Cartoon Nerd Meets Video Nerd

I have been s-l-o-w-l-y working on assembling the components needed to import and edit videos. A few people I know have been creating cartoon compilations and this is something I've been wanting to do for about 20 years or so.

I always try to wring out every last bit from whatever low-end, trailing edge technology is available to me. For instance, my old band, MYSTIC EYES, actually released tracks that were recorded in my basement on a 4 track cassette recorder.

Well, now I'm flogging some low-end editing programs on my low-end PC to import, edit and burn some cartoon DVDs. While it is not exactly splitting the atom or anything, I've managed to suck entire days out of my life to create a few compilations of overly-familiar cartoons on DVD-R.

Yeah, the Nobel Prize folks'll be calling any minute, I reckon.

Here is the low-end MY DVD software that came with the external DVD-R drive I bartered for. (Kudos to Steve Stanchfield of Thunderbean Video!) This is the menu for creating, um, menus.


Here is the screen for the video file editing function. This is a silent Felix cartoon that I transferred from a Japanese Cartoon Network video tape. While I am not yet sophisticated enough to remove their logo from the upper right portion of the screen, I was able to remove the Japanese subtitles from the bottom of the screen. I also edited and re-sequenced some scenes to minimize some pre-print picture rolling. Finally, I added a new soundtrack created from editing a sound file of an early "hot jazz" 78 rpm recording.

In some cases, I either tweaked or re-created the main title cards. For "One Good Turn" I simply inserted the "Jacques Kopfstein" title card into the Felix proscenium background. I did this to make the title cards uniform.

In other cases, the title card was so crappy-looking, I simply replaced them with my own. This is the result from pulling videos from a wide variety of sources, e.g. VHS tapes, dollar videos, poor 16mm pre-print sources, etc. The fact that I like to fiddle with stuff also was a factor in doing this.

I've put together other silent cartoon pot pourris consisting of Aesop's Fables, Out Of The Inkwell and Alice cartoons. I keep learning and refining my techniques, such as they are, with each new disc.

Whether or not this is a wise investment of time, I can't say.

But my inner nerd is satisfied and Mariel seems to like them...