Here's a curious case of synchronicity. A couple years ago I found this great educational film called "One Got Fat". It was a super creepy, surreal story of monkey kids riding bikes. I cut the film to a Shins track and presented it to the band. They had their own videos in the mix and they passed on it.

Fast forward two years. I was checking out MTV2's lineup when to my surprise I saw pictures of monkeys on bikes. I searched around and noticed that the band Dr. Dog had the same idea. It's nice to know that my idea was good enough for MTV2, but frustrating to see it. It's the ultimate case of "hey, I had that idea". I'm not mad, unless somehow they saw my version first. Anyway, here's my version: quicktime Here's their version: You Tube

         

So it goes with public domain movies - an incredible resource but availble to all. I use a lot for my videos but try to mix and match to avoid duplication though I have one particular movie up my sleeve that I'm going to use whole.

BTW: I like your video alot, but I like the Dr. Dog song more than I like the Shins song and it goes nicely with the footage.

         

which leads us to... www.youtube.com

the moral of the story? The kids riding bicycles dressed as monkeys idea is OVER.

         

Also: videos.antville.org

         

Wow, that's hilarious. Or creepy. How'd you all find other clips with monkey bike riders so fast? Shouldn't we be able to use this hive mind mentality to cure cancer, or figure out how to keep french fries hot?

In any case, I guess the biggest frustration was over the "coincidence" that a good friend of mine moved from LA to Philly and is now neighbors with guys from the Dr. Dog band. Not that my friend totally sold me out, but that there must've been some sort of incestuous myspace symbiosis going on.

Again, I'm not too miffed since I didn't shoot the footage to begin with, and now I've been shown that it wasn't a terribly original idea to begin with.

I'm pretty damn impressed by this video, though: www.youtube.com

These guys have taken it to the extreme.

I guess it proves my theory that eventually all the pop culture of the past will one day be pillaged, eventually leading to new ideas. But until that day we have monkeys on bikes.

         

here's another: videos.antville.org

         

and another: videos.antville.org

         

weird shit. i like your version better, but probably only beacause i like the song more.

         

I'm curious as to where you guys are finding "public domain" footage, or a catalog of what's available. Is there a source online? I've only ever used the usual, Getty Images etc. Would be helpful to know of other sources.

         

MONKEY LOVE

         

www.archive.org I assume this is where people got it from. They have some interesting stuff, but the image quality is usually too low for most venues.
As far as I'm concerned, these videos don't count until someone tracks down the 16mm and gets a decent transfer to work with.

         

This film has pretty much been played to death. I produce a cult video show in Atlanta, GA known as Channel Zero. A couple years ago, I used this film as the backbone of a two-hour episode hosted by The Hold Steady and Breaker! Breaker! The film was originally downloaded at www.archive.org and entitled "One Got Fat". During the two hour episode, I produced a video for each hosting band using clips from the film and live footage that I filmed with them. The overall result was great! Then a few months later, I got in a video from another band (I believe it was the Majestic Twelve) who had simply ran the film through an auto-Muvee program. This is the clip that aired on MTV2. As it turns out, more and more bands are starting to grab films from archive.org, randomly clipping them together and calling them music videos. This specific film, One Got Fat, has been used tons of times. The end result is that they all end up looking the same, and therefore, lacking in any sort of value. Oh yeah, we filmed an episode with Death from Above 1979 when they opened for Nine Inch Nails. During the NIN concert, sure enough, footage from "One Got Fat" was incorporated into their concert visuals. Archive.org films are a lot of fun, but with so many bands using them, they're hardly unique anymore. *** The best way to make a compelling video is to film your own unique footage instead of pulling files off the web that are also accessible to thousands of other bands. Otherwise, you'll find that a dozen other people have done the same thing. Here's a video that we recently put together for an upcoming Channel Zero episode using our own footage: vids.myspace.com

         

more monkey love

         

HAHAHA

         

Thanks everyone for helping me come to terms with the unoriginality of my monkey love. Like I said, it wasn't a big deal, just something I thought would interest my video loving brethren.

         

I love monkeys too W&P.

         

In no way did I mean to be insulting. To be honest, it's a great idea. Unfortunattely, since the material is so readily available, it also appears to be an obvious idea. I have to admit that I thought I was onto something original. Being two years ago, we seem to have been ahead of most, but still, too many people thought the same way. I'm starting to shy away from archive.org for music video material. There always seems to be someone else using the exact same sources. Seriously though, that's a total bummer. I wish you well on future projects. Be seeing you, Jeff Clark, Channel Zero producer

         

Jx3piqcf3kg = The Lamps "20 Inches of Monkey" (dir. Stoney Sharp) mov/mp4. Also: Primus used "One Got Fat" as a background in stage shows.