The Videographic Essay: Practice and PedagogyMain MenuThe Videographic EssayTable of ContentsIntroduction, Acknowledgements, and Further ReadingScholarship in Sound & Image: A Pedagogical EssayPedagogical essay authored by Christian Keathley and Jason MittellDissolves of PassionIn Dialogue: Eric Faden and Kevin B. LeeBecoming Videographic Critics: A Roundtable ConversationA conversation among practitioners curated by Jason MittellStar Studies in TransitionBut Is Any Of This Legal?Videographic ExercisesGallery of All ExercisesCreditsChristian Keathley0199b522721abf067a743773a226b6064fe22f8cJason Mittell06e96b1b57c0e09d70492af49d984ee2f68945deCatherine Grantc9eab209ad26b2e418453515f6418aa2cbe20309
Husbands Voiceover Story
12016-04-30T11:01:53-07:00Jason Mittell06e96b1b57c0e09d70492af49d984ee2f68945de75431An exercise by Melanie Kohnenplain2016-04-30T11:01:53-07:00Jason Mittell06e96b1b57c0e09d70492af49d984ee2f68945deMelanie Kohnen, whose media object was the web series Husbands (YouTube, U.S.A., 2011–), sang a nineteenth-century German folk song, ‘Horch was kommt von Draußen rein’ (literally, ‘listen to what’s coming in from the outside’). It is about someone (presumably a woman) wondering if the noise she hears from outside the house might be the man with whom she is in love. The second stanza suggests that people are gossiping about the inappropriate nature of this relationship and the last line says ‘I can love whomever I want’. There is the marked contrast of this very traditional folk song—one a woman might sing to herself while cleaning—with Husbands, but also a resonance because Husbands’ second season is all about the media criticising the inappropriateness of how Cheeks talks about his relationship with Brady in public, with Cheeks and Brady deciding in the end to just be who they are despite the criticism. In this example, the voice works against the image in a way that made vocal delivery less crucial than the suggestive relation between what was being spoken/sung and what was being shown.