Archive for the ‘RemixThis’ Category

 

What is a Remix?

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

I’ve wrote my whole shpeel on remixes a while back, but after looking at more material and examples I think I have an even better grasp of it. First I watched “Everything is a Remix Part 1“. This was really interesting to because I love music.

The video went through different genre’s of music, and showed how they used different lyrics, beats, melodies and baselines from other genre’s past… and ‘remixed’ them. Not always giving credit though. I am personally for giving credit where credit is due. But I still think it a creative act. The presentation of this remixed work is still very original. Led Zeppelin presented those lyrics to an audience that was more than likely unfamiliar with the works of Willie Dixon, Howlin Wolfs, etc.

The other video and website I checked out was that for the book by Austin Klean- “Steal like an Artist.” It showed a very positive view on ‘remixing’ and how it was the very essence of creativity. He does show that there is a good and bad way to “steal” though!

Remixing is the very essence of creativity I feel, and it leads to very interesting (sometimes interesting as in… just plain funny) creations. Watching the Buffy vs. Edward: Twilight Remixed and the Star Wars Call Me Maybe videos was a ton of fun. They are creations not made for crazy profiteering, they were made out of a creative passion. They were funny and amusing. The Star Wars video is NOT the Star Wars movie or the original ‘Call Me Maybe’ song, it is something completely different and unique. Same thing with the Twilight remix. Another was the 30 Classic Music Albums Recreated with Lego. This is very original work! It is taking the albums and presenting them in a manner that is brand new and fresh. It re-expresses them.

Remixing can be done negatively, but many times it can be done in an ethical and positive manner. Where that line is drawn is very relative and maybe even a bit vague… but so are most things concerning knowledge I think. If it wasn’t for remixing, we wouldn’t most music that is out, we wouldn’t have different models of cars, different computer brands, smartphones, even fashion… so for the sake of everything… I say we remix on.

Creative Remix

Monday, July 23rd, 2012

I really like this topic and was happy to see that we were covering it for a second straight week. First off if I was going to describe a remix I would say that it is a creation of work that uses previous works in its actual composition or the previous work has a strong influence on it. In my opinion the diffidence between a remix and copying is that a remix give artistic credit to the predecessor but also changes it in some way.

The first video I watched was a remix called “Cant Tase This” it uses the song “Cant Touch This” by MC Hammer and actual footage of a college student getting tasered. This video is a good example of a mash up because it meshes them together so you the two videos are completely different but with editing the “Don’t Tase Me” parts do not mess with the flow of the MC Hammer song so it makes the video watchable and extremely entertaing in my opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzkd_m4ivmc

The next video I looked at was “Star Wars Call Me Maybe”, first off I just have to wonder at the amount of time this must have take to put together. This is a a great example of a remix because it is using the music to “Call Me Maybe” and even the lyrics but instead of Carly Rae Jepson singing it the creator took a ton of little clips from star wars and arranged them to sound like the characters were singing the song. I Think that this is an example of how creative even a remix can be, I mean I cant think of many people who would have been creative enough to think of this idea never mind take the time to create it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBM7i84BThE

The final movie I looked at is possibly my favorite because I am a huge Monty Python fan. The video “Star Trek Meets Monty Python” is a classic example of redubing where they take the video from one scene and use the audio from another and they are usually very different types which is often what makes them entertaining. The creative part is choosing the scenes from Star Trek that in some way fit the audio from “Monty Pythons The Holy Grail” which could not have been easy considering the two could not be farther apart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luVjkTEIoJc

In conclusion I think that remixes can some times be as creative as originals, key word in some cases. For example in the videos above they used nothing that the created themselves but what they chose to combine and how they combined it was in its own right original and creative. Now in the video it seemed that Led Zeplin remixed old song but did not stray far from the original which in my opinion was very original or creative but yet still a fan. So finally its not that you re use other peoples work but what you do once you have it that makes the difference in my opinion of course.

Shout it out….REEE-MIX!

Monday, July 23rd, 2012

So from what I understand a remix and a mashup are the same thing. It is basically taking bites and pieces of different media, art, music, or ideas and creating something different with it. You could add in some of your own ideas to put a spin on a project that has aspects of other people’s work in it. I think there are different levels of sophistication to remixing as you will soon see. So I know this sounds kind of vague so look at some of the following examples. Don’t worry I learn best through examples too….like Kirby Ferguson said ” Nobody starts out original…copying is how we learn.”

