Define postmodern media with examples

Post modernism is a term that is used to define new texts that are created by using parts of older texts, for example by using intertextual references or bricolage. Post modernism is often un-noticed within media, as often people can enjoy a text without knowing it is post modern, for example Inglorious Basterds. But there are cases where texts cannot be enjoyed by people unless they know it is post modern, like Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

In terms of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (SP), the film was not successful and lost a lot of money, but it was full of references to video games and films. So shouldn't this have made it popular, unfortunately not as the target audience for the film was young teenagers, but the references included in the film were from a different generation, including references to The Doors and to the early Zelda games. This means people that went to see the film did not understand the references so just thought the film was a bit stupid. In comparison we see Inglorious Basterds, a film that has many references, these include references to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, along with a out of context use of spaghetti western fonts in the title sequence in a world war 2 film. It also intertextually links to another of Tarintinos films, Pulp Fiction, by using a bright yellow font similar to the one used in Pulp Fiction. This links and references are good to know but are not essential to the quality or enjoyment of the film. For example someone who is post modern will enjoy the film as much as someone who doesnt know about its post modernism as they arent essential, whereas the story becomes thin when the refernces are unkown in SP, this is why it was an unnsuccessful film.

Musically, post-modernism can be prominent within the R&B genre. For example the Kanye West song "Golddigga"is copied from "I got a Woman" by Ray Charles, which was copied from "It Must be Jesus" by the gospel band 'The Southern Tones'. This is the perfect example to define post modern media as it supports the idea that post modernism is a copy of a copy of a copy. And that it can often lost its orignal meaning. Since the gospel band sung the song about Jesus and religion, its meaning has changed dramatically through time to being about a woman who takes money from men. This is where post modernism gets critisized a lot, as it takes things and destroys their orignal meaning. This is supported by Kirby Ferguson's 'Everything is a Remix' video series. Bridge Port Music, a company famous for sueing artists that use samples in their music, they famously sued an artist for a less than 2 second ‘sample’ in the song ‘100 miles runnin’ This is an example of where post modern media can be thought to have a bad future, as artists especially in the R&B genre will struggle to use samples that they commonly use for drum beats etc. as patent laws are becoming a lot stricter. 

Augmented reality and hyper reality are aspects of post modernism that revolve around media. Hyper reality means where the image of something is not what it really is, a good way of explaining this is with the images on McDonalds menu's, as they display images that arent truthful of their actual appearance. Another example is the way silenced guns in films like James Bond sound compared to in real life. The difference in media and real life worries people as people think that we will become so used to hyper reality we will be unsure of the difference between that and reality. Augmented reality is similar, take the video game Assasins Creed for example, it allows you to freely roam around places from real time like Rome or Florence in Italy for example, this means people can do anything they want wherever they want in a video game. But surely this means that as technology develops we may lose track of what is real, as we will be able to travel anywhere in the world with super-realistic graphics. This may lead us to not needing to travel or go on holiday, as we can do it all without leaving our chair. 

There are many theories that surround post modernism, like Jameson's criticism that post modernism is 'trapped in circular references and vacous', this could be acceptable in some cases like the film Hobo With a Shotgun. Other theories include Braudillards Hyper Reality theory and Julia Kristeva's theory of Intertextual Referencs, but post modernism rejects all of these theories, so surely this makes it a theory itself? this is the paradox of post modernism, as it rejects all the criticism AND support from other theorists, it must be a theory in itself. Which can lead to a lot of confusion and debate as to wether post modernism actually exists. This would be supported by Kirby Ferguson as he theorised that everything is a remix, so if everything is a remix then post modernism cannot exist, because everything it is referencing, homag-ing, parody-ing has already been done before and has no meaning anymore. 

Representation in my Music Video

Found Footage Music Video

Genre Essay

"Analyse one of your coursework productions in the relation to Genre." (25 Marks)

Genre was important when doing my product for my advanced portfolio, a music video. Genre is very important especially in a media piece such as a music video, as it is what determines the target audience and will specificly aim towards that audience which will make iot easier for them to enjoy it or find it in the first place. For example, fans of pop music will be more likely to find pop music videos on pop music channels or websites. This makes genre very important for both the audience and for the producers, as it will market the product more effectively and therefore will make the products sales/views etc. higher. John Fiske (1989) said that genre is "for the convinience of the audience and the producers".

For my product I chose to do a Rock genre video, but more specifically the song I chose that was of a rock/electronic genre, this is more specific but I think will be able

PoMo Music

'Uncool' Playlist

1)      Surfing The Void – Klaxons

2)      R.A.T.S – Cancer Bats

3)      Criminal – Eminem

4)      Touch Yourself – Every Time I Die

5)      Let You Go – Chase And Status

6)      Oceans Burning – The Horrors

7)      Trading Water – The James Cleaver Quintet

8)      The Way It Is – The Strokes

9)      Leave The Others Alone – Sophie Ellis Bextor

10)   The Perfect Beverage - Marmozets

Describe how your analysis of the conventions of real media texts informed your own creative media practice. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time’.

