By: Diana Soto de Jesús

Almost 8 hours into the workshop we’ve just finished showing our work. Its an eclectic collection that goes from funny countdowns to sardonic observations on femininity, passing through Dutch villagers in traditional outfits dancing to techno. It was interesting that certain types of images such as groups of animals running wildly, orchestra directors and early 20th century dancing couples were featured in many of the videos even if these dealt with different topics, were made in different styles and (most of the time) using different footage. This highlights the creative potential of remixing where the sources may be similar or even the same in some cases, but the results are quite idiosyncratic and creative.

But what are the sources? Where can you get your free and perfectly legit audio and video material to use and share as you wish?

In the workshop we basically used four sources for our material (all free and open source of course).
–Open Images Project – this is an initiative of the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in collaboration with Knowledgeland. It is based mainly on material from the the Netherlands public broadcasting archive but users are invited to add their own material to the collection and so it keeps on growing. Furthermore, Open Images also provides an API, making it easy to develop mashups.
–Archive.org – both audio and video material. It has the advantage of storing all sorts of materials (film, music, books) currently in the public good. This means that your remixed video could easily include bits and pieces of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, George A. Romero’s Night of The Living Dead or Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
–Freesound.org – there’s a great variety of sounds and special effects available here (from conversation sin bar, to a surprised American from the Midwest). Furthermore the active community means that you can make requests of sounds you need. In order to download from here you need to be a registered user.
–Jamendo.com – specially oriented towards music, it has all kinds of genre from electro to classical.

In terms of editing software people used a diversity of programs from iMovie to Adobe Premiere Elements to Final Cut Pro. Some also took advantage of MPEG Streamclip (free) to convert their Open Images videos from .mpg to a better format.

This workshop has taken place in collaboration with MediaLAB Amsterdam.