Arena of Nimes

The Arena of Nîmes is a Roman amphitheater found in the French city of Nîmes. Built around 70 AD, it was remodeled in 1863 to serve as a bullring. The building encloses an elliptical central space 133 m long by 101 m wide. It is ringed by 34 rows of seats supported by a vaulted construction. It has a capacity of 16,300 spectators.

As the Empire fell, the amphitheater was fortified by the Visigoths and surrounded by a wall. During the turbulent years that followed the collapse of Visigoth power in Hispania and Septimania, not to mention the Muslim invasion and subsequent conquest by the French kings in the mid eighth century, the viscounts of Nîmes constructed a fortified palace within the amphitheater. Seven hundred people lived within the amphitheater during the apex of its service as an enclosed community. The buildings remained in the amphitheatre until the eighteenth century, when the decision was made to convert the amphitheatre into its present form.

Morbid

An anatomical theatre was usually a room of roughly amphitheatrical shape, in the centre of which would stand the table on which the dissections of human or animal bodies took place. Around this table were several circular, elliptic or octagonal tiers with railings, where students or other observers could stand and get a good view of the dissection almost from above and unencumbered by the spectators in the rows in front.
The first anatomical theatre was built at the University of Padua in 1594 and is still preserved. Other early examples include the Theatrum Anatomicum of Leiden University, built in 1596 and the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio in Bologna The anatomical theatre completed in 1663 by medical professor and amateur architect Olaus Rudbeck for the University of Uppsala is located in the idiosyncratic cupola which Rudbeck placed on top of the Gustavianum building, at the time the main building of the university.

Common wisdom in filmmaking dictates that if we leave terrifying ideas up to the audience’s imagination, they can fill in the gaps and have an even more thrilling experience than if given all pieces of the puzzle at once. This philosophy dictated Hitchcock’s style, and worked to great effect in films like Spielberg’s Jaws where the antagonist is rarely even seen.

Scenic Ghent

Subjective camera: The camera is used in such a way as to suggest the point of view of a particular character.



High- or low-angle shots indicate where she or he is looking from
a panoramic or panning shot suggests she or he is surveying the scene
a tracking shot or a hand-held camera shot signifies the character on motion.

Ghent North northwest

In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each shot are generally numbered starting with "take one" and the number of each successive take is increased (with the director calling for "take two" or "take eighteen") until the filming of the shot is completed.

A one-take occurs when the entire scene is shot satisfactorily the first time, whether by necessity (as with certain expensive special effects) or by happy accident.

Film takes are often designated with the aid of a clapperboard. It is also referred to as the slate. The number of each take is written or attached to the clapboard, which is filmed briefly prior to or at the beginning of the actual take. Only takes which are vetted by the continuity person and/or script supervisor are printed and are sent to the film editor.

Fly with me

Film-related podcasts for film-makers.

Creative Cow: Useful creative tech news. In depth interviews.

Filmmaking Central: Podcast from an independent filmmaker, good on the filmmaking process itself.

KCRW's The Business: US-centric high-quality podcast about the movie industry.

KCRW's The Treatment: Interesting discussions with screenwriters.

Creative Screenwriting Magazine.

Celluloid Remix

Celluloid Remix This is the second edition of the successful video-remix competition containing historical fragments from EYE's film collection. Professionals and amateurs remix special film material from the Bits & Pieces collection into new short films with an individual soundtrack.
Bits & Pieces are short fragments, snippets from films that are often forgotten or have disappeared. Quite often these ‘remnants’ are discarded from the archives.
For all information and details please visit www.celluloidremix.nl. You can also keep in touch through the Celluloid Remix Facebook page Celluloid Remix Facebook-page.
MAKER OF THE FILM is Arvid van Kasteel, MUSIC Digi G.Alessio

Eyes on Windows-shopping

Any time you have a cut that looks or sounds abrupt, try adding a dissolve to smooth the transition. This effect blends the two video clips together so that audiences barely notice the change.

Fade In & Fade Out: You'll notice that most professional videos begin and end with a black screen. It's easy to give your projects this same professional look by adding a Fade In at the start of the video and a Fade Out at the end.

Superimpose: Superimposing one video image on top of another can be a little bit tricky, but it is a powerful tool if used properly. Be careful where you apply it; if the scenes are too busy it wont work well.

Saint Bavo Ghent

Bavo was born near Liège, Belgium, to a Frankish noble family that gave him the name Allowin. His father was Pippin of Landen, the Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia.

