Mashup (video)

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A video mashup (also written as video mash-up) is a video that combines multiple pre-existing, unrelated video sources into one larger video. It is part of a global mashup culture.

Contents

In the United States, video mashups are derivative works as defined by the United States Copyright Act 17 U.S.C.   § 101, and as such, they may find protection from copyright claims under the doctrine of fair use. [1] Examples of mashup videos include movie trailer remixes, vids, YouTube poops, and supercuts. [2] [3]

Music videos

There are several different types of music video mashups.

Music video mashups are typically edited to match the rhythm of the original song. [4]

Political videos

Political video mashups are a primary example of citizen-generated content. These mashups allow the creator to form new meanings by juxtaposing two pieces of original source material; for example, someone may take footage of a politician's speech and 'mash it up' with footage from a popular reality television show. This form of mashup, according to Richard L. Edwards and Chuck Tryon, can be accepted as allegories of citizen empowerment. According to their article 'Political Video Mashups as Allegories of Citizen Empowerment', the videos are empowering because the users become more literate with online and offline information they receive daily; they become more active when it comes to interpreting meaning and also realising how a speech may have been manipulated. [8]

Online videos such as political mashups are starting to take on a serious role within the politics of the United States of America. In the 2008 elections (often referred to as the 'YouTube elections') more than 40% of voters watched video content relating to the elections online. Now that the internet is so widely accessible it enables the user to make and find digestible content; political mashup videos can make a serious speech more humorous, accessible and understandable. However, because anybody can create these mashups, it is important to remember that the original meaning could have been violated. Edwards and Tryon mention that parody has become the most important form of critical intertextuality. [8] Often, the creator of a political mashup will completely flip the meaning in order to make it funny, some mashup artists choose to make an entirely manufactured meaning from source material. Notable examples of political mashup videos and artists can be found below.

Trailers

Trailer mashups also known as recut trailers, involve collecting multiple pieces of film footage from one or multiple movies and editing them to create a new trailer. Trailer mashups are often created for a movie that does not exist or to change the genre of an existing film. Trailer mashups existence and popularity can be credited to convergence culture and the Web 2.0 infrastructure, allowing films to be easily accessed and shared online on video sharing websites such as YouTube.

Film has long been a read-only medium, it was only meant to be watched. With the expansion of YouTube and other video sharing websites over the years it has allowed film to be transformed into a read-write form of media. Digital files can now be accessed, edited and uploaded onto the internet. Free editing software is widely accessible so anyone with access to digital movie files can create a trailer mashup. [9]

The trailer mashups are not only a user generated form of digital creativity but a way to create anticipation for future releases, working in tandem with current movie trailers. Movie trailers are designed to give minimal plot detail and to create hype and anticipation. Fan made trailer mashups allow the audience to perform their own cinematic spin on current movie footage. This allows the trailer to focus on a specific actor or portion of the film. It could even change the plot or genre of the film entirely. The user generated trailer mashup allows for the creator disregard advertising and promotion paths. [10]

Supercuts

The term supercut was first created by Andy Baio. Also known as supercut video mashups, they focus on the phrases and devices that are repeated in movies and TV and repeat them in a comic effect. The video content adds context to these clichés, and presents them in a new light, or inspire a moratorium on them.[ citation needed ]

The supercut first appeared a year after YouTube was created. In 2006, an audience that would turn out to grow to more than six million watched CSI: Miami's David Caruso don a pair of sunglasses after making a glib remark about a victim. In the video Caruso keeps doing that same action for seven minutes. The clip was perhaps the most prominent supercut before the term was even invented, and that was not by accident. It was because of the way the creator edited away to the screaming finale of the opening credits in between each iteration, establishing a jokey rhythm and a perennial callback. Details like these are key in the supercut genre. [11]

Web application videos

According to Eduardo Navas, [12] web application mashups is a type of Regenerative Remix that developed with an interest to extend the functionality of software for specific purposes. Usually combinations of pre-existing sources brought together. The emergence of the web application mashups is for practical purposes. However, Navas recognizes that the reflexive mashups also can be used for entertainment and the most typical example is Vine.[ citation needed ]

Vine is the most used video app in the market, [13] which for creating 6-second looping videos, prioritizes the visual. To better understand the creative capabilities of Vine's limitations, we analyze its formal elements. The interface centers on a timeline: the video recording begins as the user touches the screen of their mobile device, and the recording takes place only so long as they're touching the screen. Given this touch-and-hold interface, there's no post-production editing: edits can be made by letting go of the touch before the end of the six seconds, framing a new shot, and then touching again to capture the next image in the montage. [14]

Relationship to montages

  1. Social Mission: To make ‘real’ the contradictions of Being and help form intellectual concepts.
  2. Nature : Natural existence Vs creative tendency. Application the principals of rational logic to art.
  3. Methodology : The collision of organic form Vs. the logical of rational form creates the dialect of the art- form.
  1. Spatial counterpoint of graphic art
  2. Temporal counterpoint of music

A precedent for video mashups can be discovered in the montage films of Eisenstein.

