LOL French Film Review

The movie LOL may seem familiar to many of you. But I’m not talking about the 2012 Miley Cyrus, French exchange one, I’m talking about the original French film version, which coincidentally, was the first version made in 2008. This follows Lola, a teenage girl navigating her way through high school dramas and romances in France, with the whole movie in the French language. It’s a really good film and I much prefer it to the American one, so check it out if you enjoy foreign films!

Cultural Knowledge

The intended audience for this film, I presume is teenagers living in France, with the obvious cues being it is in French and set in France. However, many of the cultural aspects of it, including the provocative nature of French films in general influence it (i.e. sex, drugs and swearing), which may not be so welcomed in other cultures particularly as they are so young. French sayings and general swearing in France have different connotations, which can only really be understood if you have studied French/are from France. An example of this is the way that they use swear words. In Australia, it is pretty common to use swear words generally rather than as a proper insult.

In France, they mainly use English swear words but when they use French ones, they say it in a way that is supposed to be extremely insulting.  Also, it is interesting that after doing some research, the film actually received a lot of backlash from the British community, particularly due to their portrayal in the film. This is most likely for cultural stereotyping i.e. showing a middle age woman in a floral dress serving white bread, marmalade and pasta on the same plate. Obviously, this is offensive to British people, however, this film targets French people most likely no this is not true but find it humourous. This further demonstrates cultural knowledge required to make sense of the humour.

Translingual practice

It is interesting that in Chris Berry’s article, ‘De-Westernising” the blockbuster in Korea and China’, he points out the commonality of the reorientation of ‘existing American-centric’ blockbusters, especially as the film LOL is an example of the opposite. The French film has been turned into an American film. When asking many of my friends if they had heard of the French version, they had not – but why is this? This is essentially to make it more accessible to the American public. American ideas of culture and teenhood are adapted through the choosing of popular actors such as Miley Cyrus, Douglas Booth and Demi Moore, having them go to France on exchange, and stereotyping French people the same way the original film did British people.

Berry points this exact concept of cultural hybridization, whereby the “foreign is made sense through the local context of its appropriation”. Through this concept, we can see the changes they have made as seen above, but also the similarities in culture. The sex, drugs and swearing remains, which demonstrates the influence of western cultures or the ‘Global North’ as pointed out in the lecture. These concepts may not be accepted in more Southern cultures, however, there are still adaptations the American film has made to make it more accessible to English speaking countries, given the two cultures still have their differences.

– Eadie

Image: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1194616/mediaindex

This digital artefact will be based around the idea of a uni budgeting Youtube and Instagram page. Essentially, it affords uni students the opportunity of guidance in relation to budgeting and eating out in Wollongong. On the Instagram, we will showcase a location of the original dish/what it looks like, a snippet of us making the food and the finished product with the link to the channel posted underneath. This will be shown as a three-together side by side. The Youtube channel will have the video of all the ingredients used to make the product and the process of actually making it. This will give the original price and the price after we have made it, as to show the difference between eating out and staying in.

Model Resources

• Buzzfeed, Tasty
• The Recipe Critic, Tried and True Recipes
• Delish, Delish
• Apple, IMovie

(Resources available on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram)

Processing Ideas  

During the course BCM114, I will be creating a digital artefact in a group of friends, Olivia Adams and Ashleigh McMurdo, which will require a lot of brainstorming on our part to come up with the best fitting artefact! So, we currently have three different ideas, which could be explored further and spread to multiple platforms.

The ideas are:

1. Illawarra Hiking:

The first idea we had was to do a hiking Facebook page with reviews of different hiking spots. This would include video footage of the hike itself and then an Instagram page with photos of the hikes, trail maps and views. An example of the possibility of what the Instagram page would look like is show below in regards to the saddleback mountain track I did on the weekend.

2. Netflix

The second idea we had was to do honest Netflix reviews on a YouTube channel. This would be weekly reviews of all genres, especially ones that aren’t particularly popular. This would have the structure of an overview of the show, then each of our opinions, what we liked about it/what we disliked about it etc. We want it to be funny so it would be more of a comedic way of responding to series.

3. Wollongong on a uni budget

The final idea was doing Wollongong on a uni budget. This would include two different platforms, Instagram and YouTube. Firstly, the Instagram page would have three posts per location. One photo would be the original food/drink item with a review of the taste, the ingredients to recreate it and then a picture of the recreation with a link to the YouTube video. The YouTube videos would be similar to Buzzfeed Tasty where it shows what goes into it and we would also give the price of all the ingredients and edit all the videos ourselves. An example below is a screen shot of the kind of idea we were thinking, using mushroom toast from Queen Street Eatery, that I had earlier in the week!

FINAL IDEA: Textbook Recipes

Having had a serious thought about the Digital Artefact Starter by Travis Wall, particularly with regards to my interests, skills, experiences and knowledge and the fact that it should address some sort of problem, the group has decided to do Wollongong restaurants done on a uni budget would be the most interesting idea to put forward. This has multiple mediums and also helps uni students – which are of plenty in Wollongong – to budget better. Being uni students ourselves and knowing that this is often a problem for students, this will also benefit us.

