2. CAGED
Class – Opposition of class such as
the Mayor coming for a high
economic background shown by his
clothes and gold jewellery compared
to the villagers shown in the video
with no signs of high class wearing
just regular clothing such as the
farming scene shown in 2 minutes
would represent a subculture that
would not have great wealth.
3. CAGED
Age - All of the characters in the video seem to
resemble the same age of adults who are
playing their roles within the village. Their age
is determined by their features and height due
to not being able to tell due to them being
characters and not real people. Such as the
smaller figures being a younger age.
4. CAGED
Gender – Both genders are
shown throughout the video.
However the video does
display some gender
opposition in the way it is a
young well dressed male who
is being proclaimed as a witch
when the stereotype of a
witch would be old female
wearing all black.
5. CAGED
Ethnicity - Radiohead’s sinister, Wicker Man-
esque video for new song “Burn the Witch”
is a comment on the refugee crisis in Europe,
its stop-motion animator has revealed. Virpi
Kettu, who worked on the project alongside
director Chris Hopewell, has confirmed that
the band wanted to use their much-hyped
release to draw attention to paranoia, anger
and Islamophobia sparked by the “blaming
of different people…the blaming of
Muslims”.
6. CAGED
Disability – All the characters are able
bodied. This could link to the
stereotype that disability's are
ignored in society due to the lack of
representation.
7. Context behind the song
The song "Burn the Witch" was released on 3 May 2016 as the lead single
from the album A Moon Shaped Pool. Radiohead developed the song for
over a decade, first working on it during the sessions for their fourth album,
Kid A (2000). It features a string section playing col legno battuto, producing
a percussive sound, arranged by the guitarist Jonny Greenwood.
"Burn the Witch" was accompanied by a stop-motion animated music video
that pays respect to the 1960s British children's television programme
Camberwick Green and the 1973 British horror film The Wicker Man. Some
critics interpreted the lyrics and video as a warning against groupthink and
authoritarianism. The song received positive reviews and was nominated for
Best Rock Song at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
8. The video
The video depicts mob rule in a rural community. During the video, an
inspector is greeted by a town mayor and invited to see a series of
unsettling sights, culminating in the unveiling of a wicker man. The
mayor urges the inspector to climb into the wicker man, whereupon he
is locked inside as a human sacrifice and the wicker man is set on fire.
As the flames gather, the townspeople turn their backs and wave
goodbye to the camera. After the song ends, the inspector escapes
among the trees.
Pitchfork interpreted "Burn the Witch" as a criticism of authority and a
warning against groupthink, expressing a "deep sense of dread and
skepticism". The Guardian felt it addressed mass surveillance or the
threat to open discussion posed by the self-policing users of social
media.
9. The video
Pitchfork writer Marc Hogan suggested that the use of the Trumpton
Trilogy style in the video, which portrays an idyllic, crime-free rural
Britain, reflects the rhetoric of family values used by right-wing
politicians such as Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, and members of the
UK Independence Party. Animator Virpi Kettu, who worked on the
music video, interpreted the song as a comment on the European
migrant crisis and scapegoating of Muslims. The visual style of the
video was deliberately lighter in tone than the song, as Radiohead
"wanted the video to contrast with what they're playing and to wake
people up a bit." After the election of US President Donald Trump on 8
November 2016, Yorke tweeted lyrics from the song and linked to its
music video, interpreted as a criticism of Trump's rightwing policies.
10. The Trumptonshire Trilogy (1966 - 1969)
Trumpton is a stop-motion children's television series from the producer
Gordon Murray. First shown on the BBC from January to March 1967, it was
the second series in the Trumptonshire trilogy, which comprised Camberwick
Green, Trumpton and Chigley. Trumptonshire was created using stop motion
animation and actual 3D scaled down models. The entire trilogy consisted of
39 x 15-minute episodes. All 39 episodes were first broadcast on BBC1, airing
before the midday news. The original footage had to be located – some
footage was found in the family's attic and some deep in the archives of BBC
Worldwide in Perivale. It was originally released 3 January – 28 March 1967.
The puppets are designed to be around 20 cm high. BBC Studios and Post
Production's Digital Media Services team remastered all 39 episodes of the
Trumptonshire Trilogy in 2011 for DVD release, cleaning, scanning and
digitally restoring the film footage frame by frame
11. Type of music video
Narrative; during the video, an inspector is greeted by
a town mayor and invited to see a series of unsettling
sights, culminating in the unveiling of a wicker man.
The mayor urges the inspector to climb into the wicker
man, whereupon he is locked inside as a human
sacrifice and the wicker man is set on fire. As the
flames gather, the townspeople turn their backs and
wave goodbye to the camera. After the song ends, the
inspector escapes among the trees.
12. Connotations
Diegetic bird singing -Cartoonish
Fade in and from black transitions
Red Cross on doors links to plague
A noose for public hanging
Society is being obsessed and judged by an outsider and at the end he is burnt
Trumpton style animation
Intertextual link to 1984 totalitarianism
Links to Wikerman movie
Idea of a cult
Historical links to old torture methods
Paganism - burning man festival
The speared boar pub
13. Connotations
The video begins and ends with a blue jay singing, and if
you’re piqued by the political element of the video –
perhaps this could be alluding to the fact that social
media has played such a huge presence in this particular
political climate since this bird resembles the Twitter
logo, or this may be a reference to @Trumpton_UKIP.
Both Lynch works present idealized America as a
dreamland with a dark, occult underbelly masked by
conventionalism and hypocrisy. Radiohead’s video also
presents Puritan America (and thus idealized America
with its Puritan work ethic and values) as a hypocritical
monstrosity, yet foisted upon the global stage as the
“model village.”
14. Camera work
Burn the witch shows various angles such as midshot
and wide angle shots however it is an animation
therefore the camera is not creating the angles the
animator is. Such as the close up of the figure when he
is in trouble is used for dramatic effect however is not
implemented or produced in the same way as a real
life film or series may be.
15. Stay in the shadows
Cheer at the gallows
This is a round up
This is a low flying panic attack
Sing a song on the jukebox that goes
Burn the witch
Burn the witch
We know where you live
Red crosses on wooden doors
And if you float you burn
Loose talk around tables
Abandon all reason
Avoid all eye contact
Do not react
Shoot the messengers
This is a low flying panic attack
Sing the song of sixpence that goes
Burn the witch
Burn the witch
We know where you live
We know where you live
Red crosses on wooden doors – Plague
And if you float you burn – If you float in water you are a witch and
got burned at stake.
Shoot the messengers – The idea of secrecy and people who tell
get punished.
Sing the song of sixpence - "Sing a Song of Sixpence" is a well-
known English nursery rhyme, perhaps originating in the 18th
century. Many interpretations have been placed on this rhyme. It is
known that a 16th-century amusement was to place live birds in a
pie, as a form of entremets. An Italian cookbook from 1549
(translated into English in 1598) contained such a recipe:[3] "to
make pies so that birds may be alive in them and fly out when it is
cut up" and this was referred to in a cook book of 1725 by John
Nott.[1][4] The wedding of Marie de' Medici and Henry IV of
France in 1600 contains some interesting parallels. “
Loose talk around the table - “Loose talk” is conversation that is
“careless and indiscreet.” The authority figure of the song wishes to
limit such talk, which threatens their regime; anyone who doesn’t
watch his or her words will be labelled a witch and be punished
accordingly. When the US entered WWII, a series of security
posters were created to keep the public in check, many of which
featured the slogan:“ Loose talk can cost lives.”
