In chapter six, Manovich briefly touches on music videos as a new cinematic form which are no longer linear narratives and "give up cinematic realism" (310). These major shifts happened in the 1980's when the music video was born. While I don't have direct experience with 1980's MTV, I've seen enough episodes of "I Love the 80's" to understand the impact that the Buggles and "Video Killed the Radio Star" had on music, and ultimately film through music videos.
One of my favorite 80's music videos came to mind while reading this section because it blends many of the types of media discussed in this chapter and beyond - Take On Me (1985) by Norwegian pop sensations, a-ha. [Watch and enjoy!]
After doing some research on Wikipedia, I learned that one of the techniques used for this video is called rotoscoping.
Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator. This projection equipment is called a rotoscope, although this device has been replaced by computers in recent years. In the visual effects industry, the term rotoscoping refers to the technique of manually creating a matte for an element on a live-action plate so it may be composited over another background. (Wikipedia)Turns out a-ha loved this technique so much that it appears in two subsequent music videos, Train of Thought and The Sun Always Shines on T.V. - The band earned a MTV VMA for Most Experimental Video the following year. (The fact that this category exists proves Manovich's case that music videos were laboratories for exploring the possibilities of image manipulation.)
I'm not really sure if all music videos can be credited as a form which abandons linear narrative - this example certainly tells a story! However, I do see what Manovich is talking about with his statement that they go "beyond the norms of traditional cinematic realism" (310) and combine sketches, still images, moving images, digital manipulation and more. I can't say that I've ever seen a full-length film that incorporates rotoscoping.
Happy Halloween!
Thanks for the video and teaching me about 'Rotoscoping' - always great to learn something new! I love the way it stretches the brain and the imagination.
ReplyDeleteIt actually kind of sad that more of this isn't done; it was fascinating to watch. I thought it was much more visually appealing than more modern takes like A Scanner Darkly.
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