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The Channeled Image: Art and Media Politics after Television
by Erica LevinA fascinating look at artistic experiments with televisual forms. Following the integration of television into the fabric of American life in the 1950s, experimental artists of the 1960s began to appropriate this novel medium toward new aesthetic and political ends. As Erica Levin details in The Channeled Image, groundbreaking artists like Carolee Schneemann, Bruce Conner, Stan VanDerBeek, and Aldo Tambellini developed a new formal language that foregrounded television’s mediation of a social order defined by the interests of the state, capital, and cultural elites. The resulting works introduced immersive projection environments, live screening events, videographic distortion, and televised happenings, among other forms. For Levin, “the channeled image” names a constellation of practices that mimic, simulate, or disrupt the appearance of televised images. This formal experimentation influenced new modes of installation, which took shape as multi-channel displays and mobile or split-screen projections, or in some cases, experimental work produced for broadcast. Above all, this book asks how artistic experimentation with televisual forms was shaped by events that challenged television broadcasters’ claims to authority, events that set the stage for struggles over how access to the airwaves would be negotiated in the future.
Chaplin: A Life
by Stephen Weissman"Chaplin is arguably the single most important artist produced by the cinema," wrote film critic Andrew Sarris. Born in London in 1889, Charlie Chaplin grew up in dire poverty. Severe alcoholism cut short his father's flourishing career, and his beloved mother first lost her voice, then her mind, to syphilis. How did this poor, lonely child, committed to the Hanwell School for the Orphaned and Destitute, become such an extraordinary comedian, known and celebrated worldwide? Dr. Stephen M. Weissman brilliantly illuminates both the screen legend himself and the turbulent era that shaped him.
Chaplin and American Culture: The Evolution of a Star Image
by Charles J. MalandCharles Maland focuses on the cultural sources of the on-and-off, love-hate affair between Chaplin and the American public that was perhaps the stormiest in American stardom.
Character: The Art of Role and Cast Design for Page, Stage, and Screen
by Robert MckeeThe long-awaited third volume of Robert McKee&’s trilogy on the art of fiction. Following up his perennially bestselling writers' guide Story and his inspiring exploration of the art of verbal action in Dialogue, the most sought-after expert in the storytelling brings his insights to the creation of compelling characters and the design of their casts. CHARACTER explores the design of a character universe: The dimensionality, complexity and arcing of a protagonist, the invention of orbiting major characters, all encircled by a cast of service and supporting roles.
Character Design from the Ground Up: Make Your Sketches Come To Life
by Kevin CrossleyAll stories have characters, and whether its a film, game, book, or comic, all characters need to be designed. Character design has become a distinct discipline in the entertainment industry, and character designers are employed by film and game companies across the globe to bring life to scripts and ideas. In this book, illustrator and character designer Kevin Crossley provides a complete overview of character design. Starting with the basics of materials, equipment, and sofware, Kevin will explain the processes professional character designers follow to develop characters for publishing, games, and film. From ideas and thumbnails, anatomy and reference, through effective drawing, 3D mock-ups and full turnarounds, Kev explains how a character designer works to achieve professional results.
Character Design from the Ground Up: Make Your Sketches Come To Life
by Kevin CrossleyAll stories have characters, and whether its a film, game, book, or comic, all characters need to be designed. Character design has become a distinct discipline in the entertainment industry, and character designers are employed by film and game companies across the globe to bring life to scripts and ideas. In this book, illustrator and character designer Kevin Crossley provides a complete overview of character design. Starting with the basics of materials, equipment, and sofware, Kevin will explain the processes professional character designers follow to develop characters for publishing, games, and film. From ideas and thumbnails, anatomy and reference, through effective drawing, 3D mock-ups and full turnarounds, Kev explains how a character designer works to achieve professional results.
Character Guide (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them)
by Michael KoggeMeet Newt, Tina, Queenie, Jacob, and many more in this comprehensive character guide to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!Following a magical mix-up, British Magizoologist Newt Scamander unwittingly finds himself on a chase around New York City looking for magical beasts. To set things right, Newt has to track down his escaped magical creatures with the help of aspiring baker Jacob Kowalski, as well as Tina and Queenie Goldstein, two witches who work for the Magical Congress of the United States of America. This chance meeting of characters leads to an action-packed adventure Newt won't soon forget.
