"Feel The Force:" How is Volkswagon's new advert for the Passat postmodern?

"The new Volkswagen UK commercial features a pint-sized Darth Vader who uses the Force when he discovers the all-new 2012 Passat in the driveway. It leverages humor and the unforgettable Star Wars™ score to create an emotional commercial." (From the You Tube site). The ad has had well over 38 million hits on Youtube! The advertising agency, Deutch L.A. broadcast the advert during the US's Super Bowl final. The latter is quickly becoming a kind of Oscars for the best adverts.

How is this advert postmodern? What elements in it appear modern (traditional)? Debate between the two.
This brilliant TV advert suggests rather than states and it engages audiences playfully on several levels. Using your knowledge of postmodernism and the theory of the active audience, identify the features which makes this TV advert postmodern. Try also to apply a few theorists.

This the original US TV advert below. The kid thinks he starts the car with this one.

Here's a little help.  Nostalgia is a definitely at play, here. So, too, is intertextuality and the theory of Julia Kristeva. The colour coding is significant, as is the cultural and technological interplay between the generations. Also, with its remote start feature the car seems straight out of Star Wars. Yet there are elements in this advert which are definitely modern. Consider its setting, the gender roles of the characters, etc.


This is what one of the posters said about the US version of this advert from the Althouse Blog.


"E.M.  said...
It’s a car commercial…really must it become a Cultural Exposition? 
Because the commercial tells us literally nothing about the car. There's no inherent benefit to buying or owning a VW that's expressed in the ad. There's no differentiator (remote start? please), no unique selling proposition (or I've heard those things called.)


It's about the human experience, which we are supposed to connect to a brand, VW. It's horribly manipulative, but it's so well done that we don't mind the manipulation, because it comes from a place that seems honest and pure.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/02/so-i-love-this-commercial-because-it.html

Need more inspiration?
This article from the website below is an excellent analysis of the VW Passat TV advert and compares it with modernist attitudes towards advertising.
Leveraging archetype to create meaning

Review in the Financial Times

Darth Vader from Star Wars film, "The Empire Strikes Back," tells Luke Skywalker "I am your father." The advert playfully reverses the roles in its intertextual reference from the film. There are also strains of "The Imperial March," part of John Williams's famous score from the movie.


The making of the advert with bloopers left in.


This TV ad. has already spawned many parodies; this one features a car from another manufacturer.

Modernism Verses Postmodernism

The site below is great for understanding the differences between modernism and postmodernism and for identifying these differences in texts. This is just what students need to be able to argue for and against postmodernism. I've noticed that in "True Blood" modernist attitudes and feelings coexist with postmodern ones. In fact the modernists in "True Blood" are pretty extreme. For instance the Reverend Newland and his fundamentalist church in the first few episodes of season 1. Sookie and her Grandma are at the other extreme, in the live and let live category.

http://nmc.loyola.edu/intro/postmod/table.htm#

True Blood - The Making of the Opening Credits

The Making of True Blood

Christopher Lee as "Dracula" from 1958

The modernist conventions of "Dracula" from 1958 contrast with "True Blood's" Sookie Stackhouse rescuing Vampire Bill Compton from the "blood drainers," the Rattrays, in the TV show's pilot episode.

Postmodernism -popular culture is at the crossroads where capitalism and technology meet

The overwhelming immersive experience of various media in our lives actually creates what we think is "real" and therefore, our reality. If someone, idea, etc. is no longer in the media in any of its forms - that person or idea gradually ceases to exist in people's consciousness. What we have is a world in which the superficial is elevated above any deeper reality; a world in which relativism crowds out any single truth. Do you think that any of this is true? Or is it partly true?

