Symphonieis made up of Addition, Deletion, Substituition and Transposition

Addition- The idea of Addition in Dan Blacks video is shown When he puts himself into the film scene that we recognise instead of the main character from the film we expect to see in this role. Dan Black is portraying the characters from the films role by dressing and acting as them to make it more convincing and so the audience know what film is being copied.

Substitution- This is when something or a character is swapped from the original with something or someone different for the remake. An example of this from Dan Blacks video when Dan Black places himself in the remake of clips from films instead of the chararcter we all know know and recognise. The way he acts and defines how they look enables the audience to recognise what film is being ripped off.

Deletion- This is the process where items are taken out of the original film to be put into another film to allow the scene to fit into where it has now been placed.

Transposition-

'Where Is My Mind'-The Pixies

The Pixies song 'Where Is My Mind' from the album 'Surfa Rosa' released in 1988 is an American alternative rock song written by frontman Black Francis. The song was famously used as the main backing track to the endng of the American film 'Fight club' realeased in 1999. This song was also used throughout the credits at the end of the film. The use of this song in 'Fight Club being the first film the song would appear in, made people immidiatley assositate the song and the film together. 'Where is my mind' then appeared in many other films including, 'A matter of degrees', 'Gaz bar blues' and a cover by City Wolf was used in the film 'Observe and report'. The song has also been covered by artists such as 'Kings Of Leon', 'James Blunt' and 'M.I.A'. The song was then used in a television advert for 'Thomsons Holiday' in 2011. The song was taken from where we as the audience are used to hearing it and put in a completly different context in the holidays advert where we would not expect to hear it, but the song still works effective. This shows that a song does not have a difined place just because it was used for one thing, there is no attatchment to it when it is used again.

Quotes of Importance

'The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there'- L.P Hartley

'If you look to the future and keep one eye on the past you mare blind in one eye. If you keep both eyes on the future and no eyes on the past you are blind with both eyes and God have mercy on you'- Beniton

'The centre is not the centre. The concept of a sentered structure...is contradictonaly cohert, and, as always, coherence in contradiction express the force of desire'

'Post-modern audiences have to be highly literate'

'Genre's are instances of repetition and difference'

Homage and Pastiche

Homage- This is when something is copied by paying respect, e.g A cover song.
Pastiche- This is mocking television shows in the form of another show.

To what extent does the combination of video and song in Symphonies conform to Charles Jencks' view that 'Post-Modernism is fundamentally the eclectic mixture of any tradition with that of its immediate past...'

Dan Black's video 'Symphonies' does agree with Charles Jencks view that 'postmodernism is fundamentaly the electric mixture of any tradition with that of its immidiate past'. This is evident throught Dan Black's creation where he has taken recognisable scenes from films and recreated similar shots with himself in. Here Dan Black is going into the past from what has already been created and put together the recognisable iconography from the begining and endings of famous films. There is little correclation between the films that he has selected to resemble and the order they clips have been put into dont feel like they match. There is also a very varied and wide selection of film genres used as he goes from using 'Bonanza' which is a cowboy film, to using 'E.T' a well known sci-fi film, to 'Goldfinger' which is an action Bond film. This suggests that a specific genre isnt essential to make video work. Dan Black is producing against all recommendations to making film. He is suggesting that you do not the typical conventions of film to produce something that can still work. By making this video he is almost mocking the original conventions of producing a music video by showing you can make film work by putting any clips together in any order.
He uses relativley old but timeless films that are recognisable to a wide range of audience, this helps Dan Black make his point as his video will reach and stand out to a big audience. What makes this video 'post-modern' is the fact that it clearly takes scenes from existing films that are recognisable to the audience, so they can pick out the film that is being copied. Dan Black shows clearly that he is ripping off existing films, and that what makes the video 'post-modern' as he does not discretly put them in.

Desrert Bus

We were introduced to a game called 'Desert Bus' in a lesson and instruced to play it for 15 minutes. We were not told any information about the game or about the purpose of it, so we had to make decide ourselves.
The idea of the game is to travel from a certain location to another, and just like other games it follows origanal conventions where a challenge is set out to complete with an aim of acheiving. There are also dangers to avoid which is a convention of a game. The twist that makes 'Desert Bus' post modern is that unlike racing car games when people say 'Thats realistic', this game really is realistic in the fact that it highlights all the features of driving a bus by showing how it is boring and repetitive, and how it does actually take 8 hours to get to your destination. The purpose of the game was to mock other games that claim to be 'realistic'. The game highlights the reality of driving a bus all day and to acheive your aim of getting to your destination you have to drive the bus for 8 hours. You have to stay aware and keep looking at the road just like if you were driving because you start with a flat tire and have to prevent yourself from vering to the right. If you do drive into the quick sand and break down, you have to wait to be toed back to where you started and wait in actual time for your rescue vehicle to arrive. The game is clever in the fact that it highlights how realsitic a game can be but is pointless to play as an entertaining game.

Intertextual References Dan Black Symphonies

The first intertextual reference we are introduced to in Dan Blacks 'Symphonies' video at the begining is when we see a logo on the face of a planet, we as the audience immidiatly recognise this from the famous 'Universal logo that we see at the start of one of their films. The next clip we see is of a lit up street at night, and the running camera effect with the title of the song shown is from a film called 'Lost Highway'. This again is a recognisable shot from the film. The fourth clip in the video is taken from 'The Matrix' and is given a space effect. There is a clip of the video taken from the film 'Starman'. The theme of space runs throughout and films that link with this genre are often used. There is a reference to the film 'Symphonies' which is where the song title has come from, so even the name of the song has been taken from existing films. There is a refernce to the 'Thunderbirds' series and fits in again because of the videos link with cartoon and space race. There is also evidence of Dan Black switching from sci-fi films to old films made in black and white and taking the reference into his video.
Throughout the video he puts the lyrics onto the screen but cleverly takes the font that was used for credits of a particular film that is recognisable and the song lyrics using that font and style. There are some very recognisable openings to films that are shown in Dan Blacks video, the Bond film 'Goldfinger' has a refernece shown from the original version. The lyrics are displayed in the same style that the credits were as visuals are shown where the credits were. The film 'Bonanza' has reference in the video and also shows the lyrics in the typical cowboy font that you would expect to be the font used in the film. There are links to ;E.T' as it uses the same camera shots and lighting effects which the audience can immidiatly recognise. There is a very clever ending to the video, as it takes all the endings of the films it has copied and uses a shot with the copied font saying 'The End'

Creativity Questions

What do you understand by ‘creativity’ and to what extent have you been creative?

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




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




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






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


 - Did working within conventions stifle your creativity?








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






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








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








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