an utterly mundane little moment, captured and looped, to oddly satisfying effect
April 22, 2010 9:27 AM Subscribe
This charming little video might just put a smile on your face.
You poor thing! You missed the _______!
spoiler removed
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:31 AM on April 22, 2010
spoiler removed
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:31 AM on April 22, 2010
I fast-forwarded until I saw animals. SPOILER: a golden! and a cute pigeon walking funny.
posted by Juicy Avenger at 9:31 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by Juicy Avenger at 9:31 AM on April 22, 2010
Genius. I knew for a full 20 seconds that it was going to track the dog, and I was saying to myself "Track the dog! Track the dog! Track the dog!" and it was still surprising and satisfying when it did, indeed, track the dog.
posted by googly at 9:34 AM on April 22, 2010 [6 favorites]
posted by googly at 9:34 AM on April 22, 2010 [6 favorites]
I made it 41 seconds.
My god that was the most vile pornography I have ever seen, and I should know as I'm a conneseur of vile pornography! I don't mean to spoil the ending for folks, but can we get the mods in here to clean this up? I mean I've never seen anyone do THAT with a dead pigeon, much less at such a young age or in such a violent way!
posted by Pollomacho at 9:34 AM on April 22, 2010
My god that was the most vile pornography I have ever seen, and I should know as I'm a conneseur of vile pornography! I don't mean to spoil the ending for folks, but can we get the mods in here to clean this up? I mean I've never seen anyone do THAT with a dead pigeon, much less at such a young age or in such a violent way!
posted by Pollomacho at 9:34 AM on April 22, 2010
That's remarkable. I didn't even notice the gorilla.
posted by found missing at 9:35 AM on April 22, 2010 [8 favorites]
posted by found missing at 9:35 AM on April 22, 2010 [8 favorites]
Wow... its amazing how many things there are to watch in that short video... just like the layers of things to see in any photograph if you take the time to look.
posted by MikeWarot at 9:36 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by MikeWarot at 9:36 AM on April 22, 2010
if life is a record, i think mine's skipping
posted by pyramid termite at 9:37 AM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by pyramid termite at 9:37 AM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
That was amazingly effective for so simple a concept. I am a fan.
posted by Bobicus at 9:37 AM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Bobicus at 9:37 AM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Damn, Pollomacho beat me to the porn joke.
I'm convinced that one of these days flapjax is going to swap out the content in one of his consistently cryptic, bizarrely titled posts with pseudo-child porn and everyone will go "HEY A LITTLE CONTEXT PLEASE!!"
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 9:38 AM on April 22, 2010
I'm convinced that one of these days flapjax is going to swap out the content in one of his consistently cryptic, bizarrely titled posts with pseudo-child porn and everyone will go "HEY A LITTLE CONTEXT PLEASE!!"
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 9:38 AM on April 22, 2010
I smiled, then I flinched when I saw the guy on the bike with his seat set too low, then I smiled again when I saw the dog.
I am easily charmed, especially on 3 hours of sleep.
posted by maudlin at 9:42 AM on April 22, 2010
I am easily charmed, especially on 3 hours of sleep.
posted by maudlin at 9:42 AM on April 22, 2010
It is remarkable the power that centering a subject in the frame has, and the video nicely emphasizes through the change of speed and direction the intersubjectivity of the various animals traversing the frame.
posted by idiopath at 9:42 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by idiopath at 9:42 AM on April 22, 2010
that was it? really?
posted by desjardins at 9:54 AM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by desjardins at 9:54 AM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
That's the video equivalent of making music with a looper.
posted by CaseyB at 9:56 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by CaseyB at 9:56 AM on April 22, 2010
On a related note, The XX just released their video for "Islands".
posted by cashman at 10:00 AM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by cashman at 10:00 AM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I really wished there had been subtle changes in the background each time it iterated, where you think you're watching a loop but the scene is actually evolving over time. Something like this video.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:05 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:05 AM on April 22, 2010
It's amazing how fast the eye picks out the subject of each section.
posted by DU at 10:06 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by DU at 10:06 AM on April 22, 2010
That was very nice. What does the Japanese title (栗コーダー カルテット "おじいさんの11ヶ月" ) mean?