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                           My foundation portfolio consisted of a music magazine, before I started creating this product I researched many existing products that are on the market. This included magazines such as KERRANG! NME and Q magazine. I found many conventions and decided that some I would carry out and some I would break. For the article, I used a standard convention of the mode of address, as the typical mode of address is quite informal and directly speaks o the reader. I did this by using informal colloquial language like ‘the shows were mental!’ This is very common with my chosen genre as rock bands usually get quoted saying loud, exciting things, this is to address and relate to their younger fan base.

                            The convention of a masthead was adopted by me as I felt it was vital in connecting with my audience and creating an effect brand image for my product. I chose to follow the standard form of having the name of my magazine ‘GARAGE’ span across the whole page, this makes the page look even and will make it more pleasurable for the audience to view it. I also chose a rough font that will appeal to the rock audience I have aimed my product at. The main image overlaps the masthead of my magazine, I chose to do this as it is a convention and I believe that it makes the magazine look better as it has more layers to it and gives it more depth when text and images overlap.

                            For the front cover of my magazine, I used a rule of thirds technique to fit in with a convention of real music magazines. This means having sections on the page, where the masthead is in the top third, the main image is in the middle third, and the main story is in the bottom third. This method is used so the audience can easily glance at the cover and gain the information they need quickly to decide whether they want to read the magazine. The masthead in the top would attract them especially if they are fans of the magazine, this would make it recognisable. Also, the main image will relate to fans of the particular band, along with the bottom third stating the name of the band. This is a common feature of music magazines, and products like KERRANG work on the basis of having a band on the cover each week.

                            Another convention I stuck with was the common use of cover lines on the side of the front cover of my music magazine. I found this to be very common and it is used by the majority of music magazines, it gives the reader a further insight into the contents of the magazine without actually having to open it.  However I wanted to break the conventions slightly, so instead of sticking with a set font, I changed the font depending on the band name, I think this worked well and makes the magazine cover stick out more. This quote from Ken Robinson backs my decision to try something slightly unconventional. "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original".

                            For my advanced portfolio, I created an ancillary Poster relating to the release of my bands album. For this, I stuck to a typical convention of an album poster by adding small reviews or quotes from other music magazines, (KERRANG! And Rock Sound). I did this to show that it is a good album, so it is a persuasive technique that is used to make the audience believe that the album is good as famous music magazines have said so.  The analysis of real texts allowed me to use this convention as I found that on pretty much all of the posters I looked at, had some sort of star rating or quote from a big media company. A lot of album posters feature an image of the band or of the album cover itself, I went against this and used the same image as the album cover but in a slightly different way, I think this is because I have learned throughout the course that I can choose between conventions and I now know which ones would be best to stick to and which ones I can risk to break, which may make my product more unique and successful.

Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of postmodern media.

There are many arguments for and against post modernism, and there are many theories that support and criticise it. One of the main aspects of postmodernism that sparks debate is the use of intertextual references. A good example of how intertextual references are used by someone who is post-modern is on popular current cartoon shows such as Family Guy, who constantly make reference to classic films like Star Wars or Star Trek. Also, take the 2009 Quentin Tarintino film ‘Inglorious Basterds’ for example; this film has many references to other films, as it uses Spaghetti Western typefaces in the opening credits, which is unusual for a WWII movie. This sort of filmmaking would be supported my Julia Kristeva’s theory of intertextual references. But on the other hand someone like Jameson would criticise this, as he believes postmodernism is ‘vacuous and trapped in circular references’. Another example of where Jameson’s criticism would be in effect is in ‘Hobo with a Shotgun’. This film takes a laughable take on referencing popular films from the 80’s, the film is bad for the sake of being bad, this is why the idea of post modernism can be unconvincing. The films music in particular is reminiscent of the soundtrack used in popular 1980’s films like The Terminator. Both of these films are very similar in story but differ in quality of acting and screenplay, but they both make post-modern references to irrelevant media. Another difference between them is that Hobo with a Shotgun makes its references laughably obvious, whereas Inglorious Basterds drops them subtly, this is why Inglorious Basterds is seen as a good post-modern film compared to Hobo. It also means that traditional text-reader relations are challenged as some people will understand the references but other will not.

This leads on to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, directed by Edgar Wright, the film did badly at the box office and its references and target audience can explain this. As its target audience was young teenagers, and its references were from old films, video games, and music. For example there is a reference to the band ‘The Doors’, which most young people today will not be familiar with.  This means the films intention to be homage was lost because of its target audience.

Hyper-reality is also a part of post-modernism that could lead people to become negative about the idea. Theorised, by Braudillard, it is the idea that it is difficult to tell reality from a simulation. Examples of this come in video games, RPG’s like assassins creed where anything the user wants to do can be done, so it is just like real life. This game also uses real places from the past, this is what makes it post-modern as you can visit Rome or Venice, and see it as you would if you were there, but it is through a screen.  However we know that this is not realistic, whereas with the post-modern video game Desert Bus, we see an incredible level of realism, the game is so realistic it cannot be paused or restarted, and takes about 8 hours to get one single point. Also, if you crash the bus, you get towed back to the start of the game, which can take hours too. People against post-modernism will see this game as being very pointless and boring, but the post-modern view on the game is that it is true hyper reality and is literally the point of hyper reality games, as it is as realistic as it can be.

