Video projections for my Talking Heads cover band
July 8, 2019 1:45 PM Subscribe
The Talking Heads cover band I'm in is going to play a show for a few hundred people. I may get a chance to put up a screen and use a short-throw projector to project images and videos. I would love the crowd to help come up with those images and videos.
Just to be obvious, no videos or images of Talking Heads. No sound; the band is the sound.
They used some projections in Stop Making Sense. Example: Some deliberately dull photos of books, Polaroids of an armchair in various positions. Deadpan, "normal" images that seem weird and resonant with the music.
The Remain in Light cover has that slightly mystical/tribal look of early technology.
I think of industrial videos, abstractions, digital generation. Maybe some older videos, but beware the 50s-education-film look when it gets obviously campy.
I can snip loops out of bits of footage. For example, the town filling up with traffic at 2:50 in this movie feels great as an endless loop. The woman demonstrating the Profile Toner at about 7:45 is a nifty loop.
Really, your sense of visual style for Talking Heads is interesting to me. (YouTube is fine, too.)
Just to be obvious, no videos or images of Talking Heads. No sound; the band is the sound.
They used some projections in Stop Making Sense. Example: Some deliberately dull photos of books, Polaroids of an armchair in various positions. Deadpan, "normal" images that seem weird and resonant with the music.
The Remain in Light cover has that slightly mystical/tribal look of early technology.
I think of industrial videos, abstractions, digital generation. Maybe some older videos, but beware the 50s-education-film look when it gets obviously campy.
I can snip loops out of bits of footage. For example, the town filling up with traffic at 2:50 in this movie feels great as an endless loop. The woman demonstrating the Profile Toner at about 7:45 is a nifty loop.
Really, your sense of visual style for Talking Heads is interesting to me. (YouTube is fine, too.)
hundreds of heads opening and closing their mouths - actual talking heads. Or show snippets of music videos from other genres and time periods - like to compare music video fashion and styles.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:09 PM on July 8, 2019
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:09 PM on July 8, 2019
Maybe the scene where Patrick Bateman is dancing to Huey Lewis and the News in American Psycho if you're going to be doing "Psycho Killer?"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:52 PM on July 8, 2019
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:52 PM on July 8, 2019
Koyaanisqatsi is full of interesting imagery. (Link is to a section with city activities.)
posted by booth at 3:31 PM on July 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by booth at 3:31 PM on July 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
Are you planning in licensing these images for use? Ripping off someone’s film is a bad idea. Better to go to Pond5, Shutterstock, etc., and pay for some clips you can use or get friends to agree to let you use their shots. Public domain stuff is also good.
Using American Psycho clips is a good way to get sued. Background projections do not count as Fair Use.
posted by Ideefixe at 6:16 PM on July 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Using American Psycho clips is a good way to get sued. Background projections do not count as Fair Use.
posted by Ideefixe at 6:16 PM on July 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Silent era horror films (Cabinet of Dr Caligari) mixed randomly with surf films (Endless Summer). Don't fuss too much about the copyright police for a one off live gig, unless you might record and re-distribute the footage, then it's something else.
posted by ovvl at 6:45 PM on July 8, 2019
posted by ovvl at 6:45 PM on July 8, 2019
1. Terrible PowerPoint slides and charts. Google "terrible powerpoint slides" for inspiration/thievery. Or roll your own, with prepopulated Excel charts / PPT templates for quarterly earnings (or or just leave them as "click to add title"). DB has explored this kind of cheeky banal art himself--I wouldn't use his imagery, but you can see how bland corporate evasion is a good fit for watching & listening to Talking Heads.
2. Aerial photography. Baseball diamonds, nice weather down there, etc. Lots at USGS if you want to dig around.
3. Random or not-so-random words and dictionary entries in Futura Bold or other bold sans serif. (Can be combined with 1 and 2.)
posted by miles per flower at 9:05 PM on July 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
2. Aerial photography. Baseball diamonds, nice weather down there, etc. Lots at USGS if you want to dig around.
3. Random or not-so-random words and dictionary entries in Futura Bold or other bold sans serif. (Can be combined with 1 and 2.)
posted by miles per flower at 9:05 PM on July 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
One option is older experimental and art films. Whether you need to worry about licenses is a question. For a one-off live show that won't be posted and won't credit the films in your documents, you could almost certainly get away with not doing so if you wanted. But, if you take public domain stuff from the '20s, you're sure to be fine.
The Internet Archive and the included Prelinger Archive have a lot of suitable stuff. The Symphonie Diagonale and Ballet Mechanique spring to mind, if taking a composition designed for music and setting it to different music doesn't offend you.
Ubuweb is also worth a try, though the licensing may be more complicated.
posted by eotvos at 11:33 AM on July 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
The Internet Archive and the included Prelinger Archive have a lot of suitable stuff. The Symphonie Diagonale and Ballet Mechanique spring to mind, if taking a composition designed for music and setting it to different music doesn't offend you.
Ubuweb is also worth a try, though the licensing may be more complicated.
posted by eotvos at 11:33 AM on July 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. We're playing one time for a 100 or so people at the town festival. I'm not sweating copyright, for better or worse.
posted by argybarg at 7:13 AM on July 11, 2019
posted by argybarg at 7:13 AM on July 11, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by sacrifix at 2:03 PM on July 8, 2019 [3 favorites]