Rip: A Remix Manifesto - Report

The documentary film Rip: A Remix Manifesto by Brett Gaylor (Writer and Director) discussed and argued the very common and up to date media conflict: copyright infringement. The narrator talked about how huge companies were suing people for using samples of their songs, to make new ones. He made mention of file sharing as well, and how people were also being sued for that. It was said that we are loosing our freedom to these companies with our artistic ways. The documentary had stated four points at the beginning and kept on returning to them, to emphases them to the audience. That way, he was able to build up on his ideas and not loose viewers' attention if he threw too much information at them.

Rip: A Remix Manifesto would be called an expository documentary film right off the bat because of some very obvious characteristics that the narrator included. The real biggy was how the film was set up like an essay. He made his introduction and then stated his thesis of four points, and provided examples and evidence. He always came back to the thesis to remind the viewer on what he was talking about. The narrator felt like he was talking directly at you, trying to convince you on his ideas, which were very convincing. His ideas were very biased though, never giving the other side of the story, but why would you when you're trying to convince somebody something.

The film had some very interesting scenes that made an impression on me. There were however, two scenes that caught my attention; ones that stood out because what they contained was truly astonishing. The first one was when GirlTalk was at his office in his robes, ranting at the big corporations. He mentioned how because of copyrights scientists can't build on ideas that could results in cures for diseases. He connected this to the progression of music, which made so much sense because the exact same thing is happening. The other scene was located in Brazil and it was said that Brazil had got the recipe to cure AIDS. They were mass producing it and saving peoples lives, but then the US wanted to sue them for providing cheaper medicine for dyeing people. For some people it's all about the money, but it should initially be for the greater good of the people. Those two examples were both related back to the mash up of music, and it made a lot more sense to me through those examples.

Out of the whole movie I believe there was only one scene that was irrelevant to the main idea of the Brett Gaylor's film. It was the first interview of the movie, which had Brett questioning Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights. I felt that we didn't learn anything new from her that wasn't obvious; like how it is illegal to use others' music to create your own. I felt there was no need for it to be used except for one exception. During the interview Brett showed her a video of GirlTalk making music. The video showed how song samples could be taken and transformed into another piece of music. Showing that was a good idea because that's what the documentary is based on, so it only made sense to teach the viewer what they were doing before they went into more depth.