"Panoramas of the Moving Image"

I loved this exhibit at MOMA. It was truly fascinating to see and learn about such instruments like Le Thaumatrope and the Phenakistiscope and the early discs that were used to produce some of the earliest moving images. It was great to see the strips that were used in a Zoetrope to make moving images. These strips were apparently a conceptual forerunner of film. Ernest Gehr's installation included a picture of a Magic Lantern projector circa 1888. Some examples of work included one piece that featured a growing and shrinking nose. Another piece showed a swan dipping its beak into water. The five screen installation featured pieces running in a loop such as the rocking boat, the duck jumping rope and an acrobat balancing on a swing. I heard no music or any audio and there was use of color. I did not see any sort of story or narrative, like modern day films. Viewing these pieces transported me back to a simpler time. It also made me wonder how far our moving image technology has come in a relatively short time.

"The Mein Event"

Our class video and sound project is now all done and it has been screened. The final project came together in good form. We think the music and story line worked well. If we had to do it over, perhaps we would have used different microphones for some interviews and reporter comments. And perhaps some lighting adjustments would have been in order. But overall we are proud of the finished product and my partners, Chris Duffy and Ari Gardner were excellent teammates.

Video Project Final: "The Mein Event"

The team is in place and so is our subject matter. All we have to do now is shoot and edit our story on the top "Chinese Restaurants in New York City." The NY Post headline "The Mein Event" caught our eyes and now we are set to embark on our own exploration of the top Chinese eateries in the City. We were going to begin shooting last week and we visited one of the restaurants. But we realized that my camera is an older, Panasonic camcorder and is not in the mini dv format. We have reserved a camera that will provide us with the correct format so that we can shoot and edit without losing a generation. We are psyched to begin our shooting in a day or two from now.

My First Story Board

I have been producing tv news stories for years, but I never had to produce a story board. It proved to be a very interesting exercise and I am glad to have done it. The opening thirty minutes or so of Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" includes what has been described as one of the most realistic combat sequences in film history. I have watched it a number of times but never did a shot by shot analysis until now. It's painful enough watching this in real time, but stopping and pausing it made it more difficult. Speilberg used a lot of the "cinema verite" type of technique with handheld cameras and lots of "point of view" camera work. The shot sequences are quick. Some shots last only one second or so. Others go six or seven seconds and have pans and lots of movement. The sounds of whizzing bullets striking metal amidst shouts and screams still resound in my head.

The Writings of Dziga Vertov

Many writings of Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov seem timeless. For instance, in reference to cinema art, Vertov writes "the mixture of bad colors, even those ideally selected from the spectrum, produces not white, but mud." Such commentary, written in the early 1920's, seems apropos nowadays in light of the state of mass filmmaking. Many of the films produced for mass consumption are lacking and contain too much gratuitous violence. But hey,that must be what sells.

And in another writing, Vertov speaks of "Kino-Eye" which he explains as "showing people without masks, without makeup, catching them through the eye of the camera in a moment when they are not acting....laid bare by the camera." Again Vertov, writing in the 1920s certainly seems prophetic in light of all the reality programs produced in 2007 for television.

Audio Visual Project Finished: Whew!

The Chile Fiesta audio visual project is now in the can and I am certainly happy for that. I used pro tools to first edit the audio portion. Pro tools is somewhat similar to the cool edit and gold wave programs that I am familiar with. Then it was onto iMovie. This was the first time for me, so it was a bit of a challenge. But fortunately, there was an FMD lab held on that exact topic this past Saturday, October 27th. I attended that workshop and got some needed help. I was on my way. A couple more edit sessions and voila! The project is complete. It meets my expectations.

Garage Band Misadventure

I am all dressed and ready for the dance, but it's like I don't have a date. Not exactly, but I am ready to edit my first "sight and sound" project, but garage band is not cooperating. I tried to import my audio from a cassette tape recorder to my home computer which has cool edit pro installed, but for some reason the audio was not showing up on the cool edit soft ware. And here at KU, Garage Band is a little vexing. I will keep trying!