posted by languagehat at 10:15 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by languagehat at 10:15 AM on April 22, 2010
Why is that dog not on a leash?
posted by philip-random at 10:16 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by philip-random at 10:16 AM on April 22, 2010
Made me think of Pita and Gora... and really all things Pitagora.
posted by markkraft at 10:18 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by markkraft at 10:18 AM on April 22, 2010
So wach warst du noch nie.
posted by Smart Dalek at 10:40 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by Smart Dalek at 10:40 AM on April 22, 2010
Wow. I've never seen so many glitches in the Matrix.
posted by Davenhill at 10:45 AM on April 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by Davenhill at 10:45 AM on April 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
Scooby, did you like notice how we seem to be walking past the same background again and again?
- Ruh-roh.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:53 AM on April 22, 2010
- Ruh-roh.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:53 AM on April 22, 2010
There was a video somewhat like this, years ago, of a basketball game, with the ball always centered in the frame. I can't find it, but the search reminded me of the White Glove Tracking Project.
posted by wzcx at 10:55 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by wzcx at 10:55 AM on April 22, 2010
Meh.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:31 AM on April 22, 2010
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:31 AM on April 22, 2010
What does the Japanese title mean?
I would have called that video Groundhog Day, but apparently the Japanese have something called Setsubun instead of groundhogs.
posted by LeLiLo at 11:32 AM on April 22, 2010
I would have called that video Groundhog Day, but apparently the Japanese have something called Setsubun instead of groundhogs.
posted by LeLiLo at 11:32 AM on April 22, 2010
I liked the part when the first guy other guy bike dog bird ok, the first guy went by the pole.
posted by HuronBob at 12:34 PM on April 22, 2010
posted by HuronBob at 12:34 PM on April 22, 2010
I liked the part where I liked the part where I liked the part where I liked the part where I
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:43 PM on April 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:43 PM on April 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
markkraft: Made me think of Pita and Gora ... and really all things Pitagora
Indeed. And that's because the music for the excellent NHK TV show Pitagora Suicchi (Pythagoras Switch) was pretty much all done by the band you hear in the linked clip. They are called the Kuricorder Quartet (栗コーダー カルテット), and they are quite wonderful. Here they are live with their whimsical and laid-back rendition of Darth Vader's theme, The Imperial March.
languagehat: What does the Japanese title (栗コーダー カルテット "おじいさんの11ヶ月" ) mean?
As mentioned directly above, 栗コーダー カルテット is "Kuricorder Quartet". The bandleader is named Kurihara, and they started, I believe, as a recorder (as in the wind instrument) quartet, so, "Kuricorder". They still use plenty of recorders, but all the members are multi-instrumentalists, so they bring lots of different sounds to the palette. The other part of the video title is おじいさんの11ヶ月, and that means "the old man's eleven months". Doesn't especially make any sense in terms of the video: I reckon it's just the title of the piece of music.
Ruthless Bunny: Meh.
That's positively nostalgic, there, Bunny. Maybe you're in the vanguard of a resurgence here at Mefi of that particular critique. Hopefully not, though. It's easily one of the most boring comments possible. Really. Try harder. Mefi deserves better. And please be aware, I'd say this if your "meh" was in any other thread. It's not because this was my post. "Meh", you see, is pretty much discredited here, and has essentially fallen out of use. It's an intellectually lazy and utterly useless comment.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:41 PM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Indeed. And that's because the music for the excellent NHK TV show Pitagora Suicchi (Pythagoras Switch) was pretty much all done by the band you hear in the linked clip. They are called the Kuricorder Quartet (栗コーダー カルテット), and they are quite wonderful. Here they are live with their whimsical and laid-back rendition of Darth Vader's theme, The Imperial March.
languagehat: What does the Japanese title (栗コーダー カルテット "おじいさんの11ヶ月" ) mean?
As mentioned directly above, 栗コーダー カルテット is "Kuricorder Quartet". The bandleader is named Kurihara, and they started, I believe, as a recorder (as in the wind instrument) quartet, so, "Kuricorder". They still use plenty of recorders, but all the members are multi-instrumentalists, so they bring lots of different sounds to the palette. The other part of the video title is おじいさんの11ヶ月, and that means "the old man's eleven months". Doesn't especially make any sense in terms of the video: I reckon it's just the title of the piece of music.
