Dutch Decoy

 

What does a duck decoy look like?

A duck decoy consists of a pond with a couple of side-arms connected to it. This lake is most of the times surrounded by a sort of swamp bush which creates peace in the pond and also functions as wind protection. The side-arms can be compared with wide curved ditches, with little trap-boxes at the end of it.
These pipes, covered with string netting, used to be covered with thorn-bushes to prevent ducks from flying away. On shore one can also find several screens on one side of the pipe.
These screens, mostly build of reed mats are arranged in a half herringbone design. Which makes it possible for the decoyman and the Kooikerhondje to move freely without the notice of the ducks.
Ducks permanently situated in the decoy are called decoyducks. Their task is to lure other ducks to the decoy.

The mountain (Mont Ventoux)

The Future of Home Entertainment

The recent success within this market already reflects the rapid take up of DVD players. ; In contrast to VHS, which was originally built on a rental model, DVD is seen as essentially a retail proposition and this retail-oriented approach will be developed further in the future. A major reason for people to buy DVDs is for their additional content, and the studios will continue to develop these features, increasingly drawing on their film libraries to provide new material. There will also be a shift to high-definition DVD, bringing even better quality images and increased capacity to carry additional information and interactive features.

Mardi-Gras parade

Set dressers arrange objects on a film set before shooting. They work under the direction of a leadman, a set decorator and a production designer. Set dressers place furniture, hang pictures, and put out decorative items. They are also responsible for some light construction and assembly of small items, such as air-conditioning ducts. They also move items as necessary to make room for the filming equipment. During the shoot, the prop department works with an on-set dresser to ensure that the props and furnishing are in the proper location for the script and to maintain continuity, as scenes are often shot out of order.

Streetview: Tree surgery

Real digital image stabilization is used in some video cameras. This technique shifts the electronic image from frame to frame of video, enough to counteract the motion. It uses pixels outside the border of the visible frame to provide a buffer for the motion. This technique reduces distracting vibrations from videos or improves still image quality by allowing one to increase the exposure time without blurring the image. This technique does not affect the noise level of the image, except in the extreme borders when the image is extrapolated.

BTW
stabilization of this film was done by iMovie 09

Flood 1953

Dutch Disaster As nine-year old kid I use to live in the Netherlands on the edge of the flooded area , where I witnessed consequences of this terrible 1953 event. On the internet there are many images and films on this subject of which I used a few to edit this short impression. This found footage is enriched with some colored stills giving expression to the fear and misery of the victims involved. In the second part when Beethovens tune changes to "All people become friends" pictures of rescue operations and refugees are shown. These images I shall remember until today. In this way I have tried to make a somewhat more emotional visual reminder which fits into my (filmed) biography.

 

 

 

Volkskunst & Musik

Cutting A wide shot and a medium close up can be cut together, allowing you to edit parts out and change the order of shots without obvious jump cuts. Cut on Similar Elements You can do the same thing in your videos with cutting from a flower on a wedding cake to the grooms boutenier, or tilt up to the blue sky from one scene and then down from the sky to a different scene.

Glückauf

Filmtips: Cut on Motion
Motion distracts the eye from noticing editing cuts. So, when cutting from one image to another, always try to do it when the subject is in motion. For example, cutting from a turning head to an opening door, is much smoother than cutting from a still head to a door about to be opened.

Change Focal Lengths
When you have two shots of the same subject, its easy to cut between close and wide angles. So, when shooting an interview, or a lengthy event such as a wedding.

Water & Forts

The Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie Is a 3 to 5 kilometre wide inundation zone stretching approximately 70 kilometres from Muiden (situated on the IJsselmeer), past the city of Utrecht towards the east, down to the large river district ; and the Biesbosch.
Up until 1940 it was the main defence line of the Dutch defence system aimed at defending the western part of the country against any attacks coming from the east and the south. An inundation line consists of a cleverly linked chain of inundation fields (approximately 35 to 50 centimetres high) and natural waters. The system consisted of 6 what is termed inundation basins, which could be regulated by dikes, culverts, canals, fan locks, dams and sluices.

A system of defences, such as forts (covering 2 hectares to 32 hectares) was located at the accesses to the inundations, e.g. near higher roads, or where the inundations could be traversed via existing dikes, lakes or rivers and wherever it was necessary to protect the inundation facilities. There were more than 60 defences of varying types in this Inundation Line. Planting of the defences was strictly regulated. The permanent defences varied from simple earthworks without permanent buildings to earth defences with brick turrets, 'turret forts', bomb-proof barracks, guardhouses, casemates and bomb-proof shelters for artillery. A few older fortified towns (Muiden, Naarden, Weesp, Gorinchem, Woudrichem) were also a part of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie. 

