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Pop Danthology – and non-“pro” editing.
We often talk here about the “democratization” of editing.
Here’s a guy who’s not a professional editor, but who loves editing (and is a bit self-described as someone with OCD) who annually takes the 50 top pop songs and works on blending them into a seamless single music/video mix.
In his own words: Once a year, I try to make a seamless musical mix (“mash-up”) of the year’s top pop songs. This is not a quick and easy thing to do. Making a mash-up is like completing a huge puzzle (not every piece goes together)
Here’s his original edit via YouTube to watch if you’re interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If5MF4wm1T8He notes it takes in 500 hours to assemble this – so he’s obviously not working under the kind of deadline pressure a typical working editor is – but if you read his accompaning article
(https://giftofocpd.com/2012/12/02/the-making-of-pop-danthology/)
about how he approaches the workflow required to generate these results, it’s pretty clear that his approach is a professional as any editor I’ve ever worked around.
Meticulous – focused – incredibly well planned.
Just food for thought about how access to editing tools like it or not, is changing the landscape of our business.
(And NO, I don’t know how copyright management issues work in this circumstance – that’s a topic for another day. This is about EDITING – pure and simple.)
FWIW.
Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.
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13 Replies
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Bill thanks for posting that really is a very clever piece of work. Its clear the bulk of the job is meticulous arrangement and mixing of the music, something at which he is obviously highly talented. The picture edit is almost secondary in that once you have that fantastic audio bed to work with you can clearly have fun making the pictures fit.
Pro editor or not as you say his approach is totally professional and focussed, his talent is there for all to see.
Thanks for sharing that one.best wishes
Neil
http://www.patience.tv -
yep, the democratised re-mix stuff is fascinating – slashfilm regularly features a huge ongoing sequence by a guy called Kees van Dijkhuizen – reckon it can be an amazing calling card type thing. completely side steps narrow guild apprenticeship stuff.
I love this guy too – insane omnivore – writer, editor, director whatnot – I really love the “everything is a remix” series
You’d happily see that turning up on late night channel 4 – instead he bunged the series on vimeo, and now he’s giving TED talks.
There’s definitely some interesting media feedback voodoo going on. Media itself looks pretty utterly democratised. and tools whatnot.
whether or not you need a dodgy magnetic timeline to get it done however…;)
as an aside – the editor from life of Pi gave a really interesting talk where he said that the role of assistent editor was in a way devalued now – because media management was so technical, they can be largely relegated to management of the assets and are rarely or ever in the room for the main edit sessions, as he had been in the days of celluloid. he basically acknowledged that assistant editor no longer was in many cases a valid ladder to the big seat. That assistant editor is a career. he gets into it on around the half hour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T404EYE7KZo&list=PL63343312428CDB77&index=11&feature=plpp_video
I know the white towers irritate you bill, and to be fair, the rapunzel ladders sound awful slim at the top.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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Bill,
Since we’re talking about how technological innovations open up fields to more people, it’s probably worth including this article on Jonas Mekas (as he approaches his 90th birthday), looking back on his work (including his 8mm and 16mm pieces from the 60s).
https://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/dec/01/jonas-mekas-avant-garde-film-interview?INTCMP=SRCH
“Mekas prefers to document what he calls “the small, intimate moments that describe daily reality without being poetic””
” … when my eyes were opened to what others were doing, it was only a small step to start filming.”and
“We simply wanted to do something else that could exist alongside Hollywood, but they did not want to let us in. They had built walls around traditional cinema that could not be broken so we had to operate outside those walls in whatever way we could.”Franz.
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ah that’s pure joy. I read the bloody guardian everyday. I’m an ignorant. direct link to the first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hb_PT1W7tg&feature=share&list=PLB637B5571A060722
guardian has the six piece playlist.
Bieberkopf, if I caught you on Alexanderplatz (and I was near there recently running in Volkspark Friedrichshain),
…I might actually attempt to steal your brain matter.https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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[Aindreas Gallagher] “… if I caught you on Alexanderplatz”
Aindreas,
There are angels over Alexanderplatz; you’ll have better truck with them.
Franz.
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in broad wings terms- I’d nick wenders’ brain too if I could.
https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics
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Bill –
Lovely video, thanks for posting.
Clearly the most impressive thing is the music editing. Listening to the video I can only draw one of two conclusions – either a) he overlaid his own rhythm track to unify the sound or b) modern pop music is even more homogeneous than I ever imagined.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Herb Sevush] “Clearly the most impressive thing is the music editing. Listening to the video I can only draw one of two conclusions – either a) he overlaid his own rhythm track to unify the sound or b) modern pop music is even more homogeneous than I ever imagined.
“Probably a) but it seems like b)
Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure” -
I wouldn’t be surprised if this was arranged in something like Ableton Live which has video capability.
Jeremy
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[Steve Connor] “[Herb Sevush] “Clearly the most impressive thing is the music editing. Listening to the video I can only draw one of two conclusions – either a) he overlaid his own rhythm track to unify the sound or b) modern pop music is even more homogeneous than I ever imagined.
”Probably a) but it seems like b)
“There’s a lot of added Auto-Tune, pitch-shifting and time remapping. In fact, you can hear Auto-Tune on Auto-Tune. I run/workout to some of the Usher tracks and they are clearly shifted. “Call Me” is in a slightly different pitch, too. And I believe a different speed. I can’t tell if its all Antares, or some other Vocoder and/or mixed with the kind of pitch and timing shifting that programs like Acid offer.
Fun stuff. I once did an International Trailer for a John Denver bio pick. I used Acid to subtly re pitch and retime about ten of his songs so that the score was wall-to-wall Denver, and that one phrase would blend into the other seamlessly. Its a joy to do. Of course, that was well over a decade ago, so if I heard it now I might throw up.
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