juli 15, 2006

Reconstruction of a fatal fire


A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters include natural disasters such as earthquakes or asteroid collisions, accidents such as shipwrecks or airplane crashes, or calamities like worldwide disease pandemics. The films usually feature some degree of build-up, the disaster itself and sometimes the aftermath, usually from the point of view of specific individual characters or their families.
These films often feature large casts of actors and multiple plotlines, focusing on the characters' attempts to avert, escape or cope with the disaster and its aftermath. The genre came to particular prominence during the 1970s with the release of high-profile films such as Airport (1970), followed in quick succession by The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Towering Inferno (1974).


 


juli 14, 2006

In vino veritas




Alsace wine or Alsatian wine (in French: Vin d'Alsace) is produced in the Alsace region in France and is primarily white. Because of its Germanic influence, it is the only Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée region in France to produce mostly varietal wines, typically from similar grape varieties to those used in German wine. Along with Austria and Germany, it produces some of the most noted dry Rieslings in the world as well as highly aromatic Gewürztraminer wines. Wines are produced under three different AOCs: Alsace AOC for white, rosé and red wines, Alsace Grand Cru AOC for white wines from certain classified vineyards and Crémant d'Alsace AOC for sparkling wines. Both dry and sweet white wines are produced.

In 2006, vines were grown on 15,298 hectares (37,800 acres) in 119 villages in Alsace, and 111.3 million litres of wine was produced, corresponding to 148.4 million bottles of 750 ml, generating 478.8 million euro in revenue. Of the vineyard surface, 78% was classified for the production of AOC Alsace wines, 4% for AOC Al




juli 12, 2006

Fanatic filmer Bergman



Bergman usually wrote his own screenplays, thinking about them for months or years before starting the actual process of writing, which he viewed as somewhat tedious. His earlier films are carefully constructed and are either based on his plays or written in collaboration with other authors. Bergman stated that in his later works, when on occasion his actors would want to do things differently from his own intention, he would let them, noting that the results were often “disastrous” when he did not do so. As his career progressed, Bergman increasingly let his actors improvise their dialogue. In his latest films, he wrote just the ideas informing the scene and allowed his actors to determine the exact dialogue. When viewing daily rushes, Bergman stressed the importance of being critical but unemotive, claiming that he asked himself not if the work is great or terrible, but if it is sufficient or if it needs to be reshot.



juli 09, 2006

The palace of the popes



Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record

A 'documentary film' was originally shot on film stock—the only medium available—but now
includes video and digital productions that can be either direct-to-video, made as a television program or released for screening in cinemas. "Documentary" has been described as a "filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception" that is continually evolving and is without clear boundaries.



juli 07, 2006

Closer to Paris



A normal motion picture is filmed and played back at 24 frames per second, while television uses 25 frames/s (PAL) or 29.97 frames/s (NTSC). High-speed film cameras can film up to a quarter of a million frames per second by running the film over a rotating prism or mirror instead of using a shutter, thus reducing the need for stopping and starting the film behind a shutter which would tear the film stock at such speeds. Using this technique one can stretch one second to more than ten minutes of playback time (super slow motion). High-speed video cameras are widely used for scientific research, military test and evaluation, and industry.Examples of industrial applications are filming a manufacturing line to better tune the machine, or in the car industry the crash testing to better document the crash and what happens to the automobile and passengers during a crash.







juli 06, 2006

Etang de Thau




Étang de Thau or Bassin de Thau is the largest of a string of étangs (lakes) that stretch along the Languedoc-Roussillon, French coast from the Rhône River to the foothills of the Pyrenees which form the border to Spain. It is the second largest lake in France.