Notable examples

Hillary 1984 - In March 2007 Hillary 1984, a mashup of Apple's 1984 launch commercial for the Macintosh with footage of Hillary Clinton used in the place of Big Brother, went viral in the early stages of the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. The video was produced in support of Barack Obama by Phil de Vellis, an employee of Blue State Digital, but was made without the knowledge of either Obama's campaign, or his employer: de Vellis stated that he made the video in one afternoon at home using a Mac and some software. Political commentators including Carla Marinucci and Arianna Huffington, as well as de Vellis himself, suggested that the video demonstrated the way technology had created new opportunities for individuals to make an impact on politics. [16] [17] [18]

Cassetteboy - Their videos mainly focus on comedy, but many have a political message within them. For example, Cameron’s Conference Rap (which uses clips of David Cameron set to the beat of Eminem’s Lose Yourself), Cassetteboy vs Nick Griffin vs Question Time and Cassetteboy vs The News. However, not all have such a strong political emphasis. In an interview, Mike (one of the two people behind the channel) talks about how mash-up is an accessible practice, saying “It’s not an easy thing to do, but you don’t need very much to do it. You don’t need a camera or a microphone. You just need some footage and these days we’re drowning in digital content.” [19]

YouTube Rewind - YouTube Rewind was a yearly video series produced and released by YouTube from 2010 to 2019. It was a mash-up of various videos that had gone viral on the website in the previous year. The series started by simply placing clips of the videos next to one another in a countdown style, but then changed to a mash-up of both video and music, using YouTube stars to reference the videos. It did not have a political or informative stance, but rather, one that was celebratory of the website and the people who were active on it.

In 2007, the French Antonio Maria Da Silva AMDS FILMS [20] became known worldwide with Terminator versus RoboCop, a mashup that recounts the meeting between the two sacred monsters of the cinema; the first episode was seen more than 85 million times worldwide. Thanks to this success, the director has been contacted by the biggest American studios. Since then, AMDS FILMS has achieved other successes, such as Hell's Club.

What's the Mashup? - What's the Mashup? is a YouTube channel which began in 2014, with 100+ mashup videos as of 2020. [21] France-based channel mashes videos for comedic effect, often taking dialogue from one film or television show, and dubbing that dialogue over chronological footage from another film or television show. [22]

Cinema Cereal - Cinema Cereal is a YouTube channel which began in 2011, with 450+ mashup videos as of 2024. [23] American-based channel mashes videos for comedic or dramatic effect, often splicing (or "spooning") two different scenes from two different films and converging them into one continuous narrative.

Cuts.zzz is an instagram page by Malayalam editor-cinematographer Ajmal Sabu which gained popularity by creating mash-up videos. In one of its video, which has got 4.25 lakh views, Donald Trump is depicted singing a traditional folk song of the Muslim community in Kerala, with Narendra Modi, Melanie Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and thousands of people cheering him on. [24]

Mashup videos are increasingly popular online. When the mashup creators remix two or more videos or music from various sources e.g. TV, film, music etc., they may not be aware of the copyright of the original source. Without the permission of copyright owner, mashup video artists may violate the copyright law and charged by criminal copyright infringement. If they violate the law, their videos will be forced to take down on YouTube. YouTube can ban their accounts and they are forbidden to post anything online. In a more serious case, the copyright owners reserve their rights to sue the mashup artists and they may have a maximum punishment of five years in jail and large fines. [25] It is an obstacle that hinders mashup artists to develop mashup video more. The original copyright law is written in 1980s or even earlier and it did not include the possibilities of copyright infringement exist in digital era. Therefore, mashup artists and public suggests a reform of copyright law regarding on remix culture and mashup videos in order to give more freedom for mashup artists to create their work.

