Tristans Video Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SauUa5Z4Ihw

Robert Scholes wrote an essay about the human’s ability to watch and analyze a video. Scholes introduces his paper by stating “We are, for instance, offered a kind of power through the enhancement of our vision. Close-ups position us where we could never stand. Slow motion allows us an extraordinary penetration into the mechanics of movement, and, combined with music; lends a balletic grace to ordinary forms of locomotion.” He is proposing the power of video compared to text, and how our minds find much more pleasure in seeing than reading. Scholes then goes to explain a Budweiser commercial, showing a black mans journey through life attempting to become an umpire in the major leagues. The main reason for this is to describe the process in which you analyze a film. Background information is key because in advertisements they expect you to fill in blanks and assume ideas. Everyone will take a video a different way so any analyses of a film will vary from person to person. Scholes describes the ability to understand the commercial as “an audience that can understand this commercial, successfully constructing the ump’s story from the scenes represented in the text and the comments of the narrative voice, is an audience that understands narrative structure and has a significant amount of cultural knowledge as well.” An audience again must obtain some cultural knowledge to fully understand and grasp the true meaning of the video. Scholes says that Americas does not have ignorance problems we just have different views than other cultures.

The video I chose to analyze is a State Farm insurance commercial in which three guys are sitting on their couch. The kids are in my opinion supposed to be college aged living together in an apartment. When the first guy says the “jingle” and his agent pops up his friends go into shock asking what happened. After the friends try and ask for things the commercial is over and you are left wondering. My view is State Farm wanted to imply that it is relatively cheap so even college students could afford it. This commercial comes across as humorous making viewers laugh but there is really more meaning deep down. The kids ask for things they need (a hot tub, sandwich, and the girl from 4e) and State Farm provides them showing that they are helpful, in an exaggerated way. The “jingle” adds the musical part of the ad and is there just to come across as more humor, even though it is their actual slogan.