POMO Study Links for True Blood

Wikis
A great wiki with useful background information on this TV drama's characters, for instance, ages, progenies, etc. There's also a run-down of a myriad of terms explained which make up the programs cultural "reality."

http://trueblood.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire#Life_Span

HBO's website for True Blood
http://www.hbo.com/true-blood/index.html

The "Original" Fansite - great links
http://true-blood.net/

Links to the "best True Blood websites."
http://www.daemonstv.com/2009/08/08/best-true-blood-websites/

True Blood's facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/TrueBlood

Information Archive
http://true-blood.tv/Videos/Videos.html
http://americanvampireleague.com/


Poster analysis
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21385064/True-Blood-Analysis-Poster

On HBO's viral advertising for the show
http://www.buddytv.com/articles/true-blood/hbo-kicks-things-up-with-true-21673.aspx


Writer, Alan Ball's script for the pilot episode
http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/True_Blood_1x01_-_Strange_Love.pdf

The controversial allusions in the show
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5724596/true_blood_addresses_controversial.html

Articles 
There are several intelligent ones here, with comments from viewers
http://www.slate.com/id/2256893/landing/1/


This one states that True Blood and Mad Men are both melodramas and similar to soap operas.
http://blog.japhygrant.com/2010/08/29/true-blood-and-mad-men-are-the-same-damned-show/

Essays
Interesting for the argument against reading this text as being post modern. The writer thinks True Blood is hypermodern and not post modern. Do you agree? Hypermodernity is also called "supermodernity."
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/lcurraspaper.pdf

Here's what hypermodernity means and how to apply it to texts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermodernity

The origins of the theory of hypermodernity
http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=133

The revolutionary mobile ad campaign with a must-see video. This raised audience figures by 38%! Film marketing is following a similar route.
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/6855.html

The show's opening credits were made specifically by Digital Kitchen. The You Tube video below also features the show's closing credits.


These two sites offer an analysis of the opening credits
http://criticalcommons.org/Members/ironman28/clips/trueBloodTitleSequence.mov/view
An analysis of the opening sequence from (a student?) at Northallerton College: http://mediaweb.northallertoncollege.org.uk/mediablogs/lucyhart/2010/03/17/analysis-of-true-blood/


This was taken from Wikipedia on the show's opening title sequence:

Title sequence

True Blood's Emmy-nominated title sequence was created by Digital Kitchen, a production studio that was also responsible for creating the title sequence of Six Feet Under and Showtime's Dexter. The sequence, which is primarily composed of portrayals of the show's Deep South setting, is played to "Bad Things" by Jace Everett.^[13]

Digital Kitchen wished to explore themes of redemption and forgiveness in the opening title sequence.

Conceptually, Digital Kitchen elected to construct the sequence around the idea of "the whore in the house of prayer"^[14] by intermingling contradictory images of sex, violence and religion and displaying them from the point of view of "a supernatural, predatory creature observing human beings from the shadows ..."^[13] Digital Kitchen also wished to explore ideas of redemption and forgiveness, and thus arranged for the sequence to progress from morning to night and to culminate in a baptism.^[14]

Most of the footage used in the sequence was filmed on location by Digital Kitchen. Crew members took a four-day trip to Louisiana to film and also shot at a Chicago church and on a stage and in a bar in Seattle.^[14]Additionally, several Digital Kitchen crew members made cameo appearances in the sequence.

In editing the opening, Digital Kitchen wanted to express how "religious fanaticism" and "sexual energy" could corrupt humans and make them animalistic. Accordingly, several frames of some shots were cut to give movements a jittery feel, while other shots were simply played back very slowly. Individual frames were also splattered with drops of blood.^[14] The sequence's transitions were constructed differently, though; they were made with a Polaroid transfer technique. The last frame of one shot and the first frame of another were taken as a single Polaroid photo, which was then divided between emulsion and backing. The emulsion was then filmed being further separated by chemicals and those shots of this separation were placed back into the final edit.^[13]

Eight different typefaces, inspired by Southern road signage, were also created manually by Camm Rowland for cast and crew credits, as well as the show's title card.^[14]

In a 2010 issue of TV Guide, the show's opening title sequence ranked #5 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.^[15]

The Six Mini Episodes before Season 3
A recent innovation has been the mini episodes, made to create interest in new audiences and keep old ones satisfied before Season 3. There were six episodes of 3-5 minutes long; each one focusses on particular characters in the series. Some have adult content. Here's the final one featuring Jason Stackhouse, a character not known for his intellect.


