December

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Filmtips:

Watch Out for Lighting Extremes

Pay attention to the overall differences in lighting in the view finder. Remember your auto exposure, for most cameras, looks at the average brightness of the whole field of view to determine how much light it captures. If there are lots of white or bright lights, then your subject's face may be under exposed.
In David Pogue's excellent book iMovie 2: The Missing Manual, David reminds us that a DV camcorder can capture contrast ratios of only about 4 to 1 (compared to 10 to 1 for film based cameras). This means that that bright spot on your subjects forehead might translate to pure white in the captured video or that dark grey objects will appear totally black. Either by adjusting lighting or re-positioning your subjects and/or camera, insures that the lighting does not show extremes of light or dark.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

This video is a mix of both moving and still images. They were made with the same camcorder.

Danish green

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Filmtips:

CUTAWAYS
In a cutaway, you simply leave the main action for a brief scene to film something else that's related to your movie. In the preceding example, we mentioned a close-up of the dog falling asleep. This is a good cutaway. The camera left the fishing itself and concentrated on the sleeping dog as Dad waited for a bite. Cutaways like this, or of excited crowd reaction and other sidelights at a sporting event, add interest and variety to the main action.

SEQUENCES
To enrich the continuity of your movie story, make sequences of related action. In a movie sequence you film a series of scenes of the action instead of just one scene. The moviemaker can film various aspects of the action from several different camera angles and filming distances to help tell part of the movie story in an interesting way.

 

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

His masters' choice

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Why shoot Super 8?
Super-8 Cameras have built in features and options that surpass what can be achieved on 16mm and 35mm AND dv camcorder special effects are best engineered when editing, making Super-8 the number one choice for the most versatile in camera effects imaginable.
Film is a worthy medium. It costs money to pursue it, so people have to be serious enough about their images to shell out cash. Video's cheap all the way around - 500 channels and nothing's on.
Super 8 offers education that you won't get if you only shoot video. Filmshooting is expensive; S8 helps teach shot discipline (why shoot 5 minute takes when you need only 5 seconds?). By running a S8 camera in manual mode the student learns the importance of focus, exposure, and framing. S8 offers an education on the nuances of different motion picture film stocks and film transfer craft.
Super 8 is an ideal origination medium for podcasting and Internet distribution. Get the best of both old & new school. Shoot at 18fps, xfer into your NLE and spit out completed projects in the format of your choice
Projecting one's own footage in a dark room with the purring projector in the background certainly is a very cool experience
Film also gives much better color, saturation, and contrast values than bleak video, try getting those beautiful looks in video. I also like analogue film grain.
Film has immense cultural currency that video lacks. The film image has a sense of perspective or history, making it more suitable for drama and feature programming. Super 8 has the home movie heritage that can be used as a visual comment in a film.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Maastricht

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Maastricht is a municipality, and capital of the province of Limburg. The city is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands between Belgium and Germany. The name of city is derived from its Latin name Trajectum Ad Mosam (Meuse-crossing), referring to the bridge built by the Romans under the reign of Augustus Caesar.

Maastricht was the first with Medieval city rights, a system which evolved to the current system and, thanks to the Romans, the first settlement with city allure. However, Maastricht was without a doubt the first settlement in the Netherlands. Roman sources mention a Celtic (probably inhabited by the Eburones ) settlement at the location they used for the bridge. 

 

 

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

City of lights

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Filminfo:

The lighting technician's duties include:

    * Placement and focus of lighting fixtures for any given scene to be  photographed.
    * Distribution of power and work lights around the set and support areas
    * Management of electrical generators.
    * Providing electricity to all support services and departments on the set.

 The world knows Eindhoven through Philips and PSV, and Eindhoven City of Light has become a natural term to use. Light has everything to do with the past, present and future of Eindhoven. The first light bulb, to the design of Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), was produced by Gerard Philips  in a factory on the Emmasingel  in 1891.
The Philps Gloeilampenfabriek NV was founded in 1912. From that time on, researchers, engineers and designers have worked on the latest light technologies in Eindhoven. As they continue to do to this day.
 