It is about 21 km long and 8 km wide, with an area of 7,012 hectares. The mean depth of the étang is 4.5m, but in the central navigation channel it can be 10 metres deep. Near Bouzigues there is a 100 metre diameter depression of 30 metres. This 'Fosse de la Vise' is the source of a hot spring that feeds the spa in Balaruc.


juli 03, 2006

Hotair ballooning



In filmmaking and video production, a bird's-eye shot refers to a shot looking directly down on the subject. The perspective is very foreshortened, making the subject appear short and squat. This shot can be used to give an overall establishing shot of a scene, or to emphasise the smallness or
insignificance of the subjects.
These shots are normally used for battle scenes or establishing where the character is. It is shot by lifting the camera up by hands or by hanging it off something strong enough to support it. For a scene that needs a large area shot, then it will most often likely to be lifted by a crane or some other sort of machine

 



juni 24, 2006

Golf du Clecy (normandy)


Golf du ClecyBuilt 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.

juni 23, 2006

Burgos


A city of northernwestern Spain, at the edge of the central plateau, Burgos has about 170,000 inhabitants in the city proper and another 10,000 in its suburbs. It is the capital of the province of Burgos. Founded in the 9th century, but retaining its Visigothic name signifying consolidated walled villages (burgos), the city was the seat of a Catholic bishop from the 10th century and became in the 11th century the capital of the kingdom of Castile. Burgos was a major stop for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.Burgos has been the scene of many wars: with the Moors, the struggles between León and Navarre, and between Castile and Aragon. In the Peninsular War against

Napoleonic France, Burgos was the scene of a battle, and again in the 19th century Carlist civil wars of the Spanish succession. During the Spanish Civil War Burgos was the base of Gen. Franco's rebel Nationalist government.Burgos is an important travel destination in the North of Spain. The main tourist attraction is the Cathedral, which was completed in 1222. It is modeled after the French cathedral of Bourges and reflects the Gothic style made popular in Spain by the Cistercian Order some time earlier. The cathedral houses the tomb of El Cid, a great knight who fought the Moors in Spain.

juni 17, 2006

Winter in Berlin



A remake is a film or television series that is based on an earlier work and tells the same, or a very similar, story.
The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source. For example, 2001's Ocean's Eleven is a remake of Ocean's 11, while 1989's Batman is a re-interpretation of the comic book source material which also inspired 1966's Batman. In 1998, Gus Van Sant produced an almost shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho.


juni 16, 2006

Route des vins



The situation of Kaysersberg, its unusual silhouette and its numerous ancient constructions make it the prettiest city on the Wine Road". The high fortress that dominates the city serves as a reminder of its strategic importance and its violent past. However, today Kaysersberg seems more appropriate as the perfect setting for an Alsatian festival with its medieval atmosphere created by the pretty half- timbered houses that have been well preserved. Vines also surround the city Kaysersberg is particularly proud of its native: Doctor Albert Schweitzer. Doctor Schweitzer is renown throughout the world as a writer, philanthropist,theologian and doctor. One may visit the home of his birth.Since I was here on two different days with changing weather circumstances: sun and rain and thus corresponding footage I found the solution in the editing. Can you spot it?duration: 3 minutes.


 

Flashes of Sevilla



;A flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the story. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story's primary sequence of events to fill in crucial backstory. In the opposite direction, a flashforward (or prolepsis) reveals events that will occur in the future. Both flashback and flashforward are used to cohere a story, develop a character, or add structure to the narrative. In literature, internal analepsis is a flashback to an earlier point in the narrative; external analepsis is a flashback to a time before the narrative started.



juni 13, 2006

Ketchup Barcelona



A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community and its religion or traditions. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. Next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a vital resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere and Easter in the southern.

juni 11, 2006

Tate modern


The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art. It is a network of four art museums, with a complementary website, Tate Online (created 1998). It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.