Wild as a youth and selfish, he was known to have sold servants to local nobles as slaves. He contracted a beneficial marriage, and had a daughter through it. He was a soldier; however, he led an undisciplined and disorderly life. Shortly after the death of his wife, Bavo decided to reform himself upon hearing a sermon preached by a monk, Saint Amand. Bavo was struck after the sermon at the emptiness of material objects and donated his wealth to the poor after he converted to Christianity at Amand's convent. Bavo traveled with Amand for some time in his missionary work through France and Flanders.

He built an abbey on his grounds and became a monk. He distributed his belongings to the poor and lived as a recluse, first in a hollow tree, later in a cell in the forest near the Abbey. He died at St. Bavo's Abbey in Ghent, in today's Belgium.

Light painting

“Light painting” is a photographic technique that uses a light source and long exposure to create the effect of “painting” with light. As with other forms of animation, it can be used very creatively as it’s not limited by “reality.”
German collective LICHTFAKTOR are pioneers in this technique. The team has created clips ranging from multi-national collaborations with other artists to adverts for major brands.

 

 

Circus parade

;Filmtips:

Close-ups are used for distinguishing main characters. Major characters are often given a close-up when they are introduced as a way of indicating their importance. Leading characters will have multiple close-ups. There is a long-standing stereotype of insecure actors desiring a close-up at every opportunity and counting the number of close-ups they received.

Close-up shots do not show the subject in the broad context of its surroundings. If overused, close-ups may leave viewers uncertain as to what they are seeing. Close-ups are rarely done with wide angle lenses, because perspective causes objects in the center of the picture to be unnaturally enlarged. Certain times, different directors will use wide angle lenses, because they can convey the message of confusion, and bring life to certain characters.

Destination Sud de France

Digital storytelling" is a relatively new term which describes the new practice of ordinary people who use digital tools to tell their 'story'. Digital stories often present in compelling and emotionally engaging formats, they are usually less than 8 minutes long.
One can define digital storytelling as the process by which diverse peoples share their life story and creative imaginings with others. This newer form of storytelling emerged with the advent of accessible media production techniques, hardware and software, including but not limited to digital cameras, digital voice recorders, iMovie, Movie Maker and Final Cut Express. These new technologies allow individuals to share their stories over the Internet .

Dreamful Ghent

Day for night, also known as nuit américaine ("American night"), is the name for cinematographic techniques used to simulate a night scene; such as using tungsten-balanced rather than daylight-balanced film stock or with special blue filters and also under-exposing the shot  to create the illusion of darkness or moonlight.

A great way to achieve this effect is to tune the white balance of the camera to a yellow source if there is no tungsten setting. Another way to make a more believable night scene is to underexpose the footage to the desired degree of night/darkness. This depends on the amount of light shown or believed to be in the given scene.

Wet Ghent

Until the 13th century Ghent was the biggest city in Europe after Paris; it was bigger than London, Cologne or Moscow. Within the city walls lived up to 65,000 people. Today, the belfry and the towers of the Saint Bavo Cathedral and Saint Nicholas' Church are just a few examples of the skyline of the period.
 

The rivers flowed in an area where a lot of land was periodically inundated. These richly grassed 'meersen' ("water-meadows": a word related to the English 'marsh', but not meaning exactly the same: a 'meers' is not permanently under water) were ideally suited for herding sheep, the wool of which was used for making cloth. In fact, Ghent was, during the Middle Ages, the most important city for cloth.

 

Holland House

Digital point-and-shoot cameras have become widespread consumer products, outselling film cameras, and including new features such as video and audio recording. Kodak announced in January 2004 that it would no longer sell reloadable 35 mm cameras. 

According to a survey made by Kodak in 2007 when the majority of photography was already digital, 75 percent of professional photographers say they will continue to use film, even though some embrace digital.

Ghent on Light

The World Soundtrack Academy (WSA, or World Soundtrack Awards), launched in 2001 by the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent, is aimed at organizing and overseeing the educational, cultural and professional aspects of the art of film music, including the preservation of the history of the soundtrack and its worldwide promotion. The event takes place yearly in Ghent, Belgium with the ceremony usually at the Bijloke Concert Hall.

Peace of Muenster

The Peace of Münster was a treaty between the Dutch Republic and Spain signed in 1648. It was a landmark treaty for the Dutch republic and one of the key events in Dutch history; with it, the United Netherlands finally became independent from the Spanish Crown. The Dutch Revolt, or Eighty Years' War (1566–1648), was the revolt of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands against the Spanish  Empire.

