Fandoms are a big part of life for most of us–many millennials, but people outside that generation, also. Reams of fandom discussion boards, shipping theories, and arguments populate the Internet. Pinterest bursts with fandom and fandom crossover Pins, including fan art. More people begin creating their own fan art every day.
Fan art may be fairly new, but it's a beautiful and creative way to show appreciation of your chosen fandom. The question at hand is, how do we judge fan art? What, in the opinions of various people from various fandoms, makes fan art good? Are crossover examples (e.g., Disney princesses sorted into Hogwarts houses) good or overkill? What makes a "bad" fan artist, or a "disrespectful" piece of fan art?
Oh my, you'll certainly open the proverbial can of worms with this subject! I agree with your comment about fan art (in general) being '...a beautiful and creative way to show appreciation of your chosen fandom', but I think the answer to your following question might well be reliant on a personal preference expressed by the fan of a particular story. What some will love, others will hate; it's human nature. I've seen what I consider to be some superb examples of fan art based on various anime stories, even if they haven't always been technically brilliant in their execution - it's the spirit of the piece that will pique my interest. Having said that though I do dislike the deliberate sexualisation of certain characters when that depiction is completely at odds with the character being portrayed. Such is really little more than the sexual fantasy of the artist and I would prefer it didn't appear on the Internet. In my opinion as long as fan art stays true to the official canon or even playfully experiments with shipping then I have no problem with it. – Amyus7 years ago
What would happen if John Williams' theme for Star Wars played in the background of a sensual, romance scene? Or if a whimsical tune from Alice in Wonderland played as characters were being savagely slaughtered in a horror movie?
This piece of writing would deal with why music is so important to a movie or television show and how song selection can make or break the impact of scenes. It would speak about why composers use specific instruments, sounds or techniques over others to portray certain moods.
There's a really good Youtube channel called 'Sideways' that discusses media music; check it out! – m-cubed7 years ago
A fascinating subject for a topic. It might also be relevant to make note of those composers who have deliberately created music for a particular scene that appears contrary to the mood of that scene and yet somehow seems to compliment it. Just one example off the top of my head is the music for the model train chase in Aardman Animation's 'The Wrong Trousers'. – Amyus7 years ago
Horror films often do this, like at the end of Halloween II when they play Mr Sandman through the credits. Creepy. – AGMacdonald7 years ago
I would suggest focusing--this is a very old, very broad topic. – IndiLeigh7 years ago
Accidentally posted before finishing--I suggest talking about different genres and using mostly examples of recent movies (e.g., Atomic Blonde, Darjeeling Limited, Moonlight). – IndiLeigh7 years ago
In my university major studies I did one subject called Survey of Film Music with Dr James Wierzbicki at USYD, in which we were introduced and discussed through the history of film music and the trends of making film music throughout the long film history. In classic Hollywood era, major studios hire full-time composers (most of them from Germany) and orchestra to compose music after the visual part is finished, whereas in contemporary film music making, there are also avant-garde or experimental films of which the film editing is after the music is written. "Film Music: A History (Routledge, 2009)" might be a good choice if you are looking further for film music history since the pre-cinema era. :) – Chenlei7 years ago
It's not about Hollywood, but in Bollywood, mostly movies are famous for their music and songs. – Vinita7 years ago
There is also the element of actually using these songs from one "classic" film in another film. The example that comes to mind is the use of the theme from 2001 in Clueless. – derBruderspielt7 years ago
An example of this that comes to mind is the use of Joanna Newsom's "The Sprout and the Bean" in The Strangers http://www.westword.com/music/joanna-newsoms-the-sprout-and-the-bean-created-the-perfect-horror-movie-moment-7745761 – midado7 years ago
Many classic rock songs were written poetically and had a message or story behind them. Now the element of strong writing behind music has shifted away from rock and towards hip-hop. An example could be juxtaposing Bohemian Rhapsody to Beyonce's Formation, or a politically charged song about the Vietnam War to one of Kanye West's songs. Analyze this shift and how the music scene has evolved as well as the poetic value of some of these songs.
I would also include a discussion of Kendrick Lamar and the underground hip-hop and rap musicians that have been creating complex and poetic songs for years. Some artists like Mos Def and Talib Kweli have been killin it since the late 90s. – Jonathan Judd7 years ago
I have often wondered whether a trained actor would be able to beat a polygraph test. Is the art about deception or perception? Sure we all put up a front in our lives whether its work or relationships, do actors have a leg up in this respect?
