So You Think You Can Be President?

This campaign season has been lively, intense, and the inspiration for a wide array of online video. We've spent nearly a year tracking political remix online, and showing how online video creators are exercising Fair Use of copyrighted material in order to create powerful and innovative commentary on the political landscape. The evolution of online video has become nationally relevant with this election season, and to commemorate election day, we have one last video to share.

Jonathan McIntosh's So You Think You Can Be President?

This video cuts together the presidential debates with commentary from the judges of the Fox competition show So You Think You Can Dance? As the candidates speak, the audience of the show are heard booing or cheering. McIntosh has created a flawless remix so that the timing of the boos and cheers match up not only on an accurate technical level but also quite in line with the public reaction to many of the stances of both candidates, like skepticism on Obama's statement about clean coal and booing of McCain's stance on the war.

The comparison of the judges' comments to the comments from pundits in the media works all too well. It creates a very interesting link between a reality show judge's critique and the often superficial comments heard in the press. The judges criticize flaws or successes in the candidates' charisma and presence, but rarely the content of their words.

In reality, media pundits begin critiquing the candidates once they have walked off stage. In this video the judging is happening immediately, and feedback is being given directly to the candidates. The editing of the video is so seamless that it consistently feels as though the candidates are standing before the judges, taking in their comments and internally adjusting their strategies.

This video is a fantastic example of Fair Use as described in the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video. Using only copyrighted material, McIntosh has created a completely new piece that provides very valuable commentary on the American election process this year.