Conventions of an indie music video

https://www.slideshare.net/lindax9/indie-genre-conventions-28038996

PM and TV link

https://www.slideshare.net/muhammadxasadi/post-modernism-and-tv

Family Guy - Postmodern text

Family Guy is full of media and pop culture references, pastiche and intertextuality are perhaps the most dominant postmodern traits within the show. These postmodern aspects are used to create humour, episodes feature a huge amount of references to virtually every subject possible, with its use of the technique of ‘a million gags a minute’.

Audience

• Family guys target audience is older teenagers and young adults, as it often has inappropriate ad taboo topics and jokes. However, it appears the key target audience of family guy is people who lived in the 80’s, thus from around mid twenties to 40 years old, due to the frequent 80’s pop culture references made in the series.
• The show appeals to its loyal viewers through its many running gags and in jokes, that will only be meaningful to sections of its audience. An example of this is the evil the evil monkey in Chris’s bedroom that allow the audience to feel involved with the show. This is commonly used in postmodern texts in order to serve multiple audiences.

Representation

• Family guy depicts a stereotypical nuclear, American working class family. The father Peter is shown as economically and culturally low class. He appears to adopt no clear political status. This is postmodern as it acknowledges all political ideology to be essentially relative and as a consequence, noone can claim pre-eminence. Many of the other characters are very stereotypical representations of different groups, sometimes to the extent they can be deemed racist and offensive to said groups. An example of this can be seen in Peters references to Asian women drives. The postmodern condition can be racist, sexist and homophobic, and all these are represented in the show. However they are shown in a light hearted jokey manner, thus are not directly intended to cause offence but for humour.

It has been suggested that McFarland’s characters are loosely based upon other animation characters. 

• Brian, who is the familys dog is distinctly similar to the famous character of Snoopy. This is not only visually evident through his white fur and black nose, but also in the way in which he interacts with people, participating in human activities though he is a dog.
• The character of Stewie has possibly been influenced by a comic strip from 1991, as he has a noticeable resemble to the character of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. Again they do not only look similar, particularly in their football shaped heads, but they also share extreme intelligence and dislike towards their mothers.

• It has been speculated that Family Guy is a copy of famous cartoon The Simpsons, as they have a very similar set up and various other factors. This includes the family, consisting of a clumsy stupid father, a mother, a son, a daughter and a baby child. Furthermore, Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin are very alike in their personalities, being clumsy lazy and dim witted. This means the postmodern aspect of bricolage is featured in the TV series of Family Guy in every episode.

Pastiche/Parody

• Family Guy is also well known for their parodies of the Star Wars franchise, with movies Blue Harvest, Something Something Something Dark Side and It’s a Trap. These still use the basic original story of Star Wars however feature the series characters, mock it, and much is replaced with their media mocking humour. All these movies are a pastiche of the original Star Wars films.
• Trying to get back to their own universe, Stewie and Brian travel through many parallel dimensions. Each one is very different, and in each they also meet other versions of themselves in this different universe. Each universe also features a different style of animation and presentation. There therefore is a vast amount of parody and pastiche used in this episode throughout the different universes. There is much manipulation of time and space to create confusion, a very postmodern trait.
• Stewie and Brian later find themselves in a universe in which dogs are the dominant species over humans, and keep them as pets. This is a parody of the film The Planet of The Apes (Franklin Schaffner, 1968). Intertextuality arises when Stewie says ‘Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty dog!’ making reference to a famous quote from the film.
• They also enter a Flintstones universe, with Peter as Fred, which can be seen as somewhat ironic as it has previously been speculated that Peters character has been developed over time from Fred’s. They parody it by using ‘rock’ as every second word, often to conceal taboo or inappropriate words , this playful mocking of the show is very postmodern.

Throughout the series there is much playfulness with realism. Much of the show seems plausible and create a sense of realism as it is a family going about their everyday lives. However, there are other aspects that reject this sense of realism for such as the fact Brian is a talking dog. Another is that despite being a baby Stewie is so intelligent that he is able to create a device to travel to alternate universes.