I'd like to think actors as more in-tune with human emotion rather than "liars" per-say. And i wonder if the question you raise could be applied to lawyers too, when they defend someone they know to be guilty in their heart. It's hard to say really, but i think at the end of the day and actor isn't any more susceptible to compulsive lying that anyone else really. Heaps of people - whether they are actors and lawyers or not, have the ability and tendency to lie. At least with actors, there ability to pretend is put to good use in the form of cinema. – NoorGillani7 years ago
Actors are people paid to act in front of an audience. I think the topic should ask how actors are able to lie so easily. – BMartin437 years ago
beekay, I would actually suggest expanding this idea and talk about how movies themselves are false. Jean-Luc Godard once said that movies are just, "24 lies per second" (in reference to the frames through the projector), which I would say is correct; nothing that happens in a movie is natural because it is all staged, and even if the director tries to be realistic about it and have the actors improvise, there is still a production going on; there's still lighting equipment and editing involved. With that said, I would also address the fact that most people know that what's happening in a movie is fake, so there really isn't any reason to feel like one has been lied to or cheated. – August Merz7 years ago
This is an interesting topic to consider and as a actor I wonder whether I could, in character, pass a polygraph test. As to whether the art is about deception or perception, well both aspects come into play. We may well deceive an audience into believing what they are seeing and we certainly do play with an audience's perception, but equally so an audience knows it's being deceived and has willingly suspended disbelief for the duration of the play, film or performance. Yes, I suppose we are more in tune with human emotion, but only so far as we study those aspects of a character in order to create a believable performance, although it has come in quite useful for me when dealing with pompous authority figures in my daily life, knowing how to tune my 'performance' to manipulate his/her perceptions and get what I need from them. How are we able to lie so easily? The short answer is because that's what we've been trained to do. It's a skill like any other and to become proficient it takes a lot of practice. – Amyus7 years ago
Not that I'm a big fan by any stretch of the imagination. I heard on a broadcast documentary for the actor Sean Connery, that he snagged his first movie role by telling a mouthful of lies about his acting experience at a rehearsal. Makes you wonder. – lofreire7 years ago
lofreire. LOL good comment. You should hear some of the porkies Michael Gambon tells about his early life. The troubling thing is that he sounds so genuine! – Amyus7 years ago
There is a underlying current to this topic that just dawned on me. Write about the best deception in a film or by an actor against the worst deception in a film or by an actor. Would that be too far off the mark or more worthwhile? – lofreire7 years ago
(on NoorGillani) Heaven only knows, actors pay the price for it--Heath Ledger. – lofreire7 years ago
Perhaps an interesting experiment would be to see how an actor out of character vs. the same actor in character would fare in the polygraph test. – L Squared7 years ago
I am curious to this. It would be cool to try it. – ivyskiss7 years ago
Doesn't Hypocrite start out as... – Antonius8657 years ago
Nostalgia's been widely regarded as a good thing, but when does it go too far? When does it become unhealthy for us to stick ourselves to the same ideas, the same properties, solely because we associate good things with them and they make us feel safe? It is necessary for us to be challenged, but how can we do that if we're constantly being given the same thing because that's what we like and what we're used to? With all these reboots, when is enough enough?
Interesting topic. Do you have any examples of nostalgia done right versus nostalgia done poorly? – JakeV7 years ago
Nostalgia and reboots can be considered separate entities. – m-cubed7 years ago
Too much is when the story hinges on it. It should be sprinkled throughout the story, and could conceivably work without the nostalgia. – AGMacdonald7 years ago
Already saw a page on face book called Clinton Obama, but running the wives in 2020. maybe American politics should be like a shriners convention, no wives allowed, try and find someone or something new instead of making George Lucas as Gore would say, Your Dante found. – Antonius8657 years ago
Instagram has become a way for artists to cultivate followings and promote themselves in a way that artists in the past have not been able to do before. Poets have become household names and makeup gurus now have their own beauty lines all due to the power of the 'gram. How does this new medium affect content? Are their negative consequences for using this service? For example, copying others work, authenticity, and quality.
