Lights, Camera, Sandwiches!

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 classes in February 2015.

One of the tenets of media literacy that MC101s learn is that "all media messages are constructions." They are not reality. They are a selected reality or a stylized version of reality or a pictorial version of reality. Creating realistic-looking food for television and movie scenes is an example of the latter. Here's an example: If ice cream is shown in a TV or movie screen, it is probably mashed potatoes or something other than ice cream. Why? Ice cream melts too quickly under the lights.

NPR did a nice little feature recently about food on the set.

Questions...

•Name all the support businesses that make money off the movie and TV industries.

•Does a healthy movie/TV industry do anything for our local restaurants, dry cleaners, car dealers, etc.?

•Are Hollywood-related jobs good jobs or bad jobs? Why?

•How do people get these jobs?