Maleficent

Question 1a

Question 1a by fionawongmedia

Question 1a advice

Question 1a advice from Media Studies

Blade Runner

Postmodern film: Maleficent

http://fashionista.com/2014/05/maleficent-makeup-costumes
This article talks about the make-up and costumes that Angelina Jolie wore in the film. It mentions details about specific bits of make-up such as the skin, lips, cheekbones, eyes etc. and tells us how many hours were put in to creating the look. Overall this article gives a good insight into how Angelina Jolie transformed into Maleficent.

http://www.logosapologia.org/?p=5527

Summary of the 3 theorists

Baudrillard

His main theory is about simulacra and simulation. Simulacra is how society simulates the real. He argues that today there is no such thing as reality and we are no longer sure what is real and what is not real because there’s an instability of meaning due to the signs given by the mass media. We experience everything through the media so we accept things as being real which in fact may not be real but we perceive it as being real because it has been presented to us as being the reality. Simulation is the active process of replacement of the real.
He uses these to explain that we all live in something known as a hyperreality. This is the idea that we are now detaching ourselves from reality and choosing things which make ourselves happy.
Therefore, he is suggesting that we are now losing the ability to make sense of the distinction between the real and the fictional. This however has been criticised as jokes for example only work when people can distinguish between what is real and what is not real.

Lyotard

Simplifying to the extreme he defines postmodernism as an ‘incredulity towards metanarratives’ which means that totalising stories are losing importance. He rejects metanarratives, for example he opposes the idea that everything is knowable by science and that science possesses a higher kind of knowledge. He argues that theory is never neutral and so scientists have no more direct access to the truth than philosophers and historians. The narratives produced by scientists such as research papers and hypotheses are governed by protocols of the field in which they work in. They are therefore only exploring within the limits of the system.
He notes that there is no one set of rules, story or condition which can accurately explain knowledge. He believes that everyone has their own perspective so metanarratives should give way to more localised narratives which would address specific events and the diversity of human experience.

Jameson

He argues that postmodernism is a culture of pastiche and that “stylistic innovation is no longer possible” and “all is left is to imitate dead styles”. This is arguing that rather than a culture of creativity, postmodern culture is a culture of quotations of the past and is the imitation of styles without creating new meanings. He refers to pastiche as being a “blank parody” without any deep or hidden meanings and says that parody was replaced by pastiche in the postmodern culture.
He considers totality to still be a valuable idea. He notes that we should try to understand how all the pieces of our world and our experience fit together. This is because knowledge gives us power so the more we understand about our world, the better the choices we make and act upon them to improve our world.

Postmodern film

Lyotard

Genre

Genre can be defined in many ways; one definition which was argued by Feuer stated that ‘A genre is ultimately an abstract conception rather than something that exists empirically in the world,'

Genre is represented in my music video by the relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The lyrics of the song is about friendship and this could be regarded as a conventional concept in the pop genre because the lyrics of pop songs usually talk about relationships –although they are mostly romantic relationships but friendship is perhaps the next most common relationship used.
Gledhill argued that 'differences between genres meant different audiences could be identified and catered to... This made it easier to standardise and stabilise production‘. In my music video the pop genre could be identified by the audience with the significant features such as the song itself being quite up-beat and consisting of a catchy melody. The lyrics talks about friendship which would be seen as a typical concept in the pop genre as the audiences are generally younger and so they can relate to it.

Furthermore, McQuail noted that “The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers.” In relation to this, my music video was created with the conventional features in the genre which would meet the expectations of the audience. For example, by having a happy ending it is conventional because the audience would expect that in the pop genre as it usually portrays things in a positive way.

