Whether or not the Beatles fully intended on this to happen is debatable, but what isn't debatable is the power behind an artist multi-tasking his or her art. They did this by creating 'concept albums', films, artwork, poetry books, costumes, etc. and making them accessible. They also financed business and creative ideas by opening their doors to the general public and if a person had a good idea, they would finance it. As well, Lennon often personalized his lyrics based off of public knowledge of his life experiences (this has become standard practice in the music industry). Because of this, I believe, the Beatles were able to transcend from a pop-band to a world-wide phenomenon that has lasted generations.
I think telling a story across multiple mediums has a lot of possibilities. Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" gave me an idea. During the song, a record exec asks the band, "By the way, which one is Pink?" and it led me to think of how that idea of misinterpreted and manufactured identity could work using multiple mediums. I think it would be interesting to create a blog titled "Who is Gabby Ludwig?" and this blog would be about many things such as politics, dating, and religion. The blog is supported by a man on the street video asking people, "Who is Gabby Ludwig?" (amongst other questions) as well as a "Who is Gabby Ludwig?" documentary that is about a webvision show called, "Gabby Ludwig". The webvision show could be an interview of local artists type show. None of these are actually about Gabby Ludwig, rather, they are about everything but Gabby Ludwig. I know it sounds confusing, but I think it would be an interesting case-study into how public identity and name recognition are created and/or supported via multiple mediums. It's just a loose idea right now and hasn't really taken on any tangible possibilities, but I think it would be fun to do.
Looking back, I made a 40-minute B-movie in 2012 in which the main character was a depressed young man who tried a new product that was guaranteed to turn his life around: it was a label-maker device (with an IPHONE interface) that was installed on him that would allow the company to send him messages to tell him what to do - I now realize I could have very easily incorporated the multi-medium storytelling idea to enhance the experience for the viewer. Especially since the product itself was using a mix of old and new technology. I could have created a fake website where viewers could have created their very own label-making to do lists and they could have chosen which products they would choose to be told to consume. As well, my friend made some original music and created a fake band name and I could have very easily created a facebook page for the fake band (and all the other characters). I also had a fake terrorist group with the initials R.O.T. that I could have easily created youtube videos establishing street cred for them (even though the R.O.T. storyline was the biggest flaw of the movie, in my opinion). All in hindsight, right? The project already sapped so much of my time that I could not have completed any of this in time for when the project was due. However, for future projects it will be something I will think about, especially since I know a couple of interweb designing geeky nerd types who probably would love that sort of stuff.
Looking back, I made a 40-minute B-movie in 2012 in which the main character was a depressed young man who tried a new product that was guaranteed to turn his life around: it was a label-maker device (with an IPHONE interface) that was installed on him that would allow the company to send him messages to tell him what to do - I now realize I could have very easily incorporated the multi-medium storytelling idea to enhance the experience for the viewer. Especially since the product itself was using a mix of old and new technology. I could have created a fake website where viewers could have created their very own label-making to do lists and they could have chosen which products they would choose to be told to consume. As well, my friend made some original music and created a fake band name and I could have very easily created a facebook page for the fake band (and all the other characters). I also had a fake terrorist group with the initials R.O.T. that I could have easily created youtube videos establishing street cred for them (even though the R.O.T. storyline was the biggest flaw of the movie, in my opinion). All in hindsight, right? The project already sapped so much of my time that I could not have completed any of this in time for when the project was due. However, for future projects it will be something I will think about, especially since I know a couple of interweb designing geeky nerd types who probably would love that sort of stuff.
I think that what you're pointing to here is very interesting: the power of placing fake myths in empty placeholders.
ReplyDeleteThe logic is similar to Lily Chou-Chou: setting up a mythology around a pop singer in ways that are familiar (in the film, Lily has several albums, all decked out with art, and also played in an earlier, Radiohead-ish band called Philia).
I'm not even sure that you have to create the paracinematic material to get at this logic. You could just have it in the vid and nowhere else, and I think it'd get across the same logic. (BTW, is there any way to see the vid you mention at the end? Sounds interesting).