8mm Video Grabs

I got my film processed! One roll didn’t take but I think it was my error because the first roll came out. I think I didn’t tread it properly, next time I am going to open up the camera after I film a little to look and see, maybe I’ll get a white spot somewhere but maybe that’s ok. I really like the look of the film.

Tawny Goes to the Park

A Bit of unfortunate news, I have lost my cell (with videos in it) while walking the dog.
But all is not lost; my mishap has helped me rethink the way I work. I have since been shooting my digital more purposely, choosing more carefully which frames to leave in and out (I liked that choppy cell phone look) I am now shooting with a very cheep low resolution toy camera It automatically shoots more frames per sec. (I think its about 15-30fps) if I want less I’ll take them out.
Above are some video grabs of my most recent

I’m still shooting some LA scenes with the 8mm camera. Also I have located a Victrola and 78’s to record.

Some References

Biography : Olga Mink
From http://www.videoart.net/

Olga Mink(1974, NL) works as a video-artist in the Netherlands. Her work has been exposed at various festivals and media-events, in Holland, UK, Belgium, Spain, East-europe & White Russia and recently also in Tokyo/Japan. Mink develops visual concepts in motion-graphics and new media. In her work she explores various techniques to create her typical contemporary aesthetics. Often her work relates to graphic-design and architectural environments. In her work she zooms into a subject in order to analyse and truly 'see' the essentials and/or beauty. Next to live performance and video-graphics, she also works on conceptual-based projects and video-installations. For example she has created the interactive video-installation 'Video-matic', for a Dutch Cultural Center in 2004. This installation explores the public environment, by use of a touchscreen inside the building and a video-projection at night. Networked interaction is being developed with the use of an online application and a website. As a video-performer she often works with Michel Banabila, a Dutch music-composer. Together they perfom live and create a cinematic experience of sound and image. As a visual performer Olga Mink works also under the name of VJ Oxygen and 'Visual.girlbot.facility'. She released work on VJ-label NOTV DVD's Visual Music2, and on the LightrhythmVisuals-label. (SF/USA)

video grabs from Olga Mink’s “Ballet Mechanique Visual installation” 2002

Touch Of Evil

Touch of Evil (1958) is a great American film noir crime thriller, dark mystery, and cult classic - another technical masterpiece from writer-director-actor Orson Welles. It was Orson Welles' fifth Hollywood film - and it was his last American film. Touch of Evil was the last great film noir during the so-called 'classic' era of noirs, from the early 1940s to the late 1950s.

Although unappreciated in its time in the US, a box-office failure, and criticized as artsy, campy, sleazy pulp-fiction trash, the low-budget film - in retrospect - has been ranked as the classic B-movie of the silver screen. (It was met with rave reviews in Europe, and won Best Picture at the Brussels Film Festival).

This great noir was shot on location in Venice, California rather than in the film's setting of Mexico (possibly the border town of Tijuana but called Los Robles in the film). The film's script, written in about two weeks, was loosely based upon Whit Masterson's (a pseudonym for Wade Miller - aka Robert Wade and William Miller) 1956 pulp novel, Badge of Evil.

It was regarded as a rebellious, unorthodox, bizarre, and outrageously exaggerated film, affronting respectable 1950's sensibilities, with controversial themes including racism, betrayal of friends, sexual ambiguity, frameups, drugs, and police corruption of power. Its central character is an obsessed, driven, and bloated police captain ("a lousy cop") a basically tragic figure who has a "touch of evil" in his enforcement of the law.

A good site for a touch of evil: http://skyjude.users.btopenworld.com/touchofevil.htm
Here are some video grabs :

Film Noir

I have been watching some old movies like “Touch of Evil” by Orson Welles. I kind of waned to look at some of these Film Qualities.

Here is quote from an Essay by Lise Hordnes’s "Does Film Noir mirror the culture of contemporary America? "

Discussing Film Noir:

“…. One of the techniques used was the low-key lighting which causes the effect of obscuring the action, and deglamourizing the star so that the composition becomes more important than the actor. Earlier American movies had focused on the star. The use of night and shadows emphasizes the cold and the darkness in the noirs. The change of focus from the actors and movement in the image to the compository excitement underline a fatalistic and hopeless mood. This mood is also fortified through a complex narration, often disjuncted and fragmented. To do this flashbacks are often used, which emphasizes the feeling of lost time and despair. According to Paul Schrader time is manipulated because the form stands above the content. In the narration voice-over is also often used , and in connection we sometimes get to see the end of the film in its beginning. This is also an unconventional use of the time notion that call forth a feeling of predestination and irrevocable past.

The wide-angle cinematography participated in making the space distorted and the audience disoriented. In film noir we also find a repeated use of an image composition where the lines no longer are horizontal, but vertical and sloping. This gives an unsettling impression. In the noirs the world often seems like a prison, something that these images along with the use of image metaphors like sun blinds help to underline. We also find an extended use of extreme low and high-angle perspectives.

All of these stylistic elements served to disorient the spectators and create a mood of uneasiness, alienation and loneliness in the movies. Thus, the dark and uneasy visual expression of the film noirs emphasize the themes.…”

Inspirations

Here are some things I have been looking at: I have been reading a magazine, “Super 8 Today” In the September/October issue there is a good article called “Super-8 Tips: Making Your First Film” I Also liked an article that Ron sent me “Shooting DV for Broadcast”

Oh, and here’s a link to a site that has video artists. I accessed this site when I did my research on Eija-Liisa Ahtila. It’s called: “Video Art Contemporary Artists”
www.the-artists.org/tours/video-art.cfm

And a Thank You out to Ron for referring me to The Karakuri Corner: www.karakuricorner.com

Progress:

The digital work has been going fine; however, my work with the 8mm is going a bit slow. I have been working with an old 8mm camera and have had some problems. First of all, I didn’t know I had to turn the film over after I shot one side so, my first reel is really just half a reel. Also, it was processed on a reel that didn’t fit on the projector I have. My plan of attack now is to just have it put to DVD from the start. I have to have three rolls completed for the DVD minimum.

"Struggle" and "Hollywood Take"

I am still working on both of these pieces. I want to experiment more with 8mm film with both of them, as well work on the souund. My idea is to record music from old 78’s on an old Victrola. I like the scratchy sound. We’ll see how it goes.

Video Clips: "Hollywood Take"