Define Post-Modern media and give examples.

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Post modern media is something that can be very difficult to specifically define, with so many different theorist all believing that there are various aspects to media that can mean that it can be labelled as post modern. One explanation of Postmodern media is that the media itself actually plays with the meaning. Most postmodern texts are designed to be watched by a very literate audience and can often explore many traits of intertextuality. Many of these texts have acknowledged the fact that given the exceptional range to everyone today in terms of media; music, film, internet, books etc. that there cannot be really one preferred genre. This often means that media texts will use techniques such as Bricolage, something that came from a theorist called Levi-Strauss which meant that media incorporates several things that are from totally different backgrounds and then roll them into their media, for example when a usually alternative type band such as Gorillaz bring across different styles of music and put them into their own, such as African dance music which was used a lot in their album Plastic Beach. Another way in which postmodern media can be explained is that there isnt anything that is original anymore; everything is taken from somewhere, even if it is heavily adapted, it is still only adapted never truly changed as to speak. This for me is an extremely interesting point, as it obviously makes a lot of sense, is there anything new and that hasnt been done before or is everything within media just being re-done, adapted and altered. Obviously this explanation can have some clear examples, such as the heavy intertextuality that is in a lot of films, where they claim to pay homage to a piece of work, which basically means that they are saying that thought it was so outstanding that they wanted it in their own work for example where Quentin Tarantino makes constant intertextual references to others work e.g. the reference to the sound of music scenery in his war film Inglorious Basterds. There are a few elements that have been identified as being common elements within post modern pieces of work, these are; homage, simulacra, bricolage, hyper reality, pastiche, intertextuality, fragmentation and also parody. A film that I believe to be extremely post modern would be Quentin Tarantinos 2009 war film Inglorious Basterds. As I identified the common aspects to a postmodern piece of media previously, I believe that Tarantino uses a lot of these within his own personal work. Tarantino uses his, now iconic, yellow font to give us the title of the film and also the names of the cast who are slightly higher up in the bill, this for me is a postmodern aspect as it is something that as a director he has done from the very beginning of his directing career and something that he has continued to keep using in his work. Furthermore, in the very first scene we are introduced to the film with the words once upon a time in Nazi occupied France. Although at first for many this will just of been seen as a way to open the story and inform the audience of where the story is being based and also at what point in time, for others it can mean so much more. This is definitely a post modern thing to of done to open the film up as it instantly gives the audience the feeling that this is actually going to be like some kind of fairy-tale, with the traditional once upon a time to start the story of. I have also already mentioned the use of intertextuality within the first scene, with Tarantino using a fake backdrop,

which is extremely similar to that of the iconic Sound Of Music. Bricolage is also something that I believe to be present in Inglorious Basterds, it has parts which are deemed comedy, yet at the same time it is a war film, yet there isnt an awful lot that actually makes it a war film. Therefore it can be said that Bricolage is present as there are various aspects that are taken from all different genres and then actually put them all into one piece of media. Another way in which Inglorious Basterds can be deemed to be post modern is the way that the director intentionally breaks the fourth wall. This wall is seen as the one in a film that the audience is viewing from, and it therefore is very rarely broken, however it is broken when we see the camera actually life up straight through some floor boards. This is intentionally done to show the audience that what they are watching isnt actually real, it is just in fact a film that is being filmed in a film set. Another intertextual reference that Tarantino makes is a shot which is taken from the film The Searchers, it is a shot where a Shoshanna, a Jew, is running away from Colonel Hans in an attempt to get some kind of freedom after the rest of her family have just been shot to death. It is said that Tarantino used this shot as he finds the scene to be very iconic and it can therefore give the audience something to reference back to when watching his film. Music is also something that Tarantino uses to great use, in a very postmodern way. He uses music from different genres in various scenes throughout the film, not only are these pieces of music from totalling varying genres but they are also manipulating time in the sense that they are actually from a totally different time to when the film is actually set, once again showing that this is only just a film, with due the songs being sometimes from much more recent times and yet being applied to a war film. A very good example of this can be found when two characters are actually laying on the floor in each others blood after killing each other, yet the music that is playing sounds as if they should be romantically dancing together. The way in which the characters are also dressed gives you as the audience a strong feeling of the scene where Romeo & Juliette are also lying dead next to each other, once again another intertextual reference. On more than one occasion there are voiceovers and/or text on the screen which is informative. At one point we hear Samuel L Jacksons voice come in and explain just how flammable Nitrate film is to us as an audience. This is definitely a post modern aspect, as instead of just letting the audience be unaware and just believe that it is flammable, Tarantino uses a voiceover to just explain to the audience that this stuff is actually really flammable. Another postmodern element to this is the fact that Tarantino actually uses Samuel L Jackson to do the voiceover, obviously he is a star that is more than worthy of a place in most action films, however Tarantino obviously didnt see a character that fitted him within this film, but due to the fact that he generally always includes Samuel L Jackson at some point in his films and it has become somewhat a tradition that he features within Tarantinos films, Tarantino still manages to get him involved by using him to just provide a voiceover for the explanation of the Nitrate film.

