The postmodern text i have choosen to post is the US comedy drama Ugly Betty. Certain theories have suggested that due to television we now live in a 'three minute culture'. Much of the postmodernism within Ugly Betty supports Jean Baudrillard theory of the blurring of real and simulated. Another Baudrillard theory supported is that of hyper-reality. Celebrity culture is also seen within Ugly Betty, Victoria Beckham and Lindsay Lohan have both appeared as themselves within the series. Ugly Betty also supports Strinati's theory. Out of Strinati's five 'style over substance' is the one used the most throughout. As pointed out in the title 'Ugly Betty', Betty is seen as ugly within her world but is constantly reminded she is 'beautiful' on the inside, us as viewers are also reminded of this. Within Ugly Betty it also shows and represents to us that people in their world and the real world are stringly influenced by brands, the label is sometimes more important then the actual product itself, style over substance. This is shown in Ugly Betty in the fashion world.
Garage Band: We have learnt how to record our own music, due to plagerism... To do this we used garage band on the Mac Computers. Firstly we opened up a new track, and selected the software option... There are a variety of instruments provided. We experimented with different kinds of instruments to find which would blend best together. After alot of time spent moulding them, we decided that the flutes, organs and futuristic music suited the thriller styled music. After doing our questionaire we realised that the audience would expect to hear choral music, which fitted perfectly with our thriller opening. We used five seperate instruments: Orchestral String - this was the main sound the music was based around as this added a distant and eerie tone to the music. Serena Swirl (keyboard) was added on a low tone over the top, this added a low murmur to the music. We also used Aquatic Sunbeam and Bondi Breathe, also adding a creepy dark tone to the music. For every thirty seconds we used the Drum Kit to add a sense of suprise to the music, this is conventional to a Thriller.
Green Filter over the shots, like viewing the film through an old fashioned computer screen.
Black Glasses are very secretive and also proffessional.
Slow motion action, building up the tention - conventional to a thriller
Dark room, with low lighting, like a cellar, this makes it seem like a police investigation and very dark and eerie.
Rubbish on the floor
Smashing of the light falling onto the floor, breaks the tension of the fighting.... conventional to a thriller.
Blowing of a newspaper across the floor, like tumbelweed in America, this adds a sense of loneliness and apandement of this location, like a haunted house, no one wants to go there.
Camera Shots
Mid-shot of man in suit wearing glasses, very intense expression on his face.
Three shot of three men walking through the door, very powerful.
In the Three shot, the men spred out and cover the whole screen, very dominating
Extreme close up of the man standing in the middle which leads into a master shot of the room as the man in the middle is attacking the man originally in the room - conventional to a thriller with fighting
Zooming into the action of the fighting, focusing of the punches and kicking
Combination of over the shoulder shots between the two men fighting.
Birds eye view shot of man lieing on floor after being thrown in the fight.
Extreme Close-up of the glass light smashing.
Editing
Straight Cuts between the shots, conventional to a Thriller as are very simple, and realistic continuity
A textual analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca.. Rebecca was directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940, it was yet another one of his successful thriller films, with the sub genres of mystery and romance. It won two oscars and had 9 other nomination. The opening starts of with the creepy sinistar music that creates much suspence for the veiwer, which is conventional for a thriller film. As the film is in black and white creates an old, spooky atmosphere fitting in with the music. The overall feel i get from the opening is very mysterious and unknown, with the voice over of the charcter Rebecca createds a mysterious and unusual atmosphere. Although the music appears cheerful at the beginig it changes when the character speaks to more dark. The fact that the music has quite a cheerful element at the begining creates a contrast making it all seem much mkore sinistar and odd. The setting of the opening is also dark and mysterious creating unease. I found when watching this that i was always waiting for something to jump out and for something sinistar to happen, always on edge. A very typical setting for a thriller to take place in a drak mysterious wood by a enormous haunted like mansion. Its as if were being told a story by an narrator, which is unusal thereforeis holding our attention. It as if were being told a story by a character after the events have occured. When the transistion is made from that haunted mansion straight on to the crashing sea suddenly grabs your attention and seems so distant from the creepy old footage you were just shown. Establishing the main character in the first scene, conventional. From what the characters costume it implys that he is of some proffesion of quite a high social class as he is wearing a suit and hat, from the dialogue of the character this also tells us this as he speaking to the young women in a authorative tone. As the female character obeys him shows his high status and social class also. He appears as quite a mysterious character, keeping the audience intrigued as they want to know more about him and the whole reveal of the story. Overall the opening scene of Rebecca creates much suspence and mystery is does this through the non-diegetic music and the mysterious character. These conventions all keep the veiwer hooked and intrigued to the action going on, on set.
Within our evaluation we included still shots of the pictures shown. These are just some of the pictures incoperated within our media product. We included the photo of Alfred Hitchcock as we explained within our evaluation the successful thriller films created by Hitchcock, films such as 'Psycho' 'The Birds' and 'Vertigo'.
