Video Lab
PDD Video Lab: Duluth Ship Canal Dog Rescue Footage
The Duluth Fire Department released video footage today of a Dec. 7 dog rescue in the Duluth Shipping Canal. The five segments of footage were shot by cameras controlled by the Aerial Lift Bridge’s engineer. The clips were dark and choppy, but the PDD Video Lab has slapped them together, brightened the scenes a bit, trimmed it all down and added a music track — “A Shoreline Dream” by Hypermode featuring Ulrich Schnauss. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Visit to Duluth, June 1967
This edition of the PDD Video Lab features a panoply of Duluth film footage from the summer of 1967. The segments were made by taking scenes from an 18-minute silent film titled “Visit to Duluth,” breaking them up and adding music.
The first segment features scenes from Chester Bowl Park and Skyline Drive, with views of Peace Church, the Aerial Lift Bridge, Minnesota Point, Enger Tower and so on, set to Marvin Gaye’s mid-1960s hit song “Wonderful One.” (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge, July 2022
In this edition of the PDD Video Lab we’ve taken a recently shot silent drone video by YouTube user IndyDroner and added music from Robert Plant’s 2017 album Carry Fire. The track is titled “Heaven Sent.” (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Inside the Wolf Den
In this edition of the Perfect Duluth Day Video Lab we nabbed another clip from the Voyageurs Wolf Project and made some minor manipulations. Specifically, we slowed it down a tad and added Mary Duff singing “The Nearness of You.” (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Bluebird Day on the Black Bear Highway
In this edition of the Perfect Duluth Day Video Lab we combine trail camera footage from the Voyageurs Wolf Project, which was previously posted on PDD, with the title track to Duluth band Woodblind‘s 2020 album Bluebird Day.
The original video features a vast array of critters. This trail cam happened to be a spot considered a “black bear highway,” and the happy bears seemed to need some music to dance to.
PDD Video Lab: On the Great Lakes
In this edition of the PDD Video Lab we’ve taken mid-20th Century Duluth footage from the National Archive and set it to the title track from the 2017 Ingeborg von Agassiz album O Giver of Dreams. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Invasive Jumping Worm
In this edition of the PDD Video Lab we’ve taken three seconds of video of an invasive jumping worm, shot by Carly Ziter, and looped it a few times with the most obvious music possible. (more…)
PDD Video Lab & UMD Viz Lab: Hartley Park Hike 360 Reframe
In this edition of the PDD Video Lab we’ve stolen footage from the UMD Viz Lab and added music. The video features hikers in Duluth’s Hartley Park, shot in a 360-video reframe technique. At PDD we’ve enhanced it simply by adding the title track from the Who’s 1973 rock opera Quadrophenia. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Cruising the Duluth Harbor on the Flame
In this edition of the PDD Video Lab we take a cruise with Lorraine and the kids on the Flame excursion boat in 1964. At the midway point of the video, the scene switches to the Edgewater Motel. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Old Highway 61 Footage
Take a cruise up Highway 61 in this edition of the PDD Video Lab, featuring old footage from Duluth’s Lester River, past the Loneyville Motel to the edge of Silver Creek Cliff before a tunnel was built there, and on to Gooseberry Falls State Park and Silver Bay.
For music, an excerpt of a cover version of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” by Sparklehorse & Thom Yorke from the soundtrack to the 2005 movie Lords of Dogtown.
PDD Video Lab: 1963 Duluth Footage
For this edition of the PDD Video Lab we’ve once again taken a silent film from Dominic Chione’s archive — this one from 1963 — and paired it with music by Duluth/Superior’s own Jerree Small. The track is “60 Words for Water” from the 2004 album Mobius.
Watch for a nice cameo appearance at the 1:30 mark by the old Sky Room Restaurant at the Buena Vista.
Al Trace and the Revelers – “Duluth M-I-double-N”
Here’s a little track for everyone who wants “to be where the winds blow free” — Duluth.
