MixTape

Me & You - Cassie (Age 11 Year 7, "Chav" phase.)

What I've been Waiting For - Sharpay & Ryan (2006 Christmas - Gift, sing along)

Make You Feel My Love - Adele (Saying goodbye to my family everytime I leave Thailand)

Black & White - Michael Jackson (Michael Jackson's Death, I remember everyone being sad on that day. And music channels kept doing Michael's Greatest songs and this was my favourite!)

Greatest Hits (Album) - Shania Twain (Listened to it on repeat during the car journey to Disneyland Paris with the family.)

The Man Who Can't Be Moved - The Script (Summer Before Year 10, memories of High School.)

Pussycat Dolls - (A lot of their songs were played on loudspeaker while playing out during High School)

IN WHAT WAYS CAN SCOTT PILGRIM BE CONSIDERED AS POSTMODERN?

In What Ways Can Scott Pilgrim Be Considered Postmodern

LADY GAGA - POSTMODERN ARTIST

Lady Gaga - Postmodern Artist

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Using Summer Camp and a band or artist of your choice, explain how some artists can be postermodern.

There is a number of reasons why Summer Camp and Lady Gaga are postmodern, Summer Camp is a 2 person band from London. Their music is very much based on the 80s era, more focused on teenagers on that particular time, this is portrayed through the aesthetics of their videos, blogs and album cover. Lady Gaga on the other hand is very much the queen of postmodernism, she crosses so many boundaries and takes the influences she sees in the world and incorporates into her work to make is appeal to her fans. Postmodernism is not only applied to these two, it is everywhere in the music industry. Artists and groups are always remixing and incorporating past works into theirs,

Postmodernism is a rejection to modernism. Modernism is the belief that we should never look back, we should always look into the future and always create something new. Before modernism, there were such things as the “Grand Narratives”, Science, Religion and Politics coined by Jean Francois Lyotard. It was believed that before modernism everyone fitted or believed in only one thing, you were either, religious, political or scientific. You could not intersect into these worlds because it would counter act your original belief. Like music for example, in the past, if you listened to rock music, that was the genre that you could listen to, you could not like rock and another genre like Hip Hop for example, these two are completely the other end of the scales from one another and it would have been considered as weird or unusual for one to like more than genre of music. Nowadays, everyone is a postmodernist in some aspect, the majority of people with iPods, iPhones or MP3 players have all different genre of music on it. Brian Eno coined the phrase “The Death Of Uncool”, meaning that nothing is uncool anymore, you can have all of these genres in one place and it cannot be considered as uncool in today’s culture as everything is about remixing things together and making something new and unique. To believe in postmodern or to be a postmodernist, you would have to completely go against the idea of a modernist. A postmodernist would acknowledge the past, they would say that without the past, you cannot move into the future because you won’t learn anything from it. It would be like making a mistake over and over again. Postmodernism in today’s culture is very popular; it’s so popular that when we see it, we don’t even recognize it.

There are a number of aspects which makes Summer Camp postmodern, starting off with how they look. By just looking at the aesthetic of their Videos, Blogs and Album covers. You can the impression that they are going to be this cool band who are uncool, which makes them cool. Summer Camp has used hyper-reality to portray who they want to be to the audience through their projected image, but when you actually see a picture of them and watch their videos, you can see that they are a British 2 person group living in London who are obsessed with 80s music, another artist who uses Hyper-reality very heavily is Lady Gaga who has created a character or persona for her music to go along with her music. Lady Gaga the also takes music influences from the past and incorporates it into her work,  an example being that she has taken the influence of the 70s sounds and incorporated it in her second album “The Fame Monster”. Their website is very postmodern, it features a variety of video clips when the user clicks on the links. All of the videos clips are found footage from the 80s, each one of them having a different element to them whether it be humorous, sadness or happiness. The website itself is very postmodern because it’s using footage from the past, and projected through advanced technology we have today. The video for “Round The Moon” was made up of found footage from Swedish film called “Enkarlekshistoria” which came out in the 80s. By using this, they are using Bricolage, because by having young adults doing adult things, like smoking and drinking and kissing. Although at first it seems creepy, but as the song goes with the videos, it makes it sweet and innocent. Summer Camp also follow Kramer’s theory of “is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension”, the extension aspect of SummerCamp is that they use "80s synths and ’80s drum-machine sounds" in their music, the break would be to use the of technology we have in the present such as the GIFs they made their video out of 'Down'.

