Fallout Bob, creator of Video Armageddon and the (shooting for Spring 2009) Video Armageddon 2. He has recently released the widescreen edition of his popular Video Mixtape. Unlike other mixtapes Video Armageddon shoots onto the screen like a shotgun blast from the apocolpyse. I was going to review Video Armageddon for this peice, but Bob does such a good job describing the film, I feel it's best to let his own words speak for him.
Video Mixtape Reviews: Please describe yourself.
Fallout Bob: Fallout Bob is a fan of obscure genre films with occasionally too much time on his hands.
Video Mixtape Reviews: Do you have a history of video production/editing?
Fallout Bob: Absolutely.. not! One look at Video Armageddon should show you that heh. I actually sat down and spent a lot of time with a variety of video editing packages trying to learn myself the basics while making VA. I actually was about half way done at one point but realized it looked too cheesy (stock transitions, etc it screamed "I used the software that came with my camcorder to make this!") so I got a copy of Premiere and started over. That took hours and hours of extra work but I think it was worth it. Even though I only had minimal previous experience going in, I tried my best to make something that didn't look too amateurish or just hastily thrown together. Hopefully the finished product at least reflects a basic competence.
Video Mixtape Reviews: What intrested you in video mixtapes?
Fallout Bob: Somebody did a mixtape flood a year or so back on one of the usenet groups. Thats how I first ran into Crazy Dave and a few of the others. I'd heard of these tapes back in the 80s of course, but had only seen snippets of a few. The fact that these were back and being traded on the internet fascinated me. I really love the rapid fire "WTF??" nature of these tapes, it's fun not knowing whats coming up next. I also enjoy the just plain strange underground vibe
you get from some of them. Plus they can be quite addicting.
Video Mixtape Reviews: Where do you gather inspiration from?
Fallout Bob: After I saw some of the other tapes I just felt I had to do my own. I have a pretty big video collection (a few thousand films on DVD, VHS and Laserdisc) so I figured I had the library to draw from. Since I'm a big fan of Apocalyptic films I decided to kinda tie it altogether with that as a running theme.
Otherwise I just tried to find the craziest shit I could and go from there. I also tried to not duplicate clips from other tapes (which is becoming increasingly difficult as the number of tapes increases!) but if you notice VA and Retard-o-Tron 2 both have the exact same Sly Stalone Porno clip with the exact same music and everything.. given that we were working on (and released) our tapes at pretty same time it was pure coincidence!
I also tried to concentrate more on the stuff I was personally into (cheesy horror flicks, weird stuff etc) but leave out the stuff I'm not really into (the real autopsy/snuff footage, scat porn etc). I actually added the lesbian porn scenes to offset all the gross out porn in the others. Ive gotten some flack for it, but i dont care i like lesbian porn so deal with it. ;)
Video Mixtape Reviews: There are segements you seem to have filmed yourself. What were the seed for these and can we expect more of the same in future installments?
Fallout Bob: The "Fallout Bob interludes" as it were was totally my way of aping the Crazy Dave tapes. I love his wacked out crazy "pig mask" scenes and definitely wanted to include something like that in my tape. I don't have quite the resources that Dave does apparently, but I tried to add in a few strange "live action" moments. When Video Armageddon 2
rolls around you'll definitely see more. I like to mix in a bit of the bizarre into the tapes to give it that funky eerie 'what the fuck am I watching?' feeling plus some mystery.
Video Mixtape Reviews: What video mixtapes have you seen and liked or disliked?
Fallout Bob: After you make your own mixtape you really start to appreciate the "artistry" of making a good tape. Getting a good flow of clips can be a challenge, especially when you have to keep the clip length short to avoid being tedious. You might have the most awesome clip ever but chances are its only 10-15 seconds. Try filling 70 or 80 minutes 10-15 seconds at a time!
Going by that some of my favorites are of course the Crazy Dave tapes and anything by Skeleton Farm. I thought 'Retard-o-tron II' was much better than the original as well (which was already very good in it's own right). Those tapes have some great obscure clips, great editing and flow very well.
On the downside I'm not a big fan of the tapes that have a lot of the autopsy/real death footage or the clips of japanese people crapping on each other. Those clips aren't very hard to find nor are they "shocking" really. That's not really what I watch mixtapes for. I mean, i'll watch the most fucked up horror/gore film ever because I enjoy the talent and creativity behind making a fake head explode in an interesting way. Showing a clip of some poor russian's head actually exploding doesn't take a lot of skill.. just a russian and a gun. I also hate tapes that have super long clips or clips that last longer than they should. Knowing how hard it is to fill up a tape I see extended clips as 'cheating' or just 'filler', a clip should never be so long as to be boring. Going back over VA myself I see plenty of my own clips that are probably too long!
Video Mixtape Reviews: What do you feel makes a good video mixtape?
Fallout Bob: Awesome obscure clips delivered quickly. You really do want the absolute highest number of "WTF??" moments jammed in per minute. That's what makes a great tape. Anyone can take mainstream movie clips and just loop them into a group with no thought. A really good tape is crafted with care with at least a basic understanding of how to edit video together to preserve some sort of 'flow' so that you keep the audience entertained. It's not rocket science of course, especially with these super easy to use video editing packages out there now.. but it does require more skill than you'd think. So I like to see the tapes that really have some time and thought put into them. I also love seeing weird shit I haven't seen before.
Video Mixtape Reviews: The Video Mixtape has exploded recently, where do you feel it's roots come from?
Fallout Bob: Well obviously mixtapes started in the 1980s with people trading strange videos around. The internet has just sped up the process, you no longer need to seek out people with nth generation VHS tapes you just need access to a torrent site. I think the ease of transferring tapes and the proliferation of cheap editing software has contributed a lot to the recent 'explosion'. Still, this last year really has seen a huge increase in tapes. When I started work on Video Armageddon about a year ago there weren't that many tapes floating around at all, in the last year there's probably been more tapes released than in the last 5 years put together. I'd imagine the popularity of stuff like Crazy Dave, the Skeleton Farm tapes and Retard-o-Tron (and maybe even to a lesser extent Video Armageddon) have really inspired people to get out and make their own tapes which is definitely a positive thing!
Video Mixtape Reviews: Where do you see video mixtapes going?
Fallout Bob: Well, it seems like we're in a flood right now which isn't going to stop anytime soon. I get e-mails all the time from people that enjoyed VA that are trying to get their own tape out. On one hand that's awesome because it means more tapes! On the downside though it means quality might dip a bit. Most of the older tapes have a lot of work into them and it shows. I know I spent on and off about six months making Video Armageddon. While some of these new tapes are really, really good there's a few clunkers in the pile. I saw one the other day that was just thrown together with a bunch of clips from mainstream films that dragged forever. I mean if you’re going to have a clip from fucking Silence of the Lambs don't make me sit through 4 minutes of it. Not that I want to down anyone's tape, we should be supportive but I'd hope that going forward people try to at least put a minimal amount of effort into these tapes so that we don't get flooded with junk as that could cause a backlash on the entire scene.
Video Mixtape Reviews: What do you want to the people of Earth to know?
Fallout Bob: Fuck the mainstream hollywood system, support independent and underground cinema. Call your mom.
A very special Thanks to Fallout Bob for allowing us into his bomb shelter for a few questions.
