This new text examines recent popular Chinese films and derivative cultural phenomena, with a focus on films directed by celebrity directors such as Han Han, Guo Jingming, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei. In opposition to Fifth and Sixth Generation Chinese filmmakers who explored the grand-narratives of history, the oppression of the pre-socialist and socialist eras, and those marginalized by socio-economic changes, the celebrity directors at the heart of this book center on the new trends of living and emotional challenges faced by contemporary Chinese people, in particular the younger generations. This book sheds light on newly emerging social and cultural fashions in contemporary China, such as the social stigma of being 'left-over' (reflected in Xu Jinglei's films), the issue of wealth 'flaunting' (represented in Guo Jingming's films) or nostalgia for the long lost innocence of adolescence (demonstrated in Zhao Wei's film). Considering present-day consumer capitalism through the lens of cinema, this text analyses in detail the significance of films chosen for their relevance, providing a reflection of social reality and cultural changes in 21st century China.

Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking, an ideal book for the rapidly growing number of low-budget filmmakers, provides how-to information on the day-to-day techniques of actual low-budget production. Containing construction details describing how to replicate expensive tools for under $30 a piece, this book provides quick and inexpensive remedies to both the most common and most difficult production challenges. Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking is an invaluable resource to anyone looking to make a film without a big budget.
* Achieve professional results with inexpensive materials from your local hardware store
*A must-have reference for all low-budget and independent filmmakers
* Time-saving tips and techniques with easy-to-follow photos

`Every day we put fire and swords and electricity into our bodies, throw knives at them, contort them, wrap them in snakes, and every day we wake up sure those things won't harm us but also sure that there is so much else that will.'When her mother had a series of strokes, Tessa Fontaine couldn't stand to watch her mother disappear. The Electric Woman tells Tessa's story of joining America's last travelling freak show, and learning to perform death-defying acts in order to come to terms with her mother's illness. In her life-affirming memoir, Tessa finds hope and companionship among sword swallowers and snake charmers.

Author Biography:
Petra Kuppers is Assistant Professor of Performance Studies at Bryant College. She is Artistic Director of the Olimpias Performance Research Project and she has written extensively in the fields of cultural, performance and disability studies.

This book explores the effects of modernization on the study, practice, and performance of Balinese traditional arts, especially the shadow play, through the analysis of oral and written discussion from local performers, administrators and students. This approach permits a rare view into contemporary Balinese conception and practices of music from the actual performers and scholars and covers diverse topics from village life to the educational curriculum.

Shakespeare's Neighbors focuses on what lay next door to Shakespeare- the theoretical context that, while partially lost on us, was quite likely to inform the perception that Shakespeare's contemporaries (his 'neighbors') had of his works. In this series of alternative readings, the primacy of the literary text is set against the backdrop of unexpected or largely ignored theories whose enormous diffusion renders them inescapable terms of comparison. Rocco Coronato advocates the likely as a viable backdrop to literary analysis. The inference has it that the presence of such widely disseminated theories may allow for the study of the literary works through their own codes and imagery, without implying a rigidly ideological transmission between social and literary domains. While written with literary criticism in mind, Coronato manages to avoid convoluted jargon, striving in the process to translate the terms of otherwise esoteric discourses into a generally accessible language form, for the benefit of a non-specialist audience as well.

Packed with more than 500 techniques, this book delivers what you need to know-on the spot. It is suited to editors of all experience levels, whether you are: Migrating from another NLE Upgrading to Final Cut Studio 2 Seeking a handy reference to raise your proficiencyNo need to wade through tomes of documentation. Final Cut Studio On the Spot presents immediate solutions in an accessible format. Step-by-step instruction by Apple Certified Pros shows you how to: Optimize system performance Create impressive titles with Generators, Motion, LiveType, and Photoshop Build Commercial-quality transitions Work quickly with buttons and keyboard shortcuts Color correct to save vital shots, and keep them broadcast legal Fix and mix for professional-quality audio Use the compositing tools of master editors Design and import graphics seamlessly Integrate with other applications including Motion, Soundtrack Pro and Color Troubleshoot and recover files Manage media and backup strategies Export and publish finished projects to tape, DVD, or the Web

Designed for media professionals working across a broad range of formats, Developer's Digital Media Reference is an excellent reference guide for those keeping pace with this dynamic industry. As "convergence" between the World Wide Web, multimedia, and television production communities continues, there is an increased demand for professionals to familiarize themselves with the many new delivery contexts, including hybrid DVD (where digital video content and computer data live on the same disc), interactive TV, and streaming media.