Simplicity Cycle

Before I get started, I wanted to briefly discuss the usefulness of the simplicity cycle, and its ability to break down concepts of an idea. So, we have started with the region simplistic whereby the idea was put forth to have a Wollongong uni budget. The region of complex, was the development of Instagram base and editing videos etc. Then hopefully we are back to the region of simple whereby the complexities have surpassed. Although we have expanded upon the original idea it is done in a way that is interconnected and with three people can be made to be simplistic yet effective.

Breakdown of ideas

Tite:

Textbook Recipes

Background:

As shown above, we have taken a while to process the type of Digital Artefact that we would want to create, with the strong belief it should be the one that interests all three of us the most, and benefits the community we live in. As we have all lived out of home for over 18 months, we all have had to think of how to budget with food, whilst also enjoying what Wollongong has to offer overall. All students lust after great food quality, and we would like to show people in similar financial situations to us, how to make restaurant quality food on a budget.

Concept:

So, our basic aim with what we’ve seen in the areas of cooking and eating out, we’ve noticed realistically people like a balance of the two but maybe don’t know where the best spots are or don’t really have all that much experience with cooking meals for themselves. We’ve had a chat to many of our friends and flat mates in the same position. Essentially, we have found by creating a YouTube channel and Instagram around the problem of budgeting/not knowing exactly where is good to eat, can be combined to help uni students navigate their way through Wollongong, both enjoying eating out and also cooking easy meals at home as an equivalent!

Methodology

1. The three of us will visit popular restaurants around the Wollongong area and order a great items off the menu.
2. We will recreate the restaurant meals on a budget by using groceries from local sources
3. YOUTUBE: We will then film ourselves making this item and create a vlog from content filmed. The vlog will be posted on youtube. This vlog will be promoted via Twitter and Instagram.
4. INSTAGRAM: First post will be a photo and review of the restaurant’s version of the meal. Second post will be a snippet of the process of us recreating the meal. Third post will be our finished product with an analysis of whether the meal is worth making.

Utility:

Our platforms will be relevant to Wollongong uni students, as it helps with their cooking skills both nutritionally and cheaply. With many cooking Youtube videos and Instagrams, some of the food is just not realistic budgeted, easy meals, this provides the perfect opportunity for us to give uni students ideas in an accessible way. It is also relevant to us as we are also uni students, so we know what it is like to be stuck on a budget and unsure of what to cook for (often) one person.

The Future

So we’ve made an Instagram and YouTube account and our current plan is to go to Opus this week, then recreate and film their Benni Bagel after! We have made a brainstorm of the possible locations and also plan to ask people their opinions as well.

So that’s basically an overview of the current stage we are at – I can’t wait to get stuck onto the PROTYPING stage!

When asked to think about my own television consumption, I find that the majority of it replicates the notion of cultural capital identities in Joseph Strauhaar’s article. The TV show I am currently binge-watching for the third time, Offspring, is one of these examples that not only reflects my personal and cultural identity but also brings forth the question of its lack of success beyond Australian waters.

Cultural Identity

As Joseph suggests, cultural capital is a series of identifiable sets of knowledge and disposition that people use when deciding what they want to watch. Things like gender images, humour, dress, style, ethnicity, lifestyle, religion and values are all contributing factors, which have caused me to be attracted to watching this show.

Within the tv show Offspring, I particularly am drawn to the reasons of humour and values for the choice I made to watch the series. Comedy, as Turnbull’s article ‘Television Comedy Translation’ plays ‘an absolutely pivotal role in the construction of national identity’. Humour, particularly Australian humour, is very specific to our culture. In Offspring, the comedy is witty, ironic and has particular focus on self-mockery and satire, all of which, are styles of humour used when creating a series. As Jones discusses in her article ‘Serious Laughter: On Defining Australian Humour’, these attributes make up the majority of Australian comedy, which are funny specifically for Australians and may not be recognised by other countries.

Global Success or failure?

Offspring became very popular within Australia when it was aired on Channel 10 free to air, so much so that it proceeded to air seven seasons after that. However, it is arguable that it didn’t go beyond Australia in its success.

For this to have happened, I have a number of theories. Firstly, Netflix and Stan were not popularized mediums. It would be interesting if it were to be aired now, fresh on Netflix as a new show, whether it would be popular. I think, certainly, it would reach more people overseas but I’m not so sure as to whether it would be ‘successful’. This is due to the reasons I’ve already spoken about.

Secondly, the cultural identity of Australia is strongly reflected in the show. It is set in Fitzroy, a suburban town in Melbourne where a predominantly anglo family goes through their life experiences together. The show has a lot of thematic elements that may not be all that popular in other countries, or that socially acceptable, for example sex, alcohol abuse, swearing etc. which I and many other Australians alike, are not bothered by. Adding onto this, the slang and comedy used is, as previously discussed, also quite specific to Australia. This could mean other countries around the world who watch the show might not enjoy it as much.

All these factors contribute to whether a show has global success, which is why perhaps Offspring was not globally successful but successful in its own country and continued to be watched by many.

– Eadie