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I'll watch "No Small Parts" forever. Awesome, awesome work. Here's a project I'm working on...  Back in college, I was learning more about postproduction and editing. One of the projects was to create an experimental film. I decided to make one out of what was in the Prelinger Archives section of Archive.org after seeing some videos by "Taco the Wonder Dog" on the forums circa 2006. The result, after staying awake for over 48 hours, was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKOPqFz7VOM (This is a more recently "remixed" version, but mostly the same except with better technical quality) Afterward, it seemed like an interesting idea to turn this into a feature-length project. Not that it hasn't been done before. The Atomic Cafe is a brilliant mash-up of Cold War films. It tells a story through editing hundreds of clips together. There's also Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen, which is a synthetic film created from other films, but tells a straightforward story. From what I've seen, it's another masterpiece of editing. Instead, I am mostly just having fun with finding ways to break apart these ephemeral films and arrange into something funny, surreal, and perhaps satirical. Not exactly high art, but not to waste anyone's time. Plus, these are all public domain films, so it doesn't cost anything to edit. The rules I've set so far are to use only public domain video and audio materials. Most of the content is straight from Archive.org (mainly A/V Geeks and Prelinger Archives), with some materials grabbed from other sources. I've made a few exceptions so far (one segment uses music from the "Dirty Cowboy" video, but I might replace it with something similar). On the technical end, this is being edited at 720p resolution from mostly 4x3 low to good quality video (standard def). I have added some filters to disguise compression artifacts as increased grain. Since there's a lot of zooming, cropping, and re-framing, it's programmed to be consistent. It's going to be mostly 1.66:1 (since most footage is 4x3), but I plan on a few parts being framed at 2.20:1 like the college short. Each shot is being adjusted manually to get the best composition rather than a straight crop to 16x9. I have some of the rough cuts of segments on YouTube... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkGXxf5ogBI (Bunch of sex education films made funny - sort of NWS due to penis diagrams) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8S2gKGiqGM (All video from Shake Hands with Danger - 78 RPM source for the Blue Danube Waltz, laugh track from stock effects. Obviously, this is meant to be a homage to the Benny Hill pantomime skits) Warning: A few bits of blood and gore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0rsC5HBuE8  (Video from The Trouble with Women [Calvin Co], Chime Bells Soundie, brief bit from This is Hormel, and "Nora the Quivering Torso" plus inspiration from Dirty Cowboy)Warning: Almost nudity, yodeling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T-FpjY6BAg Random bit I'm finding a place for this because it's so strange. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwpR5foQoFA Re-edit of stuff from A Visit to Santa inspired by Twin Peaks and Eraserhead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Gg2y9QuiE "Despotism" given the Fox News treatment (warning, shots of hangings and KKK)
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Jun 19, 2014 03:38
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| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 02:04 |
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TrixRabbi posted:Egbert, I like where you're going with a lot of these but I feel like you need to refine the ideas. They feel sporadic, and for all the really good parts there's slower sections where not much editing is going on, and I think we both know most of the original material is pretty hard to watch. Thanks for the analysis. I honestly wasn't expecting this much of a critique! Which sections seem slow? I hesitated to keep the unbroken shot of the penis names since it does run too long, but I hoped the surreality would justify it. I did shorten it slightly by covering the edit with the old guy ("Teaches must be able to use THESE words"), so perhaps I can cut a bit more down since she goes over the names again, anyways. The bit from "Sally" with the girls kind of runs long, but I thought the dialogue was silly enough to keep it somewhat intact (it's edited to about 50% of the original length of the scene in the original). As for the jump cuts in the boy asking his father, the source actually had a few jump cuts. One jump cut was utilized to shorten about a second or so, but looking at my edit file, I think my trimming is off by a few frames now. I was kind of hoping to make the child come off as more obnoxious, but the second "Yes?" does kind of stick out (even if it's only trimmed a bit from its original place). I'm actually making some changes to the sex ed segment and it does seem to work better with smoother edits in places. I was sort of hoping the jump cuts would add to it, but it doesn't always seem to work. I actually thought about the Zapruder connection on that one shot, too, so I might take it out for use in a different segment since there's already plenty of parade footage. Even with the slowing down, which is kind of annoying to me now since it really does drag. I'm thinking it needs to be reduced to about half its current length, then I can add more from the rest of the short that's odd. Perhaps the bizarre trip through Santa's village without narration. As for sound quality... only the Santa, Shake Hands with Danger, and sex ed segments have proper level work (even if sound is still kind of rough). The bad levels on that video have bugged me, but I haven't gone back to that one yet. I'll definitely check back with more layering on Santa. The next one I want to do is more around hygiene films (like Lunchroom Manners, Soapy the Germ Fighter, Body Care and Grooming, etc). What's funny is that the shot of the marimba player and the meat conveyor got the most laughs when the short was shown.
