My Day Yesterday

January 2, 2009 6:41 PM

My Day Yesterday. A Flickr set of short (under 90 seconds) videos which describe... a person's day. The instructions, as outlined by Garrett Murray, who started the group with this video: "Shoot video throughout a day in your life, then put it together and upload it the next day. Don't add any music or sound effects, just use what the camera recorded." Some favourites: Delphine Gilbert in Cordoba, Dean Allen in France, and Piotr/presentday in Florence.
posted by jokeefe (25 comments total)

Okay I bought a flip cam a month or two ago and last weekend I was thinking of what it would take to walk around all day recording everything so that I could squeeze it down to a five minute fast forwarded clip. The flip cam only records for around 45 minutes at a time, so I would have to carry around my macbook and upload the videos every time the thing died. I would also have to create some sort of shirt that could house the camera and hide the red record button so that I could walk around freely.

This idea will be filed into the "already accomplished better than how you imagined" category. I'd like to make one of these instead. They are great.
posted by pwally at 7:17 PM on January 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I am so jealous of Dean Allen's frenchy web developing life with dogs.

bastard
posted by device55 at 7:18 PM on January 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Your favorite day sucks.
posted by hermitosis at 8:05 PM on January 2, 2009

I liked these. Or some of them. A lot of people have macs. Oddly enough my favorite parts seem to be the food shots, the laptop/keyboard shots and snippets of other people. Some people's video is so jumpy it's nauseating, and some have latched on to that idea that you have to have 40 jump cuts a second - which is also dizzying.

If it ever gets really popular, a great next step would be that all the videos are done the same day, and you have to meet up with one other person doing it sometime throughout that day.
posted by cashman at 8:12 PM on January 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

I did this, but 27 straight shots of a grown man weeping softly in the corner -- even when lit from different angles -- didn't seem all that compelling.
posted by milquetoast at 8:41 PM on January 2, 2009 [9 favorites]

These are cool, even if people on flickr apparently do nothing all day but commute while using iphones.
posted by norabarnacl3 at 8:46 PM on January 2, 2009

Here, milquetoast, watch this one-- November 4th, election day for an Obama supporter. It made me happy, at least.

What I love about these is just the ordinariness of everyone's day. The cats, checking websites, going to work, watching TV. There's something incredibly comforting about it all.
posted by jokeefe at 8:49 PM on January 2, 2009 [2 favorites]

Very cool. There are all sorts of opportunity for funny. A day in the life of Ron Jeremy. Anyone?
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 9:07 PM on January 2, 2009

Some of these are great. Others really made me wish you could browse Flickr pools by "interestingness". Others made me wonder how people who videotape themselves browsing "web 2.0" sites all day somehow still fail to tag their flickr uploads.
posted by dvdgee at 9:18 PM on January 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

I would do one of these, but you have to a be a European smoking mac user who works in web development.
posted by parallax7d at 9:45 PM on January 2, 2009

how do you even try to compress a day of wanking and e-mail checking into 90 seconds?
posted by The Whelk at 10:19 PM on January 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Here's a nice shortcut to the best: all videos tagged mydayyesterday, sorted by interestingness

I was meaning to do one of these when I got a better camera and I finally got a nice HD one. I should try this next week for a day.
posted by mathowie at 10:52 PM on January 2, 2009 [1 favorite]

Pretentious.

Mine would involve taking a dump, shaving, sitting at a desk, working out, eating dinner and going to bed.
posted by matty at 11:13 PM on January 2, 2009

something dull x 100 ≠ something interesting.
posted by rhymer at 1:20 AM on January 3, 2009

Meh. I can show an entire week in Muncie in under 90 seconds.
Actually, it would be a single still frame repeated over and over and over...
posted by Thorzdad at 6:24 AM on January 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

I liked these. Thanks. They are oddly affecting.
posted by OmieWise at 7:33 AM on January 3, 2009

These are freaking awesome! Seems like a hell of a lot of people spend their day in front of a computer, though, which seems kind of sad to me.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 8:58 AM on January 3, 2009

Yes, tres bon/ hatin Dean Allen.
posted by forallmankind at 10:24 AM on January 3, 2009

Heeey I want to see what you people's days are like.
I propose that mefites make these and post links in this thread.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 10:47 AM on January 3, 2009

I found most pretty boring (even/especially Dean in France), but the project is a great idea. Things like this will gradually raise the video-competency of lots of people, helping them to learn that moving pictures is a language they can speak as normal people leading normal lives.
posted by fcummins at 11:01 AM on January 3, 2009

I'd do one Monday, but I'm afraid OSHA would fine me. It'd also be pretty boring, unless you like watching people nail up crown. Well, actually, we'll be nailing up some very heavy seven inch crown in a room with a 20 foot ceiling. Good chance I could fall off the ladder. It might not be boring after all.
posted by robtf3 at 12:17 PM on January 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

I wish I had the software to do this. Not that my life is particularly interesting, but the idea of a cool project... For some reason my third-hand Mac doesn't have iMovie... I'll have to find a way.
posted by Kimothy at 3:53 PM on January 3, 2009

Seems like a hell of a lot of people spend their day in front of a computer, though, which seems kind of sad to me.

Alright, I'll throw it out there. On an average day, I'm not talking about your cool weekend trip or your errands day or what have you -- how many of you are not spending at least 50% of your time in front of a computer? 60? 70%?
posted by cavalier at 7:27 PM on January 3, 2009

how many of you are not spending at least 50% of your time in front of a computer?

Not me. But MF does make an appearance.
posted by ikahime at 9:48 AM on January 9, 2009

The thing about spending time in front of a computer is that it's easy to record. It's harder to film answering phone calls or having meetings and such, which is what most office-bound people are doing all day in addition to sitting in front of a computer. (Here is me. Supremely boring, except for the hunter screams...)
posted by gemmy at 4:05 PM on January 10, 2009