februari 09, 2008

A little Fiat



An important element of "putting in the scene" is set design—the setting of a scene and the objects (props) visible in a scene. Set design can be used to amplify character emotion or the dominant mood, which has physical, social, psychological, emotional, economic and cultural significance in film. One of the most important decisions made by the production designer and director is deciding whether to shoot on location or on set. The main distinction between the two is that décor and props must be taken into consideration when shooting on set. However, shooting on set is more commonly done than shooting on location as a result of it proving to be much more cost effective.



februari 08, 2008

Saint of StPetersburg


As with much Soviet art during the 1920s, films addressed major social and political events of the time. Probably the single most important film of this period was Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin, not only because of its depiction of events leading up to the 1905 Revolution, but also because of innovative cinematic techniques, such as the use of jump-cuts to achieve political ends. Other notable films of the period include Vsevolod Pudovkin's Mother (1926) and Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera (1929).



februari 07, 2008

Bitburgers






Costume design is the fabrication of clothing for the overall appearance of a character or performer. Costume is specific in the style of dress particular to a nation, a class, or a period. The most basic designs are produced to denote status, provide protection or modesty, or simply decorate a character. Costume design is a tool to express an art form, such as a play or film script, dance piece, or opera. Costumes may be for a theater, cinema, or musical performance but may not be limited to such. Costume design should not be confused with costume coordination which merely involves altering existing clothing, although both create stage clothes.

februari 04, 2008

Der vulkan Eifel



Der Vulkaneifel

Remix culture has been a hot topic lately in the media creation world. Essentially, “remix culture” refers to the ever-growing ability of ordinary people to take apart, stitch together, organize, and edit all kinds of information and media content, essentially making their own new “product” out of preexisting content.

Skagerak fishing



Super-8 Filmmaking has experienced a resurgence. Super-8 film enthusiasts can purchase Super-8 Cameras from around the World via eBay and eBay Super-8 camera stores. After the Super-8 film has been shot, processed and transfered to digital video it can be edited. Non-Linear Editing Systems (aka NLE, Digital, or Computer Editing) are providing exciting new methods for Editing Super-8 Film.



februari 03, 2008

Dinky boys





Although Dinky Toys were not known as widely for producing television related models as Corgi Toys, they still made a number of vehicles widely known from the small screen.

januari 26, 2008

Entre deux Mers



Entre-deux-mers (literally, between two seas) is a dry white wine made in Bordeaux. The appellation is one of the largest in the Bordeaux region and is situated between the Garonne and the Dordogne (which are actually considered inland seas). The area is responsible for three quarters of the red wine sold under the generic Bordeaux AOC or Bordeaux supérieur labels



januari 23, 2008

Rembrandt and the night watch



Optical theory
An article published in 2004, by Margaret S. Livingstone, professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, suggests that Rembrandt, whose eyes failed to align correctly, suffered from stereo blindness. This conclusion was made after studying 36 of Rembrandt's self-portraits. Because he could not form a normal binocular vision, his brain automatically switched to one eye for many visual tasks. This disability could have helped him to flatten images he saw, and then put it onto the two-dimensional canvas. In Livingstone's words, this could have been a gift to a great painter like him, "Art teachers often instruct students to close one eye in order to flatten what they see. Therefore, stereo blindness might not be a handicap â and might even be an asset â for some artists." However, among Rembrandt's greatest talents was an ability to create the illusion of full volume, the perception of which requires healthy stereoptic vision.






to the heart of Scotland



 

Movies filmed in Scotland

On top of the works created by Scottish directors, there have been many successful non-Scottish films shot in Scotland. Mel Gibson’s Academy Award-winning Braveheart is perhaps the best known and most commercially successful of these, having grossed $350,000,000 worldwide. The film won 5 Academy Awards, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ and was nominated for additional awards. The film’s depiction of the Battle of Stirling Bridge, which the plot of the film surrounds, is often regarded as one of the greatest movie battles in cinema history.



