Postmodern media (Ford).

How do postmodern media differ from other media?

Post modern media is different from other media because it goes against traditional modernism. Post modern media rejects what is normal to be seen within a media text, for example a film. Post modern media is different as it plays with the audience and plays with what is seen to be as a norm and so is unexpected.

One film that can be seen to be post modern would be the thriller film Scream which was made in 1996 and directed by Wes Craven. One post modern aspect of the film would be reflexivity as it is a horror film and knows its a horror film and so makes fun of this. One example of this would be when one of the main female characters states what happens in a horror movie and says 'What's the point? They're all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. It's insulting'. This shows that the film is self reflexing on what is happening and to what normally happens in a horror movie and this is not normally expected. The film Scream mocks its own genre of it being a horror movie by what characters say and do within it. For example when the girl runs up the stairs away from the killer instead of running out the door. This creates a humour for the audience and acknowledges them that it is a fiction story, and this is a element of post modernism.

However, although Scream has humour within it, it still sticks to the normal horror theme and still keeps itself a horror movie instead of it being a comedy. This then creates a new type of horror movie and and supports the theory that there is no more originality and so everything is now a mix of bricolage and intertextuality. The way in which Scream use bircoloage is that it still uses scenes from other scary movies for example virgins are not killed, and that the pretty girls are the stupid ones who run the wrong way towards the killer. However Scream uses this as bricolage as they change it around as the tell the audiecne of what they are doing a that they are aware if it. Another way in which bicolage is used is the setting of the movie in that it is in a isolated place where not many people live and that the killer is not known because the identity is hidden by a mask. This is used in many horror movies, but Scream uses this to their advanatage in that they change it around a bit.

The intertextuality of the film Scream is when the director, Wes Craven, appears qucikly on screen looking like freddy kuger, but is not easily seen by the audience. This then follows on from the aspect of the film not taking its self seriously and being aware of other horror scene and using them. A reason that the director does this is because the characters in the movie are always talking about other scary movie and so it was convineint for there to be a showing of other horror movies within the film. Another example of this would be when they are at a party and the film 'The exorsist' was spoken about as are many other horror films throughou the film. By doing this it makes the film relate more to real life and so this is how Scream keeps its horror genre as it is still able to scare the audience. This relates to modern society in how everything is now a representation from other things.

Postmodern media differs from modern media as it includes things that an audience would not expect to see normally for example on the film Inglorious Basterds. An audience would expect to see lots of fighting and for the soldiers to be rough and dirty. However in Inglorious Basterds the soldiers are seen to be clean and well dressed and for a war film there is not lots of fighting going on, more the odd disagreement and bits of gore. This shows how it is post modern as this is not the norm expected by people in a war film. Also the music that goes with Inglourious basterds is spagehtti western and so mixes cultures together. This relate to Kramers music theory of that the music is on some level and some way ironic. This meaning it doesnt really connect to the type of film Inglourious Basterds is and doesnt really have any meaning to it. However it sounds right and the director used the nusic well to link in with the film without the audience thinking it doesnt match.