JUMP CUT
A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY MEDIA

 

 

Notes

1. An earlier version was presented at Console-ing Passions: International Conference on Television, Audio, Video, New Media and Feminism, University of California, Santa Barbara, April 2008. At an early stage of my research Cary Jones shared her research interest in Southern California on TV, and Bill Bleich discussed it in terms of screenwriting and production practices. [return to page one of essay]

3. Iron Sink: http://www.ironsink.com/

5. Lonelygirl15 quickly became an early popular vlog which was then revealed to be a fake reality show. Widely discussed, it was among the first to raise extensive attention to the ethics and use of mock formats on the Internet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Girl_15

8. Today, now that the entire series is history, people are most likely to access an episode out of order, especially if reposted to another site, or recommended by someone. By going to the WeHo page on LiveVideo now, one can access the entire series and have it presented by “most recent,” “most popular,” “most viewed,” etc. filters. Thus the series in its full sequence can be viewed in progression by choosing “most recent” and then paging back to the first episode and starting there. But early on the WeHos interact with the NoHos, HiHos, and VanNuysGuys, so one would need to keep track of all of them for a true chronological span. Early adopters could sign up for a subscription or set of subscriptions.

12. Anther apt comparison here would be to the web-only 20-something drama Quarterlife, produced by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, who did the broadcast TV shows Thirtysomething, and My So-Called Life, andthe film Blood Diamond. This series used 10 minute web-only episodes that were first shown during the WGA strike and the home site (www.quarterlife.com) has an extensive social networking apparatus, connects with MySpace and FaceBook, and calls itself “a community for artists, thinkers, and do-ers.” Quarterlife is more of a soap narrative format, while the HoShows are close to a sitcom set up and punchline. And HoShows are mercifully shorter than, say, TV skit comedy such as SNL and MadTV which often seem strained at milking their premise because of their longer temporal development, restriction to a single set, and a pace that seems increasingly slow, boring, dated, and out of step in a textmessage era. [return to page 2]

13. Amanda Klein, “Postmodern Marketing: Generation Y and the Multi-Platform Viewing experience of MTV’s The Hills,” and Elizabeith Affuso, “ ‘Don’t Just Watch It, Live It’: Technology, Corporate Partnerships and The Hills.” Papers presented at the Console-ing Passions Conference, Santa Barbara, April 2008.

14. Of course, the ruling elite typically have this as a matter of course: the private boarding school for high school years, and if not that, the sophisticated summer camp or organized foreign tour, to socialize one at an early age into cosmopolitan experience. For the upper middle class residential college is the big step; for the middle class, public university. Lower middle class students are more likely to attend college while commuting from home. For the working poor and working class, military service is often the first experience of living with strangers.

15. “Frenemy Territory: The hills are alive with the sound of girl talk,” The New Yorker, April 21, 2008, 136-37

17. The same actor (Tara DeSpain) reappears in Roommates as “Peyton Reeve,” also with an onsite fake bio:
www.myspace.com/roommates and
http://www.myspace.com/peytonreeve).


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