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Get Started in Stand-Up Comedy
by Logan MurrayA new edition of Be A Great Stand-Up, now fully revised and updated with new material on setting up and running a comedy night and mining almost any subject for jokes. Logan Murray has successfully taught the techniques of stand-up comedy to thousands, and in this book he distils his years of experience into the essential skills for a great and enjoyable performance. He will help you find your creative streak and your funny side, build the confidence to deliver, and explain the finer details of stagecraft, from dealing with hecklers to coping with props. There is a full guide to the practicalities, from finding gigs to securing an agent, with plenty of valuable hints, tips and advice. Drawing on Logan's years of teaching and his own successful stand-up career, with top tips from some of the most well-known people in the business, it is guaranteed to bring a smile to both your face and that of your future audience. As well as full updates throughout the book, this new edition contains fresh material on how to set up and run a comedy night, mine any subject for jokes and advice on festivals.
Get Started in Stand-Up Comedy
by Logan MurrayLEARN HOW TO WRITE AND PERFORM STAND UP COMEDY.A new edition of Be A Great Stand-Up, now fully revised and updated with new material on setting up and running a comedy night and mining almost any subject for jokes.Logan Murray has successfully taught the techniques of stand-up comedy to thousands, and in this book he distills his years of experience into the essential skills for a great and enjoyable performance. He will help you find your creative streak and your funny side, build the confidence to deliver, and explain the finer details of stagecraft, from dealing with hecklers to coping with props. There is a full guide to the practicalities, from finding gigs to securing an agent, with plenty of valuable hints, tips and advice. Drawing on Logan's years of teaching and his own successful stand-up career, with top tips from some of the most well-known people in the business, it is guaranteed to bring a smile to both your face and that of your future audience.As well as full updates throughout the book, this new edition contains fresh material on how to set up and run a comedy night, mine any subject for jokes and advice on festivals.ABOUT THE SERIESThe Teach Yourself Creative Writing series helps aspiring authors tell their story. Covering a range of genres from science fiction and romantic novels, to illustrated children's books and comedy, this series is packed with advice, exercises and tips for unlocking creativity and improving your writing. And because we know how daunting the blank page can be, we set up the Just Write online community at tyjustwrite, for budding authors and successful writers to connect and share.
Ecocinema in the City (Routledge Advances in Film Studies)
by Robin L. Murray Joseph K. HeumannIn Ecocinema in the City, Murray and Heumann argue that urban ecocinema both reveals and critiques visions of urban environmentalism. The book emphasizes the increasingly transformative power of nature in urban settings, explored in both documentaries and fictional films such as Children Underground, White Dog, Hatari! and Lives Worth Living. The first two sections—"Evolutionary Myths Under the City" and "Urban Eco-trauma"—take more traditional ecocinema approaches and emphasize the city as a dangerous constructed space. The last two sections—"Urban Nature and Interdependence" and "The Sustainable City"—however, bring to life the vibrant relationships between human and nonhuman nature. Ecocinema in the City provides a space to explore these relationships, revealing how ecocinema shows that both human and nonhuman nature can interact sustainably and thrive.
Film and Everyday Eco-disasters
by Robin L. Murray Joseph K. HeumannEco-disasters such as coal-mining accidents, oil spills, and food-borne diseases appear regularly in the news, making them seem nearly commonplace. These ecological crises highlight the continual tensions between human needs and the environmental impact these needs produce. Contemporary documentaries and feature films explore environmental-human conflicts by depicting the consequences of our overconsumption and dependence on nonrenewable energy.Film and Everyday Eco-disasters examines changing perspectives toward everyday eco-disasters as reflected in the work of filmmakers from the silent era forward, with an emphasis on recent films such as Dead Ahead, an HBO dramatization of the Exxon Valdez disaster; Total Recall, a science fiction action film highlighting oxygen as a commodity; The Devil Wears Prada, a comment on the fashion industry; and Food, Inc., a documentary interrogation of the food industry. The authors evaluate not only the success of these films as rhetorical arguments but also their rhetorical strategies. This interdisciplinary approach to film studies fuses cultural, economic, and literary critiques in articulating an approach to ecology that points to sustainable development as an alternative to resource exploitations and their associated everyday eco-disasters.
