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The Dukes of Hazzard, General Lee SuperCut

Because I know at least one Hall boy still reads my blog via RSS, and because I respect him so much for his love and dedication to the Good Old Boys, I’m posting this gem on my blog, so they get to see it before the rest of the world. I present to you, a SuperCut of every jump the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard ever made.

God bless Alabama.

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Studio Neat’s Frames: iPhone App Review

Today, I happened to notice a stop motion video maker app in my newsfeed, Frames. It’s by Studio Neat, the same people who made the Glif (which is a fantastic, minimal tripod mount for the iPhone4/4s.) Well, I was intrigued, and when I saw the Glif, I took extra note. Frames only costs $2.99, so I took the plunge and downloaded it. I figure at the very least, I’ll make some simple time-lapse videos of my brewing process.

Studio Neat has a short little video that demos the minimal (but effective) feature set and controls. I watched it, clipped it into my Glif, and gave it a go. The following little video (85 frames in total) took less than ten minutes to make and upload to YouTube.

Frames allows you to set the focal point for the entire video before you take a single frame of video. This prevents your camera from changing focus from frame to frame. It also has an “Onion Skin” mode, which let’s you see a ghost image of the previous frame over the frame that you are currently setting up. You can save your work, take a look at it, adjust your frame rate and come back to continue working on it later. Then you can export to your iPhone’s camera roll and upload it to YouTube. All without leaving your iPhone.

Overall, I found Frames really easy to use. It’s simple and uncluttered, but get’s the job done really well. You can tell that time and love was put into the app, and it’s quite polished. Lot’s of fun!

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The Time OK Go Faked a Music Video (Or So I Thought)

I could probably have an OK Go category here on my blog, I post about them often enough. But I don’t. In February of 2012, the band released a new video on YouTube that was created in partnership with Chevrolet for a SuperBowl ad. It doesn’t need to be said, but it’s a great video. Fantastic concept, really well executed. My two-and-a-half year old watched it three times with me before breakfast. But it was a fake. See for yourself…

Heartbreaking, I know. First off, do you really think they could capture those sounds with those microphones as they passed them? At best, the sounds was beside the mics, at worst, it was behind them. And I don’t care how much furry stuff you’ve got on them, there’s going to be a lot of wind noise at that speed.

Then there was the whole, smacking the pianos thing. No way you’re going to hit the right keys, even if you’ve got the pianos height adjusted. There’s just to much variance in driving and bouncing around. And strumming the guitars at that speed. You’re going to be ripping strings off, that’s what you’re going to be doing. It was nice of them to throw in some faked missed notes and stuff though. I could go on, about other instruments, things that break, vocals, impossible camera shots, etc. But I won’t.

Instead, I’ll humbly admit that I was wrong. This was another legitimate (and brilliant) OK Go performance, and here’s how it was done. For those who don’t want to read the whole article, the video was edited, the sound was massaged (like when a piano or guitar was missed,) and they lip-synched it. But that’s okay.

They drove the course, they modified the car, they smacked keys, strings, bottles, tin and pulled 180′s to play the music with the car. Then like any recording, they fixed things up in the mix. Totally legitimate.

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Lost Beatles Guitar Solo Found

I’ve been sitting on this video for a few days. I don’t know why, there’s a previously un-heard George Harrison guitar solo hidden in the Here Comes The Sun master tapes. If for some reason you don’t want to watch/listen to the whole thing, it probably won’t matter to you that the lost Beatles guitar solo can be found at the one minute mark of this video. Probably because you won’t even know that it’s not the original. In which case, why are you even here?

Gosh, I sounded nasty up there, didn’t I? My appologies.

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Fantastic Animation

I stumbled across the Star Wars Uncut project a couple years ago, then forgot all about it. Well, it’s alive and well and there’s some fantastic stuff being made for it, including Malcolm Sutherland’s great animated bits.

So, while you should go and watch the entirety of Star Wars Uncut, I heartily recommend that you spend some time at Malcolm’s site and check out his videos. I really dig his style and wanted to share a couple highlights here.

Some of his Star Wars Uncut stuff…

The Astronomer’s Dream trailer…

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What’s Going On Here?

Let's be honest about what's going on here. I post to my blog, and I usually just share interesting links that I find elsewhere. I'm sorry that I don't post more regularly. I'm sorry that I haven't found the inspiration to post regularly with my own thoughts. But that's how it is. Thanks for stopping by though, I appreciate it. Let me know you were here by leaving a comment.

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