Another Approach: Value-Added Cinema

Value-Added Cinema (2003), created by Steve Seid (Video Curator, Pacific Film Archive) and Peter Conheim (Negativland), is a great reminder that there are more ways than one to skin a cat, as the saying goes. Whereas my video Behind the Screens (2000) presents a rather linear, didactic argument using expert 'talking heads' backed up by brief film clips, Value-Added Cinema shows what happens when you use only film clips to make an argument about product placement. Seid and Conheim artfully arrange their evidence to create an outlandish narrative where the continuity is provided not by celebrity actors or trite plots, but by following, say, a FedEx package as it travels from Tom Hanks' hands in Cast Away (2000), through Steve Martin's hands in Bowfinger (1999), into the presence of Mel Gibson in What Women Want (2000).

As a review in Variety puts it: "Placements excerpted here from some 70 studio pics make it jaw-droppingly clear how fully audiences have come to accept blatant plugs amid their everyday escapism. Pic eschews commentary, simply serving up heaps of incriminating evidence; it's an educational guilty pleasure suitable for both fest auds and the classroom."

Steve has kindly allowed us to host a five minute clip from Value-Added Cinema right here on Brand Hype.

Posted by Matt Soar, June 28, 2006