Lyotard’s theory of the rejection of metanarratives as part of the postmodern condition is evident throughout Family Guy. For example, in my chosen episode Brian and Stewie enter a universe where Christianity never existed. They arrive to find technology in this world to be hugely advanced implying that Christianity and the Church help back scientific progress. This open criticism of the metanarrative of religion is one of the key aspects of post modernity. There are many other examples throughout the show , such as God hitting on girls at bars and Jesus coming to dinner.

question 1A re-write

Media A2 exam – question 1A

For my AS and A2 coursework I had to create a music magazine which went by the name of ‘Ambient’. And a music video in which I used an indie/rock band called ‘Lost Near Blue Ape’. Along with my music video I also had to create a digipak and a magazine advert.   

The research and planning process enabled me to think creatively and come up with my own design, colour scheme etc; taking inspiration from different media texts. These texts included, Billboard, Q, Rolling Stone, NME and Kerrang. Due to me wanting to create an indie based music magazine I already knew that I would be taking my main inspiration from NME, Q, and Rolling Stone. The overall styling and layouts of their magazines stood out to me. For example: in Q magazine they tend to have the beginning letter of that artists name spread out on the page. You can see how this was applied into my own work as on a single page I placed a giant red ‘B’ for Bethany behind the writing.

To help me get a good understanding on how to layout my magazine, we had to do a preliminary task. For this we had to go out and take our own photos of the school, and create a mini magazine. To help plan out my idea I did a sketch of the front cover and contents page. This tasks enabled to get an understanding of the process of making a magazine.

The planning section enabled me to go into depth about what type of music magazine I want to create. At the beginning I struggled with ideas as this was all new to me. To help me be creative I continued to look at the typical conventions of a music magazine. From creating mood boards and analysing various magazines I came up with the masthead ‘Ambient’. In addition, I also decided on some fonts that I could use. These included: Eras Demi ITC which would be for the masthead and subheadings, and for the main article I would use Book Antiqua. For the layout of my magazine I sketched out a possible design. This helped me to see what the magazine would roughly look like. 

As a part of my A2 coursework I had to create a music video, along with a digipak and magazine advert. My A2 task helped me to be more creative and express myself through the music genre, and shot choices.

For the research section of my blog I chose to look at a range of music videos. These varied from performance, conceptual and narrative. To help understand what type of shots to use, as well as the mise-en-scene I analysed the following music videos: Pumped up kicks by Foster the people, The Scientist by Coldplay, and Kathleen by Catfish and the Bottlemen. The Kathleen music video acted as the biggest inspiration. From the shots to the effects that they used. From watching my music video you can visually see where the inspiration came from. As I created an indie music magazine I decided to stick with the same genre and do an indie based music video. To help stick with the typical conventions of an indie music video I noted down the styling of the artist. This included denim jackets, Dr Martens as well as black tops and jeans. I noticed that indie music videos like to use a range of close ups, long shots, especially of the bands equipment. As well as movement shots such as: pans, tracking shots. These are the conventions that I will try to include in my own music magazine.

For the planning section I started to think about what type of songs I could use. I was lucky enough to have a friend who is in a band. They’re called ‘Lost Near Blue ape’ (which is a memorable name), and they have released songs such as Held It Together, and Sleep Deprived. I thought their song Held It Together was catchy and upbeat which is what I’m wanting. Using a real band means that they will have natural chemistry together, which will transcend through the camera shots I use. Moreover, looking at indie music videos I notice that some like to be in dark spaces, as well as showing them perform live. From this I chose to film in the black box room at Haydon School. This is a completely black room and fits in perfectly with the indie vibe. In addition, the band also planned to do a gig. This was great as I’m able to catch the band in their natural element, as well as getting the energy form the crown. Similar to my music magazine I decided to sketch out my digipak and advert designs. This meant that when it came to making them I knew exactly what I wanted to create. 

In conclusion, my creative thinking has improved over the 2 year the course, and has enabled me to create final pieces which express me. The research and planning is a vital part of making a magazine and music video, as you get and understanding of the whole process.        

revision

https://www.slideshare.net/reigatemedia/revision-guide-a2-media-ocr

Postmodernity song

Modernism Vs Postmodernism

https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl_258/Lecture%20Notes/modernism_vs_postmodernism.htm