1 jun 2007

When in Rome



Rome is called L'Urbe (The City), Caput mundi (head of the world), Città Eterna (eternal city), and Limen Apostolorum (the threshold of the apostles).
Some proverbs about the Eternal City:
* When in Rome, do as the Romans do. * All roads lead to Rome.
* Rome wasn't built in a day.
During its long history, Rome has always had a scarcity of native inhabitants, so by tradition a "true" Roman is one whose family has lived in Rome for no fewer than 7 generations: this is the original "Romano de Roma"
Piazza Navona is a square in Rome. The piazza follows the plan of an ancient Roman circus, the 1st century Stadium of Domitian, where the Romans came to watch the games : today's name stems from the corruption of the latter in in agone. Defined as a square in the last years of 15th century, when the city market was transferred here from the Campidoglio, Piazza Navona is now the pride of Baroque Rome. It has sculptural and architectural creations: by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in the center; by Francesco Borromini
The traditional market was moved in 1869 to Campo de' Fiori, but the square has also a traditional role in housing theatrical and costume shows, horse races, buffalo jousts.
Campo de' Fiori is an informal rectangular piazza near Piazza Navona in Rome, on the edge of rione Parione . Campo de' Fiori means "field of flowers", a reminder of its nature as a grassy space in the Middle Ages. A "Flora", a woman loved by Pompey, who built his theater close to the square, is probably imaginary: the name is medieval rather than ancient.


23 mei 2007

The Pantheon



The Pantheon, from Greek Pantheion, meaning "Temple of all the Gods") is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome, but which has been a Christian church since the 7th century.
It is the best-preserved of all Roman buildings and the oldest important building in the world with its original roof intact. It has been in continuous use throughout its history. Although the identity of the Pantheon's primary architect remains uncertain, it is largely assigned to Apollodorus of Damascus.



The original Pantheon was built in 27 BC-25 BC under the Roman Empire, during the third consulship of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and his name is inscribed on the portico of the building. The inscription reads M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIUM·FECIT, "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, having been consul three times, built this." It was originally built with adjoining baths and water gardens.


In fact, Agrippa's Pantheon was destroyed along with other buildings in a fire in AD 80, and the current building dates from about 125, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, as date-stamps on the bricks reveal. It was totally reconstructed, with the text of the original inscription added to the new facade, a common practice in Hadrian's rebuilding projects all over Rome.

Hadrian was a cosmopolitan emperor who traveled widely in the east and was a great admirer of Greek culture. He seems to have intended the Pantheon, a temple to all the gods, to be a kind of ecumenical or syncretist gesture to the subjects of the Roman Empire who did not worship the old gods of Rome, or who (as was increasingly the case) worshipped them under other names.

(The dome is made of concrete contrary to what my italian source says)

19 mei 2007

Hard & Soft in Valencia



General Tips
Hold the camera steady. Use a tripod whenever possible. One of the largest factors contributing to professional-quality pictures is steadiness.Remember that Super 8, with its small frame is a "close-up" medium. There is a limit to the amount of detail that the Super 8 frame can capture when compared to larger film formats, and the comparatively small screen poses some limitations, too. Often the most effective images are those shot at medium and close-range. Be sure that your camera's batteries are fresh to ensure proper operation of the motor and built-in meter. If your camera has a "zoom" lens, use it sparingly. When shooting interiors with limited light and high-speed film, consider the use of a small "fill light", even if your camera's meter indicated that you have sufficient light for an exposure. This will add depth and detail to your pictures.


18 mei 2007

Siesta in Valencia





Experimental film, experimental cinema or Avant-Garde Cinema is not so much a genre of film as mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films—particularly early ones—relate to arts in other disciplines: painting, dance, literature and poetry, or arise from research and development of new technical resources. While some experimental films have been distributed through mainstream channels, or were even made within commercial studios, the vast majority have been produced on very low budgets with a minimal crew or a single person, and are self-financed or supported through small grants. Experimental filmmakers generally begin as amateurs, and some—though not all—used experimental films as a springboard into commercial film making, or transitioned into academic positions. The aim of experimental filmmaking is usually to render the personal vision of an artist, or to promote interest in new technology, rather than to entertain or to generate revenue, such as is the case with commercial films.


