Experimental Film

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"Experimental Film" is a song by They Might Be Giants. It is the first song on their 2004 album The Spine and it's the album's lead single. An animated internet music video was made by their friends the Brothers Chaps and can be found on the Homestar Runner website.

Subject matter

The song's lyrics are a satire of avant-garde cinema, and its perceived tendency toward meaninglessness and pomposity. The "narrator" of the song is an enthusiastic (possibly student) filmmaker who is attempting to make the titular movie. He extols its greatness and makes grandiose statements about his abundance of "face-imploding" ideas, but he hasn't even made it yet - and can't explain what it's supposed to be about.

Homestar Runner video

The video itself is a cartoon experimental film and is ostensibly directed by Strong Sad and The Cheat. Their individual contributions are wildly different: Strong Sad's footage looks like it has been shot on black-and-white film, while The Cheat's portions are animated in his singularly basic style. Initially the video just cuts between the two, but they're superimposed and mixed together more and more until the two become indistinguishable. The video is full of references to other experimental films.^[1]

In spite of They Might Be Giants originally planning to make a separate video for the "MTV crowd," they have declared the Homestar Runner video to be the song's official music video. It was the first Homestar Runner cartoon to be shown on TV.

Use in television

The song was used as the end credits music for the Independent Film Channel TV series Film School, as well as in ads for the show.^[2]

References

External links

• Experimental Film music video on homestarrunner.com
• Experimental Film at This Might Be A Wiki