Final Practicum: Remix Production

As my final practicum post I had to update a wikipedia entry, but I could not think of the right wikipedia page. The term "Remix" was just too broad, so I chose one of the sub-categories that were in the wikipedia page for "Remix". There was a sub-category titled "Remix in Media and Consumer Products", so I decided to add summary of my practicum post on remix and comedy. Honestly I really didn't know what to write about, and the idea of adding something to one of the worldwide content website scared me a bit.
I'm pretty sure that I am not the only one in this class that has never updated a wikipedia entry. Although I have used wikipedia for many purposes, I have never thought about actually adding something from my knowledge in the page. I didn't really know what to write about remix production, so I just decided to add some examples of the media that use remix strategies. The wikipedia page for the topic was already very thorough and detail,ed so my entry was very short and simple.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remix#Remix_in_media_and_consumer_products

Parody and Remix production

Few days ago I posted my practicum post on remix production and online comedy. I wanted to build up on that and explore various parodies produced through remix production. I'm sure that all of you are already familiar with the term, but just to reiterate, parody refers to an imitative work, involving satire and comedy, created to comment on an original work.
Parodies are one of the major subjects of remix productions, involving various media texts such as films, music, and TV series. These parodies often involve more than two contexts. For example, I saw a parody poster of Matrix with the characters from Harry Potter titled as "the Patronux". Thus remix production not only involves just one context, but it can also bring numerous different sources and create one piece of work.
One interesting fact about parodies is that it is not only limited within the hands of the amateur producers online, but it is also greatly used in official texts. For example, Scary Movie series is famous for mixing numerous parodies of the well-known horror movies. Parody is also widely used in advertisement, such as the Dark Knight parody of the McDonald advertisement.

             

As I have mentioned earlier, remix production does not only require creativity and technical skills, but it also asks for the producer's wit and awareness of the popular trends. 

Practicum 5: Final Cut Pro

As a step further in video remix, I learned about the program Final Cut Pro. As I have mentioned in the class presentation, Final Cut Pro is a video editing software developed by Apple Inc. Luckily my friend had the software in her computer, so she taught me basic skills of video editing in Final Cut Pro. Compared to Windows Live Movie Maker the program had more features and made the editing process easier.

One thing I really liked about the Final Cut Pro compared to Windows Movie Maker was that I had much more freedom in mixing sound with video. In Windows Movie Maker there was only one track that I could edit videos and sound, but you can add any number of tracks into the timeline and mix numerous video and sound clips. Also, as seen in the bottom right, FCP has different types of transitions for videos and make video editing easy and simple.
For video editing I used the clips that my friend had in her computer, which were the video clips of her friend working on printmaking. I explored through various transitions in video and sound to make the video editing as smooth as possible. I haven't uploaded the final production yet, since the file is in my friend's computer. Overall, I enjoyed using the program for video editing and preferred it to Windows Movie Maker.

Remix Production and Comedy

Today's lecture was very interesting, especially by the fact that I related some of the materials we learned to my experience with the practicum project, so I thought about posting my fourth practicum project about it. Today's lecture was about how much the content in the internet were centered around comedic features. In fact this reminded me of my fieldwork with remix production.

Doing this practicum project engaged me into not only active production, but also active consumption. To get some "inspiration" for my fieldwork, I often went into YouTube and other video sharing sites and looked for popular video mash-ups done by the other users. One interesting thing I noticed was that most of the times the videos that were ranked in "Most Viewed" and "Popular" contents were centered around humor and comedy. Some of them were far from making any point and would consist of the people "goofing off" or dance funny, but many of them were parodies of an existing content. For example, one of my favorites was the remix of a citizen's interview on CNN that created a very cool and original soundtrack, called "Reality Hits You Hard Bro". I thought the video was so funny that I actually began searching for it on YouTube and surprisingly there were numerous other videos playing around with the remixed video. Some of them were vocal covers of that soundtrack in different instruments, others of them would be remixing the video in different versions. I thought it was interesting to see how an original remix of a public content  leads to numerous other versions of remixes.

Aside from that particular video, I also wanted to produce something that would make people laugh and realized that it was not an easy job at all. First of all, there should be some kind of a cultural understanding to create humor. By cultural understanding I mean consciousness of pop cultural trends. For example, there were numerous humorous parodies of Harry Potter, using sequences and theme songs from the movie. However, it would be hardly possible for these videos to draw laughter out of the viewers who are not familiar with the novel or the movie at all. Thus, when moving onto a broader conclusion about the remix production itself, remix productions are not only about creativity or tech skills, but they also depend largely on cultural understanding.

Computerized Devices

I had the busiest day yesterday, and after keeping track of the computerized devices that I used, I was surprised to see how much I rely on computerized devices. This Saturday I had to participate in an academic session about political issues in East Asia. First, I used a projector and my laptop for presentation, and my iPod and speakers to do a special performance. In order to check out a laptop I let the workers in the College library swipe my student ID card. After the event I went to have dinner where I gave my credit card to the workers to swipe. After that I got a text message from my friend telling me to come over at her place, so I went and dialed the keypad at the front door to get in to the apartment. I don't even remember how many times I took out my cell phone to check my Facebook and Twitter. It is just amazing how much my daily life relies on digital technology.