United States

In the United States, the Copyright Act of 1976 acts as the basis of copyright law to protect the rights of the original creators. It protects the original works of authorship. To some extent, it allows artists to reproduce the work and create derivative works of the original work. [26]

Fair use is a limitation and exception to the copyright law. According to the Hofstra Law Review , “If mashup artists could prove that they use others’ songs or clips to criticize, comment, or teach, then mashup artists might be able to use the copyrighted material without authorization." [27]

Courts in the United States balance four factors when considering fair use:

  1. Purpose and character of the use (including: commercial nature, non-profit education purposes)
  2. Nature of the copyrighted work
  3. Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
  4. Effect of the use upon the potential market or value of the copyrighted work

In 2012, video mashup artist Jonathan McIntosh spoke before the United States Copyright Office to advocate for exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. [28] The final rulemaking stated an exemption for: "Motion pictures (including television shows and videos), as defined in 17 U.S.C. 101, where circumvention is undertaken solely in order to make use of short portions of the motion pictures for the purpose of criticism or comment in limited instances."

United Kingdom

Starting from Wednesday 1 October 2014, the new EU law becomes effective in the United Kingdom. [29] There is an amendment to the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988. It is now legal for people to use “limited amount” of copyrighted material in online video for the purposes of “parody, caricature or pastiche” without the consent of the copyright holder, only if their work do not convey a discriminatory message, or compete with the original. A judge will decide whether the video is funny enough to classify as a parody and if it violates the law.

Although the mashup video is now legal in practice, it does not affect YouTube's terms of service. The most famous example in Britain is the Cassetteboy. Cassetteboy's videos can be shown on TV channels now but sometimes YouTube can take down their videos if they violate the copyright of the music or clips in their videos. [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. These videos are typically shown on music television and on streaming video sites like YouTube, or more rarely shown theatrically. They can be commercially issued on home video, either as video albums or video singles. The format has been described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip", "film clip", "video clip", or simply "video".

A remix is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The only characteristic of a remix is that it appropriates and changes other materials to create something new.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anime music video</span> Fan-made music video consisting of anime clips set to an audio track

An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-made music video consisting of clips from one or more Japanese animated shows or movies set to an audio track, often songs or promotional trailer audio. The term is generally specific to Japanese anime, however, it can occasionally include footage from other mediums, such as American animation, live action, or video games. AMVs are not official music videos released by the musicians, they are fan compositions which synchronize edited video clips with an audio track. AMVs are most commonly posted and distributed over the Internet through AnimeMusicVideos.org, video downloads and YouTube. Anime conventions frequently run AMV contests who usually show the finalists/winner's AMVs.

A mashup is a creative work, usually a song, created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, typically by superimposing the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another and changing the tempo and key where necessary. Such works are considered "transformative" of original content and in the United States they may find protection from copyright claims under the "fair use" doctrine of copyright law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fan film</span> Film created by fans inspired by original material

A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book, book, or video game created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by professional filmmakers as film school class projects or as demonstration reels. Fan films vary tremendously in quality, as well as in length, from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to full-length motion pictures. Fan films are also examples of fan labor and the remix culture. Closely related concepts are fandubs, fansubs and vidding which are reworks of fans on already released film material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remix culture</span> Society that allows and encourages derivative works

Remix culture, also known as read-write culture, is a term describing a culture that allows and encourages the creation of derivative works by combining or editing existing materials. Remix cultures are permissive of efforts to improve upon, change, integrate, or otherwise remix the work of other creators. While combining elements has always been a common practice of artists of all domains throughout human history, the growth of exclusive copyright restrictions in the last several decades limits this practice more and more by the legal chilling effect. In reaction, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, who considers remixing a desirable concept for human creativity, has worked since the early 2000s on a transfer of the remixing concept into the digital age. Lessig founded the Creative Commons in 2001, which released a variety of licenses as tools to promote remix culture, as remixing is legally hindered by the default exclusive copyright regime applied on intellectual property. The remix culture for cultural works is related to and inspired by the earlier Free and open-source software for software movement, which encourages the reuse and remixing of software works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cassetteboy</span> English electronic music and comedy duo

Cassetteboy are an English electronic music and comedy duo. The pair have achieved success with their cut-ups of celebrities such as Alan Sugar and David Cameron to make parodies of their subjects. Several of the duo's videos have gone viral, with 50 millions views on their own YouTube alone. Despite their success, Cassetteboy made no money from their videos due to their questionable legal status, until a revision of UK copyright law in 2014.