 

Snowy park

With the advent of digital editing, film editors and their assistants have become responsible for many areas of filmmaking that used to be the responsibility of others. For instance, in past years, picture editors dealt only with just thatpicture. Sound, music, and (more recently) visual effects editors dealt with the practicalities of other aspects of the editing process, usually under the direction of the picture editor and director. However, digital systems have increasingly put these responsibilities on the picture editor. It is common, especially on lower budget films, for the assistant editors or even the editor to cut in music, mock up visual effects, and add sound effects or other sound replacements.

Snow-white

 

Chroma keying is a technique for mixing two images or frames together in which a color (or a small color range) from one image is removed (or made transparent), revealing another image behind it. This technique is also referred to as color keying, colour-separation overlay greenscreen, and bluescreen. It is commonly used for weather forecast broadcasts, wherein the presenter appears to be standing in front of a large map, but in the studio it is actually a large blue or green background. The meteorologist stands in front of a bluescreen, and then different weather maps are added on those parts in the image where the color is blue. If the meteorologist himself wears blue clothes, his clothes will become replaced with the background video. This also works for greenscreens, since blue and green are considered the colors least like skin tone.

Autochromes

The Autochrome Lumière is an early color photography process. Patented in 1903 by the Lumière brothers in France ,it was the principal color photography process in use before the advent of subtractive color film in the mid-1930s.
Although difficult to manufacture and relatively expensive, Autochromes were relatively easy to use and were immensely popular among enthusiastic amateur photographers—at least, among those who could bear the cost and were willing to sacrifice the convenience of hand-held "snapshooting" in black-and-white. Autochromes failed to sustain the initial interest of more serious "artistic" practitioners, largely due to their inflexibility.
Autochromes continued to be produced as glass plates into the 1930s, when film-based versions were introduced, first Lumière Filmcolor sheet film in 1931, then Lumicolor roll film in 1933. Although these soon completely replaced glass plate Autochromes, their triumph was short-lived, as Kodak and Agfa soon began to produce multi-layer subtractive color films (Kodachrome and Agfacolor Neu respectively). Nevertheless, the Lumière products had a devoted following, above all in France, and their use persisted long after modern color films had become available. The final version, Alticolor, was introduced in 1952 and discontinued in 1955, marking the end of the nearly fifty-year-long public life of the Autochrome

Christmas fair

If you're reading this I needn't remind you that there's a revolution happening in video, with major TV shows and even feature films being shot in whole or in part with video-capable DSLRs, in particular the Canon 5D MKII, and more recently the Canon 7D. These are pretty lousy video cameras from an operational point of view, but their shallow depth of field, great low-light capability, and high video IQ have earned them a solid reputation among both amateur and professional film makers. An entire accessory and support industry has grown up around them.

 

Black & white Christmas

Ever seen a video where everything's a lot redder than it should be? It might even have been one of your videos. Different lights are different colors - in bright sunlight a sheet of typing paper looks white, under fluorescent lights it may look slightly green and in tungsten lighting it will have a reddish cast. The "white balance" setting on your camera tells the sensor what color light you're shooting under. Most cameras have a number of pre-set white balances for sun, shade, fluorescent etc, and also an "auto" mode where the camera will try and guess what the light is. Your camera's okay at guessing, but not great. Leaving it in auto mode is a sure way to get an odd color cast to your footage

Christmas-market

There are only two kinds of films: good or bad. Anything in-between is often vague and pretentious. Now the big question is how you can make a good film when making a bad one can be just as difficult.

A good script, I believe, is the answer. However while developing a script you really believe in, it is very likely that you will lose your objectivity in the process. As parents have the tendency to believe their children are perfect and can do nothing wrong, a filmmaker can also develop the same misconception.

Pure Nature

A biography is someone else's life story. An autobiography is about your own life.

A work is biographical if it covers all of a person's life. As such, biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Together, all biographical works form the genre known as biography, in literature, film, and other forms of media.

Underwater

Today, the small size of fully automatic camcorders with large view screens and long-life rechargeable batteries has reduced the housing size and made underwater videography an easy, fun activity for the diver. Low-cost wide-angle lens add-ons are available for many cameras and some can even be fitted outside the camera housing for versatile use. This lets the photographer get closer and make the subject clearer and also with fewer focusing and depth of field problems. Today cameras are more sensitive to low light conditions and make automatic color balancing adjustments. Nevertheless, deeper water videography still needs auxiliary light sources to bring out colors filtered out of sunlight by the distance it has travelled through water. The longest wavelengths of light are lost first (reds and yellows) leaving only a greenish or blue cast in deep water.