juni 10, 2006

Eguisheim: Belle village d'Alsace


Eguisheim nestles in the foothills of the Vosges, in the shadow of its landmark Three Castles. Its vineyards have flourished since Roman times, and the town is proud to be known as "the cradle of Alsace wine". The streets, wrapped snail-like around its church, form twin concentric circles of ramparts, lined with colourful timber-framed houses whose roofs rise and fall like an accordion. Eguisheim and the surrounding villages have all maintained their authentic character, notably by enhancing the half-timbered houses and churches with a rich floral decoration that will add colour to your visit⦠Winegrowing is a major activity in our region. Numerous wine growers will give you the opportunity to discover the art of vinification in their picturesque cellars and to taste wines from the 7 Alsace grape varieties⦠and those from our three outstanding Grand Cru vineyards



 

juni 02, 2006

Operation Market Garden


Operation Market Garden (September 17-September 25, 1944) was an Allied military operation in World War II. Its tactical objectives were to secure a series of bridges over the main rivers of the German-occupied Netherlands by large-scale use of airborne forces together with a rapid advance by armoured units along the connecting roads, for the strategic purpose of allowing an Allied crossing of the Rhine river, the last major natural barrier to an advance into Germany.
The operation was initially successful with the capture of the Waal bridge at Nijmegen on 20 September, but was a failure overall as the final Rhine bridge at Arnhem was never taken and a German counter-offensive destroyed the British 1st Airborne Division. The Rhine would remain a barrier to the Allied advance until March 1945. The defeat of Allied forces at Arnhem is considered the last major German victory of the Western Campaign.

Market would employ three of the five divisions of the 1st Airborne army.
The US 101st Airborne Division, under Major General Maxwell D. Taylor, would drop in two locations just north of the XXX Corps to take the bridges northwest of Eindhoven at Son and Veghel. The 82nd Airborne Division, under brigadier General James M. Gavin, would drop quite a bit northeast of them to take the bridges at Grave and Nijmegen, and finally the British 1st Airborne Division, under General Roy Urquhart and Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade would drop at the extreme north end of the route, to take the road bridge at Arnhem and rail bridge at Oosterbeek.


mei 15, 2006

Perpinya



The last major town in Languedoc before the Spanish border, it’s easy to see why the flavour of Perpignan is essentially Catalan. There’s a real mix of cultures in this corner of the region: Catalan, Romany and North African all co-exist in this sunny city of palm-lined squares. For the visitor, it’s useful to know that this is not only one of the best places in the region to sample local food and wine but also a city with a relatively busy airport that has several handy air connections overseas. However, it does lack buzz – Barcelona is too close and too big a rival for little Perpignan to hit the big time.

 


mei 10, 2006

Bad Salzuflen




Bad Salzuflen
...air and water, just like at the seaside
Bad Salzuflen
Bad Salzuflen, the traditional spa resort, is situated in the heart of Germany near the Teutoburg Forest, in a marvellous woody and hilly landscape.The town, famous for its abundance of medicinal salt water springs, has the air and water reminiscent of the seaside. Bad Salzuflen has lots to offer, such as invigorating health programmes, cultural delights and diversified sport and leisure activities.

 



 

Ardennes

 

Film title design is a term describing the craft and design of motion picture title sequences. Since the beginning of the film form, it has been an essential part of any motion picture. Originally a motionless piece of artwork called title art, it slowly evolved into an artform of its own. In the beginning, main title design consisted of the movie studio's name and/or logo and the presentation of the main characters along with the actor's names, generally using that same artwork presented on title cards. Most independent or major studio had their own title art logo used as the background for their screen credits and they used it almost exclusively on every movie that they produced. A main title designer is the designer of the movie title. The manner in which title of a movie is displayed on screen is widely considered an art form. It has often been classified as motion graphics, title design, title sequences and animated credits. The title sequence is often presented through animated visuals and kinetic type while the credits are introduced on screen.