Monstrous Nature: Environment and Horror on the Big Screen
by Robin L. Murray Joseph K. HeumannGodzilla, a traditional natural monster and representation of cinema’s subgenre of natural attack, also provides a cautionary symbol of the dangerous consequences of mistreating the natural world—monstrous nature on the attack. Horror films such as Godzilla invite an exploration of the complexities of a monstrous nature that humanity both creates and embodies. Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann demonstrate how the horror film and its offshoots can often be understood in relation to a monstrous nature that has evolved either deliberately or by accident and that generates fear in humanity as both character and audience. This connection between fear and the natural world opens up possibilities for ecocritical readings often missing from research on monstrous nature, the environment, and the horror film. Organized in relation to four recurring environmental themes in films that construct nature as a monster—anthropomorphism, human ecology, evolution, and gendered landscapes—the authors apply ecocritical perspectives to reveal the multiple ways nature is constructed as monstrous or in which the natural world itself constructs monsters. This interdisciplinary approach to film studies fuses cultural, theological, and scientific critiques to explore when and why nature becomes monstrous.
Performing Ruins (Performing Landscapes)
by Simon MurrayThis book engages with the relationship between ruins, dilapidation, and abandonment and cultural events performed within such spaces. Following the author’s fieldwork in the UK, Bosnia Herzegovina, Poland, Germany, Greece, and Sicily, chapters describe, investigate, and reflect upon live performance events which have taken place in sites of decay and abandonment. The book’s main focus is upon modern economic ruins and ruins of warfare. Each chapter provides several case studies based upon the author’s own site visits and interviews with actors, directors, producers, curators, writers, and other artists. The book contextualises these events within the wider framework of Ruin Studies and provides brief summaries of how we might understand the ruin in terms of time, politics, culture, and atmospheres. The book is particularly preoccupied with artists’ reasons and motivations for placing performance events in ruined spaces and how these work dramaturgically.
Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction
by Simon Murray John KeefeThis new edition of Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction continues to provide an unparalleled overview of non-text-based theatre, from experimental dance to traditional mime. It synthesizes the history, theory and practice of physical theatres for students and performers in what is both a core area of study and a dynamic and innovative aspect of theatrical practice. This comprehensive book: traces the roots of physical performance in classical and popular theatrical traditions looks at the Dance Theatre of DV8, Pina Bausch, Liz Aggiss and Jérôme Bel examines the contemporary practice of companies such as Théatre du Soleil, Complicite and Goat Island focuses on principles and practices in actor training, with reference to figures such as Jacques Lecoq, Lev Dodin, Philippe Gaulier, Monika Pagneux, Etienne Decroux, Anne Bogart and Joan Littlewood. Extensive cross references ensure that Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction can be used as a standalone text or together with its companion volume, Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader, to provide an invaluable introduction to the physical in theatre and performance. New to this edition: a chapter on The Body and Technology, exploring the impact of digital technologies on the portrayal, perception and reading of the theatre body, spanning from onstage technology to virtual realities and motion capture; additional profiles of Jerzy Grotowski, Wrights and Sites, Punchdrunk and Mike Pearson; focus on circus and aerial performance, new training practices, immersive and site-specific theatres, and the latest developments in neuroscience, especially as these impact on the place and role of the spectator.
Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader
by Simon Murray John KeefePhysical Theatres: A Critical Reader is an invaluable resource for students of physically orientated theatre and performance. This book aims to trace the roots and development of physicality in theatre by combining practical experience of the field with a strong historical and theoretical underpinning. In exploring the histories, cross-overs and intersections of physical theatres, this critical Reader provides: six new, specially commissioned essays, covering each of the book’s main themes, from technical traditions to contemporary practises discussion of issues such as the foregrounding of the body, training and performance processes, and the origins of theatre in both play and human cognition a focus on the relationship and tensions between the verbal and the physical in theatre contributions from Augusto Boal, Stephen Berkoff, Étienne Decroux, Bertolt Brecht, David George, J-J. Rousseau, Ana Sanchez Colberg, Michael Chekhov, Jeff Nuttall, Jacques Lecoq, Yoshi Oida, Mike Pearson, and Aristotle.
