Earlier this week Kim Novak very publicly said she felt raped (her word) by the use of Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo score in The Artist. The editors at Press Play hate the casual use of that word and have concocted a great little contest to test the boundaries of reusing musical cues:

{% blockquote Press Play Editors http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/the-vertigo-contest VERTIGOED: A Press Play mash-up contest %}

1. Take the same Herrmann cue – “Scene D’Amour,” used in this memorable moment from Vertigo – and match it with a film clip from any film. (You can nick the three-minute section from one of Kevin’s mash-ups if it makes things easier.)

2. Although you can use any portion of “Scene D’Amour” as your soundtrack, the movie clip that you pair it with cannot have ANY edits; it must play straight through over the Herrmann music. This is an exercise in juxtaposition and timing. If you slice and dice the film clip to make things “work,” it’s cheating. MONTAGES WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. {% endblockquote %}

Press Play is really a groundbreaking criticism site. If you haven’t checked out their work, Last September’s IN THE CUT: The Dark Knight by Jim Emerson is a good entry-point, but they’ve been up to a lot since.