| Video Snapshots
(14.5.03) |
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I'm currently piecing together one or
two essays and three or four ideas about digital video.
It's a work in progress and this page will eventually
change, but here it is for now:
1) The idea of the video blog is currently
being discussed, as a possible next-step for the text
blog (and Blogger now supports audio-blogging, where you
post voice clips from your mobile phone). I don't think
the video blog will succeed, or that many people will
even attempt it. First, you have the bandwidth problem.
Second, it requires much more work to produce. Third,
it's likely to be enormously boring watching people enact
their five minutes of Internet fame - this is me, this
is my favourite hobby, I like this kind of movie etc.
And last of all, video makes you more passive: you have
to wait for it to download or stream, and watch it like
a tiny TV image. Here's
an example of what's being done; here's
another.
2) I think the idea of the video blog
is a mistake, but I think using video is not.
The question is, what can you do with it now that it's
easy to produce? A me/me/me blog is quite boring but this,
for example, is a wonderful way of using video. For me,
watching this suddenly brings my monitor/puter to life;
I am sharing snapshot intimate moments with other people,
using the 'net as a social and cultural space rather than
a pretentiously arty one, a technological one, or one
which extends or replicates existing media forms.
3) There's a video aesthetic
which is quite interesting. Remember the plastic bag scene
in American Beauty? I guess you could regard
it as sentimental and corny; I
didn't. I like the idea of a more basic and grass-roots
aesthetic which counterpoints mainstream, film based productions.
Anyone can get a camera, get some footage, and show it
on the web. Yes it's not the same thing as a movie, corporate
or otherwise. The 'net is neither TV nor cinema, and it's
a waste of time trying to make it like that. Other films
of interest? Peeping Tom - using the video-gaze
as psychological and physical aggression. Blair Witch
Project: the drama derives from the deliberately
low-budget presentation. Sex, Lies and Videotape:
a video confession is perceived as a greater betrayal
than actual infidelity; James Spader uses video to control
life and recover a sense of (illusory) power. The
Ring: video can encode occult psychological energies.
OK enough of the theory. Here are some
clips I call video-snapshots. You need
broadband for this, and will probably want to grab them
off the server while you do something else
(Flash files - go here
to get the technology).
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Gentle
lapping of Ullswater, in the Lake District |
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Well this is "Recumbent
Gaze", don't forget |
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Beautiful blossom-lined
avenue I visit every Spring |
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Gentle old folk raising
hell on the bowling green |
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Balletic parade of
people walking past city centre buskers. I liked the
patterns they made |
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In this high-tech/techno-babble
age, nature is unchanged. It might not be cool to
say this; I don't care. |
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Patterns again, in
a park again. I like the spacious, relaxed, summer-time
mood of ducks on water and children in the distance
making balletic patterns on the swings |
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Ducks. On water. With
nice reflections. |
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Children playing by
water. A nostalgic and romanticised image no doubt
- but it looked nice |
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Girl playing on roundabout,
idyllic summer-time ambience |
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Heh. She scoots past,
chasing behind her playmate, then they go back the
other way. Gently amusing. But if I splice all
the clips together it becomes 96 mb. Reminds me of
the scooter-rider in the film Local Hero |
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Carefree fun in the
sun. Looked nice. |
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