 Light is an all-encompassing bridge between the present and past of our city.  After all, Light is a clearly recognisable product of Eindhoven, originating from the citys technological power. With applications of a high physical quality that are at the same time eminently accessible. There is plenty of interest in and enthusiasm for Light. Light often plays a prominent part in the ideas of artists, architects and designers about the city.
 

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

St Petersburg souvenirs

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Film still
A film still, sometimes called a publicity still, is a photograph taken on the set of a movie or television program during production, used for promotional purposes. Generally, a still photographer is present on the set, shooting alongside principal photography, but a print could also be made from a frame of a production reel. The latter option is usually less desirable, as the smaller negatives of cine film produce grainier images than do larger stills negatives, and the slow shutter speed used in motion-picture photography (typically 1/48th of a second) produces still images that are more prone to blur.

For stills from an animated cartoon, the original animation cel may be photographed or, in the case of a computer animation, the frame may be re-rendered. Where the source material is no longer available, an image may be captured from a recording.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Arhus, the old town

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In 2003, a group of film archivists created Home Movie Day, an annual international screening event that celebrates amateur filmmaking and provides information about film preservation. Each year, volunteers in cities around the world set up projectors and invite people to see their home movies projected in public venues. In 2005, the Center for Home Movies was established as a non-profit corporation to administer Home Movie Day and to engage in new home movie projects and to act as a clearinghouse for information about home movies. The Center's mission is to collect, preserve, provide access to, and promote understanding of home movies and amateur motion pictures.
Information about Home Movie Day and "Living Room Cinema," a DVD compilation of films shown at Home Movie Day events, can be found at www.homemovieday.com.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Walhalla

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The Walhalla temple, commissioned by Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1816 and completed in 1842 commemorates great figures from German history ('German' taken in the sense of Germanic, since Gothic, Langobardic, Anglo-Saxon and Swiss German figures are included). It is located near Regensburg at the Danube.

On its inauguration on 18 October 1842, there were 96 busts and 64 plaques. 30 busts were added since.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Touring Andalucia

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 Don't turn on special effects.
Lots of digital camcorders offer special effects, everything from sepia to slo-mo to letterboxing. These can be fun to fool around with, but when the time comes to shoot your scene, turn off the glitz. Likewise, skip the camcorder's autofade features; your editing software will give you far greater control over transitions and greater variety as well. The one exception to all this is letterboxing (16:9 aspect ratio); if you want those DVD-like black bars at the top and bottom of your video, it's better to frame your shots with them already in place. Apply special effects using your editing software instead (a little maneuver the pros like to call postproduction).

Don't shoot in LP mode.
Since the dawn of the VCR, people have been using LP (long play) mode to fit more video on each tape--at the expense of video quality. What's worse: a gap of 2 to 3 minutes while you swap in a new tape or an entire video that looks grainy? The latter is what you'll get from LP, even if you have a high-end camcorder. If you really need to fit more video on each tape, try a little in-camera editing. Shoot only the scenes you really need; pause the recording during long, uneventful stretches.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Forbidden Love in Teruel

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Teruel's remote and mountainous location (it is 915 metres above sea level) and its low population has led to relative isolation within Spain. Teruel remains the only provincial capital in Spain without a direct railway link to the capital, Madrid.

The beauty of the city's Islamic inheritance has been recognised by UNESCO, which includes four churches in the World Heritage Site Mudejar Architecture of Aragon, notably the city's ornate cathedral in the Mudejar style. Another church, San Pedro, keeps the mummified bodies of Isabel Segura (a rich lady) and Diego Mansilla (a poor man) whose love ended tragically. This story is known as los amantes de Teruel

Since many people came across Spain to see the Lovers of Teruel, the mummies were exhumed and put into two new tombs The tombs are carved out of marble and bear the family sheilds of Marcilla and Segura, but what is most attractive part of the tombs are the lids. The lids are exquisitely carved: one features the strong and handsome Diego, his one arm outstretched, reaching for his love Isabel His hand comes close to touching her, but because of religious piety they do not touch (since Isabel was married). The lid for Isabel is radiant and most beautiful.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Hermitage

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Axial cut

An axial cut is a type of jump cut, where the camera suddenly moves closer to or further away from its subject, along an invisible line drawn straight between the camera and the subject. While a plain jump cut typically involves a temporal discontinuity (an apparent jump in time), an axial cut usually does not.

