Awkward: Remixing Hitler

There is an internet tradition of redoing the subtitles on the scene from Downfall where Hitler loses his temper. There are hundreds of them on YouTube.

Sometimes, Hitler finds out that Super Tuesday is not going his way:



Sometimes, Hitler gets angry that someone is using a cheap forged font CD from Hong Kong:


My favorite part is the really awkward look between the two minions when Hitler says "I used to paint, you know" - the timing of the editing is perfect. Also the dig at Chancery, because it is the suckiest font after Comic Sans & Papyrus.

And sometimes, Hitler finds out that the Avatar trailer sucks:



I feel a bit guilty about seeing Hitler: Scary Murderer of Many People turned into "Crazy Uncle Hitler," but I can't help laughing at the way the re-mixers use creative invective and sharp editing with this scene. The more mundane the subject, the better it works. And I'm positive that there is a generational split between people who find this funny and people who don't - my grandfather (fought Hitler) and my mother (remembers post-war Germany & Japan from her childhood, also, her dad could have died fighting Hitler) would not find this funny at all. But I can see how those of us who grew up with the Hitler of movies and literature and high school history class, standing in as the Bogeyman who is literally the Worst Person Ever To Have Existed On Earth, find freedom in satire.



Updated to add: Hitler does not like it when Americans compare each other to Nazis.

Short Content

I've been wondering why I'm not posting more short dramatic or comedic pieces with actors and lighting and a story and a narrative - the kinds of films I'm trying to get my students to make and the kind of films I've been trying to make.

Because when I watch things on the internet, they tend to be linked from other people, and what people like to send each other are one joke wonders or bloopers or oddities that bring incredible joy like this video of dancers in the Antwerp train station:



h/t to Shakesville

So much of what we are watching online is not necessarily great art (though the video above made me cry a little to see something so joyful mixed with music I have such strong memories of from childhood*) or scripted material, it's pieces of nostalgia, sometimes remixed and sometimes not, or something out of the ordinary that translates in the 3-5 minutes we feel like we can get away from work without getting in trouble. It makes me wonder what we who are trying to make "film art" or short narrative work need to do to tap into the "OMG, you have to see this" audience.

*Thinking about this more, the part that's making me cry a little is watching the crowd react to the dancers - the way people's faces light up involuntarily and they can't stop smiling. Proving that the reaction shot/closeup is still the carrier of emotion in a cinematic experience.

Edited to Add: OMG! You have to see this! Michael Jackson Tribute from Stockholm. I want to be somewhere that people start dancing in the streets, en masse!

Shorts that became features - from IFC

IFC has a nice feature on 10 short films that became features, with the shorts embedded so that you can watch them.

This never fails to make me happy.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is very, very white. And very, very British. And they play ukulele covers. Like show choir or a cappella cover groups, it's awesome and dorky and totally sincere and great, though I am very very glad that I got to be a show choir nerd and an a cappella nerd before the days of YouTube. Some things (like painfully white people doing Prince covers, complete with "sexy" dancing) should not be immortalized. Maybe 10 years from now I should check back in with the kids who are documenting their teen angst as it happens and see how they feel about seeing all of it archived on the internet forever. But this ukulele cover of Lou Reed's Satelitte of Love totally should be immortalized. Truly we live in a golden age, where consenting adults form ukulele ensembles on the other side of the earth and post their performances for everyone to see.

Monday Links

I sat down at my computer with one goal in mind: a dinner recipe.

Three hours and about 200 blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook status updates, LiveJournal entries, and Tweets later, I have decided on a salad of red & yellow bell peppers, fresh tomato, onion, and arugula topped with homemade vinaigrette and grilled flank steak, with some corn on the cob on the side. And some links.

• Thanks, Chicagoist, for posting this hypnotic steampunk stop motion video, The Falcon.
• I'm really enjoying Mike Gerbert's video podcasts about Chicago food and Chicago food people, Sky Full of Bacon.
  

Time to get cooking.

Uh, hello?

I've been too busy making short films to blog about short films. Sorry everyone. Miguel Silveira's Rooftop Wars is in the can, and The Wardrobe is in the final stages of post-production (music, titles, credits), and a couple of scripts are in half-done stages.

Someone created a list of Pixar short films available on YouTube.

And Isabella Rosselini has been creating a great series for Sundance about the sex lives of animals, Green Porno. If someone is going to tell you about all the different kinds of penises, let it be Isabella. Brilliant.