed, yet empirically-driven approach, which takes into account a large corpus of data, consisting mostly of cases brought to courts of law, the paper discusses the main aspects of the phenomenon. Finally, the paper proposes a number of measures that would improve the protection copyrighted works. Keywords: Copyright, Economic Development, Cybercrime, Infringement, Security, Loss

<p>Directora: Leena Yadav. </p><p>Productora: Ashlee Films, Blue Waters Motion Pictures.</p><p>Guión: Supratik Sen, Leena Yadav.</p><p> </p><p>La película de la directora india Leena Yadav es un retrato coral sobre la vida femenina y la desigualdad en que viven las mujeres en sociedades altamente patriarcales y misóginas como la India rural contemporánea. A través de la interacción entre cuatro personajes, el filme se convierte en una crítica social sobre las diferentes formas de violencia que sufren las mujeres: desde el matrimonio forzado de niñas al maltrato conyugal pasando por las agresiones sexuales. Las vidas entrelazadas de la viuda Rani, la maltratada Lajjo, la artista prostituta Bijli y la mujer niña casada a la fuerza, Janiki, realizan un retrato demoledor sobre la sociedad india. Se trata, no obstante, de un filme luminoso, con una excepcional fotografía, iluminación, guión, ritmo, trabajo actoral y banda sonora; un juego musical, visual y emocional que en ningún momento pierde su carácter de denuncia social y que pone en primer plano el valor esencial de la amistad femenina.</p>

Background. The beginning of the development of musical art in Transcarpathia dates back to the end of the nineteenth century and lasts during the first third of the twentieth century. First of all, it was an interest in the genre of choral music (a synthetic genre based on the merging of the Word and Music), which fully corresponded to the enlightened spirit of life of the Transcarpathians under the political conditions of that time. And only in the second half of the twentieth century intensive blossoming of the varieties of instrumental (kind of «pure») music with its conceptually most complex types of creative thinking and adaptation to the methods of style transformation takes place. The piano music, one of the most abstract forms of the creative process, has revealed its peculiarities in this process. However, the researchers virtually never paid attention to piano pieces for children, which are naturally inferior by their practically necessary and didactically appropriate visual simplicity of musical vocabulary to the works of the so-called large genre. In addition, historically, the creative work of Transcarpathian composers has been considered only as a product of a purely regional significance. Therefore, it is important that the piano works of Transcarpathian composers for children should also be considered in the context of such integrity as the Intentional period of the music history, which has been defined as non-classical and at the same time permeated with the idea of global cultural synthesis Objectives. The essence of the tasks and the purpose is to present the "Child Album" by V. Telychko (the first in Transcarpathia sample of the genre of children’s musical album, 2016) as an example of the creation of the modern intonational image of the world - in its associative diversity and intentionality. Methods. A selection of research methods, namely, analytical (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, systematization, classification and generalization), comparative, systemic, phenomenological, functional, has been used in view of the holistic approach – in the spirit of spiritual development of the world. In this regard, the interpretive potential of the concepts of the intonational model and the modal nature of musical themes as types of thinking by sound images is considered methodologically appropriate: both purposefully focus attention of the recipient on the sound «body» and the intonational "soul" of the musical matter in the integrity of the creative idea of the work, and also is didactically productive in terms of comprehension of the architectonics of the world of music as a world of musical ideas. Results. V. Telichko’s "Children’s Album" is a cyclic structure of the linear/plot type, where step-by-step compositional and dramaturgical organization of the whole ensures the principle of successive naming of new, but equal in figurative semantic content pieces. At the same time, it will be superfluous to reflect on the fact that the structure of cycles such as "album" is rarely evaluated as such that it is actually "filled in" (for example, with memorable photos or pictures), and only since then its "white" (from alba) of the blank/empty sheets is filled in with the semantics and the logic of placement of fixed events, phenomena, impressions, etc in a certain order. Against the background of such reflection the memory recalls such "albums" of romantics: all of them are based on the logic of the course of a day lived by a child (for example, P. I. Tchaikovsky). V. Telichko’s principle of collecting pieces "into the album" has such a life-justifiable logic – the gradual flow of events of the day, embodied in a child’s only perception of the world and itself. The semantic code of the composer’s plan is referenced in his dedication: "I devote my love to grandchildren Angelina and Anna" - expressing love for grandchildren, admiring their fantasy and energy, caring for the formation of their worldview on a certain system of values (family, native land, diversity of traditions of the countries of the world , historical memory): the pieces "Morning", "My Mother", "Our Grandmother" represent an idea of an ingenuous and happy feeling of a child in the family; "Anna’s Teddy-Bear", "Angelina’s Hobbyhorse" and "Angelina’s Waltz " represent a lively imagination of children, each of them having a favorite game "theme"; the plays "About Transcarpathia", "Kolomyika", "Tropotyanka", "Long road" and "It’s raining" are outlined by the situation of instructive stories of grandfather about the regionally formed traditions of the Transcarpathians, their spirit and uneasy destiny; while the pieces "On Scotland", "On Slovakia" and "On Japan" outline the interests of somewhat different cognitive significance - the intention to comprehend a certain national "otherness", which has its own color of its culture; in the end, "A Lullaby for Anna" creates, so to say, a backlash against the grand finale-prologue, consisting of the pieces "On Austria" (the cultural center of the European musical classicism) and "On Romania" (regionally closest to Transcarpathia country). Another signifying circumstance of the idea and plan of the cycle refers to the types of performances and personification of images, both as members of the family circle and as a certain social unity: in addition to the versions of solo performance, in a considerable number of plays there is ensemble performance in four and six hands; at the same time, each of the parts is composed as a certain texture layer, which in aggregate (duo, terzetto) gives the effect of an "orchestral" score. However, the most important thing is that for the instrumentalist performer, and for the listener or analyst (who is also a "listener"), the "Children’s Album" by V. Telichko is a test of the ability to perceive musical vocabulary in the form of a certain sound form/idea with which it is necessary to have a relationship according to the algorithm of personal identification. On the one hand, in the musical text there is an opportunity to recognize the classical models of musical vocabulary (cantilena, recitation, motility, general forms of motion, signaling, sound illustration); and on the other - due to the constructive interference of the classical techniques of the creation of musical matter (emancipated dissonance, the non-systemic character of the tonality, etc.) the meanings are accumulated. Another important component of the composer’s plan is to introduce a purely methodical (level of methodical reception) task of developing the technology of the game on the piano into the original sound form/idea, which first of all requires a skillful usage of all the fingers. Conclusions. As a research material the "Children’s Album" by a contemporary composer from Transcarpathia, V. Telichko provides several important and mutually perceptible scientific tasks directly related to musicology and pedagogical practice: testing of the theoretically updated analytical apparatus for tracking the intonational field of music and its thoughts and comprehension of the didactically expedient implementation of its results in the educational sphere; in particular, in terms of the prospective guideline for the development of musicality (a high measure of the ability to self-identification with the musical image) and the piano skills of a child musician.

