Everything Is A Remix

I recently watched a four part documentary called 'Everything Is A Remix' which is written and mixed by Kirby Ferguson and these are the main points I picked up from each episode:

Part 1- the song remains the same

• The word remix means to combine or edit existing materials to produce something new.
• For remixing, you do not need expensive tools, a distributor or skills; anybody can do it.
• Covers are performances of other people's material, and knock-off's are copies that stay within legal boundaries. Covers and knock-off's are known as legal remixing.  

Part 2- remix Inc 

• Most box office hits rely heavily on existing material. For those films that are not 'remixes', the term 'genre films' is used to describe them. Genres are broken up into sub-genres which have there own. even more specific, conventions. For example, horrors have sub-genres of slasher, zombie and creature feature which all have standard elements that are appropriated, transformed and subverted. 
• Films are built on other films, plays, graphic novels, actual events, toys, commercials, books and television shows. For example, Star Wars follows the outline of the Monomyth which consists of stages like the call to adventure, supernatural aid, the belly of the whale, road of trails and meeting with the goddess. Star Wars (1977) plays like a much more updated version of Flash Gordon (1936) and they share similarities such as the opening titles design. 
• Creation requires influence- everything we make is a remix of existing creations, our lives and the lives of others. 

Part 3- the elements of creativity

• Copying is how we learn, nobody starts out original. We need copying to build a foundation of knowledge and understanding.
• After copying, it is possible to create something new through transformations, taking an idea and creating variations. 
• The most dramatic results can happen when ideas are combined. 
• The basic elements of creativity are: copy, transform and combine.
• The interdependence of our creativity has been obscured by powerful cultural ideas but technology is now exposing this connectivity. 
• Multiple discovery is the same innovation emerging from different places.
• "We're all building with the same materials"
• "Progress happens when all the factors that make for it are ready, and then it is inevitable"  

Part 4- system failure 

• Social evolution- copy, transform and combine. It is who we are, how we live and how we create. Our new ideas evolve from the old ones and social evolution is up to us. 
• Ideas are layered, interwoven and tangled.
• Original creations can not compete with the price of copies.
• The gains we get from copying the work of others do not make a big impression but when it is our ideas being copied, we get territorial. 
• When we copy, we justify. When others copy, we vilify. Most of us have no problem with copying as long as we are the ones doing it because we believe that ideas are property. 

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed everything is a remix and I was kept interested the whole way through. I was shocked to discover how many songs and films in particular are just copies and now I feel as I have more knowledge on the topic of remixes. My favourite episode was part 2 because it focused on film and it was fascinating to see how many comparisons just one film can have.