It's been an interesting evening of other people's sins
Good God, there are some things that just shit me. Really shit me, not like 'oh, my coffee is sub-par, that's no good'. I'm talking about ripping off people and people's work. I just had an argument with someone about ticket scalpers, a topic I'm not good with. I'm not holding this person's opinion against them, he's entitled to it, but thinking about ticket scalping fucks me off. It's just how it is. And then, and I don't care who reads this, because it's an issue I'm not afraid to argue about, I realised something else. It starts like this:
Someone posted a video they'd put together, on the Gomez forum. I watched it, and thought, 'hmm, that's familiar... looks a bit like those Liquid Skin Promo videos from a few years ago'. And I figured someone else would notice this, or that when someone complimented them on it the person who posted the video would say, 'oh yeah, the footage I used is from these video clips from 1999, cool huh?' But neither of those things happened. So, I went back and had a look at the Liquid Skin Promo videos. Busted.
I'll explain. There are seven short, 20sec or so video clips that are made up of a few even smaller video clips of Gomez pissing about at home and what-not, all faded into one another. Each one of the seven has a soundclip of a different song off the album playing over it, and the name of that song at the beginning and end of the clip. They were used for promotional purposes when the album came out. Anyway, this forum person who posted this new video has basically (by which I mean literally) chopped off the song title from each end and run all seven together, not rearranging the sequences or anything, and chucked another song over the lot of them. Oh, and then put a still of the band at the beginning and end. And then graciously accepted praise for it. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but, POOR FORM. Maybe I'm being a snob, because I know how to work video editing programs enough to know how piss-easy a job that would be, and maybe this shits me more than others because I went to art school and got taught that ripping off other people's work is both lame and illegal. Maybe. But maybe I'm right. I don't think that they made enough of an artistic impact on the original footage to take credit for it now. I'm not saying that this person deserves no credit at all, maybe I should be taking into account that what I consider easy is still an amazing feat of skill to many people. But hey, Credit where credit is due. Everywhere it's due.
So now, I wait. For someone to tell me I'm being too harsh, or a bitch, or whatever. I don't give a fuck. Bring it on.
Someone posted a video they'd put together, on the Gomez forum. I watched it, and thought, 'hmm, that's familiar... looks a bit like those Liquid Skin Promo videos from a few years ago'. And I figured someone else would notice this, or that when someone complimented them on it the person who posted the video would say, 'oh yeah, the footage I used is from these video clips from 1999, cool huh?' But neither of those things happened. So, I went back and had a look at the Liquid Skin Promo videos. Busted.
I'll explain. There are seven short, 20sec or so video clips that are made up of a few even smaller video clips of Gomez pissing about at home and what-not, all faded into one another. Each one of the seven has a soundclip of a different song off the album playing over it, and the name of that song at the beginning and end of the clip. They were used for promotional purposes when the album came out. Anyway, this forum person who posted this new video has basically (by which I mean literally) chopped off the song title from each end and run all seven together, not rearranging the sequences or anything, and chucked another song over the lot of them. Oh, and then put a still of the band at the beginning and end. And then graciously accepted praise for it. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but, POOR FORM. Maybe I'm being a snob, because I know how to work video editing programs enough to know how piss-easy a job that would be, and maybe this shits me more than others because I went to art school and got taught that ripping off other people's work is both lame and illegal. Maybe. But maybe I'm right. I don't think that they made enough of an artistic impact on the original footage to take credit for it now. I'm not saying that this person deserves no credit at all, maybe I should be taking into account that what I consider easy is still an amazing feat of skill to many people. But hey, Credit where credit is due. Everywhere it's due.
So now, I wait. For someone to tell me I'm being too harsh, or a bitch, or whatever. I don't give a fuck. Bring it on.
posted by Leocadia at 12:48 AM
4 Comments:
Ok, well here it is!
Except that I wholeheartedly agree with you, so, not much for debating here I'm afraid. And I don't think that person is even a little bit entitled to a credit. I don't know that much about videos but surely any old codger with an editing program can chop a few seconds off. What a bastard. I hope you kicked his/her arse for it on the forums. I know I would.
Someone agrees! I thought I was going crazy. But no, there was no forum slamming. It's never, ever worth it. I'd just end up looking like a tool. Well, more toolish than usual...
ah! context at last. You are most definitely not crazy. Now I understand why you were blistered about this at the time and I totally agree. It's definitely not cool to take credit without any acknowledgement of your source. He didn't make the videos or the music, just the mashup & he owes people that information up front. But more context: I'm one of those freaks who when I get a mass e-mail I like and want to forward it, I go track down the source so I can forward it with the proper credit given.
Hey, yeah, IL is a she I think, judging by the titty avatar, but yes. I don't really like her much.
You tracked me down after I said I could barely keep up with my one, right? Bless. I should get the breif sone for the magazine and forward it to you. It's going to be great once it starts existing. Which will be a while, since I now have tshirts to make for various people. (They're all nice people though, so it's okay).
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