Extras – a postmodern sitcom?

The TV show ‘Extras’ is a sitcom as it is a comedy, as it is based around the same characters, location and similar plot and ideas in each episode. It can be considered a postmodern sitcom for a few different reasons. Firstly, it is a hyperconscious test. It is a sitcom and the main character in it, writes and stars in his own sitcom. Meaning there’s a sitcom in a sitcom. The audience is made further aware of this through the writing and jokes made in the show.

It can also be considered postmodern as it is satirical as it mocks the ideas of celebrity. This fits into Guy Debord’s theories of ‘the society of the spectacle’. His ideas are about how our society is obsessed with celebrity and commodity. Also about how our obsession with theses things creates a fake reality as authentic social life has been replaced with a fake one. The main character in the show is an actor who is struggling to be respected in the acting world and wants to be an even bigger celebrity.  In one episode he meets David Bowie who makes him feel even more like an insignificant celebrity.

It is also postmodern as it is an intertextual bit of media.  It refers to other sitcoms often as the sitcom the main character writes is a very stereotypical of the genre, so it is making fun of them. It also references ‘When the Wind Blows’. In one episode they keep accidently calling the sitcom that instead of ‘When the Whistle Blows’.

 Finally it can also be considered postmodern because involves the importance of an  ‘active audience’. This means that the audience needs to understand some things of the outside world to get some of what’s going on the episodes. For example in the episode that David Bowie stars in, the audience will have to have some idea of who he is to be able to get the jokes going on.

Conjuring 2 - trailer graphics

Each graphic screen is very dark, but they all have some element of light in them. The two idents are very dark but have clouds behind them. This makes them look grand and also creates a differentiation between them and the rest of the trailer. Then all of the rest of the graphics, apart from the title at the end, are all almost completely black apart from the small element of the dusty looking light that comes from the bottom right. The text is very bright and white, contrasting with the dark background. This is aesthetically pleasing and makes it easy to read. The whiteness also makes the black looking even blacker.

The last screen is the actual film title. It gives a good effect ending on the title so it is the last thing the viewer sees so its still left in their head when the trailers over. The title is effective as it, although similar, contrasts the previous few screens. It is more grey and has the dirty look to it. There is more going on and more interesting to look at than the more plain, black screens. The contrast creates more attention and importance on the name of film. This is effective as the actual name of the film is the most important thing for the viewer to remember. The text is the same between the title and the text from other screens. This creates a universal look. However the text is much bigger with the title. This again creates a sense of importance and adds impact.

Actors - Female and Male lead

These are the two actors we are planning to use as the boyfriend and girlfriend. They are a couple in real life meaning they will probably be a more convincing couple on camera as it will be less awkward for them to act like a couple than it would be for strangers too.

We feel they are also suited actors because they both look fairly mature and would be old enough to buy a house together but still diffidently look like young adults.

The female actress is particularly well suited as she looks similar to typical final girls which our character will be.

Our male actor has a grade 8 Lamda qualification so should be able to act well for our film.

Forward Planning

• Recce
• focus group
• audience response to animatic
• actors
• content of graphics (critics award etc)
• planning of graphics - font position movement etc final cut video
• research studio 
• plan and make ident
• schedel 

Title research

I made a montage of titles in trailers of a few different horror films. I looked at fairly modern and conventional ones. There is a very clear trend in these, which is the uses of chiaroscuro. There is a lot of dark backgrounds with the title being slightly lit up (e.g, BLAIR WITCH), or reflecting light (e.g, THE EXORCIST) to make it emerge from the back.

Another theme with these titles is that they all have an imperfect look. This is done through the text or background being scratched, dirty, scratched, faded etc. This gives an old and dirty look and is conventional of horror films. It is effective as old stuff is associated as creepy. A clean look would look to innocent and and pure.

Another theme is the font used. Most of these, ( e.g. SINISTER 2 and THE BOY). They are similar to the 'Times New Roman' font, but are variations of it just similar. Its a good font as it is clear to read and also is a old traditional font so goes well with the old stlying. An old looking font, like Old English, is old and tradtional looking but is too complecated so would be difficult to read. Another theme within text is that all the text is in capital letters in every one of these examples. The words are all very large, except sometimes, smaller, less significant words such as 'The' and 'In' are ofthen in smaller font that the rest. Also, with the two films in this moodboard which are sequals, the '2' signaling its a sequal are very big and behind the text.

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Graphics research - The Borgias

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Graphics research - The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Empire

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