Remix Production: Copyright Issue

Today I got a notification e-mail from YouTube telling me that one of the videos that I uploaded "may include" copyrighted "audiovisual content". The e-mail freaked me out at first, but then I was relieved to hear that I wasn't in any kind of trouble. Instead they told me to be aware that there may be ads added to my video. However this e-mail triggered me to think about remix production and copyright issue.

To be honest, I borrowed from many of the YouTube video clips as a source of my video mash-up, but I tried my best to avoid borrowing from the works of the other users. For example, I used official trailers of movies for video remix, but I did not use any of the clips that were either edited or remixed by other users in YouTube. I cannot really explain why I felt more guilty when borrowing from internet users than borrowing from the official institutions. It may be because the idea that official clips and soundtracks are open for public use and consumption is inherently stuck in my mind. On the other hand, using clips from other remix works seemed as if I was taking advantage of the others' works and skills. I know it is pretty paradoxical, but it is interesting now to think that I perceived using published works very natural.

Practicum: YouTube Multiplier

For my practicum project I was searching online for information on video and sound mash-ups, and I found this interesting website called the YouTube Multiplier. I briefly explained about this site yesterday, but I wanted to explore more and experiment with it. On the bottom of the site you are allowed to put in two or more URL of the YouTube videos that you want to mix together. You are able to set up when you want the video to start at and adjust the volume for each of them. It was very interesting looking around the works of the others in that site, and I noticed that most of them preferred to mix two videos-one video with visual entertainment, and the other with an interesting soundtrack. It was interesting how adding a soundtrack could completely change the mood of the video. For instance, I saw this one mash-up done by the other user which was a remix of a scene from a horror movie with a soundtrack from piano. Even though the scene was far from being beautiful, as soon as the other video with the piano melody played the video clip suddenly seemed calm and even pretty. On the other hand, playing a majestic orchestra soundtrack with different video increased the intensity of the scene.

I tried doing some mash-ups on my own, putting two YouTube videos together. As the other users, I mostly mixed a video clip with different soundtracks. For example, I mixed a YouTube video of a romantic from the movie Love Actually  with another video with a soundtrack of the famous Psycho theme music. It was quite fun to play around with different YouTube videos. However, there certainly were limits on the user's ability in remix compared to working with video editing programs.

As an overall review of this website, as much as I enjoyed making mash-ups on this website, I did not get the impression that I was creating something "original" as I did with the video editing program. I just felt like playing around with the videos that were published by other institutions or individuals. On the other hand, this website suggests that video mash-up is possible for everyone, disregarding any skill or knowledge, extending on the fact that remix production has become increasingly public and accessible for everyone.

The website is worth looking around in spare time, so feel free to go check it out!
http://www.youtubemultiplier.com/

Practicum 1: Video Editing

To be honest, this practicum project made me puzzled at first because I have never had an experience of media production. Surely I have seen and listened to many remix productions of videos and music, either done my public users or professional producers. So I decided to take an approach frankly as a beginner. I started with a program Windows Live Movie Maker, a program from Microsoft that was installed into my computer along with other Microsoft Office programs.

Image of the Windows Live Movie Maker from the Microsoft Website

The next challenge I encountered before starting my project was that I had no idea what to do. I've seen many video mash-ups on YouTube that were either funny parodies of other texts or interpretations of original works, but when I actually became the producer of remix videos nothing "creative" came into my mind. So I began searching YouTube for ideas, watching various clips made by different users. After watching different videos, I finally decided to do a mash-up of a video clip from a particular movie with soundtracks of different texts to turn that movie into a new genre.

For the video I chose an opening sequence of Kill Bill, where action scene takes place. I decided to take sound effects and background music from Mario games and incorporate them with the video clip to add some gags into a fancy action scene. Trying to add a different soundtrack to a video was much more harder than I have anticipated. In order to make them synchronize and appear less awkward I had to break up the clip in to every second, which was a strenuous and annoying process.

Another video mash-up I did was changing the genre of a movie. For this I used a Korean movie "Tale of Two Sisters", which is originally a horror movie, and turned it into a homosexual romance movie between two girls. I have not posted it up yet, but I did publish the Kill Bill sequence on YouTube and shared it on Facebook with my friends. So far I haven't got any particular feedback from anyone on YouTube, but I did get some comments and "likes" on Facebook. This difference between the two sites may be from the fact that the audience of my work is much more smaller and limited in Facebook, which makes it easier for discussion and feedback, whereas on YouTube the amount of video posts are too much every minute that it is harder for my video clips to be recognized by large number of people.

Here is the link where I have published my work on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoUNKvsT7jA

Feel free to leave any comment!

