Review of The Girl Chewing Gum - by John Smith

'The Girl Chewing Gum' is a short video that was created in 1976 and directed by John Smith. The black and white film is about 10 minutes long and takes place on a busy London Street. The main concept behind the video is the influence of media on people and society during the 70's and the message is as valid today as it was then.

Throughout the film there is a voice over directing what is about to happen in the street that gives the audience the impression that it is the voice of a director making orders. Within seconds of him making a statement, a person or car would pass by the frame in the exact way he had just described it would.

For the first three quarters of the film, the audience is lead to assume the man's voice is that of a directors as he seems to have the knowledge of what is going to happen next and his tone is orderly. This gives the audience a false sense of belief that is eventually dispelled when towards the end of the film the narrator reveals that he is 15 miles away in a field unable to see what is going on in the street we have been observing. It turns out that the street had been filmed and the audio of the man's voice was then added to the video after the footage was taken.

John Smith successfully manipulates the audience by making it seem that the man is making an order or predicting what was to happen next. This brings up the question of is everything we see or read in the media real or are we being manipulated to believe or think how they want us to? The director is trying to put across just how easy it is to manipulate the way we interpret things and it is often influenced by others.

What the audience comes away with at the end of watching 'The Girl Chewing Gum' is the realisation that in jumping to the conclusion that the voice-over man was in control or predicting the future they were tricked. My view is that the overall concept of this film is our perception of reality and how we interpret what we're told. It's not just how or what the media tells us, but what we make of it.