"Video texts, like all except the most utilitarian forms of textuality, are constructed upon a base of boredom, from which they promise us relief." This statement comes from the mind of Robert Scholes which he wrote in an essay called "On Reading a Video Text." What Robert is trying to tell us is that video is the most powerful way of extracting and interpreting information based on our life styles and our cultural reinforcement. People will get bored and become disconnected with text and they would much rather watch a video over anything because it is a big enhancement of our vision. We want to see the movement in the picture, the color, the texture, the close-ups and even the slow motion. Based on what we see and think, is how we ideologically criticize things so we can better our understanding on a video text.
As the article goes on, keeping in mind Roberts thoughts on criticism and our cultural reinforcement, he refers to a 1980's Budweiser commercial that involves a black man trying to reach the top of his umpire career by starting small in the minor leagues. He is just simply a man from the provinces trying to get his "big break" by passing the "big test" to see if he has got it in him to continue in his career and to make it in the big city. After his big success in passing the real test, he is later shown in a bar being accepted and having the manager propose a toast to him with a bottle of Budweiser. Now you can go into full detail and pull out an entire life for this man, but this is simply what happens in the commercial. By using your criticism, you can determine that he truly is from the provinces trying to make it big in the baseball leagues. He has come from nothing to something and you can determine that there was a lot of hardship for this man and that he had to work hard in order to get his big break.
The video that I chose to ideologically criticize is a 1980's Pepsi commercial involving the great Michael Jackson. The video starts out with a bunch of kids listening and dancing to a Michael Jackson song. Then a kid M J imitator steps in and starts dancing like Michael in the middle of the street. He then bumps into the real Michael and they start dancing and throughout the commercial kid M J and the people in the background are drinking Pepsi. What I see in this video is that kids need role models and idols in life so they have someone to look up to so they can be just like them when they grow up. While listening to the lyrics of the song the kids were playing, Michael was singing about Pepsi and how their generation was the best generation. What I understand is that these kids need role models and that they are the best generation; they should drink Pepsi because that is what that generation drinks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd15YVb2M6M
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