Review of Valdezatron Industries

Conceived and organized in December 2005 by Aaron Valdez – a member of the evilvlog collective and one of the most talented of the Internet’s mix-up, mash-up, found footage specialists and filmmakers, whose projects dealing with social and media commentary are sprinkled both online and off – Valdezatron Industries is a videoblog that revolves around the re-editing and combination of old cable TV clips and video oddities.  Until April 2007, the site featured a regular output of Valdez‘s short films, at times reminiscent of the incredibly talented Emergency Broadcast Network (EBN) – like 2005’s “Displacement”, 2004’s “Big Screen Version”, and 2003’s “States of the Union”.

Valdez has also begun an assortment of other web video projects, including Blandlands, Lost in Light, and Wreck and Salvage.  The latter he created with creative cohorts Adam Quirk and Erik Nelson and is where he showcases new shorts similar to those seen on Valdezatron Industries.

These video collage portraits of our media saturation are as smart as they are hilarious and trust me, they are truly hilarious. Most last for less than a minute, but the videos’ brevity adds to their quick punch of satirical fun. Some are mash-ups of heavily edited soundbites and video clips and some barely have to be edited at all for their point to come across.

Valdezatron is at its best when the edits are pointed but not too frequent and the clips are given room to breathe and speak for themselves. Check out this frighteningly funny video, “This Week in Mind Control,” which features everything from yoga to Sunday morning evangelicals to the Tyra Banks Show, all combined with a flawless penchant for ridiculousness and cultural criticism.

It’s hard to pick favorites, but “We Built This…” and “Rhapsody for Daytime TV” are at the top of my list.