Burn The Witch - Radiohead Flashcards
Who wrote Burn the Witch?
Thom Yorke
When was it released?
3rd May 2016
Who animated it?
Jackknife prints over 2 weeks
How was the song initially released?
As a download on Radiohead’s website
How successful is the song?
Lead single from 9th album
Nominated for best rock song for 59th Grammy Awards
What was the opening scene of the song and analysis?
Bird which we return to at the end - cyclical structure
What does the bird connote?
Connotations of nature, peace and freedom
What does the tweeting noise via the bird connote and what shot was this?
Calmness, ambience and establishing shot
What does the car scene suggest?
Nostalgia and classic, animated figures
What does some characters not having mouths suggest? Connotations
Connotations of silence, restriction
What is the scene like when they arrive in the village?
Visually appealing, safe, old-fashioned
With the houses looking historical, what can this suggest?
Can suggest that injustice has always been a problem
We can see that there is hierarchy with someone being portrayed as the mayor, what does this connote?
Importance
What does the NVC of the mayor connote and suggest?
He nods and then they all follow - this connotes unity and power
We see them painting the postbox with red paint and then red crosses on the door - what does this suggest?
Everyday innocent job to violence and separation - isolating the woman
What do we connote with the postbox?
Connectivity - connects everyone together
We see a construction of something which we later see in the video then cutting grass and decorating with flowers - what does this suggest they are doing?
Keeping up with appearances and quite domestic activities
We see different types of buildings such as post office, village pub, what does this suggest?
Sense of community and togetherness
What does the name of the pub suggest?
Name is violent and dangerous and has historic context. Predator vs prey
What does the speared boar have intertexuality references to?
An American Werewolf in London
We see the mayor and inspector walking past while people are painting the red crosses - what does this suggest?
So many historical context and references e.g The Plague
We see the woman getting a red cross on her door - what does connote and suggest?
Isolation and vulnerability - historic context and shows how people are getting locked out of the community
The woman has a mouth! - what does this suggest?
She could of spoken out about being punished
We see the model village and dunking chair - what does suggest and connote?
Connotations of children and can be a form of masking as it looks like a see-saw- context about if you drowned, you weren’t’ a witch.
What does the woman being tied up with people around her with swords and masks suggest?
Hiding identity and it looks like a ritual scene
We see a triple of images which were woman in house, dunking chair and woman tied up, what does this show?
Inequality
We see the tree outside of the village alive but the one she is tied up to being dead - what does this represent?
That it happens often - symbolic of death and can suggest that communities which are undisturbed and unchecked are dangerous
We see the inspector being in shock at the hanging structure which we saw this getting decorating earlier - what does this suggest?
Seen as normal to them - concealment
When the inspector and mayor walked through the gate - what does this suggest?
Lush vegetation and these people are being kept out of the community - otherism
The inspector starts to climb up the wicker man - what does this suggest?
Intertexuality
We see the wicker man get set alight - what does this connote?
Fire and danger and impending threat
We then see the crowd turn around and start waving the audience - what could this suggest?
Turning away from horror behind them
We go back to the bird at the end after we see him escaping - what do we call this?
Cyclical structure
