All Nighter

It’s 4:11 AM, do you know where your children are?

Well, I don’t have children, so I don’t care. All I know is that I’m in Rm. B43 at Mitchell Hall, and I’m pullin’ another all-nighter.

All is quiet. All is calm. I’m listening to Spoon. They rock.

Ok, back to work, my video is done being captured, finally.

In LOVE With My ‘Submarine’

I had mentioned earlier this sememser to my fellow classmates that I had unearthed a wonderful mash-up type CD entitled “Cello Submarine”.  This is the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic playing new arrangements of Beatles songs.  Given the fact that I highly admire the cello and the Beatles, this album has it all, it is a tasty treat for  the ears.  My favorite tracks would have to include: Let It Be, Something, Michelle, and Norwegian Wood.  Have a listen for yourself and see what you think.  Let me know if you agree that this CD is awesome.  

And speaking of the Beatles, many of you may (or may not) be aware that there’s a new Beatles album out: Love.   Stemming from the days when George Harrison was still with us, comes the next evolution of the collaboration of The Beatles (with the approval of remaining alums Paul and Ringo, and of George’s widow and also Yoko Ono) and Cirque de Soleil.  I highly recommend this CD!!  It’s georgeous in it’s design.  Favorite tracks include: Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Lady Madonna.

Noun Project Wrap Up:

**NEWS FLASH**  Technical difficulties?  Nope, just user difficulities… I logged into my Blog this morning and noticed this post hadn’t posted.  Why do you think that happened?  I’ll tell you why – because instead of publishing it, I accidentally saved it instead.  So I guess it keeps with the trend of the rest of this project, as it too can officially be labelled as ‘late’.  Oh well, sometimes technology fails me, and sometimes I fail technology.  Live and learn, c’est la vie.  So without further ado, here is my wrap up discussion of my noun project.

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Well, as you may have noticed, I got a little delayed with my project. At any rate, I’m just glad it got done! Although there was some setbacks I am really proud of the work I produced. As this is the first videos I have ever created, I think this is a promising and encouraging start. It makes me think I’m on the right path. Yet, with any path there are obstacles, and this project had a few. First off, I’ve been sick for like a month. Mono really kicks your butt, know what I mean? So I had to sleep more than film or edit. And even though everything turned out great with all the people that helped me, I realize that working around other people’s schedules can be a struggle. Actually, for these projects it was more that my schedule didn’t mesh well with their availability.

As for my ideas and how they changed or evolved throughout the production process, they really were quite fluid in the way I shaped the ideas into a visual output. Since I haven’t been working with Final Cut Pro very long (to which there were computer kinks that were otherwise overcome with some sage guidance), so I didn’t have a clear idea of how to edit my work. Basically, it came through trial and error, just seeing what felt right. I think finding music (which through much searching is completely usable as they hold Creative Commons Licenses of Attribution only from Archive.org) was the key for editting, as it allowed for a framework to be established that I could construct my video around. Overall, this project has been a great learningexerience from which despite it’s rocky start has finished well indeed.

Person: On The Mark

My person video focuses on my sister’s boyfriend Mark Hubing. I really enjoy talking to Mark and learning about his many complexities. He’s always been an intruiging character, mainly because of his wit and sense of humor, but I also have learned as he became a part of our family about the other layers of his personality. This video examinies a little of these depths.

Noun: Place – Cedarburg Coffee Roastery

**UPDATE**

YouTube’s version of my video was rather poor on the image/sound sync, so to help correct that a bit I uploaded my video to Revver. Follow this link to my videos, and click on the one entitled “The Roastery”. For now it’s the only video I have on that site, but I’m sure I’ll upload my other videos there too!

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So yes my second video is up (sadly still delayed for the last one– don’t worry, it’s on the way!). My place of choice was the Cedarburg Coffee Roastery. I think I captured the essence of the place quite well. I hope the people who’ve actually been there agree with me.