Despite not formally being recognised as an independent state, the Dutch republic was allowed to participate in the peace talks; even Spain did not oppose this. In January 1646, eight Dutch representatives (two from Holland and one from each of the other six provinces) arrived in Münster to start the negotiations.  On 15 May the same year peace was made. With the peace, the Netherlands was recognized as an independent country.

Altstadt of Munster.

On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique, and practice of assembling shots into a coherent whole. A film editor is a person who practices film editing by assembling the footage. However, the job of an editor isn’t 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.

 

Und wir fahren

In film theory, genre  refers to the method based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed. Most theories of film genre are borrowed from literary genre criticism. As with genre in a literary context, there is a great deal of debate over how to define or categorize genres.[citation needed]. Besides the basic distinction in genre between fiction and documentary (from which hybrid forms emerged founding a new genre, docufiction), film genres can be categorized in several ways.

Fictional films are usually categorized according to their setting, theme topic, mood, or format . The setting is the milieu or environment where the story and action takes place. The theme or topic refers to the issues or concepts that the film revolves around. The mood is the emotional tone of the film.

Baroque Munster

 

The bishopric of Muenster covered most of the Northern part of what is now Northrhine-Westphalia. It is mainly flat or hilly at the most. That is one reason why there are so many castles - usually water castles - left, that are still inhabited. Castles on the top of the hills were too difficult to keep up and to get to after they lost there strategic value.

Image of Maastricht

Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that is not custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of great use to filmmakers as it is far cheaper than shooting a needed scene. Stock footage can also be used to integrate news footage or notable figures into a film. Stock footage comes from a myriad of sources; including the public domain, other movies and television programs, news outlets and purpose-shot stock footage.

 

 

 

Mobil Muenster

Bicycling Münster



The bicycle, also named "Leeze", is the most commonly used means of transport in Münster. A daily total of more than 100,000 people are on the road by bike, and there are twice as many bicycles as residents, namely 500,000. Those who want to experience the true Münster feeling should therefore get on the bike.

Maastricht fortifications and Jeker river

Maastricht is known for its picturesque squares, romantic streets, and historical buildings.  City Fortifications, including:  Helpoort - a 13th century town gate, the oldest in the Netherlands. Fragments of the first and second medieval city walls.

 Hoge Fronten (or Linie van Du Moulin) - remnants of 17th and 18th century fortifications with a number of well-preserved bastions and an early 19th century fortress Fort Willem.

Amsterdam sketchbook

The sketchbook is more frequently used in displays of contemporary art, as well as historical retrospectives, now that 'intimate' and 'ephemeral' records are increasingly seen by some as more informative than the planned and finished drawing, painting or sculpture.

The form is also now being used as inspiration for the development of online/digital sketchbooks. The World Wide Web has made a big difference to the scope to access documents such as the sketchbooks of famous artists which previously would only be seen in an exhibition. A number of the sketchbooks of famous artists have been digitally recorded and are now available online.

Jewish museum in the Netherlands

The Joods Historisch Museum  is a museum in Amsterdam dedicated to Jewish history, culture and religion, in the Netherlands and worldwide.

The location, occupies four former synagogues on Jonas Daniël Meijerplein square, across the road from the Snoge or Portuguese Synagogue

The exhibition on the ground floor focuses on Jewish traditions and customs. The presentation is inspired by the former interior of the synagogue. Ceremonial objects from the museum collection are shown in locations where they used to be placed in the synagogue. This gives visitors a sense of the surroundings in which they find themselves and enables them to taste the original synagogue atmosphere.

 

Path to the Aasee

Filmtips:
A film screening is the displaying of a motion picture or film, generally referring to a special showing as part of a film's production and release cycle. To show the film to best advantage, special screenings may take place in plush, low seat-count theaters with very high quality (sometimes especially certified) projection and sound equipment, and can be accompanied by food and drink and spoken remarks by producers, writers, or actors. Special screenings typically occur outside normal theatrical showing hours. The different types of screenings are presented here in their order within a film's development.

Bread and Butter

Diegetic sound is that which is to have actually occurred within the story during the action being viewed. It is sound that comes from within the narrative world of a film (including off-screen sound). Continuous diegetic sound helps to smooth temporally questionable cuts by overlapping the shots. Here the logic is that if a sonic occurrence within the action of the scene has no breaks in time, then it would be impossible for the scene and its corresponding visuals to be anything but temporally continuous.

