Last year Jonathan McIntosh managed to bring the Open Video Conference to Glenn Beck’s attention with his video “Right Wing Radio Duck”. This remix mashed up bunch of vintage Donald Duck cartoons with clips from Beck’s radio show to tell the tale of one average American duck’s post-recession descent into paranoia.
The remix quickly went viral, attracting tweets from the likes of Roger Ebert, John Cusack, and even Bill O’Reilly, and its own remixes. It also came to Beck’s attention, who, as Jonathan says, “devoted a full 10 minutes of his show to denouncing the video while spinning an elaborate conspiracy theory about how it was plot against him involving ‘communist unions,’ the stimulus package, the NEA and the White House.”
In response to Beck’s investigation, Jonathan responded with a Popcorn.js project that dynamically sourced the origins of each clip used in the video. This, he says, “allows viewers to follow media fragments back to their original source to see them in their original context,” and make up their own mind about Beck’s criticism of the video.
As part of such a major moment in OVC history, we’re excited to announce that Jonathan will be delivering a lightning talk at 10 AM this Saturday — just one of the great speakers that will help us kick off the weekend’s festivities.
Jonathan says he’ll be addressing “how remix video fits into the larger open video and participatory culture projects” at his talk. OVC attendees can also expect a brief report on the best responses to “Right Wing Radio Duck” — including this video, which Jonathan cites as one of his favorites, where Mickey Mouse gets embroiled in the remix conspiracy — and the premiere of a new short remix he describes as “humorously addressing the gender imbalance on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
Aside from the lightning talk, Jonathan will also be one of the facilitators of Saturday’s session Making a Remix Maker — stay tuned for more updates on this session later today.
Don’t miss this great speaker — today is your last chance to register online for the OVC!