"Experimental Film" is a song by alternative rock band They Might Be Giants. It is the first song on their 2004 album The Spine and, although never released commercially, is the album's lead single.[1] The song has been seen by some critics as a return to the band's earlier sound.[1][2] An animated music video was made for the song by internet cartoonists The Brothers Chaps, which incorporated the characters from the animators' internet series Homestar Runner.[3]
[edit] Subject matter
The song's lyrics are a satire of avant-garde cinema, and its perceived tendency toward meaninglessness and pomposity. The "narrator" of the song is an enthusiastic (possibly student) filmmaker who is attempting to make the titular movie. He extols its greatness and makes grandiose statements about his abundance of "face-imploding" ideas, but he hasn't even made it yet - and can't explain what it's supposed to be about.
[edit] Homestar Runner video
The video itself is a cartoon experimental film and is ostensibly directed by Homestar Runner cartoon characters Strong Sad and The Cheat. Their individual contributions are wildly different: Strong Sad's footage looks like it has been shot on black-and-white film, while The Cheat's portions are animated in his singularly basic style. Initially the video just cuts between the two, but they're superimposed and mixed together more and more until the two become indistinguishable. The video is full of references to other experimental films.[4]
In spite of They Might Be Giants originally planning to make a separate video for the "MTV crowd,"[5] they have declared the Homestar Runner video to be the song's official music video. It was the first Homestar Runner cartoon to be shown on TV.[citation needed]
[edit] Use in television
The song was used as the end credits music for the Independent Film Channel TV series Film School, as well as in ads for the show.[6]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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