Sophie G Practice - Section B

Provide your definition of postmodern media and support it with with examples. 


Postmodernism was an idea created after modernism, to challenge the ideologies that modernism had created. A postmodernism structure was formed around the lack of belief that others had started to lose, an example of this being World War Two and the effect of the Atomic Bomb. It gave that sense of there being no morality, nobody knew what to believe anymore, this also came from other structures being broken, an example of this being the idea of a perfect family (two parents, two children) with divorce and family separation being more of a common normality, this showed how the boundaries that modernism was had started to break, allowing postmodernism to be a prominent ideal.

Wreck It Ralph is a film that shows a great deal of postmodernism, without showing too much due to being created by Disney. With the main character being an villain in the arcade world, the film brings nostalgia to older viewers, with other games and intertexual references including Sonic and Mario being mentioned and featured, it would give a sense of being young again. With again the world being based on a sense of there being no morality, an issue with nostalgia could occur, with the audience wanting to go back to a time when they had less troubles. Nostalgia is powerful as you're looking back and not looking forward and developing. It is encouraging a way of escape.

Dystopia is featured within the film, this is created by the game 'Hero's Duty' - based off the game Call of Duty. This is shown within in the film when the world created by the arcade characters is taken over by pixelated bugs. The dystopia provides the fact of how bad things can happens and take over the good. This could be an idea of war and how one country goes to fight another.

Another factor shown within Wreck It Ralph is Morality, showing that good beats evil. This is shown when by accident Ralph ends up ruining a party he wasn't invited to, to celebrate the anniversary of his game. Others involved leave him, making it so he is alone is a lonely penthouse. Disney is showing how good can beat evil and showing by him being alone there is that sense of him getting what he deserves. But due to the lack of belief there is the factor of is this being shown purely being it is a children's film, in reality due to there being no morality would good really beat evil. Or could evil really win and be the one who is victorious.

A positive resolution is also shown within the film this is shown when Ralph visit an AA meeting for being bad. It showing that there is a positive resolution as he's deciding to turn up to change his life and make himself good. This is an example of morality and that something good is happening.

Another media text which is based on postmodernism is Black Mirror. The TV show is created by Charlie Brooker, showing how by living in a post modernism world can effect us. He is creating a warning of what could be. Black Mirror and Wreck It Ralph are similar types of texts, as they are both post modern, but only to certain extents.

The episode of Black Mirror I decided to look into was '15 Million Merits' a world based on the theory Baudrilliard produced of simulacra. The Tv show showed how nothing was real, creating a sense of emptiness. It showed how there was this world where really everything was based on money. Their everyday job was to produce electricity by cycling on exercise bikes, this showed a sense of a superficial, as those who were deemed skinny and active were allowed to cycle, with those who weren't having to do other jobs which would be quite demeaning to them.

The only way out of this bland simulated and hyperreal world was to be a contestant on a TV show named 'Hot Shots' - a produced talent format similar to the X Factor or Britain's Got Talent. Hot Shots showed Jameson's theory of style, as those picked to go further in the show where based on looks not ability, this shows a sense of style over substance. 

Another media text which shows post modernism is the Sims 4, an online world  hugely created through Baudrilliard's theory of simulation and hyperreality. With Sims 4 with the game being post modern, due to it being a gaming structure it is also digimodernism, this is due to you being able to control what is happening.

The game allows you to be who you want to be, this shows fluid identity as you allowed to express yourself without a superficial viewed being placed upon you by others in society. The game allows you to look and behave how you want, for example you could drown another sim just because you felt like it, in reality you'd be put in prison, in the game world you'd just live your normal everyday life. The game holds no consequences. 

Another factor that the game provides is panpoticon, the fact of the sims allows you to everything. Other example being Big Brother and in a way prison, as you're always being watched. 

Run out of time, didn't get to write everything that I had planned to do.

Mock - Sophie Gordon

Explain how your skills in the creative use of digital technology developed over time in a range of examples from your media productions?

