Book Review
I had to write a review on a scholarly article that I’m using as one of the sources to write write my research paper for my New Communication and Technology class. So here it is:
A look into Kimberly A. Owczarski’s scholarly article, The Internet and Contemporary Entrainment: Rethinking the Role of the Film Text reveals the progression of the film industry through the early years of integrating their advertising techniques with the Internet. She started with the predecessor of interactive promotion on the Internet, the DVDs’ extra features. Adding the special features such as behind the scenes, interviews, and interactive games to the DVDs boosts the attractiveness of the sale. The author elegantly describes this early use of interactivity as the start of approaching filmmaking at a different angle then the traditional sort of a narrative. Though brief, she starts off the article using the special features on a DVD as an example of the need for interactivity between movies and their audience. Especially for what she refers to as the “Playstation Generation” since like with video games, the ability to interact with the story is increasingly appealing.
Moving on to a new media, Owczarski delves into the first successful use of the Internet by filmmakers, The Blair Witch Project. As she explains the reasoning of why this independent film became so successful, the article turns into a sort of list of what contributed to the movie’s success online and how other projects conducted by Hollywood failed to live up to the hype The Blair Witch Project created. At this point the focus was on the relationship between the film and its online promotion. By using examples of failed projects such as the Quantum Project as a comparison, the author was able to clearly emphasis the importance that the two medias complimenting each other. As well as reminding the reader that trying to use a linear approach, which works well with movies, when creating an entertaining interactive website for the sake of advertising and promotion.
The third part of Owczarski’s article expanded on the efficiency of the Internet to attract a wide audience by explaining the BMW online campaign that combined advertising with interactivity using the film media. She described the entire campaign, known as The Hire, while tying it into how it was similar to the DVD extra features and how it has expanded. Though this example was more focused on advertising using films online, instead of using the Internet to promote a movie, the author still was able to keep everything tied together by focusing primarily on the use of interactivity of the media.
Overall, the article’s content fit well together and kept the reader interested. The use of simple but appropriate language made it an easy read by not dragging down the content with any technical speak. Though the author did quote or reference a source often instead of letting the reader hear her own voice, the sources she used were relevant and were a good variety. Surprisingly, Owczarski did not reference the “Playstation Generation” again despite the focus of the article being interactivity. However, she made her position clear on the importance of the complimentary use of medias early on and throughout the entire thing she backed up her point successfully.
