Task 1 Context of Practice Part 1

Moving image analysis exercise - Task 1
Tony Kaye, Tested for the Unexpected, 1993

2.Anton Corbijn, Atmosphere, by Joy Division 1988

Both of these video's vary in many ways, with very few similarities between the two. During this short essay, a discussion comparing the two will be undertaken.

The first reason as to why they differ so drastically is due to the contrast in budgets, Tested for the Unexpected had a significantly bigger budget, as it was created to sell a product, meaning the company often has large budgets especially to cater for advertising. Due to this, new technologies could be used, making this advert stand out at the time, and still hold a strong importance in advertising history.

On the other hand the Atmosphere video was created for the band Joy Division as promotional material for their music. Musicians at the time had much smaller budgets than ones today, meaning they had to be inventive with the video’s they produced. This video in particular out of Joy Division’s other music videos stands out the most, not just due to it’s symbolism of death and stark colours only using black and white, but the reason that it was created in memory of their singer Ian Curtis who committed suicide shortly after finishing writing their album.

Atmosphere has a completely different relationship with the soundtrack due to this, as the song holds great significance to Joy Division fans, so the video was made in response to this. As the pacing of the song was slow, the video had to fit with this. Differing to this, Tested for the Unexpected had it’s soundtrack created after the video itself was made, allowing sound effects and the tempo of the music to enhance the video further. Due to this being a quick paced piece, trying to keep short and snappy to grab potential consumers attention, the colour and lighting is yet again bright and eye catching.

This leads to the content of them both. Tested for the Unexpected uses strange symbolism and metaphorical references throughout, which catches your eye as you are unsure until the very end of the video who the advert is aimed at and what the actual product being represented is. Often adverts like this, which aren’t blindingly obvious at first glance, tend to fail at aiming to the correct audience, but when the right audience does view the video then their attention will be caught. Often by doing this, they may even entice others to buy, when they may not necessarily would have before.

The content for Atmosphere again uses symbolism, but more obviously. Due to Ian Curtis’ death, this plays a massive role in the video, using black and white to symbolize life and death, showing the full circle from start to end. Being set on a beach, shows calmness and peace, however the costumes the men are wearing are a stark contrast against this background, looking like the Ku Klux Klan, which could be argued to represent the terror Ian experienced in his life.

Overall both video’s function well for their separate purposes, and are both interesting video’s to study further into.