Vladimir

Today Vladimir came and showed us four pieces of her work using using 3D view-masters.

I was really excited to see her work. I was unsure if I would enjoy it or not but soon into the first project about cockroaches I was very impressed. I thought the idea was brilliant. Once I thought about it the project seemed really easy to do, its just that she was the first to really come up with it and for that I say she is a pioneer.

My favorite by far was the last piece she showed. I think the thing that actually made this one my favorite had nothing to do with the images and everything to do with the soundtrack. The mixing was excellent how he incorporated the music with the typewriter and the gloomy mood that it set was excellent. They simple distortions on the sound made such an impact, it really captured the feeling of the images.

I was also impressed with the story about the missing machinery. At no point did I think this story was false. I was thoroughly intrigued and thought it was completely true. It was easily the best story of the four. I could see a movie being made like that. It was such a different type of story to be told, it was very creative. I think the images are really only 25% of the story, but I think they are 80% of the experience. I think the story comes from the sounds and narrations that she had done.

My least favorite was the one she went out on a limb for and said she wasn't sure if it would work. It was the third piece. I give her credit for trying something that was different from her other work. I thought that it didn't pull me in and the images weren't strong like the other stories had. The sounds were very obtuse but not interesting enough to pull me in.

Overall I am very satisfied with the experience. It was one of those things were I would walk away and say "damn, why didn't I think of that" I would definitely be interested in keeping up to date and looking at her future work.

Camera Obscura 2

I edited together a bunch of footage I shot for Ethan Jackson of his Camera Obscura. It turned out really good and you can see it on video. He had to leave so he gave me a call and I will be shipping him a DVD version.

He also gave Carl permission to use it to show in his class which is great.

Camera Obscura

This morning was the nicest day of the year thus far. I just wanted to get out of class and walk around.

I got this opportunity today when I went to Kenilworth to see Ethan Jackson's camera obscura. It was a real laid back class I was able to go get a frozen coffee (or something like that) then enjoy his work.

It was in the Kenilworth art building which is connected to Kenilworth Square where I live which is very easy to find. His Camera Obscura was comprised of four pin holes set up in a panoramic fashion that projected onto a mobile wall about six feet away. The detail was spectacular since the mobile wall gave him the option to move it into place to get a better focus.

He also projected his previous projects on a wall and answered questions. His last work in the church with the obscura of the sky on the ceiling of the church was beautiful. He uses time lapse photography from a digital SLR to get these quicktime videos that he played for us. He said he wants to do it on video but has never had his hands on a good enough quality camera to do so. So I approached him after he was finished and introduced myself. I told him that I have a an HD 3-chip Camera that might work. He was very excited and he actually gave me a call tonight so we could set something up for around 2 pm tomorrow. Hopefully the weather is well and we can pick up his obscura in enough detail. He said it would be great for his portfolio to have a video to show. I am hoping that if it works out well he will give me a copy that I can give to Carl so he can show it to future classes.

Overall I found this field trip to be a great experience. I wish we did stuff like this more often.