A useful acronym: B and H PAIN PIPES

Bricolage & Hyperreality


Playfulness Aesthetic Irony Nihilism


Parody Intertextual Pastiche Eclectic Self referential

As with the previous post link these useful words to the different texts you have studied this year.

Postmodernism: a definition

Label given to Cultural forms since the 1960s that display the following qualities:

Self reflexivity: this involves the seemingly paradoxical combination of self-consciousness and some sort of historical grounding

Irony: Post modernism uses irony as a primary mode of expression, but it also abuses, installs, and subverts conventions and usually negotiates contradictions through irony

Boundaries: Post modernism challenges the boundaries between genres, art forms, theory and art, high art and the mass media

Constructs: Post modernism is actively involved in examining the constructs society creates including, but not exclusively, the following:

• Nation: Post modernism examines the construction of nations/nationality and questions such constructions
• Gender: Post modernism reassesses gender, the construction of gender, and the role of gender in cultural formations
• Race: Post modernism questions and reassesses constructs of race
• Sexuality: Post modernism questions and reassesses constructs of sexuality

We're Still Not Past Postmodernism

An interesting article written by Robert W. Butler (The Kansas City Star 2003)

Postmodern media revision

Postmodern Media

What are the different versions of post-modernism (historical period, style, theoretical approach)?

What are the arguments for and against understanding some forms of media as post-modern?

How do post-modern media texts challenge traditional text-reader relations and the concept of representation?

In what ways do media audiences and industries operate differently in a post-modern world?

Modernism and Postmodernism: clarification of terms

Both are artistic movements in culture, new ways of viewing culture; modernism is characterized by the shift from agricultural to industrial society. Modernist view of culture: was rooted in the idea that "traditional" forms of art, literature, social organization and daily life had become outdated, and that it was therefore essential to sweep them aside and reinvent culture. Modernism encouraged the idea of re-examination of every aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was "holding back" progress, and replacing it with new, and therefore better, ways of reaching the same end. In essence, the Modern Movement argued that the new realities of the 20th century were permanent and imminent, and that people should adapt their world view to accept that what was new was also good and beautiful.

Postmodernism is cultural movement that came after modernism, also it follows our shift from being a industrial society to that of an information society, through globalization of capital. Markers of the postmodern culture include opposing hierarchy, diversifying and recycling culture, questioning scientific reasoning, and embracing paradox. Postmodernism is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding modernism. In music for example, “pomo” music contains characteristics of postmodern art-- eclecticism in musical form and musical genre, and often combines characteristics from different genres, or employs jump-cut sectionalization (such as blocks). For example, a Gwen Stefani song which references musical “Fiddler On the Roof” or a hip hop song that samples an older song is considered Postmodern. In the horror movie Scream, when the characters reference other horror movies, it is postmodern. “Pomo” tends to be self-referential and ironic

Postmodern style is often characterized by eclecticism, digression, collage, pastiche, and irony. Postmodern theorists see postmodern art as a conflation or reversal of well-established modernist systems, such as the roles of artist versus audience, seriousness versus play, or high culture versus kitsch.

LINK

A2 G325: Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

A2 G325: Critical Perspectives in Media


Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)


Candidates answer two compulsory questions. The first requires them to describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The second asks them to identify one production and evaluate it in relation to one theoretical concept.

Question 1(a) requires candidates to describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The focus of this evaluation must be on skills development, and the question will require them to adapt this to one or two specific production practices.
The list of practices to which questions will relate is as follows:

Digital Technology
Creativity
Research and planning
Post-production
Using conventions from real media texts
　
In the examination, questions will be posed using one or two of these categories.
Where candidates have produced relevant work outside the context of their A Level media course, they are free to additionally refer to this experience.

Question 1(b) requires candidates to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept. The list of concepts to which questions will relate is as follows:

Genre
Narrative
Representation
Audience
Media language

In the examination, questions will be set using one of these concepts only.

Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Post Production: A2 question 1a

What decisions did you make in the post production stage of your products at AS and A2? Evaluate your skills development as well as the success of the decisions-Refer to as many of the post production elements as possible.

Post production elements:

sound
CGI
effectsvideo
commentaryfeedback - roughcutmenu for DVD
creditstransitions/effects
subtitles
marketing (digi-pack)
editing
consumption/exchange

Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Using Conventions From Real Media Texts: A2 Question 1b

In question 1(b) you need to choose one of your media productions to write about. (b) Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.



Question 1 - How has your understanding of real media conventions developed over your a level media studies

The codes and conventions in media can be separated into 3 distinct groups - technical (camera techniques & shots), symbolic (ie clothing, colours) written and audio (music etc). These give the text meaning and determine the response of the viewer. They can be used as a basis for simple text analysis.

Postmodern media revision task (13C/13A )

Choose a text you have studied this year and make a revision guide.

Texts include:

• Fight Club


• Pulp Fiction


• Memento


• 24 Hour Party People


• Inglourious Basterds


• Flight Of The Conchords


• memes


• Stockhausen


• Timbaland


• Girl Talk


• David Bowie


• Music videos
  
  

Include a description of the text, explain it in postmodern terms. Offer examples frrom the text that are relevant and detailed. Include pictures or diagrams. Refer to the appropriate theory to reinforce your points. Post on your blog using a Scribd embed. I will compile the work and disseminate next week.

12E lesson checklist

• Read the blog checklist and tidy up your blogs.


• Read the stereotypes document. This will help you revise the seven key areas of representation.


• Read the A grade answer (Monarch of the Glen)


• Watch the Doctor Who clip and make notes in preparation for Wednesday's lesson.

The seven areas of representation

REPRESENTATIONS – COMMON STEREOTYPES

G322 Exemplar Answer (A grade)

G322 Exemplar Answer Cand A High Level

OCR Summer 2009 G322 textual analysis exam

Video extract
TV Drama sequence: Doctor Who, Series 3, Volume 4
Director: Graham Harper and Colin Teague
Date: 2007
Distributor: BBC
Country: UK
Extract Location: Episode 3, Chapter 8
Extract Length: 5 minutes 06 seconds
Location/Cues: Start: 29:20; End: 34:26

Answer the question below, with detailed reference to specific examples from the extract only.

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of gender using the following:

• Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise en scène

[50 marks]

G322 Textual Analysis and Representation (Unseen Moving Image Extract)

1 Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of class using the following:

• Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise en scène
[Total 50]

G322 instititions and audiences exam questions

Audience and Institution Past Papers

LINK

Grindhouse trailer

Planet Terror trailer

Death Proof trailer