april 26, 2006

Mercado medieval



The medieval guild was offered a letters patent and held an oligopoly on its trade in the town in which it operated: handicraft workers were forbidden by law to run any business if they were not members of a guild, and only masters were allowed to be members of a guild. Before these privileges were legislated, these groups of handicraft workers were simply called 'handicraft associations'. The town authorities were represented in the guild meetings and thus had a means of controlling the handicraft activities. This was important since towns very often depended on a good reputation for export of a narrow range of products, on which not only the guild's, but the town's, reputation depended.


april 18, 2006

Albarracin



Albarracín is Spanish town, in the province of Teruel, part of the autonomous community of Aragon.
According to the 2007 census (INE), the municipality had a population of 1075 inhabitants. Albarrací
is the capital of the mountainous Sierra de Albarrací
n Comarca

Albarracín is a picturesque town surrounded by stony hills and the town was declared a Monumento
Nacional in 1961



Mise en Seine


.
Mise-en-scène ( "placing on stage") is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre
or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artfu
ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through
direction. Mise-en-scène has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term".



april 07, 2006

Canal du Midi


runtime 3.13 The Canal du Midi or Canal des Deux Mers is a 240 km long canal in the south (le Midi) of France. The canal connects the Garonne River to the Étang de Thau on the Mediterranean. The canal runs from the city of Toulouse down to the Mediterranean port of Sète (which was founded to serve as the eastern terminus of the Canal.)Citizen journalismCitizen video reporting dates back as

early as the development of camcorders, but all videos were screened by the local media outlets of the time, until its spread has been aided by free upload websites in which censorship is limited to make a vast amount of videos available to anyone who wants it. Scenes rarely broadcast on television, and many first-witnessed scenes have since become publicly available.

 

maart 25, 2006

Latin music in Avignon




Encompassing rhythms and styles originated or related to Latin America, as well as derived music genres from the United States and Europe. Some critics have defined Latin music as an incorporation of four elements: music style, geography, cultural background of the artist and language. The first of those encapsulates all music styles generated from Latin countries, such as salsa, merengue, tango and bachata; as well as other styles derived from a more mainstream genre, such as Latin pop, rock, jazz and hip-hop

maart 20, 2006

Berlin at night



During the month of december the streets of the german capital are illuminated. Thus giving a special accent to the festivities and christmas markets which are scatered across this metropool. This film gives a short impression and is shot only at night

Digital Storytelling refers to using new digital tools to help ordinary people to tell their own real-life stories

It is an emerging term, one that arises from a grassroots movement that uses new digital tools to help ordinary people to tell their own 'true stories' in a compelling and emotionally-engaging form. These stories usually takes the form of a relatively short story (less than 8 minutes) and can involve interactivity.

The term can also be a broader journalistic reference to the variety of emergent new forms of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games).

As an emerging area of creative work, the definition of digital storytelling is still the subject of much debate.

The broad definition has been used by innumerable artists and producers to link their practices with traditions of oral storytelling and often to delineate work from the highly produced commercial or conceptual projects by focusing on authorship and humanistic or emotionally provocative content.


Typically, digital stories are produced in intensive workshops. The product is a 2-5 minute film that combines a narrated piece of personal writing, photographic images and a musical soundtrack. The philosophy behind this type of digital storytelling is one of using technology to enable those without a technical background to produce works that tell a story using moving images and sound.






maart 14, 2006

Pittoresq source Clutinno


Fonti di clitunno
The karst sources, the here for the Earth bubble, there was a sacred site in ancient times. Upon leaving the sources formed a small, of green islets covered Lake, the cypresses, Poplars and parking plane, which the green shimmering magical water mirrors.



maart 02, 2006

TEXEL a dutch island



This is another example of footage shot by a clubmember for whom i did the editting. This holiday video gives an impression of a beautiful island. Just as the title says: Is't it a nice picture? Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark.  Texel proper to the south and Eierland to the northwest, which were connected by shoals. In the seventeenth century, the islands were poldered together. Texel is known for its wildlife, particularly in winter, when birds of prey and geese take up residence. 





