Thank YOU Steinski! Locked in the
video vault for 13 years. In tribute to the 45th anniversary of one of the
most tragic days in American history, our video for maverick DJ Steinski's
"The Motorcade Sped On" hit the ether in November of 2008.
The Motorcade Sped On has been in my work archive for the last 12 years and my good
friend and co producer/director Lyndon Lorenz and I began to discuss releasing
it on You Tube throughout 2008. As November of 2008 marked the 45th anniversary
of this horrifying and tragic chapter in American history we decided it
was time. Produced in 1995, for myself it was a project to hone my video
editing skills in a career which today finds me editing culinary programming.
It was edited in an "old school" edit room of what was then
one of the leading post-production facilities in New York. Equipment
included 3 Sony BVH 2000 1" video machines for playback and D2
format Sony machines for recording. We also had a Beta SP machine which
we used for visually "scratching" the "ich bin ein Berliner"
line. The machines were controlled by a CMX 3400 edit controller and
the images were manipulated using Ampex Digital Optics (ADO) and Grass Valley
Kaleidoscope. The images were mixed though a Grass Valley video switcher.
Within three years, this technology would begin to become extinct as desktop
editing systems such as AVID began to overtake the market. Like many Americans,
we have always wondered if we will ever get the real story about JFK's assassination.
For years before we began this project Lyndon and I had read many
books, screened many films and debated for hours on the subject. Oliver
Stone had recently put out his film on the subject. The audio track
caught our attention on WAMC's Spinning On Air radio program. It
was produced by a guy named Steve Stein releasing sound collage dance tracks
under the name Steinski and Mass Media. Lyndon and I spent about a half
a year of Saturdays and many Sundays in the edit room after collecting and
screening footage and mapping out the video. Lyndon brought his keen iconographic
visual sense and the idea of highlighting specific words within the dialogue
using title cards which were each hand made by Lyndon using matte board
and press type and shot under a title camera. We ran some shots through
a monitor placed under the same title camera. I think we both came up with
the idea to run the audio track through an oscilloscope and videotape that
also under the title camera to use as a keyable element. For me, that oscilloscope
waveform is the pulse and heartbeat of the video punctuating particular
passages ultimately flat lining at it's conclusion. I would humbly
like to thank Steve Stein for producing this thought provoking track which
got us going and would also like to thank the producers of the films and
still images which we procurred to make this happen. The audio track
and images used are the property of the associated owners. The completed
video work The Motorcade Sped On is the intellectual property of
Lorenz and Turits.
