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Baylor Horror Film Expert Lists 10 Movies 'Everyone Should See'
October brings pumpkin spice, changing leaves, cooler temperatures and Halloween. And Halloween, of course, brings horror films. James Kendrick, Ph.D., associate professor of film and digital media in Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences, is a Hollywood film historian and an expert on cult and horror films. While horror is not everyone’s favorite genre, Kendrick says, horror films are known to have a universal appeal. “We all know what it means to be frightened, to feel dread, to want to look away,” Kendrick said. “On some level we all fear death and are aware of our human mortality, and the best horror films engage that fear in complex and challenging ways.” In honor of Halloween, Kendrick has developed a list of 10 horror classics he says “everyone should see.” 1. Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922) 2. The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935) 3. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942) 4. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) 5. Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) 6. The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) 7. Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977) 9. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) 10. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014) James Kendrick, Ph.D., serves as associate professor of film and digital media in Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences. Kendrick’s primary research interests are post-Classical Hollywood film history, violence in the media, cult and horror films, media censorship and regulation and cinema and new technologies. He has authored three books: Darkness in the Bliss-Out: A Reconsideration of the Films of Steven Spielberg, Hollywood Bloodshed: Violence in the 1980s American Cinema and Film Violence: History, Ideology, Genre. In addition to this, he is also the film and video critic for the website Qnetwork.com. Kendrick is a member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the University Film and Video Association and the Online Film Critics Society. Source:
Baylor Film Expert Discusses 'Star Wars' Directors, Challenges with Established Brands
Film expert Chris Hansen, M.F.A., professor and chair of Baylor’s film and digital media department, is quoted as an expert in this Marketplace story about the Star Wars franchise and the challenges directors encounter with the established brands. “I feel like Star Wars films have what you might call a ‘house style,’ and they want someone to work creatively within that, and they want to push that a little bit, but they still have to stay within that house style,” he said. Source:
Baylor Gospel Expert: MLK’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Inspired Response from Black Gospel Artists
Fifty-four years ago this week. On Aug. 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered “I Have a Dream” – one of the most iconic speeches in American history and a defining moment of the Civil Rights Movement. For black gospel artists recording in the years after 1963, King’s speech was fertile ground for creative expression, said Robert Darden, professor of journalism and founder and director of Baylor’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project (BGMRP). “These artists responded by creating songs that sampled portions of Dr. King’s recorded audio, drew inspiration from his words or supported the Civil Rights Movement in the wake of its delivery,” Darden said. Darden founded Baylor’s Black Gospel Music Restoration Project more than a decade ago in an effort to identify, acquire, preserve, digitize and catalog recordings from the black gospel music tradition. This music, from the Golden Age of Gospel from 1945 to 1975, was quickly vanishing as albums made the transition to CDs. Through the work of the Baylor Libraries’ Digital Projects Group, recordings from the BGMRP are available online in the Baylor Libraries Digital Collection, and in some cases includes other materials, such as taped interviews, photographs, press packets, tour books and programs, newspaper and magazine clippings, and sheet music. Music from the BGMRP also has been included in a permanent exhibit featuring African-American musical history at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Source:
James Kendrick, Ph.D., associate professor in Baylor's Film and Digital Media department, is a nationally known expert on horror films. He is available to speak to media about the contributions and legacy of legendary director George A. Romero, who died on Sunday. Kendrick said: "Although he will forever be remembered as the chief architect the modern zombie film with his groundbreaking, low-budget black-and-white thriller 'Night of the Living Dead,' George A. Romero’s impact on both the horror genre and filmmaking in general reached much farther than the lumbering undead. He was an artist with a genuine social conscience, dark sense of humor, and clear understanding of how the current zeitgeist can make horror both more unsettling and socially relevant, which was key to the genre’s reinvention in the late 1960s and early ’70s. He was also a pioneer of American independent cinema, creating some of his most important films—including 'Night of the Living Dead,' the offbeat vampire film 'Martin,' and the shopping-mall-set 'Dawn of the Dead' — largely on his own terms outside the Hollywood studio system." Kendrick teaches classes on film theory/aesthetics, the history of motion pictures, media and society, the films of Steven Spielberg, violence in the media, and horror film. His primary research interests are post-Classical Hollywood film history, violence in the media, cult and horror films, media censorship and regulation, the films of Steven Spielberg, action films, and cinema and new technologies. Source:
Prior to seeing the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, audiences are introduced to a flurry of previews for upcoming films -- big-budget sequels centered on blockbusting standards: warring apes, animated cars, web-slinging and hammer-bearing superheroes, and space-based lightsaber battles between forces of good and evil. Chris Hansen, M.F.A., independent filmmaker and chair of the film and digital media department in Baylor University’s College of Arts & Sciences, is available to talk about the market for big-budget sequels and the challenges for original screenplays. Is there any hope for the original story? “One of the biggest considerations in determining which movies get made, from the studio’s perspective, is marketing,” Hansen said. “That process is made much easier if the intellectual property already exists in the minds of the general public. People know who Batman is. People know who The Avengers are. Half or more of the marketing work is done. When the intellectual property is original, the studio’s marketing arm has to spend a lot more time and money acquainting viewers with the concept and generating interest.” “It’s hard to say what people are really interested in seeing. They say one thing, but they often vote differently with their box office dollars. This sometimes comes down to an economic decision for audience members. They have less disposable income than they used to, so they see fewer movies in the theater. And if they’re going to have to choose between several movies to see in an actual theater, they’ll often choose the one that has more spectacle, because there’s a feeling that it’s more ‘worth it’ to see something like that on the big screen, and that smaller movies won’t suffer from being seen on the TV in your living room.” Source:
Baylor Film Expert Featured on NPR's Marketplace to Explain Marketing of Faith-Based Films
Chris Hansen, M.F.A., associate professor and chair of Baylor University's film and digital media department, is a featured expert in this Marketplace story by Adriene Hill about the marketing of faith-based films. During the interview, Hansen discussed how Mel Gibson’s 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ” – which made more than $600 million worldwide – helped kick-start Hollywood’s interest in faith-based films. "Once ‘The Passion’ came out and did that kind of business, Hollywood was all over the idea of making films for this audience,” he said. Source:
Globe and Mail: After raising $17-million, Toronto fintech firm eyes global expansion
Sensibill Inc., a Toronto-based startup that offers digital receipt technology for banks, has raised $17.3-million to supercharge its global expansion and dig deeper into artificial intelligence. Source:
Grounded: Impact of Delta Glitch
Goizueta professor Ram Chellappa has extensive research on the airline industry paired with an expertise in all things digital -- including cybersecurity and networks. While the Delta problem is a "glitch" it can spell big trouble for one of the world's largest airlines. Source:
Yahoo’s latest acquisition is all about digital content, but is unlikely to affect Canada anytime soon, says IDC Canada telecom analyst Lawrence Surtees. “When I looked at the deal that Verizon did a year ago with AOL, and the executive rationale, I kind of smiled to myself and said, ‘it’s almost like Verizon is taking a page out of BCE’s playbook in Canada,'” Surtees says. “We’ve been doing this for two decades… and they’re just starting to go down this route now... “It’s the tail wagging the dog,” Surtees says. “I would argue that Verizon’s following us." Click the photo above, or check out Lawrence's profile for more information and to contact him for a quote: http://expertfile.com/experts/lawrence.surtees Source:
Experts Available to Comment on New Shoppers Optimum Program
Points.com has experts available to provide insight and commentary on Shoppers new digital Optimum Program. Source:
