Monday, 13 April 2015
Question 1b – Narrative
Question 1b –
Narrative
Throughout the production of the advanced portfolio narrative was a key aspect which I focused on to ensure my music video had a structured start, middle and end. During the editing stage of the video, I was able to position each of the clips exactly where I needed them in order to see allow the video to progress. I was also able to edit the pace and speed of shots to ensure that it linked to the pace of the video. Throughout both the planning and development of the video I also had to take into consideration who the audience of the music video is and where about they are placed in relation to the narrative structure of the video.
As my video was a performance video where my artist was often both singing and dancing to an audience in a range of different locations, some of the narrative theories do not apply to my video. However the video which I created is still structured and is clear to the audience as to what is happening. Throughout the video the progression of the artist is clear to the audience, where at the start of the music video we see a much more quite artist where she displays herself mainly in quite places, however at the end of the video we see a much livelier character located outside in a much brighter place. This is also reinforced through the constant referencing to the sparklers that we see. This further highlights the start of a new beginning for the artist where the brightness of the sparklers reinforces her being in a much better place.
Throughout the video the audience may question what is going to happen next, meaning that the audience are allowed to enjoy the video by making assumptions to what will happen next. Roland Bathes supports this in which he said within his 5 ‘codes’ there are enigmas or questions that a reposed throughout the narrative and that there are often throw up questions which aren’t immediately answered. This is referred to as the ‘The Hermeneutic Code’ within his 5 codes to his theory. Not only this, but another part of Bathes theory called ‘semantic code’ can also link to the music video which I created. This part of the theory allows the audience to expand on the meaning of the micro elements which are seen within the music video. Firstly the referencing of the sparklers. This immediately questions the audience as to why they are referenced to in the music video. The audience are able to think about this and most often will link the sparklers to the artist and the progression of the female. In addition to this the mise-en-scene of the artist where she is displayed wearing very feminine clothing such as the white dress and her make up done in a very girly manner further gives this expanded meaning to the audience about why she is wearing what she is. The white dress could signify to the purity of the artist to the audience as well as highlighting the stereotypical pop artist.
Throughout the production of the advanced portfolio narrative was a key aspect which I focused on to ensure my music video had a structured start, middle and end. During the editing stage of the video, I was able to position each of the clips exactly where I needed them in order to see allow the video to progress. I was also able to edit the pace and speed of shots to ensure that it linked to the pace of the video. Throughout both the planning and development of the video I also had to take into consideration who the audience of the music video is and where about they are placed in relation to the narrative structure of the video.
As my video was a performance video where my artist was often both singing and dancing to an audience in a range of different locations, some of the narrative theories do not apply to my video. However the video which I created is still structured and is clear to the audience as to what is happening. Throughout the video the progression of the artist is clear to the audience, where at the start of the music video we see a much more quite artist where she displays herself mainly in quite places, however at the end of the video we see a much livelier character located outside in a much brighter place. This is also reinforced through the constant referencing to the sparklers that we see. This further highlights the start of a new beginning for the artist where the brightness of the sparklers reinforces her being in a much better place.
Throughout the video the audience may question what is going to happen next, meaning that the audience are allowed to enjoy the video by making assumptions to what will happen next. Roland Bathes supports this in which he said within his 5 ‘codes’ there are enigmas or questions that a reposed throughout the narrative and that there are often throw up questions which aren’t immediately answered. This is referred to as the ‘The Hermeneutic Code’ within his 5 codes to his theory. Not only this, but another part of Bathes theory called ‘semantic code’ can also link to the music video which I created. This part of the theory allows the audience to expand on the meaning of the micro elements which are seen within the music video. Firstly the referencing of the sparklers. This immediately questions the audience as to why they are referenced to in the music video. The audience are able to think about this and most often will link the sparklers to the artist and the progression of the female. In addition to this the mise-en-scene of the artist where she is displayed wearing very feminine clothing such as the white dress and her make up done in a very girly manner further gives this expanded meaning to the audience about why she is wearing what she is. The white dress could signify to the purity of the artist to the audience as well as highlighting the stereotypical pop artist.