In another mini episode Eric The Northman (the Sheriff of Louisiana) and his "progeny," Pam, look for a dancer for their nightclub, Fangtasia.

Intertextuality - how it can make texts richer in meaning

This is a great video for illustrating how meaning is enhanced for audiences from picking up intertextual references.

Modernism and Postmodernism compared - reposting link

This is a great page on postmodernism as it is defined and compared. Scroll down for the chart where modernism and postmodernism is compared.
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/pomo.html

The Road To Coronation Street - Updated Resource for G325 post modern media: television drama

I've updated the study resources in this link for G325 Post Modern Media: TV Drama. The whole of The Road To Coronation Street is now there alongside the original scene from the Coronation Street's first episode from 1960 in which Elsie Tanner (played by Pat Pheonix) challenges her son, Dennis, over two shillings missing from her purse. The scene is  pastiched in The Road To Coronation Street where Pat Phoenix is auditioned for the role of Elsie Tanner by production staff from Granada Television.

The Road To Coronation Street Study Resources

Assassin's Creed: the franchise explores later historical periods

The later games are described here with their postmodern, historical "environment'.



The level of detail and space in this trailer for "Assassin's Creed" for 1503 is astonishing. With its camera shots, style and mise-en-scene, genre boundaries are blurred - it's more like a film than a game.


Player skills, challenges and competing against the world all contribute towards players pleasure from FLOW.

Cadbury's Gorllia Advert Analysis repost

For Raveena,
http://asanda2mediastudies.blogspot.com/2009/11/analysis-of-cadbury-gorilla-advert-from.html

Assassin's Creed and Enae Volare by Era: postmodern blurring of genre boundaries in "historical" video games

The use of space and reality in this example of "trailer-like" exchange are worth considering for identifying and evaluating the post modern player experience. Certainly the genre boundaries between cinema and videogames are being blurred in this game - and this is an increasing feature of films and videogames these days. With this piece of exchange uploaded on You Tube this also becomes a music video. Even the song-track by ERA is not real Latin but a pseudo mix of old Occitan (from where the Cathars used to live in sourthern France and Latin.) A pretty good mix for a hyperreal and immersive playing experience.  By the way, Era's song was the on the ending credits for "Les Visiteurs" in 1993 in which a postmodern medieval film in which knight and his servant gets transported into our age and how he deals with our modernity. The  ambiguous setting for Assassin's Creed appears to be in "The Holy Land" and in one of the Christian Kingdoms before "the fall of Jerusalem" in 1187 to Saladin and during the Crusades. Historical settings are often favoured in post modern texts as they involve copying, pastiching, parodying and remodelling the past.

On a macro level the blurring is across several media genres. On a micro level the blurring is in the contours of the city, its grey ambiguity, as an undefined place, and especially in the "hoody" character whose face and thus identity is never fully seen. The player mode can be sandbox and thus can form a narrative that pleases the player.

Check out Ben Medler's great-looking analysis on why "Assassin's Creed" is a post modern game. He compares this game to "Mirror's Edge," a game which he considers modernist. It is a must read!

Ben Medler's Analysis of Assassin's Creed

Here is also an academic player's view of the game for space and increasingly diverse and complex player-skills.

http://www.icosilune.com/2010/01/diegesis-and-progress-assassins-creed-versus-prototype/

What follows is a good all-round review of this relatively new game and how it appropriates history.  Very useful for understanding the postmodern plundering of history as historical fiction. Later versions of the game on the same theme have since been released. Tarentino's ambiguously spelled, "Inglourious Basterds" follows along similar lines.
"What’s interesting about the series is its successful use history as a game mechanic, and its ability to construct realistic environments around the largely fantastical story. The evocations of cities such as Jerusalem and Rome, while not always painstakingly accurate, have a sense of place and life that is almost unique in the video game sector."

http://thelonggoodread.com/2010/11/23/assassins-creed-and-the-appropriation-of-history/

Another academic and challenging article on the game by G. Christopher Williams in which he argues that that this game is "a meta fictive frame tale."

