I’m afraid I’m shirking some of my Luminaria steering committee duties because I’m so busy working on own Luminaria project. I’ll try and get back up to speed tomorrow.
I got a call from one of the folks at Creative Civilization. They’re the one’s doing the marketing for Luminaria. Anyway, it looks like I’m going to be on the morning TV show on the local Fox affiliate. There are two local stations each with a morning show. I’ve been on each one or two times over the years. Because I haven’t had a TV since the big digital change-over, I really have no idea about local television. I will say that each time I’ve visited the local TV studios, everyone has been wonderful, professional, and amazingly efficient.
Speaking of Luminaria, I decided to look at the website the other day. There’s a schedule of the evening’s events as well as a list of artists. The link to my web presence goes to my WordPress blog. I stopped using my website (www.eyewashpictures.com) because I hate those swine at 1&1 which were hosting my site. Also, I decided I no longer wanted to brand my work under the kooky, self-deprecating, and slightly clever banner of Eyewash Pictures. Anyway, I had not yet got my new website (www.rebosse.com) when I submitted my artists proposal, so I used my blog instead. Now I should point out that I’ve pretty much stopped posting on my blog. I’m currently blogging on my website. And so, when people click over to my blog from the Luminaria webpage, they are confronted by the bold title of my last blog posted to this site, with the piquant title of “Recovering from the Suburban Shit Hole.”
@@@@@
Tonight I headed out to shoot some miscellaneous urban video clips downtown. I wanted some generic nighttime scenes of lights and traffic to use for the one minute introduction to the video component of the Luminaria collaboration Shimi and I are putting together.
Here’s a quickie edit of what I shot tonight. I hope this Vimeo link will embed on this new website.
Well, I can’t figure out how to embed. Do just click on the link.
I don’t do this enough. Make video montages.
For people working in video, this is an interesting period of history. The DSLR is king for low-budget movie makers. But the DSLR as a hot tool is already being pushed aside by a new breed of camcorder with a large chip, the ability to take cheap prime lenses, and topnotch audio acquisition. So, for the period of 2010 to 2012, we will see an influx of photographers playing around with digital cinematography, seeing as how their tools can take great HD video. I’ve already seen some great still shooters enter into the movie world. This is good. Many people I know who have trained to make movies with three chip prosumer camcorders are horrible shooters. They have no sense of composition, can’t light worth shit, and are absolutely clueless about optics 101. Enter the photographer who begins to play around with motion on his or her HD vid-enable DSLR. These folks are kick-ass from set-up to set-up. But sometimes they are weak understanding how to shoot for mise en scene editing. But, as I have always maintained, when I find myself on set (for a project of mine or someone else) I’m always heartened if the lead cast members have a deep theater history and if the camera crew have a serious background in still photography.
And so, I’m wondering, is there is a sudden resurgence of those wonderful pretentious experimental films of decades past when it was common to find breathtaking art films with beautifully composed clips? Is this happening? I’m a bit out of touch.
I want the San Antonio chapter of NALIP to return to those great video slams of the past. Anyone was welcome to show up with a DVD and share their work. There was no slamming, really. Just keep the clip under a certain length. It helped to bring people together. And it helped to see what the seasoned professionals were doing in their spare time, as well as the sometimes brilliant work which came from self-taught hobbyists.
Maybe I’ll bring this up at the next NALIP-SA meeting. I sometimes forget I’m a board member.
So, if you’re playing around with making movies on a DSLR, please stretch your creative wings and take our breath away.
An actor I worked recently — great guy, talented and professional — called up to know if could pass my contact information on to a friend who was working on making a TV series. “A cross between Seinfeld and Sex in the City.” I help my tongue and didn’t say what I was thinking. (Which was: “I can’t think of anything more horrendous.”)
Because of all the shit I’ve seen generated by well-meaning naifs who own a video camera and an editing suite, I no longer will work on projects which can be pitched as resembling this or that TV show or Hollywood blockbuster. Folks, you are all in over your heads.
Give me artists, documentarians, and those pimply-faced neurotics with their “passion projects” which resemble nothing you’ve ever heard of before.
rebosse blog 