Everything Is A Remix: Kill Bill and the Mini-Doc Series

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I love remixes, in just about all shapes and forms. In movies, videos, music, art and so on. There's a little documentary series online from Kirby Ferguson called Everything is a Remix, and according to him we all love remixes to the extent that it just about consumes our modern culture, particularly in films. The best part, is that most of us don't even know we're watching a remix.

Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

It's pretty condensed, and some parts are worth re-watching just to catch the little details. Basically Ferguson details the history of a growing "Remix" culture as we know it. I think its accurate enough, and done with humor and dazzling editing. It's an excellent remix in and of itself. Although I appreciate its work and its attempt to inform viewers of what it is they are watching and consuming, the doc seems to lack a bit of depth and feeling for my taste.

There are a lot more questions to be asked, past who copied what, and how. What does it mean to be original? Is there anything out there that can be considered truly original? Is it even really possible to create an original work anymore? What's the difference between a 'copy,' a rip-off, an homage, and a source of inspiration? If everything is a remix of something else before it, is that necessarily a bad thing? Is this even as new of a phenomenon as Ferguson suggests? Haven't we always used the same stories and themes as a human race?

I more or less have my own opinions about those questions. I'm just about disgusted with the amount of sequels and adaptations of everything under the sun that has been spawned thus far and continue to be made, with only occasionally producing real quality and memorable films. Word has been out for a while that Hollywood is either out of "original" ideas, or they just aren't willing to bank on it. I'm betting more on the latter.

Christopher Nolan's work has proved to be somewhat of an anomaly. He gained mass recognition and acclaim with his additions to the Batman adaptations, and followed them up with his own originally mind-bending Inception. He made Batman not only slick and cool again, he also made a crazy successful, unique, and challenging film, staying true to his personal aesthetics as a filmmaker. He somehow snaked his way into the Hollywood system and just about blew it apart. But whether or not his work will somehow inspire the big studios to get behind the non-adaptation types (Nolan himself working on his 3rd Batman movie) will be determined in the years to come.

I actually really love what Nolan has done with the series. I also love people like Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodovar just to name a few off the top of my head who specialize in remaking favorite genres and films into their own distinguished styles and contexts. They even refer back to their own earlier films and re-use the same shots and characters. What's the difference between them and those who make the same  formulaic adrenaline-charged action flicks or crude comedies? I think the difference is that they know they are "drawing influence" from others and they're trying their hardest to do them justice. To them, movies are the paints and the canvas with which they create their art. And in our modern age of visual media dominating our attentions at every turn, how could we not be a generation of remixes and remixing when its all many of us ever know?

Ferguson's series is a great introduction to and summary of a film world of repeated images and ideas. His progress can be followed as he makes the last 2 parts at everythingisaremix.com/info, while Part 2 is down below.

OH, and here's a fun little sequence, taking Tarantino's ultimate remix movie Kill Bill Vol. 1 and the films that  he "borrowed" from. Again, it's not just the fact that he borrowed bits and pieces from them, but how he used them in his own taste and style. All that aside, it's a fun video nonetheless.