Like Ed Wood Would?

In clumsily making my way through the labyrinthian process of mixing and mashing video imagery with (somewhat) matching audio I find an interesting challenge. With the two constants of bicycles and rock ’n roll established, what happens after that, how, when and where it happens is the basic storytelling chore. Even without a strong narrative to push the project along when bogged by less-than-perfect video or a totally inappropriate score, there is always an elegant transition waiting somewhere in the creative biosphere to dissolve from one scene into another. The skill required to somehow make sense of it is the drill. I use the 80/20 rule when making these larger-than-life decisions, looking for a connection, no matter how obscure, in eight of every ten opportunities and totally disregarding all known storytelling and editing rules on the rest. More often than not this provides thought provoking and visually entertaining sequences. Eighty percent of the time anyway.

I like doing it, and despite the cancellation of December’s showing, it isn’t important as to why it was treated with such irreverence, or why I decided to withdraw from a managerial firefight over it, I will continue along the path until I feel the time is right to roll the credits. Or one hour, which ever comes first. 

We hit the one-third mark last night, as a chill Dave Brubeck number provided a smokey Oriental flair to accompany the public domain footage of Kung-Fu Panda, Crouching Tiger - Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers. I am using the typical fade to color (black) transitional style popular with modern trailers to insert race footage and provide sequential flow. I have a few more scenes to shoot to establish, remind and sell viewers on the idea that all the footage, rides, riders, events, routes, races and interesting establishing shots are all “Just like the Movies.” There is your story Morrie. With that as outline we pack our lunch and head off to the factory for assembly. 

This morning before we did the obligatory movie ride in the PB (Yesterday was today’s fare), I went back to the treasure trove at Internet Archives to find complementary segments or additional episodes of an interesting take on the creative use of public domain footage. In psychedelic composition these crafty shorts tell a ‘lose’ story about, in the one episode that I downloaded, “Grave Robbers from Outer Space.” There is enough of a story to provide a plausible narrative but the real objective is to dazzle the senses with kaleidoscopic background footage that is hard to look away from. The attached photo is a frame-grab as graphic illustration. I was a non-plussed at first but now I want to find more and watch the colorful arc of the producers intent. I just researched the credits and it appears that this is an official Ed Wood, Jr. production. Which should answer all remaining questions. 

So I am back at it. The work has been done and this afternoon is mine. 

I would like to add another ten minutes to the time-line before the sun goes down.