Violence

The lecture started out with quite a shocking scene from a film called "Hapiness". Shocking in the sense that it has a conflicting soundtrack with the footage but also shocking as these events have happened in the past. However during this footage, i heard a couple of students around the lecture theater laugh or giggle. It may have been because of the fact that they knew that this isn't real and is only acted out for a film, therefore it's easily to laugh at it's surreality. OR it could have been because that we've seen and played games and videos more extreme that we are de-sensitised by any form of violence.
Bill went on to talk about video games and the "glory" of headshots. the idea of rewarding the gamer for a more gruesome kill could be a factor which helps to desensitise an audience.

the whole idea of making violence seem the norm has produced many games and it reminds me of the game "Fat Princess". This seemingly inncoent looking game has bold colours and cute looking characters which seem to been taken straight from a childs story book. However when you start attacking the other team, it becomes quite graphic and can sometimes turn into a bloodbath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCO9eBuDkD8  FAT PRINCESS GAMEPLAY

On the next level up, the online cartoon "Happy Tree Friends" bases its comedy and ability to entertain solely on this play of first impressions. The introduction of the videos and layout of the website is incredibly "cutesy" and innocent but when you watch the cartoons, they get into situations where they get decapitated and brutally slaughtered by unfortunate events

http://www.happytreefriends.com/   HAPPY TREE FRIENDS

our society has become so used to violent images that we've come to laugh at it and it has become an element of comedy in some parts like we see in happy tree friends. however, we could say that cartoons like tom and jerry and the looney toons cartoons have helped desensitise children to violence. Although they arent violent in the sense that you see blood or heads come off, they feed the notion that violence can be funny.

Hollywood have also got a lot to answer as all films have made violence "sexy" and more appealing in film. We discussed in our lecture about this and looked at kill bill, where the violence is taken to the extreme. we also compared how a real gunshot would sound to the ones we hear in films and how much the gunshots in films are made to be much more dramatic and stylish. Films like the matrix in particular, where there are countless bullets and guns being shot when we all know that this could never happen in real life. When neo holds the two uzis on each hand, he wouldnt have been able to keep the shot on the target in reality, his aim would have been all over the place, same with when they hold the guns at a 90' angle, and he would have been deaf after the gun fight with the SWAT team. However we dont look at films as a reality anymore and just watch in awe at how cool/sexy violence can get.