Creative Commons: A Modern Addiction To Post Production

In this video you experience the heart and soul of 21st Century Rock Music. The song was written around a Betty Dodson commentary on clitoral stimulation. I used her spoken word for the verses and added a short chorus that rocks the Plimsole. Of course Rock music doesn't rock without elements of sex, drugs, or anti-government sentiment. Here I focused exclusively on sex, with innuendo and images of women from a variety of angles. I really like sex! Don't you? Groucho Marx even makes a cameo appearance in this video! I'm sure he would like it. It's amazing what happens when you add rhythm, harmony, and melody in a particular visual context to a simple chorus. When viewed as text, the simple chorus I composed doesn't appear to be that powerful, but within the context of the song it hits hard like a double dose of viagra. Try it yourself. Read the chorus below first and then listen to the song. The transformation is simply amazing!

Sweet Funky Love (Chorus)

"My Eyes Roll BackWhen She Starts To SweatLoves Got To Be ... Funky!"

Sweet Funky Love © 2015 wrenchBiscuit

Ok, so what's the big deal? The big deal is not just how the song sounds, but how the song was put together. This type of collaboration could not have been possible prior to the age of the internet. Yes, 30 years ago I could have contacted Betty Dodson and said: "Hey Betty! I love your style, let's do a music video together." But that type of collaboration takes deep pockets and a considerable amount of time and planning.

Creative Commons Licensing

The average working class artist simply doesn't have the resources to make it happen that way. However, here in the modern age, today's recording artist's have access to what is known as "Creative Commons", which is defined as follows:

"CC license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. A CC license is used when an author wants to give people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that he/she has created."

Creative Commons allows an artist with limited means unlimited access to all forms of media! I have produced over 30 music videos with Creative Commons video clips, and I have found the process to be quite addicting. Now, I am sure that many who have never explored this new frontier may think that using post production video clips to create a new original video is no big deal. After all, the hard work has already been done for us. Right? Well, that depends on how we define "hard work". Yes, making a music video from scratch requires time, money, expertise, and sometimes a cast of thousands!. Video cameras can be quite expensive, and a basic video camera today is going to start at around $1110.00.

Furthermore, shooting film and video is an art form that requires natural talent, time, and training. Now, when we add the expense of hiring beautiful models to perform in our music video, and a celebrity like famed sex therapist Betty Dodson, we can understand that producing a music video from scratch is a mountain that is simply too high to climb, and not an option for most of us. But using post production video clips is no walk in the park either. Post Production can be divided into two distinct phases: Research & Assembly

The Research Phase

There are literally millions of videos that are available using various Creative Commons licenses. For example, some licenses allow commercial use of a video as long as attribution is given to the original creator. Another license allows personal use of a particular video, but does not allow commercial use. See image below for examples of Creative Commons licenses.

Once we have decided which license we want to use, we must begin the task of searching for CC videos that have content we can use in our new original video. This process can take hours,days, or even weeks to accomplish. It depends on what we are looking for and how long we can maintain our focus. I primarily use YouTube as my source for CC video content, but I have also used Vimeo on occasion. To download the videos I use an online service named ClipConverter.

Assembly Phase

After we have downloaded and assembled our videos into a folder, we must then go through each video and discover the scenes that will best fit into our new original video. This can be a tedious and time consuming process. There are many programs available that can be used to slice and dice video, but my favorite is a program called Avidemux. We continue through each video we have downloaded and cut, copy, and paste our new clips to a separate folder. Once we have assembled our new video clips it's time to bring out the "big guns"! My weapon of choice is a video editing software named Vegas Pro 12.0. I drag the audio, or song onto a track in Vegas and then begin the process of sequencing the video clips to fit the music. I could have added another phase to the process and labeled it "FX Phase", but I tend to add my special effects as I go, and whenever I get the inspiration. One thing leads to another, and sometimes the use of a particular effect will dictate which clip should follow in sequence.

The Last Word

The research and assembly of post production video is an art form, and requires patience and imagination. Having the luxury of post production video content at our disposal doesn't guarantee a positive outcome. Without a generous dose of creativity, Creative Commons is as useless as a hammer without a nail. But if you are a creative songwriter or musical composer, it can be worth your while to explore the possibilities of Creative Commons. And if you don't have the time for post production work then you can always hire someone like me to do it for you. This is a free and unlimited resource. But beware! Once you get a taste of it you may suffer the fate of Ronnie wrenchBiscuit: An Addiction To Post Production!