The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 3B Giving thanks for celebs Found Footage Festival founders Nick Prueher and Joe Picket have been collecting tapes since high school. Pric ess ootage The Found Footage festival unearths decades worth of hilarious VHS clips By KAVI SHEKHAR PANDEY Daily Arts Writer The age of the VHS tape is long gone. Hell, even DVDs are being phased out by Blu-ray Found discs and direct Footage downloads. But Festa there's another chance to expe- Saturday, rience the joys of 9:15 p.m. those jet-black, At the Michigan rectangular $10 hunks of plastic when the Found Footage Festival rolls into Ann Arbor on Saturday. Now in its fifth year, the Found Footage Festival is a showcase of odd, unintentionally hilarious clips taken from unearthed VHS tapes. Festival co-founders Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett take the festival around the country annu- ally, presenting a brand new set of videos each year. As Prueher explains, the festi- val arose from nothing more than an amusing hobby he and Pickett shared in high school. "We found a (training) video for custodians in a break room in a McDonalds where I was working in high school and it was it was just so extraordinarily dumb and insultingwith bad production val- ues - it was like the perfect storm of stupid videos," Prueher says. "(Joe and I) became obsessed with this video and started show- ing it to friends and making our running commentary along with it," he elaborates. It became apparent to the duo that their discovery of a moronic training video was not an isolated incident - the world was littered with bizarrely comical videos. Thus began Prueher and Pickett's quest to search every thrift store, pawn shop, garage sale and gar- bage can for discarded VHS tapes. "Over the years we amassed this collection, and five years ago we decided to go on the road with it and make it a comedy show," Prueher explains. But the festival is more than just a visual procession of video- tape footage. Prueher describes the show as a "guided tour" through the anthology of videos he and Pickett have found. "We explain how we found all the videos, putting them in con- text, and during the videos we talk over them, making smartass remarks whenever applicable," Prueher says, cuing the trade- mark humor of "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Examples of these videos can be seen on the Found Footage Fes- tival website. Highlights include -- -- "How to Seduce Women Through Hypnosis," an unintentional date- rape training guide, the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Fan Club Video," where the show's actors share their lives' passions and "How to be a Real Man," a rebel- lious teenager's path to Jesus that includes the classic line, "Pearl Jam - you're toe jam!" One of the most memorable videos, titled "At Home with English," features a small, mus- tached man attempting to teach non-English speakers common English phrases through wild gesticulation and extreme enun- ciation. Like most footage in the collection, the only thing funnier than the video itself is the story of how it was discovered. "We were in Denver last year doing a show and we met this guy - kind of a weird haircut, kind of a weird guy, and he said 'I collect videos too, I'll show you some of my collection,' " Prueher tells it. "We go over to his place, this bright pink house in the middle of all these suburban houses in Denver. Inside, he's got pictures of meat on the wall and paintings of clowns - he was like the real- life Pee Wee Herman. We sat on his zebra-print couch until four in the morning as he popped in tape after tape to show us his collec- tion - one of (the tapes) was 'At Home with English."' Another priceless piece of foot- age was given to Pickett and Prue- her by none other than comedian David Cross ("Arrested Develop- ment"). The 1987 tape, titled "Video Mates," contains 90 awk- ward minutes of eccentric men describing their best qualities in hopes of landing a date. For the purposes of the festival, though, the tape was unfortunately trimmed to a more appropriate length. "We cut together our favorite guys, our favorite moments into a four-minute montage and we feel like we've barely scratched the surface of what's on that tape," Prueher says. For burgeoning collectors of wacky videos, tracking down the best "lost" VHS tapes involves more than just random luck. "The local thrift stores are sometimes the best, but of the chain stores, Salvation Army i: head and shoulders above Good Will and St. Vincent de Paul's - they just don't screen the videos as well." "(When Salvation Army) gets a box of tapes, they just stick that box right out there on the floor and we're there to scoop it up," he explains. As part of their travel itiner- ary, Prueher and Pickett plan on paying visits to Ann Arbor thrift stores before the show. So if you see two men scouring through the VHS tape bin at Salvation Army, you'll know why. In a sense, Prueher and Pickett are the excavators of these VHS artifacts, resurfacing comedic treasures for new generations to see harebrained creations of yore. The tapes should also provide nostalgia for those raised in the pre-YouTube period of techno- logical innocence. Eventually, the day will arrive when all traces of VHS tapes disappear, but the Found Foot- age Festival will simply adapt to whatever technologies become newly obsolete. "Who knows, maybe we'll be finding hard drives at thrift stores in 15 years and mining stuff from that," Prueher jokes. In this period of rapid media communication, people may act more reserved on camera, quite aware that they are living under a microscope - a single recorded gaffe can lead to millions of online views before the sun goes down. But Prueher isn't worried about depleting his inventory of foot- ages just yet. "The production values are getting slicker and people have become more savvy, but the bad ideas don't ever change. If people with bad ideas still have access to video equipment then we're in no danger of running out of mate- rial," he says. Prueher and Pickett want to tell everyone coming to the show to bring any appealing pieces of footage so that the founders can potentially include the clips in future iterations of the festival. "We encourage anybody who comes to the show to donate to the cause ... we always love meet- ing people and hearing the stories of how they found stuff," Prueher says. "That's how we keep the show going."' you hear that noise? The