POMO essay 8

 “Postmodern media blur the boundary between reality and representation”. Discuss the idea with reference to media texts that you have studied.

Postmodernism is the remixing of existing ideas by rejecting modernism and grand narratives.Different types of media can be defined as postmodern when using other ideas and samples of other work. This will use multiple aspects from other media to produce their own distinct product and text. This produces a good quality of work and typically stands out from the rest. Modernism is identified as the precursor to postmodern ideas. Modernism is the reference to the broad movement in western art, architecture and design which self-consciously rejected the past as a model for the art of the present, and placed an emphasis on formal qualities within artworks and processes and materials. This created the ideas to be used which produced present day post modern media. Modernism concerned itself with producing a utopian ideal through architecture and media

Deadpool (Directed by Tim Miller) is a film regarded as postmodern due to its self reflexive nature. The intertextual references (Genette) make up a large section of the film, with the Green Lantern being the subject of a few of the intertextual jokes and references. Green Lantern was Ryan Reynolds first step into the superhero domain with it being a large failure causing it to be the brunt of jokes. For example, a parody of the film is created when being taken for his operation Wade Wilson states “Don’t make the super suit green…or animated”. This generates the parody because this section that it references is part of the factor that caused the demise of the Green Lantern. Furthermore, due to it being another superhero film it directly references another film in this genre producing a very self aware piece of work. This joke forms the self aware work as it shows that Reynolds even though he is playing Wade Wilson still believes this to be a problem with the film causing it to be referenced and made the fun out of.

The title sequence to the film also produces a number of references this produces a pastiche (Jameson), this is because it references itself with the people who made the film and also the people with in it.  One example being the People magazine with Ryan Reynolds face on with the title of ‘Sexist man alive’.  This causes it to be even more of a self referential film with it relating to its main character played by Reynolds. This also produces the self aware addition to the film further adding to the postmodernity of the film. This again is because it is directly referencing the main actor within the film making it aware of who is in the film rather than making the person on the front of people magazine up or saying that it is Wade Wilson. Furthermore, it references Green Lantern again with a playing car intensifying the effect of the pastiche furthering the vacuous and endless cycle of references and jokes. Additionally, with the references to the crew of the film for example ‘Produced by Asshats’ this furthers the postmodernity and the pastiche. This blurs the boundary between reality and representation as the film and protagonist acknowledges that it is a constructed text and doesn’t ignore this like typical films that act as if their text is reality whereas Deadpool ignores this convention and instead highlights multiple times that it isn’t reality and is fake and made by ‘Asshats’.

Bricolage (Levi-Strauss) is another large component of the film through the addition, substitution, deletion and transposition of components within the film further producing the postmodern text. The addition to this superhero genre film is the addition of comedy which isn’t typical of this genre with them usually being a very serious type of film. Furthermore, it adds romance turning it into more of a rom-com genre of film due to this mixture of genres causing it to further its postmodernity of a film due to this remix of genres, this produces a rom-com violent superhero film producing a film which falls into four genres. Additionally, graphic violence is added to the super hero genre only being seen in a select few like Kickass or Super causing it to push the boundaries of the genre making a completely new idea of what a super hero film is. The main addition to this whole film and the genre is the addition of a high amount of intertextual references which isn’t seen in this genre much at all. It is commonly seen in the Marvel films but only in the Avengers which are apart of the same universe but it isn’t seen going referencing films not apart of its own franchise e.g. Deadpool is Marvel whereas Green Lantern is DC, two completely different superhero franchises. This combination of genres making the film belong to multiple genres (Derrida) extends the blurring of reality and representation because films online typically confine to one genre but Deadpool crosses between these multiple genres disrupting reality.

Hyper-reality could be argued as a large feature of postmodernism across different texts, it is an entirely post-modern idea that suggests that some sense of a ‘false reality’ has been created, and although it may appear real within the media, it isn’t. An example of this is Black Mirror’s ‘White Christmas’, the premise of the episode is that two men are celebrating Christmas and telling their stories of how they ended up in this awful job that isn’t fully explained. It creates the idea of a reality with the sense that life is normal with people having jobs and having partners etc. shown with Jon Hamm’s character ‘Matt’ still having a normal house with a wife and child. However, the point to which it blurs the boundary between reality and representation is the common theme throughout the Black Mirror series with the presence of technology and how this futuristic technology impacts normal life in a seemingly contemporary world without it not actually existing out of the series in the real world. This using of the modern outside world whilst blending it with the alternate reality constructs this hyper-real atmosphere. Additionally, the text extends this sense of hyper-reality by referencing (Genette) other episodes within the series. When Rafe Spall’s character ‘Potter’ sits down to watch TV and goes through television channels,  television shows from another episode appear from the episode ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ showing the show ‘Hot Shots’ on the television programme also from the show from the episode ‘The Waldo Moment’ is shown on the television. This further blurs the boundary between reality and representation extending this hyper-real world because references are made to other episodes within the series which can distort the timeline of the series with ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ existing supposedly in the future and ‘White Christmas’ consisting in the present day world. Additionally, this is hyper-real world is furthered with the use of the song ‘Anyone Who Knows What Love Is’ by Irma Thomas this song is featured within three episodes of the series, it is in ‘Fifteen Million Merits’, ‘Men Against Fire’ and the episode in question ‘White Christmas’ with two of these singing the song in a karaoke style fashion in front of people and the ‘Men Against Fire’ as much more of a threatening way. This further constructs this hyper-real world by references (Genette) between these different episodes creating this false world distorting reality. These references to other episodes creates the addition (Levi-strauss) of multiple realities and representations that can exists not just in this episode ‘White Christmas’ but throughout the series as a whole.

Postmodern definitions can also be concerned with music; the band Daft Punk is constantly referred to as postmodern. This is due to the use of simulacrum through the use of helmets. This also blurs the boundary between reality and representation. This is because it is reality that the pair are on the stage performing this music through creating the sounds on synthesisers and so on. However, it is representation that they create these characters through the use of the helmets and represent it as the robots who are producing the music and performing to the crowd when in fact it is Guy-Manuel and Thomas. Additionally, the pair also further this by making the music relevant to cultural, social and political contexts (Kramer). They did this through the use of their music videos for the album Discovery, the videos got put together to make a film called Interstella 555 the film was based on alien musicians kidnapped by humanoids and forced to produced music. This referenced the control that music labels have over artists in controlling everything they do and the artists not having full creative control. This blurs the boundary because it is using reality of the control that record labels have over artists whilst presenting it in a form that isn’t reality and is a representation of these characters in the music videos/film.

The future of postmodern films is uncertain; this is because the amount of references that films can make may have reached its limit or is close to being so. This is because films may start just copying another film which copied or referenced another one. This produces a relentless cycle of the same ideas. This tires the concept of references and postmodernity reducing the impact that it has on a film. The future of post modern films will come through post modern characters, bringing people back to life in film when they are dead or too old to play this character. This is seen in the most recent Star Wars Film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in which Tarkin is brought back for the film, Peter Cushing who played Tarkin in the original trilogy actually died in 1994. So to bring him back they digitally created him using CGI to produce this character. This was also done with Carrie Fisher who played Princess Leia she was digitally de-aged to produce her in the film as she was still alive at the time of production. This produces a completely different approach to the idea of film that whole characters can be produced in film who are dead.