Screen Rush is the blog of film critic and journalist Eric Kohn, whose work regularly appears in indieWIRE, New York Press, Filmmaker, Moviemaker, Heeb Magazine and a half dozen other outlets. A true twenty-first century movie buff, his writing centers around the impact of new media on the moving image, the changing face of film criticism, and the tempestuous relationship between pop culture and independent artistry. This site includes links to his recently published work and allows for additional thoughts on cinema's modern state. E-mail Eric at erichkohn(at)gmail(dot)com.
I tend to avoid overemphasizing the aesthetic qualities of viral videos in order to focus on authentic cinematic accomplishments with new media. Funny cat videos just don’t cut it (although it begs mentioning that the general public watched similarly rudimentary entertainments via Edison’s Kinetoscope a hundred years ago). “Henson’s 11,” however (above), arrived as a nice surprise: A well-cut combination of the audio from Ocean’s 11 and footage from Muppets movies. I’m less amazed by how amusing it is than by just how much I would like to see this movie get made.
I reached out to the YouTube user behind video and discovered that she’s Kat Reilly, a Connecticut-based film student from New York who was assigned to make a fake trailer for her class (along the lines of the famous mock trailer for The Shining that changed the context of the film). Apparently, Reilly’s trailer was a real hit in the class, but she didn’t think about putting it online until her family saw the video during an Easter visit and made her create a YouTube account. It’s an interesting case of a nascent viral video taking the creator by complete surprise. “I can’t believe all the attention it’s received in the past week,” Reilly wrote me. “I think it’s hysterical that this little project that I obsessively edited for a week is getting attention from people outside my small film program. Plus, it kind of helps my secret plan to bring the Muppets back into the mainstream…they’re pretty dang cool!”
I hope other film schools are giving out assignments like this—it seems like a great way to break down the language of the trailer, an increasingly important skill in these ADD-riddled days.
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