This extension of the authors previous article udiovisual Means of Creating Metadiegetic Space in Cinema (see Vestnik VGIK #1 (31), 2017) is a historic survey of the sound design techniques which make it possible to use musical expressive means for designating the films subjective space (metadiegesis) and separating the metadiegesis from diegesis by means of music.

My area of research is best described as the promotion of a new methodological approach to the study of film. It is an approach that is founded upon a spatial reading, based on an exploration into abstract aesthetics and pays particular attention to the interactions between sound and image. Whilst this methodological approach can be utilised to read any film, this thesis looks particularly at the musical genre and, more specifically, the musical number and its representation of space. The need to delimit my study notwithstanding, the musical has been taken as a case study in order to demonstrate how this spatial methodology should pay attention to, and be aware of, the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies that genres encapsulate. My thesis challenges the dominance of cognitive theory by providing an approach based upon gestalt theory, making use of ‘forensic’ analysis to remove aesthetics from their narrative context. Theorists such as Rick Altman (1989, 1999) and Jane Feuer (1993) have long discussed the structural qualities of the musical genre in an attempt to delimit the musical number from that which surrounds it. A different representation of space emerges in the musical number, one that permits a deeper exploration into the negotiated relationship between sound and image. In this thesis I examine this space closely utilising a range of innovative analytical techniques including virtual reconstruction and diagrammatic notation. This ‘forensic’ analysis is considered within the overarching framework of gestalt theory: that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. This thesis studies film as an audio-visual medium and considers a range of different spatial realms in order to best understand the complex negotiations between sound and image. Previous scholars of the musical genre have largely focused upon narrative readings of either new or canonical filmic texts. I argue that these narrative readings, whilst 4 providing significant contributions to the field, are ultimately deficient as they fail to adequately explore the finer qualities of film language.

