Supercut

A supercut is a compilation of short video clips of the same type of action, a "fast-paced montage of short video clips that obsessively isolates a single element from its source, usually a word, phrase, or cliche from film and TV."[1] The technique is sometimes used to create a comic effect[2] or to collapse a long and complex narrative into a brief summary (see TL;DR).

History

Supercut videos started appearing on YouTube shortly after the site's creation in 2005.[3] The concept grew in popularity after culture writer Andy Baio covered supercuts in a blog entry in April 2008, which he described them as "genre of video meme, where some obsessive-compulsive superfan collects every phrase/action/cliche from an episode (or entire series) of their favorite show/film/game into a single massive video montage."[4]

The timing for supercuts's popularity aligned with the early history of the Internet, where there was weaker enforcement of copyright that allowed people to both obtain footage by questionable means and share the supercuts with others, and with the available of easy tools to assemble such supercuts (such as iMovie and Adobe Premiere Pro).[3] Around 2010, content owners began to exert copyright control on their products online, including taking down some supercut videos, thus making the prospect of creating a supercut video risky. At the same time, content owners were making their films and television shows available to digital download and streaming services, making it much easier for those wanting to make supercut videos. This caused some lack of quality control in supercuts, according to people like Debbie Saslaw who had previously produced supercuts for the website Slacktory. Saslaw said that there was a certain type of editorial approach that earlier supercuts had used to tell a type of story with their editing, while newer supercuts haphazardly threw these clips together.[3] A decade since Baio's post, there was a significant waning of supercut videos, a combination of lack of quality, copyright control by content owners, original ideas for supercuts, and a much-larger mix of content that compete for viewership alongside supercuts.[3]

Examples

  • "In 2006, an audience that eventually grew to more than six million watched CSI: Miami's David Caruso don a pair of sunglasses after making a glib remark about a victim. He kept doing it for seven minutes, in basically a möbius strip of shades and awful one-liners."[2]
  • Rich Juzwiak, a culture writer for VH1, uploaded a supercut video of the number of times that contestants in reality television shows spoke lines equivalent to "I'm not here to make friends" in mid-2008, which helped to popularize the format after Baio's post.[3]
  • Christian Marclay's 2010 art installation The Clock is a 24-hour supercut of references to time.[5]
  • "When country music critic Grady Smith sat down to write his list of the top 10 Best Country Albums of 2013 he made a startling revelation: All the chart-topping country songs of 2013 sounded exactly the same.
    Not in the sense that they all sound like country-pop songs — that's a given — but in the sense that even the lyrics are carbon copies of each other.
    Truck - check. Dirt road - check. Sugar shaker in painted-on jeans - check.
    In the hopes that country music fans 'will stop settling for this derivative junk,' Smith made a video to illustrate his point.[6]
  • "With the Internet and more specifically YouTube, local news is no longer restricted just to the municipalities that it serves. It is easier than ever for someone to capture a funny clip from television and upload it online. If you're bored on the Internet searching for these clips – rest easy. A YouTube user did the heavy lifting for you, compiling 2013's best local news bloopers into one 15-minute super cut.
    The video begins with Kerryn Johnston, an anchor for a local TV news service in Australia. Johnston, reading off the teleprompter in Ron Burgundy-esque fashion, says, 'Good evening. Tonight I'm going to sound like drunk.'"[7]

References

  1. ↑ Baio, Andy. "Supercut.org [home page]". Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  2. 1 2 Berkowitz, Joe (December 12, 2013). "A Modern Genre: How To Make A Supercut". Master Class. Retrieved 5 January 2014. Supercuts bring attention to the phrases and devices that jaded movie and TV viewers already see over and over--the tics of film and television--and repeat them to comic effect,
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Raftery, Brian (August 30, 2018). "I'm Not Here To Make Friends: The Rise And Fall Of The Supercut Video". Wired. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
  4. ↑ Baio, Andy (Apr 11, 2008). "Fanboy Supercuts, Obsessive Video Montages". Retrieved 5 January 2014. This insane montage of (nearly) every instance of "What?" from the LOST series started me thinking about this genre of video meme … For lack of a better name, let's call them supercuts.
  5. ↑ Stromberg, Joseph (December 28, 2012). "A 24-Hour Movie That May Be the Biggest (and Best) Supercut Ever". Smithsonian. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  6. ↑ Zimmerman, Neetzan (2013-12-23). "Proof That Every Country Music Song This Year Was Exactly the Same". Gawker.com. [tagged: Supercut]. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
  7. ↑ Aversa, Ralphie (December 30, 2013). "All the Best News Anchor Bloopers of 2013 in One Glorious Supercut". Yahoo! News: Trending Now. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
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