Associate professor Jessica Gisclair and assistant professor Ken Calhoun delivered their research and creative presentations as part of SURF's Celebration of Faculty Scholarship April 28.
Gisclair discussed intellectual property piracy and copyright both domestically and in China in a presentation titled “The Dissonance between Culture and Intellectual Property in China.” Her research on this topic was also published in the Southeast Review of Asian Studies.
The Chinese are No. 1 in the world in illegal downloads, and until very recently, they haven’t acknowledged an ethical dilemma. Gisclair said they adhere to a Confucian philosophy, which essentially stipulates that whatever people create, they should be willing to share. In fact, it’s considered shameful to charge for it.
In China, people who are convicted of copyright violations often do not face punishment, thus rendering a guilty verdict mostly meaningless. Gisclair said China is not willing to abide by any international intellectual property laws until its people have a body of work they are willing to protect.
But because China owns the second largest economy worldwide, boasts a quarter of the world’s population and contains 210 million Internet users, theft of intellectual property has been an overwhelming concern internationally. She said there are three methods being taken to combat China’s copyright violations:
- Looking at alternative ways of policing copyright violations through education about the issue.
- Instituting Digital Rights Management devices that prevent the copying of copyrighted work.
- Adopting creative commons licenses that force illegal downloaders to give credit to the original source and prohibit them from using copyrighted material for commercial purposes.
Gisclair said there has been more efficiency in enforcing copyright laws in China recently, as the country’s rule of law undergoes significant changes in the realm intellectual property rights. Still, she said she doesn’t see a resolution soon, particularly if Western countries continue to try to enforce their rule of law in China.
“The objective should be to work within a belief system and create laws,” she said. “It should work from the inside out, not the outside in.”
Calhoun presented the challenges of turning his 12-page short story, “Noise Gate,” into an adapted 24-page screenplay titled “Dizzy” that he wrote in 2008. “Dizzy” won the Broadcast Education Association Award for Excellence for a screen play at this year’s conference in Las Vegas.
Calhoun said both stories share general similarities. In both, the main character is a 20-something who works as a music store’s repo man in Los Angeles. During one repossession, he encounters a 12-year-old boy who is an exceptionally talented trumpet player, and he has to figure out how to replace the kid’s worn down horn with a brand new one.
In “Dizzy,” the encounter with the trumpet-playing savant is the main storyline. In “Noise Gate,” it’s more of an aside. And that’s where the two stories diverge. The main character in the short story is named Casper, and he is trying to find a way to protect his jailed brother. Casper agrees to record a CD for some skinheads because they have friends in jail who can look after his brother.
After doing some recording in the skinheads’ home, he hears that someone is being held captive in the basement. Casper now has to decide how to handle the situation. Should he attempt to free the captured person and risk his and his brother’s safety? Or should be pretend he heard nothing?
In “Dizzy,” the main character, named Dizzy, is trying to get back a guitar he pawned to pay off drug debts. Dizzy was a drug dealer, and his father turned him in to the police. As a result, in the script, he has just gotten out of jail after serving an 18-month sentence. He wants to rejoin his brother’s band, but his brother won’t let him until Dizzy can prove he’s turned his life around.
Dizzy gets a job as a repo man at a music store and encounters the trumpet player. Dizzy eventually has to cut a deal with his Dad, an accomplished musician, to get a quality trumpet for the kid.
Calhoun said the transformation from story to script required him to think more visually and more straightforward. The short story, he said, could contain more suspense and turns, but the script needed to have clear motivations and direction.
Calhoun said he learned several lessons during the adaptation process, including:
- Be ruthless and cut, cut, cut.
- Opt for visual storytelling.
- Keep motivations simple and clean.
- Find answers within the story.
- Trust ideas that have been in your head for a while.
- Keep revising until you can’t.
Calhoun said he hopes to film “Dizzy” in North Carolina.