Hyper-reality is when reality is exaggerated beyond what it is in normal life. In The World’s End (dir. Edgar Wright, 2013), the pubs that the group visit can be seen as hyper-realistic, as they are designed in order to look like typical English pubs. They include stereotypes, such as out of order toilets, which aren’t truly representative of real life. This has been done by Wright in order to make the setting believable for international viewers, who may see such stereotypes as normal, but also to make The World’s End postmodern on purpose.
Commodification is another element of postmodernism. This is when things are used to be sold and to make money, such as celebrities becoming their own brands. The World’s End is part of Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy, which also includes the films Shaun of the Dead (dir. Edgar Wright, 2004) and Hot Fuzz (dir. Edgar Wright, 2007). Including the film as part of a trilogy encourages audiences to watch it at the cinema, which brings the producers more money. This turns the film into more of a commodity. In addition, the film features well-known stars such as Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. These stars are a commodity in themselves, as people often watch films just for the actors starring in them.
Feminist film theorist Claire Johnston was one of the first theorists who studied feminism in film. In her 1973 article ‘Women’s Cinema as Counter-cinema’ she concluded that women had been stereotyped into film and argues for a cinema which challenges such narrow conventions. She also explains how women are seen as an extension of the male view:
“Despite the enormous emphasis placed on women as spectacle in the cinema. woman as woman is largely absent”
This shows that she believes film as an art form, lacks true female representation. Therefore this supports my idea that females were not represented accurately in film. However, she focuses specifically on the idea of stereotyping women during early film and ever since the silent era
She describes how the work of female directors Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino subverts the patriarchal viewpoint. Both directors were some of the most renowned of their time, shooting silent films during the early 1920’s and 50’s respectively. At a time where males dominated the film industry, these women also served as strong female representation as well as avoiding patriarchy within their films.
the idea that the largest companies or conglomerates now operate across a number of different cultural industries
the idea that the radical potential of the internet has been contained to some extent by its partial incorporation into a large, profit-orientated set of cultural industries
Hesmondhalgh argues that major cultural organisations create products for different industries in order to maximize chances of commercial success. In relation to online products, he argues that major IT companies now compete with the more traditional media conglomerates within the cultural sector: ‘Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon are now as significant as News Corporation, Time Warner and Sony for understanding cultural production and consumption.’