The foundation behind “Lady Gaga” is postmodernism, she is always remixing and re-working past movements and adapting it into her own to appeal to her fans, this is an example of Kirby Ferguson’s theory of “Everything is a remix”.  When thinking about Gaga, you cannot ignore her predecessor, Madonna. Her music, videos, and image is quite similar to Madonna’s back in the 80s when she became a worldwide superstar, and it is through this which has helped Gaga to become the star that she is today. She has focused her career on being unpredictable and outrageous; she is probably doing everything that Madonna has done but amplifying it three times to gather press and new audiences. A clear example of how similar Gaga’s music is to Madonna is with her first single from her album “Born This Way” which sounds very similar to Madonna’s “Express Yourself”. Lady Gaga is a “populist”, meaning that she is mainstream but she also includes “elitist” aspects into her work like with the use of Opera in “Government Hooker” on her latest album “Born This Way”. Another way in which Gaga is postmodern is that she uses Intertextual References in her work, a clear example would be her music video starring alongside Beyonce “Telephone”. This video was one of Gaga’s most unusual and creative videos, throughout the short film, she makes clear intextual references to Quentin Tarantino’s work. Example are spread throughout the film starting right at thy start with the font chosen for the title and credits, the font chosen is a yellow card with reddish drop shadow, this is a subtle reference to Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Another reference Gaga makes to Tarantino’s work is with Beyonce’s nickname in the video “Honey Bee”, this being a clear reference to the diner robber in “Pulp Fiction” named “Honey Bunny”. Gaga addresses Beyonce as “Honey Bee” before they pull off their poison murder spree in the diner; this seems like a pretty clear reference to “Honey Bunny,” the nickname given to Yolanda, one of the two robbers in the famous diner scene in Pulp Fiction. The clearest reference to Tarantino’s work in “Telephone” is the “Pussy Wagon” that Gaga and Beyonce drive in the video, the car was featured in “Kill Bill Vol 1” which was used for lead actress Uma Thurman to drive in, in the film she stole the car from the male nurse and used it as she drive to her victim’s house “Copper Head”. The video also shows an intextual reference to Andy Warhol’s idea of “Exploration of mass consumer culture and advertising” through his Campbell’s soup studies, in the video Gaga and the video director Akerlund wanted to challenge gender stereotypes of the “perfect housewife” portrayed heavily in the 1950s pop culture by using popular staple American household products like the “Wonder Bread” and “Miracle Whip” as their artistic devices in the video. By doing this, she also uses Bricolage, because in the “Let’s Make A SandWhich” scene, she uses the role of the 50s housewife and changes its meaning by adding poison to the food she makes which ends up killing all of the people in the diner. Gaga uses Hyper-reality to her advantage, she has consumed this character and this is what helps her music sell. When you think about Gaga, you don’t just think about her music, you think about her overall image and aesthetic. When you think of Gaga, you see all of her theatrics, whether it be the choice of Fashion, hair or makeup, whenever you go to see one of her live shows, you expect a show. Without her hyper-real self, her music would not sell as well. This goes with Baudrillard’s theory of that “our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is of a simulation of reality”, meaning that the manner in which the message is mediated becomes more important than the meaning of the message itself.

In conclusion, both of these artists and bands share similarities in how they are postmodern, but they also differ from each other because one is quite niche and the other one is quite mainstream. Similarities which they both share are Hyper-reality, influences of past music and incorporating it into their work.  Although Gaga has amplified this a thousand times more than Summer Camp, I also think that because of Summer Camp’s particular use of hyper-reality, it can confuse the audience about who they are before they see. Comparing them both, they are very different, in similar in a number of ways.

SUMMERCAMP - JONATHAN KRAMER THEORIES.

1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension - The extension aspect of SummerCamp is that they use "80s synths and ’80s drum-machine sounds" in their music, the break would be to use the of technology we have in the present such as the GIFs they made their video out of 'Down'.

