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.

 

Filming with highspeed

A high speed camera is a device used for recording fast moving objects . After recording, the images stored on the media can be played back in slow-motion.

High speed cameras can film up to a quarter of a million frames per second by running the film over a rotating prism or mirror instead of using a shutter, thus reducing the need for stopping and starting the film behind a shutter which would tear the film stock at such speeds. Using this technique one can stretch one second to more than ten minutes of playback time (super slow motion). The fastest cameras are generally in use in scientific research, military test and evaluation, and industry. .

A problem for high speed cameras is the needed exposure for the film, so one needs very bright light to be able to film at forty thousand frames per second.

All development in high speed cameras is now focused on digital video cameras which have many operational and cost benefits over film cameras.

Sink or Swim

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.

Subjective shots like these also implicate the spectator into the narrative in that she or he identifies with the point of view.

French Sketch-book

Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties.


The term describes a range of filmmaking styles that are generally quite different from, and often opposed to, the practices of mainstream commercial and documentary filmmaking. Avant-garde is also used, for the films shots in the twenties in the field of history’s avant-gardes currents in France or Germany, to describe this work, and "underground" was used in the sixties, though it has also had other connotations. Today the term "experimental cinema" prevails, because it’s possible to make experimental films without the presence of any avant-garde movement in the cultural field.

Col du Galibier

Today information graphics surround us in the media, in published works both pedestrian and scientific, in road signs and manuals. They illustrate information that would be unwieldy in text form, and act as a visual shorthand for everyday concepts such as stop and go.

Modern maps, especially route maps for transit systems, use infographic techniques to integrate a variety of information, such as the conceptual layout of the transit network, transfer points, and local landmarks.

Traffic signs and other public signs rely heavily on information graphics, such as stylized human figures , icons and emblems to represent concepts such as yield, caution, and the direction of traffic.

Lac et cité: Aix-les-Bains

An axial cut is a type of jump cut, where the camera suddenly moves closer to or further away from its subject, along an invisible line drawn straight between the camera and the subject.  While a plain jump cut typically involves a temporal discontinuity , an axial cut is a way of maintaining the illusion of continuity.
An axial cut can be made with the use of a zoom lens, or physically moving the camera with a crane or camera dolly. The intervening footage is then removed while editing the film. Since footage is discarded, this technique works better for static shots. If action is required, several takes will be required to get the necessary footage.

Espana por favor

Originality is the aspect of created or invented works by as being new or novel, and thus can be distinguished from reproductions, clones, forgeries, or derivative works. An original work is one not received from others nor one copied from or based upon the work of others.. It is a work created with a unique style and substance. The term "originality" is often applied as a compliment to the creativity of artists, writers, and thinkers. The idea of originality as we know it was invented by Romanticism, with a notion that is often called romantic originality.

 

Turn around

Filmtips:



In cinema, butterfly is a methodology of lighting sets. When controlling light, grips use a variety of flags (black, opaque material), nets (one, two, or three layers of black, white, or semi translucent bobinette), and diffusion (translucent white materials of different densities). Generally, these are sewn onto frames of standard sizes, which are kept in racks or on carts where they are easily accessible. However, when a flag, net, or diffusion is needed to cover a larger area it is not practical to keep it built and sewn on the truck; thus, Butterflies.

Ocher village: Roussilon

User-generated content (UGC), refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users.


The term user generated content entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles.  All digital media technologies are included, such as question-answer databases, digital video, blogging, podcasting, mobile phone photography and wikis. In addition to these technologies, user generated content may also employ a combination of open source, free software, and flexible licensing or related agreements to further reduce the barriers to collaboration, skill-building and discovery.

Heart of Brussels

A webcam is a video camera that feeds its images in real time to a computer or computer network, often via USB, ethernet, or Wi-Fi.



Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a video camera for the World Wide Web gave the webcam its name. Other popular uses include security surveillance and computer vision and there are also uses on sites like video broadcasting services and for recording social videos .


Webcams are known for their low manufacturing cost and flexibility,  making them the lowest cost form of videotelephony. They have also become a source of security and privacy issues, as some built-in webcams can be remotely activated via spyware.

Tour de Vaucluse

 

Tracking shot/travelling shot/dollying shot: Terms used for a shot when the camera is being moved by means of wheels: On a dolly (a low tracking shot), in a car or even a train. The movement is normally quite fluid (except perhaps in some of the wider car chases) and the tracking can be either fast or slow. Depending on the speed, this shot has different connotations, eg: like a dream or trance if excessively slow bewildering and frightening if excessively frenetic
A tracking shot can go backwards, left to right, right to left.