Cool idea! I've noticed a few problems with people claiming that people are stealing ideas. I'm thinking specifically of the Harry Potter wand makeup brushes that 2 separate companies tried to market at the same time. I didn't spend too much time researching it, but basically, Buzzfeed featured one company and got a huge response while the other company claimed the idea was theirs initially. I'm not sure what happened with all that, but it would be a good specific case to look into if you're interested! – agmill8 years ago
Nitpicky but poets were household names before instagram... also I've never heard of any poets becoming famous/known through instagram but maybe I'm just not informed enough on that topic. Anyways, a VERY important aspect to consider for whoever writes this article is the fact that uploading content to instagram automatically grants them, and anyone else, really, to reshare and use the content as they want. This has lead to some controversial cases, one prominent one (worth researching) being this: http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/27/living/richard-prince-instagram-feat/ – Lusk228 years ago
Instagram is pulling artists into the mainstream. Artists' ideas are being seen by a vast audience, and in many ways, the newness or novelty of the artist becomes copied or replicated. Artists may get name recognition, but are they getting financial compensation? – sarahknight8 years ago
Instagram is really great for artist exposure. It's a free way to brand themselves and show the world what they offer as their own unique artist. I believe that snapchat might also become a new standard for viewing art. – damaddeo8 years ago
Instagram certainly poses issue with stealing content, an issue seen between companies like Huda Beauty, Vlada, and Kylie Cosmetics, where marketing materials were arguably stolen. This type of "borrowing" from others content can be seen throughout history in terms of influence between artists and apprenticeships. Artists have always been influenced by their mentors which often resulted in very similar styles but this ultimately leads to progress in style periods. In terms of recognition, it certainly offers new outlets for rising artists as well as well-known artists. It is a wonderful method of reaching new audiences, audiences that otherwise may not have interest in visiting galleries and museums. Artists like Jeff Koons and Kehinde Wiley have an immense following consisting of everyone from celebrities to your average teenager. – BreannaWaldrop8 years ago
Very cool topic. I'm wondering if you're planning to cover Instagram artists from the same field (i.e. make-up) or whether you wanted to cover artists from a variety of disciplines? – Amanda Dominguez-Chio8 years ago
While I think it's great to see social media being used as a means of supporting artists of all types, it seems to me that there is the potential for a problem in the fragmentation of content, and the necessity that comes from needing to make your art marketable. The first of these concerns is a problem, I would argue, with social media's effect on culture in general, and as we become more and more accustomed to bite-sized content the more engaging, long form content, as well as the way we consume said content, could suffer as result. I'm thinking specifically of mediums such as books, although there is definitely an argument that platforms like Instagram mostly act to entice people into further exploration of the work in question. Then there is the necessity of self marketing, and the potential of sacrificing the quality and/or genuineness of one's work in order to make it more popular, although this has always been an issue, even before social media. Ultimately I think all social media is a fantastic way to promote art of any kind, so long as one is able to sidestep the potential pitfalls of pandering to the public and becoming overly concerned with exposure rather than the work itself. – woollyb8 years ago
Instagram's a great platform for making the art world more accessible, which is still a huge problem despite the best outreach efforts of massive museums. I think it's also changed the way artists work in a way that's quite refreshing. We see a lot more works-in-progress and get insight into an artist's influences for example. – bodjaman8 years ago
I think that it's like a knife with 2 ends, it can go great or otherwise. It's a good thing that through these media channels people can get art closer to them and spread it. – AichaB8 years ago
Instagram provides a great platform for artists to put their work out there for others to view. The use of hashtags makes it much easier to find a specific subject than rooting through deviantart for hours. I can see instagram accounts replacing certain art magazines like high fructose or tattoo magazines in the near future. – cbonifa17 years ago
Miscegenation in the United States is a social taboo stretching back to early colonial North America. At first, Puritan theology condemned its practice. With the institutionalizing of slavery, the racial-caste system crystalized such divisions segregating specifically black-white sexual union. Subsequently from the religious to pseudo-scientific racism, eugenics further legislated such prohibitions. By the twentieth century, the effects of Jim Crow laws restricted the spirit of artistic license by suppressing interracial imageries. With the arrival of motion pictures, the Hays Code firmly enforced anti-miscegenation guidelines in popular Hollywood film. While a knee-jerk assumption is to summon pervasive binary between black and white miscegenation, the article proposes examples of all diverse mixing of racial and ethnic categories. Meanwhile, it explores a variety of interrelated questions. How are interracial romances treated in recent popular culture across the varying artistic mediums? What elements of interracial relationships are censured? What does such specific excising say about our society? In contemporary United States, what are considered the more acceptable pairing[s] of interracial couples and why?
A few grammatical errors here, but not a cause for rejection. – m-cubed8 years ago
Sounds interesting. There has been a shift in inter-racial portrayals. Good topic. – Munjeera8 years ago
I love this topic. I do agree with you and understand why this is a topic of interest. – daefray248 years ago
I definitely want to read this! Even as recently as this year, the backlash towards film and television that shows interracial relationships proves there is still work to be done. Might be good for someone to hone in on one type of media, whether it be comic book films, music videos, dystopian literature etc. Your discussion points are really interesting and complex, I hope there are some takers. – Zujaja8 years ago
With the current trend of shopping at the local Vinnies or Salvos and old fashion items becoming hot new styles so too has the vintage mediums been resurrected. A largely growing population of "old souls" now turn away from the digital medium in the forms of music and photography and writing and choose to use the older mediums. Vinyl record sales are on the rise, film photography (particularly polaroid) has increased and budding writers punch away on their mechanical typewriters. Why does the heavy "chick, chick, chick" of a typewriter make us more likely to be the next Hemingway? How many of us truly can hear the difference between the "warmer" sound of vinyl and the digital versions? And which hobbiest photographer can see the infinitely better contrast on the film negative compared to the ones on their iPhone 7?