7 mei 2007

Piazza del Popolo




The Piazza del Popolo is one of the most famous places, especially for foreigners, in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "piazza of the people", but historically it derives from the poplars after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.The Piazza lies inside the northern gate in the Aurelian Walls, once the Porta Flaminia of ancient Rome. l. For centuries, the Piazza del Popolo was a place for public executions, the last of which took place in 1826.To the north of the Piazza stand the Porta del Popolo and the ancient church of Santa Maria del Popolo.



6 mei 2007

SantAngelo in Rome



Hadrian's Tomb
The Tomb of Hadrian was erected on the right bank of the Tiber, between 135 and 139. Originally, the mausoleum was a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and the golden quadriga of the emperor. Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year after his death in Baiae in 138, together with those of his wife Sabina, and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who also died in 138. Following this, the remains of succeeding emperors were also placed here, the last recorded deposition being Caracalla in 217. The urns containing these ashes were probably placed in what is now known as the Treasury room deep within the building. Hadrian also built the Ponte Sant'Angelo facing straight onto the mausoleum - it still provides a scenic approach from the center of Rome and the right bank of the Tiber, and is renowned for its statuary of angels holding aloft elements of the Passion of Christ added during its Baroque rebuild.

Much of the tomb contents and decoration has been lost since the building's conversion into a military fortress in 401 and inclusion by Flavius Augustus Honorius in the Aurelian Walls.
The popes converted the structure into a castle, from the 14th century; The fortress was the refuge of the Pope The Papal state also used Sant'Angelo as a prison;
A bronze statue of Saint Michael, executed by the Flemish sculptor Peter van Verschaeffelt in 1752, surmounts the tomb and portrays the archangel sheathing a sword. Legend holds that an angel appeared atop the mausoleum, sheathing his sword as a sign of the end of the plague of 590, thus lending the castle its present name.

28 apr 2007

Dutch Fairytales



Efteling is the largest theme park in the Netherlands and one of the oldest theme parks in the world. It's located in the town of Kaatsheuvel, in the municipality of Loon op Zand. Over the years, the park has received over 100 million visitors.

Since its opening in 1952, Efteling has evolved from a nature park with a playground and a Fairy Tale Forest into a full-sized theme park. It now caters to both children and adults with its cultural, romantic and nostalgic themes, in addition to its wide array of amusement rides. It is twice as large as the original Disneyland park in California and predates it by three years.

The park is fantasy-themed and its attractions are based on elements from ancient myths and legends, fairy tales, fables and folklore.
 


26 apr 2007

Roman Baths



Roman houses had water supplied via lead pipes. However, these pipes were taxed according to their size, so many houses had just a basic supply and could not hope to rival a bath complex. Therefore for personal hygiene, people went to the local baths. However, the local bath complex was also a gathering point and served a very useful community and social function. Here people could relax, keep clean and keep up with the latest news.

Taking a bath was not a simple chore. There was not one bath to use in a large complex such as the one at Bath. A visitor could use a cold bath (the frigidarium), a warm bath (the tepidarium) and a hot bath (the caldarium). A visitor would spend some of his time in each one before leaving. A large complex would also contain an exercise area (the palaestra), a swimming pool and a gymnasium. One of the public baths at Pompeii contains two tepidariums and caldariums along with a plunge pool and a large exercise area.

The building of a bath complex required excellent engineering skills. Baths required a way of heating up water. This was done by using a furnace and the hypocaust system carried the heat around the complex.

25 apr 2007

In the wood





A home movie is a short amateur film or video typically made just to preserve a visual record of family activities, a vacation or a special event and intended for viewing at home by family and friends. Originally, home movies were made on photographic film in formats that usually limited the movie-maker to about three minutes per roll of costly camera film. The advent of camcorders that could record an hour or two of video on one inexpensive videocassette, followed by digital video cameras that recorded to flash memory, made the creation of home movies easier and much more affordable to the average person.

The technological boundaries between home-movie-making and professional movie-making are becoming increasingly blurred as prosumer equipment often offers features previously only available on professional equipment.

In recent years, clips from home movies have been available to wider audiences through television series such as America's Funniest Home Videos, in Great Britain You've Been Framed! and Internet online video-sharing sites such as YouTube. The popularity of the Internet, and wider availability of high-speed connections has provided new ways of sharing home movies, such as video weblogs (vlogs), and video podcasts.


 

23 apr 2007

Dutch Capital Amsterdam




According to the Dutch constitution Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, although the parliament and the Dutch government have been situated in The Hague since 1588, along with the Supreme Court and the Council of State.

