Mash-Ups & The Future




Here is a short documentary highlighting Eclectic Method:











History of the Video Mash-up


Robocop vs. Terminator



Word Mash-up S.W.A.T. – o -TUNE




The Flying Saucer


Swing in the Mood



One example of this is Halo









Movie Mash-up

A movie or film mash-up is a combination of multiple sources of video, sound and art from different pre-existing sources, mainly including footage from movies. Sometimes the video and music have no obvious relation to one another, but thanks to the producer/editor they are brought together seamlessly into one derivative work.

Some mash-up’s are parody’s to make fun of movie trailers, while others are serious conglomerations of all the best scenes in popular movies of the last decade.

When Youtube was created, it enabled viewers to watch many different sources of video and audio all at the same time, under the same website. A term known as “Supercuts” came about thanks to the popularity of video mash-up’s. A “Supercut” is a mix of different clips from various television shows, movies, and web videos that are all grouped together under one common theme. Usually the theme is centered around a common phrase or word that is said multiple times in many different sources of video. However, Supercuts do not necessarily have to be phrases, they can be specific emotions, or even specific actions from one person/character. One example of this is the Supercut of “Walt freaking out”: Walt Freaking Out

However, most Supercuts focus on one specific phrase and bring media together that all include that phrase within their videos. One common phrase is, “There’s no time to explain!”: “There’s no time to explain!”

Supercuts have also been made around the common theme of a person’s “last words”: Last Words

However, some editors get more creative when splicing up other peoples movies and television shows, so they decide to create their own trailers and visual works of art. Some might make it only visually appealing with one soundtrack, and others may keep the dialogue and transform the clips into a new narrative. The more popular movie mash-up’s include some of the best and well-known blockbuster hits from year to year in an “Ultimate 2012 movie mash-up” :2012

Others were made from earlier years such as 2009 with Cinema 2009

Sometimes, these videos seek to condense all of the story-lines into one short video. While some, just try and focus on similar themes within the movies, like kissing, bombs, fighting, the world ending, etc. Often times new music is used or music from another source is incorporated to help with the flow of all the different images flashing on the screen one after another.

Creation of these mash-ups has raised speculations on the definition of copyright and intellectual property. Just as music remixes were once looked down upon as “copying” or even “stealing,” video mash-ups can be seen as copying as well. Producers can illegally download movies and take clips for their own video mash-ups all the time. The very definition of a mash-up is the reuse of existing material that has already been made. So is this ethically right? Haven’t all the great creators of our time at one point copied others in order to learn? The question is still a debate today.

This whole concept of the mash-up represents a new phase in digital viewing. Viewers once needed high-tech knowledge and equipment to take video content and “mash-it-up”. But now, with the onset of JPEG files, MPEG video and Redbook audio, making mash-up video is no longer reserved to the professional editor in the film industry. The everyday curious Youtube user or consumer can make their own fairly easily.

So because of this, the typical producer of a movie mash-up can be virtually anyone who is curious about editing or wants to make people laugh (for example) by combining two distinct movies together. Producers see their audience as anyone who is interested in the different ways to edit video together, but also their audience is anyone interested in grouping movies under common themes, or mixing genres to create parodies.  Some mash-ups are created to inspire people with: Inspirational Speech

Either way, the web video genre is used for both film addicts to help themselves learn how to edit, or just someone wanting to group a bunch of films together under a common theme in a short video. The key is pretty much anyone can remix or mash-up video/audio and distribute it globally in a matter of minutes thanks to internet sites such as Vimeo and Youtube. There is no need for expensive tools, a distributor, or even skills for that matter. All that must be included are different video from different sources. I imagine in the future mash-ups will get even more elaborate on the web, but it will become easier for video enthusiasts to create these videos on their own from home.