Furthermore the video highlights a link between the lyrics
and the visuals of the song. This is supported by Andrew Goodwin who suggests
that music videos often display a strong link between the lyrics and the
visuals of the song. A prime example of this in the music video is through the overall
emotion of the artist which links to the lyrics of the song. For example when
the lyrcis become more serious she is looking directly into the camera giving
direct eye contact to the audience, however when the song becomes more upbeat,
happier and faster paced the artist is displayed in this way as well through
dancing and enjoying herself.
In addition to this Goodwin states that music videos
demonstrate genre characteristics, where in my video I am able to use location
and narrativeto link to the typical conventions of a pop music video. 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 stereotypical pop video usually highlights a range of locations which
I have highlighted in the video through both locations inside and out. I made
sure that I planned the locations accurately and made sure that they portrayed
the summery theme which I wanted to convey. When filming outside on location I filmed
in both London and Camden. When filming in these locations, it was a very
bright day and when filming in Camden I filmed again a graffiti wall which was
very colourful.
Sunday, 12 April 2015
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
The Sims - Video Case Study
The Sims is a strategic, life simulation video game series developed by Maxis and later by The Sims Studio, and published by Electronic Arts. It is one of the most successful video games series of all time. The games in The Sims series are more of a sandbox game in that they lack any defined goals. The player creates virtual people called "Sims" and places them in houses and helps direct their moods and satisfy their desires.
Hyper-reality/simulacrum - In the Sims you can create characters however you want to. This makes it postmodern as you can create different versions of yourself and play as them. You can recreate your image as something completely different and plan their life for them. This can be seen as hyper reality too as Baudrillard argued that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes a truth in its own right. This is the case in the Sim’s with the language that they use; Simlish. Its not a copy of any language but has its own meaning in the game. There is no proper translation for the language and to us sounds like random noises and sounds. This is the creators trying to imitate what its like when we hear an unknown language that we don’t speak or understand, as to us it then becomes a range of noises and sounds, which is what Simlish is made up of.
Hyper-reality/simulacrum - In the Sims you can create characters however you want to. This makes it postmodern as you can create different versions of yourself and play as them. You can recreate your image as something completely different and plan their life for them. This can be seen as hyper reality too as Baudrillard argued that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes a truth in its own right. This is the case in the Sim’s with the language that they use; Simlish. Its not a copy of any language but has its own meaning in the game. There is no proper translation for the language and to us sounds like random noises and sounds. This is the creators trying to imitate what its like when we hear an unknown language that we don’t speak or understand, as to us it then becomes a range of noises and sounds, which is what Simlish is made up of.
Self- reflexivity - The Sims often look to the camera to you as their creator if they desperately need something such as food or interactions with other people. This shows self reflexivity as they know they are being controlled and that their lives are being planned out by someone else. They can also play the Sims on their own computers which is self reflective as they are playing a game within a game and seeing what its like to be the creator instead of the character.
Intertextuality - The Sims uses intertextuality to make the game seem more realistic and therefore includes features from reality that we can associate with. They do this very subtly through the use of different television shows available for the Sims to watch and also the music they can listen to. They change the language to Simlish but they are still the same TV shows and songs we listen to and would recognise. They also have new expansion packs to add to the game where you can find well known celebrities such as Katy Perry, which shows how she is still recognised in the game for her talent.
Instantaneity - The Sims includes instantaneity as you are able to cheat in the game. There are numerous cheats to help make your Sims lives better, for example you can cheat to gain $50,000 or even slow down time so your Sim doesn’t grow old and die. All these enhance the Sims lives and make them better that are unrealistic and would not happen in real life.
