Official Gmail Blog: Introducing Gmail Labs
Its really great to see gmail coming up with interesting ideas formulated collectively from users. However, it would be fantastic if they explain the procedures of enabling the new ideas. like how to activate the superstar facility.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Friday, September 7, 2007
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND THE APOCRYPHAL
HOLLYWOOD
By
Jerry dev
ABSTRACT
Films have a long history, which has created milestones in our politics to our thought process in the name of “Entertainment”. From media channels to FM radio all we have is films, in different formats.
Advent of Technology up gradation has lead to dramatize the past and bringing it to the reality in new color. “Hollywood” the kingmaker and a factory that gives life to American’s & Americanized dreams for the rest of the world technologically and culturally.
Hollywood films are apocryphal creating a fallacy that white are the saviors of the past, who had and have the determination to work towards humanitarianism, Bullet theory of Wilbur schram rejuvenated, in making the worldwide audience passive by injecting their value directly.
Mythologies (King Arthur, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Kingdom of Heaven) which prevailed in the English culture are given a new color with the help of the technological innovation to rewrite the history in the name of Entertainment.
Technological advancement and their keen necessity have led to the neo brain drain. Movies like Shriek, Lion King produced at the Indian animation studios, however, carried the message of the American values for the world-wide audience.
Invasion and conquer has turn out to be the primary motto of the Hollywood films, which incidentally create values like “War leads to the beginning of new hope” (The Fellowship of the Ring) & “Wars in the name of heroism” (King Arthur). Bombardment of these contents has made the world passive, in cases where America persuaded Iraq and killed Saddam Hussain.
.
Media has taken a new dimension and its goal is to create the monopolized super power (America)
Affirmation, is another tool incorporated by the Hollywood films to create the acceptance and a sense of recognition amongst us. Representation of third world in movies as subordinates (Harry Potter, Guru, Bend it like Beckham are a few notable examples, however, these films merely targets to pacify the doubts and anger of the left outs (Third world/ India).
In addition, the advantage of Hollywood films in terms of business and ideological invasion is the dubbed version in vernacular languages. James Bond’s latest movie Casino Royale had 525 prints in Tamil nadu and Kerala.At this juncture, this paper discuss in detail about the technological innovation in Hollywood movies and its implications among the young minds of India.
The new technological innovations and how they are being used in their movies
The reason behind the making of mythological movies and its implications amongst our audience.
The overshadowing of the reality with the help of technological advancements in their movies.
The need and the importance for media Education for the school and college teachers to create a better understanding among the students in terms of technological and cultural persuasion.
Apocryphal - An Overview
Monopoly corporations and the compulsion to export capital (for higher profits) characterize imperialism. Unlike capitalism in earlier stages, in the imperialist stage, capitalism has no more progress to bring the world, only the continuous threat of extinction through world war and environmental catastrophe. The countries with the highest stage of capitalism (imperialist countries of Europe and North America) would periodically redivide the world through world war. World war today is only the political extension of the economics of competition inherent within capitalism.
An imperialist is a member of the ruling class in a society with the highest stage of capitalism. Through their control of the means of production either through ownership or through power in government, imperialists would not have to work a day in their lives if they did not want to. Imperialism is the cause of contemporary Militarism.”1
“The essence of Cultural Imperialism is the creation of fantasies to escape from misery. It involves the fusion of commercialism, sexuality and conservatism-each presented as idealized expressions of private needs, of individual self realization”2
Imperialism in the name Of Entertainment
The increasing penetration of the mass media among the poor, the growing investments and profits by U.S corporations in the sale of cultural commodities and the saturation of mass audiences with messages that provide the poor with vicarious experiences of individual consumption and adventure defines the current challenge of cultural colonialism.
American cultural imperialism has two major goals, one ECONOMIC and the other POLITICAL; to capture markets for its cultural commodities and establish hegemony by shaping popular consciousness. The export of entertainment is one of the most important sources of capital accumulation and global profits displacing manufacturing exports.
In the Political sphere, cultural imperialism plays a major role in dissociating people from their cultural roots and traditions of solidarity, replacing them with media created needs, which change with every publicity campaign. The Political effect in to alienate people from traditional class and community bonds, atomizing and separating individuals from each other.3
Cultural Imperialism emphasizes the segmentation of the working class; stable workers are encouraged to dissociate themselves from temporary workers, who in turn separate themselves from the unemployed, who further segmented among themselves within the ‘underground economy’. Moreover, it encourage working class to think of themselves as part of a hierarchy emphasizing minute difference in life style, in race and gender, with those below them rather than the vast inequalities that separate them from those above.