Developer's Digital Media Reference covers essential technologies such as SVG (scalable vector graphics), SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, a markup language for creating animations on the web), MPEG-4 (compression standard for streaming audio/video), and Dynamic Web Applications. In addition to serving as a quick-look-up guide, this text is organized to explain today's major media: server-based architectures, disc-based architectures, distribution architectures, and merging/shared architectures. Each topic is discussed in terms of the technological background-evolution, current tools, and production tips and techniques.
* Enables content creators to work across today's many media platforms: streaming media, broadband, DVD, MPEG, as well as Web TV technologies
* Unites DVD, interactive TV, and World Wide Web technologies for Audio-Video professionals, content creators, and students
* Provides an advanced roadmap for all media pros who must navigate the new content-delivery route: convergent TV, Web, and multimedia technologies

Bursting with beautiful illustrations to color, Harry Potter: Slytherin: The Official Coloring Book is a must-have coloring book for ambitious members of this house and fans of the magical film series. Grab your colored pencils--it's time for coloring wizardry! Show your house pride with intricate, all-new artwork of characters, iconic objects, and magical places from the Harry Potter films, all themed to house Slytherin. Featuring important house moments from the Sorting Ceremony, Yule Ball, feasts, and so much more, this coloring book is jam-packed with special designs and scenes every cunning Slytherin will love. GORGEOUSLY INTRICATE: 64 pages of intricate designs, perfect for hours of coloring relaxation and creativity BELOVED CHARACTERS: Includes all-new artwork of iconic Slytherins, including Draco Malfoy, Professor Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange, and more COLLECT ALL HOGWARTS HOUSES: Collect all four official Harry Potter Coloring Books: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff OFFICIAL WIZARDING WORLD COLORING BOOK: Created in collaboration with the studio behind the Harry Potter films 20th ANNIVERSARY: Released to coincide with the 20th anniversary celebration of the first Harry Potter film.

Theories of Performance invites students to explore the possibilities of performance for creating, knowing, and staking claims to the world. Each chapter surveys, explains, and illustrates classic, modern, and postmodern theories that answer the questions, "What is performance?" "Why do people perform?" and "How does performance constitute our social and political worlds?" The chapters feature performance as the entry point for understanding texts, drama, culture, social roles, identity, resistance, and technologies. Written specifically for the undergraduate classroom, performance theories are explained in ways accessible to students, relevant to their lives, and richly illustrated with examples that encourage students to think more, to think harder, and to think differently about performances around them. The text incorporates a variety of pedagogical strategies to encourage students to demonstrate, apply, extend, and share their discoveries about theory. Each chapter provides student-centered exercises, activities, and prompts. From Aristotelian tragedy to on-line avatars, Dramatism to performativity, cultural performance to public protest, canon wars to virtual reality, Theories of Performance brings classic, modern, and postmodern theories to life in the classroom. "Elizabeth Bell has done a prodigious, expert, and original synthesis of the new work in performance studies here, by grounding performance in communication theory and practice. Students reading this book will more readily see how and why performance is a way of communicating, empowering them to critically participate in producing and consuming the myriad texts and performances in which we are immersed. The 'Act Out' and other boxes present effective and innovative learning activities; they move performance from a display of competence to participation in bodily knowing. In short, Theories of Performance is an exceptional accomplishment. " - Kristin M. Langellier, University of Maine "Theories of Performance is the BEST synthesis of performance studies issues, concepts, and methodologies that yet exists. This textbook is invaluable and will make performance studies classrooms 'smarter' and more sophisticated both in terms of content and in practice. What a treat it will be to offer students a text that takes the best thoughts, practices, and examples and presents it to them in an engaging, surprising, and provocative format!" - Keith Pounds, Hofstra University

In France, comics are commonly referred to as the "ninth art". What does it mean to see comics as art? This book looks at the singular status of comics in the French cultural landscape. Bandes dessinees have long been published in French newspapers and magazines. In the early 1960s, a new standard format emerged: large hardback books, called albums. Albums played a key role in the emergence of the ninth art and its acceptance among other forms of literary narrative. From Barbarella in 1964 to La Ballade de la mer salee in 1975, from Asterix and its million copies to Tintin and its screen versions, within the space of just a few years the comics landscape underwent a deep transformation. The album opened up new ways of creating, distributing, and reading bandes dessinees. This shift upended the market, transformed readership, initiated new transmedia adaptations, generated critical discourse, and gave birth to new kinds of comics fandom. These transformations are analysed through a series of case studies, each focusing on a noteworthy album. By retracing the publishing and critical history of these classic bandes dessinees, this book questions the blind spots of a canon based on the album format and uncovers the legitimisation processes that turned bande dessinee into the ninth art.