 

Christmas-market Brussels

The use of available light may pose a challenger. The brightness and direction of the light is often not adjustable, except perhaps for indoor lighting. This will limit the selection of shutter speeds, and may require the use of shades or reflectors to manipulate the light. It can also influence the time, location, and even orientation of the shooting to obtain the desired lighting conditions.

Levels of ambient light are most frequently considered relative to additional lighting used as fill light, in which case the ambient light is normally treated as the key light. In some cases, ambient light may be used as a fill, in which case additional lighting provides the stronger light source. The relative intensity of ambient light and fill light is known as the lighting ratio, an important factor in calculating contrast in the finished image.

Manneke Pis

Gordes mountain village

This village can boast about being amongst one of the most beautiful villages in France. It has narrow cobbled streets which thread their way through tall houses; built against the rock, clinging onto its flanks and whispering the tales of a thousand legends.
Gordes is also proud of its castle firmly planted in its very core and which reminds the passer-by of a past rich with conquests but also marked with the sufferings of its inhabitants. Today, the castle acts as both a Town Hall and a Museum sheltering  the works of art of the painter Pol Mara.
Such a cultural tradition is kept alive to this day, during the summer time when many exhibits do take place in buildings marked by History, such as the St James almonry, the White Penitents chapel etc.

Gordes Municipality looks after its heritage with a rigorous love so that success does not spoil it.
Yes, indeed, Gordes is a highly recommended tourist destination, and thus because of its History, its exceptional geographical location, its high quality cultural activities as well as for its renowned hotels and restaurants.
Gordes must remain authenticable, maintain its Provençal traditions, and yet be open to a tourism, which knows to appreciate and respect.

Mechelen Belgium

The simplest transition between shots it is a straight cut, which is an abrupt transition between two shots. Another type of transition is called a fade, in which the overall value of the scene increases or decreases into a frame of just one color. For example, a fade to black may indicate the end of the sequence. When one scene fades out as another scene fades in this is a dissolve. These dissolves are used frequently to indicate a passage of time. For example, you might have a shot moving down a hall and then a dissolve as it moves into a different part of the building.Another type of transition is when one scene wipes across the frame and replaces the previous seen. Wipes can move in any direction and open one side to the other or they can start in the center and move out or the edge of the frame and move in. Wipes are very noticeable and best not used often

near Brussels see video

Lisboa Portugal

A soundbite is an audiolinguistic and social communications phenomenon whose nature was recognized in the late 20th century, helped by people such as Marshall McLuhan. It is characterized by a short phrase or sentence that deftly captures the essence of what the speaker is trying to say.

Soundbites are a natural consequence of people placing ever greater emphasis on summarizing ever-increasing amounts of information in their lives.News media in particular cherish soundbites. Reporters agree that the best news footage contains at least one soundbite.  Soundbites are useful to help guide footage editors focus on parts of dialogue that help advance the overall message.

Black box Eindhoven GLOW

In science and engineering, a black box is a device, system or object which can be viewed solely in terms of its input, output and transfer characteristics without any knowledge of its internal workings, that is, its implementation is "opaque" (black). Almost anything might be referred to as a black box: a transistor, an algorithm, or the human mind.

Fourviere hill Lyon

Transitions blend two shots together, rather than simply joining them end to end. Often transitions are used to imply a passage of time.

A fade occurs when the picture gradually turns to a single color, usually black, or when a picture gradually appears on screen. Fade ins generally occur at the beginning of a film or act, while fade outs are typically found at the end of a film or

Like the fade, a dissolve involves gradually changing the visibility of the picture. However, rather than transitioning from a shot to a color, a dissolve is when a shot changes into another shot gradually. Dissolves, like cuts, can be used to create a link between two different objects, a man telling a story, and a visual of his story, for instance.

Projections

Since the birth of sound film, virtually all film projectors in commercial movie theaters project at a constant speed of 24 frame/s. This speed was chosen for both financial and technical reasons. There are some specialist format which project at higher rates, often 48 frame/s.

It is possible to view the black space between frames and the passing of the shutter by the following technique:

Close your eyelids, then periodically rapidly blink open and closed. If done fast enough you will be able to randomly "trap" the image between frames, or during shutter motion. This will not work with television due to the persistence of the phosphors nor with LCD or DLP light projectors due to the continuity of image, although certain color artifacts may appear with some digital projection technologies.

Haute alpes

A road movie is a film genre in which the main character or characters leave home to travel from place to place. They usually leave home to escape their current lives.

The genre has its roots in spoken and written tales of epic journeys, such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid. The on-the-road plot was used at the birth of American cinema but blossomed in the years after World War II, reflecting a boom in automobile production and the growth of youth culture.