Four More Years

Four More Years is an interesting guerilla film about the Republican National Convention by TVTV. TVTV’s broadcast was one of the first independent films to be shown on TV. It shows the convention from the point of view of reporters, supporters of Nixon, and protestors. Four More Years is a very personal political response that uses video as an interactive medium.
The film begins with just the shot of a television screen and the camera pans in so that it seemed like I was flying into the television screen. The whole movie is a backstage pass to the television coverage of the Republican National Convention. The video shows how Nixon supporters were organized. The convention is shown as a highly structured entertainment picture put on by Nixon supporters. Students are organized to make signs and cheer at the convention. The convention as an entertainment piece is broken into pieces for the viewer to see and analyze. The video is not a polished finished project, but it is an inside look at the political process.
TVTV further breaks down the political performance by interviewing reporters. The interviewers ask reporters how they feel the convention is going and what the reporters roles is in the convention. Every reporter thinks that they should spend more time interviewing the delegates instead of just showing the convention as a big production that is being put on. The viewer is able to interact with television by actually interviewing the reporters. Television is not something that viewers just watch, but people can also respond and participate in it.
The video is also very personal because of the camera angle of the film. The camera is very close to the people being interviewed. I felt like I was actually interviewing people myself. The interviews are more like conversations between the viewer and the television. The audience is not a passive bystander but becomes an active participant in the documentary.
At the end of the video, the camera pans back out to the shot of the TV. This signals the end of the behind the scenes look at television. Guerilla television gives people a chance to see all aspects of the political process from many different points of view. The video is an interactive form of political expression that changed the role of the audience in video.