Essay Tim Morrison, 1990
Scratch Video
Scratch video is ideally suited to things you love or hate most, like for instance, characters you would love to destroy or things and subjects you hate. As a critical resource, it is a relatively simples production process, although some subtlety might be inserted in at different levels. Scratch Video is also valuable to understand in a very practical and straightforward manner how TV is structured and perceived - and, of course, the way that movies and TV material can express (by means of editing) almost anything you would like to. But Scratch Video has become very popular lately because it is fun to make and to watch.
Using scratch video examples, let us observe the development of several techniques, from the very first until the newest and more sophisticated ones, that are still widely used in movies ad television industry. We will try to analyse and debate the context, the content and the humour that lie behind the scratch ideas, which are not very ordinary due to the improvisation of the production process. In television, very few thigs are left to chance!
The several editing and special effects techniques shall be explored and explained, as well as the importance of using sound effects and music. We shall briefly get into the copyrights issue... rules and regulations ofr movies and TV... and how copyrights affect and modify the shows we want to make - or those we do not want to!
8th Fotoptica Internacional Video Festival. 09 a 15 de Novembro de 1990. p. 86.