Lego movie - Production details

Production details:Production Company: Warner Brothers
Source material:
Budget: 60 million
Nationality: American
Main Producers: Dan Lin, Roy Lee
Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Cinematography: Pablo Plaisted
Editor: David Burrows, Chris McKay
Music: Mark Mothersbough
Screen Writers:
Cast Members: Chris Pratt, Will Ferrelll, Elizabeth Banks,Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman
How has it been filmed: The production of the film mostly took place in the hands of Australian animators animal logic. The camera systems tried to replicate live action cinematography, including different lenses and a Steadicam simulator.
What is it based upon: Lego Construction Toys
Other Information: June 2012, voices for the characters had been decided. By August 2012, Elizabeth Banks was hired to voice Lucy and Morgan Freeman to voice Vitruvius, an old mystic. In October 2012 release date was changed, Warner Bros to February 7, 2014. In November 2012, Alison Brie, Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, and Nick Offerman signed on for roles.

The Lego Movie - Case Study

Film case study – The Lego Movie

The basic premise is that we’re constantly caught between opposing concepts like “knowledge” and “doubt,” “reality” and “unreality,” and “Art” and “Life”; learning to move quickly between these concepts may be our best hope yet of regaining a sense of self in the Internet Age. The core message here is simple enough, in fact so simple that not only could a child pick it up quickly, it’s arguably children who understand the metamodern “cultural paradigm” better than anyone. Children, unlike their parents, move more or less seamlessly from the realm of fantasy to the aggressive insistence of reality.

 

Pastiche
Right from the beginning you can tell that The Lego Movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. The script in the first scene reads like it was written by a nine-year-old, and there’s a good reason for that. By letting the dialog at times seem so rudimentary, the writers allow us to relax and enjoy ourselves. This silly style of writing then opens up opportunities for some artfully absurd things to happen.

Intertextuality

Another big trope of the postmodernists is Intertextuality. You see it every time you watch Once Upon a Time. Lego has made a lot of licensed sets over the years. By bringing those characters in, they draw on iconic personalities that we already know to propel the story forward. We don’t need any explanation of who Batman is and why he behaves the way he does. We know Batman, so we can skip the backstory and get into the action.

Metafiction
The movie is one giant work of Metafiction. It starts off sounding like it was written by a child because the main plot we’ve been following is the creation of a child. The writers of The Lego Movie got the entire audience to invest themselves in a silly plot about a chosen one and a mystical weapon before pulling the big reveal: the story we’re actually engaged in is one about fathers and sons, adults and children. It’s about growing up and what that should mean. One of the most-admirable things about the marketing for the film was that not a single preview I saw (mind you, I don’t have cable) spoiled it for me. So many times we get excited for a movie only to walk away feeling like the potential for a great film was sold to market a few more toys (I’m looking at you, Michael Bay.) The opposite happens here; I was sold on the cheesy marketing ploy, and I walked away pleasantly surprised to find art there.

Flattening of Affect

There are countless late-20th-century films and stories about people who find themselves living unauthentic lives because of drugs or technology or suburbia. The Lego Movie brings us a new reason that we’re all behaving like emotionless shells: growing up.
In the first few minutes we see that our hero, Emmett, lives in a world of popular music, formulaic television, and people who always follow the instructions. At first it seems like an evil corporate plot, but when we pull back and see the father-son relationship in the framing narrative, we realize that this isn’t exactly the case.
Yes, President Business is a corporate big-wig who is trying to homogenize everything, but we also know that it’s not out of greed. It’s a desire for order. Somewhere along the line, as we grow up, we lose our creativity out of fear of failure. Afraid to make things that are messy and ugly, we also stop making things that are beautiful.

The Lego Movie may be a mash up of Batman, bizarre dialog, and a bunch of jokes, but it’s a beautiful mess—and it works. This movie could have merely been a straight plot line rendered in 3D and advertised all over TV to sell toys, but it’s not. The Lego Movie reaches out to adults and teenagers, anyone who forgot how to be beautifully unorganized and uncool. It grabbed us by the funny bone and shook us violently, screaming “PLAY. GOSH DARNIT! BE FREE!”

And that brings me to my final point. It’s about that message of not caring how things are supposed to be. It’s the thought that woke me up at one in the morning and whispered, “You have to write this down.”

