Mix Tape

Primary School:
- OutKast- Hey Ya
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-Phil Oakley- Together in Electric Dreams
- Bon Jovi- Keep The Faith
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Secondary School:
- RazorLight- Somewhere Else
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6th Form:
- Bloc Party- Banquet
- We no speak Americano

Analysis of website

http://blabla.nfb.ca/

This website has the main purpose which is simply to not have a purpose or meaning. The whole website is irrelevent and pointless as it does not serve the features of a traditional website that we know of such as the BBC, which is to provide information or entertainment to an audience. This website dosen't do either which makes it irrelevent and pointless as everything that is shown is not linked to particular topic. We are continuously shown the same illustrated character which is controlled by the audience as we can click anywhere on the screen to make it do various activities such as make it eat things and make circular black shapes multiply. This again has no real meaning or purpose to it as nothing we are shown on the website leads to anything else or even refers to anything. This website completly rules out 'Todorovs' thoeory as there is no harmony or balance between the character and their enviroment because no sense can be made from what we are shown.

Analyse one of your products in relation to genre

The media product I will use to analyse for genre will be the music video I made as part of a group. The existing song we chose to create a new music video for was ‘Banquet’ by Bloc Party. This song and band are traditionally recognised to belong to the gene of Indie/Rock and alternate. We chose to work with this particular genre as it was the favoured music style of the members of the group, and we as a group felt as this was the genre we enjoyed listening to we could achieve the highest grade that we were capable of. The band ‘Bloc Party’ are widely renound for their collaboration of Rock and Indie music and they are perfect example of what this particular genre entails.

When thinking of an idea of how we could also portray the same genre as the song in the visuals of video just as Bloc Party did with theirs, we felt it would work best if kept our music video similar to the original in the way we present the band as ‘This is who we are’ and not a disjuncture video which takes the music video away from its original genre as we found in other existing music videos from a similar genre had done with bands such as ‘Arctic Monkeys’, ‘Kasabian’ and ‘The Cribs’ creating simple music videos and being very successful as artists, and we took inspiration from videos from these bands and decided a performance video would suit our song and our particular music genre choice best.

I feel we have portrayed the Indie/Rock music genre and created a certain mood and style by shots we produced in the video, as everything we have in the video indicates what genre we are trying to create. We took inspiration from The Cribs music video ‘Hey Sencesters’ which is considered to fit the Indie/Rock genre completely as we took the dark background with small lighting projected onto the stage and recreated a similar lighting effect in the studio we rented. This was to capture a similar mood to the video that we felt linked back to our song choice. The video is set and filmed all in one location which is what we did as we found many successful music videos we analysed had done this, and we wanted our video to be instantly recognisable in terms of the genre. The camera angle were important to us when trying to portray and create a video that fits into this genre. We found during research that a lot of quick changing of shots were used and close ups of the band playing were also frequent. Videos such as ‘Hey Sencesters’ by The Cribs and ‘Brianstorm’ by Arctic Monkeys were brilliant examples of how effective camera angles can be when trying to show you are of a certain music genre. These videos had many different but short shots of the band members playing as their particular instrument could be heard in the song. There was also a lot of emphasise on the drummer in these particular videos as the Rock genre relies heavily on a backing drum beat to almost lead the song. This is why we had many quick paced changing shots as it has shown previous success with similar song videos.

We also felt that a key factor in representing the Indie/Rock genre was how the band were presented. This included the style in terms of how we dressed them. Our research from The Cribs ‘Hey Sencesters’ video suggested that a band of this genres clothing is usually very plain with patterns on the clothing often seen. We tried to have all four members of the band dressed in similar clothes with jeans, plain t-shirts and jackets instructed to be worn to follow what we had found with Rock bands, it also gave a cool and edgy look which allowed the audience to immediately have a rough idea of what genre and style of music they are going to hear. We wanted the frontman of our band to be the focal point of the video which is again an obvious feature from the majority of bands and not just of our specific genre. We felt that we could capture the look and style of how we wanted our band ‘Lo!’ to be like just through our frontman. We wanted an energetic frontman that lead the style, something similar to Tom Meighan from Kasabian as he makes the band interesting and stand out from his performance alone, and we wanted to carry this into our bands video.

I feel we captured the Indie/Rock music genre which was intended, mainly due how we conducted a performance video which we have researched and found to be successful within this genre. Also, the style and how the band are presented allows the audience instantly recognise the genre being portrayed.  