My use of creatively using the forms of digital technology has developed, gaining me skills between AS and A2. I feel this has allow me to produce more creative work that would now sell to an audience, as i've now become more aware of post modernism. This has allowed me to become more original with my ideas, and even through exampling intertexual references, having a more clearer idea of my own.

I feel that from AS my presentations skills have developed, this gained me an advantage when having to show my work to a range of audiences. For example during AS my skills were very limited, along using YouTube and Blogger as digital formats when presenting and in some ways producing my work, this lead to disadvantage as it would make my work appear to be less informative and lack in skill. This developed within A2 as I then was able to use more digital formats, using the small amount of skills I had gained the year before. I felt this made my work look more professional and when asking for feedback for audiences it would possibly sell more as their was more of a style and understanding there. Using a range of digital technologies that we had used before, we always experimented more and had the ability to use medias that we wouldn't of had the skills to use. For example using photoshop within our website and digipak, we knew it was important to make sure we had a strong image for our band, as we found that style is more important than the substance and that how image creates more money.

During our research and planning we found during A2 we used a lot more of digital technology to form our ideas. This came from being able to look at popular music videos online, via YouTube and then being able to see the popularity from the comments based below the artists work. We could also see feedback on other media formats, Twitter being the main source of this. To gain intertexual reference when creating the video, we also looked at films and television programmes to gain inspiration, this would be classed a modern structure as film and television were produced in the 1950's, this isn't post modern. We gained skill due to creating our thrillers, as we worked with more structure as we had less freedom, due to working closely with a brief and enigma code. This also helped when creating our Website and digipak as we knew we would have to base it strongly on media forms, to create the relationship with the audience that we needed, also making sure we expressed skill with a slightly technical website and digipak that looked well structured.

When gaining feedback from our audience it was important to use a variety of social media forms. During AS we only used YouTube, during A2 we knew it was important to use a range. For example Twitter, Instagram. We understood this was were our audience more than likely was going to form, as music is now being illegally downloaded instead of being bought in shops. By posting images and videos of our band, this created a stronger audience than we once had. We found it important to form a relationship with 'fans' as these were the people that would support the band and would the band the biggest profit (as they would being buying into a brand) this would be done by sales of merchandise, cd's, including digital downloads. 

This leads to how we then used digital technology with our main product, the music video. Our editing was basic within AS, as apart from the main thriller footage  we only used a slight grey scale, foley and soundtrack. The skills used within the task mentioned were rather basic, using sound clips from websites, when instead we should of created our own and used GarageBand to produce something that sounded more realistic and better. Within AS we decided to use more digital technologies, as this time around we wasn't so conformed to a structure and more power to create a less traditional format. Within our music video we decided to use green screen, to display our character falling onto a rail track, this idea formed from the idea of emptiness and how the traditional life there once was (married parents and two kids) didn't exist and this would create issues of some people.

From looking at my use of digital technology other the past two years, I found to be more creative with my ideas that it is key to be aware of postmodernism. As working with structure and not breaking boundaries, can show a lack of skill, which is something I developed after being exposed to postmodernism, and decided to look outside of the box.

Sophie Gordon Screenshots

1. Morality (Good beats Evil)

By accident previously in the game Ralph ends up ruining a party to celebarate 30 years of his gaming running, because he was tired of being alone. All of the others that are involved in the game moved out of the game penthouse, allowing Ralph to move in. It shows that good beats evil, still leaving him alone, as they believe that's what he deserves.

2. Democracy 

The rest of the game are grouping together, leaving him alone outside.

3. Positive Resolution 

Ralph is at an AA meeting for being bad within his game. This shows a positive resolution as he's decided to turn up to change his life and make himself good. Shows it's a positive resolution, as something good is happening.

4. Intertexual Reference 

Audience are shown a selection of different games. Shows a screen of the game Dance Mat. Shows a game that many people would of played when they was younger. It also would show nostalgia.

5. Dystopia 

Hero's Duty - Showing how bad can happen and take over something good. Shown when the bugs are let lose in Sugar Rush. Could be expressing war, when one country goes to another to fight.