“The principle target of Cultural Imperialism is the political and economic exploitation of youth.”4 Imperial entertainment and advertisement target young people who are most vulnerable to U.S commercial propaganda. The message is simple and direct ‘modernity’ in associated with consuming U.S products.
Youth represent a major market for U.S cultural export and they are most susceptible to the consumerist-individual propaganda. Cultural imperialism focuses on youth not only as a market but also for political reasons to undercut a political threat in which personal rebellion could become political revolt against economic as well as cultural forms of control.
Hollywood is one of the principal sources of wealth and power for U.S capital as it extends its communication network throughout the world. An increasing number of percentages the richest North Americans derive their wealth from the mass media.
Today almost one out of five of the richest North Americans derive their wealth from the mass media. Cultural imperialism has displaced manufacturing as a source of wealth and influence in the U.S.
Hollywood has become an integral part of the U.S system of global political and social control, as well as a major source of super profits. Western media celebrities and mass entertainment have become important ingredients in deflecting potential political unrest. The Bush presidency has highlighted the centrality of media manipulation through highly visible but politically reactionary entertainers, a phenomenon that has spread to Latin America and Asia.
Americanized Hollywood messages are alienating to third World people in a double sense. They create illusions of ‘international’ and ‘cross class’ bonds.
Factors behind the Advent of Hollywood
The factors behind the advent are classified into economical and political.
In a country (India) where movie watching is almost a religion, theatres in cities were going to seed in the past decade as it was becoming uneconomical to maintain them.
India produces 1200 Feature Films per year. India contributes 13,000 theatres and 130 multiplexes where many more still coming up. India has an average of 3.3 billion viewers per year of which multiplexes account 1/3rd of it.5
Despite the size of the Indian movie business, India remained a stepchild of the Hollywood circuit until about four years ago. Audiences had to wait for a minimum of six months before a Hollywood film released in India. Some film took about two years to swim through the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Hollywood began taking a closer look at India some years ago when it had to fight the 24-hrs television channels, and the friendly neighborhood video distributor, for eyeballs. The mass television audiences clued on to the latest offerings from Hollywood, and began demanding the latest releases, which were now available in convenient VCD/DVD format, thanks to the progress of technology. Therefore, to survive the Hollywood majors forced to rework their somnolent business strategies.
a. Hollywood films in regional languages:To cash in on the worldwide hype a release generates at the time of the commercial release, they began bringing major releases to India just a few weeks after their worldwide launch. Now several releases such as the recent Matrix Revolutions routinely launched in India alongside the rest of the world. After the streamlining their imports and distribution network, Hollywood companies decided to enlarge their share of the entertainment market revenues. While they were hitherto releasing Hollywood films in the original English version, the humongous market in Hindi and other regional languages remained untapped.
Sensing a market opportunity, the Hollywood companies have begun releasing their films in several dubbed languages. These dubbed versions have proved to be extremely popular with the non-English speaking masses of India. In addition, their wide appeal has resulted in enhanced box office revenues. Colombia Tri star, which handles the distribution for all Sony pictures, hit pay dirt with the multi-lingual versions of the blockbuster SPIDERMAN. It raked in revenues of $6million. This was much more than revenues from the English prints. Its sequel Spiderman 2 grossed $7.44 million. Similarly, Godzilla, one of the early multi-lingual releases, also grossed over $6million6
b. Affirmation of Indo American community in Films
Predicted the wide market for growth, the Hollywood filmmakers made it a keen recognition of indo American in their films. The beginning of this era began with the mighty M.Night Shyamaln, an Indian born film director whose debut SIXTH SENSE broke the several box office records. However, the cliché behind the rechristening of Manoj Shyamalan to M.Night Shyamalan had never risen as an issue among the Indian audience.
The wide recognition the film received and the publicity factor behind the Indian as a Hollywood film created an oneness among the audience, which then followed by characters like Padma in The English Mythological film Harry Potter, India the land of Kama Sutra in the film GURU. This helped in creating the fallacy among the Indian audience to believe that life is green and thereby created the acceptance of demeaning cultural portrayal in the name of recognition and entertainment.