Even Bigger Metaphor

It should be obvious to anyone who saw the movie that President Business—in his attempt to freeze the world with the Kragle—is just a metaphor for the father, who got so caught up in how things are supposed to look that he was willing to pour superglue on his Lego set instead of playing with his son. We all got that one (at least I hope we did). This is another Metaphor.

It’s about Postmodernism.
Postmodernism was a reaction to Modernism, a movement in the early 20th Century that sought to create new conventions of representation, stripping away the frills, and making form follow function. Like the Modernists, the Postmodernists rejected the rigid conventions of the Classicists. Unlike the Modernists, the Postmodernists didn’t mind if things got a little bit messy and frivolous.

The father is a Classicist, following the rules to put together harmonious, safe creations. The son is a Postmodernist, mixing properties, repurposing used half-eaten lollipops, and making a glorious mess. The Kragle represents the father’s strict adherence to classical conventions. The son’s unbalanced spaceships and mech-pirates are the intertextual, time-bending, hyperreality, fragmented works of art that say, “Hey, Batman can be art, too. Why don’t you chill out and have fun.”

 

Fredric Jameson

Fredric Jameson born 14 April 1934, is an American literary critic and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends. He once described postmodernism as the spatialization of culture under the pressure Postmodernists claimed that the complex differentiation between "spheres" or fields of, and between distinct classes and roles within each field, had been overcome by the crisis of foundationalism. Jameson argued, against this, and could have been understood successfully within a modernist framework; the postmodern failure to achieve this understanding implied an abrupt break in the dialectical refinement of thought. In his view, postmodernity's merging of all discourse into an undifferentiated whole was the result of the colonization of the cultural sphere, which had retained at least partial autonomy during the prior modernist era. Jameson discussed this phenomenon in his critical discussion of architecture, film, narrative, and visual arts, as well as in his strictly philosophical work. Two of Jameson's best-known claims from Postmodernism are that postmodernity is characterized by pastiche and a crisis in historicity. Jameson argued that parody was replaced by pastiche. Jameson's analysis of postmodernism attempted to view it as historically grounded; he therefore rejected any moralistic opposition to postmodernity as a cultural phenomenon. His failure to dismiss postmodernism from the onset, however, was perceived by many as an implicit endorsement of postmodern views

Jean Baudrillard Theory

Jean Baudrillard born on 27 July 1929 and died 6 March 2007. He was a French sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, political commentator, and photographer. His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and specifically post-structuralism.  Jean Baudrillard has 3 main theories hyper-reality, sign value and simulacrum.  His theory of hyper reality is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, hyper reality is seen as a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins. Sign value denotes and describes the value accorded to an object because of the prestige that it imparts upon the possessor, rather than the material value and utility derived from the function and the primary use of the object. Jean Baudrillard proposed the Theory of Sign Value as a philosophic and economic counterpart to the dichotomy of exchange-value vs. use-value, which Karl Marx recognized as a characteristic of capitalism as an economic system. Simulacrum is a representation or imitation of a person or thing. Postmodernist French social theorist Jean Baudrillard argues that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes truth in its own right: the hyperreal.

JEAN BAUDRILLARD

Fedric Jameson

Examples of postmodern films

Blade Runner
Ridley Scott's Blade Runner might be the best known postmodernist film. Ridley Scott's 1982 film is about a future dystopia where "replicants" have been invented and are deemed dangerous enough to hunt down when they escape. There is tremendous effacement of boundaries between genres and cultures and styles that are generally more separate along with the fusion of disparate styles and times that is a common trope in postmodernist cinema. "The futuristic set and action mingle with drab 1940s clothes and offices, punk rock hairstyles, pop Egyptian style and oriental culture. The population is singularly multicultural and the language they speak is agglomeration of English, Japanese, German and Spanish. The film alludes to the private eye genre of Raymond Chandler and the characteristics of film noir as well as Biblical motifs and images." Here is a demonstration of the mixing of cultures and boundaries and styles of art. The film is playing with time (the various types of clothes) and culture and genre by mixing them all together to create the world of the film. The fusion of noir and science-fiction is another example of the film deconstructing cinema and genre. This is an embodiment of the postmodern tendency to destroy boundaries and genres into a self-reflexive product. "The postmodern aesthetic of Blade Runner is thus the result of recycling, fusion of levels, discontinuous signifiers, explosion of boundaries, and erosion. The disconnected temporality of the replicants and the pastiche of the city are all an effect of a postmodern, postindustrial condition: wearing out, waste."

Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is another popular example of a postmodernist film. The film tells the interweaving stories of gangsters, a boxer, and robbers. The film breaks down chronological time and demonstrates a particular fascination with intertextuality: bringing in texts from both traditionally "high" and "low" realms of art. This foregrounding of media places the self as "a loose, transitory combination of media consumption choices." Pulp Fiction fractures time (by the use of asynchronous time lines) and by using styles of prior decades and combining them together in the movie. By focusing on intertextuality and the subjectivity of time, Pulp Fiction demonstrates the postmodern obsession with signs and subjective perspective as the exclusive location of anything resembling meaning.

What makes films postmodern?

What makes films postmodern?

Postmodernist films include concepts such as pastiche, flattening of affect, hyper reality, time bending, altered states and more human than human.

Pastiche is self-referential, tongue in cheek, rehashes of classic pop culture.
Flattening of affect involves technology, violence, drugs and the media lead to detached, emotionless, unauthentic lives.
Hyper reality is described in relation to where technology creates realities which are original or more desirable then the real world.
Time bending is used to connote the importance of time travel, as it relates to how time travel provides another way to shape reality.

Playfulness and self-reference:

When looking at a classical narrative, the narrative will try to hide the fact that it’s a fictional product, the film is usually edited in a way to get viewers to forget about any editing transitions to see what has actually taken place. Compared to a classical/modern film, a postmodernist film will jump up and down to draw attention to itself and its modes of construction.

Thomas Tyke’s film, Run Lola Run plays with its narrative structure, delivering a similar scenario three times with different conclusions. It has a cinematic style which includes animation, both video and film stock, colour changes, whip pans, zooms which quickly focuses on experimental editing. It also never lets you forget that it’s a highly constructed film using a number of storytelling devices. The film also makes references to other forms of popular culture, such as music videos and computer games and also positions itself in context of other media products. Compared to a classical movie, a postmodernist films include texts which keep us reminded that it’s a constructed or simulated reality which we experience in order to communicate to audiences that the text being conveyed through the movie isn't real.

Postmodernist film is also known to challenge the mainstream conventions of narrative structures and characterization, while also destroying the audiences suspension of disbelief in order to create a work in which a less recognizable internal logic forms the mediums means of representation and expression. For the film to convey their desired meaning, they are also known to maintain conventional elements to help orient the audience. Another example of where the film plays around with its narrative structure, is the film, The Time Travellers Wife, which plays around the narrative as Eric Bana’s character goes back and forth in time, trying to reach different conclusions within his life with his family.

 Generic blurring and intertextuality:

This is where films cross boundaries between different genres. Intertextuality is also, where the film makes reference to any other medium formats, such as Toy Story 2 refers to the shortage of Buzz Light year toys as an intertextual joke, which is connected to the manufacturers underestimated demand for the toy. This postmodern tendency towards generic cross reference and intertextuality creates a relationship with the audience by both playing with and complementing their knowledge of film. Another example of this is in South Park, when they make intertextual references to Harry Potter, The Lords of The Rings and the Dark Knight, when Cartman dresses up as the Coon to make a mockery out of the Dark Knight.

Poplar and commercial media meets high culture:
This means that the film or another type of media format uses popular culture is combined with high culture, which can be done through various ways such as having parts of high culture such as literature, art forms etc. An example of this is Pan's Labyrinth which contains cultural styles and times which are combined with each other, as it challenges the chronological history as it includes scenes of Captain Vidal involved in fascism and while at the same time addressing Ofelia's innocence when completing Pans tasks.  These could be considered as high culture elements and the text can be perceived as postmodern as it involves this and can be considered modern because it’s enjoyed by the masses.

Fragmentation and the death of representation:
This is where films use a range of fragments from other texts, genres and cultural influences, this fragmentation also applies to representation. Captain Vidal representation of someone who is perceived as violent as it can be argued that there's a death of representation as his constructed to be like a monster and the audience make a connection with fairy tale monstrous characters, which Ofelia faces and sees as an uncertain threat, the same can be said about how the antagonist in The lovely Bones.

Uncertainty and the loss of the context:
This can result in a sense of uncertainty and the shaking up of previously understood beliefs and roles. Postmodernist films can also make the audience feel there are no generic rules and that representations only make reference to other representations. Postmodernist film makers such as Christopher Nolan, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch etc. challenge aspects of life or belief systems.