The Adaptation Industry: The Cultural Economy of Contemporary Literary Adaptation (Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies)
by Simone MurrayAdaptation constitutes the driving force of contemporary culture, with stories adapted across an array of media formats. However, adaptation studies has been concerned almost exclusively with textual analysis, in particular with compare-and-contrast studies of individual novel and film pairings. This has left almost completely unexamined crucial questions of how adaptations come to be made, what are the industries with the greatest stake in making them, and who the decision-makers are in the adaptation process. The Adaptation Industry re-imagines adaptation not as an abstract process, but as a material industry. It presents the adaptation industry as a cultural economy of six interlocking institutions, stakeholders and decision-makers all engaged in the actual business of adapting texts: authors; agents; publishers; book prize committees; scriptwriters; and screen producers and distributors. Through trading in intellectual property rights to cultural works, these six nodal points in the adaptation network are tightly interlinked, with success for one party potentially auguring for success in other spheres. But marked rivalries between these institutional forces also exist, with competition characterizing every aspect of the adaptation process. This book constructs an overdue sociology of contemporary literary adaptation, never losing sight of the material and institutional dimensions of this powerful process.
Studying Feminist Film Theory (Auteur)
by Terri MurrayThis book is aimed at helping media and film studies teachers introduce the basics of feminist film theory. No prior knowledge of feminist theory is required, the intended readers being university undergraduate teachers and students of film and media studies. Areas of emphasis include spectatorship, narrative, and ideology. Many illustrative case studies from popular cinema are used to offer students an opportunity to consider the connotations of visual and aural elements of film, narrative conflicts and oppositions, the implications of spectator “positioning” and viewer identification, and an ideological critical approach to film. Explanations of key terminology are included, along with classroom exercises and practice questions. Each chapter begins with key definitions and explanations of the concepts to be studied, including some historical background where relevant. Case studies include film noir, Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days and the work of directors Spike Lee, Claire Denis, and Paul Verhoeven.Studying Feminist Film Theory is a revised and expanded version of Feminist Film Studies: A Teacher’s Guide, published by Auteur in 2007.
Drama Trauma: Specters of Race and Sexuality in Performance, Video and Art
by Timothy MurrayIn this engaging cross-disciplinary study, Timothy Murray examines the artistic struggle over traumatic fantasies of race, gender, sexuality, and power. Establishing a retrospective dialogue between past and present, stage and video, Drama Trauma links the impact of trauma on recent political projects in performance and video with the specters of difference haunting Shakespeare's plays. The book provides close readings of cultural formations as diverse as Shakespearean drama, the Statue of Liberty, contemporary plays by women, African-American performance, and feminist interventions in video, performance and installation. The texts discussed include: * installations by Mary Kelly and Dawn Dedeaux, * plays by Ntozake Shange, Rochelle Owens, Adrienne Kennedy, Marsha Norman and Amiri Baraka * performances by Robbie McCauley, Jordan, Orlan, and Carmelita Tropicana * stage, film and video productions of King Lear, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and All's Well that Ends Well.