Only once during its history was Amsterdam both "capital" and seat of government. Between 1808 and 1810, during the Kingdom of Holland, King Louis Napoleon resided in Amsterdam and declared the city capital of his kingdom and seat of government. To accommodate the king, the grand seventeenth-century Town Hall of Amsterdam, prime example of the republican values that were prevalent for so long in the Netherlands, was converted into a Royal Palace.

In 1810 the Netherlands were annexed by the French Empire and King Louis Napoleon was replaced by a French governor, who took up residence in the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. From 1810 to 1813 Amsterdam kept its position of capital city somewhat, as Emperor Napoleon declared the city to be the third city of the Empire (after Paris and Rome) and an imperial residence. In December 1813, after the fall of Napoleon and the accession of Prince William VI of Orange as Sovereign of the Netherlands, The Hague was restored as the seat of government.

21 apr 2007

Baune in Bourgogne



Speed ramping, or simply "ramping", is a process whereby the capture frame rate of the camera changes over time. For example, if in the course of 10 seconds of capture, the capture frame rate is adjusted from 60 frames per second to 24 frames per second, when played back at the standard movie rate of 24 frames per second, a unique time-manipulation effect is achieved. For example, someone pushing a door open and walking out into the street would appear to start off in slow-motion, but in a few seconds later within the same shot the person would appear to walk in "realtime" (normal speed). The opposite speed-ramping is done in The Matrix when Neo re-enters the Matrix for the first time to see the Oracle. As he comes out of the warehouse "load-point", the camera zooms in to Neo at normal speed but as it gets closer to Neo's face, time seems to slow down, foreshadowing the manipulation of time itself within the Matrix later in the movie.


17 apr 2007

Madeira music



Folklore music in Madeira is wide spread and mainly uses local musical instraments such as the Machete, rajao, Brinquinho and Cavaquinho, which are used in traditional Folklore dances like the Bailinho da Madeira.
Locals from Madeira emigranting also influenced the creation of new instraments such as in the 1880s, the ukulele is based on two small guitar-like instruments of Madeiran origin, the cavaquinho and the rajao, introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants from Madeira and Cape Verde.

16 apr 2007

Peter the Great captain

A movie star (also known as a film star and cinema star) is an actor who is famous for their starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term is used for actors who are marketable stars and whose names are used to promote movies, for example in trailers and posters.

Eternal Spring on Madeira


Madeira was re-discovered by Portuguese sailors in the service of Henry the Navigator in 1419, and settled after 1420. The archipelago is considered to be the first territorial discovery of the exploratory period of the Portuguese Age of Discovery.


Today, it is a popular year-round resort, being visited every year by about one million tourists, noted for its Madeira wine, flowers, landscapes and embroidery artisans, as well as for its annual New Year celebrations that feature the largest fireworks show in the world, as officially recognized by the Guinness World Records The main harbour in Funchal is the leading Portuguese port in cruise liner dockings, being an important stopover for commercial and trans-Atlantic passenger cruises between Europe, the Caribbean and North America.


 


5 apr 2007

Loretta of Prague


The Prague Loreto is a remarkable Baroque historic monument, a place of pilgrimage with captivating history. The expansive decorative frontal façade with a clock tower, from which the Loreto carillon tunes may be heard every hour, shall certainly not go unnoticed by any local or
foreign visitor passing here on his or her way to the Prague Castle. It would, however, be a great pity to enjoy only this picturesque view opening before us from the terrace of the Czernin Palace. Those who descend as far as the Loreto Square and pass through the Loreto gate will be pleasantly surprised by the place of pilgrimage disposition.


Castle district Prague




Panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a film or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video.Movie and television cameras pan by turning horizontally on a vertical axis, but the effect may be enhanced by adding other techniques, such as rails to move the whole camera platform. Slow panning is also combined with zooming in or out on a single subject, leaving the subject in the same portion of the frame, to emphasize or de-emphasize the subject respectively.In photography, the panning technique is used to suggest fast motion, and bring out foreground from background. In photographic pictures it is usually noted by a foreground subject in action appearing still (i.e. a runner frozen in mid-stride) while the background is streaked and/or skewed in the apparently opposite direction of the subject's


26 mrt 2007

Armsterdam Jordaan quarter


There are also many films and photographs from the EYE collection available online.

