vlog

Kate’s first videoblog post

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

I handed the camera to Kate today. We were in Burnham Beeches, just outside London (map/satphoto). The colours are incredible this year. Another thing I’ll miss in evergreen Vancouver Island.

I was trying to persuade her to sing her song The Falling of the Leaves (a Yeats poem she set to music – you can hear it on her Myspace page) so that I could use it as a soundtrack for the other moments I shot all around the woods. But this is better.

I think I’m going to give her the camera more often.

Alternative file types:
Quicktime / Flash (click to play if player above doesn’t work)

See comments "Kate’s first videoblog post"

Amy in Wonderland – silent moving snapshot

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

NB – THIS HAS NO SOUND

—–

I said it before, I’ll say it again. I hate technology. I’m thinking of going Amish.

I’ve tried to upload this twice yesterday/today.

I’ve been away from the internet this weekend. Shocking, but true. Just testing out the Amish thing.

Anyway, here it is. I shot it in Canada in August, in the woods along Long Beach on Vancouver Island (map/satphoto). I usually shoot a lot of still photos on holiday. This time, I shot a lot of moving snapshots, only one or two of which I’ve published so far. Basically, I just experimented with keeping the camera still and shooting a movie instead of a still. Slightly different compositions from what I’d choose for photos, but you see what I mean. I was frequently surprised by what would unfold within the frame in the minute or so I kept the camera running – plus you get the extra dimensions of moving light, and sound (though not here). Futuristic holiday snaps.

This isn’t a Lumiere, strictly speaking, because it’s not under 60 seconds long, but I’ve muted it anyway because (in this case) I wanted to leave space for you to imagine the sound of a forest on the edge of the Pacific, and to imagine what’s being said and thought.

You can re-read Alice’s encounter with a mushroom here:

Alternative video files:
Quicktime / Flash

See comments "Amy in Wonderland – silent moving snapshot"

After the wine

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

Damn! I posted this on Friday night from my phone, but it never arrived. Technology. I hate it.

This is just a couple of dark, barely audible drunken moments from a dinner called N0shit organised by Phil Campbell in Burton-on-Trent for a few UK social media guys – including Nik Butler (Loudmouthman.com); Christian Paine (Documentally.com; OurManInside.com); Jason Jarrett (ABuddhistPodcast.com) and Craig Marston (craigmarstonphotography.com)

Top. Men.

My N93 is terrible in low light – I have to start using another camera at night, like the Ixus I used in San Francisco – and again this is something that I probably wouldn’t publish if it weren’t for NaVloPoMo, I’d just share my clips among those attending. But here it is, including Phil’s explaining to me why I’m disorganised after that video last week. Also, this is the only time you will ever see evidence of me on the dancefloor. I think I had had a moderate amount wine at that point.

Thanks, chaps, it was fun.

See comments "After the wine"

This is Red Five; I’m going in!

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

This is one of the things I’m going to miss most about England when I go to Canada.

I shot this on Monday in Devon, on the way back from Kate’s dad’s cottage to the station in the nearest town. 20 minutes of death star taxi adrenaline. I was wondering what I should do with it until I saw Gogen’s NaVloPoMo Day 7 video of his drive back home through his town at night, set to music. Then I realised I’d secretly known all along what to do with it. NaVloPoMo is full of people responding to and being inspired by other people’s videos. Organic video conversations. I love it.

And I love how – when cutting quickly to music – you can find and take advantage of chance interactions between image and soundtrack.

It feels good to finally add the score for real, since when I’m actually driving at high speed along single lane country roads, this is *always* what I’m singing to myself in my head. And if I’m driving and there’s nobody else in the car, maybe perhaps sometimes I might even possibly have been known to sing it out loud. Maybe even quite loud. Especially the bit that kicks in after he turns off the tracking computer. It’s like being 11 again!

Alternative video formats:
Quicktime / Flash (click if above video doesn’t play)

See comments "This is Red Five; I’m going in!"

At my signal, unleash hell

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

“Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops. Imagine where you will be, and it will be so. Hold the line! Stay with me! If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and you are already DEAD!
Brothers, what we do in life… ECHOES IN ETERNITY!”

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” – Orson Scott Card

“To be a writer is to sit down at one’s desk in the chill portion of every day, and to write; not waiting for the little jet of the blue flame of genius to start from the breastbone – just plain going at it, in pain and delight. To be a writer is to throw away a great deal, not to be satisfied, to type again, and then again, and once more, and over and over…” John Hersey

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” Jane Yolen

Join us – posting every day if you can – at http://nablopomo.ning.com/group/videobloggers

See comments "At my signal, unleash hell"

Francis & Me, Part 1

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click to Play

I’ve been meaning to post this all year, but I got too busy. Now I can’t wait any longer to share it with you.

Jay and Ryanne and GoGen and David and a whole lot of other people have inspired me recently with films of travels and faraway places. This is very different to the kind of quiet moments of beauty they observe & record – but watching theirs made me get off my arse and do something with mine.

I’m going to try to cut together more from this trip, maybe once a week – as part of my NaBloPoMo daily posting.

PS – Geek note – This wasn’t shot & cut on the N93, as the title card says, but shot on a tiny Canon Ixus/Powershot 900 pocket stills camera. Amazing. Gotta love those Canons for quality, low light & colour. (Cut on iMovie)

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)
See comments "Francis & Me, Part 1"

James Bond iPod Karaoke #2

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click to Play

Yesterday evening, on the way home over London Bridge in rush hour, listening to my iPod, I was overwhelmed by the urge to flip open my phone and record this for the VlogDeathmath.com Drunk Underwear Karaoke Challenge.

It’s not for the win, just something silly I did in one shot last night to get the ball rolling, because nobody else had posted on yet. And to show people that they don’t need to get too freaked out by any issues of quality, production values, nakedness or anything else. You just need to cut loose.

So it’s not on the scale of Anarchy in the UK, but it was fun to do anyway.

The rules of the latest Deathmatch are to use any or all of the words Drunk Underwear Karaoke as a basis for your video.

I wasn’t drunk, or in my underwear (i was tempted) but yesterday was my last day of work before a month-long holiday in Canada, so I *was* totally lightheaded with joy. Or maybe it was that I’d lost my wallet and hadn’t eaten anything all day.

Turns out that the challenge was designed to attract non-videobloggers to the Pioneer Two Boots movie theater in New York where these entries will be screened on 11 August. If I’d known it was going to be shown to an audience on a big screen when I recorded it, I would have done it at twice the resolution. And I would have done it in my underwear. And I definitely would have done it drunk.

So – videobloggers – come and join the party. You’ll get your videos shown on a big screen in New York. What are you waiting for? Get drunk, get naked, get down…

UNLEASH HELL

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

See comments "James Bond iPod Karaoke #2"