Top Ten

-Kill Bill
-Star Wars
-Raiders of the Lost Ark
-The Matrix
-Scary Movie
-Scott Pilgrim vs the World
-Scarface
-District 9
-Kick Ass
-Blazing Saddles

The Appropriation Debate- For & Against

i don't have a single film i like for any reason related to appropriation at all. I think every film should be viewed individually therefore i have no other opinion on it and will not be able to think of an example. This is why we didn't go with it in the first place when we discussed it with lucy.

if we have to do appropriation then i'm screwed cos i don't believe in it, especially as a reason to archive a film. Just because they have the same base stroy line, they are not the same. Like pocahontas and avatar - there's now way u can compare them both even though they are exactly the same story and i wouldn't want to archive either of them just because they happen to have the same story as another film.
as far as i'm concerned every film should be judged on it's own merit and nothing should be archived just because it has parts of something else in it.

this could be a healthy discussion on it's own but as it stands it's for a project about why we think certain films should be archived becuase of the relevance of the appropriation in them, where as i belive nothing should be archived for this reason, i never even see appropriation in films, it goes against everything i believe as a film maker

what do u suggest now?
-Rob    

Vickys Archive Choice...

Scary Movie!

In my opinion, if an appropriated film is good enough to be archived then it needs to justify why it is “taking” context from other films (appropriating). And the reason scary movie does this is because it makes the audience clear that it is ‘mocking’ a number of different scary films. The film does this for a comedy effect, for example in the film when two of the characters are at the cinema, the preview screen reads: “The following peeview has been assproved for immature audiences only”, which is a joke in itself but also making it obvious to the audience what kind of a film it is. Another reason this appropriated film should be archived is because throughout the four scary movie films they reference many different films from the horror genre, so that the majority of the audience watching the film will be able to recognize at least some of the references from all of the films it is getting them from, and the audience will recognize where the humor is coming from.

What is Appropriation?

Appropriation is the act of borrowing elements from previously published texts and using them in new ways like changing the context or narrative. Similar to the act of cutting out paragraphs from books and pasting them in a different order. Famous examples of appropriation appear in Led Zeppelin's use of lyrics and musical riffs from other blues musicians. Or the way in which comedy musician "Weird Al" Yankovic appropriates the music from popular contemporary songs and changes the lyrics (usually about Pop culture) for comedic effect. Films have used this technique a lot in recent times as well- For example, Star Wars uses the classic character archetypes from classical mythology and storytelling techniques from westerns (the gun battles) and Kurosawa samurai films (the sword fights); Indiana Jones appropriates various situations and action scenes from the B movies and saturday matinee serials of the 1930s & 40s (e.g. the truck chase in the first film was appropriated from the 1944 film "Zorro's Fighting Legion").
[Continued in Comments Section]
-Ben

Ben's Archive Choice

I've thought a lot about which would be my favourite choice of film to archive. So many of my favourite films are brilliant examples of appropriation from 'Star Wars' to 'Indiana Jones'; but I have decided to choose a more recent text as a perfect example of Appropriation-'Kill Bill'. This is an interesting example because the film appropriates from many different films from many different genres. From 'Executioners from Shaolin' to 'Death Rides a Horse'. From Martial Arts to Westerns (seemingly poles apart,). Yet in Kill Bill, many of the genre conventions, cinematic techniques, choreography, props, costumes, mise-en-scene and characters are appropriated affectionately and brilliantly. With so many appropriations, part of the fun from 'Kill Bill' comes from finding out what the appropriation is and from which text is the appropriation referencing and paying homage to.
-Ben Dillon

I think that the Robot chicken start wars and family guy star wars should be archived.
I feel that they are a perfect representation of appropriation. Using scene after scen from the original startwars films and changing it to a comedy spoof.
These maybe more important thaan most examples as starwars is a work of appropriation.
 making these films an appropriation of appropriation.
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(Tom Bishop)

Appropriation In Film

We have finally came up with a theme for our group presentation project, and this is appropriation in film. And we shall post updates on our project as they develop.