Ruthless Bunny: Meh.
That's positively nostalgic, there, Bunny. Maybe you're in the vanguard of a resurgence here at Mefi of that particular critique. Hopefully not, though. It's easily one of the most boring comments possible. Really. Try harder. Mefi deserves better. And please be aware, I'd say this if your "meh" was in any other thread. It's not because this was my post. "Meh", you see, is pretty much discredited here, and has essentially fallen out of use. It's an intellectually lazy and utterly useless comment.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:41 PM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
> 栗コーダー カルテット is "Kuricorder Quartet".
Heh. I just fed it into Google Translate and got "Calder Quartet chestnut." Thanks for the actual answer!
posted by languagehat at 4:57 PM on April 22, 2010
Heh. I just fed it into Google Translate and got "Calder Quartet chestnut." Thanks for the actual answer!
posted by languagehat at 4:57 PM on April 22, 2010
Calder Quartet chestnut.
Haha! Don'tcha love Google Translate? What a scream! "Kuri" is also "chestnut" (represented here in the band name by the kanji for "chestnut") in Japanese, and the "corder" part was a decent guess on GT's part... the closest possibility seemed to be Alexander, the great maker of giant mobiles!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:12 PM on April 22, 2010
Haha! Don'tcha love Google Translate? What a scream! "Kuri" is also "chestnut" (represented here in the band name by the kanji for "chestnut") in Japanese, and the "corder" part was a decent guess on GT's part... the closest possibility seemed to be Alexander, the great maker of giant mobiles!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:12 PM on April 22, 2010
At least they didn't use Yakkety Sax for the music.
Did anyone notice the stalker in the beige jacket getting up from the park bench?
posted by bwg at 6:06 PM on April 22, 2010
Did anyone notice the stalker in the beige jacket getting up from the park bench?
posted by bwg at 6:06 PM on April 22, 2010
So, is this "legitimate" looping, or is the single-loop clip built of layered shots? That is, did everyone in the single-loop clip actually get filmed all at once, or did the producers blend several shots into one?
I can't tell; seems to me the latter would be much easier to loop (filming guy #3 several times, then taking the shot that loops best), but dunno for sure.
posted by IAmBroom at 9:54 PM on April 22, 2010
I can't tell; seems to me the latter would be much easier to loop (filming guy #3 several times, then taking the shot that loops best), but dunno for sure.
posted by IAmBroom at 9:54 PM on April 22, 2010
This reminded me of the quirky short videos they used to play on Sesame Street back in the 1970s...
posted by Quasimike at 11:23 PM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Quasimike at 11:23 PM on April 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
That was fun, thanks.
Might be straying too far from the OP, but looking at the videos people have been linking to, I'm reminded of this old music video for Star Guitar by The Chemical Brothers.
posted by caaaaaam at 12:16 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Might be straying too far from the OP, but looking at the videos people have been linking to, I'm reminded of this old music video for Star Guitar by The Chemical Brothers.
posted by caaaaaam at 12:16 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think I had a cheap seat. There was a pole blocking my view of the action.
posted by chavenet at 1:38 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by chavenet at 1:38 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
That made my eyes hurt.
posted by five fresh fish at 1:47 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by five fresh fish at 1:47 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
How about this one?
I watched a vid that was mesmerizing, video loops with patterns that exactly matched the various audio loops' timings. Took the theme of a rapid transit view of passing scenery, for a large part. Exquisitely done. There was a second video for the "planning of" where the artist mocked-up using endless junkstore junk: mugs, teaspoons, old skates, whatever could be had in repetition, and could convey the structure of the loops. Alas, I didn't bookmark it.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:02 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
I watched a vid that was mesmerizing, video loops with patterns that exactly matched the various audio loops' timings. Took the theme of a rapid transit view of passing scenery, for a large part. Exquisitely done. There was a second video for the "planning of" where the artist mocked-up using endless junkstore junk: mugs, teaspoons, old skates, whatever could be had in repetition, and could convey the structure of the loops. Alas, I didn't bookmark it.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:02 AM on April 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
How about this one?
