Postmodernism in 500 days of summer (2009)

- It has a non linear narrative (starts at the end)
- Intertextual- references to other films eg. 'Dirty dancing' song (she's like the wind) and Sid and Nancy.
- Hyperreal with 'The Smiths'
- Cartoon animated bird flys in, interacting with the main character by landing on his shoulder. Pastiche of Disney.
- Cliche line such as "so do you like me?"
- Non diagetic music- the scene imitating a musical where they are dancing in the park.
- Pastiche of a musical.

Not Postmodern
- Contains values
- Remains conventional (boy meets girl, however not straight forward)

Feminism

Feminism- belief in the principle that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. Feminism involves political, cultural and sociological theories.
Male gaze- By Laura Mulvey, an analysis of media images which suggests that the camera represents a male perspective and as such casts men as subjects and women as objects. In our group project we have a vulnerable female protagonist and use perspective shots that make the audience question who is it that is watching her. Relating to the theory; male gaze.

Exam question (Section A) Explain how you chose your genre to adhere to the genre's conventions of real media texts?

When starting our research and planning for our production, we initially had planned to do the genre romantic comedy. We all wanted to do a genre we hadn’t worked with before. We started our research by looking at the conventions of a romantic comedy. We looked at various rom-com films such as ‘Notting hill’ and ‘Bridget Jones Diary’. We wanted to base our plot similar to a film called ‘Prime’. We not only researched film trailers but also looked at film websites to get an idea of what conventions they carry forward onto their film website. We analysed these and chose the main conventions in which we were going to use for our own production in order to create a piece that related to our chosen genre. After discussing our plot, we realised it was going to be harder and more challenging than we thought. Our idea was to have a 35-year-old man to play the main character. Already we knew this was going to be a problem with casting, as none of us knew of any one of that age group, and we obviously wanted our trailer to look as professional as possible, so therefore needed people who would be reliable and can act. After realising this problem we immediately knew we should scrap the idea. We then started thinking about doing the genre, thriller. While discussing this many ideas came to mind for our trailer, and our group knew this genre would be much more exciting and easier for us to produce. We then started researching the conventions used in a thriller film. We looked at lots of thriller trailers, such as ‘Bourne Identity’, ‘Derailed’, ‘Disturber’ and ‘Enough’. We noticed even in teaser trailers the editing of shots was very fast pace, which created an exciting engaging flow. The music helps build tension for the audience; it often gets louder in parts and quieter in others. We noted these particular conventions and used them in our own production. Our teaser trailer ‘Desire’ follows these conventions of a thriller genre. We show this through all three texts, the main text and both ancillary texts (film poster and website). In the teaser we wanted to closely focus on suspense and enigma in order to follow a convention of the genre. The basic plot for our teaser is a young girl has recently split from her childhood boyfriend and eventually finds herself becoming paranoid and frightened as someone (who she thinks is her ex-boyfriend) is stalking her within her own home, however the stalker is not her ex-boyfriend. We use conventions to force the audience to think that it is the ex-boyfriend who is messing with her mind and her life. During editing, we made our production fast pace by editing the shots to be quick and snappy. This made our trailer look engaging and action packed, which is a convention of a thriller. We used conventional music throughout the trailer, having it louder in places that were more dramatic and quietening the music when there was dialogue being spoken. This added dramatically to the flow of the trailer and had great significance in making it have more of a thriller feel, leaving the audience with suspense and excitement.

Exam question: Explain how you used digital technology to adhere to or deviate from the conventions of real media texts?

During the development of our practical project, our group have used a variety of digital technology in order to produce a teaser trailer that uses the same conventions as a real media text. The main components used were the video camera and the editing facilities such as using imovie on the mac computers. The first part of digital technology used was the video camera, in which we used to film the trailer. In order to carry out the conventions of a real media text, we used particular techniques that would be used in the real media world. For example, various shot types, angle types, technical ways of moving the camera (i.e. panning, 180 degree rule etc…) Using these techniques helped produce a more skilled, professional looking film and helped us gain a better understanding of the details used in making a film.
The other digital technology, which was just as important, was the editing created on imovie. This program helped with editing our teaser trailer and putting it all together. We were able to play around with shortening and lengthening shots, cutting shots we didn’t want, and adding music with the shots. By using these tools we were able to have a trailer that not only looked professional but also helped to create our thriller genre. We cut many of the unnecessary shots and conversation, and shorten the length of the shots in order to make our teaser trailer sharp and fast pace, which helped engage and excite our audience. We found by re-arranging the order it changed the dynamic of the trailer, which definitely helped make it look like a real thriller text. The usage of music in a trailer is also another digital technology. We searched for thriller music using a free download website called ‘Audio production network’. Here we found our soundtrack song for our trailer. We saved the music into a file on the computer then transferred this onto a memory stick in order to convert onto the mac computers. The music in a trailer is a convention of a real media text. Looking back on the process of making our film, digital technology is extremely important in the making, and you wouldn’t be able to produce a representation of a real media text without the use of digital technology.

Postmodernism

There are many media examples of texts or products which deliberately set out to explore and play with this state of hyperreality. These texts are said to be intertextual and self-referential- they break the rules of realism to explore the nature of their own status as constructed texts. in other words, they seek not to represent reality, but to represent media reality.
Examples of films that are postmodern: The Matrix, Blade runner, 500 days of summer (very recent film). The advert for Cadbury's chocolate is seen as postmodern too. The films directed by Michael Winterbottom and the Coen Brothers have postmodern elements aswell. We will be studying a few Michael Winterbottom films in class and analysing the factors that make a film postmodern.

P.A.I.N.P.I.P.E.S

Play
Aesthetic- How things look
Intertextual-Bringing other texts eg. thaming of the shrew.10 things i hate about you
Nihilism/Nihilistic- no religions, no values
Parody- Immatation
Irony/Ironic- Audience sharing a joke
Pastiche- Mixture of genres eg. scary movie (lots of types, comedy, horror etc)
Electic- blend of genres
Self-referential- relating to the audience

Learnt to use Photoshop

I learnt to use selective colouring on photoshop in my lesson on friday. I was very pleased as i have wanted to know how to use photoshop for quite some time. I will regularly use photoshop to help me get familar with the program as it will help us as a group to produce part of our film poster, which we will start to produce soon. We are already coming up with ideas for our poster!

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