A mere presence of an Indian in the film has helped them to do double up their business. The Paradox is that, Tamil,Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi speaking dubbed version of James Bond receives a opening lioke anyother native stars. The latest of James Bond “Casino Royale” had 525 prints in Tamilndu and Kerala alone. Ironically, the highest number of prints ever made for an Indian movie is 375 prints worldwide which includes India.
c. The Neo- Venture of Hollywood
Apart from commerce, there have been other reasons also for the discovery of India by Hollywood. Among them has been the fact that, in the past three years, several moviemakers who were hitherto running private fiefdoms, decided to corporatist their operations and goes public.
If film production has seen a qualitative change, so has the last link in the chain exhibition. With land prices in cities, rocketing theatres have given way for multi-screen cinemas, or multiplexes. These have smaller seating capacities and have in turn, spawned the production of films for niche audiences. Such developments have resulted in many young first-time movie directors blazing their small scale endeavors on the silver screen – a scene not far removed from the efforts of independent film makers Hollywood in 5o’s, which broke the strange hold of the large movie studios in the business.
The Hollywood companies are closely watching the radical change in the movie making business in India; indeed, they are participants In the process of change. The projection is that by 2025, the largest audiences in the world will be in India and China. In addition, India already has more speakers of the English Language than any country. Speculation has been rife that the Hollywood majors will soon get into co-productions in India. Yet, they are tight-lipped on their plans.
Harvey Weinstein of Miramax of Miramax visited Gurinder Chadda during the shoot of Bride and Prejudice, added that” Nothing Weinstein does is ever done quietly or without reason”7
Technological Innovations – the “THING” behind
Globally there are lads of software and hardwares used for dubbing and music recording, but there are 2 softwares that stand out.1) Pro Tools (runs on a Mac & PC)2) Nuendo (runs on PC)
Both of these are freely and widely available in India. Pro tools is the more sought after while Nuendo is more for home or small/cheaper setups. UTV use Protools or Nuendo with a combinations of analog or digital mixers and beta recorders and players. These are the most commonly used technology in the country today. En Sync uses Pro tools in Mumbai and Nuendo in Chennai
Dubbing vendors are riding on this wave. UTV, which has a dubbing business unit, recorded a volume of 733 hours in this period. In the quarter ended December 2004, the company has done 461 hours of dubbing.
Other leading dubbing vendors include VGP, En Sync, Mainframe and Sound & Vision. The boom has given birth to a large number of dubbing organizations, big and small. There are at least 25 small outfits in Mumbai itself. Industry experts find it difficult to give an accurate assessment of the size of the market because of the fragmentation.
"It is a very fragmented market. Apart from a handful of big players, we have many smaller players to take into account,"Industry analysts value the market size at an approximate Rs. 150 million with UTV in the lead. The company earned Rs. 34 million from dubbing in the 2003 fiscal and has already touched 24 million for the six months period ended 30 September 2004
Celebrity dubbing, who is common in the international arena, is making its presence felt in India now. Mainframe had Shahrukh Khan dubbing for Disney's The Incredibles recently. Salman Khan was supposed to dub Hanuman for an animation movie, but later the assignment went to Mukesh Khanna.8
"Opporunity lies in foreign content. More work will come from production houses abroad or broadcasting companies abroad."9
The easy availability of service helps the clients to dominate the bargaining. Thus, the rates go haywire in spite of the heavy workload. This diminishes the financial status of a growing market. In the long run, this might lead to the formation of an unsophisticated and fragile industry. Buying out the smaller players will be one practical solution before the established players to avoid any such complications.
Cultural Invasion of Hollywood:
.
Imperialism and politics of language cultural imperialism has developed a dual strategy to counter the left and establishing hegemony. On the other hand, it seeks to corrupt the political language of the left; and the other it acts to desensitize the public to the atrocities committed by western powers. The message is clear, the victims blamed for their own poverty, and success depends on individual efforts.
“The moral universe of The Lord of the Rings is recognizably that of the Second World War. It is a world of black-and-white choices, in which it is clear just who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Unlike now, laments Smadja, when such simplistic moralism is more likely to be exploited by the likes of George W. Bush, who wants us all to enlist in his crusade against the axis of evil, and not think too deeply about it.”10
The above said criticism never rose in our Indian scenario where we have millions fan followers and proud owners of DVD and VCD of the trilogy series of Lord of the Rings. The film incorporates the value of invasion of power and survival through war. Ironically, the film dubbed in all the regional languages and it was a box office hit in terms of collection, however the so-called Critics or the media communicators never did eye brow lifting, in spite of its cultural implications it has created among the young and dynamic minds who are unfortunately elite creamy layer of the nation.