Arcade Fire's music videos

http://www.beonlineb.com/
The video for Arcade Fire's single 'Neon Bible' is interesting and stands out mainly because it allows the audience to interact with the video to the extent where we can control not only the pace of the music video but what appears on the screen as well. This is something that has not been done before and we as the audience are immediatly drawn into the band and want to find other work they have done. The band have took the oppertunity to reverse the role of a music video, as they have made the video more interesting and we pay more attention to it than the actual song. Audience participation is the biggest for our interest in this video, and there is no real relevence the visuals have with the actual song apart as we are shown one man standing in a blacked out background and we are able to control the movements of his hands and how he is positioned. The only link between the song and the visuals are that we can unvail the lyrics that are being sang from his mouth, and that simple colours of black and white match the slow and simple music we can hear. Attention is also grabbed as once the video has finished the want to wattch it again to make sure we haven't missed anything.


 http://www.sprawl2.com/

In what ways can Scott Pilgrim be considered postmodern?

The Graphical novel comedy film titled ‘Scott Pilgrim vs the world’ is considered be a very good example of how a film can be classed as postmodern. The 2010 Edgar Wright production two vastly different conventions of film that are apparent from the start. As we are shown the typical film convention of a love story and binary opposites such ‘good v evil’. This is atheory that was explored by Levi Strauss. There is then a significant twist which is unusual to a film that we would see the traditional features in, as the film is produced to look like two conventions of media which are film and gaming have been crossed to make a film. Therefore showing many intertextual references from well known games throughout the film. The idea of Binary opposites of good v evil are what we would expect to find in traditional computer game and we introduced to Scott at the start as the main character of both the film and the game that the audience is put into.

From when we are first introduced to the film, the title is not what we would usually expect from an action/comedy film. As ‘Vs the world’ sounds like an action or fighting game and immediately sets out a challenge that this main character ‘Scott’ has to overcome. Then the opening ‘Universal’ Logo is interesting as it displays it in a way we are not familiar with, as it shows the traditional soundtrack of ‘Universal’ but plays it in a traditional ‘Sonic’ game sound, which will be recognisable o anyone who has played that game before. From the first scene which shows what will be the band sitting in a kitchen , we are again immediately aware that this film will hold little reality and we know we will be put into a fantasy new world throughout. The opening scene again explores the idea that a reality world and a fantasy world have been crossed as the characters speak as if they are in the reality world as the audience understands as they talk about situations that we recognise such as relationships and work, but then as a new character is shown on the screen, a black box pops up next to them which acts as a profile for the character which states their name, age and ranking. This is a feature that has been taken from action games to show fighting characters name and ranking. This is a feature that brings the film into this created hyper-real world again.

This opening scene is full of references from well known games that are not instantly recognisable and you will have to have played the games the film references to pick out the majority of them. This makes the film interesting as everyone will want to find out what has been taken from what. Another example of when the film puts the audience in this created Hyper-reality world is when there is knock at the door, and then the words ‘Ding Dong’ appear on the screen. This feature is called onomatopoeia and is taken from an action comic book in replace of words such as ‘Pow’ and ‘Boom’. This is a recognisable feature that most of the audience will pick up on and they have used such a simple and recognisable technique at the begging of the film to set the mode for the rest of the film and to make the audience aware of more intertextual references to follow throughout the film. Another example would be when we are introduced to Kim and we can see there is a bomb on the bass of her drum kit. This is a reference to original Mario game where the same style of illustration of the bomb is used as in the game as something you should avoid to prevent your character from dying in the game.

There are also references to other films that are respected and recognisable. An example of this is when we are first shown the inside of Wallace’s apartment as everything is named in a black box that appears next to the item and is again used to profile what the camera is showing as it pans across his room. This feature is taken from the ‘Star Wars’ films and by doing this the producers of the film are paying homage to the existing film. Following the idea of the producers paying homage to existing media pieces, is the scene where we are shown a split screen between Scott and his Sister when they are speaking on the phone. This is taken from comic books and the producers of the film are trying to re create this style of comic strip by turning it into film. Other references from films are when Scotts Sister refers to his ex as ‘She who shall not be named’, this is taken from the Harry Potter films where Voldermort is refered to as ‘He who shall not be named’. This is a reference that is not obvious and you will again have to have a fair understanding knowledge of films to pick out a lot of the references. Another is taken from previous films that Edgar Wright has directed himself such as ‘Shaun of the dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’, and ‘Paul’. This is the technique of the swipe motion when changing shots and this feature is something that fans of his previous film will recognise.

Throughout the film there is also the use of the technique of foreshadowing what will or is about to happen soon. When we about to be introduced to a new ‘Ex’, we are shown the in someway in a shot building up to it the letter ‘x’. For example as Knives and Scott walk through the snow, we are shown a big letter ‘x’ that has been printed in the snow. This shown us that ex number one is set to challenge. Then there is the phone number that Ramona gives to Scott. Under the number she writes seven x’s which Scott believes are just kisses, but really they turn out to foreshadow the seven evil ex’s he must defeat that are still controlling Ramona’s love life if he wants her.

