Volume 29, Number 1, March 2009 OLAC Newsletter

Digitized March 2009 issue of the OLAC Newsletter

Liquid cinema and the re-creation of thought: towards a philosophy of filmind

Includes bibliographical references.This research is towards the advancement of filmosophy as a progressive new approach to how we think about, and through, film. This explorative research aims to introduce, contextualise, and expand upon the thoughts and writings of Daniel Frampton, as found in his 2006 manifesto: Filmosophy. In order to provide a suitable platform from which to introduce Frampton’s contemporary concepts (i.e. ‘filmind’ and ‘fluid film-thinking’), this paper first outlines and discusses the various ways in which philosophy and film are said to overlap, culminating in a critical discussion of ‘film-as-philosophy’ in terms of the implications it posits for providing innovative philosophical contributions through uniquely cinematic means (the ‘problem of paraphrase’). This literature review concludes by presenting and discussing filmosophy and its major tenets as both an appropriate extension of the current canon, and as a potentially productive new paradigm through which both film and philosophy can be critically considered and advanced

Modélisation et dérivation de profils utilisateurs à partir de réseaux sociaux : approche à partir de communautés de réseaux k-égocentriques

Dans la plupart des systèmes nécessitant la modélisation de l'utilisateur pour adapter l'information à ses besoins spécifiques, l'utilisateur est représenté avec un profil généralement composé de ses centres d'intérêts. Les centres d'intérêts de l'utilisateur sont construits et enrichis au fil du temps à partir de ses interactions avec le système. De par cette nature évolutive des centres d'intérêts de l'utilisateur, le profil de l'utilisateur ne peut en aucun moment être considéré comme entièrement connu par un système. Cette connaissance partielle du profil de l'utilisateur à tout instant t a pour effet de réduire considérablement les performances des mécanismes d'adaptation de l'information à l'utilisateur lorsque le profil de l'utilisateur ne contient pas (ou contient très peu) les informations nécessaires à leur fonctionnement. Cet inconvénient est particulièrement plus récurrent chez les nouveaux utilisateurs d'un système (instant t=0, problème du démarrage à froid) et chez les utilisateurs peu actifs. Pour répondre à cette problématique, plusieurs travaux ont exploré des sources de données autres que celles produites par l'utilisateur dans le système : utilisateurs au comportement similaire (utilisé dans le filtrage collaboratif) ou données produites par l'utilisateur dans d'autres systèmes (conception de profil utilisateur multi-application et gestion des identités multiples des utilisateurs). Très récemment, avec l'avènement du Web social et l'explosion des réseaux sociaux en ligne, ces derniers sont de plus en plus étudiés comme source externe de données pouvant servir à l'enrichissement du profil de l'utilisateur. Ceci a donné naissance à de nouveaux mécanismes de filtrage social de l'information : systèmes de recherche d'information sociale, systèmes de recommandation sociaux, etc. Les travaux actuels portant sur les mécanismes de filtrage social de l'information démontrent que ce nouveau champ de recherche est très prometteur. Une étude sur les travaux existants nous permet tout de même de noter particulièrement deux faiblesses : d'une part, chacune des approches proposées dans ces travaux reste très spécifique à son domaine d'application (et au mécanisme associé), et d'autre part, ces approches exploitent de manière unilatérale les profils des individus autour de l'utilisateur dans le réseau social. Pour pallier ces deux faiblesses, nos travaux de recherche proposent une démarche méthodique permettant de définir d'une part un modèle social générique de profil de l'utilisateur réutilisable dans plusieurs domaines d'application et par différents mécanismes de filtrage social de l'information, et à proposer d'autre part, une technique permettant de dériver de manière optimale des informations du profil de l'utilisateur à partir de son réseau social. Nous nous appuyons sur des travaux existants en sciences sociales pour proposer une approche d'usage des communautés (plutôt que des individus) autour de l'utilisateur. La portion significative de son réseau social est constituée des individus situés à une distance maximum k de l'utilisateur et des relations entre ces individus (réseau k-égocentrique). A partir de deux évaluations de l'approche proposée, l'une dans le réseau social numérique Facebook, et l'autre dans le réseau de co-auteurs DBLP, nous avons pu démontrer la pertinence de notre approche par rapport aux approches existantes ainsi que l'impact de mesures telles que la centralité de communautés (degré ou proximité par exemple) ou la densité des réseaux k-égocentriques sur la qualité des résultats obtenus. Notre approche ouvre de nombreuses perspectives aux travaux s'intéressant au filtrage social de l'information dans de multiples domaines d'application aussi bien sur le Web (personnalisation de moteurs de recherche, systèmes de recommandation dans le e-commerce, systèmes adaptatifs dans les environnements e-Learning, etc.) que dans les intranets d'entreprise (systèmes d'analyses comportementales dans les réseaux d'abonnés de clients télécoms, détection de comportements anormaux/frauduleux dans les réseaux de clients bancaires, etc.).In most systems that require user modeling to adapt information to each user's specific need, a user is usually represented by a user profile in the form of his interests. These interests are learnt and enriched over time from users interactions with the system. By the evolving nature of user's interests, the user's profile can never be considered fully known by a system. This partial knowledge of the user profile at any time t significantly reduces the performance of adaptive systems, when the user's profile contains no or only some information. This drawback is particularly most recurrent for new users in a system (time t = 0, also called cold start problem) and for less active users. To address this problem, several studies have explored data sources other than those produced by the user in the system: activities of users with similar behavior (e.g. collaborative filtering techniques) or data generated by the user in other systems (e.g., multi-application user's profiles, multiple identities management systems). By the recent advent of Social Web and the explosion of online social networks sites, social networks are more and more studied as an external data source that can be used to enrich users' profiles. This has led to the emergence of new social information filtering techniques (e.g. social information retrieval, social recommender systems). Current studies on social information filtering show that this new research field is very promising. However, much remains to be done to complement and enhance these studies. We particularly address two drawbacks: (i) each existing social information filtering approach is specific in its field scope (and associated mechanisms), (ii) these approaches unilaterally use profiles of individuals around the user in the social network to improve traditional information filtering systems. To overcome these drawbacks in this thesis, we aim at defining a generic social model of users' profiles that can be reusable in many application domains and for several social information filtering mechanisms, and proposing optimal techniques for enriching user's profile from the user's social network. We rely on existing studies in social sciences to propose a communities (rather than individuals) based approach for using individuals around the user in a specific part of his social network, to derive his social profile (profile that contains user's interest derived from his social network). The significant part of the user's social network used in our studies is composed of individuals located at a maximum distance k (in the entire social network) from the user, and relationships between these individuals (k-egocentric network). Two evaluations of the proposed approach based on communities in k-egocentric networks have been conducted in the online social network Facebook and the co-authors network DBLP. They allow us to demonstrate the relevance of the proposal with respect to existing individual based approaches, and the impact of structural measures such as the centrality of communities (degree or proximity) or user's k-egocentric network density, on the quality of results. Our approach opens up many opportunities for future studies in social information filtering and many application domains as well as on the Web (e.g. personalization of search engines, recommender systems in e-commerce, adaptive systems in e-Learning environment) or in Intranets business systems (e.g. behavioral analysis in networks of subscribers telecom customers, detection of abnormal behavior network bank customers, etc.)

