video killed the video star

May 10, 2005 7:30 AM

The Found Footage Festival is a live comedy event and screening featuring odd and hilarious clips from videotapes found at thrift stores and garage sales and in warehouses and dumpsters throughout the country. [note: quicktime, profanity, accidental mutilation, bad advertising, burger joint rap music, mullets] main page
posted by crunchland (21 comments total)

Oh, those poor Wendy's employees. Thanks, crunchland, this is great to know about. Hopefully we can get them to tour the south, too.
posted by mediareport at 7:48 AM on May 10, 2005

I'm very curious/ frightened to see what the kid with the mullet from the 40th birthday clip grew up to be like. The way he was just carrying around that large piece of wood and slapping it into his hand... I have a feeling he was trouble in high school.
posted by PhatLobley at 7:52 AM on May 10, 2005

Oooh, they make fun of shopping channels, mullets, and industrial films. Go out on a limb, why don't they.
posted by jonmc at 7:53 AM on May 10, 2005

Isn't this just a rehash of Lost & Found Video Night or TV Carnage?

That being said, during the very first one I thought it was about to turn into a Geico commercial. Those sneaky bastards.
posted by helvetica at 7:57 AM on May 10, 2005

Great link! I could zone out on that crap for an hour or two.
posted by zardoz at 8:14 AM on May 10, 2005

they make fun of shopping channels, mullets, and industrial films

You know, the above strikes me as really weird. I've been watching this kind of stuff for decades (mainly via my friend Skip at AV Geeks, and I rarely feel like presenting it is "making fun" of the people who were filmed. For us, anyway, it's more like a joyous appreciation of all the bizarre, intricate, funny and sometimes really sad things that humans do. I mean, someone *really* wanted to warn folks about industrial accidents, and took some real care to do it. The editing in those scenes is perfect.

Yes, there's a pathos to the last shot in the birthday clip, but it seems strange that someone would jump to the conclusion that showing it was "making fun" of the birthday motorcycle guy. Anyway, just wanted to say that. I've heard stuff like jonmc's comment for years, and it's always made me look at the person a bit strangely when they assume everyone's having the same Nelson-esque "ha!ha!" reaction they are.
posted by mediareport at 8:17 AM on May 10, 2005

It says live comedy event not "live pathos event," dude. And riffing on mullets and home shopping is right up there with 7-11 and airline food jokes.
posted by jonmc at 8:29 AM on May 10, 2005

I'm not sold on this ad. ;-P
posted by mischief at 8:29 AM on May 10, 2005

I didn't see this as making fun of any one. More like Found Magazine, where the point is just to get a partial, intriguing insight into the everyday lives of real people you otherwise would never have met.
posted by PhatLobley at 8:30 AM on May 10, 2005

But, I should add, not as good as Found.
posted by PhatLobley at 8:31 AM on May 10, 2005

Nowhere as good as Found.
posted by R. Mutt at 8:37 AM on May 10, 2005

...nonetheless, I enjoyed the video.
posted by mcsweetie at 9:19 AM on May 10, 2005

I thought the home shopping bit was hilarious, and I didn't feel bad for laughing at it. Those guys clearly knew that they were low-rent. They knew it wasn't The Last Emperor and they were playing it for laughs.
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:22 AM on May 10, 2005

mediareport:

amen. I had the same sense of empathic wonder - literally thinking in tangents about all the strange little worlds people exist in, when I watched the birthday footage.
posted by docpops at 9:31 AM on May 10, 2005

In what way is the stuff in FOUND Magazine better than this?
posted by crunchland at 10:22 AM on May 10, 2005

good stuff! this looks great!!!
posted by chaz at 10:46 AM on May 10, 2005

Oooh, they make fun of shopping channels, mullets, and industrial films. Go out on a limb, why don't they.

Frankly, this is the sort of flipness and cheap-ass cynical posturing that is runining Metafilter, wouldn't you agree?

;)
posted by joe lisboa at 10:59 AM on May 10, 2005

yes, "runining" - you know, "making it run."
posted by joe lisboa at 11:10 AM on May 10, 2005

Loved it, pure Americana. Thanks, crunch.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:51 PM on May 10, 2005

OH MY GOD! WHEN IS THIS COMING TO MY TOWN? Seriously... this looks damn cool.
posted by [hifidigitalboy] at 11:11 PM on May 10, 2005

Good stuff. I'm a big fan of found footage, and I'm going to have to side with others in that I don't see it as mocking. I'm sure every one of us has some sort of amusing/embarrasing/pathetic footage on tape somewhere - why not laugh at it. And as someone from WI, that has family members that could easily have been in the birthday footage, I can honestly say that I laughed with no ill intentions - and it's more than just the mullets. The Wendy's training video [full version] was previously reviewed in The Wave. 5minutestolive.com (who have some awesome found footage) used to host it; it may still be available in one of their collections.
posted by nTeleKy at 4:00 PM on May 11, 2005