januari 22, 2008

Mother and daughter


The 30° rule is a basic film editing guideline that states the camera should move at least 30° between shots of the same subject. This change of perspective makes the shots different enough to avoid a jump cut. Too much movement around the subject may violate the 180° rule.Following this rule may soften the effect of changing shot distance, such as changing from a medium shot to a close-up. Some consider this rule to be outdated.A jump cut is a cut in film editing where the middle section of a continuous shot is removed, and the beginning and end of the shot are then joined together. The technique breaks continuity in time and produces a startling effect. Any moving objects in the shot will appear to jump to a new position.A cut from shot one to shot two, abruptly jarring the audience. In classical continuity editing, jump cuts are considered a technical flaw. Most cuts in that editing style occur between dissimilar scenes or significantly different views of the same scene to avoid the appearance of a jump. Every effort is made to make cuts invisible, unobtrusive.

Golf de St Claude


 

A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport or a sports-related topic is prominently featured or is a focus of the plot. Despite this, sport is ultimately rarely the central concern of such films and sport performs primarily an allegorical role.[1] Furthermore, sports fans are not necessarily the target demographic in such movies, but sports fans tend to maintain high following and esteem for such movies.



januari 19, 2008

Petrus and Paulus Cathedral St Petersburg



The first films seen in the Russian Empire were brought in by the Lumière brothers, who exhibited films in Moscow and St. Petersburg in May 1896. That same month, Lumière cameraman Camille Cerf made the first film in Russia, recording the coronation of Nicholas II at the Kremlin. Among the notable Russian filmmakers of the era were Aleksandr Khanzhonkov and Ivan Mozzhukhin, who made Defence of Sevastopol in 1912. Yakov Protazanov made Departure of a Grand Old Man, a biographical film about Lev Tolstoy. During World War I, imports dropped drastically, and Russian filmmakers turned out anti-German, nationalistic films. In 1916, 499 films were made in Russia, more than three times the number of just three years earlier.
The Russian Revolution brought more change, with a number of films with anti-Tsarist themes. The last significant film of the era, made in 1917, Father Sergius would become the first new film release of the Soviet era.



Roundabout Carcasonne



The film editor works with the raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished motion picture. Film editing is described as an art or skill, the only art that is unique to cinema, separating filmmaking from other art forms that preceded it, although there are close parallels to the editing process in other art forms such as poetry and novel writing. Film editing is often referred to as the "invisible art"[1] because when it is well-practiced, the viewer can become so engaged that he or she is not aware of the editor's work.

On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique, and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. The job of an editor is not simply to mechanically put pieces of a film together, cut off film slates, or edit dialogue scenes. A film editor must creatively work with the layers of images, story, dialogue, music, pacing, as well as the actors' performances to effectively "re-imagine" and even rewrite the film to craft a cohesive whole. Editors usually play a dynamic role in the making of a film.




januari 13, 2008

King Tut Pharaoh



The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon of Tutankhamun's nearly intact tomb received worldwide press coverage. It sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun's mask, now in the Egyptian Museum, remains the popular symbol. Exhibits of artifacts from his tomb have toured the world. In February 2010, the results of DNA tests confirmed that he was the son of Akhenaten (mummy KV55). His mother was Akhenaten's sister and wife (mummy KV35YL), whose name is unknown but whose remains are positively identified as "The Younger Lady" mummy found in KV35. The "mysterious" deaths of a few of those who excavated Tutankhamun's tomb has been popularly attributed to the curse of the pharaohs.


 

januari 09, 2008

Eastern windows


An open content film is much like an independent film, but it is produced through open collaborations; its source material is available under a license which is permissive enough to allow other parties to create fan fiction or derivative works, than a traditional copyright. Like independent filmmaking, open source filmmaking takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major studio systems.



januari 03, 2008

The only game in Town



A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits" but what is more appropriate than 10 minutes. The term featurette originally applied to a film longer than a short subject, but shorter than a standard feature film.

