Postmodern Media... 2nd Part

Intertextuality--- Tarantino--> Leone

Blood Simple [1984]

Shots that home seen used on

Other fims-- Shallow Grave, re used it.

Eg, Sergio Leone- Pioneered many shots/styles for western. Once Upon a Time in the West...intertextualised over 30 westerns.

AUTEURS-

definition: An author/creator with personalised vision/style whose style is highly recognisable.

Leone

Tarantino

Coen Bro's (these 3 all surrounding postmodern texts...not representing the real world, representing the film world)

Hitchcock

Speilburg

Winterbottom

... Winterbottom similarly being a postmodern Auteur, directing films such as

In This World [2002]

Green Grass

The Bourne Trilogy

... Coen Brothers- Burn After Reading with George Clooney and Brad Pitt; A list actors where the postmodernism becomes prominent because the A list actors bring their previous roles to the role they play.

Similarly, in Tarantino's Pulp Fiction,this same trait is brought through in the dance sequence when John Travolta and Uma Therman dance in the 50's Diner... he is parodying himself and relating himself to previous roles where he has danced for example, Grease and Saturday Night Fever [1979]. This creates quite a hyper real situation, where the audience uses their own intertextual knowledge to relate to the dance sequence. Without that previous intertextual knowledge, it would not be perhaps as humorous for the audience.

In fact, Tarinto's production company, so named 'A Band Apart' is intertextual in itself and is related to Jean Luc Goddard's iconic French Film, 'Bande a part' [1960's] where there is a dance sequence similar to the dance sequence portrayed by Travolta in Pulp Fiction.

The importance of a media saturated world- becomes difficult to distinguish between reality and the media reality.

Introduction to the origins of Postmodernism

C. BEFORE 1500

THE DARK AGES

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ENLIGHTENMENT

agreement about best way forward for mankind because Protestants believed God was within... belief in progress through knowledge

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MODERNS - progress through knowledge & reason... Paintings, Picasso, Dali etc represent this new outlook.

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ANCIENTS- reverting back to old ideas from the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians

Chandler's Model... RECEPTION (AUDIENCE)--REFERENT (SEMIOTICS)--PRODUCTION

Baudrillard-->> Hyperreality.

Postmodernism- The Mighty Boosh (HW)

Postmodernism defies easy definition; dictionaries do not do it justice but it generally comprises of a set of core ideas and key concepts that work collaboratively to shape it. Enter The Mighty Boosh: two zoo keepers, one owner, one shaman and a gorilla. Here are some of the factors involved...

1) ECLECTICISM - a wide range of influences, contributions and techniques

Eclecticism shines through the varied characters they portray and the range of musical styles they adopt. Put simply: you never know what you are going to get.

2) INTERTEXTUALITY - an author's borrowing and transformation of a prior text

Parallels are regularly made between the Boosh, Monty Python, Spaced, The Goodies and The League of Gentlemen with their individual brands of surrealist humour and sporadic happenings.

3) PARODY - a humorous or satirical imitation of a text

The Boosh is scattered with parodies from the generic (see Mutants for a take on the Sci-Fi, Horror genres), musical (see hard rock parodied in Bollo's Monkey Hell) or textual (see 'The Nightmare of Milky Joe' for a take on Castaway).

4) BRICOLAGE - A technique where works are constructed from various materials available

Mighty Boosh can be viewed as a bricolage of many already tried-and-tested formulas but does this make it less original?

5) ACTS AGAINST MODERNISM - Postmodernism... - Postmodernism acts against reason, orthodoxy and logic to bring us a text that is rich with surrealism and unpredictability

A talking gorilla, a Mexican jazz-fusion guitarist with a door in his afro, a man made of cheese- a celebration of the medium of television that allows the Boosh to pick and choose from a history of tried-and-tested formulas.

6)NOSTALGIC- Celebrates the past and bathes in its glory

7) NARCISSISTIC- Fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity

Evident in the character of Vince Noir who has a fascination with his appearance and a burning passion to become a front man (his idol being Mick Jagger)

...it's the combination of narcissism and nihilism that defines postmodernism

8) AN ACTIVE AUDIENCE -

In this unpredictable, surreal and unreasoning postmodernist world, the audience has no choice but to be an active and aware participant ready to follow whatever twist and turn the text decides to take.

9) HYPER-CONCIOUS - Aware of itself

The Boosh team cleverly use this at the beginning of each episode with Vince and Howard standing in front of stage curtains introducing the show with direct references as to what to look out for. In their live show, postmodernist mix of stand-up, improvisational and theatrical styles.

The Mighty Boosh provides us with an effective framework for postmodernism deconstruction and is bursting with its characteristics from the music, costumes, characters, design, mise-en-scene and dialogue. It provides its active audience with a contemporary variety show that is all knowing, highly aware and above all, a celebration of the medium of television.

Postmodernism- Introduction

Bricolage
&
Hyperreality

Playfulness
Aesthetic
Irony
Nihilism

Parody
Intertextuality
Pastiche
Eclectic
Self-referencial

Postmodernism- Notes from Chapter (Holiday HW)

Postmodernism

Where the idea of representation gets 'remixed', played around with through pastiche, parody + intertextual references.

Basic Post modernist ideas:
-Post modern media rejects the idea thant any media productor text is of any greater value than another. Anything can be art.

-Distinction between media and reality has collapsed. We now live in a 'reality' defined by images and representations ... a state of simulacrum. Images refer to each other as reality - this is a state of hyperreality.

-All ideas of 'the truth' are just competing claims and what we believe to be the truth at any point is merely the 'winning' discourse.

Many examples of these texts which are intertextual and self referencial, breaking the rules of realism. They represent media reality.

EXAMPLES:
News reports and images of 9/11
Films - Blade Runner, The Matrix
Auteurs- Michael Winterbottom, The Coen Brothers + Wong Kar-Wai
TV- The Mighty Boosh, Ricky Gervais and The Wire, Echoe Beach/Moving Wallpaper, The Cadbury Gorilla
Games- Grand Theft Auto and Second Life.