Narrative terminology

Syntax - The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. Protagonist - Also known as the hero; the character who drives the narrative forward through the choices they makes and the actions they take. Antagonist - Also can be known as the villain; the character in the plot whose functions is to oppose the protagonist. They may not necessarily be bad but they stand between the protagonist and their goals. Climax/crescendo - Where the conflict of the narrative reaches its highest. Equilibrium - A state where things are balanced. Disequilibrium - The disruption of the equilibrium. Enigma code - Drives narrative by an unanswered question, creates interest for the audience. Proairetic/action code - Drives narrative through anticipation of an action’s resolution. Linear - The most simple and commonly used narrative structure where a story is told in a chronological order of events that happen from beginning to end; sometimes referred to as a ‘cause and effect’ narrative as the consequences of an event have an effect on something else which drives the narrative. Non-linear - The opposite of linear, where events are not shown in a chronological order. Circular - Describes a narrative which begins at the end e.g. Titanic. Parallel narrative - Often involves more than one protagonist; there are several storylines. Flashbacks/flashforwards - A scene that takes the narrative backwards/forwards in time from that current point. Real time - The actual time during which a process or event occurs. Reversal - A change to an opposite direction, position or course of action. Dream sequences - The technique used to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. This may consists of a flashback, flashfoward, dream etc. Repetition - The action of repeating something. Ellipsis - Where the movement or action unnecessary to the telling of the story is removed by editing. Convergent narrative -  Interweaving narrative -  Impressionist narrative -

Lyric analysis and narrative

Similarly it could relate to Barthes' theory as the establishment could be represented by the two friends in their daily school lives and then tension builds up as something happens to one of them e.g. break-up, an argument with parents etc. Finally the problem is resolved with the friend helping them out. This would make it a linear narrative as the events would be in a chronological order for it to make sense.

Another theory proposed by Barthes talks about the action codes that enable an audience to make sense of the narrative. I could perhaps use a hermeneutic code (narrative turning-points) which argues that we know where the story will go next. So for my video, since the song is quite positive the audience will be able to guess that the problem is resolved at the end.

Song lyrics

"Count On Me" - Bruno Mars

[Verse 1:]
Oh uh-huh
If you ever find yourself stuck in the middle of the sea
I'll sail the world to find you
If you ever find yourself lost in the dark and you can't see
I'll be the light to guide you

Find out what we're made of
When we are called to help our friends in need

[Chorus:]
You can count on me like 1, 2, 3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it
I can count on you like 4, 3, 2
You'll be there
'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh yeah
Ooooooh, oooohhh yeah, yeah

[Verse 2:]
If you're tossin' and you're turnin'
And you just can't fall asleep
I'll sing a song beside you
And if you ever forget how much you really mean to me
Every day I will remind you

Oooh
Find out what we're made of
When we are called to help our friends in need

[Chorus:]
You can count on me like 1, 2, 3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it
I can count on you like 4, 3, 2
You'll be there
'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh yeah
Ooooooh, oooohhh yeah, yeah

You'll always have my shoulder when you cry
I'll never let go, never say goodbye
You know...

[Chorus:]
You can count on me like 1, 2, 3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it
I can count on you like 4, 3, 2
You'll be there
'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh yeah
Ooooooh, oooohhh

You can count on me 'cause I can count on you

Postmodern music video analysis

Media - Postmodern Music Video Essay

Modern vs Postmodern

Media - Modern vs Postmodern

I think both concepts are equally hard to understand at first. However, after learning a bit about postmodernism I believe I have greater knowledge in postmodernism as I am able to pick out some features of postmodern work. For example, I know that some conventions of postmodernism include: intertextuality, parody and pastiche.

Orange Caramel – My Copycat

Voiceover script

0:00 In the beginning, Orange Caramel are shown to be wearing red and white striped clothing with a red and white hair accessory as well as round glasses. This is an intertextual reference to the famous children’s book Where’s Wally as they are imitating the appearance of the character Wally.

0:38 On the dress of one of the girls, there is an example of bricolage as it shows a combination of a range of different logos including Apple, Starbucks and Mickey Mouse.

1:09 There are many scenes which display a crowd of people dancing to song, where Orange Caramel are hidden within those people and the audience are encouraged to find where they are in the scene. Much like Where’s Wally, the people in the scene are wearing relatively similar clothing to make it hard to find them.

2:07 Another example of bricolage is shown in this scene as it is constructed from a diverse range of things including a dance stage, bowling alley, table tennis and variety of different outfits on the several people in the scene.