2. is, on some level and in some way, ironic - Through the 1980s research, I have realised that the reason for why SummerCamp is cool, they are 'cool' because they are being ironically 'uncool' therefore making them 'cool' in the present day. The reason for why they are ironically 'cool' is because they are infatuated with the 80s, this particular era was the decade of the teenagers. New movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Weird Science focused on teenagers and High School at that particular time, these movies were 'cool' in that particular era, but comparing them to films that are made now they are 'uncool' because when we watch them now, we realise who cheesy and cringey they are, but by acknowledging that they are 'uncool' it makes it 'cool' to like them.

3. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present - ?

4. challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles - Summer Camp write their own songs, so therefore they follow the traditional methods of artists, which makes them High Style. Other artists who are considered 'High Styles' are The Beatles, Adele. Examples of 'Low Style' artists are Justin Bieber, One Direction.

5. hows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity - ?

6. questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values - Summer Camp are considered 'cool' by some people because they are not in the charts or mainstream, meaning that they are an elitist instead of a populist. But if Summer Camp was to become successful in the charts and mainstream, populists would start liking them and the elitists would go off them.

7. avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold) - I would say from listening to their songs on YouTube that all of them have the same sound, meaning that their music is one piece instead of 'avoiding totalizing forms' where each song of theirs has a different sound.

8. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts - Summer Camp produces music which is very much based on the 80s era in America, the 80s being probably the most famous and heard about, they are following the American culture and social contexts.

9. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures - Their songs, videos, image is very much based around American 80s Pop Culture. Although at the start, before I had seen their picture, I had an image in my head of what they would look like from looking at their blog, website and images.

10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music - Summer Camp has incorporated computerized sounds in pop songs from the 80s in their music by using the technology we have today, to replicate the first computerised sounds on songs.

11. embraces contradictions - Their video 'Round The Moon' has been made completely out of uncopyrighted footage from the 1970 Swedish film "En kärlekshistoria", so by doing this they are contradicting their style because they are using an old piece of footage with something that is brand new.

12. distrusts binary oppositions - ?

13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities - by using clips from "En kärlekshistoria", it pays homage as they are using the clips to visualise the context of the song to the audience watching.

14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism - Summer Camp uses a techno sound, similar to those of Vampire Weekend.

15. presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities - By using clips from different times and putting it with their music. They are presenting multiple meanings and temporalities.

16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers - With people having iPods and MP3 players nowadays, they are not bound to one category of music.

EXPLAIN HOW FAR YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF CONVENTIONS OF EXISTING MEDIA INFLUENCED THE WAY YOU CREATED YOUR OWN MEDIA PRODUCTS. REFER TO A RANGE OF EXMAPLES IN YOUR ANSWER TO SHOW THIS UNDERSTANDING DEVELOPING OVER TIME.

During the two year course of Media Studies, I have completed two preliminary tasks, one for each year. By doing so, they have given me an insight of what is to come when I actually do the final products and what challenges and hurdles I will have to overcome in order to achieve the highest quality of work. For my AS year of the course, I created a school magazine called ‘Homme’, meaning ‘Man’ in French. The target audience I was going for were boys who were studying at Lutterworth College and had an interest in Fashion & Lifestyle. I would say that from doing this, I did have some knowledge of the conventions of a magazine as I was a regular reader of men’s magazines such as GQ and Esquire. I used these particular magazines as a foundation to build on preliminary magazine on top of, and by doing so, I thought that my preliminary magazine was quite high standard as it was only my first time trying to create a magazine and had little experience with the editing software we were using which was Adobe Photoshop Elements. For my A2 year of Media Studies, as a preliminary task, I was asked with my classmates to create a music video to Busted’s ‘That’s What I Go To School For’, I found this second preliminary task was much more complicated and harder to do as there were a lot of things which needed to be done before we could actually start shooting the video. Examples being that we had to come up with a storyboard of what we wanted to happen in the video, cast the actors who were going to play the characters in the video, come up with a shooting plan of when and where we were going to shoot each individual shot and only then could we start shooting the shots we needed. After all the scenes had been shot, we then had to individually take it in turn to edit the video so the shots go in sync with the music. As our video was very much based on the original video of the song, we didn’t really have much freedom with our ideas so I would definitely say that for our preliminary task, the conventions of a music video heavily influenced us when it came to producing the video.

