DAT 401 – Task – Remix Workshop

Mashups and remixes are a form of collage; placing found elements next to each other to create something new. They might be music mashups which (more or less) skilfully combine different songs into a new whole, comedy mashups of different videos or adbusts in which an advert is subverted by overlaying it with a new soundtrack.

Workshop Activity

During the mashup workshop and using Youtube’s video editor functionality, I experimented with video material of special forces personnel taking part in a training exercise using an assault course. This was overplayed with audio of the Everything is Awesome song from The Lego Movie soundtrack.

The visuals of masculine activity overlaid with the feel-good, happy melody of the audio created an interesting juxtaposition. The gung-ho attitude of the military personnel was undermined nicely by the upbeat and cheerful audio, whilst at the same time linking the co-operation required to complete the assault course with the ‘everything is cool when you’re part of a team’ lyric.

My second effort utilised the Youtube Doubler website (http://youtubedoubler.com/) to mashup footage from Monty Python’s Monty Python & The Holy Grail movie with the audio from the Ridley Scott film Gladiator. Python’s hilarious visuals of the fight scene between Arthur and the Black Knight were accompanied by the much more serious and sombre audio from the scene where Gladiator reveals himself to the Roman emperor.

http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DikssfUhAlgg&start1=6&video2=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCGgKRVtHXJQ&start2=44&authorName=

Both these examples interest me as they each use humour to alter the perception of the material presented to the viewer.

See this post for a more finished video mashup.