What is controversial about this game?

"In the Simulation, Nothing is True, and Everything is Permitted

While I had heard prior to its release that some game journalists were concerned that Assassin’s Creed could be controversial given that its protagonist is an Arab assassin, I was, nevertheless, both surprised and intrigued as the game loaded up that I was met with a rather unusual disclaimer for a video game: “This work of fiction was designed, developed, and produced by a multicultural team of various faiths and beliefs.”"

for more

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/assassins-creed/

05. g325 contemporary media issues - videogames and postmodernism

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

05. g325 contemporary media issues - videogames and postmodernism

View more documents from Alleyn’s School Media Studies Department.

Postmodernism theories and texts

Check out this SlideShare Presentation with its film examples.

Postmodernism theories and texts

View more presentations from raybloggs.

Arguments against post modernism

A really good study guide. It has everything you need about this topic! Scroll down to find arguments against. Some of its films suggested for study are somewhat dated. You should focus on modern films for your examples such as "Inception", "Kickass", etc.
http://media.edusites.co.uk/files/Postmodern_Media.pdf  .
Postmodernism: What is it and what is wrong with It?   http://goinside.com/01/1/postmod.html
http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/cultures/cultures.php  (Scroll down arguments against postmodernism)

Interesting points, clearly argued, for and against, here:
http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/postmodernism.htm

Patrick West accepts that post modernism exists. He cannot bring himself to accept the abstract advertising in The Cadbury's Gorilla:
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/4088/

http://asanda2mediastudies.blogspot.com/2009/11/arguments-against-jean-francis-lyotards.html

Post Modern Media Controversy Essay

Postmodern Media Controversy Essay by tom and chris
Okay as an example. But it is possible to do better by exploring scenes and parts of texts.

Video Games and Tentpole (event) films - which is the more rewarding experience?

Is playing modern video games a more rewarding experience than watching "tentpole" (event) films? Here's a insightful video essay which suggest this is so. This is worth watching for AS students who want the latest angle on media convergence for their case studies and for A2 students studying Post Modern Media for the Media Issues and Debates unit. Yes, the genre boundries are blurred between the silver screen and video games. And the latter offer a far more immersive experience.

"Kick Ass" reviews which discuss its POMO features

A great discussion on the British Film Industry in this last video.

.filmcritic.com/reviews/2010/kick-ass/

http://scifimafia.com/2010/04/kick-ass-is-matthew-vaughns-post-modern-love-letter-to-superhero-movies/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/26/kick-ass-comics-film-adaptations - Very useful for postmodernism.

Phillip French guardian.co.uk/film/2010/apr/04/kickass-film-review  He thinks it's "ersatz".

Peter Bradshaw guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/31/kick-ass-review-film  Loves it but feels he "shouldn't."

blogcritics.org/video/article/movie-review-kick-ass1   Some interesting ideas
The Californian Literary Review  Balanced, with readers' comments added.

scifimafia.com/2010/04/kick-ass-is-matthew-vaughns-post-modern-love-letter-to-superhero-movies/

filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-deconstruction-and-difference-in-kick-ass  Quite technical, theory-wise!

http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-7203-kick-ass-is-only-half-right.  Good on parody

zoemedia.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/kick-ass

guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/apr/02/kick-ass-bad-language

Roger Ebert's scathing review  He does focus on the film as post modern, but as something dark and disturbing.

filmthreat.com/reviews   Another reviewer with mixed feelings about this film.

Is "The Road to Coronation Street" a post modern text?

In what ways is "The Road To Coronation Street"  postmodern? on Prezi