Furthermore, the director actually uses the use of text on the screen to give us not only information, but also the way in which it is done and presented to us is quite ironic and humorous. For example, there is some text that comes on the screen with arrows to various important people. It tells us who all of these people are, just in case we didnt already know and also so that we can locate them. This would be postmodern on its own, as once again its something that you wouldnt really tend to see in traditional war films, you tend to just be left to remember who is who. However, added in with the fact that this font is actually seemingly hand written and rather messy, with big hand drawn arrows to the various men within the audience makes it extremely post modern as it helps to add a bit of humour to it, its funny that within a war film rather surprisingly sprawly handwriting appears on the screen with massive arrows pointing to people of importance around the theatre and is definitely something that is not done within your usual conventional war film Continuing with the theme of humour, Tarantino plays around an awful lot with stereotypes, in particular the stereotype of the British. Everything about the characters is extremely stereotypical which just helps to add to the humour side of the film, not only for the Americans to laugh at but also for the British to simply laugh at themselves at how they are represented. Tarantino doesnt let the Americans get out of it either; the American character Aldo Raine is also a very stereotypical, yet extremely comical character. The accent heavily over exaggerated, to a point that you can only find it funny, the body language of the character is rigid and he doesnt seem the most intelligent of people, often seeing others being brought in to be violent against people who wont give him what he wants, something that is rather ironic and could even be possibly seen as a parody at a stretch, as it is simply taking the mick out of the Americans for the viewers pleasure, and it is very funny. All of this has relevance to postmodern media as it is adding that genre to the film that we may not currently associate with it/expect it to be included within a war film, meaning that it essentially bricolage taking something out of somewhere and putting it into something that you wouldnt expect it to be traditionally in. Another way in which I believe Inglorious Basterds to be a postmodern piece of media is the way in which it strays so much from the usual war film conventions and the general storyline. In a usual war film you would expect to see all of the build up to the soldiers getting prepared for the long journey that awaits them, then you would probably expect to share the journey with the soldiers to their destination. You can apply Levi Strauss theory to this aspect of the film where you can say that this is deletion as there isnt a journey etc. shown to the audience. Furthermore, traditionally we would expect to see the travelling soldiers to be somewhat anxious about what they are about to begin, however with the Basterds they all seem fairly confident of what they are going to do and that they will be fine. Finally, hyper reality is a postmodern aspect that can definitely be applied to Inglorious Basterds. Throughout this war film, the Basterds are consistently dressed perfectly, cleanly shaven with each hair being perfectly in place definitely something that you wouldnt be expecting to see in any conventional war film. For example, in a film that we deem to be more realistic Saving