Before I had started my AS coursework, I thought that I did not know any conventions of a music magazine, or any magazine that were already existing. But as I started to do my research and planning for the magazine, I began to find out that I did already know some conventions of a music magazine or any other magazine. For my A2, during my research and planning, I was able to find conventions in which music videos followed, although most of them do not follow the same. What I found out was it was up to the genre of the music which decided the conventions of the videos, Pop music for example, artists such as Lady Gaga and Madonna. They are two internationally known pop stars and although they make great music, it is how they express their music through their videos, performances and shows that is almost as important as the music itself.

When creating the music magazine, I found that this was very much easier as the magazine was from my point of view, so I was able to incorporate only my ideas into the product and no one else’s which made it easier to produce something I liked all the while still following the brief of the task. From the very start, I wanted to create a music magazine that was very much fashion orientated, but still keeping the content of the magazine music related as music and fashion go hand in hand. Before I could start taking any pictures or start writing the content, I had to do a lot of research into existing Fashion and Music magazines such as ‘VOGUE’, ‘LOVE’, ‘Wonderland’, ‘Q’ and ‘Rolling Stone’. By looking at fashion magazines, I could see the typical conventions they all shared and incorporate it into my magazine. The conventions I found were that the featured celebrity in the issue was styled from head to toe and they were using different types of camera angles like close-ups, long shots, mid-shots, everything was fashion forward and they didn’t change who the person was through hair and makeup, the magazines kept their feature star individual as this would be why people would buy the magazine. They were also doing particular poses which would only be seen in a fashion magazine, and during that time, I not looked at magazines, but also photographers who inspired me as well like Terry Richardson and Mario Testino. When looking at music magazines, I found that unlike the conventions of a Fashion Magazine, the mis-en-scene for their pictures are kept simple and clean, the main attraction is the artist featured on the page, nothing else. The music magazines I had chosen were ‘Q’ magazine and ‘Rolling Stones’, I had chosen these particular magazines because they were and still are the highest selling music magazines in the industry, meaning that they were respected and it would be appropriate to incorporate the conventions found on these magazines into mine. 

In A2, the brief was to create a music magazine and two ancillary texts such as a digipak and a poster. To find the conventions of a music video, we first had to pick out what song we were going to do. Once we had done that, we could then start looking at other existing bands and artists who were similar to our band so we could take influences from them and incorporate it into our video. Other existing bands we looked at were Kings Of Leon, Coldplay and OneRepublic, the conventions of these videos were of course, lip syncing, instrument playing etc. So I incorporated some of these aspects into our music video in order to get a prodessional looking end product. For the digipak and poster, I looked at the same bands as I did for the music video and found Kings of Leon’s digipak of ‘Come Around Sundown’ which featured a scenic photograph of the beach and two palm trees in the centre of the frame, by the use of editing they were able to take away some of the colour, almost making it into an old photo. The reason for why I really liked it was because the photo felt like a memory captured through the bands eyes, I thought that it made it more personal for the audience. So I tok this inspiration and applied it to my digipak and poster, I had decided to use a photo of picadilly circus I had shot when shooting the shots for the video in London. I thought by using the image of the city, it emphasised the album name ‘City & Colours’ giving the audience a visual representation of the city. 

JONATHAN KRAMER - POSTMODERNISM MUSIC THEORY

A very interesting aspect of postmodern music theory. This will help you with your next essay.

Media Theorist Jonathan Kramer says "the idea that postmodernism is less a surface style or historical period than an attitude. Kramer goes on to say 16 "characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern compositional practices."
According to Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16–17), postmodern music":

1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
2. is, on some level and in some way, ironic
3. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present
4. challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
5. shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
6. questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
7. avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
8. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
9. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
11. embraces contradictions
12. distrusts binary oppositions
13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities
14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
15. presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers

Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City), was a U.S. composer and music theorist.

Active as a music theorist, Kramer published primarily on theories of musical time and postmodernism. At the time of his death he had just completed a book on postmodern music and a cello composition for the American Holocaust Museum.

Music Magazine & Video Conventions.