The second most important message of the Hollywood films is to desensitize the public; to make mass murder by the western states routine, acceptable activities.
Mass bombings in Iraq were presented in the form of video games. By trivializing crime against humanity, the public is desensitized from its traditional belief that. By emphasizing the modernity of new techniques of warfare, the mass media glorify existing elite techno-warfare of the west. Global cultural manipulation is sustained by the corruption of the language of politics.
The new language tyranny is rooted in the omnipresent repetitive singular discourse of market of a homogenized culture of consumption, of a debased electoral system. The new media tyranny stands alongside the hierarchical state and economic institutions that reach from the boardrooms of the international banks to the villages.
The secret of success of the North American cultural penetration of the third world is its capacity to that very system of economic and military domination generates11. The world’s second largest silicon valley- India still have the strong young minds who still think a better pasture, a hope in a better future life only catered by North America, which is one of the fantasy that has been created by the North American Films.
Need for the Hour
“The North American movies and the mass media’s are dominating us and aping the reality” is something what we hear and see in our Indian owned private television channels and films whose interests are no better than the Hollywood filmmakers are.
Indian media giants make people to discuss and give a major hype. Truly, our media is desensitizing the public in the name of sensationalism. Media audience bombarded with the repetitive news about bombing and corruption, on which naturally the public has drastically given away their hope. Ultimately, has led to the neo brain drain wherein an Intellectual, no more hired to work in North America or any of the imperialist nations rather they hired for a cheap labor in their home country, compared with what they have to be paid.
Cultural imperialism today includes “news” reports in which the weapons of mass destruction presented with human attributes while the victims in the Third World are faceless “aggressors- terrorists”
Bollywood the largest money generating film industry targets more on its international audience the (Non-residential Indians). Classy cars, American life, with an Indian color (Salam Namaste, Kal ho na ho, Family, Sarkar, Monsoon wedding, Bend it like Beckham) are few to list out. The latest innovations in them are the movies with the English names like Tom, dick and Harry, Murder, James.
The communication institutes are keen on teaching the youngster the technological innovations and making them to survive in an Americanized-working pattern culturally and technically. Courses like Mass communication, Visual communication, Journalism merely follow the Americanized framework, from syllabus to working style. The youngsters do not even have the opportunity to look up for the native cultural example, since all these studies are primarily taught in English and designed to give the above said mental framework. Indian culture always portrayed with issues and difficulties, since it involves more of sustainable development, unlike the individualized development of the Imperialized ideology.
The persuasion of culture and loss of identity, sidelined with consumerism and the urge for easy settlement in terms of economy, leading to a value free society. The essential ingredients of the new cultural imperialism are the fusion of commercialism-sexuality-conservatism each presented as the idealized expression of privatized needs, of individual self-realization.
Media Education, which is today, in practice, needs to be revised with the following suggestions:
Communication studies in regional languages, citing examples from Indian models.
Media education made compulsory for School Teachers and Students.
The syllabus need to incorporate analysis of current media products, culturally and technically
Enabling the student to reason out the content
References:
11.Lenin(2001)ImperialismthehigheststageofCapitalismhttp://www.etext.org/politics/mim//faq/imperialism
22.EdStrong(Feb272007)AmericanCulturalImperialismhttp://edstrong.blogcity.com/read/trackback/41153950.htm
33.ibid pg3
44.Ed Strong (Feb 2007) Mass Media Spreads America’s Ideology http://edstrong-blogcity.com/read/trackback/41153950.htm
5
5.Prof.B.nBaskarRaoandVasanthiP.V(2005)MediaSceneasIndiaGlobalizeshttp://www.cmsindia.org/cms/mediascene.pdf
66.ShilpaBharathan(2005)HollywoodEyesIndianCinemahttp://ibef.org/attachment/Hollywoodeyesindiancinema.pdf
77. ibid pg.3
89. Indranil Gosh (2006) Celebrity Dubbing, http://UTV- Celebrity.ca.html pg4
910. Indranil Gosh (2006) Dubbing as a Career, http;//UTV-dubbing.ca.html pg.3
1011.Smadja isabelle(2003)The Moral Universe of The Lord of the Rings, Le Monde Diplomatique, December issue.
