SOUND AND MOVING IMAGE IN Rubber Johnny

Relation of Sound and Moving Image in Chris Cunningham's Rubber Johnny

Relation of Sound and Moving Image in Chris Cunningham's Rubber Johnny

Perhaps one of the most interesting uses of new technology was Chris Cunningham's “Rubber Johnny”, a short video (the noted designation of video and not film is important here) which focuses on a fantastical shape-shifting monster boy named Johnny.

Johnny is a hyperactive, shape-shifting mutant child, kept locked away in a basement. With only his feverish imagination and his terrified dog for company, he finds ways to amuse himself in the dark.

What is particularly interesting about Rubber Johnny was that it was shot on a basic digital video recorder and largely edited on a single laptop. The video can be seen as a proxy for the new and rapidly evolving state of motion production, a way to comment on the increasing participatory nature of consumer technologies and the emergence of the “amateur creative”.

It is a strangely emotional film about a deformed subhuman that does something. I don't know what he does, it's a little difficult to describe. It could be interpreted as dancing, and indeed, it is pretty much the only thing it could remotely be, but there is something more elaborate at work here. He may be stoned. (warpfilms.com) The film can be easily taken as a music video, but I think that to call it that would be too easy. One could easily dismiss it as Chris Cunningham showing off his prosthetic morphing techniques, but they are far too simple to be shoved off as such. There is a story here, but we are given the bare minimum of what the underlying theme is, which boredom is. Or maybe it's loneliness.

What I think is especially unique about this video is the lack of any ...