An axial cut can be made with the use of a zoom lens, or physically moving the camera with a crane or Camera dolly. The intervening footage (as the camera moves or zooms) is then removed while editing the film. Since footage is discarded, this technique works better for static shots. If action is required, several takes will be required to get the necessary footage.

Alternately, a multi-camera setup can be used, with the cameras showing the subject at different sizes. The footage from both cameras is then edited together to create the effect. As the cameras cannot occupy the same space, there will always be a slight deviation from the axis. Moving the cameras further away from the subject and using telephoto lenses can reduce the deviation.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Competa in Andalucia

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Camcorders
MiniDV cameras: In the last few years, digital cameras have
become more and more popular. They provide higher-resolution
images than older formats. MiniDV tapes are small and record
in a digital format.
DVD cameras: These cameras use DVD technology with the
capability of recording onto a disc or memory card. This new
format is still not in widespread use.
DVCAM cameras: These cameras provide better quality and
steadier images than a MiniDV. This format is used more and
more by broadcasters. MiniDV tapes can usually be used in this
lightweight camera.
HD cameras and 24P cameras: New cameras that shoot in formats
suited for high-defi nition television, and a format that is closer
to analog fi lm in shutter speed, and thus better suited for
transfer to fi lm. Both are high-quality formats, increasingly
being used by documentary fi lmmakers.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Costa del Sol

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Nerja is a tourism-oriented town on the Costa del Sol in the province of Málaga, which lies in one of Spain's 17 autonomous regions, Andalucía, on the country's southern, Mediterranean coast. It lies about 50 km east of the city of Málaga, and is within 1 hour 15 minutes drive of the Alhambra in the city of Granada, and 30 minutes more to skiing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Viral video

The term viral video refers to video clip content which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or IM messages, blogs and other media sharing websites. Viral videos are often humorous in nature and may range from televised comedy sketches such as Saturday Night Live's Lazy Sunday to unintentionally released amateur video clips like Star Wars kid.

The proliferation of camera phones means that many videos shot these days are shot by consumers on these devices. The availability of cheap video editing and publishing tools allows video shot on mobile phones to be edited and distributed virally both on the web by email and between phones by Bluetooth. These consumer shot videos are typically non-commercial videos intended for viewing by friends or family.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Domain du Golf

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Golf is a game where individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs, and is one of the few ball games that does not use a fixed standard playing area.
Golf originated in Scotland and has been played for at least five centuries in the British Isles. Tapestries have been found in China showing the game being played that are over 600 years old. The oldest course in the world is The Old Links at Musselburgh. Golf, in essentially the form we know it today, has been played on Scotland's Musselburgh Links since 1672, and earlier versions of the game have been played in the British Isles and the low-countries of Northern Europe for several centuries before that.

Although often viewed as an elite pastime, golf is an increasingly popular sport that can be played for one's entire life.

Le domain du Golf is a splendid complex between vintages and bunches. It has
72 apartments two and three etages, all directly to the golf course.
Ammerschwihr is a picturesque village and one of the most important wine producers of the region.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Golf du Clecy

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Golf du Clecy

Built on 100 hectares of woods and pastures, the golf course is hilly and its fairways stretch out into the countryside to six kilometres, dominating the region as far as the eye can see. If you are an early riser, do not be afraid of the escaping hares, or even roe deers you could disturb. Do not think that you are going to the ends of the earth, the third stroke of the 9, or the second stroke of the 18 will bring you back ,as if by magic, to the manor where a friendly Club House waits for you.