Going back to the use of intertextual features being used throughout the film, there a more examples of gaming as when Scott goes toilet, above him appears a ‘pee bar’. This is taken from the game ‘The legend of Zelda’ and the bar goes down as he pees just like how the bar in the game decreases as the characters life becomes shorter. This is again an intertextual reference hat is used to pay homage too another game. We as the audience again immediately recognise this use of a ‘bar’ from games we have played. We also hear added features such as sound effects such as when Scott and Ramona kiss, there is a background music of a soft song which makes for a romantic mood. There are also red hearts that fly into the air. This again brings us into the created hyper real world.

To conclude I feel the film is postmodern mainly due to it’s links between the film as we see it and the hyper real world created that goes with it, also from the intertextual references it uses that pay homage to existing media pieces such as film and computer games. The way the references are hidden and are specific to an audience which has a good understanding and knowledge of films and games make it interesting as not everyone will pick up on the references first time.

Using summer camp and a band of your choice, explain how some artists can be called post-modern

As well as using Summer Camp to explain how some artists can be called post-modern, I will use Gorillaz as the band of my choice to help explain how. The two bands are both considered to be postmodern and are stand out obvious choices of example simply because of the image they portray to the audience. They both create a hyper-reality world as the image to suit their music. Summer Camp present this by putting the audience into a world of the 1980s, so although Summer Camp are a modern band that create modern music they instantly put us as the audience into this created world. The band do this from their website, as when you enter the site, it is not set up to follow traditional conventions of what we would expect a website to look like. This immediately makes us interested as it stands out as different. The website also shows the audience a montage and collection of photographs from the 1980s era. We immediately know we what decade we are being placed in as the people in the photographs are stereotypical of that era with the clothing and the big hair cuts. We are also shown a clock that is placed in the corner of the web page, it constantly tells us a date that says we are in the 1980s, so we are immediately put into this created hyper-real world.

The Gorillaz do something similar with their image that works to the same effect. We are never sure of the actual appearance of the band as when we see them perform in music videos and in band images, we are shown animations of created animals and creatures and told that is the band. The idea of a completely animated band has never been done before but is interesting in this case as it means the audience never knows what the band actually look like. Even when the band play live, they would play behind the scenes and project the animated characters that we have become used to on a screen backdrop. The idea of hiding the image of the band could have been done to allow the audience to make their own mind on what they feel the band look like, and also to move you into a hyper-reality world. Damon Albarn is the front man of Gorillaz and we know him from his previous successful band ‘Blur’. Fans of ‘Blur’ would not necessarily like Gorillaz as Albarn has completely re-invented himself musically and is producing a much different style and genre to what we are used to and would expect to hear from him. The Gorillaz take the theory of bricolage and use it to effect showing classical acoustic guitars and giving them the animated characters to play, this gives the classical acoustic guitars a cool new twist as we would not normally associate them with the style of music we are hearing over the video. Also the animations we are shown to represent each band member are not what we expect from the appearance to the genre of music we are shown, as they are all different shapes and sizes and first seem creepy and look like they should not be put with this bands music.

The idea of postmodernism is music is not a new theory, as we can always track different bands from different genres of music taking parts of music that already exist which have been produced by a previous successful band. The two categories that taking music is split into are called ‘Homage’ and ‘Pastiche’. When an artist pays Homage to another artists work they are taking parts of the music to pay respect to them. The most extreme example of this would be a tribute act, such as ‘The Bootleg Beatles’ copying the same music and style of the ‘The Beatles’ to pay respect to the band. When a band creates a pastiche as their music they are copying/imitating another artists work. An example of this would be

Summer Camp are a male and female duo from England. They create alternate/indie music and what makes them interesting is the way they the present themselves. In their music videos and band photos we never actually see the image of the band, as the hide behind footages of films from the 1980s. They have used found footage by taking certain scenes from films and putting their created music behind it, this makes it look like they have filmed the footage themselves as the videos they created matches and suits the music. We are surprised when we do see what the band actually look like as they are nothing what we would have thought after hearing the music and building up an image in our minds. This could be because we are shown scenes from a film a film and the people that are being shown to the audience are what we would expect the band to look something similar to. This is because we are always shown these people from the film and we would expect the band to have a similar style. The band also show people that have nothing to do with the music but are only shown because they were part of the film that was used, this is to carry on the theme of using similar looking people to keep within the era of the 1980s. The hair styles and the clothing is instantly recognisable and it made sense to use the same actors from the film on the album covers and band shots to keep a level of continuity to make the created world seem more realistic.

