Charlie Brookers Newswipe:
Absoloute lol (see the meme i got in there) i love this, it's so funny!
The aim of Newswipe is to expose the inner workings of news media. The series is a comic, thoughtful and acerbic analysis of recent news coverage. Newswipe also looks at the way the news is presented to the public. Experts are on hand to pick apart certain stories and analyse the news media's obsessions.
-This is intertexual as the texts meaning is derived from other texts.
It parodies the news and urges the audience to interact and engage rather then sit there and be passive.
-It remixes culture, we see a typic set up of BBC news, not only does this make it hyperreal (as it almost seems real, how ever it's a representation of a representation!) but it shows how there are no new styles any more and it mostly a remix of old styles.
-It undemines authority as the News is generally something highly respected. However it shows breaking down of news values, showing quite a nihilistic view.
500 Days of Summer:
Best Rom Com out there really, it's classy, well made film, which has an orignal narrative and a quirky style.
-Plays with narrative conventions of time and space with a non linear narrative, umped around, starts at the end.
- Nihilistic, 'This is not a love story, it's a story about love'. Summer says how she doesn't believe in love. Little values. Different to normal conventions of a Rom Com.
-Intertexuality- Sid and Nancy references. More references to this with viral video of them acting a scene from this film.
-Irony- The Smiths, quite depressing band, ironic as it's a band that brings them together= happiness (for a while at least)
-Parody- Disney cartoon bird- intertexual and funny.
- Feminism- tables turned.
-Genres blurred: not a love story.
-Bricolage- lots of different bit of other types of filming put in for example, informational video and other black and white scenes.
Monday 22 March 2010
Grand narrative
Metanarratives are thought to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge. They are grand, large-scale theories and philosophies of the world, such as the progress of history, the knowability of everything by science, and the possibility of absolute freedom. Therefore, a metanarrative is a story about a story, encompassing and explaining other 'little stories' within schemes.
According to postmodernism, metanarratives have lost their power to convince – they are, literally, stories that are told in order to legitimise various versions of "the truth" and we now ceased to believe that narratives of this kind are adequate to represent and contain us all. We have become alert to difference, diversity, the incompatibility of our aspirations, beliefs and desires, and for that reason postmodernity is characterised by an abundance of micronarratives.
We now focus on specific local contexts as well as the diversity of human experience.
According to postmodernism, metanarratives have lost their power to convince – they are, literally, stories that are told in order to legitimise various versions of "the truth" and we now ceased to believe that narratives of this kind are adequate to represent and contain us all. We have become alert to difference, diversity, the incompatibility of our aspirations, beliefs and desires, and for that reason postmodernity is characterised by an abundance of micronarratives.
We now focus on specific local contexts as well as the diversity of human experience.
Sunday 21 March 2010
The Wire
The Wire is an American television drama series, each season focuses on a different facet of the city of Baltimore. There are seasons on the illegal drug trade, the port system, the city government and bureaucracy, the school system, and the print news media. It focuses on how institutions have an effect on individuals, wether you're a cop, a longshoreman, a drug dealer, a politician, a judge or a lawyer, must contend with whatever institution you've committed to.
The show is not postmodern in terms of style or aesthetics, but focuses on postmodern society in which life is meaningless and huge cooperations and institutions dominate the world in the capitalist system. We can link this to Buadrillard's work on the power of the system over us and also link it to the matrix as it tackles similar themes.
The next series is about the media, which is fitting!
The show is not postmodern in terms of style or aesthetics, but focuses on postmodern society in which life is meaningless and huge cooperations and institutions dominate the world in the capitalist system. We can link this to Buadrillard's work on the power of the system over us and also link it to the matrix as it tackles similar themes.
The next series is about the media, which is fitting!
Monday 22 February 2010
1b) "The concept of narrative is essential to media". In what ways did you use narrative in the construction of your media product?
Our film @ccidentally in Love is a romantic comedy. Romantic comedies are movies with light-hearted, humorous dramatic stories centred on romantic ideals such as a "true love" or the "perfect couple." Romantic comedy films are a sub-genre of comedy films as well as of romance films.
One of the conventions of romantic comedy films is the encounter of two partners in unusual or comic circumstances, known as the 'meet cute' situation. In our film we have developed quite an individual 'meet cute' situation where they meet over the Internet by chance after Rob's friend makes him an account. Therefore when meeting each other in really life it leads to quite comic circumstances in order to cover up the lies they have told each other.
The film has morals and ideologies, strong elements of a narrative, that believe in true love and having faith that love will conquer all. This is shown as, stereotypically, the characters have to fight to make sure their relationship works out. It all works out in the end and, of course, there is a happy ending.