Orientador: Claudiney Rodrigues Carrasco
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes
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Resumo: A presente dissertação de mestrado elabora um panorama das trilhas musicais dos filmes da Companhia Vera Cruz e contribui para o preenchimento de uma lacuna bibliográfica sobre trilhas musicais brasileiras da década de 50. Com esse estudo, verificamos como alguns compositores procederam, entendendo as características estéticas da época e percebendo como estas composições musicais se situam no cenário de trilha sonora cinematográfica no Brasil. Para tanto, foram realizadas consultas bibliográficas, hemerográficas, entrevistas e análises fílmicas aliadas à teoria musical dos dezoito filmes de ficção da Vera Cruz
Abstract: This present master¿s thesis elaborates a panorama of the soundtracks of the Cinematographic Company Vera Cruz and contributes for the fulfilling of a bibliographical gap on the Brazilian musical tracks from the fifties decade. With this study, we verify how some composers had proceeded, understanding the aesthetic characteristics of that period of time having the perception as these musical compositions had taken place into the Brazilian¿s cinematographic soundtrack scenario. On account of these research bibliographical, interviews, research in reviews and newspapers from that period and filmic analyses allied to musical theory have been done on the eighteen fiction Vera Cruz films
Mestrado
Mestre em Multimeios

A broad survey of musical theatre dance styles in film from 1935 to 1985 is used as background information for this creative project. Attention is paid to developments within the art form. The contributions of choreographers Busby Berkeley, Fred Astaire, Agnes de Mille, Gene Kelly, Michael Kidd, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, and Michael Peters are discussed. A detailed description is included of the process involved in translating the film choreography to a stage performance. The film choreography was presented in a lecture demonstration format designed to give the audience a short synopsis of musical film history, then illustrate the information with a performed example.

This thesis provides an overview of the various ways in which select marginalized identities are represented within the twenty-first century American musical film. The first intention of this thesis is to identify, define, and organize the different subgenres that appear within the twenty-first century iterations of the musical film. The second, and principal, intention of this thesis is to explore contemporary representations of African-Americans, women, and queerness throughout the defined subgenres. Within this thesis, key films are analyzed from within each subgenre to understand these textual representations.

Orientador: Claudiney Rodrigues Carrasco
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes
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Resumo: Desde os primórdios do que entendemos hoje como cinema, já se fazia uso de intervenções sonoras. O acompanhamento musical era normalmente executado ao vivo, através de um pianista, um improvisador ou, as vezes, por uma pequena orquestra. Com o passar das décadas, o som para animação foi se transformando e assim, cada vez mais atrelou-se às imagens, se fundindo e unificando. Já na década de 1930, os desenhos animados formam um poderoso elo com a música, produzindo com isso, uma gama de cartoons musicados. Deste momento em diante, a trilha musical recebe a função de narrativa, sua articulação com a imagem cria um significado e possibilita a compreensão do espectador na história. A compreensão do som está associada ao acordo que existe entre o emissor e o espectador, quando este, em uma exibição, entra na sala para "ver-ouvir" uma história contada. O alicerce preeminente na projeção é a narrativa. Portanto, a trilha sonora, através do sincronismo, do seu uso de forma poética e também, através do uso de sons que de certa forma, já estão na memória de toda a sociedade ocidental, integra a articulação e a organização da narrativa na animação, compondo assim, um elemento de sua montagem. E desta maneira, a percepção fílmica é de fato audio-visual e permite numerosas combinações entre sons e imagens animadas
Abstract: Interventions with sounds are used since the beginning of what is known today as film. The music was performed live by a pianist, improviser or sometimes by a small orchestra. Over the decades, animation sound changed and became increasingly harnessed viii to the images, merging and unifying. Already in the 1930s, the cartoons are a powerful link with music, thus producing a range of cartoons set to music. From this moment on, the soundtrack gets the role of narrative, its articulation with the image creates meaning and allows the viewer to understand the story. Understanding of sound is associated with agreement that exists between the issuing and the spectator, when, in a view into the room to "see-hear" a story telling. The foundation is preeminent in projecting the narrative. Therefore, the soundtrack through the synchronization, the use of poetic form and also, through the use of sounds that somehow are already in the memory of all Western society integrates the speech and organization of narrative in animation, thus composing an element of its assembly. Sooner, the filmic perception is indeed audio-visual and allows numerous combinations of sounds and visual images
Mestrado
Fundamentos Teoricos
Mestra em Música

