Brainstorm: Dawn of the Damp
Achill Island. 1999. A different decade. A different millennium. Driving, interminable rain sweeps in over Keel strand and down from lofty Slievemore. Dark thunderous clouds roll and boil in the grim skies overhead. And there, huddled and damp, in a weather-lashed holiday home, are we. Me and the family. Gazing out mournfully as nature kicks our holiday in the balls.
But, wait. All is not lost. We have in our possessions a technological miracle. A camcorder. You press a button and it imprints moving images on tape. Crazy! And check out the settings. Pixellate! Solarise! Sepia! The future was here (or there, and then). What a world.
And so, we grabbed the camera, and pointed it at things (mainly ourselves). Two hours later and the greatest fucking zombie film ever made by anyone anywhere was in the can (if, y'now, "the can" had been an 8mm TDK tape). My friends, behold BRAINSTORM (or Dawn of the Damp). The newly-digitised "Director's Cut", with delicious layers of funky muzak lashed on.
Forget wordy old Ulysses. This is the the most important cultural artefact ever hewn by Irish hands. Even if you ignore its aesthetic wonders (not that you should), it functions as a poignant and moving document of the world that was. A few short months later Y2K rode in on a pale horse. And the computers, as predicted, went nuts. And the robots rose from the wreckage of global apocalypse to force us all into sex slavery. The bastards.1
- I think I'm accurately representing Adam Curtis' thesis here. [back]
June 18, 2011
7 responses to Brainstorm: Dawn of the Damp
The hat-dream response is a tour de force of RSC dimensions.
That’s the young brother. A larynx accident diverted him from the Thespian world into civil service. The loss, to art, is incalculable.
Tee hee! Love it. Brings back fond memories of the horrendously pretentious arthouse slasher movie me and some friends made in sixth year.
So you did work out how to transfer VHS to digital then?
The demand for slasher/zombie fare was still high in the late-80s/90s, even though studios weren’t bothering with ‘em. Thus a lot of terrible SOV (shot on video) stuff got VHS/DVD (and even theatrical) releases. It’s kind of sweet that zombie fans were serving their own needs, even if the stuff was total muck.
Had numerous problems with drivers and inputs/outputs, but it’s all working fine now. Can transfer stuff from the VCR and the old camcorder. Great fun.
How did you get it working in the end? I have a bunch of things I’d like to transfer.
First of all I bought this yoke: http://www.ezcap.tv/.
Once you install the software that comes with it there’s a bit of fiddling around with drivers and settings involved. I know how to sort it now (for Windows at least), so can advise if you want to buy one.
Additional thing not included in the package you need is – a SCART that has an output/input switch at one end (or an adaptor that does this) and RCA cables at the other. Plug the SCART end into the VCR and the RCA cables into the corresponding sockets on the EzCap device, before plugging that into a USB port and away you go.
I’d imagine your camcorder comes with cables like these so you shouldn’t need to buy anything extra for transfer from camcorder. Ask away if there’s anything else you want to know.
It seems to be working fine so far. Decent for the money.
Cool, will check it out! Thanks!