"ElvisMovies":
"A MIKEVIDEO INTERNET MOVIE SERIES"
In
October 2002, I created the very first of what now comprise three "ElvisMovies"
videos. In fact, the original was a flash animation, and was featured
on AllThingsMike with a separate downloadable music file, before I actually
made a streaming video file of the footage. Although the flash animation
was somewhat prehistoric, it paved the way for ElvisMovies the next
year, which streamed from my servers until YouTube went online in 2005,
and it has been
housed there ever since.
This is what I wrote
on the Feature Page in 2002: "I've created a tribute to Elvis Movies.
This is a tribute to Elvis Presley started on the 25th anniversary of
his death. The images are captures via Tivo, Turner Classic Movies,
and both music and pictures were recorded by standard RF cable directed
into the back of a VCR's input and output to the computer from the VCR
SVHS and audio outputs into the video and sound card. I hope this works.
It really isn't finished, started as an MPEG and is now a Flash swf
file.
Elvis Presley completed
an amazing 33 feature films in merely a decade. From 1960, when he returned
from the Army, to 1969, with the completion of "Change of Habit",
our hero starred as quite a few similar semblances of himself, and gathered
together half a dozen or so faux Memphis Mafia Members. The films paid
tribute to in this Flash collage are mainly from the Metro Goldwyn Mayer
collection directed by Norman Taurog in the late sixties. I remember
the widescreen Hawaiin vistas, the motor boats, the seemingly endless
string of Art Deco motels with kidney shaped swimming pools. All in
glorious color. All more or less letting us see Elvis as he really was,
and is. An American Icon."
After putting ElvisMovies
on YouTube in 2005, it quickly became one of my most watched videos,
owing to the iconic stature of the subject. Using some of the same Tivo'd
movies, I created ElvisMovies 2 on Pinnacle Studio in 2006, which is
similarly very popular. In May of 2007, I recorded more Elvis Movies
from TCM, but upgraded to HD service soon after, and I needed a new
DVR for the HD service. I recently hooked the non HD DVR to my computer,
and on December 6th, 2008, downloaded musical numbers from a variety
of Elvis films recorded from the Tivo. The result is ElvisMovies III,
which is the longest of the three vids, at just over 12 minutes.
ElvisMovies
III (December 2008, 12 min. 26 sec.447MB high definition wmv
{HD} file, 1280x720) Since YouTube is accepting files up to 1 GB and
has a widescreen player, I've created the latest edition of "ElvisMovies",
my mashups of Elvis Presley musical numbers, in widescreen and HD. The
original images were culled from the Tivo'd films taken from Turner
Classic Movies during the anniversary Elvis Marathon in 2007. Only now
have I downloaded the files into my computer from the Tivo, and I completely
created ElvisMovies III on Dec. 6, 2008.
Both
ElvisMovies and ElvisMovies 2 are popular on YouTube. ElvisMovies
III is bigger and better, including more popular songs from a few of
my favorite ElvisMovies.
As I say on my website,
Elvis made 33 movies, but they are really only one movie, and when cobbled
together, give a greater appreciation that in fact, the performances
in these films, largely derided and criticized, even by some of his
fans, when they were released, (three times a year) remain our legacy
of this great performer, and besides his recordings and some early kinescopes
from TV, are the definitive widescreen musical performances by which
we remember him.
Hooray Elvis Presley.
Hooray ElvisMovies III.
ElvisMovies
2 (2006, 9 min. 58 sec.)The sequel to, (or the main event compared
to) "ElvisMovies" from 2003, this is a YouTube MAX movie exactly
10 minutes long. The song clips are longer, and there's more of a natural
flow to the "events" in "ElvisMovies 2". This time
I included my favorite Elvis production number, almost in it's entirety,
the stunning "Do the Clam". There are 33 ElvisMovies, and
there is one ElvisMovie. One commenter said: "wow...I wanna see
the movie now!" This is it."ElvisMovies 2". The one you've
been waiting for.
ElvisMovies
(2003, 4 min.) This is the original ElvisMovies, a "trailer"
for the more ambitious "Elvis Movies 2". An original "assemblage"
type MikeVideo like in the 80s, but taken from digital Tivo images and
input directly into the computer, this brings together footage culled
from an Elvis marathon on TCM.
In
October 2002, I created the very first of what now comprise three "ElvisMovies"
videos. In fact, the original was a flash animation, and was featured
on AllThingsMike with a separate downloadable music file, before I actually
made a streaming video file of the footage. Although the flash animation
was somewhat prehistoric, it paved the way for ElvisMovies the next
year, which streamed from my servers until YouTube went online in 2005,
and it has been
