The makers of the movie ‘downfall’ probably never could have predicted that a scene from their movie would become a global internet meme, but it has, and has probably become the biggest influence on how a generation of young people across the globe conceive of Hitler and the Nazis.
I’d ask you if you’ve ever seen the famous ‘Hitler in the bunker’ video, but a more relevant question may be ‘how many adaptations of it have you seen?’. In any case, if you’ve ever wanted to create your own Hitler video, you now have a simple FREE online tool that makes it as easy as typing in the words that you would like the ranting, raving Hitler (and his coterie of officials) to say. It doesn’t seem to have a clear name, other than “downfall.jfedor.org“. This being a software review site, we cannot resist listing pros and cons for everything, so here goes (scroll below our demo video).
Demo video: Hitler as Google CEO
PROS:
- Type in the subtitles you want for the various scenes, and you’re done (with a small thumbnail illustrating what each scene looks like – see screenshot below)
- The width of each text box is proportional to the length of time that the character speaks, making it easy to type in something appropriate for each segment
- The tool remembers your entered text without having to create an account and/or log in, as long as you don’t clear your browser’s cache/cookies, enabling you to make edits/modifications quickly.
- It will upload your video to your YouTube account automatically.
CONS/wish list:
- The one thing that can make this better is a preview option, where you could play you’re video and see what it looks like before uploading to your YouTube account (also, the option to upload as a private rather than a public video)
- A timestamp above each thumbnail would be a simple yet significant improvement, especially when you’re trying to go back and revise a video.
- The ability to download
The verdict:
A brilliant tool (and a big THANK YOU to the developers).
The one thing I realized, after taking a stab at doing my own video, is that it is quite an involved process, requiring a lot of creativity and thought.
Check out the video that I’ve made above, which makes fun of Google and it’s Panda updates, entitled “Hitler as Google CEO”. If you’re not aware ‘Panda’ , it is an algorithm update designed to rid the internet of spammy sites, but is actually killing a lot of good, legitimate sites as well (like this one). For more on this subject you might check out my article called “Why does Google hates this site” (although it is getting somewhat dated).
Go to http://downfall.jfedor.org to start making your own Hitler video.