Monday, 9 March 2015
GTA case study
Grand Theft Auto G325 Rock star Games Rockstar Games is a video game developer and publisher based in New York City, owned by Take-Two Interactive. The brand is mostly known for the Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Midnight Club and Red Dead series and the use of open world, free roaming settings in their games. It comprises studios that have been acquired and renamed as well as others that have been created internally. While many of the studios Take-Two Interactive has acquired have been merged into the Rockstar brand, several other recent ones have retained their previous identities and have become part of the company's 2K Games division. The Rockstar Games label was founded in New York City in 1998 by the British video game producers Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Jamie King and Gary Foreman History Institution GTA Grand Theft Auto (commonly abbreviated GTA) is an award-winning video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design) and published by Rockstar Games. The name of the series and its games are derived from grand theft auto, a term referring to motor vehicle theft.
The series is set in fictional locales heavily modelled on American cities, while an expansion for the original was based in London. Gameplay focuses on an open world where the player can choose missions to progress an overall story, as well as engaging in side activities; all consisting of action, adventure, driving, occasional role-playing, stealth, and racing elements. The subject of the games is usually a comedic satire of American culture, but the series has gained controversy for its adult nature and violent themes. The series focuses around many different protagonists who attempt to rise through the ranks of the criminal underworld, although their motives for doing so vary in each game. The antagonists are commonly characters who have betrayed the protagonist or his organization, or characters who have the most impact impeding the protagonist's progress.
Why is GTA Postmodren? GTA Relationship to Audience Games and consoles have a
symbolic relationship Must game-play Tighten up the regulation, classification and censorship of videogames Social Interaction world wide audience GTA is postmodern due to the inspiration from Black noir films from the 1970's.
Each game in this series allows players to take on the role of a criminal or a wannabe in a big city, typically an individual who rises through the ranks of organized crime through the course of the game. The player is given various missions by kingpins and major idols in the city underworld which must be completed to progress through the storyline. Assassinations and other crimes feature regularly, but occasionally taxi driving, firefighting, street racing, bus driving, or learning to fly helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft are also involved. The Grand Theft Auto series belongs to a genre of free-roaming video games called sandbox games, and grants a large amount of freedom to the player in deciding what to do and how to do it through multiple methods of transport and weapons. Most traditional action games are structured as a single track series of levels with linear gameplay, but in GTA the player can determine the missions that he wants to undertake, and his relationships with various characters are changed based on these choices. The cities of the games can also be roamed freely at any point in the game, and are examples of open world video game environments which offer accessible buildings with minor missions in addition to the main storyline. There are exceptions: missions follow a linear, overarching plot, and some city areas must be unlocked over the course of the game.
Grand Theft Auto III and later subsequent games have more prevalent voice acting, and radio stations, which simulate driving to music with disc jockeys, radio personalities, commercials, talk radio, pop music, and American culture.
Case Study : Video Game So why do I find it postmodern? I find GTA postmodern as through my own research of this video game I found out that it took the 1970's era of gangsters and transported it into the modern world, with the use of technology. it took inspiration from movies like The Godfather, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas.
I also find it postmodern is a distubing way of how people find enjoyment of being transported into this interactive world, to which the main narrative is to steal cars, rob people and shoot peoples heads off.
I don't understand this sense of enjoyment, yes its non-reality but ACTUALLY watching someone shooting their own brain out on CCTV footage is NO laughing matter or in any sense enjoyable.
Stylistic elements:
Nostalgia
Eclecticism
Bricolage
Acts against Modernism
Narcissistic
An Active Audience
Theoretical elements- - Real Virtuality –Castells
IN GTA 5 you can roam the streets acting as a Hollywood version of yourself you can eat in restaurants, get drunk in bars, dance in night clubs, work out in a gym, allowing yourself to get fit or fat in the process- you can become wealthy and wear the designer clothes you have always dreamed of, drive luxury cars, live in a big house or date a supermodel, or you could be very much like the you, you are in real life- the lines and boundaries of life and virtuality can become blurred.
Decline of Meta Narratives - Lyotard - You play a villain who is in fact the hero. There are many people to aid you but the is no clear definition as to whether they are good/bad polar opposites either. A narrative is constructed by your actions and interactions with the text itself as opposed to the text dictating the narrative- one persons playing of the game could very well be completely different to another persons.