Fortissimo: Backstage at the Opera with Sacred Monsters and Young Singers
by William MurrayH. L. Mencken declared that “the opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral. ” It was not meant as a compliment, but to William Murray, former New Yorker staff writer and aspiring opera singer, a bawdy house is an apt metaphor for the opera: a place of confusion, high and low drama, fleshly pleasures and raucous song. InFortissimo, Murray follows twelve young singers in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s training program, the prestigious Opera Center for American Artists, through the 2003–2004 season. In the course of the year, these singers attend countless coaching sessions, inspiring master classes, nerve-racking auditions and grueling rehearsals—and finally perform with some of the most celebrated names (and spectacular egos) in opera, from Samuel Ramey to José Cura and Natalie Dessay. While chronicling their progress, Murray offers an insider’s look at the different aspects of the opera world that influence a young singer’s success, a world filled with temperamental maestros, ambitious directors, old-world tradition and sacred monsters. Weaving recollections of his own days training in New York, Rome and Milan in the 1950s with the personal and artistic struggles of the young singers in Chicago today, Murray lays bare the staggering ambition and relentless will required to achieve a career in the arts. As he writes, “Becoming a successful opera singer—stepping out on a huge stage to try to fill the house with your voice, to bring an audience of thirty-six hundred people to its feet—is as risky in its own peculiar way as embarking on a career as a matador. You can triumph, you can struggle to survive or you can perish from your wounds. ”Fortissimois a delicious tale of rising talents, angst and heartache and small triumphs, and the music that inspires it all. From the Hardcover edition.
Happy Days: Official illustrated autobiography
by Olly MursOlly Murs invites you behind the scenes in his official illustrated autobiography filled with hundreds of brand new and exclusive photos. 'My life has been a non-stop roller-coaster of extreme emotions, crazy days, unexpected highs and yet my life hasn't been without its low points too. I've tried to imagine myself sitting down with you explaining what I was thinking and feeling during those times. I hope this book will give you a behind-the-scenes view of my journey into a place where I finally found what had been missing in my life for all those years: music.' Endearingly written with disarming honesty and filled with exclusive new and unseen photographs on and offstage, Happy Days takes you closer to Olly than you've ever been before.
Happy Days: Official Illustrated Autobiography
by Olly MursOlly Murs invites you behind the scenes in his official illustrated autobiography filled with hundreds of brand new and exclusive photos. 'My life has been a non-stop roller-coaster of extreme emotions, crazy days, unexpected highs and yet my life hasn't been without its low points too. I've tried to imagine myself sitting down with you explaining what I was thinking and feeling during those times. I hope this book will give you a behind-the-scenes view of my journey into a place where I finally found what had been missing in my life for all those years: music.' Endearingly written with disarming honesty and filled with exclusive new and unseen photographs on and offstage, Happy Days takes you closer to Olly than you've ever been before.
Happy Days: Official illustrated autobiography
by Olly MursOlly Murs invites you behind the scenes in his official autobiography. 'My life has been a non-stop roller-coaster of extreme emotions, crazy days, unexpected highs and yet my life hasn't been without its low points too. I've tried to imagine myself sitting down with you explaining what I was thinking and feeling during those times. I hope this book will give you a behind-the-scenes view of my journey into a place where I finally found what had been missing in my life for all those years: music.' Endearingly written and read with disarming honesty and filled with exclusive new and unseen photographs on and offstage, Happy Days takes you closer to Olly than you've ever been before.(P)2012 Hodder & Stoughton
Genders and Sexualities in Indonesian Cinema: Constructing gay, lesbi and waria identities on screen (Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia)
by Ben MurtaghIndonesia has a long and rich tradition of homosexual and transgender cultures, and the past 40 years in particular has seen an increased visibility of sexual minorities in the country, which has been reflected through film and popular culture. This book examines how representations of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals and communities have developed in Indonesian cinema during this period. The book first explores Indonesian engagement with waria (male-to-female transgender) identities and the emerging representation of gay and lesbi Indonesians during Suharto’s New Order regime (1966-98), before going on to the reimagining of these positions following the fall of the New Order, a period which saw the rebirth of the film industry with a new generation of directors, producers and actors. Using original interview research and focus groups with gay, lesbi and waria identified Indonesians, alongside the films themselves and a wealth of archival sources, the book contrasts the ways in which transgendered lives are actually lived with their representations on screen.
