Yes Men Blog

Yes Men Blog

I had never seen the film Yes Men before our screening last Monday, and I really enjoyed it. I think they are very clever in the way they sort of re contextualize themselves as members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the funniest part is that no one seems to get that they are a farce even with the wild presentations they give. Or it could just be the fact that all of these people at these conferences really don’t listen to what’s going being said from the guest speaker at the podium, they are just there going through the motions.

I can see how this film relates to our final assignment the recontextualization of found footage, basically that’s how the Yes Men get their foot in the door at the conferences they are invited to attend. They make their logos, letterhead and so forth look just like the World Trade Organization’s. So at first glance people truly believe they are dealing with the real WTO. This is exactly the point I think the Yes Men are trying to make, that people believe everything they see and hear without checking the facts to make sure these statements are true, I mean come on, everyone knows the media most of the time is a complete manipulation of reality.

While looking for footage for my assignment, I started seeing other videos and in doing so coming up with other ideas and concepts. Things just started to fall in place after that.

I found a really cool video of a group called The Love Police, who sort of do the same type thing as the Yes Men, they were at the royal wedding and poking fun by using sarcasm against the royal family and their better than everyone blue blood ways. One of the guys who described himself and an absurdist anarchist was walking through the streets of London that are lined with retail stores, shoppers and tourists with a megaphone giving his absurdist type commentary on society. Some of his comments were pretty spot on as far as I’m concerned. He spoke out about organized religion, consumerism, the corporate controlled media and all of the war going in the world. I think it is hilarious; it was really pissing off some of the older people in the streets. I would say their techniques were very effective, because they got wanted from the public, a reaction. Maybe making them think for themselves instead of being controlled by the mainstream media.

I really loved this project but found it difficult to fit everything I wanted to use in the piece because of the one-minute time limit. I found that coming up with the initial concept was also pretty challenging, but like I said earlier once I started finding all of the different clips everything started coming together.