The increasingly rare term short subject means approximately the same thing. An industry term, it carries more of an assumption that the film is shown as part of a presentation along with a feature film. Short is an abbreviation for either term. Short films can be professional or amateur productions. Short films are often screened at local, national, or international film festivals. Short films are often made by independent filmmakers for non profit, either with a low budget, no budget at all, and in rare cases big budgets. Short films are usually funded by film grants, non profit organizations, sponsor, or out of pocket funds.



januari 01, 2008

A day in Saint Petersburg



Slide shows originally consisted of a series of individual photographic slides projected onto a screen with a slide projector. When referring to the video or computer-based visual equivalent, in which the slides are not individual physical objects, the term is often written as one word, slideshow.

A slide show may be a presentation of images purely for their own visual interest or artistic value, sometimes unaccompanied by description or text, or it may be used to clarify or reinforce information, ideas, comments, solutions or suggestions which are presented verbally. Slide shows are sometimes still conducted by a presenter using an apparatus such as a carousel slide projector or an overhead projector, but now the use of an electronic video display device and a computer running presentation software is typical.



december 31, 2007

Filming in Huesca


Huesca celebrates its most important annual festival in August: the festival (or fiesta) of San Lorenzo (Saint Lawrence), a native of Huesca martyred in 268 AD. The anniversary of his martyrdom falls on August 10. The fiesta starts on 9 August and finishes on the 15. Many of the inhabitants dress in green and white for the duration of the fiesta.
San Lorenzo, born in Huesca, was a deacon in Rome and martyred by the Romans, burned on a grille (at least according to legend). Hence the grille is the symbol of San Lorenzo. It can be seen in a number of decorative works in the city.

Huesca is also the birthplace of film director Carlos Saura and his brother Antonio Saura, contemporary artist. There is an international film festival held annually.

Dinosaur


Video8 had one major advantage over the full-size competition. Thanks to their compact-form factor, Video8 camcorders were small enough to hold in the palm of the user's hand. Such a feat was impossible with Betamax and VHS camcorders, which operated best on sturdy tripods or strong shoulders. Video8 also had an advantage in terms of time, because although VHS-C offered the same "palmcorder" size as Video8, the VHS-C tapes only held 40 minutes of tape (SP). Thus, Video8's 120-minute capacity served well for most users. (Both machines included longer playing modes at 120 and 240 minutes, respectively, but at the cost of reduced- quality images.) Longer sessions generally required additional infrastructure (AC power or more batteries), and hence longer recording times offered little advantage in a true travelling environment.


december 30, 2007

St Vitus cathedral Prague




St. Vitus Cathedral (Czech: Katedrála svatého Víta) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prague, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. The full name of the cathedral is St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.Cathedral dimensions are 124 x 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.



 

Danish green



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.SEQUENCESTo 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



december 29, 2007

On the banks of the Neva



On the banks of the Neva .
The Neva is the main waterway of Petersburg and the town is situated along its banks and across the islands of its broad delta. It is one of the largest rivers in Europe by volume of water and also one of the world's shortest major rivers at only 74 kilometers. The Neva connects Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe, to the Baltic Sea. For centuries, it was of great strategic importance for transport and so the interests of the Russians, Swedes, Finns, and Balts clashed on its banks. From the 8th-13th centuries, the Neva was part of the trade route from Scandinavia to Byzantium, the road "from the Varangians to the Greeks.” In 1240, the Novgorod militia led by Prince Alexander Yaroslavich defeated the invading Swedish army on the banks of the Neva. Because of the victory, the prince was thereafter nicknamed Alexander Nevsky (of the Neva). But the main page in the history of this great river began to be written, of course, in 1703 when St. Petersburg was founded at the mouth of the Neva.

At the foot of the Pyrenees



Foot Of The Pyrenees

70 mm film (or 65 mm film) is a wide high-resolution film gauge for still and motion picture photography, with higher resolution than the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is 65 mm (2.6 in) wide. For projection, the original 65 mm film is printed on 70 mm (2.8 in) film. The additional 5 mm are for 4 magnetic strips holding six tracks of sound. Although more recent 70 mm prints use digital sound encoding, the vast majority of existing and surviving 70 mm prints predate this technology.


december 24, 2007

From Spain to France



A hidden camera is a still or video camera used to film people without their knowledge. The camera is "hidden" because it is either not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another object. Hidden cameras have become popular for household surveillance, and can be built into common household objects such as smoke detectors, clock radios, motion detectors, ball caps, plants, and mobile phones. Hidden cameras may also be used commercially or industrially as security cameras.

