Pulp Fiction (Blog Assignment 8*)

Pulp Fiction was an Oscar nominated movie written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avery in 1994. It has a star studded cast including Samuel L Jackson as Jules Winfield, John Travolta as Vincent Vega, Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace and Bruce Willis as Butch Coolidge. This movie is considered one of the greatest American made movies of all time. The Library of Congress placed this in National Film Registry in 2013. Pulp Fiction is considered a work as Post-Modernism and grossed 213.9 million dollars in the box office.

This movie is a based on a multiple crimes occurring at one time. Some of these crimes include the buying and using of drugs, murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape and the fixing of sporting events.

This movie begins in a diner when Pumpkin played by Tim Roth and Honey Bunny played by Amanda Plummer try to rob a diner. At this diner Jules and Vega are eating. The movie switches gears and the diner is not seen again until then end of the movie.

Jules Winfield and Vincent Vega are two hit man who work for their mob boss Marcellus Wallace who is played by Ving Rhames. During the movie the two hitmen make money runs for their boss and also commit murder for him. Also during the movie Vega is told by his boss to take his wife Mia out for a date while he is out of town. After the date at a 50’s themes restaurant where the saying “Dance like Uma “Mia almost passes away after Oding on Vegas heroin which he thought was cocaine.

Butch Coolidge was a long time boxer who agreed to take a dive in a boxing match for Wallace. In return he would receive a large sum of money from Wallace. After a string of events Butch decided to not throw the match and takes off running from Wallace’s people. Later Vega goes to Butches house to kill him but Butch is not home. Butch later returns home to retrieve his gold watch. Vega at the time is in the bathroom and is then killed by Butch.

After Vega is dead Butch goes to get his girlfriend and leave town. He is spotted by Wallace and there is a chase landing them in the pawnshop. The owner of the shop Mayner played by Duane Whittaker kidnaps the two and then bounds and gags them. Mayner begins to rap Wallace until Butch brakes free and saves him. Wallace allows Butch to live if he leaves town and tells no one about the rape. Butch gets his girlfriends and leaves town.

The movies ends by going back to the diner scene. Jules is telling Vega he is planning to leave the crime business before Pumpkin and Honey Bunny attempt to rob the diner. While Vega is in the bathroom Jules is held at gun point for his brief case that he and Vega retrieved for Wallace. After a series of events Vega and Jules gain control and Jules says a bible passage he said before killing people but they let the two go with the money but not the suitcase.

This movie starts with one scene shifts gears to work backwards to original scene. It moves from one characters crime filled actions to the next but makes it appear that their happening at the same times. I think this was an effective way to keep the audience on their toes and wanting to know what is going to happen to each character next. The movie did a good job bringing all the plots together at the end and showing how all the different charters were connected. I would give this movie a B+. I only took points off because at times I did become confused but at the end it all made sense.

Everybody Loves Raymond and Product Placement (Blog Assignment #6)

For this blog I watched the first episode of season four of Everybody Loves Raymond.  This episode was named the “Boob Job” episode. In this episode Ray and Debra go to their children’s schools PTA meeting. During the meeting Debra and Ray meet a mother who just had a breast enlargement surgery. This leads to Debra wondering if she needs breast implants. When she bring the idea up to Ray she receives a displeasing response. As the episode goes on Ray leaves for a week long business trip and as he returns Debra has created a test to see if Ray wanted her to get the surgery. Ray fails the test terribly but by the end of the episode the conflict has turned to Ray being self-conscious about his body.

Now that I have summarized the episode I will get to the main part of this blog. The purpose of this blog was to watch a sitcom and try to find clearly placed products in the show. After the products are found we must discuss how they relate to product placement. During the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond I found only two name brands clearly displayed.

The first was Golf Digest which is a magazine which is dedicated to the game of golf and golf products. During the series it is made know that Ray is a big golf enthusiast. During this episode Ray is shown choosing an edition of Golf Digest out of a pile of unmarked magazines. Also later in the episode another edition of Golf Digest is shown in Ray and Debra’s bathroom. Although Golf Digest or even golf was never mentioned or discussed during the episode Golf Digest was clearly displayed on multiple of occasions. This is an example of product placement.

