Postmodern videos

Bill Kynes- What is Postmodernism?

The video explains how hard postmodernism is to define, the post part of postmodernism is very significant because it explains how postmodernism was a reaction against modernism as post suggests that it came after modernism. Modernism has a certain objective however postmodernism has a huge sense of creativity because everyone's adaptation of it can be different, allowing people t become creative. No one in terms of mankind are in neutral position as no one has a Gods eye view of reality. There is a lot of different perspectives from different social classes, however it has no one answer. Author of texts are no longer significant it’s more about what the audience of the text get from it, the conclusions which they draw is more important than the message the author wants to promote. As a result God is seen not to be significant as no grand story which explains why everything exists in the way that it does, the truth is simply what works for you and what can get others to believe people create their own meaning.

Postmodernism V Moderism

Modernism v postmodernism from SimonCheshire

Blurred Lines Printscreens

Blurred lines post modern print screens 1 from SimonCheshire

Postmodern Films

TED 2

The Lego Movie

Shaun Of The Dead

The Hungover Games

Postmodern Analysis of Blurred Lines

In the music video of Robin Thicke’s song Blurred Lines many different postmodern ideas are used. First of all it is purely based on Robin Thicke and his sex life, this means there is self-references throughout the video, for example a hashtag appears on the screen throughout reading #THICKE which is a reference towards the thickness of Robin Thicke’s private area and the camera shots of the girls in the video while this hashtag appears is very significant as it shows represents how they must want him because of how good and big his private area is. Furthermore this type of self-referencing is also used at the end of the video because they have balloons which spell ‘Robin Thick has a big D’ which references what has happened outside in the press.
Throughout the video Laura Mulvey’s male gauze theory is perfectly portrayed. For example very bright fleshy type colours are used to exaggerate the exposure of women, furthermore the choreography is also a example of the male gauze because they are dancing in sexy ways and supposed to be seduced by the male characters this shows the male gauze because the audience see’s it from a male perspective compared to the females perspective. The male gauze is also used through the costumes the different characters in the video are wearing, for example female characters are wearing very small tops which are practically see through whereas in contrast the male characters are wearing black suits which suggests that the females are only their for sex and that the male characters are a lot more dominant.
Throughout the music video the female characters are doing many different physical activities, for example in one shot one of them is riding a bike this is a reference to society because it is trying to explain how society feels that females have to have the complete body to be able to get the best men which in this case is perceived to be Robin Thicke. Voyeurism is a huge part of the music video. This refers to the idea of constantly looking to gain sexual pleasure; this has been used throughout the video of Blurred Lines because the opposite sexed characters are always looking at each other in a seductive kind of way. As Andrew Goodwin said females will be objectified through camerawork and editing body shots, this has been done by Blurred lines director drastically to again over sexualise the female characters. The whole music video allows the audience to be invited to want the female and male characters to have sex because of the way both characters are portrayed; this uses pastiche because it is kind of parodying a soft porn movie where they begin to be seduced which will then be followed by sex. Because the female characters are purely objectified for sex and sex only many feminists have released parodies of the music videos in a protest againt’s this song and againt’s society because they feel that it isn’t right that women can be so easily objectified for sex without anyone thinking twice.
Furthermore in mise-en-scene in the video they have used props such as a lamb which is held by one of the female characters next to Pharrell who is wearing a farmer styled hat this is a good intertextual reference because it references the lamb as being innocent and him being dressed like a farmer implies he is going to ‘tend’ to her like a farmer would to a normal lamb, this uses intersexual pastiche referencing because the audience see the sexual message of the lamb rather than it just being another event in the video which isn’t connected and doesn’t have an implied message. The high key lighting which is used throughout the music video implies that everything goes right when men have authority and power compared to when the women do.
The video ends with a two shot of Pharrel going to touch Robin Thicke’s private this is a very quick shot however is very significant in terms that it has been done to try and quickly change the whole message of the music video, to just Robin Thicke is irresistible to everyone rather than just women. This video is very postmodern for many different reasons. For example Blurred Lines music video is clearly breaking all the acceptable rules which would be expected for a music video whether this is through Andrew Goodwin or it is through modernists the set of rules and conventions which are established for a music video are vaguely used however most of them are clearly being broken. Furthermore it is postmodern in the way that it uses intertextuality however it is blatantly sexualising females and using them as objects, which may offend a variety of people. However if the audience see it through the male gauze and that is simply that it may be found as a source of humour.