That video was truly remarkable, fff, but — unlike the original posted here — didn't have a dog to track. (This Holger Czukay video, though, has lots of dogs.)
posted by LeLiLo at 2:45 AM on April 23, 2010
That video was truly remarkable, fff, but — unlike the original posted here — didn't have a dog to track. (This Holger Czukay video, though, has lots of dogs.)
posted by LeLiLo at 2:45 AM on April 23, 2010
You know, I liked it, and wanted to watch it to the end, but it made me feel seasick, so I stopped about two-thirds of the way in. But nonetheless, I liked it.
A bit of extra info to augment flapjax at midnite's explanation: regarding 栗コーダー カルテット, as flapjax at midnite says, the first character 栗 is what is pronounced "ku-ri" (くり), but also the rest is literally a Japanese representation of English, more or less, so it sounds like "ku-ri-(first character)kou-dah ka-ru-tet-to" (say it quickly, glossing over the -u and -i syllables, and barely pausing at the '-' in 'tet-to' to get a sense of how it sounds in Japanese).
That is, it's a sort of Japanese/English wordplay: the sound of 'kuri' is also being used to supply the first part of the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "recorder." Does that make sense? It's clever, knowing the bit about the bandleader's name. Does he use the same Kanji in his name, flapjax at midnite? (Also, what is the "ヶ" in "おじいさんの11ヶ月" doing in there? I haven't seen that before.)
posted by dubitable at 9:33 PM on April 23, 2010
A bit of extra info to augment flapjax at midnite's explanation: regarding 栗コーダー カルテット, as flapjax at midnite says, the first character 栗 is what is pronounced "ku-ri" (くり), but also the rest is literally a Japanese representation of English, more or less, so it sounds like "ku-ri-(first character)kou-dah ka-ru-tet-to" (say it quickly, glossing over the -u and -i syllables, and barely pausing at the '-' in 'tet-to' to get a sense of how it sounds in Japanese).
That is, it's a sort of Japanese/English wordplay: the sound of 'kuri' is also being used to supply the first part of the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "recorder." Does that make sense? It's clever, knowing the bit about the bandleader's name. Does he use the same Kanji in his name, flapjax at midnite? (Also, what is the "ヶ" in "おじいさんの11ヶ月" doing in there? I haven't seen that before.)
posted by dubitable at 9:33 PM on April 23, 2010
What is the "ヶ"
It's like a tiny version of 個 or 箇, in this case acting as a counter for months (so as to distinguish "eleven months" from "November"). You pronounce the whole thing together as じゅういっかげつ。
You'll see it in other words like 一ヶ所（いっかしょ), or 三ヶ国語（さんかこくご), or place names like 市ヶ谷 (いちがや)。
(See here or here.)
posted by caaaaaam at 9:13 AM on April 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
It's like a tiny version of 個 or 箇, in this case acting as a counter for months (so as to distinguish "eleven months" from "November"). You pronounce the whole thing together as じゅういっかげつ。
You'll see it in other words like 一ヶ所（いっかしょ), or 三ヶ国語（さんかこくご), or place names like 市ヶ谷 (いちがや)。
(See here or here.)
posted by caaaaaam at 9:13 AM on April 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
Hellza! After a half-hour of digging around, I finally found the video again.
Chemical Bros, "Star Guitar" — objects in the video synchronize with the beats. There's also a "making of" video worth a quick look.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:54 AM on April 24, 2010
Chemical Bros, "Star Guitar" — objects in the video synchronize with the beats. There's also a "making of" video worth a quick look.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:54 AM on April 24, 2010
It's like a tiny version of 個 or 箇, in this case acting as a counter for months (so as to distinguish "eleven months" from "November"). You pronounce the whole thing together as じゅういっかげつ。
Thank you caaaaaam!
posted by dubitable at 1:18 PM on April 24, 2010
Thank you caaaaaam!
posted by dubitable at 1:18 PM on April 24, 2010
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posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 9:30 AM on April 22, 2010