This scholarly work looks at the issue of politics and performance in America today with particular attention paid to performances produced by activists, the NEA Four, and `Miss Saigon'.

This text contains all the information necessary to get the best out of an Avid system, presented in a clear, accurate and easy-to-follow format. The book provides a comprehensive guide through all the main video editing tools of Media Composer, Avid Xpress and Symphony. The techniques are all based on the latest versions of the software, with specific references to version 7, 8, 9 and 10 Media Composer and version 4 Xpress. These are all cross-platform with specific Mac and Windows NT information included.

This book offers an account of an unprecedented North American study of contemporary female and male strip shows. It particularly focuses on the contradictory sex roles, cultural positions, and performance practices of 'straight' strip shows during their second heyday in the early 1990s.
Katherine Liepe-Levinson's research took her to over seventy different strip bars, clubs, theatres and sex emporiums ranging from elaborate lap-dancing and couch-dancing 'gentlemen's' clubs in New York, Houston, and San Francisco; to Peoria's onetime duplex cabaret where women strip for men downstairs, and men for women upstairs; to the nightclubs of Montreal where female and male performers displayed the 'Full Monty'.
Liepe-Levinson's intriguing, comprehensive study concentrates on the cultural and theatrical elements of the strip shows themselves including the geographic locations and interior designs of the clubs, the choreography and costumes of the dancers and the all-important participation of the audience. She draws upon a variety of methodologies as well as interviews with performers to explore how the strip show's cultural and theatrical aspects simultaneously uphold and break traditional sex roles. Her findings readily complicate several of the most prominent and prevalent theories about sexual representation, gender and desire.

This book offers an account of an unprecedented North American study of contemporary female and male strip shows. It particularly focuses on the contradictory sex roles, cultural positions, and performance practices of 'straight' strip shows during their second heyday in the early 1990s.
Katherine Liepe-Levinson's research took her to over seventy different strip bars, clubs, theatres and sex emporiums ranging from elaborate lap-dancing and couch-dancing 'gentlemen's' clubs in New York, Houston, and San Francisco; to Peoria's onetime duplex cabaret where women strip for men downstairs, and men for women upstairs; to the nightclubs of Montreal where female and male performers displayed the 'Full Monty'.
Liepe-Levinson's intriguing, comprehensive study concentrates on the cultural and theatrical elements of the strip shows themselves including the geographic locations and interior designs of the clubs, the choreography and costumes of the dancers and the all-important participation of the audience. She draws upon a variety of methodologies as well as interviews with performers to explore how the strip show's cultural and theatrical aspects simultaneously uphold and break traditional sex roles. Her findings readily complicate several of the most prominent and prevalent theories about sexual representation, gender and desire.

Contents:
1. Introduction
A place for leisure and tourism? From geography to geographies Theorising the social-cultural nexus Social and cultural geographies of leisure and tourism landscapes
2. Locating Landscapes: Geographies of Lesiure and Tourism
Introduction Colonial geographies: mapping regional territories Systematic geographies: modelling land use and tourism Landscape evaluations: mapping scenic amenity in leisure and tourism Tourism geographies: topologies of land use Structuralist interpretations of leisure and tourism landscapes Post-colonial geographies of leisure and tourism Geography's cultural turn: the spatiality of leisure and tourism Leisure geographies of the street Tourism geographies of the spectacle and monument Geographies of social and cultural exclusion Overview
3. Moving Landscpaes: Leisure and Tourism in Time and Space
Introduction The Journey, travel and discovery Prospects of pleasure, landscapes of feeling Annihilating time and distance Landscape, leisure and mobility Road to nowhere? Overview
4. Valuing the Countryside: Leisure, Tourism and the Rural Landscape
Introduction Nature was His book Access and exclusion Landscape fit for heroes A people's charter for the open air A countryside for all? Overview
5. Introduction A landscape aesthetic? The socio-cultural context Landscape and imaginative reconstuction The Highlands of Scotland Ossianic tourism The Highlander in the picture The Highlands of Walter Scott Travelling in the Highlands Royal Patrons A Literary way of seeing The real Highlands Overview 6. Heritage Landscapes: Merging Past and Present Introduction The evolution of heritage Heritage in the landscape Stonehenge: multi-vocal landscape Avebury: evolving landscape Tintagel: mythical landscape Overview 7. Gendered Landscapes: Constructing and Consuming Leisure and Tourism Inroduction Spatialised feminism Feminism and leisure landscapes Gendered space Deconstructing dualisms The gendered other Gender and landscapes of tourism Gender and landscapes of heritage Overview 8. Retrophilia and the Urban Landscape Introduction Antiquity, restoration and fake Reverence, worldliness and action Modernism, collective memory and amnesia Urban conservation and civic pride Commercialism, decadence and tourism The historic quarters of London's City Fringe Overview 9. Landscapes of Desire: Reappropriating the City Introduction Queer space: material and symbolic landscapes Gay destinations: the landscape of the city Sexuality and spectacle: the landscape of the street Sexuality and hospitality: the landscape of the hotel Overview
10. Leisure, Tourism and Culture: Relocating Landscapes