How film education might best address the needs of UK film industry and film culture

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Professional Doctorate.This thesis reveals and explores contemporary relationships between film education, film industry and film culture within a UK context through a series of interviews, data analysis, historical research and international case studies. It highlights what appear to be binary oppositions within film such as divisions between theory and practice, industry and academia or art and entertainment and interrogates how they have permeated film education to the point where the relationship between film studies and film practice is polemical. Also, the thesis investigates how a relationship between two binary areas might be re-­engaged and it is within this context that this thesis addresses contemporary issues within UK higher education and national provision of film education. There is detailed analysis of UK film policy alongside the philosophies and practicalities of filmmaking to establish how connected the practice of filmmaking is to the film industry and national strategy. An international perspective is provided through the analysis of the film school systems in Denmark and the U.S. and this postulates potential future directions for UK film education, particularly within the university sector. A main focus of the thesis is to question film education by engaging with the voices of actual filmmakers and also via data analysis of the educational background of filmmakers as a way of developing film education. The thesis is undertaken at a time of major changes across film and higher education. Film production, distribution and consumption have undergone major technological evolution and the structures that were once in place to facilitate graduate movement into the workplace are changing and shifting. Simultaneously the identity of the university as a place of skills training or critical development is under consistent scrutiny. With this in mind this thesis seeks to engage with the potential future for film education

