Video Separation

Communication is founded on the idea of separation. From the earliest writing, different characters have been used to represent things or ideas that they are inherently separated from. The Chinese letter for tree may appear similar to a trunk and branches, but the viewer knows that it is not a tree. However, with video the separation between reality and what is shown is broken down. As a medium, video is often termed with reality, yet it is just as manipulatible as words on a page. The entertainment world has capitalized on this "real" look through its creation of the reality genre programs. Through this video clip, however, I will demonstrate how video can be manipulated in order to create and enforce an ideological meaning.

This clip was created by editing together television programs that use video instead of film to record the shows. By placing certain shots together, a theme of violence clearly emerges, but is this the total picture? Clearly it is not, since I only allowed you to view the shots that I chose. Let's take a closer analysis of the video's structure.

The first shot displayed in a warning about the graphic nature of the program that is too be shown. From the very beginning a message has been conveyed that being violence will be part of the clip. The clip then enforces this stereotype by showing a police man breaking down a door while the popular theme music from the COPS television show is played. Then there is a break in what the audience is expecting next by the placement of the popular basketball star Michael Jordan.

By placing Michael Jordan in the world of COPS, a connection is created by the viewer. Jordan is no longer associated with playing basketball, but sports are connected with violence. This is done through one video edit, but the implications are many. As the author I have decided what to show and what not too, but often times the spectators do not make this separation. To increase this idea of the falsity of video, the clip then cuts to another sport, but one that is fake, pro-wrestling. One wrestler does a back flip over a rope to land on another, but the spectator wonders how this relates to previous two shots and the common link is violence.

This violence and video theme comes up again as the video continues by showing more clips from reality TV programs such as COPS and Jerry Springer. The fundamental point of the video is linking real life violence to the entertainment industry. This, however, is not a clear-cut issue as the video portrays. Television violence link to real life violence has been the topic of numerous studies, but none have been able to prove any concrete answers. But the video does; for example, by placing a wrestler kicking another wrestler in the balls and then showing a cop knocking a man of a motorcycle the link is made. This is the power of video by dumbing down complex situations.

This is only reinforced by the placement of the question that appears in the later half of the clip "Why Pro-Basketball is Sick." This question immediately brings up the link that the spectator has made between real life violence and entertainment. The viewer assumes that the word sick refers to the violence nature of basketball, but this is not the case. In fact, this shot was used in a documentary about the history of basketball. The word sick is in reference to the down time in the late 1970s where fans were sparse. By placing this quote in a different setting, it takes on a new meaning, but propaganda can be a lot subtler. Any choice in shots creates a false meaning, from the choice of where the camera is placed to how long it is left on a subject.

The end of the clip continues to contrast violence and entertainment by the placement of horrifying accidents next to happy shots after a sports victory. This ending part is quite different than from the beginning. It contains more graphic accidents, but entertainment becomes less violence, such as in the case of the exercise video clip. With greater contrasts, the fundamental meaning is only increased. Through becoming more separate, the spectator ironically puts a greater order to the clips. Now a workout video is seen as contributing to violence, but if one thinks about this it seems quite an absurd connection, yet the viewer makes it unknowingly. The end of the film has the largest contradiction where the announcer tells how "All suspects are innocent until proven guilty" while the video clip displays cops shooting a man in a truck. Also, Michael Jordan is the last shot and inherently all the violence is associated with him.

This process of editing is used throughout the entertainment world, but often times people associate video with reality. The end logo implies what video actually is and that is "real entertainment," not the truth.