Grant Robertson · new media superhero

The more I get into digital filmmaking (if you can call The Squadcast filmmaking) the more I realize I have a ton to learn. Trolling Youtube for DIY videos on steadycams, dollies and the like, I ran across this gem: The $25 steady cam.

Great stuff, but what really freaked me out was the soundtrack. It’s the CCMixter megacollab, done by CDK and about 18 other mixters, which heavily features some sample packs from RCA stereo commercials of the fifties that I created in 2005. Of all the little guerrilla fair use projects I’ve ever done, that little sample pack has the most amazing staying power.

for darwin bell, by Atila.

If you have a few minutes within which to be blown away by photography; Darwin Bell will rock your socks.

Ever wondered where to find all that great music used in the Lonelygirl 15 videos? Having spent months looking for songs featured in TV commercials, I totally feel your pain.

(Metric’s beautiful “Grow up and Blow Away”, which was featured for 15 seconds in a Polaroid commercial a few years ago, nearly killed me)

So, if your Jonesing for that sweet music fix you came to the right place. It appears that Lonelygirl15 (or her handlers… ??) provides titles, and sometimes a domain but, typically no link to the music she (they) use in her uploads.

So, here they are the “lost” songs of Lonelygirl15:

Beat Gorilla feat. Lisa Debenedictis - “Brilliant Daze”
(Music from My Parents… Let Us Go Hiking)

Beat Gorilla - “Razor Sharp”
(Music from “Mysteries of My Past… REVEALED!”

Pitx - “Good Morning”
(Music from He Said, She Said)

Victor Stone (Fourstones) - “Son Soo Treatment”
(Music from Purple Monkey)

MC Jack in the Box feat. Grant Schindler - “Remained”
(Music from Daniel the Neanderthal)

All of this music is available under the Creative Commons license, which allows you to share in the creativity. Remix, share, upload and download these songs, as long as you follow the simple rules in these licenses.

I can’t say I’ve been following the lonleygirl15 saga. I’m not a big YouTube user, as uncool as that might make me. So, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered this on The Reluctant Midwesterner, “I was recently surfing through the YouTube universe and came across a video blog by LonelyGirl15. The music used in this video is by Lisa DeBenedictis . I was absolutely and uterly transfixed by the vocals. Searching the web, I found the re-mix community”

I read enough Digg and Boing Boing to know the Lonelygirl15 “brand” (geez, that says something about the level of market penetration doesn’t it?). Turns out that this lonelygirl 15 video uses a remix of “Brilliant Day” by my pal Lisa DeBenedictis.

How’s that for the power of the internet? Lisa, a mostly self produced singer/songwriter who composes out of her bedroom, licenses music under the Creative Commons and becomes one of the most remixed artists ever. In turn, one of those remixes falls into the middle of the largest YouTube meme series yet, which makes the LA times when it’s (maybe) revealed that Lonelygirl15 is a filmmaking project, and not actually a homeschooled girl with parent issues.

The HazMat wearing protesters of DefectiveByDesign have been seen at Apple stores all around the US. I caught up with the DefectiveByDesign team for an interview, and it’s posted over at The Digital Music Weblog(TDMW)

I was interviewed by Biotic on the podcast / radio show “Black Sweater, White Cat” this weekend. Biotic and I talked about music, the commons, my move to Halifax and the recent addition of he and his co-host Subsystem7 to the contributrs list at my site, Indieish.com.

We had some technical difficulties with the interview that caused radio listeners to miss the first half. Fortunately, you can catch the whole interview, sans technical issues, in the podcast version of BSWC.