Our initial research into topics we could tackle for PB4 mostly consisted of representations in media:

• Gender and sexuality
• Race
  • Comparing the depiction of Aboriginal Australians in media to Maori and First Nation peoples
• Subcultures
  • Music subcultures, particularly punk and hip hop
  • Skinheads / racists
  • Drug culture
• Media (i.e. how creators and media technologies have been depicted in media over the history of cinema/television)
• Technology (i.e. the development of techniques like long takes, jump scares, etc.)
• Genre / subject matter
  • Musicals and the appearance of musical numbers in non-musical films (e.g. Magnolia, (500) Days of Summer, etc.)
  • Romantic comedy and its reflection of wider societal values
  • Time travel

After this first round of brainstorming we settled on the depiction of drug use and drug users in media, because the subject matter appealed to us and we thought it would be easy to find resources and references in an area that has seen significant research.

The day after we settled on that topic, we discovered an article that discussed the rise of sequels in mainstream American cinema, which appealed to us all as an idea. We decided that we would change the topic of our PB4 essays to non-original narratives, i.e. sequels, prequels and remakes, and trace their rise from basically non-existent in the early days of cinema to practically dominating the box office today.

There is a vast body of research into this area in academia, and there are some incredibly interesting examples and case studies that we could explore. We’ve also already managed to secure interviews with a film journalist, a film producer and a media academic to drive our essays, which will hopefully provide an interesting baseline of opinion to build upon.