11
12.EdStrong(Feb272007)CulturalImperialism;itstheideology,Stupid!http://edstrong.blogcity.com/read/trackback/41153950.htm
HOLLYWOOD
By
Jerry dev
ABSTRACT
Films have a long history, which has created milestones in our politics to our thought process in the name of “Entertainment”. From media channels to FM radio all we have is films, in different formats.
Advent of Technology up gradation has lead to dramatize the past and bringing it to the reality in new color. “Hollywood” the kingmaker and a factory that gives life to American’s & Americanized dreams for the rest of the world technologically and culturally.
Hollywood films are apocryphal creating a fallacy that white are the saviors of the past, who had and have the determination to work towards humanitarianism, Bullet theory of Wilbur schram rejuvenated, in making the worldwide audience passive by injecting their value directly.
Mythologies (King Arthur, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Kingdom of Heaven) which prevailed in the English culture are given a new color with the help of the technological innovation to rewrite the history in the name of Entertainment.
Technological advancement and their keen necessity have led to the neo brain drain. Movies like Shriek, Lion King produced at the Indian animation studios, however, carried the message of the American values for the world-wide audience.
Invasion and conquer has turn out to be the primary motto of the Hollywood films, which incidentally create values like “War leads to the beginning of new hope” (The Fellowship of the Ring) & “Wars in the name of heroism” (King Arthur). Bombardment of these contents has made the world passive, in cases where America persuaded Iraq and killed Saddam Hussain.
.
Media has taken a new dimension and its goal is to create the monopolized super power (America)
Affirmation, is another tool incorporated by the Hollywood films to create the acceptance and a sense of recognition amongst us. Representation of third world in movies as subordinates (Harry Potter, Guru, Bend it like Beckham are a few notable examples, however, these films merely targets to pacify the doubts and anger of the left outs (Third world/ India).
In addition, the advantage of Hollywood films in terms of business and ideological invasion is the dubbed version in vernacular languages. James Bond’s latest movie Casino Royale had 525 prints in Tamil nadu and Kerala.At this juncture, this paper discuss in detail about the technological innovation in Hollywood movies and its implications among the young minds of India.
The new technological innovations and how they are being used in their movies
The reason behind the making of mythological movies and its implications amongst our audience.
The overshadowing of the reality with the help of technological advancements in their movies.
The need and the importance for media Education for the school and college teachers to create a better understanding among the students in terms of technological and cultural persuasion.
Apocryphal - An Overview
Monopoly corporations and the compulsion to export capital (for higher profits) characterize imperialism. Unlike capitalism in earlier stages, in the imperialist stage, capitalism has no more progress to bring the world, only the continuous threat of extinction through world war and environmental catastrophe. The countries with the highest stage of capitalism (imperialist countries of Europe and North America) would periodically redivide the world through world war. World war today is only the political extension of the economics of competition inherent within capitalism.
An imperialist is a member of the ruling class in a society with the highest stage of capitalism. Through their control of the means of production either through ownership or through power in government, imperialists would not have to work a day in their lives if they did not want to. Imperialism is the cause of contemporary Militarism.”1
“The essence of Cultural Imperialism is the creation of fantasies to escape from misery. It involves the fusion of commercialism, sexuality and conservatism-each presented as idealized expressions of private needs, of individual self realization”2
Imperialism in the name Of Entertainment
The increasing penetration of the mass media among the poor, the growing investments and profits by U.S corporations in the sale of cultural commodities and the saturation of mass audiences with messages that provide the poor with vicarious experiences of individual consumption and adventure defines the current challenge of cultural colonialism.
American cultural imperialism has two major goals, one ECONOMIC and the other POLITICAL; to capture markets for its cultural commodities and establish hegemony by shaping popular consciousness. The export of entertainment is one of the most important sources of capital accumulation and global profits displacing manufacturing exports.
In the Political sphere, cultural imperialism plays a major role in dissociating people from their cultural roots and traditions of solidarity, replacing them with media created needs, which change with every publicity campaign. The Political effect in to alienate people from traditional class and community bonds, atomizing and separating individuals from each other.3
Cultural Imperialism emphasizes the segmentation of the working class; stable workers are encouraged to dissociate themselves from temporary workers, who in turn separate themselves from the unemployed, who further segmented among themselves within the ‘underground economy’. Moreover, it encourage working class to think of themselves as part of a hierarchy emphasizing minute difference in life style, in race and gender, with those below them rather than the vast inequalities that separate them from those above.
