A Long Island Sunset

This edit was an exercise in the basics. While in NY last week, I shot some simple footage as my Uncle and I watched the sunset along the eastern shore of Long Island.

The editing of this footage consisted of me learning the limits of the "Edge Feather" effect in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. Originally, I wanted to have a second, duplicate video layer of the sunset, and have the edges feathered in to highlight the sun. I would fade out the lower layer sunset video, revealing the layer with the sunset being highlighted by the feather effect.

However, I discovered that the feather effect in Premiere does not extend beyond it's limit of "100", which is roughly half of the video size. The small area of the video that I wanted to emphasize was too far from the edges of the video to be affected by the feather effect. If I wanted to continue with my original plan, I would have to do an After Effects composition. Instead, I just did a simple crop with animation.

Anyway, this is the beautiful sunset as seen from The Hamptons. The video hardly does it justice, but you can get the idea.

Need stock footage? Don't want to pay?

Have you heard of the Internet Archive? This project is amazing in many different ways. At it's heart, it is a library of the internet. It catalogs web pages in static form and stores them for viewing in the future. For example, you can see the official White House webpage from 1997. Or what Yahoo looked like back in 1996. Typically, don't expect to feel more nostalgia than anything while browsing this internet library.

But the Internet Archive also has a project that includes a catalog of open-source moving images. This is where groups or individuals can upload video that you are free to use for your own purposes -- under the nifty and progressive Creative Commons License. If you know what you are looking for in terms of stock footage, you can most likely find it. Just search for your topic and see if anything comes up. You can find plenty of WWII stock footage, for example.

Visit The Internet Archive. You'll find something you like.

Live from the street: Bicycle Cam (Coming Soon)

Currently in the works: a system to mount my Flip camera onto my bicycle. I hope that I can capture the entire northern portion of the Greenway trail up here in Cumming. I'll see if I can do that in a fashion that reduces bounce and shaking to the absolute minimum.

I plan on condensing the footage of the entire bike ride -- about an hour and 15 minutes -- into a short 30 seconds or so. That's about a 1500% speed increase. We'll see if that will be able to portray an image of the trail. I hope that people will be able to see the condensed footage to get a feel of the whole trail.

We'll see.


If you're interested in a camera bike mount yourself, there are some fine instructions here.

Recycled Remixing

"Opportunities may come along for you to convert something -- something that exists into something that didn't yet."
-Bob Dylan

Remixes, found sound, unintentional audio, autotuned news and politicians speeches.... There is a proliferation of new art forms focused on altering audio that any consumer, viewer, streetwalker -- anyone with hearing -- might have already heard. These kinds of 'real-life' remixes are bursting out into popular culture.

A popular artist involved in this new genre has been hired by corporations like Disney and Pixar, is an Australian who goes by Pogo. Initially, this man's work was made popular by a song remix that he created from the movie "Alice in Wonderland." Using only micro snippets of audio from that film, he created a stand-alone music track with a video to match. From that point on, his popularity grew.

As his popularity grew, so did the quantity of content that he created. More music tracks using recycled audio popped up from movies such as "Hook", "Mary Poppins", "Terminator," and more. Pogo's work soon became well-known enough to warrant a copyright infringement claim by at least one major studio. Pogo was forced to remove some of his video and music tracks from public viewing.

However, the initial negative reaction that Pogo received from major studios did not remain that way. Soon, he was hired to produce his unique brand of music for promotional purposes, with the approval and cooperation of the major studios themselves.

Here are a couple other examples of remixes using recycled audio:

Double Rainbow song: A musical remix of a video that went viral.

Christian Bale rant remix: A musical remix of a briefly popular angry rant by actor Christian Bale.

ASC: Steven Fierberg

On a beautiful bike ride in 100-degree heat, I got to distract myself from the sweat and fatigue by listening to Steven Fierberg discuss his roles in HBO's Entourage and How To Make It In America. Get it http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/podcasts.php

A lot of good advice and insight came from the words of Mr. Fierberg as he discussed the process of filming the pilot for the new HBO show How To Make It In America.

He talked about the step-by-step process conducted for the test shoots as they tried to figure out which camera and film would best convey their image. There were several different cameras that they used for identical shots, and the footage from each camera was reviewed in order to choose the correct medium for the image of New York that the creators of the show wanted to convey. Eventually, 35mm film was chosen for the show.

Fierberg discussed the medium of film and confessed his belief that a viewer should always be aware of the medium as they are watching a movie. A filmmaker should be able to manipulate the medium in order to produce his desired affect, and the viewer should be able to pick up on that. In essence, a film's grain is not necessarily a downside, but, if used properly, should be an effect that enhances appreciation of the film. He likened the medium of film to the medium of paint, mention Van Gogh's :Starry Night". If you stood on the hill where Van Gogh stood to create his famous painting, and took a picture, you would not see what Van Gogh wanted you to see.

Listening to Fierberg talk about the filming of Entourage and the new HBO show shed some light of the process of filming these kinds of show and the types of details taken into consideration.

Cyrus

The movie stars John C. Riley and Jonah Hill -- a couple of stars with an atypical look, to be sure. Alongside these two ugly ducklings is the endlessly talented Maria Tomei.

While the film seemed to be billed (in commercial advertisements) as a comedy, I wouldn't recommend this movie for anyone looking for a gut-busting romp, like many other movies in which John C. Riley stars. This particular film is a romantic comedy, with a heavy emphasis on the drama part.

I'm not saying it didn't have funny parts -- it most certainly grabbed a few deep laughs from me -- but this movie was able to bring you into the characters' lives enough to develop an understanding and a concern for their well-being. This type of character concern is something that I haven't seen in a John C. Riley movie before, and was unexpected for me.

Overall, the film is a nice (if unusual) romance story interspersed with quirky humor and some shades of unusual awkwardness.

Andrew Stone Band

It is not a dream deferred. It is not a dream ignored. It is not a worm snatched by the early bird. It is not trash dumped under a board.

It is the lifetime of a dream that is understood, examined, and planned. It is the watering and nurturing of the dream's growth. It is a struggle to scour the land to find the nutrients to allow the dream to grow. It is one man who knew and others who learned.

This is the story of Andrew Stone.

Music Video time

Met with the crew of the music video for TNA's new single, "You Ready". The director of this shoot is going to be a very nice and controlled man named Jason Rice. The concept that Pop and I worked out for the video is going to be used almost entirely, except for one location change due to lack of access to a pool.

Protector's studio was busy like always: meetings going on in each room of the place, different projects floating around, and new faces loving to be there.