Tag Archives: original

Online Video

Did Pharrell Williams Plagiarize Happy Video?

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Did Pharrell Williams Happy music video plagiarize Anne Marsen‘s dancing video as seen on Vimeo in 2011?

Happy is almost a shot-for-shot reproduction of this dancer's 2011 video "Girl Walk All Day"
Happy is almost a shot-for-shot reproduction of this dancer’s 2011 video “Girl Walk All Day”

 

In this video, the dancer shows how Happy was almost a shot-by-shot reproduction of Marsen’s 2011 video titled “Girl Walk // All Day.” Her video showing the theft is titled “Pharrell Likes My Work.” But it’s so close, it seems like she has a decent case for copyright infringement. Or at least warrants a public apology or acknowledgement by Pharrell and Yoann Lemoine, the creative director of Happy’s music video.

Pharrell Loves My Work from Anne Marsen on Vimeo.

 

 

Online Video

Black Swan-Gate Coverup Revealed: Natalie Portman’s Face Digitally Placed Over Sarah Lane

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How much of Black Swan’s ballet dancing was actually Natalie Portman, and not the secret “stunt” ballet girl, Sarah Lane?

Journalists became suspicious based on this poorly altered photo in the "Black Swan" press kit, which was later recalled.

Below is a video that shows how Black Swan’s directors and producers digitally placed Natalie Portman’s face over “stunt” dancer Sarah Lane, then tried to conceal that fact during Oscar-buzz season. The film producers allegedly hushed Lane, an American Ballet theatre soloist, and even reedited a public F/X reel to conceal some of the facial replacements. Lane says Portman actually did about 5 percent of the full-body dance scenes (see EW article linked in below image).

The real deception is the math: 80% and 5%, and how they got there

Darren Aronofsky said he had his editor count, and of the 139 dance scenes in “Black Swan,” only 28 are Sarah Lane, who was not credited in the film as a stand-in. That math is a bit misleading, however, since the number 139 includes lots of simple things like wiggling arms in front of a mirror.

What’ya think? Oscar coverup?

book, Online Video

Avoid Regret Pixelation Hangover When Posting Videos

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I’ve lost original video files before, and sometimes even the compressed versions. I’ve had to rip my own video from Revver so that I could own some version, and it’s a horrible pixelation relative to the original file (or even the compressed low-rez version). Now I have a few simple rules to save you from this agony:

1) Whenever you finish a video, export it as a FULL digital file and stick it on a backup drive (they’re down to .20 cents per gig so there’s no excuse here… don’t buy a 1 terabite drive- get a few cheap 500-750 Gigs… it’s a hassle, but the more drives you have the damage one crashed drive will inflict). Then kill the master edit file (too big) unless you think there’s a good chance you’ll have to rescore or condense the video (both are hard when the music becomes smooshed with the audio.

2) Upload the best version you can. It pains me that I was uploading 5-15 meg files (when the max on many sites were 100 megs) because it was easy… I could explort as “CD-ROM” in seconds. As a result, my old videos weren’t even taking advantage as the resolution of that time. Now I always upload larger files so they’ll look good as the potential delivery quality options evolve (YouTube feeding to Comcast or Verizon or AppleTV). Sometimes I even upload the full DV file if it’s within the 1 Gig limit.

3) Use the high-end uploader on TubeMogul (by the way, I don’t make money from TubeMogul but if you’re not using it you’re an idiot. You can upload to all the sites in one swoop. Who cares if nobody finds them on Yahoo Video or the dozen other sites. It’s worth a shot, and it helps you in search engines. The company is my favorite video startup and is always adding new features and tools. Well guess what they now allow you to do!? You can download your video in its native form (I believe). That’s huge. How many times have I ripped my own video because it was the best archive. Now I’ll always be able to at least retrieve the highest version I submitted.