Frontier

Had trouble all last night and this morning uploading to Vimeo with slow internet connections. Sorry for the delay. Thank you all for your patience! Have a great holiday!

https://vimeo.com/69744272

Frontier from Richland Digital Video on Vimeo.

Trouble with Vimeo

I tried to get the file size of my project under the 500 MB Vimeo limit and I did get one version at 346.8 MB at 854 x 480 but Final Cut Pro wouldn't output the one of the four  formats that Vimeo will accept under the 500 MB limit.  So, I am going to upload the video to my server and you can download it from a web page.  This is basically a H.264 Quicktime .mov file,  DVD quality.  16:9 format.

Mike, I will put the other sizes including the 1080 HD files I tried on a thumb drive or a DVD and send it to you.  I am not limiting access to the video but the page will be password protected.  The user ID is richland and the password is richland2013 so it shouldn't be too hard to get access.  Hunter and Bai you can also download a copy if you want.

http://www.rick-barrett.com/richland/  <--- Should be active Friday 7/5/13.

Mike I need an address for you.  Or, I can leave it at Richland with someone.  Did you return my "The Help" DVD?

An Interview With Bigfoot

Bigfoot - Interview 1 from Hunter Murray on Vimeo.

Great Example

http://www.youtube.com/embed/ie3SrjLlcUY

Here is an example of what I'd like to be able to do.  This is an awesome story.
I found this while looking for footage to use.

Roland Barthes - Camera Lucida

So the piece of Roland's refers to the aspects of photography (and to us as it relates to cinematography) and how the power of any image is based around the minute details. He describes this as Studium and Punctum.

Studium, Barthes describes as being the general details in an image to either will make you like or dislike an image, those that capture attention without much power.

Punctum, Barthes describes as being the fine details in the image that will either make you love or hate the image. They capture attention with extreme provocation. Punctum, as he notes, is a detail that one cannot really stage to be if it isn't on it's own.

Using these two elements, a photograph (or to a much grander extent, a scene or film) can be made into a pure medley of  interest, which in itself, is the base of true magic in image.

OK so Roland Barths piece is on photography which is related to cinematography and so we can try to apply these principals to our work.  So when I refer to photography in this case I mean both photography and cinematography.  There is an interesting point where Barth's describes two terms, stadium and punctum (both from Latin) to try to talk about the information in the images and the effect it has on the viewer.

Punctum is what makes a photograph interesting to the viewer, your point of understanding... Studium allows us to experience the photograph.

He mentions the camera obscura which proceeded photography.  I think we had an understanding of the ideas in an image before we get to photography and even painting.  But, Barth is trying to create a "clarification" of these ideas.

Surprise is expounded on and in some ways I think we part in thinking here for the high speed photo that stops time and reveals something interesting is a perfect example to me but Barth in unimpressed.
Finally he gets to the point that "Ultimately, Photography is subversive..."

Barth then goes on to talk about the importance of detail. and how this can provide the punctum for an image.

Finally it all boils down into the "eye of the beholder."

Will not be in todayhttp://richlanddvsummer2013.blogspot.com/

Shooting film. Actor not able to arrive until today. Will try to be in to class if finished shooting early, but unlikely to finish early.

Here is my assignment 4 on sound editing.  Enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/68877728

TED Playlist: The Power of Film

http://www.ted.com/playlists/66/the_power_of_film.html

Exercise 4: Sound Editing

Exercise 4 Sound Mixing from Richland Digital Video on Vimeo.

Soundtrack Video Uploading to Vimeo.

The Birds - Custom Audio from Hunter Murray on Vimeo.

Technologique - Video de Musique from Hunter Murray on Vimeo.

More thoughts on Eisenstein's montage writings...  The idea of a tonal montage was something new to me, but after seeing the scene from Battleship Potempkin in class I have a better appreciation for the idea.  It is representative of the idea of using the feeling of light or darkness to convey more information to the viewer.

This was also used on Hollywood films back in the 40s to the 60s in a technique called "American Night","La Nuit américaine in French and Amerikanishe Nacht in German." Filming was actually done in the daylight but with a blue filter, the film could then be under-exposed,  to make a scene look like it was night rather than day.  There was a "typical" indication that the technique was being used in that there would be shadows.  I think we just all were supposed to assume moon light but the crispness and depth of the shadow was only possible from sunlight.  This is how the technique could be recognized.

However, the illusion actually worked quite well.  And it can be seen in a lot of westerns from that period.  In 1974 a film was made that used the technique in the title: "American Night","La Nuit américaine in French and Die amerikanishe Nacht in German"  From the Wikipedia web page translated from German:

The film is a special method is used, which simulates the viewer night, although that scene was shot on the day. This filter trick is Day-for-Night called (or even American night). Here, a blue filter is placed in front of the lens and the aperture of the camera blinded down one or two levels.