You might spend the night in one of the manor's rooms. On the following day, after a copious breakfast, you will be able to face the golf course's difficulties again.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Barcelona, es

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Spanish cinema is not held in as high esteem worldwide as French or American cinema. In the long history of Spanish cinema, only the great filmmaker Luis Bunuel has achieved universal recognition, but Spanish cinema has seen some sporadic international success over the years with films by directors like , Luis Garcia Berlanga, Carlos Saura, and Pedro Almodovar,

Almodovar's films cultivate a naturalism that deconstructs the depiction of middle-class values, typical of Spanish cinema. His films tend to deal with the marginal existence of the urban underclass and are full of scandalous and provocative elements, such as corrupt cops, drug consumption, prostitution, maltreatment, precocious kids, homosexuality, desperate housewives and philosophical country hicks. All this is combined with strong irreverent humour that often include explicit scenes of a sexual nature.

Just like the surrealists, the occasional scandalous scene of bad taste is usually incorporated into Almodovar's movies in order to perturb the morally haughty bourgeoisie and stilted intellectuals that feel they are above such unbecoming behaviour. Nonetheless, with the passage of time, Almodovar has developed a more sophisticated and colourful sense of drama, and continues to improve his scriptwriting to the point where he has become a master of rhythm and structure.

Today, only 10 to 20% of box office receipts in Spain are generated by domestic films, which could lead to a crisis in the Spanish film industry if the trend continues.

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Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Ketchup Barcelona

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Reportage of a citytrip to this popular spanish city. A short impression with a selection of the total footage. Filmed with a sony digital 8 camera and edited with apples' Imovie.

Barcelona offers an opportunity for the tourist on foot to walk from Roman remains to the medieval city and then to the modern city with its open thoroughfares and grid-iron street pattern. The historic city center is fairly flat, while the modern city fans out towards the surrounding hills, bordered by steep streets.

A notable feature is La Rambla, a boulevard that runs from the city centre to the waterfront, thronged with crowds until late at night and lined by florists, bird sellers in the higher part, craft sellers in the lowest, street entertainers, cafeterias and restaurants. Walking along La Rambla one can see the world-famous opera house El Liceu, the food market of La Boqueria and the Plaça Reial (literally Royal Square), with its arches and palm trees, amongst other interesting buildings. There is also a Wax Museum near the end.
La Rambla ends at the old harbour, where a statue of Christopher Columbus points eastwards across the Mediterranean Sea toward his hometown of Genoa.

Next to it is the Museu Marítim which chronicles the history of life on the Mediterranean, including a full-scale model of a galley. The museum is housed in the medieval Drassanes (shipyards), where the ships that made Catalonia a great sea power in the Mediterranean were built.

The old harbour offers all kinds of other amenities, including the second largest aquarium in the Mediterranean area and an IMAX cinema.

To the north of the Gothic Quarter lie the Jardins de Fonseré i Mestre which contain modernist buildings housing zoological and geological collections. The adjacent Parc de la Ciutadella includes both the Parlament de Catalunya (Catalan Parliament) and the Parc Zoològic de Barcelona (zoo)

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

The Glory of Gaudi

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Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Artistic style

Gaudí's first works were designed in the style of gothic and traditional Spanish architectural modes, but he soon developed his own distinct sculptural style. French architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, who promoted an evolved form of gothic architecture, proved a major influence on Gaudí. But the student surpassed the master architect and contrived highly original designs – irregular and fantastically intricate. Some of his greatest works, most notably La Sagrada Família, have an almost hallucinatory power.

Gaudí's unfinished
masterpiece,

SagradaFamília

He integrated the catenary arch and hyperboloid structures, nature's organic shapes, and the fluidity of water into his architecture. While designing buildings, he observed the forces of gravity and related catenary principles. (Gaudí designed many of his structures upside down by hanging various weights on interconnected strings or chains, using gravity to calculate catenaries for a natural curved arch or vault.)

Using the trencadís technique, Gaudí often decorated surfaces with broken tiles.

