Wired News: Festival Takes Stock of Old Films

A group of amateur filmmakers in Seattle has put together a festival that doesn’t require any filming, sets or actors.

Instead, the Stockstock Film Festival showcases films made from stock footage – those old educational films, forgotten commercials and other random movies freely available in the public domain.

Festival operators pore over films in the online Prelinger Archives and choose a mishmash of films that are then combined and pared down to a 40-minute tape. Entrants must create a short film, limited to three minutes, using the footage provided. They can manipulate the films however they like and add dialogue, titles and music. All that’s required is a computer with video-editing software and the $20 entry fee.

Recycling cultural ephemera

(We are hoping to get Rick Prelinger though to our New Media Group here at Stanford some time soon.)