Christmas in the city

Filminfo

Mise-en-scène  is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story" both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction.
When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangementcomposition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting.

Churches in St Petersburg

In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a film frame or video frame is one of the many still images which compose the complete moving picture. The term is derived from the fact that, from the beginning of modern filmmaking toward the end of the 20th century, and in many places still up to the present, the single images have been recorded on a strip of photographic film that quickly increased in length, historically; each image on such a strip looks rather like a framed picture when examined individually.

The term may also be used more generally as a noun or verb to refer to the edges of the image as seen in a camera viewfinder or projected on a screen. Thus, the camera operator can be said to keep a car in frame by panning with it as it speeds past.

Nature teacher of art

Artis, short for Natura Artis Magistra (Latin for "Nature is the teacher of art"), is a zoo in the centre of Amsterdam. It is the oldest zoo of the Netherlands. In addition to the zoo, Artis has a planetarium, a geological museum and a zoological museum.

The zoo was founded in 1838 by Gerard Westerman, J.W.H. Werlemann and J.J. Wijsmuller (also known as the three Ws). It is commonly referred to as Artis, because the zoo has three gates with Artis Natura Magistra written above them (as shown on the picture). Usually only the first gate was open, so people who walked through that gate, looked what was written above it and saw 'Artis', thinking that the zoo was just called Artis. Soon few knew it as Artis Natura Magistra.

 

Analysis of The Shining

The Shining is a 1980 British-American psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, and Scatman Crothers. The film is based on Stephen King's 1977 novel The Shining.

The initial European release of The Shining was 25 minutes shorter than the American version, achieved by removing most of the scenes taking place outside the environs of the hotel. Unlike Kubrick's previous works, which developed audiences gradually through word-of-mouth, The Shining was released as a mass-market film, initially opening in two cities on Memorial Day, then nationwide a month later. Although contemporary responses from critics were mixed, assessment became more favorable in following decades, and it is now widely regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made. American director Martin Scorsese ranked it one of the 11 scariest horror movies of all time. Critics, scholars, and crew members (such as Kubrick's producer Jan Harlan) have discussed the film's enormous influence on popular culture

A grand man: Tolstoy

Filminfo:

The Cinema of the Russian Empire roughly spans the period 1907 - 1920, during which time a strong infrastructure was created. From the over 2,700 art films created in Russia before 1920, around 300 remain to this day.

In April 1896, just four months after the first films were shown in Paris, the first cinematic apparatus appeared in Russia. The first films seen in the Russian Empire were via the Lumière brothers, in Moscow and St. Petersburg in May 1896. In the same month, the first film was shot in Russia, by Lumière cameraman Camille Cerf, a record of the coronation of Nicholas II at the Kremlin in Moscow. The first permanent cinema was opened in St Petersburg in 1896 at Nevsky Prospect, No. 46.

Staying in St Petersburg

A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase, an elaborate subculture that engage in repeated viewings, quoting dialogue, and audience participation. Inclusive definitions allow for major studio productions, especially box office bombs, while exclusive definitions focus more on obscure, transgressive films shunned by the mainstream. The difficulty in defining the term and subjectivity of what qualifies as a cult film mirror classificatory disputes about art. The term cult film itself was first used in the 1970s to describe the culture that surrounded underground films and midnight movies, though cult was in common use in film analysis for decades prior to that.

Apes in Artis

A Documentary film is a great way of exploiting cinemas potential for observing life. It is a visual expression that strives to document reality. It is also often regarded as a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception. A good short documentary film in the form of a multimedia presentation can leave the most powerful impact on the viewers mind.

With time, documentary films have evolved from being short movies shot on film news, to include video and digital productions made for a television or video series. Some of the media and visual solutions companies produce quality driven creative media tools in the form of films and multimedia.

Jumbo's in Artis

Videographers are not just storytellers, they're also the keepers of our memories - which is an amazing responsibility. While a director producing a fictional piece can reshoot a scene again and again until it's captured perfectly, real life doesn't afford us the ability to go back and do it again.

For this reason, many videographers capture important events with multiple cameras - this not only ensures that if one camera misses some critical action, it will be caught by another, but it also makes for much more enjoyable viewing.
Multi-camera shooting can be done in several ways, some complex and expensive, some easy and (relatively) cheap.

