Test Bed, version 1 (1.6MB) 240x180px
Test Bed, version 3 (1.5MB) 320x240px

Released: May 2005

After talking about making my own films, I finally had the chance to play around with some of my ideas. The computers at school have iMovie 3.03 and I discovered that this version will import MP4 video, but it coverts it to DV format within the program. So I decided to do some testing.

The clip is based on the shortest MP3 I had handy; "H.T." by Tsuneo Imahori, the opening song for the Trigun anime. Since I only had under 250MB of space to work with, I used a couple of short video clips from Archive.org-- a countdown leader and a focus leader-- as well as a screen shot of a "china girl". I had to slow down the speed of the video clips in order to fit the 1'30" run time as well as add about 10 seconds of black leader. There are some almost unintentionally cool moments, but the point was more learning how to manipulate the materials. The first version is the result of about an hour's work.

For the second version, I started playing around with the order of the clips some more. The key discoveries I found were that it is indeed possible to edit and extract footage from clips, iTunes integrates nicely with iMovie (not unexpected, but just didn't happen to think of it before), and the additional ways I can manipulate images, such as adjust brightness, footage direction or add effects. I also discovered that iMovie offers many more options for exporting, including writing directly into MPEG-4 format, and that can be adjusted as needed.

Overall, I'm rather pleased how this turned out. This is a result of an extra 45 minutes or so of work. Mainly, I broke up the countdown leader into two pieces, inserted the china girl inbetween the two pieces, brightened her image, added aged film effects to the title card leader, added a quick cross fade between the title card and the countdown leader, and replaced the blank leader at the end with a random Kacey Miyagami picture. The film rhythm is closer to the music beats, though that was still not my primary concern just yet.

Mainly, this film was an exercise is learning how to work with iMovie and learning what to do.

Film (12.9 MB) 320x240px 

(Smaller version (6.1MB) 240x180px)

Released: June 2005

My first real project using iMovie HD (version 5) done as a sort of tribute to Bruce Conner, using "Film" by The Church (1992, Priest = Aura) as the basis.  The main focus of this clip was using films about films and film making. So, there are three different countdown leaders, a focus leader, slates, test footage, and footage of old style editing tables and projectors.

Sources:
"Invisible Diplomats" 1965 (Jerry Fairbanks Productions)
"National Drinking Game PSA" c. 1975
"Dollar Store" c. 1960s
"Your Name Here" Outtakes (Reel 1) c. 1960 (The Calvin Company)
Countdown Leader: Technicolor Corporation c. 1960s
"Sound Recording and Reproduction (Sound On Film)" 1943 (Encyclopedia Britannica Films)
"Today And Yesterday"? c. 1938
"The RCA 16mm Sound Projector" c. 1958 (RCA Motion Picture Productions)

First Class '77 (19.2 MB) 320x240px

Released: June 2005

This one is a bit longer (around 7 minutes), but rather than the random film elements of the first one, this one has a clearer arc, in part dictated by the song. I used Fantastic Plastic Machine's "First Class '77" (1997, The Fantastic Plastic Machine). Given the airplane theme of the song, I set it to old air travel footage. This time, I mainly only used two films, but the two together provided everything I needed visually for a cohesive experience.  Overall, I think this led to one of my better efforts.

Sources:

"6 1/2 Magic Hours" c. 1958 (Kahlenberg for Pan Am)
"Plane Talk" 1965 ( Jerry Fairbanks Productions for AT&T)
Coca-Cola commercial mid-1960s?

Yellow, Black & Rectangular (6.2 MB) 320x240px

Released: July 2005

A quick and dirty piece, using "Yellow, Black & Rectangular" by Negativland (1987, Escape From Noise) as the template.  Here, over one of the bands tape cutups is a cutup of "About Fallout" (1955 version, Wilding).

Clark Gable (14.3 MB) 320x240px

Released: August 2005

First attempt to try a song with lyrics. The music is "Clark Gable" by The Postal Service (2003, Give Up). It was a bit of challenge in trying to get a match of footage to lyrics, but I think it turned out pretty well. The lyrics for this song seem to work pretty good for my motif of films about films and film making.

One point I was a little disappointed with was how badly some of the scenes pixilated after downmixing from iMovie.  Some of this was unavoidable; some of the source movies only had 256kb/s versions available.  I also ran into an issue that sometimes plauges AMV makers; having footage to fit some lyrics, but not all.  This leads to some long stretches of unrelated footage.

Sources:

"The Tube" cc2005 (Roberto Ferranti)
"A Date With Your Family" Outtakes 1950 (Simmel-Meservey)
"Behind The Lens" 1940 (Jam Handy)
"How You See It" 1936 (Jam Handy)
"International Moves The Browns To Sterling Street" 1941 (Jam Handy)

The Army Now (6.4 MB) 320x240px

Released: September 2005

This one is a bit shorter, but it seemed like a perfect match. I managed to find some animation in a couple old US Government films from around World War II that reminded me of the Frankie Goes To Hollywood logo. So what would be a better match than ZTT label mate Art Of Noise's "The Army Now" (1983, Into Battle With The Art Of Noise)? I think this one turned out pretty good, and I was able (accidentally) do some really great match on action.

With this project, I was able to figure out how to clone clips in iMovie. This was a big help, as I was able to loop and repeat footage, adding to the already abstract footage and music.

Of special note is this video is featured on Gary Langan's MySpace page.  Gary Langan just happens to be one of the founding members of Art of Noise, and remains a top producer and mixer.

Sources:

"U.S. News Review Issue 5" c. 1942
"Which Way This Time?" c. 1946

Your School Here (11.9 MB) 320x240px

Released: April 2006

This one is a little different than past endeavors. Since this was a school project, this one is not a music video. Instead, I decided to crib from "Your Name Here" to make a generic school introduction film. So, I pair my found footage with my own narration. One change for this one was the use of Audacity 1.2.4 to record my voice, which I found most useful for recording. And yes, that's the "National Emblem March" in the background.

Sources:
“Your Name Here” c, 1960 (Calvin Workshop)
“On Guard! The Story Of SAGE” c. 1956 (IBM)
“School Rules: How They Help Us” 1953 (Coronet) dir. Ted Peshak
“The Sixth Chair” 1949 (Jam Handy)
“As Others See Us” 1953 (Hardcastle)
“Facts About Projection (3rd edition)” 1975 (International Film Bureau)
“Education For Excellence” c. 1961 (New York City Board of Education) dir. Clifford Ettinger
“National Drinking Game PSA”  c. 1970s
“6 1/2 Magic Hours” 1958 (Kahlenberg)
“When You Grow Up” 1973 (FilmsWest) dir. Jerry Kurtz

Lotus Snack and Thinking Machine (5.1 MB) 320x240px

Released: July 2007

Another short movie project, based on a nice little coincidence.  The song "Lotus Snack and Thinking Machine" by Towa Tei (1997, Sweet Robots Against The Machine) uses sound clips from Leave It Roll-Oh, a 1940 film done by Jam Handy for GM as part of the New York World's Fair.  So why not bring the two back together again?   This was pretty quick and dirty, but I did manage to match the samples in the song to the source footage.