februari 27, 2006

You can't believe your eyes



An optical illusion (also called a montasir) is an illusion caused by the eye and characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality. The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give a perception that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source. There are three main types: literal optical illusions that create images that are different from the objects that make them, physiological illusions that are the effects of excessive stimulation of a specific type (brightness, colour, size, position, tilt, movement), and cognitive illusions, the result of unconscious inferences. Pathological visual illusions arise from a pathological exaggeration in physiological visual perception mechanisms causing the aforementioned types of illusions.




januari 31, 2006

Colourful Alsace


In color photography, light-sensitive chemicals or electronic sensors record color information at the time of exposure. This is usually done by analyzing the spectrum of colors into three channels of information, one dominated by red, another by green and the third by blue, in imitation of the way the normal human eye senses color. The recorded information is then used to reproduce the original colors by mixing various proportions of red, green and blue light (RGB color, used by video displays, digital projectors and some historical photographic processes), or by using dyes or pigments to remove various proportions of the red, green and blue which are present in white light (CMY color, used for prints on paper and transparencies on film

januari 25, 2006

Girls....




Shot on a hot day when we ended in Prague in this openair dance event. It was some footage which was not very relevant to the vacation story The tricks were done with quicktime pro and imported into iMovie

Another music performance


januari 22, 2006

Sete (Languedoc)



Sète known as Cette until 1928, is a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France. Its inhabitants are called Sétois.

Known as the Venice of Languedoc and the singular island (in Paul Valéry's words), it is a port and a seaside resort on the Mediterranean with its own very strong cultural identity, traditions, cuisine and dialect
Built upon and around Mont St Clair, Sète is situated on the south-eastern hub of the Bassin de Thau, an enclosed salt water lake used primarily for oyster and mussel fields. To its other side lies the Mediterranean. And the town has a network of canals which are link between the Étang de Thau and the Mediterranean Sea.


januari 11, 2006

Waterfalls of the Rio Mundo



Castilla-La Mancha is a south-western European region that was part of the Kingdom of Castile. Nowadays it is established as an autonomous community of Spain. Castilla-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities. Albacete is the largest and most populous city. Its capital city is Toledo, and its judicial capital city is Albacete.




It is mostly in this region where the story of the famous Spanish novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is situated, due to which La Mancha is internationally well-known. Although La Mancha is a windswept, battered plateau, it remains a symbol of Spanish culture with its vineyards, sunflowers, mushrooms, olive plantations, windmills, Manchego cheese, and Don Quixote.


 

 

december 12, 2005

Saddlepain



Sports movies have been made since the era of silent films, such as the 1915 film The Champion starring Charlie Chaplin. Films in this genre can range from serious (Raging Bull) to silly (Horse Feathers). A classic theme for sports films is the triumph of an individual or team who prevail despite the difficulties. Men often identify with sports films in ways they wouldn't with other genres, such as spy films.


 

november 29, 2005

Sonita ...brides for sale

And the winner is

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam.
The festival was initially held at the Leidseplein area in the centre of Amsterdam. The festival has since spread to a number of other locations. Cinemas and other institutes that have hosted the festival are: de Balie, Pathé City Theater, Filmmuseum Cinerama, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Paradiso, the Ketelhuis, the Hotel American, Tuschinski Cinema, Pathé De Munt multiplex, Theatercompagnie and Arti et Amicitiae.
The objective of the IDFA is to promote creative documentaries and to present them to as wide an audience as possible. It started as a small festival and has grown to an eleven-day festival, screening more than 200 documentaries and attracting nearly 120,000 visitors.
Apart from its international film program, the variety of genres and the many European and world premieres featured each year, the festival also hosts debates, forums and workshops.