 

 
 

december 21, 2007

Roundabout Wales

 

 

 In 1965, Super-8 film was released and was quickly adopted by the amateur film-maker. It featured a better quality image, and was easier to use mainly due to a cartridge-loading system that did not require re-loading—and re-threading halfway through. Super 8 was often erroneously criticized, since the film gates in some cheaper Super 8 cameras were plastic, as was the pressure plate built into the cartridge; the standard 8 cameras had a permanent metal film gate that was regarded as more reliable in keeping the film flat and the image in focus. In reality, this was not the case. The plastic pressure plate could be moulded to far tighter tolerances than their metal counterparts could be machined.


december 20, 2007

Chinese graveyard



Chinese Graveyard



The Cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the Cinema of Hong Kong and the Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and the Publicity Department. Many films with political overtones made in China are still censored or banned in China itself; however, some of these films are distributed abroad commercially or at film festivals. China also restricts the showing of foreign-made films in Chinese cinemas.



december 19, 2007

Partytime


Historical records of events have been made for thousands of years in one form or another. Amongst the earliest are cave painting, runic alphabets and ideograms.

Ways of recording text suitable for direct reading by humans includes writing it on paper. Other forms of data storage are easier for automatic retrieval, but humans need a tool to read them. Printing a text stored in a computer allows keeping a copy on the computer and having also a copy that is human-readable without a tool.

Technology continues to provide and expand means for human beings to represent, record and express their thoughts, feelings and experiences.

 


december 14, 2007

City of Romans



Romulus and Remus are the twin brothers and central characters of Rome's foundation myth.
Romulus wants to found the new city on the Palatine Hill; Remus prefers the Aventine Hill. They agree to determine the site through augury but when each claims the results in his own favor, they quarrel and Remus is killed. Romulus founds the new city, names it Rome, after himself, and creates its first legions and senate. The new city grows rapidly, swelled by landless refugees; as most of these are male, and unmarried, Romulus arranges the abduction of women from the neighboring Sabines. The ensuing war ends with the joining of Sabines and Romans as one Roman people. Thanks to divine favour and Romulus' inspired leadership, Rome becomes a dominant force, but Romulus himself becomes increasingly autocratic, and disappears or dies in mysterious circumstances.



The legend as a whole encapsulates Rome's ideas of itself, its origins and moral values. For modern scholarship, it remains one of the most complex and problematic of all foundation myths, particularly in the matter and manner of Remus' death. Ancient historians had no doubt that Romulus gave his name to the city. Possible historical bases for the broad mythological narrative remain unclear and disputed.The image of the she-wolf suckling the divinely fathered twins became an iconic representation of the city and its founding legend, making Romulus and Remus preeminent among the feral children of ancient mythography.

Nevsky monastery




The monastery grounds contain two baroque churches, designed by father and son Trezzini and built in 1717–22 and 1742–50, respectively; a majestic Neoclassical cathedral, built in 1778–90 to a design by Ivan Starov and consecrated to the Holy Trinity; and numerous structures of lesser importance. It also contains the Lazarev and Tikhvin Cemeteries,



december 13, 2007

Amstel river



Persistence of vision is still the accepted term for this phenomenon in the realm of cinema history and theory. In the early days of film innovation, it was scientifically determined[citation needed] that a frame rate of less than 16 frames per second (frame/s) caused the mind to see flashing images. Audiences still interpret motion at rates as low as ten frames per second or slower (as in a flipbook), but the flicker caused by the shutter of a film projector is distracting below the 16-frame threshold.[citation needed]

Modern theatrical film runs at 24 frames a second. This is the case for both physical film and digital cinema systems.



 

My home is my castle




it simply means that its your home which is your dream place... the size of a house doesn't decide anything.. but it's the people living in it and the love shared by the people in the house that makes it special.. making it a dream place like a castle!! Thus, it's a metaphor!!

