Wednesday 18 March 2015

POMO essay

"Postmodern media manipulate time and space." To what extent does this definition apply to the texts you have studied?

Postmodernism is the rejection of modernism. Modernism offers truth, hierarchy, order and improvement. Postmodernism rejects all absolutes and all grand narratives like the big bang and the existence of god. Industrialisation created the possibility for pop to exist because everything became identical which results into the loss of identity which can be linked with simulacrum which is where some artist play with ideas and images to create something new. Industrialisation allowed us to mass produce for the consumer, this in turn resulted in mass production of material things we don't need (do not help us stay alive).  They either represent themselves or play the part of a character which I will later give an example for.

An example of postmodern media within the film industry is the 2012 Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained. Quentin is known for referencing other films. He pays homage to both Mandingo and the 1966 spaghetti western Django directed by Sergio Corbucci as he based the name of his film on both of these films. Tarantino pays pastiche at the Ku Klux Klan in one of the film’s funnier scenes in which a KKK group mount an inept attack on Django and Schultz. The attack is scored by The Ride of the Valkyries, undoubtedly inspired by its use in D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. Where Griffith opted to celebrate the KKK and portray them heroically, Tarantino ridicules them and uses the music to directly parody Griffith’s cinematic representation of the Klan. Tarantino also undermines and ridicules Hollywood’s previous approach to civil rights when Django and Schultz enter Mississippi. The text ‘MISSISSIPPI’ fills the screen and scrolls from one side to the other. This is almost certainly a pardoy at the expense of Gone with the Wind, which opens with a very similar title sequence. Where Gone with the Wind portrayed a rather ideal view of the South, Tarantino lays the text over slaves trudging in mud. Django Unchained manipulates time and space because Tarentino takes references from different eras (time).

An example of simularcrum in the music industry is Miley Cyrus. She found fame on the hit Disney channel Hannah Montana. Miley Cyrus plays both Miley Stuart and Hannah Montana so we don't actually know who the real Miley Cyrus is or whether she is just playing a character. In recent years Miley has changed her image from 'Disney sweetheart' to someone who is more controversial. Hannah Montana was a TV programme on Disney where Miley Cyrus played a teenager called Miley Stewart who was secretly a pop artist which is postmodern because Miley Cyrus is a pop star in real life, so is she playing herself? We don't know. As her real name is Destiny Hope Cyrus then none of the above names are her own, making her a character in the media's eye. Miley Cyrus manipulates time and space because she takes music from different decades, for example she pays homage to Dolly Parton and covers her Jolene hit and also uses bricolage to take music from different genres so for example on her latest album 'Bangerz' she has a mixture of Country, Rap and RnB.

Tuesday 17 March 2015

POMO essay plan

"Postmodern media manipulate time and space." To what extent does this definition apply to the texts you have studied?


POMO REJECTS ALL ABSOLUTES (THE TRUTH)


Topic- Pomo
viewpoint - manipulate time and space
Instruct  - To what extent (yes or no)
Aspect - apply to the texts you have studied


Topic:
Postmodernism is the rejection of modernism. Modernism offered truth, improvement, hierarchy and order.
Grand narratives rejected
Industrialisation created the possibility for pop to exist, because everything became identical.
Loss of identity - simulacrum


Viewpoint - Time = linear measurement
                    Space = an area or position in relation to something else


Remix
Bricolage
Homage
Pastiche


Instruct - Yes or No? Yes. Pomo changes everything because it allows artists to flourish and take ideas from others but the problem is we don't know what's real and what's not. Eventually no new music/film will be produced because snippets will be taken from other things.


We don't know what's real - holograms  and hyper reality - Tupac/Michael Jackson/Elvis Presley.


Aspect/Revision


BRIAN ENO - DEATH OF UNCOOL
EVERYTHING IS A REMIX


Django Unchained - released in 2012 by Quentin Tarantino
References:
Django (1966 spaghetti western, directed by Sergio Corbucci and starred Franco Nero)
Mandingo - directed by Richard Fleischer and released by Paramount Pictures in 1975.
Birth of a Nation
Gone with the Wind








5 paragraph lay out:


1- Intro - what is pomo?