The architect's work was categorized as Art Nouveau architecture, a precursor to modern architecture. But his adoption of biomorphic shapes rather than orthogonal lines put him in a category unto himself (in Latin, sui generis).

Swiss movie

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Filmtips:

Common issues with video camera systems

Some people find video to have a grainy and less desirable look than film, and indeed a great many music videos have traditionally been shot on film rather than videotape. With the rise of digital video, however, it has become practical to emulate the "film look" using progressive scan and improved telecine techniques. Many television shows which would in the past have been shot on film are now done using video, and the capability to do this exists even in some high-end consumer/prosumer equipment.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Holiday camp

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User generated content (UGC, often hyphenated), also known as Consumer Generated Media (CGM) or User created Content (UCC), refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users.

The term entered mainstream usage during 2005 after arising in web publishing and new media content production circles. It reflects the expansion of media production through new technologies that are accessible and affordable to the general public. These include digital video, blogging, podcasting, news, gossip, research, mobile phone photography and wikis. In addition to these technologies, user generated content may also employ a combination of open source, free software, and flexible licensing or related agreements to further diminish the barriers to collaboration, skill-building and discovery.

Often UGC is partially or totally monitored by website administrators to avoid offensive content or language, copyright infringement issues, or simply to determine if the content posted is relevant to the site's general theme.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Touring in Switserland

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Filminfo:
Super8 projector

Firstly, you need to decide what type of Super 8 projector to buy. If you wish to run Std 8mm as well as Super 8 you will need a dual gauge projector. If you plan to run sound films, you will need a sound projector

What features do you need? Bright lamps are very important. Most Super 8 projectors will have a modern style QI type lamp. Whilst many solid projectors offer 50 watt lamps, 100 watts is always better. A 100 watt lamp will provide adequate illumination on a matte white screen 8ft - 10ft (3m) wide in a dark room, a projector with a 50watt lamp will struggle at this size. Some top line projectors offer 150 or even 200watt lamps for even larger images. Remember it is the size of the image, not the distance from the projector (throw) that determines your screen brightness.

Most projectors will accept a 400ft reel, some however offer 600, 800 or even 1200ft capacity. Some packaged films and home movies may be on reels larger than 400ft. Most are auto-threading from the feed guide to the take-up spool, this is very handy.

Lower end sound projectors have poor sound reproduction and low powered amplifiers; commonly 5 watts or less. Look for 10w, 15w or more if you plan on filling a room with quality sound. Many offer sound on sound recording facilities, where you can add a commentary or back ground music to a blank track or previously recorded sound. Stereo playback is available on high end machines and companies still produce brand new Super 8 stereo sound films.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Autobahn

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Road movie
A film genre in which the action takes places during a journey.

Structure

Like their antecedents, the road movie tends towards an episodic structure. In each episode, there is a challenge to be met, although not all of them will be met successfully. In most episodes, a piece of the plot is revealed - knowledge or allies are gained, and so on. Sometimes, as Heart of Darkness, this progress is inverted, and each episode represents a loss rather than a gain.

Road movies traditionally end in one of four ways:

    * having met with triumph at their ultimate destination, the protagonist(s) return home, wiser for their experiences.
    * at the end of the journey, the protagonist(s) find a new home at their destination.
    * the journey continues endlessly. In such cases, the last shot of the film is almost always the driver's point of view of a lonely highway at night.
    * having realised that, as a result of their journey, they can never go home, the protagonists either choose death or are killed.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Arles, light of van Gogh

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runtime 3.45

Backlighting

In the context of lighting design, backlighting refers to the process of illuminating the subject from the back. In other words, the lighting instrument and the viewer are facing towards each other, with the subject in between. This causes the edges of the subject to glow, while the other areas remain darker. The back light is usually placed directly behind the subject in a 4-point lighting setup.

A back light, which lights foreground elements from the rear, is not to be confused with a background light, which lights background elements (such as scenery).

