*Disclaimer*: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. It is not a violation of any copyright laws because I am enabled through Creative Commons, and not infringing upon anyone as I take an image and make it my own!

Another assignment for these past two weeks has been to take the work of author, Cory Doctorow, the photos from Jonathan Worth and make something brand new from it! However, the assignment implies to go beyond that. When making the remix, create a story behind it, behind whatever ideas go through your head when you’re creating a remixed version of this assignment. So before I could dive straight into GIMP and remix it up, I had to look at Cory’s work and all that he was offering.

This assignment had a lot of pressure that came with it too because not only was it going to be graded but many others would also be looking at these as we posted them. Therefore, I really wanted grasp and understand all that Cory was proposing. It was ironic because one of these books were introduced during my senior year of high school, which was Pirate Cinema. But before I go into what the book is about, it’s important to remember that a main theme throughout Doctorow’s work is how copyright is really redundant because every piece of work has been stemmed from someone else’s idea: in 2013, there really is no such thing as being original. Since this is something Cory fights for — for the ability to use whatever you want without fear of infringement unless you’re directly copying it and profiting! So the book covers  the storyline of someone who lives in the far far future where something like copyright carries a much bigger toll than anything we could imagine. The main characters spends the novel fighting his year long ban from the internet, which is a common punishment for small offenses during this time.

With many ideas in mind, I searched through photos and photos that were provided.  Until I found the right one for what i had in mind! When thinking of Pirate Cinema, the first thing that came into to mind was, ‘Man on the run! Hide!’ and how the main character would have to be careful as he attempted to go against the ruling class in order to establish fairness. Therefore, since he was running, he would have to be inconspicuous and camouflage, right? Below is how I played around with GIMP and the different filters until I got my final product, with something i am truly content with. The way I see it is that when you remix someone else’s work, you put on camouflage; new layers, new filters, all that good stuff and while deep down, it may have started out as someone else’s, you’ve made it your own with your own different techniques! Oh, I also chopped it up to prove further that the creative commons really allows you to cut and dice whatever you want with free range.

I can honeslty say this was my least favorite thing I’ve had to do all semester because it relied entirely on an online editor that happened to break down and only work in parts the entire time I worked on it.  It was also very frustrating trying to line up all the clips in the exact spot I wanted them in because they did not lock onto each other at the ends like Mac software or audacity or anything that is convenient to use.

For this assignment, we had to remix a video following the instructions required in Mozilla Popcorn maker.  Here’s my final product.

I cannot recommend this software for anyone that has little patience or for a stress reliever before exams.  Have fun.

Using discarded media, I made this little nugget.

It is the story of a simple, fun day in the sun, shared between two people.

I enjoyed this exercise.  What is the saying?  “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Another assignment that just… spoke to me: Movie Trailer Mashup.

Take your favorite movie trailer and mash it up with a different trailer to completely change the meaning of the original trailer. For example, if you have a funny movie trailer, give it the sound of a terrifying movie; or vice versa.

It took me a few minutes of thinking, but then I knew the movie trailer I needed to mash up for my own entertainment: Twilight (2008). Who doesn’t like a good spoof?

Now the task was to find a trailer with audio that matched the video of Twilight. I searched a lot of dark, horror films that have come out in the past year, and then found Evil Dead (2013).

You can see both trailers below:

I only had to do a little editing at the beginnings and ends of both clips to have them match up. I tried taking out pieces/speeding up the sound to have it match up better, but it created jumps that stood out far too much for me.

I used PwnYouTube and Windows Movie Maker for this one. Adobe Premiere Pro hasn’t been working for me lately, so I had to work with what I had.