So I am sure many people have seen this, especially if you are in DS106.

But I had to use this as an example of a remix, because yes as much as I would hate to admit I am a Twilight fanatic and I found this HILARIOUS! But yes this is a really good, and professionally done, example of what a remix is. The author is combing two different story lines, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Twilight, to create a new storyline. One in which Edward is stalking Buffy because he is infatuated with her and then she kills him because she isn’t interested. I most definitely think this is creative! It takes a level of skill to be able to combine two completely different pieces of media into a single storyline. Not to mention the end result is a comedy which anyone who has ever heard of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Twilight would enjoy.

My next example is news footage remixed into a MC Hammer music video to create, well a new music video.

Once again this is creative and funny. I also find it slightly ironic since MC Hammer went into serious debt over legal issues with copyright and “stealing” other people’s ideas. In regards to copyright I feel that out laws are too strict. But regardless if you give credit where credit is due for the inspiration of your remixed idea, there should be no legal issues. I also think that if anybody tries to copyright their remixed piece of work, they should not be allowed to do remixed work to begin with! I mean if you can get creative based on other peoples ideas, why can’t people get inspired off yours?

And you can’t talk about Remixing without mentioning Weird Al

This man has made his career out of remixing and I think he is one of the best examples. He takes the beats from famous songs and then adds his own lyrics to actually make fun of the real song. He is a creative genius!

Remix This

Sunday, July 22nd, 2012

REMIX: To combine or edit existing materials to produce something new.

For this write-up assignment, I watched Everything is a Remix, Part 1: The Song Remains the Same by Kirby Ferguson. Remix originally began in music. Now, remix happens everywhere. It’s easy to do and anyone can do it. The video shows examples of Led Zeppelin using lyrics from songs earlier produced. They did not attribute the lyrics to the original artists. Remix happens a lot in the music industry, but credit is given to the original artist. Also, Led Zeppelin didn’t change their lyrics enough to even make them seem original. Remixing can be legal, if done properly. In fact, much of the entertainment industry is a form of remix. Now, Led Zeppelin is copied by many other artists. Karma?

I also watched the Disney copyright video, because I adore Disney! The Disney video was absolutely great. I loved how it used so much remix to explain fair use and copyright. The title was also very witty (A Fair(y) Use Tale). I think that it’s important to follow these rules, because people should get credit for their ideas. It’s cheating when you just steal from someone else. It is about money. If you take someone else’s ideas and make money off them, how is that fair? It also costs money to PUT a copyright on something.

What can be copyrighted? Books, plays, music, dance, movies, and pictures. This video taught me that you cannot copyright ideas, only the form an idea takes can be copyrighted. One has to expand the ideas to visuals in order to copyright. Copyright used to only last for a fix amount of time, only 14 years. Then it would fall into the public domain, which means it’s free for anyone to use. Copyright keeps getting longer, their is even a lifetime limitation. Some copyrights last forever. There are limitations on copyright use. You can borrow a small amount of the copyright. The nature, amount, and commercial impact of the work are factors of fair use. The creator of the movie believes it is under protection because the movie is using the clips from the Disney movies to explain copyright laws.

For my examples of remix, I looked at the following:

Star Wars Call Me Maybe

This video used lyrics from a very popular song, Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and transformed them into Star Wars voices. It also used clips from the Star Wars movies depicting the character who was saying (singing) the given lyrics. I thought this video was pretty funny. It must have taken a lot of work too.

Buffy vs. Edward: Twilight Remixed

Though I was never particularly interested in the Buffy series and I am far from a Twilight fan, I chose to look at this video because I figured it could be kind of funny! Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a popular television show about a vampire that stopped airing about ten years back. Twilight, in turn, is a current popular book and movie series about vampires. Though Buffy is a bit dated, it is funny to think about her meeting Edward Cullen, one of the vampires in Twilight. The video took clips of Edward from the Twilight movies and combined them with clips of Buffy, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to create the a video of the two characters meeting. I thought the video was a very good example of how the two vampires would react if they did happen to meet. Even though I haven’t watched much of either, I found Edward very very creepy! It was funny how intense and serious he is, while Buddy is so matter-of-fact and sarcastic. What would Bella think???

