Procrastinate Better

Inspired, Trippy Music-Video Collages

Fromtime to time, a Slate staffer or critic offers up a favorite culturalpick for Procrastinate Better readers. Today’s endorsement is from Slate V video producer Andrew Bouvé.

Have youever wondered what the infamous Pamela Anderson/Tommy Lee home sex tape wouldlook like if lovingly re-edited and set to the tempo of catchy Londonelectro-pop? Maybe a little something like this:

It’s become increasingly easy and popular to repurpose footage from movies and television, with funny or sometimes beautiful results. But that also means it takes something unique to set one video remix apart from the crowd. Jamie Harley , one practitioner of the art, creates reliably exceptional video collages, typically set to the type of indie avant-garde music you might find on the influential music blog Gorilla vs. Bear , and often featuring vintage found footage or old movies. A recent creation, for instance, is a video for another song by the band Prizes that consists of nothing more than footage from the 1981 wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, slowed down or sped up to fit the music. And it works perfectly .

Another (probably my favorite) is an intensely colorful music video for the experimental electro-R&B band How To Dress Well. It’s composed of what looks like old VHS footage, provenance unknown, featuring a parade of Indians in vibrant headdresses layered over people dancing on top of cars in a place that may or may not be Brooklyn. The result, thanks to Harley’s talented editing, looks like a top-notch music video: The visuals and soundtrack seem made for each other, rather than the inspired after-the-fact pairing they actually are.

Got a suggestion? E-mail procrastinatebetter@gmail.com . Follow us on Twitter and sign up for theProcrastinate Better newsletter , too.