The American Night is devoted to the Gish sisters ( Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish ).

Sequences from The American Night in 1978 found use in Truffaut's Love on the Run . From Scriptvolontärin Liliane is now alleged flashbacks Christine's friend Liliane, who has a brief affair with Antoine. In a dispute between Liliane and Alphonse from The American Night is Claude Jade as Christine mounted so that the impression that the scene actually belong in the Doinel cycle .

Mathieu Carrière said the texts of the German audio description for film in 2003 by Arte was created.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_amerikanische_Nacht

The point of all this history is that this technique can be used to create another type of Montage, which Eisenstein refers to as Tonal Montage, cutting from a daylight to a night shot or from an interior to an exterior night shot to support the movement of the visual story.  But, "American Night" keeps the image in the story and provides the detail to support the flow of the story.

Color Correction Using After Effects & Photoshop

This is one more way to color correct footage.
http://devowe.com/blog/2011/how-to-color-correct-in-after-effects-the-right-way

Richland College Digital Video Class Summer 2013 Exercise 3: Found Footage

Richland College Digital Video Class Summer 2013 Exercise 3: Found Footage from Richland Digital Video on Vimeo.

Responses to the Four Readings

Kino Eye - Dziga Vertov >I find that in The Kino Eye, Dziga persuades the audience of the power of film as a better way to capture life, and to turn that into collage that is inhumanly perfect; to "create a man more perfect than Adam." He claims this is achieved by capturing various images disregarding space and time. "From one person I take the hands, the strongest and most dexterous; from another, I take the legs, the swiftest and most shapely; from a third, the most beautiful and expressive head - and through montage, create a new, perfect man." To an extent, this is true. It is possible to create a man however you may desire to, yet is he really man, or a figment of imagination? Metaphors on Vision - Stan Brakhage >In this excerpt, Brakhage seems to be profoundly - or possibly profanely - attempting to assuage mankind of his fears, claiming that the "elimination of all fear is within sight," and that it must be aimed for, as it leads to an increase of ability to behold. I, however, strictly disagree, finding that fear opens our senses much more acutely in both auditory and visual cases. He ends his rant with the early history of fear in art, explaining how cave paintings depicted fearful scenes, more than likely out of desire to help the early humans to be less affected by the fear in the situations they might encounter (eg. having adrenaline boost when encountering a ravaging boar, but not being petrified with fear). The Ontology of the Photographic Image - Andre Bazin >In this excerpt of What is Cinema?, Bazin goes into detail of the history of the "plastic arts", as he so puts it - a broad category covering a range of things such as photography. He concludes that if analyzed, it may be found that the act of embalming was the forefather to these arts. He explains this as such: in Ancient Egypt, embalming was meant to preserve the body after death, as that was how they believed one could live on eternally. The art of painting is similar, as man first began as a means to preserve moments so as the memory of them could live on forever, but evolved to surround people of high birth, whom used it as a way to feel eternal in life. However, he states, when a rendering in art gave way to photography - a duplication of the outside world - painting followed the path, splitting between religious, glorified realism and true realism. As such, art is no longer about recording life, but about creating a world. Methods of Montage - Sergei Eisenstein >In his writing, Sergei states the basic ways that montages can be arranged, each differing based on which order of images may take, ranging from Rhythmic to Tonal. He also notes how Metric Montage is characterized by a "rude, motive force," similar to that of a metronome. It tends to exert a motion upon the viewing audience, capable of taking force in both meta-physical and physical realities. The second, a Rhythmic Montage, is based around the alternation of beats in a standard fashion. The third category is tonal, described as the emotional rhythm in montage. Fourthly, and lastly, is what he described as "a fresh flood of pure physiologism, as it were - echoes, in the highest degree of intensity, the first category, again acquiring a degree of intensification by direct motive force."

The Kuleshov Effect

It's slightly cheesy but I hope yall like it! :)

https://vimeo.com/68410544

The Most Famous Surrealist Film: Un Chien Andalou

Luis Buñuel: UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1929) from cinema.antifono on Vimeo.

An interesting analysis of the iconic film: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/bunuel6.html.

A Foot Too Far - The Kuleshov Effect

A Foot Too Far - Hunter Murray from Hunter Murray on Vimeo.

Exercise 2: The Kuleshov Effect

Richland College Digital Video Class Summer 2013 Exercise 2: The Kuleshov Effect from Richland Digital Video on Vimeo.