DIY moviemaking on the cheap
October 31, 2005
When I was a kid I tinkered with small engines, model airplanes, radios, TTL electronics, black and white film processing and printing, but movies were prohibitively expensive. Our fifth grade glass made a Revolutionary War epic in Super 8 directed by our teacher which is where I think I got the film bug. Today, a new generation of kids can make movies with $30 One-Time-Use CVS cameras and then download the movies to a PC (yuck) or Mac (the idea of taking the camera back and paying another $15 for a DVD is silly, hack it and it can be used again and again) and edit with one of many cheap (or free in iMovie’s case) editing programs and even build their own projectors from mostly scavenged parts! It’s a great time for inventive young people to take media literacy to the next level!
True 24P HDV
October 29, 2005
My first impressions of the JVC GY-HD100U appear in the November issue of NewEnglandFilm.com.
OK, Sony DVCAM with 24P, what about HDV with 24P?
October 28, 2005
Sony’s DSR 450WSL DVCAM Camcorder offers real 24P. The camera recently entered the rental inventory at Rule and features three native 16:9 2/3″ CCDs and in addition to 24P it also records 30PsF progressive, has selectable gamma with a film-like setting, and variable shutter. This is nice but what I really want Sony to do is bring 24P to their HDV line…
Craigslist meets Google Maps
October 8, 2005
housingmaps.com is a brilliant mashup of Google Maps and craigslist. With all this great access to information, real estate as we know it is in for tectonic changes.
Contextual search results?
October 8, 2005
2005 is the year that sharing user-created metadata has really hit a crescendo: links on del.icio.us, photos on Flickr, books on LibraryThing, blogs on Technorati, etc. the social web is taking off in very interesting ways. Now I ask, how will we start connecting all of these online collections in meaningful ways? Searching and getting a bunch of links based on page ranking is so last year. Search needs to get smarter, making use of all this context people are adding though tagging and other means. root.net, an interesting contextual search engine in development, provides a hint at things to come. It provides results clustered in groups: Photos from Flickr,
Websites from Yahoo! Web, Pictures from Yahoo! Images, Links from del.icio.us, and stories from Yahoo! News. Interesting, del.icio.us is the only non Yahoo! entity in the root.net search results, is this a hint of some kind? Acquisition candidate? How does this relate to Yahoo! My Web 2.0?
Dedicated to the art of the split screen
October 8, 2005
My friend James Seo has a very cool blog called Split Screen, dedicated to the art of the split screen and other types of multi-layered visuals. He’s a big fan of frames divided into two or more areas and interested in the simultaneous use of multiple layers of imagery. The blog covers the topic and also presents some of James’ own work in split-screen filmmaking. Check it out!
artfilmdesign.com begins podcasting weekly interviews
October 4, 2005
The first artfilmdesign.com podcast was posted today at 5:00pm Eastern and is an interview with Federico Muchnik discussing his new film, Touching History about the fate of the Tasty Diner in Harvard Square. The film will screen at 9:00pm on Friday, October 7th at the New England Film and Video Festival at the Coolidge Corner theater.
artfilmdesign.com will post a new interview with an artist, filmmaker, or designer every Tuesday at 5:00pm Eastern. You can subscribe to the podcast via Apple’s iTunes Podcast Directory (search for “artfilmdesign”) or using the podcast link on the artfilmdesign.com web site.
The interviews are being produced by Colin Owens and myself, we welcome your comments on the concept, the interviews, and suggestions for future interviewees.
Please pass this on to friends who might be interested in this podcast.