2 - Film - Django - Quentin Tarantino (include 3 terminology points)


3 - Music - Miley Cyrus - Hannah Montana - Miley Stuart - who is the real Miley? (simulacrum)


4 - TV programme


5 - Conclusion - predict the future
                        - people will sue for sampling


Wednesday 11 March 2015

Narrative - 1b

5 Screenshots


Beginning




The enigma code: The questions that would be asked would be who is the guitarist? Is this the lead? What does he look like?

The action code and what we expect to happen next is him to play the guitar. In this shot we can see feet at the right of the shot, we could expect to see who that is next. We could also asked what this artist looks like as we can only see his guitar as that is the focal point. 

The cultural code is that the target audience of young adults (16-21) will understand and recognise that it is an indie video because of the theme of the video and the editing (black and white) it is similar to videos of the same genre. The costumes are plain and stylish like that of the typical indie artist.

The semantic code: literal meaning that the guitarist will play the guitar and will be typically be 'indie' 


3 shots including chorus


Enigma
Action







Enigma code: Who is she? What is her connection to the band? Why is she dancing the way that she is?
Action - expect there to be a relation between her and the band. Expect to see shots of the band again.




Enigma - Will we see the band again? 
Action - See the band performing



End


Enigma - how old are these? Where are they from? Are they releasing new music after this one?
Action - The band releases more music 





Wednesday 25 February 2015

Q1a - Creativity

1 (a) Describe a range of creative decisions that you made in post-production and how these decisions made a difference to the final outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. [25]

Paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short.
Within my portfolio I made a elements for a Magazine and a Music Video for a fictitious band. My magazine exemplar was of a mod theme and the genre for my music video was indie. My fictitious artist for the magazine was called 'Ruban Royal' and my fictitious band was called 'External Image.'

Paragraph 2 should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. use an example.
I have a keen eye for photography meaning I had some experience with location and what i see to be an effective photo. For the magazine I had a clear image of what I wanted my artist to look like and how to style them so with this it was easier for me to create and produce an effective magazine because of my clear starting image. Although I chose the indie genre of music which is fairly common I chose to style my artist using the style models of Miles Kane and Paul Weller who are labelled as 'Mods' hence the naming of my magazine therefore being 'Mod.' I had briefly used photoshop before this project but not in much depth so using it for the first time in depth was quite a challenge. 


Throughout the Music Video process, although our organisation wasn't as effective as it should have been in terms of getting all of the storyboarded shots, the editing process gave me the chance to get creative with effects and other elements of Final Cut Pro X. I used reversed shots as well as time lapsed shots to create complementary effects in certain parts of the song where it is either slowed down or throughout the bridge which had an electric feel to make the imagery seem distorted. I also used text in the first few seconds of the video to create a link between the video and my digipak and advert. 


Incorporated text into video thats  similar to the font used in the digipak and advert.
Digipak and Advert: geometric shaping that is typical of the indie electronic genre, creative to challenge the typical indie conventions.
slowed down shots in video


Paragraph 3 should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. Again there should be examples to support all that you say.

After using photoshop to create my magazine I now had more of a sturdy idea of how to use it and what tools i needed. By creating a Cover, Contents and Double Page Spread, these three different elements allowed me to play around with the tools and practice using them on all three of my products. I used tools to edit the photo, create typeface and to position everything where I wanted it. To ensure symmetry I used the guide tool or 'rulers' ad using red, white and black as my base colour scheme played around the positioning on all three pages. I used MOJO as my style model for the layout of my magazine but the idea to be alternative in style representation was entirely my own.


Paragraph 4 should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position.
The skills i developed using photoshop transferred into making my anarchy products this year. Also, having used a professional camera in the past helped me to use it again for filming although this was predominantly my partners job. Through my love of interior design my job was to dress the set and to ensure the band looked the part which was a success. I decided that due to the fact my digipak and advert were predominantly black I wanted my lead singer to also wear black to connect them together, although the audience may not make this connection it would be subliminal.


Paragraph 5 short conclusion

I think that creativity is vital but is the hardest to portray. Everyone is creative just some more so than others. I believe I have developed my skills over the course and my peers and I have developed and created excellent pieces of work. 

Sunday 15 February 2015

Miley Cyrus - POMO

Homage – does your chosen artist use other people’s music in a respectful way? Are they bringing a potentially overlooked or forgotten style to a new audience?

