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October 20, 2010 10:38 AM   Subscribe

oops, by Chris Beckman, is a fascinating video collage of people dropping their cameras. It won the experimental category of the 2010 Vimeo Awards (previously).
posted by Hoenikker (32 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
I like the Ostrich
posted by KokuRyu at 10:44 AM on October 20, 2010


Oh, man, exactly what I was hoping would happen with the ostrich happened!
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:47 AM on October 20, 2010


Ooh! And the "throwing the camera into the air" transition is awesome.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:49 AM on October 20, 2010


Awesome. It suggests the ubiquity of digital cameras combined with everyone's need to tape what they're seeing instead of experiencing life should fix the overpopulation problem within a decade. #f-stop
posted by yerfatma at 10:53 AM on October 20, 2010


It's really terrific. A little long, or at least I only made it a little way more than half-way through, but it's beautifully executed and (for lack of a better word) cool.
posted by From Bklyn at 10:53 AM on October 20, 2010


Nice.

(Also: I'm glad my concert-going days were done before the ubiquitous 1,000-cameras-held-up-to-film-the-other-1,000-cameras thing started.

I love photography but it seems often times the act of taking a photo or film of something you're doing is more important than the activity itself.)

posted by maxwelton at 11:07 AM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]


Awesome.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 11:08 AM on October 20, 2010


(Also: I'm glad my concert-going days were done before the ubiquitous 1,000-cameras-held-up-to-film-the-other-1,000-cameras thing started.

I love photography but it seems often times the act of taking a photo or film of something you're doing is more important than the activity itself.)


I don't know where I heard it, but someone said when you view a video you recall the memory of the video, when you view a photograph, you recall the experience itself. Videos are only good for capturing blunders. But they capture them pretty good.
posted by phirleh at 11:14 AM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]


I like this! People can take as many photos and videos of themselves doing stuff as they want, as far as I'm concerned - it's boring and pedestrian as hell now, but if any of it manages to survive bitrot over the next 100 years, it will be fascinating to people in the future.

(I can't help but imagine someone in Lascaux 17,000 years ago wondering why that guy keeps painting all those damn animals instead of just going outside to look at them.)
posted by usonian at 11:32 AM on October 20, 2010 [3 favorites]


I really enjoyed it, though my eyes need a nap after all that camera swinging.
posted by breezeway at 11:52 AM on October 20, 2010


Chris also did the fantastic Girl Talk video mashups.
posted by bjork24 at 11:59 AM on October 20, 2010


I kept thinking "this is a nifty idea but I'm going to get bored and stop watching soon" and then it was ten minutes later and I was disappointed to have reached the end. (Which incidentally that last shot is a nice tweak of our expectations.)

It's so nice when execution actually measures up to the inspiration.
posted by ook at 12:41 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]


Wow, that was great. Loved the "throwing the camera in the air" transition as well, and the guy running up the tube slide edit too.
posted by Tacodog at 1:10 PM on October 20, 2010


That was astounding. Brilliant concept, perfectly executed.

Now, the one where the person is flying over the beach and goes into that apartment... what is the story there???
posted by buriednexttoyou at 1:36 PM on October 20, 2010


Too herky jerky. It about gave me a headache.
posted by zzazazz at 1:47 PM on October 20, 2010


Jiminy. I shouldn't have watched it in full-screen. I'm going to have one heck of a nightmare tonight about getting my eyeballs pecked out by an ostrich.
posted by cgomez at 1:52 PM on October 20, 2010


Wow. That's great.
posted by chairface at 2:04 PM on October 20, 2010


Very cool how the falls stop being the focus of the video after a while, and instead simply become a way of stitching the slice-of-life clips together. Thanks for sharing!
posted by archagon at 2:34 PM on October 20, 2010


Now, the one where the person is flying over the beach and goes into that apartment... what is the story there???

It's a camera on a model plane. I've actually seen that particular video before- I think it might have been linked on MeFi once.
posted by Dr-Baa at 3:39 PM on October 20, 2010


Thought so!
posted by Dr-Baa at 3:41 PM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]


Reminded me of the Kutiman-remixing-Youtube thing, America's Funniest Home Videos, and an arty short film all rolled up in one.
posted by not_on_display at 5:44 PM on October 20, 2010


Too herky jerky. It about gave me a headache.

I've been listening to variations on this complaint since the advent of the small, lightweight, hand-held camcorder. If you can't stand the movement, close your eyes, or maybe go look at a painting.
posted by philip-random at 6:04 PM on October 20, 2010


Awesome. Reminds me of Linklater's ending to Slacker
posted by In The Annex at 6:55 PM on October 20, 2010


Loved it. Talk about life's rich pageant, there it is.
posted by Bron at 7:19 PM on October 20, 2010


I got really into it and kept catching myself thinking 'I need to post this to Metafilter'.
posted by seagull.apollo at 7:36 PM on October 20, 2010


Thanks for the link Dr-Baa; that's incredible!
posted by Hoenikker at 8:03 PM on October 20, 2010


It made me kind of dizzy at first, so I took it off of full-screen and watched in a window. I was able to enjoy it much more that way. And it's worth enjoying!
posted by ErWenn at 8:21 PM on October 20, 2010


This one time, at band camp camping with friends some 20 years ago, I got camera duty while other people cannonballed off the top of a houseboat. I modestly suggested that since the water really wasn't that deep -- about four feet -- that I could get a better angle if I carefully slipped into the lake myself. The woman whose camera it was, who had one of the best incomes in the group and could afford stuff like a video camera, coldly replied "That camera is not going anywhere near the water!" Yeppers. Got it.

Now -- it's actually been a few years -- we have one-time-use video cameras. And even the ones that aren't have solid state components and a certain apparent resiliency. (Well, we know the video survived these, we don't know that the camera did.)
posted by dhartung at 9:27 PM on October 20, 2010


While people with cameras can be obnoxious, I see this as positive. If everyone has a camera you get to see some awesome stuff. Really nice editing and it totally deserved the award. The down side of this video is that next time a child asks to borrow my stuff I will have this in the back of my mind.
posted by Felex at 12:10 AM on October 21, 2010


Oops is my favorite four-letter word.
posted by nickyskye at 6:20 AM on October 21, 2010


I love the few comments here and on vimeo about "could have been edited down."

"this thing that someone else has done with their time and creativity and shared with me for free: i have a criticism of it. they have done too much of it!"
posted by SeƱor Pantalones at 7:59 AM on October 21, 2010


That was so beautiful! Thank you so much for posting it. I loved the ending -- really breathtaking. Such a great example of what you can do with just editing.
posted by pazazygeek at 4:22 PM on October 21, 2010


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