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Dissertation
The Specter of Collective Organization in No-Budget Cinema: Contemporary Case Studies from Olympia to Staunton
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Dec 2017
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-7710
Abstract
At the intersection of film studies, cultural studies, organizational communication, and production studies, this study explores the significance of a recent wave in no-budget, non-activist United States filmmaking collectives with an intermittent online presence. The existence of these groups warrants one to consider the how collectivism, as a historically subverted practice, has diffused across culture to be appropriated and enacted in the activities of these neo-liberally situated contemporary groups. This is based upon guiding theories of actor network theory, a ruthless application of semiotics, and auteurism-a polemical weapon against traditional cinema that has come to embody an idealistic individualized mythos. There were three primary research questions: 1) How has the collective filmmaking mode diffused, or deactivated across historical actor networks for independent filmmakers? 2) What are the histories and activities of contemporary no-budget, non-activist collectives, and why do some fold? 3) How are tensions of collective filmmaking formation being reconciled, and what point do these no-budget collectives serve? To answer these questions a comprehensive historical overview has been methodologically enacted tracing how the collective filmmaking mode has diffused/deactivated/reactivated in various actor-networks, along with participant observation/informal interview of eight contemporary no-budget collective groups. Historical investigation finds collectivity as the basis of filmmaking, built upon notions of comradery, and cost sharing. But individualizing auteurist tensions have been constant, played out within actor networks, and in the careers of filmmaking workers. The histories of these case studies, situated in a new media ecology and through the complicated lives of contemporary cultural artisans, show a conceivable reconciliation of auteurist notions. Still, marked by intermittency, and ultimately defined by their failure to effectively enact collectivity, at this point the collective mode haunts rather than is a true organizing principle for no-budget non-activist filmmakers.
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Details
- Title
- The Specter of Collective Organization in No-Budget Cinema
- Creators
- Brandon C. Niezgoda - DU
- Contributors
- Ernest A. Hakanen (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- 322 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Arts and Sciences; Communication, Culture, and Media; Communication; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 7710; 991014632323704721