Que Viva Espana

 
Capturing
The mini DV tape format was the first consumer level tape format that allowed for such a simple yet powerful system of capturing footage. Timecode was standard in this tape format and the FireWire (IEEE 1394) connection between mini DV camcorders and computers allowed editing software to control the camcorder and capture clips with exact-frame accuracy. This technique is borrowed from the professional world of videography, which has used timecode in camera systems and editing equipment for many years, but mini DV brought it to the masses, followed by HDV.

Castle of the ghosts

 Filminfo:

Horror films are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres.
Horror films deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden worst fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Although a good deal of it is about the supernatural, if some films contain a plot about morbidity, serial killers, a disease/virus outbreak and surrealism, they may be termed "horror."

Plots written within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Themes or elements often prevalent in typical horror films include ghosts, torture, gore, werewolves, ancient curses, satanism, demons, vicious animals, vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, zombies and masked serial killers. 

Costa Blanca

A music video or song video is a short video or film that accompanies a piece of music or song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into prominence in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 80s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip" or "film clip".

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.

MMM ...Murcia

Murcia , a city in south-eastern Spain, is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country, with a population of 436,870 inhabitants in 2009 (about one third of the total population of the Region). The population of the metropolitan area was 638,217 in 2008. It is located on the Segura River, in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, noted by a mild climate with hot summers, tepid winters and scarce precipitation.

Murcia was founded by the Moors in 825 AD with the name Madinat Mursiya and is now mainly a services city and a university town. Highlights for visitors include the Cathedral of Murcia and a number of baroque buildings, renowned local cuisine, Holy Week processions, works of art by the famous Murcia sculptor Francisco Salzillo, and the Fiestas de Primavera (Spring Festival).

Panda dream

Animatronics is the use of electronics and robotics in mechanised puppets to simulate life.

Animatronics are mainly used in movie making, but also in theme parks and other forms of entertainment. Its main advantages to CGI and stop motion is that it is not a simulation of reality, but rather physical objects moving in real time in front of the camera. The technology behind animatronics has become more advanced and sophisticated over the years, making the puppets even more realistic and lifelike.

Animatronics for film and television productions are used to perform action on camera in situations where the action involves creatures that do not exist, the action is too risky or costly to use real actors or animals, or the action could never be obtained with a living person or animal. The application of animatronics today includes computer controlled as well as radio and manually controlled devices. The actuation of specific movements can be obtained with electric motors, pneumatic cylinders, hydraulic cylinders and cable driven mechanisms. The type of mechanism employed is dictated by the character parameters, specific movement requirements and the project constraints.

An Oasis in Europe

The autofocus of your camcorder may not work well on the following subjects:
reflective surfaces
subjects with low contrast or without vertical lines
fast moving subjects
through dirty or wet windows
night scenes

In such cases focus manually

A Laaf story

Filminfo:

Props are generally distinct from the costumes worn by the actors, the scenery (sets) or other large objects that can be considered part of the stage. Occasionally, if a period-piece item of clothing is handled or otherwise appears on screen, but is never worn by an actor, then it would be the responsibility of the prop master, and thus considered a prop. For example, belts, stockings, hats, and other normally wearable items may be considered as props if they are merely picked up by an actor or used for alternate purposes. Similarly, a scene in a shoe store may require numerous prop shoes to fill the sets shelves, and therefore will be handled by the prop master or set decorator.

Many props are ordinary objects. However, a prop must "read well" from the house or on-screen, meaning it must look real to the audience. Many real objects are poorly adapted to the task of looking like themselves to an audience, due to their size, durability, or color under bright lights, so some props are specially designed to look more like the actual item than the real object would look. In some cases, a prop is designed to behave differently than the real object would, often for the sake of safety.

View from Benacantil

Fast motion is a creative way to indicate the passage of time. Accelerated clouds, city traffic or crowds of people are all good candidates for this effect.
Fast motion is also great for showing the progression of a project. Keep your video camera fixed on an object as it is being constructed or assembled, then speed it up to show the entire process in a matter of minutes or seconds.
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Dutch Carrousel

Effects which can be used:
1. Dissolves
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.

;2. Old Movie
The Old Movie effect adds noise, shake and dust to your video, making it look as if it's playing on an old projector. This effect is meant to add a nostalgic feel, but it can also be used to cover up mistakes made during filming :such as camera shakiness.

3. Black & White
Making your footage black and white can add drama or nostalgia to your movie. This is also a handy effect to use if the color of your footage is off!

Glorius GoldenAge ??

The Republic of the Seven United Provinces was attacked in1672 by England, France, the bishop of Münster and ; Cologne.
As a result the cities of the remaining coastal provinces of Holland, Zealand and Frisia panicked and the city governments were taken over by Orangists, opposed to the republican regime of the Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt.

At the IJssel it came to a short battle that was easily won by the French. Now the whole of the Republic lay open for the French. Lower class people stood up against the government, demanded appointment of the Prince and punishment of those responsible for the war and the state of the army. The government of the regents fell, Johan de Witt and others resigned and partisans of Williams III took over. One of the first acts of William III was to strike out the word 'honourably' in the resignation of Johan de Witt.

Cornelis de Witt, the less gifted and more unpopular brother of Johan de Witt, was put in prison in The Hague. When Johan de Witt went there to visit his brother, the small cavalry security force present was sent away on the pretence of having to stop a group of marauding peasants, which were never found. Around the prison a crowd had gathered, demanding the punishment of the brothers. The prison was stormed by civil militia, the brothers were taken out, murdered by the militia members and their bodies mutilated and partly eaten by the crowd.
Most modern historians suspect that the murder of the brothers were the result of a conspiracy involving, among others, William III of Orange.

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.