Last week, I had the opportunity to listen to friend Lance Weiler speak with the Writers Guild of America about how the idea of authorship in entertainment is obsolete. He broke it lightly to them by saying, “the thing about ownership is, you don’t really own it.” I brainstormed with about nine established screenwriters ranging from youngish to super up there about how they could design other properties of value around stories. Like the deal goes like this: the story is free, but the stuff still has visceral value that people will totally pay for.
And then there’s sponsorships. One of the coolest out there is definitely the creators project – a partnership with Intel and Vice. I have to admit, I’m a few days late on the story of Girl Walk’s 71 min music video to Girl Talk’s latest album All Day. (For those of you who don’t know, Girl Talk remixes about 12 songs per track release for free this crazy, completely illegal music under label “illegal ART”). Download it for free! The screening of Girl Walk // All Day is in Brooklyn tonight, and I’ve got to run to make it, so in the spirit of piracy, I’m just going to rip off the creators project article for this post (below). BUT, to mash it up, I’m adding my stream-of-consciousness while reading it and listening to All Day.… yep, I’m in purple.
Girl Talk’s All Day Gets A 71 Minute Music Video
by The Creators Project Staff December 05, 2011
When Girl Talk released his last album, All Day, the internet went pretty wild. Visualizations and breakdowns of his expertly crafted remixes abounded as the album seemed to capture the collective imagination of the entire music-loving world and provide a hearty dose of creative inspiration as well.
Right now I’m 30 seconds late for a meeting 10 blocks away. But I’m writing because…… I’m inspired. The music is sort of so intense and loud in my huge earphones that I bought for film school (which I dropped out of) that my hands are literally shaking, making it harder to type, finish this, and get to my meeting with Hank.
But perhaps the mother of all Girl Talk tributes is debuting this week, a 71-minute-long music video created as a visual accompaniment to the mashup album called Girl Walk // All Day. It features a ballerina who has a bit of a freak out and a blonde guy in skeleton leisure wear who dances like he’s made of rubber. The first part of the film, School’s Out, was cast out into the world wide web a few days ago, and subsequent parts will be rolled out over the coming weeks. But those of you who are in New York can watch the entire thing at the Masonic Temple in Brooklyn this Thursday, December 8th when they screen it at the release party. Get your RSVP here.
So Supposedly this screening tonight it FULL, but I’m going to try to find a way in…
We spoke with the film’s managing producer, Youngna Park, to find out more about the project and what, exactly, the team had in mind here.
It’s amazing that these guys are able to sustain their creative process in the midst of day jobs, the economy, the news, etc…. hacking it as an independent artist today is incredible.
The Creators Project: How did Girl Walk come into being? What in the world possessed you to try and make an album-length music video?
Youngna Park: As a child, Jacob [Krupnick, director] was largely influenced by MTV and music videos. He found these brief, potent, immersive experiences were fascinating, and was especially drawn by videos with a narrative, or which broke from the original song to try and develop a little context. As an artist, he is working to create work that makes a big impact, engages an audience, and that combats the distraction most of us feel in the face of a really fast-moving, technologically-enabling life. Combining sound and video have the power to do this, [as well as the ability] to be shared on a large scale.
The idea for Girl Walk // All Day is an expression of these ideas, but the storyline comes from meeting an amazing, mercurial dancer named Anne while making an installation piece for a fashion show a few years ago. Jacob embarked on a long search for a soundtrack that would challenge her, and be widely enjoyed by the public. Upon hearing Girl Talk’s album, All Day, he knew he’d found the perfect soundtrack for this larger project.
Really should go to this meeting now… but the thing about this album is that I’m overrun with these rushes of nostalgia for songs – riding in cars in high school, babysitting, songs from my parents home on weekends cleaning the house – all mashed up in these new forms that make my heart rush with the power of freedom – absolute freedom – to grow and reach whomever you want and be whomever you want as soon as you realize that it’s not about owning, it’s about sharing. But just to point out the obvious irony of all this stuff, the creators project depends on intel funding, which derives a lot of its competitive edge from patents, as do most tech companies. But with Intel’s lab star Genevieve Bell going around talking about how “data is feral,” it’ll be interesting to see how far they can go with that.
ALSO SEE:
Creator’s Project Blog
Girl Talk’s Samples Revealed
Kevin Holmes November 22, 2010
So, last week Girl Talk released his latest album All Day as a free online download (and crashed the servers of his record label, Illegal Art, in the process). But now that you’ve given the albums a few spins, you’re dying to know what all those samples are, right?
Well, thanks to Wikipedia users who probably spent their working hours productively slacking off and identifying and cataloguing most of the songs used in the tracks, you can now listen to the album and see exactly what song’s being sampled as it’s being sampled, courtesy of software engineer Travis McLeskey’s site Alldaysamples.com. Or, if you’d prefer a more visually-inclined sample tracking experience, check out this visual timeline of samples from @brahn. All hail the power of the internet.
Click here to see more.