At present, the website covers the introduction of film in the Netherlands and the first decennia thereafter. Soon the site will be expanded with much more material, including the history of the feature film, experimental film, animated film and films from the Dutch East Indies. Altogether, these will provide an extensive image of Dutch film and cinema culture.
The Film in the Netherlands website currently features information about close to 2,300 early films. Many of these films have been lost; it is estimated that approximately 500 films have been preserved and more than 270 of these can be viewed on the website. In addition to this, there are fragments from nearly 50 other films that can be watched through the website.




25 mrt 2007

Ancient StPetersburg



Saint Petersburg was founded by the Tsar Peter the Great on May 27 [O.S. 16] 1703. From 1713 to 1728 and from 1732 to 1918, Saint Petersburg was the Imperial capital of Russia. In 1918 the central government bodies moved from Saint Petersburg (then named Petrograd) to Moscow. It is Russia's 2nd largest city after Moscow with 5 million inhabitants (2012) and the fourth most populated federal subject. Saint Petersburg is a major European cultural center, and also an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea.




Saint Petersburg is often described as the most Western city of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. It is the northernmost city in the world to have a population of over five million. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is also home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of foreign consulates, international corporations, banks, and other businesses are located in Saint Petersburg.

22 mrt 2007

Tasty St. Petersburg



Info:
A historical, cultural and culinary landmark, the Grand Hotel Europe has played an important role in the life of St. Petersburg for over 130 years. The Grand Hotel Europe was here that Tchaikovsky spent his honeymoon and George Bernard Shaw dined with Maxim Gorky. Discerning travelers are charmed by the hotel's warm Russian hospitality, impressive architecture and exceptional service.
Positioned on Nevsky Prospekt, St Petersburg's most splendid avenue, the Grand Hotel Europe is surrounded by some of the world's greatest cultural treasures, including the Russian Museum and Mussorgsky Theatre.



14 mrt 2007

Trevi/Umbria



Trevi (Latin: Trebiae) is an ancient town and comune in Umbria, Italy, on the lower flank of Monte Serano overlooking the wide plain of the Clitunno river system. It is 10 km (6 mi) SSE of Foligno and 20 km (12 mi) north of Spoleto.
The population of the comune was c. 8,000 in 2004, with the town proper accounting for about half of that; the rest lives in the frazioni of Borgo, Bovara, Cannaiola, Coste, Pigge, Manciano, Matigge, Parrano, Picciche, San Lorenzo and Santa Maria in Valle. The historical subdivisions of Trevi proper are the terzieri of Castello, Matiggia e Piano; they come into play only for the Palio.
Most of the town, densely inhabited and of decidedly medieval aspect, lies on sharply sloping terrain, only the very center being more or less flat. It commands one of the best views in Umbria, extending over 50 km (30 mi) in most westerly directions. Trevi is served by the main rail line from Rome to Ancona as well as the line from Florence to Rome via Perugia.

9 mrt 2007

Golden lane Prague


The Golden Bear is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin.
The Palme d'Or (English: Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition
The Golden Lion (Italian: Leone d'Oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes. In 1970, a second Golden Lion was introduced; this is an honorary award for people who have made an important contribution to cinema.

4 mrt 2007

Mountains of Madeira



A tapeless camcorder is a camcorder that does not use video tape for the digital recording of video productions as 20th century ones did. Tapeless camcorders record video as digital computer files onto data storage devices such as optical discs, hard disk drives and solid-state flash memory cards.
Inexpensive pocket video cameras use flash memory cards, while some more expensive camcorders use solid-state drives or SSD; similar flash technology is used on semi-pro and high-end professional video cameras for ultrafast transfer of High-definition television (HDTV) content.
Camcorders using DVD media were popular at the turn of the 21st century due to the convenience of being able to drop a disc into the family DVD player; however, DVD capability, due to the limitations of the format, is largely limited to consumer-level equipment targeted at people who are not likely to spend any great amount of effort video editing their video footage.
Most consumer-level tapeless camcorders use MPEG-2, MPEG-4 video compression or its derivatives as Video coding formats. They are normally capable of still-image capture to JPEG format additionally.
Consumer-grade tapeless camcorders include a USB port to transfer video onto a computer. Professional models include other options like Serial digital interface (SDI) or HDMI. Some tapeless camcorders are equipped with a Firewire (IEEE-1394) port to ensure compatibility with magnetic tape-based DV and HDV formats.

