Week 2 Reading-Star Wars and Wizards

I am fascinated to find the inner workings of marketing departments and CEO's and producers into the multi-media markets.  I knew it was happening, but not to this extent! Folk culture was the way of the past and in many ways, even better, because children had to play it in their heads and outside games instead of sitting around watching t.v.  However, now that multi-player games and chat rooms, and Instant Messaging is common, it is again a social event even if the children aren't running around in their neighborhoods playing "Star Wars."  The difference now is huge and will continue to grow as more and more young people grow up in a culture where they are expected and encouraged to visit websites, play games and collaborate on favorite movies.  I can't wait to see what the future holds!   The American companies tried to shut down pirating as fans first started trying to copy and manipulate films, but the Japanese were proving very smart in that arena.  Instead of trying to stop illegal copying, they allowed it because their was American backlash to their product.  Their allowing fans to copy and distribute created a large enough fan base, that America relented and let them in.  Now they have control and products along with the fans products!  Star Wars also tried to cuddle with the fans by creating multi-player games and allowed players to make movies from comics and such.  I enjoyed the Star Wars spin off "Bounty Trail" by Dix.  I found the documentary on Wizards interesting.  I don't think either of these spin-offs hurt the franchise.  In fact, I think they help!  However, the Wizards was very poorly done and was not very clear to me.  It was harder to follow.  I suppose their is fear in letting fans make up their own stories.  Certainly they could create sides to the character detrimental to the overall genre or film, but the majority of fans making these would seem to be fans who wouldn't mess with the intent of the developers.  I think it is great, because I would love to see more parts of movies I love.  For instance, I loved the Harry Potter series and would love to see someone create the scenes left out in the major film.  I love to "get into" films and books and experience it to the fullest.  I didn't know these were out there, but now I will be looking for spin-offs of movies that I like!