This thesis provides an overview of the various ways in which select marginalized identities are represented within the twenty-first century American musical film. The first intention of this thesis is to identify, define, and organize the different subgenres that appear within the twenty-first century iterations of the musical film. The second, and principal, intention of this thesis is to explore contemporary representations of African-Americans, women, and queerness throughout the defined subgenres. Within this thesis, key films are analyzed from within each subgenre to understand these textual representations.

Although a twenty-first-century bump in high-profile musical television programming like Glee and The Sound of Music Live! brought television’s relationship to the musical back into the popular cultural consciousness, the Hollywood and Broadway musical had always been part of the American television landscape. This chapter sets up this relationship and creates a road map for the seven-chapter exploration of the small screen’s romance with a foundational American art form. It further contextualizes the work within a broader view of popular music, early forms of musical platform convergence (e.g. Broadway with sheet music sales, radio, and motion pictures), existing scholarship, and the challenges of conducting such a historical study when copies of the primary focus of the research—the programming itself—no longer exist or never existed in re-viewable form.

This chapter focuses on Latin American singer and actress Carmen Miranda, who helped create an all-purpose, homogeneous image of Latin Americans, their culture, and especially their music. Hollywood used Miranda as a do-all prop in dramatic settings as diverse as New York, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Havana, and Mexico. The resulting conflation of costumes, instruments, musical genres, and languages is highly entertaining on one level but pernicious and (at the time) politically counterproductive on another. The partial coverage by US news media of events in South America left a gap that is “often filled by fictional representations in motion pictures and television shows. Film, in particular, has played a major role in shaping modern America's consciousness of Latin America.”

Vannevar Bush envisioned a machine that would assist humanity in the creative work of writing. Doug Engelbart imagined the collaborative sharing and enhancement of knowledge. Digital media today—text, drawings, photos, audio, and video—surpass the visions of their pioneers. These media may be copied, shared, and modified in ways that challenge the legal system, because unrestricted content sharing without suitable payment to creators runs counter to intellectual property (IP) traditions and laws. Writers, musicians, artists, and inventors have long relied upon IP protection to enable them to control the use of their creations and inventions. Copyright infringement, that is, copying in violation of copyright, threatens the income that they could receive from their creations. The concept of fair use is a critical issue in such discussions, as it allows certain exceptions to copyright. One area that has received a great deal of attention is the digital copying and sharing of music; we shall examine the interplay between conventional behaviour, ethics, technical interventions to limit or block copying, laws and legal battles, and product and pricing innovation. Next, we shall look at similar issues in the domain of motion pictures. There are effective and legal streaming services, yet there are still concerns about copyright infringement. Copyright holders now automatically produce takedown notices to insist that websites remove illegally or improperly sourced material. Such notices include many errors, causing additional complications for video creators. One interesting challenge to the concept and laws of copyright occurs in the creation of mash-ups. Artists use fragments from existing musical or visual performances as well as their own material to create audio-visual works that combine multiple content sources. Artists, lawyers, and businesspeople debate the extent to which such mash-ups violate reasonable copyright protection. Copyright is also significant for academic articles and textbooks. There are two especially interesting cases to discuss. One is the widespread copying of textbooks by students due to the high price of texts. The other is the fair pricing of the publication of research results that have been funded by government grants. This issue has provided one of several stimuli to the creation of open access publications.

The Plaza was the first site of Spanish colonial civilian settlement in 1781, it was also the first entertainment district in Los Angeles. From the mid-nineteenth century through the 1950s, Plaza district buildings housed immigrant-oriented businesses, churches, restaurants and cafes, grocery stores, social clubs, billiard halls, saloons, music stores, dance halls, rooming houses, phonograph parlors, penny arcades, nickelodeons and ten-cent motion picture houses, and vaudeville theaters. The development of the Plaza area over time mirrors the transition of Los Angeles from a small Spanish and Mexican pueblo to an American frontier city, and ultimately to one of the world's major cities and metropolitan areas. This chapter explores how musical theater directly relates to physical location, civic identity, immigration, and ethnicity. A recurring process of cultural conflict, maintenance, and accommodation played out over time on stage in Los Angeles's Latino theatrical world. Music and theater served as conduits for communal self-expression, as powerful symbols of Mexican identity, and as signs of tradition and modernity.

