RADIOHEAD BURN THE WITCH- MEDIA LANGUAGE

Question 1

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Visual style & cinematography & colour scheme - stop motion animation

Answer 1

• (juxaposition) The ‘childlike’ stop-motion animation vs disturbing/ violent imagery- creates a hyperreal version of Britishness, where the horror of violence is masked by aesthetic innocence.
• (stylisation) detaches and seduces audiences into a simulacra of normalcy- (mirrors how society is often blind to real-world systemic violence)

Question 2

Camera shots- restricted framing

Answer 2

• Restricted framing (looking through fences, gates)
• Creates sense of Orewellian surveillance and entrapment (Foucalt- the town operates like a panoptic society, where everyone follows tradition out of fear of punishment)

Goodwin music

Question 3

Opening shot (false equlibrium)- close up of a singular bird on a brand

Answer 3

• The exaggerated idyllic birdsong positions the narrative within a place of innocence/ childish nostalgia (seducing audiences).
• However, in retrospect, the birdsong warns the other villagers of the arrival (like the rest of the villagers the bird is a cospirator).

Are we, audiences, also positioned to feel like conspirators- passively watching the spectle like the rest of the villagers- absentmindely singing along whilst atrocities unfold before us (normalisation of facist/ anti-immigrant rhetroic)

Question 4

Two shot- insepector being driven to the village (costuming & shot type)

Answer 4

• Costuming- bowler hat, suit, chauffer signfications of importance, upper class status- irony/ subverstion- his wealth does not insulate him from collective/ societal violence.

Question 5

Wide shot- audiences/ insepector meets the villagers (behaviour of the villagers)

Answer 5

• Wide shot- of villagers standing around the mayor- establishes communal ideology.
• Cultural codes- medieval clothing, town sqaure evoke historical witch hunts, public executions and trials- reinforces themes of mob mentality, social conformity.
• Proxemics- the leader stands elevated by a cross shaped rock- evocative of Christ/false preachers. Symbolises hierarchical male power.
• Proairetic code- synchronised headnodding/ movments- demonstartes collective ideology, internalised oppression, lack of dissent suggest indoctrination. The leader functions as an ideological enforcer, shaping what is considered “normal” or “correct” behavior.