2:53 The whole video is quite playful as it engages the audience to play the games within the music video.

Lyotard

He noted the term “grand narrative” in the book ‘The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge’.

He proposes what he calls an extreme simplification of the “postmodern” as an ‘incredulity* towards meta-narratives’.
(*incredulity–the state of being unwilling or unable to believe something)

He rejects “grand narratives” or universal “meta narratives”. An example is that he rejects the ideas that everything is knowable by science or that as history moves forward in time, humanity makes progress. He opposes universal political “solutions” such as communism and capitalism as well as the idea of absolute freedom.

He notes that no one seemed to agree on what, if anything, was real and everyone had their own perspective and story.

Metanarrative – a narrative about narratives of historical meaning, experience or knowledge

Baudrillard

He argues that today there is no such thing as reality.

He developed the idea of simulation and simulacra.

Simulacra are copies that depict things that either had no reality to begin with or that no longer have an original.
Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time.

Postmodern Music Videos

Popular Music Theory

Representation

Representation from marymedranag321

Media Language

Media language from chelseaharper

Narrative

Q1b

Q1a

Postmodernism ideas

Postmodern media rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. All judgements are merely taste.

Ø  Postmodernism says there is no real truth.

Ø  Knowledge is always made or invented and not discovered -it is made by people so ideas and facts are believed rather than 'known'.

Ø  It says that one should not try to make another believe what they believe as it means nothing to say that one belief is right and the other is wrong.

Ø  Postmodernism argues that since peoples’ opinions change and since one person’s opinion cannot be more right than another, it means nothing to say that one work of art is better than another.

Postmodernism notes

Postmodernism

v  Generally a world view/theory.
    “A style and concept in the arts characterised by distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions.”

Modernism – another theory or world view.
Postmodernism is the reaction against modernism in all disciplines – art, philosophy, film, literature, history etc.

Ø  Both modernism and postmodernism still currently exist.

Ø   Modernist and postmodernist texts have shared conceptions. They challenge typical conventional structures.

Ø  To tell the difference between the two is intent – analyse what the authors intended to do.

Ø  Modernist – critical, deconstructs, makes fun of
Postmodernist – take things from the past, turn things around, nostalgic

§  Pessimistic postmodernism – think that everything is already done

§  Optimistic postmodernism – think that there could be something new done by combining things together

Ø  It is self-contradictory (contradicts with itself) and ironic (it knows that it contradicts itself).

Ø  Postmodernity is suspicious of meta-narratives (e.g. Capitalism, Marxism, Feminism, God etc.) –it is self-contradictory because they say that there can’t be theories for everything when it is a theory itself. It offers a meta-narrative that there are no meta-narratives.

Conventions of postmodernism

v  Irony

v  Playing with conventions

v  Black humour – asks and raises questions but have few answers – it is criticised for being offensive, racist etc. –gone too far.

v  Intertextuality

v  Pastiche – past together/comment (from past)

v  Magic realism

v  Different perspectives

AS Media work

Question 1a

-Digital technology

-Creativity

-Research and planning

-Post-production

  

Preliminary Task

Magazine

Evaluation

Exam Outline

Structure

§  2 hour exam

§  Total of 100 marks

§  Section A – 2 questions on coursework worth 25 marks each (50 marks)

§  Section B – media theory question on postmodernism (50 marks)

Section A – Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Q1a – describe and evaluate skills development over the course of production work from AS to A2

§  Digital technology

§  Creativity

§  Research and planning

§  Post-production

§  Using conventions from real media texts

Q1b – evaluate production in relation to a media concept

§  Genre

§  Narrative

§  Representation

§  Audience

§  Media theory and language

Section B - Contemporary Media Issues

Q2 - Postmodernism

§  Case studies – films / video games / tv / music videos

§  Issues and debates

§  Your own independent research

§  Contemporary issues

§  Audience

§  Industry

OCR GCE Media Studies Specification

OCR GCE Media Studies Specification

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/as-a-level-gce-media-studies-h140-h540/