Scratch Video a mutant hybrid of scratch DJ music and guerrilla TV

scratchvideo/design/tools

The equipment favored by scratch video editors and VJs ranges from old Commodore 64 monitors to high end Avid editing suites. VJ Sniper, the German and Israeli duo of Ron and Safy only use analog equipment like VCRs. Dutch VJ Eboman has assembled video on a Macintosh G3 laptop while riding the train to his Sample Madness shows.

Most equipment needed to make scratch video albums is made up of consumer electronics: TVs, video cameras, VCRs and personal computers. Video loops can be made by wiring together two VCRs: playing the best samples over and over again on one VCR while recording with the other, to grab breakbeats from TV theme songs or turn news anchors into MCs.

A VJ needs some professional-level equipment to do a traditional realtime set. A video projector pushes the images onto a bigger screen -- the visual equivalent of a club's loud sound system. Some VJs use more than one projector, some synch different content for each screen. Another professional piece of necessary equipment is the video mixer a VJ needs to select and blend sources. -- a PC running trigger software or generating other visuals, VCR's running looped images on VHS tapes, live cameras, an old Atari game console -- anything that has a video out. Realtime cutting between images can also be achieved using a switcher, found at any electronic shop for around ten dollars.

Copyright 2000© Hart Snider