Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Remix

Watch the following two "re-cuts" of trailers for Stephen King's "The Shining" and Disney's "Mary Poppins." Then comment on the remixes in context of David Shields' ideas about nonfiction and collage. (Hint: Think about what is being erased, reordered, or appropriated here.)



20 comments:

  1. In both of these remixes, by reordering events and adding voiceover, the entire tone and plot of these movies has been shattered into something barely recognizable. Mary Poppins went from a typical happy disney movie to a horror film while The Shining went from a horror movie to a cliché film about a man taking in a child and learning something. In the Mary Poppins footage, some of it looked to be reversed and sped up to make fit the horror film premise better while The Shining utilizes the voiceovers to aid its new premise. They are both pretty comical since we know that these remixes are so far off from the originals. David Shields says that the roots of the novel is "nonfiction" material that is ordered, shaped, and imagined as "fiction" In this case the movies would be in place of the nonfiction while the remix would be the fiction.

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  2. I've never seen "The Shinning" before, but from what I've heard it's scary. I also watched a little bit of the real movie, so I know for a fact that it is actually scary. In these two the music makes the tone seem scary, and then happy. Also, by reordering the events and adding the voiceover to them it gives us a false meaning of what actually happens in the movie. But it's just like our Erasure Essay. We can take a horror story and turn it into a love story. All it takes is a little editing here, and a little editing there. The "Mary Poppins" one was funny to watch. I've seen the movie before and know for a fact that it is not scary. Both of these examples show us that you can take something, manipulate it, and make something "new". (Really it's not new because it already exists.)

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  3. In both of the remixes, the genre of the movie is flipped and now seems like the opposite genre. For example, in the Mary Poppins movie, the storyline is supposed to be a happy one. However, after lots of editing including cutting out scenes, only displayed parts of scenes, adding scary voiceover and scary music, it seems like the Mary Poppins movie would be a scary movie. Likewise, the Shining is supposed to be a very scary movie. After intense editing including adding a happy voiceover, upbeat music, cutting out scary scenes, and only displaying happy scenes, the Shining now looks like a happy movie. In the context of David Shields, he talks about how the modern art is now just a combination or a collage of work that's already been done, but now made into something completely new. The remixes of these two movies fits Shields' descriptions of what modern art is because these two remixes essentially use the clips from the same sources (movies), but radically changes what the movie would be like.

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  4. Both of the remixes are hilarious because people know that these movies are actually the complete opposite genre. In the Mary Poppins one, only scenes shot at night were used and purposely used so that one would take it out of context. By adding all the "dark" scenes together, it makes one think that the whole movie is dark. Same goes for the Shining remix. The only scenes used were scenes where the characters are smiling and all shot in broad daylight. This makes that film seem to be a happy, family comedy. Both remixes used either voice overs or typed words to drive the story line in the direction they wanted. The addition of music also helped in this. This is an idea for us to use in our Erasure Essay. For example, if we have an excerpt from TTTC, we can turn it into a happy story.

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  5. In both of the re-cuts. The mood of the story is switched to the opposite of what it was in the actual movies. They took Mary Poppins and made her look scary, by putting scary music in the background and showing scenes with creepy facial features. They also took certain scenes and changed the context to make it seem horrific, and used technology to make the scene with the mirror, the person flying up the chimney, and the part where all the people start flying away look really scary. In the Shining clip, they made the movie seem comical with the background music and voiceover. I also agree with Trevin; when I saw it, I also thought that the movie would seem really cliche. This shows us how we can take something nonfiction and alter it, erase things, and add things (in a collage) to make something seem nonfiction, even if we know it's not real.

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  6. In the two remixes, Mary Poppins and The Shining the movies are made to look much different than they actually are. Mary Poppins is made to look like a scary movie, which we all know isn't true. I've never seen The Shining but I have heard that it's scary, and the remix made it seem happy, again a contrast.The creator(s) of Mary Poppins of these trailers chose opportune scenes and added evil voices and music to make it seem scarier, while the creator(s) of the Shining did the opposite. The editing of these videos relates to David Shield's view on the collage. He says, "collage, the art of reassembling fragments of preexisting images in such a way as to form a new image, was the most important innovation in the art of the twentieth century." Thus, according to Shield's definition both videos would be considered collages as they are clearly assembled from preexisting images.