Private Ryan, each soldier is battered and bruised, filthy head to toe and hasnt washed properly for months, however this is a total contrast to Inglorious Basterds. However, there is a theory that we only base our expectations on what we see in media such as TV, films and hear about in music etc. Baudrillard who says that simulation is the process in which representations of things come to replace things that are being represented. Basically, meaning that what is being attempted to be shown is lost, lost in what we actually now think we should show due to what we have already seen within media. Overall, I believe that Inglorious Basterds is a film that is extremely postmodern for the various ways in which it corresponds to the definitions I gave at the very beginning. There are demonstrations of a lot of the common aspects to postmodern media, including Intertextuality, Bricolage, irony, parody, homage and even throughout the film there is the strong aspect of hyper reality, which is applied throughout. Another film that I believe to be a post modern one is a 2011 release, Drive. This film is a totally different film to Inglorious Basterds in most ways, in particular in how it is a postmodern piece of media, however it still is a postmodern film. The very first time I watched the film the thing that stood out for me was the complete lack of dialogue within the film. We are made aware of who the main characters are by the fact that they are just on the screen more than most at the start and then as the film progresses as does the storyline and we start to find more and more information out about the characters. For me this is definitely a postmodern choice by the director. Levi Strauss stated that texts were constructed from other texts by a process of addition, deletion, substitution and transposition. I believe that the lack of Dialogue could be seen as either deletion or substitution, deletion as for in many cases a action/thriller movie would tend to have a reasonable amount of dialogue in it, if for example it was a Tarantino movie it would have had endless amounts of dialogue, something which is postmodern for different reasons, however this breaks away from the usual mould and has very little dialogue, which means that we initially are clutching at straws as to what we believe each individual to be like in terms of personality. It could also be seen as substitution as instead of having the usual amount of dialogue within the film, it actually in a way substitutes this for a lot more emotion, which is often conveyed by facial expressions etc. For example within the film, the driver kills someone in a lift, rather violently by literally kicking his head in, the girl that was with the killer just steps out of the lift, they both share a look and nothing is said. However as an audience we are still aware of what they are thinking, or at least you feel that you are, obviously I felt that the on looking lady was just rather perplexed by the on goings and rather in a state of shock. Yet another postmodern element to this film is the hyper-reality of various things. To begin with, the film as we learn is based in Los Angeles however we only really meet a few characters within the storyline, although this in itself is not a hyper real aspect, it is still one that is slightly different to the usual

adventure/action genre as we do normally see/meet more characters than this. The hyper-real aspect for me comes in when in a city that is a big as LA is that within this massive, we literally vary rarely see anyone else but these select few character throughout the whole film. There is a scene right at the end where the driver leaves a body in a car park with a million dollars lying next to him in a bag. No one seems to notice the murder or stabbing and it is as if the Police are totally forgotten about and somewhat irrelevant. For me this is an hyper-real, once again a theory that Baudrillard introduced, aspect to the film as you would like to think that if this kind of thing was happening in broad daylight in the back of a supermarket car park someone would notice and do something about the situation or that at least you would have someone see the incident. Instead the driver is just free to drive off into the night in total freedom. Furthermore, the city also features as if it is a part of the storyline, possibly an added character as you get a sense that its more than just a city as an audience and that it also possibly being portrayed as some kind of playground for not only the driver but also the rest of the characters to play on. It could also be seen that the city is manipulated in terms of time, with having most aspects of the city being retro for example with 80s style jacket that the driver wears and also the pink writing that is used to introduce the title of the film, however it is also clear that the film is actually set in the modern day, therefore manipulating time. This for me has a strong link to the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, as the game itself uses near enough the exact same font and colour for its style, and with this game it is also based in a huge city and where crimes often go seemingly unnoticed. Furthermore, this can also be applied in the theory that I mentioned with the city being used as a playground by the characters and also the game is set in the 80s which links in with the musical style of the film. The director himself has continuously referred to the film as a modern grimm fairy tale, with the way that the unlikely hero rises to battle evil king and saves the princess. The roles are easily understandable with the hero being the driver, the evil king being Bernie or Nino and then the princess obviously being Irene. However, the idea of a happy ever after to add to the traditional fairy tale is somewhat held back, when we see the driver just drives off into the night and doesnt actually go back to save the princess, however we arent actually made aware of what he does next, so he may well go on to go back and get the princess. However, obviously this hero isnt the usual hero figure you would expect to see. Despite actually killing the evil king and arguably saving Irene & Benicio there can be various deaths put to the drivers name, even with the limited amount of characters within the story. Furthermore, there is an argument that traditionally a hero will have a common office job, working 9-5 etc. but still at the same time be a hero. However, with the driver his profession could actually be seen as being a criminal as his job actually entails him being a getaway driver for anyone who may need him. The link to a modern fairy-tale could be deemed to be an intertextual reference to just fairy-tales in general, and it could also be seen as a hyper-reality that this hero manages to escape death from so many trained killers, which sparks the question is the driver even a real humanbeing.

