A Response to Henry Jenkins

This post is a response to:
"Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?:
Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture"
By Henry Jenkins

First off, let me just say that I've never seen Star Wars or Pulp Fiction or 98% of the other movies mentioned in this article. However, I do understand a lot of the references to fan culture and media. There were many many references that were way over my head as well. The main idea that I got from reading this piece was how fan culture has evolved so much that in todays society, ANYBODY can get their work out there. So now people can use such resources as youtube.com or fan websites, forums, blogs, etc to post their ideas, stories, movies, artwork, etc and be recognized for it.

Anybody can take a cheap camera and make a film. Anybody who has a computer and a camera, even if they are doing in-camera edits. While the quality may be horrific, their point and idea is getting across to their audience and that's all that matters. If their concept or idea was good enough, they could be picked up by someone with enough money to further their project.

Fan culture is interesting in that it is FOR the people, BY the people and there is something very appealing about that. Taking out the 'business' of movie making and story telling, you get people who are passionate about this stuff and that really speaks for itself.

My favorite part of this article was the quote by Francis Ford Coppola in the very beginning. He states "For me the great hope is now that 8mm video recorders are coming out, people who normally wouldn't make movies are going to be making them. And that one day a little fat girl in Ohio is going be the new Mozart and make a beautiful film with her father's camcorder. For once the so-called professionalism about movies will be destroyed and it will really become an art form." That quote really embodied the entire article into a few lines for me.

-Emelie