 

The famous canals of Amsterdam

 

When the citizens of Amsterdam decided in the 17th century to extend their town, they dug their city canals in semicircles around the old centre. On each canal or gracht were tree-lined streets on both sides of the water. But these proud Amsterdam citizens were quite the jokers. They called the first and paramount gracht after themselves: the Heerengracht: the gracht of the Heeren, the Masters of Amsterdam.

The second one they called the Keizersgracht: the gracht of the Emperors; and the third one, further from the centre, the Prinsengracht: the gracht of the Princes. In that way they indicated that the Heeren – being themselves – were more important than Emperors, who are (of course) more important than Princes. A kind of practical joke.

Balcony of Munsterland

In the 12th century the county of Tecklenburg emerged in the region that is now called the "Tecklenburger Land" in the western foothills of the Teutoburg Forest. It was annexed by the neighbouring county of Bentheim in 1263, and Tecklenburg still had a count until the 19th century.

Tecklenburg retained some of its medieval townscape to date. Main sites include the ruined castle (now serving as open air theatre during the Summer) and the Stadtkirche (the main, old church) including tombs of the dukes of Tecklenburg and others prominent in the history of the county and city.


Today, the city of Tecklenburg (from a perspective of size really not a city but a town) is a tourist destination.

The Language of Colour

Use colour wisely In some films, the directors have made choices about how the colour of their film will influence the atmosphere. How can you achieve the same effect when you're working in video? You need to consider colour before you shoot any video at all. Professional filmmakers have their set designers work with the cinematographer to choose a colour palette for the film. In some cases, this palette determines everything from the colour of the wallpaper in a room to the colour of an actor's tie. Working within a specific colour palette, you can give your film a more coherent look. Once you've shot your footage, you can affect the atmosphere of the film by choosing how colours will appear in the finished product. Using the colour filters available in editing software you can subtly alter the hue of your film and emulate certain processing techniques.

The Jordaan

The Jordaan is a district of the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Originally a working-class neighbourhood, the Jordaan has become one of the most expensive, upscale locations in the Netherlands. It is home to many art galleries, particularly for modern art, and is also dotted with speciality shops and restaurants.

Rembrandt spent the last years of his life in the Jordaan, on the Rozengracht canal. He was buried in the Westerkerk church, at the corner of Rozengracht and Prinsengracht, just beyond the Jordaan. The Anne Frank House, where Anne Frank went into hiding during World War II, is located on the edge of the Jordaan, on the Prinsengracht canal.

 

Aufenthalt in Munsterland

 

For a still shot you can always use a tripod or other flat surface to rest the camera on. Too many action shots in a row can get kind of overwhelming, so for quieter or more relaxed moments in your video you’ll want to throw in plenty of good old “picture frame” moments. The camera – along with your viewer – can just rest there, in place, and soak in what’s going on.

Wijck of Maastricht

Maastricht  is a city in the Netherlands. It is located in the southern part of the Dutch province of Limburg, of which it is the capital.

Maastricht is widely known as a city of history, culture, local folklore and education. The town is popular with tourists for shopping and recreation. The city has a large growing international student population.

Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river (Dutch: Maas) in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border

Jewish quarter Amsterdam

The Jodenbreestraat  is a street in the centre of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

In the 17th century, many Jewish emigrants from Portugal and Spain settled in the neighborhood. They founded several synagogues.



The street served as a marketplace until the late 19th century. In 1893, the city government ordered the merchants to move their stalls to nearby Waterlooplein square.

During the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, many residents of the Jewish neighourhood were taken away to the concentration camps and killed. After the war, the neighbourhood was left deserted and many of the houses began to fall apart and were eventually torn down.

 

Bookstore made in Heaven

What does a city do with an 800-year-old church with no congregation? Well, it could make like the Dutch and convert it into a temple of books. The old Dominican church in Maastricht was being used for bicycle storage not long ago, but thanks to a radical refurbishment by Dutch architects Merkx + Girod it has been turned into what could possibly be the most beautiful bookshop of all time. The Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen, which opened just before Christmas, retains the character and charm of the old church, while being fitted with a minimalist and modern interior design that overcomes any suggestion of fustiness. From the images you can find on the web you can see that it is a bookshop made in heaven.