30 Classic Music Albums Recreated With Lego

And finally, after realizing Obamaicon wouldn’t work on my computer, I chose to look at the remix example 30 Classic Music Albums Recreated With Lego, and was pleasantly surprised! I thought this was really cool. What a thoughtful, creative project to take on. I really liked the Beatles Abbey Road one. This site is a wonderful example of how one person’s ideas can spark another’s, creating multiple interesting results. I think if the artists of these albums saw their covers made out of legos, they would be pretty excited. This site is an example of remix, because the author used the art/photos on album covers and recreated them using legos. This was my favorite example of remix that I looked at.

Remix: Imitation is the Highest Form of Flattery

Friday, July 20th, 2012

After watching all four Everything is a Remix videos created by Kirby Ferguson and his blog, I think one of the most profound things he said that really drove home the reasons for remixes was “Nobody starts out original. We need copying to build a foundation of knowledge and understanding. And after that, things can get interesting.”

Mr. Ferguson articulates the basic elements of creativity as: copy, transform, and combine. And when you think about it learning takes the same cycle. Singers learn their voice capabilities and practice on already recorded songs. Musicians learn their instruments by playing their favorite tunes or songs over and over. Artists likely start by imitating famous paintings or the concepts. Actors learn to act by watch movies and reenacting the scenes. Once an individual has been copying awhile, they start to put their own “twist” on the works, varying them slightly to add their individual flavor or personality into the mix, transforming the subject piece.

Watching, listening, doing…it’s how humans learn new things. Add in our desire for free will, to make our mark, add our own personal flare…and there you have it, we are all remixing all the time. Consciously or subconsciously, over time we have noted things we liked, or didn’t like, things we might have done differently and use these ideas later. Remix is a creative way to learn and grow and experiment with our own individuality…and stretch our imaginations!

I have to wonder, if now, in the 21st century, there is such a thing as “original”? It seems to up for debate nearly constantly. Amateurs and professionals alike are constantly recycling ideas, changing them, morphing them into different, new products of art. But introduce copyright into the conversation and things get really dicey. Should it be a copyright violation to remix? In my opinion: No! Unless of course you are misrepresenting a work as yours. Give credit where credit is due. Making a profit, monetary or otherwise, off someone’s else hard work is wrong, but recycling, reusing, and reinterpreting ideas and concepts is a great way to show how much you like the original (or not).

One of the best remixes I reviewed this week was this one:

The Shining was a damned scary movie the first time I watched it. I’ve seen it many times since and enjoy it. This remix of scenes from the movie completely changes the premise of the plot, leading the viewer of THIS video remix to believe that this is a sentimental story of love, a drama…instead of a horror flick. The scenes weren’t altered. They were just cut and arranged differently to create a different mood. Very creative!

30 Classic Music Albums Recreated With Lego was really fascinating to scroll through. I wish my Lego-maniac kids had so expertly imitated something like this. No, it’s not original design, but very creative interpretations of famous album art. Remember when album cover art was truly an art? I used to love to flip through my parents album collection simply admiring the different types of cover art. I have a few of my favorites framed and hanging in my home now. I don’t think the Lego creations of these art covers are rip offs…more of a different form of art. I bet the original artists or designers couldn’t do it with Legos!

I’m surprised that “Weird Al” Yankovic has not entered into he remixing conversations of ds106. This guy has made a very lucrative career remixing songs and videos! He uses satire and comedy to reinterpret other musicians work and poke fun at the musician themselves in some cases, like in this hilarious video remix of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way!

And here’s Lady Gaga’s original video of this song, if you’re interested.

 

In ds106, much of what we do is remixing for the purposes of learning through experimentation and sharing of products and processes. Many find trying to recreate or improve upon any already existing piece of work a convenient and intensely educational. I know I do! I have learned so much through trial and error and feedback during the ds106 process. It was a lot more fun than sitting through a lecture being talked AT about all the concepts we’ve studied here.

I want to conclude by saying that imitation is indeed the highest form of flattery. This is one of the reason my most original works and products for ds106 and this blog are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0. Go ahead…remix my work. I’m cool with that…as long as you give credit to me for what is mine and don’t make money off me (without sharing anyway)! :)

Remix, ximeR, Rmiex

Friday, July 20th, 2012

Remixes are everywhere and they are unavoidable. Some remixes are easier to do and others are simple. While watching some of these videos, I got a understanding how HOW TO do some things I never thought of before. It is even more interesting to know just how creative some people are to come up with remix ideas. Several of these remixes take pure creative minds to think of and technological skills to make it happen. I do think that the people who remix an original art should have some copyright to it. Being that they recreated something with their own idea, they should have some share.

