Clock crew
From Anipedia
The Clock Crew, often abbreviated as “CC,” is an Adobe Flash-based community originating from the multimedia website Newgrounds, with members from all around the world. The Clock Crew itself is currently housed at http://www.clockcrew.cc, the hosting courtesy of Tom Fulp of Newgrounds. The Clock Crew has over the years produced several noteworthy animations, and has recently also begun to branch out in form of doing charity work and producing a compilation album.
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[edit] Clock Crew Basics
The Clock Crew is a group of Flash animators and multimedia artists whose work is available on numerous sites, primarily Newgrounds. The Clock Crew is not credited as, but for all intents and purposes is, the very first true flash group. The basic premise is that most of their movies feature avatars of members of the ClockCrew. Clocks were originally represented as pieces of fruit with a clock as a face, but as time went on, new kinds of clock characters were envisioned, ranging from vegetables, meats, snacks, beverages, illegal substances, and abstract concepts. The general term for anything that isn’t a fruit or vegetable based clock is a “weirdclock.” Though its true purpose has been rather muddled over the years, the ClockCrew is essentially about Flash movies.
In 2005, the Crew added the "clockfriend" system and began having clockification polls on the 15th of every month. Clockfriends are entry-level members of the crew who either haven't been around long enough or have yet to prove themselves in the ways of flash. Most clockfriends can expect to be clockified within a few months if they work hard at improving upon their flash skills, though they have been known to be clockified in as little as a month or as much as over a year depending on the circumstances and behavior of said clockfriend. This system was modified in 2007. As things are now all members are clockified after 6 months.
The Clock Crew, often abbreviated as “CC,” is a Adobe Flash based community originating from the multimedia website Newgrounds. The Clock Crew itself is currently housed at http://www.clockcrew.cc The hosting is taken care of courtesy of Tom Fulp of Newgrounds. for a list of noteworthy animations as well as a short general history please see the Newgrounds Clockcrew Collection.
[edit] Clock Crew History
[edit] Origins
The first known user to use the “clock” designation was StrawberryClock. StrawberryClock, as far as it has been gathered, got his username ffom the band Strawberry Alarm Clock.“StrawberryClock” was actually the name of the second account of a user who, to this day, calls himself Coolboyman (sometimes shortened to “Cooboyman”) At the time of his first Flash submission to the Portal, he was 14 years old, he is now 21. He created the StrawberryClock account with no real purpose in mind, but his intentions grew to anonymously upsetting Newgrounds users and laughing about it. The most famous of these is B, which is just a red letter B on a white background. According to StrawberryClock, he had at first submitted a movie titled “A”. It was the letter “A” on a blank screen. It was soon blammed from the Portal, and Coolboyman himself had a good laugh at the outraged reviews.
The exact creation of “B” is unclear; in another movie of his, B2, Coolboyman claims that “B” was protected upon its first submission to the Portal, however, records from the Newgrounds BBS and various older Newgrounds users attest that B was submitted several times before it was finally protected and awarded Turd of the Week1), on the evening of August 15th, 2001. Though many have stated otherwise, it’s generally accepted that this day, August 15, 2001, was the day the Clock Crew was created. As a tribute, this day has been named “Clockday” by the Clock Crew; a day when members of the Clock Crew submit Flash in honour of the Crew’s inception. Clocks begin preparing for this day months in advance of its date.
It’s worth noting, though only on a small scale, that Coolboyman kept everyone in the dark about his alter ego. He even went so far as to fabricate many, retrospectively funny, arguments between Coolboyman and StrawberryClock. Coolboyman, in fact, became one of the first true "Anti-clocks" The revelation of his antics on the part of the StrawberryClock account was taken with a grain of salt.
[edit] The First Three
OrangeClock, AppleClock, and RaspberryClock were a surprise to everyone. Seemingly out of nowhere, these three rose in both defense and support of StrawberryClock. Strawberry himself thought that they were just crazy. These three clocks formed the Clock Crew. (It’s a popular myth that StrawberryClock began the entirety of the Clock Crew, but the truth is that it really began with these three. Especially Orange.) StrawberryClock himself did not make movies about Clock Characters, just very low quality flash movies about very random subjects. In fact, the image of StrawberryClock as we know him did not originate for some time. A testament to this is StrawberryClock V, where StrawberryClock is depicted as two diffent objects; a miracle fruit, and a clock.
[edit] Gaining Followers
The original three never actively recruited people to join the ClockCrew. Despite their being continually rebuked by the Newgrounds regulars, a few more members such as Zipstyke and PineappleClock decided to join OrangeClock, RaspberryClock and AppleClock. The ClockCrew in its current form slowly started to emerge, and the Clocks at that time started feverishly producing movies with subjects revolving around StrawberryClock and his claim to the portal and the mastery of his talents. A large backlash against these efforts were underway, and “Anti-Clocks” - as they came to be called - rose up and attempted to form a movement against the Clocks.