The back light is sometimes called hair or shoulder light, because when lighting an actor or an actress, backlighting will cause the edges of his or her hair to glow if he or she has fuzzy hair. This gives an angelic halo type affect around the head. This is often used in order to show that the actor or actress so lit is "good" or "pure".

Backlighting helps to provide separation between the subject and its background.

Spotlights

A spotlight is general term for any lighting instrument used in theatre to create a pool of light on the stage

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Bavarian outback

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Widescreen.

Many films are made with film formats that are wider than video's standard 4:3 aspect ratio. Where possible shoot proper widescreen video to enhance your 'film' look.

Many cameras with a widescreen mode produce pictures of this aspect ratio by throwing away valuable pixels from a 4:3 CCD. Check your camera's pictures in widescreen mode. If they are less sharp than in standard mode, then your camera does not have true 16:9 capabilities.

You have two choices:

1. Shoot in 4:3 but with an optical anamorphic lens adaptor
But you might have problems if you  don't have a 16:9 viewing capability in your  editing package. Reduce the height of your video by 75% and you will have a 16:9 widescreen picture within a 4:3 frame.

2. Shoot in 4:3 but frame for 16:9 so black bars can "letterbox" your frame top and bottom in post-production.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Crossing the Alps

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When you travel from our country into the south to Italy e.g. you will have to cross the Alps. This part of a vacationvideo shows the way back to the north. Its a 3 minutes film.

The music is "Wiliam Tell" from Rossini.
The Alps (Alpi in Italian, Alpe in Slovene) is the name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria, Italy and Slovenia in the east, through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west. The word "Alps" was taken via French from Latin Alpes (meaning "the Alps"), which may be influenced by the Latin words albus (white) or altus (high), or a Celtic word.

The highest mountain in the Alps is Mont Blanc at 4810 m on the French-Italian border

 

 

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

The painting Dutchman

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Tilting and Panning
Both of these techniques involve fixing the camera on its axis (often with a tripod). Tilting is angling the lens up or down, while panning is sweeping the lens left or right.
Tilting or panning with a photography tripod (one without a fluid head) can result in jittery movement to avoid jitters, you can try finding a consumer grade video tripod. Either way, it takes a good deal of practice to get smooth and accurate tilts and pans.

Dollying
Dollying is physically moving the camera, while it is fixed to an object. Professionals use dolly tracks and/or rigs to smoothly move the camera these setups can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
We recommend wheelchairs, cars, skateboards, trikes, or other improvised wheeled devices.
Have the camera person sit on the vehicle or object with someone else pushing.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

In the field of painting, there exists a "hierarchy of genres" associated with the Académie française which once held a central role in academic art. These genres in hierarchical order are:
History painting
Genre works
Portrait painting
Landscape painting
Still life painting
These categories played an important role between the 17th century and the modern era, when painters and critics began to rebel against the many rules of the Académie française, including the Académie's preference for history painting.

Watermusic

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Film tips:

A film score is the music in a film, generally written for the film and often used to heighten emotions provoked by the imagery on the screen or by the dialogue.

In many instances, film scores are performed by orchestras, which vary in size from a small chamber ensemble to a large ensemble, sometimes including a choir. The orchestra is either a studio orchestra made up of contracted musicians such as the Hollywood Studio Symphony or a performing orchestra such as the London Symphony Orchestra. However, TV, video games, and films with even smaller budgets, often utilize sampling technology to re-create the sound of an orchestra. This is generally much cheaper, although most film-makers try to avoid this.