3 mrt 2007

Liseberg


Liseberg is an amusement park located in Gothenburg, Sweden, that opened in 1923. It is one of the most visited amusement parks in Scandinavia, attracting about 3 million visitors annually. Among the noteworthy attractions is the wooden roller coaster Balder, twice (2003 and 2005) voted as the Best Wooden Tracked Roller Coaster in the world in a major international poll. The park itself has also been chosen as one of the top ten amusement parks in the world (2005) by Forbes Magazine.
Additional to the summer season, the park is also open during November and December, albeit with fewer rides operating, hosting a Christmas market with traditional Swedish cuisine such as mulled wine and specialties such as döner kebab made from reindeer meat.
The official colors of Liseberg are pink and green as can be seen on the entrance and the older houses in the park, the colors were also adopted for the logo, which was introduced in the 1980s.


2 mrt 2007

The Pantheon of Rome



Works modeled on, or inspired by, the Pantheon

The Rotunda designed by Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia.
As the best-preserved example of an Ancient Roman monumental building, the Pantheon has been enormously influential in Western architecture from at least the Renaissance on; starting with Brunelleschi's 42-metre dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, completed in 1436.

Versions include the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Ariccia by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1664), which followed his work restoring the Roman original, Belle Isle House (1774) in England, and Thomas Jefferson's library at the University of Virginia, The Rotunda (1817–26). There is also the 19th-century Rotunda of Mosta in Malta.


The style of the Pantheon can be detected in many buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries; numerous government and public buildings, city halls, universities, and public libraries echo its portico-and-dome structure.


26 feb 2007

Prague Castle


 

The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague or FAMU is one of the oldest film schools in the world. Located in Prague, Czech Republic, FAMU was founded in 1946 as one of three branches of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The teaching language at most of programs at FAMU is Czech, but FAMU offers also programs in English: summer workshops, one-year Academy Program, Special Productions - or MFA program Cinema in Digital Media. According to The Hollywood Reporter weekly, FAMU is the best film school in Europe and No. 11 in the world.



25 feb 2007

Intro to Madeira




Film title design is (and always has been) an essential part of any motion picture. It was originally a motionless piece of artwork called title art.
The main title design consisted of the movie company's name and/or logo and the presentation of the main characters along with the actor’s names, generally using that same artwork.
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.

6 feb 2007

Dutch carnival



Fictional film or narrative film is a film that tells a fictional or fictionalized story, event or narrative. In this style of film, believable narratives and characters help convince the audience that the unfolding fiction is real. Lighting and camera movement, among other cinematic elements, have become increasingly important in these films. Great detail goes into the screenplays of narratives, as these films rarely deviate from the predetermined behaviours and lines of the screenplays to maintain a sense of realism. Actors must deliver dialogue and action in a believable way, so as to persuade the audience that the film is real life.


Citytrip Rome



Hollywood on the Tiber

In the late 1940s, Hollywood studios began to shift production abroad to Europe. Italy was, along with Britain, one of the major destinations for American film companies. Shooting at Cinecittà, large-budget films such as Quo Vadis (1951), Roman Holiday (1953) and Cleopatra (1963) were made in English with international casts and sometimes, but not always, Italian settings or themes. The heyday of what was dubbed '"Hollywood on the Tiber" was between 1950 and 1970, during which time many of the most famous names in world cinema made films in Italy.




4 feb 2007

Alexander Column Saint Petersburg


a>Over 250 international and Russian movies were filmed in Saint Petersburg. Well over a thousand feature films about tsars, revolution, people and stories set in Saint Petersburg have been produced worldwide but not filmed in the city. The first film studios were founded in Saint Petersburg in the 20th century and since the 1920s Lenfilm has been the largest film studio based in Saint Petersburg. The first foreign feature movie filmed entirely in Saint Petersburg was the 1997 production of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, starring Sophie Marceau and Sean Bean and made by an international team of British, American, French and Russian filmmakers.



I am Amsterdam


By the end of the 15th century, the city developed rapidly. After the Spaniards conquered Antwerp, many rich Jews fled to Amsterdam. The money they brought with them was used to organise trips to India, which proved a huge commercial success. Then in 1602, the Dutch East India Company was founded. The city of Amsterdam had a majority share in the organisation, which was to become the first multinational company in the world. The result was a period of unprecedented prosperity, causing the 17th century to become known as the Golden Age.