Our text as a trailer has a strong sense of narrative with the beginning making it very obvious the two characters meet on the internet, showing them both with their laptops and intertexuality of the websites help move the narrative along. Also well as this the voice over narration from the main character, Lucy, helped introduce the audience to her feelings about the character Ben. The dialogue gave a chance to introduce both her friends but also move the pitch along, letting Lucy explain to the audience what was going on through the use of making her chat to her friends.
After this the montage of different shots of things like dates and moments in the film showing different emotions, lets the audience know quickly the kinds of things that happens in this film. Obviously as it's just a trailer there is a bit of a broken narrative, we cannot unravel the whole film into two minutes. Therefore little shots showing contrasting scenes are nice as they let the audience know what's in store. As well as this the settings of a lot of the scenes are outside, giving an autunmy feel and setting the mis en scene for the film as well. The shots inside let the audience know that the film has different settings too.
The typical structure of a Rom Com is often to have something funny at the end of the trailer to end it on a high and make it memorable. We at first had a shot of Lucy walking into a glass door, however this looked unprofessional so we chose to use a clip of her dancing. This is great as it ends the trailer nicely and lets the audience know that feel good things happen in this film, possibly pulling them into wanting to know more about the narrative.
One of the conventions of romantic comedy films is the encounter of two partners in unusual or comic circumstances, known as the 'meet cute' situation. In our film we have developed quite an individual 'meet cute' situation where they meet over the Internet by chance after Rob's friend makes him an account. Therefore when meeting each other in really life it leads to quite comic circumstances in order to cover up the lies they have told each other.
The film has morals and ideologies, strong elements of a narrative, that believe in true love and having faith that love will conquer all. This is shown as, stereotypically, the characters have to fight to make sure their relationship works out. It all works out in the end and, of course, there is a happy ending.
Our text as a trailer has a strong sense of narrative with the beginning making it very obvious the two characters meet on the internet, showing them both with their laptops and intertexuality of the websites help move the narrative along. Also well as this the voice over narration from the main character, Lucy, helped introduce the audience to her feelings about the character Ben. The dialogue gave a chance to introduce both her friends but also move the pitch along, letting Lucy explain to the audience what was going on through the use of making her chat to her friends.
After this the montage of different shots of things like dates and moments in the film showing different emotions, lets the audience know quickly the kinds of things that happens in this film. Obviously as it's just a trailer there is a bit of a broken narrative, we cannot unravel the whole film into two minutes. Therefore little shots showing contrasting scenes are nice as they let the audience know what's in store. As well as this the settings of a lot of the scenes are outside, giving an autunmy feel and setting the mis en scene for the film as well. The shots inside let the audience know that the film has different settings too.
The typical structure of a Rom Com is often to have something funny at the end of the trailer to end it on a high and make it memorable. We at first had a shot of Lucy walking into a glass door, however this looked unprofessional so we chose to use a clip of her dancing. This is great as it ends the trailer nicely and lets the audience know that feel good things happen in this film, possibly pulling them into wanting to know more about the narrative.
1a) Explain how you used digital technology to adhere to or deviate from the conventions of real media texts?
When planning our film we had multiple ideas in mind to use digital technology to adhere to the conventions of a romantic comedy film. Some we managed and some we weren't quite able to do as, ironically, we didn't have digital technology that was high tech enough.
Our trailer for @ccidentally in Love used the song Watch the Sun Come Up, by the artist Example. This is because it is a feel good song with a fun vibe. It has a strong feeling of romance about it that fits our film perfectly. As well as this is also a popular song. As our Film is a Rom com it's most likely directed at a mainstream audience, therefore choosing a popular song that they would have heard, is a good idea as it increases the chance them liking it and wanting to watch more of it. We did however have to edit this song a little, but this was because we were using yet more digital technology in order to adhere to real media texts...this was the well-known trick of a voice over introduction. We used Garage Band, a sound-editing program on the apple macs to, make certain parts of the song a little quieter when we had narration voice-overs and also for when we had dialogue. This was not a difficult task, and we made sure they were nicely faded in and out gradually giving it a professional edge. After the dialogue we then faded it up gradually but really well. The point in which we were doing this in this song was perfect as it was a small interlude in which the song was naturally meant to get louder. It was also leading up to the chorus of the song, this was great as it was the start of a new part of our trailer where we have a montage of Lucy and Ben smiling and on dates etc, all very typical of a Rom Com trailer.