On the meaning of a cut : towards a theory of editing

This thesis looks at a variety of discourses about film editing in order to explore the possibility, on the one hand, of drawing connections between them, and on the other, of addressing some of their problematic aspects. Some forms of fragmentation existed from the very beginnings of the history of the moving image, and the thesis argues that forms of editorial control were executed by early exhibitors, film pioneers, writers, and directors, as well as by a fullyfledged film editor. This historical reconstruction of how the profession of editor evolved sheds light on the specific aspects of their work. Following on from that, it is proposed that models of editing fall under two broad paradigms: of montage and continuity. These are not meant to be mutually exclusive categories, but rather umbrella terms for co-existing approaches that are governed by different principles. A re-evaluation of the concept of découpage complements this perspective. It is argued that reinstituting this notion, with its many variants, can help us think separately about issues of film form normally addressed at earlier stages of production, and conceptually distinct from the tasks of an editor. Their specificity, it is suggested, can be examined more productively by honing in on a very narrow set of procedures used in editing. The spiral model of editing proposed here is an intervention that addresses a common issue with theorising editing, the fact that the scope of the activity cuts across a number of categories related to film form. Using historical, theoretical, and pragmatic lenses, the thesis offers a new elucidation of what it is we mean when we talk about editing

Watch and Learn

Since the late 1990s, there has been a marked increase in academic interest in what are sometimes called 'utility films', intended for purposes of information, training, teaching or advertising. Although such research was long overdue, the current academic output tends to be restricted in scope, paying little attention to the films' textual features: the means they deploy in defending their informational, educational or commercial arguments. In the absence of such studies, the image survives of very 'formulaic' genres. This book seeks to modify this picture, and suggests a methodology that helps to foreground the films' rhetorical diversity. Taking her departure from a historic collection of Dutch classroom films, Masson proposes an approach that considers an audio-visual text as part of a so-called dispositif: the set-up of technology, text and viewing situation that is relevant to the specific corpus under scrutiny.Sinds de late jaren negentig is er een toenemende academische belangstelling voor zogenoemde 'gebruiksfilms': films die bedoeld zijn om te informeren, te trainen of onderwijzen, of te overtuigen van het nut van een service of product. Onderzoek richtte zich tot nu toe vooral op de productie- of distributiegeschiedenis van dergelijke films, of hun pedagogische effectiviteit. Minder aandacht is er voor hun tekstuele dimensie: de middelen die ze inzetten ter onderbouwing van hun informatieve, educatieve of commerciële argument. Intussen hebben gebruiksfilms echter nog steeds het imago van erg 'formulaire' genres. Eef Masson nuanceert dit beeld in haar boek, en stelt een methodologie voor die de aandacht vestigt op de retorische diversiteit van deze films

The translation of cultural references in the Italian dubbing of television series

This research describes the strategies adopted by dubbing professionals (mainly translators) in their translations for dubbing of television series, from English into Italian. More specifically, it means to account for the norms governing the work of the translators in this field. In order to draw substantial conclusions, the analysis is conducted on a corpus of television fiction shows, which is not only sufficiently large but also varied in terms of genre, content, language use, and target audiences. The main focus of the analysis is the translation of culture specific references; a subject that has widely been recognised by scholars as being one of the most problematic translation issues, not only in the case of translation for dubbing but also in other areas such as literary and drama translation. One of the hypotheses presented is that the social and historical context in which dubbing originally came to be in Italy had an impact on its subsequent evolution and can still be relevant when dealing with issues of censorship and manipulation of contents. The methodological foundations of this research rest on Toury’s (1980, 1995) notion of norms in translation. Toury (1980: 51) considers norms to be central to the act and the event of translating. The ultimate aim of this study is, therefore, to map out the strategies activated by translators in response to the cultural environment in which they operate, and to detect the norms that are prevalent in the case of dubbing television series into Italian. The analysis is carried out on a corpus of over 95 hours of television programmes, whole episodes of three fiction series belonging to different genres: Friends (sitcom, USA); Life on Mars (science fiction/police procedural drama, UK); Six Feet Under (drama, USA). All the culture specific elements present in the corpus have been detected and their adaptation into Italian analysed from a quantitative and qualitative point of view in order to highlight the prevalent translational behaviours.Open Acces

Precarity in European Film

This volume explores how contemporary European cinema engages with the increasing precarization of life and work on the continent. It compares how the filmic traditions of different countries reflect the socioeconomic conditions associated with precarity, and sheds light on the recurring tropes, themes, narratives, and genre conventions that shape its representation