Post-Yugoslav Cinema: Towards a Cosmopolitan Imagining
by Dino MurticDrawing primarily on selected filmic texts from former-Yugoslavia, the book examines key social and political events that triggered the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s. Yugoslav politics and society are set within the broader artistic and cinematic strategies that helped stabilise post-Yugoslav territories strategies that were part of the national desire of looking forward to a time of 'perpetual peace' and its subsequent cosmopolitan norms. It argues that filmic texts demonstrate the degree to which nationalism was at the heart of the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia. Yet, the concern of the argument is not simply to offer a filmic critique but to develop an alternative to nationalism; namely, a theoretical framework through which cosmopolitan humanism is at the forefront of addressing former Yugoslavia's political wounds.
Nollywood in Glocal Perspective
by Bala A. MusaThis book gives a panoramic view of the rise and growth of Nollywood, Nigeria’s movie and home video entertainment industry, into the second largest and most prolific movie-producing industry in the world. It offers an analysis of Nollywood’s influence as a local and global cultural force. Scholars from Africa, the African Diaspora and beyond examine the factors that have shaped Nollywood’s unique story-telling, production, and distribution system. The volume shows how internal and external economic, social, cultural and technological changes intersect to define Nollywood’s film-making and entertainment ethos. It is grounded in sound theoretical perspectives that help readers understand the texts and subtexts of the industry’s emergence, transformation, and impact. The range of subjects covered span Nollywood’s historical roots in Nigeria pre-colonial traveling/community theatre to colonial era film-making, and its contemporary spin-offs and inspired cousins across Africa and in Europe. It illuminates the interface of artistic, business, cultural and technological innovation and creativity at the heart of Africa’s local and global pop culture explosion.
Single-Camera Video Production (Media Manuals Ser.)
by Robert B. Musburger Michael R OgdenLearn everything you need to know about creating video using the single-camera format, from preproduction planning to setting up, rehearsing, shooting, striking, and pleasing your audience. Harness lighting, audio, editing, and aesthetic techniques that will enhance the quality of your video projects and keep your clients coming back for more. Simple, elegant, and easy to use, Single-Camera Video Production, Sixth Edition is a staple in any video artist’s library. Whether you’re just learning the basics of video production or you’re a veteran who needs a refresher, this book provides you with a toolkit for understanding and implementing single-camera workflows, as well as how to use the single-camera format to its best advantage by emphasizing the importance of goals, audience analysis, and technology. This new edition has been updated to include: Expanded sections on digital workflows, field and studio production, preproduction planning, audio, lighting, distribution, and nonlinear editing techniques Detailed gear lists covering the latest camera, recorder, audio, lighting, and stabilization equipment used in the industry today Fresh tips on creating video for your target audience and exhibition platform and shooting for the editing process Insider career advice, including tips on how to get an internship, interviewing, finding a job, and earning a promotion A companion website (www.focalpress.com/cw/musburger) with video examples of the techniques discussed in the book as well as evolving updates on key technological shifts
Napoli/New York/Hollywood: Film between Italy and the United States (Critical Studies in Italian America)
by Giuliana MuscioNapoli/New York/Hollywood investigates the work of Italian immigrant performers and the impact of the traditions of the Italian stage within the history of Hollywood cinema and of American media from 1895 to today. The book discusses the historical context and institutional film history, from the perspective of the performers–the workers, who lend their bodies and their performance culture to screen representations.Using an interdisciplinary approach, the book associates Southern Italian culture with Modernity and the immigrants’ preservation of cultural traditions with innovations in the mode of production and in the use of media technologies (theatrical venues, music records, radio, ethnic films.) It deeply revises the relation between fascism and American cinema, and Italian emigration.The book examines the careers of those Italian performers who were not only born in Italy or were of Italian descent, but came either from the immigrant or the Italian stage, in order to be able to credit their influence on a cultural level. This unknown story is reconstructed through primary sources and extensive film-viewing, in addition to a series of interviews with heirs to these traditions, such as Francis Coppola and his sister Talia Shire, John Turturro, Nancy Savoca, James Gandolfini, David Chase, Joe Dante, and Annabella Sciorra.