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  7. There are certain things cut out and inserted into each film clip that remix it. I have never seen "The Shining" because I know it is very scary and I prefer to watch something else. Another reason why it creeps me out is because I go to camp in Estes Park, CO and The Stanley Hotel is in the same town. The Shining was actually filmed inside of the hotel and it gives me the creeps looking at it. Anyway, they made the clip the total opposite by making it happy and not scary. They added that the man, Jack, was the boy's (Danny) foster-father and he learns a good life lesson from it. In the clip of Mary Poppins, or "Scary Mary", they totally changed the theme into something scary and not happy. (opposite of "The Shining" clip) They took out all of the funny and happy parts and used the scenes from when she was doing her "tricks" and played creepy music over it. This gave off the illusion of a horror film and it did not help when they added text saying: "Scary Mary", "Hide your children", "She appears" etc. This makes it even more erie because it builds suspense and you get the idea the Mary is a witch and not a nice nanny who can do magic. Basically, they switched the themes for both movies; they made "Mary Poppins" scary and "The Shining" happy.

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  8. In both of the remixes the editors take clips and make them the opposite of what they are. I have never seen the shining but I have heard of it, when I saw that clip I thought I must be thinking about another movie because there was nothing at all scary about any of the footage and I couldn't understand how the people who made this could edit that much out of it to make it seem so happy. By mixing up the order, editing wording, reversing actions and events, adding voice-overs, and having different tone of music, one can completely change a story. David Shields defines "collaging" as "the art of reassembling fragments of preexisting images in such a way as to form a new image, was the most important innovation in the art of the twentieth century." This is exactly whats happened here. David also states " The origin of the novel lies in its pretense of actuality" which might be saying nonfiction literature (including movies) is based on what people believe as 'actual'. This statement would put these clips in the fiction section, because the editors knew that this was in no way depicting the actual movie and actual events.

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  9. Well from these two remixes of the movies I conclude that "The shining " is a happy movie about a writer that needs inspiration and this little boy who needs a Dad comes along and gives it to him and feed off of each other. While I would conclude that "Marry Poppins" is a scary movie and she was trying to kill the kids and she is just pure evil and not a good person at all. But i know the truth about both of these movies and a lot was erased

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  10. In both of these remixes, the perspective, the order and the tone are changed in order to change our interpretation of these movies. I have seen both movies, but it has been a long time since I have seen them. I know for a fact that "Mary Poppins" is a happy, disney movie about a high spirited nanny who flies with the wind and her umbrella and has a lot of fun with the children by playing funny tricks on them. With uplifting music, the scene of Mary Poppins flying would come off as a blissful scene. However, in the remix, with cynical music, Marry Poppins appears like an evil witch to me. On the other hand, I know that "The Shining" is a horror movie, but I don't really remember what it is about. In the remix, it looks like a trailer of a cliché movie where the man is lost in life until he finds this boy and becomes his foster father. Then, they live happily ever after. Both of these remixes are perfect examples of David Shields' ideas about nonfiction and collage. The stories of these movies stay the same, which is the nonfiction of the movie. But the way these remixes are reordered, along with different tones and perspectives, changes your ideas of what the movies are about.

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  11. I think these videos are very cliche. Both of them have their style turned upside down. Mary Poppins is supposed to be a happy, cheerful musical, but the remix, which gave me shivers, makes it look like a horror film. Doing this kind of a thing to a movie trailer has been done many times. Another video that does the same is the "The Shining" remix. Judging from the comments above and the fact that we were supposed to watch it, "The Shining" is a horror film. The remix makes it out to be a happy movie about a man who adopts a kid.

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  12. Both of these trailers are perfect examples of the erasure essays we are doing in class. The idea of an erasure essay is that words are edited and taken out to make a story out of the words still there. "Mary Poppins" is what I would call the definition of a happy, family movie. This trailer cuts out all the happy parts, and uses faces that to us look scared, and a lot of night scenes to make the movie look scary. Scary music is also added. In contrast, the Shining is an extremely scary movie. The trailer for that movie takes out all the scary scenes or anything that would even make you think it was a scary movie and just edits it to be about a boy who finds a father. This time, happy music is added. Through these trailers you can really see the effect of taking words out of a story can make.

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  13. In both of these remixes the tone and order are completely altered from the original movie. "Mary Poppins" is a movie about a magical nanny that comes and treats the kids kindly and teaches them discipline while being happy and jovial. The remix makes it seem like she is an evil witch who is there to scare and torment the children. Likewise, "The Shining" is a horror movie that has frightened countless people through the years. However, in this remix it appears to be a happy movie about a man who adopts a child and finds love and happiness. These are both similar to David Shield's ideas because it is a collage of specific chosen segments. The sum of different parts makes the movies seem to be the opposite of what they truly are. This proves that with erasing and reordering of parts any topic, idea, or story can be turned on its head and have a totally new thesis and central theme.

