Assignment 4: Remix

Aren't'cha Hungry?

Assignment 4: Remix

            Recently we have studied copyright law and famous cases of copyright infringement, and have learned that a piece of artwork which incorporates copyrighted material is more likely to be considered fair use if it transforms the nature of its borrowed content. In this assignment, we were asked to deliberately appropriate footage and manipulate it in such a way as to change or add to its meaning.

            My mother occasionally sings a ditty that she remembers from the movie theater, which goes, “let’s all go to the lobby and get ourselves a treat.” It has become a joke about commercialism and advertising to her, but I had never seen it. I found this intermission advertisement on YouTube, along with quite a few old candy and fast food commercials, and combined them with a few scenes from two episodes of the television show How It’s Made, one about hotdogs and the other about mayonnaise, to make this video.

            I combined the most obviously commercial parts of advertisements with the intent to make their motives became a little too obvious. I did not alter any footage, but by putting specific pieces together I hoped to change their meaning from advertisements into a critique of food commercials and commercialism. Food advertisements are designed to do just the right things to grab attention and sell their products, but I think that they often become too blatant and become parodies of themselves. I really enjoy that part of them, and wanted to highlight it in this video. They also only show their audience the appetizing side of food, and often eschew a less appealing side, like the manufacturing process. I used parts of the How It’s Made episodes to superimpose the manufacturing process with the food. All of the pieces together make something that looks and sounds a bit like a commercial of its own. We’re so accustomed to seeing food commercials that we might not give them much thought, and my intention was to make a commercial that instead invites critical thinking about the ways in which they’re constructed.