A new trend is hitting our screens: filmmaking without a camera

With a variety of footage now available, from old archive to highly produced art-directed clips, remixing is becoming the new filming. As the results from Getty Images, The Next Big Idea prove, everyone can get involved.

Films made almost entirely from existing footage are now seen everywhere, from adverts to film trailers, from short films to art installations. The trend began in the same way as audio remixes, with illegal mash-ups created by talented individuals on the edges of the law. But now huge companies such as Viacom and General Motors have been encouraging people to re-edit their advertisements - occasionally with unexpected results.

Catching up
"The growth in video remixing has happened because of the Internet, and because hardware and software have become increasingly cheaper and easier to use," says Graham Daniels, an experienced visual re-mixer and cofounder of Addictive TV, a group of DJs, VJs, motion-graphics artists and producers. Addictive TV has worked with DJs such as Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers, creating live video remixes consisting of existing footage. They were also chosen by New Line Cinema to remix the trailer of the recent Antonio Banderas film, Take the Lead.
"It's like the growth in mixing and sampling audio - for the last 15 years, it's been way ahead of video, but now we're catching up, and it's enabling a whole new generation," says Daniels. "We call it 'sampled footage,' following the audio model. In the same way that you'd take a drum loop and a guitar solo as samples, the term fits perfectly with the world of video.

"Also, many of the skills are the same as those for mixing music. You have to know something about composition, spot the really good shots and be a good editor. People have been using archive footage for years for those awful 'Best of the 1980s' television shows, and in documentaries too. It's not just an underground skill."

Christian Anderson-Ramshall, who produces promotional short films for Channel Five in the UK, was one of the shortlisted entrants in The Next Big Idea. The competition required filmmakers to use 50 percent or more of existing Getty Images footage to create a short film - similar to what Anderson-Ramshall often does in his day job.

"For Channel Five," he says, "if we don't have any footage of a forthcoming program, we'll find footage to build something on. You often get filmmakers traveling with DV cameras, who sell footage they don't use to archives. There's so much imagery out there, and using existing footage is both more cost-effective and adds new elements to the work.

"Using footage does make you work harder - sometimes the footage isn't quite what you had in mind, or is shot differently from how you would shoot it. But it can also change your idea for the better. For our Getty Images Next Big Idea entry, we wanted some young guys playing tennis, but when we searched the archive, we found an old couple playing tennis instead - and that added a really weird, surreal element we wouldn't otherwise have had. I do use images like this day to day, but the competition really gave us the opportunity to let our imaginations run wild."

Finding a narrative
The basic principles of making a film from existing footage are the same as making one with a camera, according to Daniels. "You begin with an idea," he says. "That can come from the footage or from somewhere else. You can create any kind of narrative using just samples - it's not too difficult. Our brains will always look for a narrative to comprehend what you're seeing.

"It's not even a new idea. Salvador Dali made a film called An Andalusian Dog, using a series of seemingly unconnected images, and the way they're put together makes you think that this must be a flashback, and that is what he's seeing out of the window. We always try to impose a narrative on what we see.

"But recently, the mindset about remixes has changed. Now we're getting a lot of commercial work, as people are beginning to understand what it's about. A lot of companies are looking for something new, from ad agencies to record labels, and they're realising that this is another way to use their archive footage. We've found that when one big company commissions something from us, others follow."

It's not just for the experts. Mike Folgner of Jumpcut asserts that "there are thousands of everyday uses [for remixed video], such as friends who have all gone on the same holiday, and are remixing their photos and videos to create films of the trip, as well as other, more commercial uses, such as people collaborating in new ways to make films."

"I think the whole remix thing has become a part of our culture," says Anderson-Ramshall. "It was only a matter of time before it hit images."

EDIT by Getty Images is published quarterly and reveals the very latest in visual trends and the shifts in photography and film, analysed and explained by the Getty Images global Creative Research team and the professionals who use imagery. All six issues of EDIT can be downloaded free at www.gettyimages.com/edit.

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