Some films use popular music as the primary musical component, but an orchestral score is more often preferred. An orchestral score can be much more closely adapted to a film while popular music is most often based upon a strong and repetitive rhythm that is inflexible and cannot be easily adapted to a scene. Popular genres of music also tend to date quickly as styles rapidly evolve while orchestral music tends to age much more gracefully. Instead, popular music may be included for special occasions where more attention must be diverted to the music. In these cases, songs are usually not written specifically for the film

Information:
Avignon is the capital of the Vaucluse département. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhône, a few miles above its confluence with the Durance, about 580 km (360 m.) south-south-east of Paris, 143 m. south of Lyon and 85 km (55 m.) north-north-west of Marseille. Its coordinates are 43°57′N, 4°50′E. Avignon and occupies a large oval-shaped area, not fully populated and covered in great part by parks and gardens.
Avignon is subject to violent winds, of which the strongest is the mistral. The popular proverb is, however, somewhat exaggerated, Avenie ventosa, sine vento venenosa, cum vento fastidiosa (windy Avignon, pest-ridden when there is no wind, wind-pestered when there is).

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

Grafenau :Bavarian forest

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Light like the Movies.

Modern video cameras are made sensitive enough to shoot in any lighting conditions but there are still steps you can take to make your 'cinematography' as attractive as the movies.

Most video cameras are (still) unable to handle the highest contrasts between highlights and lowlights of a picture. For instance, if your 'star' is sitting with his or her back to a bright window you, must take some action to reduce the brightness differences between the outdoor scene framed through the window and the all-important face. The easiest way is by a white reflector - and you can get small collapsible ones from your local photography store. Professional film crews sometimes use sheets of white polystyrene but these can be noisy to hold and are dangerous in high winds!.

The benefit of using a white reflector is that the light coming from it will be the same colour as the rest of the light illuminating the scene. The idea is to just 'fill' the face with a little more soft light to make it more attractive.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)






The Mercure hotel we stayed at

Memories in super8

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How easy is it to get super 8mm equipment?

Online auctions are also a good source but as ever, buyer beware! You'll need a good quality camera with the ability to shoot at 24 or 25 frames per second (for easier transfer later) and ensure that all major features are in working order. Look for respected makes such as Nizo, Bauer, Elmo & Canon.

Where can I get film from?
The replacement for Kodachrome 40 colour film, Ektachrome 64T is available through some high street and specialist shops. Online outlets sell this as well as Kodak's other negative colour and black and white films. Kodak have recently introduced new films to their range

How do I get the film processed?
All film stocks will require processing by a specialist laboratory. For the adventurous, you could always process the film yourself!

What then?
Well, you've two options. You could edit it as film, splicing scenes together (although this will destroy your original film) and then project the final piece or get it telecined for editing on video tape or computer.

Formats available: Quicktime (.mov)

Our Lady of the Pillar

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This video is 3.30 minutes (25mb)

Zaragoza is the capital city of the autonomous region and former kingdom of Aragon in Spain, and is located on the river Ebro, in a great valley with a variety of landscapes, ranging from desert (Los Monegros) to thick forest, meadows and mountains.

Zaragoza is linked by legends to the beginnings of Christianity in Spain. According to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared miraculously to Saint James the Great in the 1st century, standing on a pillar. This legend is commemorated by a famous Catholic basilica called Nuestra Señora del Pilar ("Our Lady of the Pillar").

The event, called "Las Fiestas del Pilar", is celebrated on October 12 which is a major fiesta in Zaragoza. Since it coincided in 1492 with the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, that day is also celebrated as El Día de la Hispanidad by Spanish-speaking people worldwide.

The Latin word basilica derived from Greek ,was originally used to describe a Roman public building (as in Greece, mainly a tribunal), usually located at the centre of a Roman town (forum).
After the Roman Empire became officially Christian, the term came by extension to refer to a large and important church that has been given special ceremonial rights by the Pope, it is the "highest" or "most important" place of worship in the Holy Roman Catholic Church followed by Cathedrals, Churches, and finally chapels and thus the word retains two senses today, in an architectural context and in an ecclesiastical one.

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Tale of Whales

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Greenpeace launches its first videoblog by means of its own online television canal. Greenpeace Netherlands has launched its first videoblog. Greenpeace is the first environment organisation with own online broadcast. In monthly deliveries attention is given on national and international environment subjects. This way the viewer is informed of action and developments at Greenpeace. And in a simple, fast and informal manner checkout: http://www.greenpeace.nl/greenpeace-tv/

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