During this period, the city underwent two massive urban expansions, and for the first time both functionality and beauty were taken into consideration. The results were the now-famous canals and the Jordaan district.


The art scene was also flourishing at this time. In the first half of the 17th century, the number of artists grew enormously and there was an explosion of art and art dealers in Amsterdam. Within just thirty years, Amsterdam became a thriving cultural city, leaving a legacy of Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer and Jan Steen.


 


3 feb 2007

Bergen in Norway







Bergen International Film Festival is organised in various sections:

Checkpoints, the main program at BIFF, hosted with the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, consisting of documentaries focusing on human rights. Since 2010, a jury has selected a winner.

International Documentary Program, with a special selection competing for the best international documentary award.

Norwegian Documentary Program, with a special selection competing for awards for best Norwegian documentary and best Norwegian short documentary.

Norwegian Short Film Competition, a special program of short films, where filmmakers have to apply before being accepted.



 

2 feb 2007

Autobahn



A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars.

The screen can be as simple as a wall that is painted white, or it can be a steel truss structure with a complex finish. Originally, a movie's sound was provided by speakers on the screen and later by an individual speaker hung from the window of each car, which would be attached by a wire. This system was superseded by the more economical and less damage-prone method of broadcasting the soundtrack at a low output power on AM or FM radio to be picked up by a car radio. This method also allows the soundtrack to be picked up in stereo by the audience on an often high fidelity stereo installed in the car instead of through a simple speaker.

30 jan 2007

Funchal from above




A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object from above, with a perspective as though the observer were a bird, often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans and maps.
It can be an aerial photograph, but also a drawing. Before manned flight was common, the term "bird's eye" was used to distinguish views drawn from direct observation at high locations (for example a mountain or tower), from those constructed from an imagined (bird's) perspectives. Bird's eye views as a genre have existed since classical times. The last great flourishing of them was in the mid-to-late 19th century, when bird's eye view prints were popular in the United States and Europe.

26 jan 2007

Mala Strana Prague



Barrandov Studios is a famous set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe.

Several of the movies filmed there won Oscars. At present the studios are often called the "European Hollywood" or "Hollywood of the East" due to increasing interest of western productions (such as the movies Mission Impossible, The Bourne Identity, Casino Royale, Prince Caspian, and many others). Noted director Roman Polanski claims Barrandov is the world's best studio.

23 jan 2007

Couleur locale (Provence France)


 

Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Technicolor SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952. Technicolor became known and celebrated for its saturated levels of color, and was used commonly for filming musicals (such as The Wizard of Oz and Singin' in the Rain), costume pictures (such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Joan of Arc), and animated films (such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia), or even a film noir like Leave Her to Heaven.



Euskadi



The Basque Country: Euskadi is an autonomous community of northern Spain.
The Basque Country or Basque Autonomous Community was granted the status of nationality within Spain, attributed by the Spanish Constitution of 1978 to separate ethnic realities. The autonomous community is based on the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country, a foundational legal document providing the framework for the development of the Basque people on Spanish soil. Notwithstanding this spirit, the territory of Navarre was left out and made into a separate autonomous community. The capital is Vitoria-Gasteiz (Vitoria is the name in Spanish, Gasteiz in Basque), located in the province of Álava, and Bilbao its largest city, located in the province of Biscay.

21 jan 2007

Arhus the old city


Super 8 mm film (often simply called Super 8) is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format.

The film is nominally 8 mm wide, exactly the same as the older standard 8 mm film, and also has perforations on only one side. However, the dimensions of the perforations are smaller than those on older 8 mm film, which allowed the exposed area to be made larger. The Super 8 standard also specifically allocates the rebate opposite the perforations for an oxide stripe upon which sound can be magnetically recorded.

There are several different varieties of the film system used for shooting, but the final film in each case has the same dimensions. By far the most popular system was the Kodak system.

Amateur usage of Super 8 has been largely replaced by video, but the format is often used by professionals in music videos, TV commercials, and special sequences for television and feature film projects, as well as by many visual artists. For a professional cinematographer, Super 8 is another tool to use alongside larger formats.