Music Magazine

Front Page

• Front cover features the artist.
• Masthead.
• Font.
• Coverlines.
• Rule of Thirds.

Contents Page

• Highlighting key articles.
• Categorising content.
• Images & Captions.

Double Page Spread

• Layout (Text & Image).
• Fonts Colour.
• Pull Quotes.
• Photography & Representation.

Other Media Texts.

• Graphics - e.g. iPod adverts.

Music Video

• Narrative.
• Theorists.
• Editing Effects.
• Choregraphy (Pop).
• Mis-en-scene.
• Clothes.
• Makeup.

1980s

The films I watched were Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Teen Wolf and Weird Science. All of these films had the same similarities such as:

• Set in American High School.
• Free and Young.
• Obvious Social Cliques (Nerds, Popular Kids)
• The 'Girl' (In each one of these films, there is a girl who the main character likes and makes her a important character to the film).
• Careless living.
• Having a good time.

Music


The Human League - Fascination

• Classic 80s sounds.
• Men wearing make-up.
• Women wearing strong make-up.
• Wearing All Black.
• No choreography, just dancing along with the music. 

Gary Numan - Cars

• 80s retro sound.
• A new age of music.
• Male singer wearing makeup.
• Use of editing effects.
• Lots of close-ups of the face.
• No choreography, just dancing to the music.
• Quite artistic and creative, through camera work and set design. 

A Flock of Seagulls

• Singer wearing makeup.
• Artistic Ideas.
• Close ups.
• Women wearing a lot of eyeshadow. 

BUT THE BAND LOOK NOTHING LIKE THE BAND

SummerCamp does not look like the band they have portrayed to be through their blogs and videos.

Hyperreality is a means to characterise the way consciousness defines what is actually 'real' in a world where a multitude of media can radically shape and filter an original event or experience.

Often, a 'copy' can replace the original.

1.A magazine photo of a model that has been touched up with a computer.

2.Films in which characters and settings are either digitally enhanced or created entirely from CGI (e.g.: 300, where the entire film was shot in front of a blue/green screen, with all settings super-imposed).

3.A well manicured garden (nature as hyperreal).

4.Any massively promoted versions of historical or present "facts" (e.g. "General Ignorance" from QI, where the questions have seemingly obvious answers, which are actually wrong).

5.Professional sports athletes as super, invincible versions of the human beings.

6.Many world cities and places which did not evolve as functional places with some basis in reality, as if they were creatio ex nihilo (literally 'creation out of nothing'): Disney World;Dubai; Celebration, Florida; and Las Vegas.

7.TV and film in general (especially "reality" TV), due to its creation of a world of fantasy and its dependence that the viewer will engage with these fantasy worlds. The current trend is to glamorize the mundane using histrionics.

8.A retail store that looks completely stocked and perfect due to facing, creating a world of endless identical products.

9.A life which cannot be (e.g. the perfect facsimile of a celebrity's invented persona).

10.A high end sex doll used as a simulacrum of a bodily or psychologically unattainable partner.

11.A newly made building or item designed to look old, or to recreate or reproduce an older artifact, by simulating the feel of age or aging.

12.Constructed languages (such as E-Prime) or "reconstructed" extinct dialects.

13.Second Life The distinction becomes blurred when it becomes the platform for RL (Real Life) courses and conferences, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or leads to real world interactions behind the scenes.

14.Weak virtual reality which is greater than any possible simulation of physical reality.

SUMMERCAMP, BRICOLAGE, FOUND FOOTAGE

Bricolage - moving something from one place to another - changing the context.

Fount Footage - not documentary. Already made clips put together, creating a new meaning.

How does Stella and Ella make you feel?

• It made me feel quite relaxed and sad for some reason, unlike some people in the class who thought that it was quite creepy. The reason for why it made me feel kinda sad was because at the start of the video when they said that one of the sisters had died, and it made me feel quite relaxed because the song choice for the video was quite good.

Is it Postmodern?

• Yes, the author/ creator of the video has changed the meaning of the video by changing the original song 'Holy Night' which is something that is thought to be joyful and religious, but by changing the song to Radiohead's 'Street Spirit' it suddenly makes the video creepy, although it does look like the video goes with the song because the movement of the sisters match the song. 

