“you Just got Covered”
121
observations is that post-2000s audio-visual culture is influenced by the
music video; in order to make this point, she identifies the sonic and visual
connections between YouTube videos, digital cinema and music videos.
The large-scale audiovisual examples she uses to support her argument are
the filmic works of David Fincher, Spike Jonze, and Michel Gondry, who
started their filmmaking career as music video directors. Vernallis describes
YouTube as the “new digital cinema’s shadowy twin” 34 and lists some of
the key smaller-scale values (limited length, low resolution, impromptu
lighting and design, etc.) of YouTube, which along with their variations are
also characteristic of cover song music videos:
YouTube’s aesthetic values include bold graphic design and well-judged
scale. This may be related to the medium and its mode of delivery – a
clip’s limited length, its level of resolution, and the forms of attention
it encourages. Poorly lit small environments shot and uploaded with
low resolution may tend toward fuzziness […] YouTube clips must often
garner attention in a competitive environment; many that struggle to
gain legibility, go bold. 35
WOTE’s YouTube video shares some of these small-scale characteristics;
an uninterrupted still shot, dressed with non-professional lighting, indoor
plants and window shutters acts as a background in order to enhance the
boldness and playfulness of their attempt. This conscious, yet successful
pairing of self-made elements with the band’s skillful performance led
to the popularity of the video, and hence the transposition of this pairing from a small-scale production to a larger-scale context, in this case
the set of a mainstream television show, inevitably feels odd. Vernallis
observes that “some of the most popular clips’ particularity must be locked
in the ways these figures reside exactly where they are within their flat,
miniature cubicles.” 36 Interestingly, this locking of multi-bodies in front
of a still camera has become a kind of trademark arrangement in many of
the band’s YouTube videos. WOTE smartly established a dialogue between
their YouTube performances and their more polished appearance in the
official music video for their song “Red Hands,” which even though it uses
a dolly-out/pull-back shot and displays the energetic movement of the
musicians amidst an obviously larger-scale set, also includes moments
34 Ibid., 134.
35 Ibid., 135.
36 Ibid.
121
observations is that post-2000s audio-visual culture is influenced by the
music video; in order to make this point, she identifies the sonic and visual
connections between YouTube videos, digital cinema and music videos.
The large-scale audiovisual examples she uses to support her argument are
the filmic works of David Fincher, Spike Jonze, and Michel Gondry, who
started their filmmaking career as music video directors. Vernallis describes
YouTube as the “new digital cinema’s shadowy twin” 34 and lists some of
the key smaller-scale values (limited length, low resolution, impromptu
lighting and design, etc.) of YouTube, which along with their variations are
also characteristic of cover song music videos:
YouTube’s aesthetic values include bold graphic design and well-judged
scale. This may be related to the medium and its mode of delivery – a
clip’s limited length, its level of resolution, and the forms of attention
it encourages. Poorly lit small environments shot and uploaded with
low resolution may tend toward fuzziness […] YouTube clips must often
garner attention in a competitive environment; many that struggle to
gain legibility, go bold. 35
WOTE’s YouTube video shares some of these small-scale characteristics;
an uninterrupted still shot, dressed with non-professional lighting, indoor
plants and window shutters acts as a background in order to enhance the
boldness and playfulness of their attempt. This conscious, yet successful
pairing of self-made elements with the band’s skillful performance led
to the popularity of the video, and hence the transposition of this pairing from a small-scale production to a larger-scale context, in this case
the set of a mainstream television show, inevitably feels odd. Vernallis
observes that “some of the most popular clips’ particularity must be locked
in the ways these figures reside exactly where they are within their flat,
miniature cubicles.” 36 Interestingly, this locking of multi-bodies in front
of a still camera has become a kind of trademark arrangement in many of
the band’s YouTube videos. WOTE smartly established a dialogue between
their YouTube performances and their more polished appearance in the
official music video for their song “Red Hands,” which even though it uses
a dolly-out/pull-back shot and displays the energetic movement of the
musicians amidst an obviously larger-scale set, also includes moments
34 Ibid., 134.
35 Ibid., 135.
36 Ibid.