The Charlatans We Are Rock
by John RobbIn the crazed aftermath of the late '80s northern pop explosion there have been few survivors. The Charlatans, however, still prosper despite once being perceived as runts of the Manchester music scene. The cruellest of luck has visited heartbreaking death, nervous exhaustion, a jail sentence, and the prospect of falling almost totally out of fashion upon them. And yet, a deceptively tough band with a charismatic lead singer, their combination of unnerving honesty, sheer pop talent, great live shows, and a total and touching commitment to their fans has seen them survive some of the worst disasters that fate has thrown at any pop group. They have remarkable street suss that, with their small town backgrounds makes them totally at one with their huge following -- a relationship that has given them a fistful of number one albums. This is a tale of a love of pop and a lust for life. A story of northern pop and a band with guts and a passion for creativity. It traces the rise of the Charlatans from the fringes of the Manchester scene in the late Eighties to their current position at the top of British music, one of the key bands of the Nineties in possession of a rare and beautiful canon of great pop tunes.
Charles Burnett: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series)
by Robert E. KapsisCharles Burnett (b. 1944) is a groundbreaking African American filmmaker and one of this country’s finest directors, yet he remains largely unknown. His films, most notably Killer of Sheep (1977) and To Sleep with Anger (1990), are considered classics, yet few filmgoers have seen them or heard of Burnett. The interviews in this volume explore this paradox and collectively shed light on the work of a rare film master whose stories bring to the screen the texture and poetry of life in the black community.The best qualities of Burnett’s films-rich characterizations, morally and emotionally complex narratives, and intricately observed tales of African American life-are precisely the things that make his films a tough sell in the mass marketplace. As many of the interviews reveal, Hollywood has been largely inept in responding to this marketing challenge. “It takes an extraordinary effort to keep going,” Burnett told Terrence Rafferty in 2001, “when everybody’s saying to you, ‘No one wants to see that kind of movie,’ or ‘There’s no black audience.’” All the interviews selected for this volume—spanning more than three decades of Burnett’s directorial career, including his recent work—examine, in various degrees, Burnett’s status as a true independent filmmaker and explore his motivation for making films that chronicle the black experience in America.
Charles Burnett: A Cinema of Symbolic Knowledge
by James NaremoreIn the first book devoted to Charles Burnett, a crucial figure in the history of American cinema often regarded as the most influential member of the L.A. Rebellion group of African American filmmakers, James Naremore provides a close critical study of all Burnett’s major pictures for movies and television, including Killer of Sheep, To Sleep with Anger, The Glass Shield, Nightjohn, The Wedding, Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property, and Warming by the Devil’s Fire. Having accessed new information and rarely seen material, Naremore shows that Burnett’s career has developed against the odds and that his artistry, social criticism, humor, and commitment to what he calls “symbolic knowledge” have given his work enduring value for American culture.
Charles Dickens (LIVES #4)
by Jane SmileySuperb, highly accessible biography of one of the giants of English literature by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A THOUSAND ACRES'Engaging and stimulating' Simon Callow'Jane Smiley, in her admirable contribution to Weidenfeld's series of short biographies, deals briskly with Dickens's career and works, and treats with sympathy and sense his relations with the women in his life' LITERARY REVIEWFrom a bitter and poverty-stricken childhood to a career as the most acclaimed and best loved writer in the English-speaking world, Charles Dickens had a life as full of incident as any of those he created in his novels of life in Victorian England. The enormous quantity of work, his public readings and his difficult relationships has made him a figure of enduring fascination. In this biography Jane Smiley reveals Charles Dickens as his contemporaries would have done, getting to know him more intimately than ever before. At the same time Smiley offers interpretations of almost all of Dickens' major works, showing how 'his novels shaped his life as much as his life shaped his novels'.
