The Amazing Movie Montages of Paul Proulx

[This is the first of a regular series on Youtube directors and visual/graphic artists who do work related to film and television.  If you have a portfolio of work and would like to be featured in this series, please contact me at contact@alwayswatching.org ]

Those of you who listen to The Watchers Podcast at Always Watching know that we're trailer geeks. I personally have a deep fascination with how trailers are cut and, ultimately, with the finished product.

The other day I discovered one of Youtube user Barringer82's film mashups and wrote about it on Neatorama. His work takes the collective works of a director, sets it to music, and cuts it like an extended movie trailer or an academy award montage. Here's his mashup of the Coen Brothers' films:

I gushed about these mashups to all my friends, as they not only made me geek out, but also gave me a renewed appreciated for all the films of each director profiled. Determined to find out more about these wonderful gems, I contacted Barringer82 and got him to agree to an e-mail interview. In real life, his name is Paul Proulx. This is his story:

Q. Tell us a little bit about yourself. What's your background in film editing and what do you currently do for a living right now?

A. By the time I reached my senior year in college, I was the go-to guy when someone needed an editor. It's weird how, in film school, everybody branches off into their own specialty areas - and it's usually not by choice. It's not like it's always been my dream to be an editor. After I graduated, I spent a year shooting and cutting my own stuff; doing all the stuff I couldn't do before because school got in the way. Once I got a decent demo together, I began looking for a job. Thing is, people don't put out ads for writer/directors - the best someone in my position can do is finding editing jobs - and there are quite a few (though many of them are for porn sites). I've been getting by as a freelance editor for the past year - doing most of my work for a pop culture website called sly-fi.com. 

Q. How did you get the idea to do these mashups? Can you tell us about the first one you ever did and what prompted it?

A. As I'm thinking of it, I started doing this when I was 12 - I used to cut Queen songs together using audio cassettes. I was always fascinated by the quick little music montages radio stations play to give a sense of their genre. But I guess more than that, it was the Oscar montages. People complain there are too many of them during any given telecast - I wish the whole ceremony were those. (Anyone who loves them as much as I, I suggest you seek out the 69th Oscar opener). But the first video I did was a Scorsese tribute. Apart from being one of my favorites, he shoots his movies in a way that is both specific and open to edits - they simply gel together in way no one else's pictures do. But I think the real reason I actually sat down and DID IT was because, plainly I had nothing else I could do. Unfortunately, I don't have actors, money, or locations. I do have editing software and DVDs. Lots of DVDs. So, if I had nothing to shoot, why not cut some of the best existing footage.

Q. How do you choose which directors you want to do mashups of?

A. It was important that I got my top 5 out of the way: Kubrick, Scorsese, PT Anderson, Lynch, and Michael Mann. Everything else is on a whim. I did a Tim Burton one and a Wes Anderson one simply out of overwhelming viewer request. I guess at the end of the day, I wanna make stuff people wanna watch, so I've avoided more esoteric directors. But I'd love to do a Jodorwsky one or a Jack Hill one or a Walter Hill one. But I'm always open to suggestions - the request I've been getting more than anyone is Ridley Scott.

Q. Nuts-and-bolts question: What software/hardware do you use to create the mashups?

A. Dan DeStefano, a fellow editor, taught me how to do it right. There's an application called 'Handbrake' that turns DVDs into AVI files. Once I convert the files into DV, I bring em into Final Cut & go from there.

Q. How long does it take you to do a mashup? What are the difficulties associated with doing them?

A. The ripping & converting is time consuming, but it doesn't ACTIVELY consume my time - you can set it & go off and have lunch or something. The actual editing is usually 3 - 5 hours [Ed. note: 3-5 hours??? This is madness]. It's generally pretty quick and easy because I never sit down to do it before I know exactly what I want to use and what goes where.

Q. Your use of music in the mashups is particularly masterful. Can you talk about your process of choosing which songs to use? I noticed most if not all of the music was from the actual movie soundtracks.

A. That's key. I've seen Tarantino tributes that use music that's not featured in any of his movies. And all I can think is, "Really? Out of all that music, none of it was cool enough for you to use?" So, for me, it has to be something that they, the directors, have used. And, while sometimes I can't resist, I really, really try to avoid using the most obvious song. Once I noticed that almost every Scorsese Tribute uses "Gimme Shelter," I made a second Scorsese Tribute using other stuff.

Q. Some of your mashups have gotten popular on sites like Digg. What ways, if any, have you experienced this popularity and what did you think of the response?

A. There's nothing pretentious about it - I like making them, and I like when other people like them. It is kinda flattering when people request that I cut some kinda tribute for them. But it's weird - some people really hate them. It's easy to get unimpressed by simply dropping clips into the rhythm of a given song - but I think the people who enjoy them mostly enjoy the subject matter I've chosen. But I do like making them - mostly because I want to watch them more than anyone. I post them on the web because that just seems to be the thing to do when you have any kind of media. And the fact that there are people who do like watching these is only encouraging and some of the compliments have been really over-the-top. Some people have compared me to Jimmy Workman, and someone even said the style reminds them of Thelma Schoonmaker. Comments like that make it a lot easier to stare at a computer screen for 5 hours for no pay.

Q. What's next for you?

A. As far as the tribute videos go - who knows? I did 'films of the 70s' and 'films of the 90s' videos, so I guess the an 80s one. But, yeah, a well cut trailer can sometimes be a masterpiece unto itself - especially if it's better than the movie it's selling. And I would never be opposed to falling into that job. But I could only see it as another step towards making the actual movie that warrants a trailer or a tribute video. Because, here's the thing - at 25, Paul Thomas Anderson had already made "Hard Eight." I'm 25, and I made a tribute video FOR "Hard Eight" - amongst others. And while I guess that's a pretty bleak perspective, it materializes into whatever drive I have to perhaps move on to something more. I've written a handful of feature length scripts and I've even shot and cut a feature length video. And while the only words I've ever heard associated with film festivals are "unfulfilling" and "hassle," short web videos seem to be the avenue to get noticed. So, Thank you for noticing.

If you'd like to contact Paul, you can do so through his Youtube page. If you liked this article, you'll probably like these:

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• Adam Quigley's Ultimate Summer '08 Movie Guide
• Top 10 Badass Geeks of Film and TV
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• Top 5 Pre-Murder Monologues
• Top 10 Fan-Made "Sweded Films

You can also hear Dave, Adam, and Devindra on The Watchers Podcast.