Narrative

Narrative

3 Ways Which Narrative is structured:

The three ways are: Episodic, Circular and Linear.

Episodic: This is where events of the film are told in more chronological order however return to one specific thing. Similar to a way a book is broken into chapters.

Circular: This narrative is a story which starts at the end and tells the story through a series of flashbacks and then goes full circle and returns to the end of the film.

Linear: This is the most basic narrative structure where a story told in the order of which things happen, it goes from beginning to end like it is expected.  May also be referred to ‘cause and effect’.

Narrative Viewpoint:

•       Restricted Narrative- This is where the story is told from the characters viewpoint, which makes the audience feel more of a part of it and can help generate more feeling to the narrative. As a result the audience will have to work out situations similar to the way the characters would.

•       Omniscient Narrative- This is giving the audience a high perspective so they are able to see a huge amount of things, a lot more than the characters can see, many fight scenes in films would use this. The audience will be able to see characters plotting against others and gives them more information about the story line.

Narrative Time and Space:

Editing can have a huge impact on the narrative of a film. The order of events in a film is created through editing, pace of the scene is also decided in editing. Time has a huge impact on films, time can be stretched so something may last longer and can be cut short so bad parts are cut out.

Gaps in the narrative is called ellipsis, for example when a character travels somewhere or gets dressed you wouldn’t see everything involved unless it’s relevant and the audience accept this as part of the film world rather than the real world.

Time can also be exaggerated to build up tension or drama which would make a particular scene more dramatic etc.

Vladamir Propp:

Propp's theory was written about 80 years ago about Russian stories and are relatable to nearly every film or short film ever made, even though it is so old some of Propp's characters can be applied to many modern film narratives.

Propp's theory has eight main character types these are: the hero, the false hero, the princess, the father (of the princess), the helper, the villain, the donor and the dispatcher.

Each of these character types has a specific role in the narrative. Sometimes one character may take on more than one role. Furthermore it shouldn't be assumed that the princess should be a women or even a human because it could be a goal or reward which they are trying to reach.

Tvetvan Todorov:

•       Todorov's devised a theory which looks at the narrative structures according to the different stages of the narrative these five stages are:

•       1. The Equilibrium - which is the state of balance in the narrative, where the audience get to understand the characters and their specific situation.

•       2. The Disruption - This is when oppositional characters or events are introduced to the story to help it move forward.

•       3. Recognizing the distribution - The story develops different events and other characters become involved and more drama occurs within the film.

•       4. Trying to repair the disruption - At this point there may be a twist or climax.

•       5. The new equilibrium - The distribution or problem is solved and harmony is resolved, however as a result things may have changed.

How it will affect my Short Film:

The narrative theory will have affect my short film in a huge way. For example I can use the episodic structure where the events of my character is told in order however will always return to his dream and goal and how he has to do certain things to reach where he wants to be.

I can use both the main narrative viewpoints to exaggerate my film, for example I can use restricted narrative to give my audience my characters perspective in certain things and also use omniscient narrative to show the challenges he has to overcome from a different perspective and the audience can judge whether he will do it or not.

Narrative time and space will also affect my short film because it can slow certain scenes down to make it more dramatic and also speed it up it skip some irrelevant things, furthermore  ellipsis will be used throughout my short film because it will jump from scene to scene meaning that the audience will assume certain things have already happened.

Lastly the theorists will also affect my short film for example in Propp’s theory he has 8 main character types which affect the short film in my case the hero will be my main character because he is aiming to achieve his goal and showing the audience what they can achieve, furthermore the princess would be reaching the goal in my video by either scoring or reaching the places they want to reach. However the villain in my film will be the mental hurdles my character will have to break through to reach the top.

Theorists and how they will affect short film