“The principle target of Cultural Imperialism is the political and economic exploitation of youth.”4 Imperial entertainment and advertisement target young people who are most vulnerable to U.S commercial propaganda. The message is simple and direct ‘modernity’ in associated with consuming U.S products.
Youth represent a major market for U.S cultural export and they are most susceptible to the consumerist-individual propaganda. Cultural imperialism focuses on youth not only as a market but also for political reasons to undercut a political threat in which personal rebellion could become political revolt against economic as well as cultural forms of control.
Hollywood is one of the principal sources of wealth and power for U.S capital as it extends its communication network throughout the world. An increasing number of percentages the richest North Americans derive their wealth from the mass media.
Today almost one out of five of the richest North Americans derive their wealth from the mass media. Cultural imperialism has displaced manufacturing as a source of wealth and influence in the U.S.
Hollywood has become an integral part of the U.S system of global political and social control, as well as a major source of super profits. Western media celebrities and mass entertainment have become important ingredients in deflecting potential political unrest. The Bush presidency has highlighted the centrality of media manipulation through highly visible but politically reactionary entertainers, a phenomenon that has spread to Latin America and Asia.
Americanized Hollywood messages are alienating to third World people in a double sense. They create illusions of ‘international’ and ‘cross class’ bonds.
Factors behind the Advent of Hollywood
The factors behind the advent are classified into economical and political.
In a country (India) where movie watching is almost a religion, theatres in cities were going to seed in the past decade as it was becoming uneconomical to maintain them.
India produces 1200 Feature Films per year. India contributes 13,000 theatres and 130 multiplexes where many more still coming up. India has an average of 3.3 billion viewers per year of which multiplexes account 1/3rd of it.5
Despite the size of the Indian movie business, India remained a stepchild of the Hollywood circuit until about four years ago. Audiences had to wait for a minimum of six months before a Hollywood film released in India. Some film took about two years to swim through the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Hollywood began taking a closer look at India some years ago when it had to fight the 24-hrs television channels, and the friendly neighborhood video distributor, for eyeballs. The mass television audiences clued on to the latest offerings from Hollywood, and began demanding the latest releases, which were now available in convenient VCD/DVD format, thanks to the progress of technology. Therefore, to survive the Hollywood majors forced to rework their somnolent business strategies.
a. Hollywood films in regional languages:To cash in on the worldwide hype a release generates at the time of the commercial release, they began bringing major releases to India just a few weeks after their worldwide launch. Now several releases such as the recent Matrix Revolutions routinely launched in India alongside the rest of the world. After the streamlining their imports and distribution network, Hollywood companies decided to enlarge their share of the entertainment market revenues. While they were hitherto releasing Hollywood films in the original English version, the humongous market in Hindi and other regional languages remained untapped.
Sensing a market opportunity, the Hollywood companies have begun releasing their films in several dubbed languages. These dubbed versions have proved to be extremely popular with the non-English speaking masses of India. In addition, their wide appeal has resulted in enhanced box office revenues. Colombia Tri star, which handles the distribution for all Sony pictures, hit pay dirt with the multi-lingual versions of the blockbuster SPIDERMAN. It raked in revenues of $6million. This was much more than revenues from the English prints. Its sequel Spiderman 2 grossed $7.44 million. Similarly, Godzilla, one of the early multi-lingual releases, also grossed over $6million6
b. Affirmation of Indo American community in Films
Predicted the wide market for growth, the Hollywood filmmakers made it a keen recognition of indo American in their films. The beginning of this era began with the mighty M.Night Shyamaln, an Indian born film director whose debut SIXTH SENSE broke the several box office records. However, the cliché behind the rechristening of Manoj Shyamalan to M.Night Shyamalan had never risen as an issue among the Indian audience.
The wide recognition the film received and the publicity factor behind the Indian as a Hollywood film created an oneness among the audience, which then followed by characters like Padma in The English Mythological film Harry Potter, India the land of Kama Sutra in the film GURU. This helped in creating the fallacy among the Indian audience to believe that life is green and thereby created the acceptance of demeaning cultural portrayal in the name of recognition and entertainment.