To record the voice over we just used the Apple Macs, this was very easy process and wasn't too difficult. It's always very conventional for romantic comedies to have an introductory voice over as it sets the feel for the movie. Therefore taking the opportunity of the technology we had to do this was great.
As the song we used was a huge feature in our trailer we really tailored the editing to it, this makes it feel and look like there is a lot of effort put into it, which is very professional feeling. There is a point at the start where we completely edit to the beat of the music, just 0.1 seconds a shot. The shot moves up her arm, there are quick flashes of her hands typing in-between this. This it a very quick thing and it goes perfectly with the music, in which there is a particularly quick beat. It's a quirky introduction, with a professional edge. Really including the song, heightens it's meaning and relates it more to the movie, this is something a lot of real media texts do and it increases publicity as that one song is going to remind people of the film and how they fit together well. A real life example of this is the song Sweet Disposition, used in the trailer for 500 Days of summer. The song was used for all the trailers and in the film too with a lot of the shots edited to the music. After a while it became instantly recognisable as 'the song used on 500 Days of Summer'. We took a lot of inspiration from this film and felt embracing a good song choice was one of them.
There was one amazing thing that we wanted to do, but our level of digital technology in school did not let us, this was the famous split screen effect. We wanted to use this to show both Helena, Ingrid’s and Lucy's faces all looking shocked, all on the same screen but Lucy as the main feature. This is used in many film trailers as it lets you fit a many characters in as possible in such little time. It's also a really fancy feature that looks great and professional. Unfortunately we could not do this on the apple macs, as the program we have isn't the most advanced. This was shame, but we don’t feel it took anything away in particular from our trailer; it just would have been great in creating the effect of a real life trailer.
Our trailer for @ccidentally in Love used the song Watch the Sun Come Up, by the artist Example. This is because it is a feel good song with a fun vibe. It has a strong feeling of romance about it that fits our film perfectly. As well as this is also a popular song. As our Film is a Rom com it's most likely directed at a mainstream audience, therefore choosing a popular song that they would have heard, is a good idea as it increases the chance them liking it and wanting to watch more of it. We did however have to edit this song a little, but this was because we were using yet more digital technology in order to adhere to real media texts...this was the well-known trick of a voice over introduction. We used Garage Band, a sound-editing program on the apple macs to, make certain parts of the song a little quieter when we had narration voice-overs and also for when we had dialogue. This was not a difficult task, and we made sure they were nicely faded in and out gradually giving it a professional edge. After the dialogue we then faded it up gradually but really well. The point in which we were doing this in this song was perfect as it was a small interlude in which the song was naturally meant to get louder. It was also leading up to the chorus of the song, this was great as it was the start of a new part of our trailer where we have a montage of Lucy and Ben smiling and on dates etc, all very typical of a Rom Com trailer.
To record the voice over we just used the Apple Macs, this was very easy process and wasn't too difficult. It's always very conventional for romantic comedies to have an introductory voice over as it sets the feel for the movie. Therefore taking the opportunity of the technology we had to do this was great.
As the song we used was a huge feature in our trailer we really tailored the editing to it, this makes it feel and look like there is a lot of effort put into it, which is very professional feeling. There is a point at the start where we completely edit to the beat of the music, just 0.1 seconds a shot. The shot moves up her arm, there are quick flashes of her hands typing in-between this. This it a very quick thing and it goes perfectly with the music, in which there is a particularly quick beat. It's a quirky introduction, with a professional edge. Really including the song, heightens it's meaning and relates it more to the movie, this is something a lot of real media texts do and it increases publicity as that one song is going to remind people of the film and how they fit together well. A real life example of this is the song Sweet Disposition, used in the trailer for 500 Days of summer. The song was used for all the trailers and in the film too with a lot of the shots edited to the music. After a while it became instantly recognisable as 'the song used on 500 Days of Summer'. We took a lot of inspiration from this film and felt embracing a good song choice was one of them.
There was one amazing thing that we wanted to do, but our level of digital technology in school did not let us, this was the famous split screen effect. We wanted to use this to show both Helena, Ingrid’s and Lucy's faces all looking shocked, all on the same screen but Lucy as the main feature. This is used in many film trailers as it lets you fit a many characters in as possible in such little time. It's also a really fancy feature that looks great and professional. Unfortunately we could not do this on the apple macs, as the program we have isn't the most advanced. This was shame, but we don’t feel it took anything away in particular from our trailer; it just would have been great in creating the effect of a real life trailer.
Moving on in the world...to the hyperreal land of PROJECT EVALUATION.
