The Law of Entrainment

(starts in the black.)

The Law of Entrainment, © M.A.Hackett 1999

Entrainment (n) (of a rhythm or something that varies rhythmically) cause (another) gradually to fall into synchronism with it.

I put together this video from found footage and found audio. The audio is about 7 layers consisting of a focus group about toothbrushes, surveillance footage from a fast food drive-in, and I really can't remember what else. I think I ripped a segment from The Tape Beatles who had already ripped from somewhere else. (Sorry guys, but I couldn't locate you in the late 90's.)
It was one of my last videos before I shunned technology and went all touchy-feely with paint and canvas again. Right after graduating, I landed a primo dope job as a 2nd shift, tape op and conversion engineer at a conversion facility in Chicago, appropriately named, International Video Services. I suspect that the whole operation was a front, but I digress. (The mere fact that I knew how to convert NTSC to Pal and Secam, elevated me waaay above the rest of the yahoos who were simply working at dub houses. I worked the evening shift with my co-worker Diedre. Mostly we converted The Oprah Winfrey Show to Pal, but a lot of industrial video came through the room. I frigging love industrial videos. Something about the machines working. Work work work. After that I worked 4 more years at a post house (Avenue Edit) in Chicago. I cut the video while working there, thanks to the generosity of Rick Ledyard, the owner, and sound guru Raul Rosckes. I guess technically I should credit the STBX because his video, Things to Remember About Daumier, is why I chose a structuralist style for cutting. Ah, love.

It screened at one art exhibit in Chicago and about a year layer later, I moved to LA and you know the rest of the story. Caveat- the video is extremely frame-accurate and due to some compression stuff, some information may have gotten lost in the process. Not much, but it's a little crunchy.