What is it and where did it come from? Let's try and answer the second question first.
I had heard a radio report awhile back about how someone had figured out that if you listen to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" CD while watching the classic film "The Wizard Of Oz" that you'd witness many correlations and coincidences between what you hear and what you see ("syncs" seems to be the appropriate term) . I then checked out some stuff on the web and figured "What the heck, I'll give it a shot." My wife and I sat down one Saturday evening in late August of 1999 and enjoyed thoroughly a unique experience.
Afterwards, I began to mull over in my mind the idea of pairing a CD from one of my favourite bands...RUSH...with some movie, any movie. Looking back in retrospect it seems that "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory" popped into my head pretty quickly. Plus, having a copy on video along with every Rush CD, made it an easy decision...just give it a try.
Within 30 minutes or so of first playing around with it I had figured out where to begin the "sync" and just let it play from there. Immediately I was amazed and upon subsequent viewings became completely engrossed in what I was witnessing. I hastily whipped up a website, made my pronouncements on numerous newsgroups and message boards, and it's taken off from there.
I then embarked on a mission to fill in the entire movie with other Rush material, whether whole CD's or a mix of songs, using "2112" as the centerpiece of the project. This process was much more time consuming and painstaking. I initially tried playing the album "Caress Of Steel" from the start of the film, but it was pretty obvious from the beginning that it just wasn't right. I then tried the "Power Windows". While it had some interesting moments it still was lacking something.
It then dawned on me to start at the beginning of the film as it is and become intimately acquainted with the story itself, the dialogue, changes of mood & action, and divide the shifts of scenes up into blocks of various time lengths. From there, see which Rush songs had the potential not only to fit within these blocks time-wise (very important!), but also have the songs themselves match what occurs on screen as much as possible *both* from a lyrical and musical point of view. Over a three or four day period of time, I'd estimate the total number of hours spent doing this was 14-16...a far cry from 30 minutes!
So, getting back to the original question, "What is it?" Well, the short answer is "it is what it is"...a slightly longer answer is "it is whatever you want it to be." But the answer I give from my own perspective is what follows on the next few pages.
I really would like to stress the point that YOU, the viewer, should initially experience this project without the aid of these notes...see what your take on it is without seeing it through my lenses. Afterwards, THEN peruse these pages for my insights...perhaps you'll think I'm a madman, perhaps you'll think I'm a genius, or you might just say "That was stupid!"
CONSIDER THIS YOUR FINAL WARNING!
By the clicking the image below before checking this thing out may 'cloud' your 'vision'.
