News and Events
FTT Talks presents:
"3 events in 3 days"
March 5, 6, and 7
POSTPONED-Jim O'Doherty
NBC writer and sitcom producer
Rescheduled for:
May 1, 2007
6:00 p.m.
311 DeBartolo Hall
"The Survival of Sitcom in a YouTube World"
In his talk, Jim O'Doherty will address the current state of comedy on television, the future of the traditional sitcom, and the television industry's challenges during a revolutionary era of programming uncertainty and new media competition.
After winning a national stand-up comedy competition, Jim O'Doherty launched his entertainment career in 1990 as a warm-up comedian for sitcom tapings, then moved into television writing and producing. After signing on with NBC/Carsey-Werner, he earned an Emmy nomination for producing 3rd Rock from the Sun and executive-produced Grounded for Life and The Tracy Morgan Show. Mr. O'Doherty currently has a network development deal with NBC Universal Television Studios to write and produce half-hour comedy pilots.
For more information, contact: Christine Becker (574) 631-7592, becker.34@nd.edu
Supported by the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre and the College of Arts and Letters Learning Beyond the Classroom Grant.
Peter Donaldson
Professor of Literature and Director Shakespeare Electronic Archive , Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tuesday, March 6, 2007, 5:00 p.m.
B043 DeBartolo Performing Arts Center
"Closely Watched DVDs: XMAS and New Tools for Presentations and Multimedia Essay-writing from MIT"
Professor Peter S. Donaldson (Literature, MIT) will introduce new electronic tools developed by his research group for using film and video in teaching and scholarship. Developed in collaboration with Microsoft Research, MIT's Cross-Media Annotation System (XMAS) allows for legal use of any commerical DVD as well as user-created materials. Students can quickly make virtual "clips," store these with their own comments attached, and use them in multimedia essays, on line discussions and presentations. XMAS has now been used at MIT in a broad range of courses, including Shakespeare, Introduction to Film and Hong King Cinema, and at partner institutions including Vanderbilt, University of Queensland and University of Hawaii. In this workshop, Peter Donaldson will introduce the system and show examples of current student work and scholarly projects in the context of a broad discussion of the rapidly changing role of film and video in humanities education.
For more information about this event, contact: Peter Holland (574) 631-5134, pholland@nd.edu
Supported by the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre, Center for Creative Computing, and Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning
Angela Ndalianis
Associate Professor in Cinema Studies
at Melbourne University, Australia
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
4:00 p.m., Browning Cinema, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center
Free, but ticketed event. Get tickets from the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center ticket office (574) 631-2800
"Chasing the White Rabbit to Find a White Polar Bear: Podcasts, Mobisodes, and the TV Experience"
The last decade has witnessed an eruption in the capabilities of digital media. Traditionally serving their own, distinct audiences, communication technologies like the mobile phone, podcasts and the internet have now become important adjuncts to television viewing and entertainment experiences. Exploring the frenzy of transmedia activity that is generated around shows like 24 and Lost, this paper will examine how the audience's experience of specific TV narratives is affected through the extension of the storytelling process into the 'mobisodes'
(mobile episodes) 24: Conspiracy, Prison Break: Proof of Innocence and the Lost Video Diaries, computer games 24: the Game, and the internet narrative The Lost Experience.
Angela Ndalianis is an Associate Professor in Cinema Studies in the School of Culture and Communication at Melbourne University. Her research focuses on the neo-baroque nature of contemporary entertainment culture, media histories and the transmedia collisions of films, computer games, television, comic books and theme parks. Some of her publications include
Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment (MIT Press 2004) and Super/Heroes: from Hercules to Superman, (coeditor, New Academia Publishing 2007).
For more information, contact: Jim Collins, (574) 631-7161, collins@nd.edu
Supported by the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre and the Center for Creative Computing.