1. POST MODERNISM AND FILM
Amber Jackson

2. Postmodernism can be
described as:
“Style developed in reaction to modernism: a style in
architecture, art, literature, and criticism developed after
and often in reaction to modernism, characterized by
reference to other periods or styles in a self-conscious
way and a rejection of the notion of high art”
To expand upon the sentence
above, taken from the dictionary.
It talks about how the film
industry has adapted to suite the
publics desires, according to what
critiques say in other media
mediums. It goes on to say that
films have moved on because
directors have taken ideas from
previous eras and morphed them
into something that will be
enjoyed, this is called paying
homage.

3. Postmodernism films have elements that can be categorised, in the following
ways:
1. Meta Narratives
• Challenges conventional narratives and representations. For example,
making the antagonist a female or telling us if the way our society is moving
forward is a good or bad thing.
• Usually post modern films criticises our way of life and make us think about
it by emotionally attaching us through the help of music, unpleasant shots
or characters emotions that we get caught up in.
• Another technique is the use of non liner narratives, this is when they
scramble the order of the scenes to disrupt the natural flow of the
sequence. Also ‘Anti-Narratives’ freeze the moment in a freeze frame, slow
to also make us think about, why? This image relates to meta narrative
as it represents a female being in a
manly position and wanting to be the
dominant protagonist by suggesting
she doesn't’t need any help from
anyone just because she is a
woman.
Her facial expression looks more
manly compared to the woman next
to her with defined cheek bones
which implies she is a manly type of
woman as well.

4. 1. Intertextuality/Pastiche
Referencing (pastiche) to other films to create an effect. For example, coping
exactly the same from a scene in another film. Within intertextuality is ‘Bricolage’
meaning to ‘steal’ objects or images from different genre’s of film to create a new
meaning. ‘Homage’ is another one, which is when the director of a film wants to
give respect to the film that they have copied, also so that the audience will
interact and relate the two films together. ‘parody’ is used in comical programs
taken from other types of media, creating a critical point of view.
Intertextuality is show in this image by
showing that The Simpsons was copied by
another film by what the characters are
holding, or vise versa. The comical “The
Simpsons” makes it funny where as the
naturalistic shots make the action seem more
scary.
This shows the animation is making fun of our
society and represents what we see as
‘normal’ now.

5. 3. Hyperreality
To make the audience aware that they are only watching a scripted piece of
film, rather then being immersed and being tricked into reality. They do this
by challenging the normal conventions such as breaking the 4th wall (talking
to the audience, down the lens) or time mapping (high art style – looking into
mixing different conventions together) where by they fast forward parts to
show that a long period of time has passed, so instead of having an hour
long game, they show important snippets and fast forward the rest.
This image represents
hypereality as it shows the
wings flapping in such a way
that no one would be able to
see with their eyes. The
camera has captured and
slowed down that proses of
the bird flying and caught it
mid flight, this also stylises the
shot to classes as ‘High Art’.