Bouillon the one from Godfrey

The most famous of the Lords of Bouillon was Godfrey of Bouillon, a leader of the First Crusade and the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He sold Bouillon Castle to the Bishopric of Liège. The bishops started to call themselves dukes of Bouillon, and the town emerged as the capital of a sovereign duchy by 1678, when it was captured from the bishopric by the French army and given to the La Tour d'Auvergne family. The duchy was prized for its strategic location as "the key to the Ardennes" (as Vauban called it) and hence to France itself. It remained a quasi-independent protectorate, like Orange and Monaco, until 1795, when the Republican Army finally annexed it to France.

 

Amsterdam evening

  Filmtips:

Day for night, also known as nuit américaine ("American night"), is the name for cinematographic techniques used to simulate a night scene; such as using tungsten-balanced rather than daylight-balanced film stock or with special blue filters and also under-exposing the shot (usually in post-production) to create the illusion of darkness or moonlight.

Historically, infrared movie film was used to achieve an equivalent look with black-and-white film.

A great way to achieve this effect is to tune the white balance of the camera to a yellow source if there is no tungsten setting. Another way to make a more believable night scene is to underexpose the footage to the desired degree of night/darkness. This depends on the amount of light shown or believed to be in the given scene.

Whaling war

Internet activism (also known as online organizing, electronic advocacy, cyberactivism, E-campaigning, and E-activism) is the use of electronic communication technologies such as e-mail, the World Wide Web, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience. Internet technologies are used for cause-related fundraising, community building, lobbying, and organizing.

Burn-out

Open Images is an open media platform that offers online access to audiovisual archive material to stimulate creative reuse. Footage from audiovisual collections can be downloaded and remixed into new works. Users of Open Images also have the opportunity to add their own material to the platform and thus expand the collection.  Access to the material on Open Images is provided under the Creative Commons licensing model.

The 'remix' of film is nothing new.

From the very beginning of film history, films  often were semi-finished products: the films were sometimes cut by the exhibitor and other (own) material added to a new compilation. During the screening, the films were often explained by a 'explicateur' and set to music by a musician or orchestra. The ranking of the film  into a film program often was based on the preferences of the exhibitor.

The Theater (Hollandsche schouwburg)

The Hollandsche Schouwburg (Dutch Theater), where the Jews of Amsterdam had to report themselfs prior to their deportation to the Westerbork transit camp.

Opposite of the Hollandsche Schouwburg on the Plantage Middenlaan, there was a nursery. The nazis put the young children there in stead of in the theater. The Dutch set up a system to rescue children via the nursery. Children were secretly brought to Reformed Teacher Training College, two houses from the theater. They got there through the garden.

From there the children went into a backpack, shopping bag or laundry basket to be transported to Limburg and Friesland by train and tram. The children were not registered and removed their names from the records of the theater. Thanks to this plan about 600 children could be saved.

 

An American in Amsterdam

The musical film was a natural development of the stage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if there is a live

Shipping quarter amsterdam

Many people take the moving image for granted. They frequently assume that the images they see are a true and accurate portrayal of the events of “what is happening”. Of course this can be in part explained by the fact that the visual image is far more seductive than the written word. This is because we impose our own meaning on what we see. The idea that “I won′t believe it until I see it” is very significant here.

Treasure room

Video compression is needed to change our large video files into smaller video files so that they can be shared more easily and viewed online. Luckily for us, there's a whole world of video compression software to get our video ready for the web. There are compression software tools like Sorenson's Squeeze, Apple's Compressor 4 and MPEG Streamclip that handle video compression without the need for any other software. So whether you want your video looking its best on the Net, or playing loud and proud on an iPad, video compression software makes it happen.

Old and young artists in Amsterdam

A good, sturdy tripod will let you get smooth pan or tilt movements, but for any other movements you could benefit from a home-made steadicam or another type of weight. I like to use the pendulum metaphor – if you think about what makes a pendulum continue to swing, it’s because from a physics perspective, adding weight to the bottom of an object stabilizes it and lowers its center of gravity.

The simplest way to do this with a camera is to fold up or retract the legs of your tripod and keep the camera mounted on it. This gives you a good amount of weight beneath it and will prevent it from wobbling around to as great a degree as it would otherwise. Using your grips we learned earlier, your support hand goes around the legs of the tripod instead of resting underneath the camera. I’ve written some other tips for things you can use to achieve smooth camera movement.

 

Dutch winter

Collage in Film


Definition: Collage film is traditionally defined as, “A film that juxtaposes fictional scenes with footage taken from disparate sources, such as newsreels.” Combining different types of footage can have various implications depending on the director’s approach. Collage film can also refer to the physical collaging of materials onto filmstrips.

