The messy detail No.1

It's a trip

Another vacation, another "beat vignette". This one is me walking into Placa Catalunya in Barcelona. I love videos of walking through crowds. I have a few similar shots that are especially cool from NYC. This was shot with my favorite little camera, the Harinezumi, which is excellent for shooting inconspicuously due to it's small size. I loved some of the still frames of people looking at me, as well as some people just framed well in passing, so I decided to accentuate that, it almost makes for a 'where's Waldo' effect. The music it self is a modified version an older track of mine called "Streets Empty". Interesting technical note is the live drum samples come from when I was interning at Arlyn studios, and are some great room mic recordings done with a U87 in the main room which is nice and "woody".

Below are the stills that are at the beginning of the video. I think each has a rather cool composition about it. I love the girl looking right at the camera and the confused looking couple that seem to be melting into the glare. Also, I really dig the man making the classic 'searching' gesture, which I am sure is just meant to block the sun, but I like to think of him as a wayward traveler, and he kind of reminds me of Rick Steves. The last shot I just like the guys candid face and the frame composition of the background.

In Progess

Over the last few years I've been working on developing a new art style. As with anything new to me, I don't just let it out in to the wild after inception. It must be researched, and refined, so as I can start to realize its potential. For the coming year I plan on making art a big part of my creative efforts. Best case scenario end game would be a show at a little gallery somewhere. I am considering creating a tumblr or a separate blog for this new art, but am still undecided on that at this time. For now I am working on coming up with a concise definition of what the style is. A definition that I am sure to, redefine. More on this later.

Sentimental View

Just a short little clip I did while working on making a live incarnation of our Bluffs project. I've been slowly building a library of video clips for eventual use as source material for live projected visuals. The below is one of those clips.

The Subterranean Way

Another "beat vignette" from my November 2011 New York City trip. I forgot exactly what subway stop this was at (anyone care to fill me in?). Analog bleeps and loops courtesy of Korg, and Moog. The synth at the end is a Little Phatty controlling a MG1 via control voltage, playing a single detuned sliding note in unison. The beats are comprised of various processed bits and fragments from my own library.

Time Squared

A little video I took while our shuttle crawled along through Times Square. I set aside a few hours the other night and created this little beat vignette to 'score' it. Tossed in a little modular mayhem courtesy of Moog, Korg, and Bleep Labs and Viola! I generally have music running through my head, so this is sort of like my minds eye view. I think I planned on doing more to this, but as it is I probably spent too much time making sure that the fades and subtle changes match up to stuff on screen, all the while wondering if the small handful of people who see it will even notice (same with any sort of art right?). Part of me thinks I should be doing this sort of thing to "good" (higher quality) footage, but I sort of like how even the blindingly bright lights are muted and dark. I thought about doing some video correction, but I like the noise. L85.

Macro Love

Just a few little details that I found going through some of my pictures...
They really highlight some of the things I find attractive in the marco mode of the Harinezumi camera, the texture, the noise, the smearing focus contrasted against the sharp focus, all contributing to the other worldly feel of these pictures. I still love the hyper crispness of a high quality macro picture from a SLR or something along those lines, but these just have something about them that I really adore. I think my love of slightly fuzzy macro-photography can be traced back to the back page of '3 2 1 Contact' magazine, where it featured different close ups of objects, and you had to guess the object. Ah memories. Maybe I will see if I can buy some old back issues...