The music that is played throughout the film is very much of a 80s style, making the film feel like it is not actually set in the modern day. Some examples of soundtracks used are A Real Hero by College feat. Electric Youth and Nightcall by Kavinsky and Lovefoxxx. Music helps to play a huge part in helping to show the emotions due to the extreme lack of dialogue within the film, one scene where it is particularly significant is the scene in the lift with the driver, Irene and also the man who has come to find the driver. At one point in the lift the lighting goes solely onto the driver and the music begins, the music kicks in and all other sound is totally blocked out. To further concentrate the audience onto the couple, slow motion is used this really brings out some emotion from the driver that as of yet we have not seen. This is postmodern as the sound and lighting are helping to manipulate space and time, making it seem that the couple are now in their own world within the lift, separate to everyone else when in reality they are still stood in the exact same place. At the end of this scene, the sound fades out and its back to reality for the couple, the driver carries out some very violent actions, kicking the mans face in until hes actually dead whilst Irene is still present in the lift. As the lift comes to a halt, Irene steps out, once again we are left to use our imagination as to what her thoughts are as there in no dialogue, just the facial expression, which to me, showed shock. Postmodern music is also another type of media that can manipulate time and space. An artist that I to be extremely postmodern are animation group Gorillaz. I firstly believe that they are postmodern in a sense that not only are the group drawing upon inspirations and interests of their past work within the music industry for example work with brit-pop band Blur, but they are also combining this with their new-found interests for example African dance music. This is manipulating time as it is bringing in a very original older sound in the form of the African dancing and incorporating it with the more modern rap, brit-pop style that the Gorillaz have acquired themselves to. Furthermore, you could also argue that the Gorillaz are manipulating the present time and pushing the boundaries for the future, almost setting a new mark with the way that they have created this animated band, it is something that was before them never seen, so this could be seen as manipulating the future time. Jonathan Kramers postmodern music theory is definitely something that can be applied to the Gorillaz, and in various cases. They are definitely a group that arent respecting the boundaries between the past and present, they are constantly doing new things, and often using older ideas to make these things happen. They are also obviously also considering technology as a way to transmit music but to actually create it and also with all of the animation they are using technology beyond the usual use. Finally, they definitely present multiple meanings to their audience in what the music is representing. Another type of media that can be programmes on the television. There are various postmodern shows that are now showing on the television, most of which are often comedy shows. An example of a show that manipulates time and space would be the programme Flight Of The Concords. An immediate way in which it became apparent that this programme manipulates space was when I watched it for the first time the characters actually addressed the

camera. This is called breaking the fourth wall and it is talking to us as an audience. This is also ensuring that as an audience we are aware that what we are actually watching is not real, it is just a TV programme. Another way in which space is manipulated is the way in which there are often various landmarks and also the heavy accent which makes sure that as an audience we are aware that it is based in New Zealand. Bricolage is something that can also be noted within this programme, due to the programme actually representing various genres such as comedy, music video and also a drama. Overall I personally believe that all of these types of media are perfect examples postmodern media within film, music and even TV programmes. Each type of media is postmodern in different ways whether it be a film breaking the fourth wall or whether it be music using original sounds and moulding them into a new fresh sound, they are all postmodern in their own way. Tom Lamb