Child's Play 3

MP Julian Brazier believes that the government should be given power to over-rule the BBFC.

"He said there was evidence of copycat links to violent films, including the one where two 10-year-old schoolboys were convicted of murdering toddler James Bulger in a case which had "striking similarities" to a violent video rented by the father of one of the boys." - Daily Mail (HOW IS THIS PROOF?)

"The two 10-year-old schooolboys convicted of murdering James Bulger had watched a Child's Play movie just before the killing" (NO PROOF OF THIS - Daily Mail telling porkies)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-522947/The-Government-given-film-censorship-powers-violent-movies-claims-Tory-MP.html

Natural Born Copycats?

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/06/1041566356510.html

"No filmmaker, if his critics are to be believed, has quite so much blood on his hands as its director, Oliver Stone"

Oliver Stone compares the lawsuit against him to the infamous case of Dan White, the ex-cop who shot San Francisco politician Harvey Milk in 1978. "White used what was known as the Twinkie defence. He said that he had been eating too many Twinkies and that the high sugar content had prompted him to kill. And it worked! He got away with a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and served five years. But you can't blame the Twinkies in the same way that you can't scapegoat the movies. You can't blame the igniter. People can be ignited by anything. And yet, this is something we're seeing more and more of in America today. It's a culture of liability lawsuits. The whole concept of individual responsibility has been broken up and passed around."

Surely, though, he wouldn't dispute the idea that a film can influence its viewer. "Of course it can. Maybe it inspires you to change your love life, or to alter your wardrobe. But it's not a film's responsibility to tell you what the law is. And if you kill somebody, you've broken the law." - Stone

When Stanley Kubrick's movie was linked to various copycat crimes in the early 1970s, the director personally had it whipped out of circulation. "Yeah, but I think Kubrick was wrong to do that," Stone says. "If it wasn't an admission of guilt, it was at least an admission of embarrassment. I'm a big fan of Kubrick, but he was a paranoid man. He reacted to the hysteria of the mob. He crumbled when he should have stood up and defended his work."

- THE GUARDIAN

Daily Mail - The Dark Knight

"The day I went to see the film, I happened to drive past the spot where 16-year-old Ben Kinsella was stabbed 11 times. He was the 21st teenager to die of knife wounds in London this year.
His killers may have thought they were some kind of cartoon masters of the universe, meting out a perverse justice, but the scruffy street corner with its altar of rotting bouquets tells a different story.
No stirring music bestowed a thrilling poetic grandeur on Ben's last seconds. No giant shadow of a cape flitted across the sky. Nobody could save him. Especially not this Batman" - Allison Pearson (IS SHE DUMB?? - well, she is from The Daily Mail)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1039729/ALLISON-PEARSON-Holy-cretins-Batman-family-film.html

Film Society

I just did a film society thing on copy-cat crimes. It was fun. I learnt loads. And recieved the following quotes:
"People are already f****** up, before watching a film and copying it"
"People get ideas from films"
"Copy-Cat crimes DO exist!"
(more to come)

Woah!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Born_Killers#.27Copycat.27_crimes
There is a HENCH section on 'cop-cat' crimes.

Brand New

1. Topic Area - Crime in the media

2. Proposed title, question, - Do copy-cat crimes exist? Is the theory of copy-cat crime more than just a theory?

3. Teacher approval granted, in principal? Yes

4. Principle texts (if text based study)The Dark Knight, Clockwork Orange, Natural Born Killers, childs play 3.

5. Reason for choice - Its an area that i already have good knowledge of, i know a lot of the theory, and there are good historical as well as contemperary examples to make an arguement.

6. Academic context for this study (similar research, relevant theory, named theorists) - negative effects theory, passive & active consumption, hypodermic syringe, history of moral panics, Martin Barker (theorist), David Buckingham (theorist), Island of St Helena - study of the effects of TV.

7. Institutional context for this study (industry focus, other texts for comparison, named practitioners, relevant theory, issues, questions) - John Bayer (director of national viewers' and listeners' association), Adrian Gill (journalist), Tom Dewe Matthews, crime statistics, regulation laws - compare UK with US? Laws - Potential harm - Lack of proof,

8. Identify the audience context for this study (audience profile, access to audience, potential sample) - Audience ideology - general audience belief/oppinion, make a survey/questionnaire asking 'do you think copy-cat crimes exist?'

9. How will the 4 key concepts be relevant to your study (audience, institution, forms and conventions, representation)?

Audience - National Crime statistics

Representation - how crimes are represented to look attractive, without any consequences,

Institutions -

Media forms and conventions -

10 Potential research sources (secondary):Books by theorists

David Guantlett - '10 things wrong with the effects model,' Karl French - 'Screen Violence,' David Buckingham - 'Moving Images,' Tom Dewe Matthews - 'Censored'

11. Potential research sources (primary):Survey

12. Modifications agreed with your lead teacher

13. Potential limits/obstacles/problems?

14. Teacher concerns

15. Teacher approval

Films

The films I am going to focus on are Marnie, Vertigo and Psycho. I will decide tonight/tomorrow which scenes i am going to focus on and show in film society.