MixTape

Primary School

Crazy Frog (Just remember people loving and hate through primary school, mainly the teachers hating)

Wham – Last Christmas (First hear it being played round Christmas in the house but still listen to it now)

Culture Club – Karma Chameleon (Mothers influence)

The Black Eyed Peas – Where Is Love (It was just huge for ages)

High School

The Streets – Dry Your Eyes (Used the be the first song on the CD I would listen to before I went to bed)

Jibbs – Does Your Chain Hang Low (This and the next 3 were the 3 songs that were played every morning on the bus journey to school in year 8)
Se:Sa – Like it like that

Basshunter – Now you’re gone

Akon – Banazer (Just such a s summary song for the time remember listening to it and it being sunny)

Grammar School

Kanye West – Gold Digger

Example – Kickstarts (First concert I went to)

Little Comets – One Night In October (Media A2 coursework)

Azealia Banks – 212 (A song I love now and I think of the summer)

Bla Bla Website

The BlaBla website is completely pointless, first of all it is an interactive website set out into chapters like a story but using the website it is soon realised there is no storyline to it much like the PoMo film 'Hobo With A Shotgun' with the fact that the website exists for no reason but to exist. There are also similarities in this website as a game and the game 'Desert Bus' this game has no real point to it or reason to play the game as the outcome is you complete the game after 8+ hours to only gain one point. After completing the BlaBla website you don't win anything at all and the point in it is the journey you take.

In order to proceed onto the next chapter you have to wait for the sand timer to run out rather than completing something so within this time you are in control of the man and you create the 'story' by how many times you click on the man to make him do his 'actions'

In What Ways can Scott Pilgrim Be Considered as Postmodern?

Scott Pilgrim as I see it is postmodern because the whole film is filled with Intertextual references, an Intertextual reference is something in a film that could be a prop person or scene that links in with another media a texts. It is covered with references from video games a prime example of this is when Scott defeats one of Ramonas evil exes he is rewarded with coins, these coins are a reference from killing the enemies in River City Ransom.

Firstly we must understand postmodernism, it essentially is a rejection of modernism, which suggests that every piece of media is new and original. What postmodernism does is allow a media texts to be linked in with others in popular ways as a pastiche or homage. Homage is professional nod of acceptance and appreciation to another professional using the same style or Intertextual references. If we didn’t have this and carried on thinking every film is unique then a film like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World wouldn’t work or make sense and probably wouldn’t sell much. Not only does this film have Intertextual references from popular games and American TV shows it also has some made from the movie.

The narrative of the movie is that Scott falls in love with this new girl Ramona and in order to ‘be with her’ he must defeat her 7 evil exes with each ex being worse than the previous. During every fight scene with one of her exes there are links to what number that ex is all around for example when Scott is battling ex number 2 he is told it will take Lucas Lee two minutes to kick his ass’, he points two fingers when addressing Scott and after Lucas Less is defeated we see 2000 coins spring up in the air in the same fashion after killing someone on a game and many more references. This carries on throughout the film and the references link to the ex number.

Ramona’s third evil ex Todd Ingram is full of Intertextual references; in the whole film all the actors seem to have super powers that of which are scenes in video games but they’re not acknowledged until Todd who is said to have special vegan powers. The actor who plays Todd, Brandon Routh played superman in Superman Returns, which can be considered postmodern, as he has gone from playing a superhero to a villain. Furthermore when Todd looses his power fro the vegan police they shoot a green laser, which has connotations with vegetables and additionally kryptonite, and specifically green kryptonite that causes immediate physical pain and debilitation and kills within hours.

During the film nearly every major video game is referenced at some point from little icons on the bands drum to sound effects. I spoke before about how at the end of a fight scene between Scott and an evil ex the explode into coins, this is a reference from River City Ransom.

When Scott ‘gets it’ a sound effect is played from sonic the hedgehog when a zone is cleared. And this shows the Intertextual relationship between film and video games that is reinforced throughout the whole of the film. In addition the makes of the sound in the original sonic game are the people that made the soundtrack for Scott Pilgrim

Another relationship between video game and the movie is when Scotts sister is described and described as ‘Rated T for Teen’ this is also used as a rating for video games in America. 

Using summer camp + a band of your choice explain how some artists can be called postmodern.

Summer camp and 2 Many DJ’s are postmodern. Postmodernism is firstly a rejection of modernism. What modernism suggested was that everything was new, If one artist recorded a song with entirely new lyrics It would be brand new (Which It would) but If another artist recorded a song using exactly the same lyrics or even part of the lyrics that song would be seen as new. A postmodernist would believe that the two songs are connected and that nothing is new. Kirby Ferguson says "we've seen many great ideas, but we look for inspirations in different medias and later translate it into interactive experiences...We have seen so many music videos...When we're making new project we just look for the spark that transforms all those inspirations into something new and immersive.” Just because an artist may do a cover of a song doesn’t mean they’re postmodern; Jonathan Kramer uses 16 points to decided whether a band is postmodern or not and these include. Includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures and challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles. This means some artists aren’t postmodern; these Include people like Justin Bieber and manufactured artist such as everyone coming from X Factor.

