Trans Canada Highway Microsite
On May 11, 2006, in a Warpbot email titled "Boards of Canada Trailer", Warp unveiled a new Boards of Canada microsite at http://www.warprecords.com/666.
The site asks the used to select "hi" or "lo" bandwidth options. Upon choosing, the site plays a video composed of multiple spliced video segments with music from a number of BoC interlude tracks from various releases (not all of them official).
After the video finishes, the Trans Canada Highway cover appears, then scrolls horizontal leaving only the text portion showing. Additional text appears promoting the Trans Canada Highway release and giving credits for the video. An interlude from the new EP, "Heard From Telegraph Lines", is played in the background.
Contents
Video
00:00 - 00:05
- Music: Generic TV news logo sound from the beginning of "Red Moss"
- Video: Animated version of the BoC "Trees" promo sticker logo; each part of the logo appears synchronized with a different note.
00:05 - 00:09
- Music: None
- Video: A seagull flying
00:09 - 00:29
- Music: "The Smallest Weird Number"
- Video: A caterpillar crawling, and a praying mantis from the Telecom Italia ad
00:30 - 01:10
- Music: "A Is To B As B Is To C"
- Video:
- Counting section: a brightly colored kaleidoscopic background with numbers synchronized. The numbers are taken from the Mystic Twenty segment of Episode 0276 of Sesame Street[1]
- "Bears" section: a dark, more menacing kaledoscopic view. A time sequence counter flashes quickly between "TCR 00:06:06:00" and "KILL 00:06:06:06". The footage being used for the kaledoscopic effects are taken from the Madrigal Alphabet segment of Episode 0615 of Sesame Street[2]
- Squelchy noisy section after "Bears": underwater view of the water's surface, mirror horizontally about the center axis.
- "I'll be gone about a week" (from the 1972 movie "Season of the Witch"): a group of men in business attire seated around a large round table; one facing us appears to be saying the sample phrase.
01:10 - 01:32
- Music: "P:C:" ("A Is To B As B Is To C" continues in the background)
- Video: Scrambled pornographic clip
01:32 - 01:38
- Music: None
- Video: Fade to black, followed by a few seconds of snow, then black again.
Visual elements
Time Counter Reading
Throughout the video (but not at all times), a running time code is displayed on near the bottom of the frame. However, the numbers don't increment in a regular fashion.
The standard time code reads "TCR HH:MM:SS:FF", where HH is hours, MM is minutes, SS is seconds and FF is frames. "TCR" stands for "Time Counter Reading".
Before BoC logo:
- TCR 00:06:19:15 - TCR 00:16:19:23
During "Bears" portion
- TCR 00:06:06:00, KILL 00:06:06:06 (Flashing between the two quickly)
- Other brief numbers in intercut frames
Start of porn:
- TCR 00:06:06:06
Midway through porn:
- KILL 00:06:06:03 - KILL 00:06:01:02 (down by 2)
- TCR 00:06:01:00 - TCR 00:05:54:11 (down by 2)
- TCR 00:04:19:12 - TCR 00:04:19:14
- TCR 00:04:22:00 - TCR 00:04:22:02
After porn:
- TCR 10:05:38:15 - TCR 10:05:39:17
After snow:
- TCR 10:05:36:22 (paused for 9 frames)
Numbers
Aside from the sychronized numbers displayed in time with the "counting" segment of "A Is To B As B Is To C" and the time codes, a number of other numbers also appear repeatedly, in brief flashes.
- 12817 (with an 8 superimposed on the final digit)
- 12818
- 8118 (apparently mirrored)
- 9809
- 808H (or H808)
Authorship
The page itself was created by Remote Location, a one-man graphics design firm run by Adam Rodgers.
According to his page, the video short was directed by Melissa Olson.
External links
- Warp Records: Trans Canada Highway Microsite
- Direct link to the video, in .FLV format
- .FLV Flash video player
- The video in MPEG format
- Remote location blog