Gorillaz are a four piece band that consist of Damon Albarn who was previously the front man of the successful 90s band ‘Blur’, and artist Jamie Hewlett who created the animations that would act as the faces of the band. By having animations and cartoons as the image of the band, the audience do not challenge this as we accept it as the normal with this band. We would be interested to find out what the band we enjoy listening to look like but we have to make our perceptive of the bands image and style. This is what the band and directors wanted as it creates a different interest to the band apart from the music. What strikes immediately as being postmodern is the fact that it is difficult to pin Gorillaz down to a specific genre. We see example of their work with songs such as ‘Feel good inc’ and ‘Clint Eastwood’ portraying a number of different genres in each song which include, alternative rock, dub, hip-hop, electronic and pop. This is interesting for a band to do because usually a the genre of music the band plays defines what style the band will be by the way they dress and act, but because Gorillaz don’t have a specific genre it will be hard to pcture them having a certain style that we would usually associate with a different genre. This idea of the animations not being what we would expect to see as the visuals of the band because of the music we hear over top backs up ‘Kramers’ theory of ‘embracing contradictions’. This is what makes the band interesting.

Music presentation notes

David Bowie- He invents the idea of being someone else when he performs. He creates a new personified character each for each album and uses postmoderninsm to completly change his style. His songs are mix of different genres and each album not only shows a different character but also a new genre of music that the audience is not expecting. Bowie took lyrics from different songs and put them together in no particular order to create new material. His period of music creation from the years 1970-1980 are seen as the breakthrough of postmodern ideas in music.

Devo- These were an American band that based their music genre on 80s synth pop. They had a main aim to have fun and didnt take themselves seriously at all, they were a pastiche of old american west style music and wrote songs that would mock the media. They were renound for their outrageous dress style when performing and could be seen wearing bin liners and plant pots to create both interset and humour.

Tenacious D- This is a created duo that includes actor Jack Black. They record parody songs that are humurous with the lyrics but do have a musicalstructure which makes them interesting to listen to. They are also an example of a group that creates songs of humour to build a fanbase and over recent years they have performed at famous English festivals such as Reading and Leeds.

Lady Gaga- This artist is seen as the best example as everything she does and creates can be linked in a postmodern way. She uses intertextuality throughout most of her videos and can be linked to 50s films and previous music artists. There is evidence of her tryig to emulate Madonna in both her videos and music. Her dress sense changes all the time and she is constantly changing her style, her audience would not feellike they are watching her if she didn't do something outrageous and diferent.

Kanye West- He is known for changes his style by changing his appearence, although his music style and genre stays the same. He is also very outspoken and because he is such a respected artist in the music world, his opinions are heard.

Blue Man Group- These are an American comedy act that put on a variety show to their audience. They are seen as a strange group asthey are all completly blue, they even do this off stage. They create an audience from their humerous but yeat interesting acts which you would not seen anywhere else. They are also known for mixing different genrs when they do perform music.

Queen- The band do not follow typical conventions of a song that we are used to hearing as a lot of their work has no structure and songs sound like they could have put three songs into one. They have done this to good effect as some songs they have produced are seen as some of the best written ever. The way Freddie Murcury portrayed himself as a woman in the video 'I want to break free' is postmodern as he showing himself a housewife woman, he is almost living up to sterotypes. The video also uses intertextuality by showing scenes that we would expect to find in the well know television programme 'Corronation Street'.

Eminem- He uses intertextuality by taking scenes from well known films and ercreating them in his music videos. He creates an alter-ego for each album he produces, such as 'Slim Shady'. He plays and acts as a different character and gives them a personality and purpose. He also pays homage to other artists by taking parts of their music to make his own.

Hurts- They are postmodern as they pay homage to an era of music that we no longer hear in todays market, this is the 80s. This era has been brough back in todays music often. The bands work is shown to be contradicting itself as each song has more that one meaning that are completly different.

Mumford and Sons- They are an English folk band that pay homage to a genre of music that is also rarely played today, this is classical folf music. They have made classical guitars and banjos look cool and interesting whereas before this band we wouldn't. They take quotes from Shakespears plays such as 'Sigh no More' from 'Much ado about nothing'. They are a unigue band to the music society today.

2 Many DJs- They are a duo that produce rock/alternate music. The remix other peoples music. They have built up a fanbase and now play sets that last for hours at festivals. They use technology by projecting visulas onto the backscreen so the audince get a show as well as the set.

DJ Dangermouse- He pays homage to other artists that are big and successful as he named his album 'The Grey Album'. This is paying respect to 'The Beatles' who famously named one of their albums 'The White Album'. He had to take his case to court. He sold blank CDs and told people they could download his music off the internet for free. This way he was not selling jis music as people were buying nothing.