This highlight-clip extension of mood-setting sunset scenery and expository introductory interviews combines several key sections from the feature-length documentary I made on VHS in 1999. Initially, I’d intended to capture what my friends and I were calling the “Cabin Fest ’98” concert with two S-VHS cameras and edit them together into a keepsake time-capsule of the songs we had been sharing around the campfire every Friday that spring and summer.
Normally, the music was impromptu, but this night was different. It was the last time everyone who'd been coming there regularly could be in attendance before many of the group started going off to college, military service, or off along any number of avenues that would take us each down different paths. Eight of us played music in some way, and a lineup was organized that weaved us together in different combinations to form a three-hour program of our favorite cover tunes—and just two originals. I played a selection of Pearl Jam, U2, and Dave Matthews songs.
I’d actually never tried using these prosumer video cameras at night and was pretty disappointed at how much light they seemed to need to stay in focus. I was used to a grainy VHS-C consumer-grade camcorder that auto-exposed even candlelit scenes quite well. Because the resulting footage was so poor, I recorded some interviews with the folks who were still around in the weeks after the concert to help cover the gaps between semi-usable segments of songs.
In conjunction with LWSD Ep. 93 which contains a lot of DREAMING OUT LOUD footage, I created this and a couple of other extended/highlight clips.
Aside from the "One Video" at the bottom, the clip segments are expanded and altered to include more shots of what's being discussed in the interviews from the time. The musical performance clips are condensed and intercut with the interview segments. It's a little more sophisticated than what I was able to do at the time—especially given that to do a dissolve, the shots would have to come from two different tapes! I've been wanting to do this for years, so I'm grateful the new LWSD "Cabin Kid" episode gave me the excuse to make it happen.
NICKNAMES & "GANGSTA'S PARADISE" - This expanded clip from the Dreaming Out Loud ("Cabin Kid") documentary includes origin stories for the nicknames "Jacko," "Kramms," "Chimney," and "Pumps," as well as part of Pumps' acoustic cover of rapper Coolio's biggest hit song.
“WEIRD KID IN THE CORNER” - This expanded clip from the Dreaming Out Loud ("Cabin Kid") documentary details the debut of Kramms' first original song, which was a surprise addition to the "Cabin Fest Concert" on July 31, 1998.
“ONE” (Cabin Kid Montage) - Comprised of VHS-C footage filmed from May through August* of 1998, this montage set to U2’s “One” originally appeared after the closing dedication to the DREAMING OUT LOUD documentary (1999). *The first 5 seconds were captured in early 1998.