Other characteristics which are sometimes used in postmodernist films:
Postmodernist films are also known to include other key concepts when it comes to them being embedded into films. Such as postmodern films also include concepts like a pre-fabrication which is similar to how simulation is used in movies but this draws the audience closer to already existing and noticeable scenes, and these are basically reused in narratives, dialogue etc. A bricolage is also used, which is where a person such as a producer, editor or director usually builds a film like a collage of different film styles and genres. It also includes metafictional which is where someone within a film write someone writing within a film to demonstrate its functionality and is used for shifts in narrative, impossible jumps in time or to maintain emotional distance for the narrator. Historic metafictional is a technique referring to novels that fictionalise actual historical events and characters. Temporal distortion is the jumping of time backwards and forwards. Minimalism is a technique used to demonstrate characters that are unexceptional and events which usually occur. Postmodernist films are also known to use other characteristics such as techno culture, paranoia, maximalism, faction, participation and magical realism.

 

Postmodern case study

Narrative

“Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives”.

Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces.

As my music video is focused on my artist performing some of the narrative theories do not apply to my video. The first theorist which I found that did not apply was Propp who studied the narrative structures of Russian Folk Tales and said that regardless of the individual differences in terms of plot, characters and settings, such narratives would share common structural features. I also found that Todorov who was a Bulgarian structural linguist, interested in the way language is ordered to infer particular meanings and has been very influential in the field of narrative theory.

 

I believe that Roland Barthes is a theorist which supports my music video I am making. Bathes was a French Literary critic who proposed that in any narrative there are 5 ‘codes’ at play in a narrative. I believe that my video follows ‘The Hermeneutic Code’ in which this refers to enigmas or questions that a reposed throughout the narrative. A story will often throw up questions which aren’t immediately answered. Part of the enjoyment of narratives is when the audience is allowed to make assumptions about what could happen.  My video will follow this as the audience will think about what may happen next.

I also found that Andrew Goodwin’s theory applies to my music video. This is because I believe that through the video there is a strong link between the lyrics and the visuals of the song. His theory also discovered that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics where in my video I am able to use location and narrative. Through the locations which I have shown in my video this clearly highlights the genre of music along with the clothing and styling of my artist which reinforces this. The close up shots which I regularly use in my video is also another key feature of Goodwin’s theory of music video.

 

 

 

Genre

My music video for my coursework is performance based which is the most common type which features the artist singing and dancing to the audience. Gow (1992) suggests "the predominance of performance indicates that music video defines itself chiefly by images of artists singing and playing songs". The genre of my music video is pop highlighting the happiness and enjoyment that the artist gives to the reader. The video also allows the audience to listen to the song and make assumptions to what may happen next; "Performance oriented visuals cue viewers that the recording of the music is the most significant element." Goodwin’s theory is followed as the music video demonstrates the genre characteristics of a pop video, there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals of the song which allows the audience to follow the video and understand what is happening.

 

 

Analysis of the narrative

Narrative paragraph

For my music video for the A2 coursework I will be using the song Goodness Gracious by Ellie Goulding. At the start the song they are talking about how Ellie loved this person a lot but wasn’t getting the same from him. In the song she is going crazy and having a fun life without him and she knows that if he isn’t coming back she will have to let him go. However she keeps trying to get him back however the people around her don’t agree with it. As the song continues the lyrics tell us how she found what made the man not love her and she decided to stay with him until he stated to act up however in the lyric “shake my head dizzy so I’ll never know” proves how he isn’t worth her time at all. At the end of the song we see how she is trying so hard to stay with him and to make him stay with her yet she doesn’t realize that she’s keeping him away from everyone being selfish and doesn’t even know herself anymore because she is trying so hard and it was just never meant to be. For my coursework I am aiming to create a performance based video where I will have my artist dancing and singing in front of the camera. I believe that this will link in well to the lyrics and will make the audience listen to the lyrics to realise what’s happening. In my video I will be using a range of different shots including plenty of close ups, as well as different locations and costumes.

Modern Vs Postmodern

Why is Jessie J who's laughing now postmodern?

Why is Jessie J Postmodern

Jessie J - Who's Laughing Now

Case study 1

Lady gaga - Telephone

Audience

Question 1b

Qustion 1a

Definition of postmodernism

Postmodernism: the compact Oxford dictionary refers to postmodernism as “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 the distinction between reality and media representation of it 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 ad simulations of them.

Others say that it is just a new way of thinking about media when really is has always been this way.

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