Applications: Historical and archival footage is often used in documentary films as a source of primary information, giving the viewer a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. Director and cinematographer Ken Burns is famous for his use inclusion of archival footage in his films.

To collage different types of footage exposes the hand of the editor in the production process. This awareness of human intervention detracts from a film’s objectivity, and requires the viewer to consciously interpret the connotations of the deliberately arranged footage.

the Home Movie Factory

For this you need a few rules. Otherwise it brings anarchy or the law of the one with the loudest voice . And too many rules is another death knell for creativity.

The Home Movie Factory shows that everyone is creative. Since adults no longer tinker and signs as they did as a child, does not mean they have lost their creative abilities.

The exhibit traveled elsewhere, including the Pompidou Center in Paris, before landing in a former match factory in Aubervilliers, France. “It’s kind of perfect because there are exterior streets within the factory, so we can do interior, exterior, like a real mini-studio, a back-lot,” Mr. Gondry said.

Esnoga Amsterdam synagogue

On December 12, 1670, the Sephardic Jewish community of Amsterdam acquired the site to build a synagogue. On August 2, 1675, the Esnoga was finished.

The inscription above the entrance is from Psalm 5:8: "In the abundance of Thy lovingkindness will I come into Thy house".
The building rests on wooden poles and the foundation vaults can be viewed by boat from the water underneath the synagogue. Around the main edifice a row of low buildings house the winter synagogue, offices and archives, homes of various officials, the rabbinate, a mortuary and famous Etz Hayim library.

During the 1955-1959 renovation, the former Etz Hayim seminary auditorium was redesigned as a winter synagogue with central heating and electric lighting.

The floor is covered with fine sand, in the old Dutch tradition, to absorb dust, moisture and dirt from shoes and to muffle the noise.

COOL

Short films are often used as the starting place for new filmmakers, but others use them as an art form unto themselves, allowing the filmmaker far more creative control than he or she would have over a feature. However, for those wanting to make a feature, it is commonly considered that one should make shorts first. Why is this?

Filmmaking is a skill that can only be learned by practice. Diving into your first feature before learning your craft on shorts would be like driving your Dad's expensive sports car on the motorway before you'd had any lessons on quiet back-roads. There has never been an easier time to make a short film. Everyone owns or knows someone with a video camera.

 

Cheese now and then

This video shows the famous cheese market of Alkmaar just after the end of World War II, as well as to day. The narration of the newsreel which is the first part of the film is in Dutch.  The second part has an English voice-over.

In the after war years I witnessed the introduction of color in the newsreels . Because of cost reasons the majority was still shot in black & white followed by a special item in full colour which leads to a a funny contrast as you can see.

About 100,000 people from all over the world visit the cheese market in Alkmaar every year. The oldest "ordinance on the cheesebearers" dates from june 17th 1593.

The Netherlands in miniature

Parallel editing (cross cutting) is the technique of alternating two or more scenes that often happen simultaneously but in different locations. If the scenes are simultaneous, they occasionally culminate in a single place, where the relevant parties confront each other.

Why use it? To add interest and excitement to an otherwise boring scene. Parallel editing is often applied to create suspense
  
Parallel Editing Cut
Let's say you have a scene where a villain is chasing the hero of the film. To spend the entire chase scene trying to keep both the hero and the villain in the frame at the same time will become very difficult and un-engaging after a while. A better way to approach this problem is through the use of parallel cutting. In this example, the scene would consist of several shots of the hero running in one direction, and some shots of the villain running in the same direction. Perhaps the hero looks back, out of frame, at his pursuer. At this point, the editor would insert of a shot of the villain. Both characters haven't share the same screen space, yet the audience still understands that one is chasing the other.

Making of SUSKIND film

Süskind

1942. In an attempt to keep a group of children from being sent to the death camps, the Jew Walter Süskind befriends SS man Aus der Fünten. When the latter finds out that Walter has been deceiving him and his affection was faked, the Nazi takes revenge on the Jew.

Nazi-Germany occupied The Netherlands from May 1940 till May 1945. In 1942, the Dutch Jews were told they would have to leave for Germany in order to work in labor camps. Some hundred people at a time, the Jews were packed into the “Hollandsche Schouwburg” (the “Dutch Theatre”) in Amsterdam. From here they were taken by train to the transit camp “Westerbork” in the North-East of Holland. Here the trains left – not for Germany as the deportees had thought – but for Poland.