movie or video

Panorama Ephemera

movies By Rick Prelinger 2004

PANORAMA EPHEMERA (2004, 89:35 min., color and black and white) is a collage of sequences drawn from a wide variety of ephemeral (industrial, advertising, educational and amateur) films, touring the conflicted landscapes of twentieth-century America. The films' often-skewed visions construct an American history filled with horror and hope, unreeling in familiar and unexpected ways.

PANORAMA EPHEMERA focuses on familiar and mythical activities and images in America (1626-1978). Many creatures and substances that we hardly notice because we feel so used to them take center stage, including pigs, corn, water, telephones, fire, and rice. At first resembling a compilation, it soon reveals itself as a journey through the American landscape over time, and the story begins to emerge between the sequences.

The film consists of 64 self-contained film sequences ranging from 5 seconds to 4 minutes in length arranged into a narrative. Unlike many films made using archival footage, it's primarily a combination of sequences rather than a collage of individual shots.

PANORAMA EPHEMERA is populated by American children, animals, farmers, industrial workers, superheroes, pioneers heading West, crash test dummies, and many others.

PANORAMA EPHEMERA is released under a Creative Commons
"Attribution-NonCommercial" license, and may be freely shown, copied, or distributed according to the terms of this license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/).

NEW: If anyone wants to do a serious remix of this movie, here's a copy of my Final Cut Pro project (less the movie files, which you'll have to load yourself):

http://www.prelinger.com/PanoramaDV20040512

BitTorrent download here (thanks, Simon!): http://www.legaltorrents.com/index.php?fuse=42

NOTE ADDED May 21, 2021: This was my first real film. Since then I have made many more, but this is my best.

Rights and licence: See the linked licence information. View licence ↗

Complete item

Download all files

Choose an on-demand ZIP archive or a torrent when one is available.

207 files

Download all files (.zip) ↗ Download torrent ↗ Uncompressed total: 7.1 GB

ZIP archives are generated on demand. Very large items or restricted files may not be available as one archive. The torrent requires a compatible BitTorrent client.

Image gallery

Available images

Select an image to open the original full-size file.

183 images

File browser

Individual files

Recommended and original files appear first. Images are displayed in the gallery above. Full ZIP and torrent links are omitted here.

19 files

panorama_ephemera2004.mpeg MPEG2 · 3.9 GB · original

Recommended Download ↗

panorama_ephemera.avi DivX · 692.1 MB · original

Recommended Download ↗

panorama_ephemera2004.asr.js ASR · 363.2 KB · original

Recommended Download ↗

panorama_ephemera2004.asr.srt SubRip · 50.4 KB · original

Recommended Download ↗

panorama_ephemera2004.transmit-car-offline.log CAR Transmit Log (Offline) · 384 B · original

Recommended Download ↗

panorama_ephemera.mp4 h.264 · 535.4 MB · derivative

Browser format Download ↗

panorama_ephemera2004.mp4 h.264 · 533.4 MB · derivative

Browser format Download ↗

panorama_ephemera2004_512kb.mp4 512Kb MPEG4 · 372.9 MB · derivative

Browser format Download ↗

panorama_ephemera_512kb.mp4 512Kb MPEG4 · 371.5 MB · derivative

Browser format Download ↗

panorama_ephemera2004.mp3 MP3 · 61.6 MB · derivative

Browser format Download ↗

panorama_ephemera2004.ogv Ogg Video · 366.4 MB · derivative

Browser format Download ↗

panorama_ephemera.ogv Ogg Video · 366.3 MB · derivative

Browser format Download ↗

panorama_ephemera2004_whisper_asr.json Whisper ASR JSON · 832.4 KB · derivative

Download ↗

panorama_ephemera_whisper_asr.json Whisper ASR JSON · 810.0 KB · derivative

Download ↗

panorama_ephemera2004_intermediate_asr.json Intermediate ASR JSON · 78.2 KB · derivative

Download ↗

panorama_ephemera2004.asr.vtt Web Video Text Tracks · 57.3 KB · derivative

Download ↗

panorama_ephemera_intermediate_asr.json Intermediate ASR JSON · 33.3 KB · derivative

Download ↗

panorama_ephemera.asr.srt SubRip · 25.8 KB · derivative

Download ↗

panorama_ephemera.asr.vtt Web Video Text Tracks · 24.7 KB · derivative

Download ↗