distinct tween-age squeal bordering between ado- lescent mania and unhealthy obsession? Don't lock your doors just yet, there's a likely explana- tion for all of this: The newest installment of SASHA the "Twilight" RESENDE saga is opening in theaters tonight at midnight. As this celebrity-trash spiel goes to print, lonely teenage girls across the country are donning their tackiest Edward Cullen T-shirts and abusing Kristen Stew- art voodoo dolls in preparation for the much-talked about pre- miere of"Twilight: New Moon." Exactly why this series - which documents a hilariously contrived romance between a sparkly vam- pire and an awkward high school girl - has been such a monster hit among Twihards is beyond me. The only thing I am sure of is that Robert Pattinson, the male star of the series, will have to hire 12 extra bodyguards to protect him- self from all the underage girls and sexually frustrated women who will attempt to pull off his limbs to take home a souvenir from the film's red carpet premiere. On the topic of media-blitz tours, Sarah Palin is out on the talk show circuit promoting her "memoir," the hastily ghostwrit- ten "Going Rogue." Can you believe this literary extrardinaire reportedly received upwards of $5 million as an advance for her underdeveloped musings and insults? No wonder the publish- ing industry is in such bad shape. While Palin was crying to Oprah and Barbara Walters about her daughter Bristol's baby-mama woes, Levi Johnston - the Alas- kan hunk who knocked up Palin's teenage spawn - was shedding his moose-skin garments for a scan- dalous Playgirl spread. It's amaz- ing to think that a little more than 12 months ago this woman was vying to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Sarah Palin isn't the only Bible- thumping conservative darling pushing an illiterate memoir these days. Former Miss California Car- rie Prejean, a woman who should have lost all media relevancy exactly 15 minutes after Perez NEED ^MORE DAILY? Tune into Michigan Daily Radio on WCBN-FM-Ann Arbor 88.3 FM every Tuesday and Thursday at 6 p.m. asked fi marria rative a to posi media recentI Live w Questir her pul to his p Too1 has too et to m as thec One of' has rec eight d Miss A two ga indefen ties, sh subsidi tapes a most u: cle is th was rei in their were pl one awl Mov family( is garn for hisI H "Ac award. tape-re conver daught disgust selling1 conseq was "sp Heath] his dea is onlyI versatir to get h emotio that Mi eight Jr tograpl their pl man is, childre Ferg frontw discove all gum A mone recentl Enquir fling w or her opinion about gay Duhamel. Poor Fergz. Regardless ge, is hawking her own nar- of whether the skeezy allegations rnd using the opportunity are true, these are hardly the tion herself as a liberal rumors a newlywed wants to hear martyr. To that end, Prejean in the months after her fairy-tale y freaked out on Larry King wedding. Perhaps part of the prob- hen the King of Softball lem stems from a recent confession ons was unsatisfied with the singer made in the pages of blicist-approved responses The Advocate, where she claimed redictably ordinary queries. her therapist had to teach her the bad this Barbie look-alike technicalities of infidelity. Appar- nmany skeletons in her clos- ently, it's not really cheating if it ake a convincing campaign happens out of state with someone over girl of Christianity. of the same sex or if you paid for a Prejean's former boyfriends lap dance a few hours prior. ently been peddling up to Marital infidelity is gloomy. ifferent sex videos starring Let's move onto a topic everybody nti-Gay Marriage. While enjoys, or at the very least can y partners tying the knot is appreciate reading about: celeb- rsible to Prejean's sensibili- rity drug use! If there's one thing e contends that pageant- that fame and fortune proves, zed boob jobs and solo sex it's that access to money leads to re A-OK with Jesus. The boredom, and boredom inevitably nsettling part of this deba- leads to experimentation. The tat Prejean's own mother latest trashy confessional comes portedly with her daughter from Harry Potter star Daniel r lawyer's office as the tapes Radcliffe, who allegedly had a gig- layed. They're going to have gle-fest at a recent London party, kward Thanksgiving. where he proclaimed, "I LOVE ing on to more salacious WEEEEEED!" I'll refrain from drama, Michael Lohan calling him Harry Pothead from ering further support now on, because that title already Worst Father of the Year belongs to Prince Harry. Another more disturbing claim comes from former tennis great Larry Potter: Andre Agassi, who recently admit- ted that he was high on crystal cio W E EED." meth for the better part of the late '90s. As unsettling as this image may be, it pales in comparison to Daddy Lohan has been Agassi's other allegation: that his cording his tragic phone famous locks were fake and that a sations with his troubled weave covered his balding head. er Lindsay. If that wasn't There's almost nothing I can do ing enough, he has been to erase the image of his synthetic the tapes to the media, blonde strands flying across the uently revealing that Lindz tennis court. recial friends" with the late As we enter the holiday season Ledger in the weeks before and begin to look back at what th. Her dad claims that he 2009 has given us, we must all leaking these private con- remember to thank all of the enter- ons to encourage Lindsay tainment our favorite celebrities elp for her chemical and have given us. Whether they be nal issues. It's truly fitting purity ring-touting role models or chael Lohan and father-of- booze-drenched trainwrecks, the on Gosselin have been pho- proud parent of octuplets or the hed numerous times during embarrassed mother of yet another aydates, because neither panty-less starlet, we should thank above selling out his own our tabloid fodder. Their triumphs n for media exposure. and failures allow us to look alicious Black Eyed Peas beyond our everyday struggles and oman Fergie-Ferg is also unanimously agree, "Wow, these ring that family life isn't celebrities are totally shameless." drops and diamond rings. And for that, I am thankful. y-hungry exotic dancer y gushed to the National er about a tawdry one-night ith Fergie's new hubby Josh Resende is hiding from the Twihards. To tell her it's safe to come out, e-mail her at sresende@umich.edu. 1 S U D O K Ull WE'VE BEEN TO THE DINER * IN 'DOLPHIN OLYMPICS 2.' WRITE FOR DAILY ARTS. E-mail join.arts@umich.edu for an application.