Say Whaaaa?!?

Everyone has made a video where they play footage in reverse. Whether you are bringing attention to the fact the the footage is reversed, or you are trying to make the footage appear as if it is moving forward, reversing video is a simple way to achieve a variety of visual effects.

But, because everyone has used this technique time and time again, it seems almost impossible to come up with anything new or unique using reversed footage as the focus. There were a slew of credit sequences that used this technique in the 90s, but truthfully, it seems that ever since the music video “Drop” by The Pharcyde (directed by Spike Jonze), the only thing you see using reversed footage is people eating bananas and throwing pillows on the floor.

There are the occasional gems here and there, and of course there is Jimmy Fallon’s Put it In Reverse, but for the most part, no one is doing anything exciting with technology anymore. Now, we acknowledge that effects can get stale over time, however, many of the same effects that have been around just as long are still being used to make some pretty creative stuff.

So, we challenge you, do-it-yourself filmmaker, prove to us that creativity still exists in the reverse effect. Prove to us that it doesn’t take Spike Jonze to do something unique. Prove to us that the DiY filmmaking community hasn’t plateaued and that Jimmy Fallon isn’t the only person reinventing an old friend. If you do, we’ll mention you by name* on our next Podcast.

*Name will be played in reverse.

Craziest Production Story

We know that things can get wild out of there making films, so we want to hear the craziest instances of things going down. Someone catch on fire? Get trapped in a location? Have to ride a penguin to safety from vikings? We want to hear about it.

Here are the rules:

- The incident in question must have happened on a shoot you were on

- The incident in question must be true (honor system)

That’s it! All you have to do is write down your story, e-mail it to adam@diy-filmmaking.com, and we‘ll announce the winner and the runners up on March 22nd. The deadline is midnight, Friday March 19th.

If you can, send in videos or pictures with your submission – just remember that sending anything means we can publish it on the site. We won’t use your name if you don’t want us to.

The winner receives a free DVD copy of American Movie!

So send in those stories!