Very well stated. The devil's bell (which it's called in Ecuador and which name I like more than the others) has strong mythology about it, but it is apparently so difficult to extract the Datura from it, that most people I talked to about it just sort of laughed me off. I've spent more than two months traveling in both Ecuador and Colombia, six of those weeks studying with a leading northern Andean ethnographer. When you're on the road, it's a lot of fun to talk about these kinds of extreme phenomena, but for the most part, it's touristy b.s. The plant is much more famous for the hallucinogenic tea that can be made from the flowers themselves, which is also fatal if prepared incorrectly. Btw, Datura is the same compound that produces the infamous Vodou zombies in Haiti, made famous by Harvard ethnobotanist Wade Davis's "The Serpent and the Rainbow."

Vice loves to sensationalize this kind of thing, and I'm frankly a little annoyed at the characterization of the current political atmosphere in Colombia. Even the U.S. State Department's travel.state.gov, which is notoriously over-sensitive, has only qualified warnings about the dangers of traveling in rural areas. Colombia is a lot safer than the introduction to this story has painted it. Total disservice to the country and culture that gave this journalist his story. But Vice likes to dirty it up to sell mags to hipsters.

Still, totally entertaining and somewhat informative. Nice find.>> ^legacy0100:

lol I don't know about this one. Vice reporters are often a bit naive at times...
Still this was very well Directed. Had great atmosphere and pacing. Very good.

They go out of their way to do edgy topics though. I think you're right a bunch of the docs I've watched from them have gone nowhere. Like they gave an ambitious person a camera and said "Go!" . But more than not they do good docs. My biggest problem with Vice is their site is shit and they haven't figured out how they want to distribute their content online. They DCMA other people posting their stuff pretty quickly but don't post their own stuff themselves in a good way if at all. I heard the owner himself say his website is shit. The new youtube channel isn't very good either. My impression is that he doesn't care, but maybe it's just him becoming a billionaire and the documentary side of his empire not being a priority.
In reply to this comment by legacy0100:
lol I don't know about this one. Vice reporters are often a bit naive at times...

Still this was very well Directed. Had great atmosphere and pacing. Very good.

Your video, Why the scariest sci-fi robot uprising has already begun, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^brycewi19:

Best one by a long shot this season.


Couldn't agree more.

scariest thing about Ferris Bueller was how a spoiled brat like Ferris could be considered a protagonist... oh, *80s

>> ^ChaosEngine:

First up, that footage is amazing. "terrifying yet beautiful" couldn't be more accurate.
But now, full-on grouch mode....
Overall, the video kinda annoyed me. The slow motion is over used and robbed of it's power. I would rather have seen at least a few shots of the guys riding in real time.
The editing also irritated me. I wanted to see the outcome of a few of those bails.
Finally the music, especially the start, just ruined it for me. I actually stopped the video at the start because I thought there was a glitch in my soundcard or something.


I'm not a big fan of surfing, but I found this video mesmerising for the very reasons you dislike it: the slowmo, editing and above all music makes it unreal, dreamlike ('twould've been shite without HD of course). Different strokes for different blokes and blokettes I guess!

Crud, you're both right! I must have misread the submission time in the first place, and got distracted by siftbot ignoring my commends. Mybad. >> ^geo321:

It's the other way around. We duped the wrong vid>> ^notarobot:
Ahck I'm bad at this.



>> ^dvst8download:

The one I posted was the original (with M83 soundtrack) from Vimeo, which was taken off Vimeo within a couple hours (killing my submission). I've been traveling with limited wifi access, and while I've been offline, someone else posted the above embed as a backup. For the record, this music track is bullshit, it's NOT a backup of the video I originally posted.
Meanwhile, someone else found a copy of the original on another host, and posted that as an original submission. And then mine was quickly flagged as the dupe (Heysu Christo, this is convoluted). Anyway, it's irrelevant now. I'd delete this one, but I don't know how... Can someone that has the appropriate permissions kill it, or flag it as dead? kthxbai
>> ^notarobot:
dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-Scariest-Waves-Ever-Surfed with different music.
Sorry @dvst8download, it's a great find.

The one I posted was the original (with M83 soundtrack) from Vimeo, which was taken off Vimeo within a couple hours (killing my submission). I've been traveling with limited wifi access, and while I've been offline, someone else posted the above embed as a backup. For the record, this music track is bullshit, it's NOT a backup of the video I originally posted.

Meanwhile, someone else found a copy of the original on another host, and posted that as an original submission. And then mine was quickly flagged as the dupe (Heysu Christo, this is convoluted). Anyway, it's irrelevant now. I'd delete this one, but I don't know how... Can someone that has the appropriate permissions kill it, or flag it as dead? kthxbai

>> ^notarobot:

dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-Scariest-Waves-Ever-Surfed with different music.
Sorry @dvst8download, it's a great find.

2 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

>> ^geo321:

The music soundtrack is far more kickass on your video I agree, but it's playing to the identical video. Same video to a different song is still a dupe.


The final sentence of the following is what I am putting forth on defence 'The only exception to this is if the change in audio makes a significant difference to the video content.'.It is a subjective rule, so I'm happy to let this rest on the community. My final comment on the matter, with all respect.

=======

VideoSift FAQ point 37, section 5

A duplicate video is one which contains content already wholly available on VideoSift in a published, queued, personal queued, or dead/deadpool video submission. Minor changes in content, like a few additional insignificant seconds of video or alternate background music, will still be considered dupes. The only exception to this is if the change in audio makes a significant difference to the video content.

>> ^hpqp:

>> ^ZappaDanMan:
Music from the clip: M83 - Lower Your Eyelids To Die With The Sun

The music really makes it imo.


Not anymore aparently

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-Scariest-Waves-Ever-Surfed

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-Scariest-Waves-Ever-Surfed

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-Scariest-Waves-Ever-Surfed with different

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-Scariest-Waves-Ever-Surfed with different *music.

Sorry @dvst8download, it's a great find.