18 jan 2007

Altenburg



Keep your audience interested The most important job of any storyteller is to keep the audience interested, and avoid disorienting them in terms of time, space, point of view, or in the narrative thread. No matter how compelling we think an issue or story is, it is our job to present that story in a way that engages the audienceâs intellect, their emotions, their senses of humor and justice, while not oversimplifying the issue or irresponsibly representing people or situations. To keep them engaged, the audience should know where they are, what they are seeing, and who is involved. They should know whom they are listening to and what the story is. The most basic building block you have that will keep your audience oriented is the sequenceâa series of shots that show the context and details of an action, person, situation, or location, presented in a way that makes sense to your audience. Your complete story is a series of different sequences, often structured with a beginning, middle and end.

17 jan 2007

Fireworks



A match is a small stick of wood or strip of cardboard with a solidified mixture of flammable chemicals deposited on one end. When that end is struck on a rough surface, the friction generates enough heat to ignite the chemicals and produce a small flame.


Some matches, called strike-anywhere matches, may be ignited by striking them on any rough surface. Other matches, called safety matches, will ignite only when they are struck on a special rough surface containing certain chemicals.




 

Blue Mountain Colorado


The Western genre sometimes portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original, Native Americans, inhabitants of the frontier. The Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice such as the feud, rather than one organized around rationalistic, abstract law, in which social order is maintained predominately through relatively impersonal institutions. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter. A showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns.



16 jan 2007

Baie de Somme: Valery


Users nowadays create their own content. There is no longer one truth provided by one source, but instead thereâs an system of truths provided by many. This system is constantly changing and evolving.
Content becomes similar to connection and metadata becomes data.
Users are no longer passive visitors of websites but active creators. They give new meaning to existing information by linking different sources and using personal preferences to arrange information.


6 jan 2007

Bookstalls at the Amstel



In the performing arts, a scenario  from Italian: that which is pinned to the scenery; pronounced  is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. In the Commedia dell'arte it was an outline of entrances, exits, and action describing the plot of a play, and was literally pinned to the back of the scenery. It is also known as canovaccio or "that which is pinned to the canvas" of which the scenery was constructed.

Surviving scenarios from the Renaissance contain little other than character names, brief descriptions of action, and references to specific lazzi with no further explanation. It is believed that a scenario formed the basis for a fully improvisational performance, though it is also likely that they were simple reminders of the plot for those members of the cast who were literate. Modern commedia troupes most often make use of a script with varying degrees of additional improvisation.



 

28 dec 2006

Alsace gastronomie



Alsace is one of the great, under-appreciated treasures of the wine world. This pretty enclave of fairytale villages in the lee of the forested Vosges Mountains offers a wide range of varietally labelled wines, of which the aromatic whites are still, despite global warming, much more successful than the light reds. For much of its history, Alsace was Elsass and part of Germany. The local surnames and tall green tapered bottles reflect this, along with the dominance of Riesling and the fragrant nature of many of the wines. But unlike in Germany, traditional winemaking philosophy in Alsace was to ferment all of the grape sugar into alcohol, resulting in dry, full-bodied wines (quite different in structure from Germany's lighter, sweeter counterparts)

23 dec 2006

Uptown Lisbon



Many compact digital cameras can perform both an optical and a digital zoom. A camera performs an optical zoom by moving the zoom lens so that it increases the magnification of light before it even reaches the digital sensor. In contrast, a
digital zoom degrades quality by simply interpolating the image-- after it has been acquired at the sensor.Even though the photo with digital zoom contains the same number of pixels, the detail is clearly far less than with optical zoom. Digital zoom should be almost entirely avoided, unless it helps to visualize a distant object on your camera's LCD preview screen. Alternatively, if you regularly shoot in JPEG and plan on cropping and enlarging the photo afterwards, digital zoom at least has the benefit of performing the interpolation before any compression artifacts set in. If you find you are needing digital zoom too frequently, purchase a teleconverter add-on, or better yet: a lens with a longer focal length.

The Valley of Munster



Blogging has also introduced opportunities for a new wave of amateur film critics to have their opinions heard. These review blogs may focus on one genre, director or actor, or encompass a much wider variety of films. Friends, friends of friends, or complete strangers are able to visit these sites, and can often leave their own comments about the movie and/or the author's review. Although much less frequented than their professional counterparts, these sites can gather a following of like-minded people who look to specific bloggers for reviews as they have found that the critic consistently exhibits an outlook very similar to their own.