Throughout the semester I am planning to go in depth in video editing and try out more professional programs to do different remix productions. If you have any idea please leave a comment!

Hulu versus YouTube videos

I've heard of Hulu.com before, but I only used it when I had to catch up on my screenings for CA351. On the other hand, I frequently visit YouTube to check out various video clips- even this morning I was searching YouTube for certain video clips. One primary difference I noticed between the two web sites was the roles of the users. In Hulu, they allow you to view various videos from different media sources. YouTube, however, offers more freedom. You can create your own playlist and add your favorite videos, share the content in other social networking sites, and comment on them. You are also in control of publishing contents, thus creating more diversity within the video contents. I watched Jersey Shore on both Hulu and YouTube, in different episodes. I did not enjoy watching commercials between the whole shoe in Hulu, while in YouTube I could skip advertisements after few seconds. On the other hand, I found Hulu to be a more appropriate site for viewing a television show, while in YouTube it was harder to find specific episodes that I wanted.

Both Hulu and YouTube are commercially based, but their main contents are different. Hulu focuses on showing certain shows from different media, whereas YouTube is more like a platform where different segments of videos-often original creations of the users-are being shared.

Online Copyright Experience

I think the most common experience related to online copyright would be downloading. When I lived in the dormitory during my high school years I constantly challenged myself against the online restriction done by the school internet system. They blocked every download sites, and at that time I wasn't mature enough to acknowledge the significance of copyright. I remember searching for the files everywhere to get through the school internet and find a web site that allowed free download.
Now, however, I pay for every files that I download online. I believe that the producers of the content of various media- music, films, and so forth- should be respected and be acknowledged.
The issue of copyright is very vague in some cases, such as YouTube. YouTube has become the largest video site worldwide. However, with increased participation of the amateur publishers, there also is an increased use of the content from other texts. One example is the fanvideo for various television shows or movies. The makers of fanvideos borrow scenes from the original show to create a new story or make their own interpretation of the show. Should fanvids be considered as a form of expressing interest in that certain shows? Or should they also be restricted in terms of copyright? The term copyright is definitely a complex topic to be discussed and I wonder what the others think of the issue..

Googling Myself

After googling my name, I should say that I was a bit disappointed to see nothing come up about me. I googled three names: Monica Lee, Ho Jung Lee, and Ho Jung Monica Lee. Ho Jung Monica Lee is the name that I use on the Facebook, but I did not see my Facebook profile appear on Google. However, I did see two of my Facebook profile photos appear on the image search. On the other hand this search gave me a sense of relief that my information is kept safe in the public, although seeing my photos on the image search was a little creepy. Most of the search results contained information about a young Korean figure skater who has the same name as I do. Out of curiosity I googled my father's name ( in Korean), and his Facebook profile appeared. Other than that I did not see anything interesting appear on Google. Overall, this incident reminded me that individual users are still given the power to choose which information to be shared in public.

Blog 3: i-dosing video

For the third blog assignment, I listened to one of the i-dosing videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhQhPasj25k). To get the highest effect, I listened to it with my eyes closed and trying to stay as comfortable as possible. The  video did not really come across to me with different annoying sounds...I did not get high; rather, I thought the track from the video was very annoying and disturbing.
I have heard of i-doser before, but this is the first time that I actually experienced it. I am skeptical of the effects that are anticipated in i-dosers,  since I did not feel any emotional effect. I think i-dosing tracks represent an interest phenomenon that we see on the internet, however. Internet has become one of the platforms available to people in getting vicarious satisfaction through virtual life. I-doser is the proof of that attempt, since it is produced to fulfill people's curiosity towards drugs.

Video Response

To be honest, although I spend most of my time on internet, I am not smart at all when it comes to technology. I was unfamiliar with ARPANET until I heard about it in the lecture and in the video. However I am interested to see that the technological advance was done in accordance with the social climate in the United States, such as the tension that arose from the Cold War and the fear of atomic bombing. The simple animation of "the History of Internet" made it easier for me to understand the sophisticated technological terms. However, it would have been more comprehensible if it spent more time in explaining different terms, such as DNS, packet-switching, etc. For a person who has average understanding of internet and computer, it took me some time and effort to fully understand. After watching the video, I have grown curious about the reasons that drove foreign players to participate in developing internet. Was it for a purpose in competition such as the United States? Was it to create better commerce between states?

Introduction by Ho Jung Lee

Hi everyone! My name is Ho Jung but I prefer being called Monica. I am currently a junior majoring in International Studies, and hoping to double major in Communication Arts.I'm from South Korea, but I spent my highschool years in Seattle and my middle school years in Canada.  I am very excited for this class since internet has always been my biggest interest. I had to miss the first discussion because I was in Korea, but I am excited to see all of you!

I have always been eager to explore the modern social network that internet has created. Since I am studying about globalization and cultures, my area of interest for this class is to observe how social interaction is done across borders in internet. I am especially curious about the social networking sites such as facebook and twitter, and the social phenomenon they have created today.