Video mixtape

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A video mixtape (VMT) is a bootleg collection of clips from movies, television or home videos that's being circulated mostly through an underground movement of video enthousiasts. Also called party tapes or video compilations, this phenomenon comes from the days of Betamax and VHS, when home editing and duplication became possible for the masses. Video mixtapes are distributed on VHS or DVD, or by one of the many distribution methods the internet has to offer (mainly as a Divx movie). The concept and "feel" of a video mixtape is derived from the audio mixtape phenomenon.

[edit] Content

Video mixtapes usually contain short clips from various sources. Favorite sources include home-shopping channel and public-access television bloopers, scenes from sleazy splatter B-movies, amazing news footage, bizarre pornography, strange homemade video projects, extreme sports, disasters and mishaps captured on film, or foreign television gone mad. There has never been a set criteria for the footage that video enthusiasts collect.

[edit] Mixtapes and internet culture

Thanks to the increasing availability of broadband internet, providing an easy and cheap means to download and swap videos online, and the ability to edit videos with free software on your average consumer PC, video mixtapes are no longer for AV geeks with expensive dubbing equipment. Most modern video mixtapes are released on DVD for the video geeks, and as free download on the internet. This can be in the shape of an ISO of the DVD, a XviD or SVCD rip, and are distributed using P2P networks like Edonkey or BitTorrent.

It is an unwritten rule to use as little "internet movies" as possible, as these are usually of bad quality (having lots of compression artifacts) or too widely available (and thus not obscure or exclusive enough).

Certain video mixtape groups take an approach to producing and releasing their mixtapes similar to how the scene treats their releases. A group can consist of several members: suppliers, editors, and runners who release the VMT on high-profile websites once they are released.