American actor Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in 'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory', directed by Mel Stuart, 1971. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

RIP Gene Wilder

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2 responses to “RIP Gene Wilder”

  1. Titus Oneill avatar

    Fantastic work Tim and excellent use of WW and Judas Priest; truly inspired madness.

    I have known of your work peripherally for at least 7 years, but tonight my walkabout the web led me from the Kleptones to your specific works. I am sorry that Uptime/Downtime did not happen as you all had hoped. It was a challenging personal journey I am sure. Believe me, (I was the 4th mashup artist recruited by Gavin: The Reborn Identity, to work on a David Lynch themed mashup project. Colatron, Phil Retrospector, Reborn Identity Wax Audio and myself “TitusPrime” started our collaboration as “The Lynch Mob”. Originally, they just wanted 3 or 4 videos to market the project Mashed in Plastic. But within 5 months Gavin had made 5 videos and I had made 3. I told the crew that we already had videos for the majority of the album and since all the tracks were being remastered as a fluid arrangement we should release it as a feature mashup film.

    Gavin thought that would be great and we both started working to pump out the last 6 videos needed. My editing style was very much intuitive, a visceral use of emotion, surreal juxtapositions that rearranged the established expectations of the visual media. I loved this project and my respect for David Lynch would not allow me to just set music to the scenes as they were shot. Reborn Identity is much the opposite, his work is clean, and sticks with what the music and film are showing,

    So, it became painfully clear to me that there was no way our two styles would be able to harmonise and create the film that needed to be made. I told him he should use his videos and I would help with editing the work into a feature film.

    I mean, seriously, my unreleased video for “The Elephant Man Connection” was unsettling and very, very Lynch. I had composited muppets into the footage, except all twitchy and hiding in shadows, wracked by madness. It was awesome. Gavin’s was a pretty country background with a still photo of sarah mclaughlin hovering in the sky like the virgin mary.

    Long story short I got busy with school and when I went to show some of my work to a teacher in New York, I found out that Gavin had hijacked the whole project,and had used the whole thing as a personal portfolio showcasing his vision, leadership and skill. He only listed 3 of the original crew as the creators, cutting Phil and Myself out of the original lineup. I then found my videos in a section labeled “Fan created content”.

    I actually emailed Gavin and let him know what his actions truly said about him, the hurt it caused me, as well as damaging the genuine spirit of Mashed in Plastic. Gavin is not a bad guy, and he apologized and he updated and changed the webpage.

    I am still very proud of being a part of Mashed in Plastic, it is a fantastic piece of Mashup History now.

    Not sure why I needed to share that with you Tim, but it felt like the right thing to do.

    Cheers mate.

    Titus Prime
    Titus O’Neill
    BootieSF 2007-2012 Mashup Video Editor and VIP Liaison.

    that helped expand your skills as an artist

    1. Tim B avatar

      Thanks for the reply…sad to hear that, I remember the Mashed In Plastic project. Bit of a video overkill all released at once (proud that Videotones managed a slow drip rather than a manic release like that) but I thought it was really interesting. Raised the bar, definitely.

      I have to say the fact Videotones wasn’t fully finished was nothing to do with fall outs, we still all talk to each other, No, it was I did 5 or 6 videos for it, and didn’t want to ‘take it over’ but it was like getting blood out of a stone for the rest of the videos. I think we managed well with what we did – be nice to have a full DVD, which I was going to edit together hence the TV theme running through, that was the linking device I invented – but can’t really do that without all the videos. And getting the ones we did was like herding cats – so I think we all just got exhausted by the project.

      I did, because you can only nag people so much, and there was a little ‘take my toys home’ from someone who didn’t contribute to the project but thought his toes had been stepped on for a video he’d not even RELEASED yet! (What I am, psychic?) And a few egos, but it actually was quite good, nearly all people took in good faith the guidance from the three core people including me, we were looking for something special and in a certain style…so I’m actually really proud of that. It was my idea to do that ‘video album’ and yes, it didn’t end up as a DVD, but I think we got some amazing results.

      But as you say, it’s sometimes hard with these projects to get along, and on the other side I find it hard to maintain quality, it has to be constructive. I think we managed that with Videotones, but sad that Mashed…wasn’t similarly coming from the same book. It definitely looked very good, visually.

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