I think Girl Walk // All Day might be the quintessential representation of modern independent artistry. Yeah, that sounds like a string of BS buzzwords, but I mean every one of them. Think about it – a musician takes hits from across a plethora of genres and mashes them together into a fantastic and fun musical album, which he then releases online for free. A filmmaker hears that album and decides he wants to use it as the sountrack and basis for a short film/music video filmed geurilla-style in Manhattan, all shot, edited, produced, and released online for free. It stars a dancer who mashes together dance styles from every conceivable genre. A musician who cares more about making entertaining music than adhering to the archaic conventions of the pop music industry; a filmmaker who cares more about making an amazing viewing experience than adhering to the archaic conventions of the blockbuster film industry; and a dancer who cares more about expressing herself through motion and using her body to its limits than adhering to the conventions of any one style of dance.

There is something beautiful about all of those layers mashing together…and something magical in the realization that ten years ago the whole thing would sound insane, but in our modern age when we are starting to perceive of art and its distribution so differently, it is practically unsurprising.

Here is the Kickstarter video for Girl Walk // All Day:

There’s something about seeing a film that you know by heart, being remixed into sometimes poignant, sometimes beautiful, often hilarious chunks. Every 15 seconds there’s something new and different, every 15 seconds you connect with someone else from across the world who loves this movie as much as you do. I’m not sure there is any way to really explain it, it’s more of an experience any Star Wars fan can appreciate.

You can view the entire movie here…just remember to budget a couple hours to watch it, because it definitely will suck you in!

This short film won best video in the Experimental category at the Vimeo Festival + Awards. Though the concept might sound boring, or at best amusing, I believe the execution of this amateur hour remix is phenomenal and compelling. Chris Beckman (using a concept by Billy Rennekamp) took 37 reclaimed YouTube videos and seamlessly edited them together at the points in which the cameramen/women lose control of their camcorder/smart phone/etc., and the result feels like one camera being tumbled through time and space, moving from one haphazard situation to another. From the camera’s POV we are struck by fireworks and a train, sent plummeting down mountain paths and snow-covered hills, tossed into the air and strapped to a remote control helicopter, dropped down a well and into a pool, go crowd surfing in a club and take a roller coaster ride.

While I tend to find most artist statements about their work to be pompous and excessively full of conceptual buzz words, Beckman’s description of his work seems to hit the nail right on the head:

Somewhere between a home-video mixtape and a postmodern travelogue, “oops”—a ten-minute art video composed entirely of appropriated YouTube videos, seamlessly stitched together via a motif of camera drops—serves both as transportative adventure and metaphorical elucidation of YouTube itself (i.e. endless related videos), exemplifying the Internet’s infinite repository of “throwaway” social documentation. From suburbia to subterranea, the radically shuffling environs induce a vertiginous yet aesthetically contextual thread—a transcendent, reincarnating POV; our omnipresent Camera—by which, the nature of the ultra-verité videos, eschewing any filmic grounding, plunges the viewer into a relationship of fleeting immediacy w/ its many videographers: a self-portrait at arms length, the digital blur of an obscuring thumb, a disembodied narrating voice. This abstractly voyeuristic portrayal of an ever-filming generation (who won’t let the transcendence of being in A Moment inhibit their document-everything impulse) presages a future where every instant of our existence, from the mundane to the sublime, is preserved and catalogued for all to see.

…Anyone know how to put together a home-made motion capture studio for less than $1k?  :P

The NPR story focused on the question of copyright, and whether such a high-quality production can be considered in violation of that copyright – even though the creators go through great pains to express that this is a not-for-profit film, available only online, and is meant to be a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson. I’m not sure why NPR chose to raise the question, especially considering there appears to be no official word from either New Line Cinema nor Peter Jackson. However, the question has been raised regardless, and they interviewed Fred von Lohman, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The article states:

Von Lohman says fans have always written their own stories based on TV shows and movies. That’s legal.

But a high-quality movie available over the Internet could change the game.

“Now the fans can reach a global audience immediately through the Internet and make it available in a global way,” von Lohman says.

Perhaps I don’t know law as well as I should, but I don’t see why the quality of a production nor the breadth of its audience would cause concern over whether the copyright is protected. If fan films are legal as long as they make no profit, and that is the established law, why should an excellently-made fan film suddenly be subject to prosecution? Are we to say that those who do the best they possibly can in an endeavor while reaching an audience as wide as possible are meant to be prosecuted, while those who make sub-standard attempts are allowed to go free? The law should not suddenly apply to the person who does their best, and not apply to someone whose is half-hearted in their effort.

Still, I doubt there is much to worry about. As I said, it appears that there’s no official word from the copyright holders that they look down upon this effort, nor does it appear that the production group (Independent Online Cinema) is being sued. More often than not, these tributes are even lauded by the copyright holders as excellent additions to the canon (in the case of Ernie Cline’s “Fanboys,” a movie about Star Wars fans and their humorous attempts to break into Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas himself gave his stamp of approval and even offered the use of original Star Wars sound effects for the production).

If I were Peter Jackson, I believe I would be flattered at this effort to adopt my style in order to expand on Tolkien’s story, and I would likely be scouting the production for new talent that I could use in my next production.

“The Hunt For Gollum” is being broadcast online at http://www.thehuntforgollum.com on Sunday, May 3rd. You can view the trailer here:

Anyway, you can see how even to someone who has never seen it, iconic stories can still leave an impression. In this version, all the basic elements are there – they’re just…scrambled…a bit. :) And the animation…well, that just proves that sometimes simplicity tells the best possible story. (I also love how there is a Fat Tire sign on the “bar planet”…w00t for Colorado breweries!)