Sophie Pre Reading - Audience

I

theorist from the thriller last year

Claude Levi - Strauss, Brinary Oppositions

During our thriller we used Brinary opposites to show to opposites set off against each other. 

Examples of Brinary Oppositions are:

These screenshots show two different characters, being against each other. 

Reception Theory, Stuart Hall

During our thriller we used the Reception theory to show opposition. The reception theory is normally used within in literacy, but when used in filmed media (our sequence) it allows the audience to find their own meaning and interpretation. 

Examples of the Reception Theory are: 

The audience wouldn't know why this character is travelling on the train.

The audience could be thinking 

Why is he on the train?

Where is he going?

Vladmir Propps, argues that narrative always have certain character types who perform certain actions. Characters are agents of actions.

We had a villain and a hero. But we didn't show the stereotype. For example our villain was a woman and our hero was a man, normally within films its the other way around.

Roland Barnes, Enigma code; Action code. Also open, and closed texts.

An enigma code creates mystery and question for the audience.

Who is she?

Why is she walking around London?

Why is she the only character in colour?

We didn't show/give the audience the idea of who the villain was until the end of the opening sequence. This created an enigma code.

Tim O'Sullivan (1998) - argues that all media texts tell us some kind of story

By showing our character doing different tasks around London it creates a story for the audience to think about.

By using different theorists in our thriller, this will help and gain us skill when creating our music video. 

The Brinary opposition goes along with the idea for our music video as we are showing somebody fighting demons. The reception theory will allow the audience to get their own view of the character in our music video, so if he should be able to now life a happy life or if his demons should still follow him. 

Genre

Daniel Chandler (2001)

Term is used in a literary theory, media theory to refer to a distinctive type of 'text'

Steve Neale (1995)

Genres are dynamic and envolve overtime.

Generic characteristics 

• Typical Mise-en-scene/visual style 
• Typical types of narratives 
• Generic personnel
• Typical sound design 
• Typical editing style

Jason Mittell (2001)

Argues that genres have different boundaries with differentp types of media texts. Operate within the industry and audience. 

Rick Altman (1999)

Different genres offer different types of pleasure.

-Emotional pleasures 

-Viscoral pleasures 

-Intelleotional puzzles

Nicholas Abercrombie (1996) 

'The boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable' 'A steady dismantling of genre'

David Buckingham (1993)

'Genre is not... Simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is a constant process of negotiation and change. 

I think we have a majority of every genre charactisic in our thriller. I feel like we also used part of Mittell's theory as we slightly argued with the genre boundaries (again this being the changing of stereotypes). I felt we had used Steve Neale's theory within our thriller, for example using typical sound design - dark, tense and suspense soundtrack to go along with the thriller and loud foley. With using Altman's theory I felt we had used emotional pleasures - the audience feeling sadness and pity for the male main character. Intelleotional puzzles - suspense, enigma code. I didn't feel that we hadn't showed chandler and buckingham's theories within our thriller, because we didn't we show culture within the thriller.

Our thriller is both traditional and non  traditional - Dismantled it slightly with the change of stereotypes, but yet kept it traditional with the suspense building, character chasing another character thriller type sequence. With costume, props and location also being traditional - costume being quite plain and dark (red, blacks and greys). Characters wearing quite smart/business wear costumes (Smart dress and coat, suit and briefcase) the location was rather traditional with the thriller being set in london (The capital - known landmarks being shown). The props we included were phones and sim cards, showing there was an effect of blackmail happening between the two main characters.

Sophie Gordon Essay

Looking back at my thriller i'm trying to link different theorists with the work I had already created. I looked at the prositives and negatives within the sequence that Sophie and I had created and linked them to Tzetvan Todorov, Roland Barthes and Claude Levi. 

The first theorists I decided to see if my work linked with their theory was Tzetvan Todorov, the theory he created was the argument of the structre of Equilibrium/Disequilibrium/New Equilibrium. I noticed that we did have an equilibrium/Disequilibrium Structure. Within our sequence we showed a female villain who was seen as a strong individual, powerful character. This character was blackmailing a business man, showing that are narrative did contain a structure.

