Wednesday 29 January 2014

First essay plan

  

Task 1. 

Topic: Postmodernism
Aspect: Texts 
Viewpoint: Time & Space 
Instruction: To what extent

Task 2.

Postmodernism rejects the truth of time and space. 'Inglorious Basterds' manipulates time through placing songs such as David Bowie in a film set in WW2. Inception manipulates time and space through the layers which differentiate in time and space.

Task 3.

Quentin Tarantino & 'Inglorious Basterds' uses pastiche to mock existing films that claim to be true stories or realistic, by making a film that people think is completely untrue and farfetched, when in really it is no less untrue than films made to be realistic. Also long dialogue's in french and german, more realistic than most american war films which claim to be truth and they usually have germans and french speaking english with an accent. Pastiche towards traditional war film - voices are  OTT and eccentric. Film within a film. However uses homage by placing David Bowie songs, western film aspects and 'Mexican standoff' all aspects which Tarantino like and includes across his film work - pulp fiction - kill bill. Tarantino is trying to make a statement about war films and our knowledge of war films; that societies outlook of war films is is now just the media's perception of war and our view of war is now from films - relate to Fiske. Added Bricolage- random things to add conspiracy and question conventions and idea's. 

Inception manipulates time and space through the layers which differentiate in time and space. Hans Zimmer Edith Piaf music is played as a kick to wake up the characters and is also heard by the 

  • How post-modern media relate to genre and narrative
  • post-modern cinema,
  • interactive media,
  • music video,
  • advertising,
  • post-modern audience theories,
  • parody and pastiche in media texts or a range of other applications of post-modern media theory.

Wednesday 15 January 2014

'Death of Uncool' Playlist/Album



1. Foals - Black Gold .Indie Rock.
2. LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls .Dance Punk.
3. Panpipes - TE.E.D .Dance Pop.
4. Yasmin - Thinking about you .Pop.
5. Miguel - Where's the Fun in Forever .R&B.
6. Foals - Blue Blood .Indie Rock
7. Justin Timberlake ft. Jay Z - Suit& Tie .Pop.
8. Mac Miller - Party on Fifth Ave .Hip-Hop/Rap.
9. Frank Ocean - Crack Rock .Pop/R&B.
10. String Thing - Shadow Child .House.
11. Major Lazer ft. Santigold, Vybz Kartel& Danielle HAIM - You're No Good .Electronic/D&B.
12. Jay Z ft The Beatles (Danger Mouse) - December 4th .Hip-Hop.

Monday 13 January 2014

Postmodern Advert

Postmodernism in advertising: attempts to provide illusions of individualism, nostalgia and retro styles, recycling earlier genres and styles in to new contexts and genres.




This Thomas cook advert is postmodern because:
It is trying to sell you a holiday that isn't real, the couples and families featured is this holiday, that are used to evoke emotion from the audience are not real. They are merely acting roles within the advert to portray the 'perfect family holiday', thus making the audience want a holiday that is not real and does not exist. 

Thursday 9 January 2014

My initial understanding of Postmodernism

It would be appropriate to start my first blog post with the Oxford Dictionary's definition of Postmodernism:


"A style and concept in the arts characterised by a distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions"


Postmodernists claim that in a media-saturated world, where we are constantly immersed in media, 24/7 - and on the move, at work, at home - the distinction between reality and the media representation of reality becomes blurred or even entirely invisible to us. In other words, we no longer have any sense of the difference between real things and images of them, or real experiences and simulations of them. Media reality is the new reality.


Some see this as a historical development: the modern period came before, during which artists experimented with the representation of reality. Postmodern came next, where this idea of representation gets 'remixed', played around with, through pastiche, parody and intertextual references - where the people that make texts deliberately expose their nature as constructed texts and make no attempt to pretend that they are 'realists'.


Basically, Postmodernism:
  • Culture 'eats itself' as there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute.
  • Everything is copied; remixed/transformed/sampled - nothing is original.
  • Rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another.
  • Uses existing media/material, but goes so far away from the original origin that the meaning is confused and societies outlook changes upon it. Copies of this copy then project an ideological hyperreality, where images refer to each other as reality rather than some 'pure' reality that existed before the image represented it.
  • So the distinction between media and reality has collapsed. Nothing is real. not anymore.
  • All ideas of the truth are just competing claims, or discourses, and what we believe to be the truth at any point is merely the 'winning' discourse.
  • PoMo is extremely cynical.