Charles: The Heart of a King
by Catherine MayerThe Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller'Breathtaking' The Times'[The book that] made headlines around the world.' IndependentThe former Prince of Wales has lived his whole life in the public eye, yet he remains an enigma. He was born to be king, but he aims much higher. A landmark publication, Charles: The Heart of a King reveals Charles in all his complexity: the passionate views that mean he will never be as remote and impartial as his mother; the compulsion to make a difference and the many and startling ways in which the Prince and now King of the United Kingdom and fifteen other realms has already made his mark.The book offers fresh and fascinating insights into the first marriage that did so much to define him and an assessment of his relationship with the woman he calls, with unintended accuracy, his 'dearest wife': Camilla, now Queen Consort. We see Charles as a father and a friend, a serious figure and a joker. Life at court turns out to be full of hidden dangers and unexpected comedy.Now, updated and revised with a new preface and two new chapters - covering details of Harry and Meghan's exit and its implications, the cash-for-honours scandal, Prince Andrew, and more - this significant study reveals a monarchy threatened and a man in sight of happiness yet still driven by anguish and a remarkable belief system, a charitable entrepreneur, activist, agitator and avatar of the Establishment who just as often tilts against it.Based on multiple interviews with his friends and courtiers, palace insiders and critics, and rare access to Charles himself, before his kingship, this biography explores his philanthropy and his compulsive interventionism, his faith, his significant impact on politics and the philosophy that means when he seeks harmony he sometimes creates controversy.Gripping, at times astonishing, often laugh-out-loud, this is a royal biography unlike any other.'A must-read ... this important book is nothing short of a manual to our future King's world-view' GQ'A sustained piece of higher journalism' Independent
Charles Ludlam Lives!: Charles Busch, Bradford Louryk, Taylor Mac, and the Queer Legacy of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company
by Sean EdgecombPlaywright, actor and director Charles Ludlam (1943–1987) helped to galvanize the Ridiculous style of theater in New York City starting in the 1960s. Decades after his death, his place in the chronicle of American theater has remained constant, but his influence has changed. Although his Ridiculous Theatrical Company shut its doors, the Ludlamesque Ridiculous has continued to thrive and remain a groundbreaking genre, maintaining its relevance and potency by metamorphosing along with changes in the LGBTQ community. Author Sean F. Edgecomb focuses on the neo-Ridiculous artists Charles Busch, Bradford Louryk, and Taylor Mac to trace the connections between Ludlam’s legacy and their performances, using alternative queer models such as kinetic kinship, lateral historiography, and a new approach to camp. Charles Ludlam Lives! demonstrates that the queer legacy of Ludlam is one of distinct transformation—one where artists can reject faithful interpretations in order to move in new interpretive directions.
Charles Manson's Creepy Crawl: The Many Lives of America's Most Infamous Family
by Jeffrey MelnickWith a new epilogue updated from its hardcover edition titled Creepy Crawling: Charles Manson and the Many Lives of America's Most Infamous Family "Creepy crawling" was the Manson Family's practice of secretly entering someone's home, and without harming anyone, leaving only a trace of evidence that they had been there, some reminder that the sanctity of the private home had been breached. Now, author Jeffrey Melnick reveals just how much the Family creepy crawled their way through Los Angeles in the sixties and then on through American social, political, and cultural life for fifty years, firmly lodging themselves in our minds. Even now, it is almost impossible to discuss the sixties, teenage runaways, sexuality, drugs, music, California, or even the concept of family without referencing Manson and his "girls." Not just another Charles Manson history, Charles Manson's Creepy Crawl: The Many Lives of America's Most Infamous Family explores how the Family weren't so much outsiders as emblematic of the Los Angeles counterculture freak scene, and how Manson worked to connect himself to the mainstream of the time. Ever since they spent two nights killing seven residents of Los Angeles—what we now know as the "Tate-LaBianca murders"—the Manson family has rarely slipped from the American radar for long. From Emma Cline's The Girls to the TV show Aquarius, as well as two major films in 2019, including Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the family continues to find an audience. What is it about Charles Manson and his family that captivates us still? Author Jeffrey Melnick sets out to answer this question in this fascinating and compulsively readable cultural history of the Family and their influence from 1969 to the present.
Charles Walters: The Director Who Made Hollywood Dance (Screen Classics)
by Brent PhillipsFrom the trolley scene in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers's last dance on the silver screen ( The Barkleys of Broadway, 1949) to Judy Garland's timeless, tuxedo-clad performance of "Get Happy" ( Summer Stock, 1950), Charles Walters staged the iconic musical sequences of Hollywood's golden age. During his career, this Academy Award--nominated director and choreographer showcased the talents of stars such as Gene Kelly, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, and Frank Sinatra. However, despite his many critical and commercial triumphs, Walters's name often goes unrecognized today.In the first full-length biography of Walters, Brent Phillips chronicles the artist's career, from his days as a featured Broadway performer and protégé of theater legend Robert Alton to his successes at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He takes readers behind the scenes of many of the studio's most beloved musicals, including Easter Parade (1948), Lili (1953), High Society (1956), and T he Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). In addition, Phillips recounts Walters's associations with Lucille Ball, Joan Crawford, and Gloria Swanson, examines the director's uncredited work on several films, including the blockbuster Gigi (1958), and discusses his contributions to musical theater and American popular culture.This revealing book also considers Walters's personal life and explores how he navigated the industry as an openly gay man. Drawing on unpublished oral histories, correspondence, and new interviews, this biography offers an entertaining and important new look at an exciting era in Hollywood history.