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Jun 19, 2014 22:08
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Criticism is important because it gets you to look at your own work from another perspective. You can be extremely hard on yourself or not hard enough. I'm trying out changes as recommended by TrixRabbi and I think it is making my work better (not to mention better paced).
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Jun 20, 2014 05:23
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TrixRabbi posted:The bit with the teacher reading off the penis euphemisms was fine. The beginning of that one was really slow though. I know you trimmed down the homosexual menace video a lot, and the cuts were fine, but it felt a bit too long. Same with the boy asking his dad the questions, but you acknowledged that section needed some work. I like a lot of what you did later in the video, like with the girl being approached by the stranger in the car, and that Tim & Eric style editing of the close-up of the man to make his face twitch. I added some camera movement in the last part with the creepy freckled kid, so adding it throughout it helping the pacing. I think the problem is that most of these films are too drat static - long boring takes and slow editing. Since I'm using a proportional noise texture, I can zoom in and the grain enlarges to match the zoom. It looks more organic, rather than breaking up into compression. Here's one shot without the grain effect and color correction:  ...and with grain and color work:  Also, here's a screenshot of the current timeline to get an idea of the edits and layering so far:  As for copyrighted stuff... I'm on the fence. I originally wanted to have segments set to songs between segments (like a nuclear scare one set to "In the Wee Small Hours"), but the licensing would be a nightmare. While it's a coin flip for inclusion on YouTube, they muted my initial sex ed segment for using The Sound of Silence over the "slow reflection" bits instead of the guitar music I took from The ABC of Sex Education for Trainables. The music from "Dirty Cowboy" seems to be obscure enough to keep the hellfire of copyright law raining upon me.
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Jun 20, 2014 21:16
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Here's a new edit of the sex education segment (after trying out some suggestions): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6-SymQ6BNQ Still obviously.Some parts are still kind of rough, but this kind of shows the direction it's going into. The end is kind of abrupt since there's going to be more stuff from dating educational films. One of the next films I'm using is this hilarious anti-pot film hosted by Sonny Bono: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gKN1xSja3k
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Jun 22, 2014 16:08
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Here's a rough cut of my "Cinethesia" film. As mentioned before, it's made up of bits of old public domain educational films, shorts, and stuff. This is my current edit with mostly finished sound mixing and editing, but I'm still fine tuning it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed2-Oa2wLuY Any input would be welcomed. edit: Here's a newer edit with a new ending and a bunch of other changes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLATdwqlzZk Egbert Souse fucked around with this message at 22:18 on May 8, 2015 |
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Apr 12, 2015 23:17
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| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 02:04 |
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Sundowner posted:Didn't realize this thread existed! Thought I'd share what I've made... a few video essays under the title "SUPERLIMINAL". I hope to keep doing these from here on out. Both are showing up at the same video (Fury Road). GREAT piece, though. You sound an awful lot like Mark Cousins, which is a good thing.
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May 13, 2016 04:20
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