SummerCamp

• Different from Stella & Ella.
• There is a narrative with flows with the song.
• By choosing young kids, it makes it cuter and sweeter. 

DISCUSS WHY SOME PEOPLE ARE NOT CONVINCED BY THE IDEA OF POSTMODERN MEDIA

Postmodernism as a whole is said to be a rejection to modernism. To be able to understand postmodernism, we first must understand modernism and why the postmodernism movement happened.  Modernism was about always looking towards the future and not looking back and that everything was original, the argument that postermodernists have come up with is that how can we move forward, if we don’t acknowledge the past,. Surely if we don’t learn from our mistakes, we would just be repeating it over and over again, therefore we wouldn’t be moving forward, and we would then only staying still. A postmodernist would will also take in the Jean Francois Lyotard’s theories of the Grand Narratives such as Science, Politics and Religion. As we speak, post modernists would take aspects of the grand narratives and put it together to create their own, there are numerous examples of this in our everyday lives, it can happen with Fashion, Music and media.

In order to understand Postmodernism you have to look at the examples of postmodern texts, an example would be where a director of a film has taken influences from other texts, this would be called an 'Homage' as he/she is respectfully taking influences from existing works such as television shows, computer games, music etc. to incorporate into his own. An example of a postmodern text which I have looked at is Dan Black's 'Symphonies' created by following the Levi Strauss's theory of 'Addition, Deletion, Substitution and Transposition'. In this video, Dan Black makes clear intertexual references to other  texts, there are various examples which run through the video but to name a few, he has chosen to include the Universal Studios-like clip at the very start, the use of 'Umbrella' soundtrack during the opening credits, the old hollywood style etc. There are many more which play throughout the video, but the point that I am making is that only a postmodernist would be able to spot these intertextual references because he/she would have already seen the original texts which only then, can they see what Dan Black is doing. But you do not have to be a postmodernist to admire and like the video, for example someone who did not have the knowledge of the intertextual references could easily be as amused while watching it as a postmodernist, he/she would just think that the video was creative through the use of different effects.

An example of a film which is postmodern is 'Hobo With A Shotgun', the reason for this being is because the film was based on a fake trailer, made for a non-existent imaginary film. Directed by Jason Eisener, this film does not have a productive and dynamic storyline. The reason why it was made to be gore to gore sake, the film features scenes showing people getting killed or tortured in the gruesome-ist ways. There is no point to the film and some postmodernists say that the film was too good at being bad.

Another example of a postmodern text is the game 'Desert Bus', this game could possibly the real-est game I have ever played. The reason for this is not because of the graphics, or the story line as such, the game does not even have a story line. All it requires the player to do is to get from point A to point B by driving a bus on a straight line for 8 hours to get to Las Vegas, 8 hours actually being accurate as it would actually take 8 hours to drive there on a bus in real life which makes it such a real life game. The game does have a reward system, when you finish the 8 hours and get to Las Vegas, you receive 1 point and then you have to drive back again. You cannot pause the game and if you slow down or drive of the road, you will have to wait for the amount of time you have played on the game for the bus to be towed back to the start to be able to play it again. 

WHAT IS POSTMODERNISM?

Ideas to include in essay.

• Movement of media.
• Rejection of modernism.
• Breaking down boundaries - no more genres, conventions.
• Homage - taking past influences and putting it together. E.g. Kill Bill
• Pastiche - Parody, making fun. E.g. Scary Movie
• Replacing idea of reality with a reality - Exaggeration. 'Hyper-reality'
• Interacting with the text - 'pro-sumers', have to think and question about what you're watching.
• You have to understand the history to understand the context of post modernism.
• Bricolage.
• Grand Narratives - Modernism, religion, science, politics. To make it post modernism, you take aspects of it and combine it.

POSTMODERNISM - wants to see the PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE at the same time. 

BRIAN ENO

No one is interested in one particular genre anymore, people take bits of what they like.

15 random shuffled songs.