Cool. So we're moving on to project evaluation the second section of our exam ..if you would like to see the process of our project then the blog for that is http://lizzyhelena.blogspot.com/ . We have done a trailer for a Rom Com called @ccidentally in Love.
Sunday 17 January 2010
Post-modern Precis
Play-plays with the genre conventions etc. Also a sense of play, makes it quite funny, they do not take themselves seriously.
Aesthetics- They way it looks. Could look different or similar to another production as if it is mimicking it.
Intertexuality-referencing other texts or media forms to enable meaning to be made.
Nihilistic- total rejection of established laws and institutions.
Parody-A text which doesn't simply imitate the style of another, but instead mocks or shifts the original texts conventions in some way.
Irony- Presenting something to mean something very different from what they appear on the surface to mean. This is used humorously.
Pastiche- Directly imitating a style of another text.
Eclectism- Drawing upon multiple style or genres. Often contrasting.
Self-referential- Refers to themselves.
- Rejects the idea that one media product can be more valued than the other. Anything can be art, culture has ‘eaten’ itself and there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute. Which is why there is so much intertexuality in media products today.
- The distinction between media and reality has collapsed. We now live in state of simulacrum, reality defined by images and representations.
- Ideas of truth are just competing discourses; the one we believe to be true is just the wining discourse for that moment in time.
- Hyperreality, using intertexuality and self-references breaks the rules of realism by exploring the nature of their own status as a constructed text, seeking not to represent reality, but media reality. No distinction between reality and what’s been represented. Baudrillard believes there is no longer any ‘original’ thing to represent; we live in a society made up of simulacra. Pure reality is thus replaced by hyperreal, where the boundaries of real and imaginary are eroded.
- There are many examples of Post-modern media on this blog for example The Matrix, Michael Winterbottom films, Coen brothers films.
- Michael Winterbottom: Offers films with fictionalised versions of real life, or docudramas, breaking the fourth wall. To some extent he mocks post-modern media, but this approach keeps up with postmodernism as the audience is in on the joke.
- The Coen brothers: Famous for intertexuality. Lots of pastiche and hybrid elements, for example characters often seen watching TV shows. Lots of irony and the effect that cinema is recycling itself.
- Post-modern TV: The Mighty Boosh, eclectic mix of conventions, influences and genre traits that make it impossible to product it to any one style, a form of bricolage. Ricky Gervais, The Office and Extras, self-reflective approach, Docusoap convention, pathos.
- Post-modern soap operas: Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper. To be expanded.
- The Cadbury Gorilla.
Aesthetics- They way it looks. Could look different or similar to another production as if it is mimicking it.
Intertexuality-referencing other texts or media forms to enable meaning to be made.
Nihilistic- total rejection of established laws and institutions.
Parody-A text which doesn't simply imitate the style of another, but instead mocks or shifts the original texts conventions in some way.
Irony- Presenting something to mean something very different from what they appear on the surface to mean. This is used humorously.
Pastiche- Directly imitating a style of another text.
Eclectism- Drawing upon multiple style or genres. Often contrasting.
Self-referential- Refers to themselves.
- Rejects the idea that one media product can be more valued than the other. Anything can be art, culture has ‘eaten’ itself and there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute. Which is why there is so much intertexuality in media products today.
- The distinction between media and reality has collapsed. We now live in state of simulacrum, reality defined by images and representations.
- Ideas of truth are just competing discourses; the one we believe to be true is just the wining discourse for that moment in time.
- Hyperreality, using intertexuality and self-references breaks the rules of realism by exploring the nature of their own status as a constructed text, seeking not to represent reality, but media reality. No distinction between reality and what’s been represented. Baudrillard believes there is no longer any ‘original’ thing to represent; we live in a society made up of simulacra. Pure reality is thus replaced by hyperreal, where the boundaries of real and imaginary are eroded.
- There are many examples of Post-modern media on this blog for example The Matrix, Michael Winterbottom films, Coen brothers films.
- Michael Winterbottom: Offers films with fictionalised versions of real life, or docudramas, breaking the fourth wall. To some extent he mocks post-modern media, but this approach keeps up with postmodernism as the audience is in on the joke.
- The Coen brothers: Famous for intertexuality. Lots of pastiche and hybrid elements, for example characters often seen watching TV shows. Lots of irony and the effect that cinema is recycling itself.
- Post-modern TV: The Mighty Boosh, eclectic mix of conventions, influences and genre traits that make it impossible to product it to any one style, a form of bricolage. Ricky Gervais, The Office and Extras, self-reflective approach, Docusoap convention, pathos.
- Post-modern soap operas: Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper. To be expanded.
- The Cadbury Gorilla.
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