Video scratching is a
video editing
Video editing is the manipulation and arrangement of video shots. Video editing is used to structure and present all video information, including films and television shows, video advertisements and video essays. Video editing has been dramaticall ...
technique used within the
music industry
The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...
. It is a variation of the audio editing technique
scratching
Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable to produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. A crossfader on a DJ mixer may be used to fade between two record ...
.
It is typically used in either
music videos
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
or live performances, with one or more individuals manipulating a video sample to make it follow the rhythm of whatever music is playing.
History
Academy Award winning filmmaker
Zbigniew Rybczyński
Zbigniew Rybczyński (; born 27 January 1949) is a Polish filmmaker, director, cinematographer, screenwriter, creator of experimental animated films, and multimedia artist who has won numerous prestigious industry awards both in the United Sta ...
used the technique in the 1984 music video for "
Close (to the Edit)
"Close (to the Edit)" is a single by English avant-garde synth-pop group Art of Noise, released on various formats in October 1984. It was closely related to their earlier single (and hip hop club hit) "Beat Box", though the two tracks were deve ...
" by
The Art of Noise
Art of Noise (also The Art of Noise) were an English avant-garde synth-pop group formed in early 1983 by engineer/producer Gary Langan and programmer J. J. Jeczalik, along with keyboardist/arranger Anne Dudley, producer Trevor Horn, and music ...
. The video would go on to win two 1985
MTV Video Music Awards
The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...
: Best Editing and Most Experimental Video.
The British art collective
Gorilla Tapes, comprising
Gavin Hodge
Gavin is a male given name originating from Scotland. It is a variation on the medieval name Gawain, meaning "God send" or "white hawk" (or falcon). Sir Gawain was a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. '' Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is an e ...
,
Tim Morrison and
Jon Dovey, developed a body of scratch video art work, also to much critical acclaim, during the early to mid-1980s. Their seminal 1984 work
Death Valley Days
''Death Valley Days'' is an American old-time radio and television anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program ...
reflects upon the stifling atmosphere of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
years and has been exhibited at a number of prestigious venues including
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
where one of the video's fours sections entitled
Commander in Chief was included in the 2003 Tate exhibition A
Century of Artists Film in Britain.
Kutiman became famous for video scratching with his work using YouTube videos in 2009.
See also
*
VJing
VJing (pronounced: ''VEE-JAY-ing'') is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization ...
*
Culture jamming
Culture jamming (sometimes also guerrilla communication) is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It atte ...
*
Remix culture
Remix culture, sometimes read-write culture, is a term describing a society that allows and encourages derivative works by combining or editing existing materials to produce a new creative work or product. A remix culture would be, by default, pe ...
References
DJing
Film and video technology
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