A couple days ago we highlighted a compelling Web site by the name of Boscutti.com. It delivers daily newsreels with a great selection of music as their soundtracks. The images are both good and bad and cover some pretty heavy world news.
“Using the music to lift the emotions is the point. I was watching a lot of news online without feeling a thing. I wanted to feel again.”
~ Stefano Boscutti
Where you based out of?
Melbourne (that’d be the one in Australia).
What do you want to come out of these newsreels?
That’s an incredibly good question. World peace, individual respect, human dignity. Hopefully how everyone can make a difference. How we’re all connected. How we’re all one. That child in Africa is not some distant problem. That child in Africa is you. (Sorry to sound heavy or trippy or hippy. But I try to make a point of ending each newsreel with hope. Got to shine that light.)
How long you been doing this?
I’m a former journalist. I’ve been writing and making films for a while. But I only started making the newsreels from the start of this year. The whole newsreel archive to date is online at http://boscutti.com/boscutti-newsreel/index.html
How much time goes into each reel (you have a new one everyday!)?
Two hours a day, every day. Up at the crack of dawn, cup of cold coffee, 15 minutes of meditation, and we’re on.
Anyone helping you?
I get a lot of feedback. Which helps a lot. But I don’t have any assistants. Wait, maybe they’re hiding under the desk? Nahh, not even one. Just littl’ ol’ me.
Where do you get all the photos? Fair use?
Yes, fair use. They’re the same photos that land on the news desk of all the mainstream media. They just never use them because they favor sports shots or the latest pretty celebrity. They favor the inoffensive because really they’re just providing the context for advertising. They’re no longer really about providing news. Everything we see is so stage managed. I’m all for showing what we can’t see. Particularly when it comes to human rights. Nation states or corporations fucking over individuals really doesn’t work for me. I’m all for the one person that makes the difference.
Keep an ear out for new releases. Tend to favor slower, more evocative songs because they move me. If I lay them on the photos and I get a tingle up my spine, they’re in. Nope, not the most scientific selection process on earth. But hopefully the most authentic. Figure the more it moves me, the more it might move others.
Who are some of your favorite musicians?
Waxes and wanes. Currently it’s tunesters like Monsters of Folk, James Buckley Trio, Yo La Tengo, Joe Henry, A.A. Bondy, Vampire Hands, Portugal The Man, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Eyedea and Abilities, Soulsavers, Fink,The Fiery Furnaces, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Memory Tapes, White Rabbits. Hmmm, and that’s just for starters. Throw in some strings and I’m in. I’m a sucker for strings. Also a little syncopation never goes astray.
Check out Boscutti.com now! Bookmark and make it a daily occurrence for your fix on real news, and real music.
