The early roots of remising began in the 70s when nightclubs become more popular in modern culture. DJ’s started with original disco songs and began adding loops and more eclectic sounds to encourage people to continue dancing at the club. Remixing has come a long way since and is more popular in this day and age than it was in the 70s.

When choosing a form of remixed media, I decided to go with the artist Girl Talk, which was acquired from YouTube, and his song “Let it Out”, in particular. Girl Talk is known for taking a total mashup of difference songs from different genres and mixing them together in a way that ends with a sound-pleasing song. “Let it Out” has over 20 songs that are sampled throughout, mixing songs like “Can I Get A…” by Jay-Z ft. Amil and Ja Rule and “Tenderness” by General Rule. Both songs come from different decades and have completely separate meanings, yet Girl Talk mashes them in a way that allows for a differed meaning. With one coming from the 80s, during a time of 80s pop overload and another coming from the 90s, a time of street rap, these songs were made to cater to a certain type of audience. Together, though, the catered group of people widens to an entirely different type of person who enjoys fast-paced and upbeat dancing.

“Let it Out” is a very cut down version of many of the original songs that are sampled throughout. Most songs are sampled from the beginning of the song but never make it all the way through or anywhere near the end. And since the song uses over 20 different samples of songs, no song or lyric is really ever repeated causing a long continuation of similar sounding, yet completely different songs and lyrics.

Girl Talk, Greg Gillis in particular, is somewhat the epitome of remix culture and what can be done with a handful of songs and proper programming.

The original video was around fifteen minutes, but this video was cut to only a minute and forty seconds. It cuts out many of the boring, uninteresting sections and contains only parts where the player receives points and does not repeat any parts of the original video. Rather than just being a recorded gameplay, the editor(BakersTuts) uses many programs to enhance the video.

For the motion tracking at the beginning and end, he used Boujou for the cinematics. The file that had been motion tracked, was then imported into Cinema 4D. In Cinema 4D, the 3D text was created as well as the shadows on the ground.

The second program used was Adobe After Effects. Firstly, he used this program for making the color correction by adjusting the brightness and contrast and a plug-in called Magic Bullet looks. Secondly, at about :13 he uses another plugin called twitch. This allows for a RGB split allowing to create a nice effect which was used throughout the video many times. Thirdly, flares were also added such as at :23. Fourthly, twixtor is used many times. Twixtor allows the editor to slow a section of the video down without dropping the frame rate allowing for a smoother slow motion video. Lastly, Baker used the pan/crop tool many times. This allows for the the editor to scale the video creating what many call a “pump” effect. Though subtle, is is used many more times than any other effects throughout the video.

Due to how different this video is from the original, it is not intended for the same audience. Some people that watch, look for new ideas on how to improve their own editing style. Now rather then being a lengthy video, people can now watch it in a more entertaining way. There are now effects added as well as music.

A good example of a remix would be Garfield Minus Garfield. The web series (at garfieldminusgarfield.net) consists of classic comic strips that digitally remove the eponymous character, leaving only Jon Arbuckle. The original series drew much of its humor from the interactions between Jon and Garfield. Usually, the dialogue would consist of Garfield being chided by his owner, or by the cat getting in a few quips at the expense of Jon. It creates a light, easily-relatable, safe sense of comedy, which is predictable and warm without being too offensive.

By removing Jon Arbuckle though, the comics take on a much different tone. Instead of being playful, they take on a less playful, benign quality and alter their message to the reader. Jon is no longer speaking to the cat, but either wondering aloud about his own thoughts and feelings, or talking to himself about his own actions at the time. The interesting aspects of the remix come from the juxtaposition between what Garfield is known to be versus what the comics do in their altered form. They also offer commentary on feelings, thoughts, and emotions that were never addressed in the official comic strip by Jim Davis, the creator.

In one particular strip (posted below…Click for a larger version.) Jon proclaims that he is going to “adopt a more positive attitude on life.” His expression, wide-eyed, happy, and animated, is changed in the second panel to a gloomy frown.  In the third panel, his mouth is slightly agape, as he stares into empty space. The dialogue normally spoken to Garfield is removed, so Jon is completely alone and isolated with his thoughts.

These themes are not something ever addressed in the original comic and open the work up to different critiques by different audiences. Not only are the works now available in a digital format, but with added depth, people interested in reader deeper can do so. It offers an online audience the ability to consume the comics with a different goal, but ultimately recycles the same body of work used in print at an earlier time.