Covering a range from supernatural fiction to dark fantasy to graphic horror, these 14 interviewees discuss the creative challenges, expectations and conventions of the genre. These authors, directors and actors working in the horror genre include Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, James Herbert, Joe Hill, Steve Niles, Sarah Pinborough, John Carpenter, Mick Garris, Stuart Gordon, Rob Zombie, Christa Campbell, Zach Galligan, Betsy Palmer and Ron Perlman.

Lively yet intriguing, The Body in Performance is a varied collection of essays about this much-discussed area.
Posing the question "Why this current preoccupation with the performed body?" the collection of specially commissioned essays from both academics and practitioners - in some cases one and the same person - considers such cutting edge topics as the abject body and performance, censorship and live art, the presentation of violence on stage, carnal art, and the vexed issue of mimesis in the theatre. Drawing variously on the work of Franko B., Orlan, Annie Sprinkle, Karen Finley, and Forced Entertainment, it concludes with a creative piece about a 'Famous New York Performance Artist.' Contributors include Rebecca Schneider whose book The Explicit Body in Performance is a key text in this area, and Joan Lipkin, director and writer.

A series of accidents has brought you this book. You may think of it not as a book, but as a library, an elevator, an amateur performance in a nearby theatre.
Open it to the table of contents.
Turn to the page that sounds the most interesting to you.
Read a sentence or two.
Repeat the process.
Read this book as a creative act, and feel encouraged.
"39 Microlectures: In Proximity of Performance" is a collection of miniature stories, parables, musings and thinkpieces on the nature of reading, writing, art, collaboration, performance, life, death, the universe and everything. It is a unique and moving document for our times.
Matthew Goulish, founder member of performance group Goat Island, meditates on these and other diverse themes, proving, along the way, that the boundaries between poetry and criticism, and between creativity and theory, are a lot less fixed than they may seem. The book is revelatory, solemn yet at times hilarious, and genuinely written to inspire - or perhaps provoke - creativity and thought.

Few figures in cinema history are as towering as Russian filmmaker and theorist Sergei Mikhailovitch Eisenstein (1898-1948). Not only did Eisenstein direct some of the most important and lasting works of the silent era, including Strike, October, and Battleship Potemkin, as well as, in the sound era, the historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible he also was a theorist whose insights into the workings of film were so powerful that they remain influential for both filmmakers and scholars today. Seagull Books is embarking on a series of translations of key works by Eisenstein into English. The Short-Fiction Scenario presents a master-class on turning a short story into an effective film. Delivered as a series of lectures at the State Institute of Cinematography, it details two parallel scripts drawn from the same story; at each point of difference, Eisenstein explains why one works better.

AM I OVERTHINKING THIS?: A JOURNAL is a companion to the popular book and a must-have space for overthinkers to get their thought spirals out of their heads and onto paper. Fun and inviting, with engaging charts, encouragement, and plenty of blank pages to process feelings and emotions, this journal is just the thing for people who write through their anxiety, need space to freely overthink, or loved the book and its humorous, relatable visuals.

Methods for overcoming pre-performance jitters

"Notes from the Green Room" explains the causes of musical performance anxiety and suggests methods for dealing with it effectively. The authors show how proper preparation?as well as techniques such as learning experiments, relaxation training, tension management, and graded exposure to groups of various sizes?can relieve the compulsion that often accompanies an individual's performance. An essential resource for musicians at any level.

Do you find yourself contemplating the imminent end of the world? Do you wonder how society might reorganize itself to cope with global cataclysm? Have you begun hoarding canned goods and ammunition against possible alien invasion? Visions of the apocalypse and its aftermath began to dominate mass media well before the turn of the millennium. Yet narratives since the year 2000 present decidedly different spins on cultural anxieties, founded in real-world experiences of terrorism, disease, environmental collapse, worldwide conflict and millennial technologies. Many of these concerns have been made metaphorical: zombie hordes embody fear of out-of-control appetites and encroaching disorder. Other fears, like the prospect of human technology turning on its creators, seem more based in reality. This collection of new essays explores apocalyptic themes and narratives in a variety of post-millennial media, including film, television, video games, webisodes and smartphone apps.