INDUSTRY INFORMATION

Band: Fat Les

Song: Vindaloo

Genre: Comedy, Football chant

Released: June 8, 1998

Type of video: Parody, performance

GENRE CONVENTIONS

Comedy:

Parody (of The Verve‟s „Bittersweet Symphony‟) In a parody video, the main content will be „mocking‟ a target

video/song/convention – in this example, Fat Les‟ „Vindaloo‟ follows a very similar video story to The Verve‟s „bittersweet symphony‟. The video follows the same floor-plan as the parodied video, with a few slight adjustments (for example, comedians are placed within the video (E.G. Matt Lucas and David Walliams), emphasising the parody/comedy element of the film.

Football chant:

The football chant „Vindaloo‟ was created in 1998, and has a number of British connotations: Vindaloo‟, a Goan vegetable Curry, „was popularly eaten by the English

population, accompanied typically by a pint of lager (this relative to a „lad‟s night out‟; a popular British past-time, also relative to a football fan‟s lifestyle (lad‟s nights out)).

Relative to football chant, the Banter used: “We are better than you” is common amongst most football chants, as to provoke the other team and get a reaction whilst supporting your home team.

The Verve: Bittersweet Symphony

The video shows a character,

dressed in dark clothing with black

wavy hair: during the video, he

walks down a street in a straight

line, knocking into members of the

public. This could be relative to the

lyrics “It‟s a bittersweet symphony

this life – trying to make ends meet

you‟re a slave to money then you die”: the video is a possible representation of how the character feels

about his current situation.

The video by Fat Les (Vindaloo) parodies The Verve‟s (Bittersweet symphony) through story plot of the

video. However, it mocks the video and portrays it in a more „British-hooliganism‟ way. It does this through

both obvious and unobvious ways: The image (left-bottom) shows the character in normal light, however,

the pedestrian sign in Vindaloo points towards the background character‟s crotch, which denotes the

humour aspect of the video. The

image (bottom right) shows the

football aspect: the football is thrown

at the character‟s face, which is

parodying the original video‟s

character, and also portrays the

Football aspect of the video.

Fat Les – Vindaloo

MUSIC AND VISUALS

In the Verve‟s Bittersweet symphony, the video links the lyrics “I‟ll take you down the only road I've ever been down; you know the one that takes you to the places where all things meet” with the video‟s main visual representation of a character walking down a road.

In terms of Vindaloo, there aren‟t any links lyrically to the parodied video, but the lyrics to Vindaloorepresent the parodying elements of the new video: “Bonjour” and “Monsieur” are both French words, and this is represented throughout the video (reference middle image – stereotypical French man with striped top and garlic): the image and the accompanying lyrics were used to depict the 1998 FIFA world cup – France being the host country.

The British are represented (top image) as fanatic football fans: to portray Britishness, a number of factors were considered:

Costume (bottom image): Iconographical costume (left of image 3) portrays

the stereotypical British icon (palace guard), as does the traditional tweed shirt (middle-right of image 3).

Other iconographical costumes were of different cultures: people from other nations and countries (i.e. China – Sumo wrestling, America – Hockey). The use of portraying different nations denotes a sense of togetherness (E.G No matter who or what you are, if you are in England you support England). Adversely, it could be depicting the other nations of the FIFA world cup.

Props Throughout the video, many actors could be seen

holding curry bags; this represents the British culture through how we eat (this is typically associated with the „lads night out‟).

Where on earth are you from?

We're from England

Where you come from

Do you put the kettle on?

Kick it

Nah Nah Nah

Nah Nah Nah

Nah Nah Nah

Bonjour

Nah Nah Nah

Monsieur

Nah Nah Nah

Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah

Nah Nah Nah

We're England

We're gonna score one more than you

England!

Can I introduce you please

To a lump of Cheddar Cheese

Knit one, Pearl one

Drop one, Curl one

Kick it

Nah Nah Nah

Nah Nah Nah

Nah Nah Nah

Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah

We're England

We're gonna score one more than you

England!

Me and me Mum and me Dad and me Gran

We're off to Waterloo

Me and me Mum and me Dad and me Gran

And a bucket of Vindaloo

Bucket!

Vindaloo

Vindaloo

Vindaloo

Vindaloo

Vindaloo Nah Nah

And we all like Vindaloo

We're England

We're gonna score one more than you

England!

Nah Nah Nah

Vindaloo

Nah Nah Nah

Vindaloo

Nah Nah Nah

Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah

Nah Nah Nah

Vindaloo

Nah Nah Nah

And we all like Vindaloo

We're England

We're gonna score one more than you

England!

Angles There are no real changes in angles until the end, where the medium angle

changes to a high-angle shot to show all of the actors together (chanting).

Shots Shot reverse shot was used in parody fashion (Bittersweet symphony uses

shot reverse shot to show the actors and how the antagonist walks through members of the public).

Establishing shots were employed to set the scene and show the setting of the video, and also showed background acting (which is a factor of composition).

Close-up shots were used to symbolize a range of parts in the film: audible drumming allowed for close-ups of the drummer, and the close-up of the main actor‟s shoes allowed for a slow introduction of said actor. Additionally, there were a number of close-ups of famous comedians (which meant that the video was easy to connect to; emphasising the comedy element).

Panning shots allowed for progression of the video, whilst showing what was occurring in the background: it kept the video at a pace where visuals were easy to identify.

Over the shoulder shots showed the physical interactions of the main actor and other actors.

Editing The main transitions used in the film were cuts, as opposed to fading in/out

(fade-in was used at the beginning, but not again). This meant that the video was „quick‟ and snappy as opposed to smooth. The effect of this was mainly for comical purposes.

The main reason behind the blue hue was merely in parody of „Bittersweet symphony‟, but this hue was lifted after the main actor joined with the rest of the group, symbolizing the lifting of the „sadness‟ of not being a supporter.

The cuts within the film are mainly medium-paced and often correspond to the music: in parts where drumming is audible, there may be cuts to the drums. This also comes under close-up shots.

Composition The composition of the film is often explored to show the transition of the film,

and also allows for progression of the video: things in the background allow for representation of what is going on (i.e. Background actors slowly increasing in number to join main actor), whilst keeping alongside the „action‟ or significant parts in the video.

PERFORMANCE, NARRATIVE OR CONCEPT?

The video to „Vindaloo‟ is a concept video. It is based around the 1998 FIFA world cup, with France as the host. The concept is that England footballers are loud, proud, stand-together, and love to eat vindaloos. The main character at the beginning of the video is shown to ignore everyone within the video, despite being hit in the face with a football and walking into other people (this physically parodies the Verve‟s „Bittersweet symphony‟, where the actor did the same). Shortly before the end of the video, the actor gives in, and is seen chanting/singing alongside the other actors. This represents how nobody can get away from England‟s chanting, and eventually you will give in and be in support of England.

The video is also a performance: it shows a variation of characters either singing the lyrics, or playing the drum – this is shown through the image:

The singer in the foreground shows the vocal performance,and the drummer shows theinstrumental performance.

As well as the singingcharacter portrayed, most ofthe other actors sing too: thisrepresents English throughthe theme of „English footballchanting‟.