Aqua (the Sorgue)



The Ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles held that water is one of the four classical elements along with fire, earth and air, and was regarded as the ylem, or basic substance of the universe. Thales, who was portrayed by Aristotle as an astronomer and an engineer, theorized that the earth, which is denser than water, emerged from the water. Thales, a monist, believed further that all things are made from water. Plato believed the shape of water is an icosahedron which accounts for why it is able to flow easily compared to the cube-shaped earth.[

Hamlet in Auvergne


The name "film" originates from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photoplay and flick.
The most common term in the United States is movie, while in Europe film is preferred. Terms for the field in general include the big screen, the silver screen, the movies and cinema; the latter is commonly used in scholarly texts and critical essays, especially by European writers. In early years, the word sheet was sometimes used instead of screen.

december 12, 2007

Birds Paradise




Between land and sky, close to 640 acres of dunes, forests and marshes at the heart of the Nature Reserve, the Parc du Marquenterre is a preserved area that will win you over with its unique landscapes and natural wealth. Over 360 species of birds have been observed, as many as in Camargue, which is 15 times larger!
">Every season, interest is renewed with the comings and goings of migratory birds and the cycle of life.

 


 

Camping in Norway


A home movie is part of the motion picture filmmaking process made by amateurs, often for viewing by family and friends. When the hobby began, home movies were produced on photographic film, but accessibility of video production with video cameras and low cost data storage devices has made the making of home movies easier and more affordable to the average person. The boundaries between consumer movie-making and professional movie-making are becoming increasingly blurred as prosumer equipment often offers features previously only available on professional equipment.



Saint Petersburg and Us



A slide show is a presentation of a series of still images on a projection screen or electronic display device, typically in a prearranged sequence. The changes may be automatic and at regular intervals or they may be manually controlled by a presenter or the viewer. Slide shows originally consisted of a series of individual photographic slides projected onto a screen with a slide projector. When referring to the video or computer-based visual equivalent, in which the slides are not individual physical objects, the term is often written as one word, slideshow.

Filmmaking: Lighting




Lighting
Light is necessary to create an image exposure on a frame of film or on a digital target (CCD, etc.). The art of lighting for cinematography goes far beyond basic exposure, however, into the essence of visual storytelling. Lighting contributes considerably to the emotional response an audience has watching a motion picture. The increased usage of filters can greatly impact the final image and affect the lighting.



december 07, 2007

Stairway to Heaven




Filmmaking – process of making a film. Filmmaking involves a number of discrete stages including an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a film release and exhibition. Filmmaking is both an art and an industry. Films were originally recorded onto plastic film which was shown through a movie projector onto a large screen (in other words, an analog recording process). The adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the entire process of production, distribution, and exhibition from start to finish.





 

december 04, 2007

People of Rome



Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action.


Many music videos do not interpret images from the song's lyrics, making it less literal than expected. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance.


december 01, 2007

Entrada Welcome in Spain



A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production company. The majority of firms in the entertainment industry have never owned their own studios, but have rented space from other companies.



There are also independently owned studio facilities, who have never produced a motion picture of their own because they are not Entertainment companies or Motion Picture companies; they are companies who sell only studio space.

Siena the square



World cinema is a term used primarily in English language speaking countries to refer to the films and film industries of non-English speaking countries. It is therefore often used interchangeably with the term foreign film. However, both world cinema and foreign film could be taken to refer to the films of all countries other than one's own, regardless of native language.



november 30, 2007

Town and Turia



After a catastrophic flood in 1957 which devastated the city of Valencia, the river was divided in two at the western city limits (Plan Sur de Valencia). The water has been diverted southwards along a new course that skirts the city, before meeting the Mediterranean. The old course of the river continues, dry, through the city centre, almost to the sea.
The old riverbed is now a verdant sunken park that allows cyclists and pedestrians to traverse much of the city without the use of roads. The park, called the 'Garden of the Turia' (Jardí del Túria/Jardín del Turia) boasts numerous ponds, paths, fountains, flowers, football pitches, cafés, artworks, climbing walls, an athletics track, a zen garden and more. The many bridges overhead carry traffic across the 

park.



