GIs shoot Iraq battle footage and edit it into music videos filled with death and destruction - LA Times

Extreme Cinema Verite:

"GIs shoot Iraq battle footage and edit it into music videos filled with death and destruction. And they display their work as entertainment.

....video cameras are lightweight and digital technology has cut out the need for processing. Having captured a firefight on video, a soldier can create a movie and distribute it via e-mail, uncensored by the military. With editing software such as Avid and access to Internet connections on military bases here, U.S. soldiers are creating fast-paced, MTV-style music videos using images from actual firefights and killings....

***

The result: an abundance of photographs and video footage depicting mutilation, death and destruction that soldiers collect and trade like baseball cards....

***

(Pfc. Chase McCollough) was surprised that his favorite video was disturbing to his loved ones back in Texas....

***

Brandi McCullough, then his fiancee and now his wife...was shocked by images of "body parts missing, bombs going off and people getting shot....I didn't realize there was that much" violence....

***

McCullough said his father, a naval reserve captain, had told him, " 'You know, this isn't normal.'..."