“Watching films in the silent era” explains how viewing habits changed with distribution patterns and the growth of nickelodeons and movie palaces. Social stratification affected access to both cinemas and films. Those who lived far from city centers or who were prevented from visiting luxury venues by poverty or segregation saw older films at cheaper prices. Studios tried to manage the exigencies of filmmaking by selling motion pictures in batches, while theater owners had to choose among thousands of available options in picking the films they would exhibit. Live sound effects, narration, and even dialogue were surprisingly common elements of silent film exhibition worldwide, and silent film music was a thriving industry, with organists or groups of musicians working from books of standard music rather than film-specific scores.

During the height of World War II, Curtiz directed Mission to Moscow (1943), the most controversial film of his career. The wartime alliance between the U.S.S.R. and the United States motivated President Roosevelt to personally request the brothers Warner to produce this film. It was based on the best-selling “diary” of a former Soviet ambassador and F.D.R. intimate, Joseph Davies, and the Warners and Curtiz believed that they were supporting the war effort. Davies, however, exercised both script approval and the power of the White House in shaping the film into an absurdly biased tribute to Stalin and the Soviet Union. Although the finished film had minimal influence on public opinion, it fueled the creation of the right-wing Motion Picture Alliance and the postwar HUAC witch hunt.Curtiz pivoted to direct the Irving Berlin musical revue This Is the Army, which became his most financially successful Warner picture; Harry and Jack Warner donated all of the considerable profits to the Army Emergency Relief Fund.He also directed Passage to Marseille, a problem-wracked failure, and Janie, an adolescent drama that was a box-office hit.

The study of pre-existing music confirms the poetics and politics of these films come together in the very contemporary notion that everything, notably art and identity, is a re-representation. If the songs featured on the original motion picture soundtracks have unquestionably played an important role in constructing the Tarantino brand as an emblem of cool retro, their functions in the films have always been varied and complex: reinforcing and establishing structural and thematic relationships (notably regarding character relations), endowing specific scenes with a certain tone or emotional ambience, and also highly contributing, on a metafictional level, to the political subtexts by way of intertextuality.

Fitzgerald imports cross-stylistic features from the spheres of dance and music into his fiction, and this chapter shows how he also employs filmic technique in his short stories. Joseph Conrad’s Preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus was central to Fitzgerald’s fiction-writing credo, encouraging him to make his readers hear, feel, and see. His popular culture references lend themselves to this approach, but nowhere more so than in his references to film. This chapter uses ‘Magnetism’ as a case study, analysing the use of filmic techniques such as close-up, dream sequence, and soundtracking, and offers a reading of George Hannaford as a satiric metaphor for the motion picture industry, reflecting Fitzgerald’s own conflicted relationship with Hollywood. This relationship is also visible in the Pat Hobby stories, which have often been noted for their markedly different style. It is argued that this compressed style metafictively satirises Hobby’s voice, bringing to life the lackadaisical reticence of the industry veteran. This chapter argues that in the Pat Hobby stories Fitzgerald explores, through parody, the shortcomings and inherent potential of the film industry to combine artistic merit and commercial success, using it as a vehicle critically to explore leisure pursuits of the interwar period.

This paper provides updated information, with respect to that already given at the 2001 ASME-PVP Conference, on the Project MUSICA (Multimedia for the Development of Innovative Systems for Anti-Seismic Constructions). This project was jointly undertaken by the Italian Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment (ENEA) and other partners associated in the Italian Working Group on Seismic Isolation (GLIS) in May 2000, to contribute to information and training on the modern passive control techniques of seismic vibrations through a better, modern use of media. It consists in the development of a series of films of various durations on manufacturing, R&D and applications of the aforesaid techniques, namely seismic isolation, passive energy dissipation, hydraulic coupling by means of shock transmitters, systems formed by shape memory alloy devices, “active sewing” method for masonry buildings, etc. Films are addressed to designers, representatives of the Institutions and the ordinary public, as well. Most of them have already been completed. The short film “Advanced Tested Technology for Earthquakes” (that developed for ENEA within the MUSICA Project) will be shown at the Symposium, together with (if possible) the motion-picture “The Shapes of Memory”.