Sugababes - Get Sexy
Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
Coldplay - Major Minus
Cobra Starship - The World Will Never Do
Tinie Tempah - Snap
Usher - Love In This Club
Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Miley Cyrus - Party In the USA
Kylie Minogue - Too Much
Vampire Weekend - Giving Up The Gun
One Direction - Up All Night
The Saturdays - Why Me, Why Now
Mark Ronson & Amy Winehouse - Valerie
JLS - The Club Is Alive

BRICOLAGE

Bricolage - Changing traditional objects and words to give them subversive meanings.

Punk with the safety pin - To rebel, using something that was used to hold a nappy together on a baby, they have changed the meaning by wearing it as a piercing .

Symbolic code - having the opposites next to each other. E.g. Fat Wealthy man and a poor child.

Cool - 'something we like', also depends on the context - meaning how people see it.

Confidence is 'Cool'.

You do not have to be fashionable to be 'cool'.

Michael McIntyre  - 'Lad' - nice man and everyone likes him. - Links to popularity, being popular makes you 'cool'.

Uncool - can be cool. Ironically wearing the geek glasses, which makes them cool.

Being 'Too Cool' can be uncool, like you're trying too hard.

Uncool can be cool.

Peers, Journalists, Celebrities, influential people decide what is cool and the rest follow.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TURNS MEDIA CONSUMERS INTO MEDIA PRODUCERS

In your own experience, how has your creativity developed using digital technology to complete your coursework productions?

I think that Technology has played a crucial role in my own experience of developing my creative ideas, I believe that without the Technology I had at hand, I would not have been able to achieve the work I have produced.

When I was making my music video, technology allowed me to research all the different conventions of a music video. I was able to watch multiple music videos online on video playing platforms such youtube, vimeo etc. This allowed me to gather the knowledge of what was in music videos, I was able to find similiarities which all of them shared and how they also differed from each other. Not only did technology allow me to look at other music videos, it also helped me throughout the whole process of the actual making and also after I had finished. Equipments such as Cameras, Computers, iPods and Smart phones helped me along the way to portray my thoughts and ideas, without these, it would've have been almost impossible to make the music video. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Premiere were probably the most important components when it came to expressing how I wanted my products to look. I don't think that it was just these particular programs, but some sort of editing program which allowed me to have the freedom of using a variety of tools and editing effects to achieve the look I wanted.

Looking back at AS and now at A2, I would say that my creativity has definitely developed further since then. I am able to come up with a simple idea, use it as a foundation and build upon it to create something that is and I say this lightly 'authentic and original' as nothing is really original or authentic anymore, we take inlufences from other people's work and put our own spin onto it to make it ours. When I think of my AS magazine, I definittely believe that it was not 100% original, I took influences from other magazines through the use of technology, I picked out the aspects I liked about them and I tried to blend them together to create something that I would like to read. I don't beleive that Technology has been the biggest influence, I believe that everything around us can inspire us. The simplest shapes and forms can evolve into the weirdest and bestest ideas. I came up with the 'Pop-Art' theme for my Magazine by looking at artists I was interested in, I came across Andy Warhol who has done some of the most famous portraits. I was attracted to the use of bright colours he used on his screen prints of famous celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson. So I 'replicated' this effect through Photoshop, I had to experiment with the effects and tools to get the right look I wanted.

CREATIVITY

Ideas and thoughts on Creativity:

“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns. Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. It is also a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing...it makes life more fun and more interesting." - Edward de Bono

"Out of limitation come creativity." - Debbie Allen

"A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations." - Gerald G. Jampolsky

"Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them." - Albert Einstein

"Can anybody be given a great degree of creativity? No. They can be given the equipment to develop it - if they have it in them in the first place." - George Shearing

"Creativity and artistic endeavours have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music." - Herbie Hancock

How have you tried to facilitate and encourage your own creativity?

Creativity is a component which each everyone of us has, although it is how we express our own creativity which makes us differ from everyone else. Not everyone has the same idea of what is creative and what isn't, I feel that everyone is creative because we all have imaginations. Our imaginations allow us to build a fantasy where we are able to combine our individual thoughts, opinions and emotions to create something that is unique and different from everyone else. I do feel like creativity is built in everyone of us, but only a few people are able to use it to their potential. People like Madonna, Picasso, Andy Warhol, these people are icons and have shape the world we live in today. If we look at Music, artists such as Lady Gaga, you can clearly see the resemblance of Madonna's younger career being relived in the 21st Century. As technology is constantly evolving, we are able to develop the past and improve it with the materials and components we have today. Although we do have to remember that without the past, I do not think that we are able to move onto the future because there would be nothing to move on from.