Even though we did show a strong concept for the theory that Tzetvan Todorov created, in some areas and could of shown the theory in a stronger way. For example we did show a disequilibrium structure, this was highly visible. The way we could of  pushed through a more obivious take on the theory would have been to show the male character (who was the hero) being phyiscally shaking with fear. I feel looking back even though we did show the actions of being scared, if we had showed it in a different way it would of not only made the sequecne slightly more intense, but also more interesting for the audience.

I also linked Roland  Barthes with our sequence. Roland created the theory for the Enigma code, Action code and also opened and closed texts. We showed an enigma code very strongly throughout our sequence. We did this by creating an engima code within our thriller. We created suspence and mystery by showing our villain walking around London doing different tasks. We also only showed our villain as the only character in colour. This would of created questions and queries for the audience. These questions wouldn't be answered until the end of the sequence.

Claude Levi - Strauss created the theory of binary opposities. We showed this a huge amount within our thriller. We went aganist the stereotypical  concept and had a female villain and male hero.

Did 'nt finish within the 30 minute time. Need to work on my time keeping and planning skills.

Genre Essay

To what extent does your thriller conform to traditional forms of structure?

My production group and I created a thriller opening sequence, in which we also had a sub genre of mystery. We used different forms of theories within our thriller to show the mystery, tension and suspense that we wanted to capture the audience with.

Our thriller was very structured and had generic characteristics placed within the sequence. For example our Mise-en-scene was rather typical, giving the audience the visual style of a traditional thriller. We made sure we shot our thriller in London, we did this to show famous landmarks and show that the characters were in a modern and mature location. Our thriller was based upon a blackmailing between a male and female, so we wanted to show the blackmailer being done in a well known location, this would show the audience that the characters were adults as they worked in the capital of the country.

Our lighting was dark and we also added a black and white filter when editing in final cut pro to create more tension as the audience watched, we didn't want to distract with bright colours and we felt that would break away from the mood we was trying to create. The only colour we did show was red (this being shown on our main character and also props - red telephone boxes)

Again we kept with the typical sound design for a thriller. When creating our soundtrack and foley on garage band we decided to kept the beat of sound quite low and we wanted to create tension that would keep the audience of edge. Also our foley was rather loud, we did this to show importance, for example our main character was wearing high heels. We made this foley loud so the audience would know that she was the main focus and the actions she was doing in that scene would cause a consequence for either of the character by the end of the sequence.

Our thriller argued against different types of boundaries, this would of changed the views for our audience by the sequence not following the normal stereotype rule. In our thriller we decided that we wanted to show a woman blackmailer instead of a male, we did this to show how stereotypes can be broken and that either sex's can manipulate a situation to get what they want. 

We showed different types of pleasures. I felt the main on we produced was emotional pleasure. Our main male character was being blackmailed, this would have an effect on him, causing the audience to hold sadness and pity for him. We showed him as the weaker character by him being shown with a high angle, almost as if the blackmailer was looking at him while he was travelling on a train to work after he had received a call from the female villain.

Also we showed intelleotional puzzles, by using an enigma code to create queries and questions for the audience. We didn't really show the character was being blackmailed until the near end. We also created suspension, tension and fear.

I think our thriller shows both traditional and non-traditional forms of structure. I felt it was shown as a traditional thriller by the way we used costume, props and location. For example our costume expressed that our thriller was traditional. Showing the female character wearing a dress and smart coat and also our male character wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, in traditional thriller business/smart costume is shown, so we kept to the rule that applied with that. The main colours we used were red, blacks and greys, we used these colours to create a dark mood, this would have created suspense for the audience. Again we went along with the traditional concept by the location being set in central London. The we used were also again were traditional to form of thriller structure, we included phones and sim cards, showing there was an effect of black mail happening between the two main characters.

The only thing I felt that was an non-traditional form of structure was that we broke the rule of stereotypes, to which we dismantled it to produce a thriller that was our own. We decided to use a female villain instead of a male. In traditional thrillers it is the other way around.