As the last product was more specific to the specific to the episode the next product is associated with the entire along with the episode.  During this episode only two drinks with labels are displayed. These drinks are Orange Sunkist and Canadian Ginger Ale. Both of these drinks are made by the RC Beverage Company. RC Beverage Company paid to put their products in the show.

If one was to watch a season or two of Everybody Loves Raymond they would see a common company placing their products in episodes. Ray’s favorite drink was a Canadian Ginger Ale and he drank a Ginger Ale in a majority of the shows episodes. Ray drinking a Canadian Ginger Ale created promotion for RC Beverage and their product. For the series the money RC Beverage Company helped them with production coasts.

Everybody Loves Raymond was on for Six Seasons and for each of these seasons their viewer ratings were high. This is why Companies like Golf Digest and RC Beverage would pay to have their products places in the series’ episodes.  

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" (Blog Assignment 5)

The Daily Show episode I watched aired December 12, 2014. Jon had Ricky Gervais as his celebrity guest to promote his new comedy special on HBO called Straight Outa England.  John Steward spoke about a couple of things that were going on in the news during this episode.

                The first segment of the show was Stewart analyzing a press conference that President Obama and President Clinton held together at the White House. The show did not show the press conference for what was said but for what was done. The clip did not share any news but was entertaining.   They opened the show with this comedic clip of President Obama leaving President Clinton at the podium for a Christmas party.

                The next segment was called “Big Brother.” This segment used Obama care and different news outlets thoughts of the new health care plan to focus on how much power the Federal Government should have. The example used was the government being a “Big Brother” and what kind of big brother using television and movie examples. It used different circumstances like the government’s response to McDonalds selling possibly poisonous Shrek cup to children. Although Jon Stewart made jokes about these examples the segment did present real news.

                The last big segment had to deal with different news including MSNBC, Fox, and CNN and their new marketing campaigns. This segment pointed out problems with marketing in the US. Each add was similar but added a different dimension to their own.  This segment showed major companies lack of creativity and individuality when trying to reach the American people. By making fun of these segments Jon Stewart brought attention to this problem.

                I feel that comedic news can be very beneficial to society. I feel the comedic and entertainment factors of this kind of news will make more people want to watch the show and therefore receive the news. This is especially true for millennials and younger people who watch TV more for entertainment. Also I feel that by adding the comedic factor it makes it easier for the host to talk about controversial topics that the regular news will try to stay away from. Comedy also makes it easier to present the news without sounding bias. Jon Stewart presented the ideas of the government as a “Big Brother” and also made jokes about it. The one thing he did not do it make it obvious what side his political views left him on. This kind of news can do a good job of making a viewer think about what messages they are receiving from media. The segment where Stewart makes fun of the different news outlets marketing campaigns was a good example of this.it was a funny segment but after it was over it made me think about how I can see trends of company’s using the same messages. Shows like the Daily Show often bring on celebrities on to speak about certain subjects. This can increase the number of people hearing the news. This episode did the celebrity interview at the end of the episode. I found this effective because it will keep people watching during the news reports.

Introduction and Reflection (Blog 1)

Hey Class my name is Joe Smith and I am a junior here at Kutztown University. I am a Communication Studies major and I also have a public relations minor. Along with those fields I am taking Sports Management classes. My dream job would be to work for a Professional Sport Team's public relations department. This is why am taking Sports Management classes. I feel that they can help me learn the business. I have always been a big sports fan weather it’s playing it or watching it. I am also am a big fan of music. I like all kinds of music. I personally think that live music is the best form of music. So during my summers I try to save my money to go to concerts. Even though I find myself broke from the concerts I like to believe that you can’t put a price on a good time. I also feel that I would rather spent my money on an experience over something material.

             Now I am going to begin my reflection on Professor Massie’s post. I found Heraclitus’ Idea very interesting. It made me think about things I have done many times in my life like going to the shore and I found it interesting that no visit was the same. Now I tried to put that thought to media. I feel that no two times visiting social media is the same and if one is to use it correctly it can be used for good. One can find out important things that are going on in the world and other people’s reactions and thoughts. I’m not saying this is the best source for knowledge and wisdom but I do believe if used correctly it can be a helpful tool. The biggest problem with media is that one must walk a very thin line. One can be distracted very easily by noise just like in the non-virtual world but on a larger scale.