Growing up, one of my favorite fairy tales was Beauty and the Beast.  When one of the possible assignments for the week was a story told through flashcards, I immediately thought of the Beast hand puppet I made earlier in the semester for my Puppetry: Craft and Construction class.  As I’m not a very proficient pupeteer yet, but wanted to show off my well-crafted puppet, I thought a flashcard story would be good fun!  I thought about re-taking the footage several times, there’s lots of flaws.  For instance, the iPhone camera has a hard time focusing between the flashcards so close in the foreground and Beast behind.  Also, the dropping of flashcards and some inadvertent reordering (from their intended order).  I’m always drawn to making something flawless.  However, Beast as a fairy tale character is full of flaws – and as I felt the flashcard-related flaws of this video added more to his character, I didn’t re-do this for a better take.  The thought seemed dishonest under closer scrutiny.

When editing to remove excess at both ends, I realized that the music could really change the attitude of this interview.  I thought at first I’d be able to find an 8-bit rendering of an appropriate song from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, but none were available. (Though there is one seemingly relevant song that comes up in the search, it does not sound authentically 8-bit.  It does not make my child’s spirit dance with nostalgia.)  I proceeded to comb the uTube for something else appropriately 8-bit.  If you’re not familiar with this genre of music, each song is usually a recognizable appropriation that is reformatted and produced digitally.  The source of this unique-sounding medium is early videogames, especially GameBoy, which had a limited means of producing sound.  This handicap, however, often made creators more creative.  As a result, persons like myself who spent hours of happy childhood adventuring in the digital world are programmed to be happy when listening to 8-bit music.

I wanted to invoke this nostalgia in myself by incorporating one of my favorite fairy tales with a 8-bit tune.  Since one that tied to the Disney movie was not readily evident, in my browsing I came across Stockholm Syndrome.  This is a very compelling song by Muse, and retains its hypnotic, chilling nature in 8-bit.  The theme of Stockholm Syndrome (captives developing positive feelings toward captors) is parallel with the story of Beauty and the Beast. I felt that though the music changed the rather lighthearted tone of my video, it was appropriate because it added depth.