september 19, 2005

High in the mountains



Kodachrome is a brand name for a non-substantive, color reversal film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935. It was one of the first successful color materials and was used for both cinematography and still photography. Because of its complex processing requirements, the film was sold process-paid in the United States until 1954 when a legal ruling prohibited this. Elsewhere, this arrangement continued. For many years it was used for professional color photography, especially for images intended for publication in print media. Because of the uptake of alternative photographic materials, its complex processing requirements, and the widespread transition to digital photography, Kodachrome lost its market share, its manufacturing was discontinued in 2009 and its processing ended in December 2010.






juni 13, 2005

Music: Fiesta del Sol



A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community and its religion or traditions. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. Next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a vital resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere and Easter in the southern.



juni 07, 2005

Golf in Bayern/Bavaria



What's in the background?Most of your shots will include background elements that are part of the location where you're shooting. Make sure what's in the background of your shot doesn't draw your viewer's attention from your main subject. We've all seen live TV interviews, shot on location, where somebody in the background is waving or making faces at the camera. This is one type of distracting background you need to try to avoid. Always check what's in the background of the shot you are framing. Background clutter or distracting objects, like an overflowing garbage bin, can usually be avoided by repositioning your camera (moving it left or right, framing a tighter shot, changing the camera angle) or moving your subject. You might also be able to put the background out of focus by decreasing the depth of field in your shot.Mergers are another form of distracting background. Background objects or strong vectors that visually merge with your subject can not only be distracting, they can be down right humorous. Again, reposition the camera or the subject to avoid mergers.



juni 01, 2005

first vacation Eveline

 

 

 New upload because of ruined sound by previous provider: Blip.tv/Disney

 

mei 03, 2005

Belgian refugees WW I



In 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Following the race to the sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France. This line remained essentially unchanged for most of the war.

Between 1915 and 1917 there were several major offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, machine gun nests, barbed wire, and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties on the attackers and counterattacking defenders. As a result, no significant advances were made. Among the most costly of these offensives were the Battle of Verdun with a combined 700,000 dead the Battle of the Somme with more than a million casualties, and the Battle of Passchendaele with roughly 600,000 casualties.

 

 


april 04, 2005

Hostel Dieu Baune




A hospital foundation from the Middle Ages, the Hospices de Beaune is one of France’s most prestigious historic monuments. Its flamboyant Gothic architecture, its polychrome roofs and a renowned vineyard make this museum one of Burgundy’s gems. The Hospices de Beaune is also famous for its 60 hectares wine estate, producing prestigious wines, sold at auction on the third Sunday in November.



februari 02, 2005

Shrove Tuesday Preparations



Source music
Most films have between 40 and 120 minutes of music. However, some films have very little or no music; others may feature a score that plays almost continuously throughout. Dogme 95 is a genre that has music only from sources within a film, such as from a radio or television. This is called "source music" (or a "source cue") because it comes from an on screen source that can actually be seen or that can be inferred (in academic film theory such music is called "diegetic" music, as it emanates from the "diegesis" or "story world").




januari 21, 2005

(Weed)Amsterdam



The word coffeeshop, conveniently created by the Dutch habit of running words together, has become synonymous with a special kind of coffee shop. These places do sell coffee and have one or more tables to sit and drink it but, their primary commodity is cannabis. The term soft drug is most usually applied to cannabis (marijuana or hashish) because it is not associated with deaths, crime or violence amongst users and is without evidence of physical addiction.[ This distinction between soft drugs and hard drugs is important in the drug policy of the Netherlands, where cannabis production, retailing and use come under official tolerance , subject to certain conditions.These days they are licensed by the local council and subject to regulation. A strict minimum age of 18 is enforced. Coffee shops are not allowed to advertise, so you won't see a big sign saying "Marijuana for Sale". If you don't see a dealer's booth, just go up to the bar and ask to see the 'menu'. You will be presented with a list of the various different grasses and hashes available at a range of prices. In some shops cannabis is sold by weight, in others by value. Where it is sold by weight the prices are per gram. There are 28 grams in an ounce. Where it is sold by value, the menu will show the quantity, in grams, that you'll get of each variety for a fixed price of, say, 20 euros.



oktober 18, 2004

Volcanoes


A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters include natural disasters such as earthquakes or asteroid collisions, accidents such as shipwrecks or airplane crashes, or calamities like worldwide disease pandemics. The films usually feature some degree of build-up, the disaster itself and sometimes the aftermath, usually from the point of view of specific individual characters or their families.