A re-cut trailer, or retrailer, is a mashup video that uses footage from a movie or its original trailers to create a completely new context, or one different from the original source material. The mashups are parody trailers that derive humor from misrepresenting original films: for instance, a film with a murderous plot is made to look like a comedy, or vice versa. They became popular on the Internet in 2005.

Vidding is a fan labor practice in media fandom of creating music videos from the footage of one or more visual media sources, thereby exploring the source itself in a new way. The creator may choose video clips in order to focus on a single character, support a particular romantic pairing between characters, criticize or celebrate the original text, or point out an aspect of the TV show or film that they find under-appreciated. The resulting video may then be shared via one or more social media outlets and online video platforms such as YouTube. The creators refer to themselves as "vidders"; their product as "vids", "fanvids", "fanvideos", "songvids", or the more recently adopted name "edits"; and the act itself is referred to as vidding.

<i>The Movie Orgy</i> 1968 film by Joe Dante

The Movie Orgy is a 1968 film directed by Joe Dante and produced by Jon Davison. It was an evolving compilation of film clips, commercials, and film trailers, initially assembled by Dante when he was an undergraduate at the Philadelphia College of Art. At its longest, it ran for seven and a half hours and could be considered the analog prelude to the mash-up videos and supercut edits now prevalent on digital platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.

<i>Good Copy Bad Copy</i> 2007 film

Good Copy Bad Copy is a 2007 documentary film about copyright and culture in the context of Internet, peer-to-peer file sharing and other technological advances, directed by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke. It features interviews with many people with various perspectives on copyright, including copyright lawyers, producers, artists and filesharing service providers.

Total Recut is a social networking, video sharing and resources website for fans and creators of video remixes, recuts and mash-ups, where users can submit, view, share, rate and comment on user generated remixed video clips. Total Recut was created in June 2007 as a result of the master's degree project of an Irish graduate student, Owen Gallagher, who wrote his Masters Thesis on remix culture. The County Donegal, Ireland based service uses embedding technology to display a wide array of video content, including movie trailer recuts, political remixes, machinima, subvertisements, music mash-ups and many others. The site also contains original material that users can remix including a large number of public domain videos and Creative Commons licensed clips.

<i>The Grey Album</i> 2004 remix album (bootleg) by Danger Mouse

The Grey Album is a mashup album by Danger Mouse, released in 2004. It mixes an a cappella version of rapper Jay-Z's The Black Album with samples from the Beatles' self-titled ninth album, commonly known as "The White Album". The Grey Album gained notoriety when the Beatles' record label EMI attempted to halt its distribution despite approval of the project from Jay-Z and the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kutiman</span> Musical artist

Ophir Kutiel, professionally known as Kutiman, is an Israeli musician, composer, producer and animator. He is best known for creating the online music video project, ThruYOU, a self-titled album, and the viral ongoing series "Thru the City" including his "Mix Tel Aviv" piece, which went viral on YouTube.

Collage film is a style of film created by juxtaposing found footage from disparate sources. The term has also been applied to the physical collaging of materials onto film stock.

Mashups are a combination of two or more data sources that have been integrated into one source. They typically consist of graphics, texts, audio clips, and video that have been sourced from various media such as blogs, wikis, YouTube, Google Maps, etc., into a new product. Remix is a related term, referring to how data sources have been combined to produce a constellation of elements that were not originally intended by the creators. Mashups rely on open and discoverable resources, open and transparent licensing, and open and remixable formats.

A supercut is a genre of video editing consisting of a montage of short clips with the same theme. The theme may be an action, a scene, a word or phrase, an object, a gesture, or a cliché or trope. The technique has its roots in film and television and is related to vidding. The montage obsessively isolates a single element from its source or sources. It is sometimes used to create a satirical or comic effect or to collapse a long and complex narrative into a brief summary.

A YouTube Poop (YTP) is a type of video mashup or edit created by remixing/editing pre-existing media sources, often carrying subcultural significance into a new video for humorous, vulgar, satirical, obscene, absurd, profane, annoying, confusing, or dramatic purposes. YouTube Poops are traditionally uploaded to the video sharing website YouTube, hence the name.

Elisa Kreisinger, known as Pop Culture Pirate, is a Brooklyn-based video artist and educator.

