Swinging Majority
Swinging Majority
This is (allegedly) a hip glimpse into the American youth culture of the mid to late 1960's. Everyone is present: the hipsters, the mods, the beatniks and the hippies, but the focus seems to be more on cultural aesthetics than on the substance-- ie. it's much more fun to show a couple of kids dancing in a dim discotheque than at a political rally or coffeehouse. Nevertheless there is some fantastic camerawork here to lighten the breezy feel-- or to accentuate it, your choice.
Swinging Majority
Film opens with a sepia toned, black and white montage of wackiness as a stodgy British-looking man fastens a thin white rope to his umbrella and goes fishing at a pond. Something bites but it's not in the water. MS's and CU's and tight LS's of the man pulling the line, collecting the excess in his hands, all across the city: through streets, intersections, stores, restaurants, even handing it off to a confused male teen as he slips into the bathroom for a spell. Kinda funny, mostly just plain silly. End of segment comes with a CU of the rope in his hand.
Swinging Majority
Dissolve to color and a darkened projection room (we've been watching a film of a film a la "Kane"). From there, MS's and CU's of the narrator, in the projection room, talking hip to the camera about "today's youth and their search for originality" and their "rejection of conformity" and how "like everyone else" they too "work and dream and fall in love".
Swinging Majority
DO NOT USE Still images
Swinging Majority
Host, Art Roberts, talks about the photogrpahy and music to be used in the show. he defines the "Swinging Majority".
Swinging Majority
(soundtrack NOT available for licensing) Great MS's of a young guy and gal dressed nicely and dancing in a discotheque (they look like groomed mods) to the sounds of James Brown Fairly dark nightclub, the only light that of a strong spotlight in BG. Good dancing material as the kids (teens) swing it and bring it.
Swinging Majority
Host introduces dance contest feature.
Swinging Majority
(soundtrack NOT available for licensing) Couple in the same location, also dancing; great silouettes of the two, both dressed a little more comtemporarily.
Swinging Majority
DO NOT USE (Beatles soundtrack NOT available for licensing) A long image montage all stills of paintings and advertisments and photographs: Adolf Hitler, the KKK, surrealist art, classic art, stop signs, cartoons, football, baseball, dog racing, wrestling, bull fighting, animals, food, print ads, dancing, momentos, Easter Island monuments, the United States flag, the Soviet Union flag, cars, gambling, tattoos, etc.
Swinging Majority
(soundtrack not available for licensing) Great blue-tinted montage of jazz musicians (Ramsay Lewis Trio) playing in a dark nightclub; they do a jazz cover of "Hard Day's Night". CU's of the players' faces and instruments (drums, cymbals, stand up bass, piano) being played. Low angles and high angles. Very nice material.
Swinging Majority
Cut to MS, dolly right, of several teen archetypes sitting in the projection room and looking bored as the narrator speaks to them from the head of the long table. Waxes the youth culture for a bit, then closes the program on an up note. Teens cheering, holding signs. Funny CU of the guy grinning into and spraypainting the camera lens (outdoors shot).
Swinging Majority
Credits. Car with title on the trunk drives off. Teens squeege mud pff a poster to reveal credits. MS's of a man driving a candy apple red 1967 Camaro until he has a technical problem; he gets out, lifts the hood and pulls out a rubber chicken on which one of the credits is attached (?).