 

The Best of Freiburg





One of the famous old German university towns, and archiepiscopal seat, Freiburg was incorporated in the early twelfth century and developed into a major commercial, intellectual, and ecclesiastical center of the upper Rhine region. The city is known for its medieval university and minster, as well as for its high standard of living and advanced environmental practices. The city is situated in the heart of a major wine-growing region and serves as the primary tourist entry point to the scenic beauty of the Black Forest. According to meteorological statistics, the city is the sunniest and warmest in Germany and holds the German temperature record of 40.2 °C (104.4 °F).



 

Around Trasimeno



The Cinema of Italy comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Since the development of the Italian film industry in the early 1900s, Italian filmmakers and performers have, at times, experienced both domestic and international success, and have influenced film movements throughout the world. As of 2014, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, the most of any country, as well as 12 Palmes d'Or, the second-most of any country.

november 29, 2007

Famous Sunny Madeira



Madeira was claimed 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 recognised by the Guinness World Records, in 2006. 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 Africa.

mountains of Madeira

Pikes Peak


Pikes Peak (originally Pike's Peak) is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains within Pike National Forest, 10 mi (16 km) west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County in the United States of America.

Originally called "El Capitán" by Spanish settlers, the mountain was renamed Pike's Peak after Zebulon Pike, Jr., an explorer who led an expedition to the southern Colorado area in 1806. The Arapaho name is heey-otoyoo’ ("long mountain")

At 14,115 feet (4,302 m), it is one of Colorado's 54 fourteeners, mountains that rise more than 14,000 feet (4,300 m) above mean sea level, and rises 8,400 feet (2,600 m) above the city of Colorado Springs. Pikes Peak is a designated National Historic Landmark.



november 28, 2007

Siena in Italy


 


Schrader used his new project, a 10-episode web series called Life on the Other Side inspired by Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, to discuss a new era in the filmmaking business. "If Fellini were alive today, he’d make La Dolce Vita as a web series, because maybe that’s a better way to make it than a three hour movie,” he said.

“We’re entering into a new era when so much of the old rules are changing. We don’t know how long a film is no more. We used to think a film was somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours. But now it’s somewhere between 3 minutes and 70 hours. You know, Mad Men is a movie. And we’re seeing the rise of new concepts. The film studios of the future are going be called Amazon and Google — and they are already called Netflix. This is where filmmaking and film-going is headed,” he stated.

Altenburg Castle




Rule of thirds A good guideline for composing your shots is the rule of thirds. This means that you should imagine your frame (the image your camera takes) divided into thirds, with actions and objects placed at the intersections of the vertical and horizontal thirds. This is far more interesting to the eye. Don’t place people you are fi lming in the middle of the frame simply because they are important. It’s far better to have the horizon either two-thirds from the top of the frame or two-thirds from the bottom. And if you are fi lming someone standing in front of a wider scene it’s good to have him or her standing slightly to the left or to the right of the frame. This permits the person to speak into the empty part of the frame—it gives them “nose-room.”

 




november 27, 2007

Panorama of Florence



In photography, panning refers to the rotation in a horizontal plane of a still camera or video camera. Panning a camera results in a motion similar to that of someone shaking their head from side to side or of an aircraft performing a yaw rotation. Or to that of an opening door if the door stays facing one way.

Filmmaking and professional video 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 still photography, the panning technique is used to suggest fast motion, and bring out the subject from other elements in the frame. 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 travel, similar to speed lines, and is often used in sports photography, primarily of racing.




november 26, 2007

Walking into Valencia



The role of the filmmaker is changing, from one who records images through a lens to one who curates images from an existing database of footage. Does that sound like hyperbole? Consider these recent phenomena:
Russian Car Crash Videos. One of the stranger robotic camera phenomena, videos taken with cameras on Russian car dashboards have flooded YouTube. The cameras are apparently there for potential insurance cases, which suggests the institutional forces that will propel camera pervasiveness.
A New American Picture. Many artists use Google Street Images as source material,
Drone Videos. In combination with CCTV, drones are already equipped to record images that our eyes cannot.