The PDD Video Lab has joined this scratchy old 10-inch record with Duluth images circa the mid-to-late 1940s via Minnesota Reflections, the database of digitized materials from the Northeastern Minnesota Historical Collections and other cultural heritage organizations across Minnesota. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Bridget’s Cadillac – “Baby Blue”
This video premiered as part of the 2020 Homegrown Music Video Showcase, but it’s also a product of the PDD Video Lab and there are a few things worth mentioning about it. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Starbelle and the Aerial Lift Bridge
In this edition of the PDD Video Lab we watch the bulk carrier Starbelle pass through the Duluth Ship Canal and under the Aerial Lift Bridge via footage from Richter Home Movies. The final 15 seconds features a nice look at Canal Park circa the early 1960s. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Old Iron Range Footage
In this edition of the PDD Video Lab we take a cruise through Virginia, Chisholm and Hibbing circa the 1960s with footage from Richter Home Movies set to the tune of Iron & Wine’s “Weary Memory” from the 2002 album The Creek Drank the Cradle.
PDD Video Lab: Old Grand Marais Footage
In this edition of the PDD Video Lab we blend old film footage of Grand Marais from Richter Home Movies with “Easy Ride,” a song from the Doors’ 1969 release The Soft Parade.
PDD Video Lab: Edgewater, the Bellows and S.S. Meteor, 1976
For this edition of the PDD Video Lab we’ve taken yet another silent film from Dominic Chione’s Vimeo account. The clips here are from 1976, and they might make you weepy when you see them accompanied by the intro to the Manhattans’ 1976 hit “Kiss and Say Goodbye.” (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Lester Park, Skyline Drive and Twin Ponds, 1975
In this PDD Video Lab mashup we’ve taken another silent film from Dominic Chione’s Vimeo account and added music. This time the Duluth scenery includes Lester Park, views from Skyline Drive and Twin Ponds (with two slides going into the water). For music we’ve chosen “Sister Golden Hair,” a chart-topping single by America in 1975.
PDD Video Lab: Sandra’s Birthday Frolic in Duluth, 1973
For this PDD Video Lab mashup we’ve taken a silent film from 1973 that was recently uploaded to Dominic Chione’s Vimeo account and added Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground,” a track from his 1973 album Innervisions. The first minute of the video is kids frolicking in a yard; recognizable Duluth scenery kicks in after that.
But wait … there’s bonus footage. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: A Whole New Can of Worms
In a world where Duluth’s “Can of Worms” area is untangled and all the city’s hillside vegetation dies, comes a new video from the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
When the PDD A/V squad saw MnDOT’s silent “Drive Through Animation,” the need to add music was overwhelming. The soundtrack above is a clip from Anthony Bennett’s song “Can of Worms” from the 2012 album Hello Cruel World. Tony is also PDD’s calendar editor, though he wasn’t in the lab when we picked his music. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: People’s Free Skate Rink 2019
Presented for your amusement, a series of videos chronicling the Feb. 19 and Feb. 23 skating parties on Lake Superior. Above are clips shot by Rich Narum, which the PDD AV Squad has assembled as an introduction to the wonder of the People’s Free Skate Rink. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Knight Family 8mm Duluth Movie
For this edition of PDD Video Lab we’ve pulled the Duluth section out of a 1954 family film and repackaged it with music from the period — Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable.”
PDD Video Lab: Ghost Ship Emerges
Dawn LaPointe and Gary Fiedler of Radiant Spirit Gallery captured the Joseph L. Block emerging through the sea smoke like a ghost. The morning temperature was -20°F with a -40°F windchill. The video was processed at an 8x speed.
As is usually the case with the PDD Video Lab, we’ve supplied a soundtrack to the silent video. Press play on the audio file below, then press play on the video file and enjoy the marriage. The track is “Cold” by Duluth band Woodblind.
PDD Video Lab: Another Day
In this edition of PDD Video Lab we present 41 seconds of Duluthiness cut out of a 17-minute-long set of old movie clips that for the most part don’t seem to be shot in Duluth. (more…)
PDD Video Lab: Sea Smoke on Lake Superior
Video shot by Levi Drevlow on a -18 degree day. Choose an audio soundtrack below and enjoy. From indoors.