Microdramas: Crucibles for Theater and Time
by John H. MuseIn Microdramas, John H. Muse argues that plays shorter than twenty minutes deserve sustained attention, and that brevity should be considered a distinct mode of theatrical practice. Focusing on artists for whom brevity became both a structural principle and a tool to investigate theater itself (August Strindberg, Maurice Maeterlinck, F. T. Marinetti, Samuel Beckett, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Caryl Churchill), the book explores four episodes in the history of very short theater, all characterized by the self-conscious embrace of brevity. The story moves from the birth of the modernist microdrama in French little theaters in the 1880s, to the explicit worship of speed in Italian Futurist synthetic theater, to Samuel Beckett’s often-misunderstood short plays, and finally to a range of contemporary playwrights whose long compilations of shorts offer a new take on momentary theater. Subjecting short plays to extended scrutiny upends assumptions about brief or minimal art, and about theatrical experience. The book shows that short performances often demand greater attention from audiences than plays that unfold more predictably. Microdramas put pressure on preconceptions about which aspects of theater might be fundamental and about what might qualify as an event. In the process, they suggest answers to crucial questions about time, spectatorship, and significance.
Make-Up, Hair and Costume for Film and Television (Media Manuals Ser.)
by Jan MusgroveAn introductory guide for students learning professional make-up, hairdressing and wardrobe skills and `front of camera' professionals needing an understanding of the techniques.Written by an experienced professional, this manual offers a step-by step approach for the complete beginner with diagrams to show procedures for a variety of make-up effects, from corrective and character make-up, to period dramas, special effects and prosthetics. It describes the skills required of the job, introduces special make-up products and how to apply them for different effect and sets the context for the make-up artist's role, by considering technical requirements such as lighting, camerawork and chroma-key backgrounds.
Fandemonium: Red Hot Chili Peppers
by David Mushegain Anthony KiedisOne-of-a-kind tribute from one of the best-selling bands in the world direct to their legions of fans.<P><P> The Red Hot Chili Peppers' performances have become legendary as much for the music and antics on stage as the generous, loving community of people who stand side by side, screaming their approval. This is a fan appreciation book from the band that puts the emphasis where it should be--on the fans. A vivid montage of words from the band members to their fans, it includes hundreds of photos taken at concerts worldwide, and interviews with fifty of the most devoted RHCP fans around the globe. The stories that emerge range from fantastic to tragic, but always inspirational and life-affirming. Lead singer Anthony Kiedis--New York Times best-selling author of his memoir, Scar Tissue--writes about the making of this book, and tells the story of the band's connection with their fans from day one in 1983 and how that relationship has evolved over three decades. Designed with a DIY/fanzine feel, this book is more than a fan tribute; it's a cultural exchange that captures the unique connection of an iconic band as devoted to their fans as the fans are to them.
Oscar Micheaux and His Circle
by Charles Musser Jane Gaines Pearl BowserOscar Micheaux--the most prolific African American filmmaker to date and a filmmaking giant of the silent period--has finally found his rightful place in film history. Both artist and showman, Micheaux stirred controversy in his time as he confronted issues such as lynching, miscegenation, peonage and white supremacy, passing, and corruption among black clergymen. In this important collection, prominent scholars examine Micheaux's surviving silent films, his fellow producers of race films who alternately challenged or emulated his methods, and the cultural activities that surrounded and sustained these achievements. The relationship between black film and both the stage (particularly the Lafayette Players) and the black press, issues of underdevelopment, and a genealogy of Micheaux scholarship, as well as extensive and more accurate filmographies, give a richly textured portrait of this era. The essays will fascinate the general public as well as scholars in the fields of film studies, cultural studies, and African American history. This thoroughly readable collection is a superb reference work lavishly illustrated with rare photographs.
Hula Girl (Adventures in Hawaii)
by Gaël MustaphaYoung Kehau loves hula and learning about her Hawaiian culture. But is she ready for her biggest challenge: to bring honor to her halau and kumu in the annual Miss Keiki Hula Competition?