 
  • Sampled La Di Da Di by  Doug E. Fresh in We Can't Stop
  • We Can't Stop we sampled in two songs - We Can't stop by Mike Stud and United State of Pop 2013 (Living the Fantasy)  by DJ Earworm
  • We Can't Stop was covered in 13 songs.
  • Miley has made several covers including Jolene by Dolly Parton. (below)
  • Hannah Montana's The best of both worlds was covered in 2 songs - Le Meilleur Des Deux by Sarah  and Best of Both Worlds by Eliza Lacerda and Mannu

 

 










Pastiche – does you chose artist use other peoples music in order to mock it and its fans? Are they attempting to damage the ‘authority’ of a style of music?









Bart Baker made a parody of - We can't stop (below)









Bricolage  – does your chosen artist use music from different time periods or genres? Does this change the ‘meaning’ of the original song?

She uses a mix of hip hop and country on her newest album 'bangerz.' shows the contrast between different influences and the range she has vocally.














Intertextual References – does your artist reference other songs (lyrically, melodically, stylistically, visually) in their work?

Wrecking Ball - 


Simulacrum  – Is your artist ‘real’ or merely playing a ‘character’? For many ‘mainstream’ artists, their image is just as important as their sound (if not more so), postmodern artists play with ideas of image in the way they re represent themselves.


Miley Cyrus plays both Miley Stuart and Hannah Montana so we don't actually know who the real Miley Cyrus is or whether she is just playing a character. In recent years Miley has changed her image from 'Disney sweetheart' to someone who is more controversial. Hannah Montana was a TV programme on Disney where Miley Cyrus played a teenager called Miley Stewart who was secretly a pop artist which is postmodern because Miley Cyrus is a pop star in real life, so is she playing herself? We don't know.

Miley's approximated Net worth is over 150 million dollars - is that all we see her as? an object?




























Consumption  – how does your chosen artist wish their music to be consumed? Is there an artefact (object) that accompanies their music?


She has worked with people like Terry Richardson who directed the stripped down Wrecking Ball video where Miley appears naked and distressed.  



Miley Cyrus has released several album including her newest release 'Bangerz.'
Her music is also avaible to download via iTunes or over the internet through bittorrent and similar sites.

Hannah Montana had a film made and had action figures and the like made for the children Miley (or Hannah) was targeting.







Creation – how does your artist create their music, are they a musician, a songwriter, a composer,

"Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her father is country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. She held minor roles in the television series Doc and the film Big Fish in her childhood. In 2006, Cyrus rose to prominence as a teen idol after being cast in the Disney Channel television series Hannah Montana, in which she portrayed the starring character Miley Stewart. After signing a recording contract with Hollywood Records in 2007, Cyrus released her debut studio album Meet Miley Cyrus. It was certified quadruple-platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for exceeding four million shipments, and produced the hit single "See You Again"."


Performance – does your artist play ‘live’? Is there a ‘show’ to accompany? Is there a ‘style’ to their videos? What if any interaction is there with their audience? 

Miley's recent 'change' in style and character is the 'good girl gone bad' type of image. The following clip shows a raunchy performance with what some would call 'risky' costuming. Also within her Wrecking Ball video she is seen to be naked, this is both linking to the male gaze and to the idea that she is breaking the mould and the stereotype 'good girl' label she's lived under since her Disney career. 







Influence  –  Has your artist influenced the wider world of music (are other artists keen to collaborate, have mainstream artists appropriated their sound)?









Wednesday 28 January 2015

UnCOoL PLaYLisT


    Blowing with the wind - Running and Jogging Crew (Fitness/Dance)

Halo - Beyoncé (RnB)



On my own - Miley Cyrus (Pop)




Settle down - The 1975 (Indie)


Undercover martyn - Two door cinema club (Indie)


This is where you can reach me - U2 (Indie Rock)


Are you in love with a notion - Courteeners (Indie)


Leave me alone - Michael Jackson (Pop)


Roman reloaded - Nicki Minaj (Rap)


Wet the bed - Chris Brown (Rap/RnB)



Waka Waka - Running and jogging crew (Fitness/Dance)






Sierra Leone - Frank Ocean (RnB)


My playlist shows that my taste in music is very diverse. I listen to different genres ranging from Rap to Indie Rock. Although I am an active person the two songs that embarrass me are the ones from the running and jogging album because of how awful the covers are. Apart from that I think that the playlist is a good representation of my music taste.