The video clips that were listen on Magic McGuffin website were very intriguing. I wanted to blog about all of them, but I chose to do my favorite 3.

The first point that I liked about the remix world is how you can put two different things together and make one. The video I watched was the Buffy vs. Edward. They are two different movies, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Twilight but they have the same concept. Vampires. Now I personally never seen the two movies, but I know of them. It was magnificent to watch how the two movies were mixed into one..

The second thing I liked about the remix world was how you can take a movie, take the dialogue from the movie, and make it into something else. I liked how this particular mix took the Star Wars movie and the song “Call me maybe” by Carly Rae Jepson and basically made a music video. The took clips from Star Wars of the actors/actress saying the words from “Call me maybe” and put it all together into one video. It seems so simple, but I know there had to be some difficulties find the words and chopping them up.

The third thing I liked about the remix world was  how you can take current events/news stories and add them into songs to make a remix of the song. I liked how they did “Can’t Tase This” remix of  ”Can’t touch this” by M.C Hammer It honestly made me laugh because they took a kind of sad news event and make it into a funny song. This type of remix seemed easy to do and it is actually something that I would like to try myself.

Remix, Mashups, Creativity

Friday, July 20th, 2012

Anyone has potential to be creative and express themselves through different mediums. It can vary between taking pictures, making music, editing, painting, singing, dancing, and the list just goes on and on.

According to Austin Kleon who wrote “Steal like an Artist” creativity can be for anyone as long as you are in the right environment with the right influences. He believes that everyone is a mashup of whatever is let into an individuals life. If your open to ideas and creative thoughts then they can influence your creative thoughts and works too. I agree with Kleon with this idea of “Steal like an Artist” creativity should be shared with everyone and not limited to the individual who thought of it first. Ideas are always a build off of another one and this is how people grow as individuals in a creative mind st.

Girl Talk, a DJ who is notorious for taking songs and remixing them together makes great mashups and uses his creativity for his followers benefits. The music that Girl Talk mashes together is a controversy that it could be illegal and copyright violations. If this was the case, there would be tons of criminals in this world by downloading music or making their own mashups. I believe as long as credit is given to the original song or work of art then it should be shared for others to use. In all likely hood their work was probably built off of someone else in the past too.

The explanation of copyright through Disney characters was hilarious. Disney is an intimidating company when it comes to copyright violations and has the power/money to take just about anyone down who does something illegal with their work.

There are two sides to this argument. The first one is what I have stated above but the other side is for the artists who have to make a living off of their work. If people are using their music, pictures, and other forms of art then they cannot make money and all of their hard work has not been repayed. I believe people should be more informed about sites like Creative Commons, freesound.org and other websites that allow for the use of sharing creativity throughout the world. If more people knew about it then there would be more to go around. However I don’t think that all pieces of creativity should be shared because people do need to make money and want to see results for their hard work.

Examples of Remixes

“Mary Poppins” flipped to a horror film. Music really does reflect the mood of a movie or segment of video. It is remixed from being about a wonderful and perfect nanny to being a horrifying crazy nanny from hell. This was remixed by Chris Rule, and he did a great job of using the Mary Poppin’s trailer to come off as a completely different film.

Buffy vs. Edward -Twilight Remix

If you read my earlier blog post about mashing together all the Twilight trailers then it would be obvious that I couldn’t resist the urge to watch this remix. Jonathan Mclntosh took clippings from Twilight to portray Edward as a complete creep and stalker. I will admit he did a fantastic job it was very funny to watch! Instead of the typical girl falling for the vampire allure, Buffy who is in fact a vampire slayer is completely creeped out by him. The story flows together for the whole segment. I did notice at minute 5:24 a scene from Harry Potter is taken when Robert Pattinson (Edward) is killed by Lord Voldermort. Which was interesting to throw in there but it did add the effect of Edward getting killed by Buffy. By remixing scenes together like this, you can totally change the persona of a character in just a matter of minutes.

Star Wars and Call Me Maybe

Call Me Maybe is one of the most popular songs currently, that is being remixed or mocked. This is the most creative one I have seen so far. Like the Disney explantation of Copyright, the dialogue of Star Wars characters is used to talk out the lyrics of Call Me Maybe. Layered on top is the instrumentals to the song. Its a remix because it is taking too different outlets and merged together to create one.