A mere presence of an Indian in the film has helped them to do double up their business. The Paradox is that, Tamil,Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi speaking dubbed version of James Bond receives a opening lioke anyother native stars. The latest of James Bond “Casino Royale” had 525 prints in Tamilndu and Kerala alone. Ironically, the highest number of prints ever made for an Indian movie is 375 prints worldwide which includes India.
c. The Neo- Venture of Hollywood
Apart from commerce, there have been other reasons also for the discovery of India by Hollywood. Among them has been the fact that, in the past three years, several moviemakers who were hitherto running private fiefdoms, decided to corporatist their operations and goes public.
If film production has seen a qualitative change, so has the last link in the chain exhibition. With land prices in cities, rocketing theatres have given way for multi-screen cinemas, or multiplexes. These have smaller seating capacities and have in turn, spawned the production of films for niche audiences. Such developments have resulted in many young first-time movie directors blazing their small scale endeavors on the silver screen – a scene not far removed from the efforts of independent film makers Hollywood in 5o’s, which broke the strange hold of the large movie studios in the business.
The Hollywood companies are closely watching the radical change in the movie making business in India; indeed, they are participants In the process of change. The projection is that by 2025, the largest audiences in the world will be in India and China. In addition, India already has more speakers of the English Language than any country. Speculation has been rife that the Hollywood majors will soon get into co-productions in India. Yet, they are tight-lipped on their plans.
Harvey Weinstein of Miramax of Miramax visited Gurinder Chadda during the shoot of Bride and Prejudice, added that” Nothing Weinstein does is ever done quietly or without reason”7
Technological Innovations – the “THING” behind
Globally there are lads of software and hardwares used for dubbing and music recording, but there are 2 softwares that stand out.1) Pro Tools (runs on a Mac & PC)2) Nuendo (runs on PC)
Both of these are freely and widely available in India. Pro tools is the more sought after while Nuendo is more for home or small/cheaper setups. UTV use Protools or Nuendo with a combinations of analog or digital mixers and beta recorders and players. These are the most commonly used technology in the country today. En Sync uses Pro tools in Mumbai and Nuendo in Chennai
Dubbing vendors are riding on this wave. UTV, which has a dubbing business unit, recorded a volume of 733 hours in this period. In the quarter ended December 2004, the company has done 461 hours of dubbing.
Other leading dubbing vendors include VGP, En Sync, Mainframe and Sound & Vision. The boom has given birth to a large number of dubbing organizations, big and small. There are at least 25 small outfits in Mumbai itself. Industry experts find it difficult to give an accurate assessment of the size of the market because of the fragmentation.
"It is a very fragmented market. Apart from a handful of big players, we have many smaller players to take into account,"Industry analysts value the market size at an approximate Rs. 150 million with UTV in the lead. The company earned Rs. 34 million from dubbing in the 2003 fiscal and has already touched 24 million for the six months period ended 30 September 2004
Celebrity dubbing, who is common in the international arena, is making its presence felt in India now. Mainframe had Shahrukh Khan dubbing for Disney's The Incredibles recently. Salman Khan was supposed to dub Hanuman for an animation movie, but later the assignment went to Mukesh Khanna.8
"Opporunity lies in foreign content. More work will come from production houses abroad or broadcasting companies abroad."9
The easy availability of service helps the clients to dominate the bargaining. Thus, the rates go haywire in spite of the heavy workload. This diminishes the financial status of a growing market. In the long run, this might lead to the formation of an unsophisticated and fragile industry. Buying out the smaller players will be one practical solution before the established players to avoid any such complications.
Cultural Invasion of Hollywood:
.
Imperialism and politics of language cultural imperialism has developed a dual strategy to counter the left and establishing hegemony. On the other hand, it seeks to corrupt the political language of the left; and the other it acts to desensitize the public to the atrocities committed by western powers. The message is clear, the victims blamed for their own poverty, and success depends on individual efforts.
“The moral universe of The Lord of the Rings is recognizably that of the Second World War. It is a world of black-and-white choices, in which it is clear just who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Unlike now, laments Smadja, when such simplistic moralism is more likely to be exploited by the likes of George W. Bush, who wants us all to enlist in his crusade against the axis of evil, and not think too deeply about it.”10
The above said criticism never rose in our Indian scenario where we have millions fan followers and proud owners of DVD and VCD of the trilogy series of Lord of the Rings. The film incorporates the value of invasion of power and survival through war. Ironically, the film dubbed in all the regional languages and it was a box office hit in terms of collection, however the so-called Critics or the media communicators never did eye brow lifting, in spite of its cultural implications it has created among the young and dynamic minds who are unfortunately elite creamy layer of the nation.
