2. POSTMODERNISM
Postmodernism is a theory that allows
producers to challenge conventions forms
and ideologies, so taking something old
and recreating it in a modern way. An
example of a postmodern movie would be
Austin Powers which is a pastiche, where it
mocks a James Bond film. The Austin
Powers films play homage to the popular
culture of the swinging 60’s, British
invasion, and spy flicks such as .
Postmodernism is shown in 3 different
ways: they can challenge meta- narratives,
this means that they challenge the main
ideologies (system of ideas and ideals);
They can use Pastiche, this is an artistic
style that imitates other work, mainly seen
in parodies for example, Scary Movie is a
pastiche of horror films. Lastly the final
way it can be shown is to make the
audience aware of a hyper reality, meaning
that they make the audience aware that
they are watching a film For example
Avatar, in Avatar they show completely
diffrent world, with strange created
animals that are similar to humans, created
by the use of CGI. Hyper reality can also be
shown by ‘breaking the 4th wall’
https://vimeo.com/108023606 this is
where the character talks to the audience
as if they where there. For example in
‘Wolf of Wolf Street’ Leanardo DiCaprio
talks to the lens as if you was with him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iszwu
X1AK6A.
3. CHALLENGING META-
NARRATIVES
Challenging meta – narratives is to challenge the main ideologies or
values and beliefs in society. For example, in the films “Kill Bill” and
“Sin City”, the females are shown to be the dominant and powerful
characters throughout the film whereas in mainstream Hollywood
films they are usually seen as weak, obedient sex objects.
Woman are usually shown as weak and less powerful than men, this
is a meta-narative that is shown a lot in films, so to challenge this,
there are strong female leads, other examples of films that
challenge meta – narratives are Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Matrix and
Blade runner)
Dystopian Films also challenge the ideas such as government
authority for example hunger games, it does this because it shows
how corrupt that specific world is, which could be seen as
comparing it to real life.
4. INTERTEXTUALITY / PASTICHE
This is where films imitate other people’s work, taking something old and
recreating it with a modern style, showing a film inside another film or
presenting a direct and obvious copy. This is commonly used to show
comedic effect or for as a homage. It allows different audiences to relate to
the film even if they don’t know what's happening but are then reassured by
a recreated scene from something they know.
For example pastiche films include “Scary Movie”, “scream "and “Austin
powers”
Films created by Quentin Tarantino are often described as pastiches, because
their mixing and blurring of generic conventions and bounderies.
5. HYPER REALITY
Hyper Reality - To make audiences aware that it is a film, and that the
creators have created an artificial world.
When using hyper reality it causes the same effect as challenging meta –
narratives to make it feel post modern. Hyper Reality can be shown in films
by camera, freeze frames, breaking the fourth wall, meaning that the
character speaks to you as if you where there directly at the, where the scene
stops and nothing moves therefore reminding the audience that it is not
real. Another way you can make something more hyper reality is by adding
animated text on the screen, traditionally used showing onomatopoeia, for
example this very old clip from a batman scene you can see they add text to
go with a motion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9GqATedqPQ .