Kirby Ferguson theorised that ‘everything is a remix’, this means that he believes everything is post-modern, that everything is some way related or has some substance from something else that came before it. But surely by this logic post-modernism doesn’t exist? Ferguson also expresses his concern over the future, as everything will become a blatant copy of each other, and with more and more patent acts being issued no one can create anything anymore without being sued for it. Take Bridge Port Music for example, they sued an artist for a less than 2 second ‘sample’ in the song ‘100 miles runnin’. The sample is barely recognisable and makes the future seem bad for artists especially within the R&B genre, as they so often rely on samples with generic drum beats and patterns etc.

Another reason that is linked to music for people not being convinced by the idea of post modernism is that there are many famous songs that are taken from songs from the past. For example Kanye West’s ‘Goldigga’ seems to have been spawned through some older songs. Starting at ‘It must be Jesus’ by The Southern Tones and then from ‘I gotta woman’ by Ray Charles. Both these songs contain beats and symphonies that can be heard in Gold Digga, which supports Kirby Ferguson’s theory of everything being a remix.  

In conclusion, I believe that some people may not be convinced by the idea of postmodern media because they don’t see the humour in the intersexual references, or the over realism of video games and other aspects of post modern media. This may be for numerous reasons, but maybe because they see no point in referencing something old when you can just create something entirely new, which I think is a good point but then I also believe that it is good to pay tribute to older texts and reference things that perhaps a director (like Quentin Tarintino) is a fan of by using a homage. But then Jameson would say that postmodern media is trapped in circular references, so I think it is down to the viewpoint of each individual as to whether they see a point in post modernism, or they simply do not understand or care for the idea of it. 

Audience Notes

Creativity is "a process needed for problem solving... not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people". - James 1993

Creativity is "a process needed for problem solving... not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people". - James 1993

In terms of this quote I believe it is true, as anyone can learn to be creative by hard work and practice. A way in which this was true for me was when I was designing my school magazine (prelim) and my final AS magazine for my foundation portfolio. Adobe Photoshop was a new software for me and I struggled to get to know it quickly when doing my prelim task. This explains the quality of it, as I was not experienced at working with layers or editing images. Whereas in my final magazine I had practiced a lot with the program at home and in media classes, so this allowed me to really show my creativity as I could us Photoshop to edit the contrast and brightness of my images to make them stand out. A big difference that really shows my skill development is the cutting out of my main image compared to the simple use of boxes in my prelim. I also developed my skills in font type and size, as I used many individual fonts on my final magazine that were specific to my genre and bands, this made my front cover more convincing and interesting.

Another was this quote was illustrated was through my advanced portfolio music video, as I had never used iMovie before, let alone using a Mac before. However after using the software for my prelim music video (The kills – No Wow) I had reasonable knowledge on the program, although I found it time consuming and quite dull.  When the time came to edit my final music video I was able to quickly set about cutting up shots and using different methods to make the video specific to my rock genre. This included black and white effect and using very fast cuts to make the video energetic, which was one of the main focus’ of my group. A way in which I learnt how to use iMovie was through the use of the internet, as I was able to use social media sites such as YouTube to find tutorials on how to edit and use the software. Also I needed this help to actually get the files from the camera onto the computer… and then again when uploading the finished product back into YouTube ready to be embedded onto my blog.

I had to use the brief I was set to decide on how I would carry out both of my final products, this involves deadlines and conventions I needed to look at before producing the products. I think that all media producers have to start from the conventions of the type of product they are creating as this gives a good basis for creation, then, once the conventions are met they can use their creativity to make the product specific to them and unique. This can be demonstrated by both my foundation and my advanced portfolios. As, with the music magazine I looked at many real products from the market, this included NME, KERRANG! Rock Sound and Q Magazine. These allowed me to see the conventions of magazines, this included the use of mastheads and centre/main images, although KERRANG! Magazine showed me that these boundaries could be broken as they sometimes use more unusual strategies for their designs, including having a large amount of people on the front cover. I also learnt about colour schemes, and that the combination of Red, White and Black was the most common and the most successful colour palette in the magazine industry, this is why I opted for it. But actually I did add creativity as I chose a deeper and darker red than what is normally used.

This same method of research was used in my advanced portfolio music video, as I spent time watching real music videos using YouTube, I picked out videos that were specific to my genre like ‘Zzzonked’ by Enter Shikari and ‘Think or Swim’ by The James Cleaver Quintet. These were both performance videos and really laid the path for my group to actually choose to do a performance video ourselves.  

In terms of the quote, I think that he is correct in what he is saying but I then also think that there a people with special natural gifts that allow them to be very creative in what they do, but creativity itself can be acquired by most people by practice and hard work.