Arrival of Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas traditionally arrives in the Netherlands each year in mid-November (usually on a Saturday) by steamboat from Spain. Some suggest that gifts associated with the holy man, such as mandarin oranges, led to the misconception that he must have been from Spain. He parades through the streets on his gray horse Amerigo, welcomed by cheering and singing children.[ This event is broadcast live on national television in the Netherlands and Belgium. His Zwarte Piet assistants throw candy and small, round, gingerbread-like cookies, either "kruidnoten" or "pepernoten," into the crowd. The children welcome him by singing traditional Sinterklaas songs. Sinterklaas visits schools, hospitals and shopping centers. After this arrival, all towns with a dock usually celebrate their own "intocht van Sinterklaas" (arrival of Sinterklaas).

The sound of Artis

Filmtips:

Of course, camcorders and photo cameras are purpose built. The camcorder has features that the still camera hasnt and vice versa. For starters, DSLRs lacking a power zoom, LCD viewfinder and exposure aids like peaking and zebra you find with professional camcorders. Last but not least there are no adjustments to the resolution and frame rate, which is important when you have to match and mix your footage.

Court of the Marquis

A Flip-style camcorder comes in a MP3 player-like package with a digital zoom lens one on/off Record button, a basic audio microphone, and the ability to record to internal and/or external flash memory. The videos are usually downloaded using a built-in USB that plugs into your computer. From there, you can burn them to DVD or post them directly to YouTube. At around $200 or less, Flip-style camcorders are fine for fun shots, but not for serious videography.

Nice la belle

Film thoughts:

We get our ideas from what Im going to call for a moment our unconscious the part of our mind that goes on working, for example, when were asleep. So what Im saying is that if you get into the right mood, then your mode of thinking will become much more creative. But if youre racing around all day, ticking things off a list, looking at your watch, making phone calls and generally just keeping all the balls in the air, you are not going to have any creative ideas. ~ John Cleese

Filmcity Cannes

Filminfo:

The Cannes Film Festival (French: le Festival de Cannes), founded in 1946, is one of the world's oldest and most prestigious film festivals. The private festival is held annually (usually in May) at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in the resort town of Cannes, in the south of France.

<">The festival has become an important showcase for European films. ; Cannes is extremely important for critical and commercial interests and for European attempts to sell films on the basis of their artistic quality

Green Amsterdam

Filmtips:

Compositing is the combining of visual elements from separate sources into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene. Live-action shooting for compositing is variously called blue screen, green screen, chroma key, and other names.
Today, most, though not all compositing, is achieved through digital image manipulation. Pre-digital compositing techniques, however, go back as far as the trick films of Georges Méliès in the late 19th century; and some are still in use.

Magical Scotland tour

The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing.

The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate "production numbers".

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 audience watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes the diegetic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it.

Little Amsterdam

Filmtips:

The 3-Act Structure is the basis of all stories . There is a beginning, middle and end. There is an inciting incident, which kicks the story into gear and sets up the premise. This is followed by a main turning point at the end of Act One which sets our Hero on their path and usually sets up the antagonist. The mid-point is a mini-climax in which our hero might possibly fail. Then, its two steps forward, one step back on his or her journey. At the end of Act Two is the all is lost moment another vital turning point in which our hero must make the ultimate decision and either go for it, or not. Whatever the decision is for that character, it will lead to the climax the ultimate confrontation with the antagonist usually resulting in our hero winning Act Three, theres the denouement; the resolution and the aftermath of the climax in which we see the outcome of the climax and the story resolve itself.

Holland Hurray

A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book or a similar source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by professional filmmakers as film school class projects or as demonstration reels. Fan films vary tremendously in length, from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to rarer full-length motion pictures.

 

 

Haarlem Holland

In film, a storyboard artist is hired at the beginning of a project. When a storyboard artist is hired by a motion picture company, the artist must break down the scenes of the script into shots which can be filmed. This is done under the supervision of the film's director in order to insure the director's vision from the start of the project. Therefore, it can be helpful for the storyboard artist to know the mechanics of filmmaking when assisting the director. As the production proceeds, the storyboards are presented to the cinematographer who is then responsible for bringing that vision to the screen.

Les Chateaux de la Loire

The adventure film reached its peak of popularity in 1930s and 1940s Hollywood, when films such as Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Mark of Zorro were regularly made with major stars, notaboy Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power, who were closely associated with the genre. At the same time, Saturday morning serials were often using many of the same thematic elements as high-budget adventure films. In the early days of adventure films, the protagonists were mainly male. These heroes were courageous, often fighting suppression and facing tyrant

the Harbour of Nice

A sound editor is a creative professional responsible for selecting and assembling sound recordings in preparation for the final sound mixing or mastering

Sound editing developed out of the need to fix the incomplete, undramatic, or technically inferior sound recordings of early talkies, and over the decades has become a respected filmmaking craft, with sound editors implementing the aesthetic goals of motion picture sound design.