These films often feature large casts of actors and multiple plotlines, focusing on the characters' attempts to avert, escape or cope with the disaster and its aftermath. The genre came to particular prominence during the 1970s with the release of high-profile films such as Airport (1970), followed in quick succession by The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Towering Inferno (1974).

juni 14, 2004

Germanfilms in the antebellum





German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s. These developments in Germany were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central European culture in fields such as architecture, painting and cinema. German Expressionist painting produced a great number of works, and led to Neo-expressionism.
The German Expressionist movement was largely confined to Germany due to the isolation the country experienced during World War I. In 1916, the government had banned more foreign films in the nation. The demand from theaters to generate films led film production to rise from 24 films (1914) to 130 films (1918). With inflation on the rise, Germans were attending films more freely because they knew that their money's worth was constantly diminishing.

Besides the films' popularity within Germany, by 1922 the international audience had begun to appreciate German cinema, in part due to a decreasing anti-German sentiment following the end of World War I. By the time the 1916 ban on imports was lifted, Germany had become a part of the international film industry.

juni 12, 2004

Highgate Cemetery in London


Highgate Cemetery is a famous cemetery located in Highgate, London, England. The cemetery in its original form was opened in 1839, part of an initiative to provide seven large, modern cemeteries in a ring round the outside of London. The inner-city cemeteries, mostly the graveyards attached to individual churches, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a hazard to health and an undignified way to treat the dead. Highgate, like the others, soon became a fashionable place for burials and was much admired and visited. The Victorian attitude to death and its presentation led to the creation of a wealth of Gothic tombs and buildings. In 1854, the area to the east of the original area across Swains Lane was purchased to form the eastern part of the cemetery.

This part is still used today for burials, as is the Western part. The cemetery's grounds are full of old-growth trees, shrubbery and wildflowers that are a haven for birds and small animals like foxes. The Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon feature tombs, vaults and winding paths dug into hillsides. For its protection, the oldest section, which holds an impressive collection of Victorian mausoleums and gravestones, plus elaborately carved tombs, allows admission only in tour groups. The newer section, which contains a mix of Victorian and modern statuary, can be toured unescorted.


 

maart 18, 2004

George Pal in Eindhoven




He was born in Cegléd, Austria–Hungary, the son of György Pál Marczincsak Sr. and his wife Maria. He graduated from the Budapest Academy of Arts in 1928 (aged 20). From 1928 to 1931, he made films for Hunnia Films of Budapest, Hungary.
At the age of 23 in 1931 he married Elisabeth "Zsoka" Grandjean, and moving to Berlin, founded Trickfilm-Studio Gmbh Pal und Wittke, with UFA Studios as its main customer from 1931 to 1933. During this time, he patented Pal-Doll (known as Puppetoons in the USA).
In 1933 he worked in Prague; in 1934, he made a film advertisement in his hotel room in Paris, and was invited by Philips to make two more ad shorts. He started to use Pal-Doll techniques in Eindhoven, in a former butchery, then at villa-studio Suny Home. He left Germany as the Nazis came to power.
He made five films before 1939 for the British company Horlicks Malted Milk. In December of that year, aged 32, he emigrated from Europe to the United States, and began work for Paramount Pictures. At this time, his friend Walter Lantz helped him obtain American citizenship.
As an animator, he made the Puppetoons series in the 1940s, which led to him being awarded an honorary Oscar in 1943 for "the development of novel methods and techniques in the production of short subjects known as Puppetoons". Pal then switched to live action film making with The Great Rupert (1950).