Noun’s The Word

Ok so this assignment should be rather interesting- three videos based on the description of a noun (a person, place, thing or idea).  So here’s what I’m thinking so far, and hopefully these ideas are cool cuz like I said before, my brain’s a little tired lately and it would rather sleep than think.  So here goes nothing.

Person:

I was going to do a video for my Basic Video class but my other idea was accepted (through a lot of option weighing since both ideas were well received by my instructor) so I was thinking that I could do a small version of that video for this class, like a prologue of sorts.  The person whom I find to be very interesting is Mark Hubing, my sister’s boyfriend.  Mark has a very unique personality which would show no fear of the camera, thus would convey well through this medium.  I think it may best to go about this documentary style and film snippets of Mark’s daily life.

My original idea was to focus on both Mark and his best friend Joe, because of the strong friendship that the two have, but I think with the time constraints of three minutes I will only focus on Mark.  He is a musician so some of the sounds I can incorporate would be of his original work.  I think scheduling may be the only possibility for problems to arise, but Mark is usually around enough that hopefully this would work out.

Place:

The place I think would be interesting to record would be this coffee shop I sometimes go to in Cedarburg called the Cedarburg Roastery.  Cedarburg in general is an interesting place to focus on because of the strange mix of conservative small town residents with the mingling of other more liberal minded residents (which are usually former out-of-towners).  The Roastery offers  a view of this life as people drink coffee at the tables outside while passersby take walks with their kids and dogs.

Besides this angle, the Roastery is very picturesque and quaint and offers the unique experience of being able to see coffee actually being roasted in a large roaster in the middle of the cafe itself.  I can incorporate the daily sounds of the the normal goings on and conversations that occur at the Roastery, and also the sounds of the roaster itself, which can be very loud at times (something which can be distracting at a coffee house, but  I guess it’s part of it’s charm).  The only obstacle I can think of is getting permission from the owners, but I am friends with someone who know the owner fairly well, so it shouldn’t be too big of a deal.

Thing/Idea:

I want to explore the idea of “home” in this last video.  One way I was thinking that could be done is with a series of small interviews with people about what they think “home” means, and what is “home” to them personally.  I would need to get some people that are willing to be filmed, which can be difficult when people get shy, but I think I know enough people that I could have enough material for a three minute video.  I might also then juxtapose the places people call home with their individual interview clip to help bring the idea out into the tangible world more.

Techno Speak Makes My Head Hurt

Maybe it’s just me and the fact that I’ve been perpetually sick (with the cause of my woes now having a more dark and sinister name- “mono”, damn you Epstein Barr virus, damn you to hell!), so my head may just be a little fuzzier than normal, but in reading John Hoem’s Videoblogs as “Collective Documentary”I kept getting snagged by his descriptions of the technical aspects of posting blogs, moblogs and vogs.  After wading through the reading I think I have a descent grasp on his points, but we’ll see come Friday morning’s discussion.

 From what I gathered, Mr. Hoem was describing the ways in which the posted media like video can be altered and expanded upon within a digital Internet environment.  And with each altering the original source would essentially remain unaltered because of how things are set up on the Internet.  With each new addition by a new vogger or blogger a new work comes into being because of all the work put into it from the current and past contributors.  So even if they had not expected to work together to create this output, they essential have created a collective work.

The collective process also goes beyond the work itself and extends into the texts and video made in response to the original.  Even the comments left expressing what the reader or viewer felt about each original material become part of the collective, and then in turn the comments about others comments would also be included leaving the collective to grow endlessly in all directions.  Who knows we are probably in someway already linked to something on the Internet through this fashion, and thus I think we have become part of the creative collective.

The idea of using other’s work, however, can get fuzzy when people start to get very possessive about ownership and copyrights infringement laws.  But it doesn’t seem to have stopped people from being creative with their new interpretations.  Though we have seen the law pop up here and there and make things more difficult for people.  In dealing with art, can that line be crossed without consequence?  Or do artists need to be wary of the material they use in their own creations, lest they be punished for working with that material.  Can we justify copyrights at all anymore?  Do people truly own something once it’s out of their heads and into the world at large?  I think the Internet says no to that question more often than naught.  Which is probably a very good thing for those who create through the collective.