- Did you experience limits/blocks on your own creativity?

I would say that I did not experience any 'Limits' to my creativity, I would say that there have been 'blocks' or obstacles which have tried to stop me from doing what I want to do. But I think that nothing has really limited or blocked my creativity, you learn to overcome what's in front of you and you move on from it, by overcoming and working out what you need to do, I think that you'll achieve something that is far greater than you've ever achieved. Especially if there is a lot of blocks or obstacles trying to stop you from reaching your goal, it makes it even more satisfying when you find an answer to overcome it, its then that the final result will be yours.


- How easy/difficult was it to be creative while still working to the brief?

I found that it was actually quite easy and hard at times when working to a brief. The easy parts was that the Brief gave me a clear instruction of what to do, like for the AS magazine, the brief was to make a music magazine, not a fashion or a lifestyle but a music one. At first I wanted to make a fashion magazine instead, but as I had to follow the brief, I was able to bring in aspects of Fashion into it. I was able to keep the core of the magazine Music related, but then I added elements which made it fashion forward but still kept the music concept right on top of my mind.

- Did working within conventions stifle your creativity?

I don't think that working within conventions stifled my creativity, I feel that I was able to combine an aspect of any idea into my product all the while still sticking to the conventions of the product. For example with the digipak I created to go with my Music Video. I did not follow the usual conventions of a digipak as the majority of the digipaks out there feature pictures of the artists or bands predominantly so the audience can easily spot it if they wanted to buy it. Instead of following this, I chose to take a different path with using shots I had taken when we went to London to shoot the scenes for our music video. Even though this doesn't fall into the 'coventions' of a digipak, I found that the end result was quite effected in being professional looking, and also to creating a sort of 'brand' for my band without actually featuring them on the digipak or the poster.

- To what extent did you need to work with others and ‘bounce ideas’ off other people to be truly creative?

I would say that working around and with other people definitely helped me develop my ideas, I was able to listen to what their ideas were and I was able to give them feedback about what I thought about it and visa versa. By working together or just being around people while you are trying to generate new ideas definitely helps, because you may hear something another person has said that you probably wouldn't have even thought off and you could take an aspect of that and include it into your work

How much of your creativity was about trying to picture things in your mind’s eye?

I would say that a my imagination was able to picture the creative ideas I had in my mind, I found that this was very helpful when it came to trying to figure what what my final product would look like. Like with my music video, I was able to visualise the shots in my mind and incorporate it where I thought it would be most effective.

- How much of your creativity was about trial and error?

I would say that my creativity definitely depending on trial and error, some things that I picture in my mind don't look the same in real life. For example with our music video, I thought that it would actually be a good idea to ghost the people while we were in London. But when I watched it back, this didn't look so good so we just kept the picture normal.

- To what extent was a lack of confidence an issue in terms of your creativity?

I would say that a lack of experience affected my confidence in terms of my creativity, I wasn't sure that if my ideas were 'right' or 'wrong' and if it even fitted to the brief. But when during the process of making my products, I began to be more confident with my creative ideas.

- To what extent was a lack of technical competence/confidence an obstacle to your creativity?

To an extent, the lack of technical knowledge did limit me from portraying the creative ideas I had in my mind. But when I had learnt how to use the technical equipments and software, it was very easy to bring my ideas ti life and show them through my work.

DESERT BUS

Although desert bus is one of the most simple games I have ever played, it does follow some of the computer game conventions.

The first convention that desert bus follows is that it has levels/ mission being that you have to drive the bus from point A to point B, if you were to try and complete this, it would roughly take 8 hours to do it and then it would take another 8 hours to drive back again.

The game is very realistic as when I am playing it, I have to keep my concentration on the screen mnaking sure that the bus does not swerve off the road. The game is usually part of a charity event and it may not appeal to lots of people as their is no great reward or sense of achievement while playing this game.

Other computer game conventions are:

Puzzles/problems

Progressive difficulty

Linear structure

Binary opposites