CageMatch 10-25-07

Another CageMatch, another dollar. Not my dollar, but a dollar nonetheless! Here's the video; watch it, and then come back for info.

Okay, so I went with a Halloween theme, since this will be the closest show we do to the holiday without going over. (Please have your pet spayed or neutered.) Most of it is stock footage from the Animation Factory, but I thought I used it fairly cleverly. I composited the first bit out of a still from AF, the DSI logo, and an animation from AF. The funny thing is, the animation had a moon in it, and I needed to line it up in the sky with the DSI logo. But that made the animation off-center, so if you watch it closely, the bats actually fly off the right side and disappear behind an invisible curtain. I didn't think it was too obvious, so I left it in.

The second song is one of my favourite Kiss numbers, "I Love It Loud". I extended the first drum bit so I could talk over it, then timed the speech so it went right into the lyrics. I thought it was amusing that I say "It's Halloween, and the possibilities are *frightening*" and then Gene Simmons starts off the song with "Stand up, you don't have to be *afraid*". It all makes sense in subtle ways.

The Gladiator identity is just a screen from a video game, together with a lightning background I dropped in, and a text logo I made with some pattern overlays and a distortion filter. You can see it better here.

How cool does PT look as The Emperor?

Can you identify the beginning bit and the link therein?

Shots from the show itself are here.

The Remains Of Vaudeville

I've been a fan of oldtime radio for a while now, listening to tapes of Jack Benny and Burns and Allen and whatnot since college. I've also read a lot of their biographies, and am currently making my way through the tales of Fred Allen. Allen has a lot of great stories about his vaudeville days, and it's interesting to think about a time in history when a person or group with a good eight-minute act could make a living for the rest of their life touring the various vaudeville circuits around the country. Of course, when radio came along, your fine polished act would be eaten up in a quick eight minutes, and then they'd say "what else ya got?"

Thanks to the existence of YouTube, we can peek into a little of what vaudeville was like and get aat least a taste of the unique vanished talent of that age. The picture accompanying this post is Mr. Wilbur Hall, who I had never heard of before today. He's performing a novelty violin solo act that is just amazing. You just don't see people doing stuff like this today. (And yes, he really is playing the violin here.)

I discovered that video after watching an incredible performance by Spike Jones and His City Slickers of a piece called "I Like To Sock Myself In The Face", but oddly enough, after being online for a year and viewed by over 45,000 folks, the uploader took it down sometime today. Anyway, here's another look at the weirdness and talent that is Spike Jones. Oh, and if you've never seen their classic short film for the post-prohibition song "Cocktails For Two", well check it out.

Some of y'all know I'm a huge fan of Cab Calloway. Through Cab, I discovered the amazing talent of The Nicholas Brothers, two of the best tapdancers that ever lived. Check out Cab and Fayard and Harold in this clip from Stormy Weather.

W.C. Fields got his start as a juggler, and here is his performing some of his old juggling act within the context of a larger movie. An amazing juggler who everybody knows as a movie comedian.

I was really hoping to find some footage from the movie "College Humor", which had some great vaudeville acts sandwiched in between scenes, but to no avail. Go out and rent it.

CageMatch 10-12-07

Had another CageMatch last night. Crappy attendance (like about eight people. It's hard to get fired up in front of eight people.) The video was well-received though, so I was pleased with that. This was a good one actually. Watch it here first, and then come back and read the spoilers and we'll discuss in the next paragraph.

This is the next paragraph. Have you watched the video already? Good. Can you believe that Thundercats footage? That really made the video; it was a lucky discovery. I dug around on YouTube for some Panthro footage, and found that clip and knew it would be the centerpiece of the video. What Panthro is actually saying is "You're looking at the champion scrounger," but he blends the beginning of "scrounger" in with the end of "champion", so it's pretty much tailor-made for a CageMatch video. You just edit it after he finishes the "s", and you've got him saying "you're looking at the champions." Fabulous. (You can see the original video here, at around 1:10.)

The "tiara crowning picture" is an amalgam. We didn't actually crown them at the same moment.

Joe was confused about the picture of them in suits. Y'see, Kyle had his CageMatch Champion pin in his lapel. Joe chided him at the time, saying "you don't wear buttons in a suit". So he was surprised to see himself wearing a button in his suit. (I, of course, photoshopped it in there.)

I was quite happy with the "floor is lava" effect at the end. It amused me.

We liked the video so much, we stayed after the show as they were putting up chairs and watched it again. That made me feel real good, to have people appreciate it like that.

Oh, and this is my 600th post on The Transmutation Effect. Let the confetti fall.

The Sound Of Violence

My birthday is coming up in two weeks. If anybody wants to get me something, this is a good option.

I'm not the world's biggest football fan (I like it, but I don't go out of my way to watch it) but the NFL Films music is just incredible. I used selections from this album to make all the DUAL DUEL videos this past month. It's just the perfect music to use for upbeat, driving conflict-oriented videos. Some of it is dynamic, some is cheesy, some is amusingly rooted in the 1970s, some is timeless. I love it all.

CageMatch report

Had another CageMatch this weekend. Here's the video and here's the pics.

It's hard to animate in Final Cut.