[lbo-talk] Bearzilla Accelerates to Warp Speed

dredmond at efn.org dredmond at efn.org
Sat Sep 20 11:42:05 PDT 2008


While we're on the subject of Russian studies, check out pop group Serebro's hit video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se5tm-anHbA

Some good hooks, but it might seem like just another pop video, right?

Not so. Look carefully at the visual frame of the corridors, the stage, and the male character. Believe it or not, those are quotations from the videogame culture: the "corridor crawl" of Half Life and its successors (cleverly emphasized by close shots of the singers and medium shots of corridors, mimicking the game-player's visual perspective), as well as the hazard suit station of Half Life (the light-stage of the three singers). The male character is an exact replica of Nathan Hale, hero of Insomniac's delightfully dire "Resistance" videogames (also first-person shooters, set in a parallel universe where alien creatures invade the US the way the Wehrmacht invaded the USSR). It's astonishing, how the game culture is turning into a gigantic creative commons...

-- DRR



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