Charley Patton: Expanded Edition
by John FaheyThe Father of the Delta Blues, Charley Patton (1891–1934) was born and raised around Mississippi's cotton plantations. During the 1920s, he was the first of the region's great stars, performing for packed houses throughout the South and making popular recordings in New York City. His music — ranging from blues and ballads to ragtime and gospel — is distinctive for his gravelly, high-energy singing and the propulsive beat of his guitar. Patton had a lively stage presence, originating many of the guitar-playing antics now associated with Jimi Hendrix and other latter-day musicians. His influence, among both his contemporaries and subsequent blues artists, is incalculable. Noted guitarist John Fahey presents a textual and musicological examination of Patton's music. This new edition of the original 1970 publication is enhanced by Fahey's notes from the Grammy-winning, out-of-print box set Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton. Available for the first time outside the set, Fahey's reconsideration of Patton's music offers fresh perspectives and key corrections of the historical record.
Charley Weaver’s Letters from Mamma
by Cliff ArquetteFrom coast to coast more people are keeping their television sets on much later, more nights because of Cliff Arquette.A regular on NBC’s “Jack Paar Show” Cliff’s meteoric rise to fame among late evening watchers is the result of his portrayal of a likable old codger Charley Weaver, who hails from Mount Idy, and who reads side-splitting letters from his “Mamma.”These letters are a complete report on the doin’s in the old home town. Through the magic of television, and now the pages of this book, Charley’s “Mamma” has made real people out of Birdie Rodd, Grandpa Ogg, Elsie Krack, Dr. Beemish and all the others. Real people and normal people. Normal except that the darndest things happen to them!As Jack Paar says, “Charley Weaver is a witch. He knows more about comedy than anyone alive, which he isn’t….Old Charley not only gets laughs on a Monday night but he gets them all during Lent…even when we are playing to a convention of Martian undertakers who have just heard bad news. That’s witchcraft!”This book proves Jack Paar’s point.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald DahlThis is an internationally renowned book for children by Roald Dahl. It was first published in 1964 in the USA and later published in 1967 in the UK. Alfred A. Knoff was the first publisher of this book. Dahl has been widely acclaimed for his portrayal of children and their ability to act as adults. This book captures the adventures of Charlie Bucket, who is a poor kid living with his family. Charlie is one of the five kids who gets a golden ticket inside the company, 'Wonka Chocolate' owned by Willy Wonka. Those five kids get an entry inside the Wonka factory. Charlie visits the factory along with his grandfather and gets to experience a lot of adventures inside. The other four kids are later eliminated through hilarious, but painful ways. Will Charlie survive the test? Will he be able to see everything that is to be seen? Readers get a taste of an unusual relationship between a shrewd businessman and a kind kid. In the end, the truth about Wonka is revealed. Why did he host such a competition among kids? The book has all the answers. Dahl was inspired by his own experiences with chocolate companies. At the time When he was in Britain, famous chocolate companies used to send gift boxes to kids in order to complete surveys and win over the market competition. The sweet world of chocolates and the politics that goes into its manufacture is depicted humorously by Dahl through poignant characters. This book was later adapted into feature films as well as documentaries. The movies were very well received by the audience. Kids between the ages of seven to eleven will enjoy this book.
Charlie Brown's Christmas Miracle: The Inspiring, Untold Story of the Making of a Holiday Classic
by Michael KeaneDiscover the inspiring, unknown, against-all-odds story of how the classic animated holiday special A Charlie Brown Christmas almost never made it on to television. Professor and cultural historian Michael Keane reveals much in this nostalgia-inducing book packed with original research and interviews. Keane compellingly shows that the ultimate broadcast of the Christmas special—given its incredibly tight five-month production schedule and the decidedly unfavorable reception it received by the skeptical network executives who first screened it—was nothing short of a miracle. Keane explains why the show, despite its technical shortcomings, has become an uplifting and enduring triumph embraced by millions of families every Christmas season, even more than fifty years after its premiere. This gripping and joyful behind-the-scenes story of how the creators of A Charlie Brown Christmas struggled to bring the program to life will also help readers (and loyal fans) understand how America&’s favorite Christmas special changed our popular culture forever. Keane masterfully weaves the momentous events of 1965 (the turbulent year of the program&’s production) into his story, providing critical context for a profound new understanding of the program&’s famous climactic scene, Linus&’s spot-lit soliloquy answering the question repeatedly posed by Charlie Brown—"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?&”
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History
by Yunte HuangShortlisted for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography and the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Book: "An ingenious and absorbing book. . . . It will permanently change the way we tell this troubled yet gripping story."--Jonathan Spence Hailed as "irrepressibly spirited and entertaining" (Pico Iyer, Time) and "a fascinating cultural survey" (Paul Devlin, Daily Beast), this provocative first biography of Charlie Chan presents American history in a way that it has never been told before. Yunte Huang ingeniously traces Charlie Chan from his real beginnings as a bullwhip-wielding detective in territorial Hawaii to his reinvention as a literary sleuth and Hollywood film icon. Huang finally resurrects the "honorable detective" from the graveyard of detested postmodern symbols and reclaims him as the embodiment of America's rich cultural diversity. The result is one of the most critically acclaimed books of the year and a "deeply personal . . . voyage into racial stereotyping and the humanizing force of story telling" (Donna Seaman, Los Angeles Times).