Summer Camp is an English duo making synth-pop music of the 80’s style. The band is made up of Elizabeth and Jeremy. When they first put out music critics mistook them for being a Swedish group along the style of ABBA, this is because they didn’t show any pictures of themselves and their first music video for Round the Moon used ‘found footage’, this is footage that has no copyright and therefore anyone can use it in their own work. Because of hypereality when we did finally see the band (in their music video for Better Off Without You) we were surprised to see they weren’t a Swedish group or even what I expected them to look like a mix between crystal castles and Sleigh Bells. They seemed to just be plain and normal.  This for me did affect their music as we use music for the visuals as well as the music. They are considered post modern if we look and use some of the sixteen points as described by Kramer, they use point number 11 about a band using contradiction; Summer Camp use images and videos from the eighties to create their style but put them to a modern song to contradict themselves. They are also been considered as ironic because as I’ve said when they first created the band they didn’t clearly say what nationality they were so led people to believe they were either American or Sweedish and using these countries and their music it made them ‘cool’ but when they reveled themselves as British their good reviews disappeared and replaced by ones claiming they’re just playing with ‘cool’ music and this gave them the status of being ironic. Using these points you can see why people would class them as postmodern but it is also possible to see why people wouldn’t as you could just class them as ‘playing at music’ and because they used found footage for one of their music videos they aren’t committed to the industry.

Another artist who can be described as postmodern is 2 Many DJ’s they are a DJ duo that create mashups of songs; they have 13 albums out using the same songs on each just each album is mixed slightly different. Their most famous is Pt 2 which you can legally download from iTunes but some aren’t so readily available or legal to download. Because they use mash ups none of their songs will sound the same for 3 reasons the first being that its not their own music so they music produced cannot be called bad only the way its mixed together, also when they do the mash up they take completely different songs from different genres like in their song No Fun / Push it from Salt N Peppa and Iggy and the Stooges. Finally they can choose any song so they’re not limited to using instruments they own meaning they could hypothetically create any sound they want. In addition they questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values because they use songs they are not not considered ‘cool’ and then make them ‘cool’ by using modern samples and their use of visuals as in their live shows they start by ‘’showing the mash up happen’ and then use the album artwork of the songs and animating them to make them more fun. Moreover one of Kramers points that link strongly with 2 Many DJ’s is they considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music as they mix their song electronically on a laptop and then add electronically created sounds, even if it be a drum beat, and samples that can be found in Garage Band on a Mac.

For the future is do see us all becoming pro-sumers this is because it is so possible to people to create their own music as software is so readily available and cheaper not so any kid with a mac could create the beat used in Rihanna and Jay-Z’s hit single umbrella. A postmodernist would consider the death of uncool as the way forward; this is nothing is uncool and everything will have an audience and because people are always trying to find the freshest sound some of these new genres and music taste will turn mainstream and be in the top 40 one day.

In conclusion; an artist may cover some of Kramers points and not be postmodern at the same time and postmodern artist do not have to fit every one of the 16 points. And the future is unknown but whatever it is we will be able to link it to the present and to the past. 

The mash up is postmodern because they use Levi-Stauss idea of addition, subtraction, substitution and transposition. What the artist do is take two songs and put them together (transposition) and the mix them together and in some cases add a beat over the top (addition). 2 many djs also use substitution by using their own visuals they make in their live sets.

This may be considered as 'I know its bad, but its so bad its good' because It takes a very well know song from Salt 'N' Peppa which in itself is bad but good and then makes it sound as if a man with a Macintosh has just added beeps and bops over the top but becuase this new beat is catchy and we still like the original Salt 'N' Peppa song.

2 Many Dj's usually take two songs from different eras, this case Push It from the eighties and The Stooges - No Fun from the late sixties. They then add their own beat over the top to tie the two songs together. In their live sets they also have visuals behind relating to the song most likely to be their album artwork which has been edited to move. You would think that all of this going on at once would just create a racket with flashing images but you're wrong they strangely work.

Because they sample famous songs 2 Many DJ's may be considered mainstream but because of the mash up and addition beats it turns it to a niche market as cool people like to listen to how the songs are intertwined.

Because now days most people will listen to their music either on a MP3 Player/iPod, phone or on a computer it is possible to listen to a wide selection of music at the same time through either picking songs or using 'shuffle' that you can't get when listening to the album. What 'the mash up' does and 2 Many DJ's is take two song that could randomly come up in shuffle and don't fit the same genre and add them together.

Post Production

5 Minute Note

Uploading: The clips onto premiere pro, onto youtube/daily motion, onto DVD 

Editing: The shots to make the video and digipak 

Effects: Speed up / slow down

Music: The music for the song on the video 

Transitions: Jump cuts from shot to shot 

Sound: the Music for the video again

Narrative: Day to night 

Rendering: Waiting for the footage to load and then waiting for it play and finally to save 

You have 5 minutes to brainstorm everything you did for your main product at AS at the stage of post production

- Photoshop

- Word (to write the article in) 

You have 5 minutes to brainstorm everything you did for your main product at A2 at the stage of post production

- Photoshop

- Premiere pro

- iDVD 

- Youtube

- Daily Motion 

Overall I reckon I have improved most over my photoshop skills 

"How have you combined the 'same but different' (N.Lacy 1999) and the 'familiar and unexpected' (G.Burton 2000) in your final piece?" (A2)

'Same but different' - i.e. real media conventions and your ideas/creativity.

150 words.



In our music video we took inspiration from a few places and altered them to either fit our style of video or to add our own stamp on them. For example we used the style of Benny Hill and him chasing people round but added our own spin by putting the band in costumes which also fitted our vision of the band being cheeky. 
In our video we took inspiration from a whole music video and fitted it in about 20 seconds of our final video. The video for Coldplay - Strawberry Swing is entirely made out of stop motion and chalk drawings; this video took months to create and we only had weeks so we needed to make it more simple massively so what we did was just use it to create footsteps and a tyre track. 
One more thing we did was take inspiration from a music video of another genre, in Cher Lloyds video Swagger Jagger there are a lot of pop up words linking the visuals and lyrics, because that wouldn't fit our genre so we decided to make a cardboard sign and write Carlisle on to link the line 'Just like Carlisle'.