Week 7: Scopitone

There were three topics to choose from this week. I decided to focus my blog entry on the wonderful (though dead) world of SCOPITONE VIDEOS!

Oh look, here's one now!



(Don't laugh now, but I feel incredibly cool for knowing how to embed that video into the post. SKILLS.)

The Lady is a Tramp by Buddy Greco is an example of one of these very videos. It is very different from the music videos of today. For one, there is a CLEAR difference in the amount of money people spent on making these videos. The scopitone videos definitely had a smaller budget. There is also an obvious difference in video quality, which is natural because of the time period, and the special effects are sub-par. Pretty much, scopitone videos were just a lot simpler. A lot of the video is just the singer with a spotlight on him, and the rest is him singing in various simple settings. One thing it did have in common with modern videos however, was scantily clad women. Some things don't change so much...

Here's another example of a scopitone video:




This one is slightly more complex. There are even choreographed dance routines! But it is still mostly just a video of the singer singing their song.

I think that back then it was more about the music, whereas nowadays a music video is a way of branding the musician or band a certain way. It becomes how they present themselves to the world.