Charlie Chaplin
by Peter AckroydA brief yet definitive new biography of one of film's greatest legends: perfect for readers who want to know more about the iconic star but who don't want to commit to a lengthy work.He was the very first icon of the silver screen and is one of the most recognizable of Hollywood faces, even a hundred years after his first film. But what of the man behind the moustache? Peter Ackroyd's new biography turns the spotlight on Chaplin's life as well as his work, from his humble theatrical beginnings in music halls to winning an honorary Academy Award. Everything is here, from the glamor of his golden age to the murky scandals of the 1940s and eventual exile to Switzerland. There are charming anecdotes along the way: playing the violin in a New York hotel room to mask the sound of Stan Laurel frying pork chops and long Hollywood lunches with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. This masterful brief biography offers fresh revelations about one of the most familiar faces of the last century and brings the Little Tramp vividly to life.
Charlie Chaplin
by N. ChokkanThis book is a biography of Charles Spencer Chaplin globally familiar as "Charlie" Chaplin who was an English comic actor, film director and composer during the silent film era.
The Charlie Chaplin Book: Ten Stories Adapted from Classic Shorts
by Robert Keene ThompsonBeloved around the world for his Little Tramp character, Charlie Chaplin was the most famous person on the planet during the early twentieth century, and his popularity endures to this day. Cinephiles and Chaplin aficionados will rejoice in these expert novelizations by a famed Hollywood screenwriter of the scripts for ten short films Chaplin made in 1915 for the Essanay Company of Chicago. The Bank: A bank janitor develops romantic designs on a secretaryA Woman: An eager suitor cross-dresses to deceive a disapproving father Work: A paperhanger's assistant wreaks havoc on a stately mansionThe Champion: A pet bulldog helps his master go for broke in the boxing ring His New Job: A prop man at a movie studio is given a chance to actBy the Sea: A bathing resort provides the backdrop for a series of comic adventuresA Night Out: A pair of friends go on a bender, spreading pandemonium in their pathThe Tramp: An admirer of a farmer's daughter is thwarted by a rivalIn the Park: A couple of star-crossed lovers receive help from a kindly CupidA Jitney Elopement: A Romeo rescues his sweetheart from an arranged marriage
Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided
by Scott EymanThe remarkable, must-read story of Charlie Chaplin&’s years of exile from the United States during the postwar Red Scare, and how it ruined his film career, from bestselling biographer Scott Eyman.Bestselling Hollywood biographer and film historian Scott Eyman tells the story of Charlie Chaplin&’s fall from grace. In the aftermath of World War Two, Chaplin was criticized for being politically liberal and internationalist in outlook. He had never become a US citizen, something that would be held against him as xenophobia set in when the postwar Red Scare took hold. Politics aside, Chaplin had another problem: his sexual interest in young women. He had been married three times and had had numerous affairs. In the 1940s, he was the subject of a paternity suit, which he lost, despite blood tests that proved he was not the father. His sexuality became a convenient way for those who opposed his politics to condemn him. Refused permission to return to the US from a trip abroad, he settled in Switzerland, and made his last two films in London In Charlie Chaplin vs. America, bestselling author Scott Eyman explores the life and times of the movie genius who brought us such masterpieces as City Lights and Modern Times. This is a perceptive, insightful portrait of Chaplin and of an America consumed by political turmoil.
Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp in America, 1947–77
by Lisa Stein HavenThis book focuses on the re-invigoration of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp persona in America from the point at which Chaplin reached the acme of his disfavor in the States, promoted by the media, through his departure from America forever in 1952, and ending with his death in Switzerland in 1977. By considering factions of America as diverse as 8mm film collectors, Beat poets and writers and readers of Chaplin biographies, this cultural study determines conclusively that Chaplin's Little Tramp never died, but in fact experienced a resurgence, which began slowly even before 1950 and was wholly in effect by 1965 and then confirmed by 1972, the year in which Chaplin returned to the United States for the final time, to receive accolades in both New York and Los Angeles, where he received an Oscar for a lifetime of achievement in film.