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  14. Any story or video, can be twisted into something its not. They have many different aspects and scenes which can be rearranged and the creator can influence your view with outside additions such as music. They keep only what will get their point across and edit out everything else. Though they are both "nonfiction" in the sense that they are actually from the movie, they are strategically placed and complimented with music to make the movie seem like something that it is not.Through inductive reasoning, a person may watch the Mary Poppins trailer and believe that it is a horror film though it is anything but. These trailers truly demonstrate how one can manipulate ideas and make them seem like something they are not which goes along with David Shield's opinion about how people pick and choose the image they want for themselves.

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  15. These remixes both do the same concept, just like any other type of add. They both take words and scenes of the movies out of context. "Marry Poppins" is not a creepy lady who scares the living poop nuggets out of the children she comes to watch. The maker of this re-cut changed the order of events seen, and left out all of the parts where she teaches the children be better. "The Shining" is about a man who just can't write his book in a hotel. He sees ghosts and is convinced by one of them that he should "correct" his wife and son. There is no happy ending to this story. The editor of the recut left out the part where the husband cuts through the door of a restroom to get to his family. The editor is did a good job of letting none of the real story line into the video. The entire story line is changed as seen in these recuts.

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  16. These remixes do what any gossip magazine or news report would do; they take things that people say out of context in order to prove the point they are trying to make. If Justin Bieber told a magazine that he loves spending time with so-and-so, they could find a way to twist his words so that it seems like he is confessing his undying devotion to them. These remixes take clips from the movies and put them into an entirely new context; they make Mary Poppins seem like a scary witch and the guy from "The Shining" like some happy young man learning how to be a father. In taking certain clips from these movies, tweaking the music a little, and having a voice over that fits the tone, the creators of the remix can completely twist the plots of the movies. David Shields talks about how one author pilfers the stories of another and calls it tradition. These creators of the remixes pilfer the work of the stories' authors, but they create whole new stories out of them.

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  17. By editing cropping, choosing what to include and what not to include, and changing the music, these remixes manage to completely distort the true message and tone of the stories. "Mary Poppins" turns into a scary story and "The Shining" looks happy, go-lucky. This could be an example relating to what we talked about in class about how facebook lets you choose what you include about yourself. Editing can picking and choosing what you do and don't include can distort the true meaning. We also talked about how sometimes inductive reasoning can sometimes stray away from the true meaning because everything that we need to know isn't included.

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  18. These movie trailers were very different from the actual movies. It was astounding to me that a change of music and scence selection could make such a big difference. Just by editing alone, they made Mary Poppins seem like a scary movie about a witch. I have never seen The Shining, but I can't imagine it as a scary movie after seeing the trailer. In David Shield's book, he talks about authors pilfer stories from each other. The makers of this video pilfer almost everything from the makers of the actual movies, but they make something new. This is a perfect example of collage because the whole idea of a collage is to make art from other people's art.

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  19. In both of these remixes, the tone and plot are completely morphed from what they originally were. In Mary Poppins, a light-hearted, disney movie, there is a large amount of editing out and adding things in to make it a dark, and morbid story. By picking and choosing what is put into the trailer, the creator is making art out of an common family movie. I have never seen The Shining and from watching this trailer I would have thought it was a happy, uplifting film. I also watched the actual trailer, which shows the movie as scary. I was shocked that the editing could alter the plot line that dramatically. This goes to show that you can take something and by picking and choosing certain things, turn it into a work of art.

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  20. Both of these remixes involve both the re-editing of the original material and the addition of new elements to completely change the mood and message of the original trailers. The first took a Marry Poppins trailer, and rearranged and chose from the clips to make the film appear to be a horror movie. To complete this transformation, slides with words like "Hide the children" were added. The opposite was done with the Shining, where a horror film was re-edited to create a cliché romantic comedy. In this one, voiceovers were added telling the new storyline and tying the clips taken from the original together. This is similar to a visual collage because the creators of both the fake trailers took something that had already been made, the original movies, and by altering it and adding elements of their own, they created something completely new. By taking something and making it your own through editing and alteration, art can be created and recreated from what already exists, just like a collage.

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