Films That Make You Go Hmmm

I believe I had heard of this filmmaker prior to this; but only his name, Zbigniew Rybczynski, was familiar, the work I knew othing about. His film Tango is a masterpiece, that I probably would not have been aware of without the internet. Speaking about the film Rybczynski states: “Thirty-six characters from different stages of life – representations of different times – interact in one room, moving in loops, observed by a static camera. I had to draw and paint about 16.000 cell-mattes, and make several hundred thousand exposures on an optical printer. It took a full seven months, sixteen hours per day, to make the piece. The miracle is that the negative got through the process with only minor damage, and I made less than one hundred mathematical mistakes out of several hundred thousand possibilities. In the final result, there are plenty of flaws, black lines are visible around humans, jitters caused by the instability of film material resulting from film perforation and elasticity of celluloid, changes of colour caused by the fluctuation in colour temperature of the projector bulb and, inevitably, dirt, grain and scratches.” The result of all his efforts is amazing to watch.

**Dislclaimer** This film contains brief nudity and a simulated sex scene.

On the total other end of the spectrum is a documentary called Mindplasma! that I saw last year at a screening of local work. The film follows the life and work of Milwaukee performance artist TJ Richter. You can watch the entire video or just sections of it on the official website. It is so strange and trippy I felt the need to share it with others. It is very cool to watch this documentary by Andrew Rosas because of the local connection also.

**Disclaimer** This video contians graphic language and adult themes.

Steel Cage Match-Up: Realism VS. Falsism

Alright folks, I know we will be discussing the “lonelygirl15″ (see my previous post for more info) phenomenon a little more in class later, but this is another thought I had when searching for two other Vlogs to post for this assignment. Do Blogs need, or should they require disclaimers, when they are fictitious in nature? Or should the “buyer beware” when investing time into watching anyone’s Vlog?

One Vlog I found that, although it didn’t have a disclaimer, was obviously a fiction. I didn’t have to be told that ManicalMasquerade was a created character. Here is one of his Vlogs to see for yourself.

On the other end of the spectrum is someone who (appears at least) to be sincere and very “real”. I found this Vlog randomly and liked the fact that I got to see a slice of life from elsewhere in the world. I also liked the fact that he had recorded other events in his life and then edited them into his Vlog. That was really cool, like being transported to England and hanging out and seeing the average day/week of some other culture (albeit the English culture isn’t extremely foreign, so it wasn’t like a culture shock, but it was still very interesting to watch).

Here’s also another Vlog by yonnermark that I found highly amusing. This one focuses more on a single event, rather than many events like the other one, but I still think you’d like to watch this episode also. I mean, how often do you get to see a three wheeled car on fire?!

Death Metal High Jinks!

I came upon this video in the usual web surfing way, huddled around a computer monitor with another friend, as we wasted some of our precious lives away. As she is a fan of all sorts of music, she knew of a video I would probably never have found on my own. A mash-up spoof of the Norwegian black-metal band Immortal.

You can click below to see the original video to compare, in-case you have no idea what a death metal music video usually looks like.

Here also is a quick anecdote she told me about the making of this video. The band shot this on a mountain somewhere in Europe, and if you notice they aren’t wearing very warm clothes. Well, as you could imagine that was not a good idea. The making of the video almost cost them all their lives, since when the shoot finally finished they were suffering from hypothermia. I think they need new agents.

Also I found out some interesting trivia about the band and an unexpected popular computer activity that has developed. Because of the way they pose in their photos, they have become something of photo-shop fodder for many. You know you’ve made it when South Park spoofs you also. So, it just goes to show you the layers of intertextuality of pop culture, and Immortal is not immune to it at all — neither is Benny Hill for that matter!