Jean Baudrillard's Postmodernism Theory
Baudrillard argues we live in such a media saturated society that media images dominate and distort our perception of the world around us to the extent it’s become difficult to distinguish between media images and reality. There is no specific reality and that there can be multiple simultaneous realities. A form of rejection of Modernism. It also suggests that;
1. Everything we create is a copy of a copy
2. We are unable to distinguish between simulation and reality. (hyperreality)
3. Meaning implosion (Too many messages, all can’t be true. Audience can find any meaning they want to fit their own narrative/ideology)
Postmodern features:
- Intertextuality - the shaping of a text's meaning by another text
- Parody/Homage/Pastiche - a cinematic device that directly mimics the cinematography or scene work of another filmmaker
- Bricolage - a technique where works are constructed from various styles
- Irony - a literary technique where the full significance of a character's words or actions is clear to the audience but unknown to the character. It gives the viewer all the information and making the result of that information affect the character.
- Fragmented Narrative - non-linear storytelling. jumbled up story sequence challenging the reader to piece together the different components of the story to make sense of it.
- Self reflexivity - reminds audience that it's a movie. the character is aware of the story world (breaking the 4th wall)
- Common themes (what if, future of tech, human existence, consumerism)
- Loss of reality (surrealism)
Post Modernism Case Study - She-Hulk: Attorney At Law (2022)
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is a postmodern text. It follows the characteristics of postmodernism. The series features various examples of intertextuality. The set design of she-hulk's room includes movie posters of Legally Blonde (2001). Audiences with knowledge about Legally Blonde might notice the similarities between the 2 protagonists of both movies. In the last episode of She-hulk, a homage of The Incredible Hulk (1978), the scene of an introduction of she-hulk's origin is a mimic of the introduction scene in the original Hulk series. Not only that, there was a scene where she-hulk was comparing her name to Lady Thor. She also mentioned several other marvel superheroes. The robot KEVIN was a representation of Kevin Feige, the producer of Marvel Studios.
Self-reflexivity is a huge part of this whole series. The audiences are constantly reminded of the differences between the story world and reality. The protagonist is also aware of her role in the story world. She-hulk was continuously breaking the 4th wall to show the audience that she's aware that she's in a movie by talking towards the camera, talking to the director, confronting KEVIN about the storyline and many others. The scene where she was going out of the story world, she went through the homepage of Disney Hotstar which features many other Marvel films, the intertextuality also acts as an advertisement for other films.
She-hulk also includes common themes and lost of reality. It features common themes of superheroes and the future of technology (KEVIN). The concept of Hulk itself is surrealism. It's something that doesn't exist in real life.
Reality - Real life
Heightened Reality - a slightly edited version of the real life
Hyper Reality - scripted shows and unreal however audience don't know whether it's true or not
Simulation - the action or practice of simulating, with an intent to deceive. Preferred by audiences.
Simulacra / Simulacrum - a representation of reality that is doesn't exist anymore/never existed in the first place.
ex: our visualization of ghosts or aliens
Documentary - documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality
-> LE SSERAFIM's Documentary 'The World Is My Oyster (2022)
The World Is My Oyster is a documentary released by HYBE Labels. It documents their journey from pre-debut till the release of their debut album FEARLESS. It is considered as heightened reality because although it's close to the reality and clearly unscripted, it is shot in different camera angles to portray messages or represent people in different ways and non diegetic music is added to emphasize emotions/actions
By exhibiting the process of selecting each member and the rigorous training they need to go through, they're building emotional attachment on the fans by making them feel empathy towards the members.
Fly on the wall style
Mockumentary - type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. in simple words it's a fake documentary.
-> The Medium (2021)
The Medium is a supernatural horror movie that was shot in a similar technique to documentary. It features one cameraman who follows the protagonist 'Mink' and documents her daily life and the director shows other perspective in a form or CCTV cameras. How it is shot made this fictional movie much more realistic to the audience. Mockumentaries are considered as Hyper reality as viewers can't tell whether it's real or not despite how scripted it is.
Reality TV -> Scripted Reality- audience doesn't know which one is true which one is not
-> The Kardashians (2022)
The Kardashians is a reality TV released in 2022 in the streaming service, HULU. It is considered as hyper reality because it's highly scripted. The show is about famous celebrity family acting like they're living their daily lives which are scripted. It includes sound effects and different types of camera shots and angles.
Augmented Reality- the integration of digital information with the user's environment in real time
-> Aespa's KWANGYA AR (2021)
In late 2021, the K-Pop Girl Group, Aespa, under the Korean label, SM Entertainment released their first mini album, Savage. Aespa aims to normalize Metaverse concepts with song and video. They're consist of 4 human members and 4 AI avatar members. With the help of AR they're able to integrate their performances with the 4 AI avatar.
They added an AR feature in their physical album as their unique selling point. Their fans buy their album and scan them using the app 'SMTOWN AR.' SMTOWN AR allows fans to enter the Aespa's virtual world in the metaverse called, KWANGYA.
In this case AR is used as a form of entertainment. However, the usage of AR has various drawbacks. Too much AR can cause eye problems for the user. Some user may make the user delusional, they may not be able to differentiate real world and virtual world.
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