3rd wave- Infosphere- Toffler. We can only see the world through Postmodern eyes under the luxury of capitalism and the wealth within. The entire text is devoted to the endless and ruthless pursuit of money, wealth and power. 3 major forces for capitalism and postmodernism itself. Pastiche & intertextuality- Jameson Hyperreality- Baudrillard
The series is set in fictional locales heavily modelled on American cities, while an expansion for the original was based in London. Gameplay focuses on an open world where the player can choose missions to progress an overall story, as well as engaging in side activities; all consisting of action, adventure, driving, occasional role-playing, stealth, and racing elements. The subject of the games is usually a comedic satire of American culture, but the series has gained controversy for its adult nature and violent themes. The series focuses around many different protagonists who attempt to rise through the ranks of the criminal underworld, although their motives for doing so vary in each game. The antagonists are commonly characters who have betrayed the protagonist or his organization, or characters who have the most impact impeding the protagonist's progress.
Why is GTA Postmodren? GTA Relationship to Audience Games and consoles have a
symbolic relationship Must game-play Tighten up the regulation, classification and censorship of videogames Social Interaction world wide audience GTA is postmodern due to the inspiration from Black noir films from the 1970's.
Each game in this series allows players to take on the role of a criminal or a wannabe in a big city, typically an individual who rises through the ranks of organized crime through the course of the game. The player is given various missions by kingpins and major idols in the city underworld which must be completed to progress through the storyline. Assassinations and other crimes feature regularly, but occasionally taxi driving, firefighting, street racing, bus driving, or learning to fly helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft are also involved. The Grand Theft Auto series belongs to a genre of free-roaming video games called sandbox games, and grants a large amount of freedom to the player in deciding what to do and how to do it through multiple methods of transport and weapons. Most traditional action games are structured as a single track series of levels with linear gameplay, but in GTA the player can determine the missions that he wants to undertake, and his relationships with various characters are changed based on these choices. The cities of the games can also be roamed freely at any point in the game, and are examples of open world video game environments which offer accessible buildings with minor missions in addition to the main storyline. There are exceptions: missions follow a linear, overarching plot, and some city areas must be unlocked over the course of the game.
Grand Theft Auto III and later subsequent games have more prevalent voice acting, and radio stations, which simulate driving to music with disc jockeys, radio personalities, commercials, talk radio, pop music, and American culture.
Case Study : Video Game So why do I find it postmodern? I find GTA postmodern as through my own research of this video game I found out that it took the 1970's era of gangsters and transported it into the modern world, with the use of technology. it took inspiration from movies like The Godfather, Taxi Driver and Goodfellas.
I also find it postmodern is a distubing way of how people find enjoyment of being transported into this interactive world, to which the main narrative is to steal cars, rob people and shoot peoples heads off.
I don't understand this sense of enjoyment, yes its non-reality but ACTUALLY watching someone shooting their own brain out on CCTV footage is NO laughing matter or in any sense enjoyable.
Stylistic elements:
Nostalgia
Eclecticism
Bricolage
Acts against Modernism
Narcissistic
An Active Audience
Theoretical elements- - Real Virtuality –Castells
IN GTA 5 you can roam the streets acting as a Hollywood version of yourself you can eat in restaurants, get drunk in bars, dance in night clubs, work out in a gym, allowing yourself to get fit or fat in the process- you can become wealthy and wear the designer clothes you have always dreamed of, drive luxury cars, live in a big house or date a supermodel, or you could be very much like the you, you are in real life- the lines and boundaries of life and virtuality can become blurred.
Decline of Meta Narratives - Lyotard - You play a villain who is in fact the hero. There are many people to aid you but the is no clear definition as to whether they are good/bad polar opposites either. A narrative is constructed by your actions and interactions with the text itself as opposed to the text dictating the narrative- one persons playing of the game could very well be completely different to another persons.
