Media encoding in science fiction television: Battlestar Galactica as a site of critical cultural production

Abstract

We examine the television show Battlestar Galactica ( BSG) through interviews with creative people working on the show to illustrate the production context of the show and the science fiction (sf) genre. Media scholars suggest sf stories are critical stories about our political systems and our anxieties about new technologies, social change, race, gender, class, and religious conflicts. We investigate constraints and agency in the production of BSG as a site of critical cultural commentary and the politics of racial and gender representation in the series. We find that the creators behind BSG struggle with the moral and political nature of the stories they create, within the constraints of power, social structures, and a neoliberal economy and in doing so actively participate in their own acts of meaning-making in the production process.

Do African Americans Direct Science Fiction or Blockbuster Franchise Movies? Race, Genre, and Contemporary Hollywood

“…Sci-fi films are characterized by portrayals of fantastical plots, narratives, and characters rooted in far-off worlds: past, present, and future. While underlying themes of sci-fi media tackle contemporary, social, political, moral, religious, technological, and environmental issues (Chow-White, Deveau, & Adams, 2015), sci-fi filmmakers make philosophical conjectures about the world, human existence, and the future. In the late 1970s, the sci-fi genre merged with the emerging big budget blockbuster franchise model to create a special effects-driven action adventure brand of sci-fi films.…”

“…Commonly, mainstream sci-fi movies either: do not acknowledge race by repressing race in the subtext, privilege class over race, or present a color-blind future. In other cases, there is ambiguity among cultural producers concerning whether sci-fi characters can be interpreted as racial or non-racial (Chow-White et al, 2015). In the event that the subject of race is implicitly broached in sci-fi movies, problematic themes of Black racial stigma, fear of racial assimilation, racial contamination, and othered Black bodies materialize.…”

Research on the Developmental Trend of CG Technology in Hollywood and the Influence on Chinese Film and Television Production

“…In animation, space and time are relative and not the only, spatial and temporal variation is a traditional animation explore the important form of image visual expression breakthrough in the CG animation, reflect the spatial and temporal variation characteristics means more rich as form is more extensive. At the same time, by the application of computer technology, as a result of new relationship between visual shows with the audience to CG animation image visual expression of characteristics of new type as in figure one as the follows, we demonstrate the contemporary CG technology in the Hollywood [4][5]. In this paper, we conduct research on the developmental trend of CG technology in Hollywood and the influence on Chinese film and the television production.…”

Research on Contemporary Film and Television Industry Development Trend from the Angles of Visual Aesthetic and Cultural Inheritance

“…At the beginning of the movie was born, many people have been low depending on the species, thought it was just a vaudeville most which is the development of modern science and the technology forms the action of the recordation. Movies and TV shows with almost a century of practice confirm that just is a reflection of social life that is to study and is an integral part of the world culture is to meet people the spirit of the dry heart nectar, it is people pursuit to find spiritual home [6]. Buzzwords in accept non-standard variation happens.…”