Back in 2008 Sirmixalott116 combined footage from Saved by the Bell with scenes from the film There Will Be Blood to create this re-cut trailer. The remix eerily forecasts the current ‘dirty energy’ vs. environmental ecology debate that is now raging in the United States (made more urgent by the BP Gulf catastrophe). When the students at Bayside High find out that the wealth of oil found under their campus has spilled out into their pond, they begin to challenge the power dynamic of their school and stage a protest to stop the oil development.
There Will Be Blood, a 2007 American film by Paul Thomas Anderson, was loosely based on the Upton Sinclair novel Oil! and follows a man on a ruthless quest for wealth during the oil boom. Saved by the Bell, on the other hand, was a 90′s high school sitcom that paved the way for teen shows dealing with social issues by introducing young target audiences to critical topics like drug use, drinking and driving, homelessness and environmental issues. But when remixed, the two delve into the institutional greed and environmental destruction no TV show or has yet dared to explore, despite the timeliness of the topic.
Rich Juzwiak is a blogger for VH1 and his own pop-culture blog which means he spends an enormous amount of (well compensated) time watching and dissecting television. A couple years ago Juzwiak noticed an odd trend in competition-based reality shows, so he collected and edited the clips together. Once repeated and placed back to back, the absurdity and anti-social nature of game reveals itself. Almost Never in any real-life social situation outside the hyper-constructed world of reality tv would someone say the words “I’m not here to make friends”. The remix is great commentary on modern forms of mass media entertainment and it also manages to quickly illustrate how competition can cultivate and encourages deeply anti-social individualist behavior.
Juzwiak’s work and the “frenemy” debate was also explored on an episode of This American Life. These remixes are examples of what have become known as video Supercuts, obsessive video montages constructed from popular tv shows or movies that repeat a certain theme. A classic example would be this montage compiled from every time anyone says the word “dude” in the film The Big Lebowski.
And also check out the 2009 edition that continues to track disturbing “I’m Not Here To Make Friends” trend.
We at PRV like to think of “political remix” in the widest possible terms to encompass social, economic and cultural issues along side more traditional big “P” political issues like government and war. So what could be more culturally subversive in our current American socio-political climate than a beloved Muppet singing and dancing to a Lollywood song? (Lollywood is Pakistan’s answer to Bollywood.) The western mass media launches into almost daily triads against Pakistan and continuously demonizes the peoples, religious and cultures of that country. Through clever re-editing, Grover now gives us a glimpse into Pakistan’s diverse cultural ecosystem, presenting a message of tolerance and understanding which is strikingly similar to the lessons and values taught on Sesame Street in the United States.
The song is “The Sound of Wonder” (Dama Dam Mast Qalandar) sung by Ashraf, M. featuring Ahmed Rushdi. Here is the original song from the movie “Dekha Jaye Ga” circa 1970s Lollywood.
It has been about 9 months since I first posted my Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed video online and in that time it has been seen nearly 3 million times, been voluntarily translated into 30 languages, sparked discussion threads on countless website and it’s even being used as a teaching tool in classrooms across the country. Not bad for a pro-feminist mashup about vampires and gender roles!
So I’m excited to announce that Buffy vs Edward has been nominated for a 2010 Webby Award in the Best Remix/Mashup category! Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is kinda like the Oscars for the internets.
In this re-imagined narrative, Edward Cullen from the Twilight Series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy’s eyes, some of the more sexist gender roles and patriarchal Hollywood themes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed – in hilarious ways. Ultimately this remix is about more than a decisive showdown between the slayer and the sparkly vampire. It also doubles as a metaphor for the ongoing battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21ist century.
Over the past few years I have been developing a series of fun workshops that use simple video remixing projects as an engaging way to teach critical media literacy to youth. Back in December I taught one of these workshops with the Reel Grrls – a Seattle based non-profit that aims to empower girls to critique media images and to create their own films. As both a fun introduction to the remixing process and also as a form of creative media literacy I gave participants the assignment of switching the video and audio from Saturday morning cartoon toy commercials aimed specifically at boys with those aimed at girls. The resulting juxtapositions provided hilarious and insightful commentary on the way the advertising industry manipulates gender roles and helps develop gendered socialization in children.
Embedded above are remixed ads by Reel Grrls Sahar & Diana – also make sure to check out Julia & Caitlin’s remix ads, Gwyn & Emma’s remix and Mari’s remix. I had a lot of fun teaching this workshop and was definitely inspired by the Reel Grrls media making talent, skill and creative energy.
Can a political remix video help effect actual change in the world? YES!
Unilever’s personal care brand Dove is the again target, this time being called out by GreenPeace for the corporation’s role as the biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world, and thus, a major contributor to the destruction of rainforests because of massive palm oil plantations.
Greenpeace spoofed Dove’s Onslaught ad with great success: thanks to the public support of the campaign and the remix (which received more views on YouTube than the original ad with over a million) Unilever agreed to an “immediate moratorium on deforestation for palm oil plantations”. They also agreed to help clean up the industry by contacting the other major companies calling on them to support the moratorium. Companies like Cargill & General Mills though have still not gotten on board.
The remix did have a budget and does not actually re-edit any of the footage from the Unilever ad but it does re-create it almost shot for shot. The Greenpeace version even re-writes the lyrics for the song LA Breeze by Simian which Dove used as their soundtrack. The new updated song titled “There They Go” (referring to trees) was made specifically for this video by the Czech band Ohm Square.
Thanks to the staggering public support for our international Dove campaign in April 2008, Unilever has now agreed to play their part in saving the Paradise Forests of South East Asia. As the biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world, Unilever has a special responsibility to help clean up the industry that’s behind so much forest destruction. – GreenPeace
Over the past two years the Unilever corporation has been one of the favorite targets for parody videos online. This is primarily do to the fact that the multinational company makes both Dove and Axe, two brands that present diametrically opposing values and views of women.
In 2004, Unilever launched their Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, a marketing strategy wrapped in a feminist package. Their tag line: “challenging today’s stereotypical view of beauty“. The marketing tactic included the online video Onslaught, that warned consumers about the beauty industries negative effect on young girls.
Rye Clifton noticed that Unilever also makes Axe Body Spray, a product whose brand identity is steeped in misogynistic notions of masculinity. Interestingly enough, the spray is accompanied by a sexist advertising campaign featuring exactly the kind of depictions of women that the company is supposedly criticizing with its Dove brand. So Rye re-edited the Onslaught ad replacing all the images of women with footage from Axe tv commercials. The remix exposes the inconsistency and deep hypocrisy of Unilever’s corporate brand identity. Clearly the only value Unilever is really interested in is money – they will say anything to get you to buy their products. Clifton’s remix was even featured on CNN’s the Situation Room a couple years ago.
Below is the original Dove Onslaught ad for those that have not seen it.