3rd wave- Infosphere- Toffler. We can only see the world through Postmodern eyes under the luxury of capitalism and the wealth within. The entire text is devoted to the endless and ruthless pursuit of money, wealth and power. 3 major forces for capitalism and postmodernism itself. Pastiche & intertextuality- Jameson Hyperreality- Baudrillard
Sunday, 1 March 2015
Monday, 23 February 2015
Sunday, 22 February 2015
Sunday, 8 February 2015
Mock Exam - rewrite
Question 2 – Mock exam rewrite
Postmodernism in the
oxford dictionary is referred to 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.
My first case study of
postmodernism is film. I believe that many films highlight this postmodernism
through the main 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. This flattening of affect which is
highlighted through the postmodern films 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. Finally time bending is used to
connote the importance of time travel, as it relates to how time travel
provides another way to shape reality. I will be using my film case studies in order to show how they are
postmodern and will highlight the key aspects which make them postmodern.
Two key examples of
postmodern films are both Blade runner and Pulp Fiction. These are very popular
exams of postmodernism in the film industry. Firstly Blade Runner is possibly
the most popular postmodern film. Ridley Scott's 1982 film is about a future
dystopia where "replicates" have been invented and are deemed
dangerous enough to hunt down when they escape. The film highlights to be
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 postmodern
look of Blade Runner is therefore 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, post-industrial condition: wearing out, waste."
Moving on 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. 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.
The
Lego movie produced by Warner brothers recently been released onto DVD is
another key example of how postmodernity is used within the film industry. Post-Modernism
both questions what is real, true, and absolute, as well as playing with
inter-textually. The Lego movie is set in an animated world and is the heroic
journey of regular-guy Emmett and his quest to stop Lord Business from
destroying the world with his super weapon: The Kragle. On the other hand the
boy is set in reality attempting to play with his dads Lego while his dad wants
to maintain complete and absolute order, not giving in to the creativity that
Legos can unleash. In many ways it can be seen that the Lego Movie is The
Matrix with Emmet replacing Neo, the boy and Vitruvius combined to be Morpheus,
Wild style as Trinity, and Lord Business as Agent Smith/The AI. There are
layers of reality, and only the main hero is able to see both completely. Also,
there are robots. Built within this multiple-layered-reality are iconic figures
like Batman, Star Wars characters, as well as eclectic combinations such as Unikitty.
Pastiche is highlighted to us throughout the film. It is never taken too
seriously and the script reads like it has been written by a 9 year old,
allowing the audience to relax and enjoy watching the film. Moreover
intertextuality is displayed bringing characters in drawing iconic
personalities that we already know. A prime example of this in the film is the
character batman as we do not need any explanation of who batman is and why he
does certain this as we already know this from previous experience. Flattening
of affect is suggested through the character Emmit where he 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.
Along with postmodernity
in film, it is also clear to see this postmodern effect within music video.
This is clear within the Jessie J music video, “who’s laughing now”. Hype
conscience is shown in this video where the main performer Jessie J is playing
multiple roles in the video and playing different characters as well as
herself. The characters in which she’s playing are very over exaggerated
implying that narcissism to their self-image. This is constantly reminding the
viewer that what they are watching is not real and it is made up. A key feature
of the postmodern music video is the intertextuality references which are
constantly made. Two prime examples of this is the reference of mean girls and
reference to bugs bunny. The reference to mean girls is clear to see when the
four girls are dressed in pink and are walking in a line next to each other.
They present themselves to be very stuck up and love themselves just like how
the mean girls do in the film. Buys bunny is referenced in the lyrics when the
girls are “bullying” Jessie. Here the lyrics say “Oh Jessica you so funny
you’ve got teeth just like bugs bunny”. Baudrillard’s theory is incorporated into
the music video. This is because the video appears to continually cut from
Jessie as a school girl to Jessie grown up. This in my opinion depicts
postmodernism as no distinction is made between them. This means the
progression of time is conventional. This lack of effect confuses the audience
and makes them question which part of the video is in real time. This creates
postmodern irony because none of what we are watching is actually real.
Friday, 7 November 2014
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.
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.
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
The Lego Movie - Case Study
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.
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.
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.
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.
Monday, 3 November 2014
Sunday, 2 November 2014
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, 14 October 2014
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