John Smith | 'The girl chewing gum'

John Smith created a film titled 'The girl chewing gum'  in 1976 in which a film is being made on  a corner of a busy street, with a voice-over seemingly dictating what will be happening in the duration of the film. Throughout the film the directions slowly become more evident that they are slightly absurd, it soon becomes clear from watching the video through that the 'director' is the one who is fictional and he is only describing the events that are taking place in front of him, Smith says that in this form of video he is playing words against the picture rather than the other way around in your usual filming style whilst also using the chance of something happening against the order. the voice-over is sharp and direct not allowing us to realise how this film has been constructed until the scenarios become slightly witty and laughable.

This is one of my favourite video pieces as I find it to be done incredibly well considering this is all been done down to chance using visuals to direct a scene however using words against the picture, the first time I watched this video I found it to be quite confusing as I wasn't quite sure how it was created or what exactly was going on in the video, as the film develops your able to see and make an understanding of what the director is doing and what he is challenging. As the video/director is gradually annotating events happening as they do it is using a linear format as there are no flashbacks just a continuous story in time, however as their is also the element of a voice over dictating the events this is showing a dual narrative being used as their are two elements telling the story, the film and the voice over.

I very much like the idea of using a voice over and it is something that I may look into further in use with my own work, for the narrative I am wishing to tell I feel it would fit in quite well with telling my story in perhaps a dual narrative structure.