Participants in an online music scene who rearrange spliced parts of musical pieces form mashup culture. The audio-files are normally in MP3 format and spliced with audio-editing software online. The new, edited song is called mashup. The expression mashup culture is also strongly connected to mashup in music. Even though it was not originally a political community, the production of mash-up music is related to the issue of copyright. Mashup Culture is even regarded as "a response to larger technological, institutional, and social contexts".

References

  1. ↑ "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video" (PDF). Center for Media & Social Impact. American University. June 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-14. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  2. ↑ "In the matter of exemption to prohibition on circumvention of copyright protection systems for access control technologies" (PDF). Electronic Frontier Foundation.
  3. ↑ Andy Jordan. "Tech Diary: Video Mashups — a New Kind of Art". WSJ. Archived from the original on August 5, 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  4. 1 2 http://www.ing.unibs.it/~sbenini/pub/papers/CRB-11.pdf
  5. 1 2 "Remix Theory » Archivio » Regressive and Reflexive Mashups in Sampling Culture, 2010 Revision, by Eduardo Navas" . Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  6. ↑ South Florida Sun-Sentinel (5 November 2014). "Saloote music video mashup app debuts from Fort Lauderdale - Sun Sentinel". Sun-Sentinel.com. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  7. ↑ Brian Barrett (24 March 2011). "You Must Watch the YouTube Mashup Master's Triumphant Return". Gizmodo. Gawker Media. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  8. 1 2 Edwards, Richard; Tryon, Chuck (October 2009). "Political video mashups as allegories of citizen empowerment - Edwards - First Monday". First Monday. doi: 10.5210/fm.v14i10.2617 . Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  9. ↑ "Mash-up trailers and YouTube: "birth" of a new media object". Masters of Media. 13 September 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  10. ↑ Williams, Kathleen Amy (15 March 2012). "Fake and fan film trailers as incarnations of audience anticipation and desire - Williams - Transformative Works and Cultures". Transformative Works and Cultures. 9. doi: 10.3983/twc.2012.0360 . Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  11. ↑ "A Modern Genre: How To Make A Supercut". Co.Create. 12 December 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  12. ↑ Navas, E. (2010). Regressive and reflexive mashups in sampling culture. Mashup Cultures, 157-177.
  13. ↑ Moore, Robert (March 6, 2013). "TechCrunch – Vine Takes Early Command In The Mobile Video Market Over Viddy, Socialcam And Others Despite Low Adoption". techcrunch.com. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Rhythm Aesthetics: Vine & contemporary mobile moving image production practices" . Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  15. ↑ Eisenstein, S. (1949) ‘A Dialectic Approach to Film Form’ in Film Form. New York: HBJ Books, pp. 45-64.
  16. ↑ Marinucci, Carla (18 March 2007). "Political video smackdown / 'Hillary 1984': Unauthorized Internet ad for Obama converts Apple Computer's '84 Super Bowl spot into a generational howl against Clinton's presidential bid". SFgate.com . Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  17. ↑ Huffington, Arianna (21 March 2007). "Who Created "Hillary 1984"? Mystery Solved!". HuffPost . Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  18. ↑ de Vellis, Phil (21 March 2007). "I Made the "Vote Different" Ad". HuffPost . Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  19. 1 2 Frances Perraudin (10 October 2014). "Cassetteboy: 'David Cameron won't be pleased by our video'". the Guardian. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  20. ↑ "ANTONIO MARIA DA SILVA AMDSFILMS - YouTube". YouTube .
  21. ↑ "What's the Mashup ? - YouTube". YouTube .
  22. ↑ http://media.wix.com/ugd/66a20d_09ba05f6de1a4ee5a34a17644557f93b.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  23. ↑ "Matthew Muhl - YouTube". YouTube .
  24. ↑ M, Athira (April 2020). "Ajmal Sabu from Kerala on creating the video of Donald Trump supposedly crooning 'Mappilapattu'". The Hindu.
  25. ↑ "Mashup Artist Calls for Changes in Copyright Law". PCWorld. 12 January 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  26. ↑ "17 U.S. Code § 102 - Subject matter of copyright: In general". LII / Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  27. ↑ http://law.hofstra.edu/pdf/academics/journals/lawreview/lrv_issues_v39n02_cc-2-harper-final.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  28. ↑ Kravets, David (May 17, 2012). "FEDS CONSIDERING ALLOWING DVD-ENCRYPTION CRACKING". Wired. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  29. ↑ Kashmira Gander (29 September 2014). "Parody videos made legal under new law". The Independent. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
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