[edit] The Anti-Clocks
Angered by the ClockCrew, many Newgrounds users began making Anti-Clock movies featuring such scenarios as Clocks being executed and other disturbing imagery. Instead of offering rebuttals and counter-attacks of their own, the Clocks from therein decided to deal with the Clock-Haters by confronting them and overpowering them with affection, and offering help with their anger issues and providing friendship and solidarity. The Clocks became unified and the kindness and love which was received by the Anti-Clocks served to enrage and further divide them, enlarging the divide between the Clock Supporters and the Clock Haters, and eventually the Newgrounds audience as a whole; becoming polarized by the everpresence of the ever expanding ClockCrew. Of worthy mention is ki1o. While not the first anti-clock, he certainly has become the most famous. He never actually assaulted the clockcrew on the flash front. Rather, he stuck to his guns of voting and reviewing zero on clock movies. Ki1o has been included in many clock movies as the main bad guy, often in a very mocking, or else tongue-in-cheek serious light. He was eventually banned and all his reviews deleted. Ki1o apparently switched sides after watching Knottsberry’s The Portal is Not Enough. Much to everyone's surprise, in 2008 a user on the Clock Crew BBS name of SpanishClock revealed himself to be the one and oly Ki10. He stated how disgusted he was to see how new users were treated, and then left.
[edit] VeggieClocks
The VeggieClocks came around in generally the same time as the Anti-Clocks. The CarrotClock legacy was what began to draw infamous parallels between the Clock Crew and Transformers, with StrawberryClock more often than not taking something of an Optimus Prime role. If ki1o was the Clock Crew’s Unicron, Carrot was the Clock Crew’s Megatron. While CarrotClock himself is a rather mysterious fellow, the veggie clocks can be ascertained as the beginning of new generations of clocks. The veggies and the fruits eventually made compromise and began a long standing trend of groups of clocks working against each other and eventually becoming strong allies.
[edit] Legacy
Despite there being a prejudice towards the Crew thanks to their rubbish masterpieces encouraging more Flash artists to submit terrible Flash, some members actually produce fantastic work. There have also been some fantastic collaborations amongst the Clock Crew that have led to some of their best work. The fact that there is a certain quality to at least some of their work probably explains why there are still so many new clocks jumping on the bandwagon (often to inadvertently corrupt the Crew’s name with more Flash trash), and why so many people have tried to copy their style.
[edit] Influenced Groups
The Clock Crew inspired the creation of:
- Mass Voters (people who, on the instruction of an author, will go to a site where the author’s Flash submission is under judgment and give it the highest score possible, thus making the movie seem more popular than it really is. Groups like the Star Syndicate have borrowed this custom.)
- Various spinoff groups following the same animation principle (object for body, represented by a common object representing facial elements, and the group having an alliteration associated with their title, a.e. Lock Legion)
- Innumerable antagonist spam groups, most notably the Star Syndicate
[edit] Projects and charities:
While the organization derives from flash, in recent years the group has expanded to other fields. The Clockcrew raised $500 in early 2007 and used the money to purchase a cow (named Wade in a jest towards the brother of Tom Fulp, who as a general rule does not like the Clockcrew) and donated it to a starving family in a third world country. The Clockcrew is also currently attempting to raise another $500 in order to digitize 3200 feet of 16mm film.
[edit] stopAllSounds();
The Clockcrew has also released a CD[1] of music compiled by members of the organization. The CD was named "stopAllSounds();" which is a command used in Actionscript, the scripting language used in Adobe Flash uaws stop the playback of audio.
[edit] NG 2005 Promo Contest
In 2005 Newgrounds.com hosted a promotion contest where members of the site were asked to promote Newgrounds on their campus. Leekclock won the contest by constructing a full body suit of Strawberryclock and handing out flyers.
[edit] Clock Day
As a celebration of the submission B, official Clock Day is on August 15th. Clock Day, although originally for spamming the Newgrounds Flash Portal or submitting one's best movies, has, over the years, turned into an official Newgrounds Day, with Tom Fulp even offering prizes such as cash and game systems for winning movies (decided by important members of the Clock Crew.)
[edit] Known Members
There are approximately 1000 clocks in the Clockcrew, both active and inactive. A recent list can be found at the Crew's current website. Compared to the official registry of Christmas 2001, it shows that the Clock Crew has enjoyed great growth over time.
[edit] Notable Flash Movies
Even though there are hundreds even thousands of Clock Crew flash movies, here are just a few notable ones.
B - The movie that started it all. Because of this movie The First Three joined the Clock Crew.