The essential piece of equipment used in modern sound editing is the digital audio workstation, or DAW. A DAW allows sounds, stored as computer files on a host computer, to be placed in timed synchronization with a motion picture, mixed, manipulated, and documented.

Amsterdam light (district)

Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve a practical or aesthetic effect. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. Daylighting (using windows, skylights, or light shelves) is sometimes used as the main source of light during daytime in buildings. This can save energy in place of using artificial lighting, which represents a major component of energy consumption in buildings. Proper lighting can enhance task performance, improve the appearance of an area, or have positive psychological effects on occupants.

Indoor lighting is usually accomplished using light fixtures, and is a key part of interior design. Lighting can also be an intrinsic component of landscape projects.

Dreaming on Peace

Movie tips:

Movie scenes, especially action sequences, are influenced by the sound effects added in post. For example, in a fight scene the punches can be off by a foot or more but what really sells the illusion is the sound effect of a hard, fleshy hit.

Lots of research has gone into placing the right sound effect at the right time, but what if a completely different sound effect was applied? Would it change our perception of what we see on the screen? That is what scientists sought out to answer. What they found was that depth perception is influenced not only by visual phenomena such as shadows, binocular disparity, and object size, but also by sound. Good to know especially for those action scenes.

Game: Au pied des remparts

Conceptual photography as a part of conceptual art is a photography genre in which the artists makes a photograph of a concept or idea. Usually the conception of the idea precedes the realization of the photography. ; This kind of photography often involves use of computer editing, to achieve the desired effects, but a lot of artists are working without the computer, they "put in place" the things and the beings will be the subject of the final photograph, and the placement of those things and beings "build" the concept, the idea, and the final outcome

Streetsmarkets in Amsterdam

iMovie '09

iMovie '09 ; was released January 2009 as part of the iLife '09 package. It introduced some new features and restored some features from previous versions of iMovie, including basic video effects (such as fast/slow motion and aged film) and image stabilization as well as travel map functions for marking locations where a video was shot. iMovie '09 also introduced simple implementations of more advanced features such as picture-in-picture and greenscreening. It also improved editing (with a precision cut editor and a clip trimmer), some new titles and transitions, now has Full-Screen Library Browser via which you can find and examine all your video in one place.

Bodegraven in the middle of Holland

Indie films, also known as an independent filmmaker, is much more creative than Hollywood productions and short films. The majority of indie film-making projects to bring in social issues and documentary-style projects that are less fictional or at least reality-based fiction of a kind.

An independent film can be anything you want it, and you need an inventory of your personal creative goals to meet in order to succeed in the film production. Low-budget films need not be bad films. In fact, several of the best movies ever made be made with a small budget. 

 

Gebroken wit

 

Elly Nieman | Gebroken Wit



How nice a super 8mm film still can be.
Certainly in combinatie with the selfmade song and music

 

Dutch manege Amsterdam

Does a Combocam obviate the need for a video camera? Should commercial photographers adding video capability to their repertoire just use one of these, rather than also working with a Camcorder?

It's feasible, but I would advise against it. For all of the reasons listed above, a Combocam, as good as it can be, is limited in its features and capabilities, and therefore there will remain a great many things that they simply can't do, or at least can't do all that well.

Belgrade Serbia

In a common technique among makers of documentaries on subjects where principally still material is available, Burns often gives life to still photographs by slowly zooming in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. For example, in a photograph of a baseball team, he might slowly pan across the faces of the players and come to rest on the player the narrator is discussing.

This effect, present in many professional and home software applications, was affectionately named "The Ken Burns Effect" in Apple ; iPhoto and iMovie

Portugal Lisboa

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.

The use of CGI, or computer-generated imagery, can be considered a form of collage, especially when animated graphics are layered over traditional film footage.

Exploring Amsterdam

Psychology of the Camera are the visual meanings of shots and angles. In other words, where you put the camera can either enhance or detract the audiences
understanding of what the scene is really about, and what the characters are feeling. There are three angles of view for the camera:

a. Objective: The audience point of view. (The camera is
placed outside the action.)

b. Subjective: The camera acts as the viewers eyes. (The
camera is placed inside the action.)

c. Point of View: What the character is seeing. (The camera is
the action.)