Welcome to this little experiment in short short film, delivered as a video podcast. It’s simple: twelve shots, each five seconds long. Why? To find a way to show old tapes that won’t bore everyone (including me).
I’ve edited holiday footage down before: 8 hours from three months on a scooter around Europe. It went down to 2 hours 45, then down again to 1 hour 25. That’s watchable, but I don’t have time to. I do have time to edit and to watch a series of one minute snapshots, so I made up some rules to help. Don’t worry, it’s not Dogme.
Pick twelve good shots and find the best five seconds in each. Add some music, credits top and tail, and you’re done. Easy to edit, and twelve similar shots create a tight little haiku-style portrait.
As I work through the many “USA road trip 2004” tapes sitting in the cupboard, I’ll add more episodes to the video podcast. I’m considering opening this site up to other people’s videos. I’ll add a few how-to guides if people are interested. For now, drop me a line on twelvefives [at] funwithstuff.com.