The second most important message of the Hollywood films is to desensitize the public; to make mass murder by the western states routine, acceptable activities.
Mass bombings in Iraq were presented in the form of video games. By trivializing crime against humanity, the public is desensitized from its traditional belief that. By emphasizing the modernity of new techniques of warfare, the mass media glorify existing elite techno-warfare of the west. Global cultural manipulation is sustained by the corruption of the language of politics.
The new language tyranny is rooted in the omnipresent repetitive singular discourse of market of a homogenized culture of consumption, of a debased electoral system. The new media tyranny stands alongside the hierarchical state and economic institutions that reach from the boardrooms of the international banks to the villages.
The secret of success of the North American cultural penetration of the third world is its capacity to that very system of economic and military domination generates11. The world’s second largest silicon valley- India still have the strong young minds who still think a better pasture, a hope in a better future life only catered by North America, which is one of the fantasy that has been created by the North American Films.
Need for the Hour
“The North American movies and the mass media’s are dominating us and aping the reality” is something what we hear and see in our Indian owned private television channels and films whose interests are no better than the Hollywood filmmakers are.
Indian media giants make people to discuss and give a major hype. Truly, our media is desensitizing the public in the name of sensationalism. Media audience bombarded with the repetitive news about bombing and corruption, on which naturally the public has drastically given away their hope. Ultimately, has led to the neo brain drain wherein an Intellectual, no more hired to work in North America or any of the imperialist nations rather they hired for a cheap labor in their home country, compared with what they have to be paid.
Cultural imperialism today includes “news” reports in which the weapons of mass destruction presented with human attributes while the victims in the Third World are faceless “aggressors- terrorists”
Bollywood the largest money generating film industry targets more on its international audience the (Non-residential Indians). Classy cars, American life, with an Indian color (Salam Namaste, Kal ho na ho, Family, Sarkar, Monsoon wedding, Bend it like Beckham) are few to list out. The latest innovations in them are the movies with the English names like Tom, dick and Harry, Murder, James.
The communication institutes are keen on teaching the youngster the technological innovations and making them to survive in an Americanized-working pattern culturally and technically. Courses like Mass communication, Visual communication, Journalism merely follow the Americanized framework, from syllabus to working style. The youngsters do not even have the opportunity to look up for the native cultural example, since all these studies are primarily taught in English and designed to give the above said mental framework. Indian culture always portrayed with issues and difficulties, since it involves more of sustainable development, unlike the individualized development of the Imperialized ideology.
The persuasion of culture and loss of identity, sidelined with consumerism and the urge for easy settlement in terms of economy, leading to a value free society. The essential ingredients of the new cultural imperialism are the fusion of commercialism-sexuality-conservatism each presented as the idealized expression of privatized needs, of individual self-realization.
Media Education, which is today, in practice, needs to be revised with the following suggestions:
Communication studies in regional languages, citing examples from Indian models.
Media education made compulsory for School Teachers and Students.
The syllabus need to incorporate analysis of current media products, culturally and technically
Enabling the student to reason out the content
References:
11.Lenin(2001)ImperialismthehigheststageofCapitalismhttp://www.etext.org/politics/mim//faq/imperialism
22.EdStrong(Feb272007)AmericanCulturalImperialismhttp://edstrong.blogcity.com/read/trackback/41153950.htm
33.ibid pg3
44.Ed Strong (Feb 2007) Mass Media Spreads America’s Ideology http://edstrong-blogcity.com/read/trackback/41153950.htm
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5.Prof.B.nBaskarRaoandVasanthiP.V(2005)MediaSceneasIndiaGlobalizeshttp://www.cmsindia.org/cms/mediascene.pdf
66.ShilpaBharathan(2005)HollywoodEyesIndianCinemahttp://ibef.org/attachment/Hollywoodeyesindiancinema.pdf
77. ibid pg.3
89. Indranil Gosh (2006) Celebrity Dubbing, http://UTV- Celebrity.ca.html pg4
910. Indranil Gosh (2006) Dubbing as a Career, http;//UTV-dubbing.ca.html pg.3
1011.Smadja isabelle(2003)The Moral Universe of The Lord of the Rings, Le Monde Diplomatique, December issue.
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12.EdStrong(Feb272007)CulturalImperialism;itstheideology,Stupid!http://edstrong.blogcity.com/read/trackback/41153950.htm
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