What is meant by post-modern media?
Post-modern media, is media that originates from another
time or existing piece of work, it defies the rules of both context and meaning
by creating something that uses a combination of components. Nothing can be
seen as wrong. Products use and alter current concepts and manipulate the
audiences perception of reality. Post-modern is based on the fact that there
are no new possibilities in media and that they have all been used and we are
therefore left with re-using the past.
Post-modern media has become extremely popular within many
different professions, one of which being film. Inglorious Basterds directed by
Quentin Tarantino contains multiple examples of postmodernism; one example of
this is the use of music from a spaghetti western track. Spaghetti western
movies first emerged in the mid-1960s whereas the film is set in the 1940s;
this is an example of bricolage as it uses material from elsewhere and combines
it with the something else. There is another example of this within the film,
when Shoshanna is getting ready for the premiere, the song in the background is
‘Cat People’ by David Bowie which was released in the early 1980s, again
showing an example of bricolage. Transportation is also used at the beginning
of the film by using a scene similar to ‘The Sound of Music’, Tarantino has
taken a scene from that film and transported it into his own.
There is also a lot of hyper-reality throughout the film; an
example of this is Tarantino showing the audience the film set throughout the
film. one example of this is at the start as we see a the camera go below the
floor boards, another example of this in the film is when the camera follows
Shoshanna at the film premier, the camera pans over the set and allows you to
see the joints and top of it. This indicates to the audience that it is in fact
a set and not a real place; this portrays the film as fake when normally
directors want to show the audience that it is in fact real. Another aspect of
hyper-reality in the film is that World War II ended in 1945 whereas in the
film it ended in 1944. Also during the film the Germans are seen as kind of
jokey and funny, this adds to the comedy value of the film, but would have been
unlikely to be the case in real life. There is also the hyper-reality around
Aldo Raine. He is seen as this immaculate character throughout the film, when
he is dragged to the floor in a white suit it still manages to stay spotless,
and his hair stays immaculate throughout the whole film, whereas when Hans strangles
Bridget Von Hammersmark his hair gets messed up.
Tarantino also included intertextual references into
Inglorious Basterds, one of which being the reference to his other films by
using components from them, such as the use of the ‘Tarantino font’ which is a
font that is associated with his films, and also yellow subtitles are commonly
used within his films.
Another film that includes postmodern elements is Inception
which was directed by Christopher Nolan, like Inglorious Basterds this film
includes many different aspects that can be seen as post-modern, one aspect is hyper-reality.
Hyper-reality occurs throughout the film, one time being the penrose staircase,
which is an infinite staircase; this also shows that anything is possible
within a dream. During the film the mind is also opened into another reality
which could be seen as more desirable than real life reality. This aspect of
the film means a sense of a new, better and more sought-after world and so
audience are convinced that it is an authentic world.
Like Inglourious Basterds there are several intertextual
references throughout the film, there are references to other films such as
James Bond and Citizen Kane. Nolan references James Bond ‘On Her Majesty’s
Secret Service’ by copying the snow scene from the film and integrating it into
Inception. During the scene where Ariadne is first shown the dream she drags to
mirrors together so Cobb can see himself in them, this references a scene from
Citizen Kane which was released in 1941. Christopher Nolan also references
artist Ori Gersht, who for his work blows up items, this is also done in
Inception when Cobb and Ariadne are in Paris.
Inception also includes some manipulation of music, the song
‘Non je ne regrette rien’ by Edith Piaf was released in the 1960s, the song was
manipulated and slowed down and to be used as the dramatic music for the film.
This can be regarded as post-modern due to the theory that ‘everything is a remix’
which is a concept that all new products copy, transform and combine existing
pieces of work.
As well as post-modern being in film it is also used in
music, an artist that can be seen as post-modern is Jay-z, this is because he
does many things that are considered to be postmodern, such as intertextual
references and working with a variety of different people. Jay-Z has used
bricolage in some of his songs one of which being ’99 problems’, Jay-z uses an unconventional guitar style
backing track, and sampling the drum beat from ‘The Big Beat’ By Billy Squier
whilst using the chorus lyrics from Ice-T’s ’99 Problems’ released in 1993. This can
be seen as bricolage as he compiles all of the three elements together. Jay-z
also uses intertextual references in some of his songs, one example is the song
‘Paris’ which references the film ‘Blades Of Glory’ sampling dialogue from the
film by Will Ferrell.
Post-modern
can also occur in TV adverts, homage is used a lot to create an advert that
links to an existing product, one advert that uses homage is H&M. The
advert was directed by Guy Ritchie and stars David Beckham, the advert shows
David Beckham running through gardens and streets trying to catch up with a car
in which his dressing gown has got caught in. This pays homage to the film
‘Ferris Bueller’s day off’, as he is seen racing home against a car taking
various shortcuts through people’s houses and gardens and running through
bushes and jumping over fences.
As well as homage a technique that is commonly used in adverts is simulacra, which is the copying of a product that lacks the reality of the original product. A good example of this is the ‘Head & Shoulders’ advert in which England goalkeeper Joe Hart is seen to be seriously injured but in fact just has an itchy scalp, the physio then runs on and treats him and within a few minutes he is fine. This is unrealistic as although the product may help it is unlikely to help that quickly and the sufficient, this creates an illusion a false reality that the product can do this for you straight the way.
To
conclude, I feel that new media products is almost always post-modern as it is
so widely spread and everything in which we see is a copy of the original and
it may even be slightly changed from its original form. As well as the
inspiration and influences coming from other people and other things it means
that most things produced are post-modern.
