Author Archives: John

Supply and Demand of Greed

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One of today’s political issues is the rising cost of higher education. I will explore the topic from the perspective of greed from both sides of the argument, and leave the viewer with his/her own thoughts to churn through. My video will not take a particular side. Both are to be criticized through perspective. The goal will be to create a negative reaction, creating political tension out of an (hopefully) unbiased video. I see today how politics creates many negative emotions on social media. Users are all too ready to share a video or article supporting their views. I want to create something does not vouch for either side and see if viewers become more opened or closed minded.

I’ll be taking some footage from elementary school’s and overlaying them with political speeches over the last couple decades (or few if needed) and other commentary on the topic. My visuals will come from http://www.pond5.com/stock-video-footage/1/school.html#1 and https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rising+cost+of+education, but it’s too early to know exactly where I will be taking audio from.

The video will begin with commentary condemning rising costs of education, since this video will mostly be viewed by college students, and then alternate back and forth with the other side of the aisle.

I would like to make my video seem dark by adding color layers and visual effects to distort images. I do not know how to do this yet so it will be my goal of the project. This desired visual effect layered with commentary will emulate a political ad one might see during an election race to undermine the competition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDT-LN5-Edw The goal of these TV ads is to get the viewer to take the stance of the video by making the other side seem incompetent or evil. It usually comes off as cheesy, but I want my video to have the familiarity of a mainstream political ad.

Run The World (Girls) ft. Madam Tatum (Remix)

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Channing Tatum’s Lip Sync Battle performance recently splashed news feeds for a couple days. As a quick synopsis: Channing Tatum dressed up as Beyonce, danced as Beyonce, and tried to sing as Beyonce, but isn’t Beyonce… nor is the track played his. But Tatum used the public’s paradigm of his being a masculine sex symbol to remix Beyonce’s song, the original media object, and it’s hilarious. The humor is the intention of the remix by Tatum to win the  competition: Lip Sync Battle, but the level of hilarity could not be achieved without Tatum’s juxtaposition of what the public expects of his being a masculine sex symbol in his emulation of Beyonce’s music video. It adds shock. Joe Sixpack from down the street would not have garnered as much public attention for the performance simply because he does not have the privilege of being a media star. Nobody would know who he is or what to expect from him. For all they know this could be Joe Sixpack’s hobby of dressing as Beyonce and shaking his shoulders. Tatum leverages his privilege in Beyonce’s choreography as if he has taken two original art pieces, the second being his public image, and made them into something new. A remix.

The intended audience of Beyonce’s original music video was obviously as many patrons to the music industry as possible, but more importantly, the message it sought to deliver was an empowerment for women: a sort of fight song. Tatum on the other hand remixes her media piece for self-humiliation (but could it really be considered humiliating if you’re famous…?) to create humor for his audience, who is to ultimately decide his success in the competition.